What We've Been Up To

I've been MIA in blog world lately.  I have to take 2 college level courses to renew my teaching certificate. Even though I haven't taught in 8 years (CRAZY), you never know what life will bring and I want to keep my license current.  I paid for the classes last summer and hadn't cracked the books until recently. I felt so busy with 3 kids, then suddenly I had 4 and it seemed impossible. Luckily they are online classes that I could complete at my own pace.   I needed to get this done, so I finally decided to put everything else on hold while I buckled down and worked in every spare moment possible to finish them. And it's done!! Whoo-hoooo!  I'm feeling majorly accomplished, as I can barely think a straight thought most days about anything, let alone learning something. But I pulled it off, and am so thankful it's done!

Now to catch up.  We are doing pretty well.  Life these days is chaotic and exhausting on the best of days!  Four kids is a lot more than three, at least for us!  Maggie is like a different person now than she was when we brought her home.  She is vibrant and full of life. An ex-crawler and now full-time, confident walker.  A great eater, sleeper and overall happy girl. She still has days she is fussy and only has a small circle of people she will let hold her and care for her.  We know that will come with time. The only thing really hasn't changed much at all is her speech; she makes a variety of vowel sounds, says "g", "l", "m" and "r" and that's it.  Thankfully she is picking up more sign language, and does a pretty good job getting her point across despite limited speech.

We're continuing to adjust to our new normal.  Our main priority is continuing to try to provide all our kids with a good balance of time and attention. This is really hard some days as there are simply more of them!  Some of our kids are struggling more than others with this new life of ours.  We're working hard to fill each of their needs, and are getting some extra help along the way.

It's been a rough winter with emotions running high, and adjusting to our new normal, not to mention being stuck inside with the terrible weather.  Not that it's been all bad in anyway; we've made huge progress and seeing Maggie blossom is so incredible.  We're all feeling very hopeful now that we've had some sunshine and warmer days!

Proud walker.

Kids actually caught a mouse in our garage with the mouse trap they built!

Spaghetti face.

An adventure to the vet, 4 kids and 2 dogs in tow.

A rare winter treat: swimming! 

 Working hard to drink from a cup.

Proud big brother showing her off at his Fine Arts Night.

Finally.... outside playtime!

Wishful thinking on my part to bring my book outside...

Watching Daddy, Grandpa and Uncle Matt play wallyball.