Easter Pictures

Our first family photo with all seven of us. We're a pretty handsome bunch.
Flower Baby
The Rollins Men
They played a little football
Emily was having a very photogenic day. Aren't they beauitful!

Lonely Friday Night

It's only lonely because it's been so long since I've been alone that I don't know what to do. I'm sure there's a long list of things I've been wanting to do if I had a minute or two, but now I can't think of anything.

Emily is at a slumber party (which I already crashed on my way to Wal-Mart), Lily and Nolan are at Papa and Grandma's house for a sleepover, and Paul and Adam are camping out at our shop property. Ruby is with me, but she sleeps so much that I'm pretty much alone. We stopped by the shop after our trip to Wal-Mart to check out the campfire and Ruby loved it even though she's only six weeks old. She was cooing and smiling. She's going to be a camper for sure.

I think I'll catch up on some reading and go to sleep. Surely that was on my list. I might like being alone.

Super Reader

Yes, the sunglasses are upside-down
He wanted to show all of you his car book

Ruby's Bottom Is On The Mend

Thank You Aunt Faye for my beautiful quilt!


For all of you who are curious, Ruby's extreme diaper rash is healing up. She had an allergic reaction to disposable diapers. Keeping her in the cloth diapers helped, but she is always so wet. I have ordered some really neat cloth diapers that have a waterproof outer-layer and wick the moisture away from her skin. www.bumgenius.com (product placement) I think this will be what we need to get it all the way healed up. Plus, it will be a little easier for me. We just have to wait until they get shipped here which should be Monday. I have also been using Eden Salve from the bulk herb store thanks to Jennifer for reminding me of it. I oftentimes need my friends to tell me what I already know because I get too wrapped up in my problem to figure out the solution.

Other than that, we are just getting ready to start schoolwork again. Emily finished 2nd grade the day before I went to the hospital to have Ruby, so we've been taking our summer break. This week has been full of placement tests. She did quite well so we will be starting mid-way through 3rd grade in math and language arts. There was so much of it that she just figured out for herself. No one taught her how to multiply, she just knew it. She gets very disinterested if she's not learning something new each day, so there's no use wasting time on review work if we don't have to and boring her which will just frustrate me. We will start Bible and Social Studies at the beginning of third grade and we will wait to buy the Science curriculum at the Homeschool conference. I really want to get the Answers In Genesis stuff for science. Paul and I are interested in learning from it, too. For handwriting, I'm having her write the verses she memorizes for AWANA, so she practices both at the same time. She also taught herself cursive just by looking at the letters and I just had to show her how to hook some of them together. Nolan and Lily are just busy with painting, play dough, cutting with scissors, rhyming and letter recognition. Lily told me she wants to read so I better hop on it while she is interested.

We are also trying to plan our next trip to Texas. I like to take each baby by the time they are 12 weeks old to get them used to traveling. It's great that I finally have a baby that doesn't mind sleeping in a car seat. My others were all tummy babies and acted like the car seat had needles in it. Mother's Day is what we are planning for. Paul needs some time off, too. We're headed outside now to take advantage of the beautiful weather.

Lily the Laundry Girl and Sleepy Ruby

It is so nice to have good helpers. It's Lily's job to sort the dirty clothes, put them in the washer and she and Nolan both switch them from the washer to the dryer. All I have to do is put in the detergent and fold the clothes when they're done (and supervise, of course). She can even reach up and start the dryer. Notice she's holding her babies while she gets her housework done.
The other day Lily said "Mommy, can I hold the baby after you get done milking her?"
I set Ruby down for just a minute on my bed while I went to wash a load of diapers (I do those myself) and came back to find her sleeping. She could sleep anywhere. All those smiles she was giving me must have tuckered her out.
Nolan wanted me to take a picture of him in his favorite pajamas.

They Grow Up Way Too Fast

Ruby turns 4 weeks old today. Yesterday she rolled herself over. I was taking pictures of her on her tummy and she pushed up on her knee and rolled over. I was so hoping I could just enjoy this one being little, but she's already growing at lightspeed.
I am now doing something that I never thought I would do. CLOTH DIAPERING. I didn't really set out to do this (hello, I'm already doing laundry for SEVEN people), but it looks like we're going to for now. She has had a terrible diaper rash and I believe that it is caused by the chemicals in the disposable diapers. I tried every all-natural thing I could thnk of to get rid of the rash, but it just got worse. Not even coconut oil could kill it. So we're going completely all-natural and it seems to be helping. I'm having some problems though and ending up with everything all wet including myself. I thought I knew everything by the fourth time around, but now I'm learning something new.
Well, we're off to the shop for a Saturday Shop Day. The kids really do enjoy sweeping up sawdust and making a mess of it and sweeping it up again.