For posterity...

There is just something I have always loved about keeping a journal. I guess in this day and age, a blog is the new journal! It's been a while since I have updated this, but I thought that I might start again just to keep track of my thoughts, experiences, and kids. I have always loved the book "The Bridges of Madison County" and how the kids come to go through their mom's things after she passes and find all these books filled with her everyday life. I want my kids or grand kids to have that same experience. Not just know me as "mom" but know that I was a real person, with a real life, and real experiences beyond being a mom.

Right now, life is good for us. We have been in our new home for about 3 months now and sometimes it still feels like a dream! It is a sprawling 1960's ranch and it just could not be more perfect for us. It has the space we need, the style we like, and plenty of room for improvements!

I've been working as a nurse for about the same amount of time. I work on a cardio/pulmonary floor. I only work 2 days a week and I love that a lot. I feel like it is a great first nursing job. I see a lot and get to do a lot there. I feel very blessed to get to do what I do.

The kids: what can I say about the kids? They are great, and frustrating, and amazing, and difficult all rolled in to one. Brodie is 8 going on 16. So much like me it is scary! Deacon and Truman will be 7 in a couple months. They continue to be a different as night and day when it comes to personality! Sawyer is 4 and in his first year of pre-k, he is so loving and sweet. I hope he always stays that way. Elliot is 2 and is ALL girl. She loves babies and bows and dresses and helping me in the kitchen. I just really love having a little girl running around. Finn is still baking and I can't wait to see who he turns out to be!

Jason is great as always. I know most people don't find the love of their life in high school, but I'm sure glad I did. I can't imagine my life without him. He is so fun to be around and he is a great dad. Our relationship has gotten better and better. We were just talking the other day how it feels like we are just really close and in sync right now. (I'm Lance, he's Justin obviously)

Battling my insomnia now and wondering what tomorrow will bring...

I LOVE The Vintage Houewife!

Seriously! This is one of my favorite blogs and now she has another one just showing off all of her cute, sweet, vintage clothes!! I'd love to win one :)

http://thevintagehousewifescloset.blogspot.com/

I think I may be trying to kill myself!!

Ok, not really but it sure feels like it. I went from basically staying at home to working 2 jobs in the span of a couple weeks. I have been PRN in Pathology for about a year now, every since I stopped working there full time. They rarely need me that often and I'm fine with that! Well, Jase and I had kind of decided that I should look for something part time just to help us out in the money department so I applied for a part time over night job at the hospital monitoring the heart patients. I got the job. Yay! But then they started needing me basically full time in
Histo for the summer while one of the other techs was off for surgery and chemo. My hours will eventually drop of there, but for now I am doing both jobs and it is NOT fun. The paychecks are great, but I am a walking zombie! I pretty much just lay in bed and nurse Elliot :) Jason has been really awesome about keeping up the laundry (even the diapers!) and the dishes and taking care of the kids. I really hate that this had to happen over the summer when all the boys are out of school and we could be doing so much fun stuff. Oh well, I guess life is all about sacrifices. I just hope I'm sacrificing the right things. Right now I am writing this blog at 4:30am. I've been at work since 6:30 pm last night and when I get of at 7am, I am going straight into the lab to work all morning. I hope I don't fall asleep and cut my nose off on the microtome.....

Update on My Kiddos!

Life is super hectic right now (just right now??), and sometimes my blog is the first thing to get neglected. SO how about a short update on each of the kiddos?? :

Brodie: He just turned 6 and is 3.5 days away from being a 1st grader! *sniff* He's also playing t-ball at church and is having fun even though he didn't think he was going to!

Deacon: Deacon is done with his first year of pre-k! He is going to be going to Children's Mercy in August to have a sleep study done. He is still snoring a lot and having apnea at night. I hope we can get something figured out!

Truman: Truman is also done with his first year of pre-k! He continues to be my most crazy and free spirited child! I have been working on seeing that as a positive, which really it is!

Sawyer: He is having a language explosion right now! Saying new words and phrases everyday! "excuse me", "baseball", "grandma", "thank you", "what's that?" and many other things!

Elliot: She is at a really cute age!! She talks and coos all the time and smiles at everybody. She's trying to start rolling. She is the most fussy and demanding baby we have ever had, but I think we'll keep her :)

Having a daughter

Having a daughter is the most wonderful feeling in the world. When we had our sonogram and found out we were going to be blessed with a little girl., I was so nervous! I loved my boys, I loved being a mom of all boys, and I really felt like I had this whole boy thing down pat. I was nervous about how a girl would effect our family dynamic. All of that went out the door the moment she was laid on my chest after she was born. I felt such an immediate, strong, deep bond with her. It is different than with my sons. Not better or worse, just different. I had always been kind of jealous of the fact that Jason had this unspoken bond with the boys because they were all guys. No matter how close I am to my sons, I am their mom....I'm not a guy! But now I have this precious, beautiful little daughter, I just want to protect her and tell her everything will be OK and that I'll be there for her through everything because I've done it all before. I am just looking forward to watching her grow up and building on our relationship even more.

Happy Earth Day!

I hope everyone had a great Earth Day :) What a great day to take time and really think about what we are doing to our planet. I talk to the kids a lot about the environment and how it is our responsibility to take care of what God has given us. Also, having a large family I feel like it is my extra responsibility to do what I can to save the Earth since I have put so many new people on it :) There are lots more things I would love to do (get a hybrid car, grow my own fruit and veggies, make my own bread) but I think we do pretty well! Here is a lost of the things we do to take care of mother earth :

*use cloth diapers and wipes
*use cloth napkins (we don't use paper towels or paper napkins at all)
*use only environmentally friendly cleaners
*try to buy as much local food as we can
*recycle what we can (i'm working on doing more!)
*don't drink bottled water (all 6 of us, except Elliot, have our own reusable aluminum water bottles)
*use reusable shopping bags
*use compact florescent light bulbs
*i breastfeed (no formula cans or bottle liners to throw away)
*i make all my own baby food (again, no trash to throw away)

That's all I can think of right off of the top of my head! The things we do are cheap and easy, anyone could do them! I encourage everyone to take a look at their lives and try to find some way to cut back!

A Joyous Easter!

What a wonderful holiday! Celebrating the single greatest even in the history of time! We had a fun and busy weekend!

Friday I took all 5 kiddos to Penney's to get Easter pics done. This was their first professional pics sine Elliot has been born. I took my grandma with me for some extra help, but really didn't need it. They were all so good and we got 1 good shot! That's all I ask! That evening we went over to my mom and dad's to see what the Easter bunny had left for the kids there.

Saturday I had choir practice at church from 8-12. We got to take a break around 10 to go over for the all church Easter egg hunt! The kids had so much fun! Well, the boys had fun.... Elliot slept :) That evening we went over to Jason's sister's house for a cook out and another Eater egg hunt. It was nice visiting with them and the boys had fun playing with their cousins.

Today the boys got up pretty early to see what the Easter bunny had left for them. I had to be at church early for choir so I rode with my dad. Jason got ALL 5 kids ready by himself and got them to church! He's pretty awesome like that :) Church was amazing! This was the first time I had ever sang in the choir and it was such a cool experience. It was very moving and I will do it again in a heartbeat. It was nice to reflect on the true meaning of this holiday and just thank God for all He has done for me. Afterwards it was off to lunch at my grandma and grandpa's for lunch and hanging out with my family. I've been blessed with a truly wonderful family and I love them all so much!

OK, quick funny story..... I bought a new dress, shoes, jewelry, everything, for Easter. Well, until this morning I didn't really take into account how the heck I was going to nurse Elliot in a one piece dress with no buttons in front! Whoops! So, during the sermon I had to go into the handicap stall in the bathroom, unzip my dress and take down the whole top of it!! So there I was sitting on a toilet, with the top of my dress pulled down nursing Elliot. Real classy!! I didn't think stripping down like that would be appropriate for the cry room :)