We received our latest miracle after a successful tubal reversal and are overwhelmed with blessings. Our story is not perfect, but it is one of love and living for the Kingdom of Heaven. Follow the Maxwell's as I talk about life with 6 people in 1500sqft, baby food making, cloth diapering and surviving life with four kids under 7.
The boys share a room and both agreed to have their room the OU room. it has taken me quite a while to put this together and I am STILL not finished but its looking so great I wanted to do a room post for them. I did Riley's a while back and to be honest that was easy because her room is always in perfect condition. She rarely leaves a toy out of place and NEVER leaves clothes on the floor. I really hope this carries on with her because I LOVE IT! The boys on the other hand are completely opposite. They couldn't care less what their room looks like, in fact I am sure they think I am the one messing it up when I put things where they belong. Nevertheless I have managed to put some touches on it that I think they will enjoy and I KNOW my husband enjoys!
In a few months when we save up we are building these, but until then our boys share a bed and are quite happy. Here is THE room!
*sorry the pictures are all over the place, I don't have the time or the patients to mess with it ;)
A Picture from the National Championship win, if you squint
you can see Ryan ;)
Cameron's desk is to the right, with his
computer...yes he has one, no we did
not pay for it, it's a perk of Ryan's job.
The shelf is painted the official
OU colors and houses all of Cameron's
trophies
The boys bed, they sleep together on top
underneath is where the toys are
Cameron Paul Maxwell
Official OU colors that match the
Mural and shelf
Bradford Joel Maxwell
A closer look at the toys and organization
The letters above the bed, I am looking for the right bedspread
The mural - Complete
Because he is cute....Bradford playing
The mural in relation to the door
OU corner, the paddle on top is from Ryan's RUF/NEK days
In case you are wondering here is a step by step of the mural and pictures to show the progress.
I painted the mural myself using a projector hooked up to a laptop. We found the image we wanted and I traced it onto the wall with a pencil. The "sooner's" script was found online and Ryan downloaded the font, typed the word and we projected it onto the wall as well. Then I took a tiny paint brush and started painting.
There are few things more terrifying than sitting in your office (with BIG giant windows) typing away and out of the corner of your eye BAM! A flipping bird hitting your the window inches from your head. I swear its the funniest/scariest thing ever. I am now always on my guard while typing because birds slam our windows on average 3 times a day. I really need a wind chime out side so I don't actually have a heart attack. Why are birds so stupid?
I finally finished our cruise video, it's a little long but I had to fit all the memories in.
We had a fantastic July Fourth holiday. Ryan was off work, Cameron won 5 tickets to an FC Dallas game so we all headed out to Frisco to enjoy the festival and game. Before we went to the game we stopped by my mom's to take some pictures.
Our family of six
Four babies
This guy...
is so
wonderful
it was super hot!
Daddy loves babywearing
The last three shots were from dinner, there we lots of "fair" type food booths outside at the festival but we thought it would be better if we went inside and ate before we went back outside in the hear to watch the soccer game. We ended up waiting 50 minutes from the time we ordered our food until we received our food! It was getting a tad ridiculous however our kids were awesome and there were not any meltdowns from them....just me! They did give us our entire meal for free so we were pretty happy about that even though we missed kickoff.
The game was so much fun, thanks to Cameron who won the tickets in the spring. I am so glad he convinced me to let him enter the drawing! The fireworks show was about 100 yards from us and booming right over our heads, I am not one to take a ton of fireworks pictures, in fact I didn't get my camera out at all at the game. Poor little Bradford has some audio processing issues and did not enjoy the night so much, I think next time he would rather stay home. We got the kids into bed just after midnight and they actually slept till 9!!!
I feel so alone sometimes in my thoughts. Caught between wanting to be "cool" and wanting to Follow Him, without distractions. Without hesitation. Am I better than anyone, absolutely not. Does it come off that way when I don't agree with things "of this world"? As much as I hate to admit, I imagine it does. But I am certainly not, better, by any means. I have my faults. I am fearful of things (irrationally), which tells you that I struggle with fully trusting the Lord. I am an absolute recluse when it comes to confrontation, I will avoid it with everything I have. I have a short fuse with my kids sometimes. I am terrible with money. Where am I going with this? I just want my kids to one day read this and know that in the midst of chaos their mother stood for something and that means standing against somethings.
1. I am 100% against abortion AND the death penalty. I don't see how you can be for one and not the other. If there are people out there that have had an abortion this DOES NOT mean I am against you or think you are going to hell. I do not think that whatsoever. I will pray for healing and I will not judge, it is not my job.
2. I have not read 50 shades of grey, I will not. I actually had it in my possession for a while but every time I looked at it I just felt sick about reading it. I wonder if my children will even know what 50 shades of grey is....I hope not. If you have read this it does not mean we can't be friends anymore....it just means I won't read it....or go see the movie ;) (I feel SO alone in this one, it seems NO one is standing with me)
3. I will not see Magic Mike....a movie about male strippers. As silly as it may seem I just won't.
4. We are withholding some vaccines from our kids. We have done the research and this was not an overnight decision....it took us almost 5 years to make it. This does not mean my kid will give you polio.
1. You would not believe how many "drafts" I have in my blog thingy, some about parenting, friends, a day in our life.....it goes on. I don't even know where I have been most days. But today I sit and I write......hoping to get over this gigantic writers block I have gotten my self into. honestly I am not even looking at the computer, I am currently staring out my back window into our backyard where not a child plays because we have a major ant and mosquito problem. So basically the past few months we have been wrapping up school, traveling, planning, and living our summer.
A little look at our big kids at the beach
2. Somehow I have gotten myself into a mess with "the worlds clingiest baby" This poor kid only wants me. If he only knew how low his standards are HA! We are working on sleeping through the night and not crying when Daddy tries to make him laugh. The harder Ryan tries the harder he cries. This kid is loaded with cuteness but man he's all about me right now. I suppose making it over the six month mark with breastfeeding has something to do with it. I have never made it this far with a nursing kid before so I am very proud of myself.
3. We had a nice Father's day. I have really sort of dropped the ball in the past when it comes to Ryan's gifts, so this year we did it up right and I made a "video card" to tell Daddy how much we love and appreciate him, and that his gift is he gets to go SKYDIVING!
4. We are making decisions about our kids and whats best for how we raise them and while this is rather coy I just can't talk about it but I will ask for prayers for God's will.
5. I am getting lots of questions about our vacation and I am working on a video along with do's and don'ts for cruising with kids. I will get it up soon, we took 400 something pictures and videos so its quite a job, and pro-bono at that.
6. Well what do you ya know, I made it to bedtime! Another summer day down and it was a good one at that! Time to get these kids to bed.
While I didn't actually particicpate in the Great Cloth Diaper Change I changed quite a few cloth over the weekend so I was there in spirit!
I have been cloth diapering for about a year. I started a little late with Bradford and then when Elijah was born I started at 3 months. It's funny I don't consider myself a "cloth diaper"er" if people ask me then I let them know how easy it is and why we chose it but I don't think its for everyone. Most days I wonder if its for me even. The truth is I actually enjoy cloth diapering. Which to me sounds incredibly strange. I certainly never imagined myself using cloth on the road. So when we went to Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago I went for it. Now I didn't "truly cloth diaper" I guess you could say I cheated a bit and used disposable yet biodegradable and all natural inserts. I must say it was WAY easier than I thought. We have a few "hybrid" diapers like these
Hybrid diapers are diapers where you can use a cloth insert OR a disposable insert
Disposable inserts
Even Ryan commented on how easy it was using the disposable inserts and they seemed to absorb very well and quite a bit. They NEVER leaked too! Diapers.com is where I bought most of my diapers and I gotta say cloth on the road was very succesful, we'll see how it goes on the cruise and if I actually can convince myself that I am a cloth momma!
Well I had a headache stricken little boy and we went out of town for a week (weak excuses I KNOW) but Tuesday I finally got back to the gym. I swear the odds were against me. I got in the car and hubs had forgot to get gas so that had me rushing not to miss my appointment. *at my gym you have to have an appointment for infants. When I got to the gym I picked up Elijah and discovered he had pooped and leaked all over his seat. FUN changing a cloth diaper in the car with out a wetbag uh. I didn't think I had a clean outfit but I found one under the seat.....it was clean, score! When you have three kids your are taking to the gym it can take up to 20minutes to get in the door and get everyone checked in take them all potty and make sure the universe lines up just right so that I can run upstairs workout out and on a lucky day get a shower AND dry my hair in 2 hrs.
I finally made it upstairs to the treadmill and started back on week three. I was supposed to start week four but since it had been a week since I worked out I decided to go back to weak 3. I flipping rocked it, if I do say so myself. I am down four pounds since I started and I swear it's making things easier. I actually ran a mile during my workout. I went rouge on the c25K app and decided to push myself and see how far I could actually run. Well one lap turned into two, then three, then four!!! It felt good, about as good as it did in high school where we had to run it in under 7min. For me having gone through everything I have and putting my body through baby making for almost 6 years straight it felt amazing to run for a mile! The rest of the day I wanted to sleep but obviusly that wasn't going to happen so I pushed through....we will see how today (wednesday) goes....wish me luck!
Update! Wednesday rocked and so did today (thursday) I am now down 5lbs! ONLY 45 to go ;)
Thanks for all of the encouragement and well wishes it REALLY is motivating me!
