August

 Oh man, where did the time go? August is almost over and we only have one more full week of summer left!! I think I might be ok when Sam goes to kindergarten, but we will have to see....
First up is a picture from one of our nightly walks. We haven't done so well this last week because Mommy has been extra tired, but mostly we try to go on a walk down all three streets in our subdivision every night before bed. This helps get us outside, exercising, and helps fill the time we have between dinner and bedtime when we are missing Daddy. Yep, we are in the lonely season again. And it looks like this year thanks to new tractors we may not even get the two week break in between grain harvest and spud harvest. It is going to be a difficult fall, I think.

 We all know you take a million pictures of babies sleeping, so here is one of the many

 My proud accomplishment of the week (a couple weeks ago) was actually getting the blackberries my sister sent me home with turned into blackberry freezer jam thanks to my friend coming over to help. This particular week I was having a hard time because it felt like all I did was swimming lessons and feed kids, so to accomplish something else was HUGE! And may have also gotten me on a baking kick that included I think six loaves of banana bread and a batch or two of tortillas. :)

 Another sleeping one. He absolutely LOVES the bouncy seat (as all of my kids have) and often tries to sit up, thus ending him in this slightly hunched over position.

 We enjoyed one last visit from Uncle Jakey when he came back to supervise the movers packing up their apartment. We helped him clean the place out and then sent him back to Aunt Stacey, who is expecting their first baby boy any day now!! (so excited for them, just sad that we miss it!!)

 Why do all my kids have to sleep with their arms up above their heads? I find it rather funny.

 Lately this little gal has really been into painting her fingers and toes and just being "girly"

 On one of our nightly walks my sweet little (not so little anymore) Sam stopped and picked me a flower by the side of the road and rushed to catch up so he could give it to me. He is so thoughtful!!

And look! Another sleeping-in-the-bouncy-seat picture! :)

 Amy being silly one day. She was running around the house singing "I Love to See the Temple" in this crazy get-up

 Picture of Mark at six weeks! He sure is growing! We have his two month appointment next week.

 My entry for the "Death by Chocolate" contest at our little county fair. I created this masterpiece all on my own!! I called it "White Dream Cake". It's basically a white cake with melted white chocolate and white chocolate chips, white chocolate frosting inside and out and then a white chocolate ganache drizzled on top.

 Waiting to hear the results of the contest. I took second place, which isn't bad, but after I accepted my whoppin' $10 award, Sam started saying loudly "What?! That's not fair!!" I think we all got spoiled when Mommy won first place AND overall champion the first time :) Next year I think I might go with the mint chocolate version I had also tried out, but it was fun to try and mine was the only white chocolate entry, which is why I thought it might win, but oh well.

 One way we try to keep things happy and interesting when Daddy works the long hours is having a pizza picnic downstairs with a good movie. The kids love it and are usually pretty good about keeping the food on the blanket.

 One of the first pictures I caught of Mark smiling!

 This kid has really started to chunk up lately!!

 This last week I had the opportunity to go with the youth boating. It was a challenge to make it happen with a little baby, but it was fun to enjoy a fun activity with my girls, especially since I missed Girl's Camp this year.

 Brother blanket time.

 The other night Mark just would not settle down for bed and would cry quite intensely if put in his bed, so finally I just laid down on my bed with him and he was asleep in 30 second flat being snuggled next to me. Gotta love being wanted like that!!

 And the big dramatic news - I chopped my hair off. It was getting really long and thick again and was in a ponytail every day anyways. I went in thinking I wanted a pixie cut (above the ears, almost boy haircut), but my friend convinced me to try this short first - so glad I listened!! And I have found the value of the right tools for the job. I have always liked just a little bit of lift in the back (NOT the Utah bump), but back combing has never come easily. My friend showed me a comb I could buy at Sally's that would help and with that and some tips from the Sally's cashier, today my hair was just how I wanted it!! Success at last!!

And this upcoming week is a little crazy for YW (but let's face it, YW is all about going from one crazy intense thing to the next). These three are putting together a Back-to-School fashion show where all the girls are going to model a casual outfit and a dress. The theme is "Orange you glad you dressed modestly?" for Choice and Accountability. So I did a TON of experimenting and came up with my own version of an Orange Dreamsicle cupcake to serve as the treat. So they came over this week to help bake the 6 dozen cupcakes for eating. We also needed to make about 4 dozen mini cupcakes for the dress centerpiece we are putting together - I think (hope!) it will turn out great!! 

So that's it for us for most of the month of August. Hope you all have a great week!!

Full Week

 This last week has been full of....you know, stuff? :) Monday we went with our friends, the Potters and the Weights, to visit a cheese factory here in town and we got to learn all about how they make cheese. I think the kids enjoyed it, if only for the first ten minutes while they looked at all the equipment.

 This is quality time spent with our favorite people, Jake and Stacey. We were really sad to have to say goodbye to these two as they headed off today for their new adventure and job in California.

 The kids have really been enjoying our new concrete and I love that now I can say no riding on the road! Amy has even gotten brave enough to start riding on her Strider - yay!!

 Little man ready for his first week at church (last week). I had tried my hand at making the onesies with ties for a friend, but they didn't turn out great, so my kids get to have them :)

 Amy's hair last week for church. She has been blessed with her mother's hair that only slightly curls even when you try and put gel, hairspray, etc. in it. Oh well.

 Last week this little guy wouldn't settle down, so he and I watched a movie during naptime instead. Of course he finally fell asleep, but by then it was too late for Mommy to nap. But I did get some good bonding time with him. It's funny how you spend so much time with these little ones feeding, changing and burping them but you rarely actually get to just hold and enjoy them. At least that is what I am finding with #3, so it was good to have some time to just sit and hold and enjoy him alone.

 Amy is quite the animated little girl these days. She has also had a language explosion, so she is getting really good at saying things. This is her "Ugh, stinky" face. I think it looks perfect in black and white!

 Other things we did this week included the free lunch with the Potters each day, some Potter playtime one day, Rigby Lake another, and the last soccer game of the season on another.

 It is amazing how quickly these kids are growing up! Josh, Lilly, Sam, and Johnny

Mark's first intentional tummy time. It didn't really faze him, he just took a nap. I remember Sam HATING tummy time (and on this exact blanket, too!)

 Here's a snapshot of the kids at Rigby Lake.

 Growing so big!

 It's awesome having a big brother to lend you his sweatshirt when you are cold!

 Sam still really enjoys getting to hold Mark and most of the time is my great helper!

 The kids all ready to go see our neighbor (Sam's only buddy on our street) get baptized. This was the first one Sam has been to and it really got him excited to be baptized himself. It was worth the tremendous effort of getting all three kids up and ready and taking them by myself.

Then yesterday was our seventh anniversary. This year I wanted to do something that was fun for Robert. He has been making a huge effort to support me and help me more with the new addition and I wanted to be able to show him how grateful I am for him. The inspiration came when we went for our tour of the cheese factory and I saw a place that fixes ATV's, motorcycles, etc. Without him knowing, I arranged to rent a Razor out at the sand dunes for four hours and asked my friend to watch all three kids so we could go ride together. This guy was soo excited when I told him the night before, I knew it was a great idea! We had a blast riding on the sand dunes, although the ups and downs got to both of us (me more than him and I ended up leaving a contribution out there on the sand dunes) and we only lasted two hours before we were both done. But it was a lot of fun and something we both had wanted to try. We got really yummy snow cones afterwards to cut the heat and then headed back for the kids. We then met up with Jake and Stacey at Big Judd's for one last meal together before they moved to California for Jake's new job. We are so excited for them and their new adventure, but also sad that we will be losing our "hangout peeps" and will miss the arrival of their little guy, but we wish them the best and can always Facetime!

So that's it - our week in a nutshell! This week we start swimming lessons, which will be a challenge to get up and going and to Rexburg on time, but thankfully we opted to do it with the Potters, so we will have some help! Only one more month before school starts, crazy! And Amy is more than ready for potty training, so that will be happening around the same time, if this mommy can get things together enough to add one more thing to the mix.