Some New Things

We celebrated Allan's 37th birthday on Saturday. He got a big cookie, a mug with writing on it from us and a new Wii game. He also got to go shooting with his teacher and classmate, I'm sure that was the highlight of his day. Then we all went for a miniature train ride in Ft. Worth.
While the guys were shooting, we went to the Stockyards and explored the shops. Here are my little cowgirls.
Here is a really bad picture of some of the ducks swimming in our currently flooded yard. They are in the "ugly teenager" phase and just starting to feather out. They'll be prettier in a couple weeks.
And here is our single, HEALTHY 6 week and 6 day old baby. He/she is due December 15th and has a heart rate of 140 bpm. It was very exciting to get to see the heart and to HEAR it beating. Man technology has come a long way, even just since having GraceAnne. That looks like an exceptionally large gestational sac to me, so I thought for sure there were two, but no such luck. Oh well...God has a plan for this family and farbeit for me to impose on the plan! He is a faithful God, so I will trust in Him to carry me the next 9 months while I carry this tiny vampire.

Are you CRAZY?!?

So since I'm terrible at keeping secrets and since this started off as a baby blog, we'll come full circle and announce to anyone who didn't already know--we're expecting. According to a chart, we're due in early December but we have a sonogram scheduled for Monday to find out for sure. We're praying that there are 2 boys in there and we've been praying for this pregnancy since we were about 7 months pregnant with Violet. We're all absolutely elated, (except Violet, who smiles blankly when we say "BABY" emphatically and point to my belly), and the timing is just perfect. Things will be chaos for a while, of course, but my house is chaos anyway, so no biggie.

I've discovered, however, that there are a great many people who are absolutely opposed to anyone having more than 2 children. I'm really sorry they feel that way. Truly I am, but if you do, please keep your comments to yourself. Some people really know how to attempt to rain on God's parade and well, it's just not gonna work around here. So I thought I'd answer a question I've gotten this last week as we've been sharing our good news.

"Why would you want more? Are you crazy?" Yes. I am crazy. Crazy about my kids! And anyone who sees me grumpy once in a while can kiss my butt because I challenge you to do my job 24/7 and not be grumpy sometimes. Yes, my kids get yelled at once in a while and they get on my nerves on occasion, but I love them more than words and they make my whole life worth while. I consider them God's gift to me and Allan and we take our job of raising them to be God-loving, caring, thoughtful, giving, sweet people seriously. I want 2 boys because this is our last pregnancy, (Allan says he'd like to enjoy his retirement), and I really want to raise some boys to be great dads/husbands like their daddy. Of course it'd be great to even out the hormones in this house, too. My last answer to this question are the pictures below. With kids this great, who wouldn't want more? They're so amazingly beautiful, sweet, kind and smart. I kinda see it as our job to put more GOOD people into this world of nastiness. We can and WILL make a difference in this world for Christ through our children.

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Check us out...

Our friend, Jina Armstrong, is a professional photographer working on a portfolio, so she took our pix for us yesterday. Here are her faves.

http://jina6789.zenfolio.com/

Obviously, we're the Doyles.

Daddy-Daughter Camping

100% without a doubt, never any question in my mind...these 4 are the most precious people in my life. I have never in my life been happier than when I have them all together and even moreso when they are having fun together. Allan took the girls, (all 3 of them!) camping last weekend with his class. He took them BY HIMSELF. Right down to 11-month-old Violet. He's such a great Daddy and they really had a good time.

I got reports that Violet played great by herself and was incredibly content while they were there. 3 days without Momma did her good, too. She seems more calm and less clingy than she was. Allan said she slept pretty good, despite her double ear infection and yeast infection from hell.

I've never seen any child so excited about and by her Daddy before. Because of my own issue with my "2 dads" I find so much joy in this. Reminds me of Genesis 50:20-"Even though you planned evil against me, God planned good to come out of it." Had I not experienced the bad men in my life, I wouldn't be so appreciative of the good one He gave to me. He is so faithful!

Glorious child! GraceAnne has the joy of 10 children locked up inside of her and she LOVES to let it shine out. Some days that translates into the drama or the disobedience of 10 children, but most days it is pure joy to be around her. I've never met anyone so eager to share her love, joy and happiness with those around her. When she walked in the door from camping she literally jumped into my arms and yelled, "MOMMY!! I had the BEST Daddy-Daughter camping time EVER! And I missed you SO MUCH!"

These two are the best sister duo in the world. There was never a little sister loved so much or so well as GraceAnne by Rhiya until Violet was born. Now Vi gets both of these wonderful sisters to love on her. There was a time in my life I begged God or the universe or the spirits or whoever would listen to not give me little girls but obviously God knew better than I did and I can't imagine my life any other way. They are so beautiful and keep me so balanced.

Blurry, but AMAZING just the same. Rhiya is the best big sister in the world, I think! She plays non-stop with the girls and loves on them all the time. She's eager to please and such a joy to have here. I'm so sad that she leaves in less than 48 hours. The months stretch by way too slowly between her visits and the days pass by way too quickly when she's here. I'll post more pictures of her visit in a couple days, but for now I'm going to soak her up!

I hope you're all feeling as Blessed as I am! We love and miss you all.

Our newest additions

The much anticipated phone call came this morning that our special package had arrived at the post office. We were getting GraceAnne ready for school, so we hurried up and ran to the PO so she could see the babies before she had to be dropped off. They sent 12, but only 11 made it safely. I only ordered 10, so we're ahead of the game anyhow, but it's always sad to lose one!


Here they are in the shipping container from Metzer Farms.
Here is a closeup of one of the girls. We have named 4 of them that we intend to keep. They are sprinkles, speckles (Rhiya came up with both of those), Whiskers (GraceAnne) and Count Drake-ula (Allan's doing.) We will be raising 6, however, because Allan's veterans' representative wanted some to eat.
Vi and I really bonded with them while GraceAnne was in school today. They think we are their mommies now. Vi would become disinterested and crawl away and they would peep like crazy for her to come back. She loves the duckies, and kept saying DUH DUH DUH and peeping back at them.
They have a pretty sweet setup free of any way to make messes. The last time we had ducks I was a retarded duck mom and didn't really build them a suitable abode. This time I researched the heck out of it and this is the medium size baby pool from Wal-Mart with a duck feeder in a pie plate and a waterer made from a half gallon milk jug in a 13x9 dish. They can only get their heads in the holes, so they can't splash the water all over the pool, which really helps cut down the level of nast. Right now there are 8 babies sleeping downstairs under their brooder lamp. We sold 3 today and tomorrow 2 more go to our friends, the Darsts. That leaves me with the 6 and I know they're going to look so tiny in that pool all alone. Give em a week...then I'll be freakin' out that there isn't enough room!

Hope you enjoy the pix of the quackers. I'm sure there will be many more to come--GraceAnne, Rhiya and Allan have yet to be photographed with a peep and then there's always peeps in the grass, peeps in the Easter basket, peeps in the tub for a swim etc. etc. etc.

Busy Saturday

First thing's first...ain't she perdy!?! They finished painting the porch and our mailbox green today and put the shutters back on. YAY!

I spent the better part of the day in the yard working hard. We did get a little break at Miss Hannah's first birthday party, though. It was a lot of fun, but we all looked like some serious white trash, dirty and stinky and gross from working in the yard. Here's what we did that warranted all that nast:
I dug a hole! Since Allan only has 1 leg, I only have to break one to get him to fit!




Actually, it's for the duck pool. I found a design online I'm trying to replicate. I'll keep posting pictures of my progress as I go. For now I have to make that thing about a foot deeper. That outta keep me busy for a while.
I moved some irises from the neighbor's walkway to my fence. I've been meaning to move these for a long time, but just got around to it today. They probably won't bloom this year thanks to the trauma of moving, but at least they're moved. And you never know, they might just decide to show off for us...I had some I moved last spring that did.
I moved the grass I took out of the pool area and the iris bed to the bare patch where we removed the sidewalk. 2 springs ago I dug a big garden and transplanted grass to an old bed we were trying to incorporate into the lawn and it was quite successful, so I hope this attempt is as well. You can also see the sand pit on the far side of the new grassy knoll. This happens to be the girls' favorite part of the yard right now and it was totally on accident. I intend to move that sand into my hole and put dirt there so we can grow some grass but for now it keeps them entertained while I dig holes and move flowers.

Violet cut her 4th tooth. It's on the top. It's been trying to come in for 2 weeks now and it FINALLY cut through today. YIPPEE! I figured since this was originally a blog about her I should use it as my baby book at least until I actually find her real baby book and can fill it out.

I'm just putting this here because I'm pretty amazed this darned tree is still alive. This is the tree we got to celebrate Violet's birth and it survived its first Texas summer and winter! It's a willow and I'm super thrilled to see it get bigger. We LOVE willows! Oh yeah, and there's Allan in the background, raking. He raked up all the construction debris around the house. There was a lot of insulation and paint chips all over the place. The yard is awesome, now, so it matches the house! Go Allan! And a PERFECT ending to a LONG day...she's asleep on our bed in our room in our house. For the first time in 4 months. I will probably take lots of pictures of our second firsts in the house and you will probably get sick of it, but oh well...I've been waiting entirely too long to be back in here and I totally deserve to bug the heck outta ya with pictures of our return. Muahahahahaha!

Oh, and guess where GraceAnne is sleeping? In her OWN ROOM! 1 down, 1 to go. We will have freedom yet. About that time we'll get pregnant with twins. HAHAHA!

Hope all is well!

I Win!

My cousin-in-law who runs the blog, "The White House" gave me an award. Now I'm going to finally post about it, even though it's been a while. She's so great and I love her blog and I think she's really talented, so to get a creative blogger award from her is exciting to me!

Here are my rules...I am supposed to write about 7 things I love and then pass the award on to 7 more blogs.

1. I love that I am posting this from my bed in my room in my house for the first time in 4 months. It's been too long and I am so glad to be home!

2. I love my babies...ALL of them. I love my big hairy baby, my step-baby, my drama queen and my ittle bittle. I fell into them, or I guess you could say God smacked me in the head with them, but I am all the richer for it and DEFINITELY a better person!

3. I love ducks, and I can't wait to get our package of 15 at the post office next month. I can't wait to walk into the post office and hear all the peeping and open the box in front of everyone there and count my sweet little peepers. It's gonna be so cool!

4. I love cooking. I love creating something that nourishes my family and makes them so happy. There's not much better than hearing Vi say "mmm!" and eagerly opening her tiny pie-hole or GraceAnne saying, "you make the best egg burritos EVER, Mommy!" or hearing Allan say, "this one is a keeper." I especially like when we're talking to Rhiya about being here soon and she asks me to "PLEASE make your biscuits and gravy!" Naturally I make those a couple times while she's here! :)

5. I love Texas. This is the only place I've ever lived that I feel completely and totally 100% at home. I love the people, I love the weather, I love the critters, (I do NOT, however, love the bugs!) There are things I miss about other places I've lived, but for the most part I could never leave Texas again and I'd be happy.

6. I love my husband. Yeah--I kinda already said that, but I have to say it more in depth. He is my protector, my provider and my best friend in the whole world. He's beautiful and sweet and funny and and and! Mostly I love that he loves me no matter what and supports me so well.

7. I love Jesus. My life has morphed so amazingly since I started walking with Him. I love that He knows I can't earn His love and just gives it to me anyway. I want to be more like Him.

And with that I tag Branch, Emily, Sybil and Mary. I don't know anyone else who would do it. I'd give it back to you, Gayle, but I think that's against the rules or something. Hmmmm...Stay posted tomorrow for more pix of the finished outside!

And it was All Yellow!

"And there are the Doyle's in the yellow house!" Anyone know what that movie is from?
Here's the back of the house. The trim on the bottom is almost all done, they still have to paint the trim on the top floor.
The door is olive green, isn't it beautiful?? I LOVE it! We're going to paint the shutters that color and the porch, too. YAY!
Today a super-sweet friend took the girls so Allan and I could get some work done. Here is our bedroom painted. WOOHOO! We can move in it this weekend. We still need to paint the trim and trim out the windows, but that will come in time. For now I'm just thrilled to be moving back into our freakin' house! We also got GraceAnne's room touched up and the patch re-painted so we can move her bed in there. Today life feels GLORIOUS! I can't wait until we can put the kids to bed and watch a movie together or laugh together or just hang out with the lights on. I'm so tired of going to bed at 8pm. I miss my husband!

Thanks for celebrating with me, too. I'll keep posting as we paint more and more of the inside. We thought MAYBE if we can manage to get rid of the kids on Friday for a few hours we can get Violet's room and the toy room painted. That would be SWEET! Hope all is well with you and yours, we love and miss you all!

Primer n Paint

When we pulled in after our trip to Florida, we got to see a primered house. And then every single one of us thought, "maybe we should have had them paint it white..." since it looked so pretty white.

They didn't get it painted while we were gone because it rained all week last week.

BUT! They came this week! The whole thing is yellow now, but we're slackers and don't have pictures of that yet.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this color! There's enough leftover that we can do the garage and the guest house if we want to. Note: this will probably NEVER happen unless we HAVE to to sell it. We are both so absolutely done with all things renovation and we still have SO MUCH left to do.

We've got our bedroom completely taped up and tarps on the floors so our nice new floors don't get all jacked up and Allan painted the ceiling today. Hopefully the walls will be painted by the end of the week and we can start moving back into that room, (and GraceAnne's...hers only needs touch ups), this weekend. I cannot wait to be out of this god-forsaken guest house! It has been 4 months and we're all about to kill each other.


Here's a lil something to make you giggle.

The Doyles have Fun in the Sun

I could kick myself for forgetting our better camera, but the pix from the disposable I bought here in Florida are all I've got, so they're all you get, too. Hopefully I'll get some better shots between my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law.

We're having a great time and we're all trying to rest today before we leave on our long journey westward this evening. It's a LOOOONG 19 hours and the kids probably take it better than I do, but it's well worth it. I am sad to be leaving, but excited to go home to a new house, maybe. They are supposed to be done painting. We'll see tomorrow afternoon!
Violet is such a sweetie. She's been having a blast exploring this totally not kid-proofed house. This week is the most she's been able to be put down EVER. Her dirty knees and fingernails show it, too!
Allan and Trish. They aren't from the same family, are they? I guess those Doyle genes run THICK and DEEP.
Me at the fort in St Augustine. It was SO COOL! St Augustine is the oldest city in America and it's where Ponce DeLeon looked for the fountain of youth. This fort has a lot of history and I wish we could have stayed longer to read everything.
Daddy giving Violet ice cream at the zoo. MMMMMM.
Conked out after a long week! She's been sleeping a lot the last couple of days...so have I!
Me, Allan and Vi at the fort. GraceAnne was having a day with Mommers.
Allan and Vi at the beach...this was Violet's very first trip to the beach. She LOVED the sand, (and the salty tasting shells she kept licking!), and she was not sure at first about the ocean "getting her" but decided after a while that she loved it, too.
GraceAnne managed to only bring one shell with us, but she thoroughly inspected all the others. She had a blast at the beach and got to play there lots more than we did. She went 2x with Mommers while we did other things. The time we went with her, Vi and I slept in the car for a couple hours and so we only played for a few minutes, but boy was that nap sweet!
Allan, GraceAnne, Violet and Pat at the zoo. We love Brevard Zoo! This trip was our 3rd ever there and they've expanded it and made it even better. We really enjoyed the new kiddie area.

That's it for now, please keep us in your prayers as this is a LONG drive. Allan always drives it straight through. Feel free to give us a call tomorrow morning to find out about our progress/keep us company for a few minutes. I'm sure we'll be loopy and looking for distraction right about then!

In like a Lion..

March is here and all the busy-ness that accompanies it is here, too. This week Allan is staying at a hotel in Dallas for a couple of nights to work on his senior project without interruption and as soon as he gets done with rotation on Thursday we're off to Florida for a week to do a Pampered Chef show for his sister and to visit with she and MIL. Hopefully it'll be warm. I have several shows booked this month, (WAHOO!), and I'm excited to see if I can book the next 3 months as full and more full than this one is. WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

I suppose you'd all like to know why I haven't been online the last few days, though, and how the house is coming...Every day the guys working on the floor would disconnect our router because they needed to sand. Every evening when they were done, Allan would go reconnect it so I could get my fix for the night...err...run my business. Friday night they told Allan he couldn't go upstairs. Boohoo for a weekend of no internet, but YEEHAW for what we walked into this morning!!

Here you go!My first view of the beautiful floors from my kitchen.
The living room where, YES, there IS a fireplace. I know that may be shocking to all of you who saw our storage area, but it does exist and someday we will be able to read a book by a fire in that soon-to-be LIBRARY!
Our stairs from the top looking down.Grain's room. She said this is by far her favorite room and I thought, "good thing, since you'll be sent to it enough in your lifetime!" Really, though, we three girls were running through the house sliding on stocking feet and acting like hooligans. Even Violet seemed to sense the excitement and was crawling and sliding on her belly to her hearts content. That's all I've wanted since this project started, was a floor safe for my babies to crawl on and there it is! So I'm overjoyed right now.

I'm fighting the urge to run inside and lay out a sleeping bag on the floor! However, we decided that it would be a lot easier to paint the walls before we put furniture in, so we'll have to wait until we get back from Florida to move in. Bummer, but at least there is an end in sight now!! The guys working on the exterior said they'd be done next week, too. YIPPEE! We're having a great big ole' open house when this thing is done. Just please excuse the lack of trim and the still-not-updated kitchen!

Here are some more super-cute pix because I can't not share them.
Family movie night. Violet LOVES Coke!
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Chill out, people, my kids don't get coke until they're at LEAST 11 months old and she's only 10 mo yesterday! The popcorn was also not popped yet and I only give her the soft pieces.
Yepp, it was warm enough to be nekkid in the swing. 80's that day! It got cold again this weekend, but it should be up to the 80's again by midweek.
HOW did she do that? And no...we weren't all standing around laughing at her as she crawled around crying cuz she couldn't get it off. We wouldn't do that! Not for too long, anyways...hehehe.

Hope all is well with everyone. We love and miss you all and pray that you feel as Blessed as we feel this week!