Next week my youngest son graduates from High School. In September he will be leaving to serve a mission in Juiz de Fora, Brazil for 2 years. Where does the time go.

My husband and I have 4 children. The oldest is married, the second will be leaving the first week of June to serve a mission in Denver, Colorado. The third has just arrived in his mission in Winnipeg, Canada, and the fourth, well you can see above.

I remember when my oldest daughter was born, I was sitting in the car in Anchorage on a warm summer day waiting for my husband who had run into a store quickly. I was changing her diaper and getting ready to feed her. She was wailing and hungry.

I had the window rolled down, as a large 9 passenger van pulled up next to us. There weren’t 9 people, but probably 7 passengers, 2 adults and 5 kids. The husband also got out and ran into the store while the wife waited. Pretty soon she had her windows down as well, and could hear my daughter crying.

She leaned out and commented on how much she missed the sound of a baby crying. She said, slow down and enjoy it while you can, they grow up way too fast. I had been told that many times already, but in the moments, you really don’t realize how fast that really is.

By the time our oldest was turning 10 we had 4 kids ages 4-10 years old. My husband commented at the end of her birthday how the next 10 years would be much different than the first. And boy was that the case. That was 13 years ago and it seems like it was almost yesterday.

So many changes, so much growth, so many milestones as a family, and as individuals in our family. The ride has been faster than I had anticipated. We really do try to enjoy every phase of our lives, and I think we have succeeded. But it sure did fly by.

I don’t really miss the newborn phase, I am not a newborn fanatic. I do miss the 4-now phase though. I loved watching my kids grow up. I have loved watching them become awesome adults and great citizens wherever they go. And if you’re just starting out and it feels like time has slowed down for the first few months, just slow down and enjoy, it’ll go by way too fast!