LOVE and all that mushy gushy stuff

I love my hubby. A lot. A lot, a lot. I'm also VERY JEALOUS! which he finds incredibly amusing. If he tells a story about high school or pre mission years and a girl is included, I'm jealous. (which is odd also, because he never had a girlfriend before we dated, and um yeah...my brothers still tease about how MANY boyfriends I had.) Yep. Jealous. Like come over here and let me give you a big fat kiss so you remember that you love me and only me. Haa Haa Haa. He still says he loves me more, but I think I love him more.
I worry often about the rate of divorce where will live. It is Atrocious. For Real! And so we are trying to be better about Date Night, and Holding Hands, and Couple Prayers. I love this guy. Sure, we have our differences. And may I say that two Oldest children married to each other is EXCITING. We both feel very strongly about our Own point of view. And heaven forbid we should compromise. Hee Hee. He is my world though.
I have nightmares. And often. And sometimes I dream that he's left me, or died. And I wake up. Totally feeling helpless and incomplete without him. And I wake him up and tell him... I love you more. (He usually drowsily hugs me and says, Uh huh.)

I Love my kiddos. LOTS AND LOTS. and I want them to know how much I love their daddy. When we got married, my young women leader Sister Evans Gave us the saying "Choose your love, and Love your choice." And I LOVE that President Monson used it in conference recently. Because that little saying has stuck in my mind and helped me to say, I'm Sorry. It's helped me to look past odd habits and frustrating moments. (you know, when I've decided I'm right and life would just be better if he could decide my way is best. :)) I Chose you.

I'm grateful for Parents and In Laws who are great examples of this. I know their marriages haven't always been perfect, or what they imagined. But, they keep working together, loving each other, for better of for worse!

I trully believe the lesson my parents taught us growing up. Marriage is Hard WORK! And like anything that takes effort, patience, work, and forgivness, it's worth it. "It's the hard that makes it good."

p.s. I love you more!

Camp Out

So our kiddos decided to camp out this weekend. In a tent. On our Addition. Ha ha ha. They are so cute. They set up the tv to watch a movie outside. I Love, Love, Love summer weather here. GORGEOUS! They cleaned up their dinner dishes, and set to work setting up a tent and laying out blankets and sleeping bags. I love them to pieces.
Laurel, of course, is staying inside and will probably end up sleeping all night in my bed. Love this baby!!! I just want to snuggle her ALL DAY!
Winslow and Jacob have been hard at work on the home addition. My boys love me! They spend all their free time driving nails and putting up boards.
The other  morning the kiddos got out all the pet shop toys and the Barbie's and set them up all over the living room. PARTY.
The girls are getting ready to take an art class this summer. They are SO excited.

Summer science

So what are we going to Do with these great Encyclopedias. Well, I recently purchased Apologia Exploring Creation with Land Animals. And Rachel and Abby are beside themselves waiting to get started! So we plan to learn all about land animals this summer. We bought the accompanying notebooking journals. I am really liking Notebooking. I like that it encourages my children to take notes while we read, and then they work on comprehension and being able to retell me what they have learned. The Apologia notebooks also come with stickers and full color mini books on the different types of animals.

I have given myself permission. Permission to slow down. We are not required to finish an entire book just because. We can take a history book or our language lessons and slow down. Read a book for English on Horses and then spend a week learning all about horses, visiting a neighbor with a horse, etc. Sometimes I set myself on a frantic pace and feel like I have to get it all in, and then in the end I feel we have missed so much. So we are slowing down. I found some great Notebook and Lapbook units on www.homeschoolshare.com. I plan to take time to learn in depth about knights and castles, and Robin Hood, And Queen Elizabeth. I plan to read lots and lots of books with my children. So what if we only get thru half the history book, if we REALLY learn the history.

Camouflage Experiment with MnM's

What Color Will I find the most of? Does it really matter since I am going to eat them all anyway?

Rachel's Water Wheel Experiment. She LOVED IT!

It's one of the reasons we are doing Science in the summer. The girls didn't want to wait until August to start their new books, so why wait? They are interested now. Great!

Encyclopedias

Yes, I bought encyclopedias. Two world history encyclopedias and one animal encyclopedia. Why? You ask. Well, because I love books. And even though technology is awesome, there is something about having it in your hands and looking at it any time. Plus, we try to limit screen time at our house. So tonight all my kiddos flipped thru pages and asked questions and spent time learning instead of watching tv or playing a video game. Now we are off to read the Magician's Nephew. Books are awesome.

Clearing out

You know that moment when you realize someone will be at your house any second and it's a total disaster. Yep. It was that kind of day. My hallway is full of books and toys and everything that is in limbo. Doesn't fit in the bedrooms and is waiting for the addition to be done, so it doesnt really have a home.
So instead of being awesome at school today, I cleaned out my closet. 4 trash bags later. My closet is now organized along with our armoire. Not bad for a closet the size of a coat closet.(yes I do wear a badge of honor for living in a house less than 1000sq ft with 5 kids. I should be humble, but some days a badge makes the craziness worth it.)
My hallway, um, it's still ful of all the limbo items, but my bedroom feels tidy.

David loves pasta. He ate 3 plates of it tonight. With dirt all over his face. That's what being 4 is all about.

The kiddos played hide and seek in the yard today. And they jumped on the tramp. There's a whole lot less quarreling when they can get outside. Bring on summer.

Baby legs and Moms Day

It is mother's day. I love it. I love my mom and my mother in law and my grand mas, and all the wonderful women who have mothered me when I have lived far away from my own mom. I LOVE being a mother. Yep even when my children are naughty or grumpy or I feel overwhelmed and under qualified, Motherhood is the best.

We have a beautiful chubby baby GIRL. Laurel Kenedie McNeill. Yep, we were totally shocked. I even cried a little over not having a boy. (I'm a total planner and post preggo hormones do weird things to a momma!) but, she is the light of our lives. Her  chubby legs cry out to be squeezed and she LOVES to be held. She is now figuring out that she has feet and SHE WANTS TO EAT THEM! She was super colicky at first. We are so glad her tummy feels better. She is such a happy fun little girl.

Abby ran track with Jacob and even placed in a meet for shot put! Jacob is so athletic and growing like a weed. He's up to five foot seven! Rachel is trying her hardest to put up with David. She is playing the piano and loving it. David continues to keep us laughing.

My hubby and my son are building me a house. It's messy, it's dirty and I thought it would never happen! But it is and next weekend is the framing party! It's a good old fashion barn raising! I am anxious for space and room to spread and somewhere to put all our stuff!

Growing So Big So Fast!!!

Countdown

Less than 22 hours until our c-section. It's so funny to actually go all the way to the planned date and time. Winslow thinks baby is transverse. I wouldn't be surprised, that's how it feels anyway. He must be all scrunched up in there. It's funny to watch my belly move all crazy these last few days. Winslow has been amazing at putting up with emotionally unstable me! I've needed the house clean and everything done all the time, just in case he decided to come early. Winslow has been working hard at keeping me sane and happy, foot rubs, taking kids to the library, putting up Christmas lights, and all the last minute honey do's. He rubs my tummy and talks to the baby and asks me how I feel. Um, I feel FAT. HA ha ha ha. One day this week he came home and I was totally freaking out. The new sweats I bought for after the baby are a little tight for the moment (of course they are! I'm nine months pregnant, they'll be fine afterward, but I was freaking out anyway) and my maternity pants I have grown out of. What will I wear for the next few days? I was thinking and saying and crying. Ha ha. My loving husband took it all in stride. (keep in mind I had some other sweat pants that fit, but they were in the dryer drying, I was just freaking out in the moment. )

Saturday I took time to snuggle with David in the rocking chair and then again later on the couch. It's mostly awkward with this large belly of mine, but he and I both enjoyed the moments. My baby has grown up so much.

I'm excited to leave pregnancy discomforts behind. I'm nervous about recovery from major surgery though. It's always rough for the first week or so. Since I don't have labor to stress over I have been stressing over nursing. Why? because I just need to stress over something I guess. It all works out I know, but in the mean time I keep worrying, will it all work out, will I remember how to take care of a baby.

Drinking lots of water the last few days so I can be hydrated. Not so sure about having a scheduled c-section. THey tell you not to drink or eat after midnight and my c-section isn't until noon. With my other c-sections, I ate and drank all the way up to a few hours ahead, since none of them happened at a scheduled time. Can I cheat and just drink in the morning? Maybe not, with David's c-section I got pretty nauseous during the procedure.  Guess I better follow the rules.

So as long as baby doesn't make an early entrance this evening or tonight, we plan to go to Show Low in the morning, do a little shopping before we check in, and then HAVE A BABY!!!

The Plan is to name him Nathaniel. After the apostle Nathaneal from the New Testament. Winslow and I both loved the story of Nathaneal. We'll see after he comes out if his name fits.

Took the kids to the park a couple of days this week. The weather has been fantastic still. It was fun to watch my kids play pretend and enjoy the sunshine.

Rachel and David both have colds. Rachel has a cough and she wants to get better fast so she can touch the baby. I am so grateful I haven't caught any yuckies.

The kids are excited to have their Grandmas coming. Winslow's mom comes today and my mom will be here friday. We are SO SO SO grateful for their help!

Did I mention that last week I tried to burn the house down while we were at church. We came home to crazy smoke damage and then spent the week washing every surface of our home. All bedding, all clothes, all curtains, carpets, furniture, etc. Quite the ordeal!!!! So the house is ready, AGAIN, for baby.

Last night we got all dressed up in our jammies to go watch the annual light parade. Um...well, it must be next week. Because no one was out parked waiting for the light parade. So we drove around and looked at Christmas lights instead. The kiddos had a great time, and then we came home and made delicious hot chocolate. We are looking forward to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional Tonight. I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!
We've been enjoying Elf on the Shelf again this year. So far he has been found on the Dryer, on the Advent Calendar, On the Piano with a BARBIE!, and in each of the kid's rooms. Something tells me he is going to do something EXTRA SPECIAL tonight.