Where are the others???

I noticed today that I'm a few blogs in and I have yet to mention anything about our other four kids.  Zak, Bella, Riley and Blake.  Although I'm sure I will have more than enough to say about these four as I get better at this blogging stuff, it has been quite an eye opener for me to see how little time we really get to spend with them.

We spent the 4th of July weekend with them and I will post more on that once I get the pictures to go along with it.

These four live in Puyallup 90% of the time with their mom.  We miss them so much when they are gone.  Things are not complete at our  house.  It is so sad to talk to them and interact with them so little.  Rarely do we talk to them outside of our 'every other weekend' allotment.  It is hard to keep up on what is happening in their lives when we see them so seldom.  It seems as though we play catch up for the majority of the time they spend with us. 

Summers for Josh and I are bitter sweet.  Ryson leaves for 9 weeks every summer and only seeing the kids every other weekend makes for a pretty quiet household.  However, we try to use the time to enjoy each others company, to relax and do the things we want to do.  It's like being Newlyweds all over again.  We spend our summers working in the yard, camping, watching movies, going to dinner, hanging out with friends, etc.  Our friends always laugh and say that a couple with 5 kids shouldn't be able to do the things we do but we would trade it all to have all of our little chicks back in the nest.  There is a void when they are all missing.

Being a blended family certainly comes with it's challenges and not having your family intact is one of the biggest struggles we (as parents) deal with.  We do the best we can and make the most of the time we have and try to enjoy every second we have with all 5 of our kids, but we sure do miss having the freedom to come and go and plan as we please.  I find myself saying "Wow, how nice would it be to just pick up one day and go somewhere without having to get it cleared with 4 other people first?"