It looks like...

we are having a girl!


Yes, it's about time we make it official. I'm 20 weeks along and we are all excited for the new little one who will join our family in February. I had the high risk (I'm over 35 years old) anatomy ultrasound today and everything looks good. It was awesome to see our girl moving so much, her little heart beating and all that stuff. I am disappointed in the pictures because they really aren't that great, but they'll do.

This is what I look like. Pay no attention to the smile (that I just pointed out), I was trying to get Emily to take the picture for me.

It has been a different pregnancy for me. I haven't been sick but I haven't felt great either. I never feel like eating but I'm always hungry. The kids were all able to see the dating ultrasound that I had about 5 weeks ago so that was fun. We all enjoyed hearing the heart beat and seeing the baby move. So just thought I'd let y'all in on it!

This is what school looks like.

At least for us. We moved the school room upstairs and moved the guest room downstairs. It seems to be working out just fine. Poor Kemiah has not quite adjusted to playing by herself - the baby takes a nap during school. Some times she just sits outside the doorway with a doll and watches. Anyway, each of the kids has their own desk and the room is always bright with the huge south facing window letting in all the sunshine (the shade is usually up).



The kids are doing great with the work on the computer, as well. Kemiah likes to listen as they do their Spanish (maybe she'll pick up the vocablary, too).



Domonique enjoys sitting at the desks and has figured out how to climb into the seat all on her own.

New favorite activity.

She has really started to like books. She is still eating them but also likes to flip through them and look at them. She even likes to sit in my lap to read them. (I love when she comes to me and backs up to sit down in my lap.) She'll take any kind of book but likes the board books best. Her favorite seems to be Goodnight Moon. She'll sit on the floor, on the couch, and now she'll sit at the bottom of the stairs if the door gets left open. On Saturday, while the guys were working outside, I put her up on the window seat and she loved that because there were lots of little board books AND she could look outside at the other kids working in the yard. She is such a sweetie!

Art work by Kemiah

Just thought I'd share some of her creative works that she has made recently.
While the older four kids were in school, she got out the Tinker Toys and made a butterfly, without the larger lower portions on the wings. Ben was quick to jump up and help her add on the lower portions and she was thrilled. It was fun to watch her hang on to it, carry it around the house and say, "I'm going to show it to Daddy."

This project was made Saturday afternoon. When she finished the first person (the one on the left) she came to get me so I could see, and she told me it was Gaffa (my Dad). Then she added the second figure and said it was Grammy (my Mom). I just had to capture them to keep them forever.

When you're ready, you're ready.

I have been working with Kemiah on learning to read numbers. She has no problem counting, at least up to 25, but if you had pointed to a written number she wouldn't have be able to tell you what it was. I wondered how long it would take for her to figure it out and I felt bad because I wasn't working with her on a regular basis, so I felt like I was part of the problem. Imagine my surprise when tonight, during our nightly routine, she just up and read the three digit number on her song chip. No prompting from anyone, no help with the numbers. She just read it all by herself: two hundred eighty-one. I might remember that number forever. Then, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I showed her a couple other page numbers and she read them all correctly! Way to go little one! It was awesome!

Children's Museum

Back in the earlier part of August, a friend of mine gave me a free family pass to the Children's Museum in Saginaw. I have wanted to take the kids but never wanted to pay the money - seeing as how we are a little tight with that right now. So when she gave us the pass I was excited to go. Then Emily said, "Can we go there for my birthday?" So we waited. It was better for us if we went the day before Emily's birthday so we celebrated her last day of being 6 years old on August 24th. It wasn't what I expected but it was nice. They had lots of different things for the kids to play with so they were busy for several hours. We ate a light lunch and then they went back to playing. They probably could have stayed there all day just doing stuff but I was ready to go home so we left. I'm so glad it didn't cost us any money but they sure had a fun time.

Ben is turning the crank and causing the balls to go up and then they fall over the edge. It was a hit with most of the kids there.


Even Domonique liked playing with the balls and wasn't alarmed when they came down on top of her.


Huge water playing area. Fortunately they have high powered driers and the kids dried out quickly enough.




They had this area of medical stuff - dentist, doctor, eyes, x-rays, baby dolls, etc. They even had four model hearts to show a baby, healthy adult, unhealthy adult, and dog heart. You could push a button at each heart to hear what they would sound like.


Ben and I worked together to build the arch and it was neat to see it stand on it's own once the keystone was put in place.


They had a ton of glasses frames that the kids could try on. Emily decided they looked so nice she walked around with them for a little while.


Of course, a craft area as well. They all enjoyed the playdough.


Miniature kitchen so everything was just right for kids. It was a favorite spot for my kids.


Domonique is figuring out how to get the spoon to her mouth and really likes to play with a spoon and cup to practice.


This is a giant ball of string that a kid started a long time ago and donated it to the museum when he was an old man so other people could see it.


I though this was a neat display. It is made from license plates from the appropriate states.


The car didn't really do anything so I wasn't impressed. The kids played with them for a bit but not that much.


Yes, this is a take cow that you can pretend to milk.

So that's most of our Children's Museum. There were a few other areas and things that I didn't get pictures of but this is what we did most of the time we were there. I'm glad we could go and enjoy it for the day!

Xiomara is the youngest yet

to ride a bike without training wheels! What a trooper to work so hard -even though when she started she just kept saying, "I can't do it!" OH yes you can! Of course, this happened back in the middle of August but at least I'm sharing it!




She got back on even after the fall. Way to go little one!

Lost post

Just found this and wonder why it was never posted. It's from December 1, 2010, almost a year ago. I'm so glad I wrote this down because I had totally forgotten about this.

Sitting with Ben this afternoon, he starts the converstaion with this:

"Mom, wouldn't it be funny if I had a maple farm when I'm in the air force. Then I can have a job while I wait for the sap. Then when it's time to get the sap I can ask all my air force friends to help me. I'll have a three story house and do you know what I'll have on the roof? A helicopter and a hanger. So in the summer the helicopter can be out but in the winter I can put it in the hanger, but I'll still use it."

Unfortuanately that's not a direct quote so that's not quite as wonderfully amusing as it was when he said it to me. I just had to put it down somewhere so I didn't forget it. He's always coming up with these kind of ideas. At least I know he won't be a lazy bum when he grows up because he's always coming up with something to do when he grows up.

End of pepper picking.

Yes, it has come to an end. (I think.) Ben was out picking again today, trying to fill that really large bin, one bucket at a time. His sisters gave up a while ago, but did give token effort by pretending to pick but just played in the dirt. After his second bucket this morning he came to me and said, "Greg wants to talk to you." That's the farmer. I went over with Ben and we settled the account. Even though the bin wasn't full Greg needed to take the peppers. We measured, did some math and calculations, and came to a total payment for the peppers picked. Ben took the cash into the house and we calculated the value of each bucket, then figured out how much each picker made. Ben was so excited to see his total! Better than that was the idea of buying his own lawn mower so that he can make more money mowing other people's lawns next season. Kevin found a smaller mower that Ben might have an easier time pushing. I don't know what will happen but Ben's excited about the idea. I wonder how he'll feel after the first lawn?

Oh, the reason it may not be over is because the farmer said he would put another empty bin out so if Ben wanted to pick this next week he could and make more money. The farm hands are out at the other end of the field picking and it will take them about a week to make it to our end of the field. I don't know if Ben will want to pick next week, but if he does it will only be in the afternoons because we have to start school!

In honor of Labor Day...

My kids went to work. Yes, that's right, but this time it was a job they wanted and not one we made them do. Last week, Ben asked the farmer who owns the land behind our house if he could pick peppers for him. The farmer talked to me and said he would let him. He said he would put a big bin at the end of the field that the kids could fill. They would have buckets to take with them as they picked, fill part way and then dump in the larger bin. Once the big bin was full the farmer said he would pay them $100. Ben's eyes almost jumped out of his head but he was in complete control. He was so excited and decided it would be faster if his older sisters helped him. We all went out Monday morning to meet with the farmer so he could show everyone how to do the job the right way. He emphasized that we needed to be careful not to break the plants and showed the right size of pepper to pick. The kids were all excited. We have five buckets, one for each kid. I worked with Kemiah, who actually did a decent job for about 1 hour. The rest of us worked for about 2 1/2 hours that morning until we stopped at noon for lunch. After lunch it was only Ben and Marissa who went back out. After talking with Kevin after lunch he suggested the best way to be able to rate their work and pay for the peppers picked. I shared his idea with the kids. They would fill their bucket full and then I would dump it for them and keep track of how many full buckets I dumped for each child. Once the bin is full we'll see how many buckets it took to fill it and then figure out how much each bucket is worth. Then we can pay each child fairly for the number of peppers they picked (or buckets they filled). The one catch: they are jalapeno peppers so they have to be careful not to stick their fingers in their eyes or mouth or anything like that. Today Emily accidentally got some juice in her eye and it was awful painful. Other than that the kids have done great. I even enjoyed taking some pictures of the flowers and plants, as well as my hard working kidos! Did I mention that the weather took a turn to the cold side on Monday?! It was chilly, cloudy, and windy all at the same time. We were just glad it didn't rain. It did warm up as the day went on but it was a hard start and I thought the kids would quit but they toughed it out and bundled up!