Hunter's sillly faces

He was so good at the zoo, he is absolutely perfect anytime I take him anywhere. He LOVES to be out and about. He just chilled the whole time at the zoo.

I caught him!

I got the camera out to catch Zachriah sucking on his 2 fingers....one of his new things when he doesn't have his passy, and then he started smiling at me!

All the pics of him smiling are blurry b/c I would talk and smile at him, and then throw the camera up to take his pic real quick, but I finally got it!! That silly little boy!

Random complaining...this and that...

***Since I am in a complaining mood, I would like to add one more thing to this post. haha. It has been 3 weeks since I took the kids for their PACE evaluation, and got all sorts of referrals for them. The only problem is, I am waiting on their case worker to change their Primary Care Physician for me. I could use the one that they were going to with their parents, but, everyone has advised me to have it switched to the one I use for the rest of my family. PLUS, the one I use is at Children's Hospital, and at the evaluation, they said it would be better for me to go there, b/c so many of the referrals will go through there. I can't get any kind of therapy going for the kids without 1st having a referral from the Primary Care Physican, and I can't get an appointment with them, until I can get the name changed of their Doc on their Medicaid. Urgh. She has been telling me for 2 weeks she would do it, and then today, she said she HAD done it, but when I called for the 3rd time trying to make a doc's appointment, they told me that no, it had not been changed, and they directed me to Medicaid, telling me that I could just go in and change that myself. I was then told from Medicaid, that NO, I can't change it myself on foster children. I still haven't gotten their shots done that are WAY behind b/c I wanted to do that at the doc instead of going to the Health Dept, b/c I could do another post on the run around I have gotten with them on everything. Why can't ANYTHING be simple???? Hunter's evaluation has me getting his shots, a hearing evaluation, a neurological evaluation, a referral for physical, and speech therapy, a swallow study, (has has problems with leaking bad around his mouth when he drinks) and then, a follow up for his 9 month old appointment, with a vision screening. Amber needs lots of shots, and a referral for speech therapy, I am afraid she has a UTI, and really need to take her for that, and she will be 4 very soon, and needs a check up for that. I guess the good news in all this, by the time I get all their appointments done, they will be 9 months and 4 yrs, so I can just include that too...but I am just so ready to get the ball rolling on their therapy. **

Why is it, if a baby makes the littlest sound, people assume...OH, I must cram a bottle down his throat. This is becoming a pet peeve of mine. I deal with this with both my babies. Hunter has just now learned to go to sleep with me rocking. Doesn't freak out when I take the bottle out of his mouth while he is asleep, and has learned new ways to be comforted without a bottle 24/7.

I have had issues from the get go with Zachariah on this. He can be a fussy baby. Yes, I know that better than anyone. He also spits up a lot. Why is it, no matter how much I tell his case worker, PLEASE don't overfeed him b/c it makes him spit up worse, and he is so cranky b/c his belly hurts, that she continues to do it?? She has had kids of her own, you would think she knows. For example, and this was the worst. The day he had court, I wasn't able to go, but I fed him right before I left the house to take him to her. At the time he was having about 2-3 ounces ever 2-3 hrs. I have told her and told her just to give him a couple of ounces at a time b/c of his belly and spitting up. She will always say, oh, he is so greedy..and I tell her, yes, he acts that way, but we know better than him. He confuses his belly hurting with thinking he needs more food, and if you give it to him, it makes him sicker, in turn making him more fussy, and he will still act like he wants to eat b/c he doesn't understand. ANYWAY, I took him to her at 11:30, she had him back to me by 2:00. I had packed a 4 ounce bottle, and then put powder in an 8 ounce bottle to be filled up IF he needed it, but since I had just fed him before he left, by my calculations, at the MOST he would have just drank the 4 ounce, and probably not that much. When she returned him to me, she said he had the 4 ounce, and the 8 ounce, and needed more b/c he was so greedy. OMG! Can I tell you how that poor baby cried all the rest of the day and jerked in pain? I wanted to kill her! So, from now on, I pack the minimum of what he needs, b/c they will feed him whatever is there, and they only have him an hour. Good grief. She was at our house one day and she was holding him. The instant he started crying she said, "oh, he needs a bottle". As soon as she handed him back to me, and I just put him in a comfortable position, he stopped. Urgh!

And, while I am complaining about over feeding, if you are going to give the baby 3 times the amount he normally eats, PLEASE change his diaper!!! Yep, I had one soaked through, and one close to it when I got home today from their visits.

And while I am talking about pee....Oh MY, I am sick of Pee. Everyday I am washing someone's bedding b/c of pee. Overflow of diapers, a little girl that is having bathroom issues....Ugh, so sick of pee. Oh, and I SO love the waterproof mattress pad, that isn't waterproof at all. And now a lovely pee smell in a mattress, and I can't get the smell out. And a little girl that no matter how much I BEG her to tell me when she has an accident, and PROMISE her she won't get into trouble, still won't tell me she has had an accident, and is so sneaky at changing panties that I never know....Until I step in the big puddle in the floor and see that is is now soaked through a blanket, stuffed animal, pillow, and comforter that are in the floor that is on top of the rug that is also dripping, and then still through to the carpet. And she tells me her "medicine" made her do it....but she doesn't take any medicine. I had the case worker ask her mom about it today, and she said she never has accidents, and she doesn't know anything about the "medicine", although she mentions it far too frequently for her mom to not know anything about it....in my opinion anyway. ***(but please don't think I am mad at her b/c of this, as I know she can't help it, I jsut hate pee.)

Oh, and as I filled out my mileage sheet to get reimbursed for all this running around that I do, I realized that every Monday morning I drive 70 miles round trip, and this is all within Little Rock. It would really be nice if SOMEONE that I ask that works for DHS would actually be able to tell me how to fill it out, and who to turn it in to. I finally found out who I turn it in to, and that has been a process in itself, and I still haven't made any progress.

Can you tell that LIFE is getting on my nerves today?? haha

Our 1st outing as a family

We finally went on our first outing as a family of 8. We set out in 2 vehicles, I had the van with Noah, Leah, Hunter and Zachariah, Clay in the Navigator with Rachel and Amber. We went to the zoo, so it was totally free (b/c we have a family pass, and the didn't charge us any to add our new kids), except the gas it took for 2 vehicles to drive 30 mins to get there. We had a good day. Everyone acted great and had a lot of fun. There was the typical crying/meltdown once they got hot, tired, and thirsty, but everyone was equally whining, and I felt the same way, so we left soon after that! It was SO nice to get out of the house today, I had a great time, and I was so proud of my big family!

Look, they are line up by size just by accident!
Even Zachariah was so good! He only cried bad enough to get out of the stoller once when he was hungry...that is a record for him! He was in a really good mood, and has been the last few days.

Ahoy there, Mateys!

Since we are studying Pirates, we had to have a treasure hunt. Noah drew a treasure map for everyone to follow, and then lead them on the quest. The neighbor got in on the hunt too.

I love this one!





We couldn't leave little sis out, she got to get her "treasure" when she got home from school!

When there were just 4....

I think I took these pictures just 2 days before Hunter and Amber came. I was trying to get some pics of all my kids together. I totally forgot about these in all the chaos. It was way too bright for poor little Zachy Poo...(that's what Clay calls him), but I still love these. I was ready to do another quick session today of all 6 kids. Clay had a wedding tonight, and with my 2 little cameras duds, I couldn't even find a battery for the only good camera left in the house. GOOD grief, no camera at all!!

I think this one is my favorite

It looks like Zachariah is saying with his fingers..."I'm o.k.!"


Again, I am editing these on my laptop, I have NO idea what they really look like. Drives me crazy!!

The return of "the Blankets"

Do you remember these blankets?? The ones my girls had attached to them at all times, that so lovingly went to "blanket world". Well, one day when Noah was doing laundry, he found my hiding place. I thought I had hid them somewhere else, but aparently not. So I had to explain to my girls that I was a big fat liar. So, they are back, but they aren't AS attached as before, but they will soon disappear again I am afraid. But, the other day, they found a new creative use for them...aren't they so stylish!?!?

See before...Rachel hugging hers so lovingly, and Leah had hers attached to her to eat breakfast! (my gosh she looks younger here, and this was just last year!)

The Magic Treehouse Series

I cannot express to you how excited I am to be posting this, but Noah has read his 1st chapter book!!! Not only that, he read it on his own, and pretty quickly too. I purchased this book for him a few months ago, in search of SOMETHING he would be interested in enough to want to try. I had to force Leah to read a Junie B Jones book. It is not about the reading...that part was easy for her, but she said she doesn't like her b/c she hates everything. Hmmm...so if anyone has any suggestion for girl chapter books she might be interested in, let me know!

So, back to Noah. I knew he was frustrated at seeing his sister read that level of a book, so that is why I got him this one. He picked it up last week, and just started reading it. I wondered how it would go, and at each update he would say, "mom, I just read 2 chapters!" I thought, no way, it was like pulling teeth to get Leah to read just 1 chapter at a time. Well, he did read it. He would pick it up at night when his brain works the best, and he finished it in just a few days. His reading comprehension of it was great too. He was telling us in great detail what the book was about.

So, of course, I went online in search of more of these. What I found , all the books in this series are based on History or Science subjects, and they even have books about the "real" story to go along with them. I found a lot of them on ebay that was $25 with shipping for 18 books. I paid $4 just for this one book at the bookstore. We are so excited for these new books to arrive, and Leah even seems interested in some of the titles. I think I may use these as my idea starter for our history subjects we study. It worked out perfect that he picked this book up at the same time we are working on our Pirate unit.

The great thing about the Pirates book, I found it at our library, so I didn't have to go out and buy it!

School Blog

We have jumped back into homeschooling like we never left off. Thankfully the babies have started taking good naps at the same time and that frees me up. Some days, school and baby caring is ALL I get done, but we are managing!

I have been working on bringing my school blog up to date, and I will try to update it at least once a week with things we did that week, so check in every now and then. I want to go back and show some things they did when they were in school, but I don't know if I will ever get around to doing that.

School is back in full swing!!

We have been working hard getting back in the swing of homeschooling.

Rachel is drawing in her journal


Noah writing in his journal. They did this in school, and I loved reading their's so much, I decided to continue doing this.

(ignore the wet hair...)
This sight....all 3 working hard is a beautiful picture to me.
She is writing.... "Day 2 of Fall we cleaned house"
So proud he is using the finger space