Quick...

How many boys can you count in this picture?

Have I told you lately

how much fun

it is

having

boys?!

The answer, and more snow pics to come!

Haiti

Not sure how to start this post... so much in my head and on my heart with regards to the situation in Haiti. I can't do one thing throughout the day without the pictures of devastation flooding my mind.

I think of the dark, sad eyes of rubble-covered, filthy orphans when I wipe my baby's face.

I scrape the extra food off of her highchair and think of their hunger.

I cringe at a paper cut and then remember their wounds. Their pain.

I climb into my comfortable bed and pray for them to be able to sleep, somehow, under the stars.

I long for a moment of peace in the midst of a chaotic house of six, and think of those who long to have their loved ones back.

I get overwhelmed with the clutter of toys, while they yearn for the basic necessities of life.

I'm taken back to 1995, when I stood in that very city. When life was much simpler and mercy seemed to come more quickly for me. My mind wasn't cluttered with the things of this world as much. At least not that week of Spring Break, when I got to witness for the first time what life - and poverty - was like outside of my small college world.

While I was working my tail off to avoid taking out student loans, people were starving to death.

A good friend named Tyler Daugherty was on that trip too. We sat on the steps outside our apartment building together each night, listening to the Voodoo chants of the neighboring village. We sat in pure darkness; no electricity since the generators had already shut down for the night. He would play guitar. We would sing a little, then pray a little. And wonder how a place - a people - that was so lost, could ever find God.

And now, all these years and an earthquake later, I'm thankful that it's God who does the finding.

My kids are asking questions. And I don't have all the answers. So we go to His Word, and we find hope. From Psalm 46:

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging..."

"...Be still and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."

Not that this crisis is about me, but God is doing a work in me because of it. He is answering my prayers and my pleading for His Word to come alive to me in a fresh, new way. I want to long for it like I did on those Haitian steps almost fifteen years ago. Overwhelmed with grief and the guilt of my selfishness, I sat on my bathroom floor last week during nap time with tears streaming down my face, soaking up the Psalms as I read them aloud. God met me there. And His Word did come alive.

It had been too long.

I sat a few nights ago on my bed, grabbed hands and formed a circle with my husband and three boys, and one by one, we lifted up the people of Haiti to the One who is our "ever-present help." There hasn't been a sweeter night since. These boys continue to pray - even Chase - who asks God to please help "her (Haiti) to feel better."

I watched today as Jack and Trey raided their Ziploc bags full of lost-teeth-and-birthday-money. They marked separate tithe envelopes "for Haiti," and stuffed their money in - in a most unorganized way. Later tonight we sat and looked at pictures of Haiti online, and Jack, convicted and full of compassion, brought down another dollar. Their $19 dollars seems so trite, but for the work it is doing in their hearts, priceless.

I don't want to forget all of this a week from now. When I've had little sleep and my patience is not what it should be. I want to be changed.

Don't you?

He changes lives. The very God who created the universe. Who even allowed a massive earthquake to fulfill His plan and purpose.

He'll meet you where you are. Even if it's a bathroom floor.

If you'll let Him.

Still three...

When he's not making you laugh hysterically, he's making you plain tired. But his prayers are pretty sweet lately. Things like:

Please help Jesus and God to feel better.

Please help Pa to feel better. But he already feels better. But please help him to feel better.

Please help me to obey my mom and dad. And oh yeah... and Jesus.

Thank you we had a great daaaayyyyy.

Thank you for my beautiful singing.

Help me to eat my lunch fast so I don't have to go to the porch...

:)

Thanks for asking...

...about this girl. I thought you all deserved an update on Tess's health - since we kind of left you hanging and all. We really appreciate how many of you have asked how she's doing!

For those who weren't aware, we've been trying to figure this girl out for quite some time. All Fall and early Winter, Tess battled constant high fevers and sickness. We wrote the first few fevers off and figured it was just the flu, but after several recurrences, we started to wonder if something else might be up. Lots of miserable days and symptoms later, she was diagnosed with a urinary infection.

Although not common in children anyway, UTI's are always a red flag for something bigger in our house. All of our kids have a one in three chance of having urinary reflux. Jack introduced us to the condition when he was three months old, and he had bladder/ureter surgery when he was four to correct it.

Anyway...

Tess was tested (now that's a mouth full!) for reflux just before Christmas, and the VCUG and ultrasound both came back normal. Great news! Except for the fact that she continued to have symptoms randomly. It has been hard to rule out reflux completely with this being the case.

So, the latest is this: we're a little perplexed! We are going with the VCUG findings that there is no indication of reflux. That being said, in the words of our pediatrician, we also have a "low threshold" for any kind of symptoms. What does that mean? Any time we suspect an infection, we cath her.

Guess how many times she's been cathed in the last four weeks?

Four. Ugh.

One foot through our doctor's front door, and this girl goes into a rage!

I will say that she has seemed more comfortable the last couple of weeks. Minus one of her ear tubes falling out and the ear infection that we thought was an ear infection.

That wasn't. Geesh.

Well, that only leaves one other option. She has to be getting a tooth. We moms are famous for blaming lots of mysterious behavior on getting teeth, aren't we? :)

(Tyler told me once that our kids ought to have at least a couple hundred teeth for all of the times I thought they were getting one. Funny guy.)

Oh well, give 'em Tylenol anyway, I say.

Couldn't hurt.

How's that for an answer? :)

Slacker parents...

... didn't get too many shots from Christmas this year. Not because we don't place recording memories for our children high on our priority list. We do. But don't check my baby books for evidence of that just quite yet.

There are hardly any pictures because we most likely had a child in our lap, or a gift in our lap, or a child opening a gift in our lap.

Or maybe we were chasing after small children, making sure they weren't in harm's way. You know, in direct shot of the 50 brand new Nerf bullets simultaneously flying across the room from all directions.

We might have been scurrying to pick up chocolate candies spilled out of stockings, before a certain one-year-old had them all crammed in her mouth, with chocolate dripping down onto her shirt. And probably somewhere else that I haven't found. Yet.

Not that that happened or anything.

(Check out my two cute sisters in the background... aren't they adorable?!)

There's a good chance we were fetching batteries. Or explaining why we didn't have the right size batteries. Or untwisting thousands of silver twisties from the backs of toy packages.

Ok, not thousands. But it had to be darn near close to that, didn't it? It could have been that we were looking for small parts to toys that were opened just 2 minutes prior. It's a tricky thing keeping track of miniature action figure guns, tiny Lego pieces, and baby doll pacifiers in the never ending sea of wrapping paper.

Anybody knows that. (Tip: check first in the one-year-old's mouth.)

There's the gift admiring to do. And that takes time. And attention. And conversation.

Times four.

But most of all, there are hugs to be given, excitement to be shared.

Smiles and eye contact and interest poured out to every one of our four precious gifts.

Sometimes, you have to put the camera away, and just take it all in...

Four Christmases and a birthday later...

I'm back, but barely. We're still in catch-up mode around here after all of the holiday hoop-la. It was nuts this year, I'm gonna have to admit. Exciting and heart-warming to see such wonder on the boys' faces, and just plain nuts with Tess. She's work, man. Especially in strange places, with no naps, and no baby gates. But she's cute, that thing.

Ok, moving on...

This was year number seven of overcompensating for Trey since his birthday falls so close to Christmas. His day is the 20th, which is at least better than his 24th due date. Oh, I can remember the Christmas he was born so clearly. We got the doc to sign us out of the hospital early so we could go home and celebrate Christmas with my family the day after he was born. We ordered pizza, everyone came to us, and we passed around the worst flu ever with my entire extended family. What memories! And then we nicknamed this sweet new baby "Tax-break Trey," since he was so gracious to join us before the end of the year.

He's seven now, and I'm tellin' you what, this kid melts me. All he has to do is smile, and nothing else seems to matter. The best part of Christmas break this year was spending time with this boy who is literally transforming before my eyes. God is doing a work in him, I can tell. So many things I've noticed in the last few weeks, but I have to share what happened the other day...

Chase is late in finishing up his lunch, as usual, so is sitting at the counter by himself when he accidentally tips over a VERY full glass of milk. It goes everywhere: all over the counter, dripping down the stool, and puddling over a massive area on the floor. I quickly grab some paper towels and inform Chase that he needs to help me clean it up.

Trey must hear what's going on from the other room. He runs in, grabs more paper towel, and gets on the floor and starts to help. I say to him thanks, but no thanks. Chase was the one to spill it, so he can be the one to clean it up.

Trey, with so much compassion on his face, says to me, "Mom, it just doesn't feel right in my heart to keep on playing when you're in here cleaning up. Please let me help too." I hug him tight, whisper in his ear that I see Jesus in him, and we all dive into clean-up together. And we have a blast doing it. Because Trey can make even cleaning up spilled milk fun.

We celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa Fincher's house this year since our whole family was already there for Christmas the day before. He wanted a Monster Truck birthday, and was super-psyched about the cake he picked out online. He got another cake in Cincinnati when we were there for Christmas, and just took birthday treats to school on his first day back from break. See what I mean about over-compensating?

He's worth it.

Definitely worth it.

Sweet, sweet Trey. God knew just what we needed. Love you boy!

Merry Christmas 2009!

A little late, but still merry, nonetheless! No funny (to you, definitely not to me, until much, much later) mishap stories on this post... just a picture that makes us look half-way normal, until you get to know us in real life. :)

Our gracious neighbor took this shot in our back yard on one of those uncharacteristically warm days in late November. We told her she could wait to walk over until after the Colts game was over, and I promised it wouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

Because some of us don't have attention spans any longer than that.

(Cough) Tyler.

But, he was flexible enough to wear a puffer vest, so I have to give him props for that.

Thanks babe. I think you look hot in it, for the record.

On that note, I'm off to join my hot-in-a-puffer-vest husband downstairs for a little Guitar Hero Van Halen.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

The Christmas Tree Hunt Strikes Again...

I should know by now that life with four young children is anything but predictable. But we got a little too confident on this year's trip to the Christmas tree farm. We've been going to the same farm for the past eight Christmases straight, and we thought we had our little routine down pat.

Now, we've had our minor bumps in the road in years past. There have been freezing children, starving infants who must go back to the van with momma to eat, the time we almost lost a boy or two between the rows of trees, and who could forget the year that the pregnant momma peed her pants? Ahem. But nothing that has taken away from the thrill of the hunt as a family.

Until this year.

(Look closely to see a brother about to get tackled. This actually makes me smile... such real life, and we caught it on film!)

The day was gorgeously warm and we had just finished a wonderful breakfast as a family at Bob Evans. I love that place. The half-and-half in the tiny creamer pitcher alone makes me happy. Everyone sat like little angels (a complete miracle in itself) and ate all of their food in record time. They were so good, in fact, that a sweet family at the table next to us commented on their behavior. And said that they could see Jesus in us. Because this has never happened, I know that it's the start of a very good day.

After breakfast we headed out to the farm. Tyler and I drove separately, because from all of our past tree-farm-with-small-children experience, we know that it takes a vehicle for the children and a vehicle for the tree. We're getting good at this.

Or so we thought.

Tyler and the boys headed over for a little hayride down the long lane to the trees. I decided to drive Tess back to the trees in the van. You know, just in case someone got cold, or hungry, or.........decided to vomit their entire breakfast up.

It started with a cough, then a little whimper. And just as I parked the van, there it was. Her breakfast. Covering every inch of her body, the car seat, and the floor of the van.

While I'm van-deep in clean-up mode (and still processing what just happened), Tyler and the boys - with the biggest smiles ever - hopped off the wagon and motioned me to join them. Maybe they missed the naked baby sitting on my lap.

About this time I'm thinking back to breakfast and about that sweet lady's comment. Yes, I should have expected this.

I motion Tyler over and the situation becomes clear. The boys are already almost lost in the trees. I think I might have to go to the bathroom. And somebody needs a bath. Bad.

Tyler gathers the boys, and after some quick problem solving, we decide to let Tyler pick our tree out this year by himself. The boys did catch a tractor ride, so they are surprisingly OK with riding home with me before the tree is cut.

Whichever one it is.

Tyler starts to hug me goodbye, but I stop him just in case I need a bath too, and we both got a good laugh out of that.

Life is never predictable.

But we did get a great tree.

And we still have Jesus, after all.

Thanksgiving firsts...

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with Tyler's brother Deric and his wife Jenia at our house this year. We figured out that the last time the brothers were together on Thanksgiving was when Tyler and I lived in Scottsdale the first year we were married, over 12 years ago.

Deric and Jenia just moved from Phoenix back to Indiana in October. We thought maybe a holiday dinner with all the fixin's - plus lots of kids to distract them - might make them forget about all the cold weather they now have to look forward to this winter!

And here's our 25 pound bird! We've been doing our own turkey every year for quite a while now, but this might just be our biggest bird yet! Tyler created one huge menu, and he and I had lots of fun cooking together over a couple of days.

Ah...cooking together.

Something we wish we could do more of... it is such a fun hobby for both of us. Tyler has lots of detailed, creative, gourmet Food Network ideas stored in his head. Some to use now, and some, when we have all kinds of kid-free time. Hmmm... like when we're retired or something.

So, so much to be thankful for.

And all the credit?

To God alone.

Next up? The annual trip to the Christmas tree farm. Ah yes... another "Never a dull moment in the life of the Daughertys" kind of story. Stay tuned. :)

Glimpses of hope...

This fourth one is a clingy one. And that's putting it mildly. Since I'm all for keeping it real, I'll even admit that I almost lost it at small group bible study last night just talking about it. And I don't lose it all that often, in case you didn't already know that. Duh.

You'd think I'd have some mature way of handling this, since numbers one and three were the same way, and we all survived somehow. And then there was Trey. Sweet, simple Trey. Who I forget half of his babyhood because he was just so darn content.

There's no need to bore you with the details. I'm not setting records here or announcing anything new that lots of moms haven't already experienced. But it is a real part of our daily lives. Complimentary at best, and exhausting at it's worst.

So when I spot her playing on her own like this, do I run around as fast as I can accomplishing everything I think about when she is hanging on my leg, crying to be held? Of course not. That would be the smart thing to do.

First, I run for my camera. Seriously, something this rare needs to be documented. I peek in - making sure that she can't spot me (or it's all over) - and marvel at how God gave her to us. I think about how cute she is, and how I love it that she loves books, and I record in my head all of the babbles that come out of her mouth that actually resemble words - just maybe.

I look at the bow in her hair and think about how fun it is to dress a girl and figure out girl hair. I even notice that her mullet isn't quite as noticeable as it was a couple of weeks ago. I smile because I think about my mom saying in the softest, sweetest voice, "Oh dear, her hair looks just like yours did when you were a baby."

I think about her brothers, and how proud they are to have her for a sister. Trey's prayers come to mind; the ones where he thanks God for all of his family members by name, but when he gets to Tess, skips her name and says instead, "my sweet baby sister". And my eyes get watery just thinking about it.

Water.

Toilet water.

Ugh. She loves toilet water.

Do I have time to clean the toilet before she realizes I'm not in the same room?

And then, just as my thirty-second daydream is coming to an end and I'm in toilet-cleaning mode, she looks up. She spots me and smiles, getting ready to crawl my way.

I look away, as if that will magically make me invisible. You know, just until I get my toilet cleaned.

Then I spot the Batman guy eloquently hanging upside down from my blind string.

And just like that, it's back to reality.

Halloween fun!

The night before Halloween, we decided we needed to carve our pumpkin before it was too late. The project really did start with every boy fully dressed...

But in no time, the shirts were off! When one boys strips, they all strip! If there's even a hint of a reason to take your shirt off in our house, the boys will do it. Just ask the Schwann man, or anyone in our old small group bible study. :)

Shirtless boys are standard for the summertime, but on brisk Fall evenings? These three are hardly bothered... although we did only stay out long enough to light Jack Jr.'s candle and take a quick pic!

The boys raided from the dress-up stash once again, and the only thing we had to buy for costumes this year was an extra black cape. And trust me, a ten dollar black cape will definitely get it's money's worth in this house.

Daddy had to work on Halloween night, so Hali and Cameron (our amazing friends/babysitters!) offered to hang out with us and take the boys Trick-or-treating. These two seriously are amazing, to Trick-or-treat in the pouring rain, and with Cameron's non-functioning gall bladder! We love you guys!

The troops getting ready to head out to houses in our subdivision... Our good buddy Bjorn joined us too! The boys thought his costume was hilarious, but Tess was a little scared by his crazy wig! We almost talked him into cutting some hair from his wig and taping it onto his chest, but he never did give in to that. :) Man, we are blessed with such godly, fun influences for our kids.

My favorite little cow hung out with me, taking candy out of the bowl and throwing it all over the entryway handing out candy as Trick-or treaters came to our house. The turnout was low due to the rain, so we quickly became famous for giving out handfuls of candy. I think we may have even seen a repeat customer or two. :)

Taking a break for Fall...

Change...

What have I done?

I am trying to become un-boring.

My wardrobe is mostly solids.

I thrive on order and as little clutter as possible.

I have a plain ole silver minivan. Just like the other 27 Odysseys parked in the preschool parking lot.

I'm as non-frilly as it gets.

I'm horrible at accessorizing.

I've carried the same solid red billfold for the last 10 years.

And now...

I've changed my blog.

I don't think I can do it. I went for a change (um, to be honest, I changed the background about six times, hoping one would grow on me). And now, I want the plain, old boring black back.

But it's late, once again.

And I'm all backgrounded out.

Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow.

I don't know. Maybe it's not so much that I'm boring.

Maybe I just don't like....

Change.

Randomness

Sick, but sweet...

Random thoughts...

...to go along with my thinking abilities at the moment. Tyler is somewhere between Oklahoma City and St. Louis, driving his brother's car across the country, helping him move from Arizona back to Indiana. I have four sick kids, plus a teething 15 month old, plus an inability to think clearly due to severe lack of adult conversation in the last four days. I've missed church five out of the last seven Sundays due to someone - anyone - multiple ones - being sick. That in itself is grounds for one really bad mood. I need my sermons to keep me sane.

But you know what?

I'm good. Really good.

Because being away from Tyler makes me realize how much I love being with him. And that is a really good thing. And I have realized that I can do it on my own (with the Lord's help, obviously), but that in God's mercy and provision, I don't have to most of the time. I'm thankful for my husband.

My kids are sick, but what a weird blessing it has been. I've barely had time to think about Tyler being gone, and have had a sick buddy in my bed every night keeping me company while he's been away. Jack told me this morning that he really enjoyed sleeping in my bed last night, because "the other boys weren't around to talk so much". Jack was awake at 11pm with a fever of 102, and instead of trying to sleep, we turned on the light and called Daddy. We even watched a little Discovery Channel. It was almost fun.

Today I realized that we hadn't stepped foot out of our house in four days. Everyone was getting a little stir-crazy, but with fevers still hanging around, I couldn't justify taking them out in public (the planned pumpkin patch outing will have to wait). So what do you do when your husband is who-knows-where and you have to get out of your house before you crack?

Load everyone up.

Put a Baby Einstein video on. In the van. Which is against the rules in town. Which was totally worth it.

Hit the McDonald's drive-thru to buy Happy Meals for three sick boys. Knowing they probably won't eat much, and what they will eat won't really be that good for them, but getting it anyway because the toy alone was worth it. Just this once.

Make a spontaneous turn onto the interstate, not really knowing where you're going. Just taking advantage of the fact that everyone is strapped in. And happy... momentarily.

Decide on the Arby's drive-thru for me. Because I haven't eaten anything but cereal in four straight days. Yes, Arby's sounds delightful.

Answer the request for a car wash across the street. Because this is yet one more thing you can do with four sick children strapped happily in their carseats, watching a Baby Einstein video.

Hit the Starbucks drive-thru. Because it's a drive-thru. And it's Starbucks. And because I've not yet tried the Venti Non-fat Pumpkin Chai Latte with Whip Cream this Fall. And because the Starbucks girl is always super talkative. And she's an adult.

(Tyler's theory: Starbucks charges a dollar for every word in the drink title. We laugh really hard when this actually holds true, which happens more often than we care to admit.)

So we hit four stops without ever leaving our van, and I'm telling you what, we all felt refreshed.

But I'm pretty sure the car wash guy thought I took a little too long deciding on my 2 wash options.

Should I get the wheel brite or the underbody wash?

I don't know.

Can we talk about it? :)

I'm pathetic.

But it's all good.

This girl's not a baby anymore...

Hmm...can you say spunky?

For us, October brings....

school in full swing...

kids who keep passing croup back and forth to each other...

Tyler to Arizona to help his brother move back home to Indiana...

a season of thankfulness...

a month-long adventure of Halloween costume planning...

a love/hate relationship with living in the woods....

Tess finally taking her first steps (consistently, that is!)...

new living room carpet (can I get an Amen?!)...

a trip to the Pumpkin Patch...

Fall baseball...

hot chai, candles lit for no reason, and then some more chai...

lots of friends and family...

and...

FALL!!

Love, love this season. What does October bring for you?

A little peer pressure, please...

To celebrate the end of summer (well, you know what I mean... I would never, ever actually celebrate the end of summer!), Tyler took the older boys on a much anticipated trip to Chicago on the Amtrak. This picture is my absolute favorite from the many Tyler took that day.

Check out those eyes... just like his daddy.

For the record, I have no idea what that structure is in the background. Because I wasn't there. And maybe I should just know what it is anyway, but I don't. Because being pregnant four times has fried a lot of my brain cells.

That's what I like to tell myself anyway.

I missed this trip, because a three and one year old would have been on complete meltdown around hour three of the seventeen hour day. And you already know that we just don't do that.

But, we also want to take advantage of the ages that Jack and Trey are now. Fun, energetic, curious, learning ages.

So sometimes, we split up.

And it works.

For us.

Back to those amazing pictures.

There's no way I'm doing them justice. Because minus one famous Chicago building, and the ones who have the titles printed right on them, I'm pretty clueless about what is what.

So, I'm asking for a little help here. If you have a spare second (and you must because you're reading this!), leave a comment in the comments section (duh, where else!) encouraging Tyler to post about their fun adventure to (on the train) and in Chicago.

Maybe enough "votes" will convince him to share...

I think he definitely wins on the brain cells anyway, so I vote him.

A little peer pressure, please... :)

College town...

I love living in a college town for lots of reasons. MY college town. At first we wondered what it would be like coming back to Purdue country as a family instead of as college students. What we've found is a great balance of university energy and family friendliness.

During the school year, we don't get to campus much. It's a busy place. Don't get me wrong - I actually look forward to when the students arrive in the Fall. The city comes alive, and it brings back some great college memories (along with the other memories of Organic Chemistry... oh dear). But traffic gets a little hectic, parking becomes more difficult, and I have to redevelop my skills in dodging fearless jaywalking pedestrians.

I'm quick on the ol' minivan brakes, don't you worry.

But summertime. Oh, sweet summertime in this town...

We take advantage of walking around the quiet campus. The boys play in the fountains, and I tell them where I first kissed their daddy. Tyler and I reminisce about when we were young and thought we had so little time and so much responsibility.

You heard that right.

That's what I thought when I was taking approximately two naps per day. In between eating breadsticks at the Union and hanging out way too much with four guys who lived on Littleton Street when I should have been studying.

But do cut me some slack, if for no other reason than Organic Chemistry.

Sounds like a good time to change the subject.

So we played in the fountains and I tried to get a sweet brother picture after they were done.

Because when there are great flowers in the background, every mother wants the perfect frameable picture.

Why I try, I'm not quite sure. I think I must have told Trey 10 times to keep his gum in his mouth.

...which caused even more distractions...

...and more...

Until finally I made him throw the gum in the flowers.

There.

I can live with that. :)