watch out world.....

Here she comes......

Afton has learned to walk. On Sunday she took 6 steps at church and has been working on walking since then. I had a video of her walking but can't figure out how to download it. She takes 3 to 4 steps really easily and has gotten up to 8 so far. She even stands, reaches down to grab something and stays on her feet coming back up. She is such a funny girl and loves to climb anything (including scaling chain link fences), get into anything (including the oven drawer you see behind her in the picture) and cuddle.

South Mountain

I thought I should do a little bit about Jim and his business. Last October he started making the first steps to get his own business going. After a lot of paperwork, research, gettting brochures and business cards made, talking to doctors, providing lunches to doctors, getting on insurance panels, talking to anyone about it- the patients have started coming.

In March he had his first patient and so far referrals have still been coming in.. Since then the ball has just been rolling and his business is doing really well. Right now he is still working at the clinic full time and trying to get his business going so he is gone A LOT! Basically during the week he is gone from the hours of 9ish in the morning to 8 at night. We at home know he is doing what he needs to do and this is only temporary so we savor the weekends and look forward to seeing him more soon. He has two employees right now and will probably need more soon.

Since he is basically working two jobs it has been nice to have a little bit more extra money than the $5 or so extra we had before .... oh wait we didn't even have that:). We need to get a few things in order first- paying down some medical and student loan debt but most importantly figuring out how expensive getting insurance on our own will be. Then we start talking about making that jump off the cliff and just doing his business as his only job.

Any time Jim does something he does it well and I am so proud and excited to watch him love this and be so excited.

Although if you talk to Jim says he feels like he is a chicken with its head cut off :) But a happy chicken of course!

*His logo usually isn't this blurry. I am sure it is due to my awesome computer skills.

Just like riding a bike....

For some reason our kids have never had bikes until a week or so ago. We always had something else to buy or ..... well I don't really know. Anyways, last weekend I was on a Saturday morning run and came across a great yard sale. We bought Lizzie a bike for $6 and Ethan one for $10. After a quick trip to to the store to buy a tire tube, Jim got them all fixed up and ready to go yesterday. THE KIDS LOVED THEM! We didn't have any training wheels with Ethan and decided to have him give it a try without. He got the hang of it and within a half hour was riding his bike all by himself!!!!! Lizzie loves her bike and is pretty speedy. It was great that we live next door to a cirlce for them to practice in. They spent so much time outside riding their bikes. It was awesome! They are both working on starting up with the pedals but are doing really well.
Even Jim thought he should try out Ethan's bike :). Now we just need to get me and Jim some bikes a trailer for the babies and we are off for family bike rides!

Will I miss it?

So I will just ramble a bit today......

Will there ever be a day when I miss-

- that my wash to be folded pile seems to mulitply like the noodles in Strega Nona

- that there are fingerprints all over various locations in my house that show my children's different heights.

-hearing "I'm hungry" and the other favorite "I have nothing to do" too many times a day.

-not having a chance to sit down and really "breath" until after the kids are in bed

- all this noise

-feeling like I am falling behind on EVERYTHING

-reading Lizzie's favorite book at least 10 times in a week (current favorite is Meet Strawberry Shortcake.)

-having two babies hold onto my pant legs so that I can't move

-working my butt off to get the house clean only to have it last for 5 minutes

- having something that would normally take me 15 minutes take like an hour with all four kids around

Yeah, I know one day I will miss all that. Well maybe not the wash but everything else. When the babies were born I felt a strong sense of completeness and not just in our numbers. I feel right now is such a gift and this is my life. I have never been happier, more tired, overwhelmed and at peace as much as I am now. I know that makes absolutely no sense but it makes sense to me.

I have to keep reminding myself that there are seasons to everything and this is NOT my season to keep a clean house, and many, many other things. It is my time to enjoy these four precious souls and one amazing husband that I have.

Here are some recent pictures of what we have been up to- Afton and Lilly have learned to eat popsicles and that they really like them, Lizzie graduated from pre-school, and Ethan is enjoying baseball season with his friend Jack.