Finally, the birthday day has arrived! No balloons or pink plates. Just a giant cupcake and a cute little dress. Wow. One year since I pushed out the 11 pound 3 ounce genius. Once you've pushed out that much mass, you never seem to quite forget.

I have SO enjoyed Miley. She has a super cute personality, she's laid back, and really adds depth to our family. The kids love having her to play with as well.

The biggest adjustment, is just adjusting. But, beyond that, I'm loving how the family has grown, and loving experimenting with pushing motherhood to the max. Miley has not yet had sugar and this cake was a sugar free experiment. I made it with xylitol, and just the word xylitol, keeps us all eating just a little less of it than if it were a sugar explosion. The top is whipped cream with a little stevia and vanilla. The first batch of (xylitol) icing I made was horrible. You hate to throw it away, but I could not think of one use for my big butterball xylitol mess, so I threw it down the drain. Xylitol is poisonous to dogs, so they were locked out of this party. Our dogs get fat when we have a highchair baby and then they thin out again after the fact.

I liked this cake, but for some reason, the middle took a LONG time to get done??? Not sure what happened on that, but the first day it tasted fresher and better than the second day. Anyway, would love to remiss the year, but I have another party to plan. Megan turns 6 next week, and I'm deciding all of the options for cake/dress right now. Would rather spend time sewing, than baking. I get so much more satisfaction from sewing, because it can be worn and enjoyed for a couple of years. Baking, not so much. Work work work, back hurts, sweat, throw out the butterball xylitol, work work work. Done. Eat it. It's gone.  There is SOME therapy in baking, but, it's gone in seconds....so I might buy a cake at Country Mart for Megan. Keep ya' posted.

Miley's First Birthday

Well, it's Miley's first birthday this Friday and I was on the hunt for the perfect first birthday cake. You would think after four kids, I would have a highlighted plan in a file somewhere for "first birthdays", but alas, no, I don't. Every time, I think, Oh, this isn't that big of a deal. We will invite no one and put a little party hat on their head with a number one and take a cute picture. Then, when it gets down to the wire, I start furiously knitting a crown with a number one on it, or making some crazy fun cupcake material outfit or whatever other hairbrained idea I get. This usually happens within one week of the day.

For Miley's birthday, I want to make her a special outfit, and in my head I had the "vision" of a cupcake for her, but that's just not going to be good enough, so I googled birthday ideas and found this GIANT cupcake pan (it's really a full sized cake in the shape of a cupcake). So cool. Not only did I find this giant pan, but I found instructions for making the cupcake look like it has a bright pink cupcake liner. I will blog my progress on this special day and keep you updated.

Swim Season-Outside tips with Kids

Well, it's swim season again. I'm really too busy and too stuck at home to do many sports...but I really like swim team. The kids learn a valuable sport that they can use for the rest of their lives...plus a life skill should they ever need it. Mackenzie and Megan both did swim team last year. It was a pretty pathetic team...sort of like the bad news bears, but despite the patheticness of it all, they learned all the strokes and were EXCELLENT swimmers by the end of the swim season. We didn't care so much about winning, just about getting really good at swimming. We are in Branson this summer, and thank God for the pathetic team we were on last year, because this year, they hopped right onto the awesome team and feel right at home.

Living in Branson has had its' own learning curve as far as having several little kids. They have ticks here. Bad. So, I'm learning what to do with that. Max found one on his privates today and proceeded to show everyone around "his tick". Basically, I thought you burned them with a match and they would would fall off. Not so. These guys know a good deal when they see one and won't let go for anything short of a beating. So, after hours of research I found you just pull it out with tweezers. Actually, we just had houseguests leave and they found one that had spent a few days behind their babies' ear (they had been home a week) and lo and behold, that tick gave their baby rocky mountain fever which can paralyze you or kill you. (I'm learning more every day. It has to stay embedded for more than 24 hours to give you the ol fever.) Oh yeah, and we have brown recluse spiders here. If you would like a quick fear jolt, google those guys and look at images. Yikes. I saw three in one day at the house. Two inside and one out. I have to remind myself that the spider is little, I am big, it won't hurt me.... I killed one when we first got here and left the spatula in the sink. The next day, the end of the spatula was melted in the spot that I had squished the spider.

Well, so what do I do with this? I'm so against pest control. I can hardly stand it. ESPECIALLY with a crawling baby. But when you pick 14 ticks off of your dog in one day...something's gotta give. On dogs, I found out that Advantix works much better than frontline...I just ordered a case. On the kids...I like to find out the poisonous possibilities in the area, and then find some good scriptures. There are some good ones on poisonous insects that I can proclaim in our home. If the insects avoided the Israelites, but bugged the Egyptians, the same can happen today, right? I then read blogs on the subject, finding people who have been bitten or stung and then "arm" myself with a plan before any event ever occurs. My new first aid items include burn gel (this numbs the pain and heals the burn) (Water Jel Burn Jel, Pain Relief 25 ea) and then my other new item is called an "extractor". This little dude "pulls" the poison out of a bite or a sting. You pick the suction cup size and it will extract everything from mosquito bite poison to ant stings to poison from a spider bite. Nice to have on hand!

Anyway...some of the other things I do in the summertime. I don't use sunscreen. I know, I know, it's really bad, but I figured out that the sun in the afternoon (after 3PM), does not burn you, so I usually like to swim with the kids after naptime. If they swim in the sun in the morning, I REALLY smooth on the sunscreen. Mackenzie is going to camp next week and they require bug spray and sunscreen in the packing list, and I found a bug spray/sunscreen combo from Avon of all places. It probably has as many chemicals as anything else out there, but because it's avon, I totally trust it. Also, you can get it in a pump spray (YAY). Has anyone else noticed that the aerosol sunscreen sprays only last 2 days when you have 5 kids? If you go to the beach for a week, you need at least 5 cans to make it to the end of the week. I'm thinkin' BULK product here, people! So, I was happy to find this little all in one item for camp. Speaking of camp. How exciting! She's going to Kamp Kanakuk, and I feel really good about it. We have a really close friend who was homeschooled all of his life, but his parents sent him to Kanakuk for one month every year starting at age 7. He thinks it is an excellent idea for homeschoolers. My little brother went to this camp when he was young and it was LIFE CHANGING for him. So, we are excited for her. Nothing like giving the little ones' wings while they still live in the nest. I want her to go on missions trips as soon as she turns 12 as well. But for now, a camp will do. This camp is located in Branson and they have 70 different sports available to the kids. I think the camp she's doing they sleep in tee-pees. There is a rigorous interview screening for the counselors, and basically, I just have a peace about it. So there you have it. The only other activity I have lined up for summer is a spelling bee coming up in two weeks. You know I can't stay away from spelling bees. Mackenzie  just watched Akeelah and the Bee and she's nervous about standing in front of "all those people", but we live in a little town and I think this "bee" will be more like little house on the prairie than the Scripps spelling Bee in Washington. The Bee is being held in Springfield Missouri at an old school house built in 1854. How totally cool is that?

Other items I'm working on this summer:

+ making my own kombucha (I have DETERMINATION in my soul...this WILL happen)
+lose my final 15 lbs. (baby is 10 months old, now)
+ Get my soap onto Amazon.com (should be up there in a week)
+ Learn how to do gel nails at home (they stay on for 2-3 weeks, would be great for doing girls' nails as well)
+ Read up on the Suzuki method for the violin. Mackenzie's been playing with a teacher, but I want to read Nurtured By Love as well
+ Get Max reading ready-
+ Get some really yummy kids pics at the pool and beach

Is the list too long? As long as I stay at home, anything is possible. I find the more I leave the house, the faster my time slips through my fingers. If I do an outside activity with the kids, it needs to be within 10 miles of the house. Right now, I'm getting my nails done and it takes 3 hours of my time. Drive-1 hour Nails-1 hour Drive-1 hour....it's things like that that PUSH me to learn yet another skill. (that's where the gel nail thing came from).

I'll give a full report as the summer progresses. We didn't quite finish school this year...so I'll have to fit it in here and there between everything else. Having a baby and moving to another place can put a monkey wrench in my plans...but God totally has graced me to do it all.

oh yeah, I've added Avon Skin So Soft to my first aid "armor". All the children get sprayed as they go out the door in the morning. Do you guys remember that stuff? It's really great for a body "pest" spray. Count your blessings if you don't need this.

Drive Through Carwash

The drive through car wash is the best idea of a monster that we can come up with . Especially a "day" type monster. It's loud. It's wild. You feel a little "stuck" and can't go anywhere while your car is stuck in its' mouth. And then, after many tears and sometimes hysteria, the monster calms down and spits you out, drying your hair a bit as you go, and all is well in the world.

All of my kids cry at the car monster. They stare at the windows and the loud SHUSSHING sounds and start getting more panicky by the minute. This time was Miley's first time. As you can see, she's not in the photo. She really could have cared less what was going on or even noticed any noise at all. Michael, on the other hand, who had reported BEFORE the experience that he was not going to cry...had to shed just a tear or two. He couldn't help it. And as all of his siblings looked on, his eyes and ears were intently focused on the windows of the car, the shaking and rattling noises, and the loud SHUSSHH sounds. Miley just tried to yell and giggle louder than the noises surrounding the car. Isn't it funny?? We are either focused on the SHUSSHING WHOOSSHING sounds, or we are relaxed in the car seat of God. Giggling, kicking, trusting, waiting for our car hair to get dried and spit out to the next errand. That's where I want to be spiritually....in Miley's carseat....knowing and trusting that God's got this thing, and whatever the wild noise is and the monster mouth idea surrounding me is about, it's just temporary. I'm safe, and the next season is just around the corner.

Weddings and Soap

The photo is of a soap I just finished for a wedding shower. It actually took a total of HOURS to do this soap. It wasn't the soap itself, but it was the darn tag. I wanted to print the tag myself and it just takes time getting the right fonts and the right colors and the right wording...but I enjoy a challenge, because on the other side of every challenge, when correctly and properly embraced, is a deeper knowledge of the subject and a tip or a change that could bring me to a higher level or have a deeper compassion for a friend or open a door that I normally would not have had opened if I was not ready for the challenge a second time. Now, when I do another wedding shower (or wedding favor), I have it in my hand within a few minutes to do. The hostess wanted it to be rough cut around the edges, but I COULD not get a rough cutter in Branson, and besides, the paper is so thick on this bugger that a rough cutter may not have done the job. Plus, the nature of the background already looks rough cut. So, I just cut the hang tags with a paper cutter and then corner cut the four corners with a romantic corner cutter. Oila! It turned out great. The one thing that has been a big blessing is since we have moved to Branson, the doors keep opening and opening for my soap. I've made the soap for five years, but never could see how to package it or how to produce it in too much bulk, so I didn't ever get that inspired to put it into a bunch of stores. When faced with a need for 1200 bars in January, it was just another one of those "challenges". It took a lot of extra time and dedication, but in the end, the challenge (being a larger challenge in the soap department than ever before), opened up all sorts of doors. They came off the hinges. Suddenly, I'm able to make lots of soap, which I have done, and boutique owners are requesting colors and flavors which has opened MORE doors. I was always concerned with producing hundreds of bars, and now, I see the need for testing fragrances, and for making up small batches in different fragrances for certain occasions, so I need different molds for this type of deal...but God is just working out every single detail along the way, with time to spare. He's so good. Today I made homemade sweet rolls for tomorrow's "Pink Friday". All ladies are invited! It's the first Friday of the month and I host a little ladies breakfast from 10AM to Noon and it's just food and fellowship. But, as I was making the sweet rolls, I could not get my mind or my eyes off of the soap and I realized that I have the grace to make soap, and make it every single day and make it in colors and fragrances....and it's definitely a grace. I didn't realize how big of a deal it was to me until the doors started opening and I realized how enjoyable the whole process is. Oh, and if you have a fat friend who LOVES sweets (she doesn't have to be fat...I am quite thin and would love this gift), check out soapcafe.com That girl makes soap cherry pie, doughnuts, chocolate bunnies, all in soap!!! What a cool and fun gift to get and give!!! I'm working on some chocolate soap myself and will produce photos when the final product is ready. Thanks everyone who likes my soap for liking it...it has so encouraged me to continue on this journey that has seemed like a strange "happenstance" along parts of the way, but has been a huge blessing in my life.

Swimming

I love this picture. The last time we were in San Antonio, we heated the pool and took a little "dip". Michael has on one of the girls' swim caps and he kept it on the whole swim. I love how happy all of the kids look in swimming pictures. There's something about swimming that melts away the gray and brings out the brightest most vibrant "colors" of life. I remember some of the happiest childhood moments were spent in the pool. The worst moment of those days was the one where mom said "it's time to get out!" and we all pretended we couldn't hear her anymore and suddenly lived on the bottom of the pool, emerging only for short breaths, trying to keep just our lips above as we savored the teeny tiny last moments of pool time. The next best thing to the pool was how darn hungry swimming makes you and the after pool snack. YUMMMMM. That was the best tasting food in the whole world....still is.

Teething....again....

Teething with all of the kids has been sort of a non-issue. Sometimes when I talk to moms I can tell they think their children are in some sort of immense pain and need drugs, but for the most part, it's a fleeting few hours and boom, they pop in. After five, I've finally begun to recognize the signs and not get too freaked out about the moodiness. With this one, she got six teeth in a period of 4 or 5 days...maybe more like two weeks, and then she got nothing for two months. Her mouth has been dry. no drooling. It's been really nice. All of a sudden, she started drooling and chewing a finger and I realized, here comes another tooth. The main thing teething seems to affect is sleep. It's hard for them to sleep sometimes because of the irritation and that's where I think moms find the comfort of Tylenol, well, comforting. This time around I approached it a little differently than in the past and had GREAT results. I just don't let her nap much at all. She can't really nap anyway, so I let her lie down about mid-day, but other than that, i just keep her really busy with food and toys and walks and more. She's not crying the whole time, just a little fussy, so I keep her up and as busy as possible. I did this last time and it worked well with the six teeth, and now, it worked just as well. Last night she was so tired she fell asleep at the breast. She hasn't done that in a couple of months it seems. I put her down, and the boys were wild and woke her up about an hour later, but I let her cry for 20 mins. or so and she slept through the night. This morning, her tooth was there...it had pushed all the way through and was cute and newly budded. Hurray! Her nap would have been perfect today, no fussiness, had I not smothered her with wool socks, wool blankets, and robeez shoes. I'm always over-blanketing my kids....