New Nephew

I have a few cute kiddo stories to tell.
For some reason Noah is usually the main character in these stories. Maybe it's just the age I guess.

A couple of months ago we took a family vacation to a little hotel up north. The hotel had a pool, but Noah, Jayce and I didn't want to swim. We were cozied up on the bed in our hotel room. Noah was laying right next to Jayce, petting his head. He said to me "I wanna keep Jayce, mommy". And I said "Oh we are, we aren't gonna get rid of him". He said "I wanna keep him ever, ever, ever, ever, and ever. Okay?".

Since then he has said it on a few other occasions. I'm not quite sure where he got the notion from...but I have a theory. We had a dog a while back. A dumb (sorry for those that liked her) little chihuahua/yorkie mix that liked to pee in our house. Even after 2 years. So we got rid of her after realizing there was no amount of training that would correct the problem. I guess he's afraid it's going to happen to one of them someday.

Another one happened just a few days ago. Noah had pulled a dining room chair up to our kitchen counter to get a better look at the dead decomposing goldfish floating in the fishbowl. I was busy doing school with the other two at the table. He was yelling out to me to come see something.

As I walked towards him he looked at me and then pointed to the counter top without saying a word. I looked down and there was a good size crusted booger with some kind of liquid droplets surrounding it.(I apologize for the disgusting description but you must get the full effect). I asked him if he picked a booger and set it on the counter. He just shook his head no and replied with "I just did a....did a....ummm...I just did a bless you". I couldn't contain my laughter!

These are pictures of my sis-in-law's son and new wee little one. So precious! Only 5days old when photographed.
Thanks for peekin'.
Peace out.

Confessions of a Lousy Teacher

Am I failing my children? I would have to respond with a resounding, YES! In the educational realm, anyways. When I started with the idea of homeschooling, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I envisioned something much different than it has been. I love having my boys home with me, but am I doing what is best for them? I'm not 100% positive.

Lately, we have had a busy household. And school has been an after thought, rather than the main focus. I look at blogs of other homeschool mothers and see their schedules mapped out from early morning to late afternoon. And I wonder 'How do they do it?'. And even more 'How do they stick with it?'. Don't get me wrong. My kids are learning adequately enough. But most of the time their attitude is 'Let's hurry and get this over with'. In fact, they resent my interruption into THEIR day. How dare I take time away from their pursuits, which certainly aren't educational.

The most pressing issue on my mind, though, is the lack of spiritual guidance. I haven't made Bible a part of our homeschool curriculum yet. Even though this is the most important thing. I need to remind myself that I am shaping their minds and helping them become the person they will be. Am I arming them with the virtues that will be most important in life? When they look at us do they see what we value most and what we put first in our own life? Serious stuff, I know. I've just been pondering these things for some time now. The next step is to do something about it. Right? Right.
Here are some random photos of others and my own.

Little snippets

My children have been particularly funny the past couple of weeks and I just wanted to blog them as a way to remember them.

Ethan had some very exciting things happening one day (I can't be specific without ruining a surprise) and he said "I'm gonna be so mad if I wake up and find out this is just a dream".

All the boys were enjoying the holiday movies that were playing on the different stations. They had played Polar Express quite a few times already. In one week they played it two days in a row on different stations. I was sitting with Cole when Polar Express started on the station we were watching. Cole said, "Mom, that's three days in a row! One more and it will be bingo!"

Noah is famous for finding a pair of scissors and piece of paper and making quite a mess. He just keeps cutting and cutting until there is a blizzard of little white papers everywhere. When I see him, I always inform him that HE will be picking up the entire mess. He says, "I know". Well, for one reason or another, he escaped the scene before I noticed. I found him in another room and reminded him that he forgot to do something and he better do it now. He responded with, "I can't Mom, I'm too full". I said, "I'm not asking you to eat them, just pick them up". He reiterated his first statement. But quickly went to work after some healthy persuasion.

I was looking at some old photos and Noah was sitting on my lap. I pointed to a newborn photo of Noah that was soon after he was born and he was very pink looking. I asked him who was in the photo. He responded with "Jayce". And I said "No, that is you when you were a baby". He said "Noooo, that is not me. Look at me, this is me". He held out his hands showing me how my statement was obviously false. "And look....I'm white, not red!", he exclaimed.

Kids are funny.

Back to normal....almost.

As normal as we get anyways. Our newborn isn't quite so new anymore, and we've almost gotten back into the routine of things. School is almost caught up. Of course, now we've had a string of illnesses running through our house. Not fun. Even poor, little Jayce caught a bug. It just doesn't seem right that a one month old can get a terrible cold. They don't even really know how to breathe out of their mouth when they are stuffed up! Now Noah is suffering from the fever/cold epidemic that lasts a week long.(we are on day 2)

But I'm feeling quite well. I've decided to start getting back into shape. I didn't even realize how OUT of shape I was. It came as a shocker when I saw a picture of myself on someone's camera. I was thinking "Is that really me?". Granted, I did recently have a baby. But I've kept a little weight on after each of my kids....and that adds up. It's amazing how blinded we are to how we actually look. It's like you hang on to this ideal picture of yourself and make excuses for the ever-shrinking jeans and t-shirts. Well, I'm finally doing something about it. Plus I'm tired of being tired and feeling yucky. They say it takes two weeks to make a habit. I'm 4 days into that 2 weeks with no intent on stopping now.

I recently came across a pretty cool thing. Have you heard of a Reader? Well, I read about it in a blog and decided to try it out. I have a Google Reader and am loving it. If you are someone who follows a couple of different blogs and likes to save time...this is for you. You load the blogs into the Reader and they come to you. All you have to do is go to your Reader homepage and it will tell you who has posted new blogs. You can check them all out right there, without having to visit 7 different sites. It's a great thing.

Just catching up on some pictures. The wedding is one I did this summer and never posted. The one of my boys is a picture depicting just how well our little photo shoot went that day. The other is one of Jayce...finally!

He's here!

Finally! I get to announce the arrival of our newest DeWitt family member. Jayce Jonathan arrived at 5:44 am on Wednesday October 1, 2008. That is, with a little persuasion in the form of a chocolate castor oil shake that I drank Tuesday evening. I didn't think it was going to work because nothing really happened that night. But as I laid in bed that night, it went to work, and it worked fast. So...LADIES....anyone needing a little persuasion of their own...I will testify to the fact that a couple of tablespoons of castor oil will do the trick (as long as your body is already ready). But beware....it progresses very quickly!

By the time I got to the hospital (around 4:40) I was 8cm dilated. They weren't sure if I was going to be able to get an epidural! But I did, and it was torture while the guy tried putting it in because I was having horrific contractions. When it was finally in I had instant relief! I would have hugged the anesthesiologist if I could have walked over to him. The doctor checked me and I was the full 10cm. He gave me a few minutes to relish in the comfort of the epidural. Then with one contraction and three pushes he was born!

I thought I would put up some pictures. Hofefully a real photoshoot is soon to come. I also have some wedding photos to post. And I'm going to try to get some family shots and some of all the boys soon. Check back!

It's getting closer

But not quite close enough. I have been having some pretty good contractions, but nothing serious. So, I decided to give a little update into what has been going on in our household. I'm sitting here practically immobile so I figured now is as good of time as ever.

It's a beautiful night. The weather was my ideal type of weather today. Partly sunny with a cool breeze. Temp in the 70's. It's finally cool enough to open the windows and doors and let some fresh air in. I love to here the crickets and other sounds of the night. Scott doesn't appreciate it too much because fall is the worst time for his allergies. He'd rather keep the air on right up until we have to switch it over to heat for the winter.

Everyone is gone to a softball tournament, except for Noah and I. We decided it would be more fun to take a nap and watch a movie for a Friday night. Happy Feet. I'm not quite sure, but I believe Noah is going to be a winter lover. He is obsessed with cold weather movies. All summer it has been requests for one of the following- The Grinch, Elf, Polar Express, Alvin and the Chipmunks, or Happy Feet. I believe we will need to purchase a new Grinch movie because the one we have is so over watched, it skips and messes up all the time. I wonder if he will want to watch summer time movies when the snow starts to fall.

I'm finishing up with some wedding photos from a wedding I did in July. They turned out great, but I will put those in my next post. I haven't done too much as far as photography and it has been nice having some time off. I'll definitely be ready to have some photo shoots of the new arrival, once he's here.

I had an OB appointment yesterday. They have officially declared me as having diabetes now. All along in this pregnancy I have been riding the fence, borderline diabetic. They believe that is why I have such big babies. Yesterday my urine had +5 sugars in it and so they tested me. I was higher than I should have been having eaten 2 hours earlier. They were going to give me insulin to take, but instead I have to take a pill, Micronase, every morning. It seems to be helping. I'm supposed to be watching my carb intake also, but so far haven't been too good at that.

I also have a cold right now that I got from my son, Cole. I had been doing some painting and my throat started hurting. I thought it was just irritated from breathing in the paint fumes, but I think it was more than that. At least I'm nearly done with the painting. We almost have out little school/toy room finished. Well....at least the painting. I'd like to finish this weekend so we can start with school on Monday. But I'm not sure if that is going to happen. Especially with Scott playing in a softball tournament.

There isn't too much else going on here. My brother has been living in our basement all summer. I think he's had enough of living with the constant strain of kids (and with one more coming soon) so he is looking at apartments. He's looking around here, so it will be fun to still have him close. But his own space would probably be a good thing. He is ready to spread his wings :)

Well, I will be posting again soon...with pictures to show.
Thanks for checkin' in.

Catchin' up

So, it has been a little while since posting an update. I haven't been very busy with photography. As you can see from my picture, I've gotten pretty big and it gets a little harder to get things accomplished. This isn't good considering I still have a long 'to do' list and not much time left. Well, 2 months seems like a long time to me right now....but in the span of the whole pregnancy, it really isn't. And just a little side note- Thank you to all of you who constantly remind me just how huge I really am. Because I might have forgot otherwise :)
These pictures were taken a few weeks ago. The grandparents wanted some pictures of all their grandkids. It was a beautiful day at the beach and great picture-taking weather...a little overcast. I always forget how hard it is to get lots of good pictures when dealing with a handful of kids. Enjoy.
I just did a wedding and will be posting those pictures upon completion. I know, I know....you will all be waiting with eager anticipation. Adios amigos