Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Ready for Anything!

Grif eating like a big boy!
Mmmmmmmaxim!
Alex looking less than impressed.
Emerson looks like a big boy with his hair cut!
Is this kid gorgeous or what?
My big boy showing off his new glasses.
and than, his new Transformers costume!
mmmmm...carrots!
This is what happens when Emerson finds the bag of chips I left on the counter!
That's right...you spill it, you clean it! Child labor laws do not apply in my house!

Ready for Anything!

Now that we are feeling better our life is finally returning to normal. We spent the last week getting the children physicals and catching up on other doctors appointments. Not only did I need to make sure my children where over their recent illnesses but I realized with the busy summer we had, we completely forgot about yearly physicals. For the first time ever I decided to split the children up and only bring them one by one to the doctors. This is so we keep everyone straight. It's hard for me to take 3 children at a time by myself anywhere let alone hold them and let the doctor examine them, not to mention comforting them after shots. Most of my friends and family know I am not a huge advocate of childhood vaccinations. I think immunities came from actually contracting childhood diseases. I mean, I didn't die from the chicken pox! My mother contracted mumps and measles and went on to have four amazing children(good job, mom). I am very selective about the shots my children receive. In fact I opt out of several mandatory shots. I only allow my children to receive the ones that are absolutely necessary and they NEVER receive more than two shots in a sitting! This is a a well thought out and researched decision that my husband and I have come to. We do not in any way advocate that other parents refuse to immunize. So please don't think that is our motivation or agenda.
We have been having several repairs done to our house lately. It seems the lightening that struck our home in August did some major damage to our roof, chimney and electrical system in our house. This is frustrating. I cringe when I need to flip on a light and it flickers. It's unbelievable how powerful that one bolt of lightning was and what an enormous amount of damage it did.

Since we purchase our home in 2007 our family has grown considerably. We actually found out we where pregnant the day we put our first bid on the property. In no way did we imagine that we had three little bundles of joy on the way let alone a fourth to follow just 16 months after! Now here we are less than 3 years later and we have seriously outgrown our home. We have children and their paraphernalia EVERYWHERE! We have begun looking to the future. Eventually these 5 little men that we have been so blessed with will be 5 teenagers. This house in it's current state will not be enough to sustain our growing brood. We are weighing all options including selling, buying a preexisting home in another suburb, adding an addition or building a brand new home. It's frustrating the thought of packing and moving with 5 little ones but we are just seeing what's out there before we make any haste decisions. If I had it my way we would build elsewhere. But we love the neighborhood and school district where we are. We have commissioned an architect to draw up plans for an addition but with the current economy we may be better off just moving to a new neighborhood and starting fresh. We will see what happens. I have been praying that God will lead us in the best direction for our family. We are the Stinners 7 strong and we will be fine no matter where this new adventure takes us, we are ready for ANYTHING!