Welcome to Heaven...

Okay, maybe not the REAL heaven. But it's my heaven and it feels pretty amazing! I can only imagine what the real heaven is like. My heaven is the smell of my newborn baby sleeping on my chest, listening to the belly laughs and little giggles of the 5 children in the other room, and my husband telling me how beautiful I am despite the extra baby weight still ever so present. I sometimes wonder if heaven is the same thing for everyone or is it perhaps a unique experience for each individual. If everyone has their own piece of heaven- this is definitely mine. Don't get me wrong. Life with 6 has been hectic thus far. Everyday is chaotic; very little gets done around the house. But this chaos, my chaos, will one day be gone and I'll wish it was here again. Therefore, my chaos is my heaven!!! Like I've mentioned in past blog posts, I want so badly to freeze time and just live this moment forever.

We've all been busy over here soaking up baby Ben. In fact, we can't get enough of him...

She's a pro at this by now, see how bored she is, lol...

Some of us get mad when we have to share him...

So, on my last day on Earth when I finally meet my Creator, He just might let me live in my frozen moment. And perhaps, He'll greet me with..."Hello, Christine, welcome to Heaven!"

So, what's your heaven like?

"A little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul." ~Author Unknown

Let There Be Light!

Dad finished the electrical part of his outdoor project just last night! Boy, mom will be glad when this project is complete; the honey-do project list for the inside of the house is growing by the day!

"It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home." ~Author Unknown

Is this how EVERY boy sleeps?

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero."-- Marc Brown

I'm used to girls, I guess!

Birth Announcements

Here's what we came up with for Ben's birth announcements...

what do ya think?

Happy Halloween- 2009

I heard Halloween was a success and that we had more trick or treaters than ever before. Daddy said he worked up a sweat handing out caramel popcorn and candy. I wish I had a picture of daddy's zombie costume to show you but I don't, sorry. After visiting for a few minutes with some family and friends, I went into seclusion with the baby upstairs for the rest of the night. We are terribly afraid of him getting sick this flu season, so he'll be hiding out for a few more weeks! I promised Nana to take a picture of all the grandkids- here u go Nana "A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween." ~Erma Bombeck

Welcome Home, Benjamin!

READY FOR SOME PICS???

We are truly, madly, and deeply in love with this...

Ben is 8 days old already. He spent one extra day in the hospital than mommy did. Leaving my baby there was the hardest thing I've ever done. But the dr wanted to observe him a bit longer because of respiratory noises he was making when sleeping and a borderline high white cell count. After the long nite without him, Ben bid farewell to the nurses and we headed for home.

We never got around to making big sis/bro t-shirts to wear to the hospital like we have with all the other kids but thats a good thing because they would have gone to waste. The hospital was very strict on visitors because of the swine flu. Absolutely no children were allowed and that meant siblings too : (

But no worries, the kids have bonded with him since he's home. In fact, it would be an understatement to say that big brother Matthew is ecstatic to have a baby brother. He can't keep out of the poor baby's face. Megan is the one who really shocked us. I, for one, thought for sure she would have a hard time adjusting and seeing us hold this new 'thing'. But its the very opposite. She screams and pitches a fit until we let her hold him. Then, when she has him, she won't give him up. Her new favorite word is -no-. So, ask her if you could hold Baby Ben and in her cutest little voice she will yell, "NO"!

What can I say, the other three are pros at this new baby thing so understandably it's NOT that big of a deal to them, especially Brianna. LOL! Brianna has already claimed that Ben is her new favorite sibling because he can't talk.

Emily bought Ben a small teddy bear from the dollar store when she found out she was going to be a big sis months ago. She was saving it for him this whole time! She and Elizabeth even decorated a gift box to present to him and wrote a few letters to him; what a treasure for him to have when he's older!

So, the other night Emily gave Ben his welcome home present. Welcome Home Baby Ben, we've been waiting for you!

“Hush hush” said the moon. “Turn out the light… someone new sleeps with us tonight!” ~ unknown

Seeing Stars

Ok I'm gonna make this short- I'm nursing and typing at the same time... The weekend before Ben arrived we took our 'lil family on our last outing as a family of seven. We visited the Griffith's Observatory and enjoyed a planetary show. Matthew thought he was really in outer space and was ready to 'fly' back down to Earth after several minutes. The girls loved it!

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." ~Desmond Tutu