Christmas..

Boy its been crazy around here the past few weeks!! We have had Nana in the hospital (twice).. 1st time she was having internal bleeding and the 2nd time was because she develpoed a staph infection from the 1st visit! I am happy to report that she is scheduled to return home today! YAY!
Then 2 days before Christmas Mama decided to fall and spend the night at the hospital. Thank the Lord she didn't break anything, but she is in alot of pain and bruised up quite a bit. So we have had a very stressful Christmas season.. and we are happy that it they are still here with us! We love the grandmothers sooo much!

Then there was CHRSTMAS! We have a Christmas Eve service every year at our church with the kids being in a "living nativity".. that was cute and exhausing!!
Then on Christmas Eve I still had to prepare the omlettes for the morning and make the coffee cake and wrap more gifts.. lets just say it was a very, very, long night!!

The truth is .. I wouldn't trade the craziness and the over excited children ANYDAY! I love the way they get soo excited and I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. My wonderful husband who loves me and works so hard to provide for us.. and my 4 children who I love more than words can describe.. they are amazing!!

Now we are cleaning up from Christmas and preparing for the New year.. 2010!

Your Favorites (170 photos), by rebecca gantt

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
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Thought I would share some of my photos.. ENJOY!

My Birthday Boy!!

Tomorrow will be my son Gabriel's 14th birthday.. How does time go by so fast?

Seems like yesterday that he was stubborn and wouldn't come out.. he was almost 2 weeks late! I remember the night I had him - I was induced and was in labor for over 12 hours.. it was snowing and everyone I loved was there to welcome him into this world. He was so cute and I was so happy that he was finally here!
I can still see him running around in his coveralls and flannel shirts.. trying to walk in his Daddy's boots and carrying around his Toy Story "Woody" (he never went anywhere without it.. and yes he still has it)
I can't believe that he is going to be 14! He is such a sweet and sensitive boy that still "loves" on his Momma. I pray that he contiues to strive to be a man of God and always put Him first.
I thank the Lord that he chose me to be his Mother.. I am so blessed.

I love you Gabriel Michael.. You make me so proud! ♥

Wisdom..

Well.. I finally had it done... my wisdom teeth are FINALLY gone!

It wasn't bad at all actually.. the pain hasn't been too bad. I have decided to stop taking the pain meds during the day since they make me so groggy and tired and just take them at bedtime if I need to. The only problem I have is the pain in my face...where my sinuses are (cheekbones) they hurt.. but no mouth pain.
I planned ahead the week before and put meals in the freezer and made lists ect. Bryan has done well considering.. LOL I planned it so the kids were off on Thanksgiving break from school so he only had 1 day to get them up and ready for school.


Bryan went and drove out to the land I talked about in the last post... BOY is it out there! I guess at parts of the road was barely wide enough to even get the car thru.. he never did make it to the cabin. It would be too much to make the road wider and during mud season or a snow storm we would be trapped for weeks! LOL
I think that I got the "bug " in him now though... I am still checking out land for sale. Someday Lord willing .. I will have my little farm in the country..

Dreams..

I can't help it.. seems all I dream about lately is living in the country on a big piece of land with my family.. I mentioned it to my husband that I want to live in the country and have a small family farm.

He has found a ad in the paper for some land (33 acres) about 30 minutes from town with a small cabin on it. It has fruit trees and everything! I keep thinking about it... I think we are going out to do a "unoffical" drive by tomorrow.

I thought my husband would want nothing to do with living out in the middle of NOWHERE.. but he is the one who is talking about the possiblities NON stop! There is no electricity there on the land and they use solar and generator power, there is running water in the cabin and a wood stove. They heat the house by wood only. There is even a chicken coop! YAY!
The cabin only has 2 bedrooms and its very small...

What if.. What if.. thats all I can think about!!

Sickness..

So here I am today with 3 sick kids..
Poor Gabe has been sick for over 2 weeks now and over the weekend spiked a high fever. Dr. says its "going around" and to keep him home and to rest and get plenty of fluids. He is feeling horrible..

Emalee has a ear infection (found that out on Friday) and last night decided to join her siblings and have a fever also! Today she still has a fever and is also home from school (again).

Maddie decided to start a fever also yesterday and woke up with it again today..then she puked in our bed this morning! UGH! Now I am washing sheets and blankets as well as trying to "catch" her before she vomits all over.

Hannah is the only one that went to school today. She is still coughing and has a head cold but she doesn't have the fever... yet.

I am so tired! Our family has been sick now for over 3 weeks and it is only November..

Canning..

The last few days I have been canning applesauce and apple butter. I also have been on a baking "craze" and made pumpkin bread and pumpkin coffecake! Oh..also I made and froze 2 apple pie filling kits. (basically the filling of the pie in a freezer bag)

I have been checking out some websites about "Once a Month Cooking" and I am thinking abouot trying that after the holidays. Sounds interesting..

I just want to learn how to sew next. Nothing big and crazy but I would love to learn how to make simple things.. at times like this I wish I lived closer to my Mom so she could teach me.

Life here has been crazy the past few weeks with everyone being sick. Bryan and Gabe were sick all last week and now Hannah has a cold and poor Emmy has a ear infection.. I am so tired of the "sickies", and it is only November!

I will post a picture of my canning and baking days soon!

Updates...

It has been awhile since I wrote last...

Update on Robyn:
The results came back from the swallow test and it shows that there is nothing wrong. They do want her to come back in a few months for a repeat MRI to see if things have changed. They have no answers for her except they think the reason for the swelling is hormones from the pregnancy and besides that they have no clue when it will go away. She has been to her regular doctor for bloodwork and again everything is coming out normal. So basically she needs to learn to live with it until or "if" it goes away. Nice huh?

Update on me:
Well, it was offically a month ago yesterday that I miscarried. I just got my period yesterday and I was in alot of pain yesterday on my left side. Not sure what that is all about..but I have been having very sharp pain in my ovary area. I guess I will need to call the Dr. and talk to them about it. Who knows.. not sure if I have a cyst or something going on.
I have been sick with a horible cold for a week now and everything in this house is behind. Laundry, cleaning ect. I am so tired....
Hopefully I can get some energy soon.

Sadness...

well.. long story short...

I lost the baby. I started bleeding on Sept.23rd and continued over the weekend...and on Sunday night (Sept. 27th) it was offical.. :(
It has been such an emotional week. I know that it wasn't my fault and I couldn't do anything to stop it, I know that the Lord had his reasons for letting it happen, I know He is with me during this and I will be ok.

My heart is broken... and I am sad.

I have such mixed emotions. I am scared to try again... what if I lose that one too? What if I can't concieve another child? What if the Lord doesn't want me to have another child? Am I ok with that?
What if.. what if...

I am trying to take 1 day at a time.. and praying that God will give me strength to make it thru another day. I know I will be ok..


On a good note... Robyn's diagnosis is changed! They have determined that in fact that there is not a growth on her Thymus gland but instead it is just enlarged. They are still not sure what they are going to do about it though. She had a barium swallow test the other day and are waiting to hear the results of that. She is still very dizzy and still having all the symptoms that she has had. They are consulting with other doctors and hopefully soon we will know what the plan is.
I am so happy that it is not a tumor.. they were talking about her having some major surgery(opening her chest up). I just pray there is a easy solution ... and they figure out what to do to help her.

Phew!! Stress much?!

Trust in the Lord...

Yesterday was a very bad day.... we got very shocking news.


My sister-in-law Robyn has not been feeling well for about a week. Last Friday she went to the ER because she was having a hard time breathing and they thought she had some chicken stuck in her throat from her eating dinner. So they tried to help her "hack" it up... she still didn't feel right the rest of the week. Her throat was still not right and now she was getting dizzy. So she decided to call her Dr. for an appointment thinking she might have the flu or something.
Well..she had to go back to the Er that night due to her breathing again (her Dr. appointment was set-up for the next day)..they did a bunch of tests, X-rays, bloodwork, and a CT scan. They told her they thought it could be stress and gave her some anti-anxiety drugs and sent her home.

The next morning we find out that they found something in the CT scan. She has a significant sized mass in her chest. It is by her collarbone on her left side.. they are going to send her to Dartmouth for further testing and biopsy.

Robyn is not just my sister-in-law but one of my good friends. We have known each other since we were 12. She is only a year younger than me and she has 3 children to look after..one of those children she gave birth to on July 9th.

I just wanted to say .. Please pray for her and our families.

Thank You
I wish I could fix this for her and make it go away.. I pray that this is nothing serious.

We are PREGNANT!!

ok.. so here is the lowdown!





I do want to say one thing... this baby WAS planned. I already have 4 children and I have prayed for another for quite a LONG time! My husband Bryan was happy with the 4 we already had, but after praying for years that the Lord would change my husbands heart.. he agreed to start "trying" again! I thank the Lord for changing my husbands heart.. I am so happy!!





On September 11th, 2009- actually the night before I took a test and I thought I saw a very very faint second line. So that morning I took another test..and again I though I saw a second line (very faint). So while I was out doing errands I decided to pick up a digital test. So when I got home.. I took it ... and look what it said!!!!

We haven't even told the kids yet ... :)