My sweet boys

Nate came home from school with a treat both yesterday and today. Zach was sad yesterday because he wanted a treat and Nate, all on his own, broke the treat in half to share with Zach. Today, Nate opened his treat and, all on his own, broke the treat in half so that Zach could have some too. I was really touched. They really are very sweet boys. A lot of the times they will play with their baby sister on their own. Nate just asked Zach to stay with Addison so she wouldn't be sad.

Word of the day: overwhelmed

Guest Speaker

So, I went back to UVSC, or now UVU, tonight. When I was at UVSC, one of the classes I took was law society. I guess it's more of a club, but it's a one credit class where they have guest speakers come and talk about various aspects of the law. The professor said he wanted a paralegal to come and speak. A neighbor is taking law society and asked me to come and speak about being a paralegal. SO, I was a UVU last night telling them about my job. Those poor people! I told Jeff beforehand that I didn't know if I could talk for 45 minutes. He told me, after years of listening to me ramble on about my job, that I would have no problem filling the time. Well, he was right and I did run out of time. Hopefully I didn't bore them to death, but I did get a few questions and people seemed pretty attentive, so I think it went well. They've had and ICE agent (immigrations) and a DNA expert come and speak so I'm not that cool, but I think it went well. Me, a guest speaker. Kinda crazy!

reflections

I've thought a bit about life this year and about being a parent. Every once in a while, it still amazes me that I'm a parent to three wonderful children whom I can't imagine life without. They make me laugh, cry, giggle, and full of joy, among other things. It's also made me reflect back about my parents and all that they have done for me. Granted, my childhood wasn't perfect, but whose is. However, being on this side of the fence, I realize that parenthood is not easy. I'm always guessing at what I'm doing and just trying to do the best I can to get through the day. Nate is starting to realize that I'm not so perfect either. It's made me have a better appreciation as to all that my parents have done for me and the sacrifices they made so I could have a happy childhood. I'm so grateful for the childhood I had and the values that I was taught. As I try to teach my children, I hope and pray that they will make wise decisions and choices and just become the best people they can. I fear for them with the crazy world around us. I hope and pray that I will be the type of parent they need to make it in this world. To my parents, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have done, and still do, so much for me.

random thoughts

Jeff went four wheeling this past weekend and had a pretty good time, though all three guys had some mechanical problems with their four-wheelers. His brother had to get a new battery and Jeff has to get new hubs on his bike. Even with the problems, they still had a pretty good time.
While he was away, I tried to get caught up on stuff. I wasn't able to get everything I wanted to done, but I was able to get through all the peaches from our tree. I cut them up and have them in freezer bags. We love to make peach smoothies throughout the year with them. Ok, so I've made it through the apricot tree, the plum tree, and now the peach tree. That just leaves the two apple trees. I've got one fridge full of apples and the other half full. Anyone want apples???? I still have to pick a bunch, but hopefully I'll get through it soon. Jeff's mom offered me grapes so I think I'm making grape juice again this year. Fruit trees are great, but my goodness they can be overwhelming. If you're in the area I'm happy to share!
Finally, this may seem silly but I'm quite proud of myself. While Jeff was gone, I had the car and the truck. Our garage is a two car deep, one car wide. That means we can only pull one car out at at time. While Jeff was gone I had planned on driving the car since it gets much better gas mileage. However, the battery decided to die on the car. Our sweet neighbor was able to take Nate to school (thanks David!) since I was stranded. After Nate got off to school, I was able to put the car in neutral and push it out of the driveway and down by the plum tree so I could get the truck out. Granted, its a small car, but it's still heavy and I felt pretty empowered. Go me! The battery got charged when Jeff got home and it's running, so hopefully he'll get it replaced today and we'll be all good.
Finally, Nate went on his first school field trip on Friday. They went to Hew Haw's farm/pumpkin patch and had a great time. He had been SOOO excited for it, partly because he got to ride a school bus for the first time. They got to pick a pumpkin from the patch and really enjoyed it. We've been to this pumpkin patch in the past with the joy schools I've done for Nate's age, but he thought this was extra special because of the school bus. He loves school and has had a ton of fun with it. He's made Mini-books at school and he loves to read them. We love school!!!

Thanksgiving point gardens

One of the things we did this year was take the boys to Thanksgiving Point Gardens for the first time and it was great. Nate was all about the map and wanting to check on where we were going. Jeff had fun with photos and I just had fun watching my family. Addison was a good girl, but she usually is. Here are a couple of photos:

Boating

In a previous post, I mentioned that we became owners of 1/2 of a boat this year. It's an older boat, but we had fun with it this year. We got it half way through the summer and spent some time at Deer Creek this year. Ok, so Addie and I didn't do a whole lot and, when we did go, she usually sat on the shore, sleeping most of the time. But it's all good. We'll get more adventurous as she gets older. The boys had a lot of fun and are slowly getting braver. It took Nate a while to trust his life jacket, but by the end of the summer he loved swimming around with his life jacket. Zach, on the other hand,is not quite ready to go swimming with a life jacket. He's a boy who likes to be able to touch the ground with his feet. We're hoping next year he'll be more into swimming. Anyhow, here are a couple of photos from one of our first outings.







To date, Jeff is stil the only one who has gotten up on the ski's. Try as I might, I have not yet. Granted I've only been water skiing like 3 times in my entire life, but I'm hoping next year is my year.

3 months

My baby is three months this week. I'm amazed that the time has gone by already. I'm excited that she's getting older and more responsive, but also sad that she's growing up so fast. She was really "talking" to us last night and it was hilarious. She's become very vocal. She also loves to blow bubbles and will have a mouth full of bubbles. I still get comments on her red hair, though she's lost a ton of it. We'll have to see if it grows in red. She's also started teething and drooling a little because of teething, though I think we're a ways from a tooth. She likes to be part of the action
She adores her big brothers and they are very sweet to her. Nathan in particular is very sweet and protective of his baby sister. We were driving in the truck the other day and the boys were talking about Halloween costumes. We have them all picked out and Addison has a dress she's going to wear. Here's the conversation:
Nate: I know what Addison is going to be for Halloween. She's going to be a princess!
Zach: But Addison is already a princess.
Nate: No, she's not, that's just what we call her. She's going to dress like a princess for Halloween

Or it was something like that. I thought it was sweet. They all do call her princess, mainly because Jeff does. Here's a recent photo of our little princess: