Knock, Knock!

Who's there? Well hello! It's me. Rachel. Yes, I know. Don't spit anything out! It's a shock, isn't it.

I gotten out of the habit of posting about my life here. Along with that, I don't check into my other friends blogs either. I feel a bit disconnected. I seem to have this hang up (perfectionism talking here) that if I get behind on blogging about events in my life, it starts feeling overwhelming. I need to just move on. Just pick up where I am in the moment. Don't worry about the past. I'll work on it.

So here's my update on life. Let me tell you...life is so wonderful and blessed. We are doing such wonderful things.

It's summer and the kids are out of school. I'm trying hard to keep them occupied and alive! Generally we are doing well. I decided that I wasn't going to put them in any sports or activities this summer and just kind of enjoy the down time. We do however go to the movies, Trafalga, seven peaks and many other activities. We've got a great network of friends that we do lots of fun things with. We really love our neighborhood here!

Ben has been very busy at his job the last few months. They just their semi-annual product release and as a reward for good work, his boss gave Ben's whole team a week off of work last week YAY! He's been home this last week, which has been amazingly fun. Ben's mom had surgery last week and is recovering from that. It's been nice that we've been available to help there. Ben is still working out like a mad man and has dropped even more pounds (proud wife here!!) He would say the same for me, but my pounds are coming off much slower. It's all good though. It's a life style change that we are going for.

I've been busy with my calling. It's going great and I'm striving to do a good job. I've also had a little break from PTA stuff which has been nice. Still making bread and overall trying to change our diets to be more wholesome. Overall plan. I really just love being a mother. It's hard sometimes because all my kids have such different personalities. I really pray and hope that I'm not royally screwing them up. I know I'm not, but some days I need a little encouragement and correction (P.S. that's where Ben and the Lord come in :)

Princess is enjoying her friends. This girl has major talent in being social and getting things going. We can be at the park and literally, I'm not kidding, by the end of the park stay she's got 20 kids, whom she didn't know before, playing freeze tag or some other group game. She's getting so tall (5'3" now!) She's getting into all the girly things and learning how to do her own hair. It's fun to see her blossom. Only one more year of elementary. I still don't know where the time has gone.

G-man is also growing like crazy. I still have friends that call me from his previous years from his school classes who want to set up a play date. He's so generally nice and sweet. In the last little bit, he's finally getting an opinion about how he should spend his time. He's totally motivated by money, so he has all these ideas for ways to make it (reminds me of my brother Jake a bit when he was little). There is this 14 year old boy in our neighborhood who sells ice cream bars from his garage all summer. Last Sunday G-man decided that he was going to call the boy up and ask him if he could go into business with this boy. I was hesitant to let him, but then Ben encouraged me to let go a little. So he calls this teenager up and told him his plan. The boy told him no. LOL! (I can imagine this boy thinking, Um...no I don't want to share my profits with an 8 year old...what's your name again?? :). He wasn't mad or embarrassed at all. He took the initiative and is now selling from the street doing his own business! So cute!

Ikey is my little quirky guy! Man, I love that kid. He's so responsible and wants everyone to follow the rules. You tell Ikey to enforce a rule and he is on it! (G-man and Princess LOVE it! He he! :) He starting attending speech therapy which should help get him ready for school and his help with his sensory issues. Overall he's so great! He's getting cute freckles on his face, which I love to kiss ♥

Last but not least, there's my Mase baby. Such a funny kid. Mom calls him Jekyll and Hyde baby. You NEVER know what you're going to get. He reserves his love and affection for his moods. To ME, he is usually so sweet and huggy. But boy, when you get him when he's tired, or in a new situation...or just when he feels like being cranky, WATCH OUT!! :) He's talking so much now and want to do everything that his brothers do. He really is a sweet heart, I promise :)

Anyway I know this is long. We are so blessed.