Instagram: The Mini Blog

Ok you guys, I honestly can't believe this blog is still going (kind of).  Seriously 7, going on 8 years is a long time, sometimes I cannot even believe it.  It would be so hard to give something up that is so old and so near and dear to my heart.  I love to go back and re-read what I was doing at certain points in my life and to remember details that I have long sense forgotten.

However with three 4 and under it gets a little harder to get over here and do what I love (writing).  It's not even that I am strapped for time as much as it is anytime I sit down I am almost certainly going to fall asleep while doing whatever it is I am pursuing at the moment.  Whether that is blogging, reading, watching t.v., anything really, sleep WILL overcome me.  I think that just comes with the territory.  All of this to say, Instagram has become like my "mini-blog" where I can just pop in, talk about what's going on, and then not worry about it.  However I know I will need to remember this season, because that is truly what it is, a season of mothering littles and so many times I think we as moms tend to forget (maybe by God's grace? haha) what we have really gone through.  So here is what life is feeling like right now. . . this will be jumbled, crazy, and just a tiny look inside our lives at the moment.

Since it is summer there is, how should I put this, a very loose schedule.  We have a consistent wake up, nap, and bed time, but other than that it is all kind of free game.  After our Morning Jobs we usually we spend the rest of the morning with friends or out in the front yard (before it gets too hot), or in the game room.  I try to do some stuff around the house at this time too (laundry, clean the kitchen, dinner prep if there is any, etc).  Sometimes it works out that way, and sometimes you have to just go sit and read a book and play cars.  Before you know it, lunch is here, followed by one show, and then nap until Daddy gets home, then the sky is the limit as to what we will do that night.

This is the first time I can ever actually remember loving summer.  I am a fall and winter girl, if I am not a mom of 3 children.  This past fall and winter we were so sick, I couldn't wait for warmer temps to take all of that away.  The bigger our family grows the longer the illnesses are drawn out it seems, so summer is now a favorite until they learn how to throw up without my assistance.

The boys are growing so big, like seriously, it is ridiculous.  I mean I almost have a five year old! FIVE!!!! What the what?!?!  That blows my mind!  I have absolutely adored year 4 and with Reid, he has grown up into a great and mature kid.  He is learning so much, especially educationally, and to really no credit on my part, just things he has picked up on, asked me about, or wanted to know.  However, he is still a little guy, which I absolutely love, how suspended between stages he is.  He says the funniest little things that I know will one day be a distant memory.  Things like something is "soaking big" (He means "so very big" I think, but I love the way he says "So-King BIG!" that I just can't correct him), or how a hot dog weenie is a "winnie".  Basically I love this boy big, though he knows just how to push every single crazy button I have, I know and pray he will do great things for the Lord with that strong will.  He is so precious to me
 

Owen is 2.5 and oh is he ever in the throws of being two.  He is the funniest, slyest, sweetest kid I know, and he totally knows it too.  He tries (and sometimes succeeds) in using his charm to get him out of trouble by a smile or saying something funny. He is still a mama's boy through and through.  No one else can hold him after he wakes up from nap if I am around.   He is the loudest screamer, the most dramatic and the whiniest thing, all while being a cute, precious, love and cuddle bug.  His vocabulary has totally taken off and he is now speaking in full sentences and can pretty much tell us exactly what he wants.  I love the language development that happens during the 2nd year, it is so neat to watch them really learn how to communicate.  We are working on what is appropriate and what isn't at the moment (don't scream at brother, be careful with sister, don't throw your food on the floor, etc.) but he is an adorable and sweet kid!

I am going to do a whole post on where Halle Kate is right now tomorrow so for today she doesn't get a paragraph (hashtag: third kid problems).  We are loving being a family of 5.  It is the most exhausting yet most meaningful thing Mark and I have ever done.  We are so very thankful to God for all the many blessings we have that we most definitely don't deserve.