July kinda just flew by. Between finishing up Wyatt's baseball season and our own family vacation it feels like school just finished yesterday and yet somehow we're already in August. I'm not sure what to make of it but either way here we are getting ready to head into the last month of summer.
We did a lot of fun things in July. Aside from baseball and family vacation, we celebrated the 4th of July with the family at Amy and Brian's place, we spent time with Uncle Robert's puppies, we swam, we got haircuts, we caught a parakeet and found it's home, we got Wyatt's heart murmur checked out, we made a big decision about our house, and we managed so much chaos.
Happy 4th of July!!!
Visiting Great Grandpa and Robert's Puppies
Our House
Brandon was showing this photo to another dad at one of the baseball games and talking about how we're looking to move and find a bigger place but that we hate giving up our beautiful view. The dad said, probably totally off handed, "You can never leave that!" Now we know there are a million other places with great views but it did get us thinking AGAIN about moving vs. adding on to our house. We've been back and forth seemingly a million times and there are pros and cons to both for sure but usually one of us ends up leaning more towards one thing and the other towards the other. This time however, for the first time, we seemed to both feel more settled with adding on. We've been praying about what to do and although this place will never be "perfect," at least not in the way we imagine a place we built and designed ourselves being perfect, it is a great spot and we feel like we're being reminded that it's okay if it's not perfect. For us maybe it's even better because it helps us keep our priorities straight.
It feels like adding on, though it will require a lot of our family for a year or two, will require less than the other option financially and in terms of general upheaval. We will see. We're still really nervous about how it works and if we can really undertake this. So we try to hold it loosely and yet we're also really excited about the prospect of not having all 4 little girls in the same room any more and of having space for 15 cousins to play when the family gets together, not to mention a second bathroom for the kids and closet for the boys.
So, although we put on a new roof last summer and it will be painful to tear out some things we've already put time and energy into this is the direction we are heading right now.
With this in mind, July included tearing down the tree house Brandon built for the kids. They didn't really play in it as much as we had hoped and we found out after building it that the tree is practically on top of our septic tank. All this said we feel like it would be smart to get it out at this point rather than trying to mess will it down the road.
Chaos
Dinner time has been a challenge for seemingly forever but it's getting a little easier as the babies get older and Cooper especially has really been enjoying helping me in the kitchen. He's made meat balls pizza and salsa so far and it's been really fun having someone else in the kitchen with me.
But WHY Zoey?!?! WHY?!?! I don't know if I could ever do a big dog again. I'm sure I'll feel differently someday but I seriously do not have the energy or the patience to deal with this. She's 7! WHY IS SHE STILL DOING THIS????
There were lots of nice moments like these usually followed by the exhausting moments where EVERYONE seems to have a problem with EVERYONE else.
Wyatt's Heart Check
I took Wyatt in for his sports physical in June trying to get ahead of the game as I knew he'd need it to play sports at school next year and his doctor found a heart murmur that she was a little concerned about. The babies have them too but she said his sounded a little angry, whatever that means, and that if it was her kiddo she'd have it checked out. She didn't worry us to much and we kept reminding ourselves that he's had no other issues and doesn't seem to be tired or any of the other things she asked about when she was evaluating him. Still these kind of things make you nervous. So we went in and had an ultrasound done on it just before leaving for vacation. When they called me just a few hours later it scared me but they assured me everything was completely normal. I actually made her tell me twice because I was so surprised to hear from them so quickly.
Praise God!
A Pet for a Day
Hazel came in one evening as I was cooking dinner and asked me what a blue bird is called. I was busy and said I don't know a blue bird? She wanted me to come see it but like I said I was busy until Sadie came in with a picture of this guy up in our tree. Ya that's not suppose to be there and he had a little band on his foot so presumably he belonged to someone. We didn't know what to do so I posted a picture to our neighborhood page and the kids tried to coax him out of the tree. He would get pretty close as he seemed hungry but they could never quite catch him. So after about an hour, during which they ate outside, Brandon went out and threw a towel over him and caught him.
So now we had him in a laundry basket but had no idea what to do with him. We called a friend who has a parakeet and they said we could come and grab their travel cage and a little bird food. So we drove to Albany to grab it and talked about whether or not we would consider letting Sadie keep it.
By the next day Sadie had pretty much claimed it as hers. Uncle Robert was looking for a bird cage for her and the kids were reading about caring for it. I really didn't think there was any chance we were going to find who he belonged to until a Jeep pulled up our driveway around 5:30. The woman apparently knew one of our neighbors and though she knew who the bird belonged to. It was all very confusing but she showed me pictures of what looked like the bird we'd caught and gave me someone else's number to call. So after dinner I called and this person came and said it was her bird. So we sent it home. She sent me photos and video of it afterwards back with it's bonded pair and said she was sure by the way they responded to one anther that it was her bird, Azul. The kids were pretty sad and it all still seems so random, but I'm glad we were able to get him back to his home.
Summer Haircuts
Summer Flowers
Summer Nights
These days are overwhelming and exhausting but these days are also really really good!
We are thankful and very blesses!
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