My Adventures: One Month Later

Its amazing to me how easy it is to let 'just one time' escalate to more than that. Such is the case with the blog. Things came up in the time I had to do it and so it didn't happen. It was way easier to let it slip than to keep it up, but here I am hoping to try again. Plus the last month has had some great times that I need to write about.

Probably most importantly, Kylee turned 12! Its so crazy I have a 12 year-old but we have been anticipating this birthday for almost a year so its time to be 12. She decided to pierce her ears and so I went to my first tattoo shop with her and got it done. They did a great job and they seem to be healing really well. It was fun to do something with her that she has been looking forward to for quite awhile. I think she loves her pierced ears. She also is now riding in the front seat whenever she can. This is an adjustment for me since I now sometimes need the seat empty for her, she can see the speed I am going, has access to the music, and is right there next to me. For her actual birthday she wanted everyone over for dinner. She opted to have taco salad since Jason and I said we could not make tacos for everyone. It was so great to have everyone around. I acquired a new kitchen table earlier that week and it gets big and my family lovingly obliged and crammed everyone around the table. It was crowded but it was AWESOME!! I loved that conversations, the laughter, the tightness, but mostly that we were together. Together is an important thing to me and I love that it happened. I don't regret buying my table at all. I wish I could sell the other, but we will get there. So, we had taco salad dinner and then we had crock-pot cake. I made a triple batch. A double for my regular crock and then a single gluten free one in the small crock. It was so good. I feel so blessed to have family close and that we want to be together. Its fun to see the kids play with each other and have aunts and uncles they know and love.

Just a little about Kylee. This past year has been a tough one for her. She started middle school which she has really enjoyed. However, during sports she started having chest pain, she still has constant headaches, and she developed a huge cyst on her eye. These things have led to many doctor appointments, x-rays, scans, and not a whole lot of answers except that she seems healthy and for the cyst just be patient it will go away. Well, even over 4 months for development of these things we still don't have a lot of answers. The cyst is smaller and is going away. We are looking into therapy for anxiety to see if that is what is triggering headaches and chest pain. We will see its a journey and though there are rough patches she is handling things really well for being 12. Yep, there is still attitude at times, and there are moments when we both wonder if things will ever be better, but they are. She loves serving in her yw class. She is the 1st councilor and she loves planning activities and hates giving lessons and talks. She has a good group of friends at school. She loves attending the temple and her friend Tori Jacobson has been amazing at getting her there often. Its a challenge for us with so many younger kids, but have helped us so much. Kylee still loves dancing her own style and way. She loves to have music and audio books constantly around her. She loves her siblings and enjoys being with them. She has tried tons of things at school. She does well in her school work and is really a wonderful girl.

In other news, Tia and Kylee both had music concerts in the last couple weeks. Kylee had her second 6th grade band concert. She did a good job and it was fun to watch her. I don't think she will continue to play the flute and that kind of makes me sad but its been fun to watch her perform and learn something new. Tia had her 4th grade music concert. It was really good. She got to play the drums and she did well. I love watching her sing and do things she loves.

We are still in swimming lessons. Everyone is getting stronger and a little better every session. Kade and Abby are really starting to get their roll overs and they love, love swimming. Kylee loved being the best in her class this last session. It will be interesting to see what her and Tia think of being in the same class this round. Tia has made some new friends in her swim class and though she likes swimming I think she is loving the social aspect of swim, just being with kids who want to play with her. I know they are getting stronger because last week we rode our bikes to church. We did it to help our kids be able to sit better through stake conference and to help with parking. Elder Stephenson came and spoke, so that was a real treat. The kids didn't get to meet him because we didn't think of it soon enough, but I think it was a good day anyway. The kids rode all the way there and all the way back without any real issues. It was a push for the twins but they both did it!

Life is busy and good right now. Tia has a new medicine that as of right now seems to be working just right. I feel so blessed because things weren't right and I just kind of wanted to blow it off as her, but it just didn't seem right, so I reached out to the only doctor I could get a hold of (our pediatrician retired. its very sad) and she blessedly was able to get me an appointment with Dr. Meng who I really like and he did some talking and helped us out. We tried one thing and that didn't work and so we tried this other and I feel like it works. I am so glad we got that appointment because it is so nice to have our Tia back and I think she's glad to be back.

Life is one grand adventure right now. My kids today were asking how many miles we have on the van and I looked down and it was like 239,500-ish and I could help but smile and think to myself yep, 239,500 miles of adventure. We have ups and downs. Mothering at this stage is interesting and I am not sure how I am doing. I haven't 'played' in a long time with a child because the twins have had each other and love playing with each other, so I have to relearn how to do that with Hope. I am trying to parent pre-teens, and pre-schoolers. They all have different needs and levels that they need things. Its tricky to find what I need to be and to be it. But I keep trying and hopefully it all works out. It hard but I still love being a mom. I love that I get to be fully in this role and don't have to worry about work. I feel so blessed to right here right now.