Had a great week!

For the last week, Joe's Mom came to visit us. It was such a great week! It was pretty relaxed (well, as relaxed as you can ever get with my three kiddos around) and we invited Grammie to join in our life for a week. We did school in the mornings, did our afternoon "rests" and then took Grammie all sorts of fun places we go- the library, the hardware store, the pet store, the Emporium (where you can get the best Huckleberry ice cream ever!) the park. Then we would come home and play outside. It is so gorgeous here, the leaves are falling, it is in the 70's, just lovely. We loved having her come visit us and sharing what our days are like!

My dear husband replaced my camera, so I have some pictures of Mom's visit on there. In response to how he broke it.... good question ;) We aren't really sure. He took a very short overnight business trip to California a couple of weeks ago. He didn't want to take his camera (its a bit bulky) so I told him he could take mine. He didn't use it, it was wrapped in his clothes in this bag, but when I pulled it out, the casing was dented and was coming apart. I think it was someone at the airport having a bad day! But I (tentatively) like my new camera and it is good to have one again!

Had a great birthday! We all went to Idaho Falls (which is the "big city" compared to here!) and did a little shopping and went out to lunch. Had to get Issy some new jeans, she is getting so big and running out of hand-me-downs from her girl cousins. Size 6 (slim) jeans! I can't believe my little girl is starting to wear "big girl" clothes. As with most things about my children growing up, I can't quite articulate why this is strange for me. Perhaps because I remember my own mom buying my size 6 jeans? When did my little girl get so big? I digress! My birthday- we came home, Joe grilled some hotdogs, and we had the most delicious pie from Village Inn. It was really just a joyful day. 27 is looking good!

So now that my birthday has come and gone, we are looking forward to Isaac's birthday in a couple of weeks. He is really getting to be a big boy! He just gets sweeter and funnier every day. Such an imaginative little fellow. He was such a tricky infant, very intense, but those qualities are quite endearing now. His highs are very high and his lows are low. He is a bit of a spacey guy, unless he has something to focus on, then he is quite intent on what he is working on.

Alright, I am going for now, but I will try to update later with pictures!

Life is good! (and other stuff)

So my wonderful husband somehow broke my camera (which he has apologized profusely for and promised to rectify the situation) and so for right now, it is just going to be me. And any old pictures I can dredge up.

Things are going really well here! Compared to this time last year, when I was homesick, Joe was working a ton for Crazy Boss, Liam was ill every couple of weeks and very high- maintenance, and things were generally kinda miserable, life is about 100% better. I love the autumn! The crisp fall air is here, the leaves are turning all shades of yellowy orangey redish gold. In a couple of weeks, I think we will have enough leaves to rake and jump in the piles (which is pretty exciting since we didn't ever have enough leaves to do this in our Kansas house).

I am working at the yarn shop on Saturdays which is super relaxing, a chance to sit and knit, to talk to people about yarn and all the beautiful things they could make with it, and a chance to put aside some money for Christmas. Which is good since Issy has decided she really really really would like an American Girl doll (one of the little neighbor girl's has one) from Santa. She brings it up at least once a day, often more.

So my 27th birthday is coming up. Whoa, 27. I am not quite sure why 27 seems like a big deal, compared to say 25 or 26. Perhaps it is because it is all that much closer to 30. Hmmm, I don't feel quite like I should be pushing 30. In my mind, I am still this 21 year old newlywed. But I have lived a lot of life in the last few years. Since 2000, I graduated,went off to college for a year, decided that wasn't my thing and to come back, my mother passed away, got married, had a baby, had another baby, had yet another baby, moved 1,100 miles.... hardly time to breathe! It has been good, very good, though. And I don't mind getting older, sometimes I just forget it is happening. Time goes by so quickly now!

Alright, it is almost time for "school". Until next time!

A visit from Uncle Matt

We got the chance to have Joe's brother out here for almost a whole week with us recently! It was lovely to get to spend time with him since we haven't really been able to- we moved shortly after he got ordained. The kids loved spending time with their Uncle :) Here are some pictures from his visit:

I took him to the other side of the mountain one day (and bless his heart, he endured the car ride with our three littles!) These are a couple of shots of the Tetons from the Jackson side.

The kiddos helped him put his things away after he said Mass for us. How special!



Just a little stroll in the woods

So yeah....

The ants are gone. Thank goodness!

Edited to Add: In all my searching I never figured out where they came from. There were several dead ones under the bed, but after I started cleaning up, I didn't see any more alive. And there was no apparent "line of marching ants" from anywhere. Our best guess was that they came in on the dogs (I had seen a lot of the ants under the tree where the dogs like to sit), since the pups sleep on the floor in our room at night.

I did super cleaning in the room that day: washed all the bedding, lifted up the bedframe and vacuumed under the bed and did the little vacuum around all the floorboards. It was so weird, but we are grateful to have our bed to ourselves again. Oh wait, except for that pesky little toddler we share it with for a few hours each night :P He is such a bed hog!

If you hang in here with me, you get some randomness from time to time

Joe and I went to bed together last night, to do some reading and get to sleep early. As we were sitting there, an ant with wings was crawling across Joe's shoulder. I brushed it off and didn't think much of it. I had been seeing them around lately- a few around the house, but a lot outside.

Couple minutes later, we saw another. Then another. In the span of about 20 minutes, we must have seen 8 or 10, including one that bit Joe. Deeply perplexing. Window wasn't open. There are no visible cracks to the outside of the house. So why our bedroom? Very weird.

Decide to go to sleep, after killing a few more. As I am trying to fall asleep, one crawls up my neck (heebie-jeebies, seriously) and when I turn over, one crawled in my ear. I can't handle things that are crawling into my crevices, so I decide to sleep on the couch. Not bothered by a single one out there.

I came in at 5:30 to nurse Liam and when I wake up again one is crawling across my forehead. Joe got bit again last night. WHAT IS UP WITH THE FLYING, BITING ANTS!?

So after my shower, I stripped the bed, looking for any evidence of a place they were coming from. I am going to wash the blankets today. I turn over the mattress, lift up the box springs and look inside, nothing. I have nothing. There were a few dead ones under the bed, but no trail of live ones coming from someplace. Extremely vexing. I am going to do a good vacuuming and washing the bedding and pray that they go away. Darned ants.

So now that I have gotten that disturbing, yucky story out of the way, I'll tell you about the happy in our lives. I love homeschooling :) We started homeschooling out of necessity, but three weeks into it, I am surprised by how much I enjoy it. It gives a nice rhythm to our day, and I love seeing Issy learn new things, I love watching them play together and build community in a way I hadn't noticed before. They are each other's best playmates and friends and I am able to see the domestic church in action. It does this Mama's heart good.

I realize that there are struggles to be had and things won't always be peaches and roses, but for now I am basking in our "homeschooling honeymoon" :)

Busy Busy September

It has been crazy over here. Good crazy. At the end of August, my sister, her kids and my Dad visited. We began homeschooling the week after they left then Joe's brother, came to visit and now we are in a down week again before Joe's Mom visits. Hooray for visitors!

So here are some pictures from Michelle and Dad's visit:

First day of Homeschool!

I have a ton of updates I need to make, but I thought I would start here. Just a few pictures from our first day of school. We have some kinks to work out (mainly how to keep Liam occupied without distracting Issy) but it went fairly well. It is going to be an exciting year!