Ceili Rain, Bryant, and Josiah enjoyed the show. Josiah’s old enough to participate but gymnastics is not his thing.
Okay, so the Olympics is not in our future, but it sure is fun for them and they definitely sleep well after gymnastics.
Excuse the spots. I have no idea what was on our new camera lens.
Ge & Granddaddy made the trek up to hear them play (and deliver the wood for the boys’ beds…don’t worry, I’m getting there).
The first part of December we were able to gather at Grandmere and Papa’s house with Mark’s brother and his family. That’s right, six adults (two of whom were pregnant), and thirteen children together again. Thanks to a lot of organizing on Grandmere’s part, the chaos was kept to a minimum. It was a great, if not short, visit too! We celebrated Grandmere’s birthday and had a piano recital all packed into three days.
Thanksgiving weekend, we traveled to Granddaddy and Ge’s house. Along with staying out all night with Ge and Aunt Yaya, we stuffed my face silly, laughed at the kids having a blast and celebrated Christmas with my aunt and my cousins and their children. We had a wonderful, relaxing trip! Let the eye candy begin! My kids are too adorable not to post a ton of pictures from this trip.
Nothing truly exciting happened in D.C. Well, that isn’t totally true. If I had charged, I could have made a little extra money for snapshots of my kids. On our first day in DC, I decided to make everyone wear the same colored shirt so I could spot us all easily if we had to spread out on the metro and as we got on and off, etc. We went to the Postal Museum first (which is a very good hands on museum even if the security guard did follow us everywhere). After lunch, we had just enough time to hop on the metro, go to the Air & Space Museum and then hop back on the metro before rush hour.
When we walked into the Air & Space Museum there were a bunch of foreign tourists. This I know by the fact that they did not speak English and each one of them had a camera. They saw all my children and quickly motioned for us all to get together so they could exploit take a picture of us. The dear child that stayed with us while her daddy was in training during the day was thoroughly confused but happily obliged. Then, I explained to her that there are not a lot of large families in Aisan countries (nor ours for that matter) and seeing a bunch of little children all dressed alike was pretty exciting for them.
The next day, we headed back to the Air & Space Museum in an attempt to see all we had not seen in the 30 minutes we were there the day before. And, as we were taking a potty break, the same thing happened again. Except this time, each of the tourists wanted to get their picture made with our group. One at a time. As you can imagine, my children were quite tired of it by the time they let us go and they made sure to voice their opinions. They recovered quickly though and we made it through the whole museum without another invasion of picture taking. Mark told me I should charge should it happen again!
Busy, busy! But, here we are. To my birthday. For our celebration, I decided to go to the Yankee Candle Company Flagship Store in Williamsburg. We were were on our way to Alexandria, VA so it seemed like the best stop. And it was!
This is an awesome store. Animatronic “show,” indoor “snow” and all the candles that Yankee Candle Company has ever made.
They also have a place where kids (for a price) can make their own candles and such. Which we did. Which was probably after we left our camera sitting out in the atrium. Which is where it stayed until I realized it the next day and called and Yankee Candle graciously shipped the camera back to our house. Which is why there will be no pictures from our trip to Alexandria, Washington D.C. and the like. At least not now. There are a few on my camera and could possibly be a few on a camera that I bought for too cheap but I haven’t gotten to those yet.
Watching it snow indoors!
Another customer came by when we were walking around and told me all about the snow and how adorable our children were and that she had asked an employee to make it snow again so the kids could see it again before we moved to another area of the store. And they did! What an amazing store!
They were in awe of the talking mice in the clock.
After the store visit, we headed out to eat and found a great restaurant where I had the best barbecue of my life! No joke. It’s Pierce’s BBQ and if you ever go to Williamsburg you have to eat there! It’s a-maz-ing! Of course, no pictures because my camera was sitting lonely at the Yankee Candle store.
As stated previously, we went to Williamsburg in November. This was my first trip (and the kids too) and we were all so excited. We spent two days there and walked and walked and saw just about everything. It definitely was a good trip for us and a great learning experience for the kids. They only wore their costumes the first day. Which was good because the second day it was cloudy and rather cool.
I’m starting with an easy one! First questions first…I have no clue what a large family is! If I stop and look at us or any family with more than two or three children, I guess, I’d have to consider them a large family. I don’t consider us to have a large family because we know people who have more than us (and probably always will).
If you talk to any family with more than two or three children they’ll tell you the same thing, I don’t see numbers, I see Zoe, Ace, Liam, Josiah, Ceili Rain and Bryant. While that’s a mouth full, I just see individuals. They are all so different and unique.
I honestly look at pictures like this:
and think, hmm, is that all we have. It just doesn’t seem like a lot of kids. Maybe we’re used to it, maybe we’re a tad bit crazy or maybe, just maybe we love each of them as little individuals and not as a massive group of six children.
My sister-in-law (pregnant with #8) is the same way. This past weekend, we had pictures with Grandmere and Papa. After arranging all thirteen kids with the grandparents, we all looked and said, “Is that all? Seems like we’re missing someone.”
As far as hoping to attain to a number. Well, we tried that. We thought we wanted four children and to adopt maybe two (giving us six). God closed the door on adoption for now and neither Mark nor I had a peace about getting him “fixed (although nothing is broken…obviously).” I’ve said a few times that ten is a nice round even number but we’re not fixed on it or any other number. We don’t have a goal we’re trying to reach nor are we trying to “beat” some other large family…and please don’t compare us to the Duggars. That just drives us crazy! We’re happy with the seven we have but if God chooses for us to have more we say “Woohoo!” and “Thank You, Lord!” If he chooses for us to just have our little brood of seven, then we’ll be happy with that (but we still feel called to adopt…just waiting for Him to open that door again).
I can see where that is hard for people to understand in today’s society. We’re (meaning American society) used to getting fast and firm answers. We want to know numbers. We (me included) can have our days planned out to the millisecond. So, saying that our bunch is leaving our actual family size up to God is a bit wacko sounding. But, it’s what we feel called to do. We don’t walk according to our will but to Him who is in us. We want to live our lives to honor and please God and this is where we feel He has called our family to surrender obedience to Him. I’m not saying He won’t tell us to stop at some point, but for now, we feel His hand on our family size leading and guiding.
For now, we’ll keep counting and recounting the kids in our pictures to make sure we have them all!
Got any more questions for our Bunch? We’d love to answer them! Ask away!
*The two lovely pictures in this post were from Tracy Carr! Isn’t she awesome. I’m waiting on the others (including some maternity ones) before I post them all! Hint! Hint!
Just an update that in the past three weeks we have traveled over 2,000 miles and 36 hours. That doesn’t count the time that we spent in the various places we traveled to.
Here’s a quick recap and pictures will come later…not sure how long because I’m trying to decorate for Christmas, re-do the boys’ room, finish up Christmas presents, school, oh yeah, and feed the masses.
So, November 11th we set out early and headed to Williamsburg, VA. This trip was a jumping off point because Mark had training in Alexandria, VA the next week. We “piggy backed” on the trip and made a pit stop in Williamsburg for a mini-vacation. We loved it too! Leaving Williamsburg on my birthday, the 14th, we headed to the Yankee Candle Flagship Store which is a must in my opinion if you are ever near Williamsburg. It was there that I left my camera and had to take pictures with my phone and the $10 camera that I purchased at Wal-Mart and is the very definition of cheap…
So we pulled into Alexandria on the 14th and spent that week up until November 18th there. We took in the sights of D.C.. And since I’m not quite sure how the camera thing will pan out here’s what we did.
Oh, did I mention I had an extra child? Mark’s co-worker came along and his daughter tagged along with us while the dads were at training. She learned a lot about being in a big family. That’s all I’ll say about that.
November 15th: Metro ride, US Postal Museum, Metro Ride, Air & Space Museum Metro Ride…Hotel…ahhh.
November 16th: Air & Space Museum (of course on the metro but the 15th was our first day and we have to commemorate that I did not lose or gain any children during the getting on or off the metro.)
November 17th: Mount Vernon and it was cold ya’ll. Very cold. And wet. But we made it through.
November 18th: The Lyceum in Alexandria which is the history museum of the city. Nice but after seeing museums all week the little ones were done.
On November 18th, we left Alexandria and drove halfway home to Raleigh, NC. Where they were gearing up for the Clemson, UNC game. Lots of people at the hotel sportin’ their team colors.
On November 19th, we got home, unloaded for three hours and then Zoe and I headed out for the Jamie Grace/TobyMac concert. My birthday present. And we had a blast.
Recovered for three days then headed out on November 23rd to do Thanksgiving with my folks, Ge and Granddaddy, my sister and her family. That. was. a. blast. Especially when my mom, my sister, and my self headed out on Thanksgiving night at 10 o’clock to do the Black Friday thing and we didn’t get back until 7:30 or 8 the next morning. It really was fun! My mom and sister are a hoot and a half!
Got home on Sunday, the 27th and headed out to do pictures with Tracy! Can not wait to show those ya’ll.
Recovered a few more days and then headed out to another family visit in Alabama. on December 1st This time Mark’s folks, Papa & Grandmere, his brother and their cousins (the ones with all those kids). We rushed home yesterday to try and beat daylight to make it to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. We succeeded and picked out our tree in record time (like 15 minutes or something). And it’s beautiful!
When we got home yesterday the questions started as to how many more days before we traveled again.
Believe it or not but we’ll be home this weekend and we couldn’t be happier! But that doesn’t mean we won’t be busy. We’ll be clearing out and moving out the boys so we can paint their room and start the big room make over. They are excited. I’m tired just thinking about it! But, I’m anxious to get it done because like it or not, there’s another boy that needs to share that room (well, his clothes do for awhile) in just a few short months.
Happy Black Friday Ya’ll! I know I didn’t post a great Thanksgiving post but to admit to it…well we’re traveling a lot this month! So ya’ll have to settle for a previous post where I present the three C’s of Black Friday. I wrote this in December of 2009 and I think it still applies to today. This Black Friday is the first in a long time that I’ve actually been able to go Black Friday shopping with other women. Namely my sister and mom who are Black Friday Experts. I’m looking forward to the visiting and the shopping!
While visiting family, I convinced my in-laws and Mark that it would be a great idea if they watched our kids while Mark and I got up early and went shopping. By early, I mean 4:00 a.m. However, Ceili Rain thought it would be fun to get us up at 2:30. Now, in our time where we actually live it was more like 3:30 so we gained an hour, right? Whatever, it was early and cold and Mark and I didn’t have coats…but we trudged out anyway (in borrowed coats). We hit McDonald’s then to Sears and then to KMart. We sat in the K-Mart parking lot for about 30 minutes waiting on the store to open and watching the people in line freeze. Then we watched them walk in and got in the line when it started moving. We’re lazy like that. Because we waited I couldn’t get one of the things on my list but that’s not a big deal.
While we were waiting we developed the Three C’s of Black Friday.
1. Comraderie: This is where you meet new people (usually in the checkout line or trying to find a product marked on the advertisement). You smile and are warm and friendly to people you probably never would have talked to on any other given day. In Mark’s case it’s where he got “the nod” from several other husbands who had been woken up too early and did not have enough coffee (and I think Mark believes there is no such thing for that early in the morning) to get them fully enthralled with the Black Friday event. This is also where one person admires another person’s Christmas sweater and discusses the fine art of Santa placement to jingle bells(that may run into the last C). Or, since it was Alabama vs. Auburn day, where you say, “Roll Tide” to every Bama fan that passes.
2. Competition: You’re at the end of the bicycle aisle and there’s only one $10 bike left. You look at it and then straight ahead and see another customer eyeing the same bike. And this is where the competition begins. There are no rules in the Competition part of Black Friday. No blood, no foul or if you can get out of there before store security finds you. To get what you want you can bump carts, push, shove, scream, punch, or fake an illness to distract so your partner can grab. All bets are off if you have to enter this “C” of Black Friday.
3. Crazy: Now seriously, you knew this was coming. One day out of the whole years where you get up (or just don’t go to sleep) to get the “absolute best deals of the season.” People have to be a little crazy to do this. You’ve got your “elf” crazy people who are dressed in red and green from head (including the elf hat or reindeer antlers and flashing nose) to toe (elf shoes). Then there are those who, like we heard about on the radio, just didn’t go to sleep Thanksgiving night and went to a late movie and then out shopping. It can also include my “crazy” cousins who had Taco Bell and pizza for breakfast (because that was what was open in the food court…sorry for using you guys but it works for this category). Or you can be as crazy as us, who, since our child wouldn’t sleep, woke up the in-laws to take care of them while we rushed out into the bitter cold to buy a drill and a couple of presents (and seriously, I got some tennis shoes and some shirts but we really only bought a couple of presents). And the lines to check out…insanely crazy.
I know this post is two weeks past Black Friday but, if you remember, how’d you make out? We did get some good deals on a few gifts and some things I needed (maternity shirts half off…Alabama shirts that are now starting to be too small for me but I’m determined to wear one in January…oh yeah). Mark also told me we could have added more C’s and other letters but I kept it short and simple. Don’t want to bore you or anything.