Back to School in Style with Zulily

 

*I received a Zulily credit for free from Moms Meet to use and post my honest opinions. This post may contain affiliate links.

The back to school season with 6 kids is chaotic - and expensive! I don't mind much, though, because this moment in time is my FAVORITE moment in time. All of my kids are still under the age of 18, and we're all living under one roof!

Whenever I start to feel overly sad about Dylan and Lexie being so close to adulthood/college, I try to focus on the fact that we have four younger kids, too! It doesn't make it that much easier, but we still have so many school years ahead of us. SO many!

We are now two weeks into the school year. Time flies when you're busy! Our kids headed back to school - and into fall - with style this year!

Monday Morning Coffee Chat

Happy Monday! I’m making my return to blogging with a Monday morning coffee chat. So grab your coffee or hot tea, and let’s reconnect!

The last time I posted, I shared about the last day of school, but an entire summer break has passed by in a flash. Here we are, with just two days left before the first day of school. I’m facing the school year with mixed emotions. I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to summer!

A lot has happened in the year since we found out we were expecting our sixth baby, and clearly, my presence was needed elsewhere. But, oh how I have missed blogging! I’m excited to share all the details from this whirlwind of a year - a surprise pregnancy, a baby diagnosed with Trisomy 21 and a heart defect, a NICU stay, open heart surgery, and so much more! Hopefully my return will be permanent!

The Last Day of 3rd, 5th, 9th, and 11th Grade

 

The last day of 3rd, 5th, 9th, and 11th Grade was over a week ago, but I’m a bit behind, as always. 2 of our 4 kids were very sad about school ending, 1 was excited, and 1 goes to school for 8 days in July. Truth be told, I think our girls would go to school year round if they could!

This school year was one of the few - if not only - years that school ended before Memorial Day. It was nice, but it felt so early. May was definitely much busier than it usually is!

It was a good year overall. It felt more normal than the past two pandemic years, which was great. It was a stressful year for our family, so we are glad school was the easy part!

Just the 8 of Us - Family Updates

Adjusting to life as a family of 8 has been a wild ride, but we're getting there! So much has changed in 5 REALLY fast months for all of us. Life has gotten so much busier than it already was, but I wouldn't change anything...well, except for maybe adding a few more hours each day to get stuff done!

There is so much going on right now, and I'm going to try my hardest to stay up to date with everything that's happening. I still have so many big life events to share - our surprise pregnancy, how we found out about Hayden's heart defect, Hayden's birth, our NICU stay, birthdays, vacations, holidays, baptisms, and more. Some BIG things are happening over the next few weeks, and writing is therapeutic for me, so I'm just going to jump back into blogging. 

There's no doubt that social media has taken over blogging, as it has many others, but I still have big plans to update this space. As I begin ease back into writing, I figured now would be a good time for a family update. If you follow us on social media, you do see little snippets of our lives, but never the whole picture. There's a lot going on with 8 people under one roof! Plus, I need something to keep my mind occupied right now...

Welcome, baby! Introducing...Hayden Grant!

Hello, blog world! It has been a long while. When I last posted, I shared the news that we were expecting another baby. Since that post, we welcomed our sweet baby boy into our family, and he's now nearly 3 months old! 

The past few months have been a whirlwind, including a NICU stay, lots of appointments, and the holiday season. We are adjusting to life as a family of 8, and I feel like it's almost our new normal. Before I do anything else, I wanted to introduce the newest family member on our blog!

I plan on easing my way back into things, including posting regularly to my blog again. I missed it so much, but there simply wasn't time, and I wanted to enjoy our last baby as a newborn. He's still newborn sized, which I absolutely love, but I can't believe he's almost 3 months old. Time simply flies by when you're a parent!