Monday, August 15, 2011

Time to blog again!

Wow, time flies when you're really busy! In honor of the 1 year anniversary since my last blog, I am posting an update! With milestones flying past in the lives of my boys, I guess it's time. The boys start school this week, so I guess it's a good time to re-dedicate myself to keeping our family's story up to date. We'll start off with a few pictures that my sweet sister took of my boys while we vacationed in Texas. (Thanks Julie!)



Jordan, age 14, is getting ready to start 9th grade. He is also doing everyone's chores to earn as much money as possible so he can by a 3DS. (That's the DS that's in 3-D. Pretty cool, and pretty expensive.) And he is now the proud owner of a cell phone. I told my boys a long time ago that they could have a cell phone when they got their eagle scout award (which he did), and with him in 9th grade, it will be nice to be able to communicate with him when there are school activities and such. Jordan hosted a pokemon DS tournament for his friends last weekend. He got trophies, prizes, and served lunch and treats. I'm happy he's willing to invite friends over. Could it be? Maybe we don't embarrass him too much.



Zachary, age 11, goes into 7th grade on Wednesday. He's getting excited to be in the band! Zach got his trumpet this week. Go Zach! He has it out every few hours sounding like a honking goose downstairs, but I'm happy he's excited to play in the band. He's also doing well in soccer. I watched practice last week and he was 3rd or 4th in the ladder sprints, which was great considering he was slowing down for the turns. He's a lot better than what he thinks he is. We got his schedule last week for school. He got into all the classes that he wanted to, and because they do an a/b schedule (4 classes a day on alternating days), he is so excited for his "B" day - it's band, language arts, art class, and math. Basically half the day will be play for him. I'm happy that he's happy to go back to school.



Caeden is 9 now, and will start 4th grade on Wednesday. Caeden is busy being the loving, teasing boy he is. Just loves to play with brothers, and does good things to be happy. Love it. He starts soccer in a few weeks, and is excited for 4th grade because his favorite friends are in his class.




Jacob is 6 and starts 1st grade this week. Jacob has been growing like a weed. Which is surprising considering how little he eats. (SO PICKY!!!) I hope his teacher is ready for him. He is worried that he won't be smart enough (he is), and is super-worried about what will happen if he doesn't follow directions. Should I be thankful that he's at least thinking about that, or worried...? He will also start soccer next week.




Levi, my 4 year old (and always my baby!) starts preschool this month. sniff sniff. Levi is super excited about school. He remembers dropping Jacob off at the same school, and he thinks it's "so awesome" to be going to a big kid school. Everything good is "super awesome" to him. It makes me smile. I'm going to miss having him by my side all day. Except when I want to nap. Then maybe not so much. He will be soccer player #4 this season. Let's just say that my life will be over-run by soccer this fall.



Aaron is staying busy with his job. The new project that is just beginning is keeping him busy. I was hoping that he would have been able to get ahead while we were in Texas, but alas, no luck. His day consists of leaving for work just as I get back from the gym, then he gets home just in time for dinner, we read scriptures, say prayers, he helps tuck the boys into bed, then I go to bed while he works from home for another 3-4 hours. The beginning of a project is always so busy!

I'm staying busy keeping track of my boys. Got a lot to do to get them ready for school. I swear, Jacob has grown 6 inches this past year. He shot out of his size 5 pants, through the 6's and we're going to try on the 7's today to see if I can just pass down Caeden's uniforms or if we need to go buy some more. Maybe we'll have a tall boy yet! We're also working on painting our living room (again.) I want to lighten it up with a different green, but Aaron doesn't want it to be too bright (Light green reminds him of the walls of the mental hospital down in Provo. And no, he has never been a resident.) I think we've decided on a taupe-ish green. We'll try it and let you know what we think. I also delved into the world of canning this week. We picked a basket of apricots from my mother-in-law's tree last Monday, and on Wednesday I spent 5 hours or so peeling, halving, pitting, and canning apricots. We haven't tried the plain apricots yet, but the jam is yummy. This week, we will tackle green beans out of Dave and Wendy's garden. We are grateful for all the yummy vegetables that they are willing to share! So here we come to harvest and bottle... It will be good. And it is pretty easy. And my boys love home-grown beans. So it's a win-win all around.

Well, that's our life in a nutshell. Or in a nuthouse. You choose.




Oh, how I love my boys!