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Well I'm not as dumb as I look :). I did some quick research and found out how I can use links instead of pictures to bypass the ugly rule of only having 1000 pictures per blog...psshhh, I figured I had used that up a year ago but they were letting me get by because my kids are so darn cute :). 

So here is Mr. Baby Boy chilling before church one morning...like the spikey hair?

When you have 3 kids you have to get creative :). We forgot to bring the double stroller and Ribbit got tired so into the bottom basket she went :).

 Look what my super talented, super handsome husband made..a new pot rack for me...our old vent took up the entire size of the pot rack (an old window) and just overpowered the kitchen.

 Making shoe box gifts for friends around the world. During this event we were telling them how some of these kids don't get enough food or may even be homeless. Ribbit said "its so sad that Uncle Chris doesn't have a home".....hahaha, she realized that he had an apartment and is now living with my parents again so she thinks he is homeless...he loved that :)

 National Bun Day...wear a bun, eat a cinnamon bun!!

We put up two Christmas trees this year....both are somehow fashioned to the wall. Tonight alone we broke 3 ornaments. Ribbit wrapped Daddy while he was untangling beads and then finished and stood back to marvel her "christmas tree " :). Goober could care less about the nostalgia of everyone decorating while listening to christmas music...he literally ran through the house like a lunatic throwing the football and jumping over the couches...is he a teenager already? Please dear Lord, NO!!!

By the way, can someone confirm that they can see all of these pictures and that I really am smart :)

Why?

Why do we do this to ourselves?
We pulled into our driveway at 5 am this morning. At 6:30 am I and the two older kids got ready for school. Thats right..we drove back from Alabama over night. Baby boy HATES (like as much as I hate hot dogs) the carseat...so we have choose..no-sanity or no-sleep. We have chosen the no-sleep route because frankly I am much better mother when I have no sleep versus when I LOSE MY COOL! So today was a rough day at school....both kids moved their behavior stick (big shocker there...I probably would have moved mine too). I made it through the day but crashed while the pizza was in the oven and everyone is going to bed early tonight!

We had a great time in Alabama though for thanksgiving. Got to see a lot of family, got to eat a lot of good food and honestly got pretty home sick. Now that we have kids it hard to drag them back to Texas as they ask when the next time they will get to see their grandparents will be. It honestly also stinks that so far all of our holiday traditions consist of sitting in a car for 12 hours, stopping at disgusting gas stations and living out of suitcases. I am very thankful for my job here in Texas and it would take Adam getting the JOB OF HIS DREAMS plus a STELLAR SALARY for me to quit...but who knows?

I will post pictures later but something worth noting are--

We practically got kicked out of my papa's nursing home. Ribbit sang " ring around the rosies" about 12600 times and then screamed bloody murder when she tripped over a ladies walker. She also asked several people if they were sick and what was wrong with them. Goober was only interested in sneaking away my papa's tootsie rolls and Baby Boy was pulling himself up on my papas wheel chair and screaming and spitting at him. My papa thought it was the best thing ever....every other sweet senior citizen was giving us the look of doom.

My kiddos got to experience a Pow Wow at the Porch Creek reservation close to my parents home. We used to go there a lot for thanksgiving...we have family members who are a part of the tribe and I think they really enjoyed. Goober and Ribbit even "rain danced" with Papa.

My mom got in on some Black Friday deals...nothing to crazy but just enough to say we went ...and we got a lot of items crossed off of our lists.

We got to stay with Nannie and Papaw in Boaz. I am pretty sure that they took a nap when we left. My kids were kinda off their schedule and would scream out in the middle of the night and of course asked for cookies every 5 minutes since Nannie's answer was always yes.

Oh, and I definitely gained at least 5 lbs. just off of sweet tea and ham....things I normally don't eat out here because the tea just isn't the right kind of sweet and because my husband doesn't like pork all that much. I took full advantage of having the right kind of SWEET TEA at every meal and sugar cured ham that had burnt edges :).

1 more day

1 more day until Thanksgiving break....thank ya Jesus.

Our quick trip to Alabama has thrown us off and we can't seem to catch up...at least that is how I feel.

Baby boy is now everywhere, as quick as lightning!  He likes to give kisses on the lips...sometimes a little too long :). He likes it when I point to everyone and say their names. He loves to play with his older siblings. He loves puffs...every flavor. He still hates the car seat ( oh joy ) and he hates when we change his clothes...I'm pretty sure he would rather be naked all the time. He is saying "da da,  ba ba,  and sometimes ma ma"...but its not super clear.

Ribbit is doing a little bit better at school.....our record is three days of good behavior in a row. She used to say that we did everything "last night" or "yesterday" but now we do everything "lasterday". She is constantly getting on to us about spreading germs :), and she recognizes all the circles and squares everywhere we go. She is starting to read a lot more, well her style of reading. She loves to wear her mittens so her "hands will stay warm".

Goober is doing so incredibly well in spelling that I have been forgetting to talk about it. He hasn't made below a 97 and knows most of his words by Tuesday or Wednesday. He has just grown up so much and only loses his behavior sticker every now and then when he has an off day. He has made several new friends this year, all of whom are just the sweetest little boys. We have been to about 2000 birthday parties already this year and I really like all of the families in his grade. He had an Egyptian Feast today after learning about Egypt and he told me he tried "figs, not the garden, but the chewy cookie ones".

Adam is officially a stay at home daddy. We had some "issues" with the lady who was keeping baby boy and since Adam was only working 2 days a week he quit. He loves staying home with him anyways and this way we may actually have a clean home every now and then ;). Its only until he finds a full time job but I'm so happy with this situation.

Goober making a great pull at his last game.

TOUCHDOWN GOOBER!

Baby Boy Spitting

 Baby Boy getting caught :)

Bedtime Story Ribbit style

Did you know?

Did you know that November is National Adoption Month?

Did you know that if one family from every church in the US would adopt one child there would no longer be a need for the foster care system?

Really? just one family? thats totally do-able, right?

It has to be do-able because God commands us to take care of the widows and orphans...

James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

Exodus 22:22, “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.”

·        Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

·        Isaiah 1:23, “Your rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards.  They do not defend the fatherless.”

Deuteronomy 10:18, “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.”

·        Psalm 10:14, “But You, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand.  The victim commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.”

·        Matthew 18:5, “Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me.”

·        Matthew 25: 45, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these, you did it unto Me.”

 Adam and I were talking the other day about how if the church acted like the church (ourselves included) then there wouldn't be a need for gov't handouts, medicaid, the foster care system, etc. People would turn to the church for help, not to the gov't. God never intended for gov't to be the cure. He intended for Christians to point the way to Christ who is the cure. If we tithed the way we are supposed to the church would have enough money to provide relief to those who need it. If we loved and took care of our families the way we should there wouldn't be a need for the gov't to step in and provide. If we took the bible for TRUTH and valued human life there wouldn't be the need for foster care or court cases to decide who gets to play God. Of course we are fallen, but for the love can we stop blaming our problems on the govt, and start BEING the church?

And...I'm done. That's it. Now on to my cute kiddos :)

Baby Boy decided that he likes to give kisses on the mouth...with his mouth wide open and the drool running! Its pretty dagum cute!

Goober had his last Upward football game for this season today. He cried when he told his coaches bye....he really enjoyed this season and he is ready to start another football team. As he was leaving one of his coaches gave him a big hug and told him that he was gonna be a pro-athlete one day....I appreciate people like that who encourage my boy!

Ribbit is still loving school but starting to get wayyy to comfortable with her teacher and class. Adam and I just had a teacher meeting due to our daughter mooning her whole class during naptime. And everybody said " good thing she is cute "....hehehe

Reformation Day at school...see the little black bug...thats Naphan..our best friend :)

Someone loves her teacher....this lady is a blessing (and a saint). When you get to heaven and see someone surrounded by jewels and crowns, its her...she is earning them everyday by teaching 7 3 year olds about Jesus!

 My loves. These are some of my 7th graders. We had cupcakes one day and very quickly it turned into cupcake facials....they are already pretty hyper...but add in cupcakes and anything goes!!!

 Chicken Treating!

 Such a good daddy!

 His froggy costume was too hot for the actual chicken treating so he wore his candy corn monster shirt instead ;). Oh, that little face...could just eat him up!

 Like I said in an earlier post, my kids were hauling major booty to get from one house to the next. I like this picture because they are both blurs...about how I remember that night. Goober is not worried about his leaving his sister and she is trying to beat him to the next "house she likes"

 We have been having lots of fashion shows lately with our winter clothes. I am not sure we understand the whole concept of mittens and socks....mittens on our feet and sock on our hands?

 Watching big brother play football....he is sooo fascinated by the camera!

 Big Man scored 6 touchdowns at this game....he said "that team was easy" but little does he know that they were probably the best team they had played all year. God has given him so much athletic talent.

sleeeeeeee.......ZZZZZZZ

Exhausted probably doesn't describe 1/2 of what I feel like right now.
We got home last night from a 53 hour trip to Alabama and 20 of those hours were spent in the car.......5 of those hours were spent calming my youngest who a)hates carseats and b)was constipated......those constipation grunts are the worst.

One of my best friends (im lucky to have multiple) mommas died this past weekend. She was a very sweet lady that I will always remember as being strong (raised 3 kids on her own), super funny (she was one of our cooler chaperones) and who loved her children and grandchildren. The sermon couldn't have been more super in that it was honoring to God and honoring to Ms. Debbie.
My sweet sweet friend has 2 younger children and the minute I heard about her mom I thought " i bet she is grieving more for the relationship lost with her children then anything else". She confirmed my thoughts later on that night.
My children did well at the funeral...gave us a chance to talk about death with them and the awesome reunion Brenna and her mom now have to look forward to.

We also got to see my parents and Uncle Chris for about 23 of those hours. The kids were needing a good dose of Uncle Chris...too long without him and they start minding their manners, lose interest in hard core floor wrestling, stop pinching people's butts and  forget phrases such as "shut up, whatever, butthead, etc". We do love him though and can't wait to see him again at Thanksgiving :).

I had awesome plans to work out tonight, make 3 dinners for families in need and cut my coupons. But then Adam reminded me of a meeting he has late tonight so instead I'm writing the blog, about to catch up on my show and probably pass out on the couch :).

Here are some pictures that have lived on my phone for way tooo long and some more recent ones.

He will hate me for this one day  :).

 Our Halloween onesie....she begged to wear it....this is our "good morning" face. Good morning usually comes out as "i want milk" though :)

Posing in our Sampson costume for Reformation Day :)

 Queen Bee

 Rockin out in brother's Sampson wig :)....I bet a million bucks that this is what his real hair would look like if we let it grow out...and cut it into a mullet. Business in the front, Party in the back!!

Chicken Treating

Me: " Trick o Treating, check"
Ribbit "Bounce Houses, check"

That was our conversation after we got back in the van after 1.5 hours of "chicken treating".
Every kind person that gave candy to our children heard "chicken treating from Ribbit and "trick er treat" from Goober. But only because Goober asked us 300000 times how to say it correctly and then we heard him whisper to himself that he needed to practice :).

The older children raced each other to every door to see who would get to knock on the door. So our little bumblebee was hauling booty across people's grass, their plants, flowers, hurdling bushes and pushing her much older brother out of the way saying " I LIKE THAT HHOOUUUSEEE". You see there were several houses she didn't like so she didn't care if Goober got there first and knocked. The houses she didn't like had super scary things like spiders and white trash bag ghosts.

They also revealed their huge lack of patience as both of them would knock, wait .00025 seconds and then turn around and say " nobodys home" with a frown and slump their shoulders. It was quite comical.

Baby Boy stayed pretty content in the stroller. One of the first houses we went to gave him a stuffed animal and he chewed the snot out of that thing and then played the game where he threw it and everyone else took turns picking it up. That ended when it got dark and lost it.

Another funny conversation happened about 1/2 way through chicken treating. Goober's bag of candy was getting quite heavy so we suggested it put it in the bag in the stroller. We warned him though that it may get mixed with Ribbit's candy but we would all share anyways. I said " it will be community candy". He turned around and said "well apparently my candy is already community candy, because you already ate my cookies"......haha, he still remembers that I ate 3 of his cookies that he brought home from a fall festival last week :)....I guess he is still upset about that too.

Some pictures and videos of our Halloween

Reformation Day at school...Sampson and The Queen Bee....Goober is totally cracking me up!

Ready for some "chicken treating"

We love our ball!!!

I apologize for the naked young un...but this is proof that she talks from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed!!!