"Aunt Jamie, di you always know you wanted five kids?" Kennedy Vincent

I was doing laundry, while she was playing with dolls on the floor when she asked this question. I didn't really think much of it at the time and simply answered "I never knew exactly how many, I just wanted a large family." I then went on to explain that I am an only child and while as a child it is nice, it is kind of lonesome as an adult. I also told her how lucky she is to have two brilliant, fun sisters to love!
Now I begin to really think about it all...How wonderful it would be to have sisters like this? One is my twin and one is older and wiser and someone to really look up to.
Then I think about my "sisters," my friends. They are irreplaceable, just like a blood sister. They are there for me, always supportive, honest with me. They are here for me to cry with, laugh with, do crazy things with, complain to, vent with...and on and on. With these "sisters" of mine I could conquer the world!
What I am trying to say is I am lucky! I am lucky to have five healthy, beautiful children. I am lucky to have my family and "sisters." I am lucky to be able to open myself up and be grateful for what I do have!
To all my "sisters" I love you and I couldn't make it without you!

John Findlay aka Finn, "Finney", "Mr. Finn", "The Finster", "Finney, Finn Finn", "The Baby"

Finn, what can I say? 6 months has gone so fast! You are THE HAPPIEST baby/person, I have ever met. When you wake in the morning, you wake up smiling and talking, never crying. If someone passes by you in the house, you smile, if we pick you up, you smile, if we change you, you smile and on and on....I guess we are all doing something right. Raising you/taking care of you is definitely a group effort. Everyone in the family/house is involved and they LOVE it! Your sisters are constantly picking you up and hugging you and asking what you need next, the boys are always on the floor with you, talking to you, kissing you. Love is all around you, you are so adored!
You haven't had your official six month check up yet. I had to postpone it because of all the activities we had planned with your siblings and visiting Grandma this summer. But at your last visit, a week before you turned six months, you were 17lbs and 26.5 inches long. You are so long! Here are you other stats:
-you eat jar baby foods, twice a day (apples, pears, carrots, squash, peas, bananas)
-you eat Gentlease Formula, 5 times a day. Anywhere from 6 to 8 ounces
-you wear size 3 diapers
-you wear 6-9 month clothes
-you sleep 12 hours at night, give or take an hour, some nights
-you aren't a good "napper" yet. Usually they last 20minutes to an hour
-you can almost sit up
-you love the Jumperoo
-you love to pull my hair!
-you love your binkie when you are sleepy, but only the ortho shaped ones
-you have excellent grasp and fine motor skills, already! Bring on the cheerios!

Also in the last 6 months you have had almost every illness :( You had RSV as a newborn, Hand Foot Mouth, pink eye, and ear infections. My poor guy. I will say too, for as happy as you usually are, oh boy, when you are sick, watch out!

Finn, you are loved so much, and you are such a light in all our hearts! We love you little man and are excited to keep watching you grow.

I'm back...

So I don't really know where I was...Oh yah, here with all five of these zany kids and the dog days of summer :) I'm not really sure what we have been doing, but we seem to have been busy. I think about blogging a lot, but have a hard time finding a block of time to do it and really focusing on one subject at a time. The ADD kicks into hyper drive...
This summer we played lots of baseball and softball (softball was interesting.) Lots of activities with Church, visiting Grams's and her visiting us, a trip to Turtle Cove, a membership to the Flat Rock Comm Center, summer school...Ok, so I guess we have been doing stuff, but there is still so much to do. We haven't seen Kelly, we haven't been to the zoo, I want to get back to Turtle Cove, visit Mom for a longer time, visit John's Mom....and time is running out! Ahhhh!

Monday's Week in the Life

I know I am a little behind on posting about my project, but I have really been trying to focus on it while still running the house and making it to all the kids activities. Whew, that can be super exhausting.

Ok, so Monday I was super excited to get started and was totally on the ball. I recorded everything I did and the time that I did it. That was a lot of recording, but interesting to see just how much I could cram into one day :) One of my favorite quotes from Monday was when Hunter and I went into his room to turn on his TV he looked at me and said " My Hunter room is a mess!" LOL! Which translates into "Clean my Hunter room Mom." Before 10am I had finished paking lunches, gor Hunter breakfast and changed, said goodbye to Mad and Jack, fed and changed Finn, watched Desperate Housewives while he ate, did a load of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, gave Finn a bath, took Finn's 16 week photos, cleaned out my container cupboard and laid Finn back down for a morning nap. It was after looking at this that I really realized, that Moms, stay at home or working, are really able to accomplish many tasks in a short amount of time and rarely, if ever do we get recognition. Yet, somehow, we wake up the next day and do it all again.

I have a feeling this is going to be a very eye opening project and I really encourage all of my friends and family to do it. Even if you only do one day and even if you aren't a scrapbooker! I am so glad that I follow Ali Edwards blog and was finally motivated to do this for myself and family! How fun it is going to be to look back one day and see what we did :)

Week in the Life

Whew, I have been wanting to do this project from Ali Edward's Blog for so long, but wow it is a lot of work. Writing things down so I can journal tonight, taking photos of everything...I love my photos though :) I just think this is an awesome idea that the kids and John, can someday look back on and see that Mom really doesn't just sit around all day. Not that I really believe they think this, but I am sure they do wonder what it is that goes on here all day while they are working and at school. I cannot wait to share my project with everyone here as well. Fun! I think it is good for us Moms to take the time to see how hard we do work and to see just how much we can really jam into one day. As I have done this today I realized that I haven't even had the chance to really play with Hunter and Finn. So tomorrow I am going to make a conscientious effort to really spend some time with them and maybe get outside with them, something :) The cleaning can wait and I can be in the moment, before these moments are gone. Check back in to see where I am in the project and if I have been able to keep it going ;)

Little League!

I love Little League Season! I really enjoy watching Jack play baseball and John and I really try to be involved. This year John is coaching Jack on the Farm Reds team. YAY. This is especially cool, since my Mom now lives right outside of Cincinnati. What a strange coincidence that we would be given the Reds as our team :)

This year Jack is learning to pitch and is doing incredible (at least I think so :) ) I took 96 pictures tonight at practice. Not really sure how that happened..and they are so funny. I think I have the Michael Jordan of baseball on my hands. You will see in the pics that he sticks his tongue out when he throws LOL! It was too funny. The best part of practice though, is just seeing the boys out there having fun, working as a team and getting along. All too soon sports become overly competitive and all the fun is gone :( So for right now I am going to soak it all in and encourage Jack to do the same. We need to just preserve and enjoy these moments, the ones that are happening right now, so that we can look back on the 96 pictures and really remember what it felt like when Jack was 8 and learning to pitch for the first time and learning to bat on pitches that weren't purposely thrown right over the plate :) This is what childhood is really all about!

We interrupt this blog...

Little Mr. Finn has rolled over!! My beautiful, littlest man, all of 15 1/2 weeks old has rolled from his back to his tummy! I could hardly believe my eyes. My Mom and I were talking and I look over at Finn and he is on his belly. He wasn't even annoyed that he was on his tummy. I am so happy. Let the mayhem begin :) In my experience once a baby starts rolling, they are non stop movement. I guess I really need to get on the ball with childproofing now!

Just wanted to share the good news!