Dear Readers,

            For those of you who check up on our website often; you are probably wondering if we fell of the face of the earth or something… not quite. This year has held many changes for our family and we have been staying very busy- so busy that we can’t find time to update our website! Sorry!

            And if you are visiting www.aretheyallyours.com for the first time: welcome! Please feel free to look around and mak ...

I was reminded last night that you don’t really sleep when you have the flu. Instead, your body falls into an Advil induced numbness as your brain seems to hover just over the pillow. Needless to say, the flu train has arrived at our station and we’re feeling it in a big way.

This all comes in the midst of packing to move from Texas to Missouri. Most packing has come to a complete stop, but every now and then somebody feels good enough to pack a few more boxes before disappearing into a quiet spot to shiver and shake until the Advil kicks in again.

All this is hitting Amy a little harder than the rest. She is 5 months pregnant and every cough strains her already over stressed abdomen. Yesterday she visited the doctor because she’s been sick the longest and just can’t seem to kick it. While getting her blood pressure checked she almost passed out. Her blood pressure was extremely low and the doctor concluded that s ...

I woke up this morning, quite late I must add, to the younger children outside playing in the ice.

During the night it had frozen over and there were small patches of ice here and there between the mud and water.
Its not quite the winter wonderland of your dreams (something you hardly expect to find in Texas!), but my little brothers don’t seem to mind. They are content to find everything from food trays to laundry baskets to sled on, only to find that as they ran and threw themselves down for a wonderful ride they came to a complete stop- before starting.
After getting out of my warm bed I finaly came to the kitchen to find my dad making a good breakfast of sausage, eggs, and tortillas (Texas style!).

Playing in the ice was not  as appealing to me as it w ...

You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) how many times our family is asked this question. It seems that everywhere we go people look at us and begin to count... one, two, three, four... How many are there? Nine!?! Are they all yours?

Sometimes being the novelty everywhere you go is kind of fun, but most of the time it is very weighty. We are always being watched. It seems everyone in the world feels that our lives are for public consumption. Perfect strangers walk up and ask very personal questions: Don't you know where kids come from? Are you planning to have any more? What religious belief are you?

Now how many times have you walked up to someone you've never seen before in your life and asked such questions? It's just not normal, that is, unless you have a lot of children. Then, it seems, everyone feels the liberty to investigate who you are and what you believe.

So, we've decided to start putting our thoughts here ...