It's Been Long Enough

After figuring this little trick out......the way she chose to run around the house all day.
Hard at play with her all day hat



Looking so much better but still bruised. At least both big brown eyes are once more visible.

Birthday boys. Gavin got his #3 in Daddy's 36. This cake was entirely made, layered with icing, stacked and then finished by Evye, our upcoming little cook....for which I am ever grateful.

Figuring out we're singing to him.

Sleeping with the loot...trucks and tractors with trailers...lots of them.

Sleepy girl ready for bed...with an eye that is looking much better!

Brothers...some of them

Twins...a full 2 inches difference. Pale white and tan, red haired and blond, blue eyed and green. It doesn't get much more different than this but you sure couldn't convince these 2 inseparable buddies.

Ever our smiley, happy, carefree one

Posting has been diminished to once a week and sometimes less given the lazy summer months. Fatigue has managed to set in more than it has over the past few months along with a huge need to organize, purge and prepare for babies. Despite the fact we still have 16 weeks to go I feel the need to prepare while I can.....cook meals in advance to buy me as much time out of the kitchen as possible and preparing entire meals in advance. We will undoubtedly test the maximum capacity of our humble little 3 bedroom home by adding more babies...especially as we add more than one at a time....so organization is paramount. It always is but is more so now than ever. The girl room/boy room idea never did go over and after the novelty of separation wore off....a mere 2 nights after the fact.....the girls were back in the boys room where everyone was much happier and has stayed every since. As a result we have 3 bunkbeds set up in one room (full/twin, full/twin and twin/twin) with one sleeping space left. Ivye will bump up to the big bunkroom eventually and we will maintain the everybody bunk room with 8 now occupying it and a nursery for babies. They are quite ecstatic over the transition to come and, as every baby gone before that graduates up, they are already celebrating the upcoming graduation of Ivye into the everybody room.

Ivye's very ready to potty train so it's a just a matter of working a day or 2 with her. She'll be in panties before babies come. If I hurry up and get with it she should be in underwear full time before the end of July. She won't be 2 until November...a full month after babies come.....but she's ready now so I might as well go ahead and act on it. It's exciting. Potty training never fails to be just as huge as the walking, reading and bike riding milestones to me.

Weekend was filled with 72 hours of shift husband's absence and at-home celebrations with Mother and the children. As sun kissed children spent their days outside in water I set to work cleaning out the closet and devising new ways to speed up our laundry process and clothes folding process. As a result we have reached a new freedom where clothes and socks are concerned. Instead of the time consuming, laborious process of matching socks we now have a boys' sock basket and a girls' sock basket. When clean laundry is put away socks no longer have to be matched. Boys socks get tossed into their basket and girls get tossed into their's. Each person is responsible for grabbing a pair each morning while dressing. Even Gavin can happily and easily grab a couple that match. This has drastically reduced the time spent on clothes and made clothes folding children ecstatically happy in their chores/labors of love around the house. We have tried the safety pin thing as each child takes their socks off at the end of the day and that just resulted in lots of frustration on everyone's behalf. Safety pins ended up strewn in all corners of the house where curious little babies go grabbing and mouthing, little boys with not so adept fingers couldn't ever quite seem to get the safety pin to close....or open.....and were continually pricking themselves and needing constant help in their efforts. That was one of many of our different sock endeavors at taming the massive footed beast of the laundry. So far, this has completely saved the day...and hours.....spent dedicated to sheer socks. And now even little boys can get pulled in on laundry duty as they sort socks and toss into appropriate baskets. Gavin is quite the pro and is of the mindset that this is the most fun game of the day. The older little boys know they are being of great valued help so they do it with all of their might. And little boys are now in training to overtake the towel loads of the laundry with Aubrey as their teacher. Garrison and Grant will take over this as she will eventually be faded out of towels and moved on to real baskets of clothes while Garrett and Gavin sort socks. We are now up to having the entire previous day's worth of laundry completely done and put away in record times of only 10-20 minutes. Grayson has most outside duties such as mowing, picking up, and all animal related things so he has been phased out of most of everything indoors except for dishes. I have much faith that life will continue on relatively undisturbed when babies arrive as each of the children are trained, well prepared and grounded as we make the transition from 8 to 10.

2 little boys can daily be felt moving and stirring within as my abdomen continues to expand at a rapid rate. I am still in awe. This continues to be such a surreal journey even the second time around.