Life with 5

The baby comes, and life goes on.

The three amigos are all great swimmers as of this summer. It makes pooltime so much more enjoyable when I don't have four kids constantly on the verge of drowning. The girls were swimming last summer too but had to relearn it all again.

Daddy is even more fun to swim with than me because he gives rides on his back.

And there goes Zion! (Hosanna was getting tired- hence the lifejacket)

I love the color of the water in this picture.

And fortunately my only nonswimmer prefers drinking tea to floating in the depths.

Bedtime has gotten beastly since Calvary came along, plus our garden was dying (so many demands on my time and attention!!) so we came up with this brilliant plan.

We wake the kids up at 6am to go out and work in the garden. It seems to be working- only drawback is that I have to wake up at 6am.

Besides watering and sweeping and picking up chalk, one of the kids' many important jobs is to find caterpillars. And squish them.

We kept this one as a pet for a day and then let it loose at Family Camp.

Ok, now back to the baby. Sometimes to keep her out of the evil clutches of her siblings I have to put her in the kitchen (it's gated). But being the minimalists that we are, we don't have a whole lot of baby gadgets and things. And I couldn't just lay her on the floor... so we found a doll carrier that worked nicely.

At first I thought putting her in my room in her little bed, out of sight out of mind, would keep the kids off of her.

But Jude can't resist. He climbs in with her every time. And he barely fits. Calvary was originally laying in the middle but he somehow pushes her over to make room.

They also snuggle on the couch. She doesn't seem to mind. :)

And I want to give another shout out to my midwife, Detrah Hele. I finally got a good pic of her and the baby.