Is It Naptime Yet

We all have our little bit of craziness that we deal with, I’m right in the thick of it for me, the funny thing is I’m finally motivated and doing things, even though I have a looming deadline and not enough hours in the day.

Since life was so crazy over the summer, and during the play, I was really ready to not do anything, and I almost did not do the homeschooling co-op. I got my brain together and figured it was for the best, so I decided to sign up and continue to have it has a part of our homeschooling journey. Well, I asked if there was anything I could do to help, since I know the whole preparation part can be hard, and they asked me to help our treasurer, since she had a premature baby over the summer and though he was home, was quite overwhelmed with regular life and now constant doctors appointments. I pretty much organized all the information, and am acting as treasurer. I like it because now I only have to teach for one hour on Mondays, but it’s also settled me into a very permanent role, though I could leave if it became overwhelming. I’m now in the inner circle of the co-op and get to help with making decisions and knowing what’s going on. It’s been interesting and I really feel I’m learning and growing.

Besides co-op I’ve been taking a once a week choir class. It’s been lots of fun and I feel it’s helping me gain some confidence in my ability to find parts and sing. I have a lot to learn still, but I love the choral music we sing and being a part of something. The choir class is really so I can get more confidence for the plays, and soon we’ll be starting meetings for choosing the director and getting the ball rolling for the next play. It’s crazy to think we’ll soon be starting all over again!

My main focus right now is sewing though. I started Sew Lacey, which don’t bother going to the link since I haven’t touched it since January, last year and participated in a craft fair out of a woman’s house. That time of year has rolled around again, and I decided I wanted to participate once more, only I forgot about it till she called me and only have a week and a have to get ready, since I had to finish the girls costumes and help her with set up. I want to do it because I have tons of fabric for bags, and when people see and hold the bags, they’ve been inclined to buy them. I’ve also decided to add hooded towels and burp clothes to the mix, with a possibility of nursing covers too. We’ll see how much time I have next week, since that’s all I have before set up begins and then I’ll need to devote some time to making chocolate covered popcorn for it also, since that’s a big hit and I want to try selling that too. So I have lots of projects to do and very little time.

And Wednesday I decided to clean and organize my house because it was pretty crazy, but more importantly I needed to get all my material in one place and bring some order to my chaos. I hate to start creating in chaos, but don’t mind the mess along the way. Like I’ll clean my kitchen and do dishes so I can bake, though this is something I have to do with how small our kitchen is. I had to clean and get my room into a little more order so I could sew, but really have space for a drying rack for the fabric.

Yeah, I have tons to do. I need to prepare a lesson for Sunday, a lesson for Eden’s class on Monday, finish Lilah’s costume so we can go to the Haunted Harvest, cut out and sew 6-8 bags, make hooded towels, burp clothes, prepare another lesson, make chocolate covered popcorn and get ready for a craft fair, all in two weeks, plus have family time and regular house duties.

It makes perfect sense that I’m blogging. Yeah, this is me and my craziness.

I’m posting these now, even though I have tons I need to do, because I fear I will forget, since I’ve been a pretty bad blogger lately.

We had our family pictures taken on October 2. Jon let me buy him a new shirt because he was tired of blue and green being our main colors for family pictures, though last years were different, and I can’t believe how much older the girls look this year compared to last. I bought him this golf shirt, since it was the only one I could find in red, and it’s now his favorite shirt. Score! (The reason why Jon doesn’t like me buying him clothes for family pictures, is the worry that he won’t use it again, and it would basically be a waste of money.) I also added the flowers to the girls shirts so they would coordinate. I could not find anything black, red, or white for the girls, besides these t-shirts, so I went with black and white and embellished them. I really think they turned out nice, though we’ll see how they wear since they flowers now have to be ironed after each wash. Sigh.

I think our pictures turned out pretty dang cute. She wasn’t the best at posing us in natural looking positions, but for the most part I like them because we’re all smiling and looking cute. The photographer liked them so well that she asked if she could submit them to a panel to be used as advertising, since they use actual families and photo shots from their studios. Hundreds of photo’s are submitted, so we’ll see if anything comes of it, but I was flattered that she liked them so much too.

The final note, if you’re family and would a specific pictures for your own viewing pleasure, please leave a comment for which ones you want and you’ll get them with your Christmas cards!

Family 01
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Family 02
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Family 03
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Family 04- This is a favorite pose for JC Penny photographers, it’s the third year we’ve been posed this way, and each have been different photographers.
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Family05- I wish Jon’s smile was in the previous one, that’s why I posted both.
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Girls 01
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Girls 02
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Girls 03-
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Lilah 01

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Lilah 02
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Lilah 03
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Lilah 04
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Lilah 05
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Eden 01
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Eden 02

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Eden 03
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Eden 04
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Eden 05

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Couple
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Jon has puppy dog eyes, but that wasn’t on purpose.

As I look back at previous years of photos I’ve decided to order my children to stop growing. I do this daily, but they never listen.

It was just a two weeks ago. Eden came out of her bedroom in the middle of the night telling me she didn’t feel well. I asked her if she felt like she was going to throw up and she said yes, so I got her the pink bowl, put a towel over her pillow and after a few uneventful minutes, sent her back to bed. She woke up just fine the next day, but the pink bowl followed her around for a little bit and then just hung out around our house getting dirty and taking up space.

This past Wednesday I finally got around to washing the bowl. It had been haunting our house, then our kitchen and with it’s large, awkward size, it wasn’t fitting into our rather full dishwasher loads, but that’s mostly because I was way behind on dishes. So it was finally washed on Wednesday night, at least a whole week later. Then Eden woke me up at 4 am Thursday morning, saying she didn’t feel well and like she was going to throw up.

Oh, I had heard that before.

So I gave her a drink and a couple crackers, then as she sat at our very full of stuff table, I watch as she got sick. Oh, she was a champ, trying to hold it in, but her mouth just not being big enough so that some exploded out onto the floor, and onto the table of Halloween decorations Lilah had just made that afternoon, luckily only the ghosts was lost. I picked Eden up and brought her to the kitchen sink to finish what had already started, and to rinse her off a little. I then took my poor little girl to the bathroom, so I could clean up the mess, get her some new pajama’s, cover her bed with a towel, and grab the freshly cleaned pink bowl out of the dishwasher, just for her.

And she needed it this time.

So a long time ago I thought my computer screen was going out, I’m pretty sure it still is, but for now it works, but the brightness is still bright. I went on a photo posting hiatus because of my screen, and my sheer laziness to upload and edit photos, but I decided that I’d post some anyways, and would just crop them, so the brightness might be off, but at least there are photos!

The girls and me at the Zoo!
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Comparing ourselves to gorillas.

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He was looking right at the girls. I could have sat and watched him for much longer, but everyone else wanted to move one.

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Lots of standing and looking. This was Jon’s view of the Zoo.

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Open your eyes on three! I was trying to not get squinty eyes, I guess it worked, kinda.

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The awkward bighorn sheep. I totally thought it was a goat of some sort because it did not look like the bighorn sheep I know, or even like the one they had pictured.

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After the bird show with the bald eagle.

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The cool owl after the bird show.

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The mama and baby elephant!

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None of the other carousel pictures turned out, and you could argure neither did this one, but I love ladybugs so Jon took my picture with the ladybug carousel seat.

So Summer feels like it is finally over, hopefully. You never know with Las Vegas weather. We finally have some cooler weather, and we hope it stays that way. The rain clouds that at first just brought humidity finally cooled down this hot valley and hopefully it stays that way.

To end summer we went to Pine Valley with Sam, Britta, Matilda and Grandpa Gary over Labor Day weekend. Even though Jon had been gone the previous week and came home Friday night, he packed up Saturday morning and came along. He wasn’t sure he was going to go, but I think 3 more days of being alone was not appealing and he wanted to be with me and the girls, at least that’s the story I’m sticking to. Pine Valley was filled with 4 wheel rides, good food, talking, lots of time outdoors, and even some games. I hate to rub it in, but I played Yahtzee for the first time, and beat Sam both times. We then played a million games of Uno, and I’m pretty sure I would have won if we had been keeping score. 😉 It was beautiful weather and a fun time.

Just recently we went up to Utah for my cousin Amanda’s wedding reception, summer was technically over, though we came home to triple digits. The weather was perfect for her outdoor reception, but things were not going as planned. When do they ever for a wedding? Since we had time and were there, Jon and I helped decorate an arch that was over the cake. I’m pretty sure it pulled the whole scene together and was the cause for much celebration. I’m really happy for my cousin and it’s exciting to see her begin a new chapter in her life.

Since the reception was on a Friday night, we decided a trip to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake would be a perfect way to spend our Saturday, before coming home on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and the girls really enjoyed themselves. Eden’s favorite exhibit was the giraffes and the elephants. Lilah’s favorite part was the giraffe’s and the elephants, the gift shop, the monkeys, and the carousel, the train and the bird show. My favorite exhibit was the gorillas. They are so massive and it was just amazing to be separated from one with just a thick piece of glass.

We had Aunt Carolyn along on the trip, so she went shopping with me on Saturday night, and I found a nice black dress to wear for my choir class performances. Carolyn was kind enough to sit in the back seat and entertain the girls doing the night drive to Cedar City on Thursday. She entertained them at other times, but it was hard for them to entertain themselves when it was so dark in the car for our travels that night. We always love when Aunt Carolyn comes along on our trips.

We traveled more this summer than any previous one. I had a total of 8 trips while Lilah had 7 and Eden and Jon had 6. Usually we only have 2, maybe 3, trips, so this was one crazy summer for us. I really loved all the time we spent with family and friends, but I am so happy for summer to be over, and to enjoy the holidays.