Mundane, elevated.

The best part about this little group of pictures is that this sums up a lot of this summer, that I keep thinking, it's too mundane to blog about. But then I look back after taking them and think, I am so grateful I captured these moments just once, even if they happen a lot of times. Because kids only get older and are less inclined to just be adorable for candid shots.

Both sets of boys see sawing each other... Someone asked me today if I had two sets of twin boys!! That E sure does look like my flock of blondes!

My middle littles... The only two who like the baby swings!

I struggle with the car seat safety vs my sanity with two babies whining and screaming and complaining. But my life in the car has improved like 100% since I switched the seats around so I'm trying not to second guess myself on this one.

And hanging at my parents house... I try to make it there once a week, which doesn't always happen but I never regret coming!! 

Lo isn't pictured because he was eating all the watermelon with me inside!

The good life!

A princess surrounded by three incredible brothers

Outlet mall with Marvel guys, first family Ferris wheel ride, etc

There are some weekends when being a mom feels super hard. After a rough and (stressful!) morning of driving it was nice to settle into.... Opening weekend at the outlets!!! I kid! It was complete madness and we never even stepped foot into a store! But first some random pics from the pre weekend festivities:

Lo's new favorite activity is "cleaning" with mama!!

The princess in her new car seat:

Oh and we got to visit grandma and I caught this insanely precious moment of her with Panda:

Ok back to the outlet opening weekend. Waiting in 90 degree heat to meet some avengers:

#worthit

Worth the all the dripping sweat pouring down my back! And now I'm convinced we need to take the kids to see Marvel Live! (Ps if that Thor looks familiar, it's because I think we met him last year at cosi!)

Free Ferris wheel rides?! Yes please!!!! First time for every one of our kids.

Lo hated it. Like so much.

The rest of them liked it

And the funniest part that had me rolling was when panda decided to act like a monkey....

Omg I couldn't even handle the cuteness. And it's amazing I even got this picture since I had Lo in a death grip to keep him from doing something stupid.

Face painting! Throwing darts at balloons (note that miss a has HORRIBLE aim!!!), and all we spent for two hours of fun was $5 for ice cream. Worth it!!!

Sunday dinner with these cute kids (and their parents obviously!) before they move away in a month!!

It was a good kind of exhausting weekend. One that meant with all the kids napping I actually got in a little nap or two!!

I don't think there is anything harder than saying goodbye to your best friend of 12 years

She helped me survive those first lonely weeks of freshman year of college. She was by my side sophomore year when we met our (future) husbands. We got engaged and then married within months of each other, shared first pregnancy, second pregnancy, and third pregnancy woes and postpartum and childrearing and learning about life as it unfolded fast and furious.

She made me feel like my problems didn't make me a freak... They made me normal. Under her caring arm, my struggles seemed to lessen and she made me look at my little victories and appreciate them for what they were. She is as real and as open as it gets with a friend and every play date and visit I had with her made me feel like I could be supermom.

Its really hard to put into words the welling up of emotions that I've been feeling the last 24 hours, but I know they pale in comparison to what she and Brandon are going through. I am going to miss seeing these adorable squishy cherub cheeks!!!

Mad props to my dad who made the 4 hour round trip voyage with me this morning on hours of notice to retrieve some stuff Keely didn't want to take cross country. We have made so many memories in the last 12 years and she is more like family than a friend so I know that while our friendship will change drastically after today, I know we will always have a very special bond.

It's the end of an era. My era of friends that I made before I had kids... Since most of my friends these days are mamas of my kids friends, nothing wrong with that, it's just a different friendship than what I had before kids. Drew told me last night some wise words, which I will probably butcher but essentially he said that from this time in our life onward, the best and most predictable relationships that will be constant in our lives are with our family, which is why the family is central your heavenly fathers plan. And as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. And while I felt like this year I needed to be ready to accept change and I assumed it meant we would be moving, what it really meant was that we needed to be strong and stay put while everyone around us moved. And I'm just fine with that.... I gotta pretty good bunch if I do say so myself.