I thought it would be fun instead of just saying, “We are having a baby” to slowly give out clues. So here is the explanation behind each of the last three posts.

The picture of the storm-
My pregnancies are really horrible the first 4-6 months. I’m sick. Not just morning sick. But all day and all night. Puke my guts out and lose way too much weight sick. IV’s running through my veins just to keep me hydrated sick. So with each child, as soon as I find out that I am expecting, I feel like I can see the dark clouds collecting off in the distance. And by the time I am 5 weeks, the first few raindrops are falling. The winds are picking up. And then the storm hits with full on force. I go from being full of energy, feeling great, to so sick I can’t even get out of bed some days. So that is why I chose a picture of a storm.

The chinese characters-
They spell out Baby. So with the storm comes a baby.

And the math problem, 4+2+?=7
This is what we have and then the unknown factor. 4 boys, 2 girls, and the unknown of what the baby will be. Assuming I am not pregnant with twins. (Thanks for that thought Tina!)

It was so much fun to read everybody’s guesses on what these posts might be. Thanks for all the Congratulations! I am due June 29. Eric’s birthday. Tomorrow I will be 10 weeks.
~cheryl

~cheryl

~cheryl

It’s Tuesday afternoon. After getting school done this morning, I sent all the children outside to play. The sun is shining and giving off lots of warmth and after having been locked up for days on end with rain and cold, they were eager to head out and explore again. After getting everybody’s socks and shoes on, I headed down to the mailbox. The older children had the little ones in the wagon and met me on the walk down. They quickly pointed out that we had not been to the river this week and that it has probly risen more and “could we please go check it out?” So we got the mail and headed on down to the river. It has definitely been rising. It is so much more dangerous than this summer. The current is very swift. Most of the rocks that we played on this summer are now complete;y under water. Which as a mother of 6 children, this now gives me much to be concerned about. But the children see no danger at all so they take off! I feel like a broken record. “Don’t get so close, Don’t put your shoes in the water, Don’t FALL IN, Don’t get so close…”
We tromped and stomped all over for about an hour. It’s different to go there and not swim. There is much to do- sticks to be found and sword fought with, piles of brush to climb, animal dens to explore.
I was on my own mission. One of my girlfriends is having a baby in a few months and is currently working on the nursery. She has done a lovely theme with pink and dandelions. But still needs some black and white photos of dandelions for the walls. So the girls and I hunted dandelions down while the boys tried to find the beaver that they thought must live in the large den that they found. We found a couple, but soon realized that they were still to wet to blow. So I am drying a few in hopes of getting a picture of dandelions blowing through the air. I also wanted to try some new shots. I just learned what “sunflare” is this morning and was excited to see what I could do with my camera.
After we got back to the house, the boys started a fire in the fire pit. I baked up some white chocolate ship macadamia nut cookies (my favorite) that we bought from one of the neighbor children. They come frozen in pre-measured scoops, so all you have to do is take them out of the freezer, put them on a cookie sheet and bake. Super easy and fast! So after warm cookies and milk for snack, here I am sitting by the fire, working on pictures and this blog while the children play freeze tag.
~cheryl

~Sunflare pictures~

This one is my favorite. It looks like he is touching the sun.

~Down by the River~

Stick Fights

Never to be outdone by the big boys

~B&W Dandelion pictures for Charlotte~

Last weekend, we had friends come for a couple of days. Not just any old friends, but the kind that go WAY back to teenage years. (At least for me and Christina) The kind of friends that even though we have not had the chance to spend much time together over the past decade because of moves and jobs and children, they show up on our front steps, and we just pick up where we last left off. And between our 9 children, only 4 of who had previous met, they all immediately took off and played together for days. We planned nothing, just sat around and caught up on each other’s lives. Well, maybe one thing was planned…fishing! Doug loves to fish, and since we live on this great river full of Salmon and Steelhead runs going on right now, he packed along his fishing gear and spent some time in the cold rain casting away. Here’s a few pictures…

The boys all taking lessons on fishing

Some mushrooms growing down by the river.

Working onschoolwork together

A musical performance

Laura giving some sewing lessons

Making cookies

Getting ready for dinner “family-style”

And the last night was a talent show put on by the children

The “Wall Ball” champion!

Favorite Turkey Song

John 3:16-21

And last was a few boxes of yummy asian pears from our neighbors orchard that are stored in this warehouse refrigerator. Thanks Janice!

~cheryl

It’s finally finished! When we moved into this house, I began the hunt for a new bed. We had decided it was time to replace our mattresses. They were the “original” model. (The ones Eric bought right before we got married.) So I did my research and decided to go with Memory Foam. Result, a 150 pound box delivered to my front doorstep. I waited fro Eric to get home to open it.

There were special instructions on how to open the box. Slowly the mattress began to “unfold” to it’s full size. Very interesting…

So now that we had a new mattress we started looking for a new bedroom set. We spent sometime looking around, but decided that we would wait to buy a new bedroom set. Mostly because they were all HUGE, and while they would look beautiful in this bedroom in this house, if we have to move to a smaller house after this one, we might be in trouble trying to fit the bedroom set into the bedroom. So I decided to piece something together. Which can be quite fun. I was flipping through a magazine and saw an upholstered head board. Beautiful!!! That was what I wanted. I could chose the fabric to match the room perfectly, and I love taking on projects like this. So I presented my idea to Eric.( I was going to need him to build a frame for the bed and aid me in some power tool help.

I purchased the following list.
3″ foam
3/4 plywood
batting
staple gun, staples (always wanted a staple gun)
buttons to cover
fabric

I first covered the buttons.

Next I had Eric cut the plywood to the exact size. We decided to assemble it in the bedroom to keep the fabric clean.
We set up 4 stools to elevate the plywood to working level. At this point, Eric and his master woodworking/building skills took over. He accessed the situation, asked me what my plans were and went to work. This is often what happens in our house. I come up with some brilliant idea, but it is Eric who executes it because I get in over my head. And he is a perfectionist and I am not.

So we layerd the plywood first. Foam second. Batting third. And fabric last.

Next Eric stapled about three hundred staples in the bottom.

The corners were a little tricky.

After everything was stapled to the plywood, Eric drilled holes through the plywood and foam. This was for the “tufting” This is where you take buttons and pull them very tightly through all the layers towards the plywood to give a “bunched” look. He then took crochet hooks to pull the string the button was attached to and tied to the back side og the plywood. Result, a beautifully custom made upholstered headboard!!

~cheryl

Today was a rough day for me. I got a call yesterday around lunch from the Real Estate office saying that they would be showing the house today. For most people this is an exciting call. Maybe this will be the showing that sells. But for me, I dread these calls. Why? Because we rent this house. And it’s part of the deal. The house stays on the market. It could sell any day. Probley wont. But it could. Everybody asks if we will buy it. Nope. Why? For a number of reasons. First and foremost, because the property has all been developed. When the house sold a few years ago, it was the house and 23 acres. The Barn and shops. The river front. But since then, a company (the ones who bought it) has developed it. They put in 11 lots. The Barn will become a community center some day with storage units. There will be 11 house built up around this old farm house. And it all sits behind a set of metal gates. Thus making it a “Gated Community”. But so far, we are the only house, only family. So we call it “Our Gated Monunity” (This was Eric’s thinking). We love what this house is now, where we still have the feeling of the 23 acres. Where the children can run and ride. Where I can see out each window the mountains and valleys. Not houses built up around me. So this is reason number one. We don’t want to live in a gated community shared by everyone. Next reason, Eric has a 35 minuet commute to work. This is not bad on week days, but when he gets called in on the weekend, it takes a whole hour on top of how long he has to be at the office. And he would really prefer to shorten his drive to 15-20 minutes. Another reason, I really, and I mean REALLY want to build a house. And if we bought this house, we would be here for a very long time. So that’s the reasons we don’t buy it. But I do love this house. I love that we have got to be a little part of the rich history of this old brick farm house. I hope that we can rent for a few years, until we are ready to build something. But with a month to month agreement, there are certainly no promises.
So as I left the house with the children today, my heart was heavy. Hoping they don’t really like it that much. And now I wait to see. Did they make an offer? Do I need to find a new house? Another move? I Decided to take the children to a new park that I heard about. Something to explore and keep their minds and bodies busy. The weather was perfect. Seventy degrees and sunshine. The park was beautiful. Lots of playgrounds. A fort. And it ran along the river. We spent three hours playing and then hungry tummies ruled we come home and make pizzas for dinner.

Inside the Fort at the park

Jump Shots

Looking for “Pretty” Shells

Dead Salmon

Making water ways.

Examining a “Pretty” shell

All the boys working on their water tunnels and bridges.

Maryann asked that I take a picture of her toes. Hmmm, wonder where she got that idea…

Fishing with a stick

This boy loves rocks.

We got to watch this plane land on the water and then take off again.

The children Holding the Fort!

13 months

~cheryl

The weather has been getting colder and wetter here. The trees have been changing colors and dropping leaves. More beautiful than I ever remember it. Eric and I both agreed on this. I think it’s because after living in So Cal for 4 years, we forgot what fall looked like. Palm trees don’t do much for fall colors. And by the end of the summers down there, everything was dead. Fried to death by the blistering summer sun. We didn’t have a tree in our yard that changed colors in the fall. So this year, we are really enjoying all the colors of fall.

The burn pile that burned for three days. Even in the rain. I felt awful for all the neighbors.

Some of my fall decorations

Josh and I had some fun taking these pictures.

The Virginia Creeper on my garage turning red.

The hill on the other side of the river in front of my house.

The Barn. The ponds are starting to fill up now with the rains.

Josh on a recent trip to the library.

Happy Fall Days!
~cheryl