Alright! So, yesterday morning I decided to put one of those question boxes up on my Instagram story and tell you all to "ask me anything". I ended up with a lot more questions than I anticipated. Honestly, I thought like maybe my brother would ask a couple so I wouldn't feel silly when no one asked but that was not the case. LOL! Zack is great like that. Some questions were repeated. Hello, "Do you really think you're done having babies?" LOL! How'd I know that would be the most asked question. Some were surprising and some I half expected (if anyone participated at all lol). I'm not sure how much detail I'll go into with the answers. Let's see where my mood takes me...and how much Smith and Archie cooperate. :)
Okay, let's get to it.
1. What kind of car do you drive?
Chevy Tahoe. We've had it for 5 years and I love it. Yes, we all fit. Could use a Suburban for the trunk space thought, maybe someday.
2. Do you plan to go back to work someday?
Outside the home? Probably not. I really really enjoy being a hands-on mom home with my kids every day. I do however hope to find (maybe this space here) something I can do from home. I don't expect to make millions, or really anything substantial, if any money at all, but just having something for me sounds nice.
3. Does Kamryn babysit a lot?
Actually, no. Archie will be 6 months tomorrow and she hasn't been alone with him for more than a half hour. Here and there I'll have her watch the other 4 if I'm running to the store or something but I cannot remember the last time she watched the kids for an extended period of time. I think it's a common misconception people have that they think the more kids you have, the older siblings do all the work. For some families that may be the case, I know I helped out and babysat my little sister a lot growing up. Ask any of my high school friends, we always had Lexi. I loved it but I try to let Kam be a normal teenager. She's so busy with cheer and school, I don't want all her free time to be babysitting.
4. Do you and Mike have date nights?
This answer ties into number 3 and the short answer is no, not really. In this season of life, we are busy with our kids and that's okay. Date nights will come again but right now we spend our nights at home with our kiddos. I think as Archie gets older and Kam gets a little more comfortable, we MIGHT be able to sneak up to the local restaurant only 5 minutes from our house. LOL! Fingers crossed...because that would be awesome!
5. Do you really think you're done having babies?
Yes. We know we are done. We made sure of it. My pregnancy with Archie was really rough. It took a long time for me to get pregnant, I was sicker than ever, I ended up with a thyroid issue, Gestational Diabetes, he was breech and needed to be flipped while still in my belly (holy painful), I was in a lot of pain throughout the entire pregnancy and more uncomfortable than ever...like keeled over with back pain every single day towards the end. Truly I could barely walk most days. They tried to induce labor, and my body would not cooperate. I didn't progress at all, Archie's heartrate dropped for 7 minutes, and I had to have an emergency c-section. I knew without a shadow of a doubt I could not do any of that again so we made the decision that he was our last. Does it make me sad? Also, yes. But I am so incredibly thankful God gave me 6 beautiful, healthy children. He knew he had to make that last pregnancy unbearable, because I probably would've kept going.
6. Where do you shop for your kids?
We keep it simple.
Kamryn - Target, Amazon, American Eagle, Abercrombie, Hollister
Logan - Old Navy, Hollister, Target
Kensington & Tenley - Old Navy, Target
Smith - Old Navy, Target
Archie - Carters (most of the Carters stuff is from Target)
More on this coming. I think I'll do some posts with kid's fashion on a budget.
7. How do you find the time to blog?
Well, my laptop basically lives on my kitchen table during the day. For this blog post for example, I wrote down all the questions in a notebook yesterday and have been picking away at this all morning between feeding Archie, grabbing snacks for Smith, talking on the phone, letting the dog in and out 600 times, throwing in laundry, emptying the dishwasher, etc. So, to answer your question I just do it in my downtime in little bits and pieces throughout the day. Sometimes I can write a whole post in one sitting, other times it's like today. Just doing it here and there. I'm a pretty fast typer so it's not as hard as you may think.
8. What does your typical day look like?
Wake up at 5:30, get Kamryn up. She gets ready and then off to the bus. 6:45, wake Logan up. He gets ready and is picked up by 7:35. Smith and Archie wake up at some point in there and I get them settled with a bottle for Arch-Man and something for breakfast for Smith. Girls are usually up by this point too, they have breakfast, and they are next to get on their bus at 8:45. Then I call it my reset time, I clean up the tornado that happened as the kids all got ready for school, have some breakfast myself and its housework/blog time. Maybe some errands/some sort of outing depending on the day. Hopefully at some point I get in some time to be active, a workout or a walk with the boys. When the weather warms up, we are outside A LOT in the morning. Archie takes 2-3 naps a day right now so those are thrown in there. Mike and the kids all get home between 2:30 and 3:30 (If Mike isn't doing overtime, which right now he is). I try to have all my "stuff" done by the time they get home. Then its homework time, possibly bringing a kid to a practice/game or picking them up (Mike and I usually divide and conquer). Dinner is usually between 5:30 and 6. Bath/Shower time for the kids. Kensington, Tenley. Smith and Archie all settle down for the night by 7:30. Then its winddown time for me. I'm usually up in bed by 9:30 and then I do it all again the next day.
9. Your kids seem so well behaved, how do you do it?
Well, first of all thank you. However, they are very much normal kids. I just don't blog/Instagram/Facebook about the tough stuff. We get attitudes, they don't listen sometimes, they act out, you know all the typical normal kid stuff. I think the key is Mike and I are consistent. There are consequences when you misbehave, and we have expectations that they are all very much aware of. If we didn't have consequences the inmates would run the asylum. LOL! Kidding...kind of.
10. What is it like having 6 kids?
This is a loaded question. But it's wonderful. I will say it is not for everyone. I'm not saying we are more patient, more loving, or better parents than anyone else because we are not. However, to have this many kids you really need to let a lot of stuff go. Especially societies expectations of you OR how you pictured life would look when you had kids. We make a lot of sacrifices, every single one of us. Are there days we wonder what the heck we were thinking? Yes. But most days Mike and I are smiling through the chaos. Speaking of which, it's not as chaotic as you might think. I think when people think 6 kids, they imagine kids hanging from the chandelier and sprinting through the house screaming. Not the case. I bet our life looks a lot like yours. We really are the most normal people; we just happen to have a big family.
11. Did you get a new engagement ring?
You my friend are very observant. We had my original diamonds reset summer of 2023. We wanted to do this at our 10-year anniversary and didn't get around to it until our 12th. We went back and forth on if we wanted to turn my rings in and upgrade to a bigger diamond and the more I thought of it, the more I couldn't do it. I'm usually not a very sentimental person but I just couldn't bring myself to let go of the stones that mean so much to us and our story.
12. What's your biggest piece of advice for a new mom?
Take 5-10 minutes to pull yourself together every single day. Wash your face, put on clean clothes, maybe throw on some mascara. Whatever makes you feel like YOU. Yes, even do this in the hospital. You'll thank me later that you started this practice immediately.
13. Do you ever have alone time?
Not really and that's okay. This goes with question 10. One of the sacrifices of having 6 kids is I'm never really alone. I think the last time I was truly alone (aside from driving alone to get my hair done every 8 weeks) was in July a week before I had Archie and Mike brought the kids to his dads to swim. I didn't know what to do with myself. I was 9 months pregnant; it was approximately 700 degrees outside and instead of taking a nap, I cleaned my house. It'll be interesting when Archie goes to kindergarten and I'm alone several hours a day 5 days a week.
That was fun! Maybe I'll do this again sometime. Do you feel like you know me better? Maybe, maybe not. Listen, I am such a normal person. I've said it before but if you're coming to this blog looking for a mom who claims to have all the answers, you won't get that here. This is fun, happy, lighthearted content about everyday life.
Bottom line is I'm probably a lot like you. I love my family more than anything. Like most moms I sacrifice a lot to be the mom I believe they deserve, and I would not change a thing. Thank you to those of you who submitted questions. Like I said I was surprised with how many I got. Currently I have just 235ish followers on Instagram (I deleted over 700 followers a year ago, we'll get into that at another time so really, I'm starting over) so getting 12+ questions was pretty good if you ask me! I also had an old friend tell me she bought something from one of my links the other day and she loved what she received! I'm just a girl with a hobby and sometimes (most times) I feel really really silly sitting down and even writing here but this week made me feel a little better. So, thank you!!
xoxo, Kristen
