I used to really be into blogging...I miss it! I think it was too emotionally exhausting to keep up a blog, especially with all of the moves throughout the years. I just didn't have it in me to explain why we were moving yet again....

With that said...

WE MOVED TO VIRGINIA!! and the best news of all!? WE ARE STAYING HERE a LONG LONG LONG TIME!

How do I know that?!

Because Justin is opening up a pest control company! After working for others it was just time for us to branch out on our own. All roads have pointed to here and now. "God bless the broken road," right?! :) I am very excited and confident that Justin is going to be very successful.

We live close to the ocean. DREAM COME TRUE! The ocean has always been my soul element and I would CRAVE it at times when we didn't live near it and now that we can go WHENEVA we want!? Guh...**happiness.** I think the kids are already starting to get a little burned out with going to the beach so much. Child- "Mom...you want to go to the beach, again!??!" Me- "Um...OF COURSE!" I will say though, going to the beach with five kids by myself can be a little interesting and it's not relaxing *at all.* William is in the toddler stage where I worry about his floaty not really keeping him afloat and Adam just started to learn how to army crawl (as of July 5th 2018-to be exact) and is always trying to eat the sand... oiy!

We downsized a bit with the move but surprisingly I am finding that it's actually really nice. And get this! We have vinyl flooring for the downstairs and I actually LOVE it. For years that would have always been an automatic disqualifier...I've always been a carpet kind of gal. But with William in the toddler stage and always cleaning up poop/pee in the last house (grr!)...I am ALL ABOUT easy clean up! I'm surprised how much I am sweeping every day though... ?? Oh...and my feet are always B-L-A-C-K. I think a good hard scrub is needed on the floors...

I've always been to church two times so far but I have a great feeling that we are going to just LOVE the ward here...because I already do. :-D I look forward to making friends.

After three years of no gym membership, we signed up for a YMCA membership last week and even though we haven't been back since (haha) I think it'll be great for our family. No outdoor pool...huge bummer...but then again we do have the ocean at our fingertips so I can't complain too much.

We live in a very small neighborhood. We are one of a few families with kids... :) We are within walking distance to a park, Chick Fil A (uh oh!) and many other places. After living 20 minutes to ANYWHERE in Tennessee, it's actually really nice to be in the center of town. Oh! We have a FENCED "yard!" Our last place we had a bigger yard but it was a corner house and not fenced... With the stage that William is in, it's nice that he can go outside and I don't have to worry to much about him...other than worrying about SNAKES! Apparently we get them here in the neighborhood?? We saw a black one (not poisonous??) by our front porch and then moved into our back yard... hopefully we don't see too many of those around.

There is SO MUCH HISTORY here. SO MUCH TO LEARN!! Can't wait to sink my teeth into it all!

Even though I'm really sad that we didn't move closer to Arizona/Utah to live near family, I will say that out of all the places we were considering, I am SO thankful that we ended up in Virginia. It's a great place to grow some roots.

Let the adventures begin!!

The Piano Guys---CHECK

Speaking of The Piano Guys, I saw them in concert on Wednesday in the famous Ryman Auditorium (built in 1892) in downtown Nashville!! I was able to tag along with the Bambas's (our neighbors that live down the street from us, Karen, Faith, Shelly and their mom).
Music is so powerful and I enjoyed feeling the Spirit through their music. Steven Sharpe, the guy that plays the chello, is hilarious! I was not expecting to have such a good laugh at the concert. I hope that everyone who has an opportunity to see them in concert will one day be able to. It was worth every penny!
And I am SO THANKFUL for Ester, a sweet lady from church, who offered to babysit the kids so that I could enjoy this "night on the town" worry free. It was my first time leaving Adam with a babysitter for a long time but I knew he was in good hands.

LDS Celebrities

I love living in the Nashville area! 

Justin and Kyra went to a Lindsey Stirling concert in October 2016 (I would have gone too but William was only a few weeks old and I didn't know how he'd do in a concert). 

Justin, Kyra, William and I went to a FREE Easter Concert with David Archuleta and Nathan Pacheco at the end of March 2017. 

Justin and I went to a Paul Cardall fireside in November 2017. 

Last Tuesday I ran into David Archuleta at the Bishops Store House! My insides about EXPLODED. 

I walked into the waiting room and sat down in the corner because I could see that "this guy" was talking to people that were in the seats and I didn't want to bother. I glanced up and saw David. Say waaaaaaaht!??!?! I wanted to go all crazy fan girl on him but I pulled up my big girl undies and remained calm. He went into the next room right after talking with the other people and so I wasn't able to say anything but I was NOT about to leave without meeting him so when our food was ready to be picked up, Max, Adam and I went to the back and met him. I shook his hand (and after realizing that that wasn't good enough) I asked if I could have a hug. haha. We then sat and chatted like old dear friends (riiiight) and then before making too much of a fool of myself had to walk away. GUH. How cool was that!??! Out of ALL places in the entire WOLD that David could have been, he chose to serve at the Bishops Store House. I had never been so thankful to be poor and needing assistance with food. HAHA (I prefer to be on the giving end rather the receiving end but I know it's just for a very short time...). I can't believe that I had tried really hard before leaving to get Justin to go for me (it's a hour round trip and I wasn't much in the mood for going). I'd have been devastated if I had missed that opportunity! BTW I just have to explain... I *do not* have a crush on the kid. I just really admire his goodness and lets be real, it's always fun to meet a celebrity because how often does that happen???

To finish off the "Nashville LDS experience" it would be AWESOME to see
The Piano Guys. :-D 

Adam Rey's Simple and Sweet Birth Story

Early Sunday morning, December 10th, I woke up to some contractions and had a feeling that they were different than the braxton hicks that I had been feeling for the past couple of weeks. I didn't want to jump the gun and get too excited just in case it ended up being another day without baby coming but considering that I would get them a few times an hour before church started...I couldn't help but hope! We went to church as usual and it was interesting to have contractions and act like everything was just fine and dandy.
By 3:48 pm (to be exact) I started to time my contractions. I had never done that before so it was kind of fun (if you can say that??) to see the pattern of when and how long they would be. Thankfully the contractions would average about 40 seconds (instead of 60) and come every 5/10 minutes.
I pulled out my journal and read birth affirmations for about 30 minutes. It seemed to actually help quite a bit!

The boys went to bed around 7:30 pm and Kyra stayed up to help out.
At 9:00 pm I sent a text to my midwife, Heather, to let her know that it was probably time for her and the team to head on over. I also let our birth photographer, Amy, know that she should be there by 10:30 pm. Amy felt prompted to leave right away. If she had listened to me, she'd have missed the birth!
Everyone arrived at the same time (9:30) and in my head, baby came five minutes later (in reality it was 40 minutes). I'm pretty sure I only pushed twice with him. It was incredible to let my body just do what it needed to do.

Justin woke Max and Ethan up around 10 so the three older kids were there when Adam was born. I'm glad that William stayed asleep through the whole thing.
Adam Rey was born at 10:04 and weighed 9 lbs and 11 oz. We are so happy that he is finally here!! Four out of five kids have been born on a Sunday. I find that really neat!

I am so very thankful to have finally been able to have my dream home birth come true. 

Midwife-CHECK

Doula-CHECK

Birth Photographer-CHECK

At home-CHECK

Perfect healthy baby-CHECK CHECK CHECK

I AM PREGNANT!!

This would be new news if I had written about this 9 months ago but considering that baby is "due" in about a week and a half...it's old (but still exciting!) news. haha

A few months after William was born, I had a birth control appointment set up one day and the day before I felt VERY STRONGLY that I shouldn't go to it... ok?? I also felt that we'd have a baby "sooner than later" but still wanted to try Natural Family Planning (watching when I ovulate and "work" around that) for the time being. Long story short... I was a week late with my period and I took a pregnancy test. Low and behold it was positive. I was in complete shock! Again!? So soon!?? Justin happened to call me from work 30 seconds (literally!) after I took the test and I just had to tell him. Usually I like to come up with a cute way to tell him but I was so in shock that I just blurted out the news. Justin was thrilled! That's one of the things I love most about Justin is that he is NEVER angry or upset in any way when I get pregnant. He welcomes each child with wide open arms.

Usually I wait until after 10+ weeks to announce to the world (make it facebook official) but this time I wanted to announce early, at 7 weeks, or so I thought. I ended up having a doctors appointment a few weeks later and the ultrasound set baby at 10 weeks, not 12 weeks, so when I announced baby was only 5 weeks. haha! 

Just like we did with William, we did not find out the gender. I LOVE the suspense and not knowing. I wish everyone would do that *at least once.* I am 100% split down the middle on what I think baby is... I really don't have a feeling either way. If baby is a girl, we will name her Mia Mae and if baby is a boy we'll name him Adam Rae.

The early ultrasound AND 20 week ultrasound both set the due date as December 6th....which is just around the corner!! I would love for baby to come early but not too early... Since we have a November baby (Max) and a January baby (Kyra), we've gotta have a December baby, right?! That means that I and baby need to hang in there for at least 5 more days. Sigh... that in and of itself feels like an eternity away. I am at the point in pregnancy where time is ticking by SO SLOWLY.

As ready as I am physically to have the baby and welcome this new little life into our home, I am also trying my best to enjoy that time that we have now before everything changes once again. I am nervous to see how William will do with the change... babies will only be 15 months apart (if baby comes after December 2nd). The closest we've had kids together was Kyra and Ethan and they were 16 1/2 months apart so hard to imagine these two being even closer! I mourn that William won't be the baby anymore... I hope I don't see him as older than he really is. I did that with Kyra (not realizing it at the time) and it was so unfair to her. I didn't treat her like a baby herself but like a 3 year old. :(

I feel very blessed to have easy pregnancies. My only complaint this pregnancy is dealing with restless leg syndrome... nothing that I have tried to releave it has helped. I've resorted to getting help at night with sleepy medicine to fall asleep, otherwise I will be up for HOURS before finally falling asleep. Oh...and my other "only" complaint is that I have to pee every 30 minutes to an hour...whether I drink a lot of water before bed or not. My body feels that it is NECESSARY to drain EVERY...LAST...OUNCE during the night... I am already sleep deprived before baby comes. :/
Other than that though, I really do feel blessed with easy pregnancies and I am SO THANKFUL that my pelvic area hasn't been as painful as it was with last pregnancy. It's started to hurt towards the end but not anywhere near as it was with William.

We will be having another home birth but this time we have a midwife AND two doulas (one is in training). I am so so excited! I'll get to have the type of birth I have ALWAYS wanted. Oh! And if it all works out, I'll also have a birth photographer there. :-D At first we were going to use a birth center because our insurance covers it but it's an hour away and I did not feel like driving an hour to and from for appointments and when it came time for birth so we mustered up some big faith and paid out of pocket for a midwife who is only 25 minutes away. Worth every penny. :)

I got extra lucky this pregnancy because one of my dearest friends is a professional photographer was able to take some pictures for me. She lives in Georgia and originally I was going to drive down there to get my pictures taken but that's 7 hours away and making a long trip like that towards the end wouldn't have been so fun... she and her kids ended up taking a trip to visit her sister in Illinois and lucky for me, their path took them right through where we live!! Be sure to check our her facebook page. I LOVE the work that she does! https://www.facebook.com/maidenmusgrove/ Baby was 29 weeks when these pictures were taken. 

Stay tuned for the birth story. :) 

1. In improving self discipline the area I need to work on most is CONSISTENCY.

    -"Success doesn't come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently."
    -"Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood
       you said it in has left you."
    -"Hard work without consistency will lead you nowhere."

2. One book that I would like to read before the END OF AUGUST is How to Win Friends and
    Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It has been on my to-read list for years. I started reading it
    a couple weeks ago but fizzled out (not that it's not good, because it is GREAT, just that I have a
    hard time sticking to "how to" books, whereas I can read a romantic novel in a day).

3. If I had a $100 gift card to spend anywhere, I would buy BOOKS! I am kind of a book addict. :)
    Speaking of books...
    A friend of mine tagged me in FB post today and it really was, yet again, an answer to prayer.
    School starts for all the kids in our neighborhood on Tuesday and I started playing the head game,       "well maybe the kids should go to school this year...or maybe for the second semester after baby         comes..??" I am ALWAYS going back and forth in my head about it, even though I have already         received a million answers that our family is to home school. I flat out can not deny anymore that
    that is what we are supposed to do and I just need to gladly accept that. Anyway, my friend shared
    three books that she has recently read and I am so looking forward to reading them!
    The Unhurried Homeschooler
    Called Home 
    Teaching from Rest: A homeschooler's guide to unshakable peace 
   
4. One thing I can do today to improve my health is to not over eat. I have been following the Weigh
    Down Diet since January and stopping when pleasantly full is the part I struggle with the most.
    I have learned that snacking all of the time just makes my body feel yucky and that it really really
    appreciates it when I give my body time to digest food. Over eating just feels so yucky now.

5. Top three priorities in my life right now:
    1. Exercising my spiritual muscles.
    2. Home schooling my kids
    3. Just really enjoying the phase in life that I am in because pretty soon we'll all be going through
        an adjustment period, yet again, when baby number 5 comes.

1. One thing that I can do this month to increase my spirituality is to READ MY SCRIPTURES.
    Goal: Wake up at 5 am every day (just going to focus on doing that for this next week) and getting
    my time in with the Lord before the kids wake up. My spiritual muscles are in really sad shape.
    Time to kick butt and strengthen those muscles!!

     Julie Beck said, ““The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is
     the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life”

2. If time froze for everyone except for me for one hour, I'd go to a theme park and ride as many             roller coasters as I possibly could. :)

3. A place in my life where I need to do more delegating is with house work. I need to better teach
    my kids to clean up after themselves and to have specific chores each day. I am thinking that just
    simple and small steps would be best right now and then we can grow into doing bigger and more
    things later.
    - At 9 am EVERY MORNING we read our scriptures as a family and pray together.
    - At 7:30 pm EVERY NIGHT we go through the house and do a quick clean up and then start
    the bedtime routine (brush teeth, pajamas, book, pray, night music, hugs kisses and lights out by
    8:30).

4. Three things that I would like for my next birthday gift:
    -A gift certificate towards a facial.
    -50 shopping spree (you can get a lot of clothes at a second hand store!)
    -Books books books!!

5. My ideal day looks like:
   
    -Wake up at 5 and read scriptures/heavenly journal for 45 minutes and then 15 minutes of                   meditation/prayer.
    -6:00-6:30 exercise
    7:30/8 Breakfast/family prayer-scriptures
    Body Code session while William is sleeping- older kids have free play time.
    10-11 ish School work
    12 lunch
    1-3 Quiet time (nap for me or reading a book)
    3-5 quality time with the kids (pool, watch a movie together, books, park...etc).
    6 Dinner
    7:30 cleanup/get ready for bedtime

6. If money and time were no object, I would fly to visit one of my dearest bestest friends EVER,
    Breeana Steinagel. We haven't seen each other in two years when I flew out to Utah for Education      Week and we spent the day together at The Lagoon. It would be so fun to just spend a weekend            with her. I actually did that about 4 years ago when she lived in Tennessee (we were living in Texas    at the time). I actually hope to be able to do this before December this year (due with baby number      5 so it'll only get harder to do if I wait).

7. Preparing for Christmas this year will have to be way different than in the past (where we would         literally buy gifts a day or so before Christmas. Little kids are so easy to shop for!)
    Baby will be born, hopefully, the beginning of December and I would like to stay home with baby       as much as possible so getting all shopping done in November will be a must. I am thankful that
    Christmas shopping has never been stressful for me. I feel sad when I hear people stressed out             during the Christmas season. Maybe I'll understand that when the kids are older?

8. If I could do yesterday over again, this is what I would do differently:
    Wear SHORTS and bring a water bottle for the kids. We went to a back to school party at the park
    ON THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE SUMMER and we were a hot mess...literally. I felt so bad for
    William... his little face was so red and he was pretty miserable. He was covered in the stroller but       even the shade didn't help much... a spray water bottle would have also been a good idea to keep         him cool. He woke up today with a fever and I wouldn't be surprised if it was from the heat                 yesterday. Darn it. :( P.S. I totally get why girls wear BOOTY SHORTS during the summer. Man..
    wearing pants is ruff sometimes...

9. If I could retake a class again in my high school days, I'd stick through guitar class. I actually got
    an A the first semester but I didn't want to continue the class. The teacher was pretty bummed I           was dropping out. I love the guitar and probably could have gotten fairly decent at it.
   
10.One thing I can do this week to improve our financial situation is to NOT EAT OUT. We have
   always struggled in that area... I don't even want to know how much money we have wasted by
   eating out. Once a week wouldn't be so bad but 2/3 times is (in our case, anyways).
   Like last summer, Wendy's has come out with 50 cent small frostys...ahhh!! Heaven help us!