Back to School

Yes, it's that time of year again. The warm sunlit days of summer are beginning to wane into fall. The air is beginning to feel crisp in the morning and evening, and the sun dares not to peek his head up too soon in the morning, nor stay up too late. So it is for my children, as well. Lexie and Gavin are up early for school, but barely want to open their eyes and muster their strength to get up for a day of filling their eager little minds with knowledge.

School began midway through August for us, which was not any too soon for me. I honestly gave everything I had to making summertime a veritable whirlwind of fun, creative and educational experiences for my kids. And by August I was feeling a bit burned out. But what a summer we've had! And now it's time to move forward with a routine. Ah, sweet routines! Mothers everywhere breathe a sigh of contentment as we can put our craziness into some sort of functionality. With the older kids in school, I suddenly have more quality time with Cole, and that has been very good for both of us. And Avery is getting a nap schedule for probably the first time in her life, which is great for all of us. Of course we still love to spend time with the whole family together, but school is that magical awareness that helps initialize a child's mind and prompts it to grow in so many ways. Despite all of our activities and outings, the kids were stir crazy at home. And so we sing and hustle off in the morning, "Back to school!"Lexie just began third grade and is fully enthralled with her new class. She is finally in a class where her teacher really gives her challenges and lets her think creatively and she loves it. I love Lexie's teacher, she is very excited about teaching and also willing to get the kids to stretch themselves. Lexie's attitude about school has greatly improved and she flutters through the concepts and material with delight. We are very excited about this year for her.
Gavin is now in school all day as a first grader, and has so far enjoyed the experience. Gavin's teacher is so very nice, and keeps class fun. Unfortunately for Gavin, his first day was a bit of a sting...he was stung twice by a hornet above and below his eye at recess. That was definitely not an ideal first day, but he was super tough and didn't cry at all. It is always interesting to hear his account of things, as this six year old has such funny takes on life. We enjoy hearing what happened in class and what new activities went on at recess.
A few days after Lexie and Gavin started elementary school, Cole began preschool. The first day was good, although he was a bit quiet and apprehensive. Despite the jitters, Cole has talked about preschool for a good year. Every time Gavin would leave to go to Kindergarten last year, Cole would stand at the door and wish he could go to school, too. He has talked about it constantly over the summer, and has been the only one truly excited to start school. (It has definitely been the major motivator for potty training him over the last month, too.) While we have had some rough days when he hasn't wanted me to leave him at school, or had some conflicts with the other kids over toys, every day is a bit better and he is coming out of his shell gradually.
And we can't leave Avery out! Life is school for this little darling. In this picture she learns to eat by herself...or at least how cool mac & cheese feels when squished all over her. Avery will eat just about any food we eat. I usually mash it all up together, but she eats it! She is learning new words, one of the cutest being "uh oh," when she drops something. Avery also stands. She keeps pulling herself up to standing with the help of stationary objects, but today she stood up from a crouching position a couple of times without any help. She is not sure about taking steps, yet, but it will not be very long! Avery loves to cruise around the house and open cupboards and get into things. She has to taste everything to figure it out, and she loves to look at books. We love our sweet busy girl!

A fresh start

We went up the canyon last week to shoot some new pictures of everybody with my new camera. While I am badly behind in posting what we have done for the last year, at least you can see what we are doing now. The family shot on the self-timer actually turned out decent!
I must say it is impossible to get a picture where all four children will stay in their right position and look at the camera at the same time. This is the closest I got.
Here's our beautiful Lexie, about to go into 3rd grade. These are the official 8-year old portraits.



Here is Gavin, big 6-year old about to go into 1st grade.


Here is Cole. He is a bouncing, smart kiddo ready to begin his first year of preschool! This is his 3-year old portrait.


And our darling little Avery. She is 9 months old and moves 90 miles an hour all the time. I did manage to catch a few candid shots of her...





I must say they are cute kids! (Not biased, here, or anything.) I have been trying to do a little of my own photography, so this is my first official "shoot." Hopefully they'll do instead of the Target portraits!

A Wonderful Reminder

If you haven't noticed lately, my blogging has become nonexistent. Not because I wouldn't like to, but because my life has seemed so hurried and full to overflowing, and I rarely have a truly spare moment. (Because I am always neglecting to do something if I take a break!) Anyway, sometimes I do need to sit and relax for a minute, and last night I found this wonderful message from President Monson. Wow. It is just what I needed, to remind me of what is really important. I love it so much I am posting it for others to enjoy. (If anyone still reads my blog!) I hope you are all doing well if you happen to stop by and read this!



By the way, here's a link in case you want to look at the blog I got it from, she has tons of cute ideas. I like her visiting teaching messages handouts.

Fall Fun

I'm playing catch up again. But it's better to be late than never, I suppose...embarrassing that I am so behind in EVERYTHING, but I haven't completely fallen off the face of the earth. I have heard that it's child number three that throws you for a loop, but for me, it's having FOUR. I think my head is spinning around most of the time, but I am doing my best to do the basics and someday I'll get back to those other things I'd like to do! The blog is one of those "other things," but it is important to me to keep up on it because it is mostly the only journal I keep any more. So if anybody out there still looks at my blog, I will at least give you a summary of our fall happenings.Danny's family threw a "Welcome Baby" party for us about a week before my due date. It was a lot of fun, and we received some wonderful things for Avery. One special gift is the quilt pictured above that Danny's mom made with a cute ruffle border. We love it!
Here are the kids helping open the presents.
We had cute little baby booties on the eclairs for dessert. Cute!
Papa loves his granddaughters and is very excited to get a new one soon!
Gavin had a good season of soccer this fall. He started off not fully into the game, but after a few games and practices, something clicked and he took off! He is really getting good and enjoys playing.

He has a few of his buddies on his team too, they have lots of fun together.
One of the best parts of fall is going to Grammy and Papa's pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. I have missed doing this the last three years while we were in Omaha, but it was so fun to have the kids pick out their own special pumpkins from their grandparents' garden.
Lexie wanted a big, stout one.
Gavin wanted an oval shaped pumpkin.
Cole wanted one he could hold himself and was happy about this one.
Lexie and her cousin Camryn love each other and are inseparable.
Here the kids are with Grammy. Thanks for all your hard work in the garden to give us these lovely pumpkins!!!
We had a very special event on October 13th. (Yes, we had another special event on October 15th, but I've already posted about Avery's birth.) Danny was sworn in before the Utah State Bar as an attorney. He kept telling me it was not a big deal, but it was so special to me to have this culminating event after the three year effort of law school, studying for the grueling bar exam this past summer, and then the 2-month wait to hear that he had passed the bar! This was the last piece to the puzzle. I was pretty worried that I would not make it to the swearing in, as it was right after my due date. But little Avery was a week past her due date, so I was able to attend.
After the swearing in and the speakers, Danny signed the oath he swears to uphold and he is officially an attorney for the State of Utah.
I couldn't be more proud of my handsome lawyer man!
The kids are proud of their dad too. (Gavin had an important pumpkin-carving day at school, and was not there.)
Danny's parents were also thrilled and proud of his accomplishments, too. Way to go, Danny!
October 14th: Here is the picture of the last day you will ever see of me pregnant. Oh, I am so glad not to be pregnant any more! While each child is worth everything I have to go through while pregnant, this was it!
You will have to look at Avery's birth post if you haven't seen it yet, but after a week we were able to bring her home from the hospital. She is really such an angel. Lexie absolutely adores her little sister. I snapped this candid photo of them beginning that beautiful bond that is sisterhood, and it may very well be my favorite picture.
I cannot get many pictures of Cole, he is not usually very cooperative when I get the camera out. But if I can snap one when he doesn't expect it, then I get wonderful results. This is the happy, sweet Cole I know and adore.
The doctors, nurses, and hospital staff advised us to keep Avery in and not take her to public places for FIVE months. Yes, really. I have had a hard time adjusting to this, as we have three other children and life doesn't seem to slow down even when you have a new baby. Well, I honestly tried to stop doing most of everything and we have become rather housebound people. So if anyone wanted to see Avery, they had to come visit us. I must admit it was a very quiet time for a couple of months, but the grandparents had to come visit their new granddaughter. Here is my mom cuddling Avery.
And my dad snuggling her too.
My brother Nelson is my only sibling that lives in the state right now, so it's been great to see him and have him get to know Avery.
And Danny's parents have been a great support too, and love to come see the baby.
Babies grow too fast, but I have really been trying to absorb as much of the baby phase as I can get. Here is Avery at two weeks old, already getting bigger and stronger.
Halloween happened to be the same time Avery hit two weeks old, and as she was still small and fragile, she and I stayed home to treat the tricksters. But here are all four of my kids for Halloween. (Yes, I still find it hard to believe I have four kids!) They had a lovely Halloween.
Lexie was a royal mermaid. She had a hard time deciding between a vampire fairy and a mermaid, but decided she had enough years to be something scary, and wanted to be something pretty this year instead. That's my girly-girl! Lexie carved her own pumpkin and drew the face on by herself.
Gavin based his whole costume around the axe you see here. He decided to be a warrior knight. Here is his special jack-o-lantern he carved.
Here is Cole. He was a knight too, he and Gavin matched. Cole wanted a ghost pumpkin, so we carved lots of ghosts on his. He had a great time trick-or-treating and loves his big bucket o' treats.My sister Annie and her darling little Ella came from California to visit me and baby Avery at the beginning of November. It was so wonderful to see Annie and hang out. And she did a wonderful photo shoot of Avery at three weeks old. (Another post!) And while Annie took a lot of photos, I realized after she left that we didn't get any of Annie! Here's a cute one of Ella, at least.This is one of the many pictures Annie took of Avery over the weekend that she visited, we finally caught her in a yawn! I love it. She is wrapped in a very special blanket with a hood and knit flower embellishment that Annie knitted as a special baby gift for Avery. It is such soft organic cotton yarn, I wish there was a texture option over the internet. My dear sister, it was wonderful to see you and I wish we could get together more often!
Most of the time we just hang out and not try to do a whole lot of crazy activities. (For my sanity.) Here's the family relaxing and having a visit from Grammy and Papa.
Papa loves to hold little Avery (3-weeks old here.)
On November 9th, Gavin advanced from a white belt in karate to an orange belt. He has been taking karate since June and enjoys everything he learns there.
This is Gavin with his Sen Sei. Great job, Gavin!
I think the time left over that I don't spend taking care of Avery, doing laundry or dishes, or fixing meals for my family, I spend doing homework or reading time with the kids. Gavin's homework activities are usually pretty fun, as here he got to make number cookies out of his favorite cookies (chocolate chip.) It was fun and tasty!

Being a mom is definitely exhausting, but I couldn't think of a more worthwhile way to spend my life. I love my kids, and taking the time these last few months to enjoy my baby and spend time focusing on the basics has been very meaningful. I am so blessed to have a healthy baby that turned around from a rough start so quickly. I am lucky to have sweet, vivacious, healthy older children who do lots of things to help me as we adjust to our new life. And I am so fortunate to have a loving, supportive husband. It really is a team effort with our now family of six, and I am grateful to so many who help us!