Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Another New Freebie!

Okay, so I gotta give a shout out to Shutterfly and their amazing promo they have going on right now. I love, love, love doing Christmas cards and they have some of the cutest ones. Check them out http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards. Well because times have been thin this year I thought the cards were going to get the boot, which would be so sad due to we are having our family pictures taken this year. It's the first time since Christian was with us. We just haven't had it in us to update our family pic, but it's about time now with our 3 new family members, so it would just be down-right awful if I couldn't send out cards. Enter Shutterfly! By doing this little shout out they have offered me up 50 free cards and if you check them out you can see if you get 50 free cards too! How awesome, and Merry "early" Christmas!

Day 23

Today I'm grateful for the medical world. I'm thankful for the modern advances in medicine and that I can just drive a few minutes to get to a hospital. Thinking of all the people in the olden days who died from illnesses because of the lack of medical advances is sad and makes me glad that we have what we do. I'm thankful for all the hard work researchers do to make our lives healthier and longer and for the research to save children when they need saving.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Day 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22

I have gotten a little behind again(much ado has been happening around these parts of the woods) so I'm combining all these days into one HUGE thing. I'm very grateful for my children. I'm grateful for their smiles, laughs, tears, anger moments, bad moments, misunderstandings, love, but most of all- I'm grateful that I have them. I have been in a state of turmoil over losing babies, a son, and now the possibility of ever having that one last baby my heart aches for. I should be grateful that my house is filled with the six children I have, but alas, my heart has been aching for more and I have spit on what I do have(really not intending to, but kind of what happened). I want to be able to be happy with what I have, I need to be happy, but it's a hard thing to do when your heart and mind are playing tug-of-war against one another. So, a new day, a new chance to be ever so grateful and love all that I DO HAVE! So, this is my blessing for these days and I vow to remember it and cherish all my children and pray for their continued health and happiness. Giving thanks and praise always to the Man upstairs for all that He has blessed me with.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Day 17

I'm very grateful for nap time! I know it's a silly thing to be grateful for, but one that is needed a lot everyday. I love my kids, but they can be a handful sometimes and this blessed time of the day known as nap time, gives me the recharge I need. I get to sit and either craft, blog, or catch up on house duties that I have fallen behind on while playing with my children. I love this time also because of the quiet it brings. When all the children are sleeping and nothing is on or making noise in the house, it is SO peaceful. I get a lot of thinking done during these times and it is great! I love to just sit in a quiet space and hear myself think and appreciate all that I do have. It helps me put life into perspective in a very deep way.

I also love that I get time to browse other blogs and get inspired to make something or try something new, like making the homemade baby wipes. I've also tried out making my own dryer sheets, and let me just tell you, they work like a charm. You just cut 3 sponges in half and put them in a container and pour some fabric softener in and let them soak. Every time you need a dryer sheet, pull a sponge out and ring it out and throw it in the dryer with your clothes. You then put it back in the container when your load is done. Reduce Reuse Recycle baby, that's what it's all about. It may be a small thing, but I feel I'm doing my part and saving some cash at the same time. This is what my glorious nap time lets me do. I love it and will miss it when it's gone, because, oh yes, it will be gone soon. My babies are becoming not so baby anymore and nap time is slowly drifting away. I will HATE it when that day comes! But for now, I am extremely grateful for it.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Day 15 & 16

So again, I'm combining two days. I am very grateful for this one huge thing. I'm grateful for groups that are forming to bring about a new awareness to the world. I'm talking about the awareness for children suffering a horrible disease that they shouldn't- CANCER! No parent should ever have to hear the words "your child has cancer." It's horrible and I hope to never hear it again and hope that no one near me has to hear theses words. It shakes your world and changes you and your family forever, no matter what the outcome. Unfortunately, I'm sure this will happen due to the research for these type of cancers get little or no funding. I'm grateful for the groups of people, myself included, who have said "enough is enough, save our children." There's a great movement beginning to get more money for research and for, hopefully, cures so that our children do not have to suffer. I'm grateful that we as a group can be heard and as the awareness begins to grow we will be heard and hopefully our children will get what they so deserve-to live, healthy, long lives!


I put this video link on here asking for you to watch it. Let me warn you, it is a very difficult thing to watch, but I believe every person should see it. It brings the awareness of what families and children experience to light. God bless and hopefully we will cure our children sooner, rather than later.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Day 13 & 14

Today I'm combining two days of what I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for love. Not just the "swoop you off your feet and melt your heart" kind, but also for the sisterly/brotherly kind, the caring for someone who's sick, the love that you receive even when you don't deserve it kind, and the ability to love when you know it's "gonna hurt like heck in the end" kind of love. I'm sure we've all been broken-hearted by a loving relationship and we've all experienced the love from a family member or been cared for when sick. And I'm sure most of us have had the "swoop you off your feet and melt your heart" kind of love. And for all these things I'm grateful for. I'm glad I've been able to feel love, show love, and have love for others. I've seen or experienced very grumpy, sad, mad people in my life-and it makes me wonder if they have ever held love in their hearts or have received it. Love goes a long way and it's the best thing out there, even when you get hurt by it, it's still one of the best abilities we have. Even the quote, "it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have had loved at all," is so true. I will always choose love over not loving in every way I can. Yes, it does hurt sometimes, but it makes us stronger and grow into more considerate, loving individuals who learn to put others first. Love makes the world go round and today, I'm VERY grateful for it!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Day 12

Today I'm grateful for talents! I love that Heavenly Father has given each of us special talents. I'm thankful for the opportunity to grow my talents and to teach my children to foster theirs. Today was a special day concerning talents. My lovely Alexis won the Award of Excellence for her school's Reflections contest. She was the only one in her age group that won. I'm so proud of her and glad that she is fostering her talent. She has many, as I'm sure most people do, and I'm glad she knows and loves them all. I enjoy practicing my talents and am thankful for the ability to do so.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Day 11

Today I'm thankful for my dad, my FIL, and all the other men and women who have served this country and who are still serving. I have many family members who are/were veterans and it takes a lot of bravery to do what they do. I think many of us would not be here if it weren't for these honarable men and women, so my heart full of gratitude for their service goes out to them.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Nosy Neighbors

Have you ever noticed that once someone gets married EVERYONE bugs the couple on when the babies will start? Then once the babies start EVERYONE again bugss the couple on when is enough, enough. I mean, c'mon, it's no ones business but the couple who are or who aren't bringing little lives into this world. Now this does not go out to anyone single person, it's just something I have noticed as of late. It's sad that we as a society think it's our business what a couple does with their procreation abilities. I have many friends and family suffering this fate at the moment, and I have suffered it in the past, and let me just tell you-it's no fun sir re bob! Let's remember to mind our p's and q's and not pester our neighbors. I did once with a dear friend who I hadn't seen in awhile and just asked her, "so when are you two gonna have a baby"(they got married 5 months before me and we had 2 kids already)not really meaning to bug her, just joshin' with her and the response made me feel bad for days. They HAD been trying with no luck. So, please do your dear friends/family/neighbors a favor and just don't ask.

A Little Late to the Thankful Party

As I'm sitting here coughing up a storm and watching my voice disappear, it dawns on me that it's the 10th of November and I haven't been posting what I'm thankful for. You see, I had it all in my mind that I would post one thing that I'm thankful for everyday throughout the month. Well, busy mommy taking care of everyone who is sick, I forgot. So better late than never.

Day 1 Time I have with my dad
Day 2 The opportunity to vote and let my voice be heard
Day 3 My girls and the joy on their faces as they rehearse for a play
Day 4 My boys and Bella- being able to play with them all day
Day 5 School and the joy it brings to the kids when they love learning new things
Day 6 The changing seasons, it's miraculous!
Day 7 Daylight Savings Time- love when I get that "extra" hour
Day 8 The changing weather, I love when it's all rainy and I can be cozy with a blanket
Day 9 The hubs and his help with our sick little ones
Day 10 Being sick- It reminds me how I love being well and to try and stay healthy more.
So here's my list so far. I have a lot to be thankful for and reminded to think of all that I have. We all have our challenges and stresses, and although they might not be the same, we all need to remember to count our blessings even during the hard times. It's funny how I forget this so much. I dwell sometimes, okay a lot, on the things that I have lost(or the people) and it brings me so down. I hope to remember a little more at what I DO have and not grumble at what's been lost. I have a great many of blessings to be counting, so I should count them one by one.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

New Photo Shoot with Bella

I haven't done a photo shoot with Bella for awhile, and although we will be having family pictures taken in about 3 weeks, I wanted some with her with all of our leaves in our backyard. She's so adorable and easy to get pictures with. So, here's what she gave me..









She was loving all the birds and dogs that were out. Her facial expressions say it all! She wasn't so sure about sitting with the leaves at first, but then she liked playing with them. My favorite is posted to the side. Her daddy is smitten with her and swears she could/should be a baby model.

Showing some extra love for the hubs

I decided I wanted to take a different approach to our date nights. I wanted to do some fun, eventful, dates, so every month I will take a little more time in planning our nights out.
We have usually just set up dinner and a movie, or dinner and chatting. Don't get me wrong, we love getting out, and we haven't been doing it much until late, but I wanted to show the hubs how much I love him with spending some time coming up with funny themes for our dates.
We had been talking about the "choose your own adventure books" with Alexis and we were sad that she had never heard of them before. An idea popped into my head for a theme for our date. I also thought it would be nice if we made it a double date with our friends Liz and Scott. It's nice that the hubs and Scott get along SO well. It's like they were cut from the same cloth.
Any who, here's the invite I gave him a week before our date night. To say the least, he was quite intrigued and excited.
I made up rhymes/clues to 5 different restaurants the boys both liked and they had to choose which one they wanted to go to. On our way there we had car tasks that everyone had to do. We did things like sing "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" with exaggerated hand gestures , rock out to "talk radio", party and dance with blaring music until the light changes, etc. Then when we got to the restaurant we had restaurant tasks. Each of us chose one out of an envelope and had to complete it before dinner was over. We then had 5 rhymes/clues for our activity and the boys had to choose which one they wanted do. We ended the night with dessert at Sonic. We all had a blast and laughed all through the night.
This is what I gave the hubs for just lovin' him this month. I filled it with some of his favorite candies(which are gone now) and he was surprised when he came home and found it. I'm just glad he enjoys the little things I do for him and I need to remember that it was the two of us before our crazy bunch arrived. So here's to showing the hubs a little affection and appreciation.

Friday, November 5, 2010

An EXCITING Announcement!

I have an exciting announcement concerning Alexis, but I can't spill the beans until the 12th!
So stay tuned.
I am SO, SO, SOOOO, proud of her!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Halloween 2010

I just love the holidays! I can do so much with each and every one. We had our traditional Halloween spooky dinner before we left for our tricks and treats. I made bats and guts as our appetizer. The kids really get into my creepy names. Even when my dad asked for something if he didn't call it by its spooky name they didn't pass it to him. Haha, funny kids!
Then we have our bumps on a log with worms. Yummy!!!

Our bone breadsticks, again, those creepy worms kept crawling all over our food.
Edible eyeballs, yummy stuff.
Our table with our annual putrid punch. We actually lucked out and have had this drink twice this year-since Noah wanted it at his b-day party too.

And our main course, mummy pizzas. I like them this way better. They are on sliced french bread, and ooh, were they yummy.

The kittys from the bunch.
Miss A as a penguin. She was so loving her costume. I just can't decide which one I like best out of the four that I made.
Miss B as the cutest lit'l giraffe you ever laid eyes on. She worked this costume during the 3 days of celebrating.
Of course Noah had to be Thomas. He wouldn't let me make him any other costume, so he chose this one that we already had.
Logan decided to bring out his true nature and request a monkey costume. I loved seeing him in it. Too bad I didn't get a close up of his tail. He loved his tail and banana the most. His tail curls around and is furry.
And she's at it again, strike a pose Kaleigh. You go girl. She saw this sweat suit at target and fell in love. So did I, cause making her into a cheetah would be a piece of cake with this outfit. Now she can just wear the sweat suit all winter. Love when costumes do double duty.
Miss Laney Banes as her all-time favorite animal. Can you guess? I hope so, she's an elephant. I had a lot of fun making this one, and again her costume does double duty as well. All the costumes that I made do. They can now wear their outfits throughout winter. I either safety pinned parts or used elastic. All removable parts, love it!
Smiley Noah so happy to be at the girls' school parade.
Just another cute pic of Bella. She's so adorable!
My favorite group picture of the kids being silly right before we headed out into the rainy night. I love them all and as you can probably tell by this picture, they are a funny, fun-loving bunch of kids. Is it any wonder why I love them and being their mommy so much!

Arrgh Mateys! Birthdays are a coming!

We had great plans for Laney and Logan's Birthdays. As it happens life laughed at us this day and happened while we were planning our plans. We were all set to go to Pirate Island for their birthday, all dressed in our pirate garb nonetheless, when out of nowhere I turned the key in our car and...
NOTHING!
The car was dead, the family car, and we couldn't even get it to jump start. So, on to new plans. Luckily I had a gift card to 5 Buck Pizza, so we still had our pizza and cake and just played some pirate games and watched a pirate movie.
The kids loved their pirate ship cake. Another very simple cake for mommy. I love when the cake that is requested is very simple to make.
I love that the cannons are the candles, so did Logan.

The front of the cake.
From the side view.
The kids with grandpa all ready to head off. Haha, little did we know, we were marooned.
Our whole family, poor Noah barely made it in the picture.
I just love these kiddos. Look at the excitement they possess. Although we had to stay at home, both kids still enjoyed their party. Hopefully next year's birthdays will go as planned. It definitely has been a bad year for birthday parties.

Decorating Pumpkins

We have a family tradition of doing our pumpkins in the morning and then watching a movie with some popcorn. This year I was feeling more like a fall spin on the popcorn, so we made vanilla cinnamon popcorn. The BEST tasting stuff. It's very addictive, but oh so yummy!We have these parts to make a pumpkin face that we like to do just because I'm too scared to let the lit'l ones carve. Next year the older girls will carve with the hubs and me.
Kaleigh hard at work at creating her monster.

So proud!
Alexis laughing at her creation! Boo-tiful!
The hubs helped with Noah's. Those little parts take some umph putting in. So happy about his pumpkin monster.
Laney just loves to go cutesy. She's such a doll.
Logan's love of all things green and dogs got much representation with his pumpkin creation. We had a blast this year with our pumpkins and can't believe it's over already.

Old McDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-Pumpkins!

Off to the farm we went in search of pumpkins and fall fun. We went to Wheeler Farm and had a fall-filled fun day. We all got to pick a pumpkin, go on a tractor ride, and wander through the corn maze. We fed some ducks too and then we were pooped from all our fun.Noah was done with the whole picture thing, so he gave up.
Logan was having tons of fun feeding all the ducks and geese.
Noah was trying to perfect his throw. He was trying to get his bread away from the geese and give it to the ducks.
Kaleigh wandering through the maze, stopping to strike a pose.
Bella not quite sure of what to think about all the corn in the maze. She starts out having fun because we are out and about, but then when she gets near something she doesn't know about she gets this grumpy look. Funny girl.

Princesses, Fall fun, and The Great Pumpkin, OH MY!

Oh how I love fall. I love being able to get out the warm clothes and dressing this lit'l one up. Here she is doing her favorite thing, rumaging through my cupboards. Isn't she cute? I love this lit'l babe.We went to the Great Pumpkin Fall Festival at Farnsworth Farms in Sandy and had a blast. We ended the night there by watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on the side of a truck. Bella enjoyed sitting on my lap playing with my sweatshirt strings.
She looks so angelic here.

This was her happy face right after she grabbed my drawstring to my sweatshirt.
The kids all sitting up on Snoopy's doghouse waiting for the movie to start. Cute kiddos. I love them to pieces. They all look so old now, though. Where has the time gone, oh yeah, out the window flying away.
I actually agreed to a photo with the kids. It's usually me taking the pics and the hubs with the kids. I think we're all kinda cute in this pic.
Miss Bell's wasn't quite sure about the tractor ride.
Noah was sure lovin' it though.
I love the look on Bella's face. She was not happy to be sitting on the hay, but then when Laney sat down too, she was really unhappy.
There was a playground set up for the kids there too. My kids are like bees to honey when it comes to swingsets. They stick to them like glue.
Noah all proud of himself for climbing up all by himself. Sheesh, the boy turns 3 and thinks he's all grown up. What's up with that?
Now this is what I call a boy teeter totter. I couldn't get the boys off this airplane. They were in pure heaven.
We also went to a fundraiser carnival with the hub's folks. It was raising money for a family who has 2 kids with the same terminal disease. Our hearts still go out to them and hope and pray for as much time possible with their little ones. The carnival had some people dressed up as Disney characters-which had my kiddos jumpin' out of their skin.
The girls were lovin' it. We saw a magic show, got our faces painted, had some snowcones and churros, and ended with me purchasing a magnet(a green one 'cause Logan said so)and having dinner at Arby's. The community was awesome at this carnival. Everyone donated everything, so anything that was purchased went straight to the family. How AWESOME!!!