Fall Part 1

I had big plans for catching up on posts before the New Year. I'll consider myself successful if I catch up by the end of January. The kids really, really need to go back to school. 

Right after school started, the boys and Allan had Fathers and Sons. I can't even describe the anticipation filling our home in the days leading up. Make that years--because we didn't have it last year. When we got a new bishop in the summer, Jack said, "I hope his first order of business is to schedule Fathers and Sons!"

They drove up the mountain and hour and a half into the Sequoias and somehow managed to survive. Jack got to go rappelling with some of the other boys, and of course there were plenty of nature walks/hikes for all ages. They came home dirty, happy, and tired. 

I started refinishing the office desk while they were gone. Totally productive and got very little sleep.

Astrid developed one of her more annoying habits of climbing on the table. Initially, I thought it was cute (because just look how proud she is!). Then it just got dangerous--and spread to other people's homes. Finally I had to move all the chairs out to the back patio during non-eating hours.

For some reason this evening I was feeling very permissive and let them take a bath together. They practically flooded the bathroom. Never again. (But again, cute picture)

We celebrated Natey's 3rd birthday in September. His birthdays never sneak up on me.  I always feel like he should have had a birthday about 6 months prior.  I think that's what the 21-month gap between him and Astrid has done to me.  Plus he talks so dang much.  I rarely do themes, but this year was a no-brainer.  Nathan lives and breathes Thomas.  Every single morning he hops out of bed and goes straight to his train tracks.  Except for preschool, meals, and the occasional show, that is where he remains all day.

I rarely give Astrid sweets. Because once they're gone, we have to deal with this. It goes on and on and on...

Natey's best friend in the entire world is "ELI!!!!". They LOVE each other. They are also extremely good at making giant messes that they can't possibly clean up by themselves. One afternoon they took out our biggest bin of Legos and sorted every tiny piece they could from the bigger pieces and threw them all over the room. It took me nearly an hour to clean that dumb mess up. I was growling the whole time.

I laughed and laughed when this year's school pics came back. My smile coaching didn't make much of a difference apparently. You can tell that Micah is thinking so hard in this picture, "Is this what Mom wanted?" Jack is resorting to smiling like Allan always did as a teen. 

Astrid loves to be outside. I still don't trust her unless she's heavily supervised. I love this picture--a dog was barking in the distance and it totally stopped her in her tracks.

This is one of those rare moments where Micah and Nathan stopped squabbling and started loving each other. Good thing I had my phone in hand.

When I pulled the pictures off of my phone, I was amused and surprised to see so many of Nathan sleeping in, well, not his crib. This was the time where he refused to nap. I have so many of these shots that I could put together an exhibit.