500

I've been waiting for this moment for the last few months.  And then in the past few weeks I totally forgot about it until it popped up on my list of blog posts.

500.

I started this blog 6 years ago and I made it to 500 posts.  

The timing was perfect because just yesterday I was thinking to myself that -- besides anything spiritual -- the blog is by far the best gift I've ever given myself.

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to blog about.  And sometimes I feel like I have a hundred million things I need to blog about.  And sometimes I have just a few random non-cohesive things to blog about.

But whatever I blogged about, I'm so grateful I did.  It's so nice to be able to go back in time and relieve Lily's first laugh on video and remember the time when she was 13 months old and tried to eat Skyler's umbilical cord that had just fallen off.  It's fun to go back and look at when 5 month old Skyler couldn't find a toy to suck on so he sucked on his arm and gave himself a hickey.  I love going back and reading about how Ella was born with a record-breaking amount of hair and how the nurses were obsessed with her in the hospital.  And I love reading about how we found out we were supposed to name Thad.  

The blog reminds me that I didn't remember things wrong and that we have experienced some true miracles.  I managed to have four kids when in my second pregnancy my OB told me that might not be a possibility.  I have seen miracle after miracle as Ben has gone from going to school full time while also working full time to being laid off 3 times to climbing up a business ladder very quickly.  I have seen the miracles that happened to get us to each of our homes because each involved a miracle -- big or small -- of some kind.

We went from ghetto shack to cute apartment to living with my parents to our first home to our forever home.  And each one has felt just as much like home as the other.  There are some days when I would love to go back to our apartment in Rexburg and spend the day there.

We've seen a million tender mercies.  We've been introduced to hundreds of great people.  We've had innumerable ups and downs.  And I can say with all honesty that Ben and I have traveled a bumpy yet wonderful road together and are much closer than 500 posts ago.  

But the blog has served an even better purpose for me.  So so so many nights when the kids are finally in bed and I finally get a chance to catch my breath and think to myself, "I survived," I can look at these pictures posted and think to myself, "How did I get so lucky to have them?"

I mean, have you ever noticed how cute they are?

Proof:

Note: Skyler begged to have this picture taken as soon as I had come downstairs from waking up.  I am fully aware that I don't fit under the "cute" category in this picture. 

I am so thankful that I have blogged even though I was actually very anti-blogs when I started mine.

Who knew I was so wrong?