Life lessons

Wow its been almost a year since my last post crazy!  This last year has been crazy, but I have learned so much.  I have been wanting to get my thoughts out for a while.  So this may be random, but I do it so that I have a place to come back and remind myself of these moments.  I think I'm gonna just do this in list form because it will be random.

First and probably the most important thing I have learned, If you do what the Lord ask you to do, you will be blessed.  I started this blog when Colin and I decided to go back to school.  I knew it was what we were supposed to do.  Our Journey was long and hard.  But now that we are back in Washington and have bought a house literally a mile away from our first house, I feel like the blessings have just poured in.  I love my house, my neighborhood and our ward!  My kids love it here, I love being close to our families, and Colin seems to like working from home!  When we sold our 1st house and moved to a 3 bedroom apartment I had no way of knowing what was to come. We just went forward with faith, and now that we are on the other side of it I can look back and see His hand in every step!

A lesson that I seem to have to learn over and over again has been on my mind a lot lately.  Faith in Lord mean Faith in his Timing.  After Colin graduated he got a job in Oregon and  I was a little upset.  I wanted so desperately to come back to Washington, but we knew Oregon was the right path for us.  I realize now that it wasn't about Oregon being the right thing. It was the job.  His job is what got us back to Washington and its is what made us able to buy our house!  And the timing of us getting back to Washington is something  that I know the Lords hand was in.  Not a few days after being here Did the reason for this timing became known to me.  My sister and my family.  I'm not sure they necessarily  need me.  But I know that I needed to be here.  I know that my kids need to be here and be with their cousins. I am truly amazed at the Lords timing.  Once again I learned that that we need to have faith in the fact that the Lord will lead us to where we need to be.

Another thing I have been thinking about is that, My life is just passing me buy.  I can look back on a week or month and think "wow what did I do?"  My children have been taken care of, my house has been cleaned, laundry done, meals cooked, all that stuff is a no brainer.  But I find my self thinking that's not good enough. I dream of all the things that I could do that seem to be so " Important".  Then I will come back to earth and realize there is nothing, NOTHING, I would rather be doing then being a Mother to my 5 kids.  It is hard, and stressful, but a simple hug from one kids will make it all worth it.  I realize that I need to stop being so worried about the house, the laundry and meals.  I need to live in the moment with my kids and Cherish every second!   And Honestly there is nothing more important then them and raising them to be incredible people!


Some People come in our lives as blessing, others come in your life as lessons.  Unfortunately I've had to learn this the hard way. enough said.


Decorating a house isn't as easy as I thought.  Picking paint colors, furniture, rugs, decorative pillows, drapes, and accessories is hard work.  Not to mention expensive!   I have these incredible visions in my head, thanks to pintrest,  and I want things to be perfect.  Which isn't always possible with 5 kids. Trying to decide what thing to put on what walls is driving me crazy.  So much that some nights I cant sleep I just lay there thinking about how to decorate! Crazy I know. So if you come to my house and see a bare wall, or a picture frame with nothing in it,  that is why,  Help!


Rumors and Judging can hurt a lot of people.  More then those that the rumors are about.   And that people are willing to act harshly to a rumor and not think about the consequences.  All I can say is " He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone"

My kids are so awesome.  As the first day of school rolled around I wondered how they would be.  It would be the 3rd they had been to in a year.  My boys 4th school overall.  I was nervous how they would react to yet another first day.  They rocked it!!  Not a tear, none of them even hesitated.  I could tell they were nervous ( I was nervous for them and trying to not cry) but they quickly  found some church and neighborhood friends and never looked back.  I'm pretty sure that if I would of had to go to that many different schools in that short amount of time I would of been a wreck.  But Not my kids, they truly have been incredible.  I'm counting it as a major blessing!

 
Most importantly I have realized that I need to be thankful for the things that I have. No matter what trials I face, no matter how hard I think things are, they could be worse. And I am thankful they are NOT.  My Hubby and my kids are my life.  We have been given so much!  And for that I am truly grateful!!

October

October was such a Fun month for us!! Avery was blessed, which meant that we got to have family come visit!! The weather cooled down enough that it was actually enjoyable to be outside so we played at lots of parks.  And then of course Halloween!! The boys decided last minute to switch their costumes from Tony Hawk ( skateboarders) to a Vampire and Zombie, so we did a little scrambling to come up with some costumes that they would be proud of.  Thankfully we had all the clothes and stuff to use and just needed to get some makeup to make them more realistic!!  But best of all I have loved watch both Avery and Tyler grow and  talk more and more!!  Tyler is saying more and more words every day and becoming quite the little handful. And little miss Avery is in my favorite baby stage.  She is so aware and loves smiling and "talking to us"!!  I love seeing her recognize her daddy and get the biggest grin on her face when he talks to her!!  

Here are a ton of pictures of our fun October adventures!!  (I apologize now, there will be a ton of pictures,  I just cant pass up on cute pictures of my kids.  Especially my sweet Avery!)

At the pumpkin patch!

Avery's blessing day.  My Grandma Ed made her  blanket and  flower for her hair!!

Our Family with Grandmas and Grandpas

I love this crazy shot  of my kids with their goofy Grandpas

I still can't believe I have 5 kids

My sweet little lady

All my babies

My handsome Hubby  and Avery

So glad my boys actually wore purple ;-)

And Next some park fun!!

So fun

enjoying being outside

2 of my handsome boys!!

 And here are just some fun random pictures!!

Fun hat Alexa made at school

 I would be crying too, poor thing.

love it!

I can only pray that they will continue to love each other this much.

 And now for Halloween!!

Alexa the witch.  doesn't every witch have bright pink hair and green faces??

Aren't they scary

 Jakob the vampire

we decided to paint pumpkins this year instead of carving!!

The cutest frog I know!!

Conner did the Zombie thing perfectly!!

 yes even skeletons where hair bows

 The girls!!

Now that we are into November we are getting more and more excited to move back to Washington, and be close to family.  We just wished that all our Brothers and Sisters lived there as well then it would be perfect!! But it means yet another move, which mean more packing boxes.  But I'm so excited for another adventure!!

And then there was 5!!

Just about a month ago our sweet little Avery Lyn was born!! I actually made it to my scheduled c- section, so everything was nice and calm and planned.  Our little princess arrived with a head of long dark hair, which is different for us!!  Our other babies have all had light peach fuzz hair so this has been a fun change.

 Avery has been so fun to have around.  I thought for sure that Tyler would have the hardest time having Avery around, but he adores her, and is a great big brother.  It melts my heart to watch him give her kisses and hugs and want to hold her.  And of course Jakob Conner and Alexa have been so good too.  Jakob is a true oldest child and is very fatherly, and protective of her.  Colin and I can't get to her fast enough if she makes any kind of noise before Jakob is there and taking care of her.  Conner loves to sit and talk to her and make faces at her to see if she will smile and coo at him, and Avery seems to love it!  Alexa is the true big sister. She pick out her outfits, and makes sure that her hair band and bow matches as well as her blankets and burp cloths!!

For me this time is bittersweet, I know that Avery is our last, so every day as she gets bigger I remember that I will never have another newborn to snuggle, but then in the middle of the night I jump for joy that I will never again have another newborn :)
 As this month has come and gone I have been so grateful for  For my Hubby and my Mom.  Without either of them I don't think I would of survived this last month.  And I think the reason Tyler handled Avery stealing his limelight, is because my Mom was able to devote a ton of attention to him and that made him a happy camper!!  So Thanks Mom!!

Now here are a bunch of pictures of our Little Miss Avery!!  I am so excited to see how her looks will change and see who and what she will look like!!

Miss Avery is here!! All 6lbs and14 oz

First time I got to snuggle her, even if it is just with my cheek!!

The proud parents!!

Real snuggles!!

Her first of many bows ;-)

All of my  kiddos!!

Jakob's First time holding Avery

Conner's chance to snuggle her!!

Tyler's turn!!  Melts my heart!

Sisters 

Grandmas turn, with Tyler's help!!

her first official outfit

ready to leave the hospital!

Her going home outfit!

All bundled up

Big brother Tyler

So precious

Colin and Avery doing the late night Espn recaps!!

Chillin' in her bouncy seat in the kitchen  helping me make dinner

Wide awake and ready to get the kids from school!!

 This little lady has been such a fun addition to the family and I am so excited for this next year!!  Welcome to our crazy life Avery!!

Miracles!!

As I think back on the 10 + years that Colin and I have been together we have had some pretty crazy (hard) things come our way.  I feel like we have gone in stages.  Our first 4 years I classify as our "Kid Factory" years.  We had 3 kids in 3 years basically. After that we moved onto our "School Days".  We sold our house and packed everything and moved to Rexburg so Colin could finish school.  It was the hardest best thing our family has ever done.  Then we moved into our "Surviving" stage, which is where we are now.  We have loved living here in Oregon.  We have loved all the new people he have met, and Colin has really liked working for the company that he works for now. But I feel like we have just been surviving.  When we found out I was preggo with number 5, I knew that this would be the last kid for us. No doubt at all.  But something else starting to happen as well, I started to get that women's intuition (or what ever you want to call it, I tend to think that Heavenly Father knows me well enough that he gives me a heads up in a weird sort of way) that this year was gonna be more then just the end of  having babies.  In April we found out that Colin's company was gonna close down its doors and move base to the headquarters in N. Cali.  The company said that they would be taking employees who where willing to move.  Basically no one was including us. But to our benefit the company was nice and gave us all plenty of heads up and they wont be closing the doors here till dec. 31st..  They also offered a huge money incentive to keep Colin working here till then.  So once again  back to the job search.  After my couple hour breakdown (thanks To my Mom  and Laura who where there to listen)  I realized that this is a great opportunity for us.  We have time on our side, and even if we don't find a job by Christmas there will be a big chunk of money coming in that we can live off of.  And therefore we can afford to be really picky and hold out for the perfect job.  When we finally got to this stage of thinking, I really started to realize all the miracles in our lives.  You see we are the only family at Colin's company  that doesn't own a house, which turned out to be a big blessing for us.  Everyone else on top of finding a job either has a really limited search or has to have the stress of selling a house, and we all know in this economy most of the time it's near impossible. Colin and I have talked about buying a house here, but I just never felt like this was the place where we would be forever.  As Colin's interviews turned into job offers  I have been so thankful  for his company giving us plenty of time and money  to be picky.  So we haven't felt desperate and have been able to pass up jobs on the east coast,  or jobs that Colin felt they weren't willing to pay enough for the work he would be doing, or companies who weren't willing to offer insurance or other benefits.  But each time I had to trust my feeling that it was time for us to be out of our "surviving" stage.  Then an offer came in from the company who is Contracting with Colin's company to take over the work that he does.  The original offer was basically the same that he making right now.  But at the time he was in negotiation with a couple other companies and he told this company what they would have to offer him for us to even consider them as an option.  Which really is a Miracle that the ball was in our hands and we were calling shots and putting out our demands.  Somewhere in the middle of all this we drove to Seattle for a job interview.  And we both left knowing that the Seattle area ( home) is where we needed to be. After a week or so later the contract company came back with an offer that beat out all of the other offers.  Colin and I couldn't beleive it.  We hadn't even considered  them an option.  Not only had they beat the other wage offers, but they were willing to give us half the money  that Colin's company was gonna pay him to stay till the end.   Colin and I were amazed that they would do all of this.  The only down fall was that he would be working remotely ( from home)  and we are both not sure how much Colin is gonna like it.  But we decided it was worth it.  Before Colin Officially signed the papers we decided to ask 2 questions, knowing that either way we would take the job.  The first question" since he is working from home, can he work from home in Seattle?" And Since he will still be doing the same job ( this company is taking over the work he is doing now since no one wanted to move to cali) can he wait to start this job till Jan. and get the full pay out for staying?  We figured that it couldn't hurt to ask, whats the worse they could say.  No, we are only willing to give you what we offered?   With in 2 days we heard back and the biggest Miracle ever they said yes to both of our questions!!  Colin and I have been living on cloud 9 and have been loving looking at houses on line back home (Seattle).
As this all has been happening I can help to realize that that feeling I have been having for a while is happening.  No more being pregnant, no more school days, no more Surviving days, no more living far away from family.  And hopefully no more moving after we get into a house in Seattle.  I just have this big sense of  its an end of an era.   I have no doubt that more things will come our way and that our life will never be easy,   But I have learned that all of our struggles and willingness to " go where He wants us to go"  will pay off and that there are blessings around every corner!!

Another miracle That has happened some may consider  not a miracle but for Colin and I it truley has been.  Any one who has talked to me or been around us knows that Tyler is a horrible sleeper, and that getting him to sleep  has been a nightmare.  It has been weighing on my mind alot as we get closer and closer to adding a newborn.  Maybe 2 weeks ago as I was getting ready for bed and saying prayers I remember basically telling Heavenly Father that we need his help and that Colin and I wont be able to handle Tyler and a newborn.  The next day around nap time Tyler was a mess but he wouldn't let me hold him, or snuggle him, or lay by him.  which is basically how we have been getting him to sleep since he was born.  So I just went and layed him down, told him I loved him, and walked out of the room and closed the door.  I was prepared to listen to some major screaming  and just praying he wouldn't cry so hard and gag and throw up, which is why we haven't been doing the scream it out thing all along. To my surprise he didn't cry but for a second and then he went right to sleep and took the best nap ever.  I was shocked.  But I have been even more shocked as the weeks have gone by now and he is still doing it.  In fact he will instigated nap time/ bedtime and tell us he is ready for bed and not fight us at all!!  What a miracle it has been.   And once again I amazed that my simple pleas as a mother even Matter to him. And that my Heavenly Father is willing to listen to me and help me with my simple   problems!!  Its just another Miracle!!

April

So much has happened the last few months!!  Lets start out with April Fools day.  We found out that Bowler baby # 5 will be another girl!!  I am so excited to have another girl but I am even more excited for Alexa to have a sister!!  I love my sisters and the bond that we have nothing can compare to.  So for Alexa to have that means the world to me!!  This little one seems to be right on track with all my other babies, small!  I really am hoping for at least a 6 lb baby.  5 lbs just is to small for me, especially when you figure in the weight that all babies lose in the first few days.  My c section is scheduled  for August 23, and I am really praying I make it to the scheduled date!!

Next up was Jakob's pine wood derby for cub scouts.  I'm not sure who was more excited for it.  Jakob, Colin, or Conner!!  It was really important that we let it be Jakob's creation not daddy's, so Jakob picked out the shape and model he wanted.  he helped cut it out and sand it.  he choose the paint color and painted the whole thing.  So needless to say we didn't expect to win at all.  But much to our surprise his little car won over and over again.   Our ward made it a fund raiser and gave the opportunity for others to purchase a car kit and make their own car.   So Jakob's car beat out teenage boys, men and women.  There were so many people who had better shapes, or whatever else make those cars go faster.  the only thing we did to it was once we got to the derby we weighed it and it was under weight so Colin taped on a golf token to get it closer to the max weight.

Way to go Jakob!!  We are so proud of you!!

Also in April Poor little Tyler got his fingers slammed in to a door on the hinge side.  It turned into a horrible ordeal that involved lots of blood, screaming, stitches, and loosing of 2 fingernails.  I am just thankful that my hubby works close and is able to leave and be home within 5 minutes.  he was able to hold Tyler and his fingers while I changed my blood covered clothes and call the Dr to see if we should go there or to the Er.

This picture doesn't even come close to showing how bad it was.  Lets just say the cut was pretty deep and we are lucky he still had a finger tip

All bandaged up after his stitches but hey still had to put the wrap around it to keep it protected.

And here he is all zonked out in our bed after his horrible ordeal.  

I am happy to say that we all survived and that his 2 fingers have almost totally regrown his fingernails that came off.