So behind!

O.K. I'm not doing so well for the Get it Down 31 for 21. I've missed several days. We have been so busy and it is catching up with me! We had our Fall Festival at church on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. I'll post some pictures soon.

My mom is still living with us and it has been wonderful having her around. I think we are wearing her out. She may need to take a Nana break soon. Tomorrow she is going out with her friends while my friend, Kim watches the baby.

On Thursday....I leave for Women of Faith Conference. I must say it is a little bittersweet. On one hand, I am looking forward to a time of renewal and on the other, I am going to so miss my children. They will be in good hands.

Six Things About Me.....

I've been tagged by 4 Green & Speckled Frogs to share six things you might not know or want to know about me, but I’m gonna tell you anyway.

#1 I am a very simple person that does not like a lot of frill. I wear khaki pants and a polo just about everyday to work. This works out well since our kids wear uniforms at the school where I work. I hardly put on make up and my hair routine is to wash, scrunch, and go. My poor girls don't have much of a role model when it comes to fashion.....good thing I have a lot of friends who can help them in that department.

#2 I love quilts. I have made one quilt and I never have time to handquilt the darn thing. One day I will finish this project. I even put it out where I would see it everday and I never touched it.......hence my #3......

My Quilt

#3 I would love to stay home so I could do the things I love. Sewing, quilting, cooking, and taking care of my family. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching if that is all I had to do. They, being the state and higher ups, put so much extra on teachers that it just takes the fun out of it sometimes.

#4 I guess you could call me a "people pleaser". I love to make sure everyone is happy. Of course, when it comes to my kids that is a different story. They don't get everything they want when they want and sometimes this doesn't make them happy. But hey that's life.


#5 I hate shopping for clothes for myself. Whenever I need to go shopping, I always bring something home for somebody else instead. I really don't care for shopping unless it is for the house, a project.....that I'll never have time to finish :-) or for other people. I actually enjoy grocery shopping most of the time. This is my alone time and I guess it feels like I'm accomplishing something. When things are in order, I feel in control. When things have gone crazy and out of order, I feel overwhelmed and out of control.


#6 I love sitting on the porch, drinking a cup of coffee or hot tea, and listening to the birds. We have bird feeders set up around the porch and I love to see all the different kinds of birds that visit. I also find it quite comical to watch the squirrels. I love nature and not afraid to handle most animals and creatures. Things that I'd rather not touch, I will collect in a cup or jar just so my kids can observe them.


Now it's your turn....Life With 4 Kiddos, Henry's Mommie, Gabi's World, Lily's Life is Great, Just RK, and Sarah, Class of 2008........tell me six things about you!

Close Call

My mom's house caught on fire today. Luckily, it was contained to one room and nobody was hurt. She was busy doing laundry when her 5 year old dryer caught on fire. They had 2 volunteers arrive at the scene first. Then 3 firetrucks and 1 ambulance. It was quite a seen for a small town and neighborhood. Thank goodness, she didn't go the grocery store down the road or take a nap while the dryer was running. I try not to leave the dryer on if we leave the house, but I have gone to bed with it running at night. NOT ANYMORE! The smoke was so bad that it has covered her whole house and belongings with soot. So she is now living with us until all the insurance "stuff" is taken care of and all is cleaned up. We are so thankful it wasn't any worse! Another lesson learned.....never leave your dryer on unattended!

Update.....here is a picture of the dryer.

Special Exposure Wednesday

Bloggy Blues

O.K I am at a loss as to what to blog tonight. I'm calling it the "Bloggy Blues". I am so tired again! I'm going to bed. Tomorrow......Wordless Wednesday.....I can handle that one. Hope all had a wonderful day!

Long Day

Today was a long day! I woke up this morning around 5:40am. Left the house around 6:20am and didn't get home until 9:30pm. I am so tired and it starts all over again tomorrow at 5:30 am. Fun. Fun. Is it the weekend yet???

Haven't missed a day!

I can't believe I've posted for 19 days straight! Of course...I've posted a lot of pictures. It is so much easier than thinking to type. Plus they say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Kuddos to all you moms that take the time to blog in words......maybe one day I'll get there.

In the meantime.......here are some more pictures!


Mattie with Matt's mom.



Mattie with my mom.


Am I spoiled or what?

Story Time

Caroline bought Pinklicious at the book fair last week. What a cute girly book! We loved this book! It is about a little girl who loves pink cupcakes. She loves them so much, she learns a valuable lesson on what can happen when you eat too many. We highly recommend this book.

Do you want to hear the story? If you just can't wait to get the book, click here to hear a read aloud. Personally, I think the pictures look much better in person.

Scarin' Alive

On Monday, our kiddos at school are performing in a play. One of the songs they are singing is Scarin' Alive. This song is very catchy and if you're a Saturday Night Fever Fan, you'll get a kick out of this version. The kids just absolutely love it.....and look so cute doing their John Travolta dance as they sing!

New Braces

Abby got her braces today! She was so excited and was up at 6am...well before she had to get up. Let's see how long the excitement will last~

Wordless Wednesday

This calls for a few words. Yes.....this is a real lizard! Hubby says they will hang from your ears like earrings....and they do! Caroline is our fearless child!

BTW...she says it doesn't hurt. You don't see me trying it!

Roll them on their belly and they won't move!

Fun and Games

Caroline on the big slide.The kids were mesmerized by this clown. They went to him shortly after we got there and then here they are again! They even waited on the free ice cream just to watch him!
Caroline tossing the rings.
Of course, I had to post the picture of Mattie and how she spent her time while at the Buddy Walk!

More Buddy Walk Pictures

Mattie just hanging out....

Abby's face painted
Caroline's face painted
Mattie loves icees!
Signing Time with Rachel and Alex (Leah was there too) I must say this was a big deal! Since Mattie is so little, we had only heard of them. Mattie is asking Santa to bring her some dvd's. We got a sample dvd and learned 5 new signs in less than 10 minutes! Caroline loved it too! Go visit her page to learn more.

More Pictures to come........

Buddy Walk

Just got back a little while ago from the Buddy Walk. Here is one of the group shots from some of Mattie's Supporters. We had an awesome time! I'll post more pictures over the period of the next week. I've got to get dinner for the kiddos and get them to bed.

The kids had a blast!

Sleeping Angel

5 Minutes for Mom is doing a give-away for a beautiful bedroom set.
All you have to do is submit a photo of your sleeping angel by Oct. 13th. There are

some wonderful photos, but I couldn't resist sharing this

photo. I went to go check on the girls before going

to bed. Caroline cracks me up with her little froggie

eye cover-up! Does "Froggie Princess/Angel" count??

Please come back.......

"Oh Where, Oh where, has my red hair gone.....Oh where, Oh where can it be?"

O.K. I really want Mattie to keep her red hair, but every day it gets lighter and lighter. Will it ever come back? In the sun, it looks red. But in the house....nope. Maybe I can get her to eat more carrots.....the only vegetable she likes! If only it could be that easy.......maybe just maybe it will come back.

Oops....I should have clarified....these are pictures with her red hair.

Here is a more recent picture

Date Night

I'm going on a date with the hubby! It's been quite awhile so I'm looking forward to it. We are going to a dinner and movie. Thanks Kim for watching the kiddos for us! We'll watch yours next Friday so you can go with your hubby. We are going to see Fireproof since I've heard so many great things about this movie. Well gotta go get ready! I'll catch up on the blogs sometime this weekend.

Buddy Walk

O.K. I am really....really.....exhausted tonight. So here is a short but sweet post.

Our Buddy Walk is Sunday! We are having to travel since we don't have one in our hometown. Here is the link. We're looking forward to our first Buddy Walk!

Special Exposure Wednesday

I love this picture of Mattie. It's hard to believe she was that tiny!

She was one month old.

Bloggy Giveaway!

Are you interested in winning a beautiful gift basket? Head over to My Special K's and enter to win. Hey and if you've never been......check out her blog! I promise you'll be inspired! Go check it out!

A trip to the ER

Everything started out normal yesterday. We got up, went to church, came home, had lunch. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. Then the girls got ready for their softball games. We headed out to the fields. Just about the time Abby's game was ending, I noticed Mattie was acting funny. She was all balled up fetal position. I couldn't get her to stretch out her legs. She had the shivers and the most painful look on her face. She wouldn't cry but she looked like she wanted too. I was worried she might have gotten stung by a yellow jacket(they were all over), but we didn't see any signs of a sting. Plus we were with her the whole time. I rushed to the van. By this time, she doesn't seem to be breathing like she usually does and she feels hot to me. I am really starting to get worried and tell Matt we should take her to the ER....or what they call Med Direct here. He seems to think she had gotten overheated since it was a little warm at the field. I found some Tylenol in the bag and give her a dose. As soon as we get in the driveway, Mattie throws up. O.K. I think maybe she has a stomach virus. We've had it going around school. I try taking her temp. with the ear thingy.....can't find the normal thermometer. It's all over the place. 102, 99, 100. She has tiny ears and that thingy isn't working. We decide to go to Med Direct. Once we get there, Mattie is sleeping. She looks fine and then I start wondering if I'm just overreacting. Matt says we're here and it's better to be on the safe side.

The nurse calls her back. She has a temp. of 104 and heart rate of 202!!!!!OMG!!! I am so glad we came now. Lesson learned......never second guess yourself....Motherly instinct...go with it! They basically ran a lot of tests, tests you don't like seeing your baby go through. After 5 hours, they finally find that she has an UTI(Urinary Tract Infection). They gave her a shot and told us to follow up with our reg. doctor. She said it's not very common in children this age so they may need to do some testing. We're praying it's something simple like our "little helpers" maybe not wiping the right way. She goes to the doctors tomorrow so we'll see what they say. After that visit, we're heading to the ear doctor.

A Rose for a Rose

Mattie's middle name is Rose. There is a long story at how this came to be, but I will try and shorten it the best I can. It all began before Mattie was even conceived. I had a dream and let's say it was very interesting. In short, it was about death. Well around the time I had this dream, I had a rose bush that grew this new long stem and produced this beautiful yellow rose. This rose grew at a time this bush never produces flowers which really caught my attention. I shared this story with others and was concerned with its meaning. Was God trying to tell me something? A lady I work with said, "you're going to have a baby...are you pregnant?" No way!! I'm done. Well.....I'd say about 6 months passed and surprise...We're pregnant! Fast forward to finding out the sex of our baby. Well, Matt really wanted her named after him and his middle name starts with "R" so we were throwing around some names. At this point, I'd forgotten about the rose. My friend Tracey mentioned the name. Then another friend of mine, Helen, also brought up the same name. We have another wonderful friend whose name is Rose. It was then I remembered "the rose!" It was decided her name would be Rose. At my shower, Helen, gave Mattie a rose bush. We decided to wait a week and plant the bush on Matt's birthday, Feb. 12th. So there is the story about how Mattie became Mattie Rose. I'm sure God had planned that too! Isn't it funny how He works?

Abby helping to dig the hole.

Matt planting the rose.

Caroline watering the rose.

Matt and myself with the rose.

Waiting to grow.....

The rose bush with its first bud. (May)

*Now the bush is so tall. We've had many roses. The most beautiful, sweet smelling roses! I saved the first one. I can't for the life of me find the pictures I took, but I know they are somewhere. I'll post them when I find them.

Wow....I've met two families today that have children with Ds. O.K. well, not really met. First, I got a call from a friend this morning. He met a family with a daughter who also has ds. He said she'd love to talk to me so I guess I'll be calling sometime soon. Then Abby and I headed to the library. As soon as we walk in, I see a boy around the age of 9 who had ds. I actually approached his mom and we talked for a few minutes. I thought that was pretty neat!

Beautiful Children

In honor of National Down Syndrome Awareness Month, Parenting Magazine has showcased many galleries of photos with children that have Ds. Go there for a visit to see all those precious kids. Mattie is in round four.....8th photo. Click here to see her photo.

God Had A Plan

In this belly, a little baby girl awaited to enter the world. Who knew that she would just happen to have an extra chromosome? The answer would be God and only God. God had a plan!

Matt & I were in the process of making plans for him to get the "snip...snip", when little did we know God was making plans....different plans.....at the same time! We thought we were finished having babies, but quickly became excited about having another baby. We declined any extra testing during the pregnancy since we would have our baby regardless of the outcome. Plus.....everything would be fine! These things happen to other people, right? I had a wonderful pregnancy with no complications.....and I even got to find out the sex of our baby....for the first time! Yes....another girl! We have to name her after her daddy!
Mattie loved to push her foot along my right side. I remember being able to feel the shape of her foot. We loved instant potatoes, green olives, bread and butter pickles, and most of all oranges. I was sure that baby would come out with orange skin! What a wonderful pregnancy!

National Down syndrome Month

This month is National Down sydrome Month. In an effort to raise awareness, I am joining many others in a challenge to blog everyday this month. I must say this will be a challenge, as I have very little extra time during the week. I do want others to see that having a child with DS is really not much different than raising your "typical" child. Mattie has been such a HUGE blessing to our lives and I couldn't imagine her any other way! We love you Mattie Boo!