Change is Happening!

You know how God gives you the desires of your heart? Well, He sure does! As most of you know, we have had our house on the market for well over a year now. Our contract is about to go up with our agent. Our contingent contract went up on the house we really liked, and we desperately needed to know what direction we should go in. We prayed about it, talked it over just about every other night. Should we refinance, keep it on the market, take it off until the market gets better, etc. We just had no answer for this home and what we should do. Then that also posed another question. What to do with Carly and Chloe and school? I did not want to keep the house on the market during the school year, because I didn't want to get them started in one school and then have to take them out mid year. We also were toying with the idea of homeschooling them. I am a certified teacher letting my license get dusty! But with that, you get all these other feelings pulling at your heart. Will they miss out on life by not going to school? Will it be too much for me? Should I just take the easy way out and put them in school? Will I have enough time for Harper and Finley? Do I trust myself to give them everything they need to succeed? These thoughts run through my head daily. Still praying daily for direction in this area as well. But low and behold, God answered this prayer in a way I NEVER thought!! On our 9 year wedding anniversary, I took a little life changing test - POSITIVE!! OH MY!!! ANOTHER BABY?!?!!? 5 kids 5 and under!! As this was a shocking surprise, wonderful, but still shocking, it seems that everything that has been questionable, became quite clear!! The day before we found out we decided to lower the price of the house again. And this just confirmed that we need to get out!! No ifs ands or buts about it. Home school??? Well, why in the world would I want to totally disrupt everything in one year? So yes, home school it is. I think moving (hopefully) and a new baby means I need to spend every second with my babies! Is this going to be hard? You bet. Am I nervous? More than you know. But what gives me peace and strength is that I know God had this in His plans from the get go and my secret desires would soon all pan out. Matt is all on board with homeschooling too. And everyone asks what his reaction to this surprise was - he laughed. He laughed alot and was very excited. I will confess, my initial reaction was I cried. I did not want a van that beeped when I backed up!! It took alot for me to mentally prepare myself that Finley was our last - the Finale!! But now I have to get myself all geared up for this journey again. But as the week has gone by, I have seen the pieces of our life puzzle coming together so nicely and I am rather excited now! What a great way to answer prayers, with the birth of another special baby. Now I did go into the van with a booster and tried shoving it in lots of ways, and I think it should work - phew!! Carly and Chloe are just going to have to learn some Mary Lou Retton skills by hurtling themselves into the way back, but I think they are perfectly capable. 5 car/booster seats - WOW!! Let the journey begin!!

Luke 6:40 - "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." Hmmm - what kind of teacher do I want my children being like? Some woman I don't know and don't know her heart, or their own Mother?

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 - "Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." How could I do this if I didn't have them daily? Every situation is a learning experience. Just the other day I was getting all the kids in the car and this man from CVS came and unloaded my buggy and brought all my goods to my car. I thanked him from the bottom of my heart for coming to help me in this awful heat and he took my buggy and went into the store. Carly was watching and asked, "Mom, why did that man help you?" I told him that he saw that I was busy putting them all in the car and he wanted to help Mommy. "You mean he was serving you right Mommy?" Exactly!!! She is getting what it means to have a servant's heart. She did this the other day too when I sliced my thumb with a knife. She ran and got a bandaid and told me she was serving me. That is just enough to make my heart want to burst open!

Is homeschooling permant? NO! I am fully commited to this first year and will see how each year after that goes. I am confident until 2nd grade, and then they start getting bigger and I am just not sure what will happen. I highly doubt I would do middle and high school - that is just plain scary!! But for now, I want to build them up to be strong little women so they can go and be Jesus to others!

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good . . . to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 (TLB)

Funny Fifi

Finley and our bed - she absolutely loves it!! I love her laugh!

Kissing Queen

Tonight we got home late and Finley was in her crib, Chloe was passed out, and Carly was laying in her bed. We were tucking the big girls in and messing with them, when all of the sudden we hear kissing sounds. We look over and little Miss Finley was standing in her crib giving us kisses. It was so cute. Of course Matt and I had to run over and kiss that cute face of hers. It was so sweet to see her wanting to give us love before she went to bed. I love my babies!!

9 Years of Love!

Today is July 11th. 12 years ago today Matt and I went on our 1st date. We dined at the ever so lovely Applebee's and then went to see a late movie - Deep Impact. I guess you could say that Matt made a "deep impact" on me that night, because I haven't stopped thinking of him since! And then this past Wednesday was July 7th, our 9 year wedding anniversary. It was an amazing day to say the least ;) We started the day off at Cane Creek. The kids have been dying to go to the beach, but sand and a crawling infant, doesn't sound all that spectacular to me, so we decided to go to the lake and let them play in the sand. We had a great time and it was wonderful to be sitting on a bench getting ready to leave and Carly says, "thank you Dad for taking me here!" It was a well worth day trip!

Carly playing on the playground. They love going to parks.
Me and My 4 monkeys

Daddy and his Chloe!

Feeding the ducks. Finley was so excited to see them. She kept saying, "da da" - close to duck, but her favorite word to say is all done!!

Finley got wore out so she took a nap in the wagon while the big kids were swimming.

Castle building time. I observe all castle construction. Everyone needs a foreman:)

Daddy and his 3 ducklings. They were a little hesitant about fully swimming in the lake. They couldn't see the bottom.

These 2 were beat after a day in the sun and sand. They were snuggling together. They fell asleep within minutes of getting into the car.

We enjoyed spending time with the kiddos all day. Then Matt had big plans for us that evening - that I didn't know about. I knew we were going out to eat. Mom and Dad came over at 5:00 to watch the kids and we went on our voyage. I figured out from his clues that I thought he was taking me on the Catawba Queen. He couldn't believe that I guessed that, but I have been wanting to do that, so it came to mind. They canceled our reservations for it because there wasn't enough couples signed up (it is a dinner cruise around Lake Norman). So he took me to North Harbor Restaurant instead. It was on the lake and it was some place we would definitely never go to with the kids. We had a delicious meal! Then we went to Concord Mills to go to Dave and Busters to play our all time favorite game - AIR HOCKEY!!! And skeeball. We enjoyed the night striving for getting 100,000 points at skeeball. We both got it several times!!! We can now pass away with that checked off our list of lifetime achievements! When we decided to leave, we quickly realized that we parked on the complete opposite side of the mall and they close the mall off so you can't go through it. So we then had a moon lite walk around Concord Mills - which probably took 20 minutes!! It was ok to walk off that hefty dinner. Matt had also surprised me with a night get away at the Embassy Suites. It was weird sleeping without my babies down the hall, but I managed to sleep in until 7:30!! So all in all, we had a spectacular anniversary.

Happy Belated Birthday Harper!

This is an overdue Happy Birthday to my sweet boy! It takes so long to upload pictures, so I can only do posts with lots of pics when I have plenty of time - can you believe it has taken me 2 weeks to have the time to do a lengthy post?! Anyways, June 29th, was Harper's 3rd birthday. He was so excited for his special day. We ordered the cake a week before his party and everyday he asked if we were going to pick it up (note to self, next year order the cake the day before :) As soon as he woke up, we went and opened presents from us.

Carly and Chloe got him a Buzz Light Year action figure and a Woody figure. He did think it was broken because the Buzz didn't talk!! We didn't know a talking Buzz was that important to him. He got over it quickly though.
We got him this Rooney costume. I know he will shoot us when he is a teenage for taking a picture of him like this, but Carly and Chloe have the Dee Dee and Moe costume and they have been wanting Harper to be Rooney to complete the band!! He was excited to put on his blue costume and be Rooney~ We also got him some books - all about trucks and cars.

I also made him his favorite breakfast - GRITS!!! This boy is strangely addicted to them, so I made him a pot of them and stuck 3 candles in them. He thought that was great. And notice his pjs - these have been his favorite pair for over a year now. They are starting to be like capris, so I will have to retire them, but he just loves his Joe Jammers.

Later on, we went to the Aquatic Center for his pool birthday party. He got his ever desired car cake. He loved spending the day with all his cousins and friends. I so enjoy celebrating the birth of my kids. This boy is such a sweet, funny, cute, and all around great kid. He seems so much older than 3. I guess he keeps up with his sisters, so it makes him seem older, but I have to remind myself that he is only 3 and still considered a baby :)

Here he is opening his presents. He loved the fact that he could open them all by himself without Carly and Chloe getting in on the action!

And Finley got to spend some fun time with Uncle Kris! We hate that we don't get to see them that much, but we sure do enjoy them when we do get to see them!

I took this picture after church today. This boy is the best brother! He takes such good care of his Fifi. I love hearing his little voice talk to her when she is upset, "It's ok Fifi. Don't Cry." He can get this girl laughing so hard that it makes me cry just listening to the two of them. He will do some obnoxious sound and she will just bust out laughing and the two of them will go at it for minutes. He has such a bond with his little sister! He is also an awesome little big brother too. Ever since he started to walk, the girls will only do scary things if Harper does it. Harper goes down the water slide at the aquatic center, then his sisters will. Yesterday we took the kids to the pool. I have been trying to give them a little responsibility at the pool so when they need to go potty, it is not a party of 5 going into the bathroom for the 1 child needing to use the restroom. So, Matt has been watching him in the men's bathroom to see if he knows what to do. Well yesterday, he was very proud to escort himself to the bathroom as needed. Carly had to go potty so I told her to go. Nope. There was no way she would go alone. So who takes her? Her little, big brother. They march hand in hand, as cute as they can be, to the bathroom, where he decides to jet off to the men's. We could see her giving him specific directions to meet her in the middle when he was done. So I was keeping an eye on the restrooms when out comes Harper. He waltzes into the lady's room and then a minute later emerges with an enormous grin with his sister holding his hand! He is such the man of the house!! Matt and I couldn't stop smiling at how cute they were walking back. Being a parent is so rewarding!! Well I guess that concludes my post of my sweet Harper Banks, but honestly, I could go on for days talking about how wonderful my son is!!!

Kid Updates

Don't you just love how my posts have been coming in swarms! I don't have the time to sit and type all the things that goes on each day, so I try to remember them all for the times that I do sit down, so sorry you get like 5 posts in one session.

Harper's latest: Ok, Harper is 3. Now sometimes I forget this since he can hang with the girls quite nicely. BUT..... there are days when he is THREE!!! He doesn't get in much big trouble, or get into too much - I mean the kid asks me everyday if he can dump his car basket over onto the floor so he can play with them all, and he asks me EVERYTIME he wants to climb up Carly's bunkbed stairs so I can watch him. I mean, you can't get that many awesome 3 yr. olds. Well, he has a stunt. It started a couple days ago when I noticed the toilet paper getting depleated in the bathrooms. I told him not to use the toilet paper, but not sure how much he was using or what was going on. Well, on Sunday, he got caught. Matt found the entire roll (toilet paper taken off the roll) in the potty. He got spanked, and then made to scoop it out of the potty. He was not too pleased about that one at all - he doesn't like getting too dirty. I thought that would do it. Not so much. Today after nap, he was calling for me to come wipe him. I walk into the bathroom (and I knew there was a half a roll in there) and there was none left. Little buger took it all off the roll and then did a shewie on top!! Oh boy was I flared up!! He got spanked and sent to bed (I left the mess for Matt :) Then I had to give him a good punishment. He had gotten a slip and slide for his birthday and I told him he could go on it after nap. Carly and Chloe had been playing on it all afternoon and were waiting for him. So I let him go outside and watch them play and then he had to go back to bed - no slip and slide. I hated being such an ogre, but he needed a big punishment. It was not fun so see him watching them, but I had to be tough. Hopefully that puts an end to his obnoxiousness!!

Daddy's Girl: Finley has become quite the Daddy's girl. He comes home from work and she flips out. She jumped out of my arms today and quickly crawled to him to get some love. It is so fun to see her so excited to see him. The 3 big kids never had Matt home every night. He always worked those random hours. We are so thankful for his job that we can see him every night. The kids love seeing him and as soon as they hear that garage door open, they run out there and tackle him - usually they are covered in food because we are eating dinner :-) But I love seeing Finley so attached to Matt - it is so sweet.

Happy 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July this year. We started off at the pool at Lake Park and just did a family dip. Carly, Chloe, and Harper each took turns taking their vests off and doing swim lessons with me. I am so proud of all of them swimming by themselves! We usually go to the Aquatic Center and they can touch everywhere so they don't need their vests, and they can put their feet down and cheat. So it was nice to put them in deep water and make them push themselves. Finley just sat in her float, leaned back and drank pool water. Here she is prior to taking a dip in her 4th of July bikini!

I love this picture! She looks just like Carly with the nose wrinkling!! And check out that top tooth coming in. She has that one front one and the one next to it is coming in - not the other front one. She is going to have a sideways looking smile for a little bit! But not to fear, that other front one is about to pop through too. Gotta love teething ;)

That night we had a get together over here. Sarah, Tim, Preston, Ethan, TJ, Deanna, and Chris all came over for a cook out. We ate and ate and then the guy across the street had a TON of fireworks. So, I put Finley to bed and we all sat in the driveway and watched the show. It was nice not having to go anywhere. We were going to walk to the middle of the neighborhood and watch those fireworks, but since the guy across the street had them, we stayed put. Here are pictures of the girls doing sparklers. They were doing these the night before to prepare for the 4th. Carly, Chloe, and Harper didn't do too bad this year. They still despise the loud noise, but they actually stayed outside and watched with their ears covered. I am pretty impressed! But all in all it was a wonderful 4th of July!!

VBS

We just got done with a week of VBS. It was an amazing week! I have been working on VBS since January, and seeing everything pan out was so great. The theme this year was Studio Go. It taught the kids to be servants. So instead of normal crafts, we did service projects. This was so rewarding. It was amazing to see the kids get excited about helping others in need. All together they made: 70 baby blankets for the Crisis Pregnancy Center, 35 scarfs for Turning Point (battered Women's Shelter), 400 wrapped spoons, forks, and knives for a Homeless Shelter, 400 tissue packs wrapped with Bible verses and games for Hospital waiting rooms, 48 shower caddies painted for Thompson's Children's Home (a local orphanage), and 150 flip flops painted for an orphanage in Haiti. They also collected toiletries to fill the caddies, 300 stuffed animals for the local Sheriffs and Fire Department, and $104 to the local branch of the American Red Cross. It was very overwhelming to see everything completed and to see how much heart was put into each and every project. We had Aunt Judy (one of our church members Aunts) on the phone, because she does mission trips and will be delivery the flip flops. The kids got to see pics of the plane and she was so touched by the flip flops (which left me and Courtney in tears). The Red Cross, Fire Department, and Sherrifs department came and thanked them for their donations. Also the lady from the children's home came. Her mother came with her and she just sat and listened to her speak. When she was leaving, she asked for a baby blanket. She had just gotten her leg amputated 3 weeks ago and it got cold in the Dr. offices. We gave her a blanket and it fit perfectly on her lap. She was thrilled and said she would think of the kids daily. That meant so much to me. That was such a sweet lady and that blanket made her SOOOO happy!!! Carly and Chloe loved to help me at night get things organized for each day. They always asked who was getting each project and I explained each situation. They want to love on those kids without Mommy's and Daddy's in the worst way. The were so compassionate towards each situation and really wanted to help. Even though they didn't make any of the projects (they are still in preschool) they had a servants heart from the get go with all this. Today, we went to the Homeless shelter to deliver the wrapped forks, spoons, and knives. They were so sad about it and have prayed for them at lunch, dinner and before bed. We also said a prayer when we left the Homeless shelter too. Carly was very worried about socks. Don't know why she thought of socks, but she said they might not have socks and she didn't want their feet to be cold. So I am thinking we will have to do something about that come winter time :) Anyways, it was a wonderful week and I can't wait until next year!!

Totally and Utterly . . . . GROSS!!!

Haven't posted this yet. Just couldn't get up the nerve. But, seeing as how I print this blog as a diary for my kids, I guess I should put this in there. The other night I had Harper and Finley in the bathtub. I walked into the girls' room and got out their pjs. I started to walk to Harper's room, when I walked past the bathroom and looked in. I catch Harper feeding Finley something. I went in and said, "Harper, what are you doing?" He said, "Feeding Fifi!" Not shocked that there was a foreign food particle floating in the tub by any means (there is usually a stowaway Cheerio hidden somewhere on her body), I go to open her mouth to fetch the food particle. As I get close, the food particle gets spit out. Oh yes, Harper fed his baby sister a terd ball!!! She must have let the little sucker out and he just saw it floating in the water with him and figured it was bite size so she could eat it!!!! SO GROSS!!! It makes me cringe every time I think about it. My poor Finley Claire ate her own shewie! At least she spit it out, so she must have some taste buds!!!