The monkeys are gone! And we are on our way out

Praying our baby boy does lots of this tomorrow!!

And lots of hugging on his sweet "lovee" elephant

Praying he does NOT do this on the loooooooong car ride !!

Of course lots of this adorable smile-without the red eyes- is welcome to!!

I got rid of those silly monkeys in the background after about 10 tries!! I like this polka dot background much better. I am working on my blogging skills peeps!

We are heading out tomorrow to go look for houses in what will soon be our new state of residence. 9 hours and 8 kids = long car ride and of course 9,000 "are we there yet" and their other favorite "what state are we in". We go through 4 states to get there and they know that every time we are in another state we are getting closer. This started after we said stop asking are we there yet. You got to love the creativity!! Really all the kids are good travelers and the TV in the car(big giant van) is a lifesaver. We have not traveled this far with the baby yet and this will add on atleast an hour because we have to stop so he can nurse. I have been known to get desperate to get where we are going and I will lean over his car seat and nurse him,but I really hate to do it as it is unsafe and terribly uncomfortable. But there is that moment when desperate times call for desperate measures!!

We will be On the road in 8 hours- NEENEE and PAPPY HERE WE COME!!!!!!!

RETURN TO BLOGLAND!!!!!!!!

We have grown by 2 feet!!!!! And we are all SMILES!!!!!

And sooooooooooooooo HAPPY!!!!

OUR FAMILY NOW HAS 8 KIDS AND NOT 7!!!!

2 sweet girls & 6 strong boys !!!!!!

ONe VeRy BIG BeLLy ThAt HeLd OnE BiG BaBy
BOY!!!!


wE haVe OnE HaPpY LiTTle SisTeR

PrAcTiCiNg BeInG a MaMa!!!!!!!!!!!!

OnE LoViNg BiG sIsTeR ThInKiNg sHe Is A Mama!

2 AdOrAbLe LiTtLe BoYs LoViN a LiTtLe BrOtHeR! AnD OnE BeAuTiFuL BaBy BoY At ThE

CeNtEr Of It ALL!!! Bennett Levi Nicaud

Means "Little blessed one"

" Joined in Harmony"

After a long break and many requests I am returning to blogland!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOO much has happened since my last post so here are just a few-

#1 (and the best one) we are now a family of 10( 8 kids plus one mom and one dad)---- Bennett Levi Nicaud made his debut into the world on Jan.8 2009. He was born via home birth over 2 weeks late and weighing in at 10lbs 5oz. and 22 inches!! He is such an awesome,wonderful,beautiful addition to our family. He was quite a surprise and we are beyond blessed to have him!!! He is one adored and loved little baby. His siblings love on him and talk to him all day long!

#2 We are very soon moving to another state and it starts with a "T" and ends with an "e". We are so excited and so are my parents-they live there already!

#3 all the kids are 1 year older-easy to figure out that one out. They are now:

Matthew 11

Tristan 10

Rhett 8(almost 9)

Liliann 6

Wyatt 4

Isabella 3

Sebastian 2

Baby Bennett(as he is so affectionately called)-2 months

We are loving life and are blessed beyond measure!God has been so good to us and has grown us so much spiritually over the past year.We have watched our older boys starting to turn into little young men. We have watched the little boys grow from babies to toddlers and we have watched the girls blossom as we have now been home with them almost 2 years. When I watch them all together sometimes I am so filled with joy I feel like my heart could burst!Best of all we now have another sweet baby to love!

I am happy to be blogging again and my goal is to try to post once a week,even if it just a few pics. I am trying so hard to not be a perfectionist about this. I delay posting until I feel like I have it just perfect-which is never for someone who is very blog illiterate!! I have been inspired by some many awesome blogs I follow and I really want to keep this to document our lives. I take a ton of pictures,but I am not a big scrapbooker. I would like for this to serve as my scrapbook/journal.

*With all the blogs styles I think I need to check into getting a face lift for my blog. If anyone has any suggestions for a blog make over person-let me know.

Please leave us a comment and let us know you stopped by-the comments are way down at the bottom of the post and I can not figure out how to move them up.

School time

A total "deer in the headlights" kinda look~"oooh these are only for scooping"

10 minutes later-"Oh,these are not for playing baseball,I thought I could pitch these."

Liliann and Wyatt working so nicely(and cutely)!!

The 5 "bigger" kiddos on the first day of school.

We home school and we launched back to school 2 weeks ago. Liliann and Wyatt are doing preschool/Montessori home school this year and they are so much fun. I love teaching my kids;but I especially love the pre-k/kindergarten stage. Everything is so new to them and they look forward to school everyday. Sebastian and Isabella don't officially"do school". They do love singing songs with us and sit in for story time. Sebastian has added some new items to his diet since school has started. He loves the taste of colors and playdoh. We have now relocated those items to the higher shelves! Matthew's favorite subject this year,as in years past, is history. He knows soooooooooooo much about world history,American history,and geography. He loves it so much that he reads history books in his free time.Tristan's favorite is science and he loves to do experiments and projects on his own. Rhett LOVES LOVES art and is awesome with drawing and because of this, his handwriting is excellent(much better than mine). I have them journal every morning and he always draws a perfectly illustrated picture to go with the journal entry. The big question with homeschooling is "how do you do it?" We are not perfect and I have my "what was I thinking days?"but, my kids get lots of one on one with any area they are struggling with and they are also free to spend extra time on the subjects they enjoy. Most days they are a joy to teach and I get to be here to watch those "light bulb moments". We spend a lot of time reading both alone and together and that is my favorite part!!Homeschooling may not be for everyone,but it is definitely for us!!

Another one of my favorite quotes-

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I-

I took the one less traveled by

and that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost~

Favorite fotos Friday and a trip down good ole memory lane.

Sebastian,me,and the girls on our visit trip to Guatemala in October 2006.

Sweet little Rhett Easter egg hunting in 2005.

Matthew 2 years ago missing most of his teeth and so proud of his creation.

Tristan heading downhill on his bike. His face has changed so much and this was only 2 years ago.

Matthew being "cool" in his pose in front of a fighter jet at the USS Alabama park.

Sebastian way too sleepy to finish eating!

Wyatt playing dress up at my Mom's house.

Liliann with my brother Bradley. This pic was taken 2 days after we got home from Guatemala.

Well another blogger started this FFF (Favorite foto Friday )trend so I am joining in. Even though I just did a post with my favorite pics I don't want to be a party poohper with FFF,so here we go!!!

Of course I can't do only one foto so for me it is favorite fotos Friday. I love all these old photos.I thought the kids had changed a lot on my last set of pics,boy look at the difference at the older boys 2 years ago. They went from babies to boys. The girls on our visit trip just about a year ago..they look so different then. I am so happy to be the Mom to these 7 precious kids,even though there are days I am pulling my hair out, I would not have it any other way!!

Collection of some of my favorite photos from Guatemala-now

In the Atlanta airport finally all back in the USA. Almost at the end of our very long day!!!

The 3 big boys posing like "tough guys" after they hiked Volcano Pacaya with Daddy. It was the last of their many adventures before we left Guatemala.

The 3 musketeers!! I looooooooooooooooooooove those faces!!!!

Playing in the grass and Mommy had to get a picture. I love the "cheese" face Isabella is making!!!

Home in the USA and all dressed up for our first day back at church. The older boys decided that Sebastian needed a hat and glasses!!!

Rhett celebrated his 7th birthday in Antigua. Daddy really seemed to like the batman pinata! It was a very fun day!!! The biggest hit was the waterballon fight!!

Easter morning in Antigua.

Casual picture of me and the kiddo's hangin out at the house we were staying in Antigua.

January of this year-an attempt to get a good photo and Wyatt was not happy. Wow they have all changed so much in just 8 months!!

Our first Christmas all together!! We were in Antigua so we dressed the kids up and went to eat at the Beautiful Santo Domingo hotel. What a wonderful day it was!!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend I was going through my photos from our time in Guatemala until now and kept coming across so many I loved,so I thought these needed to go on the blog. For the next few posts I am going to be putting up some oldies but goodies and then we will return to our regularly scheduled programming!! Oh my I am getting a little to corny here!! Looking at all these makes me laugh at how hard it is to get a good picture with everyone looking at the camera and smiling.

It also makes me miss Antigua and that season of our life.I miss the beautiful faces of the Guatemalans and the very simple laid back way of life there. I miss the beauty of the Volcanoes and the churches. I miss the friends we made,some who are already home and others who are still waiting to return home. I miss the fresh fruits and veggies and the bargaining for them at the market.I thank God for that time in our lives and how I much we all grew as a family.How desperately we would miss Matt,the times he was gone and then how excited we would be when we once again met him at the airport(all 7 times he flew back and forth).It made us all stronger and wiser. The 3 older boys grew into such little young men when we were there. They were so strong and handled it all with such bravery,even though they were ready to go back home.They learned Spanish better than me and embraced the differences of the culture. I remember feeling like the time would never come when we could return home and then it did.When I finally knew our journey in Guatemala was coming to an end I cried tears of sadness and joy at the same time. I am so thankful that we are finally home with our girls,but Guatemala still has a part of my heart. Maybe it is because I have so much adoration for a country who gave me 2 of the best blessings in my life and maybe it is because the country and its people taught me so many lessons I could never have learned on my own!!! I know the whole journey with all its ups and downs was all part of Gods grander plan.

Thank you Lord for this wonderful,crazy,complex journey of life.

Wow that turned into a long post over my photo browsing!!!!!!

Labor day fun

"I hope the fish isn't so big that it breaks my pole"

"WHAT we are out of cookies!!!"

Pure sweetness,love,joy,and happiness is the name of this photo!!

" Ya'll can do all the fishing,I would rather not get my pretty little hands dirty so I'll just enjoy my apple"

" I am finished with this fishing stuff. Now I can finish playing Mama to Sebastian."

" See Girls can catch big fish too!!!"

The faces of our oh so handsome fisherman!
Now we are reeling in the BIG ONES!!

Let the fishing begin!!!

" Mom we just want to have our picnic,no more pictures!"

We love our pb&j sandwhiches that Daddy made.

" Mom I don't want to take any more pictures,I want to fish."


We had a fun Labor Day ! We went to our local state park for a picnic and fishing. The kids had a blast and we caught 16 fish. Matthew loves to fish the most,as you see in the photos. He becomes very serious and focused. Rhett fishes a while and then goes around exploring for a while. Tristan fished and then walked around with his metal detector looking for "buried treasure". Liliann loved catching a fish and then she went back to mothering the little ones(her favorite thing to do). My Mom says my knickname as a kid was "Little Mother Hen" and it seems my daughter is just the same. Wyatt's favorite part was the picnic,the cookies and the food. He also had some fun walking around catching pretend fish in his net. Isabella loved watching but did not want to go near live fish or worms(she is such a girl). She and Sebastian happily snacked on animal crackers and apple slices. Sebastian also had fun looking at the boats going up and down the lake and kept making his adorable big wide opened eye oohhhh face. Matt (the Daddy) loved fishing with the kids and was soooooooooooo happy they caught so many fish. He said the Lord sent a school of fish to the pier. I probably have to agree,because the Lord does care about even the little things in the lives of his children. I hope in the file drawers of our kids brains this day gets added in the folder of fun memories. I know it sure will in mine and Matt's.

I love quotes and here is one of my favorites:

There are two ways to live your life...

One is as though nothing is a miracle,

The other is as though everything is a miracle.
-Albert Einstein

Dancing Baby boy