Brent's Birthday and Youth Trip to the Zoo

I'm still trying to get some blogging caught up, so I'm going back to the spring when we celebrated Brent's birthday! ;) He had a few friends over for his first-time-ever "sleep over" party...he was SO excited! Had such a great time, stayed up ALL night with his friends and then proceeded to be sick the next morning! We quickly figured out that his sick feeling was more due to exhaustion and low sugar levels. They had eaten junk food through the night and his body just didn't handle that well. After getting some juice into him (to raise the sugar levels) and then getting some real food into him, he started to feel better and within an hour was outside playing with his buddies while I made his lunch meal: BBQ chicken and homemade mac and cheese. :) He LOVES my mac and cheese! Anyway, this picture below is the only one from the party I can show because I don't know how the other moms feel about me showing their kids on the 'net.

A week or two later, we had Brent's family birthday when my parents and Terry's family could come down (I couldn't travel to them this time because of being so close to having Alivia). Brent had said he wanted a NASCAR cake, so I had him pick out a track from the NASCAR tracks and he picked out the Richmond track. (Please don't go look at that track and then critique me on what I did wrong...do you KNOW how hard it is to cut and mold cake!?!? LOL) At the very last down there is the finished product, but I didn't get the last and final shot that I wanted...we had ONE car that he specifically wanted, a Jeff Gordon race car. We had one, but didn't put it on until we were ready to do candles, then I had him close his eyes and I put Jeff Gordon crossing the finish line...winning the race, of course! LOL Anyway, I don't have a picture of that one, but it's okay...

Later in the summer, the Youth Group at church planned a trip to the zoo and since I was down after my surgery, I couldn't take them like I did last year. So, Terry took the boys up and they had a lot of fun. He got some really good shots too! :)

Alivia Grace Schafer

On June 2, 2010, our lives were once again blessed with a child....Alivia Grace. She entered into this world weighing 6 lbs 14 oz and measuring 19 1/4 inches long. As soon as they got her bundled up and Terry brought back out to the operating room to me, I took one look at her and said, "She's our smallest one!" :-) She was so small, but (as you can see below) already so very alert. These two pictures below are when she is 30 minutes old and we're still in recovery:



Here, below, Alivia got to meet her brothers for the first time. We had it set up so that when I got back to my room, we would bring the boys in by themselves (without anyone else) and it could be just our little family for a few minutes. We felt it was only fair to have the boys be able to meet her and spend some time with her before anyone else. (And although the grandparents didn't necessarily like this, they understood.)

One with Grandpa (my dad) in the hospital...Dad only got to spend a couple days with us after Alivia was born because he started his new job (across the state) and had to leave to get ready for that.

Hehe...checking out of the hospital, she did NOT like being changed into her new dress. This was after we got her dressed and I was picking her up to hold her...Mom snapped this at just the right moment! LOL

Just Thinking....


This was her first bath at home....oh, she was MAD. (And to this day she STILL does not like her bath...) :(

I just love her feet....

Just napping and chillaxin'...

Terry's sister, Darlene, was in Hawaii when Alivia was born and brought these outfits/shirts back for the kids. I took some shots of them for Terry for Father's Day...So nice!

Clayton decided that since there was this new pillow out, he would figure out what all he could do with it... LOL Up on the head it goes...

This is "Grandma" Marcia holding Alivia when she brought food to us. Marcia is another deacons' wife at church and is a mentor and great friend to me. I have GREAT respect for her and she is like another grandma to Alivia (well, to all three kids!).

One night before bed, Mom was holding Alivia and got her to sleep. Well, along came Clayton and laid his head down on mom's lap. S-l-o-w-l-y, Alivia inched her way down till she was literally sitting (in her sleep) on Clayton's head. :-)

Just a couple shots that I liked....

A couple years ago, the boys learned the "chickie chickie" at VBS. One day, they all decided to call Alivia down to do the Chickie Chickie Dance... :)

Sleeping with Sophie....


In July, Jhansi and her kids came out to visit and meet Alivia. They got to spend some good "face time" together...

I just love her feet when she's sleeping....she always ends up kicking out one foot (or both feet!) from under the covers. Like Mama like baby! LOL

This was after my surgery in July....I couldn't pick her up, so mom and the boys had to bring her to me after I was sitting. She fell asleep on me, and naturally scooter her way down. :-)

Playing with Sensory Sam...LOVE that toy! :)

Mom took this picture of the three kids one afternoon....I just love it! :)

A good friend, Ruth, took these pics while they were watching Alivia one evening (we had a Youth Group activity that was outside and I didn't want Alivia in the cool night air...). In the first one, it's a normal look for her: with her whole fist in her mouth. Hehe. The second is just a cool look...it's her "who ME!?" look. The last one at the bottom is just a really great shot of her while having tummy time.

Life has not been the same since she arrived, and I'm still learning what our new normal is. It changes every week. She's a more fussy baby than either of the boys ever was, but I'm *told* by many that that is just part-n-parcel of having a girl: drama. :-) We shall see. I don't get much time to be on the computer anymore...between schooling the boys and having a baby to keep track of, life is just pretty much non-stop. I'm working harder around the house than I ever have before and I STILL don't get it all done. But, it will be there when I get back to it, right? :D

I love my daughter...I love our new family...I love how she makes me smile every morning as soon as she gets out of bed. She's ALWAYS ready with a smile for her brothers, her mommy, or her daddy! Welcome to our family, baby girl!

I will try to do another post soon that will have other pics from other activities from the last 5 months that the family/boys have been involved in. Hopefully, once I get caught up, I can do smaller posts to stay caught up! LOL

Till another time....

Marta's Legacy series by Francine Rivers

I was fortunate enough to review these for LuxuryReading.com. Here are my reviews:

Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers

Reviewed by Amanda S.

In Her Mother’s Hope, Francine Rivers lays out the first two generations of a family that emigrated from Europe in the late 1800’s. Marta comes from a family that was abusive, strict, and hard-working. She vows to live a different life than the one she’s been dealt and sets off on her own at a very young age. Her mother kept telling her to “fly,” and so fly she did…all the way to Canada.

In Canada, Marta sets up her boardinghouse and meets her husband, who then moves her to America, but not without a fight. Marta doesn’t like the idea of doing what her husband tells her to do and so she fights it with all she has. Following the move, Marta gives birth to their second child, Hildemara Rose. Weak and ill from birth, Hildemara is a special child. But Marta refuses to coddle Hildie and is harder on her than on any of her other children. Rather than take these criticisms and turn them into a positive, Hildie internalizes the hurt and feels unwanted and unloved by her mother.

As Hildemara grows, she is determined to not allow her mother to bring her down and to live her life the way she wants to live it: serving others. Hildie becomes a nurse, marries, and starts a family of her own…only to become ill, forcing her to ask her mother for help. Will Marta come and help Hildemara or will she only push Hildie away like she’s always done?

Francine Rivers weaves another beautiful tale for us that comes partially from her own family history. We see the pain each character goes through, their joys, their triumphs, and their sorrows. In many ways we can see ourselves in the different characters. Have we been harder on one child than on the others, especially if it’s for their own good? Or have we coddled one child over another because they were weaker or needed more help? Have we, like Marta, been so adamant not to relive our childhood that we pushed ourselves to the opposite extreme, and became almost hateful in our dealings with our spouse or children?

Her Mother’s Hope ends rather abruptly and with a huge cliffhanger, much like Voice In The Wind (from The Mark of the Lion series by Rivers). The main character is on the brink of death, and we have to wait until the next book to find out what happens….which is months in coming! While not liking the cliffhangers in Francine River’s books, I will never turn down the opportunity to read one of her works! The second book, Her Daughter’s Dream, comes out in the fall of 2010.

For more information, please visit Francine Rivers’ website.

Her Daughter's Dream by Francine Rivers

Reviewed by Amanda S.

In Her Daughter’s Dream, Francine Rivers continues the family story of Marta, Hildemara Rose, Carolyn, and May Flower Dawn. Hildemara, Carolyn’s mother, returns home from the sanatorium to continue healing from tuberculosis, while Marta, the grandmother, moves in to take care of the family. Carolyn attaches herself to her Marta and the chasm between Hildemara and Carolyn begins. Over the years, the lack of communication causes that chasm to grow larger and larger. As Carolyn grows into adulthood, Hildie sees that her relationship with her daughter is getting worse, not better, but does not see a way to fix it.

When Carolyn comes home pregnant, Trip and Hildie do what they think is best for Carolyn, but end up hurting her in the process. Hildie takes it upon herself to be May Flower Dawn’s (Carolyn’s daughter) caretaker, thus creating another chasm between Dawn and Carolyn.

In her younger years, Dawn says and does some very hurtful things to Carolyn, but Carolyn is determined to have a better relationship with her daughter and keeps trying to improve it. After Carolyn marries Mitch, they move Dawn to a new home further away from Hildie, which causes Dawn to act out even more against her mother. Over the course of time, Mitch helps Dawn to become aware of the long standing family feud. When Dawn is married and on her own, she struggles to keep things in perspective where her mother and grandmother are concerned, but she’s determined to bridge the gap between them. With God’s help, she is able to do that, but at a very high cost.

Her Daughter’s Dream is just as good as the first book, Her Mother’s Hope. Rivers does a fantastic job weaving together multiple generations of a family to show us how we can hurt one another without intending to and how we struggle to deal with the ramifications. Simple words and simple misunderstandings left unresolved cause more hurt and sadness as the years go by; they don’t just go away.

I found myself relating to certain characters, laughing with them, and even getting mad and yelling at them at different points throughout the book. The characters are just so real that I was immediately drawn in and couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

Knowing this was a story loosely based on Francine’s own family history, Her Daughter’s Dream takes on even more meaning. The research she did and the things she learned about her own family truly made this book (and the one before it) a labor of love. It’s very obvious how much of herself Rivers put into these stories. These are definitely a set of books to have on your “keeper shelf!”

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I hope you check them out and read them...these are two really great books to read!

Tae Kwon Do Convention

Last weekend, the boys got to go to the Moo Sul Kwan convention that was held in Cape...it was 3 days of working with Black Belts from around the state and from Colorado on different techniques, self defense, and other styles of the martial arts. This year, Grand Master Shin was able to be with us...he is apparently the highest ranking Judo belt in the country, so we were all pretty excited to see him! They started by dividing them all into groups by age and belt rank and then sending them to different classes to work on things. Here is Clayton working on an attack with a Black Belt from Colorado.

Here is Brent working with a Black Belt on defensive kicks, if you were stuck on the ground.

And more defensive kicks:

Here they were learning Judo and how to flip someone over your hip. Brent and his partner were having troubles, so a Black Belt came over and flipped Brent! LOL

Later in the day, Grand Master Shin was signing the kids' belts...we thought he was autographing them. But then we found out he was putting the kids' names on their belts in Korean!! SWEET!! So the boys, of course, wanted to be included in that! SO COOL!


At the end of Saturday, there was a banquet for any of the attendees who wanted to go. They handed out awards for schools and for upper ranking Black Belts, but they also honored Grand Master Shin and he spoke for a few minutes.

The boys had SOOO much fun and are still practicing (on each other!) the different moves they learned and perfecting what they can. They have both said they want to go next year as well.

Baby Update

It's been a while since I updated and there are new things to share! :)

We saw the new doctor and chatted with her for just a short amount of time. Sadly, she was VERY "my way or the highway" about things and basically told me that she was not going to budge on any part of her "plan" and if we didn't want to give in to that, then she wouldn't be our doctor. ~sigh~ I left the building in tears (out of frustration) and Terry said to me, "I'm done with them...we won't be back." We made the decision to go back to our first OB and have a sit-down-heart-to-heart with her. I basically laid it out to her and told her how she was making me feel (stressed) and explained my position...she understood and ended up being more willing to work with me. She's still being very cautious, which is annoying, but if she's willing to work with me on things, I'm willing to work with her. =)

We had another ultrasound and found out that we're having a GIRL! ;) We're excited, but nervous at the same time...girls are SO different! LOL Now the task of picking out a name, since the name we've had picked out for a girl (for 13 years!) doesn't feel right to me. Terry's about to toss me out the window! LOL

We started construction on the basement this past weekend. Well, I say "we"...it was really Terry and his sister and BIL and a friend from church; then mom and dad and another friend from church came later in the day. They got all the exterior walls put up and one interior wall....Now Terry has to go back and finish the interior walls, the electrical (unless our church friend does the rest of it) and the dry wall. Then we have to get someone to do the flooring and the bathroom. There's still SOOOO much to be done.

I have officially started my last trimester...we have 13 weeks left to go. :) I'm getting more tired during the days and feeling like I need more rest....it's just so hard for me to nap in the day anymore. LOL

Our goal is to have school completely finished with the boys by the first week or so of May...so far, we're on track with that. I just hope we can do it! I'm not sure that I'll have all the grading done and time tallied at that point, but if that is all I have to worry about in May then I'll be doing pretty good! :)