Rayleigh has been out of school all month and she and Parker both don't start school again until after Labor Day. We have had such a fabulously fun Summer. We've spent so much time with cousins, at the beach, going new places, and playing hard that we all felt the need to slow down and be home bodies for a while. Almost every day, Jack will crash somewhere and sleep for a few minutes. I wish the poor kid would just take a real nap in a real bed! It's nice for the baby to get both of her naps each day- although they called us to the nursery and she picked up some germs on day 1 and hasn't been able to fight it off completely. So, the staying home and napping is good for her.
A saintly woman in our ward agreed to let her daughter host a "preschool" class in her home for 3 weeks with some of the 4 year olds in the ward. Rayleigh had the BEST time! She is obsessed with writing lately and loves to sit down at the table and draw or write her name. She has me spell out everyone's names and she will copy it down. I'm so profoundly proud of her! Parker has been interested in cooking so he made us a delicious batch of home made mac-n-cheese one day and lava cakes another! He's been begging me to let him cook more things! We are both anxious for school to start- he's super excited and we are hoping this home school adventure is all we dreamed of and more!
The day before Ella's birthday she was not feeling well and would NOT go down for a nap. I tried several times by rocking her and singing to her to get her to close her eyes and fall asleep but she just wouldn't. Being tired made her extra clingy so I held her all day until finally I just decided to hold her and rock her for as long as it took for her to fall asleep. My older 3 have grown up so much lately and will be self sufficient and quiet when I need them to be which is very very nice. They let me cuddle on her for about an hour and then she woke up. I think she knew it was the last day she would be a "baby" baby. She knew I needed all the extra cuddles. They all helped me blow up balloons and decorate the house for Ella so I took them all to Snow Station for a yummy treat! Jack was too tired and kept running off and being naughty. But then I thought, "I'll just drive them through McDonald's for dinner" since I was in such a generous mood but Rayleigh was hitting Jack and I had to put her on time out right there on the curb in the drive through. Sometimes you try SO hard to be a nice, fun mom and your kids just ruin it! Ohhh well, they are my favorite humans ever in all existence and I love them more than my heart can handle. I truly feel so blessed to be able to spend most of my time with them and for the ability to stay home with them- even if they do drive me crazy sometimes. I wouldn't change a thing (ok, maybe having Tanner home once in a while would be nice).
Tanner worked until 5am one night. Like 8am Monday morning to 5am Tuesday morning, home for 3 hours of sleep and then back to work. Something about his Business Office Manager stealing money.... But I booked us a couples massage and even though we didn't say 2 words to each other, we both relished the experience. In all honesty, Tanner's work schedule has been totally fine. We are thriving and happy. We know this wont last forever (both the demands of small children and the demands of a high powered job) so we are living in our season and taking everything for what it's worth- trying our best to create greatness with what we are given. And we REALLY enjoy the weekends.
Other than that, there's been a lot of fort building, cooking, movie watching, reading, coloring (sometimes on the walls or our bodies), swimming, gardening, dancing, and cuddling going on around here. Home is a good place to be.
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| Running in the sprinklers |
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| What the heck? Tanner ordered a massive portable AC unit for work and had it delivered to our house. |
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| The snuggliest day |
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| We have 17 kids in the nursery and while I'm happy to finally share a calling with Tanner, this is a high energy calling! Thank goodness for Kathy Brown! |
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| When Daddy is home... |
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| Why? |
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| I wrote myself this letter at the end of my Senior year of High School. I found it the other day and it's crazy how all of these things completely apply to my life now, 20 years later! |
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