Josiah drops 10 lbs!!!

 

 

 

 

I am so proud of Josiah.  It took him 2 1\2 months, but he finally made it!  He has come so close to losing 10 lbs and them something would happen.  Since he has been dieting we have celebrated his birthday, Titus' birthday, Halloween festivities, fall festivals, and you name it.  I never denied him stuff because, he is still in fact a kid and he had been working so hard.  He would pick up a lb or two and then we would get busy taking it right back off.  He is doing great with not arguing about his food portions, but he is getting burned out on walking.  I need to get creative because walking is what is really helping him more than anything.  This yucky cold and rainy weather prevents us from walking outside and the treadmill is just so boring.  Last week we had a contest to see who could walk the most.  Josiah ended up winning and that was only because while I took my Sunday nap, he walked over 2 miles on the treadmill.  That rat!!!!!!

 

 

 I also wanted to share a video clip of Josiah quoting all of Matthew Chapter 5.  It has 48 verses in it.  I videoed him, but I guess it's too large to post.  I also tried to email it to people and that won't work either.  Not sure what my other options are.  I'm not real technical and I have no idea how to get it posted.  If I figure out a way I'll put it on here.  I am so proud of him.  He has worked so hard and I am just amazed to hear him quote all these scriptures.

 

Thanks for reading!

Titus turns 6

October 30th had finally come.  Why had it took so long to get here, pondered a soon to be 6 year old???

We keep up with traditions around here.  Even simple ones.  What you do for one kid, you can just about bet the other child won't forget when it is their special day.

What the birthday child looks for first thing on their birthday. (And the presents)

Maynard leaves for work around 6:30 in the morning and so we all got up before he left so Titus could open his gifts.

He got his very own bow and arrow set with targets.

He had asked for a pancake with his candle like Josiah had, but I suggested going to McDonalds for breakfast since we were up so early.  He liked that idea too!

The play place was closed and he was disappointed about that, but this boy sure loves his breakfast burritos.
 

Josiah's birthday was in September and it was still warm weather.  I had took snowcones to school for his class.  Like I said earlier, Titus wants to repeat whatever Josiah got to do.  So snowcones it was.  This time I let each child make their own snowcone and they loved that.

Their field trip had been rained out and both classes were kind of bummed so I stopped in Josiah's class too and let them make their own snowcone.  It helped ease their pain. Ha ha

Titus also wanted to eat at Mr. Gattis' like Josiah did so that's where we headed for supper.

Titus ended up getting around $100 for his birthday.  He bought tons of stuff with his money.  He had been eyeing a few things lately and kept saying he was gonna buy it with his birthday money.  That's what he did too.  He didn't forget.  I had to run him around everywhere to get all his goodies.  Titus is they type of kid who appreciates his stuff.  He gets so excited over new stuff.  So excited in fact that he slept with some of his new toys.

Isn't that just the sweetest?????

He also bought a Louisville Slugger ball bat.  He wouldn't hush until we played after I got done walking the other day.  He is pretty good too!!!

Titus is one of a kind!!  Always keeps me on my toes, but it's getting easier.  He is doing so good in school and his teacher brags on him.  Makes me so happy because I worried so much about how he would do in school.
He is great in all sports, riding bikes, archery, etc.  He is very observant and knows where almost anything is around the house.  He is kind and hilarious.  He definitely is mischevious.  There's no doubt about that, but he fits perfectly in our home and I am very thankful for him.

Fall Festivities all in post.

I know you all would never believe that I have had technical difficulties.  But, it's true.  So, I have decided to do a quick post and try to cover the vast of it with mainly pictures.

My last post was about the beginning of fall break and how we went to McCloud Mountain and Chain Rock park.  It rained a lot that week and was cold.  We stayed at home mainly and read books and played games.  We also visited our library quite a bit.  We had made plans to go to the park one day with some friends, but it started raining....Again.  So we decided just to use our Library gazebo for our picnic instead.

Yep, That's a sandwich hanging out of Titus' mouth.

The weekend of our fall break was something my kids looked forward too because they had been invited to Zackary's birthday party at his farm.

Imagine how I felt as this horse came right up to the hayride and started eating our hay.  YIKES!!

Josiah braving up to the horse.  I'm still on the wagon.

The kids had a blast playing with their friends and I was loving the pig roast and all the yummy food.

The next weekend was our church's fall festival.  It was also a nasty, cold, rainy day, but we didn't let it stop us from having a blast.  We went to a secluded farm and cabin that had a pond for fishing.

Check out his poise.

She refused to leave the pond until she caught something.  Thankfully, Rachel helped her catch one.

 

These are a lot of work, but so worth it because the kids loved them!  I wish I was talented enough to be more creative with them.

 

The kids also loved these swings in a huge tree.

Would you believe that's all the pictures I have?  My phone died and we were in the middle of no where without electricity.
We ate some yummy food  and then played with the kids while most of the adults when inside to keep warm.
I had about 25 cans of silly string and it was WAR!  We were covered in silly string from head to toe. 
Did I mention they had an old outhouse we had to use????  It wasn't so bad.  I just had to sneak and go when no one was looking because I knew they would try to scare me or tip it over.  We had so much fun and look forward to it again next year.


Halloween is a dreaded holiday around here.  Every year I have to explain why we don't celebrate Halloween and why other kids do and blah blah blah.  This year Josiah and Titus' class were allowed to dress up as a bible character for school that day.  They were loving it.  Josiah was so excited about dressing up that he literally stayed awake all night.  Every time I checked on him he would be wide awake.  He was up roaming around when Maynard left early for work.  Finally it was time!!!!!

Titus (King Josiah)
Josiah (Blind Bartameaus)
 

 After school First Pentecostal (Where their school is) had neewollah.  Neewollah is Halloween backwards.  Reverses the darkness.  They rent the local inflatable place for 2 hours and have pizza and candy.  My kids look forward to it every year.  It kind of helps them not care about what other kids are doing on Halloween.  My kids got so much candy between that and school.  It was crazy.  I just let them eat it and get rid of it.  I'd rather them gulp it down and it be gone for good instead of eating on it everyday.  My rule was that I would not, absolutely not, clean up any puke that night!!! ha ha

Here's Amelia dressed up as princess at story time.

I debated on letting her dress up because clearly it was a Halloween party, but her brothers were dressed up and believe me.  Sometimes the keeping it fair part just works out best for our family.


My last fall festivity I'm going to blog about was our school field trip to the pumpkin patch.  I always wait to go on their field trip, but I've about decided to take them on a weekend next year because everything is so rushed and not even everything is available during the week.  I mean it's completely worth it and they enjoy it, but sometimes we just like to slow down and enjoy things. (Yes, this means that I had to drag Amelia kicking and screaming when it was time to leave because she wasn't done playing.)

Amelia feeding the goats

 

This picture makes me laugh because the story behind it.  Amelia was playing when she realized that a group picture was being taken.  She took off running as fast as she could and by the time she got there everyone had done walked off.  She did not move until someone took her picture.  She loves the camera and will photo bomb at any opportunity.

We stopped at the store to buy some paint for our pumpkins and headed home.  We had a quick supper and then paint was everywhere.  The kids had a blast and I had a blast so it was worth it.  Well.....until it rained the next night and washed all their paint off their pumpkins. Ha ha  I spray painted mine so it was salvaged.  Then they wanted theirs spray painted too!  I have decided I love to spray paint stuff.  It's my newest addiction ever since I found a box full of spray paint down in the cellar.  We have all colors.  Even a can that is used just for a glittery finish.  How fun!!!!

This about sums it all up for now.  I sure hope we still have a few more weeks of pretty fall weather!!!!

Beginning of fall break includes eating and climbing!

Monday was our first day of fall break and Maynard didn't have to work so we racked our brains for something to do.  We headed south and ended up at McCloud Mountain restaurant.  We have heard a lot about it and thought it would be a perfect day to go try it out.  We were not disappointed.

Picture of the restaraunt

For some reason it wouldn't accept the format of my pictures so the only way it would work was to screenshot it so that is why you are getting the big black box around it.  I hate that, but it's the only way it will work for now.

Our view from the table.  Amazing.  It was like sitting on a cloud while you ate dinner.

My selfie. lol

We went right at lunch time so the prices were very reasonable.  However, if you do plan on going for supper it's going to cost you a lot more.  Like a lot.  Like, you won't see me there for supper.  It's also a good idea to go during daylight time so that you can concentrate on your driving because you do drive up, up, up, up a mountain and there are lots of curves to navigate.  Also, the view is amazing and I'm not sure how well you would be able to see everything at night.
After we ate, we went out the walkway to take it all in and got a few pics.  Again, bear with the screenshots.

We were really glad we went and enjoyed the breathtaking view.  The leaves are changing colors and it was just beautiful.  I really recommend you taking your family there before they close for the season.

After we left there we headed for Pineville, KY and went to Chain Rock Park.  We took a wild hair and decided to go on a hike to see the chain rock.  It wasn't a too bad hike at first because we were walking downhill most of the time.  There were lots of steps to navigate and a bit of rough terrain at times.  We made it to the end of the trail and didn't see Chain rock anywhere.  We were a bit confused until we looked up and realized that part of our hike included climbing up a rock and then the trail continued.  Well, that wasn't going to happen.  Ha Ha.  I completely freaked.  I didn't know how safe the climb would be and I had 3 little to people to account for.  So they kiddos were disappointed they walked all that way and didn't get to see the actual Chain Rock.  Let me tell you about our climb back up the trail.  You know?  The one where it was mainly downhill all the way to the end.  Yeah well the opposite of down is up.  Too bad I wasn't thinking about that while we happily walked down the trail.  It was a rough one.  I was very thankful me and the kids had been walking and wasn't too bad out of shape so it wasn't unbearable, but we were thankful for the park benches at the top of every hill for a quit break in between climbs.  We finally made it back to the car and collapsed!

Our stragglers we had to keep waiting on.

View from top of Chain Rock mountain.

After our hike the kids were famished.  We stopped at Pizza Hut and shared a pizza,  Then drove next door and got us an ice cream cone.  We had burned a lot of calories and felt like we deserved it.

I am happy to have days like this with my family.  I have great memories of family outings growing up and I want my kids to have special memories too of their family spending time together.

Amelia's anti-church stage

I was blessed with two wonderful boys.  Then I found out I was expecting again.  And guess what I hoped for?  A girl!!  And guess what I got?  A girl!!

Never in my life did I realize that having a girl would be so much different then my boys.  I'm telling ya!  She is a spitfire!!!!

My darling daughter is the most stubborn thing I have ever seen.  Don't get me wrong.  I am absolutely crazy about her, but she is something else.

When my boys were her age they asked, "Is today a church day?"  Then they would be so disappointed if I told them "no."  If it was a church day they were so excited and couldn't wait to get there.  Amelia is so traumatized about going to church that she asks me every day if it is a church day.  Sometimes, she will ask me more than once.  She absolutely does not want to go to church.  I'm not sure what the deal is.  Usually once I get her there she is happy to see everyone and she will shout more than anyone there.  We had a revival a couple weeks ago.  It was only Thurs-Sunday.  Imagine if it were all week. Ha  She would start crying when I took the clothes out of the closet to start to iron.  Her famous phrase was: "WE GO TO CHURCH ALL DAY!!! or "ALL DAY WE GO TO CHURCH!!!!"

She managed surviving revival.  Even though we went to church twice on Sunday.  Oh, the agony!!

The next week was Bond campmeeting and we went on Wednesday night, much to her dismay.  She whined and complained the whole time we were there.  She was hot.  She was cold.  Her shoes hurt.  This church takes too long.  The only way I could get her to hush was to promise her we would go in the fellowship hall and eat afterwards.  That was seriously the only way we made it through the service.  As soon as it was over and we were heading to the fellowship hall she got excited and said, "That was good preaching wasn't it, Momma?  That didn't take long, did it?"  She was cracking me up because that is not how she was feeling a few minutes prior.

The next day was a Thursday night and a regular church night for us. 

"WHAT?"

Yes, Amelia.  We are going to church, again.
And guess what?  Friday after dropping the boys off at school, I drove back to Bond and went to the morning service to hear Bro. Joey Height.  I think he is awesome and I really wanted to hear him preach and that was my last chance.  Believe it or not, Amelia wasn't too upset.  She was a bit addled at first, but she finally decided she didn't have a choice in the matter.


Things have slowed down.  Revival is gone and campmeeting is over.  Tomorrow is a regular church tonight.  I'm so curious how she will handle it when she sees me dragging the iron board back out.

I'm really hoping that this is just a stage and she will eventually realize that church is a BIG part of our life and she will just have to get used to that. 

My boys have a deep love for church.  They love everything about it.  I can only keep praying that God will put that love down in her heart and she won't grow up to be resentful of church.

I really think that most of her not wanting to go to church is that she doesn't want to sit still.  She wants to do what Amelia wants to do.  Maynard has been stepping in and helping me corral her.  She knows not to make eye contact with him, because he will make her go sit on the front pew with him and well she would just rather be hog tied!!

I think I may have her memorize this verse:  I was glad when they said unto me; Let us go unto the house of the Lord!!!

Believe it or not, all smiles before church because she liked her outfit.

 

 

 

Last night of revival.  She slept like this all through the preaching and I had to wake her up after church.

Josiah turns 8

I just love Birthdays!

I love the excitement in children's faces on their special day.  I mean they wait and wait for their birthday and then all of a sudden it finally comes.

We have a small tradition at home that when they wake up they go in the dining room to find a banner, a picture of themselves, and their gift.  It's such a small thing, but yet they absolutely love it.

Josiah woke up Friday morning, September 20th, to remember it wasn't just a normal school day, but today was his 8th birthday.  He went straight to the dining room.

He ate pancakes with a birthday candle to blow out and was extremely excited over his birthday present.  We got him a nexus tablet.  This was all Maynard's doing because I was a bit hesitant.  The good thing is that we don't have WiFi at home, so I don't have to worry about him being on the internet unsupervised.  We downloaded a bunch of games and different things and he is an extremely happy boy right now.

He left for school happy as could be because I promised him a "hot lunch" that day.  I rarely bring him fast food for lunch, like maybe 2 or 3 times a year, and so when I do, he is excited.  He has also been on a strict diet so a Happy Meal was sounding pretty good to him.

When I got to school he came running out to grab his Happy meal.  It was so funny.

Then I went back to school around 2 for Josiah's school birthday party.  Most parents bring cupcakes, but I try to change it up a bit, year from year.  Last  year I brought a piñata and they loved it.  This year I brought snow cones.  I'm pretty sure they loved those too.  So if you are a parent of a child in Josiah's class, that explains the blue mouths.  Sorry about that. Ha Ha!  It was so hectic that I didn't get to take pictures.

Finally.............school was over.  They no longer had to wait.  It was time to go to the Bounce House.

We stopped to pick up Josiah's bestest buddy ever, Zackary.  These boys see each other maybe 2 or 3 times a year, but their friendship has never dwindled.  They always just pick up where they left off. 

We were on the interstate about 20 miles away from home when I heard a loud thump.  I looked up and seen Titus with his hand out the window.

Titus: "What the world?"
Me:    "What did you just throw out the window?"
Titus: "Nothing."
Me:    "TITUS.........."

Then my van starts swerving and I realized that we had a flat tire.  (I still wasn't convinced that Titus was innocent.)

I was in the fast lane driving about 80 mph.  (Unless your child was with me, then I was only driving 70 mph in the right lane.) ;)

Maynard coaxed me over and we got to the side of the interstate.  He gets out to check out the damage and we have a flat.  A screw was in the tire.  Titus was innocent.  This time!!!!! Ha

I had 2 extra kids in my vehicle that we were now responsible for and we were sitting on the side of the interstate.  Every time a vehicle went down the road my van shook.  I was scared silly.  I immediately thought about people that get out on the side of the road to fix a tire and get ran over by a car going 80 mph.

What to do?
What to do?

We were stopped right next to and exit ramp.
Only that ramp was for oncoming vehicles.

Maynard had a suggestion.
I didn't like that suggestion.
It no longer became a suggestion.
We did it.
We, I mean He, drove up a down, exit.
YIKES!!!!

And again........If I had your child in my van and you are reading this blog, then that is not what happened at all. lol

So here we go thumping off the exit passing other vehicles coming on to the ramp.  We got some crazy looks.  My favorite was the State trooper who just waved us on. lol

We got off of the ramp safely and a policemen pulled up behind us offering his assistance.  Which actually included him driving off and never returning, or sending us the help he went to find.  God Bless you, Sir!

At least we are more safe now than what we were.  Maynard gets out the spare tire, which is one of them donut thingees.  Guess what?  We didn't have a jack.

I got ahold of my pastor's wife and she drove down to let us use her jack while she also picked her daughter up out of our vehicle..  Wonder why? Ha

We got the tire changed amongst the wails and tears of a heart broken 8 year old.  He didn't take the news of not being able to go to the Bounce House very well.  I mean, would you?  If it was your birthday and you looked forward for weeks for going somewhere to celebrate your birthday and then not get to go?  These kind of things happen quite often to us and I just hate it for my kids.

We worked fast!!!!

Went home and changed into 2 other vehicles.
Drove to Mr. Gattis and met friends from church.
We also promised him we would just go to the Bounce House the next day and they would have longer to play.  So actually he was going to get to celebrate his birthday for 2 days instead of just 1.  It worked.  He was happy again.  Especially, when we surprised him getting permission for his friend Zack to stay all night with us.

Best Buddies

Times have changed.  Sleepovers now include tablets in bed.

These kiddos were up and at 'em bright and early.  Like 6 a.m. bright and early.  Like drums already beating, bright and early.

They got dressed, ate breakfast and me and the kids headed to the library for a special science day, while Maynard left to go get some tires put on.

Good news!  Maynard found tires and had them put on by 10 a.m.

We were having a blast at the library.

They got to create their own bouncy ball.

 

 

Then they got to make their own cotton candy. 

I forget all the scientific things behind all of it, but the kids got to create their own bouncy ball which was a lot of fun.  Then they got to make their own cotton candy.  Amelia got white cotton candy.  It was supposed to be blue, but it was mainly white, so I let her eat it.  Can you see that big smile?????  I actually caught her back in line trying to get seconds. Ha

We had to leave the Science day a little early in order to have plenty time at the Bounce House so the kids were okay with that.

We stopped for Taco Bell and headed to bounce.

They bounced and bounced and bounced.

For over 3 hours.

What is so hilarious is that it was the kids that were telling us they were ready to leave.  They were wore out!!!!!!

I love the picture of them snoozing away.  They had gotten up early and played all day and was just needing to have a power nap.

We met Zackary's parents and dropped Zack off.  This was his first sleepover and I think he was quite ready to see his Mom and Dad!

I'm so glad Josiah ended up having a great birthday.

I haven't done parties in a few years.  Instead I just let them choose what they would rather do.  They always choose to do something fun instead of a party.  We like to drag Birthdays out and make them last as long as we can.

And a birthday is not complete without free fried ice cream and being sung too at your local Mexican restaurant.  Josiah liked it a bit more than Amelia did on her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Josiah!  I love you so much!!!!

Making Progress......Weight/Wreaths

Well, it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted.  Not a whole lot has been going on.  Which is usually a good thing in our case.

Of course, my last post was about Josiah's horrible visit to the dr's office.  I think we all have recovered since then and hasn't let it bother us as much.  It also helped that I received a letter from St. Joseph hospital apologizing for the way we were treated and assured us that the situation had been handled and guaranteed us that our next visit would be much more pleasant.  As soon as I read the letter I just felt like I could let it go and just move on.  Of course, the next time we go to the doctor it's gonna be AWKWARD!!!!

The good thing out of the whole situation is my family has made better eating habits and have included daily exercise. 

Me and the kiddos have started walking every evening.  Oh the excitement of going on walks. (At first)

Josiah had made it to the end of our street.  His first 2 mile walk.

We love stopping to see the donkeys on our walk. (Any reason to stop is good enough for us) lol

We've even took our bikes for a spin around the track.


 

It's really hard to put children on a diet and them not feel like life is ending, but I have cut way down on sugary snacks and mainly have been watching their proportions.  Josiah no longer gets seconds and I've noticed he's eating things he didn't care for in the past because he knows that's all he is getting.  Titus is mad because I only let him have 1 of his beloved PB&J sandwiches and often reminds me it wasn't him that got in trouble for being fat. Ha ha!!!

I have to include this picture because it made me laugh so hard.

This is cotton, not marshmallows.

 

1 week after being on diets the kids must have been craving sugar.  I didn't realize how bad until in Sunday School one morning.  Titus picked up a bag of cotton balls and asked me if he could have a marshmallow.  Josiah and Amelia started shouting that they wanted one too.  Of course I said "Yes", because I was dying to see how this was going to turn out.  Titus felt of one and had a funny look on his face, but Josiah and Amelia popped one into their mouth.  I laughed and laughed.  Poor kids!!!!

All in all, I am so proud of how Josiah is doing.  He doesn't always want to walk and I have to convince him to go with me.  Titus and Amelia always want to come walking too, but they don't want to go as far and of course they don't walk very fast.  They don't get to go every time, but they still go a couple times a week. 

It's been 3 weeks now since Josiah has exercised and dieted and I am proud to say that he has lost 5.4 lbs, as of last Saturday.  He has probably lost more since then, but I haven't weighed him again.  I kept telling him that when he lost his first 5 lbs  I would give him a special reward.  Can anyone guess what he asked for??????

PIZZA!!!!!
 

I cut the slices in half, so he actually thought he had 4 slices, but he really only had 2.  Hey, a Momma's got do what a Momma's got do!!!!!

I am dieting right along with the kids, but my scales are stuck.  I've only lost 4 lbs in 3 weeks, but I'll take it!!!!

I will keep you posted how we are doing!!!!!!

This is totally not related to dieting, but I am so proud of my wreaths I made.  I have said on here before about how I am so craftily challenged.  So when I do something good, I can't wait to share.  At least in my eyes, I did good, so don't be mean if it really is bad, Ha ha!!

I bought an ugly grapevine wreath at the Goodwill and gave it a makeover.  I think it turned out really cute!!!!!!

This is my big wreath on my front door.  I did have it done in teal and pink, but completely redid it for fall.  I just love my letter P.  It was wooden and I painted it orange and added the yellow polka dots.  I may have copied the painting part off of http://livinglaughingandloving-sarah.blogspot.com. 
My big wreath still needs some work.  I am not crazy about it,  For some reason I like my little wreath better!!!