To the movies (and everywhere else) we go....

I took the kiddos to watch how to train your dragon Friday & Saturday night! The movie had a slight hiccup on Friday so we left a bit early, we watched it in full Saturday night which explains the two nights in a row cinema! EJ, G, & E were excellent! I took them by myself and it went very smoothly! It surprises most people that I do so much alone with the kids I grocery shop, take them to doctor visits and trips to the post office. I rarely have anyone watch them while I am out and about. It is not easy but I think it is great for them. It teaches them to behave and also gives us an opportunity to talk about tons of new things! EJ & G learned all about germs at one of my prenatal visits. While I use to think it would be nice to drop the kids off at mom's day out or at the grandparents house while I ran errands I have decided to be very optimistic and look at the positive:)! I have never had those options anyway, kids never went to mdo or preschool and until now we lived 7 hours away from our closest family. So, life lessons it is:)!

Yes, our movie theater is really this small!!! the parking lot is DIRT! can you believe it?!?!?!?

Vintage plus Red....

makes my heart sing! The chairs and a two person glider (not pictured because not yet purchased) is my birthday gift from my mom! I love them because they needed no refurbishing! They are reproductions! No work for me! I love old vintage and distressed, I often buy but rarely refinish or restore such items. These are PERFECT! Thanks mom!!!

Fish Pond!!!

Uncle Jamie & Aunt Tina gifted us a bunch of ceramic frog yard ornaments! EJ & G wanted to put them out by the health hazard or water feature. I spent a whole afternoon cleaning the nastiness out! Much to my surprise there were two goldfish swimming in it! The water was so dark and green we hadn't noticed! The kids had a blast putting out all the frogs and bird houses once everything was cleaned up. They selected the placement of everything.
before and after photos!
Our new fish! Before!

Before.....

Bird Houses he gave us in the nooks & crannies of our home!

see above caption:)!

Wind chimes.

Frogs!

After!!!!

CLEAN(ish)!

Frogs!

8 Months!

Evergrace is such a little handful! Josh & I are in agreement that she is our most rotten child! She LOVES to be held and walked around, no just sitting in your lap. This child needs to be entertained! It doesn't help that her older siblings indulge her every whim. When E yells they come running. If she fusses the tinniest bit they want me to pick her up. Last night she did not want to sit in her highchair. She prefers me to hold her and she eats off the tray. Anyway, Guice told me that I was hurting her legs and to stop and just hold her! She loves her bath but is not a fan of getting her hair washed. EJ & G supervise to make sure I don't get water in her eyes! It is not me that is spoiling her, OK, it isn't just me:)!

*She isn't really crawling just kind of.....super hard to learn to crawl when someone is always holding you!

*She says Dada. She will not say mama for love or money.
*E is eating wonderfully!
*She has SEVEN teeth. She cut 5 in one weekend!
*She loves being carried in the moby wrap hates the sling, she bites me when I make her ride in it.
*Yes, she bites. A LOT! Not just me, she has bitten Guyboo.
*Evergrace is super loud.
*The moment her bottom touches the floor she hollers and screams and kicks. Zero to one hundred in under 60 seconds. It stops as quickly as it starts the moment she is rescued.
*She doesn't sleep all night. Still nurses around 3-5 times. When she is ready for me to roll her over she throws her arm over her head and arches her back. It is her signature move. She can so roll over but will not at night! Queen B waits until I do it for her!
*She can pull up.
*Likes her sippy cup but loves drinking out of my water bottle.
*Hasn't had a baby bottle or formula and I have no plans on giving her any.
*Puts up a fight when EJ or G try to take what she is playing with.
*Takes one big nap a day about 2 hours.
*Walks when I hold her hands and help.

Just Last Night!

We were leaving church last night, an older lady said to Guice in a sing-song this is how I talk to a baby voice "Look Guyboo its dark outside." Guice responded "Yes the sun has gone down and I feel that it is cooler."
Emery Jai always sits with the older people of the church. She is drawn to the senior citizens for one reason or another. I think it might be that they agree to everything she says because they can't really hear what she is saying:). As we were leaving last night she looked over at Don, he is a young 79, and said "Don I hope you have a great week!"

This & That!

in the most random order imaginable.......
*Evergrace is pulling up!
*Emery Jai introduced herself as Princess Emery Jai at a birthday party last weekend. She was completely serious.
*Guice has gotten in a very bad but way funny habit of saying things along the lines of "Get me that toy or I will throw out all your groceries" and "Take me outside or I will pee on your couch"
*EJ & G both want the old furniture back....we don't let them eat on the new:)!
*Guice told Josh to buy him a new snake because he loved him.
*I have lost all the weight I gained with E and with G still working on the EJ lbs:)!
*We are using cloth diapers 100% of the time now. I was using disposable at night we made the switch about two weeks ago and it has been great!
*EJ has her first tball practice on Friday she is very excited! I think G is going to flip out when he doesn't get to play.
*Homeschool is going great. We took a week off but are starting full force on Monday! Still planning a full post on curriculum and such.
*Josh joined the gym and is really enjoying working out.
*We are loving the new church. The youth group is growing almost weekly! Praise God!
*Emery Jai is having an issue with the truth. As in telling it. I asked her to go get Tylenol for Guice. She brought it to me empty, when I questioned her about it she responded that she had no idea where it went, it melted into thin air.
*We have been playing at the park a ton and enjoying play dates! The kids love meeting their friends.
*Gluten/dairy free is going great! We have had a couple of slips, the kiddos went to a birthday party I couldn't tell them they could not eat cake. It is much easier than I ever expected! We, kiddos included (Evergrace excluded:) lost weight.
*Emery Jai & Guice are practicing a song to sing at church. EJ wanted to sing Something Beautiful but I talked her in to This Little Light Of Mine :)!
*I trying to go sort all my old pictures and print them. Guice & EJ were looking at some and G asked "Where are all my baby pictures?" Oops! As a last child I feel his pain:)! I am also working on getting my blog turned into a book. This is honestly my baby/scrap book. If it was lost I would be devastated!
*One afternoon at the park there was a duck that had died. I told EJ that it was sleeping, she said "Umm mom is it sleeping or is it dead?"
*Guice calls long sleeves down sleeve and short sleeves up sleeves.

Our little ones!!!

BLESSED!

Ayden was here!!

My super sweet nephew came in for a way too short of a visit! Oh, and his parents drove him down....EJ & G love when he is in town! They talk about it all week! E is very excited for her new playmate arriving in September! I did not get near enough pics, something about 4 kids four and under!
Boys being Boys!
Chillin!

E is just overly cute!

with this much help......

one would think my house would be spotless:)!!

Look who loves her swing!!!

......yes, she is always that smiley & happy. honestly.

Then & Now

where have we been????

Sorry for the absence but we have been on a journey.....we have gone gluten and dairy free! Let me back up. Guice has really serious eczema. It was so bad he was no longer able to sleep at night and was scratching several places until they were raw and bleeding. About 2 weeks ago we made the leap and with in 3 days there was marked improvement. We had scheduled an appointment with a Pediatric Dermatologist. The Dr. agreed that gluten and dairy free was the best treatment, unless I want him to take a daily allergy med or have steroid cream. Which I do not. So, the very small amount of free time I have has been dedicated to gluten free research! The kiddos have adjusted fairly easily. Guice did demand "real" tortillas after he has a bite of a corn tortilla and EJ thought she was starving to death and wondered if Walmart had closed for the first 3 or 4 days. There was no fuss however when we ditched the whole grain pasta for gluten free rice pasta! The kids love it! I have always made sure they ate healthy, really healthy. However, now it is amazing how much fruit and veggies they are eating!

If you know of any great gluten/dairy free sites let me know!!!

my kids are so old!!

their most favorite pretend game as of late is to be elderly! they bend over and hobble around. They were in LOVE when they found a cane just their size at walmart.
Here we are leaving Papa's with our senior citizens:)!

Pop & NeNa Rock!

EJ & G have a very good, yet a tiny bit skewed, understanding of the U.S. Postal Service. In their ever expanding minds, if and when they have a whim they call and tell Pop & NeNa and then with in 3 to 5 business days it arrives on our door step. Simple as pie:)! Not only does the package include the must needed can't live without item, Nena also throws in no bake cookies and a few other goodies. I will return the favor by packing markers in their bag next trip:)! woooohoooo rain boots!!

Also never mind my house....i am subtlety participating in Nic's this is the truth about my house post:)!

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!

My best friend LINDSAY linked THIS post. I must agree I have had the exact same thoughts and strive to raise my children with that knowledge! I don't care if my children are happy and It is not all about them in addition I desire for them to have a world view so they know that we are incredibly wealthy. No, we do not have a huge new house or drive new or even newer cars but compared to the largest percent of the world they are amazingly blessed! Understanding that we were not given this blessing so we could have tons of junk we were blessed so we could GIVE BACK! Sow seeds NOT have a ton of things! Help reach lost souls. I have to say I am loving all the give back-consume less-radical-in the name of Jesus post that I have been reading lately!

One Year and Six Months!

We have lived here for 18 months! In some ways it seems like we just moved here, other ways feels like we have lived here forever! To be honest, this has been the longest hardest 18 months of our marriage. Adjusting has not been easy in the least. Around June I was done with it. I wanted to move so very very bad. I even convinced Josh we should. He applied for other jobs. I wanted nothing more than to be out of here, at any cost. I will have you know, God shut every single door. If there was any doubt whether or not we had been called to the middle of nowhere, it was answered. Things are MUCH better now. To be perfectly honest I do not completely hate living here:)! It is growing on me, like a fungus. LOL! Really, I am liking it more daily. It is hard be cause we did not choose to move here. GOD chose. We were perfectly happy in Nashville. I love Nashville and would still be there, I could have lived there forever. If it were up to me but its not. God called us here. We followed. Most people do not get it. They do not understand why. People think we lost our minds to leave EVERYTHING and move here. If you haven't been here, I am not exaggerating when I say there are zero opportunities here. Zero. God has provided for us in an amazing way. Josh has a great job! For that we are thankful. I am making friends slowly but surely. We have gotten use to the isolation and not having so much as a Target in an 1 hour and 1/2 radius. I am so very proud of Josh for whole heartily following Gods will! It is an awesome thing! I am rambling be cause it is late and I had this very conversation with someone today who did not get it. And there is only so much you can say and still be considered polite:)! And there is a good chance I crossed that line a tad.
pics from our Tuesday in a small town:)!!
Evergrace chillin at Joes!


G havin a blast!

EJ just down the slide!

Story time at the library!

Working on her craft!

Five Years....

Joshua and I celebrated our anniversary today. No, I did not wake up to a dozen long stem red roses. However, my kitchen was much cleaner than I left it last night, Josh stayed up late doing dishes and mopping. No, we are not going out of town to celebrate. However, we bought some much needed and wonderfully priced living room furniture. No, he did not take me out to a romantic candle lit dinner. However, Josh did work a double today so I can continue my dream job as a stay at home mom to our amazing kids. No, he did not get me a card. However, Josh came home to help me get the kids down before he went to the church to spend time in prayer. No, our love is not glamorous in the Hollywood sense. However, our love is constant and steady and forever. I can not tell you them amount of respect I have for this man. My facebook status today stated that Josh was the greatest man I have ever known. That is the simple truth. He is my all, he is my everything.

click HERE to read fun tidbits of our togetherness!!!

Clips of Eversoprecious!!

I am such a slacker! Evergrace is 7 months old and these are the very first videos I'm posting! Shame on me:)!! I think you will agree, they were worth the wait!

Evergrace signing milk:)! It took me a while to get her to sign it...she was a little frustrated by the time I caught it.


Clapping!!

Thank you Uncle Jamie!!

Uncle Jamie is letting us use his piano! We are so excited! I have always wanted the kids to learn to play. I can't wait to hear the first time they play at church, click HERE to read a secondary reason why I want to invest in lessons. Mr. Music Man Guice LOVES it! He has tapped every single key one at a time and explored over every inch of it. Emery Jai has played on it and likes it but is not as fascinated by it as G. Josh and I decided to use the Kinderbach program, click HERE to check it out! It is way more economical than paying weekly for lessons and is geared towards 2-7 year olds.
Emery Jai and Guice are crazy about their Uncle Jamie. He also brings them bread to feed the ducks! Guice tells everyone at the park "Uncle Jamie buys me bread and brings it to me so I can feed the ducks!" Uncle Jamie also plays the drums, so he is very cool in G's book!
Playing!

EJ told us she is "more of a singer and dancer than a piano player" HA!!

notice g is wearing GLOVES!!

Sleepy Saturday...

another day of snow....

We had yet another snow! Have I mentioned that I am OVER it already! The Anderson clan is beyond ready for spring!

EJ being EJ! I LOVE this little girl!

Siblings!

Stroller rides are hard on baby girls!

a stroller FULL!

Full stroller=Full heart:)!