Entering the world of baseball....

The Arnold family has entered the world of baseball! I knew this day would come when we would be spending our summers at the ball field. Neither Robb nor I were quite ready for it, but Hunter, on the other hand, couldn't wait for his first practice and then his first game. Hunter's Uncle Wesley is the very patient coach for these 5 and 6 year old boys. Four of the boys are from the Arnold family and love nothing more than being together! They have had 2 games and it has been very entertaining to say the least! It really is a fun way to spend a summer evening. The 'Arnold boys', Booker, Nash, Sage and Hunter. These boys are as mischievous as they look! :) I LOVE this picture of the boys in the outfield during their first game. They are all in position looking like true baseball stars! This was approximately 5 minutes later...Sage and Hunter decided it was more fun to visit in the outfield than it was to wait for the ball to come to them. :) Here's to a great season following the Hazel Rockhounds!

Gage Dakota is 2!!!

On June 9th, 2005 Gage Dakota came into the world in record time! I was induced at 8:15 am and by 11:20 it was all over with and I was holding little 7 pound 4 ounce Gage in my arms, trying to figure out who he looked like! There were a couple small resemblances to his brother and sister but for the most part he had his own look. I was thrilled with a healthy baby boy to add to our family. I had loved the name Gage for quite some time but had to give Robb time to decide if it was the perfect name for our 3rd child. Naming children in our house is no easy feat, but I'll save that for another post! I really wanted Robb to name him since I had come up with Hunter and Brylie. He decided on Gage Dakota as he thought it was a strong name. And isn't it funny how once you decide on the name, it just fits them perfectly? Gage is such a blessing to our family in so many ways. His personality is very different than either his brother or sister. He is the busiest of our kids and has absolutely NO FEAR! We consider him the comedian of the family and spend a good portion of our day laughing at him. He will do anything to get a laugh! (many times it involves a mess....like food on his head, etc.) Gage is very strong willed but with the knowledge I am gaining from 'Bringing up Boys' I think I may still be one step ahead of him! :) I am looking forward to the year ahead. There will be more talking, more risk-taking, lots more laughing and the disappearance of the last bit of baby fat on his body (for that I am quite sad!). My baby is becoming a little boy and although it makes me a little sad, I am excited to watch this little boy grow and develop. I love you Gage! Happy Birthday!

Elmo Birthday Party

'Mom, I'm tryin' to open some presents here...please stop with all the pictures!' New toys!! Yea! This is the first birthday cake that I have not made for my kids. The guilt was a little overwhelming at first but the ease of planning the party without having to worry about the cake was wonderful! I plan on ordering them from now on. There is a lady locally that makes these wonderful cakes for only $15! I could not pass that up. As we were singing to Gage, he decided to dip into the frosting! Gage couldn't consume his cake and ice cream fast enough! We bought this really fun water slide last year and pulled it out today for the first time this year. It was 90 degrees today so it was perfect for some water fun. Gage got right in there with the big kids and loved every minute of it! (Michelle F., I hope the summer photos aren't depressing for you. I remember when you posted summer photos when we were freezing here in SD and I about cried thinking this weather would NEVER come!) Ahhhh, there's nothing like falling into a pool of freezing cold water! Gage was so wiped out that he actually fell asleep standing up! Turning 2 is exhausting!

Favorite Photo Friday

Brylie LOVES to put on makeup when she plays dress-up. We need to work on the application a bit! :)

Sharing a good book

Ginger posted this blog filler on Just a Thought and since I love hearing about good books I thought I would share the book that I am reading now. Ever since giving birth to Hunter, other parents of boys have recommended this book to me. After giving birth to a second son I knew that I better make this purchase. Well, I have finally gotten around to reading it and I definitely wish that I had read it 6 years ago when it was recommended! I am only on page 75 and many questions have already been answered as to why my boys do the things that they do. Interesting stuff! Dr. James Dobson is a wonderful writer and if you are a parent or grandparent of boys, I would HIGHLY recommend this book! Now the rules of the book blog filler are to grab the closest book, go to page 123, find the 5th sentence and, on your blog, put the next three sentences. Since I have not yet made it to page 123 this is new info for me too! "If you as a parent have an effeminate boy or a masculinized girl, I urge you to get a copy and then seek immediate professional help. Be very careful whom you consult, however. Getting the wrong advice at this stage could be most unfortunate, solidifying the tendencies that are developing." Are you interested yet? I know that I won't be able to get through this book fast enough! It is jam packed full of information about boys and how and why they do the things they do and how as parents we are to raise them to be Godly men. If you have a book you would like to share, please play along! I would love to hear what you are reading.

No one told me being a mom would be this hard!

Yesterday at snack time Hunter said, "mom, I really want a snack but I just don't want to poke my finger. When will I be able to eat without poking my finger all the time?" With tears in my eyes I explained to him that I want nothing more than for him to be able to eat without worrying about his blood sugars and that we will continue to pray that Jesus will heal him. Trying to understand it all he replied, "you always tell me that if I pray for Jesus to heal me and believe it in my heart then I will be healed. Well, I have believed it in my heart for a LONG time and I STILL have diabetes!" More tears and less wisdom from me. Please say a prayer for my very wise 5 year old who does not know life without lots of pokes.

Favorite Photo Friday

This picture just makes me smile! :-)

YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE IT...

Our REFRIGERATOR quit working last night! Seriously, I have no idea what is going on around here! We transported all of the food over to our farm and have our fingers crossed that if we WHINE a lot the service man will be able to make it here TODAY! I guess it's frozen pizza for lunch! On a good note, the stove works great, no problems with the microwave, my washer and dryer seem to be holding up and the dishwasher is good as new!

One down...two to go!

THE DISHWASHER IS FIXED!!! Yea! It is quite an embarrassing story though. The whole problem was caused by a stopper from a sippy cup...it got caught underneath the float so the dishwasher was unable to fill with water. It took the service man about 2 minutes to fix the problem! OOPS! Actually I knew that one of the stoppers was missing and had looked through the dishwasher but never thought to look in the float. SO, 2 weeks of washing dishes, dishpan hands, lots of frustration, and who knows how much money later, the dishwasher is fixed! Now on to the coffee pot and the camera! Hopefully those problems are just as easy to fix! Ahhh, I love the whirring of the dishwasher. Life is good!

Have you ever had a week like this.....

First of all my dishwasher broke. It would go through the motions but the dishes would come out dirty. Huge bummer! Since we had so many adoption fees this month I decided to wait a week to call the service man, to avoid another bill. So I washed dishes for a week and was more than ready to have it fixed after that. So, last Monday Robb called the place where we bought the dishwasher (the place that sells their appliances based on their "great service") and after 8 DAYS we are still waiting for them to show up!! Robb has called them TWICE and was making another call this morning. Since it is busy time on the farm I am cooking up a storm for the guys and am tired of washing tons of dishes every day! I have reached the point of planning my meals based on what takes the least amount of dishes to prepare! (BTW this is the universal picture for dishwasher posts, right?? :-))))) On Saturday morning I woke up to 40 degree weather and couldn't get to the coffee pot quick enough! I NEEDED that cup of coffee to warm me up and get my mind off the fact that it is the end of May and temps reached close to FREEZING the night before! Well, you can imagine the tantrum I threw when I went to turn it on and NOTHING happened! I quickly carried it around the kitchen trying other outlets then doing a once-over of the appliance and then shedding a FEW TEARS! This CAN'T BE HAPPENING! Okay, after pouting for most of the day I decided I can at least blog about my BAD LUCK. So I grab my trusty digital camera that I LOVE OH SO MUCH and push the power button only to see BLACK and hear a little bit of a NOISE. I changed the battery and pushed a few buttons and......NOTHING. At this point I didn't throw a tantrum or shed a tear, I simply put it down and made sure I didn't say, "What more could go wrong?!?" Oh, what a week!

Quotes to live by

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and I could say, 'I used everything You gave me.' " Erma Bombeck

****UPDATE****

I made it through ANOTHER trip to the lab! The nurse took ANOTHER 3 VILES of blood and called it good! I will get the results next week. I am 99% sure that the tests will reveal that I am in need of more iron.........I guess better safe than sorry. Thanks for all of your kind thoughts. I am glad to see that I am not the ONLY WIMP when it comes to needles! :)

A visit to the doctor...

For the adoption paperwork Robb and I both need to have thorough physicals done. Well, yesterday we went to do the lab part of it. When I called to make the appointment the lady at the desk asked what tests needed to be done. After about 2 minutes of reading off all of the things we needed to be tested for, she told me I better bring in a copy of the medical sheets so she doesn't miss anything. We needed to be tested for everything from HIV to Syphilis! After 5 viles of blood out of my arm, the nurse thought she had enough to cover all of the tests needed. Now, for those of you that don't know me, I am a TOTAL WIMP when it comes to giving blood! I have to lay down for the process and remain that way until about 20 minutes AFTER the procedure. Yesterday was a little different since they had to take so much blood. I tried to get up once but soon started seeing double so laid back down. Luckily Robb was with me, since he had already done his test without any problems. (go figure!) Honestly, I felt like crap the rest of the day, but was so relieved that the bad part of the physical was over and it meant one step closer to our little girl! Just when I started to perk up a little, the nurse called and said that my hemoglobin was low and they needed MORE BLOOD to find out what was causing the anemia. I told them that I had had trouble with this during my pregnancies and just needed extra iron. The thorough doc that we have still wanted to run some tests just to rule out anything else. So....tomorrow morning I am going back to that blasted lab and give a little more from my veins! Wish me luck!

Big Dreams....

Hunter: "Mom, do the Wiggles make money singing and dancing?" Me: "Yes, that's their job." Hunter: "I want to be one of them when I get older." **(His dad will be so proud!)**

Pregnancy Blog Filler

Frazzled Farm Wife posted this filler on her blog and thought I would share my answers. 1. Was your first pregnancy planned? yes 2. Were you married at the time? yes 3. What were your reactions? I was THRILLED! We had been trying to get pregnant for 2 1/2 years and had suffered a miscarriage 2 months before this, so it was a huge blessing. 4. Was abortion an option for you? Absolutely not--NEVER! 5. How old were you? 25 6. How did you find out you were pregnant? I took a pregnancy test. 7. Who did you tell first? My husband 8. Did you want to find out the sex? No, we wanted it to be a surprise. 9. Due date? July 24th, 2001 10. Did you have morning sickness? Yes. My "morning" sickness occurred every day from 4-8 pm for the first 4 months. yuck! 11. What did you crave? Peanut Butter Captain Crunch and fruit 12. Who/What irritated you most? I wasn't irritable....just very, very tired all the time. 13. What was your child's sex? male 14. Did you wish you had the opposite sex of what you had? no 15. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 19 16. Did you have a baby shower? yes, 5 days after he was born 17. Was it a surprise or did you know? I knew, my sisters-in-law and good friend threw the shower for me at our church. 18. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I was anemic, but controlled it with extra iron. 19. Where did you give birth? At a hospital 20. How many hours were you in labor? 10....5 of which I did at home. 21. Who drove you to the hospital? my husband 22. Who watched you give birth? my husband and my mother 23. Was it natural or c-section? natural 24. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? No.....but I learned my lesson! 25. How much did your child weigh? 6 lbs. 13 oz. 26. When was your child actually born? 1:10 pm on Saturday, July 14th, 2001 27. What did you name him/her? Hunter Ron (Ron was Robb's dad's name) 28. How old is your first born today? 5......almost 6 I would love to hear more pregnancy/delivery stories. Please share!

Favorite Photo Friday

I am LOVING this wonderful weather we have been having! The kids and I spend most of the day outside running, swinging, playing and exploring.

So long Preschool....Kindergarten here he comes!

Yesterday was Hunter's last day of preschool. He brought his teacher some flowers to say Thank you for the wonderful year. Hunter's teacher was a retired principal and came out of retirement to teach preschool. She raised 3 sons so she understood the energy that Hunter has....thank goodness! The preschoolers put on a program for the parents. It was quite entertaining! The preschoolers taking a bow at the finale of their program. It's official...he completed preschool! Come Fall Hunter and Brylie will both be in school....I can hardly believe it!

Who makes these things?

Okay, the McDonald's happy meal toys are often cheesy, but usually keep my kids' attention for the 1/2 hour ride home so we splurge and get all 3 kids a Happy Meal and a toy. Well, last week we ended our trip to town with the usual McDonalds stop. They were excited to see new toys....SHREK toys. We pay for our food, distribute Happy Meals properly and start to enjoy our own lunch when we hear 3 SHREK toys start to BURP! Of course all 3 kids thought this was HILARIOUS, so they continued to push the button that caused SHREK to let out a gigantic BELCH. I tried to ignore it, turn up the radio, and just tune it out, but about 10 minutes down the road I yelled "Stop making SHREK burp! It is driving me crazy!" The quiet lasted about 5 minutes until the curiousity sparked again and so did the BURPS. I found myself questioning the insanity of the person that makes these toys to torture parents. It is obvious that the maker of burping toys does not have any children of their own. Although I would like to strangle the maker and distributer of these toys, they are successful in keeping the attention of kids. I will tell you that the BURPING SHREKS in our house will soon be disappearing one by one.

Mother's Day with the Arnold's

Here's the Mother's Day 2007 photo. Family photo at Grandma Corinne's house after church. Hunter and his best buddy Sage. Brylie playing ball in Grandma Corinne's yard. Kennedy loves to help take care of Gage. Daddy and his little girl. We ended the day by planting some flowers at home. All in all it was a relaxing, fun filled day with my family. Daddy was in charge of changing all the diapers...Yeah! (That's really my favorite part of Mother's day!) The weather was a little hot and pretty windy but we were still able to enjoy the day outside.

Mother's Day

Since Mother's Day is right around the corner I thought I would ask Hunter and Brylie a few questions about their mom. It's alway entertaining to hear what comes out of their mouth. What makes a good mom? Hunter: "YOU" Brylie: "Jesus makes good moms." What is your favorite thing about your mommy? Hunter: "I like to go for walks with you, eat with you, play with you, read stories with you, drive to town with you, help you make brownies and my favorite thing is snuggling with you." Brylie: "I love you because you are the bestest mom in the world, you play with me downstairs, make me lunch and take me to my favorite store, Claire's." What do you wish your mommy did better? Hunter: "She could give me more presents!" Brylie: "She could clean my room for me." What have you learned from your mom? Hunter: "about Jesus, and how the government in China doesn't let their people worship Jesus, and how to be a good person and that dinosaurs are all dead" Brylie: "so much, like how to make my bed and how to be good to other people"

OOPS!!

Don't ya love how I ask you to share your opinion and then don't have a place to comment!?!?! I was just so proud of myself for figuring out how to add a link that I didn't even notice that the comments were turned off. Anyway, I hope things are working better now. Heidi also brought it to my attention that Mommyzabs posted about this same article not too long ago....sorry. I found the article through other adoption blogs as it sounds a lot like what is happening in China. Pretty scary if you ask me!

What's your take?

I recently came across this article and wanted to know your opinion. I'm all for saving the planet, but this seems quite extreme!

Favorite Photos Friday

This is Gage's sneaky attempt at getting to the treat bowl! He was moving very slowly as to not get my attention. I had to capture it on film! :)

I caved!

I have to admit that I am not one of those nice moms who buys their kids the fun band-aids. It just drives me CRAZY that they cost twice as much as the boring brown ones and they mysteriously bring on frequent ailments that require band-aids to heal. Well today the kids and I went to Walmart and needed band-aids and the kids spotted the "fun" ones and REALLY wanted them. I immediately grunted at the thought but then noticed that they were on sale for LESS than the ugly brown ones. Well, you guessed it, I caved. I mean kids should be able to wear character band-aids on their owies right? I felt okay about my purchase until 5 MINUTES after arriving home Brylie got a scratch on her finger and "really needed a Strawberry Shortcake band-aid!" Oh, what have I done?

As I am knee deep in adoption paperwork I find myself getting so frustrated with the incredible process that adoption entails. There are over 1 million orphans in China and only a small percentage of them are getting adopted. Personally I don't think that it takes four months worth of paperwork and mounds of money to determine if a family is "fit" to care for a child! The love that I have in my heart for this child, that is yet to be born, is incredible. I try to focus on the end result, but some days I have trouble keeping my mind off of the fact that my 4th child will have to spend the first year of her life in an orphanage before her mommy and daddy are allowed to come and get her. Robb and I know that adoption is God's plan for us and we believe that he will carry us over the many hurdles along this very long path. Until the day that I get to hold our precious daughter in my arms, I will keep signing on the dotted line.