6

6 years ago I married the most amazing man... we were SO young. I was especially. We thought we knew what we wanted, thought we would sail through life blissfully because of all the love we felt. We were not totally naïve, we knew we would have bad days or hard moments. But we had no idea. We had a beautiful wedding day with A LOT of people involved, if we did it again I would make it far smaller and intimate, but we were young and that day meant the world to us. We honeymooned and had a BLAST! I would relive our honeymoon a 100 times it was that much fun! We came home, we found out we were expecting Averi. We were scared. We were excited. We were overwhelmed. We were overjoyed. April 21, 10 months after our wedding came our girl. We took a breath, we readjusted. Kevin took on a 2nd job, I worked 2 16 hour shifts a week to make it. It was a hard stretch. Just when it seemed to get easier we found out baby #2 was on her way. Sweet Sofie joined us 18 months exactly after her sister. She was a hard baby. But she made us stronger. We made some hard decisions after her birth. We moved into a small apartment then 6 months later to TN. The move was the best decision we could have made, and now this is home. But with a move comes adjusting and growing. We had no good friends in Murfreesboro, this made us closer then we had ever been. It made us lean hard on one another and God and rejuvenated our marriage. I started working at Vanderbilt. I LOVED my job but always was missing my girls. about a year after moving here we welcomed our 1st son. Reiter Michael. What a perfect addition! Sweet, Happy, easy. PURE JOY! I dropped to part time and we fell even deeper in love. This was an easy good time. Kevin started looking for a new job, graduated seminary and struggled with what he was supposed to do next. He worried about caring for us while also following Gods perfect plan. We started serving in CR together. I love watching him minister. We prayed and talked about what we would do next. Ultimately God placed a wonderful job in his lap that allowed him to still work from home and gave us the financial freedom for me to stay home. Me staying home has relieved SO much stress and given us both so much more freedom to enjoy each other and our family. I love it. Kevin loves it. We welcomed our caboose baby Fischer in April, the day after his oldest sister turned 5. HE is the perfect last newborn. It was wonderful to welcome him while celebrating his sisters birth. When she was born we were still getting to know one another, learning how to communicate, how to show each other love and put each other first. When Fischer was born I found nothing but comfort in Kevin. He knows how to love me well. He works hard to provide for us and care for me. He is wonderful. I am thankful God gave me a man that loves the Lord. Thankful that God has brought us on a journey over 6 years where we have failed and forgiven, where we have cried and laughed so hard we cried. I wouldn't change a thing. I am thankful for Kevin, I am thankful for marriage. I am thankful for our crazy, chaotic life. I cant imagine it any other way.

2 months

Fischer man is 2 MONTHS! I keep telling him he is supposed to stay my little baby over and over and it isn't working :)!!!! He was pretty fussy the first several weeks of his life, but we survived! Now he is napping well, sleeping 2 5 to 6 hours stretch at night and smiles often! He has even started belly laughing! We can not get enough of his sweet face! He is my little buddy, definitely loves his momma. The big kids are crazy about him and we have noticed very little jealousy. I am still trying to figure out how to "manage" them all, we do well at home but I am still learning when we go out. I have to remind myself to be patient with them and myself because its a learning process every time you add a new baby- and that is ok! Today we tackled the zoo, that was a doozy. But they had a blast and I sweated off atleast 5 pounds so over all it was a SUCCESS! Fischer still loves to nurse. He nurses every 2 and a half to 3 hours during the day and hums while he does it because he is so content. He is a sweetie!

how do you do it?

"HOW DO YOU DO IT?" Kevin and I both get this question ALL the time. How do we take 4 kids this little out of the house? How do we make it to church? How do we afford them? How do we have time for each other? How do we stay sane? How do we do it? I want to clarify, we don't do it. It is by nothing but Gods grace that we can parent these little blessings and still love each other successfully. There are moments when I want to pull all my hair out because I am nursing Fischer, the girls are fighting and Reiter is bound and determined to destroy everything he touches. There are moments Kevin is overwhelmed because he has worked a full day only to come home to an exhausted wife, screaming baby, no dinner, and no chance of a moment to himself. Those bad moments are part of life. It is what you do with those moments. If every time I felt that frustration, or feeling of inadequacy bubble up inside of me I lost it, well my kids would not like me much, to be honest I would not like me much. If every time Kevin came home to all the madness that is our beautiful chaotic life he yelled, He wouldn't be greeted with kids who adore him and cant get on his lap fast enough. Having a "big" family is not easy. But it was our choice. Our decision. Our chaos. We LOVE having 4 kids. We love taking them camping. We love watching movies piled on the living room floor all cuddled in blankets and pillow pets. We love watching them learn and grow. We love having 4 kids. I do not love dishes, laundry, diapers, grocery shopping, chauffeuring and everything else that comes with 4 kids. But I love them, and serving them shows them how to serve. Kevin doesn't love E R bills because of stitches, or the massive dirty diaper he is greeted with every morning from the Reiter, He doesn't love spending 2 hours setting up camp for us to only stay 1 night. BUT he loves his kids, loves the "daddy" squeeled by the stinky little boy, loves the smiles that comes with smores and excitement to sleep in a tent with their dad, so he serves us. We work hard for our time together. We are constantly showing one another grace. We get mad and frustrated and them remember our blessings and apologize. We pray hard for our children and for our marriage. We DONT DO IT.... God gives us strength to keep this home afloat. To him be the glory.

updates:

Kevin.... He is amazing! He has been going to the gym consistently for several months and has done a complete over haul on his diet and is eating mostly paleo. I am so proud of him He is healthier and happier! He is loving his new job, well not so new he has been there since October, it is far less stressful then his previous job and He comes down from work far less tense and happy- I cant say what an answer to prayer this job has been! The girls and Rei are totally obsessed with him and he is greeted daily with "DADDYYYYYYY" when he comes down the stairs from work, we all love him! Rachel... I am GREAT! Recovered from mr Fischers birth and a battle with mastitis. I am learning to balance the needs of 4 young children and relishing in mothering them. I have lots of moments of feeling very overwhelmed but over all I really feel like I am balancing life well. I just started going back to the gym and although it is hard to get there with the kids and hard to get back in the swing of it I am doing it! Averi... She is magnificent! She is helpful, sweet, spunky and fun! I feel bad at times because she helps SO much but I try hard to spend a little time with just her everyday. She loves to learn and is learning FAST! She is so ready for kindergarten and cant get there fast enough although I am determined to keep her home with me living it up in our back yard as much as possible this summer! Sofia... She is sweet and spunky. Has a temper like you have never seen but a heart so tender it melts me. If someone else cries she cant handle it and will usually tear up as well! She has a huge imagination, she learns easily and is so kind! She loves to crack funny jokes and make people laugh, but is easily embarrassed if she says something funny on accident and you laugh, like I said she has a tender heart! Reiter... All of the sudden my baby is a big boy and I don't know how to take it! He is WILD, climbs everything, touches everything, dances to every song. He is SO happy and smiles all day! He is stubborn and throws fits like you wouldn't believe-but we are working hard and he is learning and improving. He gives hugs like you wouldn't believe and wet juicy kisses! He loves his binky and blanky and has NO interest in potty training. Oh well, I am okay with him being my baby boy for a while! He is talking up a storm and I love it! Fischer... is likely our last newborn. Therefore I am soaking him in! Rocking, nursing, cuddling! He is not a good napper and therefore can be pretty fussy during the day, but over all he is pretty good and getting better everyday! He is doing much better at night and only getting up 1 to 2 times a night! He is gorgeous and perfect and I couldn't feel more blessed to call him my son.

gifts for fischer

With Fischer being our 4th baby we really didn't have a lot of "needs" so many of the gifts we were blessed with were very personal, I love them! A friend I used to work with at Vandy made this beautiful blanket and gifted it to me after I delivered him, so kind of her! A girl from my mom group took the time to make him this blanket, it is so soft and the perfect size for a car seat! A girl friend from church had these sweet booties made for him, they are too cute for words! Another girl from my mommy group made him this blanket, it has cute teddy bears and his name on it, and it is super big and so soft, perfect blanket for him to stretch out on the floor on! My sister has made blankets for each of my kiddos, they are so precious to me! Another friend monogrammed a burp cloth, bib and this sweet onesie for him Another girlfriend got him an Ayden and Ania blanket, which are my favorite for swaddling, and had it monogrammed- SO SWEET! I have used it so much it was dirty in our photo shoot so I couldn't get a picture, but it is CUTE! I am so thankful for everyones thoughtfulness!

Averis graduation

Averi graduated preschool a few weeks ago! She had a GREAT year and really learned a lot. More then anything she gained confidence to make friends and went from one of the "quiet kids" at the beginning of the year to one of the loudest "popular girls" (per her teacher) by the end. She is sweet and so friendly and loveable, she is generous, kind and smart and makes friends easily! We are ready for kindergarten and as much as I will miss her all day (like I will miss her A LOT) I know she is going to rock it out and I am so super excited for her!