9, 7, 5 and 10 months

Guess how often I say the words above?

Basically anytime I’m out in public, and someone wants to comment on how many children I have! The inevitable next question is, “How old are they?”

Well, right now we are in a very sweet spot where I get to say “9, 7, 5 and 10 months”. I punctuate this sentence with a big smile at the end, because this year- I am fighting to remind myself and every nosy person at the grocery store that my children are not a burden- they are gift. They are also a lot of work, but it’s the kind of work that comes with the biggest joy and privilege as well.

Side note- I do not feel like four kids is a big family. I feel like five kids is bordering on big, and once you hit 6 you have tipped the scales into “big”. But four kids doesn’t feel big to me. Although- four kids does feel like the number where people find it hard to keep track of all their names. What do you think? How many kids does it take for you to consider it a “big” family?

I meant to write this blog post as four separate posts- one for each birthday that we celebrated in late summer/early fall. But instead, here we are in January and I’m just combining all the posts into one 🙂 Yay for efficiency!

Our family did a great job spreading birthdays out across the months, although we are very birthday heavy in the late summer/fall. Tera kicks off the celebrations with an early August birthday (always around the first week of staff going back to school). We take a breather during September, and then Kiah has a birthday mid October (for some reason, there is ALWAYS some major event on his birthday weekend- last year it was a wedding, this year it was our college homecoming with guests staying over at our house). Ezra rounds out the fall birthdays with a mid November birthday, usually the weekend right before Thanksgiving. And then Theo and Orion have March birthdays and I’m in May.

Our birthday strategy is very “90s Mom”. I might hang some balloons or streamers and we invite over a gaggle of children. I may have one activity planned, but otherwise we just let the kids be free and be kids. They open presents, eat cake and then go home. It’s the best. No Pinterest party over here!

One fun tradition that we have is that we measure the kids on birthday mornings. They love to see how much they have grown!

Tera – 9 years old

Tera wanted to go thrifting the morning of her birthday, so the girls (and Ori) hit up a couple thrift stores, then rushed home to get the last minute party prep set up. We had about 10 girls over, and they all made lip balm, ate cake (from Walmart), and opened presents. OF COURSE, the whole crew of girls took turns holding Orion. Is there anything better than holding a baby when you are a 9 year old girl? I don’t think there is :). In the evening, Memaw and Papaw came over for dinner and we did some family presents.

Kiah- 7 Years Old

Kiah and I got to go to the bike ramp park the morning of his birthday. We had a BLAST. This place is SO FUN. Unfortunately, Kiah wasn’t feeling the best but he still powered through. We got home in time to clean and prep for his party! He had about 5 boys over and they jumped on the trampoline, painted wooden dinosaur night lights, ate some dinner and opened presents. Kiah has two young adults that he just loves and adores, and he really wanted them to come to his party. They both came and played basketball with all the small kids and it was the highlight of the day. Then Theo then took them for a ride in the back of his truck around our back pasture. Memaw and Papaw also came over for dinner + presents. I mean…what more could a 7 year old ask for?

Ezra- 5 years old

Ezra’s birthday weekend didn’t go as we would have liked. On Friday, he came down with a tummy bug. But by Sunday, everything seemed good! I made him an egg burrito for breakfast, since this is his absolute favorite food- he could eat one for breakfast, lunch and dinner. After breakfast, we went to church and my parents house for lunch, where my Mom had a cake for him. I left the other three kids with my parents and Ezra and I went for a 3 mile bike ride together. Unfortunately, later that day, Ori started in on the tummy bug. We got home from my parents house and Ezra got to open his family presents at home, but there is nothing fun about sick family members during a birthday party. He really wanted a friend birthday party this year, but between sickness and Thanksgiving, we just didn’t make that happen. Next year will be a friend party for him!

Orion- 10 months

Orion is now 10 months old and the DELIGHT of our household. He’s such a happy baby! He started crawling right around 6 months and is now into E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. He adores his siblings so much. He has never once slept through the night, and in the last two weeks he decided he was done with breastfeeding. And oh my gracious, formula is expensive. He can stand and cruise the furniture, and I think walking is in his near future. He just learned how to clap and is constantly babbling things that sound like real words, but nothing official yet.

Yes, we have some really, really hard days around here. But I also know that *these are the days*. My heart is so full, and I’m also really tired! It is such a blessing to have these four- 9, 7, 5 and 10 months old.