Oregon Campout Quilt

This post is a long time coming like all my others, but I figured its not too late since the camp out hasn't happened yet! ;D

This year the sisters here in Portland made the quilt! The Brownsville sisters were running out of ideas, so we made it for them. We did send it down for them to quilt. I think I'm the only sister here who knows how to quilt, and I just don't have time to do it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed getting together and working on the quilt. We really enjoyed each other's company. We had some nice visits and lots of laughs as we dealt with the unavoidable problems that are bound to happen when you take on a project this large. Most of the time we got together at my house, and I really enjoyed having everyone over.

Here are just a few pictures I took. Sadly, I didn't think to take more throughout the quilt making!

My Mom has a Blog!

Just wanted to let everyone know that my mom has a blog. She is on my list of blogs. I think that she will have to invite you to view her blog. I'm not sure. If you can't connect to her page and want to be invited you can comment me your email address so she can invite you. I either accept or reject your comments; so I can just reject the one showing your email after I get it so no-one else sees it. I'm sure she would love to have some "friends" to read her blogs and leave comments.

Christian

Blah! Again, it has been WAY too long since I have blogged! Christian's Birthday was quite a few months ago and I never did a special blog just for him. I decided not to blog about his Birthday, but here's a blog just for him!


I look at my first baby and I'm amazed at how much he's grown! I've always suspected he'll be built like his Daddy, but it's becoming more and more evident. It seems like we just bought him new pants, but they are already getting too short for him!

Christian is 8 now, and he really is a good kid. He's very helpful around the house, and good at his schoolwork. He seems to get along well with other kids. He will still accepts hugs from his
Mommy! (Even though he does act a little embarrassed about it). What more could a Mom ask for?

Since Christian is getting older, I've started worrying about the stages in life that are coming up for him. I worry about having the right type of relationship with him so that he feels he can come to his Dad or me with questions and concerns he may have. I'm worried that because he requires so much less attention than the other kids, that we give him less attention. I want to try to give him more attention, and let him know how much we appreciate his helpfulness.

In school, Christian's favorite subjects are Math and Science. I think that being good at these subjects could be really good for him when choosing a profession someday.

Christian is such a good help to us; sometimes I worry that we expect too much out of him. At the same time, I am proud of how responsible he already is.

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!