Matt's mission call, chickens, and life at home

Well, James has started working a lot which means a LOT of time for me just at home with the kids. I can honestly say I can't remember the last time I've been so "free". With no car, no real schedule, and nothing I HAVE to do, except take care of kids.... I actually really feel like I am finally just able to do whatever I want. Although most of my time really is spent with these crazies,  it's been nice to just kick back a lot. I really haven't been feeling the best, but I've tried so hard to stay positive and not complain. 

For 2 weeks, I worked so hard to get Tommie on some sort of sleep schedule....and I succeeded! For the most part, he takes a 2 hour nap in the morning, 2 hour nap in the afternoon, and sleeps from 9-7! Success!!! Ok, so he still wakes up a bit every 3 nights or so, but the fact that I have slept 7 hours in a row for a few nights has a week, is so incredible for me. I wake up so much happier to see the world! :) Tommie is like a new boy, and is so happy and content all the time. He gets irritated real fast when Jackson wants to wrestle, but Jackson has helped him learned to get around. I wouldn't say he crawls, it's more like Jackson's half-army scoot he used to do. But, Tommie goes room to room all day long and can't get into too much cause he can't pull himself up. He's way more content that Jackson ever was, and seriously, has just such a strong sense of happiness and peace. So really, it's actually been such a nice past 3 weeks. The weather has been incredible and we eat lunch outside most days. The neighbor kids have been coming over to play, and I have taken a nap every single day, almost! James has worked a few nights until 9 and Jax thinks it is so cool to "Stay up late" with me, watching movies until dad gets home. 

I'm still not totally thrilled about our new chickens and the garage smells really bad. But, we still have the 5 chicks in the box, growing bigger every day. It's hard to believe they have grown up so fast and we now need to get ready for keeping them outside. James and I finally did some serious garden work, getting out all the weeds, rototilling up the dirt, etc. We decided we definitely didn't need so much space for gardening, we can't keep up on it anyways. So, 3/4ths of that dirt will now be the space for the chicken coop we are building. By me, I mean James. We did get tomatoes and squash planted. Not a lot, but at least something. I'm not too into gardening this phase of pregnancy.

My mom, dad, matt, mansi, brianna, brad, julie, kate, and eliza, have all been in the easter pagenat this year. They sure have dedicated a lot of time to it, and it was fun to go and watch them all on tuesday night. I still have good memories of being in the Easter pageant, and still have a lot of the script memorized! James and I haven't been in years and it was fun to take the boys. We sat way up front, and were able to pick out my family really well. Jackson was so into it, and kept yelling at Mansi and Brianna.

Matt also opened his mission call and is going to Bogota, Columbia. He leaves July 3rd. It seems so crazy that he'll leave so soon and who would have ever guessed he would go to Columbia...one of the biggest drug cartels in the world! :) He'll be a good missionary. It will be sad to see him go though. Jackson just idolizes him and always wants to go spend the night over there.