Eating halloween gruel for breakfast 

The finished product! 

Just beginning on the new roof- see the shingle packs all in a row. 

The Home Central Truck in our yard ready to "Boom" the shingles onto the roof for us. 

A Roofing Extravaganza

Tomorrow quite early in the morning we will be up and at 'em, readying to start a roofing project just as the sun peeks it's vibrant head up through the morning mists and sending rays out piercing our hearts with the joy of a beautiful beginning to the day. Okay, I'm feeling a bit poetic this evening. In any case, my husband Bob, our wonderful brother in law Matt, and good friend Dave are giving up precious time on a Saturday to help us put on a new roof before too many snowflakes fly. They borrowed an air gun from a nice fella from church, and are going to be nailing the new roof over the preexisting one layer of shingles. I'm praying that the weather forecaster is correct, and we have the nice weather that was predicted. Rebecca is coming over so that we can work on crafts for an upcoming craft show we are doing together. I want to make sure I am around to be the guys' "go-to-girl" in case they need anything. Rebecca and I may sneak out for a short while to enjoy the weather while taking a leisurely stroll through the sidewalks of Owego. Have a good weekend, and I'll have photos for the next time of our new roof :)

Painting, Parties, and Pumpkins

Bob was supposed to work on Saturday, but on Friday his PT Catering job called to say they didn't need him, so we headed to the hardware store to pick up paint. We have been wanting to paint our living room since we bought our house, but just hadn't done it yet. 2 of the walls were flat paint white with dirt marks and fingerprints (I HATE flat paint- it shows up everything!) the other 2 walls were like a mint green green color, also in flat paint. When we bought the house the whole thing was done in flat paint because it is the cheapest kind, and majority of it in white. We painted the walls Terra Cotta, and the trim was supposed to be a darker version, but the guy at the paint store messed up and didn't test it before we left, so it turned into like a brick red color. It looks nice though, we didn't worry about it too much. We stayed up painting trim till 1 am. I was up with Samuel quite a bit that night, so I had about 3 hrs of sleep. We spent the whole day painting, and finished around 2 pm. We headed to Walmart to pick up new curtains, and stuff for Sloppy Joes and a cake * in a few hrs we were going to a dress up game party at my sisters* We came home, Bob made sloppy joes, Samantha the cake, and I tried putting the living room in a semblance of order. Samantha and Wayne were a cowboy, and cowgirl, Samuel was a baby skunk, and I dressed up like a gypsy. (I forgot to bring my digital camera, and the regular camera's flash needed batteries so I didn't get any pics! :( Bob didn't dress up and went to a donkey basketball game for most of the party. It was good fun. Bob thought that night we turned the clocks back, so we got to church an hr late on Sunday, after service was pretty much done. We turned around and came home, instead of staying, because Bob didn't want to be harassed the whole sunday school about being late (especially when he feels it is his job to harass everyone else about it!) We came home, and I spent the day putting my house in order. Samantha was a great help, catching up my laundry piles for me, and Wayne helped also. They painted faces on their pumpkins yesterday as well. Wayne made soup for dinner all by himself. The only help he had, was Bob cut up the carrots and celery for him. Wayne decided what ingredients to use, and how much. He did a good job and we enjoyed eating his soup- just one more way he is following in daddy's footsteps! I'll try to post photos of our living room later. I tried taking pictures of it this am, but it was too dark and you can't see any detail (The colors really darken the room!)

Baby Mohawk- if not for the red hair and fair skin he might pass as a baby indian, what do you think? :) 

"Okay mama, I've got Photoitis, can you please stop taking my picture- Samantha's having fun, take hers instead!" 

Mama and her little pumpkin 

Faith and Samuel taking a moment to pose during playtime. 

As seen in this photo! 

Takoda loves Samuel so much he decided to sit next to him and "guard" him without moving. I just have to be careful that the big lug doesn't "love" him too much and roll on him when playing. I'd prefer not having Samuel pancakes for breakfast! 

Samuel was crying so Takoda decided to make him feel better by giving him kisses! 

Samuel and Faith heading out for their morning stroll- it's one of the only ways to keep Faith happy (other than holding her all day long!) 

the men of my life . the one in the middle is the is the hottest 

Need a little help from my Fellow Blogger Friends

Okay, so here's the challenge. I would like for anonymous people to be able to post comments, seeing as most of my friends and family who can view and comment do not have blogs. I'm not sure what I did when I set this blog up, but it will not allow anonymous comments to be published. Is there anyone out there that might be able to step by step lead me through this so that I can edit my blog to accept anonymous comments? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
As for new news in my life, the next few weeks are going to be somewhat busy. The last week in October my husband, bro-in-law, and a few friends are going to be helping us put a roof on our home. I'm praying desperately for good weather since we waited so long to get it done. A roof is an expensive project, that is why we waited, and also why we are going to try and do it ourselves. I'm planning on providing drinks, snacks, and meals for all the men coming to help- it's the least we can do since they are giving up their Saturday to help us. Also, a friend of mine, who happens to be our pastor's daughter is having a baby shower in Connecticut the beginning of November. I wanted to put together a joint gift from our church since she has been wanting a baby for a while now, and God has answered her and her husband's prayers by allowing her to have a precious gift of a baby boy due in December. I'm working on collecting money for a gift to purchase and send to her for the shower. My sister is also hosting a game night this weekend, so I have to make some fun cupcakes to take along. It doesn't seem like too much, but add having children to care for from 5:30 am thru 4:45 pm and having my own almost 6 month old, meet his needs, and 8/11 yr old to help with schoolwork along with household duties, it makes for a busy week!

Hangin' before school with her short but sweet haircut. 

Samantha with her "New" "Do" 

The Woes of a Busy Weekend

I can hardly believe that this weekend is over, and the week has started up again in full swing. Normally I wouldn't post about such a situation, but it immersed so much of my time I have to get it off my chest. Hopefully those of you that know me (and those of you that don't) won't come to any bad conclusions about my family because of this post. On Friday I found headlice on Samantha, a ton of it by the way because she was embarrassed to tell me and "didn't want to make me work too hard" We had to deal with this a month ago because she contracted it from someone. I have a feeling that it never completely went away. In any case, I spent ALL weekend doing laundry, washing and picking hair, spraying down furniture, trying to make sure I boiled and washed everything that could have remotely come into contact with her. The most frustrating part of the whole situation is we are a "clean" family who take showers and wash up daily. We spent $50.00 on lice shampoo etc..alone. I'm just praying that this time we will get all of it. I made Samantha sleep with Mayo on her head friday night, and we shampooed her hair 2x. I also shampooed 2x. Thankfully because all the boys have short hair they haven't had any problems at all. In any case, this weekend was as busy or busier than the week! On top of that Thursday and Friday Wayne caught a serious flu-bug and was quite sick. I am actually sort of relieved that today is Monday, maybe I can have a little rest :)

Figuring It All Out!

Well, I think I'm starting to figure out this "blogging" thing. Please bear with me as I keep learning! Some of the photos are a little blurry, because they were from digital camera photos taken of actual photos, but I wanted to include them anyhow!
The first photo was of my hubby Bob. I have begged him and begged him to grow a goatee, but he isn't allowed to have any facial hair (except his moustache) for work if he is on the road. Well, mostly he has been in the vault at Brinks so he cheated a little. I took a photo so I get to see him with it, even after he has to shave it off- I think he looks "studly"!
The second is of Samantha and Wayne at Tim's Pumpkin Patch. A few weeks back we took a road trip there, it is in Lafayette NY, near Syracuse. It is a farm that has acres and acres of pumpkins that you go out into the fields and pick out your own pumpkins. They only charge $1.00 per pumpkin, any size. We came home with 8 of them, one for our niece Corynn (she had the biggest!) 2 for Samantha, 2 for Wayne, 1 for Samuel, and 2 so I could try my hand at making pumpkin pie. We had a grand time! It was so much fun, they even had a haybale maze, and baby farm animals to feed and pet. Some local kids decided to come up on our porch and steal 3 of them (and smash at least one of them) including Samuel's baby sized one. It was pretty sad- we try and teach our children to respect others, and other people's property, and then we have kids constantly taking pumpkins, knocking down our snowmen that we built, etc...
The third and fourth photo were taken last week when I got together with my friend Susan from PA. We went to school together, and try to get together once a year to catch up with each other. We hadn't seen each other in 2 years, because last year I was pregnant, and Bob (and myself) didn't want me travelling alone because of what happened with Grace, so this was the first time she met Samuel. Samuel kept observing her, and would reward her with a smile and giggle here and there. We had a good visit, albeit it poured down rain the WHOLE visit.
Yesterday I had to load up babies in the car ( I now take care of a 6 1/2 month old named Faith) to pick up Wayne from school. What a fiasco, it was raining, I had to put a carseat in the car with one hand, holding a crying baby with the other arm, while Samuel sat on the porch in the playpen all bundled up until I finished with Faith. Wayne got sick on the bus, in his class, and at home over and over again all day and night last night. Poor kiddo! He was really sick! He is feeling better this morning, but we are going to keep an eye on him before we send him off to school to get sick again. That's pretty much the scoop for now. Everyone out there, have a wonderful day!!!

Okay, I guess she's not so bad after all... 

Who is this lady?? It's one of my mama's school friends, Susan! 

Samantha and Wayne at Tim's Pumpkin Patch 

My Handsome Hubby-note the beginnings of a "goatee" 

This is me at my most glorious time, holding my precious one in my womb 

samuel 

Why I'm Here and Why The Name

I've taken the plunge into Bloggerdom. I have so enjoyed reading my Sister's Blog *Renaissance* and others that I decided to take the leap and create a blog of my own. It won't be so full of detailed thought and aspirations as others I've read, but hopefully it will reflect me, and my own personality. Now that you know why I'm here, let me explain "Why The Name".

I lost my first biological daughter due to complications when I was in my 20th week of pregnancy. She was born prematurely at a rest stop and lived for an hour and a half without any life support before God took her to be with Him. Her name is Grace Antoinette Rose Brown and I had a really hard time when she died. I decided to change my internet name to *FullofGrace* because my heart was so full of her even though my arms were not.

"Blessings Fivefold" are the five specific blessings in my life, even though God has filled my life with so many more than that.
1. God is the first and foremost important blessing in my life. He has kept me through many struggles and fills my life with many good things.
2. My husband Bob is the second blessing in my life. He is the love of my life, we are cut from different cloth but blended together we make a beautiful tapestry.
3. 4. 5. My Children; Samantha, Wayne, and Samuel. Samantha and Wayne were the beautiful package deal when I married Bob. Not bone of my bone, nor flesh of my flesh, but children of my heart. Samuel is my 5 month old miracle baby. I prayed and prayed for him and God answered my prayers by sending me a beautiful baby boy with hair of red.

As you can see, God has been Good to Me and my family. We live in Owego NY and have a home to call our own. That's just a brief synopsis more to come later