10 on 10: July 2013

One photo, every hour, for 10 hours

Our morning starts the same way; I wake with either my alarm clock at 5:30am to get ready for work or this little man wakes me. He is still in his crib and requires assistance to get out, that is where Max comes in.
The boys share a room now and Max will come and tell me that Rhett is awake.

Phil stays up late studying or decompressing with a movie and thus he buries himself deeper into bed so he can sleep a bit longer. Usually until I hassle him awake, sic the kids on him or he has somewhere to be.



Our monthly toy purge. Not really, but it seems like it. I get fed up with the constant battle of keeping a tidy house and I go through our books and toys and sell, toss or donate what has seen better days or the kids don't play with anymore. Kate often laments that we "have too many toys!" when I nag them to pick up. I know Kate, I know.

While I purge and organize the kids run and ride circles around me.

We stop to refuel.

I carry on with my organizing and rehang pictures in Kate's new room. We moved her to Rhett's room after we were tired of all the fighting and late night partying that Max and Kate were doing. I quite like her cute and happy space. She has the most put together room in the entire house. Bonus for being able to reuse the nursery decor! It actually goes perfectly with her bedding. She will be solo until the baby comes and the babe is old enough to sleep through the night. Then we will most likely get bunk beds for the boys, they will move to this room and Kate and the baby will move to the bigger bedroom. All in good time. We may not even be in this house when that all goes down.

Naps for the kids and I rest for a bit reading through the Ensign. Sleep overtakes me and Phil urges me to go lay down.

1pm-2pm: Sleeping for all

After naps and Phil leaves to study we head out into the miserable weather and try to cool down with the slip n' slide and otter pops. The kids succeed while I just melt sitting in the shade. I finally call it after 30 minutes and we head indoors. Their bickering doesn't help either.



Pre-dinner snack for me: beautifully ripe peach, drizzled with honey and cinnamon and a bit of cream. Apples for the kids.

I prep dinner and the kids play on starfall.com. Here they are laughing hysterically at the number 6, where a bee comes and buzzes at them. They played this page at least six times. It is nice that Max and Kate can do it all on their own and it frees up some time for me to work alone.



Dinner is done and we continue to play. The kids zoom like crazy people back and forth. It is loud and chaotic most times in our house. I can't wait for bedtime.

Overwhelmed

I had every intention of sitting down one or two nights and hammering out these posts to get caught up. And then life happens; Phil has a week of day shifts and we actually can hang out at night, or I am too darn tired to sit and filter through images and compile thoughts, or the house is a mess and I have to work the next day and maintain some shred of dignity and tidy up before Kara the fabulous babysitter comes over, or...

Maybe I just need to settle for one post a week. Maybe. No promises.

______________________________________________________

There is no witty way to say this.

I am pregnant.

The 5th and FINAL baby arrives the first week of January 2014.

I know. We're crazy.

You know how some people in the blogging arena have a theme or word for their year? Like "focus", "breathe", "peace", etc. Mine is overwhelmed. And by all accounts I am doing fabulously on fulfilling that theme! (Phil says I am too sarcastic, sorry if that is too biting.)

As the shock and stress of adding another baby to our family has begun to fade I am very grateful that I can have more children. I don't take it for granted and know that we are blessed. But I still feel incredibly overwhelmed that this will be our 4th child in just over 4 years. Ahhhhh! If you had asked me about another baby a few months ago I would have laughed and sworn it off for another year or two before I started to consider trying to get pregnant, when Rhett was approaching 3 years old. And yet here we are. Apparently we are on the 2 year plan. :)

I am 13 weeks presently and for the first time EVER I have been nauseous and feeling yucky. My hopeful reasoning is that this baby is a girl. All of my prior pregnancies have had boys in them and I have never felt nauseous with them. I would love for Kate to have a sister but of course will be happy with either gender. The sickness has since lessened and most days now I feel pretty good other than general fatigue. As of last night heartburn reared it's ugly head, so early! I am also feeling that general unease of my stomach and digestion woes that plague most pregnant woman. Bleh. My consolation prize is the baby at the end and knowing that this is the last time I will be doing this.

I also have felt this little peanut move already. So fun! This is my favorite part of pregnancy and what I will miss the most.

So there you have it. One of the primary reasons I have fallen off the face of the earth as my dear friend Liz put it. That and the three other little people that call the shots around here. I can do hard things, I can do hard things...