I like Facebook. But I spend way too much time there accomplishing almost nothing, and use a lot of emotional energy empathizing with people that are having a hard time, or reading random facts about other people I barely know in real life (or don't know at all, really). I miss blogging. I miss lots of people having blogs. I enjoyed reading what people were up to, seeing their cute pictures, and getting a glimpse into their life. I don't know many people that still blog regularly, and I don't think I'll become one of them. Five kids has kind of done me in. So many things I used to enjoy, or at least used to get done at a decen pace, have fallen by the wayside... Katy pulled out her first year scrapbook the other day and I realized it wasn't done. It's like 1/3 done. And she just turned 7. Sigh.
I don't know why five has been so much harder (it seems) than four. Maybe because Katy was a year older than Shawn when she was born. Maybe because there was just a touch bit more space for four little people in our 3-bedroom rental than there is for five. I really don't know.
Nursing went better with Bridget than with Shawn, (not having a c-section or tongue tie helped a TON) but there was still lots of worrying and donor milk and supplementing and pumping. She was getting a few extra oz a day of donor milk until about 2-3 months until she decided bottles were not for her and she refused to take them anymore. And then I worried about her very slow weight gain and nursed and nursed and nursed and had to eat a ton of food to keep my milk supply even adequate for the next 4 months until she finally decided to take a bottle again at 7 months. By 9.5 months she was completely on formula (Nutramigen) since my supply declined rapidly once we started supplementing again, and I have been mostly just relieved. I am so grateful I was able to nurse her so much and give all of them a good start, but I sincerely hope I never have to try to nurse another baby. And I pray my girls won't have the same trouble I did when they have babies of their own someday!
We sent my little brother, Spencer, off on a mission to Tampico, Mexico in November. It was really awesome to be together with all my siblings in the temple the month before that, and it has been cool to see how much he has grown and matured in the last year or two as he has prepared for this. I still can't believe he's all grown and off saving China, since I was almost 16 when he was born, and helped raise him quite a bit for the first 4 years of his life before I transferred to BYU. It was especially fun to have David surprise most of us and fly home from Kentucky (where he's been going to medical school) when we were all there for Spencer's farewell. Spencer has been out like 8-ish months now, and he's doing awesome.
One of our biggest adventures of the last year was our family trip to Disneyland. It had been almost 4 years since we had taken the kids, and they have been asking to go back ever since. For some reason I thought going with a 4-month old wouldn't be too bad, since they're still pretty portable at that age, and Shawn was still free until last mid-December, so we decided to do it the week after Thanksgiving. We got an AirBnb with two bedrooms/2 bathrooms and a living area so we'd have plenty of space, sprung for 4-day tickets, so we could take our time, and loaded up an amazing amount of stuff into our Honda Odyssey (which I love) and headed to California. (A good friend lent us her double jogging stroller, so we didn't have to try to pack ours) Our kids had a blast, mostly, and have great memories from our trip, and ask when we're going back. But Jeremy and I are a bit traumatized. The first day, instead of being the Best. Day. Ever. (like our first trip) was pretty rough, starting when Shawn woke at 3:30 AM local time and the other 3 olders woke at 4:30. And nobody went back to sleep or napped. Ever. And Jeremy was sick with a bad cold the whole time, and just tried to soldier through as much as he could. I think the latest we managed to stay one night was about 7:30 PM maybe. We barely made rope drop (and it was at like 10 am most days), never saw any fireworks, Bridget was too stimulated to nurse well half the time, but wouldn't sleep out and about unless Jeremy was wearing her (not me) and were an exhausted mess (the parents) by the time we were done. And my, was it expensive. But we rode everything we wanted to (usually several times), including the misses from the first trip. Reilly and Jaina were both tall enough for Screamin' (one loved it, one hated it). All three older kids got to do the Jedi Training Academy, and they -loved- Hyperspace Mountain. Shawn loved all of it, and had a blast, and only got lost once. We enjoyed all the holiday decor, and got to experience the holiday versions of Small World, Jungle Cruise, and Haunted Mansion. Bridget did pretty awesome, other than not nursing well, and I got to check out both baby care areas. We managed to see the parade, though getting a seat was a little iffy. We got a ton of cute pictures, and made some more memories for the kids. Jeremy said we need to go back, just the two of us, so he can remember that he likes Disneyland again though.
As soon as we got back from Disney, we jumped back in the car and headed to Flagstaff for a fun Polar Express experience that Abbie had planned for the kids for part of their Christmas. They had a great time, and we enjoyed it. We probably would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't been so exhausted, but it was fun to go up in the cold and see some snow and be together with Jeremy's family.
Our other big adventure in the last few months has been Jeremy moving his chiropractic business into his own office. It has been quite the endeavor, and has been very exciting and fairly nerve-wracking. It's hard to take on all the debt and responsibility of being in charge of your own office, and hope that things continue to go well and you can pay all the bills and still have enough left over to take care of all your family's needs. It has been fun, but I also look forward to being a year or two forward in this process and having all the dust (literally) settled.
This summer has been a little overwhelming for me so far. Okay, a lot overwhelming. There are lots of wants and needs and questions and arguments and kids wanting to go-and-do all the time. And with 5 kids (including a baby), in this heat, I don't feel much up to going-and-doing. Things kind of came to a head a week or two ago when we had Cub Scout day camp (I was called to be a wolf leader earlier this year) and I ended up doing a lot of the coordinating. I think my coping skills just got maxed out, and it was harder for me to not yell at the kids and spend a lot of time wishing everyone would just leave me alone and stop talking to me. I'm working on my self a lot, and taking time for quiet, and creating, and the scriptures, and writing out my feelings (on paper!?) so they can get released little by little and not explode in frustrated little thunderclouds. Hopefully it will help, because there are only 5 weeks of summer left, and I want us to have some more good times.
