Seven

August 21, 2013

My baby girl is somehow seven. When did this happen!?

This girl adds so much fun and spunk to our life. Some things about my girl:

- Favorite color is aqua blue

- Loves to sing and luckily inherited the Hales voice rather than the Evans one

- Reads. A lot. Like, really a lot. She is on book #4 of Harry Potter. She read in it for 2 hours today.

- She's becoming more confident and doesn't let the small stuff phase her so much.

- She's our Lego girl and wants to be a Lego designer when she grows up.

- She does some crazy good impersonations.

- Refuses to get her hair cut short again, despite her Daddy's pleas

- She writes and illustrates stories with Chandler about their toy monkeys. They have close to 20 already.

- She can make us laugh so much at her silliness.

- While she's usually a sweetie, she has a quick temper when she's tired or hungry!

- She likes picking her own outfits (I'm grateful for school uniforms) and doing her own hair. Sometimes I just take a deep breath and let it be. Other times... not so much.

- Jessica loves to help out in the kitchen, especially making her own "recipes". Her most recent creation was a Ritz cracker with cheese and dill. Very exciting stuff.

- She is the best big sister to her brothers. I couldn't ask for a more caring, loving and fun person for them to look up to.

Happy birthday to my #1!

Day 1

August 2013

We have two kids in school. TWO! How is that possible!? Jessica started second grade this year and Chandler is in VPK (pre-Kindergarten).  School is such a good thing for Jessica. She loves the routine, her friends, and staying busy learning new things. She has the same teacher as last year, which has been great. Mrs. Jacobson is wonderful at letting the kids act their age, while giving them lots of great opportunities for growth and independence. We'll be sad to have to move on next year.

Chandler also loves school. While I wouldn't call him "shy", Chandler is definitely reserved and isn't one to initiate social situations. This has been a great opportunity for him to get a little bit out of his comfort zone. I have been so happy to see him go up to new friends after school, with a smile on his face, asking if they want to play. He still has some progress to make (like how he should have said something when the kid kept blowing a party horn in his face at a birthday party and he just sat there looking nervous. Ugh. It's so hard to let your kids handle things themselves sometimes), but he is blossoming into a more confident version of himself.

Thoughts on Blogging

I've been doing some thinking lately about what a terrible blogger I am. Don't get me wrong, I have no aspirations to be a blogger to anyone but friends and family about our little simple life. But even that I'm pretty bad at. At best I pop in once a month, upload a bunch of pictures, and call it good. My sister and sisters-in-law are all thoughtful and articulate and relatively consistent with their postings. Me...not so much. I use lots of excuses with myself. And yes, the whole "Mom of four kids at two different schools, Primary President, landlord, (etc, etc)" thing is a lot, it's not like it's really THAT much more than anyone else. I'm sure I deal with much less than a lot of people. It's all about priorities. And since we live forever and a day from most of the family, I feel like maybe I should bump this whole blogging/keeping up with the grandparents thing further up the list. I'll just put off the ironing for another day. Ha! Ok, let's be honest, poor Michael is lucky if I get his stuff ironed twice a month. If we lived closer and saw family more, I'd probably be planning on ditching blogging altogether, but we don't, so I'm not.

So I guess this just means that just maybe you'll see a little more of us on here. But for now you'll have to be happy with pics from 3 1/2 years ago because our main computer is at the Apple doctor and I don't have much on this ancient laptop. This post has been quite exciting to carry out without a well-functioning G, H, V or B on the keyboard. :)

 

I'll be back once we have a well-working computer again. And although I can't promise that I'll be thoughtful, articulate or consistent, hopefully I'll do a little better. :)

 

Danny!

We are so blessed to have this little sweety in our family! He is a good sleeper, a good eater, and he puts up with being ignored. What more could you ask for? Being a mom is hard, but this little guy and his brothers and sister always remind me that it is so worth it and so wonderful.

And of course these little ones are pretty perfect also.

JCBD

We think we have some pretty great kids. While we haven't taken any big trips or vacations this summer, we've stayed busy.

Jessica and Chandler took swim lessons. Jessica got her ears pierced, again (they grew in from last time) and developed a love (obsession?) for Legos. Benjamin turned 2 and loved his dinosaur cake. They all loved the occasional night when we'd let them go to sleep in our bed. It was entertaining to see how they ended up. And of course, they all loved smothering Danny with hugs and kisses.

New Additions

Michael's office got a couple new additions recently. He commissioned a painting from Jessica that he's gotten a lot of compliments about. She's definitely our little artist.

The second addition is worth bragging about. This is proof of our second (and hopefully last) BAR admission! Woo Hoo! We are so proud of Michael and all of the hard work he put in. He's really liking his new job and the fact that he's done with that test. :)

4th of July

I was shocked how few 4th of July parades there are here in Central Florida. But a friend mentioned one in a town nearby. It was fun and short (the best kind) and the kids got WAY too much candy from the floats. That night we joined some friends for BBQ and fireworks.

Grandma and Papa's Visit

A couple weeks after Danny was born, Grandma and Papa came to visit. They went to Downtown Disney, the beach, the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, and LegoLand, as well as just hanging out and playing at home. Daniel was also blessed while they were here. It was great to have them!