Hunkering down. It has been cold again. We even got an inch of snow last week, but it is gone. And the cold temps will be too starting tomorrow. Sunny and in the 60's even 70 one day thru Saturday. I am praying it will hold on thru Easter on Sunday but that isn't the forecast. Little flouncy easter dresses just look cuter in a sunny spring like day.

Friday Kid Update

Joshua- Can't stand for me to do the dishes. Seriously, it cracks me up. If I put away the silverware, guaranteed the next time he is in that drawer, he will be straightening every single piece. LOL! I LOVE IT! The other day he asked me to please not put away the silverware, he would do it so he didn't have to fix it later. Music to my ears!!! I, of course, told him that things can't always be his way and it is ok for things not to be perfect sometimes, but I'd let him fix them, this time. ;-) He has also fallen in love with Linking Logs.

Leah- Is becoming a little Mommy. She's beginning to build the beginning of her best lifetime friendship. Hannah fell down and bonked the other day.....nothing was hurt but her pride but she wanted me to snug snug with her. I was in an intense part of dinner and couldn't. Leah stood up from her toys across the room and held her arms out and said "Toots, snug snug?" Hannah ran over and snug snugged with her big sister and I melted into a puddle on the kitchen floor. Since then, Leah looks for chances to love and bond with her sister. They happily walk around the house together looking for babies or grocery carts or tutus or whatever, Leah is so sweet to her. They will be bestfriends for life.

Hannah- is finally growing. She is a chunky monkey right now. She's still very short but lately when I carry her on my hip, there is something there to hold. It is nice. She's been so petite and dainty all this time and it has just been weird to me since J and L were ummmm, not. Physically Hannah is really small, but Robert and I were just talking that mentally and independently she is so far ahead of where Joshua and Leah were. She isn't as verbally advanced as Joshua was but I think she is smarter. Or maybe it is just that she's baby #3 and so she thinks she is 3 or 5 years old already.

Since I ranted in my last post about people commenting on our familiy size, I thought I would share a great article from Above Rubies magazine this issue. By the way, their magazine is FREE, so if you like that article, you should get their magazine, it is a breath of fresh air for today's women!

In the newest issue of their magazine, their is an article about family trees. There are pictures that say alot more than I ever could on the issue of children. You can see the whole article at http://www.aboverubies.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=948:family-planning-family-trees-gods-weapon-for-victory&catid=35&Itemid=62

First is a picture of what we pray our family tree could end up looking like.

This is what our family tree could look like if we only had 4 children.

This is what the family tree of most American families will end up looking like unless the trends change.

Any questions?

Day 5 of my cleanse was yucky. I started the day off hungry and sad not to share a yummy family breakfast on a lazy Saturday at home. Since it was the last day, I really had no motivation to find the good. We ran errands and so I missed my morning snack and things went down hill from there. We headed to the mall about 5pm to find shirts for the boys for some spring pictures in DC in a few weeks and I started feeling AWFUL. Light headed and dizzy, lots of "I NEED SOME FOOD" signs. So, I told Robert I had to eat. He said he thought it wasn't really a big cleanse so eat whatever I wanted.....BAD IDEA. Lets say that I am well aquainted with the mall restrooms now. I got home and put tons of oils on and took some internally and started feeling much better. My sweetie and I snuggled up and I snacked on some cantalope....MUCH BETTER CHOICE and all was right with the world again. It was a pretty good movie too. No Greater Love, check it out if you are the movie viewing type.

Today was a low key, everybody gets to eat kinda day. We had a nice time at church and then went to Golden Corral. We always get comments about how well our kids eat, but especially there because we all eat a LARGE salad before anything else. Everyone oohs and aahs that our kids don't complain about salad. I think that is sad....that our  kids are so exceptional to eat salad or to eat what we give them without complaint.....ok, these people don't see all of the work that goes on at home, but anyway.

You know something else I get in public ALL THE TIME. I mean EVERY time I go out, especially without Robert. Something along these lines...
THREE, my, you are brave.
Are you crazy?
I don't know how you do it?
I'd never do something like that.
and so on and so forth, honestly, it happens so often that I am just mad about it. Seriously people. I have THREE kids. That is barely replacing my husband and myself in the world. Three. Please. And to be honest, it isn't that hard most days. Yes, it takes effort, but guess what, so does getting out of bed period. I think our standards and views are so stinkin warped, and I am sooooo sick of it. Really, get over yourselves for a bit, ok. Oh, and keep your judgemental nose out of my personal fertility,  k? (ok, I feel better now) I usually smile my nicest smile and say something like.
Better to have my hands full than empty.
They are a blessing.
It sure is fun.
Every once in a while, I'll be blessed by an older couple. Usually, the man says something like "we had little stair steps just like that" or "God bless you. Aren't they great?" with a big smile on his face. Thank the Lord for those little bits of encouragement. There certainly isn't alot of it around lately.

I just finished reading The Pacific. Deep stuff. I wonder if our boys in the military today are the class act that they were in WWII, I doubt it. I wonder how we can instill the same love of God and country in our sons. We will start with a study of the constitution soon, since it might not be around much longer....afterall, we live in a socialist country now. Sigh.

5 Day Cleanse- Day 4

As advertised, today was much easier until I made dinner. This morning was great, I even skipped my morning snack option. I won't say I felt like a million bucks, but I did feel good. Wasn't hungry or crampy or achy or had food cravings and hunger. I did get hungry towards dinner but I think that was from skipping the morning snack and eating the wrong afternoon snack, a fruit instead of the almonds, (must touch up chart reading skills before teaching Joshua). Then, I made the tortilla soup for small group tonight. It smelled sooo good, I wanted a big old bowl full. Then I fed Hannah and had to stop myself from popping chips into my mouth as I fed her, a bad habit of mine that needs to be broken. Somehow, I survived the soup, it even tried to lure me away while I was putting it away. I'm eating my apple like a good girl. Tomorrow is the last day and I'm glad. I want to eat, but I am glad I did this.

5 Day Cleanse- Day 3

As advertised on my handy little chart for this, day three was MUCH better than day two. Still a little hungry but 90% fewer cleansing symptoms. I did start to feel yuck this afternoon but that was because I fell behind on my water intake and some other contributing factors. They say day 4 should see the end of specific food cravings and an increase in energy. I hope so because I realized today that I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with the house this week and we have small group here tomorrow.

Monday night we went and celebrated Joshua finishing his first math book and his second phonics book. We've taken the rest of the week off from school except bible.

5 Day Cleanse- Day 2

Day 2 is supposed to be a hard day if you are heavy detoxing, and I am guessing that I am, I know I need to be heavy detoxing. My attitude right now is this if for the birds. I didn't realize how much clean up eating I do. If there is a little something leftover or just a small bag of cookies or something on the counter, I'll pop it in my mouth. I've been dieing to finish off a last piece of corn bread on the counter. Yesterday, I was a bit hungry but pretty good. Last night I had a craving for chocolate so bad I would have armed wrestled a gorilla for some. Today my cravings weren't as bad, I'm just hungry right before time for my next round of stuff, and I'm achy in my joints, and start to get a headache until I guzzle a glass of water, I'm pretty fatigued today and just generally blah. All sounds like signs of detox, but I was hoping for more exiting proof than body response proof, if you know what I mean. The detox poops thus far have not shown up.

Hannah officially weaned this weekend.....ok, with a little nudge from Mama. She's doing really well. I sat down in our rocker this morning. She stopped and looked at me for a while then very quietly said, "night night?" I said, "all done night night, your a big girl" So she walked over with big arms in the air to be picked up and said " snug snug" in a sad little mourning voice. So sweet.

That means that for the first time since Dec 2003, I am neither pregnant or nursing or both. WHO HOO! I know that this might not be a very long norm here so, I wanted to get down to business on my health. I immediately cut out meat. Today I started Young Living's 5 Day Nutritive Cleanse. By cleansing standards, it is not very hard since I love the products, but my body would go into major shock if I jumped into a big dramatic cleanse right now. My liver and gall bladder are as bad as ever. I have a feeling my thyroid is not doing well either since I've been packing on weight the last few months. I need to get my Iodoral going in my supplement regimen regularly again...I've backed off of it over the last six months or so.

Then, last week, I had a gout attack. I feel like a 80 year old woman. Thankfully I figured out what was going on pretty quickly. I put some oils on my foot to help with the intense pain but it didn't cut much off, which I found unusual until I realized it was gout and not muscle pain. So, I looked up a homeopathic remedy and pushed it thru pretty heavily. Within 6 hours I could bend my toe again and by that night the pain was gone. Praise God! I'm so grateful that He has given us herbs from His creation to heal us.

Doesn't that all sound like fun??

You asked for it...

Hannah wondering what all the hubbub is about.

All of the kids passing the time before we leave. I love when they play like this.

Hannah "helping" pack.

Joshua kept running by with the suitcase and the whizzing back by again and again. I finally figured out why when they stopped and Leah's head popped out. It was a blast. We all took turns!

Vacation Day 1 we spent driving down to Cinci, about 4 hours with a quick lunch stop. Sadly the DVD player in the van quit working so the kids had to rough it for the drive. Poor things.

Vacation Day 2 we headed to the Newport Aquarium. We are aquarium junkies and so if there is one near our destination, we will always put it on our agenda.

Hannah visited in style!

Frogs.

Everyone signing with the scuba diver in the tank.

Proof that I was there too and that I need to get serious about my eating habits again....anywhoo.

Speaking of eating habits, after the aquarium, we hit Johnnie Rockets.

We all loved the dance show by the wait staff.

Nope, no mini-me here. I don't know what ya'll are talking about.

Vacation Day 2

We visited the Creation Museum. Loved it all over again.

They are alot bigger this year than they were last. I'm hoping to have a comparison pic up soon.

Those dinosaurs are scary up close.

For the Frye Guys. This is what it looks like before all the snow melts. Remember our lovely picnic last year?

Relaxing in the garden of Eden.

Joshua hanging with Adam and Eve.

Story time.

We are from Texas, and so when we see a dinorsaur, of course, we saddle it and hop on for a ride!

Hannah wants to know what happened to just riding horses.

Ahhh, this is much better.

The Rest of Vacation

We spent at Great Wolf Lodge. We loved loved loved it. Can't wait to go back. Actually, Leah asks every day when we are going back. I had some problems getting my camera adjusted right, so most of these are awful quality shots, but they are the best I have and it is just too cool a place not to share pics.

Doing the Cub Club craft after the Wolf tour. We were the only family that did that tour so it was the Joshua and Leah show, they loved it!

Coats and boots GOOD BYE. Waterpark. Here we come!

Big waterpark, little girl.

Ready, set....

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Guys, this is what warm water feels like. See you can swim in it and it doesn't turn your lips blue.

You can do it...just a few more steps.

Leah has spotted her home for the rest of the trip. The SLIDES!!

Hannah decides to check out the scenery first.

Joshua lived for the basketball water court.

Hannah is pretty sure that this wet stuff is NOT safe!

Joshua and is friends, BBall 1 and BBall 2.

Yup, this stuff is great to look at.

The only thing better than basketball.....WAVE POOL!!!

Slow relaxing lazy river....nope, still not safe.

Everyone else loves it though.

Tree show and story time before bed.

Wylie came out for the bedtime story.

Alot of the kids come down in their pj's.

Leah does not do big scary over stuffed, over sized furry creatures.

This was the coolest floor ever. You can step on and chase these little balls around the image. Our kids would spend as long as we wanted here. So Robert and I would sit at a little table to the side and enjoy cheesecake and coffee.

CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK!!!! Saving our pennies now!