My Mama Machine

For 3 years I have been driving this. And it has made me happy, I have no complaints. I was able to choose the colors and drive it off the lot at 0 miles. It has taken us many places and has not given us a bit of trouble. But when we numbered 4 children, the noise level began to get SO loud. And though it seats 8, it began to feel crowded. So about a year or so ago I convinced my dear husband that we needed something larger. And we began shopping. Many of our friends with large families told us they drove suburbans, expeditions etc. Which are obviously MUCH cooler than a mini van. I thought I had found our solution.

Till I went to test drive one. And found while yes, they look WAY cooler than a mini van, there is no more room than what we had. I had driven a Durango back when Makenna was a baby, and we traded that in on a van, so it did not make sense to go back to the SUV over a van for the same amount of room. Though there is a part of me that longs to be cool. Sigh...

Get home from China just 2 weeks ago and the noise level is even worse, Makenna is getting so big and looks so crowded in the back, and the miles on my Honda are climbing out the roof as it is the only vehicle we have that we can all fit in of course. We decide we will sell Mark's car and just pay cash for something, but keep the reliable mini van. So we go over our options.

A. Conversion Van. Our friends drive a 9 passenger conversion van that is SWEET! The kids have been begging us to buy it for the last year. But it is more than we are thinking. So regular conversion van? Only seats 7, but obviously more room.

B. Church van type of vehicle. You know what I am talking about. Bench seats, alot of them.

C. Limo. Someone at our homeschool group drives one and I found that fascinating. The thought of we could actually put that little screen up between us and the kids and have quiet? I LOVE that idea!

D. Trade in a few kids.

Mark put his foot down on the limo. He said can you even imagine the looks and what our friends would say? Oh I would love to pull up in church in one, the thought of it just makes me laugh!

Church van. Not quite ready to go there yet. I know many people drive them and I think that is great but I just don't think we need that at this point.

Trade in kids? Nah, though maybe staying home would save my sanity as much as a bigger vehicle would.

So that leaves us with a conversion van. You know, the big old vans that used to have tables in them? Plush, comfy, back makes into a bed type of van? My friends have informed me we are going to be so dorky if we buy one. I want to know, do you REALLY think we are not already dorky? COME ON! We have FIVE children and we homeschool, we are DORKS! Just ask the people who watched us have lunch at burger king today. I was never so excited to see a place that had a private room ready just for us! (no they did not really have it ready for us, they just happened to have a side room and we ran right in!)

Mark found a "good deal" so we drove over an hour today with 6 children (we had an extra, we are just seeing if we can handle 6. Kidding, I am kidding, Makenna just had a friend along) and we came home with this beauty. Oh yes , we are officially THAT family!

It is LARGE, it is comfortable and we are so happy! We took it for a test spin and even with 6 children behind us squealing with excitement, it was SO much quieter! There is space, so 2 little girls are not kicking the back of my seat. I can stand in it, which probably makes it even dorkier, but how great for getting kids buckled in!

And while it may not be all that cool to some, the kids think we are the best! They came home and played in it for hours and were arguing over who gets to have the first friend over to spend the night in it. (remember the back makes into a big ole bed!)

Today as Mark drove it home and I followed behind him in the mini van, I could not help but giggle. It is just so BIG. I drove it once home and it is pretty fun to drive. Though I have not tried to park it yet, that seems scary. Which might be a good thing really, if I have to park in the back of all the lots, that means I will get at least a little exercise in right? And it does not fit in our garage, to tall. Small problem since we will be SO comfy when we travel now!

To all my friends who drive big vans & homeschool, believe me, I am in no way saying you are dorky! ;0) I think we are WAY cool and I am glad to be in the club!

Reality

My friend Renee called this week and asked me if life is really as rosie as it appears on our blog. She said she pictured us sitting around as a happy family of 7 singing koombaya. HAHAHA! So, what is reality around here? Well....

While Sage and Mavery do get along some of the time pretty well, we have other moments that are not so fun. Remember, they are both almost 3 years old. They do not speak the same language. They are trying to figure out how to be sisters. I think the best was this conversation between Sage & I while driving.

Sage-"There is an airplane in the sky, it is going to china"

Me--Do you want to go on an airplane to China Sage?

Sage--Yeah, I want to take Mavery back to China!

As my friend Tracy said, just tell her the restocking fee is to high so she is stuck with her! ;-)

Today, while on the phone with the Christian School my children attended before we started this "blessed homeschooling" I am yelling at one of my children, while they answer the phone. Nice. I am sure they are thrilled to have us back after that! Yep, ONE of the children will be attending for this year. More on that to come.

Jenny dropped in one evening this week and got to spend an evening watching an episode of the Twilight Zone that is our life. At one point I was in the bathroom, glanced in the mirror and realized I am in my pajamas(Thank goodness they were at least sweats) and I couldn't even remember the last time I had a shower.

After my bath one evening I got in bed and realized that I really smelled. Because I had used a towel that obviously had not seen the washing machine in to long.

The 7 of us alone can support the fast food chain of Columbia because of how much carry out we are doing. My diet also consists of typically chocolate, that Halloween candy is just to easy. Which means I am avoiding the scale and sadly there is no longer time for WII fit. I do limit the children on the candy. French fries are much healthier than candy, right? We figure Mavery needs to get "the American way" of eating. Actually my sweet friend just dropped off 4 home cooked freezer meals, so YEAH for food that is not from a drive thru!

I figure Mavery is going to learn English from Nick Jr. Ok, so I am kidding on that one. She won't sit and watch TV for even a second, because I have tried, believe me!

Our oldest wrote us a report on why she hates homeschooling and it has gone through my head that maybe I should start worrying about this because she IS the oldest so that means she will probably be the one choosing my nursing home someday. (and no, she is not the one going off to school)

Sage is still Sage and is just as spicy as ever. While at the doctor this week she took off running through the parking lot and so I am thinking do I run after her and leave Mavery who can't even understand English? Thankfully Sawyer was able to get her, but I was sweating by the time we made it out of the doctor and into the car and decided I will not be leaving the house again without reinforcements which of course lasted about 24 hours till I had to take them to the homeschool co-op today. This time I was thankful for the double stroller, but we did leave early.

Sage threw 3 glass coasters off the counter onto my tile this week. She thinks it is fun to see how fast things crash from the counter top. I am still picking up pieces of glass. But the good thing is, that got my floor vacuumed!

We hosted an election party on Tuesday and while Mark thought I was crazy to do this, I figured it was a big motivator to A. Clean the house. B. Make sure I was clean. ;0)

So I hope this helps you see, we are INSANE here! I can't believe I am admitting some of this, but just so you can honestly see, things are not always perfect. And while I do love my children, there are times we do not always like each other! I am very thankful for my husband who works from home, it is the only way I survive. We are figuring out what our new normal is as we balance 5 children, "Twins", homeschooling and life. And on that note, I think I will throw in a load of towels and take a shower! ;0)

Mavery Wants Hair!

Why do they sometimes shave these poor children in the orphanages? I know, I know, no need to give me all the reasons. My Mavery does not understand that and she is just one unhappy diva when it comes to this hair stuff. As I put Sage's hair in pigtails this morning, Mavery just cried and cried because her hair does not go into pigtails. Well, it does, as you can see Ms Jenny managed to make some "horns" as everyone around here called them! But they don't stay in long. It is growing, and I hope by Christmas we can get things in it. It makes me so sad when she goes to brush it. And she just loves to touch my hair. I guess all us girls in the house could shave our heads to match but I am thinking I won't look quite as cute as Mavery with a shaved head! ;0)

Maverys Birthday at the Zoo

Sad when they don't make enough cut outs for the number of kids you have!
Say Cheese!

Double Trouble? Double FUN!

3 monkeys climbing on a bug

I love this, they just did this while we were walking, so sweet!

Hello Gloria!? The kids got a kick out of the hippo who was happy to entertain today.

For Maverys birthday we spent the day at the zoo. It was a perfect day, the weather was gorgeous and alot of the animals were out. Mavery enjoyed it and it was quite different from the day we visited the zoo in Guangzhou just a few weeks ago with that still sad little girl. Even though in the pictures we can never catch a smile, she really was happy. If you can picture it, the face in the pictures is because we tell her to say cheese, so that is what she is doing!

For dinner we went to the Chinese Buffet where they were happy to see us back from China! At first Mavery wanted nothing to do with them. They were speaking to her in mandarin and she just gave her the cold shoulder. And refused to eat the chinese food. After awhile she finally did warm up and was answering the lady back in chinese and laughing and playing with her. How I wish Esther lived here so she could keep up her language!

It took Mavery a little while to "get" the presents. She was more interested in putting them all in the big gift bag and carrying it away so Sage could not get them! hehe! She quickly caught on to blowing out candles and thought us singing to her was hilarious.

I am posting more pictures and birthday thoughts on Maverys blog. Well eventually I am, not sure how long it will take me. But they will be there this week, I promise.

Trunk or Treat

For some reason, I am just not keeping up as well as I want to around here. I want the White Swan back. You know the someone else doing my laundry, my cooking, my cleaning, ah the memories.

Our church once again did a trunk or treat for Halloween. Our family did a 50s theme as you can see. Thankfully my mother had all the decorations in her basement because I was lucky to get costumes done before we left. I did bad at getting pictures that night and do not have one of the 7 of us together. Which might be for the best. Those poodle skirts are not very figure flattering that is for sure! On me anyways, Makenna of course looked adorable. Malaine was not so into the idea of a poodle skirt, but was happy to be a pink poodle. I think we have the cutest bunch of poodles around, don't you think? And Sawyer was a riot as Elvis. Got to love that hair.

If you are not familiar with trunk or treat, it is basically a parking lot full of cars that the kids get candy from each trunk. I love it because we get to socialize, the kids love it because their friends are there so they get friends AND candy. Sage of course was in her element. I am pretty sure she made the rounds about 4 times charming candy out of everyone. Mavery was a little unsure. She enjoyed the candy, but was happy to stay close to us rather than run around.

Makenna is already planning out next years theme for the family! Hope you had a Happy Halloween and I promise birthday pictures are coming!

Happy Halloween!

Will try to post after "Trunk or Treat" tonight. As you can see Mavery is not afraid of her costume as I worried she might be. She looks sad but she was enjoying playing in it, I promise. And we are ALL excited about tomorrow, someone turns THREE!!

Crazy Hair Night

Kids had crazy hair night at Awana this week. While I was doing Malaines hair Mavery insisted I put her hair in a ponytail also! Her hair has grown alot since Gotcha, but I am not seeing pigtails anywhere in our near future.

Branson Fun Slide Show

There are so many pictures that I wanted to share with everyone that I decided the easiest thing was to create a slide show. The kids had a really good time with Grammy and Papa on vacation!

Enjoy,
Miss Jenny

Wildfire Video....

After a little nudging Sawyer decided he wanted to ride this roller coaster. He screamed all the way through the ride but begged to ride it again!! We got the video to share with everyone.

Enjoy!

Miss Jenny

Branson Pictures

We had a GREAT day!!!
Getting ready to ride the swings (Miss Jenny rode with Malaine)
Fun on the frogs
Notice the leash :)
Thier caught!!

We are headed out to Dixie Stampede but wanted to load a few pictures from the day.

Miss Jenny

Monday with Malaine

While the older two were at their friends staying up until 4 am, Malaine was able to come spend the night with cousin Jaylyn. We had fun going to the zoo Monday morning and enjoyed our day riding the train, seeing the animals and having some DQ ice cream after. Yum!

It was a beautiful day outside to have lunch!

They wanted to pose with the snake. :)

Train Ride! Choo choo!

The apes were out playing and a couple were sitting right by the window.

They all wanted a good view of the giraffes!

Cousin Amy

Suson Park with Sage

Sage is a monkey and if other can climb it so can she!!


Shannon had Sage on Monday and took her to Suson Park in South County, St. Louis Cara and Chelsea went to play and see the animals. Danielle and two other kids from church joined in for the fun as well. I went over to eat lunch with everyone and join in the fun for a little while!! Sage seemed to enjoy herself playing and laughing. She has learned that if the Sun is shinning here then the moon is in China and if the moon is out then the sun is in China. She is so funny!

The older kids were with friends Sunday night and Monday. I hear Makenna stayed up until 4 am with friends (but they say she was not cranky after that!). Sawyer went to bed a little earlier.

Tuesday the kids were with Nina and spent time with their cousins. When Grammy got off work they left to head out of town. They should now be in Branson having a good time!! I will join them tomorrow and promise to add pictures of all the kids tomorrow night. I believe tomorrow is Silver Dollar City and the Dixie Stampede!

Miss Jenny