Oh, I have missed this place. I think this is the longest I have ever gone without blogging. Life is at it's busiest. My days are full with wife-ing, mothering, teaching, music lessons, speech therapy and family chiropractor appts 2 times a week in Strathroy.  Miss Tessa takes up a lot of my energy. She is now mobile and not sleeping through the night.  My days are good full, but to be honest it's hard to keep up sometimes. I  hesitate to say that because I know a handful of women who long for a family (or a bigger one) and would trade their quiet homes for my full, busy, crazy, sleepless one in a moment. So I can tell you that I am exhausted, but I say it with a qualifier: I am so grateful for each one of my people and jobs and for the fact that the Lord gives me strength for each day. Hard does always equal bad. It can be good hard too. (:

Ken is teaching and enjoying it very much. It took it a bit to get used to being the teacher again instead of the student. He is also preaching one Sunday a month. (:

Life is moving on with the kids. I can't believe how big they are. It just doesn't feel possible to have an 18, 14, 12, 10, 6 and 7 month old. The top 5 especially have become their own people and it's quite interesting and fun to watch.

• Josh is working and taking courses. He didn't get the right courses at his highschool in GR to get into University/College here in Canada. That was a little frustrating at first, but I think it's been a blessing for him to take a year to work and be able to get settled here that way first before moving on to uni. 
• Micah is a few months into highschool and loving it. I love to see my kids thrive in something new. It's a blessing and makes the transition easier for me too when they are happy.
• Natalie, Josiah and Grace and still being homeschooled. Their newest excitement is music. Josiah and Grace are playing piano and truly play All. Day. Long. It's great. Although we have instituted an after 7pm piano ban. Haha. Natalie is taking recorder and sewing. She is loving it. Wednesday afternoons are the highlight of their week and I am thankful for such a wonderful teacher who not only teaches them, but loves them and cares about their whole person. For real. Amazing.  
• Tessa Jayne is 7 months old. She is determined and by sheer will started belly crawling about 3 weeks ago. In the past few days she is still not on her hands and knees, but has gotten FAST. She is everywhere and eating everything. A moment ago I just took a pom pom out of her mouth and Grace's phonics book out of her sticky little fingers. She smiles big often and sticks out her tongue while she does it. She is super cuddly and loves neck smooches. She wants to eat everything in site and has been eating veggies and meat at supper right off of my plate for a month already. To me that is crazy early. If I am nursing and she sees a cup on the coffee table she stops nursing and wants to drink out of the cup. Insanity. She has started opening her mouth and screaming loud when she wants something. It's not crying, it's yelling. After I took the pom pom out of her mouth, I put her her bouncy in the kitchen with Ken and Grace. Ken just made bacon and pancakes and he and Grace are eating at the table. She. wants. some. So she is yelling at Ken. Nice. It's time to be firm and say no and then give her a mum mum. That will keep her quiet! (I am so thankful for those things (: ) She makes us laugh and smile all day long. She adores her brothers and sisters and each relationship is a little different and it's super special. It's strange, but  I can picture her being 20 and all the rest looking out for her. She will always be the little sister. (: 

Last blog post I put up her 4 month picture. So here is her 5 month. It's a little grainy, but still yummy.

 6 month snap shot! (: 

Here are some pictures that a friend from church took last week. They are fantastic. Too bad we didn't do them earlier in the fall. Everyone looks a little winter white, especially my big boys. The little kids still play outside yet during the day and get some sunlight! (: 

18 years

14 years

12 years

10 years

6  years

7 months to the day. 

Last night going out to the fire. She looks so familiar here and I can't figure out who I see (: 

Natalie and her fave - It's so special for Mia and Nads to be back together (: 

The next few pics are pretty poor quality, but I can't leave them out. (:  Here is Tessa - Our third kitty. 

Loving her big brother. She is standing just holding his hair while we were watching a baseball game.

This is a funny picture in a way with a ruler in her face. But it struck me here how old she is getting. She is turning into a little lady.

Our little American got her passport this week. Now the Canadian paperwork can start! This passport picture was taken on a day that she fell out of her car seat onto the pavement at Ken's school in August. Someone unclicked her seat out of the stroller to put her in the van, thinking that she was buckled into her seat. She wasn't. She landed on the side of her head in the parking lot. She cried. I cried. If you look at this picture you can see that her neck is crooked. The photo people had to crop her body sideways a bit to get her head straight on the picture. We started going to the chiropractor the next day. 

He told us that the fall just exaggerated her neck problem. Tessa was not caught when she was born. She fell head first onto the bed. The way her muscles were short on one side and long on the other, the chiro thinks she has had a sore neck from birth. After 4 weeks of treatment, she feel asleep on my shoulder for the first time. She would always cry on my shoulder. I thought it was a preference for her to lay across me, but it was because of her neck. She also is able to sleep and nurse in a more comfortable position. I am so thankful that she fell on her head. For real. Looking back, I can see in pictures that she held her head to the side, but we didn't notice. Since then, our whole family goes there. It's a bit of a drive and a time commitment, but this guy is amazing. He is head to toe and I highly recommend him. - Ron Wagner in Strathroy. He is the real deal. We are also so thankful for benefits that allows us to all get care. What a blessing!!! 

Micah was just enjoying her so much when I took this picture. She is so small and just fits in his arms so well still.

I could keep going. I have more to share, but I will save it for next time. This has been a fun hour. (: