PICTURE WALK

Here comes August through October, in Picture Walk form.

Ready for "College Day" at school.

Open House

(M won the girl's yearly award for children.  We are so proud!)

Our awesome kids.

Veggie Tales Live Show!

(the boys LOVED it!)

At the circus!

Pumpkin painting and carving.

Poppy's Birthday

Fun at a local carnival! 

(hayride)

(bounce houses)

(first boat ride!)

(riding on the roof of a fire truck!)

(fake tattoos)

(fun hair dye)

NEXT UP

Here's what comes next:

1. Picture Walk of the past two months.
2. Family Vacation to Zion National Park
3. Car Parade
4. M's Birthday
5. Why we're here.

SCHOOL DAYS FOR JASPER

I'm not going to be self-deprecating and tell you that I'm a horrible mommy for just now getting around to posting Jasper's first day of school video.  Instead I'm going to tell you that the beginning of the school year was full of crazy.  Because we came in September last year, and Bennett and Jasper were home with me before, this was the first time to get all eight kids off to four different schools in August and September.  Whew!

Things have really settled down and our house is doing SO well right now.  I am soaking in this wonderful, peaceful season before things change again, as they tend to do in life :).

Jasper started school September 11th, and his teachers in his three's class are AMAZING.  I anticipated tears and a splotchy red face, along with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, not just for the first week or so, but for the entire year.  Jasper is my mama's boy, and I love that about him.  He tells me how much he loves me, he tells me my boots are cute, he tells me I'm pretty, he tells me I'm his pal - all of this just about every day.  He is a special gift, no doubt about it.  But the flip side of this is that he rarely appreciates being separated from his mommy.  The reason his teachers are miracle workers is that after his first day of school, not only were there no tears, but he actually pouted and was frustrated at me for coming to pick him up!  I couldn't believe it!  They are such sweet ladies - so understanding and patient.  Before his first day of school, the lead teacher called our house to talk to Jasper and introduce herself.  They had a sweet little conversation before they met.  Precious.

In the video I've uploaded, you'll get a sneak peek of my second-born's passive-aggressive style :).  When he pouts, we all have to try so hard not to laugh.

TO THE NINES

Back again, starting back at our 9th anniversary, which is actually not as ridiculous as it sounds because we decided this past week what we want to do to celebrate for our big 10 next year!  I'll cover this year's first, then our upcoming plans.

Michael took a lot of time planning and making things special this year.  Each anniversary we try to do things that relate to the number of years we have been married.  There aren't a whole lot of things related to the number nine, so he tried to plan out nine things to do.  We counted it up later and I'm pretty sure we did them all, but we both lost track :).

We saw a movie in the theater, just the two of us, which is quite the rarity these days.  The girls were on their relief week and the boys stayed with my parents for a couple of days.  We stayed at the same hotel we stayed at on our honeymoon night, which was neat-o, we had dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse (YUM!), we laid around and read books (another rarity), and several other things that I seriously can't remember because it was two months ago and I'm retarded for waiting so long to write about it :).  Truth be told, I wouldn't have cared if we had done laundry and dishes together (slight untruth...I totally would have minded if that's what he had planned), I was so excited to have a good stretch of time to ourselves.  We have a date night once a month when the girls go on relief, but this time was longer and we got away, which was a nice change.

Random, difficult-to-discern-what's-actually-going-on-pictures?  Yes, please.