A Little Bit of Life

Now that I'm feeling almost like my old self again I'm determined to get back to my blogging. I now have two more children to add to my mix of craziness so I imagine I will have some great stories as time goes on.  But for now here are few from my summer with all 11 and just with our 6.

This is Cooper.  Adorable and cuddly.  Can't you tell?

So Cooper comes into my room and gives me the biggest smile and says, "Miss Anra (Miss Andrea) I give you sugar and you give me sugar" as he puckers up his lips for a big kiss. How could you not want to pinch his little cheeks?

Justin has been enjoying his new (used but new to us) John Deere mower and the kids really enjoy helping daddy outside with the yard work.  Having a huge front yard is awesome because  you can  do a lot of races that involve a lot of running which means worn out and tired kids :)  Plus you get cute pictures like this:

Autumn, Zander, Jakob and Paige
Kris, Caleb, Marley, Noah and Trent
Cooper and Carson

And can brag a bit on your man like this:

We took our 6 out to O'Charley's for dinner.  A big storm rolled in and besides the massive drops of rain coming down outside along with thunder and lightening the power was flickering.  Zander and Trent had gone to the bathroom and the power went out in the building.  I noticed as the boys came back and sat down they both had big eyes and made a remark about the power coming back on.  That's when the story came out.  Apparently when the power went out Trent panicked and bolted out of the bathroom leaving Zander alone, in a stall, in the dark.  After groping his way to the door he opened it to find Trent waiting outside.  We were all laughing pretty hard about this.  I definitely don't want to be stuck with Trent in a crisis until he understands no family member is left behind lol. 

How I Broke My Leg And Recovered With 11 Kids In My House

In the hospital before surgery.  If you dare to look closely you can see the break



Stupid cast

First doctors appointment

The boot

Looking so much better

Yes you read the title right.  And yes it's as crazy as it sounds.  So let me begin...........

June 24th was a day full of lots of cleaning and lots of waiting.  Justin had been in Virginia to pick up his kids and was on his way home with all 7 of them.  Yes 7, which bumped us up to 11 kids for the summer.  So of course I was calmly (or maybe freaking out a bit about 11 kids) to come home.  My brother Nic had come over to visit late that night and was keeping me company.  I remembered that our trash need to be put out at the curb, hollered at Nic I was taking the trash out and preceded to head out the back door. 

What happened next is hard to explaining because I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED! I stepped out on the back steps and the next thing I knew I was laying on my side on the ground.  The first thing I noticed was the smell of dirt which confused me but then I realized I was laying on the ground.  Of course I then thought what in the world am I doing on the ground.  That's when the worst pain of my life (worse than childbirth) hit me.  I knew something was terribly wrong with my leg and after letting out a couple of pain filled moans I screamed at the top of my lungs for my brother.

Now I'm pretty sure my brother will never forget that night.  I can't even imagine how he felt to hear me scream like that other than he thought someone had attacked me.  It felt like an eternity but Nic was out the door in the matter of seconds and we were on the phone with 911.  Shortly after our call my sister-in-law, Jaime, showed up.  Now even though I was in pain I was beginning to think maybe I just sprained my ankle or something and I called 911 for no good reason.  I asked Jaime to look at my leg.  It just looked flat and normal to me.  I'm not going to describe how I moved and what she saw but let me say NEVER ASK A PREGNANT WOMEN TO SEE IF YOUR LEG IS BROKEN.  I still feel awful for doing that but I was very convinced when she told me that I was not ok.  Then I felt the panic hit me and knew I was going into shock.  I quick phone call to Justin (who was an hour away) calmed me down and got me to relax.

The ambulance arrived quickly. I definitely had broken both bones in half.  They splinted my leg and then I had to get up and move onto the bed which was extremely painful.  I had another moment of panic when I looked into the kitchen doorway and saw Jakob standing there.  I'll never forget the look on his face.  Luckily Jaime got him back to his room.

In the ambulance I was hooked up to an iv and calls were made to the hospital.  The pain meds were wonderful.  The hospital is about five minutes away and I was in a room and seen by nurses immediately.  The doctor was not long to follow.  Kathy (my brother's mother-in-law) stayed with me until Justin got there.  I was so relieved to see him.  We found out that I would need to have surgery the next day.  Justin headed home to the 11 kids and I had a wonderful, medicated nights sleep. 

I had surgery the next afternoon and everything went well.  It was a clean break but I had a rod and four screws put in.  I had one of those awful, uncomfortable casts put on that I would have to wear for two weeks.  Although I had just had surgery my mind was focused on the 11 kids at home and how I was going to take care of them with a broken leg.  In the middle of those thoughts a man walks into my room to discuss mobility with me.  Meaning crutches, cane ect.  Well the doctor thought my best option was a walker. I on the other hand was not exactly pleased about that considering I wasn't 70 with a broken hip.  (no offense meant)  But it was the best choice whether I like it or not. 

I got to go home the next day.  Justin brought all the older kids up to get me.  Jakob was very relieved to see me and examined my leg thoroughly before deeming me fit to move.  Getting dressed and going to the bathroom was very difficult.  I was still really stressed about being home with all the kids.  My wonderful mother decided to fly out and help me for several weeks.  She arrived the following week.  I also had my first doctors appointment.  All was going well and I got my cast cut off and a boot put on.

I spent the next several weeks applying pressure to my foot and learning to walk again while helping my mom as much as I could with all the kids.  Some days were very hard and some were actually nice.  I struggle still with not being able to be the busy mommy I was.  I enjoyed my time with my mom.  She is an amazing woman.  Justin's five younger kids are quite the handful and most days were rough but it was nice to have some improvement in them towards the end.  I was ready for some peace and quiet though.  So five of his kids returned home just after mom left but we ended up keeping two of them.  Yes the two we have been going to court for.  God spent the summer answering prayers right and left. 

I'm still not walking on my own but have made excellent progress.  I have a doctors appointment next week and am curious to see how my leg is.  I'm able to get out and about to enjoy time with my family.  Everyday I feel a little better.  Praise God for his healing touch!

I have to add a few things that will make you think:

When my brother pulled out his phone and put it towards my face when calling 911 I realized I had a death grip on my cell phone in my left hand.  The thing is I had put my cell phone in the right pocket of my robe that I was currently laying on.  There is no way I could have gotten to my phone.  I believe that God put that phone in my hand.  If Nic hadn't been there I would have still been able to get help before going into shock.

It was physically impossible for me to fall off my back steps and break my leg the way I did.  You can ask my mom.  She's seen it.  For the break I received I would have had to been walking up my back steps and fell off.  But instead I was walking down and fell off the left side when stepping with my right foot.  I was on my side with my hands under my head like I was sleeping.  I didn't get knocked out nor did I have any bruises other than my leg which we are still unsure how I broke that.   I should have hit my head.  Hard.  And had a very beat up hip.  The doctor's kept asking me if I hit my head because the way I fell was just not possible.  Again God is good.

Something To Make You Smile

My twins have just been horrible this week which has not made me a happy mommy.  I thought I would take a look back at my week and find the things that made me smile. 

Jakob and Trent playing Lego Batman on the Wii
Trent: Mom I can't get Roger to do anything!  He just keeps falling!
Me: Roger? Who's Roger?
Trent: Mom he's my guy!  See he keeps falling!
Me:  Well first of all you and Jakob need to switch remotes because you are playing his guy and second if you are going to be a fan of Batman then it is very important to know that his sidekicks name is ROBIN not Roger.
Trent: Mom my guy is a boy and his name is Roger.  Boys don't have girl names.
Hmmmm Batman and Roger it is

Kris walked over to me a a 2 foot stick
Kris:  Mommy do you "fink" if I put "fis" in my nose it would hurt?
Me:  Why don't you go ahead and try it
Kris:  (studying the stick) I'm gonna go draw with chalk
Haha that's what I thought

Marley: When I'm big like a mommy I'm gonna be a teacher.  I'm gonna tell the kids be quiet and we gonna sing ABCs.
Kris:  When I'm big like a daddy I'm going to drink beer and play "bideo" games.
Lol I'm glad one of them has things figured out

It's so frustrating when you know you have something but just can't find it.  It's even more frustrating when it's four years worth of pictures on a single disk that you had copied off your computer before it crashed for good.  So after much stressing over the loss of all these pictures, which included three of my kids births, I found the disk. And of course in the most logical place ever.  In the Wii Fit case.  Why wouldn't it be there? 

Relieved at finally finding the disk with all my pictures I rushed to my computer to check it out.  There are over 5,000 pictures on there!  So after scanning a few files and seeing that it was all there I decided not to do a memory lane blog as I had planned but to post some of our summer fun pics that are already nicely filed on my computer.

Coming from the northwest we were craving the sunshine and can I say how wonderful it is to wake up every day to sun.  Even our cloudy days are bright.  (Sorry to rub it all in)  But do you know how wonderful it is to wake up and send the kids OUTSIDE to play!?!?  In the morning people. Not until is warms up in the afternoon.  We were blessed to find a house with a huge front and back yard so we are very excited to get a big pool and trampoline.  Right now the kids use one of those tiny $10.00 pools that you can basically just sit in but the kids appreciate it anyways.



Our "not cool" pool

Other than the tiny pool the only other toys (did I mention we sold everything to move) we have for outside right now are two tonka trucks and a scooter that the kids have a blast with. They have to get creative though.  Marley likes to ride the little truck or she sits in the big truck and gets pushed around in it by her brothers.  Yes she is a princess.  Kris drives around the whole back yard picking up sticks and leaves and then he likes to sit and go through what he's collected.  Trent loves his scooter and has gotten really good at it.  Jakob doesn't go outside unless forced to because he would rather be playing with LEGOS.  So I compromised and let him bring some outside to play with.  He enjoys the sun a lot now lol.

It was actually 72 out but it felt cold

Sorting through his treasures

Just having fun

He loves his scooter

Happiness comes in the form of Legos for him

Our library has a lot of different things they do during the summer and this week we will be enjoying a movie and magic show.  We have also made it out to see a couple of movies.  The first one was the Three Stooges.  My dad got Jakob interested in the old movies so he was super excited to see the new movie when it came out.  He was so hilarious to watch.  Next we saw the new Pirate movie and Marley spent two days trying to convince me that she needed a luxurious beard so she could be a pirate.  This weekend the plan is Madagascar and then the end of this month the new Ice Age with all 11 kids.  You could say we are trying to get out more lol.  We look forward to our camping trips and trips to the park and lake and hopefully some Amish country in Kentucky.  There is so much to do before school starts in August!

At the new Three Stooges

And finally a Trentism...........

Trent to Kris who was playing in the bathroom sink, "God made the water and if you don't listen to mommy and stop playing God will turn the water off.  If we don't have water then mommy can't wash our clothes and we will be stinky and no kids will play with us. 

Kris "But daddy says it's ok that boys are sometimes stinky"

Trent "Not if you want to get a wife Topher"

:)

To much time gone by

Wow!  It has been so long since I've blogged anything.  That's what happens when you don't have a computer anymore.  Thanks so my parents I can get back to blogging again on our new laptop :)  I'm just going to sum up these past few months and share some of my funny "kid" stories.  If I don't this might be the longest post ever lol.  Back in March we made the big move to Tennessee.  We decided to sell most of our stuff and drive over.  Justin piled what we had left into his truck, trailer and my sis' car and we were off.  Before I start on our trip let me say that saying goodbye to your family is sooooo hard.  It was very emotional and I cried for a quite a while before I decided that it was safer to see while driving instead of bawling my eyes out.  You have a new kind of love for your family when you leave.

That being said we headed down through California.  I don't like California nor do I appreciate California drivers.  Enough said.  When we got to Arizona we were able to spend a couple of days with my Grandpa and Grandma Franklin and my Great Grandpa and Grandma Liddle.  I love that they got to see all the kids and meet Justin.  New Mexico was gorgeous to drive through and Texas was pretty decent.  Oklahoma and Arkansas are two places I don't care to drive through again.  It was such a great sight to see the Welcome to Tennessee sign. 

Our home was bigger than we expected and our front and back yards are huge. The boy's schools are great and we love the town.  Justin was blessed with finding a job right away and he's been busy ever since.  Nic and Jaime moved here a month or so before us with her parents and they happen to live right down the road.  It's really nice having them so close.  Another great thing is they are expecting a baby boy in August!  So exciting!  Oh and Trent graduated from kindergarten!

School is out for the summer  and now the fun begins.  Camping, fishing, swimming, lots of library time, a new nephew, and my parents coming to visit and possibly my grandparents.  Oh and did I mention I'm supposed to be getting married and my 7 soon-to-be step kids are spending the summer with us.  Plus over here school starts on August 6th.  Yeah that's how we role.  Busy, busy, busy!!!

Before the pictures here are a few funnies from the kids:

Kris- Who made stop lights turn green?
Trent- God did.  He turns them green so mommy can get home to make daddy dinner.

Kris- Mom I have an owie on my little foot?
Me-  Where?  I don't see it
Kris- Right there on my little foot.  (pointing at his little toe)
Me- You mean your little toe?
Kris- (thinking)  I guess is can be a toe

Kris- ( after putting a pair of socks on) I'm a genius

Trent, Kris and Marley chose to have huge temper tantrums after I told them to go to bed one night.  Jakob heard their crying and screaming and came out of his room to investigate.  Upon seeing them all throwing a fit he walked over in front of them, started shaking his finger at them and yelling really loud.  They all immediately stopped, got their jammies on and went to bed. :)

Trent was the only student in his class to spend all day crying because school was out for the summer.  He made his teacher cry several times because she felt so bad.

Our new house

Justin's new bbq since it's always nice and we can ACTUALLY bbq

Jake and Uncle Nic at Jake's school

Playing outside before the storm

Yes I know my glasses make me have bug eyes but I love them and the sun!

Holiday fun and a big change for 2011

I haven't written on here in ages and I haven't figured out how to post pictures from my cell phone onto this page so you'll have to do without pictures for now. Our holidays were great this year. Thanksgiving brought forth another deep fried turkey and some great, relaxing family time. Holiday shopping was crazy but I got it all done with plenty of time to spare. All eleven kids were extra spoiled this year and so was Justin. Every time I turned around I found something to get him. We celebrated Christmas a week early with my family this year. My sis and her mom hosted. It was fun and the kids went crazy when it came time to open gifts. The day before Christmas Eve we took the kids to PIR and Peacock Lane which was a first for Justin and I as well. It was soooo much fun. Jakob has always loved lights and exclaimed loudly over each house, Trent found every flaw with the lights that you possibly could, Marley REALLY like the "princess" lights (pink and purple) and Kris wAs to busy checking out the cars and trucks passing by since that is his main interest. We were all exhausted by the end but we had a blast. Christmas Eve we had our family Christmas at home and just had a lazy day. We of course watched A Christmas Story (Jakob still pretends to shoot his eye out) and Jim Carrey's Grinch. Marley always mentions that the grinch needs to brush his teeth. We headed to bed with a messy house but anticipating our day in the snow on Christmas Day. We drive out to Mt. Hood the next morning and of course it was raining. By the time we got up to Timberline it was extremely windy with stinging ice pellets. Needless to say we did not last long and our snow day was a complete failure bu we again had a coast just being together. Marley was just happy to wear her pink snow pants. It took three days to clean the house but it was worth every minute. Christmas decor is put away and now my focus is on organizing and packing. Packing you say? Why yes packing. We have decided to make the big move to Tennessee. Not only do I get to live close to my brother, sis and her family but we are that much closer to our other seven kids :) we are so excited about this new change. We decided to sell practically everything so right now I'm just going through things and getting ready to post them on Craigslist and Facebook. Even the kids are enjoying the sorting process. Trent has learned a lot about people in need this year and has taught a lot to the twins. They were more than willing to give away a good amount of clothes and toys to those in need. I love to see that kind of growth in them. They are really excited to move. Kris is constantly grabbing the globe and showing me Tennessee. It should be quite the adventure driving across country with two vehicles, a trailer and all the kids. If I can figure out how to post pictures I will. I will also be adding some more Trent stories as well as the twins. Happy New Year!!!

A Little Bit of Everything

It's been so long since I've posted on here!  This past month has been crazy.  I was very thankful to have school finally end but now I'm kind of wishing for my own sanity that it was starting lol.  The end of school brought my soon-to-be stepchildren Paige and Alex.

Paige and Justin

Alex and Trent

First of all I was wrong that adding two more kids was no big deal.  Definitely a lot more work.  But these two are so helpful with the other kids that it has made things quite a bit easier on me.  I truly have fallen in love with them and am praying with all my heart that God's place for them is with Justin and I. Second I was completely unprepared for a ten year old daughter.  Paige is wonderful but I was not expecting to discuss becoming a teenager and such. Like the "P word". I was not prepared to discuss that.  Marley is only three for goodness sake!  I'm sorry but I think I need a refresher course of Growing Kids God's Way.  Just thinking off it makes me panic lol.  I struggle with having to give them back but hoping my time with them again will be soon.
So summer fun with six kids has been crazy fun.  We spent a couple of days down in Molalla playing in the water at the park.  The kids could spend hours upon hours there and I enjoyed relaxing in the shade :)  Even going to the library and checking out books was a success. Lego night with a bazillion kids was insane. Fourth of July was insanely loud and I still jump at every loud sound I hear lol.  We did a lot of playing in the sun and this week they are all enjoying Vacation Bible Camp.  Enjoy the pics and keep us in your prayers as we go to court for custody next Tuesday : 

Alex, Paige, Jake and Trent

Paige and May

Lilly

Kris and May

Kris and May