What about the babies?!

Apparently I don't post enough about our youngest three, it's not because we don't love them-obviously! It's just they're so chill and go with the flow that there's not much to say! Savannah(3) has started preschool so she does have that exciting thing going on right now. She loves it! I was a little surprised, she's normally very shy but leading up to preschool she was getting more and more excited and literally ran into the school when we got there! I think the toddler program really helped her last year and I'm glad we decided to enroll her in it. Right now she only goes two days a week, though I think she would gladly go more if they'd let her! As for our youngest two, they are loving being home with mom! They aren't however loving their the toddler program, we attempted the other day and I guess they split the kids up into groups and they were in two different groups, yea it was bad. I always warn people not to split those two up, but they thought it would be okay for a short amount of time. We're going to attempt it again tomorrow and hopefully have better results! On a happier note, both Skyler and Ryker are starting gymnastics today! It's just a little kid tumbling class, but it's still very exciting, especially to Skyler every time we're at Brooke's practices she tries to copy everything the big girls do and it's so cute! I can't wait to see them jump and tumble like crazy! I will try to post more about the youngest ones, I promise!

Our Homeschool Curriculum

Let me just say, me doing one week of homeschool in no way shape or form makes me an expert. To be honest I have a lot to learn and am taking it week by week. However, I have been asked by a few people what curriculum we follow and how it works for us. In our state our kids must learn all of their basic subjects, obviously, and we have to keep record of all of the things we do and present them at the end of the year to our coordinator. We do not have a specific curriculum we have to follow however and it allows us to be a little more creative with what we do. My first graders and kindergartners use the same brand of books by DK books these are our main workbooks as well as our reference books for what I base most of our work off of. I have noticed however, if your child knows how to read and write before kindergarten these books are sometimes a little too easy and you have to find other sources to keep them busy during the day. Brooke has known how to read for over a year now and she normally finishes her language arts class very fast, I have found several websites that have worksheets and other ideas to help. My favorites for worksheets are Educents.com and Education.com we have been able to find tons of fun things for them to do on both of those sites. The other awesome thing about having a say in our curriculum is my kids get to learn about stuff that truly interests them, Zayden for example really likes dinosaurs and expressed interest in learning more about them to the point of asking if he can do a project on them. It sounded like an awesome idea to me so I'm working it into our lesson plans and were going to have an unit on dinosaurs. Don't get me wrong, they do have to learn things they don't like as well, but I remember as a kid sitting in school wishing I had some kind of a say in what was going on and now that I do I want my student to enjoy it. I'm truly hoping that by the time my oldest graduate I can be a pro homeschooler, but for now you guys get to learn with us!

First Week of school is done!

This week has been so incredibly long, it started with me hitting the snooze about three times on Monday morning! Whoever said the first day of school is a parent's Christmas obviously never met me because I'd rather sleep than get six kids ready for school. It's funny though, most of our kids got up on their own and were ready before either of us-good job kids! I was really impressed by them, we did have a few meltdowns here and there but for the most part they were ready to take on the world! This is the first time I've ever homeschooled and it was a little overwhelming at first, but as the week has gone on we've gotten into a routine and the only struggle I have now is my kids going through their work way too fast! Luckily, Pinterest is an amazing source and has tons of different homeschooling ideas. Hopefully I can use some of them in the future, but for now we're just getting some of the basics underway and trying to get them fully in the groove of this homeschooling thing. The other thing were struggling with is getting used to our fall schedule, our kids all play fall sports and apparently this is the year is the year for them all to start at the same time! I am so glad Jason was home on Monday because I'm not sure how I'm going to do it this upcoming Monday without losing my mind. Hopefully we all survive and the school year continues going well, I hope everyone who has already started school had an awesome first day and if you haven't started school yet-good luck!

Just one more birthday post, for now!

You're probably sick of birthday posts, but that's okay because this is the last one for the month of August! I promise we will have an actual post next time! But for now you have to listen to me ramble on about how much I love one of my kids, because what else would I do this early in the morning? So, yesterday was Brooke's fifth birthday! I seriously don't know how all these kids are getting so old because I don't feel any older. Brooke and Skyler are the only two kids I can seriously say I've know since before they were born, I love that I have watched this little girl go from a chubby little baby into an adorable five year old in what seems to be a blink of an eye. It seriously seems just like yesterday they handed her to me and I held her in the most awkward way ever, arms stretched out in front of me trying to hold tightly but not too tightly because I didn't want to hurt her. It was at that moment I realized how scary babies are to me! She was just so tiny and so breakable looking, like who trusted me with this child?! Luckily, she survived. I am so proud of this kid and I think you guys deserve to know the five things I love most about this kid. Oh my little bee, I love that you look at everything with the glass half full no matter what's going on you always stay positive and happy. I love that you know everything about all the things that interest you-Shawn Mendes, Shopkins, Princesses, gymnastics-anything you love you know everything you can about them it's so adorable to listen to you go on and on about these subjects. I love that you are a perfectionist, you always practice everything until you get it just right, please keep that up no matter what anyone tells you it will take you far in life. I love that you always want to learn new things, you keep wanting to do your homeschooling work a lot faster than I'm ready for! And lastly, I love the fact you don't care about what people think, you do what you want, even when people tell you that you can't do something because you're too small you always seem to punch back and say "yes I can!". You are an amazing kid bee, I hope your birthday was amazing! Happy fifth birthday Brooklyn Paige!

Callie and Hunter are five!

If you haven't caught on yet, our kids all have August birthdays. That's a lie, Estella's is in September and the youngest three have winterish birthdays, but the older kids are all born in August/September. Anyway, back to my point-our second oldest set of twins are turning five today! It's also their first day of kindergarten(they're really mad about that by the way). I can't believe they're five already, they have been in my life since they were just two years old! They were the cutest little boys(sorry Callie) that I had ever seen and I loved dressing them in their little coordinating outfits. They were so energetic and just made my life better. These two have been through a lot with me and I can't thank them enough for being so mature at such a young age to stay strong during some of the hardest times of their lives. When their dad left I was afraid that they would end up resenting me for being the reason he left, but it's just the opposite with these two. Hunter has become a protector and Callie has becoming so sympathetic to anyone who has something so hard going on. Now that we got all of that^ out of the way let's move on to the best part of birthdays, when your parents say all the things they love about you. So here are five amazing things Jason and I love about Callie and Hunter. Despite the fact everyone thinks Callie is older, Hunter actually is so we'll start with him: Hunter, I love that you are always so protective of everyone in the family, no matter what the situation you will make sure they aren't hurt. I love that you aren't afraid to try new foods anything I offer you, you'll happily try and normally eat it all! I love that you try so hard to learn new things, especially reading you're getting so good and dad and I are so proud! I love that you weren't afraid of what people would think when Callie started her transition, I know it's been hard for you but you never let it show. And lastly I love that you are so giving, you have given up a lot so others can have what you have and I couldn't be prouder! Happy Birthday Hunter Emmanuel! Now onto Callie, Callie oh Callie I think this first one is obvious I love that you aren't afraid to be yourself, you don't care what others think as long as you're happy that's all that matters! I love that you stand up for people who are being bullied, you know what it's like first hand and always want to make sure people have a friend, I know you'll make so many friends in school and I can't wait to meet them! I love your excitement for everything, you always look for the bright spots in life no matter how boring something may seem you always make it exciting-even doctor visits! I love that you always encourage your siblings when they're trying something new, you were the first one to swim without floaties and to ride without training wheels so when your siblings are learning you're always their biggest cheerleader and I love it! And of course I love that you are always the kid that asks me to try random stuff in cook books, I know it sounds weird but you are helping me be better and you always want to help so that's even better! Happy birthday Callie Marie! I hope your birthdays are amazing and the first day of school goes well, you two are so important to not just me but our entire family.

Goodbye summer, hello school!

I can't believe summer is over, Monday our kids start school it's crazy! It seriously feels like summer just started, so much has happened this summer and I think it's safe to say our kids had an amazing summer. They have been to amusement parks, baseball games, museums, and beaches everything that summer should have-theirs had and then some! We are trying to enjoy this last full day of summer and be ready for a long day on Monday. I am just hoping we are all able to wake up on time, I'm not a morning person thus making my kids not morning people I seriously think the earliest we woke up during the summer was like 9:30 and that was on a good day. For the school year we have to be up by six am and not a moment later, yea it's going to be fun! I applaud the parents that kept their kids on a schedule during the summer, I so wish I could have done that but it just wasn't in the cards for us apparently! Our kids are in for a rude awaking this upcoming week between waking up early, going to school for six hours, and doing the most dreaded thing ever-HOMEWORK! I feel bad, but they need to do it. I'm just hoping it goes semi-smoothly! To everyone starting school, good luck this school year! I hope the year is amazing for everyone, enjoy!

They aren't babies anymore!

Tomorrow is a fun day in our house, it's our oldest twos birthday. Zayden and Tyson will be turning SIX! It's such an exciting moment for them, but kind of sad for us. When our kids get older we get older and I'm not okay with that! I do want to say, I am beyond glad that I have gotten to see these kids grow up so much in the passed two years. They went from being these shy little four year olds who didn't like coming to my house because it was "girly" to smart, funny, loving, kind six year olds who talk nonstop and are slowly taking over the house with their sports stuff. As per tradition in our house Jason and I made a list of six things we love about these two. We'll start with Zayden since he's older. Zayden, we love the way you always put others first you have gone out of your way many times to make sure all your siblings have what they need. We love that you love reading and always want new books, that you ask for second helpings of fruit instead of candy, that you're a fighter and you keep your head held high in the hardest of times. We love that you have a love for God and want to learn more about religion and aren't afraid to ask questions, and lastly we love that you are ready to take on first grade and learn more because you love learning that much-happy birthday Zayden Joseph! Tyson, oh my goodness, we love that you are so sweet to everyone you never say anything mean to anyone no matter what they do to you. We love that you're always willing to try new things, wether it be food or sports you never question try it. We love that you will draw anything anytime and that you personalize your art work for us! We love that during that scary snow storm instead of being scared and thinking of yourself you looked at me and asked "Mom, where do homeless people go during this?" and instantly thought of ways to help them. We love that you help with your younger siblings all the time, especially with Ryker, you always make sure they have enough of everything no matter what the cost for you. One last things Tyson, we love that you aren't afraid to be silly and crazy-you are a super carefree child and we love it! Tyson Xander you are amazing, happy birthday buddy! We hope both of these kiddos have amazing birthdays and they continue to grow up to be amazing young men.

We went to the Temple!

As you already know, I am Mormon. My religion is one of the most important things in my life and I love sharing it with anyone who is willing to listen. This includes my nonmember family members, whether they like it or not they have to hear about how important this is to me. One of the biggest parts of being a Mormon is going to visit the Temple. For the longest time the closest one was several hours away so we didn't get to visit it. However, they just finished building one not too far from us and because it was just built we were able to go to an open house-that means nonmembers like my family can go in! We were able to go on a tour of the entire Temple and it was honestly one of the most amazing moments of my life. It's kind of hard to explain, but when I walked in I immediately felt overwhelmed with a warm comforting feeling. I am so glad we finally got to go, I think my nonmember family were even touched by it, maybe that will help encourage them to seek the truth. I am beyond excited to continue to go to the temple, hopefully with a few more members of my family! Hopefully however, the man standing outside the Temple bashing our faith isn't there. It isn't so much that he has a different opinion, that doesn't bother me at all, it's the fact he had all his information wrong. I think there were only two things in his paper that were actually right and it makes me sad that he thinks it's okay to spread lies about our faith. I'm hoping someone has the time to talk to him and tell him the truth, I would have done it but he wasn't standing there when I got back from eating my lunch. Anyway, I am very glad we went and can't wait till we go back. If you want to go visit, even if you're not a member you can go the next few weeks for their open houses! I definitely suggest doing it.

We're not adoptive parents

Unless you have been living under a rock you have heard about Simone Biles and the fact she's kicking butt at the Olympics. You have probably also heard a sports commentator made a comment about how her parents "may be mom and dad, but are not her parents.". Yea, he offended families everywhere with a little comment like that, ours included. Before I proceed, let me just say we are NOT adoptive parents! We are parents who just happen to have adopted children, it doesn't make them less ours however. We love all nine equally and they all receive the same treatment. We don't use the word "adopted" to describe our children, not because we're ashamed but because it's pointless.  It's pointless to us to label our children, it's just not something we need, we know they're ours and that's really all that matters. Putting labels on our children and constantly reminding them that they aren't biologically ours wouldn't help that all, it would just harm them in my opinion. Two of our children who happen to be adopted have already started wondering why they "Weren't wanted" and I don't want them to feel that way. I honestly don't understand why in 2016 we are still having the discussion of if adoptive parents are really parents. This subject is one that has been going on for years now and the answer is simple. Yes, adoptive parents ARE parents. DNA doesn't make a family, love does.

Getting back on schedule

I think everyone will agree when I say that getting back on a school schedule really sucks. I love summer, especially the sleeping in part-yup kids you read that right moms like sleeping in too! The passed few weeks have been really hard, I'm trying to get the kids back on schedule and ready for school to start but I'm really bad about waking up at six am! Honestly if school started just one hour later I'd be fine, but six is way too early for me apparently. Today however, we have doctors appointments, Brooke needs her Omnipod changed, and the dog needed his medicine, so I had a lot to do and not much time to do. That little bit of extra encouragement got me up, but the kids were still super hard to get up. I'm hoping by next Monday I can get them up easily and not have to fight nine kids every morning! They are starting to get very excited about school starting so the possibility of them waking up is very likely. I still can't believe in little over a week I will have two first graders, four kindergartners, a three year old preschooler, and two in the toddler class at our preschool! I am so excited for them and glad they are hitting milestones, but I am also very sad that they're getting old because that means I am too! I'm hoping we make a lot of memories this next week and that they have a lot to talk about on the first day of school when someone asks how awesome their summer was! Now, to take nine kids to the dentist-wish me luck!

One year down, forever to go

A year ago we took our little boy to the pediatrician and left without him. A year ago we went into a store with a little girl beaming with the biggest smile in the world because she was finally accepted. A year ago we heard the words that we had known to be true for a very long time, "Your child has gender dysphoria". The news we received that day changed everything, it changed how we talk, how we look at things, and how we treat each other. We no longer said something was girly or something was only for boys, we no longer saw things as black and white things were rainbow colored from then on. Because the year was 2015 and Target had just made their toy section gender neutral(which by the way did NOT sit well with my transgender child!), we assumed that people would be okay with it. Boy were we wrong, we lost a lot of friends when we announced our news and had some harsh words from former coworkers. Those harsh words had such an impact that I cried in the break room and then cried before clocking in one day and my mom marched up to the manager and said if he didn't do something about it she would! Her grammy claws were out full force! Luckily my manager took it seriously and took care of the issue before my mom had to do anything. That was our first, but sadly not our last bit of discrimination we received. We've been told we're child abusers, that we have brainwashed our children, that we were forcing our "son" to do this. So many lies have been made about our family, calls to CPS have been put in because of our choices, and it's just not okay. Recently we had an appointment with our family therapist who focuses mostly on Callie and her issues, for the obvious reasons, and she asked Callie if she felt different and Jason and I learned some stuff we had never known before. Callie admitted that when she would dress as a boy she would get sad and pray to God to take her away, our little three year old was asking God to take her away so she could stop being a boy. When we heard her say that, we both knew what we did was right. From that moment the hatred people had towards our choices were pushed to the back of our mind and focus on doing what was right for our child. We vowed as parents to love and support our child no matter what and I plan on doing just that. Callie has grown so much in the passed year, she went from being a self conscious child who wouldn't wear jeans in public, to an out going sassy four-almost five-year old. I couldn't be more proud of her and I can't wait to see where this journey takes us.

School Shopping for six!

It's finally August, which means school shopping is in full swing around here. The kids are kind of excited about the thought of going back to school, I'm not nearly as excited as them! I can't stand school shopping, people in the back to school section are rude! I actually had several people make remarks about my amount of children, needless to say I was ready to leave before we even started. Luckily, we were able to get a bulk of the shopping done before I went into work. Shopping for six kids wasn't easy, finding six of the same item isn't something I enjoy doing, but we were able to do it. I am extremely thankful school supplies isn't very expensive(yet!) if it ended up costing more we would have had to sell a kid to pay for the supplies. I do however wish that Jason was with us for this amazing experience so he too could deal with the awkward stares and the hours of looking for shoes and clothes which may or may not have been able to find yet. I still can't believe in just two weeks our kids will be back in school-I am seriously not ready for this! I hate not having all the shopping done this close to the date, but it happens. I am hoping once school starts everything will calm down, but I know that won't happen I mean we have nine kids! Life is never calm, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

First Haircut!

Recently at the pool someone asked why our little girl didn't have a shirt on, it was at that moment Jason and I decided as cute as we thought Ryker's long hair was it was time for a haircut. For whatever reason, we both got very emotional about the thought of cutting his hair and put more thought into his hair than we do our own. We decided on a pretty short hair style and hopefully no one will think he's a girl now. This was another big milestone Jason missed so you guys get to relive it with me for a moment while I blog about this. We woke up and the girls, Brooke and Estella(they're the only two with me), knew what was happening Ryker had no clue and was pretty upset when I ended up putting him in a chair at the hair cut place. There was a lot of screaming and big siblings trying to keep him entertained during this whole ordeal. I realized Ryker might be our son with a man bun one day, he really did not like that haircut thing! After his haircut I gave him his first ever lollipop, yup I'm a bad mom and giving my one year old candy. He calmed down a little after that, but wasn't fully okay until we were in the car driving away from the torture chamber. His sisters are trying very hard to tell him how adorable he looks, but let's face it he's one and just wants to play with cars and be happy he doesn't care about cuteness! I'm hoping he get's over this whole situation because he's pretty crazy right now and every time I move I get the death glare. Poor kid, wish us luck!

One Mom Vs Six Check Ups

One of the hardest parts of Jason working out of state is dealing with doctors appointments without him. If you don't already know this, six of our nine kids have birthdays in August and September so these are busy months for us. They also needed shots before they could start school so, I scheduled six doctors appointments in one day. Our poor pediatrician, he probably wanted to murder me on several occasions. As you can imagine taking that many kids to the doctors is a chore, not only do I have to get them all dressed and make sure I don't lose one I also have to answer the five million questions being thrown at me. Luckily, I was able to do all this and got us to the doctors ten minutes before the appointment. Once we were there things were just as hectic as always, which was comforting. We found out things we knew already, Jason and I are smart like that, Tyson and Hunter are tall for their age and weigh more than most kids their age. Zayden is shorter but right on point for his age he weighs the correct amount, Stella and Callie are tall for their age and Callie weighs more than Stella. Brooke is growing-FINALLY! and putting on weight too! It was a very good appointment and I'm glad it was drama free, we needed that! Well, it wasn't all drama free-shots for six kids under six isn't that fun, but they did it like the champs they are! Now they are all set for kindergarten and first grade in just a few short weeks, they're not happy about it, but I know once they start school they'll be okay. I am so glad to say I survived this doctors appointment especially since it will be one of the very many that Jason will miss out on.

Moving?!

We finally found a house we love and put an offer on it, they didn't accept it, but dropped their asking price a significant amount. Jason is more than willing to give it another walk through and possibly offer more, but for the time being we are just praying and leaving it all up to God. As we wait we have started cleaning out our house and packing, yup I want out of our apartment that badly that the moment we find a place I'll have the truck packed and ready to move in! I don't even care that the current family isn't packed yet I will go pack for them, we need out of our apartment! The kids are beyond excited about the possibility of moving, they realize it means there will be more room and it their minds that means more toys-which is funny because it will probably mean the opposite for awhile! Over the next few months you guys will be going on the wonderful adventure of moving with us-and if you're local you can come in person and help us out! I will be warning you, there will be a lot of posts about packing, organizing the boxes, and everything else that entails when you're moving especially with a large family with young kids. I hope you're ready for this, because this is one of the most exciting things going on in our lives.