Making Fun of Mom and Such

I don’t know what I’d do without my girls. Seriously. Last weekend was Thanksgiving, but my sister had to work so we decided to change the date so that she could be here. After a weekend away, and then a long weekend, we were a few lessons behind on the school work, house work, groceries, laundry… Yep, just about everything. Then our washer decided to die. Like, sounded as if it were about to explode, sent-little-kids-screaming-and-running-down-the-stairs kind of died. Lily explained to me that it was saying, “Fix me! Fix me!” Sadly, it’s just not worth the price of fixing this time. So, I got up early today and took Eve, Ella, and Addy grocery shopping for our late Thanksgiving dinner. Two stores and a few hundred dollars later we came home to a clean house. Now let me clarify that this is NOT the norm. I have had my fair share of “Mom, so and so is doing such and such!” phone calls. Followed by denial in the background and me threatening to lock them all in their rooms when I get home if they don’t get along and let Scott sleep. (Just kidding about the locking them in their rooms part. Kinda.) But the odd time, they decide to do all of the Thursday chores while I’m out (Thursday is our big clean up day) and surprise me. I like that kind of surprise.

Even if it was only because they wanted me to take them to the library after I got back from shopping for a new washer and dryer with Scott…

Last weekend we were able to get out and do our family pictures for the Christmas card. I don’t want to share many yet, because… well, because I like keeping them a surprise for the card! But I posted this one of my kids on Instagram…

The glare from the sun was so strong that I couldn’t really make out much on my display at the time, but when we got home and I saw Ella… it gave me a good laugh. Apparently she thought that everyone was posing. That same, sweet little Ella told me how much she likes to cuddle with me the other night. In her words, “I love to cuddle on your shoulder. It’s so comfy. It has lots of chub!” As she snuggled in.

Um… thanks?

She really did mean it as a compliment though. Haha!

I have to share one more picture from the shoot. I wouldn’t have even thought to take this, but Keona requested a picture with her Dad.

She loves him. And it doesn’t get much sweeter than watching my husband with his girls.

Ok… one more… I can’t resist!

I decided to do one of Scott with his 7 daughters, but everyone was getting really cold and annoyed. I begged them to co-operate for just a few more frames and Scott cracked some joke about me. NOTHING makes my kids laugh harder than Scott making fun of me for some reason.

It runs in the family…

And then we left and got McDonald’s ice cream on the way home, because everyone wants to eat ice cream when they’re freezing cold!

 

My birthday necklace came in the mail this week! It says each of my babies’ names, and has each of their birthstones. Well, actually it’s currently missing one birthstone, but The Vintage Pearl was great about correcting it and has already mailed it out!

Eve has become my go-to photographer when I’m in a shot. She has been taking Addy’s monthly pics and has shown a real interest in photography.

 

I love that she takes in-between shots. They’re usually my faves…

She’s currently practicing using my camera in manual mode.

Lily was not very co-operative for pictures. She’s not very co-operative for much lately. I put her to bed the other night and she kept insisting that she “doesn’t know how to sleep”…

I told her she may have to go see the doctor and she says, “Noooo! I don’t want to go to the doctor!” Seeing as she’s never had a bad experience, I asked her why not. Her reply, “Because I want to go to the vet!”

She can be sweet too though. (See… Sour Patch Kid) She hugged Scott the other morning and asked if she could sing him a song. He said, “Sure. I love when you sing!” She then proceeded to sing the song “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living…” and then she changed the last line to, “I’ll love you da-ddy!”

Really wish I had that on video.

Well, it’s late and I’m getting up early to finish decorations for Thanksgiving with the girls. Until next week…

Babies, Breakfasts, & Bats

Every single week I tell myself that I’m going to start blogging again, and (obviously) I don’t. Sometimes it’s late and I’d rather have a tea and read a book. Lately, Keona has me reading her teenager books. But yeah, now that I have kids in the house up as late (or later) than me…  I don’t necessarily feel like using my half an hour of alone time to blog. Then I read an old story from when Ella was a baby. Or look at my 365 from when she was a toddler… and it makes me want to blog again. It reminds me that I don’t have to write about something inspiring or ground breaking. Just a journal. And if it happens to make you smile or encourage someone else along the way- great!

Little Addy is going to be 4 months old this weekend. The last four months of pregnancy went so SLOWLY and yet the first 4 months of her life have flown by. She can now roll from tummy to back (she’s a tummy sleeper), she giggles when you poke her belly, she weighs over 12lbs, and she sleeps about 6-7 hours straight every night.

She is a happy baby for the most part. Though that could be because she is always in someone’s arms. She likes her routine. We recently spent the weekend in North Bay and she was absolutely miserable! She missed her crib and didn’t sleep as well in bed with me. She pretty much just punched me over and over again all night long. No crying. No whining. She just hits.

Lily is turning 3 soon. She reminds us that her birthday is next and she wants “a yellow cake, a Tiana, and a Belle!” She says, “willn’t” instead of won’t and spends her mornings playing with her Little People and watching “Super Why”. At least it’s educational. Right? The highlight of her day, is eating Scott’s breakfast with him. Every afternoon when Scott comes downstairs, Charity makes him a breakfast sandwich. And every afternoon Lily asks him to save her some. So he always saves the last quarter of his sandwich for her. It’s pretty cute.

 

She also likes me to “save her some tea.”

 

I am really working on slowing down this year. Being present every day, and not rushing the kids. We’re making time for nature walks during the fall, trips to the library during the school day, art tutorials, sewing lessons, kids helping me grocery shop each week, and cook dinner every night…

It is not always easy for me to go at their pace. My natural urge is to want to get things done quickly and properly. (Confession: I’m a perfectionist!) So letting Ella grate the cheese, or Jeddy help cut up veggies, or Lily roll out pitas… Well, it can try my patience and urge to takeover. However, the more that I do it, and see that it’s ok if dinner is 20 minutes later than planned, or none of the pitas are round, or we didn’t get to science today… because my girls learned how to make another meal, Lily was so proud of helping mom make the pitas, and Jeddy is finally enjoying books… the more I see that it’s a good trade off. A good investment of time.

Almost every time I go out alone with the kids I have someone ask me, “How do you do it?” Or if we talk about homeschooling or my photography, “How do you have time for everything?”

The truth is… I don’t.

 

I wish there were more hours in the day -most days. If we get extra school work done, I didn’t get to spend time with Scott that afternoon. If my business is doing well, the housework is piling up. If we went to the library and park, we’re eating pizza for dinner. If the house is spotless, we probably didn’t spend as much time on our devotions. If the laundry is caught up, I haven’t slept… ha! But seriously… It’s a constant juggling act of priorities. There is never a day when I don’t have to decide what I’m going to sacrifice for something that’s more important at the moment.

I think it’s that way for everyone.

You decide what’s most important to you, and you make time for it.

On a lighter note, I was leaving a store with the kids when a man pulled up beside the van after I had gotten everyone in and motioned for me to roll down the window. He just wanted to ask if they were all my kids… but as he left one of the kids asked, “Why did he do that thing with his hand?” Referring to the “roll down the window” motion. Apparently, my kids have never had to *roll* down a window.

One more quick story for the books… as we were on a walk through a ravine Elijah shouted, “Look! There’s a bat!”

It was still light out and we were in a pretty open area, so I was questioned, “Are you sure it isn’t just a bird?”

Still staring into the trees, he said, “Um.. not unless it’s hanging upside down sleeping!”

I walked over and looked about 10 feet away to see a little black bag stuck in the tree. I laughed and said, “Hun, that’s a bag!”

Not joking at all- he says, “What? But it’s furry!”

I’m thinking that it’s a good thing we have eye appointments booked for next week…

I asked each of the kids to name something that they were thankful for and Elijah said, “I’m thankful that I have at least one brother.”

July Photo-a-Day

 

Another month gone by…

This month has been BUSY! We’ve had birthdays, weddings, finding a new church building, cleaning out bedrooms, cleaning out our basement… We have worked hard. My back aches… and my back never aches. The kids have been such a huge help moving things around. The boys helped me put together three Ikea dressers. Let me just say, I hope that the people who work at Ikea assembling furniture make good money. Because seriously… There were hundreds of pieces and chapters of instructions to put together a simple three drawer dresser. The kids thought it was great though. Their favourite part: When I would just barely start all the little nails to hold the back on and they got to hammer them in. Prayer hit almost every single one sideways. The boys were pretty good at it. Ella… Ella is a beast. One shot for every nail. It brought back memories of when I was a kid and my Grandpa would take twice as long to put something together just so that I could help him. Fun memories…

We were playing Catan, and Scott and Prayer were driving me INSANE with their fake accents! Prayer was speaking in her Irish accent and Scott says, “Wow- You’re pretty good at that!”

To which Prayer replies, “Want to know where I learned it? From a Mandie book that I read! The entire story takes place in Ireland.”

That’s right. She picked up an accent from reading a book…

Speaking of accents… One more quick story! And yes, the triplets are crazy, loud, sometimes obnoxious, and most of the time hilarious.

Charity and I were out grocery shopping and she was talking in her English accent. Not quietly, but loud enough for everyone around to hear her. I kept asking her to stop, but she was making me laugh so hard that she knew I wasn’t serious. I threatened to kick her in the behind to no avail. When we were near people, she got louder. Apparently it’s super fun to embarrass Mom. So we get to the checkout and she is blabbering away in her accent and everyone in front of us and behind is looking at her. Meanwhile, she is convinced that everyone must think she is actually from England. I decided to have some fun… I picked up the giant box of diapers that we were buying and as I put them on the conveyor belt I said, “Charity, when are you going to stop wetting the bed!?” Nice and loud.

Her jaw dropped as she stared at me, and then she burst out laughing, “Now everyone’s going to think those diapers are for me, Mommy!” In her best English accent… It didn’t work quite as well as I had planned.

“cry… cry.. Cry. CRY! CRY!”

Written by Scott AKA Dad... :)

 

A triplet is losing. They don’t lose well. Yet, I think they lose better than they win…

“YES! OWNAGE!!” – Eve Polhamus

It’s genetic.

Lately we have picked up this game where we all have an equal chance of winning and the girls seem to really enjoy the challenge of playing with Mom and Dad. Settlers of Catan is probably the best board game fun we’ve had together in a long time if ever. Sadly, (or gently hilarious) the girls are evil to each other.

“If you don’t trade with me I will just knight you.” – Keona Polhamus

They will lose just to wreck the plans of their sister to frustrate her to tears. Today Charity was the one who cried… or was it Prayer? It may have been both. If you want to make one cry, simply see where they are plotting to build, go there, smile at them, and watch the fire burn. First it’s a “whhyyyyy”, then it’s a “noooo” then it’s a “SLAM!” as they smash their hand on the table, and finally, the face goes into the hands and everyone laughs at the misfortune. Then comes the “cry” chant. Priceless. If we were primates in the jungle, one of them would have pushed another out of a tree by now. Thankfully, we are a very forgiving family.

Meanwhile, the little kids playing on my PS3 in the other room, not so forgiving. “ElijAHHH!!!” Ella screams and Elijah hisses out his signature sinister laugh. “I’m telling Mom…. Mom! Elijah is killin me on purpose.” Co-op kids games… the person who came up with that idea had one kid… I better step in before someone throws a 50$ controller at somebody else.

Sure, yup, we may be just a tad competitive when it comes to our “family fun” time, but it’s been so great to see our kids mature into little people. Their tendencies and personalities excite me; each one having a different soul, with different likes and dreams and purpose. Yet all are so much a like, and so much in harmony. Our house is pretty funny at times. Today I think we could have won ten grand on AFV several times with just Prayer alone. If I’m bored, I just give the triplets sugar, and then watch the room erupt.

Prayer came into the living room this afternoon while someone was practicing the piano (which never stops… #earplugs) and she just starts a wiggling. Jac and I both gave her a crooked look and then out of nowhere she starts doing some crazy victory dance she saw on a game show.. and that to this classical music. Jac just started heaving in laughter. Sometimes I really do wonder if these children have a chemically induced mental instability. It just goes off. Like a kitten that sees a laser pointer light, triplets start a riot. I’m not complaining, just kinda… venting? … informing? … better yet – forewarning. If you come here, you may not be impressed, but it will leave an impression.

Eve was practicing some really nice music on the piano the other day, so I complimented her on how lovely it was and thanked her for playing. Prayer pipes up, “Oh if you like that one you will love this one…” followed by a chuckle, and a crazy grin, and Prayer sitting down to the piano. She then, from memory, played some freaky classical piece that, had it not been so funny, would have given me nightmares.

“What did you think?” She asked, as my eyebrows were still raised and I began to search for an exit.
”Um… I’m pretty sure that’s gonna give me nightmares… thanks for that.”

“No problem!”

 

The girl is destined for something… odd. Not quite sure what yet.

Some of these kids have taken quite a liking to our Toronto Blue Jays. We have a pretty healthy split down the middle as to who will watch.

Lily is trying to say everything. Even if she can’t say something, if you tell her to say it she will try and then just mumble out some craziness. Her hair is… enviable. It’s beautiful and insane and fun. Sometimes I just mess it up and frizz it up for fun. Then I watch as this giant head of hair with legs goes running through the house. I could snuggle her all day long, that is, if she could stay still for 30 seconds, which she cannot.

Is it just me, or does she resemble Richard Simmons here? -Jac

Tonight we took our black Clifford dog to the field nearby and let him run back and forth between Jac and I. I’m not sure if I have ever seen an animal move that quickly. Justus was running at me so fast that I thought for sure he would run right through me. Earlier, Charity, Eve and I had been playing catch in the back yard with a softball and the dog took it. I got sick of chasing him so I linebacker tackled him and pinned him while one of the kids grabbed the ball out of his gator sized mouth and ran with it. Needless to say, I am not fast enough to catch this dog. He is a lot of fun, and has a lot of spunk in short spurts. The rest of the time he just hogs the couch and sleeps on his back with his feet straight up in the air.

Tonight Jac and I went out for dinner and a sunset. It’s been too long since we did that. She is the love of my life, and my favourite person to be with. In fact, as I write this she is snoring beside me. I think I might join her.

Phonograms, Birthdays, and a Runaway Dog

I have missed blogging! There are so many little stories that I will forget because I haven’t written them down. So many things the kids have said…

Like Prayer declaring that she was “sweating like a hotdog in the desert!”

Or Ella practicing her phonograms…

Sa, like ‘sat’.

Se, like ‘set’.

So, like ‘sock’.

Su, like ‘wasup’.”

I blame her father for that one.

Ella’s turn to add the star.

Lily now says, “Dum” (some) when she wants us to share food. “Lub ooo!” (Love you) “Mum! Mum!” As soon as I walk in the room.

12 months

Her sisters have taught her to go up and down the stairs. It’s quite hilarious to watch her crawl backwards while trying to find the top of the steps with her toes!

Keona taught her to feed herself. It keeps her busy and happy, but it’s incredibly messy…

 

Did I mention that Lily turned 1? Cause she did!

It was also my little brother’s 13th birthday! My little brother who just passed me in height…

The cake may have been a tad bit sweet for her fruit, veggie, and grain taste buds…

The kids decorated the tree! I did nothing this year. And other than the 6 candy canes in a row across the bottom branch (courtesy of Ella) they did a really good job! As they said the next morning, “Mom, you didn’t even redecorate it!” :)

The dog has grown.

A lot.

 

He ran out the front door the other day and jumped on a neighbour’s kid. I shouted at him and called him back. He ran the opposite way. I apologized to the father, who seemed to find it funny, and then proceeded to try and catch my 75lb puppy. He eventually came over to me and walked back home. We’ve been doing some serious training since that little incident.

 

I cut my bangs! Not so exciting, I know. I wanted to do something new with my hair, but I settled with dying it black to hide all the white and cutting my bangs because I’m too chicken to cut my hair. This is the longest it has been since I was… 10?

Gotta love iPhone self-portraits!

I’m incredibly excited about a new type of photoshoot I’ll be offering in the new year! I have my first official “Birth Photo Session” scheduled as soon as momma-to-be goes into labour! I’ll be portfolio building for a bit, so if you or someone you know wants their baby’s birth documented- contact me!

 

The kids are done school until next year! I would post the picture of Keona’s “happy dance”, but I can’t force myself to do it. I made her promise me that she’d never try to dance in public again… haha!

Begging his sisters for icing, or cake batter, or something like that!

I am enjoying my kids. Sure they drive me to the brink of insanity some days… but I love them to death. I wouldn’t trade these days at home with them for anything. Did I ever blog about the time that I had told the kids to be quiet while I was making a few phone calls? I was trying to leave a message for our dentist when a full-out brawl broke out right beside me. I finished my message, set down my phone, and proceeded to tell the kids off for being so inconsiderate. (Forget the fact that they were on the floor wrestling- I was trying to make a phone call!) Anyhow, after telling them off correcting them loudly, I picked my phone back up, only to realize that I had never hung up. Must have made for an interesting message.

 

Anyhow, December has been a great month with the kids so far. God is so good to us! I’ll share about our “advent calendar” in the next post! :)

Oh, did I mention that Scott was writing something the other day with a pen (!) when he admitted to looking back at a word, expecting to see a red squiggly line underneath it, and thought, “Oh, I spelled it right!” You know you’re using your iPad too much when… :P

Wouldn’t be a complete post without poking fun at Scott!

Love ya, hun!

10 months, 4 months, and a grand opening service…

 

Is that not the most creative title in history?

Anyhow…

Lily has passed the 10 month mark.

(Excuse her sloppy clothes in the 10 month pic. I may have been behind by, oh… about 10 baskets in laundry.)

I think she may have gotten chubbier…

The fact that she eats anything and everything may have something to do with it. I am constantly stopping her siblings from sharing whatever it is they have with her. If she sees you eating, she’ll come stand up beside you and say,

“Ta. Ta? Ta. Ta? Ta! Ta!!! TAAAAA!!! Ta?”

On repeat.

Until you give her something.

Tonight, she really wanted my cell phone. I use to let her play with it. That is until she found it more amusing to throw my phone and watch it bounce that it was to listen to Veggie Tales on it… So when I told her no- the little diva yelled and then hit the table and proceeded to lie on the floor face down and cry. We may have another strong-will here…

Hoping those new chompers coming in up top have something to do with the attitude.

She sits in a squatting position all the time now and I’m sure it’s only a matter of days before she realizes that she can balance well enough to stand unassisted. She dances (bounces) to her toy bus music now. She says, “Dada, ta (please), waza? (what’s that?), momma (only when crying) and isses (kisses) along with a whole lot of baby babbling! It’s no surprise that she is a talker. She is a Polhamus girl after all…

We got into another discussion about skin colour with Ella recently.

Scott: That’s cause you’re white, Ella. (seeing what she’d say)

Ella: I am NOT white!

Scott: Ummm… ok. What colour are you then?

Ella: I’m brown. YOU are white. (Very matter-of-factly)

Scott called her over and put their arms beside eachother and said, “Who’s more white?”

Ella: Da-ad…

Hahaha…. she still insists that she wants to be “black.”

Prayer decided to get up early and take Lily for me one morning. She also decided that they were going to be twins for the day.

Here’s a shot so that you can kinda see the size of Justus now. He just turned 16 weeks old. He’s over 50lbs and he’s grown 8 inches sine we brought him home!

Justus and Lily are getting along a lot better now. He doesn’t run her over any more, or try to lick her face and knock her over in the process. He usually leaves her toys alone too. Unless we leave him in the room when she’s not there. She has learned to swat at him when he gets too close and she’s quick to snatch up her toys when he’s sniffing around.

He has stopped biting us. Which is really nice! We’re still working on getting him to walk on a leash nicely. He dragged Keona back from the mailbox today. Oh, and he still tries to chase and corner the cats every chance he gets.

He has mastered: sit, stay, paw, come, drop it, and jump commands. Teaching him to “jump” may not have been my brightest idea. He jumps up and puts his front paws in my hands. He thought Ella had a treat and jumped up on her… only he punched her in both shoulders and sent her flying backwards. As soon as she fell he started licking her as if he was apologizing. I’m now getting him to sit in a specific place before we do the jump thing.

The kids love to play hide and seek with him! We tell him to “Sit & stay” in the living room and then we run and go hide some where. Then they yell the release command- “Ok!” and he runs around the house looking for them. It’s hilarious to watch!

My older girls have been such a help to me lately. Eve is the back up church pianist right now. The girls have been playing their instruments at church. They’ve been helping with the nursery. With setup. They have helped out with whatever we’ve needed at the time. It’s such a privilege to be able to serve the Lord as a family. Oh, did I mention that we had our Grand Opening service for Hope Baptist Church? Check out the blog post about it here. I will probably end up posting the same thing on our family blog for archival sake.

A huge thank you to all of our family and friends who came to support us. It was such a huge blessing to see so many of you there. It encouraged us more than you know. And a special thanks to Joy for coming all the way out and taking these pictures for us.

There have been so many things on my mind lately that just aren’t “blog material.” Not that we’ve been busy at all! Please keep us in your prayers. We’ve experienced God’s grace so many times this past year- we are truly just depending on Him to work in hearts and lives while we do our best to serve Him.

The Last 6 Weeks…

Where have the last 6 weeks gone???

 

Since last blogging we’ve been to:

Niagara Falls, North Bay, Gravenhurst, Brampton, Mississauga, Guelph and I know that I’m missing some others.

We had dress-up tea parties with friends…

We bought hats in Niagara falls…

We fed the Lorikeets at Bird Kingdom…

I painted a canvas with my sister…

We have started a brand-spanking new school year! I have a grade 8; three in grade 6; a grade 5; a grade 1; and a kindergartner! Ella is loving the whole school thing. She will do just about anything for a princess sticker! :)

She still prefers to draw all day long!

(Guess who’s in the middle!)

The kids have sang. I’ve played piano. Scott has preached. God’s been faithful.

Lily tried her first lemon…

The kids have gone horseback riding…

…and fishing.

We’ve updated the church website. Check it out and let us know what you think!

The girls spent a week at camp.

They sang and Keona ended up on crutches. She is my daughter.

Lily got her first cold and lost her voice.

We have battled milk allergies and asthma.

We have forgotten diaper bags at churches and displays at the side of roads.

We have been to over 16 churches. Every single one has been Ella’s favourite!

We enjoyed camp fires in pyjamas…

Jeddy turned 6!

(He asked Grandma for a frog ;)

We have seen God answer prayers in amazing ways. The other morning during devotions, Jeddy prayed for a rainbow. I have no idea why! That night, there was the most vibrant rainbow I’ve seen in a long time right outside our window as he headed up to bed. I went to take a picture a few minutes later but it was already gone. Jed knows that God loves him and hears even the smallest requests.

We’ve seen kids fight in the van. In fact, Ella was yelling at Jeddy and then we heard him start crying. When we asked her what she did, she said, “I poked him in the eye…”

When we finished hiding the laughter that came out of sheer shock, we asked her why…

“Cause he was ‘noyin me!”

Ah… well, by all means, go ahead and poke him in the eye then.

Traveling in a van with 10 people isn’t always as peaceful as it sounds.

Oh wait… it never sounded peaceful, did it?

Anyhow, we do love each other… Honest!

See?

Jeddy lost his first two teeth and Lily got her first two teeth.

We ordered 40,000 door hangers, 5,000 tracts, plus hundreds of envelopes, visitor cards, and pens for Hope Baptist Church.

(part of the door hanger)

We made new friends. We visited and enjoyed time with old friends.

We got a DOG. Um, yes… We got a puppy! Though he doesn’t look like much of a puppy anymore. :)

Meet “Justus”

He’s our 11 week old (in this picture)- now 13 week old, Great Dane.

He was 16” at the shoulder and 31lbs when we got him. Two weeks later, he’s 21” at the shoulder and 38lbs. They say that he’ll be 100+lbs by Christmas time. We’re doing all the training we can fit in while he’s still moveable!

The kids adore him.

He adores yogurt. In fact, he refuses to eat his food unless we smear it with natural yogurt first. He’s kinda like a really spoiled 2 year old boy- with way too much energy!

We’ve been busy. To say the least.

I’ve snapped at kids when they didn’t deserve it. Scott and I have taken frustrations out on each other… but we’ve had a lot of fun. We’ve made a lot of memories this summer.

Keona said to me the other day while we were folding laundry together, “Mom, I hope I find someone that I love as much as you love Dad one day…”

Which meant a lot to me. She sees us all the time. The good, the bad, and the ugly. She has seen us fight over the silliest things because we’re stressed out. But she has also seen us make each other laugh, joke when we’re tired, work together to get things done, pray together when there is nothing else that we can do… she has watched us be best friends through life.

Without getting all sappy…

I’m thankful for our very crazy- but “once in a lifetime” summer. One that we, as a family, will definitely never forget.