The Dennis Bunch

My two snow bunnies

2010-03-10T22:24:00.009-07:00

The boys and I had the opportunity to go skiing this week with their school. I decided that I would be able to teach them how to ski, after all my dad had taught me (when I was 3), so it couldn't be that hard. Right??

We got up early Tuesday morning and headed up the mountain. They were both very excited, but had a lot of questions and didn't know what to expect. It's been 10 years since I've been skiing and as we approached the mountain I was getting less and less confident about my ability to teach them anything and pretty sure I would need a lesson to remember how to ski myself.(Geared up and ready to go -- Bunny Hill behind us)

Many things have changed over the last 10 years, but luckily many things have also remained the same. It was nostalgic to be teaching my sons how to ski on the exact same slope I learned on as a child. One change, when renting skis (and now helmets) it's all digital. This was not the case the last time I rented. They scanned the boot and the ski and adjusted the binding based on the computer in front of them. I was shocked to not have to take off my boot to have it fitted for the ski. I'm sure it's better and easier and more efficient this way, but it was new to me.(Excited to be headed up the mountain for our first run)

After renting we went to get on our gear and it took me half an hour to get snow pants, gloves, hats, coats and boots on the three of us, but then we were off. We decided that I would ride up the lift with one while the other waited at the bottom and then ski down to the other one and ride up with him then we would all ski down together. This plan went off without a hitch and I was pleasantly surprised to find out on my first solo run down that I did to remember how to ski!

(Josiah on the lift with Mom)

I did not, however, have any idea how to teach two young boys to ski. Our first run down was a bit of a disaster with me often yelling towards them, "Fall Down, Fall Down!!" Not knowing how else to get them to not run into the trees. By the end of the run they had each probably fallen over 25 times, although never hard, and each of them got a lot of practice on how to position your skis with the slope before standing up. It was tiring to say the least.

(Josh on the lift with Mom)

I had no idea what I was doing, so I started spying on the paid instructors trying to overhear what they were saying to their students. As a kid I remember something about one leg being peanut butter and the other being jelly, but I think that was because I was learning to ski before I knew my left from right. I tried skiing with Josh between by legs, but he was leaning on me and not balancing himself on his skis and I knew that was going to get us no where.

I saw an instructor with two kids about my kids' ages saying to hold their arms out in front of them to help balance, so that became one thing I would say. "Arms out in front" I knew from feeling how I was skiing that you had to shift pressure from one leg to another in order to turn and that you needed to ride the inner edge of your ski and that a wide "pie" helped you to slow down and stop, but I think I was trying to teach them too many things at once.

Our next run down the mountain was just a touch better and by the third time up the mountain they were wanting to ride the lift without me (even though they hadn't be able to successfully exit the lift without falling over). After our third run we were all a little tired and frazzled, so we went in and had lunch. (Riding up together in front of me)

After some nourishment we were ready to hit the slopes again, although Joshua said, "Just once more and then I'm done for the day." Wonders of wonders, miracles of miracles our first run after lunch was actually a vast improvement. By no means were they perfect, but they were actually turning a little and not falling quite as often. One more run down the bunny hill and they were asking to go up the "big" lift.

I thought, "Well, what could it hurt? They seem to be getting the hang of it. Okay let's try it."

BIGGEST MISTAKE OF THE ENTIRE DAY!!!

We only rode half way up the big lift (very glad for this in hind sight) because it was a lift where you could get off half way or ride it all the way up. The "Zig Zag" trail that was a green was not as wide open as the bunny hill and was also a little more steep. Not a good combination. Josh kept saying, "Mom, we're just beginners." I was just about ready to take off all our skis and walk down as others kept zooming past us, but we did manage to make it to the bottom eventually. We were all pretty emotionally drained at this point.

After a breather at the bottom of the hill and a pep talk from dad we decided to try one more time on the bunny hill and then we would head home. They did AWESOME! It was so good for all of our spirits to end on a high note and not with the defeated feeling Zig Zag had left us with.

They enjoyed it so much they wanted to do one more "last run" and I willingly obliged. Here is a video of the very end of the last run. As you can see they are not perfect, but made great strides in one day considering at the beginning of the day they didn't even know how to put skis on. Josiah is first in the red and white coat, then Josh in the blue and orange.

Overall I am so pleased and happy with the experience. I never really lost my cool although I wanted to several times. The weather cooperated and though it was lightly snowing at times we were warm enough to be sweating and not freezing (which can be just miserable). There were no injuries. AND they want to go again someday! Josh said, "This was waaaaaay more fun than tubing, all the kids should come do this"

(best part of the day, hot chocolate!)

Mommy is not ready for all the kids to be skiing just yet, but it was fun and I'm sure we'll get to do it again someday.

Skiing did make me realize I'm not as young or agile as I once was. All day today my knees have been a little sore and my shoulders as well. After we got home Naomi was talking with me and said, "Mom, how old are you?" I replied, "31" Naomi, "Did you say 71?" Me, "No I said '31', why do I look 71?" Her, "YES!" I'm not sure how that's supposed to make me feel :) Out of the mouth of babes . . . .

Mawwage is what bwings us togever today

2010-03-02T22:56:00.006-07:00

Mawwiage, that blessed awangement, that dream within a dream . . . . . and they lived happily ever after . . . right?? Well at least that's how Hollywood says it's supposed to go.

(Yes I realize the date is wrong on this picture it was actually 1998)

This weekend Joel and I attended a marriage conference at Focus on the Family. It was good to hear so many good speakers give a more accurate depiction of marriage. Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love spoke about how instead of focusing on our marriage, we need to make sure our marriage has a focus. He encouraged us to find the purpose and calling for our marriages and that ultimately we were joined together to bring glory to God. It was a moving message that left us feeling challenged and then we realized it was only 8:30 in the morning and we still had 6 more sessions to go, how could it get any better?

Next up were Drs. Les and Leslie Parrot and they talked about your marital love being defined by 3 parts, 1) Passion - the biological side of love 2) Intimacy - the emotional side of love or the feeling of having someone who gets you and 3) commitment - the willful side of love. They reminisced about times in their own lives when kids or careers or life just got in the way of feeling satisfied in their marriage. They encouraged open communication about the 3 areas of love. Their book The Love List talks about small things you can do every day, week, month and year to cultivate a loving relationship with your spouse, that research has shown only gets better and better with time. It's worth hanging in there!

Dr. Gary Chapman author of the 5 Love Languages talked about his new book The 5 Languages of Apology. The thing he spoke on that impacted me the most was when he talked about what forgiveness is not. 1) It does not destroy your memory 2) It does not always end in reconciliation 3) It does not remove all negative consequences 4) It does not remove painful emotions 5) It does not immediately restore trust. I just felt like this was a good reminder that forgiveness is still important and necessary to offer, but does not automatically let someone off the hook. It really is more for your own heart and offering it can help rid yourself of guilt and bitterness.

And then we had lunch!

In the afternoon there were even more good speakers, but probably the best take-aways from the day came from the talk by Dr. Juli Slattery. She talked about power in relationships and that women have power in men's lives by answering these 2 questions that are in men's minds every day 1) Do you believe in me? and 2) Will you be there for me? Likewise the men have power in the women's lives by answering their daily questions which are 1) Do you still love me? and 2) Am I safe with you? It really resonated with both Joel and I and was just something we had never really heard before.

I've often said that because we were so young when we married (Joel was 18 and I was 19) that we kind of grew up together and that if we would have met in our late 20's we might not have connected. The person I am 11 years later is not the person he married, but our commitment to each other is as strong as it has ever been.

I do think marriage can be that "dream within a dream" but it isn't automatic, it does take effort, but it is also so worth it to have someone on this earth who is in your corner and has your back. I can't imagine trudging through life with anyone else.

Where a Kid can be a Kid

2010-02-23T17:25:00.015-07:00

Well, today is February 23rd. This is a special day because it is the day 4 years ago that Nathaniel officially joined our family. He is a very sweet little boy and very compliant (most of the time) There were many inquiries as to what he would want for his birthday and it was hard for me to come up with anything specific because he tends to be happy with whatever he is presented with.

For his party we had a long debate over where to go. Josh was pulling for bowling, but at only 35 pounds it's hard to imagine Nathaniel having much fun trying to throw a 6 pound ball down a lane and Joel and I knew that Chuck E. Cheese would be more his speed. Plus every time we talked about bowling he kept saying that Papa would just play for him and it would be so fun! Not sure Papa would agree.

We didn't book a party at the house of mouse and assumed it would be no big deal to show up and find a table (for 14 of us!) and boy was that wrong! This past Sunday was by far the busiest I've ever seen any Chuck E. Cheese in my entire life, but somehow my father-in-law used his magical social skills and got us a table (while others were waiting in line) in the party room.

So here are a few pictures of the 4 year old and his wonderful party.

Waiting for our pizza watching the animitronic CEC mouse.

Naomi posing for the camera.

Riding the roller coaster.

Joshua competing in the Kentucky Derby!
Naomi's turn, look at that intense concentration!

Sam enjoying his ride with Barney.

Josiah Happy to be with his family and eating pizza.Rebekah just got off the "big" slide.Bubba playing air hockey with mom.Cousin Nick enjoying himself as much as a 12-year-old can.

Dad, passing out the tokens.
A rare picture of Papa, almost smiling ;)
Gramma and Sam watching the gifts being opened.

Don't ask me why he wanted a sail boat cake, he wanted chocolate with strawberries and when he saw the sail boat in my cake book his mind was made up. So I obliged and made him his sail boat :) Happy Birthday Bubba, it's hard to believe your 4!

Strategic Plan

2010-02-09T21:19:00.005-07:00

Let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.
~ Romans 12:6, The Message

In light of the last several posts, I felt like this verse just spoke to me. I know that The Message is not a true translation, but the truth in the words resonated with me.

How is your 2010 going so far? Surprisingly ours is moving forward at a nice pace. On our cruise in December Joel and I read a book The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family by Patrick Lencioni. In this book he talks about running your family the way you run a business, which may sound cold, but the idea is to have plans and objectives for your family and personal life instead of just cruising through life without direction.

So, we came home from the cruise and made a Strategic Family Plan. It took us a month or so to nail down where we wanted to be headed over the next several months. We wrote a mission statement, came up with a rallying cry and defined objectives that we want to see prioritized in our actions over the next several months. Our plan has been in place for about 3 weeks and it has been freeing to know where we are headed. The point of all of this is to help in decision making for your family to help determine what is "good" but may not be "best"

There are many examples in the book about families choosing to give up things for a time or maybe forever if it doesn't fit in with their mission statement or defining objectives. It's definitely a very managerial way of looking at your family, but so far has proven to be helpful. It is pointing us in the direction we would like to go, kind of a rudder on the ship of life.

Once a week, for us on Monday nights, we sit down and have a short 10 minute "meeting" to go over our strategic plan and discuss if we are moving forward in the areas we want to or if we need to readjust and change some priorities.

I feel like the verse above in Romans relates to this idea of strategic planning because it helps us to just be ourselves, who we are, who God created us (as a family) to be and not to worry about what the ______'s are doing as a family. Not only had God created us each individually to be different, but he created our families to be and to be run differently. There is often a charge to find out what God had called us individually to be or do with our lives, but I've not heard too many encouragements to find the calling for our families. I also feel like gaining a sense of direction as a family unit has helped me to personally define some of my priorities and objectives.

We were able to check the book out at our local library. I wouldn't say this is a "you have to own this book" but it is a quick and easy read and has really brought some clarity to our lives. There have been mixed reviews from others who have read it, some positive, some less enthusiastic about Lencioni's writing style, but it is an easy read and everyone I've talked to has walked away with the feeling that making a plan for their families is indeed a good idea.

So go on being who you are and don't worry about comparing yourself to others. You are unique and that makes you special.

Super Sunday

2010-02-09T08:20:00.009-07:00

I found it interesting the response to the previous posts. There are several people who have commented that I don't blog anymore, yet they didn't comment on the blog addition. Where did you go?

Generally speaking men's reaction to the information was very positive, while women's reactions was more worried for me. Maybe it's the nurturing part of women? I had several women who were generally concerned that I was losing it.

The most encouraging comment I received was that the information was merely information and it's very healthy to get the truth out as long as it didn't fall into judgment of myself. I honestly didn't feel like I was judging myself in most areas, just stating facts, but women tended to see it as being judgmental while men took it merely as facts.

Yes I may have had a tendency to focus on the "negative" instead of the positive aspects of my personality, but I was just trying to be honest and fight the perception that I'm the perfect homeschooling mother whose home is always clean, my kids never fight, or never watch T.V. ect, ect, ect. . . So for me it was good and freeing and that's all I'm going to say about that.

I don't have anything profound for today, just some pictures of the kids on Super Bowl Sunday. It's been awhile since I've posted pictures and thought you might enjoy looking them over. Hope all of your Sunday's were Super!

Josiah and Joshua snuggled on the couch watching the action.
Nathaniel, Naomi and Rebakah coloring during the game, much more entertaining.
Samuel hanging out at the bottom of the stairs, remote in hand.

and a few others. . .

2010-02-01T14:50:00.001-07:00

Start with the post below, then come up to this after, it'll make more sense that way :)

Edit to add: I thought of a few others . . .

I yell at my kids, not all the time, but more often than I should.

My favorite thing every day is checking the mail. I truly stalk the mailman. Our mail is never in the box for more than about 5 minutes unless I'm not home when he comes, I go crazy on holidays checking it repeatedly forgetting it's not coming. We don't get anything exciting in the mail, mainly junk, but I love it anyway.

I also obsessively check our bank account about 7 times a day either online or via phone teller. They only post transactions twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, but I always check just to make sure.

My kids don't know how to ride a 2 wheel bike. The older 3 are 7, 6, and 5 so I feel like they should, but they can't.

Who am I?

2010-02-01T13:23:00.004-07:00

I feel like I often hide behind the perception of me that other people have. Many of their perceptions are false. Here is the truth of who I am.

Wife

Mother

Woman

Yet I don’t think I’m good at being any of these.

I’m 31 and married to a man who is 30, my kids and husband love to razz me about being the oldest member of the family.

I've been married for 11 1/2 years to my high school sweetheart. We got married at 18 and 19 and I love him more than I ever thought possible.

I’m introverted, I usually only leave the house because I have to and it’s usually only once or twice a week.

I home school my two oldest, I don’t really enjoy it, I’m not very good at it, but I feel like I’m called to do it during this point in their lives and I can’t even imagine sending them to school.

I have 6 kids and feel like God is prompting us to once again expand our family. I am also starting to have a growing heart for adoption but have also been told that my family may already be too large to be approved to add more children to it.

I love babies and want to somehow be involved with them for the rest of my life. I dream about being a midwife, or doula, or NICU nurse but those seem impossible.

I don’t enjoy playing with kids or playing kid games.

I enjoy sewing, but don’t do it very often. I have a lot of material and patterns purchased for all these projects I want to do someday.

My kids wear disposable diapers, I use paper towels and paper napkins. I don’t really care about being green, recycling or eating organic.

I like to save money. Even if it means shopping at 4 grocery stores a week.

My furniture doesn’t match, almost all of it was given to us, I have very few pictures on my walls, decorating is not important to me.

I don’t wear makeup, I feel like I don’t know how, but even if I did, I feel like it’s expensive and my husband doesn’t really care. I’ve never plucked or in any way shaped my eye brows.

I don’t really know how to make my hair look cute. I would love a cute cut, but have no idea what would look flattering.

I wear dresses or skirts to church because I like to even though most women in our church do not. In no way do I feel pressure to do this, and the rest of the week I am typically in sweat pants or pajama pants unless I have to leave the house then I wear jeans.

I am overweight (actually obese according to our Wii) and care only minimally. If I see pictures of myself I think, “Wow, I should lose some weight” but other than that I’m generally happy with myself. It helps that my husband doesn’t seem to mind or care.

I eat when I’m stressed or depressed. I started gaining weight after breaking up with my first serious boyfriend and then gained a lot after my dad passed away. Don’t tell Jillian Michaels, I think she’d yell at me.

I don’t think much about my dad. He passed away 11 years ago, and I don’t think he’d be proud of who I am today, but it’s easier to just not think about it.

I am adamantly opposed to Halloween celebrations in any shape or form including church sponsored Hallelujah nights. I never celebrated it as a child, my children will never celebrate it, but I don’t like conflict so I rarely discuss this with anyone.

My kids watch Disney, PBS shows and Dream Works movies. We don’t have cable, so they don’t watch much else. I think Word World on PBS taught my boys how to read.

My kids play computer games and have club penguin memberships.

My house is almost NEVER clean. Many people say it’s because we have 6 kids, but our house was a mess before kids and I’m sure it will be a mess after kids, of all the rooms in the house our room is BY FAR the worst.

My kids eat sugar cereal for breakfast almost every morning. My kids eat chicken nuggets or corn dogs most days for lunch.

My kids love fast food and have had plenty of happy meals in the lives.

I don’t mind making dinner every night as long as we have a plan in place. I don’t like coming up with a dinner idea at 4 in the afternoon.

I like to have something sweet every day, usually at night after the kids go to bed.

I’m a hypocrite because I make my kids make their beds every day yet my bed is almost never made.

I’m lazy.

I'm not a morning person. My kids wake me up most days and I have a hard time getting out of bed until 8:30 even if they get up at 7:30.

We are in debt. We are working at getting out, but we have more debt than we should and a lot if it is because of foolish selfish impulse purchases.

I spend way too much time on the computer, especially facebook and e-mail. I’ve given up facebook games, but it’s been hard.

I watch T.V. I enjoy Survivor, The Amazing Race, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, The Modern Family, Lie to Me, Hell’s Kitchen, The Biggest Loser. I know I need to give up some of these shows, but so far have lacked the self-discipline to do so.

I don’t have daily quiet times. I know I should, but I don’t.

Every friend I’ve ever felt close with has either left me physically by moving away or emotionally. I’ve mainly felt rejected and shunned by most women and really struggle to make friendships or trust women.

I have a strong and overwhelming fear that Joel will pass away leaving me with all these children to rear. I’m not worried about the financial burden thanks to life insurance, but I do fear the loneliness that losing him would bring.

I’m not sure I truly believe that God cares about me or my life. If I did I think I’d live differently.

I miss my sisters, even though we’ve had rough relationships at times, they are really the only women I know I can trust no matter what. I wish they didn’t live so far away.

I’m not putting this out there to get any kind of pity, I just felt like maybe it would be freeing to let the truth be known.

Take me out to the Ballgame.

2009-05-05T19:08:00.004-06:00

Baseball has begun.

Baseball was my favorite sport growing up. We didn't have a team in my mind (we had the Zephyrs a triple A team) so I loved the Oakland A's. My grandparents would take me and Jess to a game in Oakland when we would visit them growing up. She even caught a foul ball during a game... much to my chagrin.

So it is with great joy that I bring you some baseball pictures from my favorite Rockies player and team...

Up hit for the first time.

"Playing" First... Just like his old man.

He even played catcher one inning. I think he liked this because he touched the ball on almost every pitch.

Dinger the Rockies mascot even came out and picked a fight with Joshua.

Easter

2009-04-13T09:58:00.012-06:00

Life has been good, busy but good busy. This weekend was no exception. Joel and I sat down (actually more I) Saturday morning and made a list of things to get accomplished and he laughed at me and said, "There is no way we're doing all of that today!" I, however, remained full of optimism. We got a lot of it done, but alas, not all of it.

The morning started off with an egg hunt at the park down the street, it lasted all of 3 minutes. The eggs weren't really hidden, just placed all over the baseball outfields and after the countdown the kids ran out and collected as many eggs as they could while parents pushed other kids out of their kids way! It was great! The kids had fun, but it was a little crazy in my opinion. Our kids got some fun things, but the greed of other parents/kids was amazing.

Then in the evening we went to the FBC easter play. They had child care for the younger kids, which was a huge blessing and Josiah and Joshua watched the play with us. It was good for them to get to "see" the story of Jesus. Josiah was very emotionally moved and Josh just wanted to know "why that narrator guy had to talk to much." Maybe 5 was a little young for him to fully grasp the easter story.Sunday we woke up, took baths, explored our easter baskets, ate breakfast and then got dressed and off to church. The boys each got to pick out their easter shirts and were all very proud to wear their clip-on ties. The girls wore dresses mommy made. Rebekah's was a little loose on top, but she was still cute. Then after church we were off to Gram and Papa's house for a large easter dinner. There were Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and cousins all gathered and more food than a small army could eat, although we tried! It was a good weekend and now it's back to the reality of house -- cleaning, laundry and cooking (it seems this never stops!) Here are some pictures of them before we left for church and they got all messy.Josiah is doing well, he thinks he's a grown up and I'm trying to encourage him to be a kid while he is one. He looking forward to starting baseball in about 2 weeks.Josh with his tie that was a little too short! He's a great kid who loves to read and loves rules.Naomi has been in a dance class this spring and is looking forward to her performance at the end of the month.Nathaniel has a new hobby of tying anything he can. Shoelaces, wires, jump ropes, belts, thread, yarn, I've found it all tied and wound through any holes he can find.Rebekah is a busy one, she loves to eat anything, but especially candy. She can open the refrigerator and likes to sit on the bottom shelf with her feet sticking out munching on cheese or grapes. She's starting to talk and I told Joel the other day, I don't know if I'm ready for 5 kids to be calling out MOM all day long.Samuel was still in bed during the group photo shoot, but once he was up, he wasn't very interested in having his picture taken. He's a good boy and usually really happy with a smile on his face. He is sitting on his own now and eating some "solids" preferring fruits over veggies. No teeth yet, and I'm sure he'll be crawling before I know it.

Hope you all had a blessed weekend celebrating that HE IS RISEN!!

Confessions of a Blog Stalker

2009-04-04T19:15:00.002-06:00

So I don't know why exactly, but I wanted to get this "out there".

I am a blog stalker.

My husband teases me about this all the time. I really don't think there is anything wrong with it, being how the creators of the blogs know that their information is out there for all to see. I don't do anything negative with the information, I just find it extremely interesting to read. Oh and I blame all of this on my good friend who lives far away and was having a baby and introduced me to blogland by starting a blog for friends and family to follow her journey :) Before that I didn't really know blogs even existed.

Seriously, if you have a blog, I probably read it. I know there are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there and believe me I don't read them ALL, but I do read a lot of them. I've found blogs through various sources. Some people have told me their blogs, some have links in their e-mail signature, some have been on "blogs of note", some I've found through friends blogs. . .the ways go on and on.

What does all this mean and why must I admit to this? I know I am one of those people who enjoys "people watching" and this is one way to people watch without leaving my kitchen. It's one way I connect with other adults, again without having to leave my kitchen, even if it's only a virtual connection. I know that I have cried through experiences with "complete strangers" I put that in quotes because they don't feel like complete strangers to me. God has used posts to challenge me, to move me to action, to pray.

A lot of good has come from it, but also some bad. I know I have ignored my kids more than once for the sake of finishing reading a blog. If I listed all the blogs I read/check regularly, you may be shocked. Some people I know in real life, some just in blog land. Some inspire me to be a better mother, some have encouraged me in this path of life, some make me feel like less of a mother for not doing what they are doing. Some have challenged the way I see the world and God (in a good Christian kind of way). Some have brought new recipes into our lives.

I feel like blog land for me is kind of the front porch of old. Instead of going out every night and sitting to chat with each other I still hear the stories of the day through cyberspace. I have read blogs on quadruplets, blogs on mothers of many (as many as 16), blogs on homeschooling, blogs on recipes, blogs on adoption, blogs on crafting, blogs on dulas/midwifery, blogs on cancer battles, and blogs on daily life. Each has touched something in me is some way.

So, now I've said it, and I'm putting it out there for everyone to know.

Bubba is 3!

2009-02-26T11:46:00.015-07:00

Monday was Nathaniel's birthday. We celebrated with a family party at Amazing Jakes on Saturday. A good time was had by all. Nathaniel didn't want to ride any rides, but had a good time in the toddler area playing with puzzles and on the slide.

Naomi and Joshua had tons of fun and Naomi surprised all of us by wanting to go on the "roller coaster" ride over and over and over again!

Bubba wanted a Diego cake for his birthday, even though we don't have cable and I think he's only seen one or two episodes of the show, but mommy obliged his request.

It's hard to believe he is 3, it seems like just yesterday that I was finding out I was pregnant with him. His pregnancy was emotionally my hardest, his labor was the most trying on our marriage, and he had the most serious health issues after birth (spending 1 week in the hospital at 5 weeks old with RSV) BUT, he is the most laid back of our children, the most loving and happy of the kids and the sparkle in his eyes when he smiles could melt anyone's stone cold heart. I cannot imagine our lives without him and it is a joy to be his mommy.He was born on the same day in the same hospital as Eva. A daughter of my good friend Julie. I was in labor much longer than she was and was shocked when I called to tell her he was born and her mother told me she was in the hospital also. Nathaniel is about 3 hours older. We always take a picture of the two of them together near their birthday. Don't they look thrilled???

He is ALL boy and always has been, he really loves playing with cars and trains and really loves digging and making mud! His language has grown a ton over the last year. At his 2 year check the Dr. wanted him to go to a speech therapist (which we never did) but at his 3 year check the Dr. felt like his speech was right on track for his age. It's so cute the way he says "yoocum" for you're welcome. It makes Joel and I smile. He is starting to show his little will, and does have to occasionally fight for his place in the family. Sometimes he gets easily frustrated with us when we don't fully understand what he is saying, but he quickly turns his attitude around. For now he is still Bubba, but I don't know if the nickname will stick forever, as he's growing up he seems less like a Bubba to me, but if you ask him his name he says it's Bubba. We love you Bub! Happy Birthday.

It's all hearts at the Dennis'.

2009-02-14T12:35:00.001-07:00

For Valentine's Day I had seen a craft here to make salt dough and use heart shaped cookie cutters. I thought it sounded like harmless fun and knew the kids would enjoy it, so here are some pictures of our process.

Naomi adding the flour.

Josiah adding the water.

Nathaniel stirring the dough.

Joshua stirring the dough.

We did not have paints (besides that sounded too messy) so instead I thought we would use food coloring to dye the dough. It was all good in theory and actually worked okay, kind of gave it a tie-dye look, but I hadn't factored in that the dye would work extremely well on the kids hands as well. . .soap did not get the dye out. I had to bleach all their hands, but in the end they had fun, so mission accomplished I guess.
Here they are cooling on the rack, and finally the finished product!
And Valentine's morning I made chocolate chip pancakes for the kiddos. Here is what their breakfast looked like the morning of the 14th.

The Children's Museum

2009-02-05T12:54:00.001-07:00

Joel's wonderful grandparents gave us a family membership to the Children's museum. We went on Sunday and a great time was had by all.

Nathaniel really liked the train room, Rebekah loved the grocery store,
Josh loved the painting,

Naomi loved the dancing and

Josiah and I got to build a train out of recyclable materials in the invention room. We are looking forward to a long year of playing and learning ahead. I realize the pictures don't match the things they "loved" but at least I got photos of each of them from the day.

I am an ISTJ, what are you?

2009-02-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling a bit out of sorts since Samuel's birth. I have always felt a little like I don't fit into the feminine world. I often feel like the way other mothers/wives act is the way I should too, but no matter how hard I tried it wasn't natural for me to act and feel the way I perceived they did. I have a friend who is also struggling with not feeling quite like a fit mother/wife and that she didn't really enjoy doing the wife/mother thing and felt guilty about it.

Joel had been going through the Myers/Briggs personality test at work and had also done it with friends in the past. I had taken the test during a leadership course at Evangel (when I was 18) and again in my studies at CU Denver (when I was 22) for management, but about 5 weeks ago it occurred to me that often the Myers/Briggs Type indicator test is used in the professional realm and occasionally in the personal relationship realm, but I had never seen anything on it for motherhood.

All of this is a long explanation to say that I thought about writing a book on it to see if all the different types (there are 16 Myers/Briggs personality types) of mothers could relate to each other and stop trying to be some other type. Well before I got started on what would entail monumental amounts of research, I thought I should look up my idea on Amazon, and low and behold the book already exists. This discovery saved me a lot of time researching/writing and such.

Motherstyles: Using Personality Type to Discover Your Parenting Strengths by Janet P. Penley and Diane Eble. My local library carried the book, so I didn't have to buy it (although I am considering doing so). This book was like a breath of fresh air. It is not Christian, but it was so helpful to be able to see what type of personality I have and why I often act the way I do and why certain things bug me and so forth. My sister calls it normalizing. It made me feel like I wasn't crazy or the only mother out there who thinks the way I think. Of course this is no excuse to not grow and strengthen certain areas that are weaknesses. I also learned that my type is extremely rare for a woman (i think less than 7% of the population) and that I'd be much more suited to be male, but none the less I am who I am and there are others out there like me. It makes me feel relieved to know that God made me this way on purpose and that he put me in this life situation on purpose and that ALL things WILL work for good according to His plan.

The Haircut

2009-01-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Naomi gave us quite a surprise, she decided she wanted shorter hair! We had been talking about cutting her hair to lessen the amount of tangles we had to deal with every day, but I was thinking about getting it professionally cut. Aparently she had other plans. I was working at the computer and my mom was doing schoolwork with Josiah and Joshua and Naomi and Nathaniel were downstairs watching a movie, or so we thought. . .Naomi was actually giving herself a haircut! At first I freaked out, but then ended up evening it out as much as possible. Here is the end result of her now short do. And no, I do not have pictures of her attempt, in my shock, I was unable to take a picture.

Five Families, A Wedding and a Christmas!

2009-01-07T11:10:00.014-07:00

So this is the last of several posts for the day. To catch up on our last few months you can scroll through and view all of them. I tried to break it up so it would be a little less overwhelming. For Christmas week we all went up to Estes Park for 3 nights. There were 13 kids and 11 adults in a wonderful "cabin" in the mountains. On Christmas eve we had a surprise wedding for my sister. Her boyfriend proposed and 5 minutes later we had the ceremony. Of course this was only a surprise to her and the rest of us were in on it and took care of all the planning. It was a wonderful experience! Here are some photos from Christmas week.

Here are the boys waiting for the wedding to begin.The happy couple during the song.
The Wedding CakeThe stocking were hung by the chimney with tape (which meant they kept falling off!)The YMCA has Santa come and deliver presents (provided by parents) to the kids Christmas Eve.Christmas morning making birthday cupcakes for Jesus. This is a Dennis family tradition to make a cake for Jesus before we open presents.Getting ready to open Bon Bons an Australian Christmas tradition.Wearing our Bon Bon hats.We didn't want to forget where we stayed!

The Aussies came to town

2009-01-07T10:03:00.013-07:00

For the Christmas season my sister and her boyfriend came to Colorado. We had a wonderful 3 weeks together, although it went by too quickly, and we did a ton of stuff. Here are a few pictures of the highlights.

Here are the kids waiting for Mary and Trevor at the airport.
Trevor had never been in snow before. He was SO excited. It was snowing the night they landed and did several times while they were here. The first Sunday of their trip we woke up to 1-2 inches on the sidewalk and he couldn't wait to get out and shovel! (Wish he lived closer)Josh, Mary and Nathaniel with their snowman.Trevor had also never had S'mores. They don't have graham crackers in Australia. Here are Trevor and Joel roasting marshmallows in the fireplace for his first s'mores experience. He seemed to enjoy them -- I think he ate 4!Making a gingerbread house. (yes, it is a kit and it was great!)The finished product.Trevor loves Basketball, a man after Joel's heart, so here we are at the Nuggets game on family night.We went tubing one Saturday afternoon.Here are mommy and Rebekah at the top of the hill, right before we rolled and smashed our faces in the snow at the bottom! (I was the only one who wiped out after Joel reassured me that I would be fine)The kids getting ready for the ride down the semi-snowy hill.And to end this post, here is a cute picture of Samuel during a shopping outing.

Christmas Choirs and parties

2009-01-07T09:39:00.016-07:00

Josiah and Joshua participated in their first Christmas Choir performance at Church. They seemed to do a good job and I know they had a ton of fun doing it. Right after coming down off stage and finding us in the auditorium Josh proclaimed, "Did you see me up there? That was AWESOME!" Josh is in the green shirt and Josiah is two kids over in the red.A homeschool group that I am a part of hosted a Christmas party for the kids. It was CRAZY, but so much fun! There were probably around 60 kids playing games, decorating cookies or making crafts it was organized chaos to say the least. The kids had a blast! Here are a few pictures of the morning.

Here are pictures of Josiah showing off his decorated cookie.
Josh playing a game.
Naomi with her masterpieces.

Nathaniel doing his craft, and

Rebekah enjoying the morning.
Samuel slept through the entire event (which was a HUGE blessing to mommy) so no pictures of him. Grandma came to help out, or I might still be in the corner of the room rocking back and forth mumbling incoherent phrases.

I've been tagged

2009-01-07T09:30:00.004-07:00

I've been tagged by my dear friend Stephanie (well, actually it was quite a while ago) . Now you are it: Theanna, Heather Z, Christina, Rachel and Nina. Now you open your picture file, open the 5th file, open and post the 5th picture. Tag 5 of your friends. Here's my picture. It was taken in July of 2005. In it are my mom's husband Jerry, Joshua (age 2), a friend Mike, my brother in law Chris, Joel and Josiah (age 3). It was a picture of all the "men" in the "family." I have one of the women also, but that's not what this tag is about!

Birthday Girl

2009-01-07T09:20:00.003-07:00

November 15, Naomi turned 4!

Sometimes it's hard to believe she's so old and sometimes it seems like she should be at least 6. She is a very bright little girl and started writing her name (ON EVERYTHING) including mommy and daddy's foot board (remind you of anyone Mary??) She loves dolls and being a little mommy. She can be very passionate (read "loud screamer") if she doesn't get her way, but her smile can also light up a room. She was by far my easiest delivery, was a good baby and has grown into a fun loving little girl. I'm excited to see what God has for her future. For her birthday we made paper bag puppets and had castle cake.

Ratatouille, A Butterfly and A Pumpkin

2008-11-08T13:15:00.009-07:00

Well, the title pretty much sums up our week.

Last Friday night I was up late with a certain someone (Samuel) and was watching "TV" on the computer in a dimly lit kitchen and I thought I heard a rustling behind me. I kept turning around and didn't see anything. There were a few flies buzzing around so I thought maybe it was them, but honestly I knew better.

Then on Monday morning while the kids were eating breakfast before school Josiah said, "Hey mom, there is a mouse in the living room under the couch." I hadn't told him about my suspicions and I wasn't 100% sure he would know what a live mouse would look like, not like the Mickey Mouse image in his head, but when I turned around I saw it scurrying along the baseboards and into the cabinet beneath my kitchen sink.

Well now it was official that we had a mouse in the house so as soon as possible I loaded up all 6 kids and headed to Wal-Mart to buy some mouse traps. I wasted no time setting up the trap and only snapped my finger once in the process, OUCH!

I kept checking the trap and we were having no luck. I thought maybe our mouse friend decided our house was too crazy and moved on, although it seemed as if the dollop of peanut butter bait was getting smaller every day.

Well last night Joel and I were sitting in the kitchen watching The Office on the computer and we heard a very distinct SNAP. The mouse was caught, although just his arm. When Joel went to dispose of the mouse I was told that he looked at Joel in the eyes and had a look of, "Don't kill me, I'll be your friend, I'm Ratatouille." He was disposed of anyways. One mouse down. Hopefully that will be the end of our rodent visitors, but there is still a trap set up just in case Ratatouille had friends.
On a lighter note, three weeks ago when I picked Josh up from school, he informed me that he had a "pet". Um OK, not really thinking his teacher would give him a pet, but then Josh proceeded to pull a little cup with a caterpillar out of his backpack. "Mom, it's going to be a butterfly!" Josh exclaimed. Great I thought, I already have 6 kids to feed, now I have to keep a caterpillar alive until it becomes a butterfly! Well the caterpillar did it's thing and turned into a chrysalis and we built our butterfly pavilion and hung it in the kitchen and then Tuesday I went to take out the trash and when I came back in and walked past the butterfly pavilion there was a butterfly in it! I don't know how we managed to keep it alive through all it's life cycle, but we did and now have a orange and black butterfly gracing our kitchen. According to my research it is too cold now to release it into the backyard and it should only live 2 to 4 weeks (their lifespan) so we are feeding it orange slices and sugar water.

And finally our pumpkin. Having never celebrated Halloween (see previous post) I didn't really have any experience with pumpkins, but Josh had to bring in a pumpkin for class on Monday for math (counting seeds, guessing weight etc.) and then he brought it home and told me we had to cook the seeds. Well I've never done that but thanks to google, I looked up that and other recipes and thought if we have this pumpkin we might as well use it. We made the cooked seeds, and I baked the pumpkin, pureed it and on Wednesday we made pumpkin bread for our math/home economics project of the week. Josiah read me the recipe while Josh and Naomi helped me measure and mix the ingredients. All in all it was a success and for the last 3 days we have been enjoying the fruit of our labor, the bread is gone now, but I still have enough puree to make another batch! Can you do the same project two weeks in a row? Maybe I'll make a pumpkin cheesecake or pumpkin cookies instead?

Our October 31st Tradition

2008-11-01T10:01:00.009-06:00

I was raised in a family that didn't celebrate Halloween, so when we had kids I told Joel that I didn't really want to celebrate it with our kids. There was much discussion about it, but we finally decided that as a family we would not celebrate Halloween, but then there was the problem with what to do with the evening. The kids are somewhat aware of what goes on between what they see on T.V., what other kids talk about, the "decorations" that are up at other houses and the fact that dressed up kids come to our door asking for candy. When I was a kid it was our family tradition to go to Pizza Hut for Halloween and we were able to avoid most trick or treaters who might come to our door. I guess you could say that we have a similar tradition, although we do not patronize Pizza Hut, instead it is Chipotle. We have been going to Chipolte for Halloween for the last 8 years (even before kids). They run a promotion every year they call "Boo-rrito" where if you "dress up" as a burrito you get one free. So, here are the kids dressed up for our free dinner. Really all it takes is a little tinfoil and you get free dinner.

Even a baby burrito (and almost a smile!)

And here are mommy and daddy burrito on our way to Chipotle. If you ask Josiah what we do on Halloween, he will very excitedly say, "We dress up like burritos and get free Chipotle!" It may not be a very traditional Halloween, but it works for us.

We then come home to pass out candy in an effort to be good neighbors to the other kids on the block.

Who said it is hard to get 5 kids to smile??

2008-10-23T20:34:00.006-06:00

We recently went to the pumpkin patch with the kids. We deciphered some of Samuel's crying the other day and felt like he was telling us that he really needed some adventure and was ready for the day at a pumpkin patch. What we forgot was that whenever we try and help him grow in his curiosity and learning he usually ends up doing this..

Here are the other 5 truly amazed at how wonderful their parents (and grandma) are for taking them to have sooooooo much fun. Can't you just feel the excitement in their looks?

Well I guess one of them is smiling. That is close to 5 right. Oh yeah and we have one of those new kind of cameras (I think they are called "digital") where you can take several million pictures and just delete the bad ones ... so here is the one I didn't delete! Thank you technology!

As I was making dinner tonight (well I made the side dishes, Alicia made the main course shreaded BBQ chicken sandwiches, yum... but I digress) I had to get this great shot of Rebekah and her brother (or as Nathaniel calls him, "newbabyboy," which is said as one word with no breaths in between words with an emphasis placed in the oi part of boy)

Oh wait that isn't really why I took that picture for those of you who didn't see why I took the picture here is another picture from a different perspective.

Yeah that's right Rebekah has finally learned how to climb onto the kitchen chairs then onto the kitchen table (I only say finally because Naomi had this mastered at the very old age of 10 months). Yea! Who doesn't love the fear that at any moment your child might slip and fall off the kitchen table and you can't do anything about it because it isn't very practical to screw the chairs to the ground close enough to the table to where she can't climb onto the chair then onto the table, especially not my chair, because well... put it this way, I just need a little bit more room between my chair and the table then Josiah does.

Here is a picture of Naomi about the same age as Rebekah is right now. The really don't look as much alike as I had thought they were.

Life with 8

2008-10-16T15:30:00.008-06:00

Well, today is the 16th and on the 19th Samuel will be one month old. Where does time go? I think the first few weeks/months of a baby's life seem to go so quickly because you are so tired all the time. You are never really fully awake enough to enjoy them. At least that is my theory. (Samuel's first bath, or documented baby torture, you decide)

We have 2 weeks left in the soccer season, it's been a good experience both years, but with the weather getting cooler and the sun going down earlier, we are glad that there are only 2 more games and 1 more evening practice.

Josiah and Joshua have already been in school for one quarter and are doing very well, parent/teacher conferences are in a few weeks. It's been nice to have them in school, but I've realized it's not quite the break on Mondays I was hoping it would be.

Naomi is writing her name on everything (including the walls, the television and anything that remotely resembles a piece of paper). She will be 4 in a month, but I often forget this and think she is older because she is doing things at 3 that Josiah was not doing.

Nathaniel's vocabulary has exploded. He went from single words to full paragraphs and is constantly a narrator for what is going on around the house. At his two year check-up the Dr. wanted us to take him to a speech therapist because he was lacking in his vocabulary, well we never did due to insurance issues and finances, but I think he has more than caught up. Next step potty training!

Rebekah is very busy and is driving her big brothers and sister crazy. She has learned the buttons to turn off the computer, T.V., VCR, DVD and goes around the house "interrupting" their activities. She thinks it's great fun, they don't see the humor in it.

Samuel is a good baby and only cries when he is hungry, that's just usually every 3 to 4 hours which doesn't bother me during the day (unless I'm trying to take care of one of the other kids) but at night my strength to get up and feed him is very off and on. Some nights it's no big deal and other nights I lay there thinking, "Do I really have to get up with him?"

Joel and I? Well . . .we are just trying to trust that God knows what He is doing with us. It's been a humbling yet reoccurring lesson since the addition of children to our family. Our society is not really set up very well for one income families (in my opinion). We are surviving, and God is faithful, but we are being stretched. We are continuing to seek HIS direction for our future.

Welcome to the Family Samuel Keith Dennis

2008-09-29T09:59:00.008-06:00

Many of you have heard, but for those who haven't, we are officially a family of 8! Samuel Keith Dennis was born September 19th at 2:34 pm weighing 9 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches long. For those of you who are interested here is "the rest of the story"

On Wednesday the 17th I had an appointment with my midwives to do a non-stress test, an ultrasound and a checkup because I was "overdue". He was due the 13th and I had not really been having any regular contractions yet. All of the tests came back looking good, with the added information that based on the ultrasound our little guy was not so little and was going to weigh around 11 lbs 7 oz at birth. This information sent us into a whirlwind of decisions/confusion/prayer/stress. The ultrasound weight is based on 3 measurements 1) head circumference 2) abdominal circumference and 3) femur length. If you know Joel you know that 1) he is tall and 2) he has a big head, so even though they were predicting a big baby, it was also easy to see how these measurements may not accurately predict his true birth weight. With 2 of our other babies they were predicting in the 9 lb range and no one had been over 8 lbs 12 oz yet. But, medically speaking after your baby is "measured" to be larger than 11 lbs they have to offer a c-section. The reason is because there is a chance the baby may not fit on it's way out which can cause major complications.

So there Joel and I were at what we thought was going to be a routine appointment being told that we had an above average sized baby and should consider the possibility of a c-section. Wow, heavy stuff. One of the midwives had personally had a c-section and was very reassuring that a c-section would go well and the other midwife in the practice that day kept trying to gently persuade us towards a "trial of labor" or an induction with the c-section as a last resort. We sat in the office and talked for about an hour and felt like maybe a c-section was the best choice. So we scheduled the c-section for 9:30 am on the 19th. We figured that God had 36 hours to start labor naturally if He disagreed with our decision, but we were at peace with where we were headed.

Thursday the 18th, an emotional roller coaster of a day! I woke up feeling fine and was still comfortable with the c-section, but thought I should really look into what was ahead of me/us as far as recovery was concerned. I had heard that it was a solid two week recovery time with 6 weeks before you were really "back to normal". So I researched online and the more I looked into it the more I cried. I was a wreck. I was sitting at the computer with my 5 kids running through the house just bawling. Nathaniel spilled his cereal on the floor twice that morning and Rebekah came in from the back yard covered in dirt and I sat there thinking, how in the world can I be recovering for 2 weeks (to the point where I can't even walk up stairs). And how can I not pick up my 14 month old for 6 weeks?? This just didn't make sense, but on the other hand what if we tried to deliver the baby and he got stuck?? I just felt like I couldn't make the right decision.

Then the phone call came. About 12 o'clock the phone rang and it was the Dr. at the office who was scheduled to perform my c-section. I had never met him and he proceeded to tell me that he was by far the most liberal Dr. in the practice offering women and often talking them into c-sections if they wanted them, just because he enjoyed performing the operations that much. He was calling to tell me not to have a c-section, basically the opposite of any advice he would normally offer. He stated that he had done 3 c-sections for other women recently who were "having 11 lb babies" to find out after delivery that they were all in the 8 lb range. Since I had already delivered 5 other 8 lb babies, he found it highly doubtful that I had an 11 lb baby in my belly. If I wanted the c-section he was more than willing to perform it, but if the babies birth weight was my only reason he felt I should start with a trial of labor. "OK, Dr, thank you for the information, I'll talk to my husband and let you know." Then the tears really started to flow. I felt like no decision was the right decision. I wanted to be wise, but we had a peace about the c-section, now we were being told that it was probably not necessary, but what about the risks? I was soooo confused. Thankfully Joel was home and we were able to talk through it. I also called the office and talked to another midwife (my practice has 5) and she also felt like the weight was probably off. She had assisted with Naomi's delivery and has known me for the past 6 years and felt like even if this was a big baby that my body would be able to "do it" AHHHHH!!! What should we do???? So after much contimplation and reassurance that if anything looked "wrong" that there would be no hesitation towards a c-section, we moved forward with an induction on Friday morning.

Oh the joys of induction. I've been induced with Pitocin twice before. The first time with Josiah 10 hours after my water had broken and contractions never started. And then again with Joshua who was 1 week past due and had a questionable looking ultrasound. What I knew about Pitocin was 1) yes the contractions are stronger (I only know this now because I've done it 3 other times without Pitocin) 2) The contractions are much more regular, usually ever 2 to 3 minutes instead of 5 and 3) you have to be on the monitors at all times which greatly limits you ability to move and breathe through you contractions. So armed with this knowledge and with the stress/possibility of a c-section still in the back of my mind we made a decision we have never made before and that was to have an epidural. We arrived at the hospital around 8 am and the Pitocin was flowing by about 8:30, and by about 10 I was starting to really feel like I was in labor (nothing bad yet, but very regular contractions that were getting stronger) The anesthesiologist came in around 10:30 and by 11 I was no longer feeling anything. It was a really weird experience, not bad, not better, just very different. I thought the epidural went in the middle of your back, but it goes in really low, almost lower than what I consider my back. I thought I wouldn't feel anything, almost like my lower body didn't exist, but that wasn't how it felt either, it was like my legs were asleep, they were kind of tingly and I couldn't move them, but I could tell they were there, I described it as if there was a dead animal hanging from my body. They were very "heavy".

Then we (Joel and I) slept. How weird is that to sleep during labor??? I was 3 cm when we arrived at the hospital, 4 1/2 cm when I got the epidural so I was "in labor" but to sleep for 2 hours seemed odd to me. The nurse woke me up to roll me over because most of the medicine was draining to my left side and I was starting to feel contractions on my right side and Joel went to lunch, this was around 1-1:30. At 2 they checked me again and I was 7 cm and Joel was just getting back from lunch and they said we probably had about 2 more hours before we'd have the baby. About 15 minutes later it felt like the baby was "falling out" of me so I told Joel that maybe we should have the midwife come back and check that everything was ok. They checked and I was "complete" or 10 cm and at +2 which means he was indeed on his way out. After 4 minutes of pushing he arrived. This stage was very surreal to me because I could see by the look on Joel's face and the midwife's face that something was happening, but I couldn't feel anything happening. There was a point during the process that the midwife showed some slight concern that he may not "fit" but it only lasted about 20 seconds because then he was out. And he weighed in at 9 lbs 8 oz, which is a large baby, but not the 11+lbs the ultrasound had predicted. And all I could say was "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you" The nurse who had been working with us all day looked at me and said, wow, I didn't know if you knew how to smile. I was so relieved that he was here a huge wave of peace washed over me. All the stress of the previous 36 hours melted away. The Dr. who would have performed the c-section came in to congratulate me. It was over, and it went as well as we could have hoped.

Samuel was not necessarily our first name choice (I kept telling people his name was going to be Caleb) but it was on our list and after he was born it just seemed to be the one that fit the best. It meas God hears, and Joel especially felt like through our whole ordeal that God heard our requests and answered. Keith is after my maternal Grandfather.
So now he's 9 days old. How did that happen so fast? He is a really good eater. Better than my other babies waking up pretty much every 3 hours to eat. He's a good sleeper (during the day) not so great at night yet. Joel has made the comment that it feels like he's been a part of our family for a long time even though he's only been here for just over a week. The kids all love him and are very curious about where he is and what he's doing all the time. Joel is back to work and I'm home with 6 little ones to care for. Is it overwhelming?? YES. Am I making it? More or less. I'm feeling much better physically, just a little tired. Is God faithful? Definitely!

One proud Papa!!

2008-09-13T22:00:00.009-06:00

The boys are both playing soccer again this Fall. I coached them last fall on their two different teams, but we didn't have them play in the Spring. We are done with week two and they are doing much better then last year. Joshua especially seems to be enjoying playing much better. Last year there we times where he would simply sit down in the middle of the field and stop playing because the other kids weren't sharing the ball with him and letting him score goals. Here are some snapshots from the past two weeks.

Josiah kicking off

Josiah in the middle of the pack

Josiah up close and toothless

Joshua's reaction to his first goal
(the picture is distorted a little because I enlarged it to show his face)

Joshua in action

And some of the action in the sold out, members only club level seating

And this because our princess wouldn't let daddy only take pictures of the soccer boys.

My Amazing Wife

2008-09-09T20:44:00.006-06:00

In case you didn't know it before Alicia Dennis is the most amazing woman in the world. Now I know that it is primarily women who read this so I will reiterate, no matter how good you are you will always be number 2.

(Alicia, me and Nicholas our nephew)

My wife is an inspiration to many families that we know. We personally know of two families that have been so impacted by her willingness to be obedient to God in choosing to have "so" many babies that they have chosen to have more kids even when they thought they were done.

Her faith level amazes me even though she will adamantly deny that she is my role model. Many of you who know me, know that I have crazy ideas with major consequences. Most of you either agree that what I think is logical and biblical, or simply don't have the desire to engage me in a debate (probably a good idea). The problem with my crazy ideas is that Alicia is often the one who has to suffer the consequences of them.
My beautiful bride turned 30 last month and is about to have our sixth child. I just wanted to take a moment to encourage all of you to encourage her with how she has impacted your life. I know that so many of you have been blessed by knowing her and I feel like it would be a good "birthday present" to tell her what you feel. I don't care if it is forced I want my babe to know how special she is and that I hope to spend the next 30+ growing old with her.

Babe, I love you more than life itself. I want to publicly thank you for being amazing.

3

Some new songs for the Baby

2008-08-31T16:09:00.012-06:00

The baby is coming soon so I figured I could post some new songs for the arrival of #6. And because there were rumors that no one really likes the Barney song from before.

Rebekah is very ready for the baby to come as she is very tired of being the cutest one in the family. Ok at least the cutest one in this picture.

Here is a walk down memory lane.

You can be praying for us as we prepare for "seis." We are getting anxious about it and are thinking it may come soon.

It's Raining Teeth!

2008-08-27T10:39:00.003-06:00

Josiah has lost two more teeth. One more on the bottom and one on the top. He's been pretty excited and has been keeping the tooth fairy very busy this month.

A few more weeks have gone by since my last post, and they have been busy ones. My sister came into town for a long weekend (it happened to be very cold and rainy all weekend). The cousins had fun playing together while the grown ups spent the evenings watching Michael Phelps make Olympic history and playing Texas Hold Em. It was good to have them in town and we are looking forward to seeing them and Aunt Mary and Trevor at Christmastime.

Josiah and Joshua started "school" on Monday. They go one day a week and Monday was their orientation/get to know your teachers day. It went well and I think they will really like it. Josh has 11 other kids in his kindergarten class, which seems like a very manageable size. Josiah is taking 6 classes including a Spanish and Computer class which he is very excited about. There are several families from our church that are also participating in the program, so it is nice to have some familiar faces in their classes. As for school at home, although I have their textbooks, I haven't sat down to figure out a schedule for this school year and haven't been very motivated to do so yet with the pending addition to the family. I may get around to it this weekend, but no promises.

Monday was also my 30th birthday. I had the chance to go out with Joel on Saturday night and celebrate, which is always a fun treat. Then Monday night I went out to the Melting Pot with Jess, my sister-in-law, for ladies night. It was a lot of fun to get away as just the girls. It's hard to believe I've crossed over into another decade. It feels like I should be more of a grown up than I feel like to say that I'm in my 30's.

The baby is due in 2 1/2 weeks, and although I have good intentions of posting weekly, I fully expect the next post will be an introduction post, so stay tuned . . . .

Updates on life as usual

2008-08-07T10:23:00.013-06:00

So it's August 7th and I haven't posted since July 18th and I'm sitting here trying to decide what in our life is "post" worthy.
Joel had a birthday and turned 29. Very exciting, for us to be the same age for just over a month! He has been working on his own for Integrity for just over a month and there have been ups and downs. He has had favor with several of the dealerships and has 8 accounts. The hardest part for me is the schedule. There have been some 12 hour days, and most are at least 9, nothing unbearable, but very different from the 4 hour days he was working for Brinks.

Rebekah is 13 months old today and is definitely walking. She has also learned to crawl down stairs, which has opened up a whole new level of independence for her. She follows her brothers and sister around the house and doesn't get "stuck" when they go bouncing down the stairs. She's a very happy girl and getting so big, but I'm not sure she's ready to be replaced as the baby.
Naomi has developed into quite a little mommy, always carrying at least one if not two baby dolls around the house. She is very interested in mommy having a new baby and keeps asking, "Where is the baby?" and, "How does it come out of your tummy?" For now we've just explained that the baby comes out of mommy's tummy at the hospital. Josh has decided it must come out my mouth, while Naomi thinks it must come out my toes. We'll correct them eventually, but for now ignorance seems acceptable.

Josiah is reading, not novels, but enough that it often surprises me what he reads. He always wants to play on the computer and is really looking forward to starting school in a few weeks. He has 3 more loose teeth, but doesn't want any help wiggling them out. He is a big helper around the house and seems to "get it" the most of all of them that with a family our size everyone needs to pitch in.

Nathaniel is almost 2 1/2 and is entering the "wonderful" two's. He is usually one of our happiest kids, but there are moments when he is also quite a challenge. His language skills are still developing and it is often frustrating for him to get across what he wants, causing much frustration. He has grown very attached to his blanket and carries it around constantly. He is also very willing to do/try anything his big brothers or sister are doing.

Joshua is right on Josiah's heels and probably will be most of his life, he is on the verge of reading (although not quite there) and is also looking forward to school starting. We try to stress his individuality, but often he only wants what Josiah wants. Both boys are going to be in Soccer again this fall.

As for mommy, I am plugging away. Filling my day with dishes, dinner and dirty clothes. Glamorous I know! It has been very warm this summer, but we are currently in a bit of a "cold" streak which is a nice change of pace. We have about 5 weeks left before we meet #6. It's amazing how soon that will be! I am very ready to not be pregnant (my hips and back have been fairly sore the last week and I know it won't change until after delivery), but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to have 6 little one's to be chasing around. My mantra is "One Day at a Time" or even "One Hour at a Time" and sometimes "One Minute at a Time." Especially moments like yesterday when Naomi and Nathaniel decided they were hungry for cereal in the middle of the day and couldn't reach the bowls, so they just poured the cereal and milk right on to the kitchen floor for a snack.

After bath the other night Joel commented, "Since when did having 5 kids feel normal and not overwhelming?" to which I replied, "That must be why it's time to add #6!" Can't get too comfortable for too long before God decides it's time to stretch us a little more.

1st Birthday Party and Swimming Lessons

2008-07-18T09:53:00.007-06:00

Last Sunday we did indeed celebrate Rebekah's 1st Birthday. It was a low key afternoon with the family over for a BBQ lunch and birthday cake. As usual for a 1 year old, I'm not sure she really understood what was going on, but she did seem to enjoy the cake! Here she is offering to share some with daddy who is taking the picture.

She is on the verge of walking and is getting more and more daring. She will take 3 or 4 steps before falling down, but now instead of just crawling to her destination she will stand up and try again. I'm sure in a few weeks time she will be running to keep up with her brothers and sister.

In other news, the older kids have been going to swimming lessons at the pool down the street from our house for the past two weeks. They are free to us because the school district pays for all the kids to receive one free lesson during the summer. This is Naomi's first attempt at swimming lessons and she seemed to do well. The first day she wasn't so sure about getting in the water and by the end she was blowing bubbles and "talking" to the "fishes".

Josiah and Joshua were in the next level up and were working on their front and back floats as well as learning some swimming strokes. I'm not sure I'll take them in the pool without water wings just yet, but they have definitely gotten more confident in the water. Here is Josiah "swimming" on his stomach.

And here is Josh "swimming" on his back.

Joel's Birthday is tomorrow and we are having a big family gathering at his grandparent's house on Sunday. (Yes we have a lot of summer birthdays in our family!) It's been warm in Denver the past few weeks and I'm hoping that August is unseasonably cooler. (especially being 8 months pregnant!)

Dallas, Fireworks, First Birthdays and a Lost Tooth

2008-07-11T12:25:00.010-06:00

So, as you can see by the title it's been a busy couple of weeks. I won't be very long winded in this post, but I'll put up quite a few pictures so you can "see" how our last few weeks have been spent. I created a slide show of some of our Dallas highlights, we did a lot in the 11 days we were there, just trying to keep 8 kids busy. Ignore the dates on the pictures, my camera got set to the wrong date.

The kids enjoying the fireworks in Arvada on the 4th of July

My big one year old. Her birthday was Monday the 7th, and we're having a party this coming Sunday (messy cake smearing pictures to come!)

On Wednesday night Josiah lost his first tooth during dinner. It had been REALLY loose for about 24 hours and it finally fell out. (We were eating spaghetti at the time, it wasn't really a bloody mess.)

Joel is home from Virginia. We all survived the month apart. We all met on our drive home in Wichita and we were back in Denver on Thursday the 3rd. We had a nice 3 day weekend and Monday he started working. All in all June was a very full month for us and I'm looking forward to a slower July!

Birthday and Anniversary Surprise

2008-06-23T08:25:00.011-06:00

Well, it's been a couple of weeks again since I've been able to post. This seems like one of the last things I can get to in a day. But when there is significant news it's worth the time to stop and post. Since we got back from Mexico Joel has been in Virginia for training with his new job with Integrity. It has been going well all things considered, but we were all looking forward to seeing Daddy again on July 4th. My mom and I drove last Thurday/Friday down to Dallas to visit my sister, brother-in-law and neices as a change of pace before Joel got home and to celebrate Joshua's 5th birthday. We made it down here safely and were settling in for the evening when who should walk in the door???

(all the kids at the park on Saturday)

SURPRISE it was Joel who was also in Dallas. He had found a decent rate from Virginia to Dallas and came to surprise us for Josh's birthday on Saturday and our 10th anniversary. I was shocked, to say the least, but very excited to see him. The kids also enjoyed getting to see Daddy. It's amazing how muchyou can miss someone after only 2 weeks. It made me glad that he isn't in the military on deployment for 18 months because that would be very difficult! What stamina and faith those women must have to be able to endure. We spent Saturday celebrating with a trip to the park, playing with the waterslide in the backyard and going to the Wiggles playplace. We opened presents and had Chipotle for dinner (Joel had been craving it for 2 weeks) and then finished the day with Cake and Ice Cream. It was a good and really full day and the kids never slept so well! Sunday was good also with church in the morning and then Joel and I got to go to lunch just the 2 of us. It was so good to see him and will help us be able to push through the 2 more weeks until he's home again for good.

The Dennis Bunch at the park on Josh's 5th birthday and Our 10 year Anniversary.

What a couple of Weeks!

2008-06-10T11:21:00.009-06:00

WARNING THIS IS A REALLY LONG POST!!

Wow, I don't even know where to begin. It's been a fun, tiring and overwhelming couple of weeks. The Thursday before we left for Mexico I ran a few errands (I had returns at 5 stores plus going to the bank) at my last stop I ran into another car in the parking lot. AAAHHH! Our van got more damage than the other car and there was no one in the parking lot that witnessed my actions, so it was very tempting to just drive off, but my conscience got the better of me and as I was writing a note of apology, the owner came out of the store. She didn't speak much English, but took my name and number and said her husband would contact us. We still haven't received a call, but it is good to know I did the right thing.

Saturday we left for Mexico. We had an early flight 8:30 am which means we had to be at the airport at 6:30 am. Rebekah had a paper ticket because she was a lap baby and Joel had a paper ticket due to a last minute change in his itinerary and the line for United was LONG. We got to the counter to find out we were in the wrong line and when we finally got to the right person it took forever, we didn't have assigned seats and couldn't get them assigned until we were at the gate. We had about 45 minutes until departure and then proceeded to security. The line was the longest we have ever encountered at DIA in our lives. You would have thought it was Thanksgiving or Christmas. The line was outside of the roped off portion. At least 1 1/2 to 2 hours! AAAHHH! We were told the security over the bridge at Terminal A wasn't bad, so we literally ran (all 10 of us) to the terminal A security check point. It only took 10 minutes to get through. Yeah! Then we ran to the train, then ran to the plane. They were holding the plane at the gate for us with our seats which were all over the plane. With 5 kids under 5 years old that was not going to work. We were trying to get rearranged with flight attendants yelling at us over the loud speaker to please sit down. All of us finally seated and on our way to San Diego (we actually still pulled back a few minutes early). Whew!

San Diego . . . a 1 1/2 hour lay over and then off to Cabo San Lucas! Or so we thought. We made it through security and to our gate and were just about to get food (the first we would have eaten all day) and the entire airport was on lock down. No one was allowed in and no on was allowed out and there was no food to be had. After about 30 minutes we were told there had been a breach in security and the entire airport (employees and all) had to be evacuated. We were less than 10 minutes from our plane starting to board when they emptied the airport and we began a 3 hour wait (actually just Joel and Jess waited outside in the hot sun while the rest of us sat at McDonalds) for them to reopen the security lines. AAAHHH! After our extended layover we finally made it to Mexico! YEAH!Sunday (Josiah's 6th birthday), we were in Mexico and had a full kitchen and the ability to save quite a bit of money by making our own meals so we were off to Wal-Mart to buy groceries for our stay. Joel went to the beach with the kids while I took Rebekah shopping with Joel's sister, uncle and grandma. We were in a familiar feeling location so, forgetting that I was in Mexico, just tossed my wallet in the cart like I would at home and went about my shopping. I occasionally left my cart to grab something off the shelf and all was going well until we got to the check out and I realized my wallet was no longer in my cart! AAAHHH! You have got to be kidding me. It was really stolen! I went to customer service to check if it was turned in and they said "Why would any one turn in a wallet?" Silly American! I retraced my 1 1/2 hour journey through the store to make sure that it hadn't fallen out of the cart while shopping, no such luck. I finally admitted that it had been taken and we went back to the hotel. I immediately called my credit card company and they had already blocked the account because of several large suspicious purchases that were being made on my account. I then tried calling my debit card company which only has a 1-800 number and found out you can't call those from Mexico. We had to relay call through Joel's dad in Colorado to get information sent to my bank. There was nothing they could do to stop the charges on my account until Monday since the bank was closed on Sunday. I then tried to put it behind me for the evening and enjoy the rest of Josiah's birthday with the family.

Monday, call to the bank. There has been almost $1,000 dollars in unauthorized charges posted to my account, but my debit card is now closed, but the only way to get my money restored to me is to make a police report (with the Mexican police). Called the hotel front desk--they said I had to go into town, they couldn't help me out. That afternoon, tried going into town to find the police and found a small sub-station, they couldn't help me, we had to go to the main police station out of town about 15 minutes away. So up the hill we went to the police station/jail that looked like it also served as the town dump (trash everywhere). We arrived and Joel in his best Spanish tried to relay the situation. After several mis communications we finally figured out that the only one who could help us was not at work at the moment and we had to come back on Tuesday.

Tuesday, back up the hill to the police station. After a 20 minute wait we were seen by Deena who took a police report and though our very jumbled Spanish and here limited English we got a report that said (all in Spanish) that my wallet was stolen in Walt-Mark, my middle name was mis-spelled and I lived in California, Colorado, USA. But what can you do??

The rest of the trip was actually very fun and relaxing. We had a hot tub on our deck that overlooked the Sea of Cortez. We took a glass bottom boat ride out to Los Arcos, the southern Tip of the Ba ha Peninsula, Joel went Para sailing and we spent several hours at the various pools on the property. All in all looking back the week was good and we had a good time with family.

Saturday, time to return home. First flight went smoothly and we had no problems. We knew we had a 4 hour layover and were planning on taking the kids to a outdoor mall to break up the afternoon. We got through customs very quickly and went to the United check in counter. The flight on our itinerary did not exist. There had been a schedule change and no one had updated our tickets. AAAHHH! We had booked our tickets with US Air, so there was nothing United could do but call US Air who booked us on a Frontier flight that actually left 30 minutes earlier, sounded good, so off to Frontier to check in. Frontier says, yes you are on the flight, but there are no seats available on the plane, there is nothing else we can do. Off to US Air, their first response is "We don't fly to Denver, we can get you to Phoenix or Las Vegas, but not to Denver." By this point we had been in line for 1 1/2 hours at 3 different airline ticket counters and no one had eaten for a while. We didn't care how they did it, they were getting us home! Frontier had a 8 pm flight (4 extra hours in the airport) and they had seats. We were booked. So we spent an extra 4 hours in San Diego for a total of 8 hours on a layover. We finally made it in to Denver after 11 PM and were home and in bed by 12:30 AM.

I told you it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I spent most of yesterday trying to restore everything that was stolen in my wallet. I went to get a new Drivers liscense, took the police report to my bank trying to get the $1,000 dollars restored, put a stop payment on any checks they might try to write and called to report our social security cards (mine and all 5 kids) as stolen.

Back to normal life??? Not entirely, Joel drove all weekend to Virgina to begin his month of training for his new job. We are between health insurance, jobs, paychecks and trying to keep our spirits up. God is bigger than all of this, right?? He cares for us in spite of the crummy circumstances that sometimes come up, right?? We are learning to trust that He is always in control and has our best in mind, right??? I know it in my head, but my heart sometimes has a hard time following. I know in 6 months this will all be a distant memory and life will be good, but it's hard to feel that way right now.

We are on Vacation! Woo-hoo!

2008-05-31T00:19:00.004-06:00

Make sure to listen to the wonderful music we have selected for you to have while we are relaxing in Beautiful Mexico!! Please make sure to do the appropriate dances that go along with the songs.

This isn't our pool that we will be staying at, but you get the idea.

See you in a week.

Football and a New Truck

2008-05-23T10:41:00.020-06:00

This past Saturday was the end of Joel's flag football season. He has been playing all spring and has been enjoying the exercise and fellowship. Due to several cold, windy and wet days, the rest of did not always attend (the games also typically conflicted with someone's nap) Last Saturday however, the weather was nice (Joel, Rebekah and I actually got sunburned) and it was the final playoff games, so we all made the trek to the field.

Here's a picture of all the boys.

And here are pictures of Rebekah and Naomi enjoying the afternoon.

It was the first time Rebekah had crawled around in grass and in the picture she is desperately trying to keep her feet out of the horrible stuff!

Wednesday was a super exciting day for us. We did register the boys for the options school program and on Wednesday I was able to go pick out curriculum to use for next school year. In total I chose $1500 dollars worth of curriculum that I get to borrow for the year. We had to buy a few workbooks, so our cost was $46. We feel so blessed to have found this amazing program.

Then in the evening we went to buy a truck. Joel has been working with Integrity Auto Specialists all week. So far it's just a lot of observation. He'll go to Virgina for 4 weeks starting June 9th where he will get his official training. We had to purchase a truck for his job and found a pretty good deal on a Ford F-150. I never thought I'd be married to someone who owned a truck. Joel has never really been a truck kind of guy and when we first started dating he was driving a Geo Metro. Granted it was a 4 door instead of a 2 door, but many people found it amusing to watch a 6' 5" guy climb out of a tiny Geo Metro!

I never really mentioned what happened with my job interviews. I felt that all went well and actually ended up completing 3 rounds of interviews, but in the end the position was given to someone else. It's a little hard for my self-esteem to take, but I'm trusting that God knows best and He will continue to provide for us. It seems every time I think I know best, He has different plans.

Finally here is one last cruise picture. It one we had taken on the boat on formal night. It's been nice to be home, but there have been moments I've thought that just a week ago I was lying on a beach in the Bahamas reading a book and then taking a nap. I could go back to that pretty easily! Of course next Saturday we leave for a family vacation to Cabo San Lucas Mexico, so I can't complain too much!

Back home again and it's a . . .

2008-05-16T19:13:00.000-06:00

Life is always changing! It seems that more often than not the changes are for the good, but I do not always do the best with change. I like to know my place in life is secure and change disrupts that quite a bit. I feel kind of like Woody in Toy Story when he sings Strange Things

"Let me tell you about the strange things are happening to me
Strange things
Strange things are happening to me...
Ain't no doubt about it"

Friday May 2nd was a big day for decisions/changes in our life. In the morning Joel and I went to a meeting for a home school group that is part of the Aurora Public School system. Josiah and Joshua will be enrolled one day a week (probably Mondays from 8:30 to 3:30) and we get to order all of our curriculum (non faith based) through the school district for free using our tax dollars. They will get the experience of the classroom setting taking fun classes like art, music and PE or educational classes like science, math and Spanish or a combination of the two and we get to choose their classes, yet we are still considered a home school family and get to guide their education the other 4 days a week. All of this is very exciting, but it will be a CHANGE!

After that Joel and I met with his new boss! We were still deciding on Friday, but as of Monday the 5th we've decided we are officially leaving Brinks as Joel's employer and are now going to be working with Integrity Auto Specialists. This has been an option since February and I have been unsure about this change for the past 2 1/2 months, but it seems as though all the other doors we were waiting on have closed and despite a few hiccups in the small details, God seems to be leading us to Integrity. Just this morning the 16th Joel made it official and for the weekend he's unemployed. CHANGE!Other than that life is smooth sailing :) Joel and I got home from our cruise last night. We had a wonderful and relaxing time. The kids seemed to do well with us being gone. We went to two islands and went snorkeling, enjoyed laying on the beach and all the amenities of a cruise. We ate in the dining room watched the shows and had someone else make our bed and do the dishes. It was wonderful! We both still feel like we have our "sea legs" but hopefully that will pass within the next few days!

One final and exciting note . . . my ultrasound was today. The baby looked very good. Measuring exactly 22 weeks 6 days (which is exactly how far along I am) and it was very apparent that it's a BOY! No mistaking it. 4 boys and 2 girls, sounds like fun!

Baby Dedication and Donut Trees

2008-04-30T10:55:00.022-06:00

Our attempt at a family picture on Sunday. I'm not sure we'll ever get 5 kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile. Maybe when they are teenagers (oh, I don't want to think about that yet)

What a busy weekend! Sunday we were able to dedicate Nathaniel and Rebekah during our church service. Nathaniel was 4 months old when we switched churches and we haven't had a chance to formally dedicate him until now. We thought we better take advantage or if we waited for the next opportunity we would have 3 children to dedicate! It was a wonderful experience and the grandparents got to come and share in the day. After church we had a BBQ at our house and it was a long but wonderful afternoon.

My mom took the opportunity to take pictures of the grand kids with their namesakes.

Here are Joshua Dean with (Great Grandpa) Papa Gary Dean.

Naomi Carolyn with Gramma Carol Janette (one of the many Carol and Carolyn's in the family)

Nathaniel James with Papa James.

And Rebekah Lorel with Grandma Lorel Yvonne.

Josiah Harry is named after my Dad Harry John, but a picture of the two of them will not get to be taken this side of heaven. I look forward to them meeting one day.

On a lighter note, my mom had purchased some donuts from the store for the festivities on Sunday and the kids have been slowly eating the remaining donuts over the past few days. Yesterday Nathaniel was enjoying his donut out by the swing set and it dropped in the dirt and I told him to throw it away and I would get him a replacement. Well, Josh and Naomi thought that we shouldn't throw away a perfectly good donut and decided to plant it under the swing set. They have been faithfully watering it for the past 24 hours and are convinced that eventually (and hopefully soon) a donut tree or bush will sprout up under their swing set. They are wanting this plant to produce sprinkle donuts (the best kind of course!) I've tried to explain that donuts don't grow, but their faith in the planting/growing process is unshakable.

So far this spring we are plugging away doing fine. As you can see above we are counting down the days till our cruise : ) We are in the middle of a big decision regarding our future employment. Both for Joel and myself. I actually had a job interview yesterday and we will see if God is opening that door. We are still unsure the direction we are being led, but are trying to faithfully follow what God has ahead of us. By next week we should be able to post the official changes!

Landscaping

2008-04-24T08:53:00.006-06:00

Another week, another post . . . what to discuss with the outside world this week? Our days this week have been pretty full of landscaping duties. Mainly weed pulling/spraying, raking and some minimal flower planting. It's nice to see the yard somewhat coming together, but we have a long way to go. Our yard was a mess when we moved in 2 years ago and due to finances and lack of knowledge we haven't done much other than occasionally water and mow. This year (on a very tight budget) we are trying to start making some improvements.

Monday we bought some gardening tools and potting soil and grass seed and compost. We've started pulling weeds and cutting out bushes and raking up pine needles. Right now on the curb we have 11 large trash bags to be picked up, plus our usually weekly trash (Joel's not convinced they are going to take it all.)It feel like there is still endless hours of work to be done. Hopefully we'll get to it eventually. Here is an after shot of the bush in the back yard that we removed yesterday, it really opens up the back and lets me see the kids on the swing-set from inside in the kitchen.This weekend/next weekend are both fairly busy, so I'm not sure how much else will get accomplished in the next few weekends, but we are going to try to be intentional about making progress. I really want to plant rose bushes, but I know nothing about roses, so I'm trying to learn before we invest in those.

Other than landscaping we are gearing up for our cruise. We are very excited, yet feel like it will be over before we know it. Joel and I will celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss in June and had always talked about wanting to take a trip for this momentous occasion. We found a great deal in January and with the help of my mom, his sister and mom and a few friends, we managed to get childcare for the kids covered and are taking 5 days 4 nights to cruise the Caribbean just the 2 of us. We haven't spent that much alone time together for a long time and are really looking forward to it (hopefully we won't get on each other's nerves too much!)

Here is a picture of the family we took on Sunday (per my sister's request). It isn't the greatest because we are kindof in the sun and the kids are all squinting, but Theo, here ya go. I'm hoping to get some cute family pics this weekend at Nathaniel/Rebekah's dedication. If they turn out, I will post those next week.

The Zoo, a jumping castle and baby powder, oh my!

2008-04-16T09:20:00.007-06:00

So, usually I feel like I have nothing to post, but today I feel like I could do 5 posts pretty easily. I'll try and be brief, but if you've read any of our other posts you'll know brevity is not our strong suit.

Monday and Tuesday were exceptionally warm days for April in Denver (high 70's to low 80's), so we like the rest of the city took advantage and had two glorious days outside. On Monday we went to the Zoo with 3 other families from our care group. We had a good time with 4 moms and 12 kids. We ran into 6 other moms from our church and their 15 kids, but decided that we would be too large of a group if we all tried to stay together. It seemed as if EVERYONE in Denver was at the Zoo on Monday. We had a good time and only mommy ended up with a sunburn. I didn't realize my white skin was so susceptible to the sun after months of sitting inside : )

Here is a picture of Josh and Rebekah at the Zoo, don't they look like they are having fun?

On Tuesday we opened a Christmas present that has been sitting in the garage just waiting for a warm and sunny day. Joel's grandparents purchased a Jumping castle for the kids for Christmas and we have been telling the kids they had to wait for the snow to melt off the yard and the temperature to be warm enough to set it up. Well, all the pieces aligned yesterday and the kids got to play in their jumping castle. They had a blast and it was fairly easy to set up and take down, but Joel and I have decided that they will probably enjoy it more (and so will our electric bill) if we just set it up only once every few weeks.

Only a few knocked heads and just a little blood. It has a slide and fits nicely in the backyard. I'm sure we'll have plenty of friends over to try it out this summer. Josiah, after playing for about 15 minutes said, "Hey mom, we won't need to go to Pump It Up for our birthday's anymore, we can just use this!" He was very excited.

And finally the baby powder story! Every afternoon the kids have a "quiet time" where for an hour or so they sit in their room, our room, the guest room (wherever is available) and read quietly to give them a break from each other and mommy! Naomi had her quiet time on her bed yesterday, as always, and everything seemed to be going fine. She was fairly content to stay in her room, which isn't normal, but I thought after 3 months of this habit, maybe she was finally getting it.

When it was time to get up, she came downstairs and had a little baby powder on her face and hands, and then my stomach dropped and I knew I did not want to go in her room. It's a phenomenon neither Joel nor I can explain, but Naomi is obsessed with powder substances. Over the last year or so I have discovered 3 overturned formula cans, and 4 or 5 emptied boxes of laundry detergent and 2 empty chocolate milk powder containers. Of course this also means she loves digging in the dirt outside and can play with a pail and shovel at the base of the swing-set for hours. It's always frustrating and is usually followed by a lengthy discipline session where we explain that her playing with these powders costs mommy and daddy money and it is not okay.

Her discovery of baby powder yesterday was no different. I entered her room and it seemed as if it was covered in 1/2 inch of baby powder. Not every square inch was covered, but a good 40% of her room looked like a winter wonderland. I'm not sure how much experience most of you have with baby powder, but it is not the easiest thing in the world to clean up. We vacuumed some of it, wiped up some with wet washcloths and a lot of clothing/blankets got a run through the washing machine. When all was said and done I looked at Joel and said, "this is an experience someone without kids cannot even fathom. How can such a sweet and innocent 3 year old make such an enormous mess in less than 30 minutes?" Oh the joys of parenting!!

Last, but not least, a little note about my appointment yesterday. Everything was fine. I was a bit nervous because I feel like the babies movements aren't very regular yet, but the midwife reassured me that I'm only 18 weeks and this is normal. Even though I've done this 5 other times there are never any guarantees and it's easy to get worried. The babies heartbeat was 146 beats a minute, and my next appointment/ultrasound is scheduled for May 20th.

Booooo! and for What?

2008-04-14T15:53:00.009-06:00

Last week Papa (Joel's Dad) took Josiah, Joshua, and me to the Rockies game.

The game was against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who the Rockies played in the playoffs last year. During the series with the D-Backs last year a player from Arizona, Eric Byrnes, said :

"I think we're a good team, I also don't think the Rockies have outplayed us, because they haven't. Not even close. They've had a little luck go their way. Definitely, the ball has bounced in their direction. They've been the beneficiary of some calls. So when we look at that as a group, we look back on those first two games, we have not been outplayed. If anything, I think it's the other way around, so that gives us confidence knowing that we can play with them."

He said this while the Rockies had won the first two games of the series. The Rockies ended up winning the first four games against Arizona and went to the World Series. All of this being said, most people at Rockies games don't like Eric Byrnes.

Now to the story... while at the game whenever Byrnes would come up to hit the crowd started booing very loudly. I of course was right there with them booing (Don't judge me!). The boys were very confused by why we were booing this player. I told them it was because he had not used nice words last year. Joshua then really drove the point home with this question, "Daddy, if he were to come to our house would he be mean to us?"

I stopped and of course reassured him that he wasn't going to mean to us when he came to our house, but that he wasn't always mean that he only had chosen to use mean words.

The whole thing was funny to me and since I am a regular in the Rockies dugout we decided to invite Byrnes over for dinner to work everything out. He apologized to Joshua for using mean words, and all-in-all he was a pretty nice guy.

Haircuts and Blood Draws

2008-04-09T10:19:00.016-06:00

Here is a before picture of the kids, just hanging out at home.

Joel has decided we will save money if he can learn to cut the boys hair, so last week, using his sister's clippers and with the help of a friend in the business, he attempted to cut their hair.
Josh who is our wiggly one wasn't too thrilled. Nathaniel the 2 year old, on the other hand, sat perfectly still.

Here are some after shots.

As you can see, it didn't work too well, somehow their hair got longer and curly?

Actually this is one of my Grandma's old wigs that the kids were playing around with. Thought these were funny pictures that would make my sisters laugh.

Here are some actual after pictures of them. Nathaniel's ended up a little short and Josiah's is still a little long, but all it all it was a success. I'm sure Joel will get better with practice, and with 3 growing boys he'll get plenty of practice.

Naomi was pretty upset that she didn't get her hair cut, but all I really focus on is her bangs and neither Joel nor I wanted to attempt those.

Now for the Blood Draw part. Rebekah is part of a research study called the TEDDY study it stands for The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young. When she was born they tested her blood and found the genetically she is predisposed to Type 1 or juvenile diabetes. She does not have diabetes yet and only has a 3% chance of ever getting diabetes, but because of her genetic predisposition, she is enrolled in a study where they draw her blood once every 3 months for testing to see if she is developing the antibodies which could lead to diabetes.

The staff is amazing and they actually use a numbing cream on her arm so she can't feel the needle poke. The last two draws had to be done in her hand because her veins in her arms were too little for the needle and the amount they drew was very small. Yesterday was her 3rd appointment and it went very well! They were able to draw a full amount from her arm and she just laid there quietly on my lap drinking her bottle during the procedure. They also weighed her yesterday and she is 17 lbs 8 oz. By far the biggest 9 month old we've had. So, here is a cute picture of her. She is so happy now that she can crawl around the house and "keep up" with her brothers and sister.
We are all doing well. No new news on Joel's job, no new car, just a full happy life with the 7 of us. We are starting to look at 12-15 passenger vans, but not in any hurry as we have until the end of the summer before we need that big of a vehicle. We are still trusting that God has our best in mind when it comes to work/finances. My mom and her husband come home from China/Australia today and we will have to give her car back that we have been borrowing for a month and be down to only one car, but we will survive. Everyone is looking forward to having Grandma back home. My next doctor's appointment for the baby is next Tuesday, I'm not really expecting any exciting news, but if so I will share next Wednesday.

Fluttering

2008-04-02T09:49:00.005-06:00

I've never quite agreed with explaining the baby's movements as "butterflies in your stomach". It's supposed to feel like fluttering. Because of this definition, I didn't believe I was "feeling" Josiah when I was pregnant with him until I was 24 weeks pregnant and he kicked me in the ribs.

I've always felt like the first baby movements were more like little bubbles popping in your tummy. Anyways, all of that to say for the last few days I've been feeling very slight movements. Just enough to remind me that, yes this is indeed happening. It's a little overwhelming, but also very comforting. It reminds me that at 16 weeks all is going the way it's supposed to.

My goal is to post at least once a week (probably on Wednesdays) but I realize it's been 3 weeks since I've written, and the truth is I don't have much to write about. The kids are doing well, enjoying the warmer weather and ability to play in the back yard. They are all getting big and it is hard for me to believe that in 2 months I'll have a 6 year old. Rebekah is loving crawling and has been much less fussy over the last week. She is keeping me on my toes as we have to watch that she isn't getting into anything she shouldn't.

My outlook on life has been more bright. I feel like a month ago I was in a very dark place where there seemed to be no hope. I can't put a finger on exactly what the change has been other than I feel like now there is a sense of hope. There is a light ahead and it feels like life is going to make a turn in the right direction. Nothing has actually changed yet, but emotionally I feel like all is going to be okay in time.

I promise to post pictures of the kids in my next post. I had hoped to take pictures on Easter, but by the time we were ready for Church we had to hurry and get in the car, then by the time Church was over we had to get to Joel's Grandparent's and by the time we eventually made it to Joel's Grandparent's house the kids did not look very picture worthy. They were still cute, but Naomi's cute hairdo had fallen out and Nathaniel had found some chocolate and it was all over him and his shirt. Such is life.

He is Risen

2008-03-23T23:26:00.002-06:00

What a fun day today. We started off by eating our Easter cookies. We made cookies last night and the cookies stay in the oven overnight much like Christ remained in the tomb. The cookies are hollow in the center just like the tomb was empty when the Marys arrived. This was a fun way to help the kids to understand what Easter is about.

The kids then "opened" their Easter baskets. Then the race was on to bathe and dress all 12 of us to get to church on time. I am allowed to make up the amount of people to get ready especially when we are time crunched to get somewhere.

Off to church, new dress shirts for the boys and new beautiful dresses for the girls. Mommy made the dresses and they turned out very cute.

Rebekah hasn't made it through an entire service at church since she was very little, but today she lasted the entire service in the nursery. It felt a little funny sitting next to Alicia during church. Either she is with Rebekah or I am teaching in the orange class (9 and 10 year olds) so we don't sit with each other in church very often any more.

Off to my grandmothers house to celebrate the day with extended family. This all seemed to be going too well . . . speed bump. The van has been overheating, so we stopped about 2 minutes away from home and called my mom to help us get up to Gram and Papa Dean's house. So now we are without two cars . . . sort of. We are borrowing Alicia's Mom's car while she is on a missions trip and my Dad, S'Mom, and brother left this morning for a week to California to visit my grandmother and Aunt and Uncle in Sacramento, so we can borrow his van the next few days while our van is being looked at.

The good news is that Jesus is Risen and my simple problem of not having a car in my name that runs seems like such a non-issue in comparison to what Jesus did for us on this day.

Again off to Gram and Papa Dean's. Great food, great family, and great Easter Egg hunts. We have a color coded system in place so each child looks for their own color and I can hide them based on each child's ability. My wife is incredible for coming up with this idea for the egg hunts. This allows my 10 year old nephew, Nicholas, to not end up with all of the eggs intended for the 2 year old.

And some BIG news . . . Rebekah started to crawl today. She was born on the best day (7/7/07) so maybe her major milestones will come on important days. She just took off as if she has been doing it for weeks.

Back home with tons of food and desserts in tow. A few more egg hunts with the kids then off to bed for them. A quick look to see my disaster of a bracket for March Madness. Now it's time to be in bed an hour ago, but I am procrastinating sleep to inform you all of such a good day.

Shalom,

Joel

Some not so little news

2008-03-13T09:40:00.002-06:00

So, I'm not really sure if anyone has found this blog yet since I haven't "announced" it's presence, but because it feels "safe" we'll go ahead and share our news here first.

For a little over a month, Joel and I have known of the next little one's presence, but we weren't sure we were ready for the news and knew that we weren't ready to be sharing it just yet. Based on dates and symptoms, we were pretty confident that I was indeed expecting, but we thought for sure that our due date was in early to mid October. This put the difference between Rebekah and #6 at 15 months, which is our average spacing between kids and even though we were being really careful, it still seemed to make sense that this was what God had for us.

While I was pregnant with Rebekah, I felt like God told me there was one more child for our family and I felt fairly strongly it was going to be a boy (so we'll see about that) and if there was only going to be one more, we would want them to be close to their brothers and sisters and not the lone ranger child who is 5 years younger than the gang.

Well, the big surprise from yesterday was that we found out even though I should be 9 weeks along according to the October date, the little guy is about 13 weeks "big" so, my due date is now September 13th. The change in due dates doesn't really affect us too much, it just makes the pregnancy 1 month shorter, which no woman would ever complain about, and means Rebekah and this one will be 14 months apart. The baby looked healthy, had a strong heart beat, and was kicking his legs quite a bit during the ultra sound.

So, there is the unofficial, official announcement. If you find this before we tell you than good sleuthing skills! We are excited, nervous and overwhelmed but know that God has a plan and is blessing our family of 8!

Overwhelmed and frazzled

2008-03-12T10:15:00.001-06:00

This is a reflective post on what has been happening the past week. Last Thursday night Joel called on his way home from work saying his car was acting funny and that he wasn't sure he would make it home. His route that day drove him past our mechanics, so he thought he should just drive it there and I should pick him up. Well, he never made it to the mechanics, the car died getting off the highway and would not restart. So I picked him up on the side of the road and we had the car towed the 3/4 mile or so he was from the shop.

On Friday, we got the call, we weren't expecting great news, but the news we received was even worse than "not great." His engine was blown. It could be replaced, but the cost of fixing the car was greater than the value of the car by several thousand dollars. WOW, we were not expecting that!

I feel like God has abandoned us. It's been very emotional and depressing. Our financial situation is very grim and we are scraping by one day at a time and so far God has sustained us, but this seemed like the final nail in the coffin, as the saying goes. How can we be down a car? We can't afford a new car for Joel. It is possible for him to drive the van to appointments, but it doesn't seem wise when you factor in gas mileage and wear and tear on a van that is already sputtering and spitting and in need of a good check up.

I don't know what to do or where to turn or what to believe or how to feel. Emotionally I was a wreck on Friday and Monday and now I just kind of feel numb. I don't want to think about it, I don't want it to be our reality. I feel lost.

The other major factor is looking ahead in our financial future and feeling like we are on the brink of something very negative. Joel needs a new job, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the works that would work for him. The offers we've received so far don't seem a ton better than where we are and the only jobs that might be better financially seem like they would be death to our family life. I realize it is sometimes necessary to make sacrifices in order to get ahead, but with 5 kids to care for I need a husband who is available to share in some of the household/childrearing responsibilities.

Should we look into a second job for Joel or a part time job for me? I don't know. What is out there right now doesn't seem like the right fit. Jobs I've been offered are daytime jobs and we don't have a child care option. Joel has considered a paper route, but isn't sure about the 7 day a week 3 am commitment. We want to be wise with our time, I want to trust God has a plan, I want to have faith that He won't fail us. I don't know if I can take much more.

Why I never leave the house!

2008-03-06T15:44:00.004-07:00

So today we ventured out to a "critter show" at the mall. It was free to "pet" the animals (snakes, lizards and a tarantula!!) There was also a craft of painting a flower pot and planting seeds, getting your face painted and balloon animals. All of which were free activities. Sounds like a really fun time, and to some extent it was, but it was SOOOO crowded! There were 100's of kids and mommies and a few brave daddies and the whole event was fairly chaotic. I set the ground rules for the kids in the car before we got there and for the most part the did very well staying with me and obeying without too much whining.

Josiah got to touch a snake, Josh was picked to pet a lizard and then we waited in line (for an hour) to get our faces painted. I ended up with two spidermans and a flower butterfly. We then had a "picnic" lunch at the food court and then made our way home.

I AM EXHAUSTED! This is why I never leave the house. It is a lot of work to make sure I don't forget any of them anywhere, to make sure no one is touching something they shouldn't be touching, to keep everything as even and fair as is humanly possible to avoid a meltdown in the middle of the mall. At home I am still the mom, but my standards are a bit more relaxed (probably because their aren't 100's of other people for my kids to bother, just me and their siblings.)

So, as fun as it was, we'll have to see about venturing out next month to the puppet show at the mall. I know my kids enjoyed it and with my girlfriends help (I NEVER could have done it without them) we all survived the event.

Just another day

2008-02-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. I feel like I don't have much to say because so far it is just another day. The kids have had their breakfast. Two of the five are dressed and I already have a headache. There is laundry to do (my dear husband is out of socks) dishes to do (Rebekah is out of clean bottles) bills to pay (one due yesterday I forgot about) and I feel like crawling back into bed for a few more hours. Somehow, with God's help, I will find the strength to make it through today.

Anyways, here are a few current pictures of the kids.

Josiah, Joshua, Naomi and Nathaniel on a recent trip to the Children's Museum

Rebekah 7 months old