Announcement

Some of you may already know this...

but Valencic baby 9 is on the way!

Our family adventure continues :) Christopher and this baby will be 19 months apart. Timothy will turn 3 right after this baby is born... and Michael will be 13 later that month.

We did find out we were NOT as far along as we thought. This is unfortunate, but good information to have. While we thought we were due mid October, this has been changed to early November. November 5th, to be exact. Another November baby... we've done this before. Or as Aunt Sherri predicts, a Halloween baby.

And here's the first photo op of our little beanie baby. He/she is already nicknamed "Rufus" after the hairless mole rat of Kim Possible fame, by Auntie Amanda.


Many many friends and family are "thinking pink" because Emilie will be 9 in 7 short days and family history is rooting for a girl. Aunt Sherri was 9 (or close enough) when she got her sister (me). The other 7 siblings are all brothers. Aunt Amanda was 9 when she got her baby sister (Ariana). The other 6 siblings are brothers. These kids have a LOT of uncles. This baby already has 7 brothers... and since Emilie has heard this story over and over again... she is hoping even more for a girl.

However, if this is a boy, she says she will be sad but love him anyway.

Either way, too early to tell. Wait until June and we'll probably find out.

Nathanael is 6!

I realized I only have one post in March, and with 2 birthdays in March that didn't make much sense.

Nathanael is our amazing 6 year old. He was born in the middle of the night in a small town hospital in southeastern Ohio, 6 years ago... ask me about it sometime haha.


Here he is with Samuel on a day they decided they needed to match. (Aunt Sherri bought these shirts for Michael and Benjamin, and yes, they are still in good shape lol!)

Nathanael has been reading for a year now, and loves to read the scriptures with the family. He also reads books but not as much as he likes reading aloud. He will read to Samuel (who is figuring out how to read, too now) and Timothy and Christopher, who all love it.

He reads books about planets and weather and animals and numbers. He says he is in 1st grade because he finished his Kindergarten books. Good enough for me.

He loves science and the Magic School Bus. He is a lot like Michael at this age in some ways, in other ways he is definitely his own person! He likes being a big brother and sleeping on the top bunk now.

He has "shark teeth" meaning he has his adult teeth coming in before his baby teeth are out... he hasn't lost any teeth yet but needs to soon!

His favorite things right now are Batman, Batman, and Batman... he had a Batman cake for his birthday, with a Batman candle from Aunt Sherri, and he loves fruit. For his birthday dinner we had blueberry pancakes :) and banana cake.



Here are some pictures from his birthday. He wanted to wear his Batman pajamas from Christmas for his birthday "party" with our family. He also loves Legos... that is a Lego Batman shirt (his new favorite) and Lego Star Wars Pajamas. He likes playing these games on our Playstation 2, as well as any computer game on the computer and word searches anywhere. He loves figuring stuff out! Happy Birthday Nathanael!

Our emergency preparedness adventure, so far

We've been really inspired lately to work on our food storage, 72 hour kits, etc, ever since last fall and before. We set a goal to get SOME sort of 72 hour kits ready by last General Conference (first weekend in October) and we do have a rudimentary kit that would keep us alive for 72 hours, all 9 of us.

Since then I've done a lot of research, received a large blessing in the form of another family's excess food storage, and really felt firmly led to make sure we have our food storage underway and meeting goals set by Tom and myself, involving the kids of course.

The research has been fun. There are so many ideas out there! Some will work for us and some don't, some I combine with others to make something that works for us. Two of our favorites are Food Storage Made Easy and Safely Gathered In.

So, we are reworking our 72 hour kits with help from several websites (see updated links on our blog), have fully met our goal of a 3 months supply of foods (see Food Storage Made Easy) we eat everyday and replenishing it as we can, and have a goal of 6 months of long term food storage (www.stockupfood.com) and are getting there, a little at a time. I currently have 250 more lbs of food with help from our ward food storage specialists that I need to repackage for long term storage. And we are ordering more, thanks to a tax refund and other financial blessings like paying off a long term debt we owed. As well as others.

I have a firm testimony of doing our part in what the Lord asks, and he will bless us beyond our capacity to receive it!!! Yet again this month this has been shown in our lives.

The kids' part in this is helping incorporate food storage items into our every day meals. They are not big fans of powdered milk, but after eating FOURTH helpings of tuna chowder, Samuel realized it had powdered milk in it and didn't care! Christopher's favorite food is food storage soup mix. He hated baby food and chows this stuff down like it's the best thing on earth, next to mom of course. Michael and Benjamin are learning to cook, and help make meals but their favorite is making cookies. The nice thing is, I can tell Michael, go start this, and he can, and Benjamin is bored, I say, go make cookies, we don't have any, and he can go do it all himself without a lot of help. Emilie loves helping make bread. Any kind.

Nathanael and Samuel help count cans and bags and boxes of cereal (their favorite form of food storage). Timothy just likes eating it. But he will stack cans and likes to hide in the pantry.

So that covers (from the Provident Living page...) 3 month supply, longer term supply, we are building a financial reserve... I started to wonder what we should do about the 4th item I felt we really needed to get in order... and that's water! What good is all the rest going to do if we have no water? So, we did our research. How on earth do you store enough water for 2 weeks (the ideal amount) for 9 people? We really didn't like the idea of 55 gallon drums... what are you going to do with those if you need to leave? We found an option we liked- 5 gallon mylar bags stored in boxes- and purchased it, and the kids are having a blast filling them... hehe. We call them the silver slugs in boxes. Yup. Precious resource! Today we found creative ways to store them without tripping over them. Michael and Benjamin moved them under their bed. Out of sight, not going to be crushed, and easily accessible. Each box can easily be moved and thrown into our van when needed, and easy to rotate too.

Wheat- I never wanted to buy wheat, because it made no sense to me to have wheat and not be able to use it. So, suddenly I HAD wheat, and didn't want to waste it. Then I found LOTS of websites on how to use wheat so my family was used to it. (Preparedness Matters as well as the others above) I already used whole wheat flour in our treats to make them healthier, in our pizza dough (a staple!) and in many other things, but now I was learning how to do other things with just the wheat and didn't have to have a grinder! (though, also with our tax refund, we are getting one...)

Oats- We LOVE oats here, but it costs so much and we are through one of those enormous canisters in no time... I was so thrilled to discover the Family Home Storage Centers and our ward ordering from them. I now have 50 lbs... and this isn't going to be all, we need to get more! My kids would eat Oats all the time.

Sugar. Easy to store, people laugh at how much food we store (it was weird to me to find that some people shop for a week at a time... or less!) and when we buy 50 lbs of sugar at a time they think we're crazy! (are we a day care or a hotel?)

Anyway, to sum it all up, we have been blessed abundantly and hope to pass on blessings to others. I wanted this information to be shared, and wanted to share the links that have helped us so far. I love the recipes I've found, the advice, the small steps and the large ones, the inexpensive food storage ideas (because that's what we need) but also looking at the fun expensive ones (window shopping!) (wow, a year's food storage without any planning, just point and click!) and then exploring links on these other pages and learning so much more!

Next step, gardening!

Samuel is 4 years old!

Sara is such a good example to me, she writes such great posts about each of her children individually. I have pages for each of them, but I only update them once a year or so, and I'm not even doing very well at that lately, so I decided I'd write a blog post for each at least on their birthdays. And... now that Samuel had a birthday... a month ago... this is about my 5th son and 6th child, Samuel James.

He was born almost 2 months after we moved to Texas. This was our baby who was supposed to be born in Pennsylvania... IN Punxsutawney, no less. (think Groundhog Day) He is now 4 years old. He started Sunbeams in early January, and is not liking it very much, mostly due to everyone expecting him to talk and interact when he doesn't feel like it, and having missed several Sundays due to family illness as well as his own. He did stay with his class the whole Primary time this past Sunday, though.

He loves playing with his brothers. He likes being allowed in the "big boys" new room and playing with Legos with them. He likes computer games, especially anything Blues Clues. He still loves Blues Clues movies best, but his other favorite is Star Wars Episode One with Darth Maul. He got a new computer game for his birthday as well as Cars cars, books, and board games.

He knows all his colors, shapes, letters, numbers, can count to 100 (could since age 2 when Nathanael taught him), can read about 20 words, and is just an amazing little guy. He loves his Preschool workbook, drawing, writing, cutting stuff up, and helping.

His birthday was fun. He chose to have chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner with pop to drink, and of course cake and ice cream.

Let's post some pictures of my big 4 year old. (I can't believe we've lived in Texas for 4 years!)

First Born

"Oh I tag anyone that reads this and has kids." Dang, I thought I was free from being tagged. J/K. This is from Erin. I think I also tag anyone that reads this and has kids.

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Define planned... all our kids are wanted, but planned by someone other than us.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes, had been for 5 months when we found out.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? We were really happy. We knew we were going to have kids as soon as possible and this was perfect.

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Never.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 21

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? I hadn't been feeling well and I had gained 5 lbs out of the blue. We got a blood test at the college student health center (BYU) but had to wait for results. That night we bought the "What to Expect" book. We found out the next day.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Tom and then our parents. Tim was one of the first, too, but we lived in the same house.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? No, but we knew. I was so sure he was a boy I would have told the doctor to check again if they had said "girl" when he was born.

9. DUE DATE? December 24

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not really. Similar to all my pregnancies, I only felt sick if I didn't eat. One night after work (we worked til 3 am) we went grocery shopping and I came home and got very sick. (didn't eat anything when I would have normally, right after work). Also, camping with Tim's school I got sick as well. However, I learn from this and try and keep something in my stomach all the time when pregnant. I do stay rather nauseated through the whole pregnancy... just didn't throw up unless I forgot to eat.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? With Michael, chips and salsa, and chocolate chips. I also ate stewed tomatoes straight from the can or jar.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? People touching my belly. Just because I was pregnant didn't mean my belly was public property. The older ladies didn't bug me, it was the other students at BYU that seemed to feel they could touch my belly. Weird.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No. Tom summed it up really well when he told me he couldn't complain about either... he could say, "This is my baby girl" and "This is my Son" with equal excitement.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? About 30.

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Nope. Not that Michael wasn't blessed with gifts from family and friends, just no baby shower until our 8th child. I think part of it was that he came a month early but he was born over Thanksgiving and he was due over Christmas break... no one was going to be around anyway.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? No baby shower :)

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No, other than my water breaking at 36 weeks, no.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Provo, Utah

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? Water broke about 8 am, called the doctor's office... they started to induce me about noon and he was born at 7:11 pm. So between 6-7 hours, I do not remember when things really started.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Tom

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Tom, my doctor, the nurse, and emergency support personnel.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-Section? Natural. We were close to a C-section which is why we were moved to surgery with support, but the doctor was awesome and we delivered... everything was fine. He did use forceps. I would prefer the forceps to a C-section if there is a choice.

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I did have an ill-advised epidural. (It was given when I was already at a 7... if I had known this, I would not have agreed to it. Michael reacted to it badly and it made things go slower) It was actually given to counteract something they had given me previously that I had a bad reaction to. I learned... We've only done an epidural once since, with a difficult induction, and that was also a mistake. Never again. For me, things go better without.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 5 lbs 7 oz, he was 4 weeks early.

He hardly added any weight to the car seat. He was under 5 lbs when we brought him home.

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? November 27th at 7:11 pm

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Aaron Michael Valencic

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 12 years, 2 months and um 9 days.

Fencing class

This is Tom interrupting your irregularly scheduled blog updates to post some pictures that Tabitha took of Michael and Benjamin at their second fencing class. Looks like they're really having fun so far...

Michael and Benjamin in their "jackets"

Michael with jacket, mask, glove, and foil

Benjamin with his stuff


Michael-action shot (he's the shorter one-the older students in the advanced classes help out)


Benjamin (way in the back..he's also the shorter one in this photo-see caption for Michael's picture above)

Review of 2008 :)

Took this from Sara's blog... thanks Sara :)

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Quit a job, take a long trip (k, wait, I've done that before) by myself with the kids (yep, that too) take "maternity leave", and probably lots of other things... sent a child to activities by themselves... interesting year!

2. Did you keep your New Years’ Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't really make any resolutions, the goals I made I didn't quite keep. (finishing Nathanael's stocking, stressing less was better... working out was better... I think this coming year I will try and worry less and do more with the kids and my husband. I know we already do a lot, but what is more important?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yup! Myself, a friend in Colorado, a friend in New Jersey, a sister in law in Missouri, a sister in law in Oregon, some friends here too. One the same week as me in the same hospital! Isn't a new baby a miracle? We had Christopher in March.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes. Not close personally, but someone I saw a lot. Our OBGYN died in August. He delivered Samuel, Timothy and Christopher. It was sad news.

5. What countries did you visit?

Just the good old USA, and we saw a lot of it this year. We drove all of route 40 from Texas to California, and meandered through the rest of the west as well, on the way home.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Time to enjoy my family. Better finances, but it could always be better, right? Time to see our extended family as well.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 2008 when my daughter Emilie was baptized and Christopher was blessed. My parents and grandmother were able to be here. We also got a 12 passenger van.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting through the year? Driving by myself to New Mexico with 7 kids? Driving from California through Utah and Colorado to Texas by myself with 7 kids? Getting the kids excited about Math? Helping Nathanael learn how to read? I am happy with all my family has accomplished this year and am happy to have had some small part in each of their progress.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not trusting my Heavenly Father more.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Not really, though I have some aches and pains that I can't explain? We all got sick a few times.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Our 12 passenger van. Maybe the laptop, too.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Michael got his 1st class in Boy Scouts as well as multiple merit badges. Benjamin earned his Bear and arrow points. Emilie made a hat, a pillow, learned how to bake, and has developed into a great reader. Nathanael is reading well and writing too. Samuel learned how to use the computer and write his name. Timothy said a word, can get on the counter himself, and help throw away stuff. Christopher learned to crawl, clap, roll over, and kind of stand. Tom got a promotion and fixed the bath faucet. I'm stressing less and we're all getting our food storage going better. We're doing better with scripture study and family prayer (more like daily now than ever before!) We're eating healthy. We're working together. The whole family is worth a celebration!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

You know, I don't think we'll go there. Let's focus on the positive. Let's say noone I know in person :)

14. Where did most of your money go?

Mortgage, debt, and Walmart (groceries are good!)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

12 passenger van, trip to California, and kids learning :)

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

"If the Savior Stood Beside Me"
Click link to see, click here to hear.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?

happier

ii. thinner or fatter?

lol, thinner. I was 6 months pregnant last January!

iii. richer or poorer?

slightly richer?

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

playing with the kids, reading with the kids, reading my scriptures, serving others

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

worrying.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

happy spending time with my children and husband. playing, mostly :)

21. What online users did you meet?

None. I've met some before but did not meet anyone this year.

23. What was your favorite TV program?

We watched a lot of TV on DVD. Psyche, Eureka, Numb3rs, we love 24 and are anxiously awaiting the new season...

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don't think I hate anyone. Not worth the energy. Sure, some people annoy me, some people do things that are downright despicable, but hate? No.

26. What was the best book you read?

The Book of Mormon? I reread a lot of books, the best new book I read was Brisingr, Beedle the Bard was interesting... I'm reading Neal A. Maxwell's biography.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

A capella groups on youtube and elsewhere. Just great. Here's a favorite. Moosebutter is awesome.

28. What did you want and get?

A big van that fit all of us :) A happy baby. A good year with us.

29. What did you want and not get?

More for Emilie than me, but a baby sister for her. I'm good. She may get a sister one of these days. That's all I can think of. That I will post about anyway lol.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

Wall-E, I love anything Pixar.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Taught in Relief Society, went visiting teaching, kids stayed home sick with Tom... had cake and chicken broccoli, was a good day. Other than sick family, that is. Oh, and I was 34.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Snow. That stuck.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

Jeans, t-shirts, worn out tennis shoes.

34. What kept you sane?

My husband and kiddos. I like Sara's answers, scriptures, prayer, the computer. My sister.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

None

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

Prop 8 in California.

37. Who did you miss?

I missed my extended family. I got to see a lot of family on my trip though. Not one of my sisters in law or one of my nephews, but everyone else! It was very very cool.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

My son. My niece in law? What would you call your nephew's wife? haha. My sisters coworkers. New members at church.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

Stress less, enjoy more time with your family. I guess trust our Heavenly Father a lot more and things always work out. Look for the good in people.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Shoulder to Shoulder from Pooh's Heffalump Movie

"I think I feel more like myself
When I'm with you..."

listen here

Christmas pictures

Just a post to share kids at Christmas...

Christmas Eve and Santa Claus...

Christmas Eve PJs...

Christmas morning fun...

Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a wonderful, relaxed Christmas here.

Other than being violently ill the weekend before. Oh, and teaching on my birthday. Oh, and a last minute Christmas activity on Christmas Eve up at the church. We did enjoy going for a drive and seeing Christmas lights when we all felt better. And Santa Claus needs to come earlier in the night so Mom and Dad can get some sleep!

After Christmas, Dad took Friday and Monday off so he had a 5 day weekend. We completely rearranged the kids' rooms so Michael and Benjamin now have their own space separate from their 4 little brothers. Mom and Dad are now in the old boys' room. The 3 younger boys minus Christopher have Mom and Dad's old room, Michael and Benjamin share the laundry room with the laundry (but the rest is all their own space!) and Emilie is back in her room on her own. The whole house feels like it has more space. The GeoTrax now have a home in the little boys room and not in my family room hehe. Timothy is in a toddler bed instead of a bunk bed but we think he's ok with that. Other than almost falling off while asleep last night... hmmm.

It was a ton of work moving 2 sets of bunkbeds and a lot more furniture besides, but we were done by yesterday evening and had a lovely anniversary dinner. 13 years!

Life is good.

Here is a picture of my family last Sunday. New Christmas sweaters on the little boys. Michael's suit he got for his birthday. Benjamin with a new-to-him suit coat. Emilie with a Christmas dress and sweater. Tom with a Christmas tie. And I'm behind the camera. This is at our church building right before Sacrament meeting... I knew there was no way we'd get this after church!

Christmas is coming...

Which usually means ornaments coming off the tree, packages waiting to out in the mail... Little People Nativity set spread all over the house (hey, at least the kids know who goes where!), secrets being kept (mostly) and good smells of cookies... wait, I haven't baked any yet. School stuff finishing up (yeah, homeschoolers get vacations too!) Christmas music and movies, Christmas countdowns on the wall...

(we have 4 of them from the Friend going right now... it gets to be a lot but it definitely has helped our family focus!)

Here are the links...

Benjamin and Samuel picked THIS one.

Michael picked THIS one to do with Christopher. Our family has done this one before. You also need this page.

Timothy didn't really care, but we think he's doing this one with Emilie. This is one we put on cardboard and do every year.

Nathanael is doing the one from this year's Friend, with Dad's help. Here is the link if you would like to print it.

Another idea is to look at past December's Friends and look through the table of contents.

I love that the Church magazines are online.

Last night was Family Home Evening. We didn't really do anything Christmas related but played the game from last month's Friend and read scriptures together. Treat was M&Ms :)