Here is Maggie saying "mom, stop dressing me up in silly outfits" she is six months old. I can't believe how fast it has gone. IF only she'd stay a baby forever because the older my kids get the more challenging to parent. I don't recall anyone mentioning that to me. good and bad at every age though. She is now 12 pounds 6 ounces and 25 1/2 inches long. very cute and petite. She is crazy still but lots of fun, we all adore her so very much, She is going to be so spoiled!

more pictures of nothing, look I can play with my foot for hours neat

she is getting much better at this sleeping and working out a routine, yeah!

(all the poor quality photos were not taken by me) those little guys far away...no it is not Erkel with his pants up to his arm pits, but the boys enjoying some hot weather in the sprinkler.

I am certain she will be asking for one of these cell phones soon, just like her older sisters.

the sisters

Mae Mae Lewis (according to Sam) Chris would love a Tom Boy, so he keeps giving her the boy toys

Nolan keeps undressing himself, all the time, I turn around and he is naked. Having pee and other delights all over the house you are trying to keep clean just in case some one wants to come buy it is no fun. PLEASe someone come buy my home, I will steam clean the carpets first.

cute little buys reading

here are the ladies with some pillows they made, stuffed with cotton balls and scraps, they are like McGuyver can make anything into something

Emma's Sherbet Bombe, she did a great job

the boys enjoying the popsicles, the ones I buy and then when I get them home I think I am such a moron!! all the kids do is ask all day (or not ask) for a popticle, and they eat the entire box in one day and I vow to never ever buy them again!

Our craft cooking day, I was sewing at the table so my kids ate on the floor, and yes for dinner they ate chicken nuggets (chris bought those:() and ice cream. don't judge, I forgot to take a picture of anna's chocolate mousse (sadly around her my kids equate my forgetting to lack of love, but it is not the case I have so much to remember) it was marvelous, she is quite impressive with her culinary capabilities. I really am struggling with her hairstyle (the slicking back weird part. I want to fix it, but she does not allow and I don't want to start her day off bad. I do not think it is the most flatering though but if she likes it I guess that is fine.

of so I have done three quilt tops, now I need some one to come over and show me how to do the backing and binding. Thanks

Isn't this hilarious! An old friend sent it to my mom, that one kid in the front with the striped shirt is not a sibling, it is Stuart, a kid my mom babysat. I LOVED that fancy dress I was wearing (I am the littlest girl in the front row)...we were such a cute 70's family!!!

I am crazy for this Tanya Whelan Darla fabric and attempting to make a little quilt and some various easy clothes for M and E. I love them!

and another bog box of vintage chenille squares to make some quilts, and I want to make a bubble for Maggie but will need some help with that.

when I get pictures off the camera the girls are anxious to share their culinary treats and otehr sewing projects they have been working on.

This past wknd I was kind of in an annoyed mood, and was sitting in my room feeding Maggie and heard some footsteps come into the house and before I could yell out in a not so nice tone TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES you are going to ge mud all over the house that we have to keep perfectly clean just in case anyone who want to come over and buy the house (the part about the house I would have just kept in my head and is part wishful thinking)
so there comes Sammy in with his dirty self and hands me a handful of pretty flowers, kind of melted my heart.

so I almost always delete forwarded emails before reading, but opened this one and thought it was cute:


Real Mothers don't eat quiche;





they don't have time to make it. Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils

are probably in the sandbox.. Real Mothers often have sticky floors,

filthy ovens and happy kids. Real Mothers know that dried play dough

doesn't come out of carpets. Real Mothers don't want to know what

the vacuum just sucked up. Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?'

and get their answer when a little voice says, 'Because I love you best.'

for GMA T's enjoyment

The kids had their very own (adjoining) hotel room, it is always more exciting than anywhere we go. Jakob like a broken record :can we go swimming again?"

How we spent Easter and NO the bunny has not visited us yet and the kids have not forgotten either

I don't remember if I put a picture of Magnolia's eating, of course she is stuffed at this point I can't get a hand free to take a picture sooner since she is such a piglet

Emma had a little pink party get together with some of her cute friends.

MY kids Love each other a lot of the time, they also argue, fuss and make me crazy too. They also make me laugh always saying silly things and doing sillier things. Nolan loves his baby, he loves to share his blanket and give hugs and share his food. Last week was a crazy with one car and me locking my keys in the car with no cell phone and using a pay phone with no husband answering...thanks for neighbors okay that is not what this is about. We were getting ready to go to icky Walmart and Nollie kept getting out the M&M baking chips so I gave him some so I could finish getting everything ready, Maggie was all in the car seat ready for the trip. I get us all there and into the store and I look at Maggie in horror, not really horror but trying to set it up all dramatic, so I guess Nolan was tryingto feed her but did not quite get it to her mouth. Not so embarrasing at walmart but when I had to take all the kids into the school for something for Anna right after it was.

so I finally got all the gazillions pictures off the camera, lots the trip to Philadelphia, Sam and his underwear, outside, baking, playdates, etc.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sometimes seemingly easy tasks are very difficult

We have had this book for 3-4 years and now have ordered ALL the Williams sonoma kids cookbooks. They are fabulous, and love that my kids can bake things from other than a cake mix or bisquick. I couldn't cook when I went to college I do not think I ever cared to learn but I love to bake and these books are great for adults too. and they have the best frosting recipes EVER. when my baby is not screaming I will post it

I think I would have learned my lesson after six kids, don't buy ahead it NEVER works out for me. Maggie has more clothes than she could possible wear for the summer...and she won't because by the time she grows into them it will be winter, well Ms winter but still.

Kind of hard to be annoyed today because yeah the sun is out, the kids woke up HAPPY this morning, Maggie is taking a nap in her crib, the last being a miracle.
She is so fussy and gassy and wants to be held a lot, but now that she is almost six months old she is getting better and will do some tummy time.

the other monster Sam, well for all the complaining I do about his not sleeping well since the day he was born...I am sad he is so miserable that he cannot feel comfortable. He does sleep way better now, but he is having some breathing issues now at night and those nebs make him CRAZY so he slept in until 9:30 this morning, it will be a much better day. I gave him the benadryl. he does have a prescription for hydroxizine which used to work great at getting him to sleep but he hasn't needed it for awhile blah blah I tried it again because he is pretty icky and it does not do the trick anymore.

After Sam was born was the most miserable time, I am not sure if it was because I was out of practice with he and Jake being three &half years apart (funny that I have had three children in less than that time, not really ha ha funny though unless you are looking at me trying to wrangle them all)
when he was about three-four weeks old it was my turn to do sharing time, Chris was on call so I went to church alone. It was not a great day and it was a hard time. I am glad Nollie is so pleasant and a great sleeper. I hope he does not get lost in between the needy bossy sam and the sweet baby girl.

I have been making an effort to be a nicer mother, so I wrote all the kids a letter to tell them all the lovely things about them and have been trying to comment on the positives they do instead of ALL the nit picky things I see and I mean TRYING because it is very difficult. I think it is working because while there are still issues they may be a little bit happier, if momma ain't happy well like I said for the last three years it has pretty much been the case. Having a lot of kids is hard, lots of people say "you must be patient" no I am the most impatient person so I must need to learn it the hard way.

Boring post.

#5 people in the South must read Emily Post
because they are friendly, gracious, kind, say yes/no sir/mam, mind their manners. I really get quite annoyed here when I say "Thank you" and the other person replies "uh-huh" or "yep". Perhaps they need to be reminded of the appropriate response "you're welcome"
I do believe that after living and visiting many places that the south is where you will find the friendliest of folks.

some more reasons I like the South.

#2 personalized stationery, monograms, kids calling cards, really they use these things another reason #3 people are generally very gracious and sends a hand written thank you note (I have an issue sending these out in a timely manner and to my immediate family in particular sorry GMA T and my siblings, that will have to be a resolution for next year though.)

#4 CUTE children's boutiques everywhere, traditional smocked dresses and you can even dress your boys "like a girl" that quote is from Chris until they are four with knee socks and jon-jons. and those over priced trunk show clothing items that I think if I weren't spending so much time wasting my time I could make those things myself I am sure of it!!

SO I may have been a wee bit negative about moving to Chrisissippi (oh Mississippi) really it is the humidity and no fall. In an attempt to have a better attitude I am going to post all the positives about moving there as I think of them.

#1 housing is very reasonable. I need a larger home and can get a great one there for a wonderful price. Also, more charming architecture and details I think. No looks like everyone else's home for a ridiculous price (like the neighborhood behind me). This fabulous home is where GMA T grew up, even had chickens!

We are back from our wknd trip to the city of Brotherly Love,
sadly it was cold, rainy and the second day Sunny but still cold and very windy
it seemed like we were gone a lot longer than we were
and of course the kids loved the swimming pool the best
I will put up pictures one day soon
we will do an egg hunt this week because the easter bunny knew we were away

Sam has his toxic look about him, all rashy and icky in the face, crunchy breathing
has been that way for a few days, a combination of who knows what
we always take a chance when he goes out in public, or sleeping in a hotel
He usually gets rashy when we go to church(all kinds of snackys and probably peanut butter all over the floor AGH!) or Walmart
I can't leave him at home so I just try to make him comfortable
He has been very naughty this last week, I really need to be more consistent with his discipline
or else he is just going to get worse!
I am unsure what I will do about preschool. I really think he should go because he needs to work on his social skills however how can I ask a school to get rid of all peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, eggs, milk, soy, strawberries, corn (and as a side corn syrup is horrible at making him uncomfortable, his levels to corn are not even terribly high but it is in EVERYTHING!) I guess I would settle for the peanuts and treenuts and just so you know pistachios are a nut (passive aggressive!)

Magnolia Claire enjoyed some bananas and peas this last week. She gobbled them right up like a little monster, so cute.

click on the Imperfectly Beautiful button to see a great video

Here is Nolan in the IKEA lockers...do you think it is trashy that we all went and while eating our lunch I had to nurse Maggie (covered up of course!) I mean it is like we were in Europe right? and even better that Nolan's pants got all wet and we walked around with him in a diaper (tried to wrap him in Maggie's girl blanket) but he wanted to play in the kid's section so we let him. Philadelphia gets us this wknd, who knows what could happen!

Some of these are from my new fancy camera that I am trying to figure out, I ahve not edited them with my new software because I haven't installed it yet. Chris got me a camera BAG (it's large) and some new accessories I think I can now go on my Middle East photo journalism shoot. Can anyone watch my kids??