Wow finally an update, photoless but still an update

Holy cow a lot has happened in the last 9 months.  Of course our sweet baby girl was born Aug 17th perfectly healthy and beautiful.  The kids started school the next week and I was a little worried about how I was going to handle it all.  Now looking back 9 months later I can officially say "I DID IT!" 

I was taking care of Natalie at all hours of the night and then getting the boys up at 5:30 to catch the 6:30 bus.  Emma's bus didn't come until 7:30 so I was on duty for 2 hours every morning.  2 months into the school year I drove the boys to school so that Brandon's star of the week poster would not get ruined on the bus.  Lo and behold the drive and drop off was so easy and fast that the boys never rode the bus again.  So then we all started getting up at 6:15 and I was only on duty in the morning until 7:30.  Natalie was great through the whole school year having to be yanked out of her warm bed some mornings to drive the boys to school. 

I started reading a book called Babywise when Natalie was 8 weeks old and it was awesome.  She started sleeping through the night and was on a very easy and predictable schedule that worked great for my busy family.  She is the sweetest little thing and is always happy.  Seriously.  She only cried when she was hungry and only fussed when she was tired.  She is a little more fussy now but that is due to teething, poopy diapers and seperation anxiety.  All normal things.  Emma, Jake and Brandon just adore here. They are always wanting to hold her, play with her, feed her, etc.  When they come home from school and walk in the door they basically ignore me and run right to Natalie.  Matt does the same thing actually. I don't get offended. I do the same thing if I have been away from her. 

My house seems to never be clean, I am tired and very busy, my schedule revolves around Natalies schedule, my clothes always have spit up or smashed food on them and some days I just don't have the energy to do my hair but I would not change anything in my life.  I sometimes sit and think how clean my house would be, how I would not have to lose 30 pounds and how I would not be so tired if Natalie were not here and then I think to myself.  I would be sitting in my clean house, 30 pounds lighter, full of energy and be wondering where my fourth child is.  I would be sitting here wanting a fourth child like I did for a few years before she came.  So if you see me and I look a mess, and you come over to my house and it is a mess, just smile and pretend everything is great.  I do.  Because really, everything is great.  I have 4 awesome kids and a great husband and I am blessed. 

Back to the update.

Brandon.  My sweet little Brandon.  I was so worried about him when we moved here.  3 major things were happening to him in quick succession and I really did not know how he was going to handle it.  We moved to Texas in June, Natalie was born in August, and he started Kindergarten.Plus it was all day kindergarten.  He had never been away from me that long.  I was just sure I would be getting a phone call everyday from his teacher that he was crying at school and I need to go comfort him or pick him up.  He did so awesome this year.  Not once did he cry, he loves school and his teacher.  His teacher will forever be a blessing to me that she helped him feel loved and needed at school.  She was the perfect fit for him.  He has really grown a lot this year.  In more ways than one.  He is getting taller but mostly how he deals with things.  Our saying for him is "Just go with the flow." That used to be really hard for him but he is doing great.  He also had a wonderful primary teacher here who just loves him.  We signed Brandon up for wrestling last fall and he lasted about to weeks.  I have decided that there is "no fight" in that boy.  Which is fine with me.  Wrestling is not his thing.  He is more like Emma and likes to draw and create things.  I put him in swimming lessons for 8 weeks and after the first 2 lessons he said "I know how to swim now so I don't need to go to swimming anymore."  Nice try buddy.  He does great in swimming.  Even though I know he doesn't like it, he does everything the teacher asks him to do.  He is also playing soccer and LOVES it.  He only practices and plays on Saturdays. He keeps telling me he wishes it was Saturday he loves soccer that much.  He is really doing great and come to find out he is a pretty fast runner.  I can't believe he will be in 1st grade next year.  Unbelievable. 

Jake has adjusted to Texas life very well.  He makes friends pretty easy and has enjoyed school this year.  The Elementary school the boys go to is great.  Jake has learned a lot and really enjoyed the G/T (gifted and talented) program they have.  He had to take a test a couple months back to see if he qualified for G/T classes in middle school and we just found out last week he did!!  He was very excited about that.  He plans on taking band next year but we don't know what instrument yet.  Jake wrestled again this year and did a great job.  He didn't always medal but he worked really hard and that is all we can ask.  He is still deciding if he will wrestle again this fall.  He is currently playing Flag Football and loving it.  So he thinks he may try football again in the fall.  He is doing awesome in scouts.  He turned 10 in October and had his Webelos badge by March, among some other badges.  He really enjoys scouts and they have some great leaders in our ward.  Jake is hilarious and keeps us all laughing.  He is really fun to watch learn new things.  He loves his dad and would be his dad's shadow if he could.  He repeats things Matt has said all the time.  I am not sure how I feel about that either.  He believes everything Matt says and the 2 of them together love to play tricks and jokes on the rest of us. 

Emma is all grown up!  Ok not really but she is no longer a little girl she is a young woman and you better not forget it.  She was just called as the Beehive class president and takes that responsibilty very seriously.  She really enjoys the Young Women program and has made some great friends both in our ward and at school.  She did great in school this year.  She is taking G/T classes and it is helping her get a head start on some classes before she goes to high school.  She has one more year of school until she is in high school.  How did that happen?  She finally grew too.  She used to be the shortest of all her friends in Las Vegas.  Now she is pretty tall and almost has the same size shoe as me.  Crazy.  She has been involved in the school musical and really enjoying that. The musical is called "honk" and it is the story of the ugly duckling.  She has three lines and a one line solo. I am excited to go see the play in a few weeks. She loves the staging of the play the best she said.  She thinks she will take Drama/theater in high school.  She can be a little moody like all teenager but she really is a great kid. She still draws and reads like crazy.  She is also writing a book.  So far I think it is pretty good.  She has decided she will be the next J.K. Rowling.  Sounds good to me. 

Matt stays busy at work and I mean busy.  He was made the plant manager a month after we moved here. He is the boss of around 30 guys and is in charge of all the scheduling to get everything made and shipped. The first 6-7 months we lived in Texas we didn't see much of him.  Now that he has a few men hired to help him out he is able to leave work and come home once in awhile.  He takes his job very seriously as he should but has a hard time letting go of it when he comes home.  It may be due to the phone calls he keeps getting once he is home but that is how his job goes and so we "go with the flow".  He has been taking a new medication for his Crohn's disease and it seems to be working very well. 

I think it is safe to say we all like living here in Texas.  I only have 2 complaints.  The humidity is crazy here and the allergies are insane.  Poor Natalie and Brandon seem to be plagued with them the most.  If we can get the allergies under control I can deal with the weather.  The schools are great, the ward is great, the neighborhood is great.  We have all made new friends who have already blessed our lives.  We signed a 2 year lease contract on the house we are living in right now.  So who know where we will be living next June.  We really like the area we live in so we will be looking for houses that are at least in the same ward and schools as we are in now and maybe even the same neighborhood too. 

I am looking forward to the summer and not being on a schedule and taking the kids swimming at the community pool a lot.  I have a few projects I plan on working on over the summer too.

Life is good. We are blessed.  I was a little nervous about the new chapter in our life when we moved to Texas but it has turned out to be a good one.