My husband's work has been slow so he has not worked at all this week. Yikes! I have to say though that I LOOOOOVE having hubby home. He's my best friend and we have tons of fun with the kids together. The last couple of days we've taken the van to get worked on and then hung out at fun places together. We FINALLY have our big van back and we are so relieved. However, we are still looking to take the captain seats out and putting a bench in for the kids. We need the extra seat belt and we need to separate our Aspergers kids so he is not right next to someone else. We are gonna have baby Juliet be in between Chaz and Ryan. That should settle the issues we are having.
Today while I was holding baby Juliet, Charles and I were just commenting on how far we've come with how we think of babies. It USED to be that babies were a ton of work and we couldn't wait till they got a bit bigger. You know, like wanting them to hold their own bottle (if they can't nurse), be potty trained, dress themselves, make their own sandwich. Ohhhhh, how things have changed. Before having Juliet people were asking me if I was nervous at all. I was nervous. I was worried about the work of a baby again till I had her and then realized how truly easy it's become. It gets easy when you've learned to put others above yourself. When you've been changing diapers for 12 years without any breaks in between. It gets easy when you realize that it actually gets harder in other ways as they grow older. I wish I could take Chaz and Ryan back down to their baby years and just be happy with cuddling them and not wishing for them to grow up. It's easier than having to correct issues of the heart. I guess maybe simpler is the right word. Ahhh... I love my babies. People wonder why I have so many. Well, when you love (almost) every day of your life because you are surrounded by cute and funny kids, it makes it hard to imagine being DONE. Now, if I complain tomorrow about how hard life is, know that it's probably because the house got messy. AGAIN. 
Actually, I'll just get the complaining out now. Oh my gosh, the kids just had a hay day in this house. We have been in and out so much that I can hardly keep up. The boys got back from their 3 day camping trip and mama has to clean and put away all the clothes. It stinks like mud, smoke, and sweat. Guys are just so sweet smelling, huh? Don't ask if you can come over my house right now. I'll just say no. Well, last night I went in the girl's room and asked them to just pick out the stuff they want to keep and I'll throw out the rest. They literally picked only five items to keep. I insisted we keep all costumes because I KNOW they love to play in them even though it wasn't the items they picked. The rest went into the donation bag. This is gonna be done in every room.
Kyle turned 9! We have three birthdays in the month of August and two in September so we have more coming. Each kid got to choose what they wanted and Kyle picked his favorite place. While we were in the fun place another dust storm hit. Glad we were indoors! Kyle picked his best friend to come along and we spent... get this... 10 hours there. We were there longer some the workers shifts. It cost a lot to go there and we weren't gonna waste it by staying only a couple of hours. It's a huge place for the kids and they have a fantastic buffet. I forgot my camera so I had to take pictures with my cell phone. It's not nearly as good quality but oh well.
Ashley is such a presenter and poser! Ha ha. 
Ivy loooves to conquer new rock climbing walls and she gets to the top on every one. So far she's climbed three different ones and will do it over and over. She's so adventurous. 
We must really love our big van because every time we turn around there is something else we have to do for it. Yesterday we spent most of the day just trying to get new tires on it. Turns out, the ones we had on it weren't even designed for the weight of our van and so it explains why we constantly had to replace them. This time we paid a lot more money to get really good tires. While Charles was looking at the van my parents came over and visited for a bit. My kids love their Nana and Papa. Do I wish we had a bigger van? Yes, we desperately need one. However, we are learning that in life you sometimes have to wait rather than rush into debt to get what you want. We did that in the past and paid dearly for it. Now, we are trying to do things the right way because we learned the hard way. 
So much happened in the month of August! It is a very, very busy month for us! Cars breaking down, I become a mom to a preteen (Chaz), My kids are asked to be featured in photos for the science center, kids start school, Ivy gets taken by ambulance to the burn ward, girls start ballet lessons, the kids learn how to make their own rockets, Ryan has a birthday at a fun trampoline place, I make a major change to switch the babies to cloth diapers. While boys are away camping the girls went bowling, the boys join band in school, and Kyle turns 9. Wow! That's a lot to happen in just one month but we that's why I love our family! We have so many adventures together and don't like to be apart for very long. I feel like we need our own party bus. Ha ha. I'm thinking about getting a bumper sticker that says something like "This is our party bus."
This time in our life has been such an incredible challenge. Just when things look up I feel like my feet get kicked out from under me. I have to keep getting back up though because I have a life to live, kids to love and care for, a best friend to have fun with, a husband that is amazing, a ministry to serve, and so much more. God has somehow brought us through. I'm amazed. 
My birthday fell on our first day of vacation so we celebrated at a super fun restaurant/ice cream parlor/mini golf course called Duffer's. It had a train that ran around the ceiling of the restaurant that Charlie loved and the most humongous ice cream sundaes ever.
