Happy Thanksgiving!

Firsts for Jillian

Changes That Have Come With Having 4 Kids

1. In the chaos of life, I've also become a bit more forgetful. For instance, I drove 25 minutes to church with all four kids by myself and when I got there and started unloading the crew, I realized that I had forgot to put shoes on Beckam. Luckily, his nursery teacher insisted that he was fine and that shoes were only a minor detail and that I shouldn't worry about it (bless you Susan). Fast forward a week or so and now I'm driving Jaxton to preschool with Beckam and Jillian. We arrived at the school and I started unloading the kids when I realized that once again shoes were missing on one of my children. I quickly thought it through and wondered if shoes were really necessary for Jaxton to have for preschool and decided they were, so I had to go inside, explain to the teachers, return home to retrieve his shoes and take him back to school. It's now been a couple of weeks since then and I haven't forgotten anyone else's shoes. PHEW!
2. We had just walked in to the state fair when a man approached us and asked us if we wanted the remainder of his tickets for the rides. We accepted his offer, thanked him and were totally pleased at our luck. We hadn't walked 10 steps when a girl walked up to us and asked if we would like the rest of her tickets. Again we graciously accepted her gift but at this point wondered why out of all the thousands of people there at the fair, why was everyone giving us their tickets (25 total). Was it the fact that Nate was pushing a double stroller, I had a baby strapped to me in a carrier and holding on to a fourth child's hand . . . or unbeknownst to us did we have some kind of pathetic message written across our foreheads? Either way, it saved us $25!

3. In desperation for some extra time, I decided to cut 11 inches of hair off. I must say that waking up and having my hair done in 1 minute flat and not to mention keeping it out of my kids mouths and eyes is a beautiful thing!

4. Mac has given me a new super hero name, which I graciously accepted -- "MEGA MOM!"

5. Late one night I had a friend go on and on about how great Beckam was and how she couldn't see him ever getting in trouble. My instant reply, which even caught me off guard was, "Yeah, except that he eats like an animal and doesn't listen worth a crap." (Apparently it had been one of "those" days.)

Bottom line: While lots of things (from extra forgetfulness to short hair) have changed since the arrival of our fourth child, the truth is that it's our life and we like it! Slowly we are working ourselves into a routine and each day gets a little bit easier. We feel so blessed and grateful for all that we have!

More Fall Festivities

Halloween '09