March Madness

**Warning! This post is very long. You might want to stop now, go to the bathroom, grab a snack and something to drink, and then get comfortable. But don't miss it, because it's packed full of fun pictures!! Also please ignore some of the dates on the pictures. Something happened and some of them are way, way off!!

March was busy but very fun! Kid's consignment sales, doctor appointments, field trips, hair cuts, missing teeth, trips out of town, parties, whew!!! Never a dull moment in for the Minor family!! Forgive me if I've already mentioned some of these events, I'm just documenting some of the big things on our calendar this month. But hey at least this time, I'm adding pictures for almost everything!

We did a lot of things with our homeschool group this month, a lot more than usual. I might should have title this post "Field Trips", because it seemed we were up to something all the time!

Our first trip was a trip for 1st graders only. Huntsville Hospital and UAH put on a mock hospital for 1st graders called "Let's Pretend Hospital." It was so much fun!! They had set up almost everything you would find in a real hospital. Here's a picture of most of the 1st graders in our homeschool group.


The sun was out and shining bright that day, and it seemed much warmer than it actually was. Luke didn't wear any type jacket. He's pretty cold matured like his mommy and ended up wearing my sweater much of the morning.


This is a mock patient room.


Here the kids are learning what to expect if they ever make a trip to the ER.


Here's the operating room.


Here they are demonstrating that fact that the x-ray machine doesn't hurt. They did not however mention that adjusting your body part on that table might hurt a lot!


Do you remember when I wrote about Luke and his Daddy attending an Outdoor Expo at our church? Well that was the same night as this the "Let's Pretend Hospital." Here's some pictures from that night.

The Minor Boys


The Guest Speaker


YUCK! I have no idea what this is!


As I post this last one, I have to remember that this is suppose to be a family blog. But, I sure don't like looking at snakes, dead, alive, or in pictures!


Let's move on now, shall we?!

The next week we went on a field trip to Domino's. Here are pictures of the kids making their own pizza!

In these pictures, they are putting the cheese on. After the cheese they could chose any other toppings they wanted.




Now they are ready to put them into the oven.



Here they are hanging out with friends and waiting on their pizzas to come out of the oven. Yummy!!!


Later that week, here's me with my big girls, Grace and Mary Ruth, all matched in our black and white and ready to head out for our Mother and Daughter Retreat weekend.


Things did not go exactly as planned. The plan was to spend the weekend at our friend's lakehouse, just enjoying time fellowshipping, making crafts, cooking, and learning the Word. It was suppose to be me and my big girls, Rachael and her girls, my Mom, Nana Mathis, and my friend Katy and her mom, Mrs. Pat. Mrs. Pat, who has raised two amazing daughters (Katy and her sister Abby), had worked hard to prepared some Bible lessons for us for this special "Mother/Daughter Retreat" weekend. However a few days before we left, Mrs. Pat and Katy had to cancel due to the unexpected death of a very close friend. My Mom also had to cancel due to some things going on in her extended family. We were sorry they could not go, but decided to go ahead anyway and make the best of it. Well it seemed that one thing after another happened, but we finally did make it to the lakehouse on Saturday afternoon. We had an awesome time cooking and making crafts for a few hours and were having a bedtime devotion when IT happened!! Rachael and Alora both became very sick with a stomach bug!! Needless to say, we cut the trip short and headed home as early as we could on Sunday. Even though it seem a lot went wrong, we still had some good times and made some memories!

When we arrived home Sunday afternoon, Wesley left almost immediately for a work trip. This was just the beginning of the dreaded "Spring Break Week"!! He didn't get far before having to return home because of car trouble. He ended up staying at home Sunday night, getting the car fixed early Monday morning, and getting right back on the road.

Meanwhile, you might remember from another post what happened here on the home front. Yep, you guess it, stomach bug!! We seemed to battle it off and on all week with one person getting better then the next person coming down with it. It seemed everytime I was sure we were all over it, it struck again.

Thursday, sure that it was all over, we headed to Tuscaloosa for a funeral and to bring "Grandmother" (my Mom) back home with us. It was under unfortunate circumstances, but it was still nice to see and visit with family. So we drove down there, attended the funeral, got my Mom, and started back WHEN guess what happened AGAIN!! Poor Bella Peace. Having the stomach bug is bad. Having it attack you while you are traveling in a moving vehicle is very, very bad. Being strapped into a 5 point harness while being sick is very, very, very bad. Needless to say, it was a long trip home. Made longer by a detour off the interstate because of some massive sink hole!

We finally arrive home late Thursday night just about an hour and a half before Wesley arrived home from his trip. It was so awesome having my Mom here. She wasn't able to stay long, but I was so glad to have her here.

We had another field trip planned for the very next day. Yes, if you've been counting, this is our 3rd field trip in 3 weeks!! No rest for the weary!! Wesley stayed home with Bella Peace since she had been sick the night before, and me, Mom, and the big kids went. Bella Peace seemed fine by this point, but we wanted to be safe. We were most concerned with passing it to someone else. So, this trip was to a local family owned dairy farm. It was great, and it was very educational!! The only problem was with the smell. OH-MY-GOODNESS, it smelled SO BAD!! This was especially not good for my Mom who has a very sensitive sense of smell already. Other than the smell, it was a great field trip with absolutely perfect weather!!! I knew we were going to a big time dairy farm, but I had imagined that the cows were milked by hand. Funny, huh?! No, we learned all about how they milk around 170 head of cattle each day. They are very ethical in their practices. The cows are allowed to graze on the land and are treated properly, not kept in stalls and fed bad things every day. They sell their milk to Dairy Fresh in Decatur where it is properly pasteurized, and then we get to buy it from the stores. So cool!

Here we are, on the farm! Grace has said many times that she would like to marry a farmer and live on a farm, because she loves animals. However, it only took one whiff of the smell to have her reconsidering!


The new calves are weaned from their mother's early, and they learn to drink milk from a bucket. All the kiddos, got a chance to help feed the baby calves. So sweet!!








Look at how perfect the heart is on this baby cow's face! Precious! Almost made me forget the smell! :)


It looks like these baby cows are kissing, but they are actually licking and sucking the milk off each other's faces. Does it get any sweeter and cuter than this!!




OK, well I'm not finished. I've still have some more dairy farm pictures and a few other fun adventures to post about. But, I'm going to stop here for today and finish hopefully tomorrow. So....

to be continued....

March 31, 2009

I can't believe it's already the last day of March!! Spring is definitely here, hopefully here to stay!! We've LOVED the weather this week. Although I must admit it sure makes it hard for a homeschool mom to get it all done. Yesterday we took a play break before we had finished all of our school work, and well everything didn't get finished. I know plenty of people who say take it outside, but I would say that those people don't have some of the challenges that I have. It's hard enough to keep up with my little sweetie pie, Bella Peace in an 1100 square foot house. If I were to take school outside to the vast outdoors, there's no telling what would happen!! Plus when we've tried it, Luke is totally distracted. It takes him twice as long to get his work done. So while we might get creative sometimes and do a few things here and there outside, we will for the most part keep our phonics, reading, and math indoors. We do however look or educational experiences outdoors, and there is no shortage to be found!!

Today the big kids had big plans so we had to really get after it to finish school early. Wesley didn't have to go into work until around lunch time, so he took Mary Ruth and Bella Peace on a "nature walk". They had so much fun. Mary Ruth took her camera and took pictures of any "nature" she could find. She made some interesting finds too! They walked over the park behind our house and found a large bone. Wesley said it was part of a deer. YUCK!! Luke ask later if he could go get it and bring it home. Double YUCK!!

So what were the big kids plans? Papa and Nana Mathis picked them up after lunch to go to the Treehouse Exhibit and the Spring Flower Festival at the Botanical Gardens. We don't have a membership and have never been to either of these, so I know they will LOVE it!! Hopefully I will get some good pictures from them and can share them later. I'm going to pick them up at church tonight. A friend ask what I would do with myself the rest of the day. Well I will be doing pretty much the same thing I do when they are here. Keeping up with my favorite almost 2 year old!!! Now if the it were reveresed and the big kids were here and the little one wasn't, then I might get seriously caught up on some things. Ha, ha!!

In other news, Grace lost her second tooth today!! I have a picture, but it's on the camera I sent with them to the Botanical Gardens. I will have to come back and add it later on. She was soooooo excited. The tooth was really loose and had been really bothering her, but it was a booger to pull!! Like I said, it was really loose, but it was deep rooted. I had to really tug on it!! She was such a trooper and so brave! Our thoughts about this is that if the tooth is really giving them trouble the best thing to do is to just go ahead and pull it, because then it won't hurt anymore. I know other parents chose to just let nature take it's course. Luke has lost 8 teeth so far, and that has been the case for a couple of his teeth. For the most part, we let them decide when it's time for it to be pulled, but they've learned it really does feel better after it's out. It also puts an end to all the drama. Some kids really suffer with anxiety about the whole thing. We've also sugar coated the deal with a pack of M&M's as a special treat for losing a tooth. So really, they look forward to it a lot!! I'm sure a dentist would say that the M&M's are going to lead to a lot more missing teeth. Ha, ha!! But it's not that often. It really is a special treat, and it's just become a "minor" tradition. Somehow Dr. Pepper is finding it's way in this deal. Not sure how that happened. I think it may have came up when Luke recently lost his 8th tooth and convinced his Daddy that he was suppose to get both. Or was it me that he convinced. Hummmm. Mary Ruth can't wait to lose a tooth!! At least Luke and Grace are always good to share their treats with the other kiddos. Her day will come! It's so funny that kids get so excited over losing teeth!!

Well one of the things I hoping to do today is finish up a couple other post I have started. I think I'm going to get busy on that now, and we shall see how far I get before Bella Peace wakes up! Pictures coming soon, I promise!!

Growing

I wore real maternity clothes for the first time today!!! My current wardrobe mostly consist of skirts and jumpers which for the most part I've been able to still wear even though my belly has been growing. But, I've been starting to push it with my skirts. I can still wear my jumpers - BTW, yes I do wear denim jumpers and like them very much. They are extremely practical, comfortable, and modest. I love having big ole pockets on the front. I almost always have them filled with things like pacifiers, a pencils, my cell phone. I think they are perfect for the homeschool mom with many little ones. Think what you will, but don't knock it until you've been in my shoes! :) OK, off that soap box! So, anyway I can still wear them and probably will be able to for most of my pregnancy, but I don't have any maternity tights. I'm a very, very cold natured person so I have to have something on my legs. I have definitely out grown my regular tights and don't want to go out and buy some new ones with warmer weather just around the corner. So today I finally broke down and ask Wesley to bring in my box of maternity clothes. It was fun to wear something that I haven't wore in quite a while. Here's picture from today of me and our growing baby girl!


We spent a good part of the afternoon celebrating the 8th birthday of one of our favorite little boys, Caleb. He's like a brother to Luke, and Grace wants to marry him one day. I can't believe he's about to turn 8 years old!!

Here's a picture of him and Luke this week after the RA race at church.


Seems like just yesterday I took this picture of these same two little boys! (This is a scanned picture, and it's the best I could do. Sorry it's such poor quality and so little.)


I pointed out to Caleb's mom today that he's closer to getting his learner's permit to drive than not now, a point that she did not appreciate me pointing out. But YIKES, Luke is only 9 months behind him!!

Luke actually cut most of our front yard with a push mower today. I simply cannot believe he's big enough to do that!

These kiddos are all growing up way too fast!!

It's a....

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are all very excited!!

15 weeks

We had another great appointment today!!! I'm exactly 15 weeks today. Baby measured 15 weeks and 3 days which is the first time we've really measured off with this pregnancy, but since it was more and not less there was no concern today. One thing we have been watching for is slowed growth or development, but no problems noted today!! Baby's heartrate was 154 bpm. Everything continues to look great!! Every little body part appears to be developing exactly as it should. Heart looks good. Blood flow looks good. No problems with obstructions, clots, tears, separations, or placenta!! Today we took two different type of head measurements and a measurement of the leg bones. Again, everything looks great and right on track!! We couldn't be more excited!!

And YES, we feel pretty confident that we know whether this baby is a boy or a girl!! We have a few people who we need to tell before announcing it here (grandparents don't like finding out after everyone else!!), but hopefully we will be able to share that news here tomorrow!!!

So, what do you all think it's going to be? I would to hear your guesses!! Leave me a comment and tell me what you think!! And thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers!! I have supernatural peace these days!!!!

Another Big Day

Well I'm going to bed, but just in case some of you are wondering, tomorrow is another big day. I have my 15 week appointment and ultrasound. I'm actually feeling very excited and not anxious. God has blessed me with peace, and at least for now I'm chosing to accept it!!

I will update tomorrow as soon as I am able to get home to the computer.

A lot has been happening around here lately!! So much so, that I haven't had tome to write all about it!! But finally, I have at least started working on another post. This time WITH PICTURES!! Maybe I can finish that up some time tomorrow also. But, of course, no promises!!

Night, night!

14 weeks

Well, I will be 14 weeks tomorrow. Today I am 13 weeks, 6 days. Baby measured 13 weeks, 6 days!! Heartrate seems to drop a little each week, but I'm told that is normal. Today Baby's heartrate was 143 bpm which is within an acceptable range.

Folks, I could not have asked for anything more today! The ultrasound was perfect. Baby looked perfect, healthy, happy!!! Maybe it was the Little Debbie cake I had before the appointment (shhhh, don't tell my kiddos), but Baby was SO active. He/She was all over the place. Baby would stretch out it's legs and kick, then arch it's back, then do like a full body jump. You would have thought he/she was on a trampoline in there!! Whitney, my ultrasound technician let me just watch for a full five minutes!! By the time it was over Baby was yawning. We could see a beautiful profile, perfect heart, arms, legs, fingers, toes, even knees, and more. I was already in LOVE with Baby, but now I'm head over heels, captivated, smitten, in CRAZY LOVE!! At one point, Baby turned it's head and looked straight on at us as if to say, "I love you to, Mommy!"

Today was my first over the belly ultrasound. That was nice. I'm happy to be done with the other kind. I still cannot scan my ultrasound pictures, but maybe soon. So, sorry!! They are great!! I also have a DVD from today, but can't share that either right now. Oh, another praise, they found my DVD that I lost from last week!! Hooray!!!

Today did so much to ease my fears and concerns. I really believe it won't be as bad from here on. Today was a gift!! Thank you, God!!!

In the beginning of this pregnancy I told myself and God that I would be grateful and content with however long He let me "have" this baby. That's been harder recently. I find my "wants" are getting the best of me sometimes. I want this baby SO badly!! I want to feel it move. I want my tummy to get bigger and bigger. I want to hold him/her. I want to bring him/her home from the hospital. It's to find the balance between praying for a healthy baby and being willing to submit to whatever His will may be. I had a good conversation with a friend tonight about all this. I can genuinely say that in my heart of hearts, I do desire His will over my own. But it would not be an easy road for me if His will turned out to be different than what I desire. I also know that I would still praise Him, love Him, trust Him. I know that He is good and His plan for me is good. Again, actually living that is not alway easy.

I'm struggling just a bit with the issue of faith right now. Again, this is a difficult balance. I have faith that God can do anything. I have faith that He can keep this baby strong and allow me to deliver a full term healthy baby. But, I don't that He will. Is that a lack of faith? Maybe. I do pray expecting that He will answer my prayers, but I also know that He may not.

Anyway, I'm starting to circular think here so I think I might should stop for tonight. I do welcome your feed back. Forgive me for saying in my last post that I was getting annoyed by people saying that I should just have faith and not worry. I guess I just want people to understand that having faith is not a guarantee of getting whatever it is you are having faith for. I should have faith. I should be at peace. I should fear not. I should not worry. It's just difficult. But, no one said it would be easy, right? I welcome your comments, support, and encouragement. Please don't be afraid of saying the wrong thing.

BTW, complete sidebar here, Whitney did take a peak between the legs. However, I cannot say what we did or did not see today. I cannot tell everyone else until I tell Wesley, and I don't want to tell Wesley until we know for sure. 14 weeks is very early to be trying to call this, so I just want to wait another week or two and be sure. Sorry to tease you all like this!!!

OK, so I want to end with these two things...

If I never saw our sweet baby alive again, today would be enough to hold me until eternity. My heart is so full. Today was miraculous!! I am extremely grateful!! I know that I would still miss and long for this baby, but these precious images were seared into my head today. God was totally showing me what HE CAN DO!!!

I will still love HIM no matter what happens. I do desire His will above my own.