BFSC reunion!

The good Lord didn't see fit to bless me with any sisters (although, as I've said before, Quinn filled in nicely) but He has given me incredible friends to bridge the gap - most notably my bestfriend/sister/cousins Courtney and Heidi. I've known these [actual] sisters since... forever? Early 90's? Before Heidi was born?

Here are some of our more recent pictures (in the last four years or so).

Anyhow, it had been over a year since the three of us had been together - and that I'd seen Heidi at all - so they sweetly road tripped to Nampa last weekend to come visit me! And despite the fact that the actual drive was hellish both directions (crying children, traffic delays that added an extra two hours, ugly landscapes, puking children, speeding ticket) our time together was perfect and wonderful and I'm so, so, glad they came!!

Heidi and I may have made a late night Winco run for nacho cheese (for Chuck's work potluck). And we may have documented it. And the three of us may have made a Target run the next day that I also felt like needed to be documented, haha.

Heidi is well-known for her chocolate chip cookies (aptly nicknamed 'Heidi cookies') so I made it pretty clear she wasn't welcome in the house unless she promised to make me some.

She and Courtney sweetly obliged and they were soooo good. I'm sitting here coveting the dough right now...

And in case the cookies didn't provide us with enough sugar/chocolate/deliciousness, the next night I was prevailed upon telepathically to make some brownies. We had talked about it earlier in the weekend, but even then it was pretty impressive that all Heidi had to say was, "Sooo...." and then look at Courtney to jump in and I immediately knew what they wanted, haha.

And we learned that if you only have one box of each brand, it's OKAY! They mixed together deliciously. Dang it, now I want brownies.

 We did stop eating desserts long enough to check on the five (or one thousand, per Heidi) little boys:

Luckily they played together and had loads of fun and were pretty low maintenance, hooray! And Court and Heid - check out the picture of them on the floor playing ipad - almost like a circle head picture, right??

I loved being able to stay up late Friday night to have such a needed, in-depth talk with Heidi (the kind that's hard to replicate via phone calls, although we do our best!!) and I loved getting time with Courtney early Saturday morning, thanks to our bright eyed boys and mostly I just loved that they came all this way just to see me!

I LOVE you girls soooooooooo much! Come back soon! Maybe fly next time!

(and as always, thanks to Heidi for doing my make-up. You're amazing)

blog TO DO list (once I've emerged from this blogging slump...)

Okay, well, it's pretty clear that I'm incapable of writing out some of the blog posts that I ought to, so instead - in an effort to keep me accountable and pique some interest... or eliminate any interest that might have existed, haha - here's the rundown of a few things that probably/most likely/pretty sure will be blogged about soon:

1. Recap of Clyde's birthday celebrations! Like how the only present he got to open that morning before church was the oh-so-rare in our household SUGARY cereal, woooo! (Well, I'm sure there's plenty of sugar in the Honey Nut Cheerios we consume daily, but I feel like it's a little more subtle, ya know?) The birthday boy happily shared his spoils and both boxes were gone by the following afternoon, haha.

 2. Oh, nothing much here, just a little foray into sewing - because I'm domestic like that. As part of my new calling in Relief Society, I get to head up our craft Super Saturday in October, so I thought a fun activity would be making little superhero capes and aprons out of cut up pillowcases. These are the prototypes I made for my two oldest children. (Jack will get one too, although I might made him an apron first. He really needs one). They're hand-sewn because I've never used a sewing machine in my life, and they're pretty awesomely not cut straight and all that because that's how I roll. Crookedly.

3. Jack ate a Jr. Jack from Jack in the Box! Little cannibal.  (Okay, this one might not be blogged about further; I just thought it warranted some documentation).

4. Chuck spent six days (split between two weeks) in the mountains attending an intense Scout training called Wood Badge! He and Dan headed up as skeptics and came down as believers. I wish they had their hats on for this picture...

5. Soccer season started so we've been heading out to watch Clyde play each Saturday. Also, my kids are goofs.

 6. Our dry, dry, valley has been blessed with some random/intense rainstorms over the last couple of weeks and it's just so pretty that I have to take loads of pictures.

 7. School! The boys love it; I love it; we're all happy. I've been able to spend a couple hours in each of their classrooms every week, which is such a great experience. I know the time will come all too soon that the boys inch away from me, so I'm happy to indulge them when they hold my hand and ask me to stay longer for lunch and recess :).

Okay, well now I feel a little more motivated to follow up and blog more... someday, haha.

happy Friday the 13th!

--- Interrupting this apparent blog slump (I blame Courtney for jinxing me, even though I was already halfway into it when she brought it up) to wish everyone a happy/merry/wonderful Friday the 13th!

And how can today be anything but lucky when I have these sweet faces to look at??

[of course, along with the sweet faces to look at comes little mouths to feed (multiple times a day!), bodies to be clothed (which equals laundry, sigh), faces/hands/bums to be wiped (probably what takes up most of my waking hours), little minds to be guided and taught and inspired and challenged (YIKES), and sassy/naughty/energetic behavior to be supervised and curtailed as needed (Clyde/Jack/Will respectively).]

Holy toledo, maybe I'll just go back to admiring their eyelashes and sweetly-round cheeks...

aug blog

August was a pretty swell month; we were psyched to have some unscheduled days to finish our summer on a lazy note :).

Bumming around the house allowed us to get maximum use out of clothes by wearing them two days in a row (here Will and Jack are wearing Sunday's white undershirts on Monday). We do lazy right!

After talking about it all summer, we were finally able to get together with Chuck's co-worker Steve and his family. They invited us over for swimming and ice cream and a good time was had by all:

Christine and I had lots of fun chatting and commiserating about the night shift (Steve took Chuck's 6pm to 6am position two years ago when Chuck moved to days), Clyde and Will and Abby joined forces on a little computer game, and Jack cuddled up to Jenna. Now we need to invite them over sometime!

Sticking with the 'Chuck co-worker' theme, that weekend his sometimes boss Roderick got married to the beautiful Lisa:

(photograph by Locke Photography)

 It was a really special ceremony and such a fun reception: (photos courtesy of Locke Photography and Chuck's co-workers' facebooks since I was lame and didn't take my camera)

I'm usually limited to interacting with all the detention folks on fb or over the phone when I call Chuck at work, so it's always a good time to see them in person. It was especially fun to finally meet 'Miss Diane', a part-timer who mothers all the staff and is absolutely hilarious. And of course getting dressed up for a date night with Chuck was the best part; I sure do love him.

 Remember how it was my mama's birthday? Well here are some pictures of the partying:

It was such a fun day! We left Jackers home with a babysitter and the rest of us went and saw Iron Man 3, during which Clyde would often lean over to me and encourage me to close my eyes when it got scary. Thanks buddy. Then Chuck and the boys went home to make us dinner and Mama and I went shoppin'; Kohl's and Savers treated us both well :). 

 The day before school started there was a little Open House so we wandered over to meet the boys' teachers and drop off their supplies.

It really helped soothe any anxiety that any of us might have had... aka me :). It's nerve-racking to trust my boys (and their respective medical/behavioral needs) to complete strangers, so it was gratifying that both teachers were way ahead of me and so accommodating. Have I mentioned how much we love teachers??

We've attempted some biking to and from the school; once with all three boys to drop off paperwork before the school year started and once with just me picking up the older two after school one day - which I only braved because we live completely downhill from there, haha.

It was pretty funny to see Clyde and Will mashed in the bike trailer together and everything went swimmingly until my bike chain derailed; luckily we weren't too far from home by then.

More random August adventures: Aren't Jack and I cute together? I think you can really tell how much he loves me by the way he's leaning away from me...

Also pictured: lots of wrestling, some ipad/Daddy time, I made delicious cookie dough (turned decent-ish cookies), Jack brushed his teeth a lot, and the boys wore fedoras and bath robes. Frequently.

Oh, the end of the month brought a super fun reunion with my dear friend Megan!! Way back in the day we worked together... and I use the term "worked" VERY loosely... at Rite Aid. Since then we've both had lots of cute little boys and somehow haven't seen each other in over two years!

Sooo glad we rectified that situation :).

So one day the older boys decided to match (I promise; it was all them... I just contributed Jack's attire) so we tried for a group picture.

It clearly went very well.

The boys ran/wrestled their way over to the couch so the camera and I followed:

Suuuch goofy boys! Someday I aspire to have fancy couches where the cushions are attached and little crazy boys can't constantly dislodge them. Until then, I dream...

Football season is upon us, hooray! Our excitement is a bit subdued as this will be our first year without satellite so our actual game viewing will be greatly diminished... but we were happy to be spared having to watch the horrific Boise State loss in the season opener - although we still dressed up for the occasion, both that day and the Sunday previous :).

We also had our family fantasy football draft, which was loads of fun. We did a live draft online so we could smack talk with my mom and brothers as we drafted.

Our ward headed out to the orchard last week to pick all of our peaches. I hadn't planned on going since Chuck was at a work conference that evening, but one of the sweet sisters I visit teach was a good influence and we drove out together.

Granted, half of our time was spent moving the strollers and keeping kids happy, but we also picked loads of peaches that will now be canned and distributed through the Church welfare system. The orchard is such a neat place and it's so fun to work alongside friends from the ward; I'm glad LeAnne made sure I got out there that night!

We've been spending more time in the evenings outside:

Usually waiting for Chuck to get home. Pretty sure 5:30 to 6:30 is the longest hour of the day!

And finally, a few more pictures of the boys from throughout the month:

There have been way too many tragic reminders lately about not taking our children for granted (a sweet young couple in our ward just lost their infant daughter) and I'm trying to make my love and gratitude for my sons more evident as I interact with them. I really don't know what I would do without them - so I should probably use my time with them better, eh?

And that was August, and it's now September, which is crazy because next comes October and then it's basically Christmas. Not to freak anyone out or anything...

Clyde is SEVEN!

[Ahhh, I thought I was totally cool with Clyde being seven, but as I typed it out as the title to this post I kind of started freaking out.]

So, our Clyde Monster is 7 today! Remember when he was born??

 I do, albeit only vaguely... seven years and two more kids will do that to you. But wasn't he just the cutest little thing? 

[Quick poll: who has aged more in the last seven years: Clyde or his parents? HOLY moly, Chuck and I look young! I promise we were a (fairly) respectable 25 and 21 at that point...]

And he's managed to stay just as cute as he's grown up - 

 pictured here around his first, second, third, and fourth birthdays.

  And now he's a darling seven-year-old. He's grown and matured an incredible amount over the last year - here's a side by side with his first day of school pictures from last August and this August:

I think that's partially why this birthday doesn't seem as jarring to me - and maybe because we've been pretending he's been seven for a few months now (our go-to admonishment is "Clyde, are you acting like a seven-year-old right now?" Poor kid; if he was sassier he'd have responded, "Nope, but it's probably because I'm not!").

Such is the life of an oldest child, I guess - having to grow up more quickly and always having more expected of you. And [most of the time!] Clyde rises to the occasion.

 He is such a good brother to Will and Jack; he loves them and plays with them and protects them and it's so wonderful to watch. Clyde and Will are "best brothers" and I never get tired of watching them happily interact.

Clyde is such a joy in our lives. He's earnest and spiritual and sooo smart (sometimes too much for his own good...) and active and snuggly and affectionate and thoughtful and we love him buckets and buckets! 

Happy birthday Clyde!!