Kids Say…

Well, you know the old addage..  And my kids are no exception!

Ceili Rain
An early morning conversation with the 2 year old princess began like this:

CR:  Where’s daddy?
Me:  Where do you think daddy is?
CR:  At work. 
Me:  That’s right.  We’ll see him after he gets off work after rest time.
CR:  Daddy home all day.
Me:  Not today.
CR:  Daddy has heart.
Me:  Does daddy have your heart?
CR:  Yes (and yes ma’am with correction).

Ceili Rain is enjoying playing a “see ya later game.”  She grabs a bag, purse, or any other girly looking baggage and puts on shoes and announces:  “Bye bye.  I be back in a wittle bit.”

“Okay,” I say.  “Where are you going?”

And this time she answered, “To chuch (church).”

I tell her alright, I’ll miss her and then we blow kisses.  Two seconds later she walks back in.

“I back.”

“Oh, you are?  How did church go?”

“Good.”

“Did Pastor B. preach?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“What did he preach about?”  I ask.

“God.”

She’s also developed quite a fondness for our pastor and has to give him a hug before Sunday school, after Sunday school, and after worship and pretty much whenever she feels like it.  He’ll walk around with her for awhile and then she’s happy and content and goes on her way.  We tell him that it’s his grandfatherly appearance (he’s not a grandfather yet and even has a four year old daughter…he doesn’t like that statement too much).

Josiah

Josiah announces to me (with a very mischievous grin):  Mama, you’re belly’s getting bigger!

Me:  I know.  Do you think it’s because I have a baby in my belly?

Josiah:  No ma’am.  It’s because you ate a Christmas tree. 

And he goes off giggling.  Today he told Mark that it was because I ate a house. 

And with my appetite, I think I might be able to eat a house or a Christmas tree!

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The Rest of July

We preformed plays in the hallway…

Decorated Josiah’s trains.
 Had a brief visit with cousins.

Isn’t my niece is just beautiful!?  She bribed her cousin with cookies and it worked.
Celebrated Daddy’s birthday (that’s 32…three candles, two in the next row).  And it’s peach cobbler.
And Josiah enjoyed riding his birthday gift.  A bike.
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Free Food!

Of course we didn’t pass up the free food from Chick-fil-a this year!  No way would we do that.  I’ve just been delayed in getting this up.

Our Carr Friends did it right this year with reuseable shirts!  We’re so doing that next year.  Our spots wouldn’t stay on this year and our ears were a bit floppy…see???

But we still had some cute cows this year.
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The Invasion

The Transue Summer Invasion happened at the beginning of July.  They got here in time for a quick cook out and rainy fireworks on the 4th and then the week was full of lots of fun activities…

like blueberry picking!

Isn’t he the cutest three year old?!

We also enjoyed a get together with “friends of the Transues.”  The girls helped get ready by decorating two flag cakes.  They were super yummy too!
Shortly after this picture Miss Maggie left Mr. John a present.  It was not pretty.
We kept the kids so busy they just couldn’t stay awake to finish supper.
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Where We’ve Been

So yeah, I obviously didn’t get zoo pictures up.  We realized late last Monday night that we had forgotten our camera for the zoo trip so all the pictures were taken with Mark’s phone.  Which means now they are on Google + and I have no clue how to get them over here.  That’s a job for Mark.

But here’s a few reasons we’ve been sporadic…
1.  Pregnancy…first trimester is always a good excuse not to update the blog.  Especially with the exhaustion and the nausea and the eating…I’m eating a lot this time…weird.
2.  Strep:  We started with strep in June and then it continued through July starting back up with Liam and scarlet fever (that we found at the zoo).  Ace got it on July 3 for his second round.  And then Ceili Rain and Bryant got it a week later.  At the point our pediatrician had had it and did cultures on all of us, including me…yeah, that culture thing isn’t so much fun.  At that point, Zoe and Josiah came back positive (meaning they had it but had not started with symptoms yet).  Ace had just finished his meds so he and Liam tested negative.  That brought our strep med count up to four.  Mark got swabbed the next day and came back negative.  Four days after all that, Ace started running a low grade fever and I looked at his throat and immediately called the doctor.  My pediatrician wasn’t so thrilled to see us again that week, and I think was a bit doubtful about it being strep.  Until she saw his throat.  And his culture came back positive after 2 1/2 minutes.  I know my strep thankyouverymuch.  So, my normal antibiotic avoidant doctor prescribed antibiotics for Ace and as a precaution to Liam.  That’s right.  We’ve had six children on antibiotics.  They are all finished up and all finished up today so we’ll see if we kicked the strep habit for good.  If not, one or two more times and Ace is going to be removed of those pesky tonsils.
3.  Some other changes that I can’t mention on here until I talk to family and we actually know more.  So, suffice to say it’s big.  And exciting.  And terrifying all at once.  And it’s totally a God thing!  Prayers are supre appreciated and as soon as we know more and have told all, we will share even more here (and I can’t wait)!

And so, stay tuned this week for more of what we’ve done in July.

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Josiah’s Birthday!

‘Round here we end June (and start July) with a bang.  This year was no exception!  Josiah celebrated his birthday at the end of the month and I think he had a wonderful time.  He requested some months ago to have a trip to the zoo with the penguins.  Those were his specific instructions.  We couldn’t go on his actual birthday but we did go the week of his birthday so it counted as a birthday trip!

Here’s what went down on the actual day of the birthday.

Thanks Papa and Grandmere…daddy was only passed out for a short amount of time!

A friend gave us these neat train candle holders some time ago.  We kept them for Josiah’s birthday and every now and then we had to take them out and look at them.  Josiah requested a strawberry cake with chocolate icing.  It actually tasted quite good. Anything tastes good with chocolate (even if you’re in your first trimester).

So, we couldn’t get the icing to work to spell “Happy Birthday Josiah” on the cake.  We wrote it on the table instead.  Improvisation…a mommy’s best friend.

Even Bryant got into the party spirit!
Alright.  Well, since I can’t seem to find my zoo pictures, those will have to wait until tomorrow…stay tuned!
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Reunited…

This year we were able to make it to the first of family reunions.  We’re hoping to attend at least one more, possibly two if my side does it again.  This is a great opportunity for me to meet relatives and hear stories about “the good ole days,” which I love!

So, here’s a photo dump of our day at a reunion we attended in June.

Before the reunion, we were reunited with the oldest two as Grandparent Camp came to an end.  I was so excited to have my oldest two “babies” back.  They celebrated by calling us Grandmere and Papa the whole weekend…and we still took them back home with us.

The younger kids enjoyed picking veggies from Papa’s garden.

 And these next series of pictures I just have to comment on.   They are too funny not to!

Bryant:  Hey Papa, what’s so surprising???
 Bryant:  Oh, I see the bright light…that’s just mom, she does that all the time.  What’s up mom?!
 Bryant:  Okay, mom, we’re done posing you can stop…any. time. now.
Bryant:  Alright…just one more!
 Sweet cuddle love !  (Note:  This was the weekend before we found out #7 was on the way.  This was also the weekend, I had massive heartburn that woke me up and had me up for a little while.  And, I kept trying to figure out, this same weekend, why I just felt a little blah…the answer came the following Monday!  You’d think I would know the symptoms by now…it was the heartburn that threw me for a loop)
 Sweet Sibling Love! (aka Partners in Crime)
 Bryant was very interested in another little girl there.  She’s a cousin.
Ceili Rain thought she was adorable too.
 Dirt.  A girl’s best friend.  Okay, a girl with three older brothers.
 Swings can be pretend fliers
 Sticks are pretty cool too.
This is his model stance.
 And his sweet smile, Model pose.
Bryant standing.  By himself.  Pay no attention to his beautiful black eye.  It’s healed nicely and he now knows how to climb down the two steps in our home.
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First Annual Grandparent Camp

On Father’s Day weekend, we packed up the two oldest (aka the Helpers) and sent them off with Papa and Grandmere for the first ever Grandparent Camp.  They were super excited and Grandmere and Papa made the week extra special.  Meanwhile, back at our camp there was a countdown to when we could get the siblings back.  They were missed by their brothers, sister, and the parental figures as well.

They got very cold in a cold creek.
Visited a falls…

Rode a train.
 Visited cousins (which I think was the highlight of the trip).

Cousin J showed Zoe the ropes of the farm…
And his garden.
And vineyard (muscadines, I’ve been told).
And pretended to ride some kind of large construction vehicle.
And Ace swung on a tire swing (a big highlight).
They also helped Papa in the garden and enjoyed the fruit (or rather veggies) of their labors.
A big thanks to Papa for taking all these fine pictures with his phone and emailing them to us throughout the week!
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Father’s Day Weekend

So, Father’s Day weekend we had planned for Mark’s parents to come up so that Papa could help finish up the deck.  That was the plan.

That’s not what happened.  Mark, who was not on call.  Got a call from work (which never happens) and had to go to work on Saturday.  I was committed to volunteer at a home school used book sale so that left his parents to watch the kids.

Fortunately, Mark only had to work in the morning and was able to get home and get to the wood store and back home to get up some railing before it started pouring rain!

Before the rain, the men were checking the radar on their “smart” phones.

And Sunday dawned beautiful and bright (and hot) and everyone actually looked at the camera for pictures!

And Ceili Rain posed with Papa.
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Help!

in June….

We had lots of visitors in June and the first of July (that’s how we like it around here).  And lots of visitors means lots to clean before and after.  Here are two of my helpers in training (no, I did not make them clean the cabinets but they both wanted to and I let them do it…who’s going to refuse help?).

Yep, he’s the kid behind the clothe in the first picture.  He really wanted a rag so I gave him, sprayed water on the cabinet and he went to town and was every bit as serious as could be.

Josiah enjoyed helping with making laundry soap.  He’s becoming quite the chef and every time I step in the kitchen he is right there asking to help!

Ceili Rain learned to ask for help in putting on her underwear.  She also learned it doesn’t go over your head.  Oh, and she learned that toothpaste doesn’t go in your hair either.  She did a lot of learning in June.

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