A little August catch up

 Natalie turned 5 months in August. I haven't figured out how to turn off the red light on my camera without completely turning off the flash, so she is always frowning in the pictures I take lately because that light shines in her face. Anyway, in reality she is a very happy girl. She loves people and thinks anyone who smiles at her is the greatest. She has been trying to crawl this past week, and we all get a kick out of watching her because she doesn't really know what to do with her arms yet. She gets up on her hands and knees and then launches herself forward like a frog jumping, but she doesn't catch herself with her arms -- she just faceplants. Love this baby!

This little guy is so excited to be 5 years old. Just ask him and he'll tell you all about it. He continues to be the most talkative and energetic person in our family. He's always looking for someone to play a game with him. I am amazed when I look at him and see how grown his is. He has his first T-ball practice this coming Saturday, and he is counting down the days.

Recording Blessings

I have been thinking about President Eyring's message from last month's Ensign about keeping a record of the Lord's blessings in our lives. It's not the first time I have heard him give this counsel, but I want it to be the last time that I need the Spirit to give me such a strong reminder to follow it. After all, the main reason I have a blog is to keep a record of what happens in our family. Lately, the pace of my life has picked up and I have used that as an excuse to not blog, when that really means I have more to record. What I need to work on is prioritizing how I use my time. So, here is a first post to get me started.

I have a sweet friend at church who loves babies. She's a baby whisperer. She put Natalie to sleep during Sunday School and then fed and played with her through Relief Society as well. I so appreciated being able to sit through the lessons without holding a squirmy worm. What a great service she offered to me!

Nate and I spent an evening away on Friday to celebrate our 14th anniversary coming up next week. We are only about two weeks into our new school year, and I already needed a break! I'll write more another time about our homeschool, but for now I'll just say that I'm excited for all that my kids are learning. And I am excited to be learning along with them. Speaking of school, it's a bit ironic that I was telling Nikki last week that we don't start a sentence with a conjunction, but I think I've done it at least twice so far in this post! I write my blog like I'm talking, so I guess maybe I should work on my speech and then my writing might improve. :) While school is going to be great this year, I think we are going to work harder than we have ever worked in our homeschool. I'm excited, nervous, and worn out just thinking of it. Anyway, it was so nice to get away even for one day with Nate. With both of us being so busy these days, it takes a greater effort to just spend time together. I love him, and I love being with him.

On a side note, as I have been writing this post Nate has been playing a card game with the kids on our bed. They started fighting with each other, so I heard him say they needed to quit playing and read scriptures. Then they weren't listening to him, so he made them recite the scriptures after him. They thought his voice inflections of the people speaking was silly and started paying attention and giggling. Somehow, he turned a contentious moment into one where they are now happily reading scriptures together. He is such a good man, and I really appreciate the few minutes he gave me to myself this afternoon.

Dod boarding

Nate signed us up on a dog boarding website to host dogs while their families are away. I'm trying to decide this is a good idea. It does sound nice to have someone pay us to keep their dog rather than for us paying to get a dog. The kids like dogs, and I think Nate was thinking this would be a good way for them to earn a little money. Well, too bad. The money is going in MY pocket. They may play with them, and I'm sure Nate would take care of them if he was home, but it turns out that this is my second job (or is it third or fourth?).

Anyway, we have our first dog over the weekend. Jessie just came this morning, and she is a sweet girl. She's a coon hound, I think? She's just big and sheds a lot! Nate had already been planning on taking the big kids camping tonight, and I am really fine being left with my little one and a dog. Neither one of whom can talk to me! I'm actually happy to have a big dog sleeping in a crate downstairs while Nate is gone. See, I can talk myself into liking this.

Sunday afternoon activity

There are so many things in this video that make me laugh. I love Hannah's pose for the camera, I guess I didn't tell her I was taking a video. I completely missed Ryan sticking the knife on his nose and then back into the peanut butter because I was laughing at Nate so hard. And this video is also why we had a family night lesson last night about kindness.

Jordan Lake

I love Sherrie's set up to avoid sunburn! I didn't get many pictures this day. Nate spent his time in the shade with Natalie, and I was on the boat for quite a while -- just the way the both of us like it. It was a fun and exhausting week with the family. I didn't get any pictures the last day we were together. We stayed at Mike's house and fished and played games and visited with Billy & Jill and of course ate great food all week long. We have a great family! Thanks for a fun week!

Water Slide

The kids LOVED the water slide Mike & Sherrie had. The girls even woke up sore the next day from the hours of fun they had on it. Ryan and William spent the most time on it, though. They were in heaven.

This is my kind of vacation -- relaxing in the shade!

JW & Robin -- Robin, did something fly in your drink? :)

I even got this great shot of Robin coming down the slide! It's a good thing they didn't get my picture when I came down -- I went flying out and rolled halfway down the hill!

Who let Mike play with fire? Here he is lighting sparklers for the kids.

Games on the 4th

Robin planned some fun games for us to play on the 4th. Here's Nikki trying to find the chocolate pieces hidden in whipped cream.

We had an egg race.

 I'm pretty sure it's not fair for me to be going up against Nate's long legs!

Here is Ryan blindfolded trying to shoot everyone with waterguns.

Hannah's turn

Nate did a good job keeping Natalie out of the sun. That is one cute baby. (He is, too.)

Trying to throw marshmallows into their partners' mouths.

Hannah doing a little dance with Cousin Nate's horse head mask!

Spencer looks a little concerned.

Pool pictures

 boy cousins

 JW & Sam

 JW - what a Bob getup

 girl cousins

 I'm pretty sure I didn't take this picture. We get tons of frogs in our pool, and I guess I never realized how much I don't like them until JW and Mike kept trying to get Little Jay and Lydia to throw one on me. For future reference, that's not a fun game!

Popsicle break

Some Natalie Pictures

She turned 3 months old a couple of weeks ago.

 She learned to roll over to her tummy. She hated it at first, but she has gotten much stronger now.

 I think there is a smile coming behind that passy! Hannah loves to grab the camera while she is watching Natalie.

This is how she tells me she's hungry -- by sticking her fingers in her mouth. She has found her voice and will cry these days, but it takes a lot to get her to that point. I have never seen such a patient, content baby. She wakes up in the morning full of smiles, and she keeps smiling all day long. Oh, we love her so much!

First of many pictures

I uploaded the pictures from my camera last night, and it was a bit overwhelming. I'll see what I can do to post a few of them.

This picture is from about a month ago. She sure found a great place to relax.

We had a baby shower at our house for a friend from church. I had so much fun making this diaper motorcycle for her. Ryan had fun with it, too!

Little Lucy. She deserves her own post, but this will have to do for today. A family at church had a litter of puppies they were giving away. Nate and I had been talking about getting a puppy for Ryan to have as a playmate. He was so disappointed when Natalie arrived too little to play. So we got Lucy, and she was a really sweet girl. However, we took her to the vet for her shots and a check-up and found that she had a severe heart murmur. I had noticed that she seemed to tire easily, sometimes she would even end up laying down outside when I took her out to go potty. But, I don't know how much a puppy is supposed to sleep. Hannah was with me at the vet when we got the news, and she was heartbroken. Unfortunately, I'm not the type to spend more on doctor's appointments for my animals than my children, so a visit to the NC State cardiologist wasn't really feasible for me. Ryan still asks when we are going to get another puppy. Nate has decided it's not going to be any time soon. Next time I'm going to tell Ryan to ask his dad, not me.