New pictures

When Han was just a baby, I started taking him to get his picture taken at the studio. We were very poor, but these pictures were so important to me. I always had a coupon, and bought the cheapest package I could. I have kept this up with all the kids. One year we just couldn't afford it, and I still regret no pictures from that year! Since we homeschool and don't have school pictures taken, I get all the kids pictures taken around their birthdays. That means summer is a big rush with 5 birthdays, and then Luke's pictures get taken with the Christmas pictures. I truly love these pictures and can't wait to get them back. I took the three youngest in recently, and here are a few of their pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

Allowances and Kids

Missy over at It's Almost Naptime!, one of my favorite blogs, asked the question about how families handle allowances.

Now this is not to say that we have it all figured out, but I mostly wanted to write about the banks that we use with our kids. It is called My Giving Bank and was developed by Larry Burkett. The bank is divided into three different parts with pictures of a bank, a church, and a store, making it easy for small children to see which bank they are putting their money into.

We pay our children an allowance because they are part of our family. They have chores to do for being part of our family, but they aren't tied to the allowance. The children can earn extra money for projects and chores outside of their normal chores, but only if it is spelled out beforehand. We don't pay them for all help with projects, either. My husband and I talk about what things we need done, and sometimes the kids just help with projects because they are part of our family and sometimes they have opportunities to earn extra money with projects.

We have found that if we pay them for chores, if we ask them to do anything extra, they will ask what they get paid to do it. We wanted our kids to help around the house simply because they were asked, not because we were paying them to help.

We start out using the Giving Banks when they are around 2 years old. They give 10% to the Lord first thing, save 25%, and the rest goes in their bank. We have also found that if you pay them too little, it takes them too long to have any money to learn to manage. And if you pay them too much, they have no desire to work extra and learn the value of earning something that they worked for. Every family will have to work out the amount for their individual circumstances.


We want to help our children to learn to give joyfully to the Lord, save for the future, and manage their money within their budget. And let them make mistakes, which can be hard on the parents. One of our teenage sons used to plow through his money as soon as he got it and was always broke. He has learned some hard lessons and is now our best at saving. He is saving for an expensive item that will take him almost 2 years to achieve, and he is forgoing all immediate purchases for the desired one in the future. This is not something we thought he would ever be able to do, but he has learned a little about the value of money and how he wants to spend his.


Larry Burkett also has some books that we have used. Money Matters for Teens and Money Matters for kids. These are great resources written by a very Godly man who is now in heaven. Crown Financial Ministries also has some great resources by Howard Dayton.

Padme's Birthday Fun

We celebrated Padme's birthday on Friday, as hubby had that day off. We went to Colorado Springs and went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It is one of the nicest zoo's we have been to. We liked it much better than the Denver Zoo. The Denver Zoo is much bigger and sunnier, and hotter! We have been to the Denver Zoo three different times and it has always been hot and the animals are all sleeping. Not very exciting! The Cheyenne Zoo is very hilly and shady and although it was warm, it wasn't too hot and the animals were all up and busy. We had a great time. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Checking out the gorillas. Yoda was interested in them, too.

Checking out a tiger.

The kids got to pet a rare albino wallaby baby.

Goofing off with the grizzly statue.

Baby wearing his sister's new glasses.


Padme feeding a giraffe a cracker. She loved the purple tongue!


Posing by a giraffe statue.


Back at home, the party was started with a few presents. This one is from my parents. She loved it!
Yoda and Padme both love her new ball. I love the expression on her face!


A new stuffed puppy.

Her birthday cake.

She had a fun birthday and we all had a wonderful day. Happy Birthday, Padme! We love you!

Happy 5th Birthday, Padme

Our last summer birthday has arrived, and it belongs to Padme. Padme had the most dramatic entrance into the world of any of our children. God had his hand on her, and we are so blessed that she is alive and healthy and 5 years old today.


When Padme was born, she had an APGAR of 2. She didn't make a sound. She was in distress and they took her to the NICU. I got a brief look at my silent baby, and then she was gone. Hubby went with her. When he came back to see me, I was feeling very poorly. I had lots of pain, was lightheaded, and nauseated. They found out early the next day that I had a blood clot in my lungs, a pulmonary emboli, which are deadly, and later in the week that I had bled internally.

Padme was in distress, needed an oxygen tent, and all kinds of other equipment. They weren't sure what had happened to her, and they never really figured it out. We didn't get to hold her or feed her until she was 2 days old, and she just gradually got better and they discharged her when she was 6 days old. I think that God healed her. The pediatrician said we would know if there was any damage to her brain as she developed. Here is how she looked the first day. She also had an IV in her head that doesn't show up in the pictures.

Here she is at 3 1/2 weeks.

Her first Christmas

At her first birthday

She hit every developmental milestone right on time, although she was a bit of a slow talker. The doctor said it was because her siblings doted on her and never let her have a say in anything. Well, as soon as he said she should be talking more, all the kids ganged up on her saying, "Padme, say this and Padme say that," and pretty soon she was talking up a storm. And she is never quiet now. Ever.

Two years old

Three years old

Four years old

Padme is the feistiest of all our kids, combined. She is stronger willed, altho not a classical "Strong willed child". She is not of afraid of her teenage brothers and never has been. She stands right up to all of their 6 foot plus height and bosses them around. She is a go getter who loves her family, her baby brother, animals, reading books and snuggling. She has her own agenda every day, which never includes taking a nap. She has taken a nap almost every day of her life, and every day is surprised and angered when nap time arrives. I told her today that when she is 6 she can stop taking naps. Boy, was she excited to hear that!

My mom has always said that if Padme was quiet and withdrawn, we would always be wondering if she was OK: if she had any residual affects from her birth. She makes it perfectly clear that she is strong and healthy and just the way God made her. And we couldn't love her more!

Heading for Tubes

Well, Yoda has his 5th ear infection. The last three he hasn't even had a cold, just an ear infection. So, we are getting a referral to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to see about getting tubes. I am looking forward to him having some relief from the infections, but not towards the getting the tubes part. I hate for my baby to have to go to sleep, even for a short time. Today he is feeling much better, which means that I actually got some sleep last night. PTL!

At the doctor's office he weighed 26 pounds, 10 ounces. He is walking all over the place. Here are a few pictures of him on the move.

He likes to bend over and put his head on the floor. We are not sure why he does it, but we think it is very funny. And he likes sticks. He is all boy!

Weekend Fun

This past weekend we had two different park events we went to. The first was the conclusion of a week of VBS at church. They had a fun night at the park with bouncy castles, hot dogs, cotton candy, snow cones and fun. The kids all had a great time. Here are a few pictures of the girls from the night. The older two boys were working, one supervising a bouncy house, and the other making snow cones, and Luke was going too fast to take any pictures.

Hubby's work had a picnic for the employees on Saturday. It was at the local zoo, where we had not been. They had games set up, face painting, free rides, and food. Everyone had lots of fun. Padme and Leia both got their faces painted. They were both so pretty I hated to wash them off that night.

Here are a few pictures from the rides the three younger kids and Hubby went on.

Here is most of the gang at the zoo. The baby was sleeping in the stroller so he is missing from the picture.