Happy Christmas Eve

Hello! Sorry I have not been on to post. It's been crazy busy around here. I am sure you can imagine preparing for Christmas with 6 children. Nursing has really made shopping more challenging, but I think managed to get it all done. I haven't really enjoyed this season this year. It's really too much trouble. I wish it were all more simple and the focus was truly on Jesus.

My parents came up on Friday and we opened our gifts with them. It was fun and good seeing them! I really wish my brother, Jamie, was coming this year! I hope you read this Jamie and have a big guilt trip. It's just not as fun... Also, we're not having any special Christmas dinner because we haven't been invited to one. It didn't occur to me until last night. My older brother is going over to his in-law's house and Stu's Mom is undergoing chemo treatment again. Stu's sister, Lu, and her family will be here for a couple days. I am looking forward to seeing them!

I posted a few pictures. Enjoy!

Mom Times Six

I had this picture taken for Stuart on the occasion of our 9th anniversary which was December 6th. He loved it! I am so blessed! The children's ages are: Celeste 15, Jamie 12, Dan 7 1/2, Max almost 6, Tommy 27 months, and Eden Joy 10 weeks.

ABC's of Me

A - Available/Single: Not available, thank you very much!
B - Best Friend: Val and my hubby, Stuart
C - Cake or Pie: Vanilla cake with vanilla icing
D - Drink of Choice: water
E - Essential item you use everyday: Make-up AND diaper wipes!
F - Favorite color: soft shades of green
G - Gummy bears or Worms: Bears
H - Hometown: Sarasota, FL
I - Indulgence: anything for scrapbooking
J - January or February: I pick June because my birthday is that month!
K - Kids: 6 children...4 boys and 2 girls ages 15 down to 3 months
L - Life is incomplete without: Jesus!
M - Marriage Date: December 6th, 1997
N - Number of siblings: 2 brothers--1 older and 1 younger (I share a bday w/ the younger one)
O - Oranges or Apples: Apples always!
P - Phobias/Fear: night diving/being alone
Q - Favorite Quote: Isaiah 40:31
R - Reason to Smile: Jesus and my family
S - Season: Summer
T - Tag: Huh?!?
U - Unknown fact about myself: my daughter says I laugh to myself under my breath a lot
V - Vegetable you don't like: lima beans
W - Worst habit: biting my nails
X - X-ray: left ankle....teeth when I get to go to the dentist
Y - Your favorite food: Italian and Seafood
Z - Zodiac: Gemini, but it's all bunk

The Best Present

The best present...

By the way, we got Homeschoolopoly from the UPS man yesterday and we are quite eager to find the time to play it! Also, last night was the night Stu and I met 10 years ago. We've been together ever since. 4Him penned it well when they wrote "The Roller coaster Ride." Life can be a roller coaster even without the love of your life. It's so much nicer when you have someone to go on the ride with...thanks Stu! We just celebrated our 9th anniversary on December 6th. I think I got the best present this year...Eden Joy.

Grace

God has given me the grace to:

>Mother 6 children even though I don't know how I get through the day and do anything right. He always fixes it up for me.

>Run on little sleep and enjoy my new precious daughter, Eden, who is currently getting quite plump. What a gift He has given me in nursing her longer than any other baby.

>Recognize a good man when I see one. Stuart is a dedicated, hard-working husband and father.

>Be open to His plans for me...even though I have no clue how things will work out.

>Find contentment in the little things--at least I have a messy house. It's much better than being alone and a whole lot more fun!

>Remember, it's all just "stuff" anyway. You can't take it with you when you die and you won't care when you're in the presence of your Savior. Amen!

Family Fun

Check this out! If you are a homeschooler I think your family would enjoy this game! We just ordered it and are looking forward to playing it together. Go to http://www.homeschoolopoly.com/index.htm to check it out!

We are busy getting ready for Christmas and will take a break from schooling after this week. We're going to be baking cookies tomorrow and having lunch with my friend, Chris, who also has 6 children. Wow, there will be 12 children at my house tomorrow. The funny thing is that it's not complete chaos. These are wonderful children! I need to send Christmas cards and finish shopping. It's hard to get it all done with a nursing baby. It limits my time out and I'm still so tired in the morning. She's so cute, though!

I just found out that Creative Memories will be offering framing early next year! I can't wait to get more information on that. I am eagerly awaiting my first story book. I'll take a pic of it and show it to you when it comes in. I have a personal web address now and you can order directly from it and have things shipped to your doorstep. It's www.mycmsite.com/nanpalmer. Check it out!

Praise Reports

Good news to report! Eden now weighs 11 pounds! She has gained 1 pound since her check-up two weeks ago. Yes, that is ALL nursing. I am so thankful that God has anwered my prayers in this area. Two other praise reports. Dan needed some new jeans and I really didn't want to spend money on clothes right now. Well a friend of mine dropped some clothes off recently that her son had outgrown and there were several pairs of jeans in there perfect for Dan and Max! Also, our fake Christmas tree is rather sad. I had wanted to buy a new one this year, but it was not in the budget. Last night my brother called me and said he had a brand new one in the box and did I want it? It's 7 feet tall and pre-lit!! WOOT! God is so good!

This will just crack you up!

Watch this video from Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-74NtTj3e8

We were talking about evangelism in church this summer and they showed this clip. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Enjoy!

Thought for the day

A good friend of mine reminded me of this lately and it impacted me, so I thought I would share with you:

God has given us enough hours in a day for the things He deems worth doing.

Also, I suggest you take your family to see the new movie The Nativity Story. It looks amazing! Go to http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/thenativitystory/ to see the trailers. We are planning on going--just need a sitter for Tommy and maybe Eden. Have a blessed Friday! It's December, yea!

I would be doing a lot better if I could get more sleep... I can really appreciate how difficult it is to have 4 children under the age of 8 years old now that my older kids are not home. This is my first day on my own with all of them. Now the baby is crying, so I can't finish this post. I love all of them, but I'm having trouble coping with the craziness. If you think about it, please pray for me. I don't like this right now. I will say it again--if I had more sleep I'm sure it would be better. I am thankful to God for my beautiful children. Okay, now I'll say it 50 times. (Who cares about the mess all over the house, right?!?)

Visitors

We had friends come for a visit today! Celeste (yes, my daughter's namesake) and Brian along with their 2 daughters ages 4 and 5. It was so nice to catch up and visit for many hours over bbq and then later some pizza. The kids had a good time playing outside and in! Celeste says I haven't blogged much lately, so I thought I'd write a quick one. I included a picture of Celeste and me that was taken back in April. We've been friends since college. We met in December of 1987. It's been about 19 years now. Hard to believe!

Also, I WON BINGO on Women @ Home last week!!!! WOOT! I can't wait to see what my prize is...Pat is mailing it to me. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Have you tried mineral make up? I found it hard to believe those infomercials, but with staying up at night with the baby I was tempted to try it and it REALLY does work! Love it! Try it at www.bareminerals.com. (I get no kick-backs for my promotion.) Did you know that there's not much on at 4 in the morning? We have DISH and it pretty much goes to infomercials at that point. Hopefully, baby Eden will start sleeping through that feeding soon...

Eden Joy is 8 weeks old

Things

Okay, I know it's been a long time since I posted. My excuse is adjusting to life with a new baby and trying to organize 6 children. That has been quite a task! I did get a bit of time to myself last weekend. I went to a Creative Memories workshop and got to work on Eden's album, Tommy's album, and our family album. Also, I became a consultant! I used to be one back in 1999-2001. Things are so cool now! They have an awesome computer program to manage your photos called Memory Manager. Also, there are new digital storybooks for people who don't want to scrapbook, but would like to make an album...you just do it on the computer and then order the book from CM. They make great gifts, too! Contact me for more info on these things. Check out their products at www.creativememories.com.

Celeste is all excited because she will be able to drive at night next week. We need to practice more with her. Jamie and Celeste are going to visit their Dad in St. Louis for Thanksgiving. I will miss them and their help with all the little people. It should be interesting! My family is coming here--except for Jamie, my brother. We hope to see him at Christmas. Our calendar is already getting busy for the month of December.

Okay, time to go feed Eden again and get going with my day. I will try to post a more recent picture of her. She weighs around 9 1/2 pounds now. She is SO petite. She's starting to smile and coo. So cute!

This is how I am feeling today. How does one get everything done in a right manner? How do you recover from a c section, care for a newborn, school 4 children, and train a toddler all on a handful of broken up sleep? Today I am wishing I knew the plans God has for me...instead I pray and wait for His answers.

Upward Conference 2006

We just finished a weekend at Camp Kulaqua with 7 Sovereign Grace churches at a conference called Upward '06: Compelled by the Gospel. There was awesome worship, family fun, and some excellent teaching by Danny Jones and Brent Detweiller. I didn't make every session due to a newborn and I spent a lot of time in the nursing mom's room, but I'm going to download the messages. Go to www.upwardconference.com for this year's messages. In fact, in Saturday morning's message at the very beginning Brent mentions two 12 year old young men. One of them is my son, Jamie! If you are hungry for Gospel truths these will fit the bill.

I put up some pics of the kids. Jamie and Celeste performed with Mimetime, the boys went go-carting, in the springs, Jamie went on the blob, and Eden turned a month old! Now I'm exhausted and will spend the week recovering! God bless you!

Don't Forget Me, Mom!

I'm feeling a bit better every day, yea! Some of the fog from the pregnancy and crazy birth has lifted and I can think more clearly now--when I'm not too tired, lol! Here is a picture of Tommy, who just LOVES to hold the baby...and touch her--sometimes not very gently. He is 25 months old. I'm glad he has a buddy now. Celeste and Jamie are buddies and Dan and Max are buddies. Now Tommy has a buddy!

Just tired...

Well, I've been tired. The big dilemma is usually should I take a shower or take a nap. Needless to say, I usually choose the nap. The baby is nursing so frequently that it's hard to do anything else. It's a good thing I really can't do anything else, ha ha! Please pray that Eden would nurse efficiently and I would have an abundant milk supply. I'm having problems in the early morning hours. She wants to nurse all night and I get worn out and can't do it. I'm so tired by 5 Am with no sleep. The past two mornings Stu has given her a bottle so I can sleep. I hope this isn't train wrecking the breast feeding thing. Other than that, I can't lay down to sleep in our bed and I'm not a back sleeper, so I'm even more tired b/c my rest is not adequate. Please pray for that. I'm pretty much home alone with the kids. Stu is back to work on a 2/3 day schedule. The kids are stir crazy, too. That's us right now! Reality is so, well, REAL.

More cute pictures!

Dan and Max is holding Eden
The biggest brother of all
Me and my car seat
Cute, Cute, Cute!

Newborn Nights

I'm enjoying my time with our new baby. She is very sweet even though we were cluster feeding from 2-5 AM. The itty bitty stage doesn't last long and I'm determined to enjoy it. I am feeling a bit better every day. Praise God for that! We have such lovely friends from church who are taking wonderful care of us. Thank you!

Here's here little web page with a few pics they took at the hospital. They're kind of funny! To leave a comment our password is Palmer.
http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage_view.asp?URLID=6V0U5T9Z0V

Enjoy!

Here's a couple more pics. We came home today. C sections are horrible! I've been really struggling with recovery. I appreciate your prayers!