Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Graduate



Tomorrow is Sydney's last day of school. She told me yesterday to tell the school that we changed our minds and want to come back next year. We've started to get our things ready for Home Schooling and that made her a little happier. She is very excited about her graduation. She didn't get to go to her graduation from preschool. The poor little thing was sick and in the hospital that day (we think she got bit by a tick still not sure). She is my book worm and has a HUGE love for reading.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Friday, May 09, 2008

New Baby Makes 18!!




The Duggars are one of my favorite families to watch on television. I blogged about them 9 months ago when they welcomed baby number 17. Some of you had never heard of them so I added the news story this time.


Fuller house: Arkansas mom pregnant with 18th child

By Bob Considine


The Duggar kids planned a big Mother's Day surprise for their mom this year. But the surprise was on them when Michelle Duggar announced on the TODAY Show that they were soon to welcome an 18th sibling.
“We’re expecting!” the happy mother told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira and the entire Arkansas clan. “Number 18!
“They didn’t know. My girls watch the calendar like a hawk. We just found out on Monday night.”

“On Monday night she brought one of the [pregnancy] testers in,” Michelle's husband Jim Bob added. “I wanted to bring it with me, but she wouldn’t let me.”
And baby, due around New Year’s Day, would make 20.
Joshua, the Duggars’ eldest son, said the news, two days before Mother's Day was “a shock” — if only to a point.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” the 20-year-old said. “But it’s been nine months [since the birth of the last baby], so yeah.”
Family forestTo date, the Duggars’ 17 natural children range in age from 20 years to 9 months. Included in the mix are 10 boys and seven girls — Joshua, twins Jana and John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, twins Jedidiah and Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah and baby Jennifer, who arrived last Aug. 2.
With two sets of twins, Michelle has gone through 15 pregnancies that ended in 13 natural deliveries and two Caesarean sections.
Both Michelle and Jim Bob — a former state legislator who served in the Arkansas House of Representatives — are real estate agents. They claim their family is debt-free, with the entire bunch helping to build their 7,000-square-foot home in Tontitown. And they are enriched by a devout faith in their religion.
The Duggars are followers of the evangelical Christian movement called Quiverful, which teaches that children are God’s blessing and that husbands and wives should happily welcome every child they are given. In fact, the Duggars' Web site, duggarfamily.com, quotes “Children are a heritage of the Lord” from verse 3 of the 123rd Psalm.
“We just let the Lord decide,” Jim Bob told Vieira.
“They are such a gift and we’re enjoying them so much,” Michelle added. “We would love more, and the power of the Lord took our faith to give us another one.”
The Duggars married in 1984, when Michelle was 17 and Jim Bob was 19. They held off on having kids for four years before Michelle ceased taking birth control pills to have their first child. After Joshua was born in 1988, Michelle returned to birth control but wound up getting pregnant anyway. Unfortunately, she suffered a miscarriage, which the couple attributed to use of the pill.
Michelle and Jim Bob decided to pray for as many children as God would give them. Within a year, Michelle was pregnant with the first of their two sets of twins.
Their large number of offspring has meant other large numbers for the Duggars. Michelle has been pregnant for 135 months of her life, with an average of 18 months between births. The family estimates it has used 90,000 diapers and launders 200 loads of clothes each month in a row of industrial-size washers and dryers.
Even though they go through three loaves of bread per day, they claim to feed their family for less than $2,000 a month. Transportation is facilitated by nine vehicles, led by a 21-passenger bus. They estimate that all members of the family have combined to work approximately 39,000 hours on their home.
Each child learns to play both violin and piano. And for what it’s worth, when child No. 18 arrives, they’ll have enough kids to field two baseball teams.
Most importantly, there is a unique dedication to serve the greater good of the home and family. An older child will take on the responsibility of a younger sibling throughout the day. The children help prepare meals and keep to a steady home-schooling schedule. Group studies include materials from Advanced Training Institute International, a Bible-based education program for families.
The Duggars' daily adventures are currently being chronicled in a television series on the Discovery Health channel. They previously participated in another Discovery Health series, “On the Road with 16 Kids."
A happy Mother’s DayTo celebrate the latest addition to the Duggar clan, the TODAY Show planned their own surprise for Michelle by sending her children out to either shop or make new gifts for their busy mother.
The main gifts, picked by all the kids, included a ring Michelle saw and liked in a used jewelry store two weeks ago, as well as a pearl necklace and matching earrings. The older girls, Jana, Jill, Jessa and Jinger, picked out an outfit for their mom designed for “in-between” stages of pregnancy.
And, for a fitting gift that keeps on giving, all of the kids went in on a coffeemaker. “She always has to make so much, so we got a big one for her,” Jessa said.
The final present was a large, cardboard card with each of the children’s handprints posted in paint, along with a loving message.
“They thought they’d give their a mom surprise,” Jim Bob said. “But she gave them a surprise.”

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Old School


Hello to everyone. My one and only memory card I guess bit the dust. I'm going back to my old school camera for a few weeks. We have one of those digital picture frames and I guess it did something to the memory card. I took the card out of the frame to take some pics of a frog cake I made for Sydney to take to school for an early b-day party (she has a summer b-day). It just card read error. I had all our Disney pics on it. Thankfully I had downloaded them to the computer. Since I'm going old school I won't have any pics to post.


Only 11 days of school left. I'm doing the happy dance. Today was my last payment to the school woohoo. Now that the gas has gone up it's costing me about $100 a week to get them to school and it makes me sick. Madison is working very hard on her Sea Turtle report. It will be her entire Science grade. Are we in 2nd grade or college????? Sydney is just doing the normal Kindergarten thing. One of the big things in Kindergarten is to be able to write 1-100. She already has it down perfectly. The end of this week is the final test to see who can and can't do it. I've already heard all about who can't. She has also decided to grow out her bangs. We've had big battles over this. All I've heard is, "But Mom Abby and I are the only ones with bangs and I don't want to look like Abby anymore." Thomas and I are just doing the work thing.
The post just didn't look right without a picture. This was our last picture taken at Disney. We are so happy for all of our friends who are headed to Disney this year. We wish we were.