Moved out Number 2 and Feel Like Number 2

What? It's the truth. Can I mention just one more time how much I love this stage of life???? NOT. What is with all my babies growing up and then leaving? Yes, many of you are laughing at my tears because you know Number 2 (I am sure she appreciates that nickname) is only 2 1/2 miles away. However, it isn't that we won't see her that makes me sad, it is just the transition of the family again, the change, another empty room. (No, Ben and Sam- one of you can not move into her room!) Good thing I still have a very long time with Emma, but I do wish she would stop talking about who her husband will be and what she is going to name her children! Can't a mother just enjoy kindergarten without the tormenting thoughts of another child growing up and leaving someday? I think back to all the years I wondered if I would survive when they were all little and now realize that I would trade a quiet, cleaner house for a busy, bustling, messier house, full of little ones any day!

Okay, on a more positive note, I am sure thankful for all the good times and happy memories that we have had as a family. I love to think about the nights rocking and singing to my sweet babies, the smell of freshly shampooed hair, giggles in the dark coming from the bedrooms, finding the girls sleeping together every morning even when I would tuck them into separate beds, sweet notes written stuck to freshly picked flowers (often the flowers that were meant to stay in the flower bed!), homemade clover salad and all the excuses not to eat it right then, tire swings, ponies with hair decor, kittens (well... too many of those!), little red boots, dresses that spin, Lego's stuck to my feet in the middle of the night, toy guns, snakes, water balloon fights, mud fights, sword fights, missing teeth, bike rides, bike wrecks, boat rides, praying that we wouldn't have a boat wreck, camping trips, hugs and kisses and family prayers while we were gathered in a circle.

I may have one more empty room but I wouldn't trade the memories and love, not even for the heartache of letting them grow up!