Fall

Reading the title of this post, one may think that it's going to be an embarrassing story about my graceful self and a good trip. Well, that has indeed happened to me more than once, but this post is actually about the season. You know, Autumn...it was months ago. Here's my attempt at catch up. Warning: This one's super long with some picture overload.

Matt and Rachel started back to school. Okay, Matt started back and Rachel just plain started. Matthew is in 6th grade this year which is in the middle school. He was super excited (and is doing awesome), but I was having issues with it. Middle School?? When did that happen?!



Rachel started preschool. She was super excited as well and had her outfit picked out days ahead of time. She goes to the afternoon session and we all just thought we might spontaneously combust before noon came. Bailey was very sad to see her sister go to school without her -- in fact she cried for a good 15 minutes after dropping Rachel off and kept asking me to go back and get her. Rachel did fantastic. For those of you who may not know, our Rachel just started going to Primary by herself this summer. She went through some serious separation anxiety and we weren't sure how she would do going to preschool. She hardly even took time to say goodbye. So proud of her!!
When I picked her up she showed me a self-portrait she made. There was a big O-shaped mouth that took up most of the face on her picture. She told me it was her yelling,"I love this place and I never want to go home!" She came right home and sacked out on the couch. Totally worn out, but happy.



Our Rachey turned 5 in September. Again, How did that happen? One of the things that she was very most looking forward to was getting her very own library card. Ta-da!! (She doesn't look too thrilled in this pic, but she was so excited! She even did a special "I got my own library card" dance while in line at the library.)






Rachel started her birthday celebration with a big family party at her aunt and uncle's house in Ogden. We celebrated all the family b-days in the month. My uber-talented sister made a very cool Pac Man cake and the kids just played, and played, and played.



The Saturday before her b-day, was her party with her friends. We are so fortunate in that there are some really great families in our neighborhood with kids Rachel's age. She has some very sweet little friends. She chose to have a Princess and the Frog party. They started the party by making Mardi Gras masks.



They played a game like a cakewalk, but jumped between lily pads. They then had froggy cupcakes and lemonade.



The weather was wonderful, so we went outside to play a version of "duck, duck, goose" which Bailey thought was nothing short of hysterical! The girl laughed her head off! (Wish I had a picture) The kids then did a little obstacle course. I had it all set up for them to run though -- dodge crocodiles, escape the frog catchers, find Mama Odie, eat a bug, and hop back. I thought I was so clever, too because they had to wear flippers -- like a frog. So cute, in theory. The reality was that the flippers were too big and it quickly became apparent that somebody was probably going to fall and crack their head open. I tried to convince the kids that it would be way more fun without the flippers, but to no avail. They were so excited about the dang flippers. So, Steve and I ended up holding their hands and "helping" them hop through the course. "Helping" meaning carrying them through and letting their little flipper feet touch the ground a few times while we ran back and forth across the lawn. We were sucking air and dying laughing because of how out of shape we are, and because we must have looked REDICULOUS! The kids loved it and each had several turns.



It was a lot of fun, but as it always is after a kid's birthday party, we were pooped when it was over.





Cute cousins getting ready to go home after the party.



At least 6 months prior to Rachel's birthday, she began telling us she wanted a surprise party. Okaaay... Try to explain the lack of surprise in a self-planned surprise party to a four year old. :) You've totally got to admire a girl who knows what she wants, though. Well, we didn't have a surprise party, so to make up for it, we all waited at the bottom of the stairs with cans of silly string to surprise the birthday girl the morning of her birthday.

(Don't know why that last paragraph is showing as a link. I tried to fix it. I'm technologically disabled. Sorry.)




She opened her gifts from us.



Then we headed outside to take her to birthday breakfast. One of her presents was a new booster seat for the car. Notice the lovely purple seat. Also notice poor Rachel being totally blinded by the morning sun. Also, also, notice Bailey bawling her eyes out because she wanted a new lovely purple carseat, too.



We went to Angie's for breakfast. Rachey loves that place and the rockin' chocolate chip pancakes. They sang to her and she acted all shy, but told me later that she loved it. They even gave her a special birthday sundae -- 'cause you should eat an ice cream sundae with breakfast.






It was a fun birthday week. We love that crazy little girl so much and can hardly believe she's five. We've now had her for as long as we waited for her. It took us five years to get pregnant with Rachel and she screamed for the first year of her life because she had such horrible colic and reflux. We joke that the Lord knew that we had to want that baby pretty darn bad because she was such a difficult baby. :) Even so, she is so worth every second of the wait. She's worth all of the frustration and heartache we experienced in trying to get her here. Our Rachey is beautiful, strong, stubborn, gentle, kind, intelligent, and so funny! We love her with all of our hearts. Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!

Later that month we took a trip to the big city and visited Hogle Zoo. I love that place, and it makes me heart happy that my kiddos do, too. I grew up close to Hogle Zoo and went there often. I made the kids pose next to the primate pics because it's exactly the same as when I was little. There are just pictures you have to get. You know, drinking out of the lion-head drinking fountain, sitting on the big metal rhino... ya just do.



I wanted a shot of the kids outside on the wall that says Hogle Zoo. My error was taking it at the end of the day. It was pretty funny. There are only three kids. It shouldn't be too hard to get one decent shot of all three at least looking in the general direction of the camera. I took quite a few trying to do just that.



One look at this one told me it was time to go! Seriously, look at their faces. Gives me the giggles. At least Matt and Bailey are trying...




As the warm weather was coming to an end, we finally decided to give in and make the clothing changeover. Am I the only one who loathes that? You know, putting away all the warm weather clothes. Deciding what is too small or will be too small by the next time they'll be worn, passing down small stuff, and stowing away okay stuff (aka stuff you hope will still fit in the spring, but will probably be too small by then). Then comes the job of taking out the winter clothes from last year -- a portion of it, remember, is too small this fall even though you hoped it would still fit from last year. Whew. So, I don't so much enjoy this task. Matthew hates it. Yep, hate's a strong word, but it works here. He can't stand it because it means he has to try on tons of clothes -- ones being put away so we can guess whether they'll still fit next year, and the ones being taken out from last year to take up residency in his drawers. Well, folks, as much as Matt dislikes it, Rachel and Bailey LOVE it! They dig into those bins of "new clothes" like it's Christmas. It's all "ooohs and ahhhhs" and an all day fashion show.

To add to Rachel's excitement, some sweet friends of ours who have a girl a few years older than Rach gave her some hand-me-downs. Now, we have been super fortunate with Matt because we have boy cousins who give us hand-me-downs. It's a great big boy circle with us handing back down to other cousins after Matt outgrows things. For Rachel, on the other hand, we've never really had anyone to hand down to her. So, for her to get two big bags of clothes at once was like pure heaven to my little fashionista.



On Oct. 10th we figured we needed to celebrate and have a 10/10/10 party. We proclaimed it a Foster Family Feast of Favorites. We all chose our favorite food and ate it together in one meal. This isn't the best picture, but our feast consisted of beans and rice, french toast, chocolate milk, cheetos, and banana cream pie.



This year Rachel played indoor soccer again. It was her second year and it was fun to see how she's changed over the year. She's still quite a bit more concerned about being by her newly made friend on the team and having a bow in her hair that matches her shirt (just like her friend on the team), but this year she actually cared about the game and wanted to score a goal. She still didn't care who won, in fact, I'm not really sure she even really understood the concept that one team technically wins and one loses, but she did want to score a goal. The first time she did, you'd have thought she won the lottery. It was awesome! (Yep, and we were all cheering like she'd won the lottery, too.)



It's one of those things that isn't very convenient -- it was kind of late in the evening, the parking at the rec center is terrible and you end up parking a block away and hoofing it, dragging everyone out of the house, trying to contain a two year old AND watch the game -- but one look at her big old smile that was pasted on her face the ENTIRE time made it more than worth it. We can't wait until next year!





There is a really great place here in the valley where we go to buy our pumpkins every year. This year was even better because our sweet girl cousins from the Salt Lake area came to town for the weekend (with their folks, who we adore, too) and they went with us to pick our pumpkins.








Bailey and Rachel both painted their pumpkins this year.




Matthew chose to carve his.



It has become a Fall tradition of ours to go to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk. There is a theme every year and then different organizations, families, groups, etc. create scenes using pumkins. It's always fun to see how clever and talented people are.




We actually went twice this year; as a family and with Rachel's preschool class. I'm not really sure about the funny little head tilt the gals have going on here.



My brother and his wife are super dooper talented and creative and were the activities committee leader people in their ward until very recently. So, at Halloween they invited us to their ward Halloween party. It was awesome - because those guys totally know how to throw a party, and because my oldest brother and his so cute family were in town from California and we got to see them too! This pic was at my sister's house on the way to the party. I wish that we'd have gotten one of all the cousins together at the party, because they all looked amazing!



Another thing we look forward to every year is the USU Homecoming Parade. Steve and I both graduated from USU, so we tell our kids that they were born Aggies. I do realize they may very well choose other schools to attend when that day comes (and they know that as well), but we will always be Aggies at heart. :) We love the parade and the kids always come home with loads of candy and treats.


Whew. That was a long one. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Stuck!

All of my kids did it. Matt did it the most, though. Probably because he's a boy and was ALL over the place. Anyone who has had a toddler will recognize this scenario. Picture: I'm in the kitchen/bedroom/bathroom doing something important/constructive. I've only been out of the sight of my toddler for 3.5 seconds. I hear a little panicked voice from another room yell, "STUCK." I run into the room and find the owner of the little panicked voice on top of a bookcase, balancing precariously on a tall stack of random items, pinned between a piece of furniture and a wall, standing tippy-toed on a kitchen counter, or in some other equally dangerous and mind-boggling predicament.
That's where I've been. Not balancing on a counter reaching for the stash of girl scout cookies hidden on the top shelf, or with my head jammmed between the bars on the stair rail, but STUCK, just the same. Our computer crashed and I was unable to blog for quite some time. Now, I'm just so far behind that I'm stuck. I should just move on from where I am now, but I can't let important things - like first days of school, Christmas, and birthdays -- pass by unnoticed. I'm hoping that just writing something will get me unstuck. Here's hoping...

Dresses

You know when you find THE perfect dress? The kind of dress that is just perfect for a tea party. And not just any tea party, but a royal, fancy tea party...



Imagine the sheer delight of two little princesses upon finding TWO such dresses on the same day! One for each princess. Bailey has an obsession with "Lella" (Cinderella) and I found this little number for her. Rachel just loves everything fancy and adored the dress I got for her. I actually purchased it because she'd toyed with being Rapunzel for Halloween, but then changed her mind a few (at least 7) times after. She put it on and declared that in the dress she was "the Queen of the World." Good find, Mom, good find.

So when you have a dress that good, you can't just take it off. You should wear it. Everyday. Everywhere you go. Because you can.









Sidenote: Steve doesn't yet know that I am sharing the above picture. There was a time in his life that he would have cared. Probably a great deal. Now? He's a man wrapped around his little girls' fingers. He lets them dress him up. He wears lovely jewelry for them. Do take note, however, that he just couldn't compromise on one thing. No teeny, tiny tea cup for him. No siree. He's a 44 oz. man. Nice. Just as long as he still remembers to lift his pinky.

Catch up

I hate to brag, but I do have to honestly say that I am pretty darn good at procrastinating. I used to be, at least. -sigh- When I was in school, I could work really well under pressure and get a lot done at the last minute. A lot of things have changed since then. For one, I've gotten dumb. Not that I was ever the sharpest tool in the shed, but I could usually hold my own. Now, I am just kinda dumb. Sorry, I digress. The point I was trying to get to is that I'm not as good at cranking out high volumes of productivity at once. It used to be a challenge. Now I just get overwhelmed and don't want to do it. So, with a blog it shouldn't matter. I have no deadlines, nobody really cares about whether I do it or not. Okay, I do, but that's, again, not the point. After being unable to blog for so long, I feel like I have a ton that I'd like to catch up on. I've sure thought about wonderful, witty blog posts over the last few months. I just sit here and feel overwhelmed. The old (smarter) me would see the challenge and buckle down to do it and dazzle. Now? I'm thinking I just need to get started. So here goes: --warning-- picture overload.

We started out our summer with swimming lessons. My kids love swimming and we love our little aquatic center. Both Matt and Rachel did really well. Bailey could have done a "Mommy and Me" class this year, but was too young for official lessons. We didn't do the Mommy and Me for several reasons. One, I felt like I needed to be available for the other two kids - especially if Rachel needed help. The other, bigger reason is that the Mommy part of Mommy and Me shouldn't put on a bathing suit and be in public. Next year, Bailey, next year.




The kids logged oodles of hours playing in the water. They ran in sprinklers, played on the ol' slip & slide, played with water balloons, and soaked in the wading pool. I came home one day from running errands and found Steve and the girls cooling off.




Another thing that consumed a TON of time this summer was our garden. It was an awful lot of work, but it was a great experience. Really. No, really. "Our" garden kind of ended up being "my" garden pretty quickly, as I was the gal out breaking my back in the dirt. :) Bailey actually spent a lot of time "helping" me. Truly, though, our little garden worked miracles this year. We loved all the fresh produce, but the experience was the most valuable part. Remember my little Bailey who had such issues with tactile and sensory things? You know, the one who wouldn't eat forever? Fist off, she started out not hardly wanting to touch the dirt. After a few weeks, she was digging and playing like it was the most natural thing on earth. The other wonder was that this child ate just about everything from the garden. All of the work was so worth my kids eating carrots, peas, beans, spinach, squash, etc.



We spent a few days in Salt Lake with family and it was a blast! My sisters and I took the kids to the Gateway one afternoon and they played in the fountains. They were soaking wet and happy!



Becky and I sat in a tiny corner of shade with the littlest ones who didn't want to get wet. The kids and their wonderful Aunt Margaret all took part in the play.



One of the many, many things I love about living in Logan is the parades. The picture below is of the kids at the 24th of July parade. They love it for the things to see and the candy that everyone throws. (I found the girls a couple of days later playing "parade." They were prancing around the livingroom and throwing candy and small toys to each other.)



Several times during the summer we made day trips to Bear Lake. We packed lunches and water and headed up. The kids loved playing in the water and costructing elaborate cities in the sand. It was wonderful! It was so nice having everyone old enough that we could play with them or just sit back and watch. Steve just kept saying, "Why don't we do this more often?" We loved being so close to such a fantastic get-away.












Another thing on our summer wish list was to ride the Frontrunner Train. Ever since it started running, we'd been saying that we wanted to give it a try. One day we drove to Ogden and left our car at the station. We then rode the train down to Salt Lake where we got to ride Trax as well. We had lunch and then walked around the Gateway. It was a lot of fun and the kiddos loved the train.



We were able to have the kids' Ogden cousins up for a few days. Matt loves hanging out with his cousins and the girls adore them because they are so sweet with them. One afternoon we went bowling and had a blast. Bumper bowling while listening to the Beatles...heavenly. :)



Steve's mom has a summer work party every year and families are invited to attend. This year we went to Wheeler Farm. It was fun to see Nana and Steve's brother and his family. We ate, played games, and visited. Good times.




I included this next picture 'cause it's so seldom that we get one of all of us. Just disregard the fact that it looks like I have a second head sprouting from my right shoulder.



Another summer favorite is the County Fair. Love it!! Rachel got to ride a pony and was in heaven. The pony's name was Cocoa and she talked about it for weeks.



The local Ballet had a booth set up as well. The girls thought that this carriage was so amazing because it was "a real princess carriage." We even won tickets in a drawing to go to the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea that they have when they perform the Nutcracker.
We always enjoy walking through the fair and seeing the animals. We're all city folk and don't really understand the whole showing of the livestock and such, but hey, who doesn't love pigs, goats, and sheep? We had our traditional fair corn and Matt even sampled some fried Coca Cola.



We had such a fantastic summer! I literally have tons of pictures and have just shared a sampling. :) We weren't able to go on any big trips, but we did lots of fun day trips and ended the summer feeling like we did just about everything we wanted to.
With the wrapping up of summer came the beginning of school. Always bitter-sweet. It was a little sad to see the summer end, but it's always so exciting to start a new school year. Matt started 6th grade at the Middle School and Rachel started preschool.






Our family tradition is to have a Back to School dinner the night before school starts. We eat dinner on cafeteria trays and talk about the new school year. We reminisce about prior years and share what we're most excited about and goals for the year.



I'm happy to report that we all made it through the beginning of the new school year. Okay, so I wasn't worried about the kids making it; it was their Mom I was concerned for. :) Matt loves Middle school and Rachel adores preschool.




In a nutshell, that was our summer. It was terrific.

Back on the Grid

Hooray! We are back. It's been a tad alarming to realize how dependent I've become on the computer and the internet. We've still had some internet access, but it was somewhat limited because our old computer was somewhat limited. :)

So much has happened in the last few months, I don't even know where to begin to catch up. I'm kind of a stinky-ish blogger anyhow, but now I feel totally overwhelmed. Baby steps, right?

Today I have sick kids. Boo. This means it will be a long day and I won't likely get a lot done. If it weren't for sad kids who feel terrible, I guess sick days wouldn't be so bad. Lots of down-time and snuggling -that part I can take.

For now, we're off to the doctor's office. Then we'll take this day one thing at a time. Then, hopefully, in the near future, I can post some pictures and catch up a little bit.

Technical Difficulties

This has been such a fun and busy month, but I haven't updated my blog due to technical difficulties. We have two computers, a laptop and a desktop. Our laptop is having some problems - we think that for the first time in our married career, Steve and I are experiencing a virus on our computer. We can't use the durn thing to connect to the internet. It just won't work. It is the computer we use most often - to upload pictures, burn cd's, blog, print coupons, etc. The desktop is usually just the standby. Now, it's not because we don't love our computer (we LOVE you, Little Computer!); it's because this computer is older than 2 of my three children. No kidding. We bought this little darlin' when Matt was just over a year old. He's eleven now, folks. This computer is a gen-u-ine, bonafide, dinosaur. The tower is enormous and the fan can blow away small animals. In it's day, it was a fine specimen. Really. It's just gotten so old that they stopped making updates for it ages ago. It's been such a fantastic computer, though! It's seen hundreds of projects, a kajillion word documents, and years of internet hours. Amazing. We just can't do anything too fancy or new-fangled. So, for now, we'll just have to plug along with Windows 98 and keep taking pictures and stock-piling stories to post later.

4th of July

Our 4th of July has been a little different this year. Several of us have been a bit under the weather and Steve has had to work, so we really limited our activities. Nevertheless, it has been a nice weekend.





On Friday night we watched Logan's fireworks. We staked out our spot that afternoon, then went back and had a picnic while waiting for the show. Waiting is always the pits, but I was able to snap a few photos while the kids were still happy, excited,and not running all over the place over-tired and impatient. Yah, it happened. We did the totally geeky, and all wore semi-matching T shirts. (We tie dyed them earlier in the week. That night definitely goes under the "what was I thinking?" category. It did end up being pretty fun, though, and the shirts were cool. I didn't really know what I was doing and faded them, but oh well - live and learn).



The fireworks were great and it was a fun night. Saturday was a fairly mellow day. We missed out on several family activities, which was a bummer, but we took it easy. We still had a nice day and ended it with making a birthday dinner for Steve. (His b-day was the day before.)




Even though we were disappointed to miss out on some of the 4th of July fun, it has been good to celebrate and appreciate our country. I am so thankful to live where I do and enjoy the freedoms that I do. I am forever grateful to those who have sacrificed so very much to ensure this freedom. Happy Independence Day!