All In This Together

I belong to a Stroke Survivor Group on Facebook.

It's a beautiful group.

Full of stroke survivors and family members/support systems.

There are beautiful stories of rising and there are vulnerable posts about people whose lives will never be the same.

There was a post from a very young mama last week.

29 years old.

"Mild" stroke.

She is devastated.

She was in the hospital for three days and is home now.

Tired, weak, struggling with one of her eyes.

In the big picture, it was not a big stroke or a life-changing stroke.

Except for her.

It is a life-changing stroke for her.

I directly messaged her, telling her I see her and I hear her.

I told her that she is not alone.

I told her to rest, show herself grace, and remember that it's a marathon.

She is simply overwhelmed with feelings, emotions, thoughts, etc.

I get it.

In the post on the feed, I reminded everyone that we are now Heidi 2.0s. We will never, ever be the same we were before. And that's OK.

We GET to discover our new selves.

We get to learn and grow and evolve.

It is all about showing ourselves grace and showing others love.

 

The Boys

These boys.

Gigi loves her boys!
Hendrix is eight months old.

I could not feed him enough yesterday!

He was wanting everything and ALL of it!!

He loves his Gigi.

His Gigi loves him!

I had Hudson on Saturday.

Squish LOVES Uncrustables, come to find out!

He is so hard to get down for naps lately.

Papa is the wizard at it.

It took Gigi a few minutes, but he got a good nap in.

That face!

 

I Feel You, Kehlani

Isis posted this last night.

I laughed out loud.

I love my Lani Boo with my whole heart!

She is sassy, smart, creative, imaginative, strong, beautiful, and allll girl!

I feel you, Kehlani!

 

Busy Busy Busy

I don't know how, but my life feels busier than ever lately!

Normally Wednesdays are my half-days.

Burke's are too.

With Cooper's track season, I have been doing Monday's as my half day instead.

But the last two Wednesdays, our kids have still needed help with babies, etc. so I've been having to use vacation time to leave early on Wednesdays, too.

GRATEFUL!

Yesterday, we had three of the babes:

Hudson, Kehlani and Delilah.

I thank God OUT LOUD for Burke, Cooper and Ryker. 

Burke got Cooper back and forth between track practice and football spring ball.

He is also such an involved, active Papa with the babes.

These two babies, who are four days apart, are SO active.

Crawling every where.

Standing up...

Delilah is walking along furniture and the Bronco walker.

They eat like crazy.

Kehlani is desperate for attention.

Trying to figure out how to keep her busy, whilst having the babies is hard work!

So, I laid a blanket out for the babies while she did sidewalk chalk.

The babies HATE the feel of the grass, so they were ON me.

Finally, I unpacked the double stroller.

I put Delilah in the front carrier, Hudson in the front of the stroller, and Kehlani in the standing part of the back of the stroller and off we went.

It reminded me of doing this very thing with my boys:

It was always:

Braxton in the front seat of the stroller;

Kaydon in the back seat of the stroller;

Colton in the backpack;

Jackson holding on to one of my pockets;

Me pushing Kaydon's medical equipment pole with one arm and pushing the stroller with the other.

This is how we went EVERY WHERE.

When Gigi is exhausted, and I am EXHAUSTED this morning:

I grab my l-carnitine and B12 sublingual drops!!!

 

One More Month of Five

These five, though.

Aria will soon be completing her first week of kindergarten.

Kehlani has begun dance classes.

Hudson can now stand up and has just learned how to play with his trucks.

Delilah is standing and walking along furniture.

Hendrix is now crawling.

In about a month, Baby M will be joining our family.

Isis's c-section is scheduled for the 25th of May, if she can make it that far.

These babes are the joy of my life.

They have increased my capacity to love and nurture infinitely!

I love their parents.

Watching my babies be parents is one of my greatest gifts.

 

SO Fast!!

Yesterday was a much better weather day for Coop's track meet!!
Sunny & 70's.

Coop took first in his 100m with a PR!

Coop took first in his 200m with a PR!

Coop tied his PR on high jump!
Coop's relay team took second!!!!

I'm the only mom that sits amongst the kids.

Coop likes to know where I am at all times.

Plus, I have the refill waters and the sunscreen and more snacks!!

He likes to find me after each of his events to come talk to me about it, too.

So, I'm always right up there in the crowd...except when I'm down at track level to watch him and/or yell for him.

I'm also the loudest parent... BY FAR.

 

First Event Done

My first event is done and I learned so much.

I am counting that as a very big success!!

Burke and I got up at 5 AM, got ready and headed to Ogden to set it up.

He is literally my biggest supporter, best cheerleader, such a helper in all the ways!

I was proud of how it was set up... especially for my first one.

I learned things I need to do different.

I recognized fears I need to still overcome.

I met amazing, kind women who were so helpful and supportive!!!!

They had great ideas and they were so encouraging to me!

I wasn't going to do another event until June, however they asked me to come back next month.

I think I will.

This little Squish came to visit.

Of course, he was the star of the whole darn show!!!

 

Date Night With 4

Last night, Burke notified us that we would be going out to dinner.

Roadhouse, of course.

Our Ash wasn't there, but our Annie was.

So were Kaydon, Porter, Cooper, and Ryker.

Four out of our nine kiddos.

There was a lot of steak on the table.

Salmon for Porter and I.

Kaydon was rushing his steak-eating so that he could get to Institute at 7.

Porter was Googling things that I don't understand.

Cooper had fallen whilst playing football at lunch. The left side of his face, which you can't see in the picture was swollen and scraped up and my Mama Heart was breaking for him. 

Burke asked if there was a magnet between Ryker and I because, per usual, no spatial awareness. He was glued to me. You'd think literally.

I love our family.

Every one of them.

Rian sent these pictures yesterday.

Hendrix is getting so big.

That red hair just keeps getting longer and longer!

 

Getting Ready

I have my first vendor event on Sunday.

I am very nervous.

Yesterday, I set up my new canopy and tables in the front yard to see what I still needed, how it was all going to work, what I was going to do...

It took poor Burke an HOUR to set up a little $1.38 shelf thing from Shein.

"I didn't know I'd need an Engineering degree..." he said.

ME EITHER!
It is literally only going to hold a few lipsticks!

However, I know what I still need and I am less nervous!

 

Dancing Queen

Look at this Lani Girl!!

Jackson and Isis took her to a test dance class and a test gymnastics class to see which she would like better.

Dance won!!!

So, Daddy took her to get a leotard and a tutu... or two.

She LOVES dance!!!

I LOVE her!

This one has some spatial awareness issues.

He is almost as tall as me now and he lays on me.

ON me.

I don't ever want him to stop being my cuddle bug, but he's getting big!

 

Tracking

Yesterday was Cooper's first track meet of the year.

It just so happened to be in the 30's and raining... sometimes sideways!!

I was thankful Cooper listened to his dad and I and wore tights and a long-sleeved top.

So many of the kids were absolutely freezing.

So were the parents.

I was PREPARED.

Coat

Poncho

Umbrella

Seat

Stadium Blanket

Heater

Propane Tanks

I left the heater in the car because it was raining so hard that it wouldn't have stayed on.

I felt it would be okay, though.

Apparently the umbrella leaks.

Within the first hour, I was drenched.

Head to toe.

Through all layers of clothes.

The track meet was only six hours longer after I was soaked.

But I was there.

This kid knew I was there.

He had food and water.

He was good.

That's what mattered.

 

Helping

We got to have a Hudson Day on Sunday.

He snuggled with Gigi and took a little sleep!!!!!

Guys!
He snuggled with ME!!!

That's because he was VERY busy supervising the yard work being done.

Last year, we had two dead trees cut down in our backyard.

We finally got that all cleaned up yesterday.

We lathered Squish up in sunscreen, put a hat on him and he was in HEAVEN in his Bronco!!!!

He loved the sounds of the lawn mower, the weed eater, and the saw.

He is the cutest!

We had to change his clothes after he ate a few grapes.

He's a messy eater. 

LOVES his grapes.

I LOVE his cheeks.

He is the happiest darn baby.

He was YELLING Papa's name most of the afternoon from the Bronco.

Papa was busy trying to get the pool drained.

Finalllllllly, Papa came and got him and he was so happy.

SO busy!