Friends......

If this true, I'm overflowing with happiness. And yes, I know that I'm really blessed. I have lots of friends but there is a certain group that will always hold an extra special place in my heart.

Believe it or not, I tend to be this type of person to some extent. Therefore, I manage to find people just like me.

As soon as we made our plans to move, I knew I wanted 1 day with this crazy group of girls. We go in spurts of doing things together and we were overdue for a day together. So I invited them to my house 5 days before we moved. We didn't do to much as far as getting anything accomplished. But then, there were 6 of us and 15 children (one is in heaven, and one was with a Grandma because she had pink eye). We planned super easy meals and talked about nearly everything. Our husbands came out after they got off work and the party continued. I thought I would share a few pictures, esp since we had a professional photographer in the midst to take them :) . 

Shiloh, almost 2

Jude, 1 and 1/2

Michael, 4

3 of my kiddos

Dear teething Shiloh, chewed on everything, including her fingers

Makayla sneaking candy

Mrs. Krista with her pacifier  

Krista has a huge servant heart. She is always doing something kind for others and takes time to ask and listen to how you are really doing. Don't let the cuteness fool you though, she can throw insults almost as good as anyone else I know!

O the mess they made!

But the fun they had was worth every bit. 

Just talking about deep things, like diapers and meal planning and teething and exhaustion. 

Hannah with her rainbow baby, Augustine. 

 This woman has been such a challenge to me as I watched her go through more then anyone should have too. 

This describes a big part of my relationship with Hannah. My life would be so dull without all the things she hurls at me, lol.

Baby Augustine, 5 months

Look at them, just figuring us all out!

And then there's Charissa, who always has time for the children. 

It's so wonderful to have her hang out with us. We can always use an extra set of hands and also her perspective, which tends to be a bit more realistic then the rest of our mushy mommy brains. She also makes yummy, foamy, coffee drinks.

The baby-wearing hippies

 Sharla is in the midst of raising her 3 children that are 3 and under and doing an amazing job. She has inspired me many times with her positive and ability to put her children ahead of herself.

Alex and Emily washing dishes

Sadly, I don't have a picture of Maria but I'll talk about her here. She does more then I ever dream of doing. Wife, Mom, Foster Mom, leads community Bible study, involved in Kids Club, and more. Her passion for reaching others is deep and real.

The end of the day, we're looking frazzled and happy.

Winnie the Pooh came and helped us out for the last hour or so with entertainment

Man talk

This picture is not flattering at all to me but it's just so real......

These 3 little guys gobbled up cheerios as fast as I could pour them out!

Michael watching Grayson. He has such a fascination with babies. He told me he wants 100 babies because they are just so cute.

More man talk

And there we are, all together in one picture with a bunch of  baby boys. Funny thing is, there was 2 more boys that Maria and Charissa could have grabbed.

My soul was definitely refreshed!

Now I'm all sappy and missing Y'all........to each one of my friends, whether you are pictured or not, I just want to thank-you for what you have added to my life! I treasure all the memories I've made over the years and thank God for bringing each of you to my life!

We did it! I'm so happy to have the hardest part of moving behind us. The last 2 days were a little crazy. The weather was amazing though so I kept shooing the children outside to play. Michael made this heffalump trap. He didn't catch any heffalumps but Ethan got tangled up in the mess.

A heffalump trap.

My last view of the house. Eldon will be going back next week to collect it all.

At least the kitchen looks nice.

The trip went down went very well too. Thank-you to those of you who prayed. We had dry roads the whole way and God also granted us safety. The children did well. Ethan howled a few times but nothing extreme.

The balloon kept him entertained a long time.

She loves finding hidden objects.

Miss Emily had many conversations with her balloon.

O the fun of rubbing balloons in your hair!

Putting Ethan to sleep.

This girl never ceases to amaze me. Ethan just loves her. She makes him laugh and giggle then holds his hand and puts him to sleep when he gets tired. And let's be honest, sometimes she teases him until he screams angrily at her.

And then we finally got to mom and dad's. Melissa was just saddling Scout when we pulled in and was delighted to give the children rides. 

Emily and Makayla with Aunt Melissa

 I am so thrilled to be able to watch a beautiful sunset every night from my dining room window. Expect to see lots of sunset photos! In Arkansas we could never see them because of the hill behind our house. I missed it badly..........

 

Babywearing........because it saves my arms and back and little man loves it.

My parents raise organic, free-range, GMO free chickens. They started out with 20,000 but the flock is a year old so right now we only get around 11,000 eggs a day. It's still a lot!

Chicken farmers!

10,800 eggs! And 1 adorable boy that I'm proud to call mine.

We took vacation from school for almost 2 weeks. It's time to get back at it! My children do much better with some structure and responsibility so we pulled out some books and worked at it for a little. 

Emily is crying because she dropped a color and doesn't want to reach down and get it. 

Michael got parked by dad :)

My parents and little sisters were planning to go to PA to visit my brother so we made sure to come before they left so that we could do chores for them. We had a little Christmas party the night before they left. Both grandparents gave the children money so we added a little and bought them all bikes.

Ethan's first Christmas

He was thrilled to be allowed to rip paper!

He loves it!

Grandpa helping Emily

The new wheels!

Can't you see why he has captured our hearts?!

 Eldon is an RN, which means that he almost always has to work on Christmas. Since he is in between jobs right now he had all holidays off this year! Of course, he had to get up at 6 to do chicken chores but that barely counts since it's still all kinds of fun for him :) . We had ham and eggs for breakfast and gave the children a few more gifts. Giving gifts is not one of my love languages AT ALL but I have been blessed with a husband and daughter who have that for their primary love language. I am slowly learning that it's just how some people show love and that not all gifts have to be practical or needed. Makayla had gifts for all of us too.

She gave Eldon and I each 41 cents. A quarter, dime, nickel, and penny. Now that is love!

Happy meal stickers and a dime for Emily.

Michael was always asking to borrow her much-loved binoculars so she gave him those. She challenges me.

I don't have a picture, but her and Michael together gave Ethan a John Deere mower that Grandma King gave Michael last year. They were so excited!

They both got a knife. I'm a little nervous about that!

A stamping set.

We had a good day even though we didn't do anything special. Eldon worked in the chicken house a lot, cleaning and setting spreadsheets up for dad. I organized to my heart's content. There is finally no boxes or baskets sitting around and everything has a home. It feels so normal! 

Our supper. Cream cheese filled, bacon wrapped, chicken breast. The rest was just for show :). 

By the way, if you don't buy meat from Zaycon, you need to google it right now and find out if they drop off near you. We buy their bacon, chicken breasts, 97% ground beef, and anything else that sounds good. I've never had such good meat before. 

The neighbors brought us a cookie plate and visited a while. Very kind of them and the cookies were delicious! We may have pigged out on them :/

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!