Raising 4 Kids

Raising four kids is a blessing and so full of laughter and exciting memories, but it is also busy and can be crazy sometimes. 

Right now I have one infant, one preschool aged, and two actively in school. We rarely get the time to just sit and watch a movie or eat dinner together with all 6 of us. I wish that was a bit bigger of a priority for us, though I hope once we get moved to set it higher on our weekly to do list. 

Between trying to potty train the 3 year old, both parents, and two younger children: someone ALWAYS has to pee! It never fails. You just get to the bathroom and all of a sudden there's a knock at door because somebody is desperate to go. We try and laugh about it sometimes but others we get flustered. Some day we will have multiple bathrooms.. I hope 🤣

Aside from 24/7 bothroom traffic another thing you don't realize about having a large family is when going to a restaurant you have to wait for a bigger table to open up. Families of 6 or more can't sit at a square 4 person table which is what the majority of restaurants table are made for. I'm finding it easier to simply make a reservation first thing in the morning for the nights dinner to attempt to avoid the long wait, or the wide eyed and mental jaw drop when you walk into a busy restaurant and request a table for 6. 

When going somewhere new my husband and I will often look at the menu online ahead of time and talk with the kids about what options they will have for lunch/dinner to make ordering an easier less painful experience. I don't know about you, but my kids are picky eaters so anything to ease eating somewhere new is fair game for me! 

Having multiple kids close in age means LOTS of love! We frequently walk into the rooms at night time and all 3 older kids will be snuggled up together sharing pillows and blankets, sleeping as close to each other as they can get. Happy kids/happy spouse=happy house! 

Though sometimes we forget, we lose our patience, we fight and disagree, in the end we love each other and that is one of the most important aspect in our lives to remember. 

We frequently say I love to each other, and when the kids freely say it to us, without being prompted it is the best most rewarding feeling ever imagined. 

Despite myself and my husband being outnumbered by kids we did get blessed to where we have 2 boys, 2 girls so we each will have two kids to keep track of in the cases where we split up at a museum, park, store etc.