The Zoo

Yesterday we decided that because the boys would be beginning school soon we needed to have one last "summer fun day". So we packed up and went to the Toledo Zoo. I think we all had a good time - although by the end of the day we were all very tired. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Eli attacked by a polar bear

The boys seemed to have more fun on the statues

yes, he's tickling the tiger cub


That's a lot of monkeys!

2 Elephants - 2 boys

Ronie wanted to stay and watch the elephants!

Maddie woke up in the aquarium to watch the fish

Eli waving to the monkeys

The Zoo Crew

some tired out sooner than others

When we asked which animal the boys like the best we continued to get different answers. They couldn't pick just one. I think they all enjoyed our outing at the Toledo Zoo.

Is there hope for Maddie?

For those of you wondering how Maddie would do in a house full of boys!

Here it is!

I'm not sure there is any hope. The boys all thought she looked great in Eli's camo hat, espeically daddy. She is cute, but I'm trying to convince Ron that she will not be going on any hunting adventures as long as I have a say! Poor Maddie!

Canning

I remember growing up, one of my least favorite parts about having a garden was cleaning the beans. Well here I am with kids of my own and I still do NOT like to clean beans - the difference is, now I can get my kids to do it. They are still young, but give them a few more years and they will be pros. Ok, Eli might need more years than the other two, but he honestly stuck with me the longest today.

Ron and the boys planted the garden this year. And for the first picking of beans the boys helped. I did 13 pints last week. Last night Ron picked for 2 hours and today we canned 28 pints of green beans. There are more to do tomorrow, but it should only be about 14 more pints. Then we should have at least one more picking. I think we should be good on beans for the winter.

Madison Anne

Maddie will be 3 months old on Thursday. It doesn't seem possible. She is learning new tricks all the time. She has been rewarding us with adorable toothless grins for several weeks now. Ron and I love that she can get our eye from across the room and just break out into grins and smiles - a few giggles, but not a real laugh yet! Why didn't anyone tell me how much fun a girl is? She's great.
She is very obviously an Adkins. She looks like her brothers. We have heard mostly Eli from people around here (although I think that is because they have only seen Eli as a baby). Some have said she favors Nathaniel too. Although we remember her newborn picture was so much like Ronnie's. It's hard to tell who she will favor. But there is no denying she is an Adkins.
She loves all 3 of her big brothers and loves it when they stop to talk to her or sing or even today they began playing peek-a-boo with her. She was all grins.
Last week she went for her 2 month appointment (only about 3 weeks late - but that's how they do it here). She was 12.12 lbs and 24 inches. She is 80% for weight and 90% for length. (although that is compared to a 2 month old). That's pretty typical with how the boys were at her age.
She has begun cereal now. She seemed interested so we gave it a try. She has had it 4 nights now and does really well.



I think she is doing better than the boys did at this age, but Ron says she still makes a mess.

As I said, the boys love her. She is pictured below with Eli's most favorite Teddy! Nathaniel decided she should hold him. Eli allowed it long enough for a picture, but then quickly retrieved his most prized possession.

New tricks:

She loves to play on her "monkey mat". She will sit and bat at the toys and talk to them.

She is rolling a lot now and ends up going all over. She screams for someone to come rescue her and then rolls some more.

Maddie also loves to put her thumb and first finger in her mouth. None of the boys sucked their thumb, but I'm afraid she might be the first. She is constantly putting her fingers in her mouth.

Well I'm sure you're tired of hearing about our little girl. I could go on and on, but the main thing is the last 3 months have been fantastic! It's so much fun to have another girl around!

More to the picture

So this picture looks pretty innocent, but here is the true story.

Yesterday, Nathaniel got in trouble for swinging his golf club and hitting his brother (there was a little blood, but no serious injury). So part of his punishment was that he was not allowed to use his clubs for a week.

So being the very intelligent children that they are - Ronnie (who I don't have to remind you is the oldest) decided that today he would golf and because Nathaniel could not use his clubs, he could carry Ronnie's and be his caddy. And because Nathaniel is the 2nd born and will do pretty much whatever Ronnie suggests, he thought it was a brilliant idea!

Why should Ronnie get punished, by not being able to golf, when Nathaniel is the one who hit him?

Grandparents and Great-Grandparents

When we were little, we didn't always live close to my grandparents. So when we moved here, right at a year ago, I was thankful that at least for this stage in my children's lives they would not only be close to one set of Grandparents, but also to a Great-Grandpa and 2 Great Grandma's. We've tried to make it a point to visit them on a regular basis. (I'm sure not as often as they would like, but we are thankful for the times that we have).

So today, the kids and I were off to visit Granny and Gramps and as a bonus, Grandma and Pap would be there too! The boys love going to their house for the day and with Ronnie and Nathaniel beginning school next month, this might be the last time we all go for awhile.

Maddie enjoyed moving from lap to lap!

Pap and Maddie

Grandma Neff with Maddie

Granny and Maddie

The boys enjoyed...

Story time

Coloring time
And an Ice Cream Break
Some were messier than others!

So, I am thankful for days to spend with Grandparents and Great-Grandparents. We are praising the Lord for allowing us to be close to them during this phase in our life and trusting Him to guide us and lead us in the next phase!

Symbols of Love

It has been a dream of mine for years to be a mom. I was embarrassed to admit that dream when I was younger, but I really just wanted to get married and raise kids. That's why, on days when I get discouraged, Ron reminds me that I am "living my dream".

Part of that dream is my boys and Maddie too. They all show their love for me in different ways.

Ronnie is at the age where he doesn't feel he can say he loves me, but at night he will wisper "I love you", and turn my face to the side to kiss my cheek.

Maddie shows her love by those wonderful toothless grins she gives whenever we make eye contact.

Nathaniel and Eli - now they are a pair. They are close in so many ways.

Nathaniel began last year by picking dandylions for me. He would be so proud and would come in with an fist full of dandylions and tell me, "you can put these on the counter until they die". He has now graduated to clover. He loves to bring a fist full of clover to me and looks so proud when he hands it over. I kiss him and tell him that I love him and send him back outside for more adventures.

Well, now his little brother, Eli, has been watching these exchanges. So...he has begun to find his own Symbols. Eli began with sticks. He would walk around the yard and bring all the sticks he could find in as a gift for me. Then he graduated to pebbles. I had to put a stop to this and tell him that while I loved that he was bringing gift, the pebbles had to stay out in the driveway. Now today he has yet again graduated on to "better" gifts...grass. He came with a fist full and so proudly said, "momma, this is for you".

I love my kids. I love that my kids love me and I pray that they will always have a desire to give to others.

Family Camp

It has been over a week since I last wrote! We have enjoyed a wonderful week at Family Camp. The East Central Conference of the Evangelical Church (where we are members) meets each year at Taylor University for a week of Camp. It was a great week. We enjoyed catching up with old friends, as well as being challenged spiritually.

This year the boys were each in a different class. They did great! Eli cried every day when I dropped him off, he ran to me with a huge hug when I picked him up, and he was all grins while he said, "momma, I cried in class today". He was a tropper though and had his teachers read to him a lot! Nathaniel began his week with the K-6th class, but after the first day decided he would prefer the 3-5 yr class. He loved it and did great with 7 other boys and one girl in his class. Ronnie was the biggest suprise. He spent the week in the k-6th grade class and he was without a brother. He did good. He talked about his adventures and it sounds like he even made some friends, maybe even a girl.

I'm so excited for my kids to be involved in church camp. I'm so excited that they want to return and that they have fond memories year after year. Nathaniel told me tonight that he wants to go back again next year! Me too!

Even Maddie had a great time at camp. She rewarded lots of people with little grins, as long as momma or daddy was within sight too.

One of the best parts for me, aside from spending time with some great ladies who love the Lord, was the prayer meeting each morning. Jesus really met us in those times. Another great highlight was Maddie's dedication. It was the first dedication that had ever been done at camp. (more info and pictures on the dedication in an upcoming post)

One thing this year that was different is that we stayed with my parents. So the boys would go home from camp in the afternoon to Grandma's cookies

or a project with Pap. Additionally, my mom was keeping my brothers kids, so the house was hopping all week.

We ended the week by going to my Grandma Donna's 85 birthday party. The boys said they didn't know anyone else that was that old. (I don't think she was offended!)

So all in all it was a great week. A long one, but a good one. We are exhausted now as we try to get back into the swing of things at home, but as Nathaniel said, "we can't wait until next year".

Discipline

I debated even blogging about this. But then I thought, this is about the kids and our desires for the kids, so why not. Perhaps it will bringing about some discussion, I'm OK with that.

Let me begin by telling you a story. Some time ago, Ron and I had guests in our home for dinner. They had children and so we were sitting at the table eating and the kids were at a separate table. One of our children (I honestly don't remember which one), did something that was not acceptable (again, I don't even know what). Ron got his attention and told him to stop, then continued with our conversation. Ron looked over a few minutes later and discovered that he was again doing the same thing. So...Ron excused himself and took our son into another room to paddle him. When he returned, our company started in. "Why would you spank your son for such a minor thing?" "It wasn't that big of a deal". Ron's response was, "You're right, what he did was not a big deal, however, I didn't spank him for what he did, I spanked him for his disobedience."

He went on to explain. If we don't require our children to obey us now, how will they ever learn to obey their Heavenly Father and have a relationship with Him. Our desire, as parents, is to see our children in relationship with their Creator. We want them to have a deep and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If we don't give them tools now, how will they ever be in that relationship with him?

So, when we discipline our children it is not out of a desire to be in control of them or have some kind of power. We discipline our children out of our love for them. We want them to be obedient. We require them to be obedient to us now. Praying in our hearts that one day they will be obedient and discover all that Jesus has in store for them.

Hillbilly

There really are no other words! Maybe... cute Hillbilly!

Brakes and Breakfast

It has been quite a while now since we realized we needed brakes on our van, long before Maddie was born. So we finally got an appointment to have them fixed. This morning at 8am our van was to be in the shop.

Additionally, the boys had gotten gift cards to McD's from a friend when Maddie was born. We hadn't had a chance to use them yet. Since the mechanic and McD's are very close, we decide to combine the trip to take the van in with a treat of Breakfast at McD's.

In case you didn't know the boys favorite meal is breakfast. They can eat eggs, pancakes and bacon for any meal of the day and every meal if I will let them. So they were excited this morning when they got up and heard that we were going out to eat. Nathaniel wanted one of those sandwhiches with the "M" on them! It was a nice treat!

Maddie enjoyed her breakfast before the outing, so she decide to nap while we were out.

Just so you don't think all she does is sleep. She did wake up later and had fun playing with her mat.

Kids Names

I'm not sure if you do this with your kids, but on several occasions I have had discussions with the boys about their future families. We have prayed for future wifes and thought about where they might live right now. We have talked about children and how many there might be. I think it is a good practice for them to be thinking about things like this, espeically when they pray for their future families!

So today, we were talking about kids. After I explained that the boys could not be daddy's until they got married and there was a mommy, they began thinking of names.

Ronnie's list:
1 - Ronald Lee Adkins, IV
2 - Jonathan
3 - Moses
4 - Alicia
5 - Maddie

Nathaniel's List:
1 - Nathaniel Blake Adkins, II (he actually wanted the fifth, but I explained that a son of his had to be the second - not sure that sunk in)
2 - Elisha (not to be confused with his brother Elijah
3 - Ronald (like Ronnie and Dad)
4 - Simon
5 - Maddie

Eli's list:
1 - outside
2 - Nathaniel
3 - Maddie
4 - Paci
5 - water
6 - cars
I think he might be a little young to be thinking about these things, although he loved getting laughs from his brothers. His list continued on and on, but I listed the shortened version.

Thankfully all 3 will have a wife who will hopefully get some say on these matters. I was impressed though that all wanted a Maddie. They love their sister!

Summer Days!

I could tell when I woke up this morning that it was one of those days that I could just lay around and do nothing. I was tired when I woke up and there just wasn't much that was motivating me to get moving, well at least nothing motivating me that I wanted to do. I needed to make the weekly grocery run, do several loads of laundry and I had an outing planned for the kids this afternoon. So besides all of that - I could have easily stayed in bed!

But instead, I got up and got around to go the store with Eli and Maddie. It really isn't the most fun thing in the world to take a 2 year old to Wal-mart. Don't get me wrong, Eli is great. He doesn't ask for things or throw fits because he wanted something - he knows better! Instead he tries to make friends with everyone at the store. "Hi", "Hi", "Hi" to everyone we pass. And for some reason today we were lapping people so even they were getting tired of hearing "hi".

Just as we were pulling out of the parking lot and I was vowing to go back to my regular time of shopping - naptime; Eli says, "mom, can you sing 'Jesus Loves Me' with me?" Of course we sang not only "Jesus loves me", but also the "B-I-B-L-E" and "If Your Happy and You Know It" all the way home. You gotta love shopping with a 2 year old!

I had also planned to take all 4 kids to the Ruffers, some friends from our Farmer Church, this afternoon. They have a pond and the boys like to play in the sand. The plan was to go after naptime, so that everyone would be in a good mood and there would be some shade for Maddie. Things don't always go as planned, so after nearly 2 hours of trying to get some naps in - we gave up on naptime and headed out the door.

The boys began with t-ball, then building sand castles, hitting golf balls into the field and finally back to the sand and water. It really was a fun time and all 3 boys were worn out by the time we headed home.

Eli made time for a quick break too!

This started out as sand castles, but ended up as a water fight! I'm not really sure who won.

It's funny how boys can have fun with absolutely anything you put in front of them.

Even Maddie enjoyed a nap in the afternoon shade!

So, as I mentioned I could have stayed in bed today, but then I would have missed all this fun!

Girls, Girls, Girls

So, as you know, Maddie has been surrounded by boys since birth; well we decided it was time for her to meet some Girls. She's never met any of her 8 cousins (7 of which are girls). So Thursday afternoon we loaded up for a very quick trip to meet Cousins, Aunts and Uncles for the first time. First stop, the Circleville Adkins.

Casey and Maddie

Morgan and Maddie

Sarah and Maddie

Casey, Emmy and Maddie

The all had a great time and we finally got them all still enough for a picture. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get 8 kids, from 10 years down to 2 mo., to be still and look cute at the same time for a picture? I think we did pretty good!

From Circleville we left Friday morning to head down to Chillicothe to see the Neff side of the family. Maddie again had a girl to hold her an take care of her.

Terra and Maddie

The boys had so much fun between the pool, trampoline and their grandparents, great-grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. We did finally get them to stop and get a picture.

It was a very fast trip, but a good one. Now we just have to introduce Maddie to those cousins in Arua! She can't wait!