Josiah's Birthday Party

I thought I would share Josiah's birthday party and what we did on his birthday on today's blog.  I know I am a little late but we have had a very Adventerous April and well let's just say the that April has come in like a lion and I am hoping it will go out like a lamb. It still seems like we are roaring a little to much for my taste.

SO, we decided to have Josiah's birthday party on Saturday the 19th. I think this was the first BIG birthday party we have had for Josiah.  That doesn't mean he has had a crappy birthday party by any means in fact the last 2 parties were full of fun and lots of laughter.  This one we chose to have at our house and let him invite all of his friends from Rise and any of other friends from church.  Then we started thinking.  Okay, well "I" started thinking. When you have a big party like that you don't always get to spend quality time with your family.  What to do? What to do? Well this is what you do, Josiah had his party from 2-4 and then we had family from 5 til.  I realize it seems a little over board and a little to much but I knew I could do it and it would totally rock. So I started compiling my to-do list and 2 pages later I started working, planning and checking things off.

I made the invites from left over cards, scrapbook stuff and my computer.  I must admit that they looked smashing.  Unfortunatly I can't seem to find a picture of one so you will just have to trust me.

So you will quickly noticed I Josiah chose a superhero theme.  I had seen were my friend Lisa did a superhero party for her little boy and it was the inspiration of Josiah's.  We did a Batcave under the playset, a Vanquishing the Villans with silly string and pictures of villans through out the backyard .  I had my friend MK make the letters for my signs.  She has one of those supercool, awesome, amazing Cricut's.  I went over there one day and she cut my letters while I enjoyed two of her sweet girls.  Rin went with me but found a cozy spot in MK's husbands bean bag and took a snooze. I think taking care of her kiddos while she did that was a perfect trade off.  I wish I could say I had a picture of all of the signs she made but I suck and I don't.  This one was on the mailbox along with some balloons. 

I made the cupcakes and the cupcake toppers.  I made 46 cupcakes and when the last person left Saturday night I had 7. The next morning I had 3. Someone I think had a hankering for some cupcakes in the middle of the night.

A funny side story.  We thought we might rent a bouncy thing for the day but when we checked into them we had a little sticker shock and decided that we just couldn't do it.  So, what do you replace it with.  Well a case of silly string of course. Now we did give the kids a couple of rules.

1.  No silly string on the patio. It is a safe zone.
2.  If someone says stop you have to stop

Those kids had a blast and so did the grown ups.  In fact, ummm, E and I kinda got into a little duel.  I will admit here on this blog that "He WON".  I think he unloaded a whole container of silly string in my hair.  It was HORRIBLE.  (MK if you have that pick you should totally upload it).

I decorated with primary colors and grounded it in black.  I also used a lot of Josiah's superhero figurines.  I first had the idea that I would make capes for everyone but after watching the movie "Incredibles" for the hundredth time I was reminded of the dangers of capes.  So, "No Capes!"  (I hope when you read that you said it the same way the character Edna Mode did ) I then totally scored when I found these superhero books at the Dollar Store.

It was a an awesome party if I do say so myself.  Not because I totally rocked the do-it-yourself decorating thing but because I couldn't have imagened spending it with anyone else.  Family and good friend some old and some new.  It was perfect. So to make you totally sick lets look at the pictures from the party and of my sweet boy.

The Day Josiah was born

In honor of my little boy who is celebrating the big number 5 today, I thought I would tell you about the day he was born. It had been 6 days since my due date and the middle of spring break and I was BIG.  I don't mean pregnant big, I mean my belly looked like a missile, I had stretch marks that were weeping.  I. WAS. AT. FULL. CAPACITY.  Now don't think I went around moaning about it, that is just not my way.  I enjoyed being pregnant. I took this picture three days before I delivered.  I was just amazed by the shape of my belly. I had just gone to the doctor and had an ultrasound to make sure everybody was doing well.  The tech told me that he was probably around 9 pounds.  I figured as much but quickly forgot that they can be off by 2 pounds either way. 

Okay, now that you have picked your chin up off of the floor lets move on to 4 a.m. March 22, 2006. I woke up not knowing why I was awake.  After a few minutes I realized that I was having contractions. Those contractions were only 10 minutes apart so no one jumped up and packed the car. Instead, we were keenly aware that today just might be the day.  I sent E to work and tried to enjoy the day with the girls.  We played and hung out.  We even went to Milo's for lunch.  All of the normal day occurances continued we just enjoyed them at 10 minute intervals.  E came home early just in case we needed to make a mad dash to Birmingham.  It was at this point that I was starting to get frustrated at the lack of change.  I called a sweet friend to discuss my options because E was getting anxious.  Sometime after that call I had a change and they started to become VERY intense.  I gave the okay to call his mom which is an hour away to go on an come over.  I then started organizing the girls evening for Nana and packing my bag when all of a sudden I had a contraction.  Now, let me stop here and remind you guys that this was my third baby and third natural unmedicated birth so I am a little more aware of my body and the signals they are giving me.  SO, like I said I had this contraction that changed everything.  I will never forget that moment.  I was getting dinner ready for the girls standing at the fridge and I had a contraction and I just knew that I had past 4 cm.  I then started thinking, "I'm gonna just go to Birmingham by myself and have this baby by myself and E doesn't have to be there and I don't want him there and... and... and...ummm, I think this is an emotional sign post.  I think I need to be thinking about leaving NOW.  Of course, I didn't share these thoughts with E I just walked down the hall. OKAY fine I will be real, I stomped down the hall and informed E that I was calling Jamie (family friend) to come over now.  E was thrown and quickly followed me , "What do you mean, what is different now as opposed to 15 minutes ago." Well,, let's just say I wasn't really NICE.   

Moving on... I decided to wait in the car so I told the kiddos goodbye and loaded up in the car.  Jamie came waved at me and we were off.  By this time contractions were every 5 minutes but very intense.  We had a 45 minute drive minimum and were possibly going to get caught in rush hour traffic but luckily God was on E's side. ( He is not someone who wants to tell people that his wife delivered on the side of the road in ALABAMA.)  Then it happend again that contraction that reveals tons on information in about 60 seconds.  I knew the moment it happened that I had past 7 cm.  I again kept that to myself.  I mean, I feared for my safety.  E would have totally panicked and I didn't want him doing that behind the wheel of a car. I knew I was fine and kinda excited.  We made it to the hospital and I told E to park in the "women in labor" parking.  That was a clue to E that things were farther along then I had let on.  The other 2  deliveries I made him park in a regular parking deck and then walk (on one of them we even took stairs).  I tried to lightened the mood by making a joke as I got out of the car.  I don't think it worked because today he does not remember that moment.  In the building, up the elevator and to the nurses station we go.  It is somewhere between 5 and 6 p.m. so they put me in a room to make sure that I was in labor.  FYI, when they did this I laughed in my head. The nurse quickly came to the conclusion that I was 8 cm and about to have the baby.  I was over the moon with excitement and looked at Ethan for the same reaction. WHICH, I didn't get.  I got the look that says, " This isn't the time or place but when it is, we will have a long discussion." The nurse also didn't seem as excited.  In fact, her comment was, "You natural childbirth girls are always stressing me out".  She tried to find a heartbeat but was struggling and seemed a little bit overwhelmed. Another moment that is burned in my memory of her rolling me down the hall spouting off things, "Okay, I need  you to just do your thing. It is going to be a little crazy because you are about to have a baby and you are not even in the computer system.  Plus, your doctor is in one c-section and has another right behind her." I can still see her blowing her bangs out of her eyes as she opened the door with her backside. 

She was right it was a little crazy.  There were lots of people coming and going and I just sat in the bed "doing my thing".  As soon as my dr. was available they pulled her to deliver.  I spent a long time working on Josiah.  I at one point looked at E with tear filled eyes saying, "Why isn't he here?" It didn't make sense. It was my third child and it had only been 19 months since my last birth it should be quicker. RIGHT? Well after another 30 minutes my little boy was received into my arms.  I could tell he was longer that the girls but that was it.  Another 30 minutes passed as I nursed, loved and cuddled my sweet son. 

I was aware that my doctor was still standing around and I thought she would have split quickly to go to her next c-section.  I even asked. Her reply was, "I gotta see how much this baby weighs!". So, I decided I would go on and let them weigh him which I'm amazed that it still didn't register in my head that he was big or that something was abnormal with his birth. 

The nurse put him on the scale and the numbers started climbing.  They seemed quite excited.  There were lots of  "Oh MY" and gasps.  Now let me interrupt here to say that when they weigh your baby at our birthing hospital  the weight is metric first and the converted.  So E and I were oblivious to what those numbers that were flashing by meant but they did.  When they hit the conversion button it read 10     9.6  well E turned around and said, "9 pounds 6 ounces WOW".  The nurse sweetly corrected him with a giggle.  TEN POUNDS and 9.6 ounces and we will round that up to 10 ounces."  I looked at the Dr. and said. "Why did you let me deliver him?"  She says, "I didn't know"

So that my freinds is the story of Josiah's Entrance into this world.  Larger than Life is the way he came in and that is the theme of his life.  Such joy is found in this child.  He takes me to my knees every morning. I momma's boy, energetic, loving, funny little boy.  He is amazing and perfect for this family. I have enjoyed watching him grow these past five years and can't wait to see how God moves in his life.

Happy Birthday Josi!!!

Valentine Crafts

We have been crafting for the past month and I have to say that we have made some cute and EASY things.  I have to also need to confess that I have gotten obsessed with crafting blogs.  I have been staying up all hours of the night reading.  I MUST STOP.  I want to make them ALL! Okay back to my own crafts. We will start with a trip to Hobby Lobby. 

I picked up some letters to go over my fireplace, though I can't figure out how to hang them.  E will not let me drill holes into the mortar or brick and I tried the Command stripes but they won't stick.  Does anybody have an idea? The X and O's are from the 90 percent of Christmas ornaments.  This was my inspiration. Due to the need of ease, and the thought that I can always do it cheaper I ended up with this.

I started off with 4 frames from the dollar store, some red and pink paint, scrapbook paper that the kids picked out and then my letters. 

Each kid picked their paint and painted their letters. I then realized that my O's were two big for the frames. I quickly pulled out a couple of square canvases and glued them on those.  If you didn't notice I also painted my frames. My mantel is really dark I a try to keep light colored items around it to bright it up.

Then while looking at craft blogs late one night I found a lady making kissing balls from crepe paper streamers.  I loved it but I was not going to go out and buy crepe paper.  I just problem solved and used. Some tissue paper that I had and cut into strips to make my rosettes. 

TA DA

I had some rosettes left over so I threw them into a my sconces into my kitchen.

I then made a wreath for the door and my I just say I love using felt.  It is cheep and it is cute.  I cut the felt into strips and then glued them down.  It turned out really cute and took just a few minutes to put it together.

Last but not least I got this idea over at babeofmyheart and I think you should go here. I did these and think they turned out totally cute.  The kids love them as well and don't they look cute next to my heart shaped marshmallows and our "I heart Missions" containers. 

My Christmas Crafts

It's been a month I know but thought I would share some of our Christmas crafts.  First was our advent calender I got it from the Family Fun.  I then found a free printable for the days of the week here (thanks to MK for sharing this find).  I then printed out the Christmas story cute it up into 24 strips and put one strip and 3 Hershey Kisses (one for each big kid)  into each cone. FYI the tiny trees will not hold 3 kisses so I just stashed them away and when we opened that day up we pulled out their portion. Our kids LOVED this and looked forward to every day.  They were wonderful about keeping up with the day and what was going on.  I think I would probably do this again next year. The only thing I would do different is have a piece of foam board out for us to put the strips of paper on so that we could glue them on after we read them and then we could refer back as we progress through the story/month. 

Next we made two little trees for the mantel. They were just cardboard trees we picked up @ Michael's for like a dollar.  I then let the Josiah and Elaina paint one and then put Korinna in charge of glitter.  I think they turned out super cute and I might even try to add another next year.

Next we made a wreath for the Kitchen.  I have dreams that when I build my "dream house" I am going to have a candy theme in my kitchen along with a tree full of Smore's ornaments.  Do you ever do that "when I build my dream house"? My parents always played (still do) that game.  It was something that they just loved to pretend, dream, wish, plan.  Whatever you want to call it, so I do it because...it's just what I know. I found this on tater tots and jello and forgive me for not linking it but I just got tired of trying to find it. But I know it is from there. We took two bags of large marshmallows, one bag of gumdrops, a box of toothpicks, and a round foam wreath form and this was our  finished product.

I then took the left over gumdrops and put them in the sconces next to the window.  I loved this wreath.  FYI it did not hold the kids attention very long and I wish I would have put a HUGE red ribbon and red bow.  Anybody got any ideas on how to store this wreath?

On a serious note I wanted to share something with you guys from my homeschool meeting last Thursday night.  When we started our meeting we were given a post it note, we were then instructed to write down 5 things that we wanted to teach our children before we die.  We were also instructed that we had to be specific so we couldn't put "Christ" we had to put what we would want them to know about Christ. After filling out our sticky notes we were asked, "How many of you taught your children that today." WOW! I was amazed and humbled.  I will admit that I tried to teach one of the 5 things but not everyday.  We were then challenged to put those in our lesson plan.  Whether you homeschool or not I challenge you to go get you a sticky note and write down what you want to teach your children before you die and then DO IT! 

Leila needs your vote

Okay guys I knew I only have a hand ful of followers but I'm still gonna post it.
One of Leila's portraits has been chosen as on of the "Top 20 of 2010" by her photographer.  They are having a little contest for the favorite.  The one with the most comments wins a 16x20 and another session.  WOOHOO!! so can you please follow the link  and comment that number 13 is your favorite.  One vote per person make sure you tell all your friends and get the husbands and boyfriends to vote as well.  Voting for the contest will end Friday the 14th @ midnight central time.

Leila's Birthday and Awesome finds at Hobby Lobby

First, let's discuss the super cool Fall finds I found at Hobby Lobby.  I might just make this a frequent post.  I don't know what I should call it. Anybody got any ideas? It seems that I am always finding really cool deals from Hobby Lobby and love showing of some of my finds.  So here we go.  I needed some orange food coloring for Leila's cake.  I walked in to notice that all Fall was 80% off.  SCORE!

Everything in this picture was on sale.  I even got the orange plasticware and the gorgeous paper napkins on sale.

This sweet little picture frame was in the cents range.

and these awesome things were only a couple of dollars.  I love them because it reminds me of an interesting memory from the hubs childhood.  When E was young he had pet crows.  Yes folks, pet crows. I did not know him during this time and every since then I can't look at a crow without thinking about that cool little time in E's life.

Okay moving on to the first Birthday of Leila.  I decided on a Pumpkin theme and discovered a cool and somewhat easy instructions of a pumpkin cake from family fun.  I thought it was something that I could do so we started with this and unfortunatly I do not have an completion pic of the big pumpkin.  Mom if you do will you email me and I will post it.

 I did use a spice cake and I made a butter cream frosting.  It was so yummy.  Be aware that this is a ton of cake and seeing that we did an intimate gathering of family meant we had a lot of cake left over. 

 I made this sweet little tutu also found on family fun. To say it was easy is an understatement.  In fact forget I said that.  It was very difficult and only I can make them so if you want one I will make you one for 40 bucks.

Look at those sweet curls.  Just like Elaina.  O I hope they last longer than Elaina.  She had hers till she was 5 and she still has some shorter pieces that curl. 

Now these next pictures might seem a little overboard but I want to make sure they are documented.  The presentation of a smash cake.  Leila had already had a trial run on her one year pictures with Stephanie Fisher. (Warning Shameless Plug) If you are not familiar with her work you need to be, she is awesome. She also did our Christmas picture which I might say was AWESOME.  So make sure you go check her out. Okay take a look at this sweet girl attacking her sweets!!  

 This first year with this little one has been nothing but amazing.  Let me tell you.  GOD knitted her perfectly for this family.  She is funny! Her own little person finding her own way among all of the chaos.  She is the first one out of all of the kids that walks into the room and tries to gain all of the attention.  She enjoys showing out and showing off.  Funny, is the key word.  She also likes to play her youngest child card, she doesn't talk much with so many others around her talking for her and she knows how to throw a temper tantrum.  Leila is a Daddy's girl and a Korinna's girl.  I truly think she looks at her as another mom.  We have had several instances where Korinna has been able to settle her down.  Just sitting in Rin's lap and cuddling up against her has calmed her.  Should it surprise me that Ethan and Korinna have very similiar personalities. I often look at them as the calm in the storm.  I can see why she might seek them out in our house. We had and have had a lot of fun and look forward to seeing how God unfold's His plan for your life.  I love you sweet girl.

Yes I realize it is Januarary but I have to write it all down

Okay so I left you at the wreath which is still such a favorite of mine.  But we also had a really cool Thanksgiving idea too. So I originaly got this idea from http://www.babeofmyheart.com/.  I tried to find it but lets face it I'm highly distractable.  If you go over there you probably would find it in the begininng of her November blog posts.  Any hoo, she painted a tree on a large piece of canvas and then put a wooden dowel at the top with some string then she had all of these leaves that she would write what she was thankful for and then attach them onto the tree form through out the Thanksgiving season.  I loved it but again let me remind you I am highly distractable and I wasn't going to do all of that.  Well, low and behold, I remembered that I had an iron tree (do you remember those hallmark trees that you hung pictures on?).  I saved it even though I had zero use for it but I just knew I couldn't throw it away. E would have killed me.  It wasn't something that was bought with a 40% off coupon.  So, I pulled it down out of some closet and used a leaf stencil I had in my scrap book stuff and waa-laaa.  The Blankenship family Thankfullness tree.

It was a hit.  I put the leaves in a cookie jar with a sharpie and whenever a thankful thought hit we would write and attach it.  Even LaDonna and Pam (the two ladies that help me with my house) got into idea and one day we came home to find that they had written thankful thoughts and left it to be attached.  Here is the tree laden with our praises of Thanksgiving.

One of the things that we had Thanksgiving praises for was a emergency situation that arose in the early part of November. Picture this:

A beautiful fall day. 

 Monday for the Blankenship's is a busy one.

  Two sweet women, LaDonna and Pam are coming over to help Mrs. Blankenship out with her housekeeping, Mr. Blankenship's father is having surgery in the next town, Korinna has lots of therapy to do and of course the children will need to be feed, naps taken and errands ran.  It is a difficult task but not an impossible one.  The ladies of the family take off to start completing the days tasks and Mr. Blankenship heads off for the one hour drive to the hospital to be with his family.  Things were running smoothly.  Bank check, Physical Therapy check, Chick-Filet check. Picnic at the park so Leila can nap and Elaina can play UMMM..... well this is were things went awry.  

Elaina finished her meal and asked to go on the playground.  Ms. Blankenship warned her that we were running short on time so don't be disapointed if she doesn't get to play for very long.  Elaina skipped off ran up the steps climbed the ladder to the slide only to stop and wave at Ms. Blankenship.  One slide down the swirly slide. Two sweet six year old feet touch the mulch and quickly run back to those steel steps that lead to that wonderful slide.  Ms. Blankenship's waits to see Elaina since her view of the steps are slightly blocked by the gigantic pines that are prevalent through out the park. All of a sudden SCREAMING.  A mother knows that scream.  It is the scream that triggers a Mom's emergency switch. This is bad this is very bad.  

Ms. Blankenship runs towards the playground to find Elaina leaning over screaming and a small dribble of red coming out of her mouth.  Her first thoughts are busted lip, bit tongue, busted chin. "Spit it out baby, spit it out!" Ms. Blankenship calls out.  "It is okay"  Ms. Blankenship arrives and even though she is scared to pieces on the inside she keeps a calmness about her as she asks Elaina to open her mouth. It worse than she thought and yet simultaneously it could be lots worse.  There is a huge gap in her mouth two of her teeth are missing.  At this moment, the two hear a male voice.  "Ma'am, do you need this." To their surprise a Cintas man was in his truck having lunch and had seen the fall take place.  Climbing over the fence bearing a kitchen towel with ice wrapped up inside.  By this time Ms. Blankenship had Elaina on her hip and was staring at the mulch ground as she responds,  "Thank you, Thank you". 

This man was a sweet man.  He mentioned something about his niece had just done the samething and that he had saw her fall.  Ms. Blankenship never got his name but just kept on staring at the ground obviously looking for something.  The Cintas man finally puzzled by her asked if he could do something. "I'm looking for her teeth.  They are baby teeth." realizing that she needed to move on she quickly thanked the man again and loaded up Elaina into the car.  

At this point Ms. Blankenship's mind was swimming with thoughts. "This is the worst time. Korinna has communication therapy in 20 minutes.  I have to call and cancel.  Were do I take her?  I can't take her to Birmingham.  How am I gonna do this with all 3?  Crap! Josiah, he needs to be picked up in 45 minutes.  I need to call Ethan.  Yes! Yes!  Jamie is off on Monday.  Dr. Lamarouex's that is were I will take her. 

 A quick call to a close family friend quickly agrees to help out and meet them at dentist.  Another call cancels communication therapy.  This now finds Ms. Blankenship pulling into the dentist office.  Jamie (the close friend) is still another 10 minutes away.  She will have to go into the office with all of the kids. All of these were just thoughts. Ms. Blankenship never stopped but just kept on working.  There were many questions on how this would work but she knew what was being asked of her and she just kept on working in faith as she unloads the car.  Korinna in stroller chair, Leila on her hip and poor Elaina is gonna have to walk in holding the kitchen towel now blood stained up to her mouth. 

The door of dentist office is very heavy and Ms. Blankenship has to do a maneuver only her and other people with multiply children in various degrees of devolopment understand.  This is the point were she is starting to feel the weight of her job and the lies from the devil are slowly trying to bring her down.  He is SCREAMING, "HOW ARE YOU GONNA MAKE THIS WORK!"

It was one of those moments were most people would scoff at but it is true.  As true as I live and breath.  As she opened the door the mid afternoon light filtered through the waiting room only to rest on a familiar face.  Not the family friend instead on another friend.  One that she sees and one that has even helped them advocate for the rights of their daughter Korinna.  There she was Krista, sitting and looking @ the whole Blankenship clan.  All Ms. Blankenship could get out was, "Thank You GOD!" She truly meant it, this was not said in some overwhelmed worldly vain way but in true thankfulness for HIS provision.  "Hey, Um we have had a slight emergency at the playground will watch them?" as she strolls Korinna and passes over Leila.  "Of Course" said Krista in a reassuring voice.

 Ms. Blankenship arrived at the desk and quickly informed the women that we had a small dental emergency.  She then filled them in on only the facts, which for Ms. Blankenship's close confidants would have known that this was work mode for she never deals in just the facts.  At that point Ms. Blankenship was drawn to her right and there signing out was another friend.  In fact, it was Leila's Sunday School teacher.  Immediatly Ms. Blankenship was drawn to tears.  Look at God's provision.  Look at how He provided for me.  Here on this day there are people all over the world who are dying, hurting, needing Him and He took the time to orchestrate THIS. 

After that it was really quite simple.  With ease and comfort in the care for the other children, Ms. Blankenship carried Elaina to the back office and focused on that child.  One dentist felt comfrotable with the injury but wanted a second opinion.  Back to the waiting room were Jamie (close family friend) awaited.  Ms. Blankenship loaded Elaina up in her car and the other two in Jamie's and then headed off to the second opinion.  On that trip Mr. Blankenship was finally able to be contacted and plan was made for Josiah. A call was put into the school for Josiah.  With all of the encouragment flowing in and the knowledge of her partner here on earth coming to join her in the battlefield made the energy and rejuvenation flow from her.  Second opinion was still positve. Clean inury.  Where the injury incurred allowed the teeth to fall out cleanly and there was no bone left behind. Lastly, Josiah picked up by Mr. Blankenship. Korinna and Leila picked up by Mr. Blankenship. One trip to the pharmicist for Ms. Blankenship and a trip to Target to bless the sweet trooper Elaina with a gift and pick up something quick for dinner. 

It was a difficult one but not impossible!  

Thanks to MK for letting me know that there was a newer blog version.  She was right it is so much better.