August! (...wasn't that long ago, right?)

Well, here we go; it's time for the monthly deluge of pictures that didn't make it into a blog post of their very own and I would feel remiss if I didn't post them, regardless of the timeliness (or lack thereof) of said pictures. 

(Wow, that was a lot of words when I could have just said 'Random August Recap', eh?)

The first Sunday in August I braved church by myself with all three boys, which marked only the second time I had attempted such a feat.

I decided it's not that bad as long as I sit in the very back row and let the boys wrestle on the ground towards the end of sacrament meeting!

And just for fun, here's how dang cute they looked that day.

August wrapped up Chuck's and my weekly tennis dates (something about our babysitter Jared needing to go to ninth grade, darn it).

It was SO fun to go hang out for a couple hours each week; I'd forgotten how much I love tennis. I took lessons and played all growing up (it was seriously our family's sport) so it was really fun to play with Chuck... and beat him every week but one :). I think we'll try to play some more this fall, even if it's not quite as often.

Our ward had an open house early in August, so I put together a little display about Cub Scouts. We had fun visiting with friends in the ward - Grace came even though it was her birthday, so I led the whole cultural hall in singing to her :).

  And Jack was happily passed around until he finally passed out!

Okay, so technically this happened in July but I wasn't able to snap a picture until August:

Chuck was chosen as Employee of the Quarter for all of Detention, wooo! There are various perks associated with this honor, but my favorite is the sweet parking space :). I'm so so proud of Chuck's awesome work as a detention officer and assistant supervisor; he puts so much into his job and I'm glad he was recognized for it.

My cousin Cory got married in California this summer and in mid-August they had an open house here in Idaho.

Cory and his new wife Dee Dee with Grandpa Pat!

Four generations - me, Grandpa Pat, my dad, and Jack.

We rounded up all of the grandkids (seven) and great-grandkids (ten) that were at the reception right then for a photo op with Grandpa. I think in total, there are twenty-two grandchildren and thirty great-grandchildren... but don't quote me on that :).

Here's Grandpa with four of his five children: Terry, Randy, Cory, and Diane (just missing Lon).  Diane and her husband Brent just returned home from serving as mission presidents in the Baltimore Maryland LDS Mission, so it's been a long time since these siblings have all been together.

Clyde and Will stayed home with Chuck that evening, and Jack loved getting all of the attention - here he is snuggling with my cousins Kellie, Lindsey, and Lorrie.

My dad is quite the dancer; many of his evenings are filled with square dance activities and he's always trying to recruit me to join him, despite my lack of talent :).  I shuffled around with him for a bit and then he persuaded his sister for a dance - soo cute! It was such a fun chance to catch up with cousins, and Cory even ended the evening by playing guitar and singing to his bride!

We got to host some of Chuck's family overnight as they made their way home from cousin Lehi's wedding in Portland in mid-August. We left the little kids home with Chuck & Pops and the girls (Terri, Melissa, cousin Rachel, Mallory, Courtney, and ME) headed out to spend the day shopping - SO fun!

Courtney and I tried on hats, Melissa showed off her hardcore packing skills, and we all devoured our pizza at the Costco food court, yummmm!

I've definitely slacked off on my running this summer, but I make it out once a week with Holly no matter what - we take turns driving to each other's houses.

This night we managed to awesomely match without trying to, so clearly it necessitated a picture.

One benefit of Holly moving to Boise is that we've become fast friends with her next-door neighbor Madi, suuuuch a cute girl.  She got her GED a couple of weeks ago, so obviously we had to have a little party:

YAY Madi!  Thanks for being a trooper and sporting the graduation cap, haha!

And after we ran that night we decided we needed some pictures - (L to R): Holly, Jana, Courtney, Madi. Man, we're hot.

Chuck scored the best thrift store find I've seen in a while: a 50th anniversary edition of the game of LIFE in perfect condition for . . .

SIXTY-FIVE CENTS. Are you kidding me? Love Goodwill. We played it that night, and hilariously I ended up having three sons, which I take as a sign that I nevvvver have to be pregnant again, wooo!

This series of pictures is what you get when I get home from the school open house before Chuck (he had met us there straight from work but had to stop and vote for the school levy)

and I don't have the energy to get all three boys in the house by myself and also I feel pretty good about how my hair looks (it's down for once!) and I have the camera handy.

Chuck and I decided to make our foray into the world of little girls by watching our friends' sweet girls for the day a couple of weeks ago.

Ivy LOVED Jack, which is excellent since she and Addie are getting a baby brother early next year!

We decided to be real ambitious and walk to pick up Clyde from school - just under a mile each way.  The kids did amazingly well, considering the distance. I love how Ivy and Will held hands on the walk there, but on the walk back Clyde stepped in, hahaha.

Random hilarious story: we were sitting around the dinner table eating some delicious Kraft Macaroni and Cheese one night when I pushed Will's water bottle towards him and said, "Here buddy, take a drink."

Will didn't miss a beat, he stuck his fork back in the bowl and (in a hilariously low, growly voice) said, "I just want foooooooood" before shoveling the forkful into his mouth. Chuck and I pretty much died laughing and then took this picture as a re-creation of the actual event. And then we laughed some more.

Finally, we all faithfully donned our blue and orange attire for the Boise State season opener against Michigan State.

Suuuuch cute little BSU fans! 

The whole fam. 

Obviously the game did not go as we had hoped, but we're confident that this will still be a good season and we're excited to watch the team's skill and confidence grow in the coming weeks. The only way I'll be truly distraught is if we lose to BYU next week...