One of THOSE Posts

This is bound to be one of THOSE posts.... you know the ones that make your eyes glaze over after you watch my children age nearly a year in the pictures I'm about to post?  Yes, it has been a while since I've been lurking around the blog; but life has been busy.  I have thoroughly been enjoying my days with only one little one at home and getting some stuff done.  Oh, and I'm not the only one around here who is doing great things, or at least things.  So, hopefully I haven't lost you already, and if you care at all about what we've been up to, keep reading.  I'll try to keep it brief, interesting, maybe even funny.  Happy reading.

Matt..... he's been around a lot more lately, which I have to say that I love.  His job is very flexible, but it can also make for some stellar single mother moments; which are hard.  These moments are usually manifest in the form of me locking the kids in their rooms at 7:30 because I am "off-duty" and can do no more.   Thankfully, Matt has been able to spend a bit more time at home with us lately.  He has been around to help with homework and encourage the kids to eat my dinners.  He is here so I can finally play Good Cop and he is building relationships with his kids; which is something this mom loves to see.

Matt ran his second marathon, the Top of Utah in Logan, UT on September 14th.  Although his time didn't improve from his marathon in May, I think he can finally believe that he is a runner.  It has now become second nature to him; when he doesn't run, there's something wrong.

Matt has been working hard in the yard; pruning trees, pouring concrete, taking care of the chickens, and digging our pond for our fountain.  We cleaned out the garage and finally got some odds and ends around the house finished.

Isn't it amazing that his car actually fits in the garage again?  Re-damn-diculous that we have a three car garage and can only get one of our vehicles in at any given time!  Oh well, new leaf has been turned over.

Like my stairs?  They're finally finished (almost a year after my temper tantrum.)  Matt finished all the trim so now he can look up when he's walking up the stairs again.

Matt also spent a week in England and Scotland recently, for work.  I don't really know what he did; but he ate something called Wee Haggis and Tatties and stuff like salmon for breakfast.  He had to drive all over the English countryside with a guy who drives him crazy, which makes for a lot of fun.  When he returned, he had to readjust to driving on the right side of the road and has to get over the fact that Americans just don't get roundabouts.

I'm sure he would tell you that he's been doing a lot more too, but since he's a grown-up, I take pride in the fact that I don't have to be aware of every little thing that he's doing.  Needless to say, he's awesome and I like him.....

Now for the truly mundane musings of Mommyhood.  I have been plugging along.... not really doing anything remarkable by anyone else's standards, but based on my own standards, I am doing awesome!  Here is the latest picture of me....

Still kinda fat, but down to the last 20 pounds or so.  Who'd have thought I'd be so thrilled to be simply overweight?  No more morbidly obese for me!  I am thrilled to say that I have walked with the kids to school everyday so far this year.  Will and I then go about our business on our own morning walk.  Sometimes we only do a couple of miles; sometimes we like to re-enact the Bataan Death March.  It all kind of depends.  He puts up with me; especially if I bring the iPad and he can watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

I have been cooking and grocery shopping (which may not seem like a big deal, but is pretty much a miracle at our house.)  Matt and I took a Mexican cooking class which was lots of fun.  I learned how to make chimichangas; and was able to reproduce my success at home.  I have also made an AWESOME meatloaf and naan bread (oh, and other cool Indian food.)  Needless to say, I am rocking the domestic goddess part of my job description.

Like how I remembered halfway through that I should take a picture of my handiwork?

Pay no attention to my filthy oven.  It'll get replaced before it gets clean, so deal with it.

Not the best picture, but it was really yummy!

Seriously, one of my goals when I had this surgery done was to learn to cook.  I wanted to start making a greater variety of foods for my family and help them develop their taste buds.  Mine, sadly, are stunted, and will probably remain so, but there's hope for the next generation.

With that said, it's ironic that the next highlight of my life is the fact that I have made my kids lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY since school started!  Yes, I know we're only a month in, but that is the longest I have ever gone.  I blame Jack; he is more stubborn that the girls are.  They would give up on the home lunch thing way too easy, making school lunch the way to go.  However, Jack loves to have a home lunch, and despite the fact that I am trying to broaden his culinary horizons, he insists on having the same thing in his thermos every day; Mac N Cheese!  Oh well, he eats it; which is more than I can say for the sandwiches I was packing him at the first of the year.

I cleaned my laundry room; which means nothing to you, but is pretty awesome as far as I'm concerned.  I have decided that the laundry room is the one place that I squirrel away things.  To say I found a hodpodge of stuff would be an understatement.  Still, I dusted, vacuumed, matched up socks, reorganized shelves and generally made myself feel happy about the laundry.  Nearly a month later, I am happy to report that the floor is still clean and the kids are still fascinated by how much space that room has; Erin wants to make it her bedroom.

The Halloween decorations are up!  I have refinished a hutch for my front porch, cleaned my craft room and have great plans for my bedroom.  In the next couple of weeks, I plan to tackle the painting of the kids bathroom, painting the hallway and living room, and hopefully, new carpet.  Right now, our carpet looks like it has had a transmission changed on it.  However, with four kids and two dogs, I'm grateful that the fibers still cover the floor; even though they're gray!

Oh, and I think I've developed a bit of an addiction to M & M's of the peanut variety.

Erin is 12!  And she's in Junior High!  And she's doing great!

Erin's first day of 7th grade!

Eek!  Erin's first school dance.  There was a neon theme; no, I don't let her dress like this normally.

Erin is really doing well in school.  With the exception of her math class, I would say that she's thriving, even!  It is such a great thing to watch your kids succeed.  She is really trying hard and I have to say, the anxiety I was having about junior high is starting to subside a bit.  Again, this is where I have been so thankful for Matt.  He and Erin have become homework buddies.  What a relief!  It's also been fun to have her be able to come home for lunch.  It's nice to get a little quiet time with her during the day.  She is loving French and CTE; she has already picked her science fair project and is attending all of the after school activities and really loving it.  She has made friends, has her first cell phone and is loving being able to go to movies or just hang out.  She has also been cleaning her room without being asked.  Wonders never cease. So proud of you Erin!

Allie is happy!  My little bundle of nerves is LOVING school this year.  She is in a class with her friends, has time to play and is taking dance again.  I am thrilled to report that she has been really great at keeping up with her homework; it's such a nice email to get from the teacher that says, "My records show that Allie has no missing work."  She is reading a lot more and really enjoying it.  She is active at recess and loved having a big group of girls over for a late night the first week of school.  Here's my little darling on the first day of school.

Look at that smile for the first day of fifth grade!

Allie has really come a long way over the last few months.  In September, she went with Erin and flew to Denver to stay with my brother and his family.  They had a great time.  She is really enjoying her ballet and jazz classes.  Her fish have all died, so she's sporting a fabulously clean fish tank!  She's a great help with her little brothers and I'm amazed at some of the very insightful questions she comes up with.  We've been talking a lot lately about the election and the electoral college.  What a great kid!

This is Jack.  He's in first grade; all-day school!  And, according to him, he's the best soccer player in the first grade.  He's ALL BOY!

Jack's first day of first grade!

Lovin' the monster truck!

Jack has also made a complete turnaround with school starting this year.  Kindergarten wasn't a super great experience for him; although I'm sure I don't know why.  However, Jack is loving the first grade! He gets to eat lunch at school, has three recesses, is learning to read, rides his bike everyday, has made new friends and loves his teacher Mrs. Beesley.  He is so good to do his homework and go to bed on time.  He is sleeping in his own bed more, has stopped sucking his thumb and is really enjoying reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid with his mom.  He is growing up before my eyes.  The other day, he made Will's bed and told me that it was important that he do things like that because he needs to set a good example as the Big Brother.  He informed me that he waited a really long time to be a big brother, so he'd better do a good job.  Jack is really excited to start Instructional League basketball on Saturday; almost as excited as his dad is!

This is Will's first day of school picture..... mostly a glare!

Will, oh, Will, oh Will!  This boy keeps me on my toes!  I think he by far the hardest of my four kids at this age.  My others rarely threw tantrums, but this dude has it down to a science.  In fact, his temper landed him in the emergency room on Labor Day.  He decided to arch his back when Erin was trying to put him on her shoulders and did a header 5 and 1/2 feet down to the cement floor at the movie theater.  Here he is getting a CT scan on his noggin; not happy!  It turns out he has a cracked skull.  Fortunately for us, this kid's Charlie Brown head protected his brain well and we just have to wait for it to heal on it's own.

Don't you love how his dad is letting him play behind the bio-hazard bin under the sink in the emergency room?  Nothing wrong with this picture.

It's funny, this kid doesn't talk, at all, but he is so expressive with his actions and his sounds.  He also has this look that he gives us that just cracks me up!  We call it his "Gerald" look.  We call it this because of him.  He is Maggie Simpson's nemesis.

See the resemblance?

He is a stinker!  Those eyebrows will show you just how much he is put out by whatever you may ask of him.

He refuses to sit quietly in church.  One Sunday, after trying to leave on his own accord at least EIGHT times, I gave up.  We ended up in the car, watching a movie and eating Twinkies.  Some days, you gotta know when to call it.

Think he feels bad?  Me neither.

Where we found him the first night he wanted to sleep in his big boy bed.

Needless to say, this boy keeps us on our toes.  I am so thankful for him, but I'm not gonna lie; the moment I put him in bed, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Well, if it's possible, there are a few more things we've been up to as a family.  We went for a hike to the waterfall by our house.

Annie is missing from this picture because we discovered she is part mountain goat
and is scaling the mountain behind them.

One weekend when Matt was out of town, I took the kids to see their very first drive in movie.  Actually, it was two movies.  We saw The Odd Life of Timothy Green and Brave at the Redwood Drive-In.  We had a great time and will for sure go back next summer.

You gotta love this picture of these kids working on their routine 

to cheer their dad on at his marathon!

Most recently, we spent Conference Weekend at the cabin and really had a great time with just the six of us.  Will loved riding the four wheelers for the first time.

As you can see, we have been busy at our house.  We haven't necessarily been doing great things, but we've been having a great time.  Most importantly, we are filled with gratitude for the time we have together.