FORTY!!!

I can NOT even believe that Nathan could possibly be 40!  How can that be?  I am way to young to be married to such an old geezer *wink*

Really though, I'm happy that his age doesn't bother him... he definitely acts and feels younger than me!

I was going to treat him to a fun night out on his birthday, but he said he really wanted to just spend it at home with the kids- he wanted them to see him blow out his birthday candles- so sweet!  Oh, and cheesecake, he said he definitely wanted cheesecake *grin*  I sure love this man of mine!

Here's to many many more my love!

Pumpkin Patch

Jace was very excited to get to go on a field trip with Hailee's class to Carver Farms.  Sadly, they don't do the big farm tours with hayrides and corn mazes anymore =(  We still had fun on this windy fall day though!

Confirmation

While we certainly felt led to move our kids to Freeman, there was still a degree of angst involved in voluntarily moving them to a different school.  During the time we lived at my parents but while the kids still went to Chester, I frequently heard my kids, especially Bryson, questioning why we were moving... why we couldn't still live in a neighborhood... why they couldn't just stay at Chester...

And though there have been lots of positive confirmations along the way that this was exactly the right thing for our family, any and all doubt was removed this morning in the car on the way to school.  Bryson was just chatting away in the backseat as usual... he was talking about something related to school, when he paused, and then said, "I really love school.  If I could choose, I wouldn't even choose to go back to Chester."

Wow!  What an surprising statement from a boy who, two years prior, claimed he "just wasn't smart."  He's never hated school, but that's only because he loves the social aspect of it too much.  I have absolutely seen a positive change in all of my kids with the move to Freeman, but it's so reassuring to hear them vocalize it completely on their own.

September in Review

We're settling into a nice back-to-school routine.  I hardly know what to do when I only have 1 (one!) preschool kid at home... this is new territory for me.  Sadly, there has been very minimal progress in his potty training, even with him having me all to himself most of the day...

While Jace loves to run errands with me, he isn't used to having no siblings at home to entertain him... he's such a little character though.  At the post office:

Her costumes never cease to amaze:

Cap' 'Marca made a cameo:

We sure are loving these warm early fall days!  Hailee and Jace play outside quite a bit while I do random stuff inside and out.  One day, I came out to her having a full on concert- she had found a long stick the puppies had chewed on which became her microphone stand, and a shorter stick which was her mic- she sang all sorts of songs, both real and some 'newly penned' ones...

Jace typically falls asleep on the way to get the kids from school (or even just the bus!) but apparently kindergarten was especially exhausting this day... she was asleep before we were even halfway home...

Uncle Perry and Jacob rode up past our house and stopped by on their way back to give the kids a ride:

Katrin came with her kids and we went on a hike to the spring up above our house...

 Moments before he fell in:

The kids all had artwork from school they submitted for the Rockford Fair:

Dallin was the only one willing to pose:

We took a hike up to the top of our property last Sunday, it was such a nice hike.  We couldn't believe how well all the kids did- Nathan carried Jace a fair amount of the time, but Hailee just kept going, only needing a little boost from behind on the really steep parts.  We hiked close to 2 miles in all...

Not sure if I'm really ready for the whirlwind the next few months will be with the Holidays!  But, ready or not...