After taking a big blogging hiatus over the last few months I am finally getting back into it! I have so much to catch up on but first I am going to start with a bunch of my favorite random photos since after Viv was born. Get ready for picture overload!
Our first family outing with 5 kids was to pick out a Christmas tree. We have gone to the same tree farm to cut down a tree all 4 years that we’ve been here and we always find a good one!
We took some pics of the kids for a Christmas cards and got some good individuals of them that I LOVE and want to remember on here!
Mimi and Pop-Pop came into town to soak up some time with their newest grand-baby! It had been almost a year since we had seen Pop-Pop and we were so glad that they were able to visit.
We got to bless Vivi while they were here and Ann made her the most gorgeous dress!
We are the luckiest to have this babe! I thought this dress was perfect for my beautiful Vivi girl!
A couple weeks later it was Christmas and there was something so magical about having a new babe during the Christmas season!
Each of the oldest kids got a card with an invite for a snowboarding day with Dad for one of their Christmas gifts and they all had a blast!! They especially enjoyed having one on one time with their favorite person in the world. 🙂
Grandma came for a visit in late January and helped me get organized and it was SO great to have her!!
We went away for President’s day weekend to play in the snow and we weren’t disappointed! It was so fun to get a cabin with some friends and we had so much fun sledding all day and staying up way too late playing games (as adults) at night! It was such a great weekend with so much snow!
Maggie took a fall when stepping onto a skateboard and got the biggest fat lip and some good scrapes. She was such a good sport about it even though it hurt super bad and the scars are STILL healing months later.
She is the sweetest big sister to Vivi and has been such a great helper for me!
Vivi lights up our home with her sweet smile and spirit!
Reese turned two and is the funniest little toddler.
She loved being the birthday girl and even our neighbor friend Addison brought her a gift!
Bryan has turned St. Patrick’s Day into such a magical holiday for our kids. Even though he was working all day they still got to go to the “Leprechaun Forest” to find treasure left by the Leprechauns. (This year it was these hats with hatchimals inside.)
We went to a tulip festival in Oregon and it was so beautiful! We had to wear masks but didn’t mind because we were so excited to be out exploring and enjoying some great spring weather!
The girls were happy to pose for pics by all the beautiful flowers….
…while Hank couldn’t resist running through the forbidden parts of the gardens. 🙂 Gotta love boys!
Bryan found a hike for us to do nearby and it ended up being way cooler than we ever imagined. There were 8 waterfalls along a 6-7 mile trail and we even got to walk behind a few of them!
The next few pictures feature a lot of the random things done at home! There is never a dull moment when you are homeschooling with 5 children at home.
Reese is always trying to keep up with the big kids and here is a blurry picture of her attempting to rollerblade!
The happiest kid in the house!
I often have to remind the kids that Vivi is not a doll that they can do whatever with! They often come steal her from me and when I track her down I find her in places like this! 🙂 She’s a trooper.
The kids have been so obsessed with horses and broke more than one mop/ broom doing this!
We were all amazed at how messy one toddler could get “drinking” a chocolate smoothie one morning. Good thing she is cute!
The sweetest babe. You would think I wouldn’t be this obsessed with #5 but babies are just my favorite.
Bry still loves to read or tell the kids stories before bedtime.
He also purchased a big screen for our Friday night movie nights that we’ve had fun setting up at a nearby park and inviting neighbor kids to!
Hank had a great season playing soccer. He loved it and excelled at it!
Meanwhile, Maggie and Wendy were excited to be able to do in person dance again. They had an outdoor recital and it ended up being so fun. We are so glad that things are opening up more and more around here!
Reese is getting more and more hair and it’s coming in curly! She is very good at sneaking around and I constantly have to watch her because she quietly tries to keep up with the big kids and doesn’t quite know her limits. Her vocabulary is growing at a quick rate and we laugh all the time at the new words and phrases that she picks up on.
Vivi has grown a few teeth and just has the sweetest smile. She also LOVES eating solid food and eats it better than any other baby I’ve had. She scoots all over the house and is just starting to crawl now. I can’t even believe that she is already 9 months old!
Bryan finished his fourth year of residency and just has one more to go! This is us at the graduation dinner for the class ahead of him. It’s hard to believe that he is in his last year of residency. The five years seemed so daunting when we started out but have gone by pretty quick.
These pictures are just a small snapshot of the last 9 months. I have a few posts coming about some fun trips we had mixed in there. Homeschooling didn’t get documented very well but that happened here and there too. I was pretty overwhelmed when the pandemic hit and I realized that I would be homeschooling but I have honestly loved having all my babies home. I know I will look back on this time with fondness and now I know that homeschooling is an option if it ever needs to be again. We have been so blessed and I have much to be grateful for. I’m excited to get back into blogging because it helps me remember all the good times mixed in with the day to day crazy! 🙂
