Anniversary Party

We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this year! I can hardly believe it has been 10 years! It seems like just yesterday. God has blessed us so much in the last 10 years- 6 beautiful children and lots of wonderful family and friends. We decided to celebrate our anniversary by inviting some of those wonderful people over for a Mongolian bbq :) It was a great time of visiting and lots of water fun for the kids. We borrowed a big slide that hooked up to the hose- lots of splashing and laughing.

On a different note, our garden has been fruitful so far this year- LOTS of green beans, some peppers, snap peas, broccoli, and cabbage. The tomatoes are starting to ripen; I think I'll be making some tomato sauce today. I love to eat fresh food from the garden!! We were also able to pick and freeze strawberries and blueberries. The frozen blueberries are a great snack for hot days or great in a yogurt smoothie - mmmmm. I better get out to pick those tomatoes before it gets any warmer- it's supposed to be a HOT HOT HOT day!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!! We enjoyed a great day- worship with the saints, time with family at Mom and Dad McFaddens, cake and presents for our firecracker boy, Isaac, who turned 4 on the 4th, and fireworks with friends at a friend's house. Our girls are away at Camp Grammy BB- a time of fun with cousins and Grammy and Poppy Barcheski. They are having a great time!!! We selfishly look forward to their return in a few days :) We all traveled out to Colorado in the RV a week and a half ago. We had a wonderful time. I really enjoyed visiting with my family and catching up with all of life's happenings. We got to be there for my brother-in-law's deployment party- Kyle is in the Marines and is married to Mary Jo and will be leaving on July 7th. Please pray for him as he is away for 6 months.

A Day Outside

We had a great day today- the kids played outside almost ALL day!!! That makes for some tired, but happy, kids!!! There were many injuries throughout the day- scraped hands, bloody feet, a FAT lip, and a rather large goose-egg on the head. There weren't any scraped knees- I guess they have to leave something for tomorrow. Despite the injuries, everyone soaked in the sunshine and had a blast. Rosy cheeked, filthy dirty kids came in at dinner time. After baths and teeth brusing, all went to bed, and I don't think it has been this quiet this early for a LONG time! Yay for SPRING!!!!

Funny- Isaac says at dinner, "I know what kind of chicken this is.... the hard to chew kind."

Cute- Brianna telling Peyton that she's help him ride Isaac's bike.

The picture was taken at our church Christmas program. The kids said some verses from the book of Luke and sang a song. They did such a great job! This was on December 20th and do you remember what else happened on Dec. 20th? Yes, Lydia made her entry into this world just a few hours after I took this picture. Crazy. But I was sooooo glad I could see the kids in the program. :)

Bread

Today was a full day of making bread (buttermilk and sourdough), school with the kids, and everyday activities (changing diapers, making Lydia laugh, fixing and cleaning up meals, laundry, remembering to slyly suggest a play activity to get a little peace and quiet in the kitchen). The sourdough bread was funny looking when finished. I read somewhere to put cuts in the top of the loaf right before putting the loaf in the oven so that it rises better while it bakes... well I put the slices in the loaf before the last 2 hours of rising... that makes for a funny looking loaf. It still tastes great! Although I must admit that I'm ready to try a new sourdough recipe- any suggestions? The buttermilk bread I made was o-so-yummy! With all the bread making I won't need to bake any for a few days. Nice.

Cute- Brianna watching the Buckeyes with her Daddy.

Funny- Peyton on his training potty reading books with his feet up on a stool. He was lounging- good thing he didn't really "go" cause it would've made a big mess.

The picture was taken last October at a local farm where we went on a hay ride, had cider, and picked apples. I like the picture :)

Back to Blogging

Well, hello blog readers. Life has been busy around here. School, piano lessons, and LOTS of learning going on for me- learning about baking bread, soaking flour and oats, using maple syrup or honey or stevia for sweetening things... I could go on and on. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at how much I've enjoyed learning these health things, even though at certain moments I am very overwhelmed by how many changes we are making and can continue to make. I am most excited about being healthier and feeling healthier!! :)

Lydia is doing very well- she is sooooo sweet and such a good baby!!!! The transition to six little munchkins seems to have gone very well!

I'm very excited to have spring here- winter always seems soooo long here in Ohio. When the temp hits the 50s in early spring, it always feels sooooo warm :) and I'm always sooooo excited to sit in the sun. Such a contrast to sunny California!

My sweet Peyton boy turns two tomorrow - Happy Birthday Peyton!!! He is such a blessing! He loves to be with me in the kitchen each morning as I make breakfast and put away clean dishes. He loves to play with "choo-choos" and trucks/cars and toy animals. His latest favorite activity is riding a little scooter outside; he LOVES being outside.

Pictures of Lydia

Here are some pictures of Lydia. She's such a great baby!! All the kids love on her all the time. Well, except Peyton. When I'm holding her he likes to tell me, "Baby down!" Sometimes he wants to give her a kiss, but most of the time he wants her out of the way so he can have my full attention. Who can blame him?

Lydia Renee

She's here! We're sooooooo incredibly blessed!!!! Lydia Renee was born on Dec. 20th at 9:45pm, weighing 8lbs. 3oz, measuring 20in. She's so precious and we love her so much. Thank You Lord for another blessing!

Oh, and yes, all our babies were born with dark hair and lots of it :)

My Birthday Present

So, it's my birthday. I'm sitting in my livingroom using my wonderful new laptop!!! Thanks so much honey! Wow! Now all I need to do is get the camera software downloaded so it's easy to share pictures with you all. :) And hopefully one day REALLY REALLY soon, I'll be sharing pics of our newest little one, due in 12 days. Please keep us in your prayers- for a healthy baby and mom. :)

In other news, we just enjoyed a nice visit from my Mom and Ken. They were here for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed quite the feast, with leftovers lasting for days and days and days- just like Chad wanted! Yay! We have so much to be thankful for- our precious children, family, friends, Chad staying busy with work! God has been so good to us! The day after Thanksgiving we went and picked out our Christmas tree, cut it down, and brought it home and decorated it. What fun memories!

A Sandbox for Isaac

These pictures were taken a couple months ago, just before we had some family pictures taken. I hope all of you had a nice 4th of July weekend. Isaac is our little firecracker, born early in the morning on the 4th in 2006. We had fun celebrating his birthday. Daddy built him a sandbox for his birthday (of course all the kids are enjoying it). It has been almost nonstop sandbox play since it was finished. You'll love this: Isaac was helping Daddy shovel the sand into the wheelbarrow, to then take it over to the sandbox... Isaac stops and says, "Daddy, I love you." Sooooo sweet. We spent one evening at the local Balloon Glow- there were about 15 hot air balloons lit up. The kids have really enjoyed going to this the past couple of years. And we enjoyed getting together at a friends place for food and fun with lots of friends on the afternoon of the 4th.

Peyton's 1st Birthday

Yes, my little Peyton turned one at the end of March. I can hardly believe it has been a year since God blessed us with our second son. He is such a joy with his precious giggle and sweet personality. I love watching him play outside, climbing on the small play toys and riding the "truck" down the driveway. He LOVES to be outside! Just recently I started putting him in a booster seat at the table instead of in his highchair. He thinks he is SOOO big. And he's getting pretty good at going down the stairs by himself. We tried to get him to go down on his tummy, but he's opted for the scooting-on-the-behind one-step-at-a-time method. It works. And I love watching him eat a banana like a big kid- holding the whole banana in the peel. So cute. He really is such a joy. We are so thankful for him.

The Boys and Lance Armstrong

Isaac loves to be like Daddy. Here he is with his "work shirt" on and his "work pencil" behind his ear, just like Daddy. He's sooooo proud! : )

And Peyton will crawl or climb on just about anything. At just the right height, the dishwasher is fair game, isn't it??? And sister's bunk bed is easy to climb onto and has really fun bars to hang from. The little monkey has way too much fun!

We had a great Father's Day yesterday. We all went to the McFaddens for lunch and had a nice visit with the family, including Grandma and Grandpa McFadden. We don't get to visit with them too often so it was nice to see them. We also got to see Chad's brother's house that he's fixing up~ great job Caleb and Lindsay! Saturday was Chad's sister's bridal shower. It was a great time, with almost 50 people in attendance. It's amazing that she's getting married in just 2 months!!! Congrats Natalie! Some really fun news: Lance Armstrong was in my hometown for a bike race!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly believe it! My parents got to see him~ I'm soooo jealous! (Dad, I need some pictures!!!) And of course he won! How fun would that be to see him race?!?! Please, those of you who were there, you have to tell us what is was like. : )

Elisa's Birthday

Elisa turned four in March!!! We had some family friends over after church the day of her birthday~ fun times with goodie bags, a craft, and cake and ice cream. I normally make a cake for the kids for their birthday, but this time (mostly because I ran out of time) I let her come with me to the store where she got to pick out her own cake. She really enjoyed this and was very excited about her cake. She loved the colors :)





















Elisa is a sweetheart with a great ability to charm and make you laugh all at the same time : ) She loves one-on-one time and will sit on your lap any chance she gets. A couple of her favorite activities are doing puzzles and playing with dolls. Her absolute favorite activity (for now) is helping me with lunch or dinner, even if helping is just sitting on the counter making mommy smile~ she sure does make meal prep more fun!!!

Elisa and Peyton

Ooooooo, don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?!?!?!

And she's such a cutie, don't you think?!?!

Then again, I'm the mom and can't help but see the cuteness!!

Go Buckeyes!!!

Here is Isaac sporting his "football" clothes. Daddy (and Mommy too) is an Ohio State Buckeye fan, so naturally it is fun to have Buckeye attire for Isaac, and naturally all of our children know how to respond when someone says, "O-H!". Yes, the appropriate response is, "I-O!!!" And when one is getting dressed in one's "football" clothes, one must say, "Go Buckeyes!" (Really, we do not brainwash our children.) Now I must say here that our children also know how to cheer for the Cal Bears. "Go Bears!!!" can be heard in the room if a Cal game can be found on our mid-west programming. : ) Much thanks to Poppy Scott for that one! My Ohio-born children still have some CA blood in them : )

Brianna's Birthday

I went and had some pictures copied to a cd!!! hip-hip-hooray! I am not planning to post ALL the pics at once- hehe. A little at a time.

Today's pictures come from Brianna's birthday party. She turned 7 back in February. For her party she had 4 friends over for some craft time and a sleepover. Only 2 friends were able to spend the night, which turned out to be just fine : ) They all had a great time. I can hardly believe Brianna is 7 already. She's grown up so fast. She loves math and science. Part of the homeschool curriculum I'm using has me go through verses in Proverbs with her; I'm always impressed by how quickly she understands the concepts we talk about and the examples she comes up with (some concepts in Proverbs are difficult to explain!). She's enjoyed loving on Peyton recently- she hasn't always been the first to play with the babies, but lately I'll find her helping Peyton with a puzzle or a toy- so sweet. Oh, and she loves to help me in the kitchen. She'll help with just about anything- she'll cut, add ingredients, stir, set the table, think of things I haven't thought of for the dinner table, make sandwiches, etc. She's a great helper. I look forward to seeing her learn and grow more in the months ahead.

A Bridal Shower and Clothes Projects

We had a wonderful weekend! I was able to take the girls to a bridal shower for Chad's cousin. The shower was beautiful and it was really fun to do something girly with my girls : ) Upon returning home, Daddy and Isaac were working in the garden; Isaac was helping Daddy pull weeds. Too cute!!!!

I was able to spend a couple hours working on a project: putting away all the clothes that have accumulated from the kids outgrowing what is in their dressers. The accumulating clothes prompted me to make some decisions about kids' clothes in general. 1. I need not keep so many clothes. This has only created more work than it's worth. I love that the kids have been blessed with so many hand-me-downs, but a girl/boy can only wear so many clothes and we only have so much room. 2. I need a place to put the clothes in transition. Isaac's dresser was becoming the leaning tower of clothes... that just wasn't exciting to look at and was a source of anxiety every time I entered the boys' room. So, there is now a designated bin for such items and once it's full, I must put said items away. This is the plan anyway. Long term, I have visions of being more organized about clothes and season transitions, but one step at a time, right?

And we had a blessed Sunday with wonderful fellowship at church and relaxing time at home. Chad's parents took the four oldest home with them in the evening and we enjoyed a nice bike ride with just Peyton. Peyton enjoyed having Mommy and Daddy all to himself. Which brings me to today and only having Peyton- can you guess what might be on my to-do list??? You guessed it- making a picture cd!

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Back to Blogging

Wow, it's been a while, again, since I've posted. I had a few minutes this morning so I thought I'd post an update.

I had a great visit with my Mom and Ken. They came for a week and we all had a great time! Our activities included shopping (Bri got a new bike!), going to see a kids play (Stellaluna), card playing (so fun for me! I love cards!), evening walks (so fun), LOTS of outdoor playing with the kids (including a picnic at the park), and a breakfast out-to-eat at Bob Evans. I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting. Oh, yes, Chad did lots of gardening! You should see our garden!!! (Maybe someday you will.)

I've had some morning sickness and fatigue that hasn't been so fun. Overall, it wasn't as bad as it could be, so for that I'm thankful. But it's never fun to feel sick. I've felt much better the last couple days :)

I was sooooo incredibly blessed to have coffee and dessert with a group of friends this week. I was encouraged and laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. The group included a couple women who always bless us younger women with godly wisdom. We are so blessed to have their input in our lives. Did I use the word 'blessed' enough? hmmm.

The kids are outside playing with the neighbors; it's a BEAUTIFUL day. The plan is to eat lunch outside and head out for some afternoon shopping.

(If you are wondering about pictures, here's the deal... our computer won't allow me to just download pics from my camera to the computer. I have to have the pics on cd and to get the pics on cd, well, that just takes a trip to the store down the street and an hour (or more) to wait for the pics to download. Hopefully I'll find time, I mean make time, to do this soon so you can see our cute kids and beautiful garden. If I don't get it done soon, you have my permission (not that you needed it) to bother me about it. You know, like, WHERE ARE THE PICTURES???)

Blessings,

Graduation, Soccer, and Ice Cream

We had a wonderful trip to Colorado and Wyoming! We flew into Denver on Thursday evening, enjoyed visiting with family, and the next morning drove 2 1/2 hours to Laramie, WY. My sister Mary Jo graduated from the University of Wyoming - yay Mary Jo! Great job! After the festivities on Friday and Saturday we drove back to Denver for more time with family. We really enjoyed the visit! Besides seeing family, the beauty of Colorado is always fun to see; the mountains always amaze me.

Back in Ohio, Chad and I continue to enjoy playing soccer on Sunday afternoons with our co-ed team. You may remember me mentioning it in an earlier post (ok, so how do I link back to an earlier post???). You may recall that the season is only six weeks, so there's only two games left. I cannot tell you how incredibly fun it is for me to play soccer. I wish I could play more often. Really, it feels like Christmas!!!

The kids are having loads of fun playing outside- trampoline, bikes, sidewalk chalk, planting weeds in plastic containers (ok, some real picked-flowers too), dollies in strollers, helping Daddy plant tomatoes, playing in the dirt, etc. School work continues to get done, but more and more it's hard to not get pulled outside. The weather is just so perfect this time of year. :)

We went to a neighborhood garage sale this afternoon. I am learning. Do NOT pass something up that you'd really like to get because it WON'T be there when you go back for it. ergh. The kids had fun buying little beanie babies with their own money. And Bri found a deal on a pair of toy horses. Boy was I tired when we were done. I need to get better at these things; there are some good deals out there! I'd love to get some tips from the seasoned garage sale folks out there.

The "Moment of the Day" was getting ice cream with all the kids after dinner. We go down to Kelly's - a miniature golf, driving range, dairy bar - and get the kids soft serve. I always enjoy this so much. I think it's just the kid excitement and enjoyment- there's nothing like it.

Blessings,

Ok, so it's been a week or so since my last post. Two reasons...





1. I've been getting ready to go to Colorado (and Wyoming) to see my sister graduate from college. Congratulations Mary Jo!!!! Getting ALL the laundry done so I can then pack all the kids (except Peyton) for Grandma and Poppy's takes, oh, a little bit of time, ok, a lot of time. And then comes packing myself and Peyton. Hopefully Chad will pack himself.

2. Expecting a baby takes a bit out of a person. :) Yes, you heard right, I'm pregnant, and along with that (for me) comes that not-so-fun sick-to-my-stomach feeling and the need for a nap at random times of the day. So, not much time for this newly-found adventure of mine called blogging. And YAY for the baby coming!!!! How awesome is that that God would bless us with another blessing!!! Thank You Lord. We're very excited. You can keep track of how old baby McFadden is with the baby tracker on the bottom right. Today marks 8 weeks. :) Approximate due date: December 17. Now, I must say in regard to the due date that the last two babies have come significantly PAST their due dates. SO, I'm going to TRY to think of the baby coming somewhere between Christmas and New Years. I can see you laughing at me... yes, only God knows when the little one will come. Just humor me, will ya?!


I'm off to finish packing. And yes, that's just a random picture of Isaac. Enjoy the cuteness!

Blessings!

Summer in April

This evening I thought I'd share with you THE "Moment of the Day". (That has a nice ring to it, maybe I'll have to include that in each post.)

Here it is: My wonderful husband was grilling hamburgers, the breeze sending me the wonderful smell of summertime grilling (in APRIL! 85 degrees) while all the other precious children (except sleeping Peyton) were happily riding their bikes up and down the driveway. This was especially fun to watch because of all the 'improvements' with the bikes: Brianna has become more confident riding her bike, Kayla learned to ride without training wheels a day or two ago, and Daddy (did I mention how wonderful he is?) fixed up a free boy bike for Isaac, complete with a new seat and Daddy-cut and Daddy-bent training wheels. Boy is Isaac proud!! And to top it off, Elisa was singing as loud as she could: "The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!!" She sung it over and over and over and they all rode happily until it was time to come in for dinner. So wonderful. Such great times. We are sooooo blessed!!!!