Happy 9th Birthday!!!

Wow, 9 years!!!  Can it truly be?!?!?  I know, I know.  If you had told me 9 years ago that I would be saying how fast the time went by ..... etc.  I would have called you crazy.  At that particular moment,9 years ago,  as I was laying in the hospital bed having no idea those weeks would turn into years this quickly. If I had, I might have wished for them to slow down. 

There are moments that I cannot remember anything but a blur.  And certainly, there have been times that I believed God had more faith in me than I ever had in myself.  (actually, I still have a lot of those days!)  But what a great 9 years it has been.  I will never forget the moments leading up to their birth, the anticipation, the fear,the trepidation,etc.  But I feel like we have all be so very blessed to have these not so little ones in our home.

 Having children did not come as I had always dreamed it would have come. When I was a little girl I did what all little girls do: plan the perfect wedding ,dream of the house with the white picket fence by the perfect neighbors (who include family and friends so the kids can all play together and the mom's never get lonely.) 

Instead, it has taken me down a different road.  One that has us moving every two years, meeting new people, spreading our wings, exploring new options, and learning to depend on each other. During these journey's we have learned many things about the infinite love and compassion of family and friends, encouragement from many different sources and endurance. 

I would not trade one of my glorious six children and the"miracle" way that they joined our family.  Thank you first to Heavenly Father for allowing me the chance to be a mother and for trusting these fabulous kids to me.  I promise I try to do a good job and I may falter often but I pick up and we keep trudging along as a team.  So Happy Birthday, Cassie (3:34 pm est.), Nathan (3:35), Jayson (3:36) and Bryan (3:37) . ( For those of you that don't know or don't remember, we were stationed at Goldsboro, NC and our squadron was the 334th fighter wing.  So I played my part and brought the quads into the world as a constant reminder our of base and command.)  Funny actually!

Well, Happy Birthday little ones and sweet dreams today.  For day after tomorrow it is going to be a fantastic party as we head to Disneyland!!!  Love you all and so very proud to be your mom!!!

5K Fun!!!

Free photo slideshow personalized with Smilebox Such a fun day!!!  We are so very proud of our crew!!!  After spending hours the day before in traffic, getting here late, headaches, throwing up in the van and Hunter having a high fever, they were still all smiles and completed the run!!!  Go Team Kearl!!!  We will never forget this day and look forward to doing it again!

Crack me up!!

Nathan totally cracks me up.  He is bit of a worry wort and a  perfectionist.  Which  in many cases can cause some anxiety and low frustration levels.  However,  here is he is at speech with a balancing game that he was playing. (Jayson tried this game for the previous hour and finally gave up and just played with the penguins.)  But not Nathan!!  He was determined to balance all those penguins on the boat and he did it!!!  

 Each year we are followed by the UCLA cranial facial team for submucoul cleft palates. We had the palate repair at age 2 1/2  and continue treatment with our team. ( this is somthing that is usually diganosed at birth and fixed earlier, however we were not diagnosed until 2.) These appointments are always fun and  interesting. We , the boys and I, sit in a room while the following doctors rotate through the room: a pediatrcian, audiologist, ENT, speech therapist, dentist, orthodontist, and plastic surgereon. The boys always get a little squirrly but they seem to have fun.

 

 As you can see, they make me smile, year after year.  The doctors also get a kick out of seeing them and love to see how much they have grown up year to year!!!

1st Kearl Detention of 2012-2013

Yes, I know it is hard to believe that this gorgeous little face is the one that had to serve the 1st detention.....I realize that those brown eyes may have gotten him out of it up until 6th grade.....but the truth is NOT THIS TIME! This earns him the award for being the 1st Kearl to break in the new wardens!!! (We can only be so good ya know! )

So....... why did he have detention you ask?!!?!? (even if you are not asking I will tell you)  In the 6th grade their entire day is worked around a 3 ring binder (AVID notebook).  He left it home. Naturally, I had reminded all the children the night before to make sure they all had their stuff ready.  I even nagged some more as we were walking out the door asking about lunch boxes, water bottles, homework, etc.....  "Yes, yes, yes, mom we have everything we need!"  Hmmmm...so when his teacher called and asked me to bring it to him and informed me that he was going to be serving detention.... Honestly, I thought it was pretty fair.  I would like to say I am sure it won't happen again......but I am sure that is not the case.  LOL.  (I mean, come on, we have gotten all the way to school to realize that one of the kids got out the door with no shoes on.)  What can I say?!?!? 

2012- 1st Day of School

Okay, even after the weird, crazy summer we had I will still say WOW..... where did the summer go?!?!?And furthermore, where did my babies go? I cannot believe how grown up my little ones have become. It really does seem like just yesterday that  they were scattered through the house in various devices to keep them quiet and in one place. (baby swings, bouncy chairs,high chairs,and walkers)  Today?!?!?! They are running around like wild ninjas and making a WHOLE lot more noise!!  (I know alot of you may not believe that is possible....but trust me it is!!!)

What a fun year it is going to be though!!!  We were lucky enough to get into the new STEM school of choice this year.  The principal was at Sundown Elementary where we started 3 years ago. The kids love her and know her well.  Plus we got lucky, in that, a lot of the fabulous staff moved with us.  The kids wear uniforms, play before they eat, there is a lot technology and just plain "cool" . (according to the kids).  Two days down...... and the verdict is...... they love it.  I do think one  of my precious ones was bragging about how they have less homework.  Hmmmmm.. might it be because we have only been attending for a day and a half.  (Let's not tell them.) 

 Here we go.....  Hunter 5th grade (he just wanted to leave )    Bryan 3rd grade  Cassie 3rd grade  

Nathan 3rd grade   Tanner 6th grade (I am not old enough for a sixth grader!)   Jayson 3rd grade 

Proud of my Six-Pack!!!  Good job kiddos!!  Now sleep in tomorrow!!! :>



Wind Caves

One of the things we wanted to do this vacation was enjoy the outdoors.  And what better way is there to do that than to take a hike.  So after some prodding, (on Jay's part) we decided to take the kids up to the Wind Caves, in Logan Canyon.  I was not so sure about this hike......mostly because it had been 15 years since I had done the hike. All I could remember about it was that it was farther than I thought it should be.I remembered it being really awesome when we finally got to the top, however,  it seemed to take a really long time to get there.  (After climbing Mt. Whitney that is now all relative!)  When we got to the spot....... the hike was described as a difficult.  I was a bit concerned!!! (keeping track of six kids is one thing, keeping track of six kids on the side of a mountain with a drop off is entirely different!)

Turns out it was a very great hike and the kids had fun.  This picture is the end of the hike and they are still smiling.  It was about 4 miles round trip and I was very proud that they did such a great job.  Daddy only got lost once with his group (Jayson, Hunter, and Tanner).  And we only had a couple of times where we slipped a little and thought we might fall off the mountain. 

After the hike we went to Texas Roadhouse.  Whew, we were a hungry and very sweaty, stinky bunch!!!  I would not have wanted to be our waiter!!!  On the way back to the cabin we had to stop and play in the river.  So much fun!!!  Learning how to skip rocks and just cool off the feet!!!

Funny story.....as we were hiking back down the trail we passed 3 college students on their way up.  2 boys (who of course had taken their shirts off because of the extreme heat) and a young lady.  As we pass them.... Cassie turns around and says to me, " they are soooo strong!"  (oh no, whatever are we going to do in a couple of years?)  I giggled and thought how that would have been Jay and I 15 years prior and here we were hiking the mountain again but this time with six little ones in tow.  Who would have ever thought?  Certainly not me!!!

Who Knew?!?!?

Who knew that dear sweet little Natey had such a revengeful spirit?  It was his turn to drive the boat on our vacation........   I must say he was hilarious!!!  The louder the kiddos screamed and expressed their fear the more motivated he was to scare "them".  I am not sure I have laughed that hard in a  very long way!!!  It was crazy!!!  Such amazing fun stories, I will post more soon.  But for now enjoy the look on his face.  PRICELESS!!!