I look at my last post and have no clue where to begin! So, let just start here...
Here, would be Boise, Idaho. In 2 short years here is a list of what has brought us to 'Here';
2 baby girls born 20 months apart
2 moves of the whole household in 2 different states
1 wedding
Many adventures!

I could write a huge long post of the what's, when's, how's, and why's, of it all, but I won't! Today is for this...
Moms. Yep, Moms.
At 17 if you would have told that at 41 I would the mother of 9, yes 9, naturally born children and an amazing son-in-law, I would have told you "You're crazy!!"! I was never having kids! I grew up with a mother who always took in 'urchins', well that's what my sisters and I called them. There were always little children at our house. She tutored, babysat, did daycare, and music lessons. No, she didn't need or have to, she LOVED to. She was one of those crazy amazing women who just loved kids! I didn't inherit that from her, sure kids were cute, I'd babysit for money, I even liked some of them, but I had ALWAYS been around them. I wanted to get away, to travel, I had big plans that didn't include, Motherhood!
Fast forward almost 22 years, I am a mother to 5 girls and 4 boys. By the end of August they will range in age of 7 months to 22 years old. In those 22 years I have been a working mom, a stay at home mom, a homeschooling mom, and a sick mom. I wouldn't change or trade it for anything.
Looking back over the years is interesting to me. I've had struggles, loss, pain, joy, happiness, love. My calling in life is being a mother! A daunting and overwhelming task that started at 19 and will never end. I trust God and sometimes wonder if he has the strangest sense of humor sending me 9 children and boys at all! I feel gratitude in my whole being for all these characters he has loaned me to raise into the person he would have them be. I pray daily that I will know how to help them best on their journey and pray that I do well for them.
I have an unique perspective that most families don't ever see. My oldest and her husband came home to meet baby #9 the day she was born. In was quite surreal to my oldest holding my youngest and thinking at her age I was a young mom with 2 sweet little girls. Did I look so young as she does? No wonder people gave me dirty looks when I was out and about with them! I smile down at this beautiful helpless infant girl in my arms and look up at my sweet oldest and remember looking at her and feeling the same amazement so many years ago! They grow so quickly, they leave home, they become adults, they get married. They get married...no longer does she come home for holidays, birthdays, spring and summer break, she now spends them with HIM! (We love and adore HIM which makes it so much easier to share her!). Looking down at this now 3.5 month old little angel I know the time is short and all too soon she will have a HIM! I watch my oldest 2 who are both adults and am starting to sit back and just breathe.
The fingernail polish on the floor and clothes, the new toilet paper roll in the toilet with a little person standing playing a splashing, the spilled milk of the not quite big enough filled with independence child getting his own breakfast, and the sticky little hands that grab your face with the words of "Tiss. mommy!" It will all be gone soon, never to return! Oh sure I will always be hugged and kissed, told " I love you!", but it's just not the same as those first years coming out of those squishy, dirty, sticky, sweet little ones! I know I still have a few years, but they are long gone from my bigs!
Balancing this vast age span of children is an interesting feat. While nursing the baby, talking to a big on the phone and dealing with a little, I have to translate toddler gibberish while still trying to maintain an adult "mom, I need help!" conversation. There are days I feel 'I got this!' There are more days I feel 'Lord, what were you thinking? I haven't got this, I'm never going to have this!'. Days when I look around my house and think I have completely dropped the ball and days when I look around knowing everyone is pulling their weight! Mornings like this one when I know that nothing will be crossed off my list of 20 things that must get done, but the kids will be on time to school, make it to speech therapy, violin, track practice, first temple trip, a sister in law will have prom flowers made, and friend will feel loved and my house will still be filled with dirty dishes and laundry waiting for someone to love them enough to clean them! It's mornings like this where I wake up to a beautiful smiling baby girl and a beautiful sleeping little bit bigger girl in my bed, knowing that we've chased my sweet husband to the couch, all the anxiety and self doubt are tossed to the side and in this moment I have peace. I know it will be short lived because at any moment my alarms will start and I will put this post aside to finish later. In this moment of the dawn lighting my window, a sweet angel smiling up at my tired face and another one sweetly sleeping with an occasional giggle and smile around her binki, I have peace!