Show Us Your Life: Mom Of Boys

Mother Karen has seven sons, seven sons has Mother Karen...

Welcome to you who are visiting from Kelly's Korner!  I am Karen and I am mom to 10 living children total! Seven which happen to be boys!

Today Kelly is having a link up on Mom's of Boys. I think I qualify since I have seven! I just happen to have three girls as well!

Let me introduce you to my sons.

Jeremy is our oldest at 25

Jeremy recently visiting with my Mom

Tim is second at 23. He has been married to Naomi since January 2010.

Tim and Naomi

Josh comes in 3rd at 20. He just recently got engaged to Jillian. A June 2013 Wedding is planned.

Josh and Jillian on Easter 2012

So you can see, my three oldest are boys! Next came two girls. Rebekah and Victoria.

Matthew is next in line at 14.

Matthew on Easter 2012

Up next is Samuel at 12.

Samuel on Easter 2012

After Samuel we had a little break from boys and had another girl, Anna.

Then came Luke who is now 8.

Luke on Easter 2012

And Coming in last, but most definitely not least is Micah at age 6!

Micah on Easter 2012

Being a mom to boys can be challenging, but it is also a joy! It is fun to see life from their perspective. It is also so sweet how much they love their Mom! I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world!

 

Birthdays, Birthdays, And More Birthdays!

I am so far behind on posting about the Birthdays around here. So, I decided to put them all together in one big post.

We could pretty much have a birthday a month around here except for, four of my boys were all born in November. Faith's actual due date was in November also.

 I still have a cake for each birthday, but it is getting to be a bit much.  I have usually let each child pick out their own cake from a bakery like Walmart, but the older they get, the more they want me to bake something special.

I will start with Jeremy. His birthday is in August, but we did not get to celebrate then.  We were actually traveling to Virginia for my sister-in-law's funeral on his birthday. I told him we would make up for it sometime. Well, it took longer than expected because, between his schedule and mine, it was hard to coordinate. I finally said let's do this! I found an evening he did not have to work and planned to have his Birthday dinner and a cake. It just happened to be early November!

Jeremy requested Lasagna for dinner and a Blueberry Pound cake for his cake. I haven't made homemade lasagna for many years until we were visiting my Mom in September. My two oldest son's were not there, so they wanted me to make it again.

So, the day arrived and I worked on making the cake and making lasagna. I had the children help me clean up so we could celebrate that evening. Well, when Jeremy came home from work , he was feeling pretty sick, so he went straight to bed. When it was time for dinner, he came up and laid on the couch. He was shivering and he had a fever. He could not eat anything, he felt so bad.  So we had Jeremy's dinner and cake without him. It was a few more days before he could eat, so we saved some cake for him. I felt so bad for him!



Jeremy's Blueberry Pound cake

 Here is a picture of Jeremy from his Birthday last year. I believe this is the most recent picture I have of him.

  September:

Anna's 9th Birthday




 October:



Luke's 7th Birthday






Here are our November Birthdays:



Matthew's 13th Birthday

Timothy's 22nd Birthday (Banana Cake)

Sammy's 11th Birthday (Chocolate Mint Layer Cake)

Josh's 19th Birthday (Better Than Anything Cake)

We are done with all the Birthdays for the year except the most important one, Jesus!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

A Visit With Faith ~ Updated

The past several days,I have been reliving the day that Faith was born, and the days that followed. It might be because this past Friday was Pregnancy and Infant Lost Remembrance Day, or maybe because on the 28th of this month, it will be Faith's 2nd Heavenly Birthday.

Probably Both!

For those of you who do not understand, Yes, she was born. I carried her for over 37 weeks and I saw her heart beating on the ultrasound numerous times. I felt her moving inside of me. She was full of life! She was just born still. I had to go through labor and delivery just like for any other baby.

I would have to imagine that losing a child would have to be the hardest thing anyone would have to face. I know that it has been for me. The next hardest thing in my life was when my son Tim was diagnosed at the age of 4 with Leukemia.

Tim spent 2 1/2 years going through chemotherapy. Yes, those days were quite difficult! The truth be told, the statistics were that he had a good chance of survival, but no guarantees. We became  familiar with other children at the clinic and then we would not see them anymore. We would learn that they passed away. It was very stressful and difficult. At the same time I believe God was holding us in the Palm of His Hand. He gave me a Peace in my Heart that I knew could only come from Him! Praise God, Tim is almost 22 years old and married Naomi this past January!   *  Updated : My hubby reminded me that Tim had T-Cell ALL and the survival rate was about 50% at that time. If it was the more common form of ALL,( I do not remember what it was called) the survival rate was about 60-70%? I do not know if those percentages have changed since 1993. They probably have but I am not up to date on any of that information at this time. I am not sure what I was thinking when I wrote this. I guess since so many years have gone by my memory is not what it used to be. The Point is, Tim is healed and doing Well! Praise God! *

I have mentioned before that Faith is buried in Virginia, where I am originally from. My Mom still lives in the same house I grew up in and my siblings live anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours away. Sometimes I wonder if we made the right decision to have her buried there, but overall I am content with that choice. She is buried at the foot of my Father's grave which I am so grateful for. The hard part is that I usually only get to visit about once a year.

In September when we visited my Mom and the rest of my family, we were finally able to go visit Faith's grave. This was Mike's first time to actually see her stone in person. He was not able to go with me last year when we went, so all he saw were pictures.

We all loaded up in the van and went over for a visit. My Mom rode along with us as well.  Mike and the kids had all gotten out of the van as soon as we got there. I  took a little longer as I was talking to my Mom. When I finally got out and made it over to Faith's grave, I saw something so very sweet. Anna was cleaning off dirt and grass from the stone. She was doing this all on her own, without anyone saying anything about it! It brought tears tears to my eyes. She was taking care of her baby sister the only way she could!

Anna was overjoyed when she found out that Faith was a girl.  She was so excited to finally have a little sister! She had big plans for this baby sister! When she found out that Faith had died, she cried for probably an hour straight. Each of the children have dealt with the loss in their own way, but I would have to say that I see how deeply it has affected her.

This first picture is right after Faith's Memorial Service. I found Anna just sitting and crying. I had to go over and hold her!  It still brings tears to my eyes every time I see this picture.

The rest of the pictures are when we visited Faith's Grave in September.

Anna Cleaning Off Faith's Stone

Micah joins in to help Anna clean the Stone



Anna sitting and lingering over Faith's Stone



I hate that my children have had to experience the pain of losing their baby sister, but it is so wonderful to see their love for her. She was so wanted and loved by us all!

 

Happy New Year ( Just A Little Late! )

Yes, I am still around! Life has been crazy busy and blogging has just not been a priority!

Christmas and New Years have come and gone and then our son Tim married Naomi on January 2nd.

I must admit that I was a bundle of nerves for a few weeks leading up to the Wedding. I am not really sure why, I wasn't even the Mother of the Bride! Naomi planned and did most of the work herself.

Everything was just beautiful and I am so proud of Tim and Naomi! Here is a sneak peak from their Wedding. I borrowed these from my friend Sharon who had posted some pics on facebook.

Naomi before the Wedding

Tim before the Wedding

Naomi walking down the aisle with her Dad

Tim and Naomi newly married!

It was a wonderful day, but boy, I must admit, it feels wonderful for it all to be over!

The day started out on a crazy note. Naomi and her six bridesmaids had a hair appointment at 6 am! Naomi picked Rebekah up at 5:45! I was sure gratetful that Naomi came to get Rebekah so that I did not have to get her there!

Naomi's Mom, Victoria, Anna, and I had hair appointments at 8 am at a different hair salon. Well, let's just say that was an adventure!

I am pretty conservative with my hair and let's just say these ladies like to do poofy! Most women that were in that shop must have been over 60. The ladies that came in were all over 60 also and they were coming in for their weekly wash, set and style!

The lady doing my hair redid it 3 times! When I got home,I had to try to tame it down!

Hubby was at home trying to help get the 4 youngest boys ready. I had failed to set their stuff out so that he could find it all, so he had to wait for me to get home to help him.

Did I mention the Wedding was at 11:00 am?

Between me trying to fix my hair and helping to get the boys ready we were running just a tad late! We did not walk into the church until 10:53!

Fortunately all of our older children we already at the church and Jeremy had taken Sammy and Anna( The ring bearer and flower girl).

We walked in and put our flowers on and it was just about time to start!

I was a complete mess!

The night before when I walked into the church for rehearsal and saw the pew bows, the tears started coming! The past few years weddings have made me cry. Now it was my son getting married and the tears surfaced often.

Now on the morning of the Wedding as my son Josh was ushering me down the aisle, I wanted so bad just to smile, but the tears were coming instead! It was a bit embarrassing but I could not stop!

Naomi's Mom and I lit the 2 candles for the unity candles so I focused on that and that helped the tears to stop for a little while.

It was a beautiful service and I saw a few others shed some tears also. Of course my tears started flowing again when I look up and see tears in Tim's eyes! It was so sweet!

The reception was held at a hotel and everything was wonderful. The decorations were beautiful, the cake was beautiful, and the food was really delicious!

When we got home we were exhausted!

My Mom and my nieces Corrie and Krista arrived on Thursday and we really enjoyed having them here. Corrie is such a huge help to so many and she helped me get my things organized for the rehearsal dinner. This girl deserves sainthood!

Friday night we had the rehearsal dinner at our church. I ordered Lasagna, Salad, and breadsticks from Fazoli's. I bought cheesecakes and a couple of other desserts from Sam's Club. I made punch and we also had ale 8 and IBC Root beer for Tim and Naomi. Everything turned our really nice and we had a great time.

My sister Debbie and her daughter Katie, along with her Son Jonathan (a groomsman) and his wife Rachel arrived Friday afternoon.

The Wedding itself was held at a different church because the Sanctuary of our church is a Gymnasium. Tim and Naomi decided they would probably save money having it at a different church because it would cost them a bit of money to decorate our church the way they wanteed it.

We had to drive 40 minutes from the Wedding Rehearsal to the Rehearsal Dinner. I could not set up before hand because the space was being occupied by somone else, so we had to get everything ready while everyone was arriving.

I was so blessed when my family all pitched in to help. Mike and I and our children were all getting things ready, but then we had Corrie, Krista, Debbie, Katie, Jonathan, Rachel, and Jeremy's fiance Leigh helping as well!

It really meant a great deal to me having such wonderful help!

Jeremy and his fiance, Leigh

Anna

Luke, Josh, and Micah

My niece Krista and Rebekah

Sammy

Matthew

My niece-in-law, Rachel, her husband Jonathan(my nephew), and my wonderful niece, Corrie

Victoria and my niece Katie

My sister Debbie and my Mom

Disclaimer: These bottles are Ale 8 and IBC Root beer

If you do not know what ale 8 is you can check it out here..

The Crazy Happy Newlyweds are honeymooning in Alaska! They both love cold weather and snow! Me, well, not so much!

Tim reported a couple of days ago that it was 34 degrees there! Here in Kentucky it has been in the teens and  twenties! It is warmer in Alaska then it is here, go figure! Needless to say, they are a little disappointed!

We look forward to seeing them when they return. We are so proud of you Tim and Naomi and We Love You!

Happy New Year Everyone,

May you have a Blessed 2010!

 

Birthday Season

Life is definitely starting to get a bit more busy around here. With the Holidays approaching and a Wedding in early January, I am starting to feel a bit stressed. Also while trying to prepare for all of that, we have several birthdays to celebrate. I need to start making a list of all the things I need to accomplish, so that  I can keep track of what I am doing. I would like to do all of this with great joy, but right now I am feeling stressed!  I really need to get better organized.

Birthday Season is in full swing here at our house!  November is a big month here! Four of my boys have November Birthdays and Faith also had a November due date.

We probably should just have one great big birthday party in November, but it is so hard to do, since all of the other children have their own Birthday Month. They all get their own cake. I have usually let each child pick out a cake from Walmart or Sam's Club. As they get older many of them have decided that they would rather have me bake the cake.

Matthew starts off the birthdays for November. Matthew is now 12! Wow! That is really hard for me to believe.One more year and we will have another teenager around here!

Matthew is one our Artsy children. He has always enjoyed drawing and also making crafts. He is the kind of kid that you need to save paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls for his many creations. He has recently become interested in making Videos.  He uses his younger brothers and sisters as his actors. They are so cute and imaginative! He has also made neat videos featuring each of the children. He picks out some great pictures of the kids and adds music to them,  He also adds credits at the end. It is really cute!

Next up is Timothy. Tim is now 21!  Tim is the one who I have shared before, was healed from Leukemia. God has truly touched his life and I look forward to all that is in store for Tim.

Tim is getting married at the beginning of January. He is the first of my children to get married! Naomi is his Fiance, and we are thrilled to be adding her to our family!

Tim is in his second year at Eastern Kentucky University. He also works a full time schedule at DQ. He is a really busy person right now. Naomi is graduating from Eastern in December. She is hoping to get a job after that and help Tim get through school.

This is Banana Cake that Tim requested. Not very pretty, but very Yummy!  Don't they make a beautiful couple?

Did you notice that we used the same candles for Matthew and Tim? We just reversed them! That doesn't happen very often.

Please pray that I can prioritize and get organized. I really want to enjoy these next several weeks. I do not want to be stressed, but be filled with Joy!

The LORD is my strength and my shield; 

my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. 

My heart leaps for joy

and I will give thanks to him in song.

                                         Psalm 28:7

 

Miracles

Candace from Living With Faith has asked me to share about miracles in my life.

What is a miracle? 

The definition from the Merriam -Webster"s Online Dictionary for Miracle is:

1 : an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
2 : an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment

I believe that God has created many miracles in my life but most people probably would consider most of them small miracles.

First and foremost I consider my children miracles.  Many of us take having children for granted, but many people struggle to bring biological children into this world. I have lost 2 children to miscarriage and 1 to stillbirth and I know the pain of loss. I also know the joy of bringing 10 living children into the world with God's Help. I also know people that have adopted children and consider them miracles in their lives.

I consider that I was born is really a miracle too.I am the youngest of six children and my mom had a life threatening situation between child 4 and 5. She had an ectopic pregnancy that was in the ovary and it caused her ovary to burst. It took a while for them to figure what was even wrong with her and she almost died. Her regular doctor had been out of town and she was seeing another doctor. Finally her doctor came back to town and pretty much knew what was wrong with her. He helped save her life. Her case was put into textbooks because it was so rare. Please remember this was probably about 50 years ago.

They told her that she should not have any more children, but ended up having 2 more including me. On a side note, many years later she had a hysterectomy and when the went to remove her ovaries they couldn't believe that she had an ovary that burst. They were expecting to find a lot of scar tissue but they did not.

I find simple things in day to day life to be small miracles. A child that finally gets a math problem that we have gone over and over again, or a child that can write his own paragraphs on his own with out tears, well those are miracles to me.

I feel like one of the biggest miracles in our lives is the life of our son Timothy. Tim was diagnosed with Leukemia in 1993 at the age of 4. The first couple of months were a bit rough, but I strongly believed that God was with us and was going to see us through.

Tim had very aggressive chemotherapy for 2 1/2 years. He also had radiation to his brain. He had strong chemo drugs injected into his spine. It was a grueling 2 1\2 years but I know God's hand was on Tim. There were times during his course of treatment that it was expected that he would get very sick. After the first few months he never became seriously sick. Yes, he had ups and downs. He did have some issues with vomiting. I am not saying that it was a piece of cake. The steroids made him very moody and we were not overly fond of him during those times, but we still loved him and would do whatever it took for him to get well.

He was hospitalized just a few times. It always seemed to happen on the weekends. Anytime he would run a fever we had to take him to the hospital. The few times that it happened, it always seemed to be on a Friday. They would admit him and watch him for a few days. It ended up that he usually just had a virus like any other kid. He usually would be discharged by Monday. I really believe it was the Hand of God that kept him from getting so seriously ill. We know other children that were hospitalized  quite a bit more than Tim was.

To make a long story short, Tim will be turning 21 soon and he is getting married in January. He is in his second year of college and also works pretty much a full time schedule. He is working hard and doing a great job! God's hand has been on his life and I am so thankful .

Tim and Naomi

So I encourage you to look at life a little differently and see what could be a miracle in your life. God cares about every detail of our lives. He can make what seems impossible, possible. He is in the miracle business today. Sometimes our miracles are really big and brings a lot of attention. Other times they are small and we need to pay attention or we might miss them. Let's remember to give God glory for these small miracles as well as the big ones.

 

Birthdays

I am a bit behind on posting about Birthdays around here. Three more birthdays have been celebrated in the last couple of months.

First off is my oldest son Jeremy. He turned 23 years old and I cannot believe it!

I had Toxemia when I was pregnant with him and was induced at 37 weeks. I was on medication that made me miserable. His delivery was a bit difficult for me and I decided that one child was all I needed! That lasted a really long time, didn't it?

The younger children think Jeremy is the Best! They look up to Him! ( Literally because he is 6'3"!) He is currently taking a break from school so he can save up some more money.


Next is Anna. My baby girl is now 8. She is quite the spunky one! I am determined that she could run this country better than anyone else! She can do anything she puts her mind to. She is in third grade and does quite well.

Anna got her ears pierced for her Birthday. She has been really wanting to get that done and since it would be one less thing to have to pick up, I gave in consented. So far, so good. She still wears the original post earrings and we clean them twice a day.



The most recent Birthday was Luke. He is now 6. Luke is in Kindergarten this year. He reminds us so much of his older brother Tim. He looks a lot like him and has a very similar personality. He can be quite charming and a real sweet heart and then he can be a real hard head! He definitely keeps us busy and entertained.



Having 10 children can keep you busy in the Birthday department. Next month we have 4 Birthdays. We usually end up getting a cake for each one, but we have considered having one great big celebration. The older kids can handle this well, but the younger ones still want their own! Oh well, it won't be all that long before they are all older and won't even care.

October 28th marks one year since we said goodbye to Faith. I am not sure what we will do to remember her. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. It just seems impossible that it has almost been a year. I have been remembering a lot recently, about the things we were going through this time last year.I never dreamed one year later I would be blogging about losing her.

It seems as though the next couple of months are going to be quite busy. November we have four Birthdays and Thanksgiving. We are also planning a Wedding shower for my son Tim and his fiance Naomi. Then comes the month of December which is always busy with Christmas preparations. On top of that we will be preparing for Tim and Naomi's Wedding which is January 2nd. Besides all of this, we still have day to day activities that keep us quite busy anyway. I am praying for God to help us to prioritize and for us to remember to keep Him the Center of all that we do.

 

About Us Part 1

My name is Karen and I have been married to my dear husband Mike since 1984. We did not set out to have a lot of children, but little by little, God surely changed our hearts. We were going to have the average 2 children, but possibly stretch that to 4. The plan was that I was going to keep working after having children, but that idea was quickly changed .

Our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 13 weeks in October 1985. We became pregnant again 2 months later with our first child Jeremy, who was born in 1986. Well, that did it for me, I was in love with my new baby and I loved being a Mommy. There was no way I was going to leave this baby with someone else all day. So, that is when I became a stay at home Mommy. We went on to have a few more children and life was busy.

Timothy was born in 1988 and Joshua in 1991. Six months after Joshua was born I unexpectedly became pregnant again. Quite a surprise, but I still was very excited! The doctor could hardly believe that I could be pregnant again so quickly, especially since I was exclusively nursing. However, I miscarried that pregnancy at nine weeks. We decided to go ahead and try again soon after, and the following month I became pregnant again. Rebekah was born in 1993.

June of 1993 was mixed with great joy with the birth of our first daughter and sorrow with the death of my brother Doug 4 days later. To add to our grief, when Rebekah was 15 days old, our son Timothy was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 4 1/2. Needless to say our world was turned up side down.