postpartum resurfacing

As I write this, the twins are happily playing legos post-breakfast for the 4th day in a row.

My parents are in town so I got to sneak away this morning with Drew to the Field House Fitness class he usually goes to at 6am. I had set everything up for little d last night so he was able to be woken up by my dad, dressed, ate breakfast and even got in some cartoons before we came home to say goodbye to him before he left for the bus. Drew and I got to eat breakfast together (sitting!) and I couldn't help but marvel at how different things are then they were a year, and especially two years ago (when I was just about losing my mind on the daily with all the baby-ness).

Usually our mornings are a bit more rushed, when Drew gets home we send off little d and then I leave right after for the gym but going a little later makes for really nice lazy mornings like this that I haven't had in awhile (it should be noted that it is almost 9am and little A is still sleeping). The twins are taking turns taking the Lego guys and making a tower of them, and then lining them up on a lego car. They entertain themselves in ways I had only previously heard about from friends and it is amazing.

I love that Drew and I both make time to workout and that sometimes we get to do it together, especially that it is something Drew really does like. I love that he wakes up early in the morning which helps me get up before the kids and get started with my day, I love that it encourages us to go to bed at a good time and I think that we have had the best, most consistent sleep of our entire marriage since moving back to Utah (or at least I can say that for myself because I don't have schoolwork or babies to keep me up so late!). I'm committing myself to entering two art shows this weekend, and Drew and I are taking a cooking class on Saturday since while my parents leave that morning, my inlaws are in town for another week or so. "Blessed" doesn't begin to describe how I feel right now.

The twins at this age can be a little chaotic when we go out but at home for the most part when its just us, they are pretty stinking awesome. Two is my favorite age. They are much more agreeable than 7 or 4 year olds and easier to bribe ;) Less reasonable, certainly, but easily distracted and entertained. I am still trying to figure out my relationship and how to better it with the older two, but with the babies it feels effortless and I have to say, after two of the hardest, craziest, most difficult years of my life that the twins have given me, it is a relief to feel like I'm getting a break with them. Sure they are still clingy and usually want me to put them to bed at night, don't always play nice with others and throw raging uncontrollable tantrums, but on the whole I feel for the moment in a really good place with the twins. We are finding our way to a new normal and I can feel myself resurfacing after feeling "head just barely above water" for longer than I care to remember.

My body still weighs more than I did right after having the twins (wuh-wah), but it feels stronger. My mind feels sharper and I'm learning, questioning, researching, sketching, painting, reading, etc again. Little things I would have never truly appreciated before having kids. And it feels really really good,

Little A @ 4y5m

Little A...
Loves her online prek. She looks forward to it, especially because each Friday she gets a "pick" from our "treasure chest" if she has been doing her daily lessons (20 minutes of reading and then usually she does at least 10-15 minutes on math and science). Fridays are also the day we paint nails in preparation for church on Sunday. So Fridays are by default her favorite day of the week.

Is a girl of routine. Every morning for breakfast I try to have a variety of thing, some days pancakes, some days fruit and yogurt but all she requests is "MY CHEERIOS WITH MILK". (honey nut cheerios). She is a creature of habit. She's also suuuper picky when it comes to foods. Some days she likes cheese, other days she won't touch it. She always likes tortillas, cereal, bread, mac n cheese, ramen. Sometimes she also likes strawberries, chicken nuggets, gogurt, chocolate milk, cucumbers, bananas and granola. Everything inbetween is hit or miss and now she has joined little d's side in chiming in with ARE WE EATING SOMETHING GROSS THAT ONLY YOU LIKE FOR DINNER? (which happens anytime I do not offer the standard chicken nuggets/pasta/kid food they love so much). Which has made dinnertime SO much fun when 1/3 of the family is already declaring mutiny before the food hits the table. Food is a sensitive topic in our house, especially at dinnertime. The other meals and snacks of the day I try to keep healthy but am pretty flexible about them eating whatever we have in the house (which is why I try to keep junk out of our house!).

Will stay up late regardless of the time she woke up that morning. Like till 11pm some nights. She is a total night owl but is content to be in her room reading or playing with her things till she gets tired enough to sleep. If we are not waking her up at 6:30 (most weekdays since little d has to get ready for school and I like for them to eat breakfast together), she will sleep in till 9am usually, sometimes only 8. She sleeps with a fan, but the curtains she picked out do not really block light, yet the light never wakes her up like I hope it will. She sleeps always in a tiny corner of her queen bed, on her trolls pillow, with random toys books and clothes taking up abut 85% of her bed. She is a clutter queen and totally a hoarder. Any sort of little assortment of little things fill her room as much as I will let her. I try to go through it every once in awhile but she likes collecting junk. Lately it's been these little Shimmer and Shine genies that are similar to shopkins in their size.

She enjoys our routine of gymtime in the morning (when they open it up to the indoor playground) and then two days a week we go swimming (me and the three littlests) followed by a kids yoga class for A, which she has really started to enjoy. She rarely takes naps, even when she seems tired and manages to conserve just enough energy that while she isn't always bouncing off the walls like her brothers, she is still burning the midnight oil most of the night!

She is such a good helper. Because I am always getting on little D's case for whining (ALL.THE. TIME) she is quick to spite him and say "Sure mom!" even though she's not thrilled with whatever I was proposing. She has taken to ALWAYS helping me when I am baking/cooking, and occasionally helping with wiping down/setting up the table, cleaning litter box, sweeping the floor, etc. It is sometimes hard for me to wrap around my head that she is just over 6 months away from turning 5. 5!! Probably because she didn't do prek like little d and she has a lot of friend who are just turning 4 or will be soon that she hangs out with (little d's friends were always older).

Her personality in a nutshell? Still super girly, very fiesty, opinionated, a fiercely loyal sister and daughter and friend. She loves the high heels and makeup and lipstick and princess movies, but can play with the boys and do what they do (usually wrestle and chase and play cars). She always rubs her nose with her hand which means she always has a black mark on her nose, that's been a habit of the last year or so. She loves fiercely and while she does rebel, I can convince her to behave better because I can connect it with her love for me (aka "I'm leaving right now..." "mommy don't leave me!", which doesn't work hardly at all for the twins).She's so lovely and her hair is getting so long and her body is so strong (BIG MUSCLES LIKE MOMMY! as she likes to point out), I am just loving the last bits of toddlerhood she has in her (like her cherub cheeks!) before she thins out and gets all long and gangly like little d did. She went through a brief nail biting phase (thankfully that's over with) when little d relapsed on the nail biting this summer (Lan picked it up too briefly!), but now everyone is back to weekly nail trims from a clipper and not from their mouths (yuck! I was a nail biter for too long to let that go on!). She still asks when we can go visit friends and family from Ohio.

Her favorite brother is Lan, which is funny because they are most commonly mistaken to be the twins in the family. They are usually off, giggling about one thing or the other and occasionally Lo will join them but A plays best with just one friend at a time. She is still very introverted in a lot of ways, but primary has been helping that, she has a speaking part tomorrow and she is very good at memorizing songs, she almost always comes home from church singing some church song. She actually allows me to do stuff to her hair in the morning but it is usually taken off when she goes to be by herself, usually during quiet time in the afternoon. Yup she still does quiet time, sometimes all on her own! Like we will eat lunch, I will put the babies down for naps, she does her prek and then when she is done she just goes up into her room for awhile. I am really lucky in that sense. I know I will not be with the twins. She plays so well by herself, better than I ever imagined a child of mine would.

She loves Target and Costco (but Winco over costco because costco here does not have cookies and winco has an amazing bulk selection), facetiming friends and family, watching Nickjr on her tablet (so only in the house where we have wifi!), putting on chapstick, collecting things in one of her many bags or purses, baking cookies with her dad, and still loves reading books (having them read to her or looking at pictures herself).

We are still working with her on using her words to communicate instead of screaming when she gets upset. She can be really rude at times (she randomly will ignore people when they talk to her like "oh what a lovely dress you have on" or "would you please hold this for me?") and extremely kind at other times. She and little d fight like cats and dogs but she misses him a lot while he is at school. She is still content to go shopping and "pick" things out that I tell her we can ask for for christmas or birthday (little d HATES when I do this, which is why he hates shopping with me). She is interested in scriptures and saying prayers and all sorts of cute little girl things like make-believe. I just need to be better about doing playdates since I usually just end up doing stuff with the 3 little kids when little d is at home and I don't think about letting her invite friends over.


Little A is seriously the cutest, sweetest girl I could have asked for in an only daughter. Yes she drives me crazy sometimes but that is because she is stubborn and has some crazy qualities from her mama! We sure do love this little lady, especially when she tells me MOM YOU ARE MY FAVORITE SISTER! <3

little D @ 7y2m

I feel like since the move back in May. I barely made posts about the three littlests collective birthdays and I feel like life has just been a blur since then. So an update on all the kids since their respective birthdays this spring/summer is definitely overdue.

Little D
Started second grade at a new public elementary school about 1.5 miles away, so he gets to take the bus for the first time! All the buses have a logo on them and his is a Batman symbol. So while we have two charter elementary schools within about a mile of us (one is right down the street) the appeal of a bus for my kids (especially of the Batman variety) is pretty big. All kidding aside, I was super nervous about not really researching the school, mostly because going into the move I had no idea there were even other options (I assumed private or charter schools cost money, turns out there are some that do not here in Utah). He made a few friends quickly and I was thrilled that he seemed to be liking his teacher.

Unfortunately, as he started bringing home his work he had done in class, it was either not done or it was done incorrectly, which really started to concern me. They do not bring home the books in a bag like they did in Ohio (something about budget concerns) and so to see the little that he does bring me raises some serious red flags. I certainly won't pull him out until at least the end of the semester but I also won't be pulling him out unless I know for sure where I want him to go. This was the first time I ever contemplated home schooling him! Seriously! It made me as a parent very nervous that the only homework he had was to read every day which we were already working on, and a worksheet that covered about one question on just about every topic they would cover that week (about language arts and math).Yes doing the GoMath homework every week was a pain, but at least I knew that he was actually getting the information. I felt so good about his prek, kindergarden and especially the first grade teacher because he was constantly telling me about school and what he learned from his teachers and he was easily able to do homework and honestly the only new information he tells me about are from the books either he reads or is read to him during centers which is with a fellow peer. The teacher in me is positively dying right now... I try to remind myself she is a first year teacher and I need to be patient but being in a new state, town and school district makes me SO nervous. I am sure this is not the last word I will be sharing on this matter, but for now I am committing him to at least December before I make a decision. A big weight in that decision is of course that I have another kid going into the same school next year, and then two more in the two years that follow, assuming we are still here. So I want to make the right choice, because I now have a choice (and I didn't in Ohio!).

Anyway. Favorite subject is recess, he still loves those Captain Underpants books and I am hoping to also get him into Diary of a Whimpy kid next week when my mom brings those in. He is also fascinated with weather, backstories of all the superheros in every universe, and anything to do with science. His best friends are two boys who from how I have been hearing about it, were friends with each other last year. One of them was sick for a few days and so little d got to be better friends with the one who wasn't. Part of what I loved about our old elementary school is that since I was the pickup person and we walked, we were able to meet a lot of the kids D was friends with in school and a lot of times their parents, which is obviously not something they do here. I am mostly hoping they will decide sooner than later to build and open the school across the street from us, so I can send my kids there and maybe even be the art teacher there. That would be awesome. Little d finally made a bus friend who lives on our street who happens to also be in his class in the "AM" slot, which means he comes to school at 8am and leaves at 215. It feels crazy early and I have more than once contemplated asking to switch since I usually wake little d up by 645 and then rush to get him out the door by 720 but he claims he really loves it. I love when he comes home singing gross songs or rhymes about stuff he overheard in lunch or recess... it just reminds me how fun and creative kids are at that age (and that some things don't change from when I was in elementary school!).

He has been under the weather lately, but before he got sick he was making art for his teacher which I thought was really sweet. He also has taken to swimming a lot but he mostly sticks to areas where he knows he can touch the ground. He loves diving and retrieving things as well as doing flips underwater. He is so smart and such a huge help with the boys and A, it is really like having a second Me there when he comes. He really tries to keep them in line and I have to constantly remind him when I am around that he can just relax and have fun instead of worrying about parenting! ha! He wanted to grow his hair out but he let me cut it for the summer with my promise that he could grow it out in the wintertime. He's gotten back into riding his bike, usually down the street into the culdesac to see if friends want to play with him. He still loves sports, especially throwing a football around, and is excited to start basketball in a few weeks. Everything about this move has been an adjustment for him as well as a big change from what made him happy (friends and getting to hang out with them whenever he wanted, also going out with my sisters or mom or me on a "date"), but he is learning to handle that change a little better. Certainly once the houses behind us are done and I am more comfortable with having friends play in the backyard, things will feel a little easier too.

I mentioned before that leading up to the move and especially in the month or so that followed, we spent a LOT of time together as just a family, mostly because we knew nobody in the area so playdates were not as easy to coordinate as they were back in Ohio. I know I compare a lot to life in Ohio, but to be honest we knew exactly how good we had it when we had it. Every day we lived there we were so grateful and we always said that going anywhere else would have to be a downgrade because of how impossibly high the bar was set, especially for little d. He had the best teacher in the school last year, multiple friends his age literally completely surrounding our house...it was a really hard situation to walk away from because it took 3 years to develop and doing that while our kids were young was almost easy. Now that they are older, I do think it is a little more difficult, especially being in a neighborhood where it feels like just about everyone is just starting on their families. But we are stronger as a family as a result, and I think that the relationship little d shares with each member of our family is stronger as well, which would not have been the case had we stayed in Ohio. because he spent the majority of his days outside with his friends.

He really likes the Thanksgiving point museums and places we go and is ever resentful when we go and do anything fun without him while he is in school. He is always so excited to kiss and hug us goodbye at the busstop and never ceases to be excited to see us when we pick him up. I know that won't last forever and I am enjoying it every day. All the kids love Pokemon because of him and he plays so well with his brothers (when he isn't treating them like they are his age!), the boys love to wrestle and even little A occasionally joins in to play damsel in distress (cue my eye rolling). They still all love playing hockey in the basement with little D and running around outside with friends from the street.

Three experiences I wanted to share to cap off this summer and show just what kind of person little d is becoming.

The first two were terrifying:

1-we were at a shallow beach with friends (so I didn't bring floaties), all the little kids were "swimming" on their hands and knees in about 9 inches of water when Lan went completely underwater (we later found out because big sister pushed him down) and little d ran out to him faster than I did and pulled him out. I was so proud and even though it was only about 2 seconds faster than I was able to get to him, it would have been the two most excruciating moments of my life.

2- just a few days later at Uncle C's pool. Drew took off Lo's floaties because he was sitting on the stairs and seemed to be uninterested in swimming anymore. Drew eventually swam out for some reason and Lo stepped off the step to complete submersion. I was not in the pool, I had Lan in my lap and pretty much threw him down to run over to Lo, but little d had already (bless his heart) taken a dive under Lo's body so he could help push his head above water. I told him it was the bravest thing I had ever seen him do, since the pool water was much deeper than the water on the beach.

Both times the boys were fine, and I try not to think about what would have happened if little d was not so close to them each time. Needless to say, the rest of the summer the babies have not been allowed anywhere near water without a floatie on. Lesson(s) learned.

3-Not so much a single experience but a couple times he has come home from church and told us that he felt the Holy Ghost while he was singing and it made him so happy that he wanted to cry. He is such a sweet sensitive boy, and he has been through a lot the last couple of years (I was hoping the last year would be a break from the changes of having a sister, moving and then having twin brothers but then we ended up with another move in there, sorry, buddy!). He has on more than one occasion when I have been frustrated with them, offered to put the twins down for naps and he usually gets them both to sleep! Little d is so amazing and I am so grateful that he was my firstborn. I don't want to be cocky and say best big brother ever, but I will say if I ever had a big brother, I would want him to be just like little d!

Today was the day I decided I wanted (needed?) to be an Art Teacher: My WHY

In college I set my sights on a Political Science major because I thought it would be cool to be a Diplomat to another country. True story. After two semesters of mostly C's, my dad politely suggested I think about switching to something different. Art Education was always my backup plan because my entire life people have commented or told me I was artistic, creative, etc (probably just to be nice since my little sister got straight A's and was amazing at math and science) and to be honest, I enjoyed the process of creating art and had a really good high school art teacher who really let me take my time with projects I loved and was invested in (and came up with my own ideas for). I also knew I always wanted to be a teacher, I loved teaching. So I did it, but I was never the best art student and never the best at teaching art but it was a degree so I went ahead and did it because that was what felt right. But once little d came along it was hard to see past the present into the future and my WHY for teaching art never fully formulated because it was swallowed up in my desire to embrace motherhood.

And the last five years since I left teaching have been a struggle. I was no longer a teacher and raising 4 kids in that time did not lend itself kindly to me pursuing any sort of artistic interest. Why bother being an art teacher if I haven't made any art in 5 years?

And then it came to me.

Epiphany #1 came in the form of 2 quotes I found while trying to figure out my existential mid-life crisis.

"The imitator is a poor kind of creature. If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer."

– James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), American-born, British-based artist, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890)

The craftsman knows what he wants to make before he makes it.…The making of a work of art…is a strange and risky business in which the maker never knows quite what he is making until he makes it.

– R.G. Collingwood (1889–1943), English philosopher, The Principles of Art (1938)

I gave up years ago on recreating photographs via a painting or drawing, which was what I spent a lot of my teenage years doing and loving (because it took up a lot of time and I had that time to sit and think!). I say I gave it up mostly because if there was a photograph I really liked, I would just use that photograph as a work of art! By definition of the second quote (which I agree with) came

Epiphany #2, I DO prefer to work as a craftsman. I like coming up with something that would look good in a space or have a functional purpose (like the superhero logos or ninja turtle portraits I painted in our last house). If what my vision is does not come out the way I intended, it usually ended up in my parent's basement (or ultimately in the trash). What I am not good about doing is taking risks in my art, probably because I like to have a plan and I have never really had any practice doing something creatively risky without knowing what the outcome would be.

Then came
Epiphany #3: I have learned and acquired a lot of wonderful art skills and talent but I am not a "true artist" (meaning all I want to do/need to do is create art), and I am okay with that. (that last part was really hard for me to grasp for YEARS!). I am SO blessed in my life, my life is full of joy and hopefully that is evident for my readers who see the beautiful pictures of my awesome kids that I have plastered all over this blog. But "real" artists, as I am coming to realize, really connect with an emotion (usually grief or sadness) in a truly unique way that I have not felt in my life to share.

What is art? Art grows out of grief and joy, but mainly grief. It is born of people’s lives.

– Edvard Munch (1863–1944), Norwegian artist, in Edvard Munch: The Man and His Art, by Ragna Stang (1977)

All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography.

– Federico Fellini (1920–1993), Italian film director, in Atlantic Monthly,December 1965

Which led to
Epiphany #4: While at this time in my life I have not felt these deep feelings that I felt I could not communicate in words (my blog has been a huge part of that growth and ability to express myself in words that I could not do in high school, for example), I look at the world my children are being raised in and I think about how hard and confusing it can be. Changing hormones in all stages of childhood/adolescence and lack of brain development (because they are not fully developed adults yet!) means that their ability to communicate how they feel is so limited when a disaster strikes their hometown, or when a parent gets terminally ill, or they have to move across the country or any number of things that happen to kids that they either don't understand or have difficulty grasping. That is where I believe art has the upmost importance in a young person's life. Art Education is vital in our schools to give students the necessary skills and basic artistic knowledge so that they are better able to communicate with the world around them and cope with the unexpected that will inevitably come into their lives. And thinking about that makes me excited to be able to assist in that process of self-discovery, and lights a fire in me to renew my teaching license and get back into the classroom.

The problem, and what I struggled the most with about Art in my teaching, also a part of my HUGE struggle with the art world in general lies in this:

 If one general statement can be made about the art of our times, it is that one by one the old criteria of what a work of art ought to be have been discarded in favor of a dynamic approach in which everything is possible

– Peter Selz (1919- ) German-born American art historian, Art in Our Times (1981)

I have always hated that saying, "Everything is Art".  I walked through an exhibit a few years ago that completely took me back--it was repulsive and completely pornographic. This coming from someone who finds some of her favorite works of art in the nude sculptures of Ancient Greece. Thankfully I had some fellow Art Ed friends with me to confirm that this exhibit was simply vulgar and was NOT, in fact, what we considered art (and the rest of the museum was actually quite lovely!).

And today I also realized
Epiphany #5: It does not (should not) matter what is considered art by the outside world. Just as we each have the opportunity to pick and choose clothes we wear, movies and TV shows we watch, books or magazines we read, apps we have on our phones, etc, we can choose for ourselves regardless of how much garbage there is out there. I mean, I wouldn't just stop going to art museums just because I once saw a work of art that offended me in it's belief that it was art. All that matters in what I consider art is that it suits me and fits my personal definition of art.

Maybe someday I'll actually put all these thoughts in some sort of more organized and concise fashion and make a Manifesto out of it, but for now these are my thoughts, subject to change and open to interpretation.  In short, I believe in a need of art for children as a method of communication and therapy.

One step closer to that "Discovering Ruth" outside of motherhood resolution that has felt untouched for nine months!

Building Community

There are some moments in life where you can actually see the change happening. Adjusting to life in our first home in Ohio was gradual, we got in in December so it was a slow growth to meet all our new neighbors and get used to the area. But moving here in Utah was a completely different experience. It has been slow to adjust, but thinking about how we have only been here three months and seen new families moving in nearly every other week, I cannot help but feel incredibly blessed.

For months leading up to our move (like back in October) and since we moved (we haven't stopped!) we have prayed for our neighbors. For us to be good neighbors and for the people around us to catch the vision of a neighborhood that takes care of its own, where the kids (once all the construction vehicles are finished) can run around in little kid gangs in the street, hopefully a little less like Lord of the Flies and a little more like Boxcar children (but obviously with videogames and stuff). As we have spent our evenings (which is tricky finding that perfect time between the blazing heat of the afternoon and the mosquito ridden dusk) outside, meeting new neighbors, I can honestly say we have come to love and adore all of our neighbors. I guess I assumed that a Utah neighborhood would feel cookie cutter, everyone having similar interests and in similar walks of life. But that is not what we got at all...

We have so many wonderful and interesting neighbors, now friends, from nearly all walks of life. Sure, a lot of them are young marrieds with a first baby or a just a toddler, but we have some big families (I think we are one of the biggest actually now that I think about it), some smaller, and everyone is so welcoming and genuine in their care about this community. I certainly think it helps that no matter what the situation of life we are in, we all moved into our new homes from april-september (there were a few out tonight that are still waiting for their houses to complete!) this year, so we all have that in common, including all the craziness that goes into building a new home and nothing being done according to plan!

And as we were outside this evening for a "Cookie Walk", where we baked cookies and met neighbors outside and chatted while our kids played, I looked at our trampoline covered in about 15 two year olds and I was just overwhelmed with emotion. (little d was at the trampoline down the street covered with big kids his age!) THIS was what we were hoping to find when we came to our new home. And we didn't find it immediately, so we sought after it, worked towards it, and eventually (tonight), a lot of the wonderful people we had met over the last 3 months finally met each other and a special bond was formed (or solidified) with a lot of families.

We had an amazing neighborhood in Ohio. It will forever be our first real "home" away from home, somewhere where we really felt like we were able to put down roots after 7 years of marriage. And most importantly, we were shown what a good neighborhood looks like, how the neighbors are friends and care for each other. We still miss Westerville dearly, and it will always hold a very special, a very sacred place in our hearts. We will never try to replace that for ourselves or our kids, because it would be impossible. But I firmly believe that as we are striving to build our current neighborhood community, we are carrying the torch and the spirit of our little Genoa neighborhood, and we will hopefully take that everywhere we go.

Everyone got to eat cookies, play in the dirt (or pretend to swim in it, in the case of my kids...yuck!), make new friends and hang out with old ones. I think all 4 littles were asleep before their heads hit the pillow! Tonight was a really good night.

august 25-september 8 in a nutshell

wedding last saturday merited some new (matching!) dresses. and A caught her first ladybug

 fishy tricks from panda

 we have officially moved the legos downstairs since d didn't like us using his room. but the littles are playing legos all the time now!

 cute new shirt from Sarah.... and Drew (Who grew his first beard!!) and Dustin went to the first BYU game of the season. They made it a few hours.

 crazy summertime sleeping

 Lo plays peekaboo while he sleeps...and doesn't even flinch with the flash

 an anomaly for little d, he is usually sleeping in his undies

 Lo's new favorite sueprhero

 Sunday outfits

 Snuggles with Lan while little d works on some CSE protein bites

 'Chessa came to visit for a bit so we had a little photoshoot

 my psoriasis cleared up at last for about two weeks! It was amazing. Bottom pics are May and June

 I was not the one who took this picture... but it sure is adorable!

 farm at TGP

 and all the animals ....

 getting pictures from her Ohio pen pals!

 made it to the temple for my Mama's birthday!

 learning how to tire out my kids by lunchtime to get the naps back!!! they are transferring better!

 request for 100 pigtails

 more farmlife

 Lo with Ferdinand!

 granny visits

 Aquarium for a bday party

 Saturday night. Trying to make more saturday nights like this so I look forward to Sundays a little more.

 Labor Day Wear!

 Lo playing videogames with his uncle DK's controller and Drew's beard (I wish I had gotten a better pic! but he looked awesome with it and even the kids loved it once it got past the scratchy stage... it has since dissappeared) while we visited with granny.

 Lollipops and movies...bribery at its finest!

 Art Museum for GUPPY SCHOOL

 we made fishy hands and learned more about color.

 got Kevs ready for Halloween (he got too fat for his Bumblebee costume so I tossed it with the move). This one should last him forever because it stretches! We love that fat cat. Also he really likes the material and will still move around in it unlike other costumes. Also Lan got a high fever which ended up being an ear infection, so I got lots of snuggles an he napped on me for about 48 hours straight.

 Lo decided to join... Lan was NOT too happy!

 Went for a bike ride today and we made it a whole 18 minutes with lots of stops before construction of a driveway won out over continuing to go farther. I LOVE all the bike trails around where we live, just like we had in Westerville. We visited with some construction guys that were putting up more street lights and it is exciting to think about how in about a month they will all be connected and we will have lit neighborhoods! The boys fought a ton and I remembered they haven't been in the trailer since June because it's been so blazing hot. I am SO over summer! This morning was nice and cool and everyone was feeling better, although it must have worn me out because we came home and I passed out on the couch while the kids watched a movie!

also in construction news, they have started work in the pit behind our house! And little d found out a kid down the street is in his class so he may have a bus buddy soon enough! Things are slowly but surely getting a little more manageable (like the lack of the terrible Utah heat!) and we are feeling supremely blessed to be where we are which we know we felt was where we needed to be. There is a lot of sadness and difficult things going on in our world lately, sometimes it feels so overwhelming. But as I have stuck with really simple basics of taking care of myself: working out/doing my Mutu, eating (better than I ever have before, most days, so the days this week I was not able to work out haven't felt so bad) to nourish my body, reading and studying things for my temporally and spiritually, getting enough sleep, keeping the house clean, etc, I have felt better capable of tackling the things I need to on a daily basis.