As much as we look forward to summer, I think most of the people in this house look forward to fall possibly even more. Football, the air is cooler, football, the Balloon Fiesta, football, pumpkin spice lattes, football, and did I forget one? Oh yeah. Football. 😉

I showed Little Miss this picture of her the other day and she immediately lit up and said, “Wuv hair!” I said, “You love her hair?” She said, “Uh-huh!” I said, “Honey, that’s you” and she got so happy and just patted her hair all proudly. Ha! Her hair has been SO curly this summer!

Blueberry Oatmeal FTW.

The Solar Eclipse is something we have been counting down the minutes to for WEEKS and it dawned dark and cloudy. 🙁 We were so sad! We watched the clouds carefully and barely saw the beginning of it before the cloud cover took over again. I brought the kids back inside and Nathan sat down on the couch, closed his eyes and prayed for the clouds to leave. I started going through math with him, looked up and sunny skies were out ten minutes later. 😉 Somehow, we had a patch of cloud-less sky the rest of the eclipse and Nathan just kept yelling, “GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS!”, while Parker kept running around shouting, “GOD MADE US! GOD MADE THE SUN!” Ha! Love when God works in ways obvious to my kids!

In total amazement. This was such a fun thing to experience with him!

This one obviously had no idea what was going on, but she knew her brothers kept putting the glasses on and shrieking, so she had to copy them. Such a ham. 😉 She kills me.

What a wonderful day!

And, all of a sudden, summer was over.

SO crazy since I feel like we spent most of our spring looking forward to summer! 😉 It came and went in a hurry (like it always does).

Something we learned this year: First Day of School when homeschooling looks a little bit different than a normal first day of school. 😉 Ha! Since Jon is a teacher, we are basically following his school schedule, so the first day the kids were in class was the first day we were in class.

I built it up all weekend, Monday morning came, we got up, ate breakfast, got dressed and marched outside because goodness knows we are still going to take decent pictures every year. 😉

FIRST GRADE. How? When? Why? He’s too big now.

Someone was really excited that he got to hold a sign too. 😉

Three little crazies. And I love them so.

So, then we walked back inside and started school. Ha! It was a little bit of a wait a second moment and honestly, I spent a good part of the first day (read: week) panicking that we’d made a horrible mistake and we were going to ruin our children forever, but after the panic subsided, I remembered why we decided to homeschool this year. And it really has been fun. 🙂

Here’s to a great school year!

Happy back to school everyone!!

We are so sad that the summer is over! Mostly because during the summer, Jon only has one job. 😉 During the school year, he works as both a special-education teacher and a realtor and so we all get excited when he’s home for the mornings in the summer. A certain little miss was NOT happy about Dad not being home when she woke up anymore.

(Also, BTW, you don’t need to be in New Mexico for Jon to help you if you need a house. Email me and I’ll let you know how to get in touch with him! 😉 )

Last year, we did a “university model” Christian school in town with Nathan and really and truly LOVED it, but when thinking ahead to the future and that we would have three kids and thus, three tuitions at the school, we decided maybe we should explore other venues. 😉 This year, we are going to be homeschooling and two things: 1) I am scared to death and, 2) I am super excited. Jon had to report back to his work a week before the students came, so we took that week to do a “soft start” to school and just did a lot of fun crafts and review work. The boys loved it and honestly, I felt a little bit better after doing that. 😉 But pray for us all the same! Ha!

We ended our summer with the dentist. This cracked me up – Eisley holding one of Nathan’s hands and Parker holding the other. They hero worship him around here.

Eisley even had her first unofficial checkup after Parker and did FANTASTIC. Behold the third child who just wants to do everything exactly like her brothers. 😉 Ha!

Wednesday, Eisley was just extra fussy and only wanted to be held in the carrier all day. I figured it was teething but then that afternoon, she started running a fever. 🙁

By ten o’clock, she was at 102.5 while on Motrin, so we gave her lots of ice water and ice cream and let her snuggle in our laps while watching Cinderella for the first time (which she LOVED – all I heard the next day was “O-rella? O-rella?”). By the next morning, she was basically back to normal, so it must have been some weird 24-hour thing. Always hate seeing my babies sick. 🙁

Eisley’s new favorite thing in our house is the little step stool we keep in the bathroom for Parker to wash his hands. Everytime I turn around, she’s carrying that stool somewhere so she can get into something. On this day, I was getting ready to make cookies and she was immediately right next to me. “I hulp?”

Something seems to be missing… 😉 That girl. Notice the stool. She is constantly into something these days. The boys were hard at her age because they just had (and have!) SO MUCH energy. Eisley is completely different because she’s not extra energetic, but she is a problem-solver in ways the boys never were and her dexterity is ridiculous. I am childproofing in ways I never ever have had to do before! And praying even harder for my girl’s safety!

I don’t even know where the summer went, but somehow, here we are. Right on the brink of Fall and school is starting back up! This is always the weird part of the year where it’s still so hot outside that it doesn’t seem like we should be back in a routine. 😉

The kids found their costume box the other day. This is what happens when you have two older brothers. Ha!

Love this of the boys out playing hockey. Good thing I didn’t put that toddler golf set in the giveaway pile yet. 😉

My dad has an incredible workshop at their new house and he’s made some amazing things! We were over there for family dinner and the boys both got inspired to go build something the next morning. So, all we heard were hammers for awhile. Thankfully no thumbs were injured in the process.

These crazies. I often get so caught up in the day to day of just everything that I don’t stop to really remember or appreciate the gift each of them is to me. We are not promised a set number of days, but I am so thankful for each and every one with these three pajama-heads.

Thirty-five years ago today, these two got married.

I am so thankful for their marriage, for their legacy and for their love – both for each other and for Jesus.

I think they’ve only gotten better looking with the years. 😉

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!! May this God bless you and keep you both for another thirty-five years! I love you so much!

I can’t believe that next week is the start of Normal Life again around here! We have loved this summer so much (mostly because Jon only has one job during the summer). A part of me is ready for our regularly scheduled programming – I think I always get this way around the first part of August – but I’m sad to see the summer end.

Three boys watching their dads play softball. Love this – it had poured rain right before the game, so everything was soaking wet and these giant ants were EVERYWHERE. It was yucky. Thankfully, we had a towel in the car. 😉

Nathan and Eisley had well-child checks one morning, so Jon took the morning off of real estate work and took Parker out for donuts and hot chocolate. Based on the gigantic smile that never left his face the rest of the day and how he talked about it the whole rest of the day and next day, I think he had the time of his life. So precious!

Little sleeping beauty girl. Love how she snuggles up with her Bunny every night. And every day. She’s rarely without her. 😉

These two cousins are in that stage where they are either the best of friends or the worst of enemies. 😉 Ha! They are so cute together though!! Also, ice cream on the porch should be a requirement for  summer evenings.

Joel and Nathan’s birthdays are within four days of each other, so we’ve done several joint birthday things over the years. This year, we did a low-key family dinner with the old Lunch Bunch crew who still live in Albuquerque and it was SO much fun. The kids played in the rain outside, the adults all laughed so hard most of us were crying, we stuffed ourselves with pizza and ice cream and it was just the sweetest time with dear, dear friends who have known us for what seems like forever.

When I was pregnant with Eisley, we had this hope that maybe, just MAYBE, this one would be a little less nuts than her brothers. Maybe, we were going to have a calm, chill baby this time. Well, that is definitely NOT the case. 😉 She is crazy like the boys and loves nothing more than to entertain us every night at the dinner table. And I love her with all my heart and wouldn’t change one single spaghetti-covered curly hair on her head. 😉

Off to go soak up the last of the summer!