It's Over

And JUST like that.............it's over.

Baseball.

The one thing that consumes the family all spring has....well....sprung off.

It's nice to have evenings open, but I really really LOVE baseball season. The sitting outside, kids running around, smell of hotdogs and watching my handsome boys in uniforms.

Speaking of......I managed to get TWO pictures of Bronson on his last game in the playoffs. They made it to the quarter finals (they should've gone farther so it was kinda an upset)

Staring down the batter before the pitch....

 Pretty sure he gets his evil-eye from me. I have a good one.

 Poor Emerson made it to the Semi-finals and they lost. He was SO sad after the game and was crying. I told him how awesome it was that they made it THIS far (his team went farther then expected) and cool he played in the semi-finals and he said, "But the championship is BETTER.".......I couldn't argue with him then. He's right.

However it wasn't a COMPLETE loss because Royce found an abandoned drink to claim!!!! SCORE! (my little scavenger was so proud of himself )

 But CAMDEN'S team made it to the championship game!!!!!!!!!

So of course the whole family had to get decked out in "Philidelphia Phillie Red"!!!!

(it's nice Bronson's team was the Phillies as well so I could use his jersey)

My Phillies-ready girls.

 Everyone else in the family humored me and dressed in red/blue as well. Royce didn't have a red shirt but had red shorts and he put on his red undies too, which you obviously couldn't see. But the fact that he WORE undies shows what a special occasion it was!!!! 

Camden is so cute up at bat.....and when he tells the ump to wait for him to get ready.

 Of course we came stocked with boiled peanuts too.....

They ended up losing 10-9 and got a trophy anyway for making it to the finals (since when does 2nd place get the same trophy 1st place does?.....oh well, Camden sure loves it anyway)

Maybe it's because he's so handsome..........

 Yep, that's probably it.

Happy/Sad Reunion

Some of our closest friends came to visit us for Memorial Day. It was bitter-sweet. SO awesome to see them, but they are moving across the country soon since he finished up his residency. :(

Their 10 year old girl was REALLY good at keeping Everly happy.

 Brooks told his brother that Everly was "needy". I couldn't BELIEVE it...... I mean WHO calls having-to-be-held-all-the-time-during-waking-hours "needy"?!?!? ;).....good thing we have a lot of arms to hold her.

It was hard to capture pictures of Iris, Aleeya and Addellyn because they just kept closing themselves off in their room playing dolls/make-believe/dress-up.......I can't believe how much time they spent in that little room over the few days they were here.

 Our sweet husbands planned the menu and prepared all the food while they were here. I especially like Tyler's "quick rise" method for the scone dough.

And getting ready for church Kinzie resumed her self-appointed duties with Everly. She even got her to sleep here.

I love those before-after makeover shots/shows so I can REALLY appreciate Kellyn's transformation......

here she is sleeping (I like the whole "designer-bedding" look with the Santa-in-May crib sheet and Sponge-Bob pillow case.....coupled with her usual swimsuit but she added the flare of one shoulder revealed this time)

To THIS............ isn't she pretty? 

(Thanks Tia Adriana for the dress!)

 We take church pretty seriously......I mean, studying Joshua IS pretty hard core.

Memorial Day we went to the zoo/park. These two little girls (5 months apart) were mooooooooore then ready to go before everyone else was. (I was told TWICE that day that Kellyn looks like "the little girl on Full House" hahaha)

One of us with a baby in and one with one out......either that, or I carry babies really high.

 We have QUITE the clan heading into the zoo.

 Lions

 Teamwork so Bronson could reach in to touch the tortoise........looks more like a stretchy-torture tactic to me.

 Kellyn loved the animals but she stopped DEAD in her tracks when the goat just stuck his head out at her. She was NOT sure what to think about that.

 Our two Spidermen climbing at the park

Gosh we'll miss them when they move. We're glad they came to visit from Winston Salem one more time though!!!!

Not in my job description....

There are SOME things that I leave almost entirely to Brooks and obviously there are some things he leaves to me. One of the things I let Brooks handle (if I can) is the whole medical thing. Obviously because that's what he's trained in but also because some things really give me the willies.

Case in point........a staple in a finger.

NOT in my job description.

Last week when I saw "School Nurse" pop up on my phone at 2:30 pm (the time school gets out) I thought, "Oh great.....HERE we go again! Whatever it is can wait until they get home can't it? I mean their little scratch on their foot won't hinder them much.....or their sore pinky, yadda yadda" 

I really get called over the most RIDICULOUS of things from the nurse

I picked up the phone and she said Emerson was in his office and has a staple in his finger.

Um......okay. I asked if he was fine and she said he wasn't complaining at all, hadn't cried and doesn't have a fever. (Phew, glad she checked the fever because I HEAR staples cause a LOT of fevers!!! not )

She assured me it was REALLY in his finger (I was picturing hanging out a little because they exaggerate) and I needed to come pick him up immediately.

Since he was okay, I told her that I couldn't get over there yet. I had 4 children sleeping and 3 getting off the bus to come home in a 1/2 hour, so I would be by after that. In the meantime she told me he was just going to hang out with his teacher. 

"Okay, fine. Just tell Emerson to work on his homework while he's waiting"

I smiled when I hung up the phone. Emerson spending time with his teacher? hahaha. He has "the prettiest teacher in the whole school", so I KNOW he was just fine with the arrangement.

I finally got over to pick him up from school and he REALLY had a staple stuck in his finger. I guess the nurse WASN'T crying wolf this time!

 But don't you worry about Emerson......he had a great time with his teacher. Since he "couldn't do his homework" with the staple in his writing finger, he sat RIGHT next to his teacher and dictated what she could write for him on his homework. I really WISH I had a picture with him and his teacher.....it would make this visual so much better.

But back to his finger. The above picture doesn't do it justice. I mean the thing was IN there enough to kinda "dimple" around it!!! It made my stomach turn.

 I quickly texted Brooks and asked when he would get home and then looked at Emerson, calmly smiled and said, "Ya know what would make that feel better? Ice cream!" So we stopped at McD's on the way home.

Oddly enough the ice cream didn't 100% cure the staple problem. Weird. It usually fixes most other things...

How did he get it IN there? Oh, he as helping his teacher of course (I raise brown-nosers and I'm proud of it) stapling things for the class. What I do NOT understand is HOW he got it in that place in his finger. I mean think about it. You would really have to bend your finger around under the staple gun to get it there. I can understand on the TOP of a finger but on the bottom? Really, it must've taken talent.

Emerson was fine until I got Brooks' text to say to bring him into his clinic. It was around 5:30 so all the nurses were getting ready to go home and had nothing to do but come see "Dr. Smith's adorable children". Not sure if it REALLY hurt when it came out (he didn't cry when it went in......his teacher said he was "so brave") or if it was a show for the nurses, but you can bet they had plenty of bandaids there waiting for him. Well, at least the nurses that were there with Emerson and not the ones that were trying to corner Royce from doing laps around the clinic and weaving in and out of all the rooms.

I wanted to finished the chairs in our dining room while Brooks was camping (!!!!!! I know miracles never cease) Friday night with the youth in our church. I didn't have a staple gun though. 

 Brooks said he would go and pick a staple gun up before he left and Emerson said, 

"NO!!! ANYTHING but a staple gun!"

Anyway, here was the nasty covering of the chairs before

 I have never done anything like that before so it was kinda a big deal. I used our old curtains as the fabric and put vinyl on top to make them wipe-worthy. Here is Royce putting the weight on the chair so I could screw the finished product back on.

 When Bronson and Camden saw me doing that they said, "Why don't you just use Dad's drill?" Well, I had never used one and didn't know how. I know, I know.....but usually that's in Brooks' job description. ;) Bronson and Camden taught me how and man oh man, it went SO must faster after that.

Here's the finished product with the magnolias on the table the kids picked off our tree. I didn't mean to, but the fabric actually matches the silhouettes on the wall. 

So although I still let Brooks handle the medical stuff, I DID later step out a little of my comfort zone/job description and tackle the drill gun. 

HUGE stapled-thumbs up for that!

Someone convince me that "13" is lucky!

 May 18th Brooks and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday night we went out and were reminiscing a little. We got a good laugh on my wedding gift to Brooks that I ran over the morning of our wedding........a snow cone machine. I had gotten it at Walmart and it looked JUST like the one below.

Fast forward 13 years and we own the above shaved ice machine. 

It's kinda a gage on how far we come I think during our marriage. :)

Our actual anniversary was on Sunday.....and like Mother's Day the week before Brooks was working all day and through the night. I got the kids ready for church and loaded them up in the van in enough time to get there early. Look at my sweet one-month-old!!!

I went to turn the Yeti on and there was nothing. Happy Anniversary, right? I realized it was left on from the day before when the guy that had fixed something in it wanted to show me something in the steering and needed the van on or something to show me that "something". CLEARLY I don't know much about cars. All I knew is that the van TURNED OFF WHILE I WAS DRIVING on me (AGAIN!!!! for the 7th time) on Friday and was not going to drive it again. The man told me although everything isn't fixed yet I should be okay to get to church and back.

But back to the battery being dead.

I had SEEN Brooks jump the car before, and since I was the only adult, I obviously had to act like I knew what I was doing...and I'll-be-darned if I didn't get all the kids ready/fed baby on time ONLY to be LATE FOR CHURCH!!! No sir-ee.

I got out in the rain (yes, it was raining) and found the battery under the Yeti's hood but didn't know if red was positive or black. I texted Brooks at work and he told me that red was positive. Allrighty then. Got it.

Then I went over to our white Buick to hook the OTHER side of the cables to the batter and saw this.......

I mean I KNOW what a battery looks like, but I didn't see one in there!!!

Bronson and Camden joined me and tried to find it. Meanwhile I texted this picture to Brooks and asked where the battery was. 

Before he could answer I saw one of our neighbor-men and asked for his help. He got the Yeti jumped super fast and off we went to church. On the way I asked Aleeya if she could pray outloud for the family that we could make it to church. 

I'm always uplifted by church and besides losing Royce for only a little while it went quite well.

We drive a woman home from church each week who cannot drive herself due to a previous bike accident she was in. After church she got in the Yeti and all the kids were in and we were off.....before most people could leave too.

I get ONE block away from the church to the intersection and the Yeti just turns off again. Ugh. I was in the left turn lane and pulled out enough in the intersection to block one of the lanes but not all of them thankfully. I looked behind me and there's a line-up of people from my church behind me. My first thought was how embarrassed I was that EVERYONE I knew saw me stuck there. 

I kept trying to turn it on and it never came back on.

Then I thought, how LUCKY I was to break down HERE with so many people "behind me".....literally and figuratively.

Next thing I know there's three men from church in suits running towards me car, their wives are still in the cars w/ their hazard lights on blocking me from getting hit by any other cars. One of the men jumped in the driver's seat shoved it into neutral ( I couldn't get it in neutral....it locked up) and the others behind the Yeti and started pushing us out of the way.

(photo by my friend Geri). I was also touched that the man on the right (NOT in the suit) was just a complete stranger who parked his car, jumped out to help someone in need. Good Samaritans rock.

So you see what's going on OUTSIDE with the men pushing the Yeti....which is no small task mind you.....but what you can't see is how the kids were CHEERING-:LAUGHING-SQUEALING inside the Yeti. They thought it was the best thing.

They tried jumping it again assuming it was a battery issue (since this was the 8th time happening to me, I knew that wasn't all that was wrong) and there was nothing.

My friend Geri had crackers in her car and started feeding my children. haha.....little moochers.

When we realized the Yeti was NOT going to start we started dividing kids into people's cars to be driven home for me..........because let's be honest, who REALLY has 10 extra seats in their car for me, my kids and the lady I was driving home?!?!? It took three cars to get us home.

The boys were THRILLED to be driven home by Brother Buffington because it was an "all boys car". Good ol' Emerson on his shoulders.....

Aleeya and Iris went home with a family who let them play with "Talking Tom" on their phone. They thought THAT was so fun.

When we all got home and reunited the kids smiled and said this was the "BEST SUNDAY EVER!!!!" 

Yes......those were the EXACT words going through my mind as well.

Bronson said he just wished that the Yeti broke down on the way TO church and not on the way HOME!!! It dawned on me about Aleeya's prayer..........I just asked her to pray that we could get TO church (which she did say that) but never was there any mention on getting HOME. Guess we need to be more specific next time.

My Anniversary Sunday DID go up from there though. 

We all crashed for naps. Happy Anniversary to me.

After a Bronson's friend's mom brought over dinner for me and the kids as a post-birth present. It was such a treat. She even made individual cookies for each child with the first letter of their names

And a huge sandwich buffet. 

It was so sweet. I made 25-ish freezer meals before Everly was born so we have been eating those (I still have 7 left I think) but to have something that I did NOT prepare was a nice break.....especially 4 weeks postpartum. Happy Anniversary to ME!

While I cleaned up it was nice that Emerson volunteered to keep Everly entertained and not crying. I noticed she WAS quiet the whole time. Apparently Emerson's slide-the-baby-around-the-house-on-his-pillow idea worked.

Iris, Kellyn, Aleeya, Royce and Camden were entertaining themselves racing down the stairs in pillowcases

while Bronson shot the basketball outside....so it was a kaos-free cleaning up time. 

Happy Anniversary to me.

Aleeya (who is always thoughtful with notes, probably because "words" is her love-language too) made me a note and picked me a WHOLE bag of mulberries just for me to eat. Which I actually downed pretty fast. 

"I love you Momy It is a happy day for you You are a happy Momy Happy day for you You love me I do to Love, Aleeya Love Momy"

Iris even wrote me a Anniversary card, picked me some mulberries (she can't reach as many so her 10 mulberries were kind of a widow's-mite-type thing.....so sweet) and also picked me one of the neighbor's roses (lovely).

Did I mention Happy Anniversary to us?

Gosh, I love that man of mine. What a fun/exciting/hilarious/crazy 13 years we've had.

I've been deceived.....

You know that moment when you have believed in something your WHOLE life, recited your WHOLE life and then suddenly found out that it was all a lie?

I TOO, discovered that feeling last week.

You see these boys of mine  climbing the TREE?...

 Yes, I'm sure you do considering bathrobes and neon aren't that camouflage-y. 

They are in our Mulberry Tree.

Let me repeat that..........

our mulberry TREE!

As soon as I found out what it was I immediately thought, "Nah, that's not a mulberry TREE, because everyone KNOWS the monkey chases the weasel around a mulberry BUSH!!!"

But indeed it is......

 And they are SUPER yummy too. They are small berries and there are so many that it seems like we can never run out. Which is REALLY good when you have a lot of kids and two parents so berry crazy.......

and neighbor kids......

the neighbor kids didn't stay TOO long because their grandma called over saying to stop eating them because they are poisonous and have thorns all over them. Huh.......aaaaaaaaallrighty then. Clearly she has NOT seen the (thornless) tree nor eaten mulberries. Oh well, more berries for us.

In the week that we've been eating them it's been so nice to just walk out and eat to our heart's content. It DOES cause one problem though because when the kids get home from school they go right there to snack. I'm kinda a stickler and don't give them snacks after school until their rooms are clean. Camden came home one day and we said our hellos and then I reminded him to go clean his room. He just walked downstairs and out the door to eat his berries. Smart kid......although he STILL had to clean his room later. I wasn't going to let a BUSH-TREE nor a 9 year old get the best of me!!!

So next time you sing that song, for THE SAKE OF ALL THINGS HONEST, just substitute the word "bush" in your mind to "tree".

Say "no" to lies.

Mother's Day

Motherhood is a beautiful thing. 

DEFINITELY not glamorous and for the most part thankless......

but with rewards that come in OTHER forms.....

like in the form of the wonders-of-swallowing-your-pride-and-think-WHATEVER!!!!

Like when I took the older five out to eat for Mother's Day the night before to Stevie B's and Emerson looked like this.....

 And no, you can't WIPE that off, nor SCRAPE that off or WASH it off......that mark from blowing a bubble on his chin earlier in the day needed to be drilled off. So you just smile and look around at the crowded place like, "yea, I know my son looks filthy and for all you know it could be a birth mark!"

"Why did I take only the older 5" you ask? Well, our Yeti was out of commission AGAIN. I think I've had it all of 2 days in the last 2 weeks. So I could only TAKE that many kids in our other car. The rest stayed home with Brooks. Which posed ANOTHER issue for Sunday/church/Mother's Day. 

Brooks was working all that day and through the night so I couldn't take PART of the kids and leave the others, and not too many people have an extra 9 places in their cars......

That meant a nice care-free, low-key, no-where-to-go day at home for me on Mother's Day. 

It was actually SO refreshing.

 I decided to take extra pictures of my Mother's Day and it's funny how closely it documents my life in general.

Brooks woke up early before work to make me my FAVORITE muffins (Duncan Hines blueberry WITH the struesal on top) prior to leaving.

Notice anything different about those muffins?

Let me help you out...........I walked into the kitchen AFTER they had been cooked only to find this:

 The SEALED can of blueberries!!! hahaha. He felt so bad.

But actually they were VERY tasty even without the blueberries.

The VERY first thing that happened after breakfast was what happens after EVERY breakfast.....Royce sticks a ball in my hand and wants me to pitch to him. 

Then Everly helped me prepare some strawberry pies for Mother's Day.....when I say "helped", I mean she wasn't losing it so I could actually get them ready. Strawberry pies are my favorite.

All finished.........Hands off you little rascal. 

 While I'm preparing those I hear the usual sounds of my boys in the backyard.....but today they decided to have a "Homerun Derby"....the person who hits the most balls over the fence wins.

 (the boys thought this bendy bat picture was funny)

Here is Emerson after he hit the winning homerun......he was pretty excited. He probably won because wearing bathrobes are cool......and maybe lucky.

I took this picture of him swinging and here was his position I captured AFTER he hit the ball. We all couldn't stop laughing because he looked like a ballerina.

 Then we found a new button on my phone that draws on pictures and Bronson wanted to draw a Ballerina suit on Emerson. 

And because THAT was so funny and everyone wanted a turn, we took everyone's picture and put everyone's name in a bowl. We would each pick out one name and we could "design" their face. This literally took up the rest of the morning.

 I did Kellyn's.........I made her into a mermaid.

 Emerson giggled the WHOOOOOOOOLE time he designed Bronson's (but didn't laugh at ALL when he saw what Bronson did to his.....that is so Emerson.)

  You will notice how Camden doesn't  have a picture..... Well he said he didn't want anyone messing with HIS face so that meant he couldn't draw on someone else's. If ya can't take it, you don't get to dish it!

While I fed Everly the girls were behind the couch playing with these animals. Aleeya kept singing this song over and over..............and over again. (Repeated three times) This wouldn't get annoying or anything......no, NOT at all!!!!!
and you're WELCOME for getting that song stuck in your head now.

Princess E  spends her fair share of time in here...

I put the younger kids down for naps and told the other ones I REALLY wanted a nap so they could either take one too or be super quiet downstairs. I found them downstairs like this......moments like these warm my heart.

I got my nap. Now dooooooooooooon't get me wrong here.....the day was far from perfect....of COURSE I had the poopy times (literally)

(I counted, I cleaned 4 poopy bottoms on Mother's Day.....I told you it was glamorous)

 And my house was REALLY  messy by afternoon when there's a mom that takes a day off.

 See the bathroom? That red is a melted popsicle....and that is AFTER I wiped it up. So yes, the counter will be stained until I make time to Magic Eraser it.

(don't be jealous of our pink tile please)

 After naps we played outside.

The girls picked these for me and came running to me yelling "HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!" 

Our wading pool ROCKS, no?

 Indoor basketball games in our living room........yes, that's a chest of drawers Emerson is sitting on top of by our front door.......don't judge.

We always have breakfast-for-dinner on Sundays (and also paper plates.....the kids call it "Paper Sunday") and since we had a good ol' un-used can of blueberries we decided to have blueberry pancakes. Before they could eat I assigned each kid a room to pick up.....now THIS is when having a bunch of kids REALLY comes in handy. yipee!

 Emerson HATES blueberries so I made some w/o the blueberries first and put them on this platter..

He looked at them and said, "WHAT?!?!? That's ALL I get?!?!? I'm going to STARVE today!!!!" Really? 9 pancakes will starve someone with eggs to eat with it?!?!?! Pa-LEASE!

Now it was time for pie.......oh wait.....

 Good thing I made more then one!

We played baseball in the road (apparently I don't run very fast yet) after until it was a little TOO late. I put the younger ones down for bed because it was well past bedtime but the older ones still wanted game night. Turns out, melting on the floor and crying over losing will get you a ticket to bed. Go figure. So game night was me, Bronson and Camden. (I won by-the-way).....don't mess with me in Battleship.

Then the before bed snuggles, because this time of day she gets spoiled....mostly because it's her ornery time. (Babies sleeping on chest.....BEST feeling ever)

 I had a friend say she felt SO bad for me in not being able to go to church and being "stuck at home" with all 8 kids all day. On the contrary.......it was SO nice to have a full day of NOT going anywhere, NOT have any electronics on, NOT getting everyone ready for someplace and hearing whispers, "Guys.....GUYS.....we GOTTA be nice, it's MOTHER'S DAY!"

The other night was a tricky one in the middle of the night. Everly was crying, I was crying and thinking nasty things about me and mothering yadda yadda. (Have I mentioned how much I like sleep. I act ugly when I don't get it.) For the first time in all eight kids, I just took Everly out in the car at 3:00am, put her in her seat and started driving around. I was frustrated with myself, mentally beating myself up for not being better and handling things better, "This is your eighth child for HEAVEN'S SAKE!!!! KEEP IT TOGETHER!!" etc.

I teach music to the primary kids at church each Sunday. Anyway, last month's song we were teaching was about families and the words came into my mind,

"God gave us families, to help us become what He wants us to be.

This is how He shares His love. For the family is of God."

My total mind set changed.

I pulled into the driveway, unbuckled Everly and put her on my lap.....she immediately snuggled up and went to sleep. I'm learning more and more that these children were not necessarily sent to me for THEIR benefit, they were sent to me for MINE. 

Because of how I'm pulled, stretched and challenged, it makes me better. Motherhood FORCES me to reach for higher ground and become better. And WITH this stretching my heart stretches too to fit abnormal amounts of love, joy and fulfillment.

I love my family. I love being a mom. I KNOW this is one way Heavenly Father shows me His love and how I become more mold-able to be a better instrument in His hands.

(Original blogpost with the above quote by a very insightful Christian woman.....whom I've never meant. I wish I had every word of this post memorized and had it going through my mind every day.)

Grateful for these glimpses into heaven