November...REALLY!!!???

Here we are at the beginning of November... REALLY!!!  I can not believe that the last 2 months have gone by so fast!  I have an almost 3 month old and I feel like it was just yesterday that he was born.  Baby Z has grown so much and is changing everyday.  He gives us smiles all the time and he loves his big-est brother tons!  Every time Big E comes near, Baby Z gets a huge smile on his face.  Baby Z's newest game is sticking his tongue out at us, he thinks its the best game ever!!

Big E has lost two teeth now and loves first grade!  He is learning so much!  We got his report card the other day and I was so proud of him.  He got all 3's and 4's (which are basically A's and B's), there was one "needs improvement", can you guess what that was?!  Writting neatly!  Apparently he rushes and doesn't take his time to print neatly.  Go figure!!  They gave us a scale of reading, so we could know where he falls in his reading ability.  We knew he was a good reader but we didn't realize how good!  He is about at a 2nd grade level for his reading!  We are so proud of him!  He loves to learn and read new things!!

Little N has not been faring so well these past few weeks.  The new baby was really cramping his style.  In the past few days though he has gotten a lot better.  We have had to make lots of new adjustments to the way things are done.  Daddy has been more intentional at spending quality time with each of the bigger boys every night, but more with Little N.  I think Little N was feeling really trapped in the middle.  This has given us great improvements and has helped me out during the day.  I have also been able to just "let go" of the pressure of housework so that I can spend time playing with him.  My house has suffered but things get done, its just not done as neatly and at the time I would like it to be done.  BUT I have been given some awesome advice from some "seasoned" moms, they have told me that my kids will not remember whether their house was clean but they will remember whether their mom or dad spent time with them!

In a few short weeks we will be taking a family trip.  This is very nerve racking for me!  Its the first time we have taken the bigger kids any farther than a 3 hour drivve from our house.  Its going to be about a 15 hour (technically) but probably more like 17 or 18 hour drive.  We will be doing most of our traveling while the kids are sleeping over night (hopefully!).  We are also hoping Baby Z is sleeping through the night by then, he does really well now.  We do not have to feed him in the middle of the night so that might help.  We are so excited to take this trip though, we will be going to visit my oldest brother and his family.  This will be the first time we have seen them in over 2 years.  They also just had a new baby that is 5 weeks younger than our Baby Z.  So this is going to be a great time of family and cousins getting to know each other!  What better way to spend the holiday than with family!!