Summer Recap

On Monday my three oldest start school. It's hard to believe that Dallin will be in Kindergarten. He's been my little buddy for so long it will be weird to have him gone for so much time. So, Kylie starts PPCD and the bus will come get her at 7am and she gets home around 11:30 and then Emily and Dallin leave at 8. Is it really possible that I will have several hours each day with just a newborn?? Seems like a beautiful impossibility--but ahhh, the calm sounds really nice...

Ok so the summer in a nutshell:
Devin
Our sweet Devin is 4 months old and due to lack of medical insurance for the month of August, he won't go to his check-up until September. He is doing great! He is rolling both directions, but sometimes gets stuck on his tummy and forgets what to do. He coos (loudly) and squeals and smiles and is such a chunky, friendly, happy kid. He still spits up quite a bit, but is so very happy as he does it that I don't worry about it too much. He loves his bath, loves his swing, loves the older kids (except when Kylie attacks him) and loves loves loves his mommy--yay!! Nursing is going quite well--finally and I don't plan on starting solids until 6 months. He sleeps through the night, but won't fall asleep until about 10pm and doesn't wake up until about 8 or 9 in the morning. I would like to move it back to 8pm, so that he is on the older kids schedule, but all in good time. He is an absolute delight to have in our family!!

Kylie
Little Kylie has struggled this summer. She has gone through bouts of throwing up as we've tried different milks and pediasure-like drinks to try to get her to gain weight. She has developed quite an attitude and still screams horribly during therapy. She has learned to tolerate the fact that Devin is in our family, which I am grateful for. She also has learned to crawl very very fast and climb the stairs. She has refused to eat baby food any more, which constantly leaves us questioning what to feed her. She only wants crunchy foods, like crackers and she makes such a mess with them, but she sure is happy eating now. Her curls have just gotten prettier, her eyes bluer and her smile sweeter. She has really bonded with David now that Devin has come and she just lights up when he gets home. I hope she is happy in school. It's so hard when I can't be there and she can't tell me what happened.

Dallin
Dallin learned to swim a bit better this summer and he loves flipping in the water and going off the diving board. He also learned in about 5 minutes to ride his bike without training wheels and is already trying tricks. He and I have been doing his reading book this summer and even though we did not finish it before school started (like I had planned) he has a really good handle on reading and is fairly proficient. He loves reading with us in the scriptures and it is so fun to watch how excited he gets "reading" big words, when he really is just so familiar with the phrases that he guesses right (ex. beloved brethren and righteousness, etc.). He is a happy, super energetic kid that I think will do great in kindergarten. He is still a Mama's boy, but I really do love it!

Emily
Emily is truly turning into a little lady. She wants to cook and take care of the younger kids and clean, like me. She listens to every adult conversation she can and is getting into trends and fashions. With all that she still loves to play with her polly pockets and I love that she does. She got into So You Think You Can Dance with me this summer and she voted a ton of times for Lauren week after week. That little girl was ecstatic when she won. I've been reading the Chronciles of Narnia to her this summer and it's been nice to have something to do with just us. One last thing with Emily, I taught her to dive this summer too. Just in the last couple of weeks we went to the pool with the diving board (on Saturdays so that David could watch the little ones) instead of the little kid pool. Anyway, with not that much instruction she is diving beautifully.

David
This summer has been one of tremendous change for David. Right when Devin was born and Kylie was having her surgery life at work for him was pretty rough. Pretty rocky and uncertain times in the employment department, led him to began looking for a new job in May and in June we had something that looked promising lined up. He turned in his two weeks notice and they let him work about 2 hours more, then sent him packing. He was a bit sad to say good-bye to all his friends so abruptly, but I was ecstatic to have him home for two weeks with pay! It was great! We got tons of stuff done around the house and I actually relaxed a bit. At the end of those two weeks he spent a week in Dallas for training. We all went with him thinking it would be great fun. Well, it was great fun to see friends in Dallas, but not so fun having six people crammed in a hotel room and a baby that refused to sleep. Oh well, you live and learn I guess. Anyway, he is transitioning pretty well into his new job and as much as I will miss all the free tickets to events, I am glad that he is in a much less stressful environment.

Amy
Well, (for any of those of you who are actually still reading this--I've gotten a bit lengthy...) I can only sum up my summer with this...I survived with four kids and I am really looking forward to Monday!