A momma can brag, can't she?!?!

Tonight, Jason and I went to Brodie's very first parent/teacher conference! I am proud to report that he is doing so well! He is reading on his own at a level most kids don't read on until way later in the year. They need to know numbers 1-25, and he can go up to 69! He can recognize 10 of their "sight words" and he only needed to know 6. He knows how to subtract and they haven't even started learning that yet! He can recognize all of his capital and lowercase letters by sight, and not in alphabetical order and the numbers 1-31 by sight and not in numerical order. He is just an amazing little guy and he has learned so much since he started school. Jason and I could not be more proud of him!!!!!!

On a side note, some exciting things may be happening on the "home" front! Conveniently enough, my brothers feels like the house he bought is a little too big for him and we just happen to need a bigger house! We may be buying it from him and hopefully moving before Elliot gets here! More to come....

Some days I feel like a bad mom...

Yeah, today is one of them :( I just feel like I have a very short fuse today and am getting irritated with the boys way too easily! Also, I cannot get motivated to do anything around the house that needs to be done today. Today....I just suck....

Deke and Tru will be the reasons for my 1st grey hair!

Oh, those twins of mine!!! The 3's are a hard age anyway, in my opinion. Mush worse than the so called "terrible 2's"!! What's worse is that they are boys and there are 2 of them. When one of them starts in on something, the other just feeds off of that and it quickly escalates. I wouldn't say they are bad, they are just kids and this is just the age they are at right now but it is hard! I find myself losing my cool with them pretty much daily! Like right now, I just looked in their room, why are we playing with the baby Q-tips?!? WHY?!?! They are little sweethearts though, always hugging us and telling us they love us which is nice but hen I turn around and see them kicking the dog or pushing Sawyer over. Oh my!! They did melt my heart today though.Brodie was at school and Sawyer was taking his morning nap so I gave them some paper and markers and told them to draw me a Halloween picture. Well....Deacon drew some fog, but with a door on it so you can get out and Truman drew a spider eating a Halloween sandwich :) How can you not just want to eat them up, even when they do drive you nuts??

To go for 6 or not...

Jason and I have been talking a lot lately. Are we really "done" having kids?!? At the age of 26, am I going to really say, "Yes, I am for sure never going to have another baby." I just can't honestly do that!! Having 6 children has kind of been sticking out in my mind for some time now,and I know Jason is on board for a 6th as well. I know kids cost money, etc but if you don't have a large family or the desire to have one then you really just cannot understand. I LOVE being surrounded by my children and having a busy, happy home for them to grow up in. I think they will be better adults having grown up in a large family. More caring and more thoughtful of others. Some people think that large families are leading to the overpopulation of the world, but I don't really see it that way. I mean, YES, if every single person in the world had 6 children then we would be looking at some big time overpopulation but that is no the case. I feel like I am in a very small minority of people who wants to have a family that large. Think of all the people who choose not to have children or only have one child, etc. I'm just making up where they left off :)

You know, Jason and I never stared out saying, "We are going to have a huge family, let's start popping them out!!" There was actually even a moment, a very brief moment, when we thought about stopping with Brodie! HA!!! Once we had Deke and Tru and went from 1 child to 3 overnight, we saw how amazing it was to be surrounded by our. We knew we were not done and along came Sawyer eventually. Even after Sawyer, I just knew he was not the end of the line for us and here we are expecting our first daughter!!! When I clothes my eyes and imagine my family sitting on a bench, there are still some people missing. I see Jason and I, Brodie, Deacon, Truman, Sawyer, Elliot, but there seems like there is one more spot waiting to be filled....

Every age is my "favorite" age!

I swear that every age my kids are going though is my favorite! There is just something so fun and exciting (and also bittersweet) about watching your children grow and learn. Here is why each age they are in is my "favorite":

Brodie: Brodie is about 5.5 now and s in kindergarten and he is just an awesome kid! He is learning to read and write which just amazes me! He is making his own little friends outside of our family unit. He has a definite clothing style that he prefers and hobby's that he enjoys and a certain way he likes his hair ("not handsome", as he says). You can carry on a conversation with him just like you would an adult. He knows how to use humor and sarcasm at appropriate times and he is just fun to be with!

Deacon and Truman: These two are going though an age of discovery! Not only are they becoming more independant by being able to dress themselves, put on their own shoes, put their own dishes and clothes up, etc but they are learning so much! They are at an age where they are learning colors and numbers and shapes and just really starting to notice the world around them. This is the age where they ask they cutest questions like "Why does a duck have wings?" and "Where does the moon go when it sleeps?" and you just want to bottle them up because they are so precious! I love to watch them learn.

Sawyer: Such a fun age!! He is walking and talking now! His favorite thing is to yell for our dog Zelda when he can't find her. He feeds himself with utensils now pretty well and he tries so hard to put on his own shoes and socks. He gets very frustrated when he knows what he wants to do but can't figure out how to do it. He loves to give big hugs and kisses. When the phone rings he looks at me and says "Hello?" like he is telling me to go answer it. He just does something new every day and it is just too fun to watch.

My children may drive me nuts at times, but when I sit down and really think about how blessed I am it just amazes me. I love those boys with all that I am!

I never thought I would be like this.

As I was sitting her, just cleaning up from lunch and laying Sawyer down for a nap I was thinking about my life and how different it is than I ever imagined it to be. I always knew that I wanted to get married and have my kids young, I knew that I wanted to be a young mom and hopefully a young grandma. I never imagined that I would be married when I was 20 and be expecting our 5th child when I'm 26. It has just been an amazing ride! The thing that is most different from what I imagined was the fact that I love being home with my children. I always thought I would just work full time and then do the mom thing on evenings and weekends and that I would be ok with that. Ha...wrong! As soon as I held Brodie in my arms, I knew that I needed to do whatever I could and make whatever sacrifices I needed to to be home with my babies. It has been a long journey! I thought that working full time in the lab was going to work out well, I went in from 3am-11:30am and was home the rest of the time. After 4 years of that I grew tired and unhappy and knew that it was not enough. I wanted to be there for all of my kids good mornings and good nights. Now, I'm at the point where we took a huge leap of faith and I'm home and I love it. Whatever sacrifices I have to make, I'm willing to do it. God has always taken care of us and I have no reason to doubt that he will continues to do the same. I can honestly never see myself working full time again.