She’s my free spirit. My morning girl. My glass half full child. She loves to create… always drawing, writing letters or pictures, doodling on any paper she can find. She’s very verbal. When I put her in her room for quiet time, I often think someone has snuck in there with her b/c I hear her talking away—only to discover she’s talking to her self, or reciting things she heard on the radio or TV.

The tooth fairy is pulling over time here at the circus… luckily, someone has forgotten to put his teeth under his pillow, so he’s cashing in tonight with all 3 he lost in the last 2 weeks… I love his new Jack-o-Lantern grin…however, I am not so keen on how grown up he’s looking these days. Though that seems to be a ongoing refrain round these parts. 

I’ve written before about the crazy places and positions I’ve found my kids sleeping in. It appears child number 4 is no exception to the random sleeping locations of the circus crew. Last night, when I went upstairs for bed, I found him asleep in his door way like this. Today at nap time, I again went up the stairs to find him out of his room. It appears he’s taken a preference for sleeping in the hallway/landing area of our home.

His favorite thing these days is Choo Choos. He was so excited at Target the other day when we went down the Thomas aisle. “Choo Choo right there” he pointed excitedly, over and over.  He always sleeps with at least one choo choo in his hand and is super thrilled with the choo choo mattress sheet his Grandma made for him. He also LOVES to wear his choo choo shirt, or bathing suit.

Years ago Aunt Karen gave our oldest child a Life is Good soccer shirt. Because the color and theme were gender neutral, I ended up passing it down to my daughter a few years later. It actually became that perfect shirt for younger siblings to wear to soccer games so she could feel like she was a part of the team too. By the time my third child wore it, it was worn with shin guards and sometimes even cleats TO WATCH the older 2 practice.

I love to read. I love when you get to that point in the novel, where you literally can not put it down and find yourself speed reading/skipping words just to quickly make it to the next part and find out what happens. One of our goals in educating our children was to make readers out of them. This was hard at first with our son as reading didn’t come naturally to him.

One of the things I came across while packing for our move was a bottle of jewelry cleaner. As soon as I found it, I scrubbed my wedding rings. As I did, I realized it had been quite awhile since I had cleaned my rings. As I scrubbed, the grime became more and more apparent. I couldn’t believe how brilliantly they sparkled after I cleaned them. When Scott first came me my engagement ring, I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.

The 4th of July kind of reminds me of Thanksgiving. I think the two go hand and hand really. Because as we celebrate the birth of our nation, our independence and our freedom, how can we not give thanks? We have so much that we’ve grown to believe we’re entitled to all of it and more. In the midst of a fun filled day of family and friends, of parades, and flags, burgers and hot dogs, fire works and red-white-and-blue, I want to pause a few minutes to reflect.

Almost done catching up the journal blog on some of the big life happenings round here these past few weeks. Last, but certainly, not least, would be the girls Mini Olympics performances at gymnastics. I LOVE Mini-Olympic time. It’s the one time of year when we get to go on the other side of the glass wall and watch our girls up close. And since I am often entertaining a toddler or taxing around an 8 yr old or running errands, during their practice time, I truly cherish getting the opportunity to watch them perform.

It’s been 2 weeks since we signed on the dotted line twenty million times and got the keys to our new home! And we’ve made some special memories in those two weeks, such as… camping out the first night in front of the fire place in an empty house riding bikes (every day since we got here… and I can’t believe how much better they are at riding bikes now… I have 3 proficient 2 wheelers now!