Starting Over

If anyone is out there...I'm back!!
After a long time (over a year) of not blogging, I am going to try and get back into it. A lot has happened in the last year and I will try my best to update and actually have some deep thoughts along the way. :)

For those who are keeping up with the kid count...we now have 4! Alana Noel King was born on Nov. 29th at 5:01 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 9 oz (just like Juliana) and was 21 1/4 in. long. She is most definitely the last! Labor and delivery with her was not how we expected or planned, but she is here and healthy and that's all we ever ask for. The other three are doing very well with her. Kyler feeds her the last bottle before I get home from work and changes her diaper, Aaliyah is great at getting anything else we may need, and Juliana is great at playing with her. She looks just like the other three and is such a happy baby...sometimes too happy at 2:00 in the morning, though. ;)

I am back to work and it is hard. Working full-time with four kids at home is not for the faint of heart! I'm up between 4:30 and 5:00 every morning and am usually crawling into bed at about 10:30. Ray is still working from home and keeping the girls. His business is really starting to pick up and he's had some awesome opportunities lately that will give him even more exposure locally and, hopefully, nationally.
Kyler is now 7 and in 1st grade. He played football this fall and did amazingly well. Daddy was one of his coaches and I'm so glad they had that time together. In this family of all girls, it's important that they boys get their time. He's playing basketball now and we'll see how it goes. With every new sport, there is always a learning curve and Kyler is still climbing that curve.
Aaliyah is still a princess and growing fast. She hasn't done any sports or dance or anything, yet, but it's coming. Her birthday is coming up quickly and I can't believe she is going to be 5! She is definitely the child who tests my nerves every day. We will probably always butt heads, but I am training her to be a strong, independent young lady.
Juliana is now two and turning into our little bruiser. Always into something and talking up a storm. She is the sneaky one who can get away with murder because she is so quick about it. She is getting smarter by the day and loves hanging out with her brother and getting dirty. We have pretty much decided that she will be the daredevil. She's extremely independent and driven just like her daddy.

So there's the quick catch-up. More to come!

King Family Update

Well...we have entered yet another busy season in our lives. On Dec. 20th I returned to work full time and Ray began taking care of the girls and working from home during the day. It has been quite the adjustment, but we are hanging in there and adapting our routine every day until we find a good fit for our family. Unfortunately, my job has me in the car for 45 min. or so in the morning and nearly an hour on the way home, so that takes a lot of time away from the kids. I just keep telling myself that this is just a season and make the best of the time we do have together.
Ray's photography is growing by leaps and bounds. He will be shooting his first wedding in May and has had many amazing opportunities come his way. We are very optimistic about the future of our photography business.
Kyler is now 6 and has lost three teeth. Right now he has the cutest little hockey player smile with one tooth missing on the top. He is doing great in school and is reading above grade level! I am one proud momma. :)
Aaliyah just turned 4 and is still a princess. We are learning each day how to deal with a girl who has very sensitive feelings and a "slight" tendancy to overreact to simple situations.
Juliana is now 17 months and is showing a great personality. She is definitely going to be the life of the party! She is also the reason I am getting more and more gray hairs every day. She is the most strong-willed of all our children and also quite the daredevil. She will test us as parents, for sure.
I think that's all for now. We are all doing great and finally starting to settle into life with a working mom again. I will try to update more often, but we all know how many times I've said that in the last two years! ;)

Kyler's 6!!

Tues. Nov. 2, 2004...Election Day
Where did the time go? I cannot believe that my baby boy is 6 years old! I still remember everything about the day before and the day of his birth like it just happened last week. He is turning out to be a great kid and I am so thankful for that. He is doing great in Kindergarten. His teacher says he is very helpful and friendly, he's doing great with his work, and needs to working on his attitude when he loses at something. At least he got his father's competitive spirit! :) I am so proud of him. He played Fall Ball this year for the Yankees and they came in 2nd place...he held his own very well! He loves his sisters and is very helpful around the house (most of the time). He is also starting to notice a lot of the things they talk about at church. I think it's finally starting to click. I feel so unprepared for when he starts asking questions, but I pray everyday that God will give Ray and I the right things to say at the right times. He is having his first sleepover at our house tonight to celebrate and I'm getting mentally prepared for having 4 boys over all night! ;)

If you still read this blog, thank you. I know I've not been keeping up with it very well. This is a very busy season in our lives and somethings have to give...I don't think my family would appreciate it if I gave up cooking and cleaning to blog. :o

Too long...again

Sorry. The summertime gets away from me and time flies by! I can't get the photos to load right, so you'll just have to imagine them. :o Really, I will work on it when I have a little more time.

We have had a great summer just playing and spending time together as a family. I went to Oklahoma with the kids and my mom and they had a blast getting to know lots of new cousins and seeing Great-Grandma and Grandma Sharon. I hope we can go back sooner rather than later. The older I get and the older my kids get, the more I realize how much I miss being around my extended family.

In early July, we found out that we were expecting #4! A bit surprised to say the least, but we accepted God's plan for our family and started preparing. Last Tuesday, I woke up with some issues and we went in to the doctor to find out that we had lost our beautiful surprise. It was (and still is) heartbreaking, but we know that God has a plan for our family. We do not always know why He allows things like this to happen, but it is His plan, not ours. We firmly believe that God is still the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and we cling to Him in our sorrow. I know that one day I will meet my beautiful baby in the arms of my Savior.

Kyler started Kindergarten full-time today. He is so excited when he gets on that bus in the morning. I'm glad that he loves school and pray that he keeps that enthusiasm throughout his school years. His teacher is amazing...she is exactly the type of teacher I was praying that he would get. She loves her job, her students, and is so encouraging to the kids. I LOVE that!

Kyler is also starting Fall Ball this week. I've never done baseball in the fall, but he is excited to be a Yankee! He will be playing with 5-8 year olds, so he has a lot of work to do to catch up, but he can do it. He is working hard with daddy after school and his coach is very eager to help him out, too.

I think that's all for now. I will try to do a better job of keeping everyone updated now that we are back in a regular school schedule.

I'm back

I feel like I've been neglecting you. I'm sorry. Things have gotten quite busy in the King household lately.
-baseball season is almost done. Only one more game then the playoffs. His team is second in the 5/6 year old age group. I'm so proud of how hard they are working together as a team.
-Aaliyah has turned into quite the 3 year old handful. She's already learned the fine art of lying (to get her brother in trouble) and using "not-so-pleasant" words (ie. curse words she's picked up from a certain neighbor boy). Needless to say, she has already experienced the hot sauce.
-Juliana is 8 months old (tomorrow) and a handful herself. She has learned how to army crawl, pull up, and she is almost crawling on her hands and knees. She has also learned that when she lays in her crib and screams bloody-murder, mom comes running. This seems to be her favorite thing to do at 2:00 AM. :(
-3 Kings Photography is official. We got our business license and I am now running the business. This is the main reason I have not been blogging as much. What time I have on the computer is spent marketing, researching, keeping track of expenses and income...well, you get the idea. It's overwhelming at times, but I have a feeling that this is why God has not given me a teaching job. I need to be home to run this business that is beginning to take off. **SHAMELESS PLUG** If anyone needs family portraits, children's pictures, engagement photos, headshots, etc. feel free to let me know. I will be more than happy to set you up!

I guess that's all for now. As soon as my husband posts the pictures from Mother's Day and Juliana's baby dedication, I will share a couple with you.

Sat. May 22, 2010

I hope I never forget that day. Not because of something that happened in the world news or national news or even local news. Not because someone famous died or got arrested or shamed themselves. Sat. May 22, 2010 will always be the day that I was so proud of my son that I almost busted out the ugly cry...in public...at the ballfield.

This is his second year playing baseball. He's not the best hitter on the team. He can't throw the ball all the way in from the outfield and he loses all sense of urgency when running the bases when he does hit the ball. But...he improves all season long and from one year to the next. He cheers for his team mates (when he's not playing around in the dugout) and tries hard (most of the time). But...Sat. May 22, 2010 was a day that I hope he never forgets, either. Here is what happened...
Time has run out on the clock and we are at the bottom of the inning, our bat. Kyler is up, the other team is up by 1 run (6-7), and we have two outs and a man on base. "God, please help Kyler hit the ball and make it to base. I can't handle it if he gets the last out of the game...again." Strike one! "God, PLEASE, help Kyler hit the ball." The coach pitches the ball...PING! HE HIT IT!! "RUN, KYLER, RUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!" He rounds first and hesitates to run on (despite the coach yelling at him to go to second). After a quick back and forth, which seemed like minutes instead of miliseconds, he makes it to second base. We are tied! "Thank you, God!" Next kid comes up to bat....PING! Hard ground ball right through the infield and keeps rolling into the grass. "RUUUNNNNN, KYLER, RUN HARD!!!" He comes around third and doesn't hesitate to run on to home. The other team throws it home...kid misses the ball...KYLER SCORES!!!!!!

I know Kyler stepped up and hit the tying run in to save the game and that is what made the coach and the team proud. But what makes this so sweet and this mama so proud was that winning run. He has not crossed home plate yet this season, until now. I totally forgot in that moment that poor Juliana was on my hip probably freaking out because mom was jumping and yelling while she held on for dear life...and who knows where Aaliyah was (so thankful for team parents who help keep an eye on everyone else's kids!). I was beyond happy and so proud of my son. You know what's even better than that, though? Seeing how proud daddy was of his son. The look on his face, beneath the sunglasses (thank goodness he was wearing sunglasses, if you get my point), will stay with me even when I'm old and senile.

Stream of consciousness baby update

For the three or four who read my blog...here's an update on Juliana:

She turned 7 months on Tuesday. Wow, time flies even faster the third time around! I totally didn't get any 6 months pictures made...would it still count if I took them now? In the last month she has gone from rolling over slowly to where she wants to go to army crawling, sitting up on her own (when we put her down and pushing herself up to sitting), rocking on her hands and knees, and eating solids. She prefers to have food she can chew on instead of babyfood, so I may just forgo the whole "making baby food" thing like I did with the other two. She has more or less skipped over 6-9 month clothes which is great because we have all Aaliyah's clothes from 12 mos. and up. We are moving the kids rooms around (finally) this weekend. Kyler will get his own room again and Aaliyah will have to learn to share a room...and not wake up her baby sister at 5:30 in the morning! Her little personality is starting to come out and I can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing! :) She is not the needy Princess that her sister was, but not quite as easy-going as Kyler was. She is very flexible with her schedule, though, and that's nice. We noticed two little tooth buds starting to appear on her bottom gums, so I guess teething is just around the corner. I predict she will be pulling up and crusing before too long and walking shortly after that...although I hope the walking holds off until 12 months. When my hubby gets the pictures from Mother's Day and her baby dedication uploaded, then I will post some here...or I may have to resort to taking pictures myself for uploading. ;)
I guess that's all for now...better go make sure she hasn't pulled herself up in her crib since she's not asleep yet!