Jacob Quote

As Jacob opens his stocking on his 3-year-old Christmas:

Jacob: "WOW" "I wanted this for Christmas"

Me: "Do you like it Jacob?"

Jacob: "Yes"

Me: "Do you know what it is?"

Jacob: "No."

Visions of Sugarplums

The season of wonderment has come and gone and I finally have time to update my pictures and blog. My first notice is to inform all interested that I now operate off of a Macintosh computer! My husband bought me an iMac for Christmas and not only has it sped up my computer power, it has given him an opportunity to learn Mac so he can service more computer clients!

I am posting just a few pics of our Nov/Dec activities, then I will try to focus on one activity at a time.

1. First pic. Lizzy LOVES hideouts and forts, so we found her

a treehouse tent. She and Jacob and Leah will have MANY happy times in this tent!!! Isn't it ado

rable? Thanks to Papa and Grammy who bought it

for her(them) for Christmas.

2. December 16th was Gingerbread house day! I will post lots of pictures of those. Here is the finished work, though. 4 gingerbread houses for 5 kids.

3. Sarah's birthday was November 19th. We officially have a 10 year old!!! We spent the day at Lion Country Safari with our cousins! On the 20th I took her and her friend Hannah to Wannado City where kids get to do the jobs and earn fake money and get to use ATM cards, etc.

4. All of the cousins(except Gabriel who was asleep in the carseat). From front to back: Zanna, Rachel, Lizzy, Naomi, Jacob, Leah, Sarah, Isaac and Daniel.

5. Big brother Dan. We have pictures of Daniel doing this with every baby since Lizzy was a newborn. That would make Gabe the 4th baby for Dan to play with under the baby Gym! He is so sweet to little ones, but also gets along so well with older boys. It really pays to have a sweet spirit!!

More to come!

A few bits of fun, before the pictures download

The holiday season is in full swing and with my youngest turning 3 months today, it is time I did some blogging! Thanksgiving was a special time for us around the Wragg table. We seated approximately 37 people at dinner with 3 babies not included! The Garry and Beth Wragg family joined us from Oxnard, CA, and the Stitzinger family from Naples, FL. We also included Dr. George and Judy Zemeck and their AR friend. I think there were 17 kids! Thankfully, Jerry and Louise have a bigger yard than house, and the weather was beautiful-somewhere in the high 70's, low 80's! It is tough living in Florida!
So far this season, Sarah, Daniel and Lizzy have sung all the nights of the church's Christmas Cantata and tonight they are caroling at the elder's homes! We did our annual Gingerbread House decorating with cousins and learned that next year, we'd better make it a competition. Isaac and Dan (8 year olds) pretty much destroyed their homes to the point where they are messier than the 2 - 4 year olds! At one point I heard something about tarantulas on the roof and someone dying in a throw-up related incident. After all the time Amy and I put into home-making the houses out of gingerbread, the boys are going to make much neater houses next year! (pics to come!!!)
On Tuesday we got our Christmas tree at our usual place: Home Depot. It was surprising to the see the tent was 1/2 as big as all the year's previously! I guess it is the recession and economy. In years past we have had one child have the privelege of the final tree say-so and choice. I realized, though, that with 6 kids, they will rarely have the choice before they move out! So, we changed it to boys one year and girls the next. Dan and Jake got to pick this year and Gabriel had a tree fall on his carseat/stroller when I wasn't even looking! Thank goodness for the carrier bar or he would have felt the needles! And where was mom when this happened? Holding up two trees for the boys inspecting and getting sap all over me! Dan picked the one he liked and then we asked Jake. He said, "It's PERFECT!" which was hilarious because he is only 3. I didn't even know he knew the word "perfect!" When I asked if he was sure, he bobbed his head up and down quite vigorously! WE LOVE 3 year old Christmas! Marc cut the tree when we got home and strung on the new faceted LED lights(yeah! New lights!) and I hung the beaded garland. As the kids hung ornaments on the tree (with 6 kids, who needs parents to do this job?) I recalled how last year, when Jakey was 2, he threw the ornaments at the tree! It was a funny memory! This year he just loved "decorating" and asked me to do it more yesterday-so I gave him a few leftover ornaments! On one branch alone I found 4 ornaments all just hung, one after the other! We had one ornament break this year, but I hadn't bought it. I KNOW not to buy glass ornaments with a tile floor, but Dan had made it at a craft class. . .
Today is the kids last day of Latin class so they are having a Grace Homeschool Connection Christmas party. They were all drooling over the mint double frosted brownies I was making last night. . . they wish I would make these things just for us to enjoy!
Monday I made jam and gingerbread, so my neighbor't treats baking day is still uncompleted. My parents arrive tomorrow night, so there is still much to accomplish. My success this year was being 100% done with my shopping before we hit the teens of December! That felt so good! THere was a lot to buy . . . with 6 kids!
My greatest joy, however, was to find the Playmobil Nativity set at a consignment shop! In this season, I definitely want to encourage the kids hearts towards Christ and the "Reason for the Season." We are doing and advent calendar and a countdown calendar this year and I see the countdown calendar overshadowing the usual Bethlehem scene we do each year. Getting the Playmobile nativity will help refocus them along with our nightly readings for our advent wreath on the dinner table. Sarah was reinacting the whole story with the wise men and holy family. We have all the gifts for Jesus, the animals and even two cats and a 3 piece woodpile! He he!
I will update this blog with pictures soon, but in the meantime, may your time of advent and Christmas be truly special and God blessed this year!

Gabriel-8 weeks

Gabe, Green, God and Great Gramma

Gabriel was given this cute onesie as a baby gift from some new friends at church. It says, "When God created me He was just showing off." So cute. I wanted a picture of him in it and got Gramma Sally to be in the picture with him! He is about 1 month in this picture, though now he is 7 weeks and has the fattest little cheeks!!!

Gabriel Is 1 Month Old Already!

Mr. Gabriel is officially 1 month old! I really am amazed! The pregnancy flew so now, of course, his LIFE is starting to proceed quickly! Life with 6 is a constant and busy beehive of activity, thus I can't just sit and stare at his handsome little self very often! At two weeks he had gained a pound over his birth weight. Now as I weigh him with me on the scale he is up 2 1/2 pounds! He has been attentive to his little lion toy that you can see in the bassinet picture. He has reached for it several times which is pretty early for a baby. Today he smiled while WIDE awake and being held by Jacob. He wasn't looking at anyone in particular, but it was adorable, of course!

They Say the Darndest Things

Dan: "Mom, Is your milk like the milk with the red lid?"

Dan again: "I just want to get a look at Gabriel's adorable face" (He knows the baby is said to look like him)

Dan again: "Mom! The fish is on the floor!" When our Betta fish, Cotton Candy, decided to leap out of the bowl and I had to pick it up and rescue it!

Jacob: "On Wednesday, we decorate, please?" (For Christmas, mind you!) (Everything is Wednesday with him!)

Leah: "whant hold babyol" (She calls Gabriel "Babyol" and climbs up on the couch and puts the Boppy pillow around her waist)

In Praise of Grandparents!!

My mom arrived to help me 6 days before my scheduled induction. My dad came 3 days later. The truth of it is, my parents come here to Florida 4 times a year for 2 weeks each time-give or take on some trips. They figure once they have flown 3,000 miles and changed 3 hours of time zone, they may as well stay for a while! We estimate that they spend more time with us and our kids than they do with my brother and his kids who live 35 minutes away from them in California! I guess it was a good thing we moved so far away.

Anyhow, my parents came early because they know that a 9 month pregnant woman loses steam at the end! They wanted to help me with the kids before as well as after Gabriel's arrival. What a HUGE blessing they were to us! My mom went early (5:45a.m.) to the hospital with me since Marc was willing to stay home and sleep in our stead, then get the kids over to the sitters for the labor and delivery. Because I was delayed at the hospital, my dad actually took the kids to the sitters by around 9:30 a.m., they he and Marc hung out at the house until we called at 11:30 a.m. for them to come since the induction had begun! My parents rubbed my back and encouraged me all through the longest labor of my life, brought me Starbucks each day (including fall pastries!) and brought the kids to visit (since Marc had to get back to work.)

Normally, our home runs on several schedules. We have school schedule, food schedules and chore schedules. My parents jumped into those and did them the best they could with flexibility. The did such a good job! When I got home from the hospital they continued to play with the kids, make the meals (when one wasn't delivered from someone at church), care for me, hold the baby, take the kids out on dates, errands and shopping trips. They went to the grocery store and Costco repeatedly and my dad even worked on our mortgage issues for us with our loan company! Dad took the kids fishing and did a 12 item long "Daddy-Do" list that I had waiting for him! Mom diced up fruite and veggies for the kids in ways I never do-what a blessing for their health! They put up with all the kids ups and downs, crabby 1 1/2 year old, crying 3 year old, pestering 5 year old, and kept the 8 and 9 year old on task. They were caring and patient (honestly, it can be quite trying to the patience to have that many kids at home 24/7) loving and completely serving! Servants really is the term that described how they acted while at our house for 2 weeks. They served all 8 of us in every and any way they could. They deeply love Marc and I and every grandchild that we have now given them! They feel almost as blessed as Marc and I do that God has sent these 6 amazing personalities into our lives.

My parents deserve some praise and I am happy to post it here that they are the best grandparents in the world and they are a blessing to us in so many ways, both temporal and eternal! I love you dad and mom!

Welcoming Gabriel Marc Wragg

Gabriel is here at last! I cannot believe my pregnancy days are over! We were supposed to induce him at 6 am. on Wed, Sept. 16th, but there was a miscommunication with the hospital and they had to keep me waiting in the recovery room until almost noon waiting for an open delivery room. My Doc didn't want to start an induction on a sixth baby in the recovery room, just in case I went fast. In the end, she could have started it at 6 am, because the labor took the other approach and went longer than any other I've had! I progressed very slowly throughout the day and even Marc's grandma had to head home to get some sleep because she couldn't make it through. Sadly, she didn't make the birth! My parents and Marc hung in there for the long haul and around 1:30 in the morning on Thursday I was finally complete and ready. My doctor, on the other hand, was home in bed. I have never had to wait to push before so that was a whole new experience and I ended up feeling like a first time mom in the delivery phase! He was born at exactly 2 am, which is a fun fact and was my smallest baby at 7 lbs, 10 oz, 20 inches long.
The other kids had an emotional week. I made the mistake of telling them that they would see the baby on the day I delivered, assuming it would all go as previous deliveries had. They went from Christmas Eve-like elation to depressed tears when they had to go home with the babysitter after AWANA and were not able to see their brother who had yet to be born. Then on Friday when Sarah and Dan were slotted to come visit me again, they both had come down with head colds and I wouldn't let them come to the hospitel-not for Gabriel's sake, of course, since he was coming home to them, but for the rest of the moms and babies on the maternity ward! They cried hard on my parents but Daddy rewarded them on Saturday when they were feeling better, and for the first time ever, they got to come help Daddy pick up Mommy and Gabriel at the hospital and bring us home!
My parents are here until the 28th and are a HUGE help! There is a lot to do around here with toddlers, homeschool, 3 meals a day, laundry, etc, etc, but they are being troopers and I couldn't believe how relieved my mom looked when I told her today what a good job she is doing! A reminder that we all need lots of encouragement in these high-chaos acts of parenting! Not only do Marc and I have to learn how to raise 6 kids, but my parents end up learning the juggle as well when they are here to help! What a reminder that God isn't finished with our influence when our own kids are raised. We are still useful and teachable when we are serving the next generation as grandparents!
So we are home and doing very well! I am certainly not up to speed yet and have to rest several times a day, but what a joy it is to have a new little baby around the house. The kids are continually asking to hold him and all Leah wants to do is get a binkie in his mouth! Marc held him on Saturday afternoon for his first football game, but other than that continues in true Marc fashion to wait for this baby to grow up to walk and talk before he is truly interested in him. He is thrilled, however, that God gave us a third boy, the one he choose to name after an angel. His middle name, Marc, means warrior, so we have high hopes for our warrior angel and as sooon as I get the picture from my friend, I'll show you how he already laces his fingers together in prayer :-). Love to all of you who prayed for us and are praying. We are SO BLESSED with our 1/2 dozen!

Pregnancy Comes to It's Final Days

So the days had come for her to give birth to her sixth child . . . OK, so a mild paraphrase of the gospels. The truth remains, I am expecting to have Gabriel on Wednesday-3 days from now! Gabriel has been squirming around in his confined quarters, anxiously awaiting freedom I'm sure. I will enjoy having space to bend over as well, though we have started a great new habit around the Wragg home of Mommy pointing to things that CHILDREN can pick up!
I am trying so hard to enjoy these last 3 days of being pregnant, the kicks, the squirms, the intense pressure at times. Gabriel will be our official last baby. Marc has plans this month that I'm not allowed to talk about but you all know what I am talking about! Pregnancy has always gone pretty well for me. I don't feel sick longer than the first 3 months and my deliveries have all been pretty similar: 7-8 hours induced. I am content now to know he is the last, I wasn't ready when any of the others were born, but I am now. 6 kids is a lot of work and a lot of blessing, to be sure! It is also a LOT of fun to have 3 girls and 3 boys in an every other pattern. God has abundantly blessed Marc and I above all we could ask or imagine. We did not know when we first married and talked about having kids how it would all go. And here we are, at the end of the pregnancy stage of life, ready to move on to more parenting, teaching, discipling and loving!

1 year old Counting

Leah will be 2 in mid-October. At the Lagoon the other day she was counting shells for my sis-in-law Amy and I.

She counted, "One, Two, Mommy!"

She repeated this same count every time I asked her. I am happy to be her #3 if God and Daddy are #1 and #2!

HomeSchool Begins

It is amazing to admit, but homeschooling, year #5, has begun! I can hardly believe that I have been at it this long. So much has changed in the way we school, what I teach, how many diapers require changing right in the middle of math . . . you get the picture! After the first year, several things have remained the same, and that is our love of Sonlight Homeschool Curriculum, my $15 book to teach reading called, "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons," our use of Saxon Math and of course, our schedule of organized chaos!

This year, Sarah is in 4th grade, Daniel in 3rd and Lizzy is a K/1st grader-though she just knows she is in Kindergarten, but she does mostly 1st grade work. Jacob is 3 and Leah almost 2, so they still get to play all day and take great naps! Their world rotates between Duplos, Lincoln Logs, puzzles, play-doh, preschool music and coloring.
We pretty much still did school 2-3 days a week during the summer trying to finish up last years' math and history. We were able to do 3 days of the new school year before Papa and Grammy came for a visit. While they were here we took the kids to The River Center in Burt Reynold's Park off of the Loxahatchee River (sounds important, right? It is actually a very tiny place here in Jupiter, but it has a fun touch tank!) There the willing kids and Papa were able to hold a Pencil Urchin(see top pic), a sea cucumber, a very large hermit crab and see regular sea urchins and how they "stick" shells to themselves as camouflage!

Sarah has appointed herself mommy #2 as well as teacher #2 around here! She is teaching Lizzy her Kindergarten math and we'll see if she can keep it up when we start Lizzy on the 1st grade math in November. Sarah is doing her own 4th level math with a CD-ROM "teacher" and all I do is correct it now-this saves me a whole hour a day! On top of this she does a creative writing journal, a writing copywork program, Easy Grammar and Daily Grams, Latin, piano, spelling level 5 and readers that are mostly non-fiction early American History. She can read many books in just one day and is DEVOURING books!

Daniel puts up with his required schoolwork in between building Legos and wrestling with Jacob. He is working on learning cursive, copywork, creative writing journal, spelling level 4, Easy Grammar and Daily Grams, readers, Latin, piano and Saxon Math level 4 as well.

I teach Sarah and Dan Science before lunch and we have been studying the classification order in science (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) and how the cell works. After my nap and while the little ones are still sleeping, we are finishing up Ancient History from Level 2 and are getting ready to start modern history in South and North America beginning with the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. At night, from 8-8:30 when the littler ones are in bed we do a read-aloud book. They are hand-picked from Sonlight and are at a higher reading level than the kids, but at their listening level. This summer we have read, "A Cricket in Times Square,"
"The Twenty-One Balloons," "And the Word Came with Power." 3 VERY different books! One is from animal perspectives, one is based on a true story about early 1900's hydrogen balloon travel and the explosion of the island of Krakatoa, and the last one was about a Wycliffe Bible translator in the north end of the Philippeans! The kids were transfixed on each one and Marc and I had to admit to craving to "hear what happens next!"

Lizzy's K/1st day is pretty simple. She reads to me from the Beginner's Bible and then tells me what to write for her in her Kindergarten level journal. After I print in it for her she draws a picture of what I wrote. She is doing early sounds grammer in a series of workbooks called Explode the Code and learning her lower case letters in her handwriting book. I also read aloud to her and Jake after lunch. We are currently reading "The House at Pooh Corner," and "Hero Tales" about missionaries.

In two weeks we are expecting Gabriel Marc to join us and I know that will make our already scheduled life tested. Hopefully having the practice of schedule and schoolwork will make the transition easier. I want to take this moment to say that I really have 5 wonderful children that fill up my days to the bursting point, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't imagine even one of them away at school all day, despite the noise, chaos and discipline of having 5-almost 6-kids in this small house 24/7.

How They Change!!!

Like a lot of people I know, we have pictures flash on our computer screen as a screen saver. Yesterday, I saw this picture of Sarah at 5 years old by the fountain in Lake Tahoe and remembered we had a current one of her from this year, at 9 years old. I thought it would be fun to see the changes in her in the last 4 years!

My Princess Oldest is definitely growing and maturing in many wise and wonderful ways! Next week she will start 4th grade and has already started her readers for the year. She loves on the little ones and was truly the happiest of all the kids to find out we were having a 6th baby. Like a true female she laughed and cried at the same time! She appointed herself to be Lizzy's kindergarten math teacher and is seeing for herself how much patience it takes to teach math! She is helping me to cook more and more, especially now that she can see my energy is zapped in my 3rd trimester! God knew I needed her help since He knew how many kids we would have and how helpful girls can be to their moms! I continue to pray for her heart that it would cling to Jesus and she could know his love and peace for herself, but I will continue to pray and trust God for that joy! In the meantime, she is my beautiful first born and I love her so much!

More fun at the Dubois Park "Galoon" as Jakey calls it!

If you look closely, you should see dozens of dragonflies!
Lizzy and cousin Rachel up in a Mangrove tree above the water.

Sarah and her "bosom buddy" Ashleigh Connor.

So he found this and started playing with it . . . yes, it is a Heinekin Can

Leah really needed her comforts this day: Bear Blankie and Binkie-Boo.

Jakey has started calling the Lagoon, the Galoon. I LOVE IT. I just wish the older kids would stop correcting him, because when they say funny things like that, you try not to correct them for a while and just enjoy it. The older kids just think he needs grammatical correcting :-).

Bounce House Waterslide FUN!!!

Our steal-of-a-deal waterslide rental. It's good to know people !!!
Isn't this how it is supposed to happen?

Sarah and Lizzy hamming it up for me!

This was Leah's favorite part-THE BOTTOM!

We have some friends that own a bounce house franchise as a side-job. I decided that since we were celebrating both boys birthdays in June that we could splurge and rent a waterslide at my friend's great price. Then, in God's great providence upon my children (though not my lawn) my friends told me that the day I wanted it fell during their summer vacation and did we mind having it at our place for a whole week???? Hmmmmm, let me think about that!!!

I am SURE our neighbors all thought we hit the lottery or something since we had this rental for over 7 days! There were only a couple of days in there that we didn't blow it up, but it was pretty much up like this in our front yard for over a week ( for those of you not from this part of Florida-there was some weird opinion years ago that people would like a larger front yard than backyard-so our backyard is barely 12 feet deep, whereas our frontyard is at least 36!)

We had our cousins over 3 times, the neighbor kids, church friends and two birthday parties on the same day with LOTS OF BOYS!!! I am SO glad that was all a month ago, because I don't think I could have handled all that outside-wet and wild kids and laundry at my current state of 30 weeks pregnant!

Thank God for this special treat my kids got to enjoy with their friends for a whole week. I am sure they won't forget about it any time soon!

Sleep-Showering?

Last night as Marc and I sat in the living room chatting with friends we heard the shower turn on. As I went to investigate, I found our 9 1/2 year old taking a shower. Mind you, it was 10 p.m. and she had been in bed since 8:45. Is it safe to assume she was sleep-showering? When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I don't know. I don't know why I'm taking a shower." I can only guess she did wake up when the water hit her! :-)

Back In Florida

Daniel and his board!
Dan, TJ and Isaac found a whole bunch of 2 inch crabs.

Lizzy is practicing her back float :-) Easy in 7 inches of water!

My mom took this shot. She liked that I was uninhibited by children and actually drinking a soda. A small pleasure for a mom of 5 +.

The 3 of them sat together without being asked. It was too sweet!

We have been home in Florida for a week now, but since Mom just left yesterday, it seems we've only now started back to reality a.k.a NORMAL life. And normal life has taken off with a bang!

I currently have a 15 ft inflatable waterslide staked down in my front yard and am having two birthday parties tomorrow. Jakey's from 12-1:30 and Dan's from 3:30-6:30. My kids have had so much fun on it already but they SWEAR they will still enjoy it tomorrow. I got a sweet deal from a sweet friend and since this week JUST HAPPENED to be her vacation, we got it for A WHOLE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about paradise! Anyhow, today I have been getting the house cleaned and creating cakes!

Yesterday we had cousins over and my brother and sis-in-law, today I took the kids to the free movie at the theater and through it all, totally forgot to take the kids to piano lessons. Like I said, back to normal/crazy life!

The only thing worth reporting in pictures is our trip to the Dubois Park Lagoon last Monday when Mom was still here. Thanks to her, I haven't had this many pregnancy shots in about 3 pregnancies! Enjoy the view of life in the Tropics!

Flying Over Westover Field

Taking off (Or Landing)

Lizzy is smiling here, but apparently she cried alone in the backseat during take-off!

Not much cuter than a 3 year old with great-big headphones on.  He LOVED this!

Papa and his brood of fliers (though Leah didn't fly)

     My dad has had his pilot's license since I was in high school.  The last time we had the kids in the airplane was when Daniel was just 3 and Sarah was 4 1/2 and we lived in Palmdale, CA.  Today my dad took the kids up in pairs: Daniel and Lizzy and then Sarah and Jacob.  My mom wondered if Lizzy was OK in the backseat.  I said, "Of course, she is my brave one."  On the contrary, we found out when Papa returned her to the ground that she cried from the time he revved the engine before take-off until halfway through the 10 minute flight.  I guess she was a little nervous of the loud noise and without Mommy there to reassure her.  

     Otherwise the kids had a blast flying in Papa's "We-pleene" (as Jacob says).