Back to routine

Today is the first day of school.  The kids left in shifts, with these two leaving for their "zero hour" classes at 6:55:

Kami (11th grade) has been super excited for school for a couple of weeks now - she kicked off the school year by going bridge jumping with all of her friends yesterday afternoon and then meeting them all back here at the house for a bonfire and food!

Caden (10th grade) was feeling a little nervous about the huge assembly that he has to help with today...and it's his first year at the high school! Once today is over I think he will be happy to be back in school too:) He's wearing his student council uniform, sans the red tennis shoes that he hadn't put on yet.

Next Isabelle and Nolan caught the bus at 7:30:

Isabelle (4th grade) has been nervous for school, wondering how her "teacher will treat her and her classmates." She will have a great year, though.

Nolan (2nd grade) has been excited for school for a couple of weeks now - he can't wait to see his friends and play soccer at recess!

Maddie (7th grade and first year of jr high) is the last of the kids to go at 8:15:

It's a very good thing that she doesn't leave for 45 minutes after the other kids, because do you see that long, beautiful STRAIGHT hair?! It takes a very long time to get it looking that way.  And she is determined to have it that way most days.  It's beautiful that way, but it's gorgeous curly, too! I just find it ironic that most girls are curling their hair for the first day, and she is straightening hers.

And this is interesting too:

This was the day of registration.  She wanted it straightened and THEN curled.  It didn't work out too well, but she looked beautiful! (Darned kids that have teased her through the years telling her they "can't believe how frizzy and poofy her hair is". Grrrr...now she doesn't want to wear it that way:(

Well, I'm off to clean house and enjoy my little boys!  Have a great day everyone!!

This day was such a special day...

It was birthday time for Pace!!

We are having a hard time believing that he is already one!

The younger kids begged me all day to take them shopping.  (I love what they chose for gift wrap!) Pace seemed just as appreciative of the tissue paper as he was of the actual presents inside:)

Okay - maybe he was more excited about their presents:)

We were listening to { this } talk by Elder Perry recently, where he recounts that in his family on each child's first birthday they would line up a bottle, a bible, a toy, and a piggy bank.  Then they would let their one-year-old go and see which one they chose.  This was supposed to show what they would be interested in as life progressed. Isabelle told me that we just had to do this on Pace's birthday!:

Then Isabelle proceeded to be very nervous all day about what Pace would actually choose.  She "REALLY hoped he would choose the bible!!" So funny.

However...without any hesitation he headed directly for the piggy bank!:

We will have to see if he pursues a career in finance like Elder Perry:)

THEN the evening got more and more exciting because Pace took his first three unassisted steps! He was pretty excited about Caden's camera and walked over to try and get his hands on it.  Luckily Caden was pointing it right and him and this is what his face looked like right after he took those first three steps!:

Priceless. Complete look of exhilaration on the face of our little "Wild Bill".

My year in retrospect

For most of the world - and for me most of the time- a new year begins on January 1st. For me, this year, I feel like a new year began August 19th, 2013, and ended today!  My year began this way:

 With all the joy and excitement that this new little boy brought to our family and our home, also came a lot of the stress, and sleeplessness and adjustments that new babies always bring.

Having a new baby made even more apparent the absence of my usually very helpful husband - who was gone all week long for the first three months of Pace's life.  We have done this for five years now, but somehow it was manageable- if not ideal- before we added a new baby to the mix. A baby brought to light my inadequacy to be everywhere for everyone and be everyone for everyone and do everything for everyone. In fact, it was impossible; especially with the practically non-existent sleep that was my daily allowance!

The year just kept getting better and better though!

1. Kami got her license soon after Pace was born and was able to take some of the load off with all the driving (which that alone was a pretty substantial load!)

2. Around 8 months, Pace FINALLY started sleeping!  He still wakes up very early in the morning - 5:30 this morning- but I get plenty of hours of uninterrupted sleep now, and it makes all the difference!

3. The very best blessing of all is that Shawn just got a new job and he won't have to leave every. single. week. anymore.!!!!!!!!!!! (I ought to add more of those) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this morning when Pace woke up so early, I was so excited to see him!  I sang him happy birthday and wrapped him up in a warm, cozy blanket and snuggled with him on the couch.  I told him all about how happy we are to have him in our family and about all the blessings that he has brought to our family.  He "talked" and smiled, and as I sang to him and scratched his back he slowly fell back to sleep.  And I sat there for a long time enjoying how he felt, all still and sleeping, and thinking about what a hard year it has been, but what a growing year!

I teach the 15 and 16 year old age group in Sunday School for church.  This week the class was on marriage and family.  We were thinking up questions that people might have about this topic.  One of the questions was, "Why would you want to have children?" One boy said that his father had told him that a child just brings such a special spirit into a home like you couldn't even imagine.  I agreed. And added that they make EVERY holiday and occasion so much more meaningful and fun.  I told them that one of the very greatest things about having children is what you learn from them.  I learn so much from all of my children, but the greatest thing I learned I never would have completely learned if I didn't have them.  I learned to love others BEFORE I had children, but I never internalized just how much Heavenly Father loves ME until I had them. The family is ordained of God and His is a perfect plan!

I taught my class about the marriage triangle.  You know - the one where each spouse makes up the lower corners of the triangle, and our Heavenly Father is at the top point of the triangle.  I told them - sometimes one spouse makes up all the rules, but hopefully both are sharing and considering each other's opinions.  Sometimes, though, that is as far as it gets, and even though it is better than just one person making all the decisions it is best  when Heavenly Father is involved in all the decisions and things that come up in a family or marriage.

I guess I am trying to explain how grateful I am that I never decided with my limited wisdom to stop having children (sometimes I wanted to!)  Recently, an acquaintance told me that she "never could have finished college and started her family at the same time".  I am so thankful that I did just that - even though it seemed an impossibility to me as well! It taught me that I truly CAN do everything that the Lord commands because he really does prepare a way to accomplish it!

Today I am counting my blessings and this little fellow figures into the list of blessings in a big way!

A chain of events and other phone unloads

I took my four youngest to the county fair yesterday.  This was after I convinced them to feel how course pig hair is:

One reason that we went to the fair was that Maddie had entered a couple of things in it, and wanted us to check on how they did!  She entered the bag she sewed earlier in the summer- the display colors at the fair just set this off to perfection I think - haha:

 And a cake:

Maddie couldn't come herself because she had gone over to Boise with Shawn and Caden. They went with Shawn to Boise because Caden just got his driver's permit last week, and he and his dad thought this would be a great way to rack up driving hours!

Before Caden left, he couldn't resist hurriedly checking the bees WITHOUT the smoker and WITHOUT a veil.  Actually, we have done this before, so I think the hurrying part of the equation was what caused ONE bee to sting him on the side of his nose.  Shawn sent me this picture this morning:

YIKES! Things like this always look even worse in real life.  He won't be doing the driving when they come home today - he can't even get his contact in! Poor kid.

The kids had some sort of exciting game going all afternoon that included ski poles and the canoe:

At bedtime I acquiesced and let them stay up for fifteen more minutes because "they had such a good game going!!" Such a beautiful evening:

As I was canning at the sink the other day, I felt this "arm" come sneaking around my waist:

Everyone should garden.  It is so very romantic!:) Shawn has been taking care of the garden all summer and has been doing such a good job - although he let this zucchini get too big... The garden looks WAY better than last year when I was in charge of it.

I moved everything from the lowest bank of drawers so that Pace couldn't get into it.  I find him like this all. day. long. This was while I was getting ready this morning, but I find him in all sorts of drawers throughout the house:

I hope he makes it to his birthday next week without a broken leg or something!

Isabelle and I took Pace with us when we went school clothes shopping.  This was the most enjoyable that he was on that whole expedition...I guess his nap just wasn't quite long enough...:

A closer look at that cute little face:

I think it's funny that when Isabelle gets invited to play at her neighbor friend's house, (this time they were swimming) he always picks her up and drops her off on his four-wheeler:

waiting for water to boil

My life today:

Eight more boxes to go...

I think the kids eat ten each per day:)

A sticky job, but satisfying.

Pace play

We really like to entertain Pace!  There is just something about a baby - they are magnets to everyone and they make everything more fun...oh wait...no.... that isn't true.  I took him school clothes shopping with us yesterday, and that definitely WAS NOT fun!! But times like these are:)

We all hung out at the park one day while our house was sprayed for undesirable vermin.

 I got to go play outside with the kids on this particular evening (below) because Shawn offered to make dinner! His only terms were that he wouldn't have to clean it up:)  Boy did I love that, because you may or may not know that I only cook because it's a duty that needs to be performed, in my estimation.  I don't  much enjoy it. Anyway... not being able to sit and chat with Shawn while he made the dinner ( because Pace was very fussy) I headed outside to keep Pace entertained.  And apparently this was very exciting to the kids because later I found a gazillion pictures like this one below. This kept Pace (and I) entertained for a very long time!:

The kids come up with ingenious barricades that keep Pace safe from himself:

Or keep him in the rooms they want him to stay in:

And other kids take videos of him because we like to watch him play:

Click (here) to watch Pace's latest game that has been known to keep him occupied by the hour:)

The forecast...is rain

I dropped Madeline off yesterday morning at a Girl's Camp leader's house. Here she is with her first year camp buddies, Grace Bair and Annabelle Haslem:

She then headed off for her first year of girl's camp.  I start thinking that she isn't old enough to be heading off to Girl's camp, and then I remember, "Oh yeah!  She isn't!"  She doesn't turn 12 for another month, so maybe that's why I feel this way? I miss her so very much!  She has become such a great buddy this summer as we have worked and played together and she has been my oldest -at home- child. I have thought of her often ever since she left because it has been raining non-stop and I wonder if she is comfortable. One of her leaders called this morning and told me that Maddie needs more dry socks - she had already gone through six pair in 24 hours!  I am excited to see her when we go up tonight, for bishopric and their wives night!

gallons of goodness

Monday night for Family Home Evening we went berry picking!

Five gallons of deliciousness.  Mmmm, mmmm, huckleberries.

Time spent in the mountains searching, and talking and laughing and singing pioneer songs and relaxing. The system: Shawn took care of Pace and scouted the mountain for berry patches to keep us busy. I love this time of the year!