September 22

I love Thursday nights! I get together with a group of friends to watch Project Runway together. It's such a FUN tradition. Not everyone can come every week but it is a blast to watch with each other instead of our husbands. L-R is Debra R., Darbie W., Wendy R (holding Darbie's baby), me, Sara R. and Chelsey J. Love these girls!

September 21

Makenna has a darling friend from school named Lily. The girls adore each other and talk about each other all the time. They exchanged phone numbers at school and call each other a few times a week. It is adorable! I do feel like I have a preteen on my hands though. She goes in her room and talks and giggles incessantly while they are talking! So funny!

September 20

I have a lot of things I could have done this morning while Addison was at school but Emery was asleep so I decided to take time to finish the kids' school scrapbooks from last year. It was a nice quiet morning complete with a diet Coke and watching a video series from some of my favorite bloggers. It was so nice to get caught up!

September 19

I have been wanting to learn how to make good cinnamon rolls for a long time. I found a yummy recipe online that we tried this afternoon. Apple cider cinnamon rolls were so so good. The kids had fun helping too. I learned a few things that I will do differently on my next attempt! Yum!

September 18

First football game of the season! Allen is the head coach for Carter's team this year. They're both having so much fun! Allen is forever coming up with plays to teach the boys and Carter loves having Allen as the coach!

September 17

Today we got our annual family pictures taken! I've been so excited for my friend Liz to take these pictures and have been putting together our outfits for the better part of 2 months. I am so thrilled to have our first picture of our entire family together! (Picture to come)

September 16

I honestly cannot believe how crazy busy we are this school. We have so much going on - preschool, dance for both older girls, scouts, Young Mens, Football and piano. I've been trying to find a good solution for our calendaring and this is working for now. I even had to color coordinate each of the kids' schedules to keep it all straight.

September 15

Today I was moving the chairs out to mop the kitchen and Addison brought her scooter in from the garage. It was so random but I let her ride around the kitchen for a few minutes before I mopped. She wanted to keep it in the house for the rest of the day but I finally snuck it out when she wasn't looking.

September 14

I wanted a cute banner for my fireplace that I could use in both September and November (I have a banner for October). With my new love of banners this one came together pretty quickly. Chelsea and I worked on it together and finished in an afternoon. I love it's simplicity and the colors and that I only used what I had on hand!

September 13

Tonight I asked the kids to set the table and instead of using a placemat, Addison used her blanket (named Spotty). It cracked me up. She is very attached to her blanket and was very upset when we made her use a real placemat instead!

September 12

More signs of the season! I planted fall mums today and love how pretty they are. Fall is my favorite and I love the bit of color it brings to my porch!

September 11

I cannot believe it has been 10 years since the attacks on the World Trade Center towers. We wanted to help the kids understand in an appropriate way what happened on that day since they have heard us talk about it so much. I found a 10 minute video on YouTube that gave a timeline of the day and used actual footage from it. We let the kids watch it tonight and answered their questions. It is so important that we never forget or let future generations not understand what an important and impactful event 9/11 was for our country.

September 10

This is the chore I dread the most every season - changing the closets over. Ugh. Such a huge hassle. It has been unseasonably chilly the last few days and I really needed to get an inventory on what the kids have and need for the fall/winter so it was time. It took me TWO full days to get it done this year. The girls even had to sleep in the bonus room because there was stuff all over their room. Good thing I did it though as Addison probably has 60 outfits for fall already (almost all hand-me-downs from Makenna and some of her cousins)

September 9

Addison seriously adores these busy bags I made for her. This is her favorite activity so far - sticking circle stickers on the pages to make letters. She will sit and do it for a long time and always until she runs out of worksheets. And dang, I love this picture. She is such a fun, spunky and darling little gal!

September 8

At long last Addison has started preschool. She has been waiting for this day since the big kids started school and asked every day if she was going to Miss Debra's house yet. She is beyond ready for preschool. Our setup this year is awesome. She is going to my friend who lives across the street. She is a great teacher and I can't beat the convenience!

September 7

7 months on September 7th! I know I say it every month but we just love this girl to pieces. She is truly the best and most easy going baby around. She is a great eater, great sleeper, great nurser and so happy. She laughs all the time and is just so pleasant! We are so blessed to have her in our family! It doesn't hurt that she is also so squishy, cute and cuddly!

September 6

Today Carter had his first project of the year due. He had to make a family tree that represented at least 4 generations. We had a good time with this project gathering extended family pictures and finding a way to display them. He also had to interview a family member and ask them certain questions about his/her life. He chose to interview my dad and learned some fun things about him. He presented his project today and did a great job! His teacher was most impressed that we had pictures of all 4+ generations!

September 5

It was fun to spend time with mom and dad this weekend. I took a picture of them together to use for a school project Carter is doing but I also just really wanted a current picture of them together. They are wonderful parents and grandparents and I'm so grateful for them in our lives!

September 4

A fun surprise from the weekend is that Jon and Nicole happened to be in AZ at the same time we were. They flew down to buy Morgan a new car and drive it home. We were only together for a few hours but had so much fun anyway. And look at that new cute car!

September 3

We happened to be in Taylor during the annual Sweet Corn Festival and decided to join in the festivities. We watched the parade where lots of candy was scored, had some yummy fair food, participated in the kids rodeo and played in the bounce house. We all had a great time!

September 2

We decided to take a quick trip to Show Low/ Taylor for the weekend for Uncle Norris and Aunt Fawnette's 50th wedding anniversary. The kids had a ball playing with Grandma Frost's dress ups and were laughing so hard wearing these wigs around everywhere!

September 1

Another reorganization project has been to get our food storage organized and accounted for to figure out how much more we need. I love having it out where I can see and use it more regularly. And how fun that Thrive uses such pretty labels on their packaging!

August 31

More organization/purging projects. We finally got some more storage for our garage. We were so organized in our AZ home and have not had the kind of storage we needed since we left. I was going crazy never being able to find anything I needed in the garage so we got serious about it this weekend. Allen installed this overhead storage bin and I can get all TWENTY boxes of my seasonal decor up there now. We're making good progress but have lots more to do!

August 30

At a scout BBQ last week someone slipped Emery a cheese puff and she was in HEAVEN. She ate about 50 that night. I found some "natural" puffs at Trader Joe's and she has loved them. My big kids are jealous because I save them just for her because it is hard to find things she can eat with no teeth!

August 29

I know I always have a few laundry pictures in my 365 book every year. It just takes up SO MANY hours of my time every week to manage the laundry situation around here. Most Mondays I spend the ENTIRE day washing, drying and folding. It's my least favorite chore but represents so much of my daily grind.

August 28

We have instituted a new allowance system for this school year. So far it is working out great and the kids are really motivated and independent because of it. It is just what we've all needed. The kids can earn $1 per weekday by completing certain tasks. They each have a "bank account" through us and we deposit their money at FHE each week. The kids are now in charge of buying bday presents for their friends and for their own spending money for our trips. They are being much more careful with what they ask for and buy with their money.

August 26

This week's RS lesson was on personal history. I am good about scrapbooking and blogging but have not been good about writing down things my kids say and do for their own personal records. I went out and bought journals for them today and hope that I can stay motivated to write in them at least once a week.

August 25

I've been putting together some toddler busy bags for Addison for the past couple weeks. I LOVE this idea and wish I had used it with my older kids. Each bag has an activity in it. I love that I can grab one or two bags and keep Addison busy while I am running errands, at appointments or nursing Emery. It is working great for my nursing time because Ems is at the "getting distracted by everything" phase. The bags keep Addison quiet. I also love all the fun homeschool/education blogs I have found while looking for bag ideas!

August 24

Since the kids have been back in school I've been cleaning, organizing and purging like crazy. It feels so great. Today I worked on my pantry and got it way more organized and I love it. I have these bins all throughout the pantry for different things - snacks, baking supplies, pasta, etc. Basically if I can get it in a bin, it is!

August 23

This baby is cute. I love her to pieces. She is growing up too fast.

August 22

Carter and Makenna were having a hard time getting along this afternoon so we assigned them an extra chore. This not was taped to my bedroom door. It says, "It's a hard not (knock) life for us." Oh, this had us cracking up so hard. Kids are hysterical. I guess introducing them to Annie does have it's drawbacks.

August 21

After lots of consideration we decided we cannot keep Luna in our backyard. We don't have enough shade for her or any place for her to burrow. We decided to take her to our friends house because they have turtle habitat set up in their backyard. Luna will be their 5th turtle and we're happy to know she is going to a good home! The kids all wanted to carry her up to the Meredith's house so we let them work together!

August 20

Today it was pouring rain outside and I saw this little turtle walking across our back porch. I grabbed the kids and showed them and they were so excited that we decided to put her in a bucket and keep her for awhile. The kids have been totally enamoured by her and we have had fun researching turtle habitats. We found that turtles love to eat anything red so she snacked on some tomatoes and strawberries. We think she is some one's pet because she has an L on her back. The kids are calling her Luna.

August 19

My plan is to take the kids to do something fun on Friday afternoons. We have piano lessons in the morning and we get the house cleaned up but then we get to play. Today we hit the Aquarium and botanic gardens and had a great time. This is at the end of the trip and the kids wanted to play in the sand for awhile. It worked out great because Emery was ready

to eat. It was hot so we stopped for a cold treat on the way home (as usual!)

August 18

This is pretty much my normal morning routine. I drop the kids off at school and then hit the McDonald's drive through on my way home for my morning Diet Coke. I might be addicted ;)

August 17

After quite big hassle we have finally purchased Allen a new car! This is the 3rd car we have tried to buy and this was the one that finally went through. Both the other cars we tried to buy were bought out from under us. Allen is happy for a car upgrade and I'm happy that we got such a good deal on a car that fits nicely in our budget.

August 16

Totally adorable and impromptu picture this afternoon. The kids had ice cream after lunch and I went to take a funny picture of Addie. The big kids jumped in and I got this super cute picture of my 3 messy kiddos. Love!

August 15

I love this picture. It's not the best lighting or the best composition but I LOVE how it captures the moment in our family perfectly! Emery was trying some new food and the kids were so into watching her and how she would react. It was so much fun to watch them watch her!

August 14

I will freely admit that I am not a fan of TV for kids in the morning. We never, ever turn the tv before lunch and often not at all. I was really tired from having Allen out of town all week so I let the kids watch some Disney channel this morning so I could sleep in a bit. They were seriously in heaven. It was such a treat for them!

August 13

Makenna woke up early and was playing with Emery on our bed. She requested that I take some pictures so they could be the POTD. Love seeing my big kids love on Emery so much. Having a baby with older kids has been a blast!

August 12

What is it about babies and paper? All of my kids have loved crumpling, tearing and eating paper right around this age. Today I gave Ems an empty chip bag and she was in serious hog heaven with that thing. She played with it for a really long time. I liked that nothing could come off in her mouth. Win-win.

August 11

We love popcorn at our house. But it can get pricey buying the boxed microwave popcorn. A few weeks ago I spotted this bowl at Target that you can pop popcorn in the microwave in. It was pretty cheap so I bought it on a whim. We LOVE this thing! It works perfectly and we have loved finding different seasoning combinations for the popcorn. Our current favorite is a mixture of cajun seasoning and dry ranch powder. Seriously delicious! We've definitely made up for the cost of the bowl just in the last month!

August 10

I have a huge list of projects that I want to do now that the older kids are back in school. This is my project from this week. I made this adorable banner for my girls bedroom. It was a really simple project and the entire thing only took me about 3 hours but I think it adds so much to their room. I see lots more fun banners in my decorating future!

August 9

Of course I love changing my house up for every season/holiday and last year I started decorating for BTS. These are my jars for the month - apples, rulers, crayons and wooden letters. So cute! On my dining room table I have a mini-chalkboard, metal school bus and a globe. I love celebrating even the everyday stuff like heading back to school!

August 8

Emery is 6 months old (officially yesterday). She is such a joy to our family. She is the happiest and most chill baby ever. She will smile and laugh at anyone and anything. She has gotten tons better about eating solids, is sitting up by herself and playing with toys, sleeps through the night most nights and loves to put things in her mouth. We love her to pieces!

August 7

First Day of School! The kids were so excited to take off this morning. Allen stayed home late to have breakfast with the kids, we took pictures and then headed off to school. The kids were so excited to see their friends after the summer. Carter did not even want me to walk him to class. I helped Makenna to her classroom with her supplies and asked her if she wanted me to stay for a bit. She saw her friends, said no and bopped right into her classroom. After school they both said they had a great day!

August 6

More BTS prep this weekend. Today we made super yummy caramel apples for the kids to take to their teachers on the first day. The kids had a lot of fun putting these together. We also packed backpacks with new supplies and the three older kids got father's blessings from Allen. I think we are officially ready!

August 5

Carter attended Star Wars camp this week and had a blast! My friend Bethany hosted the camp and she did an incredible job with different crafts and activities for the kids every day. He loved his Padowan outfit and wore it every day all week (I did wash it a couple times in between wearings). It was a great way for him to wrap up summer break.

August 4

With school starting next week our days at the pool are definitely numbered. I will be sad when the hooks in the laundry room no longer hold towels and swimsuits but backpacks and hoodies. I love summer!

August 3

I've wanted to join a produce co-op in NM since we've moved here. It has taken me awhile to track down one that will work for our family. Today we got our first produce box. I pay a few extra dollars per week to have it delivered to our door. Heaven. I am so excited to have this service, to eat locally grown and organic produce, and to have our family try a bunch of new things. This week we got to try Pluots (apricot/plum hybrid) and they were so yummy!

August 2

More BTS preparation. All of our new school shoes! Addison got the purple tennies because she has a ton of Makenna's old shoes. Both Carter and Makenna have some shoes that fit from next year but they've also outgrown some staples. The kids have to wear athletic shoes for school to be able to play on the playground so I try to buy the cutest girl tennies I can since they will be worn with skirts/dresses too. Luckily this year Makenna likes the Chucks look so we have several pairs in different colors for school.

August 1

Back to school madness has begun. We have just over a week until the first day of school and I have started getting the kids organized. First up, new backpacks for everyone. Carter wanted an across-the-shoulder type bag this year which is probably about the first time he's ever had an opinion about anything clothes/accessory relate - ever. Addie got the mini-backpack with cupcakes for preschool and Kenna got the cute owl backpack.