Haircut

Oh and I cut my hair all off. I donated 14 inches to locks for love and had another two or three inches cut off to style it.

Awanas Carnival

Last night was the annual awanas carnival here are a few pics to highlight the night. Joshua was Mario (from the video games) and Gabriel was Luigi (from the same games) and Zaccheaus was a train conductor. Elizabeth was dressed in a onesie that said cowgirl in charge and had a little stuffed horse w/ her, but she was asleep the whole time and I didn't get a pic. I'll have to recreate it for you all a put it on here later. :-)

dr appts

oh i forgot to mention that during all the chaos that is our lives josh and i had some dr appts to make sure we are in good health, now that we have real insurance. my doctor was a little concerned that my thyroid felt swollen and i have a family history of thyroid problems, so he sent me off for some lab work and an ultrasound of my throat. both came back showing everything was normal YAY! so no medications or treatments will be needed. the nutritionist at wic was telling me that a vitamin D deficiency can cause a slightly swollen thyroid, so she suggested that i start taking vitamin D3. she was saying it is actually really good for every women in the pacific northwest to take that because of our lack of sun exposure. in addition women who are nursing are notorious for having low levels and people who don't drink milk also have low levels, so as you can probably sum up on your own i have many factor contributing to that vitamin deficiency. she also suggested i have some blood work done to check my vitamin levels, but i'm not one to volunteer to be poke w/ needles, so i'll just get the pills and start taking them.
josh also went into see the doc and just had some lab work done. just the lipid panel that checks your cholesterol and all that. Everything checked out ok except his good cholesterol was a little low. other than that and being a little over weight (we both are :-( ugh!) he is perfectly healthy. so, now we are both kinda dieting and walking more. josh isn't really dieting, but i'm changing what i make for him and the portions that i serve to everyone. so, he's dieting by force i guess you'd say. on the good side of things i'm 30 lbs lighter than I was before getting preggers. when i got really sick back in january i lost 20 lbs gained it all back plus 1 lb from the pregnancy, but I've lost thirty again since delivery two months ago. so yay for me. i would still like to lose another 20 lbs, but am not stressing over it too much. i know it will happen with just the few changes we have made in our habits. and the fact that i can't eat icecream anymore. LOL

Update

ok, so i know it's been a long time since i updated this so here we go....

we've been super busy lately we have church and evening sunday school each sunday. tuesdays we have classes through our church where i get to do a book study, the younger two are in nursery and the older two get to go to a cef 5 day club. wednesday is awanas and fridays we usually have some sort of appointment to go to. on top of those things we have the day to day stuff like homeschooling, grocery shopping, cleaning, josh's school work and actually spending some time having fun together. it's been kinda chaotic the last couple weeks. i feel like things are calming down now, but i know it won't last long w/ the holidays just around the corner.
i (crystal) am really enjoying the book study i am in. we are reading holiness by grace by brain chappel. it's a really good book, just make sure if you read it you don't have all your little munchkins running around. i find that i need it quiet. so that i'm able to focus on the words more. it's not the kind that you can just quickly read through, you have to think and study what you are reading. which i like.
the boys are doing really well in awanas. joshua is into his third book of sparks and gabe has just moved up into sparks. cheaus is in cubbies now, too. he knows his verses. but won't say them for his teachers. he's so shy at first. i hope he warms up to them and does better there.
josh built us a new computer, so the boys get to use the old one for school. i guess josh needed one w/ more ram and other stuff to do the programs he has to use for school this year. so, the apartment is all turned upside down again trying to figure out where to fit the two computers and all their accoutrement's. this place seemed so big when we first moved it (more than double our last apartment), but we're starting to feel a little cramped after setting up all of Eli's stuff and all the other stuff that we've purchased or had given to us. i'm seriously considering just starting to go through every room and start chucking everything we don't absolutely need. now if i just had the time for that everything would be nicely organized instead of a mess like it is now. LOL
i realized that i never put pics of our place on here. i should do that soon. again, as soon as my online album is accessible again.