Fall Fondness

It's about time I update our family blog. We've had quite the uneventful month. Don't get me wrong, I have a crazy everyday life (you can read about that in my other blog: http://www.onesmallglimpse.blogspot.com/), it's just we don't do anything notorious. We DID have the privilege to bless our little Gage in church at the beginning of the month. I should probably say CHANCE had that privilege, I just have the privilege to be married to him. That was neat, and, as always, a HUGE relief once it was done.

Let's begin with the pictures that document our month.

ME

I am in charge of a "Scrapbook Getaway" every 6 months, and it fell in September this time. We get a hotel, provide all the meals and prizes, and have about 30 people come. It's a lot of fun, and a little work. We also stay up all night (if we can). This first picture was taken the night after I got home from the overnighter. My eyes are totally bloodshot, I'm a little queasy because I'm so stinkin' tired, but Gage is the one that gets to sleep anywhere, anytime. I envy that little boy. One little disclaimer: I totally hate pictures of me...especially when I'm still trying to lose 10 more baby pounds. So take that however you would like to.


CHANCE

Did I mention what a good husband I have? This picture was taken after Gage's baby blessing, in our backyard. The REASON I took this picture is because Chance is over on the left-hand side, and he's talking to that table full of family. Do you want to know what he was talking about? Hunting. He was telling (in INCREDIBLE detail) a story about a deer he saw and "stalked" and didn't get. Seriously, his stories are verrrrrrrry detailed. I'm NOT going to say long, because that would be mean. Love you Chance. The only one that looks interested in his story is his Mom. That makes me laugh. Anyway, cute picture.

MORGAN

This is our BIG little Morgan playing with her cousins after the baby blessing. She's on our swing set (which I should include a picture of THAT too.). Our swing set is made out of telephone poles. It's as tall as our house. The kids absolutely LOVE it. Our backyard is ginormous, so it's not like it takes up the entire backyard, so that's good. Morgan's on the right, waving at me. Cute little girl.


Here she is again. This is just a cute picture. I took this when she lost her top tooth. She looks so funny now without a tooth there. It is really weird to think that I have a 6 year old who goes to first grade. She's getting so old! She is doing so well in school. She brings her homework home and gets it done in about 20 minutes. (It's supposed to last the whole week). I can't take any credit for her "smarts" either. She just completely absorbs all information given to her. Take TV for instance: She watches a show once, and she remembers specific lines from that show. I think people think that all she does is watch movies and TV, but it's just that she remembers everything.

GRACE

Oh Grace. My little time-bomb. You NEVER know what is going to come out of her mouth, or what she is going to do. This first picture was taken after Gage's baby blessing. She got into a chocolate chip cookie that had been sitting out a little long. The chocolate was all melted, and she thoroughly enjoyed that cookie. Here she is, proud as can be. My little cookie monster.

Now here is Grace on a sunny afternoon playing outside. I first caught her with my watering can, watering our rocks in the front yard. I don't know why I buy white shirts for her either. They obviously don't stay white. Here's one of her silly faces that she pulled as I was taking the picture.

Oh yea. If you want to read the entire story about THIS picture, you can go to my other blog. (http://onesmallglimpse.blogspot.com/2009/09/she-looks-innocent-enough.html) This was taken after her haircut, and after the hairspray was involved. What did I tell ya'. Her hair looks like "Something About Mary". It's a good thing she's cute. That's all I can say.

CREDE

This picture was cracking me up. We sometimes have the TV on during dinner when Chance isn't home from work yet. It's mainly to keep MY sanity. So this evening we were watching "Babar" on the QUBO channel. There was a spooky part on the show and Crede was totally enthralled. He didn't BUDGE for about 10 minutes. The only thing that DID budge were his eyes. He kept going wide-eyed whenever it was super spooky. I was laughing. I didn't, however, get a great picture of it. He's not fully wide-eyed here.

Here's Crede after the baby blessing chowing down on a cookie. What a HANDSOME little boy I have.

GAGE

Yes, this is his blessing picture. He was NOT in a good mood that morning. His face is BEET red in this picture, and I just get a kick out of his fists. He's just MAD.

This picture is what happens when I leave him alone with Dad for 5 seconds. Chance is always keeping me smiling. He has a very subtle humor (most times). I walked into the room and Gage was just sitting there, content as can be. Chance was just sitting next to him, watching TV like nothing happened.

Here's Gage in his Halloween onesie that I bought while I was pregnant. I was pretty excited that it actually fit, and it's actually only a month away. I think that Gage is going to be a tootsie roll for Halloween. I love this time of year. This is only one picture out of about 25 that I took. I get a little crazy with my camera sometimes. Cute little boy.

That's our family for yet another month. We don't do much, but we are happy. I love my little family. (Except I need to stop saying we're little...there's 6 of us!)

Life with 4 kids.

Well I am still here, and still kickin'. (on the days when I have enough energy to kick... heh heh). Everyday I feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants. No plan, no organization, nothin'. Just pure instinctual survival. Outlive, Outlast...what's that Survivor motto?

I've also been itching for a new project. My right side of the brain has been feeling neglected lately, and I've needed a creative outlet. What to do, what to do. My good friend Amie gave me the idea of keeping a blog 365 days of the year. Each day I take a picture and blog about it. I started that, and I'm finding that I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It has been fun getting my "photography" self out again, and actually "thinking" about my photo's. If you're wondering where this blog is, here's the link:

http://www.onesmallglimpse.blogspot.com/

I have listed it in my blog's on the side of THIS blog too if ya want to check it out. I am finding it a nice outlet for journaling and photography. Nice.

Well this month has been pretty eventful. Not only have I tried to balance 4 kids, I'm trying to find my sanity as I am by myself for 2 weeks while Chance is gone hunting. Baaaaaaah! It's been interesting to say the least. Here are some photo's of our month.

Here's a picture of what I do best ... and that is to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Is that considered some sort of talent? I sure think it is. I mean, who else can fall asleep in 5 seconds flat?

Here's another one of me holding my little boy - I have to apologize for the blur - I mess with the settings on our camera all the time, and as a result - Chance doesn't know how to change them back. I turned the flash off for some reason. Anywho, that's why it's blurry. I had to laugh at Gage because he was looking at me and his face seemed to say, "who is this crazy woman holding me? Is she REALLY my Mom?"

Now this is the other end of the spectrum. Chance gets all the smiles and giggles. Well not really giggles yet, but all the smiles are his. This next picture just melted me. I love the fact that Chance's face has just as big of a smile on it as Gages does. My cute boys.

After I took that last picture, Grace wanted in on the action, so I handed her my camera, she pointed it at Chance, and this is the picture that she got. Lovely.

Ahh little miss Morgan. She started first grade this month, and she has absolutely LOVED it. Her teacher is very nice, her name is Mrs. Hagen, and her very good friend, Breauna, is in her class. This is her picture on her very first day.

One night after putting Grace to bed, she came running downstairs saying, "rainbow Dad!" So Chance looks out the window and says, "Lets go see!" This rainbow was huge, and right over our house. This picture really doesn't do it justice, but pictures never do.

This is the only action our treadmill has seen recently, sad but true. Grace was just entranced with her cartoon watching this day. Her favorite thing to do is climb up here, and balance for a second, and then climb down. She just kinda got stuck up there one day. Crazy girl.

I felt ambitious yesterday (now today was a completely DIFFERENT story...you can read about it in my other blog listed above) and took the 3 youngest kids to the park after dropping Morgan off to school. It was BEAUTIFUL weather, and it was a lot of fun for all of us. Gage did great, and it felt nice to get out and get fresh air. Here's cute Grace gallivanting around the bigtoy.

Right after having Gage our cute neighbor girl volunteered to babysit for me 2 times for free. Her name is Elizabeth, and my kids absolutely LOVE her. This is the day that she came to OUR house for a few hours and just played with the kids while I got stuff done. Elizabeth, we sure appreciate and love you! And P.S. - Crede's silly face is pretty impressive dont' you think?

Here is my cute little boy playing at the park. I am not sure that I'm biased - I really doubt that I am, but Crede is the CUTEST little boy around. Oh wait - I'll now have to say that he is the cutest TWO YEAR OLD around. Love you little boy.

Now for the cutest NEWBORN boy around... Gage. He went to church for the first time this last Sunday, and he looked sharp if I do say so myself. I had to take his picture right before. Too cute.


Well that sums up my month for the most part - We're just barely gettin' by and loving every minute of it.