It's August of 2012...

Yes it is August of 2012 and I have many new things going on in my life. I will try not to miss anything but these days there is almost too much to remember. This new blog will hopefully allow me to capture all of the ups and downs that we go through in life and the hilarious moments of my life!

First and foremost let me just say that I love being a mom. It is the single greatest joy in life even through the bad times, hard times and sad times.

With this new school year each of my kids seems to have grown so much and I am amazed by what I see. I guess I will just go in age order.

Briana is now 14 and a freshman in high school. So far she hates it. The first few days she came home she told me all about people getting "swept". Apparently that is when you are going to slow trying to find your classes and the upper classmen push you aside. I can only assume this means that they aren't gentle when they do it either. It's only happend to her once. I think she has also realized that 7 days in she has had more homework than she did in two years of middle school. Briana is such a beautiful girl and really coming into her own. She is smart and I am so excited to see what she will do with her four years of high school.

Kaleigh is 14 as well and in her last year of middle school (8th grade). Thanks to the great state of Missouri she is a school year behind Bri because she was born six days past the cutoff. Oh well it probably works out to her benefit. This summer I have watched such a transformation in Kaleigh. In June she went to Big Creek Missions with my parents church and it changed her life. She came back a different girl! She has become very active in the youth group at Towerview and I can't tell you how happy I am to see her excitement fot it all. This year she has also physically changed so much. It's hard to remember her as a young girl because she now definitely looks like a teenager. We are keeping our fingers crossed for great grades this year with her new focus!

Larry (Larry Jr.) is 13 and also in 8th grade. He can definitely be described as being "Fresh2Death". Everything must be in order. Shoes clean, pants crisp, shirt straight and your fresh I guess! He cracks me up with some of the things he does and says and can make you laugh if your having a bad day. Lucky for Larry we started him in football this year and man I wish I would have started him when he was younger. I will post all about our football escapades in a different post. This year I know that Larry will do just as good as in years past. I know he hopes that he gets taller soon but I'm content to keep him just the way he is. For purposes of not getting things confused I will refer to him in this blog as LJ.

Tyler is now 10 and in 5th grade. I would say this has been one of the biggest changes for her Dad and I for the fact that we now have to realize that she is in 5th grade and can do the same things the others did when they were her age. Larry sometimes has a hard time realizing how old she is simply because she still seems so small (even though she has grown a foot). For as far as I can remember Tyler has been a great student and helpful to her teachers. I doubt that will change any this year. Tyler would like to play basketball in school this year and I have every intention of making that happen for her.

Chase is 8 and in 3rd grade. I think so far he really likes his teacher which is always a good way to start off the year. I guess this year is really a turning point for Chase. He now will get actual grades instead of the simplified grade of P for Proficient and NP for Non Proficient. He has really stepped up his game helping around the house too. I couldn't be any more proud of him for that. This year Chase also started playing football and I can't wait to tell you all about that! I will post a picture this weekend of him (I want to take one in his new uniform).

Chandler is 4 1/2 now and as crazy as always. Along with his crazy personality he has a crazy haircut. We let him get a mohawk and everyone but his sisters love it! Chandler still goes to my sister-in-laws house during the week and will be starting swim lessons at the end of the month. I can't wait to see how he does. He is getting so big so fast that sometimes it's hard to remember how small and fragile he was when he was born. He definitely defied odds and is thriving!

As for Larry and I, we are just loving life as a family and hoping to get a little more organized this school year.