Grocery Shopping

 I'm not sure that Moriah knew what she was getting into when she volunteered to go shopping with the youngest two and me. By frozen foods, we had two full carts-

 pictures are inferior phone photos

By the time we had it bagged, there were four carts -

Four people and four carts - in the Toyota Camry; may not have been my best planning. Thankfully, we had my favorite "bagger" (trivia for the non-military - the Commissary bags and loads your groceries) and she volunteered to take a picture before we attacked the challenge of fitting it all.

It was tight, but we did it; my motto is pack in the kids first, then the food around them. 

AND now, we can eat for the week! 
 

                                                                   Jenny

Birthday Girls

Last week is a big birthday week in our family - within four days, we have Tori, Alayna and Bella's birthday. Tori turned 10 and Bella turned 5! I'm hoping that it's not obvious how blurry this picture is, because they were all that way for some crazy reason.  

  
We took Tori to CiCi's pizza on Sunday for her birthday lunch and then we ended up at Chick Fil A on Bella's birthday night, so it was a lot of eating and a lot of cake!

It would have been nice if we had closed the messy pantry door before we took Bella's birthday pictures, but we didn't think of that.

We took a new approach to birthday presents this week - we took the girls to Toy's R Us and let them choose their own gifts; that was a first just from the reality that we just had Christmas and they did not need anything. The kids all thought it was fun, however, and have requested the same treatment; I may or may not regret the trend setting.

  
Just for fun, check out my cool Starbucks mug from Singapore; I don't drink coffee but seem to have developed a Starbuck mug issue. Gabriel also sent the kids green KitKat's from Asia; they look really cool but didn't taste that great!

  
One more just for fun photo that is unrelated - this is our living room around 9:00 a.m. The kids all drag their blankets out with them in the morning and then the pets move in for their morning nap. If you really want to sit, we have a few more couches downstairs.

10 Years - Part 4

I'm concluding my 10 year series with a quick recap of the house progress the last 6.5 years. When we moved in moments before Elijah was born, the basement was just a shell and several things upstairs were not completed. The boys were designated to have the downstairs bedrooms, but every child other than Moriah, has moved bedrooms at least once since we moved in. Moriah is currently waiting to move down to Alei's room once Alei moves to the garage apartment that we are getting ready to break ground on. 

This was the pile of dirt that we had from digging the basement -

 It took 35 truckloads to have it all removed, in spite of the kids really enjoying "the dirt mountain".

  
JD kept up his work pace to get the downstairs bedrooms done. The bathroom did not follow for about three years however.

  
The remainder of the basement was finished slowly over the next several years. We honestly just finished the major building of it last winter and are still finishing the final touches this winter. Everything takes longer and costs more than one can ever dream!

A major part of the work was installing the Geothermal lines in the ceiling. 

Gabriel helping back in the day of long hair

 Shorty after Elijah was born, Aunt Deb moved back from overseas and came for a visit. Since Julia was a very high needs two year old and Elijah wanted me to hold him constantly, Debs decided to delay getting a job in America and stay for a while. Thankfully, that while lasted a full year!

Debra and Elijah 2008

 I was thrilled, thrilled, thrilled that we were able to grow some grass in 2009; mowing grass seemed like a glorious chore!

 
The pool and playground were now located in our front yard, but continued to draw a crowd.
 

Other than just finishing, we have done some other major projects. We installed a wood burning stove and chimney that I LOVE.

We have also built raised garden beds, put in a pasture fence and JD finished the "chicken mansion" this summer - 
 

We finally broke down and paid an excellent carpenter to finish the screened in porch and build built in shelves in the TV room and a TV cabinet in the playroom.

the new TV that JD waited patiently for for 6 years

the old TV in a new built in corner cabinet in the playroom

 I am currently working on the playroom reorganize and redecorate. I ditched the Kelley green carpet, painted the floor and bought a new rug. I also added another Ikea cube shelf to further organize the toys. My next job is to work on hanging pictures in the entire basement. I'm going hang the children's art in the playroom.

The upstairs living room and school room are always a work in progress, but I'm pleased with how life in running in those rooms at the moment -

living room - yes, toys seem to end up everywhere

school room

 I still have painting to do; there's always painting. There will be lots more painting when we move the three bedrooms again once the garage is built.

 And now we are nearing ground breaking on our next building project - our garage and Alei's apartment. She has been buying things for her new home and lining her hallway with them; it's practically a fire hazard at this point.

10 Years - Part Two

We ended up living in the trailer for 3.5 years. I'm not going to hit on all the fostering and adopting we did in those years, but if you are interested in reading a summary of our children that we fostered and/or adopted, you can read it here - 

http://ourplansmultiplied.blogspot.com/2012/09/he-gives-and-takes-away-big-news.html

Alyssa with a little girl we took as an adoptive placement and lost

Moriah with her baby brother

We did A LOT in those few years, both with our family and building a home. Beyond going from five to nine children in those 3.5 years, we added several animals and even fostered some momma kitties.

A foster momma cat - we are left with only our annoying cat, Lucy, from her litter

We had the Amish come build our barn - (I miss those days when it was new and clean!). After they were done, we took over with concrete and other work inside.

JD put in the "goat fence" on the stall side of the barn; it was only last year that we added the pasture fence onto it.

We set up our pool that we had from the last house; which is now unfortunately in my current front yard.

We built a patio between the house and the pool to combat the dirt and mud.

Growing grass in all the area that we laid Geothermal lines has been practically impossible, due to the fact that they stripped the topsoil when they dug. We smartened up when we built our current house and removed the topsoil, set it aside and replaced it. 

Here's a picture of little Tori when she first came home from Liberia in August of 2006; she joined her siblings playing in the dirt.

We added Terri, the Nubian milk goat, for Tori. I milked her twice a day and it supplied Tori, and then Julia, with goat milk since it's common for little Liberians to be lactate intolerant.

Moriah and the goat parade

 We worked months, maybe a year, clearing around the trailer. Most of it had to be burnt since it had been on the ground for five years from a large hurricane that hit this area. The good wood was transported to an Amish mill and it is now our current fence and a future shed.

We became know for our large bonfires all four seasons

Finally, summer of 2007, we began plans for the new house. We thought we would take it slow, but the trailer was getting rather crowded when we added Ben and Julia in June. When we got the surprise that our #9 was on the way, the old fashioned way, we kicked our effort into faster mode.

JD drew the plans and laid out the current location. I have to brag that he is really, really good at thinking out future plans. I didn't question much externally, but it was only about two years ago that I walked back into our future cow pasture and understand what he meant when he said the house would be on the hill. We are truly at the peak of a hill with just enough on most sides to have a nice view. It was practically impossible to see with all the trees down.

So, with three new adoptees and a new baby on the way, we broke ground.

I'll wrap up with the "new" house tomorrow -