all I want is to feel this way

As you can see, we decided to get some updated SlaughterHouse pictures and here are the results. I love outdoors family shots! A big shout-out to our friend Josh Taylor who was behind the lens -- thank you Josh (and to his folks, who donated their woods to be our beautiful backdrop)! A couple of our children are unsure about the meaning of the word "smile" and so I think I will stop saying that during pictures and just instruct them to not leave. That seems much simpler.

girl, I'm gonna miss you

Beth took almost naked pictures of baby Judah

tried to turn Warren into Gene Simmons

took the kids on a picnic/hike with friends to our favorite park

conspired with Annie to pluck my eyebrows for the first time

and we're going to miss her so much!!! Thanks Beth for coming to visit, and we'll never forget that you (unlike another unnamed, yet younger sister) faithfully come keep us fussy VA sisters happy! We love you much!

why are you messing with me?

Warren loves to draw. Liam loves to bother him. More specifically, Liam loves to bother everyone, and Warren is just an easy target since he is usually sitting still. But despite the regular intrusions into his creative "personal space", Warren loves his baby brother and is amazingly patient with him....until his artwork is defaced by a wielded marker or crayon (a common occurrence in the SlaughterHouse).

and I think to myself, "what a wonderful world!"

I have to brag up my incredibly talented father-in-law, who blessed us with this beautiful painting as an early anniversary present! Vic has always been a wonderful artist, but has had much more time for his painting and sketching since he retired. Every now and then he sends snapshots of his most recent creations, and I have been faithfully whining to him that I didn't have any of his work on my wall...and that whining finally paid off ;-) Dave is frequently homesick for his native Pacific Northwest, and so I told Vic that I'd love a scene with Mt. Hood in the background, and I love this one with Lost Lake in view. Having this in my living room reminds me that of all the places I've lived and visited (that's a lot), the NW is my favorite. Despite some of the crazy people that live up there (no, not you Steph & Kevin!), Dave would love to move back someday, and I'd gladly follow.

all this and more...these are the finest hours

Just had a most excellent weekend in TX. A lot of you read the other blogs in the family, so have probably already seen pictures, and most likely better ones (due to the low-tech nature of my camera), but I posted the few good ones. We had so much fun, you can't even know. I stayed in my PJs a lot, jumped on the trampoline a lot, ate a lot, slept just enough to keep from passing out, and loooooved being with my family. I have 8 amazing sisters and brothers, and the best parents ever, and what is truly remarkable is that for our squabbles and differences, we like to be together and I won't lie (how's that Nate?), we are quite impressive. Annie and I flew together and I took Liam with me, who was concerned about all the strangers who pretended to know him and insisted on holding him, but not quite as concerned about the steady supply of Cheez Its, vanilla wafers, ice cream and coke. I think even baby Judah had some contraband, though I'll neither confirm nor deny that I was in the vicinity when the contraband was administered. Now that I'm home, I'm already pining for everyone, and now counting (literally...see ticker at bottom of my blog) the days until our trip to TN. Warrens are really meant to be together.

With "little" brother Nathan. sigh. when did he grow up???

one of our "9 kids" pictures

Dad, trying to impress us. it worked ;-)

when will you learn?

Now I can stop kicking myself for bad habits...that aren't so bad.

Busting the water myth

but can you blame me? I was only a kid.

The other day we were spending some time with our new friends, the Taylors, and those are days that the SlaughterHouse kids (and their mother) love. We were there for dinner and then a late evening of playing, came home, and the kids went straight to bed. In the morning, as the kids were coming down for breakfast, I noticed that Carrie had some stuff in her hands that she was trying to surreptitiously take to the table with her. I asked, "Whatcha got there, Sunshine?", to which she replied, "Oh, nothing...just some stuff I took from Caleb and Anna's house". Ok. What?? I told her to bring me her loot, and she lays out a crayon, purple ear plug (chewed by Liam already), blue marble, and a AA battery. Very nice. "So Carrie, why did you steal this stuff?" I figure she'll have a really good reason, and then I hear, "I was playing with it and decided to take it home". Oh good, I feel better now. We had a talk about stealing, and that if she does that again, she'll be pretty sorry. But I'm wondering if this is in the gene pool, seeing as how I have a couple nephews that had to have regular pocket checks and pat-downs every time they left someone's house. That's better to assume, because then I'm not to blame, right?

believe it or not, its just me

My lack of recent posts is once again attributable only to my inability (unlike other mothers-of-many that I know) to order my life and make sense of the constant chaos. When will I figure out how to balance all this stuff? And if the answer on the tip of your tongue is "never", please feel free to lie and say something more encouraging. Just a couple amusing things the kids have been saying:

Molly (who as you probably saw recently) has been drawing quite rabidly and it takes up a good portion of her time. After a spell of only horses, she is trying to branch out into other areas. One interest that has frustrated her is drawing faces/people, and so she's finally attempting to tackle it. Her Granny sent a book about drawing faces, which is a huge help, but is still requiring lots of effort on her part. So, the other day, after drawing a picture that was supposed to be Carrie, she quit in frustration, huffing and stomping (I'm sure your kids never do that), saying she was "terrible" and would never try again. We had a little talk about patience, practice, and the like. Her face brightens after a bit, she shrugs her shoulders and says, "Well Mom, I guess when I'm learning new ways to draw, I have to remember that after all, Rome wasn't built in a day". Nice.

In other funnies...

The kids have been obsessed with how many more days there are until Dave and I will again eat sugar (which we gave up for Lent), and keep reminding me that Easter is just around the corner. Henry decided just a couple days ago that he wanted to be on the "no sugar diet" (as he calls it), and told us that since Easter was only a few days away, he could handle it. We laughed. So this morning the kids got up for breakfast, freaking out because they saw boxes of cereal (a rarity in our house), and were trying hard to choose which they would eat. Henry spent some time looking, frowning a lot, and finally asked me, "Mom, tell me which ones don't have sugar!", to which I replied, "Don't worry, have whichever one you want". He insisted, "But I told Dad I wouldn't eat sugar, and I'm going to do it". So I pointed out the "healthy" cereals (ignoring trace sugars), like plain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat (not frosted) and Raisin Bran. He chose Raisin Bran, but as I was pouring it I noticed that this brand had sugar all over the raisins (how dumb is that?) and I told him, asking if he still wanted it. He thought a bit and said, "I don't think Dad will be mad if I'm on the 'little bit of sugar' diet". I agreed.

go ahead with your own life, leave me alone

Poor Liam quite often bears the consequences of having two older sisters. I'm sure he'll appreciate them a lot more when he's older....or something.

this ain't no dress rehearsal, I'm a very lucky girl

I felt like posting because Dave just made me a latte. And I love him. And I love his lattes. And for the record, when you go to Starbucks for a latte, you're getting rubbish compared to what Dave makes. Feel better?

who am I and whose invention?

Ok, showing off here a little. I'm not the best Mom at helping my kids be "great" at something...maybe because I'm not particularly "great" at anything. I tend to encourage them to do little bits of everything. But Molly tends to order her life according to current obsessions, and here is her latest. She has been drawing horses intently for about 6 months now, and this is her latest attempt. This is freehand!!! Maybe I'm so amazed because I cannot draw ANYTHING at all, but I think she's done a smashing job. Some of Grandpa Slaughter's genes are running through that girl, and I'm counting on her to make us rich someday (kidding). She asked me if I thought anyone would buy her pictures so she could raise money for our Tennessee trip in August...she said she'd make it a bargain at 10 cents per picture :-)

only happy endings, this we guarantee

Most Friday nights, assuming we don't have big plans (such as date night or an invite to a poker group), it's Family Movie Night at the SlaughterHouse. We try to pick a movie that will appeal to all or most ages, which can be quite a challenge. Dave makes homemade popcorn (no microwave garbage for us, nosirree!) and we hunker down with pillows and blankets for the feature film. Liam generally only lasts through 1/2 of the movie (if that) and then we put him to bed so we can relax. It's a fun family tradition that our kids look forward to, and remind us of throughout the week. From a recent FMN:

Liam being "one of the brothers".
Princess gets the most comfy spot.
Pretty sure she's faking. Drama, drama.

think of me fondly

Liam loves to kiss Judah. From the look on Judah's face, I'm not convinced that the affection is mutual, but we'll give it some time. When L sees J, he says, "Ooooooooh!" and then proceeds to poke him.

hit me with your best shot

This one is overdue, but I'm always a bit behind :-) So now you can see CJ's favorite job while she was here visiting us in December. She's a saboteur.

baby, baby, baby, baby, oh baby!

I went to see one of my bestest friends, Janelle (one of the Posse), in the hospital tonight. She just had her first baby, Elijah William, early this morning. I told Janelle that she is my hero....her water broke to begin her labor, and she delivered little Eli 49 hours later, with no c-section!! I'm so proud of her and know that she and Craig will be great parents to the new wee Banta. And I'm thankful that she lives close enough for play dates :-) Congrats to Janelle and Craig, and may God pour out His blessing on this new covenant child!

Eli was awake and wide-eyed the whole time I was there.
The happy Banta fam -- I love you guys!!
Despite lack of blood ties, I am Eli's favorite Auntie already. I can tell.

this one's for the girls

I know that after my meme you may be shocked that I actually quoted a **gasp** country song for my title. But since the whole point of this post was to show my sisters (who have been bugging me) my hair, it seemed appropriate. Annie trimmed my hair, colored my horrid gray, and then gave me side bangs. I was nervous about the bangs since I haven't had any since I was 18 or so, but I think she did a great job. And now I'm holding out a bit of hope that with about 80% of my gray going incognito, I might get carded the next time I order a drink. Please don't be a dream smasher.

I cried when I wrote this

Sisters are just the greatest accessories a girl can have. Aubrey was in town for about 3 minutes (or that's what it felt like) and we loved every nano-second. She, Annie and I shopped, watched in horror as a talentless bimbo was crowned Miss America, ate a lot of sugar, and then fussed when she left. **Sniff, sniff**

I make my confession, I make it in public

Evidently, these meme thingies aren't out of style yet, and so because I got tagged by my friend Jennifer, I will now attempt to come up with another few things about myself that you will want to know or at least not be sorry that I told you. So...here goes. The really important rules that you MUST NOT break are something like:

(1) Link to the person that tagged you. (2) Post the rules on your blog. (3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website

6 things...

1) My favorite food is red meat. Really.
2) I detest country music, and yes -- I will make fun of you if you love it, even if you are related (or coincidentally, married) to me.
3) My favorite movies are independent, black comedies. And if your husband hates movies b/c they are "chick flicks", then I probably do to.
4) I'm the only true Texas native on the A-team, which is the reason why y'all should not make fun of how loud I am and how much I talk.
5) The only red thing better than meat is wine.
6) Watching Miss America is not as fun without all 6 sisters together, and is definitely not as much fun when the only loser in the bunch gets the crown.

Since my mother already had the nerve to tag some of my best friends, I don't have many choices left. But I'll go with Janelle, Amy, Shelley, Bekah, Stephanie B and Stephanie G. You go, girls.

well, I'd want you here with me

Since we all spent the week sick while Mom was here visiting, this is the only picture I got of her with any Slaughter. Since Liam had changed the most since her last visit, I figured he was top priority for a Granny photo. And next time she visits, we'll be sure to take more. We still enjoyed Mom's time here, despite the bummer virus, and wish the visits could be more often. Texas is just entirely too far away...

Thanks for making the trip, Mom! The Virginia Extension of the Warren tribe misses you.

snow angel, snow angel

I had to share this picture of Molly's creation earlier today, in our backyard. We got about 4 inches of snow yesterday (whoopee!!!), and Molly quickly went to work on 2 very large snowmen (one behind her in the pic), and this super-cute dog. I love it! Too bad the bright sun and mid-40s are quickly killing them all. I'm guessing they'll "be back again some day" ;-)