"The rain came down and the floods came up"

So, it's been a long month. Jeremy's been working hard getting his office up and running, There have been lots of setbacks and frustrations, and his x-ray equipment is still a headache and not fully functional. It's been exciting, but nerve-wracking and frustrating at the same time. It would probably be easier if he could just concentrate on that, but we've had other craziness going on with our townhouse. (Well, we rent, but still, we try to take care of everything that we can in exchange for really good rent.)

A large branch from the big olive tree out front fell on our roof and within a few days it rained and the kids' bathroom started leaking. The HOA's roof guy said it wasn't the tree's fault and that roof just needed to be resurfaced.

 So they did that, and then last week the kids and I ended up staying at my mom's for 5 days while they expensively and messily removed all the wet sheet rock, which was full of 60's asbestos. And the bathroom has been sitting all torn apart since then, which has been exciting. Really looking forward to it all getting sorted out, but I’m not sure when that will be!

We have had a busy month in general though. Summer life with 5 kids is a little much for me! We have tried to stay busy, though. I was sad to not have the option of going to the cabin on 4th of July with all the fires. We're still worried about those, but hopefully our cabin will continue to be safe. :-/ We didn't do too much celebrating, but went to our ward's 4th of July breakfast at the Melser's, and did sparklers with the kids that night. I just wish it got dark a little earlier. It would be more fun that way, but our kids go to bed pretty early usually. Bridget was already in bed and didn't get to see them.

Towards the beginning of the month we also met up at Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center to help celebrate Chloe's birthday. My kids always love that place, and it's pretty cheap to get in. If it wasn't like a 35-40 minute drive we would definitely go more often!

Abbie was down here visiting when we did our traditional Chik-Fil-A fun.  We went for a pretty early lunch and it wasn't too crazy yet. I'm had to quickly make a shirt for Bridget this year, but otherwise the prep was already done from my sewing last year!

We had the opportunity to attend a double funeral for my great-Aunt Karen and great-Uncle Kent, and it was a great experience. I learned a lot about them that I didn't know before, and it was nice to spend some time with extended family.

We used the trip to Urban Jungle on our POGO passes, and the kids love that place! It was a little crazy trying to pseudo-keep track of all of them, especially with Bridget and Shawn to watch, but they all had a really great time. We should go again sometime!

And then one of the biggest events of the month: Bridget turned 1! So exciting and crazy! We had a fun relaxed day for her birthday, and did cake and candles that night with just family. Jeremy also got some light-up balloons that they all had a blast playing with.

Our second Bridget-celebration was a couple days later, when we were in Pima. It was more of a party then, with some grandparents and cousins. Both times were fun.  It's always nice to spend time in Pima, but with every child we've added, packing has grown more hectic, and... it's just a lot to travel anywhere. I'm hoping that will ease a little as they all grow and can do a little more packing for themselves. What do you think? :)

The other eventful thing that happened during that trip is that we found out Spencer was returning from his mission in Tampico, Mexico. He had some things he decided he needed to take care of better before he continued. That was hard, but good, and it was great to see him. I was glad that I got to be there when he came home, at least for a day or so, since we ended up extending our trip a day or two because of the crazy bathroom stuff. It is just such a mess!

So I spent my 35th birthday packing everything BACK up, and driving home with 5 kids. Not quite what I had hoped for... I tried not be sad about it, but I was a little bummed. When I got home, though, Jeremy sent me to the Gilbert temple (the Mesa one was closed briefly) and I got some (free) dinner at Joe's Farm Grill, which is also super tasty. And I got myself a piece of cheesecake to celebrate my birthday, which was pretty exciting, since I have been trying really hard to start losing this baby/nursing weight the last couple months since Bridget finished nursing. I haven't been having -any- desserts, and that cheesecake was amazing! Between that and the peace of the temple, it was a nice end to a crazy day, and I appreciated it!

Nobody actually reads blogs anymore, right?

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.