Our progress

As you can see, I am an awesome packer. I don't know what I would do if I had to move miles away and things needed to arrive safely!! We have made good progress this week. Tuesday is our official move day. We have cleared out all 3 kids bedrooms, repainted them back to the boring color, (I was sad to see their paint go bye bye), and the carpets are clean in those rooms. We've kinda been taking a room at a time, and that is going well. We are just putting everything in the garage as we clear it out, so hopefully that will make move day go quickly.

We have all 4 kids sleeping in a room together this week with just the portable bed and 3 mattresses, and they have done better at bedtime than ever! Even baby, I just go lay him in the bed when the others go down, and he goes right on to sleep. He has also been sleeping straight through until 7 or 8, that is a new thing for him. I think he enjoys having the company. I had planned on having a boy's room, and a girl's room when we move, but now I am rethinking the idea into 1 sleeping room, and 1 play room. Noah and Z are my 2 worst kids at bedtime, and they have done great this week.

She's officially a 1st grader

That is what losing the top front tooth makes me think of....a 1st grader. (which she is, now she just looks the part to me. haha) Her missing tooth looks so cute to me...Just as cute as when Noah lost his! This tooth loss was just as drama filled as the other 2 have been. My, oh my, I am afraid she is going to terrify her normally brave little sister for when her time comes soon. How many more does this girl have to lose????

Quick post

Yes, I am going crazy this week...so much to do!! I did a quick post on my private blog if you want to check it out. I am so ready for things to settle and get back to blogging normally again!

Pictures

I have just been itching to blog, but no time to do it! In the middle of all this moving, I had to take some pictures for a friend, so I took some of Zachariah while I was at it. It was long over due. He is going to be 8 months old in just a week, and the last time I took some on the background he was 4 months old. I have a lot to post, but I will do that later. Here are just a few...I can't take any with out big brother and sisters wanting to get in the pictures. They hadn't even combed their hair, and were sick, but that's just my kiddos! This is the first ones I have gotten of the 4 together since he first came to us. I can't believe we have had him for 6 1/2 months, the time has flown! This baby boy is so silly, and so much fun these days! We are all just totally in love with him.

Do you see those sick eyes on Noah and Rachel? Bless their heart, they have had fever all week.

I am loving how Zachariah is holding his feet!

Packing...

Yep, that is right. I am packing up our house. We are moving to a new home in just a week and a half! We have found us one that will save us a good amount of money, but it is with the same people we are renting from now, so we have to do the switch by the end of them month!! Oh well, at least we will get it over with quickly! I keep forgetting to take my camera when we go over there, but I will post pics when I can. You probably won't hear much from me the next couple of weeks. In the next 2 weeks I have 2 photo sessions, 1 doc visit, Clay has to work the weekend, I'm going to Monticello, we have to pack this whole house by the 24th, we have to repaint the kid's bedrooms back to the original color...(we have finished one...but that darn hot pink is still showing through!) clean the carpets, clean this house, clean the other house....let's see what else....oh yeah, just everyday life with a baby and job and 3 other kids. haha I have declared a 2 week break from school though!

Here it is.....the Titanic!

K.T. guessed it right, it is the Titanic. That wadded up piece of paper is the iceberg too...haha

This was so much fun to make. I was very impressed with Noah on this project. He came up with the idea from the toilet paper rolls...I only just helped him decide what size boxes to use to make the shapes...he did all the painting. I get to take credit for the circle windows. At the end, I asked him if he wanted to do the windows or for me to do it, and he said, "Mom, you can do it b/c I have done everything else on here, and I want you to get to have a chance to do some too!" So I got out my circle brush and dotted away! We looked all over the internet for photos, and it was really hard to find them in color, but we finally got it figured out as closely as we could. We ended up spending a lot of time online looking...watching music videos from the movie, watching interviews of the original survivors, looking at old photos. He was so excited, and now he really wants to go to the Titanic museum in Branson.

I have Clay to think for the supplies for this project. We go through so much trash each day, he started undoing all the boxes and just stacking them on top of each other on a shelf in the garage. I am always very quick to throw things away...but I was able to find just what I needed in his stash, and that isn't even the first time I have recycled his cardboard for school. For this boat, we used 2 of the 12 pack coke boxes, a shake and bake box and shells and cheese box, a Ziplock bag box, and then 4 toilet paper rolls! I then just hot glues all the layers together. If we hadn't fun out of black paint halfway through, then this project would have been free!

Noah's boat

Noah is a crafty thing...he is always wanting to do a project, draw, or to build something. Last night, he decided he wanted to build a famous big ship. He got all these boxes from the garage and constructed this. When I realized he wanted me to attach these boxes together, and then save this forever, I stepped in and started brainstorming with him to come up with something smaller, and more realistic. So, our beginnings are below this photo....can anyone guess what ship we are building? I will post pics of the finished product.

Making Taffy

My mom got Noah a Civil War projects book for Christmas, and inside it had a recipe for Molasses taffy. Oddly, we actually had some molasses in the cabinet (for some wheat bread Clay was going to make) so Clay and Noah decided to give this taffy a try today. This was something they made during that era that was a big treat. It smelled horrible while it was being cooked...kinda like prune juice, and I am not sure what else. After it was made...it was tolerable...but Noah loves that stuff!

What a way to cook....barefoot on the counter!

Then we made wrappers for it out of wax paper.

Fall Lapbook

This lapbook was just a combination of photos of the fall related activities we did, and a little bit on activities off of enchanted learning. We went to the pumpkin patch, carved our pumpkin, painted mini pumpkins, and went on a nature walk, and drew pencil drawings of what we found.

Corduroy

Corduroy was one of my favorite books as a child, so I was excited to choose this lapbook to do one weekend while Amber was here so that she could do one. She really enjoyed it.

Our weekend

I was excited about H's party this weekend, but was also dreading the weekend b/c Clay was pretty much at work the whole time, and I wondered what in the world we would do all weekend! Well, it ended up being great! Friday, we went to go visit our friends the Parker's, friday night, A and H came over, then Sat we went to his party, it was beautiful, so we played at the park. Then, we came home and the kids ended up getting to play with all their friends in the neighborhood. Then, Sunday, we got up early enough for me to get everyone to Sunday school by 9 am (that was an accomplishment on my part!) to a new church, and we loved it. Then, they invited us to come back that night for a devo and Super Bowl party, so we went back, and the kids had a blast.

To see more pics from our weekend, go to my other blog... www.blessingsforthegoodlife.blogspot.com

If you are a new reader, drop me an e-mail to info@maurydraper.com and I will be happy to send you an invite to the blog.

Hunter's 1 yr party!

The party went really well....we were so glad to get to be part of his 1st birthday!! Ben, his foster dad, said a beautiful prayer honoring him. It was so sweet...thanking God for his life, and asking him to be with him throughout his life.

What a special little boy!

the kiddos took her stickers that Clay had gotten them from work

I think I know who blew his candle out....Rachel is right in the middle of it!

He wasn't sure what to do at first...his first handful he thew in the floor. We kept waiting on him to spit up....anytime he tries to eat solids it makes him gag and throw up, but he didn't.

He also rubbed it all in his ear!

He was really rubbing it in his hair!

He got very tired towards the end, he looked like he would just konk out.

Zachariah hanging in Hunter's new walker. I loved that walker....I really want one! She said that folks from her church gave them gift certificates to Babys R Us, and that is how they got such a nice one!

He just about wiped that cake all over her!

Aren't they so cute!! I think they look like they could be their parents! What a cute family!

After the party, we walked over to the park. Jenny said that Amber was very different having 3 other kids to play with. Usually she and Ben have to entertain her the whole time. I think she enjoyed getting to just sit back and watch them play.