Wedding Pictures

We recently enjoyed the marriages of two dear family members. King Louie's sister, Aubrey, and my cousin, Kelly, were both married in recent weeks, and we are so excited for them both!

In his sister's wedding, the King gave his sister away, which was a very special moment for them both. Baloo played "Here Comes the Bride" on the electric guitar, which was awesome! He downloaded a version by Queen, written for 10 guitar parts. He smushed them into one, as best he could, and this was the song The King and Aubrey walked in to. This is a picture from the rehearsal.

All five of the girls were flower girls in the wedding. It was so precious! My mom made them matching dresses, and they were just beautiful! Thank you, Mema!Here are a few pictures from the wedding.

Getting everyone to look at the camera and smile, simultaneously, is a near-impossible feat. I though this turned out fairly well.

Flower girls! Now, the church did not want them to throw petals, even these fake ones. About 2 seconds after this picture was snapped, the wedding coordinator in the back, wearing the white shirt, will have a conniption when she looks up and sees the petals on the floor. :0) They were silk petals, lady! Chill out!

Baloo with Hunter, one of King Louie's younger brothers. Aren't they handsome?

This is Aubrey with her and King Louie's mom, Grammaw Leicel. I love this picture! My five little girls, running off to a wedding. So precious. And in the blink of an eye, they will each run off to their own...

The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

This is a poem Padme just finished memorizing. She selected it herself.

The tide rises, the tide falls,

The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;

Along the sea-sands damp and brown

The traveler hastens toward the town,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,

But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;

The little waves, with their soft, white hands

Efface the footprints in the sands,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls

Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;

The day returns, but nevermore

Returns the traveler to the shore.

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

----Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So who, do you suppose, is the traveler? And where is he going? Why does he never return to the shore?

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Whoever invented this game is a genius. A game in which little girls win jewelry and the winner is crowned the Pretty, Pretty Princess? Absolute genius.

Dora has all the jewelry because she was the only one playing.

She won, which is the way she likes it. :0) Don't let the "cute" fool you; this kid really plays to win, which can be tough when there are 7 older people in the house!

Three Sites I Enjoy

Two I just found today, through friends. The other I have been following for some time. I hope you enjoy them.

http://www.sizzlebop.com/index.htm

http://frugal-fabulous.blogspot.com/

http://www.celebratecalm.com/
Join his email list, it will change your life!

Twins!

Introducing our newest additions!  Please welcome...

Abraham Delacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley  (Tommy,  on the left) and Jenny-any-dots (Jenny, on the right)

When we moved, we decided Jackie (Juju) should be an outside cat.  She was not too keen on the idea, so we decided to bring her some friends.  A friend was trying desperately to get rid of 8 kittens, so we took 2 off her hands, hoping to fill JuJu's social void.  At first, it did not work very well.....

However she soon warmed to the idea of new little friends.  She has actually become much more affectionate since she's been outside, and since she adopted our sweet little kittens.  The other pets seem to enjoy the kittens, too.  Diego, especially, likes to play with them.

I especially like this picture.  It really shows the family resemblance, doncha think?

We have moved

Sorry I haven't posted in so long.   We moved to a nearby city and have been crazy busy!

We were completely exhausted from all of the packing, moving and unpacking...
...but we're finally finished!  We love our new home, it's nearer to our activities, and we were able to put all five girls in one bedroom!  Yay!  I really wanted this, hoping it would help them really bond tightly.  So far, so good.  The girls are already growing closer.  We have an empty bedroom that we use as a playroom, so their room just has 2 bunk beds, a twin bed and two dressers.  And it's not even crowded in there!  Thank you, Jesus!

I have uploaded lots of pictures onto this computer and will try to post more frequently.  I will post some pictures of what we have been doing the past few weeks.

Updated Happenings

We had our first week of co-op on Friday! We all had a great time! The kids so enjoyed getting to see all of their friends again. Our newly adopted kiddos did very well, I was a little nervous about how they would respond to all of the classes, but they actually did great! Three of their five classes were taught by me or their grandma, so they felt pretty comfortable. Plus they see me after each class, and we all eat lunch together. We are very excited about this semester, and everyone loved their classes! Yay!

We also moved last week. We only moved 25 minutes away, but we are much closer to our regular activities. The kids are loving the new house, and one of our bedrooms is big enough for all 5 girls to bunk together! I am very excited about this, as I have always wanted a "girls' room" and a "boys' room." With five girls and only one boy, this was not possible in our old house. Already I have seen the girls grow closer, in just a week, by bunking together. Thank you, Lord, for answering even our small prayers. We now have a "playroom" which is nice because they don't have to have all of their toys put away perfectly, all the time. The house isn't "custom" like our old one, nowhere near as "nice," but it is perfect for our needs and we are all loving it. We only had 3 weeks to move, so we feel very blessed that the Lord brought us such a great house so quickly!

During this same time frame, we also attempted to breed our little chihuahua with a friend's dog - we'll know in a few weeks whether it worked.

We kicked our cat out when we moved, she did not take very well to being an outside cat. So, we got 2 kittens from a friend, to keep her company. I have warned the girls that they may not make it to adulthood, what with the coyotes & hawks out here in the country. So far, so good, though. I think all little kids need to take care of a baby animal, so we really got these for the benefit of the new girls, as all the other kids have been through this already. Outside cats are really very easy, and the girls have spent every possible moment outside playing with those kitties! Once I find my camera (haven't seen it since the move) I will post pictures of our new little sweeties.

As you can see, we have been very busy! I will try to update more frequently. We are getting into a routine with all of our activities, so hopefully I will be able to do so.