Big Family is a Rarity

I'm sure many of you have experienced similar things as you live outside of Utah, but it just makes me laugh to see people's reactions. People out here just can't imagine a family with four kids. It is fun to assure them that it is actually a wonderful thing having four kids and that I love it.

The other day I was unloading all of our kids from our van to go into the grocery store. A man in the next parking isle says, "don't you need a sticker on your van?" I gave him a look showing him I didn't know what he was talking about. "You are a daycare right? Those can't all be your kids." I assured him that yes, they were all my kids. And Kennedy says (hurt that he would even think that) "We aren't in a daycare!"

The day before that, the kids and I were at Noodles & Company eating because the kids had gotten free meal coupons from the library for reading a certain amount of books. We started eating outside but the kids decided it was too hot so we then moved everything inside. A man was waiting to pick up his order and was literally staring at us. Kennedy finally says to me, "why is that man staring at us?" I told her it's probably because we are moving in and out and he thinks we're crazy. I was up getting napkins and he approached me as he picked up his order and asked if those were all my kids. I said they were and then he said, "I can't believe they are all yours and also how well behaved they are! It is amazing." I was so flattered. I was also grateful that he left before he saw Caleb fall over backwards in the high chair he was sitting in and also before my kids started thinking it was a game to run outside on the patio for a second and then come back in and sit down.

I was finding a bathroom for Seth at the mall. I had lucie in the baby bjorne and was pushing Caleb in the stroller, and the two older kids were walking beside me. I stopped to ask a security guard where the bathroom was. He told me and then looked at my kids and said, "I salute you ma'am."