August went swimmingly!

Like, really swimmingly. Like, this entire post is just us swimming haha.

Swimming lessons wrapped up! Little goggled faces make me smile.

Carma Junie got to jump off the diving board on the last day of class, which she loved.

We made our yearly trek over to Ivywild Pool for an evening of slides. And more slides. And then a couple more slides. Clyde and Will loved 'racing' each other on the drop slides:

but also joined the rest of us on the curvy? curly? swirly? slide:

Please enjoy my face as I take both Carma and Jack down the slide - I try so dang hard not to get a face full of water haha. 

I say it all the time - Ivywild is a pretty chill pool, nothing amazing spectacular about it, but it's become such a funny little summer tradition for us and we love it!

Oh man, here's a milestone - we started letting Clyde and Will ride over to Lakeview Pool and swim for a couple hours on their own.

I think on this particular occasion we had to follow up and drop off a forgotten bike lock... so it's been a good trial run for adventures and responsibility ;).

We headed to Lincoln Pool for an evening family swim there... which I was not excited about and had a pretty poor attitude to show for it haha. I watched and photographed and eventually got in the pool a bit...

but when Carma declared she was all done and promptly fell asleep, I was more than happy to hang out poolside and keep an eye on her.

Also Chuck and both older boys loved the diving board, which is fun because it terrifies me to watch them:

There was also some pretty serious "Sharks and Minnows" being played in the shallow section with all four boys:

Let the record show that Chuck is pretty ruthless when playing this game. 

And in the interest of revisionist history, here's a happy upbeat picture where I look totally delighted that we hit up Lincoln for the evening and I'm a good mom who loves swimming ;).

Luckily I was in a better mood a couple weeks later when we took a quick trip to Lakeview Pool all together - this pool is more little kid-friendly than Lincoln:

Carma and Jack were pretty psyched to be big enough to do the slide on their own, with Dad or Clyde catching them at the bottom:

And Clyde and Will enjoyed the slide too, generally trying to go down as fast as possible or in crazy positions without getting in trouble, sigh.

I'm so glad my kids love the water and are comfortable in it and that swimming lessons have always gone so well for them. I do NOT love water and am NOT comfortable in it which makes me extra grateful that Chuck has helped them love it so much!

Ha, I love all the colors of crocs - someday we'll convert Chuck over from flip flops ;) .

August church haps

I will never not take pictures when Carma and Andy get together for an impromptu after church piano duet:

Carma's hair... bare feet... where are that poor girl's parents haha? Andy always looking sharp though.

Chuck, Clyde, and Katie were rockstars all summer and helped with the workout class nursery about a bajillion times. We'd load up all our bikes and scooters and encourage kids to bring theirs... and sometimes it became a dog pile on Clyde - possibly at Katie's encouragement?

Which left me inside to sweat and workout, lame. And take selfies, cool.

The two wee ones and I went to a stake baptism at the beginning of August, where Carma got to hold Joy much to her delight - Carma's delight, that is. Joy was uncertain about the whole thing.

I love that Chuck and I both take a million pictures every time we all bike to church because we know that at any given time I might have a mood swing and never participate in this little family adventure again haha. Gotta document while I'm still cooperative!

Clyde started wearing a suit (this awesome hand me down from cousin George) as his 12th birthday loomed closer. As you may know, I favor a pretty casual approach to church clothes for my kids when they're little so it's fun to see Clyde all grown up and fancy!

I have no idea what goofy cheer we're doing here for Will at Pack Meeting, but it looks hilarious!

Temple with Emily, yayyyyy:

I love when my boys are good helpers for other people. I'd be okay if they were good helpers for me a little more consistently, but it's all good ;).

Sunday mornings are looooong since church isn't until 1pm. This particular Sabbath, Clyde organized a bake-off:

When you get to church and realize that navy blue and grey was the right color scheme selection, a picture is necessary - especially when you match with Amy and Julie who are seriously the coolest.

Stephanie and Amy came over as my ministering sisters and we had the best time looking at family search together:

Aaaand a lovely temple date with Chuck. Even though I don't love that tie and he wore it for like six months straight. SIGH.

What I wore to church in 2018

Welllll let's do our annual review of how I have way too many clothes and also how I get possibly way too much enjoyment out of getting dressed for church. ALTHOUGH this was the... 8th?... year in a row that I've attempted not to exactly repeat outfits for church and I'm not gonna lie, I got a little burned out... like, scroll down and there's only one picture from October haha. But I persevered, and it's worth it to have weekly pictures of myself for no other reason than to see my hair start short and brown, end up randomly red for a month, and then end up long and black haha.

JANUARY:

Definitely started off the year on a Lularoe kick, as always thanks to everyone who buys them at full retail price, thus supporting entrepreneurial stay at home moms... and then donates them to D.I. so I can buy them for like $7 each. Week 2 was my traditional bday outfit... week 3 was in Utah and snowy!... the fourth picture is actually from a weekday temple trip but I'm rebellious and threw it in there. Week four... aka the fifth picture... is another Lularoe dress and I felt soooo fancy wearing my Savers boots. I love those boots... until I wear them for longer than an hour and the heels kill my feet. I am such a terrible girl haha.

 FEBRUARY:

Starting off as a die hard Eagles fan, #NeverPatriots... looking like Cupid's little elf helper week two... yikes. Weeks three and four look semi-normal! 

MARCH:

Ahhhh cardigans bring peace to my soul. Week three was for St. Patrick's Day... week four was after girls' retreat, hence my hair being curled haha. 

APRIL:

Clearly the theme of April was stripes haha. Week 1 was some pastel goodness for Easter. Y'all have Chuck to thank for week 2's pose, he generally clicks until I do something dorky. Week three was after having flown in from El Paso that morning, soooo I'm pretty impressed I even made it to church. Week four was in Utah, going to church with Quinner! The picture was absolutely taken at a gas station by Clyde as he sat in the minivan on our way home, so pretty legit. 

MAY:

I'm not going to lie, I feel like I was kind of phoning it in at this point... week three was our first time biking to church so I definitely built that outfit around the black shirt in case I sweated a ton haha. Week two was Mother's Day, which usually means I do girlier colors or orange or something, but this was definitely the weekend I drove all night to get home and thus, again, I'm impressed I showered and went to church!

JUNE:

Ohhh man, we got some red hair in there! I love  that weeks 2-4 are all new dresses, courtesy of D.I. Week 2 and 3 both came from the Twin Falls D.I. and they're two of my favorites now.

JULY:

Okay, there's a lot to process here, kind of all over the place... couple more Lularoe courtesy of D.I. dresses... yellow skirt makes a comeback... week three I was speaking in sacrament meeting and had just come home the day before from Scout Camp haha. 

AUGUST:

 Okay the first picture is definitely from a baptism so it doesn't count at all BUT that last week picture with my mouth awkwardly open needed to be countered somehow haha. And mostly it's a Lularoe skirt! One day I really decided I wanted one and.... I kid you not.... that darling one was waiting for me at D.I. that afternoon. Heavenly Father is very indulgent of my ridiculousness. Oooh, that blue and white striped dress is another new favorite even though it's a wee bit too long for me. It's cool, I'll trip. It's worth it.

SEPTEMBER:

Okay, kind of a random grouping... connected by the color blue and flowers? The yellow dress was new fave (another in a long line from the Boise D.I.) and Chuck laughed every time I reminded him that it had pockets... so clearly they needed to be featured in the picture... Also, week four I attempted to cutely tie up the sides of that dress... it kind of worked. 

OCTOBER:

I mean, one week was General Conference... and one week was Stake Conference... but I'm still not sure how I only ended up with one picture. I switched out my normal tights for knee highs instead aaaand this marks the official debut of my random top knot hairstyle, which I committed to for every Sunday following for the rest of the year haha.

NOVEMBER:

Okay, so not as full of fall colors as normal - but week 3 does a pretty dang good job of getting all of the in there haha. Week 2 was Veteran's Day and also the buttoned cardigan makes me look like more of a substitute teacher than ever.

DECEMBER:

 Oh man, that first outfit was pretty epic. Week four was for New Year's and that eyelet black dress was a Savers find that I really really love. 

And there ya have it! I love clothes and and thrift store shopping - aside from the black dress in January (originally purchased at JC Penney... or maybe Mervyns... when I was in junior high by my mama for me) and the black and white dress in June (Kohl's find a couple of years ago by my mama for me), every other skirt/shirt/dress/sweater was either a hand-me-down gift or from a thrift store. It's no wonder I'm always doing laundry but never have the time to cook dinner- I'm too busy buying clothes haha. I'm a big believer in clothes being  a fun form of expression and a confidence booster and if that gets misconstrued as being shallow... oh well. I'll just do that random dance move from April week 2 and the peace sign from April week 4 and move on with my life ;).