Good Morning

The progression of his walk.

And a true morning beauty!

In Charge

Cute as a button. Sassy as a Goose. Naughty little Stinker. And about to have his whole world rocked in 4 weeks. 

 He's walking. Sort of. He's taking steps and they are getting longer every day, but he still prefers crawling.

He's sleeping better, but man alive I jinx myself every time I write this. We've had to put him in the pac 'n play, in the bathroom, with the fan running to have him cry it out a couple of times, but so far it seems to have helped him to sleep through the night. KNOCK ON WOOD!!!! He screams like a chimpanzee. He knows exactly what he wants and just how to get it. I fear we are in trouble when he's 2 and 3...and probably when he's a teen too. Aaron is completely wrapped around his little finger and I'm pretty sure Joe knows it. When Aaron is home, Joe MUST be with him or else we hear a lot of the chimpanzee noise.

Ya, he's pretty much in charge around here.

Transformation

I spent the weekend at a women's retreat. I've never done a "women's retreat" mainly because I've never thought they were a good thing to get involved in. That, and I'd much prefer to spend my time with Aaron than any other person, and that's the truth. But when the mother's of the Family Leadership Academy wanted to have an overnight retreat to discuss homeschooling and have tremendous speakers come and inspire us, I was all over it! Fortunately, so was Aaron.

Here's the thing. Truth is truth. No matter if you're talking about God, spiritual matters, politics, education, or anything. If it's true, the Spirit can and will bear testimony of all things that are true. This last weekend I felt the Spirit so many times. Things that absolutely rang true with my spirit. It was another confirmation that I'm on the right track with my kids. This IS what Heavenly Father would have me do at this time. I became so keenly aware that He is aware of me and my children personally and He will help me on this journey. It was powerful and inspiring.

Something is happening to me. I'm transforming. (some might be laughing right now and be thinking, "how can you transform any more"?) There's an awakening that's taking place. I feel overwhelmed by it sometimes. I don't feel that I have enough hours in the day to accomplish all that I desire for me personally, let alone my children. AND...I'm about to add to the beauty with another child. To be frank and honest, not every day is so good. I'm thrilled to admit that I really have not had a single day of regret that I've kept my children home. There hasn't been one day that I wish they could just go to school for the day so I could have "me" time. I'm grateful for this. But, there have been days that I've gotten frustrated to the point of causing my children tears. I hate those days. I feel terrible on those days. After all, I'm learning right along with them how to teach them best and what really is "best" for us as a family.

But then I have nights like tonight where Nathan offers a family prayer and thanks Heavenly Father for me. Me! and tells Him how much he loves me. Or Hannah wraps her little arms around me at bedtime and says, "Mom, I'm so grateful you're my mom". Humbled is all I can say.

I know this path is not for everyone. I know there are some who think I must be crazy to think I can offer my kids more at home than they can receive in public school. I do not think public school is horrible. There are incredible teachers in public school. I had some. But times are changing. I do want something more for my kids than I think they can receive there. So let the transformation on us all continue!

Field Trips

We have some wing dinger Field Trips planned for our school year. We started it off with Hogle Zoo. It was a perfect 80+ degree day. Beautiful! I must say, I was a tad bit nervous to take my kids to the zoo by myself, but the kiddos were UNUSUALLY amazing! They truly were spectacular for me which made our day all the better!

 The Ballerina Polar Bear was spectacular! Really, his show was WAY more than we bargained for and worth the trip to the zoo alone.

 This seal was playing dead. Bummer.

Happy times at Hogle Zoo!

A week later, we ventured out in the freezing cold/rain/snow to the Utah Valley Renaissance Fair. Too bad the weather was no good because this fair was awesome!

 And some good 'ole fashioned Renaissance candy. Not!

Hannah Camille

I have a rare minute this late afternoon. The kids are outside playing, Joe is quietly making a mess on the floor. Dinner is ready and filling our home with a most delicious aroma of Mountain Hash (a childhood favorite of potatoes, corn, and beef), that hopefully will draw my family in relatively soon. The house is in unusual good order, especially for this late in the day. My windows are open, letting in the most perfect fall breeze ever! And I'm thinking of my Hannah. I really love this oldest girl of mine. If I had to think of one word that could sum her up it would be "pleaser". She really does love to please her mom and dad.

My top 10 favorite things about this girl of mine:
10 - She is the BEST big sister to her siblings (even if she could work a little on her relationship with Nathan).  I can count on her to help me with Joe anytime and I rely on her probably too much in regards to my littlest man.

9- Her sense of style. This has been a growing favorite of mine. She has a unique sense of style. And I know exactly who she got it from, and it's not me! I've had to let go of caring that she likes to put flower patterns with plaids or stripes or even different colors together.

Here she is with a grey shirt, black leggings, a navy skirt with flowers of orange, green, and white, pink boots, and a leopard print head band. She feels pretty and that's all that really matters.
8- Her hair. She has the BEST hair! It's thick and full and a beautiful chestnut brown. I love to make it all cute like, but she hates that, so we compromise and I let her wear it down (my least favorite way) when we don't have anywhere to go, which is often.
7- She loves to serve! She truly loves to serve others. I am the recipient of many thoughtful gifts or acts of service from her ranging from flower bouquets, making my bed, sweet love notes, and many other little things. She does this for us all and I have a file already full of her sweet notes.
6- Her love of Art. Her little artistic creations are truly one of my favorite things about her. She thinks of things, or see things so differently than I ever did at her age. She has a true gift in the arts.
5- Her tender heart. Oh man, this one is a slippery slope. The flood gates open so quickly with her that sometimes, her emotions are hard to handle. That said, she is sensitive to others pain. She feels horrible when she disappoints. She loves to make people happy, smile, and LOVES it when we are proud of her. Which is often.
4- Her love of learning. Homeschooling Hannah has been a joy for me. She is bright! She loves to learn. Because she is creative, I have to think creatively sometimes to keep her attention. It's been good for me. She asks deep questions sometimes and I'm so impressed that she's actually paying attention. We are reading the Book of Mormon together and she'll stop me and ask about something she has read, or that I've read. She really gets things.
3- Her eyes and eye lashes! They are definitely what people see first. Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!

2- Her desire to choose the right. We talk a lot about choosing the right in our home. I believe we all inherently know what the "right" thing is. Hannah deeply desires to choose the right.
1- What I love most about my Hannah is that she was the first to make me a Mama. She is my guinea and we both are learning together. She is quick to forgive me, and I need her to be forgiving far too often. She is quick to wrap her little arms around me and she needs love and affection in return, which has helped me realize how important that is for all of my children; and my husband! I couldn't have asked for a better first child.

She slept like this every night for a week. We were starting to worry that we were raising a little diva, but she gave it up all on her own! Funny girl!

Spunk

I've always been referred to as spunky. Aaron says that's one of the things he loved about me from the start. I've never been afraid to stand alone and have had to in my life at times. I'm a firm believer in standing up for what I know is right, true, and good. Fortunately, I married a man who is very similar in this regard. We are both very strong minded; strong opinionated people. It gets us in trouble sometimes. But more than that, our offspring has inherited some pretty intense spunk which has been pretty humbling for us.  Each of them can be intense in their own right. Some more than others, but they all have it. Teaching them to channel their intensity/spunk requires patience on our part.

So when I saw this note taped to Hannah's door, it actually made me smile. This was her attempt to control her emotions, in her own space, and for her it works.

I will have to save a post for the many, MANY things I absolutely LOVE about this girl. I count her as one of my greatest blessings. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not so grateful for all that she does to help me. Spunk and all, she's pretty darn special!

Goodbye Summer

Fall is in the air. I love Fall. One of my favorite things of Utah is the 4 seasons. I'm always ready for the next season once it's here.

This summer has been epic! I've spent more time in the pool than ever in my life! I've loved every second of it. And so have they!

Our garden was small this year, but it flourished! We are in full Salsa making mode at our home!

Joe is changing almost daily! He's taken a few steps, but knows he can get where he wants in no time at all when he crawls, so we can't convince him to keep trying to walk. Stinker! He also has been crashing at night pretty hard, but still remains my most difficult baby when it comes to staying asleep all night. Ugh!

 He's living the life!

My boys!

Killer Summer Rain Storms!

And that's a wrap!

Bye Bye Chickens

We gave our chickens away. It was sad. We all felt sad. Hannah was by far the most sad. We want a dog, eventually, and those chickens would NOT survive with a dog. So, we will bring chickens back to us once we have a dog first. Hannah only consented to giving them away if she could be an active participant in whoever took them. She wanted them to go to a farm. We found the right family. I didn't tell her that they have dogs. Farewell chickens! We hope you survive! Oh, and she was very happy to know they have a rooster so all of our chickens can become mamas! That made her quite happy!

Clouds

Today's Nature walk was all about clouds. Abigail has been so funny lately while we are driving, saying she can see all kinds of figures in the clouds. Today, she saw nothing. And wasn't much excited about the clouds. She did find a stick however, that kept her wild imagination going the whole time we talked about clouds. Nathan was more on the side of the stick as well. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Looking up at the sky to see what kind of clouds we have in our sky today. It was a little bright.

We learned on NOVA all about different cloud types. We're pretty sure ours are Stratus and Cirrus clouds. Yeah for crafts! The kids did get into this.

 Cute mug!

Fancy Tea Party

There's very few things more adorable than little girls dressing up all fancy like for a tea party hosted by their Grandma. Hair curled, makeup on, pretty necklaces. Oh it was too much fun!

 Rugged boys with their fancy girls.

Prettiest girls around! 

Grandma's are the best!