My Baby's 1st Birthday/haircut

Matt didn't want to cut Zaccheus' hair, but I finally just did it! As you can tell from the before picture it was just way to long for a boy! Here is a before and after picture (I guess it's after and before). It doesn't seem like we waited this long with any of our other boys to cut their hair, but I don't remember for sure. He sure is cute though, isn't he!!!!!

Once again this posting is very late. It has been hard to find time to post. I know that is always my excuse, but it is always true. The past few weeks Matt has been working out of town a lot. We are VERY thankful for the work, but it is harder taking care of all the kids without him!

Anyway, Zaccheus turned one. Honesty it has been so long ago since his Birthday I don't remember who all was there, but there were quite a few that came over to celebrate with us and eat some cake and ice-cream. Zaccheus had his own little lady bug cake that he made a mess with. By the time he was done he was actually crying because he was getting frosting in his eyes! I put him straight into the bathtub after that. After getting all the frosting off I felt so sorry for the little guy. His skin was all splotchy and red. He has very sensitive skin and he was having a reaction to the frosting, poor little guy! If anyone has advice on what kind products are best to use for sensitive skin please let me know. (things such as shampoo, laundry detergent, lotion, etc.)

Zaccheus started walking at about 13 months, which is pretty close to the time my other kids started walking. Maybe because we have stairs and he learned how to climb them at a pretty early age; he is now an expert climber! He climbs down the stairs very well (Which is a relief, since I don't have to worry so much about him falling), but he also climbs onto the table, and pretty much anywhere he can get to! Yesterday morning he made quite a mess with some unfinished cereal bowls that is dear siblings left on the table!

Zaccheus is still very even tempered. There are times I get frustrated with his climbing, and getting into things, but he is very good. Even when he's not feeling good he's not too fussy. He gives sweet little baby kisses sometimes, and it's so wonderful when he puts his little arms around me and pats my back! I've even noticed when the other kids are crying that he goes over and tries to comfort them. He has been having some separation anxiety. When our other children were his age we left them with Grandma's to babysit fairly often, but not so much with Zaccheus; so he gets pretty upset when we leave him. It's nice to know he loves me, but I feel sorry for the babysitter!

Well, I've got lots to do; so that's it for now! I sure do love my baby!

Holiday Pictures

Garrison opening one of his gifts at home.
Anthony excited about opening his present from Gramma.

Daddy helping Zaccheus with his present from Gramma.

The cozy crowd in Gramma's living room.

A picture from the Brownsville Sister's party.

My crazy hair for Sis. Marisela's party (I won the prize by the way!)

Christian & his cousin Dale got the same thing from Gramma.

Ruby trying on her gift from Uncle Joel & Aunt Mary.

My Crazy Happy Holidays

Christmas time is always kind of crazy. We had quite a few different celebrations. One weekend we had a Christmas party with the Brethren here on Saturday at Bro. Sean & Sis. Marisela's. It was really fun. We were supposed to dress up crazy; so I went all out and fixed my hair crazy and everything. I don't have a picture of it when I had the ornaments and everything in it because I forgot my camera, but I had Matt take a picture of it after we got home. Sis. Marisela has the better pictures of everyone in the get-ups!



Anyway, on the same weekend we went to Brownsville on Sunday so that I could go to the Sisters Christmas party. It was nice to have an evening with the sisters to visit and exchange gifts. We had drew names ahead of time. I had Ashley, and it turned out she had me! We also did the white elephant gift exchange. We had the party at a Chinese restaurant. I had a really good time.



The weekend before Christmas we went to Bro. Lee & Sis. Sabriena's wedding. It was a nice little personal ceremony. We were so glad we could be there to share in their joy and see the different brethren who came.



My Uncle and Aunt came to visit for a few days after the wedding. I really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. They even babysat for us one evening so we could finish up our Christmas shopping, and then we did the same for them (even though their children are older, and didn't really need babysat) They had gotten gifts for us; so we had a little "Christmas" one evening with them.



We didn't really know until the last minute where we were going for Christmas, but we ended up going to Brownsville. We opened all of our gifts ahead of time so weren't hauling them with us. On Christmas Eve the McManus clan gathered at Gramma Linda's house and all the kids opened gifts from her. It was a very full house!!! We spent the night at Gramma's house, along with Bro. Brian & Sis. Michelle & their kids. The kids opened their stockings in the morning, and then we had Christmas dinner at Bro. Marshal & Sis. Connie's house. We spent the day there eating, visiting and playing games.



Saturday morning we took the kids up to my Grandpa's house to visit for a couple of hours, and then we had a Christmas party with my family for lunch. We gave out our gifts, ate and played games.



There were quite a few at church in Brownsville on Sunday. About half went to Bro. Marshal & Sis. Connie's to eat and the other half joined us at Gramma Linda's for haystacks. We had a very busy, but enjoyable Christmas weekend.



New Year's Eve was on a Thursday this year (which is our church night). After church Bro. Rusty & Sis. Mary invited everyone over for snacks & games to wait out the new year with our Brethren. I had a good time. We had Bro. Lee & Sis. Sabriena spend the night with us so they wouldn't have to travel home that late. It was nice to have them over and get to fix breakfast for them and visit with them in the morning.



Sunday we had a Birthday celebration for Zaccheus, but I will make another more detailed blog about that.



All in all we really enjoyed the Holidays, but it was kind of crazy busy! My house and I are still not fully recuperated from it!



I think what I will do, is I will make another post with some pictures from our Holidays.



I hope all of you enjoyed the Holidays and have a wonderful New Year!

My little 3 year old

As always I am late getting my postings up. For those of you who know, Garrison's Birthday is old news! I thought about just skipping blogging about it, but I wanted to do this post about him. We didn't really do anything really special for his Birthday. His cousins from Brownsville were able to be there so that made it a little more special. Here is a picture of some sunglasses that his cousins gave him for his Birthday! He looks very cool...

Here he is showing us how old he is.

Garrison is definitely 3! He has really hit a difficult stage in life. There's times when he wants to do things for himself and he throws a fit if you try to help him; then there are other times when he wants you to help him and throws a fit if you don't! We've really been struggling trying to find the balance with him and his fits. We don't want to go too easy on him so that he won't throw fits, but we don't want to be too hard on him either. As each of our children grow older we've really seen where we need to be so careful and seek the Lord in how to deal with each of them in the right way.

Garrison can be so loving sometimes. There's pretty often that he'll come up to me for no reason and give me a hug and say "I like you Mommy." It just melts my heart when he does this. There's times when I ask him to do little jobs for me and he's so proud of himself when he does it! He's also been showing his McManus side! He likes to do funny things and make people laugh. The kids have been on a joke kick lately! Here is one of Garrison's favorites:

"Knock Knock"

"Who's there?"

"Why did the bear cross the road?"

"I don't know, why?"

"Because it was the chicken's day off!"

And this is where I make a point to laugh hysterically!

Garrison, Mommy loves you and she hopes that she can be a good Mommy and help you to grow up to be a wonderful man!

All About Ruby

Well, I've noticed how some of you give a whole post dedicated to your child when their Birthday comes along. I'm such a follower that I've decided that would be a good idea! I'm going to try to do this to. Considering that Ruby's Birthday was over a month ago, I'm not doing to well! Let me tell you a little about my one and only girl and then you can look at all the many pictures of her that have been piling up for the last couple of months just waiting for me to post them on my blog!
Ruby is now 6! She's already started losing her teeth. When her first tooth was loose Matt had us rush to Wal-Mart to get her picture taken before she started loosing them. He was worried she would look funny. I think a child with missing teeth looks cute! Anyway, here is her most recent professional picture (pre-tooth gaps). Sometimes Wal-Mart pictures are kind of mediocre, but I think they did a pretty good job.

These pictures aren't in order; so I guess I will tell you about her Birthday first and then her first day of school, even though it really happened the other way around. We didn't do anything really big, we just had some people over for some cake and ice-cream. I made the cake. We only got her one gift because it was really BIG! (and expensive). Sadly I don't have a picture of her with her new dog biscuit, but here she is opening the gift. You can imagine by the size of the box how big the dog is.

She wanted Biscuit for Christmas last year. When we saw that he cost $180 we sadly had to tell her there was no way we were going to be able to buy her Biscuit! Biscuit is a life sized, I believe Golden retriever, He is mechanical and has certain commands that he hears or feels and he will do them. He is very neat, but definitely not worth that much money for me, even to please my daughter! A month or so after Christmas last year Matt found one lonely little biscuit on clearance at Target. I believe he was 75% off. He was still pretty expensive, but we decided to buy him! He has been stored up in our attic ever since then waiting for Ruby's Birthday! She loves him!

Here she is posing by her gifts!

Getting ready to light the candles.

Since Ruby started school I've been consulting that web-site for new hair ideas. I've tried out quite a few of them, sadly I haven't taken very many pictures, but here is a few pictures of one particular hairstyle that I tried. It's similar to a french braid, but you only take hair from the bottom. This makes the braid kind of stand out, and it makes the hair on top flatter.

For this time they had me take the braid all the way around. Since then I have done 2 braids from each side, and then continued to braid them for a ways, then connected them together with a rubber band. I liked this way better, but I don't have pictures of it.

Ruby never went to pre-school. This year she is in Kindergarten, and she really likes it! She is in afternoon Kindergarten. She catches the bus in the mid-morning and then rides home on the bus with Christian in the afternoon. Anthony is actually in pre-school this year. He goes in the afternoon too. So for a couple of hours in the afternoon I only have 2 children. It is very nice!

Here is Ruby getting on the bus for the first time!

Look at that adorable gap in her teeth!

Here she is all dressed up in her new school clothes, and back-pack waiting for the bus:

Ruby is only 6, but she is a pretty good helper. I think she does a pretty good job of being Mommy's only little girl! There are times that she whines about the chores I ask her to do, but when she does them she is a big help to me. She is showing signs of wanting to help me cook. I've been trying to find ways to introduce her to cooking, and helping me in the kitchen that are appropriate for her age, and not too hard or dangerous. It is easier to just shoo her away and do it myself, but I want her to learn the things she should learn. I know I should take advantage of her eagerness now because in a few years she might not be so eager. I just pray that I can be the Mother I should be to her; so that she can grow up to be the woman that God would want her to be.

Happy 4th Birthday Anthony

Of all my children, Anthony is the most quirky. He definitely dances to his own drummer, that's for sure! I think it's the aspects of his personality that make him extra special also make him the most aggravating sometimes! He seems to be very creative. I've blogged before about pattern making. He's also very creative in his play. He'll take ordinary things and say that he's making things like a Birthday or a circus. He'll also bust up laughing about the weirdest things! I've applied to get him into head start. I think this might be good for him. Here is a picture of him being his little quirky self!

I would like to draw your attention to his hair cut. I've always thought this kind of hair cut looks really cute on little boys. For some reason this haircut won't work on Christian, but I gave Anthony this haircut and I think it looks very cute on him! I call it the "mushroom" hair cut.

For Anthony's Birthday we went to Shari's. On the weekends kids eat free; which is an awesome deal for us with all of our kids! On the actual day of his birthday we just had cake and presents by ourselves. Anthony got to pick out his own cake. I thought he would want a dinosaur cake, or something else that seemed more exciting for a boy his age, but this is the one he wanted. He definitely knows his own mind. Which is good, except for when what he wants is contrary to what I want.

Wow! My oldest is 7!

It is hard for me to believe I have a 7 year old! Christian is in first grade. He seems pretty smart for his age, but maybe I'm his mother and a little prejudice! I am amazed at the big words he can read. There are 6 students in his class that have harder spelling words than the other kids; and he is one of them. When we practice his math skills, he comes up with the answers pretty fast. I'm pretty proud of him!

As the oldest of 5 I feel like we expect more out of him. In some ways I feel bad about this, in other ways I feel like it is good for him. He's pretty good about helping around the house when he's not at school. Yesterday he gave the baby his bottle and I think that was one chore he didn't mind doing! I'm just amazed at how grown up he already is. I feel like he's a pretty good boy & I hope that we can do our part in bringing him up to be an excellent young man.

Christian's Birthday was actually last month, but it has just taken me this long to get the pictures on my computer.

Christian was actually pretty sick on his Birthday; so we celebrated it late. We took him to Chevy's for his Birthday. Here is a picture of him eating his ice-cream:

They gave him a cool hat that he got to keep and sang him Happy Birthday. It was a nice family outing together. We all enjoyed it. As the oldest of 5, I think Christian isn't the center of attention very often. I think it was nice for him to have this time in the spotlight. Our camera went dead so I didn't get a picture of him with his hat at the restaurant, but I just took some later:

Christian also had a party with Levi M. All the brethren here came over for cake and ice-cream. The boys opened their presents and then we all went skating. It was fun to spend the time with the brethren. I really enjoyed skating! Last time we all went I didn't get to skate because I was pregnant. My feet and back were sore, but I had a good time, and I think everyone else did too. Christian tried roller blades and did pretty good I thought.

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

The "Twin Cousins'" 2nd Birthday

As some of you know, my sister-in-law Kim and I had our last babies only 17 hours apart. Her's was born on the 28th of October and Garrison was born on the 29th. We had their first Birthday party together and I thought it would be neat to have their Birthday's together again. When they get older they might not like doing this, but I think it's kind of neat to celebrate together when their this young. Anyway, since their Birthday's were in the middle of the week, Matt and I went down the following weekend and we had a little party for them after church on Sunday.

I really enjoyed the party. I, of course, took pictures. I think it will be neat to look back on them in years to come and see them sharing their special days together. Here are some of the pictures I took:

Here are the Birthday kids with their cakes. I had a REALLY hard time finding a Blues Clues cake, by the way. Garrison really likes Blues Clues, but you can't hardly find it in the stores anymore. So if anyone finds some nice Blues Clues items, let me know and I might see if I can get them for him for Christmas.
Here's Kylee blowing out her candles.

Garrison actually blew his out in one blow! I was surprised, of course Kylee had just shown him how it was done...

Kylee opening her presents with her big sister Shay.

Daddy's helping Garrison open his presents. Whatever this one was, he was excited about it!

He got $2 in one of his cards. We still need to take him to the store and let him spend them...

He really liked his presents, but it was nap time too; so he looks pretty tired, poor little guy!

You can't really see, but Kylee LOVED the hangers that came with these cute clothes. We were all laughing about that!

I did manage to find a few small Blues Clues things, but not much.

Here's the Birthday boy hamming it up while he makes a mess with his Birthday cake.

This is just a really cute picture of the 2 of them at Gramma's house later on. What cuties! Garrison is wearing his new shirt and vest from Uncle Mark and Aunt Kim.

Well, I thought I would post these pictures before Garrison's Birthday was too far gone! I just today put the pictures onto the computer. I have some other pictures I want to put on a post too, but that will have to wait until another day. It also dawned on me that I should take some pictures of my pregnant self so you all can see how fat and sassy I'm getting. Who knows when that will happen though. I have approximately 2 months left. Time is flying by. I really need to get busy making sure I have everything ready for this precious little bundle...

WhooHoo

No, I am not advertising for Washington Mutual. I just wanted to let everyone know that I found the missing book! Yahhh! Actually Christian found it. I guess he found it under my bed. I had looked under there, but I guess not good enough. I wonder if this is a hint that I ought to clean under there? Hmmm.

Telling My Secret

Well, I never can seem to keep this kind of news to myself for very long...

I'm pregnant with baby number 5! I have to admit that at first I wasn't too thrilled, but it didn't take me very long at all to get excited about the news and want to start telling everyone about it! I'm not very far along. According to my calculations I should be due in January sometime. As soon as I find which box my calendar is in I will call Sis. Cindy and have a more exact date to tell everyone.

All of my other children have been about a year and a half apart. When this baby is born Garrison will be close to being 2 1/2; which is a pretty good space. Usually at this point I'm still in panic mode wondering how in the world I'm going to handle yet another baby; but I feel more ready this time. I'm really looking forward to having another tiny little baby to love and hold! I know life will be more stressful and I do need prayers that we can be the kind of home that God wants us to be. That we can raise these children that he has given us the way that he would want us to.

I never did get back to my pre-Garrison weight, which is kind of a bummer; so I'm hoping I can maintain my pregnancy weight better than I usually do. I, of course have been trying not to think of labor too much at this point. I always pray mightily while I'm pregnant that the Lord will get me through the hard part, and he always has; for that I am very thankful. For now I will just concentrate on thoughts of adorable babies and on restocking my supply of maternity clothes and baby stuff; because, stupid me, got rid of it all! I think a lot of it I gave to my sister Alicia and she has saved it and will loan it back to me.

Well, that is my great big news for today! Sorry still no pictures. Life has been crazy, but I'm hoping it will slow down soon.

Back to Work!!!

Well, Matt got a call on Friday from the Union and he's supposed to start work on Monday!

He got called on a one day job a week and a half ago. The general foreman was really impressed with him and told him that if he had a full time laborer's position come up that he would ask for Matt. Anyway, it sounds like this is a full-time thing. The guy that called him from the Union said that Morgan (that's the company that Matt will be working for) has a lot of work lined up. So we are super excited! Matt will know more tomorrow when he goes to work, but I really think it's all going to work out.

Really he was only off for 3 weeks; which isn't bad at all, but since we didn't know how long it would be before he got called out it made it hard. It was kind of nice having him around all day, helping around the house and with the kids, but we are very glad that he's going back to work tomorrow!

God has really taken care of us. I'm so thankful. I'll have to post again and let you know how it's going.

The Twice Weekly Church Battle

In Brownsville we were very spoilt and had grandparents readily available to help with grandchildren. I think the hardest thing for us has been the difference in church. Our children took turns sitting with Gramma Linda, and every once in awhile one of them sat by my Dad and Mom; so we never had all of our children sitting by us in church.

Of course when we moved we have had to get used to dealing with all of our children in church, plus I think moving to a new place somehow made them act worse in church than they did before. Needless to say this has really been a trial for us. There's been times Matt has said he doesn't see the point in going because we didn't enjoy meeting because it was just one big battle field with our children. We did always go though, but it has really been hard for us to enjoy meeting and contribute to meeting in any way. This has been an ongoing battle ever since we moved. We've tried a lot of different things to try to get them to behave in church. We've even prayed about it, but they were still little terrors for us.

Last Thursday night all of the kids were especially bad. We had literally gotten to the end of our rope. As Matt was talking to them it dawned on me that we had never explained to them why we go to church and why it was important for them to behave so that we could enjoy meeting; so Matt and I took Christian and Ruby (the other two are too young to understand) and tried to explain to them why they needed to behave in church. It really seemed like they understood what we were trying to explain to them.

Yesterday when we were on our way to church, we stopped at the store and Matt went in to get a few things. While he was gone Ruby asked me if we ought to pray that they would be good in church. I thought that was a great idea! So me and all the children (except Garrison) took turns praying about it. I think being part of the solution instead of the problem really helped them because they were sooo much better than normal in church yesterday! I was so thankful! They weren't perfect (you can't expect perfect from a 5, 4, 2, and 1 year old). Garrison was his usual grumpy self in church, but having the other kids behaving better made that so much easier to deal with.

I am really praising God for this little victory; and I pray that this is the beginning of the end of the twice weekly church battle!

Mourning lost pictures

We had a great weekend in Brownsville for Christmas. I know I'm a little late blogging about our Christmas. I should have blogged sooner because when I went to download all of my great Christmas photos my camera said that my memory card needed formatting and when I did that it deleted all my pictures! So I have no pictures of this Christmas. What a rotten deal! I have no idea why my memory card did that. I haven't even touched my memory card in months! So anyway, I'm a little bummed that all those pictures are gone. It's a good thing that the memories can't be deleted too...

We had a good time. The first few days of the weekend we spent with Matt's mom, Linda. Things were pretty relaxed; we had a little gift exchange with her. The kids always enjoy spending time with thier Grandma Linda!

Saturday we went to a Christmas party at one of Matt's cousin's house. It was nice to see Linda's family again. None of them are in the faith, but we still enjoy catching up with them sometimes.

Sunday afternoon Linda had other plans, but we actually entertained company at her house (she of course, was ok with this) Bro. Ted & Sis. Tina McCracken, Bro. Rocky & Sis. Tammi Easter & Sis. Amber McCracken were at church so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have them over and get to visit with them. My sister Wenona brought her family over too. It was nice to get to visit with everyone. I actually enjoyed playing hostess at someone else's house!

Sunday night we spent with my Dad and Mom. Christmas Eve morning we let the kids each open one gift. Matt thought they would have more of an opportunity to play with them; and he was probably right. I did a little bit of baking and then we spent a couple hours in the afternoon visiting with my Grandpa. After that we went to Josh and Alicia's house (my other sister) and ate snacks and played games. The kids exchanged gifts. They each had drawn a name so each child ended up with a gift bought especially for them. My parent's have 15 grandkids, so it got pretty crazy, but they did pretty well. We enjoyed playing games. We especially enjoyed Apples to Apples. This was our first time to play that game and we had a lot of fun. We ended up staying pretty late.

That evening Matt also picked up a seat for our van that has built in carseats. Someone was selling it and they actully welcomed us picking it up on Christmas Eve because they needed the money for their Christmas trip. The seat has been VERY nice to have.

The kids actually slept in on Christmas morning (we were thankful) They unwrapped their gifts, we had breakfast; then mom and I got busy on our part of Christmas dinner. Mom had rented a place in Brownsville that has a little kitchen and more space for all of us. It was nice to be able to spread out. We ate a HUGE dinner, there was so many leftovers it was almost sinful ;)! We had a visitor just come in and we offered her some food. I don't know her story, but she had some mental problems I think. She spent the night with Dad and Mom.

We had to leave that evening because Matt had to work the next day. We took Linda home with us because she had the week off. The kids did really good on the drive home and we made really good time.

Sisters Party!

Last weekend we went down to Brownsville to the sisters party there. Since we have so few sisters here they were nice enough to include us in their gift exchange. Sis. Trina didn't make it, but I had her name; so I was able to give her her gift early and see her unwrap it!

We all met at a Chinese restaurant. The only child there was baby Corrina. It seems like usually I'm so busy with my own kids that I don't get to hold her; so I had some nice Corrina time along with some good fellowship with my sisters. There was lots of good food and laughter. It was a very nice evening out.

We ate first. Each person had a little hollow Christmas decorations with a number and a letter in it. After we were done eating my mom brought a basket around and we each picked a gift out of it according to the letter we had. One person (I think it was Wenona) was a winner and got the door prize and all the left over gifts from the basket.

Next we played dirty Santa. It was fun! There were a lot of good gifts; so there was lots of gifts getting stolen. We laughed a lot!

Sis. Janette is opening the dirty Santa gift that I brought. Unfortunately someone stole it from her!

Here's Alicia with baby Corrina, on the table you can see the Angel tree topper that I won in the dirty Santa game, and yes I stole it! I think I actually had to steal it twice!! Sis. Trish Knight is enjoying herself

Finally we all one by one opened our gifts from each other. We all got some really nice stuff! Alyssa had my name. She got me a soap making kit (I'm really excited to try it out!), some smelly good bath gel and she got each of the members of my family little small gifts. They really appreciated that! I didn't think to get any pictures of me with my gift though.

Sis. Cierra Smith is opening her gift from Sis. Cindy. Sis. Marisela is watching.

Sis. Connie is opening her gift (I forgot who had her name). Sis. Cindy brought Sis. Deanie to the party. It was nice to see her again.

Sis. Sara was very excited to get this maternity dress that Sis. Cierra made for her.

My Mother-in-law had my mom. She got some pretty cute stuff!

Sis. Trish is opening her gift from Sis. Marisela. She got a Christmas welcome mat, among other things.

Sis. Tina brought Sis. Janette and Sis. Amber. It was a nice surprise having them there. We enjoyed them.

Sis. Cindy is opening her gift. She really put a lot of effort into planning this. She did a very good job as usual and we all had fun.

Wenona got a very nice skirt and shirt outfit from Sis. Trish.

It was a really nice evening. Matt had the kids for the evening. He took them to Shari's and then went shopping at Wal-Mart. I was worried that it would be too much for him to have to deal with all 4 kids by himself in town like that. He said they were very good though. I was glad that we were both able to have an enjoyable night. It would have been kind of a let down to come back to a grumpy husband and grouchy kids. Here was yet another small blessing to be thankful for!