Another Blog..

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have started a new blog with conversations and comments from our children. I got the idea from a great friend, Brooke Coyle. She decided that there were too many things her children said in a day that she didn't want to forget so she started recording them into a blog. I decided to do the same thing. The new blog address is www.1of5saidit.blogspot.com if you are interested in following it. I intend to update at least once a week with comments and conversations we have with our children and they have between each other.

On the way to church this morning, riding in the van, I hear Jenna tell Claire, "Mommy gave me some fiber in my hiney bone cause I ate a bean and tooted in my seat"...Claire tells her, "That is impressive Jenna"..in a sarcastic tone of course. Moments later I hear Ellie ask if we are still eating lunch at the "priests" house...this is funny because we are NOT Catholic and we had previously told her that we'd be eating lunch at PASTOR Randy's house.

Our weekend was crazy busy because I worked a consignment sale for a multiples group I am involved in. The sale went wonderful and I sold about 400 items. Rob said, "So we got rid of a bunch of stuff, you bought all the kids new clothes for the next season and you made money?"...yep honey that is correct and it only costs me a few 30 hours of preparation and total working time as well the raw skin on my fingers from pulling pins and tagging clothes..haha!

The kids also went to a baby sitter's house (all five) for the first time ever...they have never ALL gone to the same location without a family member to watch them. Jenn Goode and her sweet daughter (whom I taught in fourth grade several years ago) offered to keep ALL the kids Saturday night so Rob and I could go out for his company dinner. We are so blessed to have this family in our lives. They adore our children and it truly means so much to Rob and I to have Jenn and Alex to trust our children with.

Please remember to pray for Kim Kelly, a new friend who is pregnant with quads and living in the hospital until the babies are born. She is only 23 weeks this coming week so she has a long ways to go. Thank you for remembering her in your daily prayer walk.

Being a Great MOMMY doesn't require much...

Just a little Wal-Mart shopping and a Subway dinner..that's all it takes in our family to be coined "Best Mommy in the World". Tonight, after a VERY long day of consignment drop off and gym training, picking up kids and dropping off for gymnastics (all the typical Thursday routine), I needed to pick up a few things from Wal-Mart (by the way, a few things to pick up at wal-mart is an hour trip at minimum with all my rowdy kids!)...but I told the girls we were going to Wal-Mart and if behaviors were exceptional, they would be rewarded with choosing ONE sweet snack from the Little Debbie isle..."YAY, THANK YOU MOMMY, YOU ARE THE BEST"...resounds throughout my van. Once we made it through Wal-Mart with no major meltdowns, I decide to reward the girls with Subway for supper (it is very rare that we eat out so this is a huge treat for them) and again I hear three squeals, "YAY, MOMMY YOU ARE THE BEST MOMMY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD"....They enjoyed their "5 dollar footlong" and giggled about everything! The boys had a blast roaming in the Wal-Mart cart, devouring Cheeto Puffs and playing peek a boo with me. But sure enough as we finish supper and it is time to go, you can imagine what takes place next...

*nobody wants to leave
*all girls begin whining because it is sooooooooo cold
*boys start wailing (not sure why? probably feeling their sisters' vibes)
*we get to the van and the girls fight over who gets in first, who is in who's way.
*the ride home it is "not fair that we have to take baths and go to bed once we arrive home"
*Claire starts arguing with me about a school situation
*Ellie pitches a fit because she asked for a dessert and I told her it was too late for dessert.
*by the time we arrived home and I got everybody upstairs ALL FIVE KIDS WERE CRYING!!

After the night was settled and all kiddos in the bed, Ellie says to me, "Mommy you are still the best even though we didn't have a dessert tonight and you made us take a bath"

The Pates Lately...

Softball season is underway, so we spend quite a bit of time at the "ballpark"


God granted us a gorgeous day of play Saturday afternoon. It was 65 degrees and the kids and Rob and I stayed outside and played all afternoon.


Saturday evening the girls and I prepared a homemade veggie lasagna. It was so yummy and the girls were thrilled to help "tear up the mushrooms" and "smear the spinach on the noodles"..they really become excited to help out in the kitchen, and even though it would be so much easier and faster for me to just do it myself, I take the extra time to let them help out as much as possible because it is special time I am able to spend with my girls. I know one day, we'll look back on these days and laugh as we remember Jenna eating raw mushrooms and purple onion while Ellie gagged at the scent of creamed spinach and Claire and I snuck jelly beans with waiting for the sauce to cook. Thank you Lord for these sweet family times.



Typical weekday morning. Jenna and I have "learning time" until the boys wake up (usually around 9am) and then after breakfast, we play in front of the window..warm and cozy by the heater vent and the sunshine beaming through the window.



Typical weekday night. After supper, the kids love to play on Daddy in the floor. Here is a picture of FIVE kids playing on top of Daddy's back.


We are thankful everyone has been healthy and well lately. The boys are thriving and growing up so fast. We are working really hard (or shall I say I am working really hard) at weaning them from the breast to a cup. Funny side note here..these little stinkers won't drink out of ANY SIPPY CUP..we have tried all the sippy cups Wal-Mart has to offer, however, they will drink out of a standard cup with no top. Of course, this doesn't make "drinking out of a cup" very convenient for me, but I guess the goal is drinking from a cup and that seems to be how they will drink it, without a top!

James is days away from walking. John David is not too far behind him. They are cruising really well. Letting go and taking steps from one object to another. They have recently learned "what the tiger says"..and we are trying to work on other animal sounds. Both boys have totally figured out how to bite...EVERYONE that is, their sisters, me and Daddy, the YMCA ladies.

Thanks for checking in with the Pate Gang..we are all doing wonderfully and are grateful for God's great blessings in our days.

26.2...is a LONG WAY TO RUN!

This Mercedes Marathon was my second full to complete and Rob's fourth half-marathon to complete. He finished at 1hr and 44 min...AWESOME! I am so proud of my husband. I finished the full in 3hr and 30min...AWESOME! I am very proud of myself. I would like to take this opportunity to boast a little bit ON MY GOD! You may be the type to think, what has God got to do with running a marathon? Well, let me tell you! As I am running (training and even racing) I spend the majority of my time in prayer and worship of my Lord. I focus all of my energy on Him. I draw strength from Him and ask Him to power me and shine through me. I don't half hearted do anything with my Lord's name attached to it. SO you see, when I am running it becomes very spiritual for me.

As I was rounding the 18th mile, I became extremely fatigued and rather exhausted. I had a terrible burn in my side and seriously wanted to stop. My immediate thought was Christ hanging on a cross beaten to almost death with blood dripping and flesh hanging from his body. I thought of all my sin that put him there. I thought of the agony He endured for me and my discomfort and pain really took a back seat. I then focused my thoughts on His glorious love and compassion for me and all of my friends that I pray for daily. I prayed for my pain to flee, my strength to boost and my endurance to remain through the end. By mile 20 I felt my Lord's Holy Spirit resound within me. Now if that is not enough to want to do it again, don't know what is...

So ya see, I don't run marathons for the Glory of myself, but my God and the opportunity to brag on how far HE takes me. I have trained for marathons while working a full time job and raising three little kids, I have trained for marathons after pregnancies that left me bed ridden and totally out of shape, I will soon be training for marathons with a full time job and raising five children and you know how I do it...MY GOD I tell ya, MY GOD!!!!

I beat my last marathon time by an entire hour. PRAISE UNTO HIM..

Doesn't matter what you are trying to do in your day (right now for me it is raising a family of five little kids) but Christ will carry you when you think you can't go anymore. God has a purpose for all He "puts you through" and living your life in Honor of Him will bless you in ways you never thought possible.



The song that replays in my head through this experience is "In Christ Alone" by Brian Littrell. If you have not heard it, look it up on itunes. It is AMAZING. It also plays on my blog.

"In Christ Alone will I glory though I could pride myself in battles won. For I've been blessed beyond measure and by HIS strength alone I overcome. Oh, I could stop and count successes like diamonds in my hands but those trophies could not equal to the GRACE by which I stand, In Christ Alone I place my trust and find my glory in he POWER of the cross, in every victory let it be said of me, my source of strength, my source of hope is Christ Alone!


This is the ONLY picture I have so far of our Mercedes Marathon Day. I will post others as I get them.
Christopher and Aimee Martin, and Me and Rob. What the picture doesn't show is the "shivers" we all had, whether it be nervers or the 28 degrees it was at the start line..or possibly a little of both. Christopher and Aimee have been our bestfriends for a long time. Rob and Christopher played sports all through highschool together and Aimee and I found each other as buddies one day sitting in the baseball stadium watching Rob and Christopher. We have all been through quite a lot together with our families and I thank our Lord many times for the friendship we all share. Oh yeah, and let me mention too, that Aimee completed her FIRST half-marathon and Christopher completed his FIRST full-marathon. And had one year ago they weren't anywhere close to being able to accomlish that..WAY TO GO guys. I am proud for you two:)

Do you HEAR what I HEAR...!

Probably not, huh? Unless you are Lee Fogle of course (she is the director of the best daycare facility Oak Mt. has to offer) but unless you run a daycare center or have five kids under the age of 8, you probably don't hear what I hear...

And now, thanks to my comical father and creative step mom, we now have five kids under the age of 8 constantly beating on DRUMS....Here are the pics of the boys with their birthday gift from Becky and Rosey (aka my dad and step mom)....I assumed the boys would love the drums but I had no idea the girls AND ROB would be so "drum beating" giddy to say the least...

I tried to post video but no such luck..will try again later and hopefully share the video with everyone. And thanks Dad,Rosey and Uncle Rex for the drums!

Ellie Bug...all in a school day!

Ellie attends Bruno's Montessori School in Oak Mountain. We are very impressed with the all that Ellie has learned this year in school. She has flourished in this environment and has done very well. We are thankful for all the experiences Montessori learning as brought for Ellie. Here are some pictures from parent night. Daddy stayed home with all the siblings and I was able to attend her special night all by myself. It was glorious. I loved watching Ellie in her element.


Showing me her beautiful handwriting. She writes the words that she creates from the "movable alphabet"...I loved it when she said, "Mommy when you were four did you do a movable alphabet at your school and use a clipboard to write your words down?" Haha..I told Ellie that when I was four I probably didn't even know my alphabet much less create my own words and write them down...haha!


Her world map..she said, "Mommy you should know something..I did this all myself with no person to help me"..hahah!



Montessori Math..don't ask me, cause I have no idea and I am a fourth grade teacher..but whatever they do to teach these Montessori kids works amazingly..Ellie has recently started on multiplication..unbelievable!



YEP...this would be Ellie's Japanese practice..she says, "Mommy Japan kids don't do letters they like pictures instead for their words"...crakn me up girly!


Reading a story to me...





Ellie's bestfriend...


Ms.Patricia..this woman is amazing..been teaching Montessori for 16 years..we are blessed to have her teach and enrich our Ellie Bug this year.



ART work. Ellie really enjoys the arts...cooking (serious cooking), painting, drawing, sketching, music!


Her favorite part..the candy bar and cappuccino!

Here is Ellie Bug showing off her classroom to me on parent night. She was thrilled to spend the "mommy and ellie" time together. After she shared with me the activities and "jobs" she completes in her average school day, we stopped at our favorite gas station and had a twix candy bar and french vanilla cappuccino

Bang, Clang, and MAMA...and I am well again!!

Here is a video of the boys playing with my dumbbell weights and James was saying "mama" over and over. Of course when I got the camera ready and asked him to say it, he didn't cooperate nearly as well as he did when I didn't have the camera ready...but isn't that usually how it works..the kid doesn't perform when you want them too..haha! I also love how John David (Biggn) is tossing the weight around like it is nothing and James can hardly pick it up...


I also wanted to thank all of my family for helping out with our brood this past weekend and my sweet friends for checking in on us over the weekend while I endured the "flu"...I of course didn't make it to the doctor but for 3 days, I thought for sure I was nearing my death bed. It was purely awful. The last time I had all the flu symptoms was two years ago when I was training for my first Mercedes Marathon. Guess I didn't learn my lesson then, so I needed to go through the "body breakdown" again. I have read that when training for a full marathon and you bump up your mileage over 45 a week that your body's immune system is weakened and occasionally has a physical breakdown. I am just so thankful I still have two more weeks to hopefully gain my strength back before the race on Feb. 14th.

So the absolute worst moment of the past few days was Friday morning when I woke up with 102 fever and my hair hurt. I couldn't hardly move without intense pain in every single part of my body. Of course the two one year olds and the gimp legged two year old didn't have much empathy for me. They still demanded their waffles and BREAST MILK...(and by the way, 102 fever and extreme body ache DOES NOT make breastfeeding fun) I swear I deserve a t-shirt that says.."Yes, I am tough as nail!" I had to take care of my sick self as well and Jenna and the boys ALL day Friday. To then walk into my kitchen and notice that the floor was flooded with water. I seriously called my husband and whined like a two year old saying, "that is it, I am about to sit in our dang floor and just cry!" I felt so horrid and it was only 8:00am...but thankfully the plumber came and fixed the kitchen sink, my mom picked up the big girls from school so I didn't have to leave my couch (except for the twenty five times I had to pull John David out of the bathroom from playing in the toilet water and take James down off the top stair leading upstairs, and take Jenna to the kitchen table for snack, lunch, snack and snack as well as the potty since she can't walk of course) and then Mamaw stopped by on her way home from work to help feed the brood until Daddy arrived home and then obviously handled everything for the remainder of the weekend.

So thankful to be feeling healthy and well again. Momma being sick just doesn't make for a pleasant homestead!





This video is so typical of these rambunctious boys. If it makes noise and clangs and bangs they LOVE it. My dad and stepmom just shipped the boys a set of drums...I will definitely post that video once they arrive.