What we've been up to...

So it's been a long time since I've posted. But I'm finally up on line!!! I hooked the computer up all by myself! Yay me! So anyway, here are some of the things our family has been up to since we went off line...

As you know we have pretty much moved completely. The house is no where near finished but I do plan to put up before and after pictures of each room as we go... All except for the bathroom. For, while I did THINK about taking pictures, I was so icked out by the condition of the "before" state I REFUSED to take any!

I didn't think to take any pictures of us unpacking (who would?) but here's a picture of what happens to the boxes as we unpack them.

Ammon spent some time "cow sitting" for a brown and white Holstein bull calf named Hershey. He did such a great job that we bought him a little Jersey bull calf to care fr over the next year. His name is Reese's... Fitting since the other calf looks like he might end up becoming a permanent fixture around here.

The really funny thing is that he and Larry have become pretty good buddies!

All of the rabbits that we bred began producing abundant litters! I think we ended up with around 40 babies! Anyway, we have picked out the cream of the crop and are selling off the rest! The same neighbor that we're cow-sitting for plowed our garden for us!

Then Abbie helped Daddy plant tomatoes and peppers!!!!
This is from breakfast this morning. The day was so beautiful that I couldn't stay inside! Rose and Sarah were THRILLED to have me take pictures of them early in the morning pre-shower mode!

Malachi spends most of his free time practicing his golf swing with the real golf set that Papa got him for his birthday!

While I spend most of MY time admiring my Horses...

Hannah seems to have inherited Rose's love of horses...

She spends most of her time begging for a ride...

and Rose spends most of her time on the big horses...

and helping her sisters torture the little one!

Just so ya' know...

I am working on my posts about my children. So far I only have one partially done. I will post them in age order, beginning with Rose, and work my way down to Abbie. I am very surprised at how much trouble I am having with Rose's post. I expect the same level of difficulty with all of them though, because I am still facing the "What I want the world to know about my children" thing

In other news... all is well here. We bought a house in Owen county on 4 acres right next to 15 acres of land that is currently only being used to house horses. We're working on it on the weekends and plan to movein, in early spring. Things really seem to be looking up.

Stay tuned for further updates!

Okay, Okay...

So, my husband says I'm grounded from Facebook until I've posted on my blog again! So here I am... posting... on my blog... This is me... posting... on my blog...

In all seriousness, I am feeling a little repentant about the lack of attention I've been paying to all 3 of my devoted followers! LOL!

I have to admit that I do sometimes feel silly typing when I don't know who is reading my blog. For instance, a couple of weeks ago we were at the Covered Bridge Festival. John ran into one of his high school classmates. My children swarmed her table of goodies. Now, mind you, none of them were misbehaving they just seem to overwhelm people when they're all together. I said, "Hi I'm Erica. Sorry for the chaos. They can get a little crazy sometimes." Then his friend says to me, with a smile, "Oh, I know, I read your blog."

Really? Hmmm. How come she never made any comments or said "hi" or anything? Please, if you read my blog let me know sometime... That way I don't feel like I'm typing to... um... myself. Trust me, I do not need a keyboard to talk to myself!

On with the updates...

THE CREW:

I want to do an update on all of the kiddos but to be honest I need to wait a day or two. A lot has gone on over the past two weeks and I am beat. I want to have a clear head and really think about the things I want the world to know about my children. For now, I'll just talk about what's on my mind...

The thing about having so many children is that they often get lumped together. Comments like, "Your children are so well behaved.", are thrown out by unknowing family members and friends. The truth is that I have some children that ARE well behaved and some that are not as polished in the art of obedience as I would like them to be. Of course, I'm sure the negative comments are there to but never said to my face... even when they are deserved. :)

I really wish that more of our family and friends had the opportunity to really spend time one on one with each of them. That way they could learn to appreciate the little personality traits. They could take in Ammon's thoughtfulness, and maybe take something from his easy going attitude. Or perhaps they might catch some of Gabriel's Fire for life!!! One might want to be careful what they take from my Chi... I wouldn't want anyone to blow up their house or any thing. Super geniuses have a tendency to do that you know?

More to come on my kiddos in a few short days. I think I'll write a separate post about each one. I don't promise a new one every day, but get to all of them... maybe I'll even have pictures or something! :)

ANIMALS:

In bunny news: 4 of the baby Flemishes survived after their momma died when they were just a couple weeks old. We have also had another litter of Mini lops. Juliet gave birth to 3 healthy and happy bunnies which have all been successfully weaned.

We are looking to purchase a few more of both breeds in the very near future in order to have the stock for the shows next year.

*Rose and Sarah have begun "working" with our farrier. He is teaching them how to care for his two, and his aunt's 15-ish horses. (That number chances because she is always taking in rescues and re-homing them.) They don't get paid or anything. They are just doing it for the experience and time with horses. It's a fair trade I think, He gets help and my girls get to do what they love!

Dreamer is turning out to be the perfect mini-horse! He rode Hannah, Maggie and Abbie around the field yesterday for quite a while. (All at separate times) We have discovered that he likes sugar. So if he gets loose, Rose just shows him her hand and he comes right to her. She doesn't even have to have sugar in it now! YAY!

Well it's late, so I'll call it a night. I take no responsibility for the improper use of grammar or sloppy content of this post! I figure it's just better to get it out there than to not post anything at all!

Our Life!

Now that I've finally figured out how to get things loaded properly with this slow internet I feel like I can really continue with our blog!
So here's the run down as of late... I'll split in into categories...

Our Plan...
John is employed now with a stable long lasting company. Herff Jones in Indianapolis. He feels challenged but not overwhelmed in his new position and looks to stay there forever if he can!
Right now he is living in Indy with his brother durring the week and comming home on weekends. Our hope is to be free of a car payment before we move to Danville and find some acreage. At this point we still plan to adopt a sibling pair of boys when Abbie is 5-ish and if we keep on track finacially and as a family unit we believe we can make this happen. That is only 3 years away sometimes it's hard to think about the fact that our future sons are out there somewhere living what ever hardships their life might bring that will eventually lead them to our family.

THE KIDS...
Rose and Sarah are, of course doing great, and have enjoyed singing in the Terre Haute Children's Choir all this year! They both started out in lyric Choir but Rosie was moved up to the more advanced Treble Choir after the Christmas break! Their singing has improved so much! I just can't say enough good things about the program!
Sarah received two Chinchillas for Christmas this year. She is currently saving up Money to buy a male so that she can breed them.

Ammon also has been enjoying Choir this year! He is in a different, non-auditioned group called Sing Up! He has done fantastic and has he has enjoyed it and scouts this year. He has also joined the 4-h dog agility club with his dog Lyla. This year has been wonderful for his confidence!
He is always helping and trying to find someway to serve others!

Chi started out in public school this year but we quickly realized it didn't work for our schedule and that he wasn't happy there so he spent the rest of the year homeschooling with the rest of us. He is sucking in ANYTHING that he can about science! He loves Robotics, computers and Chemistry! For his reading today he chose a chemestry book!

Gabie had the opportunity to go to public kindergarten and loved it. It was only about 2 1/2 hours each day and for me it was a lot more of a social activity for him than any thing. He had his graduation last night and it was REALLY sweet. I hope to get some pics up soon!

Hannah Rachel is a sight to see. Right now she is all about being a princess, Her very favorite show is "Toddlers in Tiaras" and she wants more than any thing to be a pagent girl! She recenly got her first pet! A Flemish Giant Rabbit! She is so big that she can barely hold her. She'll max out at apx 22 lbs! I have discovered recently that she takes after her big brother Ammon and likes things neat and tidy!

Maggie is my little spit-fire. While she has toned down quite a bit since we moved here (meaning she hasn't flooded anything recently) she still likes to run the show. She is super funny and has really taken the role of big sister to new heights. She can climb a tree as well as ANY of her siblings...though it's often the ladder to her rescue when she can't get down!

Then there's Abbie. My sweet tubby Abbie! She loves anything that Maggie and Hannah love. Right now her favorite thing is food! But she doesn't like "bean beans" (green beans). She "lub uh duckies" and any other animal. I think she's taking after Sarah were that's concerned!


Animals:
We are the proud parents of 32-ish chickens. Our Buff Orpingtons are due to start laying some time in August and out Plymouth Rocks should start in October-ish.

We also Purchased a breeding pair of Flemish Giant Rabbits! These suckers are HUGE! And super sweet! I bought Crystal for Hannah and then Rosie bought Poppy for herself. We hope to have baby bunnies in the next couple of months.
On top of the Flemish Giants we have accuired mini-lops which we hope to breed eventually as well.

Along with our Buffs we accidentally received a white Turkey. She's super fun... and WAY smarter than we thought she turn out to be! Her name is dinner... She matures fully right around Thanksgiving.... but I don't think I'll have the heart to eat her she LOVES to be hand fed worms and is just so interesting!

I butchered 11 of our 22 chickens and they were YUMMY! I ended up putting the rest on Craig's list because of convenience sake. I plan to get about 50 next next spring an put them all in the freezer for the year.

We ended up keeping two of the puppies that Lady had on my birthday...oh the drama! Lyla is the one that Ammon got to name and Larry was my favorite of the bunch. Lyla is very quite and well behaved. Larry was what I believe to be the pick of the litter. He was the most handsome and I think the most trainable. But I believe he has a long way to go before we'll be the good dog he can be.

There are a LOT more aimals that I could write about but I'll save the chaos for another time!

Me...
I'm doin' ok. I still have to fight my natural tendency to whine and complain. I feel like at this point Heavenly Father has lead us here for some reason. Why? I'm not quite sure of yet. I feel much more confident in my Homeschooling abilities than I once did.
While living with my sister and her family can be challenging at times I love that I am rarely lonely. We've got a pretty good routine going. Though I wish I was able to keep up the house a bit better for hers and Brians sake.
I still get homesick for AZ and all my friends out there. I cry at times when I think about the beautiful home I had to leave. But I am slowly accepting the fact that it is time to look forward to loving a new home of my own. I still jokingly tell people that I live in AZ and I'm just on an extended visit. But everyone else knows I'm here to stay.
Well I don't really expect many people to actually read all of this. but I thought I'd put itout ther at least for my own records.
Love you all!

Spring is Here!!!

Well, I have decided to start up with my blog again. No more sulking. To me, SPRING is a much better time of year to start you resolutions than New Years!!!! Everything is new and fresh and clean. (I am also going to be having my kids blog as well. So if you don't have your invite please let me know in the comment post and I'll send you one!)
I have a whole list of things to report and promise an update by the end of the weekend! Maybe I'll go all out and get pictures up also!

An Update...

For now I will just let you know that we are settling into a routine in Indiana. John has a job that has good earning potential but is currently a fraction of what we were making previously. We are living with my sister until we can get back on our feet. We've been here since late July but I have not had the required mindset to post anything. (A million points to Shannon and Brian for taking in 10 people a cat, a dog, and a bird with out hesitation!)
It's fall and it is beautiful here! I'm setting aside my absolute disdain for Indiana winters and pretending we won't have one this year. So all is well in the Leschorn life.
I have recently discovered Dave Ramsey and I am using our situation to take advantage of the advice he offers in his program. We'll see how that goes.
Much love to all the friends and family that have been praying for us. Please keep it up!
-Erica-

I'm Taking a Break...

Not feeling much like blogging... or talking really... it's only temporary... Thanks for the kind words...

Trying to catch up...

I cannot even tell you how many posts I've tried to write since my last, But I can never finish them. I have lots of reasons...non of them really matter. Here's the run down...
I got sick...
The girls started orchestra...
We bought a piano...
Ammon turned 8...
Ammon started boy scouts...
My Mom came to see Ammon get baptised...
The kids got sick...
Ammon didn't get baptised because we were all to sick...
Sarah was admitted to the hospital...
Sarah came home...
Took Abbie for U/S on her stomach (she's fine)...
Ammon's begun having seizures...
Jed moved in with us...
Hannah got stitches last night...

My PLAN is to take each subject and just blog about them one at a time in hopes of playing "catch up". But let's be realistic. I think it's best to just except it for what it is and move on!

Just an update...pictures still to come!

Well it's Sunday evening. My goal is to post every Sunday from now on. With waking up at 5am for before school orchestra, and schooling 5 children, AND cub scouts AND achievement AND music lessons, AND weekly choir practice... I'm finding it a little difficult to find time to blog. Which is really a shame because I love it, and because I'm trying to keep as of a record of our family journey as possible.

Any way, we had a super full weekend. Ammon turned 8 on the 2nd of this month and we had a big party for him yesterday! I invited all 7 of the boys in his class and 6 came! Add them to my kidos, and throw in a cousin and a couple of neighborhood kids and we ended up with 17 children age 10 and under! Ammon had a blast and I can't tell how much it means to me to have him so giddy. He's such a easy going kid that you can never quite tell if he is truly happy or not. But we knew yesterday was every thing he wanted!!!! He got several nice gifts, including a YELLOW music stand that Rose and Sarah spent their own money on! The one that I think he was truly the most excited about was the leash that his cousin Franky got for him to use on his lizard!!! We took Olivia on her first walk and she even ate a couple of crickets along the way! Hopefully I can convince my sweet husband to up load some of the pics from his party so I can post them. (We borrowed my MIL's camera b/c ours is trashed)

All in all, I think we were able to make his day very special. He will be baptised on the 20th of September and my mom is flying in around the 18th. I'll let you guys know how every thing goes.

We all (well the majority of us anyway) woke up with horrible colds today! Bleh! Hopefully they won't last. John and I were determined to go to church and even got up at 6 to make it happen...but... as the morning drug on it became more and more clear that we just were not going to win. By 8am I was so sick I didn't even want to lift my head...Thank goodness for Tylenol Severe Cold!!!!!

WE'RE BACK!!!!!!

For those of you who don't know we had a very unexpected trip to Indiana that was only supposed to last a week and then turned into three!!!!!! Imagine packing 9 children and 2 adults into a van with all their suitcases and bedding in less than 10 hours! It was followed up by the week long trip home with several detours along the way... Nauvoo, Will and Steph, and a very wet Colorado Springs!!!
John flew out to help me drive back with all of the kiddies so we tried to turn it into as much of a vacation as we could. Which, believe me, turning a 26 hour drive with 8 children into a vacation is no small feat!
Any way we're all back and settled in. School started bright and early Monday morning and choir and orchestra begins around the 25 of this month!
I have lots of stories that I hope to share about the trip but no time right now. I'll try a little later.
I had a lot of fun BUT...It's good to be home!

No Surgery...Yet!

Just to let all of you know things have been way crazy lately! We didn't do the surgery yesterday for a few reasons: 1) Child care fell through 2)The "fear of the knife" thing 3)Well I'm not gonna go into this one

So, what did I do instead? I took Maggie to the ER at 8am to have some glass fished out of her knee and a couple of stitches put in! She knelt down on a light bulb in the cleaning closet...OUCH!

The reason I even mentioned this is because I thought it was absolutely hilarious that her lullaby of choice was not "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"! No she prefers a much more mature genre' and quieted down ONLY when I was singing the "Yoda" song!

That's right, she screamed her little heart out until I started singing it. Then she even smiled and sung along for a couple of seconds "Ya, ya, ya....." The doctor was trying so hard not to laugh that he had to stop stitching because his body was shaking! Once he composed himself he told me that I had the cutest little girl that he had ever seen, and she would be one of those patients he'd remember years from now! Seriously!

Redirecting My Focus...Again!

I've notice that most of my recent posts have not been as much about my "life with 8 children" as originally wanted. I have a journal and there I keep all the "me" stuff. So I am redirecting.

My children are very important to me. I want them to know that. Years from now I want them to be able to look through this blog and laugh... or shrink from embarrassment. :)

So I've decided to use my blog space as I had planned. From now on you will be hearing things that I have heard through out the day, stories about our family outings & activities, or just my experiences as a mother.

My goal, besides keeping a record for my children, is to let other mothers know that you can not only survive, but thrive as well. Living life as the "*...stupid hamster that wasted all of it's energy running in it's wheel over and over and over, without getting anywhere..." can get a little old but in the end you can have happy well adjusted children, and hopefully, a nice looking tush too. :)



*quoted from Stephanie Johnson's blog