New Nephew, New Calling and Fall

My little nephew was born on Monday :) Well, technically he's not my nephew, but I get called Aunt Nikki anyway. He's the sweetest little guy and was so content for the whole time John and I were holding him yesterday.

I can now announce that I have a new calling on the Relief Society board. I'm pretty excited to be going into that calling, I really feel like it's what I need in my life right now.

And yeah, I feel like that's about all that I have to say. It's been a pretty boring week, I've mostly just been reading a lot. I've gone through 4 books now in the last week, and only one of them was a thinner book (213 pages). I am mostly just looking forward to summer holidays being over and getting the kids in school and having a nice routine again for the next 10 months. I'm not a summer person, I definitely prefer spring and fall. So on that note, what part(s) of fall are you looking forward to the most? I'm looking forward to the kids being in school, 3 of us having birthdays, no more crazy summer storms and getting to wear sweaters again.

Forgot Some News...

I skipped some pretty important news yesterday. I guess it's because I've known it in my heart for a couple of months now, so it doesn't seem new to me. We have officially announced that we're done having kids. But wait, you say, you said you were going to have another in a post about 2 years ago. A lot of this has been highly personal and not something that I'll share with many people, but I'll give some parts of the story. For almost 2 years now I've obsessed about the idea of having a girl. And I mean full out obsessed, it had taken over a large portion of my life and was highly unhealthy. It stressed me out to highly dangerous points. A few months ago I was sitting at the table looking at my kids and realized that even though I wanted a girl, I honestly didn't want more kids. I love the 3 adorable boys that we have. Things with Brettley have been a challenge. It's been more work and is kind of like having a first kid all over again. Because of this, when he reaches developmental milestones, it's highly exciting. I'd love to end it on that note, where it's all exciting and not a 'been there, done that' kind of a thing. So I talked to the counselor I was seeing about how I felt and that I felt like I had to have another baby because of blessings and answers to prayers, like I didn't really have a choice in the matter. Keep in mind, the counselor I see is through LDSFS, so he shares my spiritual beliefs. What he said changed my world. He told me that I still have agency in this. Basically, I have the option to have another kid, but that doesn't mean that I'm required to take that option. I am allowed to make this choice for myself. As soon as I decided that I was happy with what I have and was done, it was like the weight of the world was lifted off of my shoulders. I've been so much happier and less stressed since then. I no longer cry each time I pass little girl clothes in Walmart, I just appreciate if something is especially cute. Two days ago John loaded all of our old baby things into my mum's van for her to sell for us. It's gone, and it felt so liberating. I love John, our love our boys and I'm looking forward to growing together as a family of 5 geeks :) Life is great!

Sans Children and 9 Years

The boys went to my mum's place on Friday until Wednesday. They had a blast there. On Saturday I hosted a small baby shower for my friend who's having her baby this coming Monday. John took a whole bunch of stuff to the dump for me that day and cleared out a fair chunk in our basement. We played a lot of MTG that weekend because my back was hurting and laying down is pretty much the worst thing for that, so I didn't get a lot of sleep.

Monday John took the day off and we went out for the day. We saw a good friend that I haven't seen in a while. Then we went for lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory. We shopped around West Ed for a while and went to a comic shop. It was a long and exhausting day. Tuesday I just hung around and relaxed.

Yesterday John took the day off again because I wasn't feeling well in the morning. I was also watching K yesterday. We took the 4 boys to a splash park since it was so hot out. We had a picnic lunch there and spent several hours playing. It was fun and we met up with some friends. Later Caleb and Ty enjoyed their early birthday presents from Grandpa. Caleb got a skateboard and Ty got a scooter. They are really enjoying them!

Today is L's birthday. She is now 9 and saying that makes me feel kind of old :P I love her birthday, it's such a celebration of everything to do with her. So happy 9th birthday to the most beautiful girl in the world. I love you so much!

Sick x4

Our last week has consisted of 4 out of 5 of us being sick. It started with Brettley and quickly moved on to me. I had several days of a sore throat, a sore body and feeling completely drained. A 30 minute shopping tripped knocked me out for hours. Caleb caught it next and had some nasty fevers and then Ty ended up with the same thing. Today is the first day in a week that we've all been (pretty much) healthy.

Not much else has been going on here, other than teaching the boys to do some new household tasks so that I can start passing some of the responsibility to them. Sorry, it's been an extremely boring week, but I should have more to say next week.

No Glasses For a While

We've done all the prep work to cancel our land line and it will be cut off on the 24th. I'm really looking forward to it being gone and excited to get my new phone case some time next week. The case I had keeps falling off of my 'new' phone.

Brettley had his surgery follow-up yesterday. His opthalmologist is very happy with how it went and has asked him to go without glasses for the next 3 months and then see how he's doing without them. That was very exciting news!

Caleb and Ty had a sleepover at Grandpa's house on Tuesday night. They love being there, riding bikes with him and eating Grandpa's cookies. I've tried buying them the cookies for at home but they prefer to keep them as a special thing at Grandpa's house.

We don't have a lot of plans for the long weekend, just hoping to hit a splash park on Saturday. Mostly we just want to relax :)