A gust o' August-o

Jack turned 2 years and 7 months at the beginning of August, which isn't particularly relevant other than the fact that I keep track of our progress towards his third birthday in hopes that my wild child will simma down a little. LUCKILY, in addition to being all sorts of naughty, he is also all sorts of hilarious:

 That BSU hat was set on his head mid-summer and he rarely leaves the house without it. He's accepted that he can't wear it into the church building, but for pretty much every other outing it's donned. For a while he also wore one of the other boys' t-ball medals everywhere. I also like the efficiency of pouring water from his water bottle into a pitcher and drinking out of that. The bottom left is his typing, which includes his name, Will's, Dad's, and part of Clyde's :). OH, and I kindly cropped out the nursing baby, but please enjoy the fact that Jack frequently feels the need to snuggle while I feed Carma. I keep trying to remind myself that someday I'll have personal space...

We didn't venture out into the great outdoors much... at all... this summer (well, Chuck did - hikes, Scout camp, etc, which will be a post someday...) BUT we did makes s'mores one night and the area around our fire pit does look like a jungle, soooo I feel like that's close enough.

August = the return of football. Chuck celebrates by readying his fantasy football teams and watching lots of games. I celebrate by dressing my poor kids in BSU colors for church the Sunday before the opening game. Jack was less than enthusiastic about posing for a picture.

 The stars aligned and Carma and Jayna were able to meet in early August and the bond was immediate.

 

 By lucky happenstance, Jayna's amazing mom was there too and got to snuggle Carma - and gifted her this beautiful blanket! Thanks Sherry!!

 One time I actually went to Gospel Doctrine instead of seeing to my hallway monitor duties, and I ended up half volunteering to substitute for a future lesson. Good news - the lesson was on temple attendance, which I love and am actually pretty good at (whew, good thing the lesson wasn't on humility...). Bad news - we're studying the Old Testament, which = names than are seemingly harder to pronounce than the rest of the standard works. Good news - when some very nice Bible thumpers stopped by that week, I was able to reference my current study of 2nd Chronicles as we briefly chatted :).

 

 Chuck had to work that Sunday, but this was the adorable text that he sent me to see how the lesson went. And if it's not his favorite that I publicize adorable texts that he sends me (this one may have gone on instagram and facebook...), then mayyyybe he shouldn't send them to me anymore! (JUST KIDDING HONEY, PLEASE KEEP SENDING THEM!!).

 We spent lots and lots of time with Grandma Pam in August, to prepare ourselves for her departure back to Hansen for the start of the school year.

 Including celebrating her 60th birthday!!! We bravely took all four kids out to lunch.

And of course I got to give her the special book I had compiled of birthday wishes from family and friends:

 Thank you very much to everyone to put up with my constant facebook pleadings and to those who contributed - she cried, so I'd say it was a success! :)

 Just a random picture of this beautiful baby! I love snuggling babies right after they finish eating.

Sometimes I take pictures of me and Carma and our matching double chins :).

 

 Jack thought Carma needed some little buddies to nap with....

Carma is the cutest little inchworm ever, so one night I took pictures of her progress around the blanket. It starts in the lower left corner and then spirals around clockwise and ends in the middle - completely off the blanket and facing almost the opposite direction. Of course, it took almost a half hour to get there!

And lest you think the poor little girl is always mostly nekkid, here she is all dressed including SHOES! So cute right? Too bad they were still kind of too big on her, haha.

The last weekend in August was crazy busy; Chuck's parents came up for his Wood Badge beading (more on that later, too). Saturday morning was the last push to pick all the peaches at the church orchard, so we headed out there for a few hours of service! (the best kind of service - where you get to hang out with friends at the same time!) I was really proud of Clyde, he strapped on a bucket and really stepped up to help.

And that afternoon we rounded up lots of grandparents (Chuck's mom and dad and my mom) and headed to the zoo. It definitely made for a long day, but the kids had so much fun and we filled our zoo quotient for the year, hooray!

Okay, and that was pretty much August! Guys, if I continue at this rate I'll blog about December before it even gets here...