Layout Per Day Again

As promised, I want to post some pages that I've done recently. I'm working on a lecture that I've giving tomorrow, so I'm not doing much else tonight. I'm going to post in somewhat random order so I apologize ahead of time. I didn't do much scrapping this summer at all! That's why I'm trying to do a page a day for September.


These are a couple of pages I did in June and August. The top one is of DS#3's love for buses. That has been surpassed somewhat by his love for trains. The second one is about DS#3 falling asleep while in the stroller. He was in that stroller quite a bit during our trip to DC.



These next two use pictures from our trip to Colorado in 2003 when the boys were very small, DD was a baby, and DS#3 wasn't even an apple in DH's eye.

These are absolutely adorable photos of DS#3 falling asleep in a semi-standing position on the bottom step of our stairs. He was getting sick plus he had an exhausting morning and needed a nap.


These two are some pictures from our trip to Disney in September of 2007. This was our first stay at the Polynesian Resort and we had a fabulous time.


The above two pages showcase pictures of a 2 1/2 year old DS#2. Isn't the just the cutest?

This one shows DS#1 making funny faces with his friend when they were both about 7 years old. I miss my little DS#1!

This one shows DS#1 and DS#2 making funny faces. I think that was just the age where they would have a funny face every time I pulled out the camera!

This layout shows DH and DS#1 practicing their Bo Staff form from their karate class in the backyard so they wouldn't beat up any of our inside furniture. Look how intense (and little) DS#1 looks!

DH took all of these pictures of our neighbors and neighborhood back in September of 2002 when we got our first digital camera. We've been all digital now for about three or four years. I can't ever go back to film--digital is so much more convenient!

Finally, this layout shows DS#1 in February of this year when he was starting to really become fascinated with trains. He is currently quite obsessed with trains and he'll hardly go anywhere without them.

I have one more page I've done this month, but that is on the other computer, so I won't post it here. I'm proud of myself for getting all of these (except the top two above) done this month. Wish me luck for being able to get one page a day done for the rest of the month!

Nerf Gun Wars and Other Fun Weekend Photos

Did I already mention how we had so much fun this past weekend? Here's more evidence. The boys here are using the desk chairs as both their vehicles and their shields. That was some Nerf Gun War!

I took this picture on Sunday morning. My sister has a two story entryway, and somehow one of the suction cup-type darts got stuck up where the ceiling meets the wall. They were all trying to shoot down that dart and that entertained them for most of the morning. At one point they used some bean bags and one got stuck above the door, but DS#1 could reach that one by standing on a chair. They got a second suction cup dart stuck up there too, but that one ended up falling off on its own. In the end, they never were able to shoot that dart down.

Speaking of Nerf Gun Wars, this is a picture of the girls with their Nerf guns. I just think the look on my niece A's face is just hilarious! She's the one in the middle. DD also made me laugh. She really wanted to point that gun at me while I was taking the picture. Also, notice how her right hip is sort of thrown to one side? She is such a poser that I have to laugh!

This is what DS#3 was doing all weekend. He was playing with my nephew's old trains. DS#2 and my nephew N helped build the tracks. They even seemed to be having more fun than DS#3 at one point. You can also see DS#1 in the background. He brought his laptop partly so he could do his World Geography homework. After he finished, however, he was playing games and checking his Facebook page. That's what DS#1 was doing all weekend. ;)

My sister has this Jelly Belly dispenser on her counter. This is a close-up of DS#3 getting some jelly beans out of that dispenser. He loves jelly beans and kept asking for more. He actually only had three toddler handfuls before he decided on his own that he had enough. I love how I can see his fine motor skills at work here.

This photo is one of my favorites, of course because all of the kids are in the picture. I didn't get to grow up very close to my cousins because we lived so far away. It's wonderful that not only do my kids get to play with their cousins, they also get along so well with them.

C's 40th Bday Party

As I stated in my last blog post, we were at my sister C's house this weekend. Her DH wanted to do something special for her upcoming 40th birthday. At first he had this big surprise block party planned, but when she got wind of it, she emphatically told him that she did NOT want a big party. So yesterday was the scaled down version. This is the food spread, mostly from P.F. Chang's, but also some desserts courtesy of La Madeleine and my mom. All of my family was there, but also C's in-laws came to town for this, and one couple they are close to also attended.

The birthday cake was a fruit tart from La Madeleine. My sister M had a "4" candle but no "0", so they joked about C turning "4". I love this picture of C blowing out her candle because of how the kids are so intensely focused on the candle, even DS#3. I also love how I can tell that DS#1 is talking to his little brother to focus on the birthday candle. Just before this, DS#3 had been laying in my lap after he asked for his "turp toth" (burp cloth), a sure sign that he was tired, even after his three hour afternoon nap.

C got a Michael's gift card from her friends, very appropriate for this scrapbooker. She got some nice hoop earrings from her in-laws. My sister M gave her a Coach bag that she bought at the Coach outlet store near here last week. I got her a house cleaning by the lady that clean's M's house. The big present, however, came from her DH. This is the look on her face when her DH surprised her with a 4-day cruise for the two of them!

This is C's reaction to the present. She was SO surprised and so happy about the present! Her kids immediately asked if they were going on the cruise too, and then when they were told they weren't, they asked who was going to take care of them. C's DH had already asked my sister M and my parents to help him out with that. You did good, J!

After that was over, the kids just played and played. They will need a few days of early bedtimes to make up for their lack of sleep this weekend! They all had Nerf guns and they were running around the house shooting at each other, sometimes getting some innocent (adult) bystanders. At one point, their friend K got a Nerf gun and started running after and shooting the kids! DS#1 didn't even have a gun, so he started just throwing the Nerf darts at people. They kept the rest of us sufficiently entertained.

One more fun thing happened. C's DH had this picture of himself at age 12 or 13 on his laptop. He was VERY thin, almost sickly looking, and in the picture, he was posing like a muscle man and sucking in his gut, or what was supposed to be his gut. I don't think you can get a good look at that picture in this picture, but that's what is on the laptop. He got my nephew N to post like that. N is also very thin. The girls got wind of that and wanted to pose too, so I snapped this fun picture of all of them posing.

I'll try to post a few more pics in the coming days. We all really have so much fun visiting my family. I wish we lived closer to each other. I was talking to C this morning about how we both don't have any close female friends. My sisters are my best friends. I love that! Happy Birthday, C!

Staying Out of the Rain

Our area has been catching up on rain the past week or so. Poor DS#3 hasn't had his outdoor play time lately as a result, so we took him to an indoor play area at Ingram Park Mall called "Simon Kidgits" after the company that runs the mall. It's a nice little area with small play structures perfect for the toddler set.

At first DS#3 stuck near to DH and me. He seemed to enjoy just looking at the other kids playing. There were really only about six kids there. I finally took him to the small slide shaped like an armadillo and he started playing. Finally we got a few smiles out of him.

He didn't play as "hard" as he usually does at the outdoor playground that DH likes to take him to, but he did seem to have fun. He would play on a few things then run back to where DH and I were sitting. We ate in the food court and then he wanted to play some more. DH and I were having a conversation when we realized that he was sitting next to us again just watching the other kids play. We decided that it was time to go at that point.

As I mentioned earlier, we've been getting lots of rainfall recently, so much so that DD's first two games (tonight and tomorrow morning) were cancelled. We found out this afternoon around 2PM that DS#1's game tomorrow morning was also cancelled. DS#2 has a "bye" week. That left us free to go to Houston to visit my family a little early. Despite the rain, traffic was moving along well until we got to a point a little over an hour away. We were basically stopped for about 50 minutes when traffic suddenly started moving again. Now we're at my dear sister's house. Here no matter what we'll all enjoy ourselves whether or not it keeps raining.

Calm Before The Storm

I took DS#3 for his haircut today. We've been taking him to this place called Sharkey's Cuts for Kids for a while now. I took him the first time and DH took him the last couple of times. Apparently the last time, he didn't cry at all. Today he seemed very calm when we first walked in and he wanted to get in the Lightning McQueen car. He was looking down, though, and I sensed that a change in mood was coming. That's when I took this picture. After a couple of minutes, he decided that he wanted out of the Lightning McQueen car. *SIGH* Then, he started crying and he cried through the whole haircut.

One reason why we go to this place is that they just roll with it and just get the haircut done quickly. We were joking around about how I was torn between trying to comfort him and wanting to take video so I could show it to him when he gets older and hopefully doesn't hate haircuts anymore. We also joked about how it would be funny if he still did this when he was 40--umm, no. Actually, I told her that once he's 18, he'll be out of my hands. In any case, I took one picture to document the sad, crying, pleading face as well as the finished haircut.

There was a toy train at the checkout counter. It's one of those that you can attach a balloon too and when the balloon is blown up and then released, the train whistles as the air rushing out of the balloon propels it forward. He wanted it, it was only $3, so I bought it for him. I may have been joking, but I still felt bad for my poor little guy.

Wendy's Baconator

Today DS#1 stayed after school to work on his Photoshop assignments that were missing that I mentioned in yesterday's post. Luckily, his teacher didn't count them as late because he did see DS#1 working on them in class. DH and I also told DS#1 that the teacher was probably more "lenient" because DS#1 had the initiative to ask about the assignments and to volunteer to stay after school to finish them.

The bad part about that was that I stuck around waiting to pick him up. I usually get off of work around 3PM. Since school started, I stay around until 3:30PM so I can pick up DS#1 at 4PM (since his school is very close to where I work). Today I stayed at work until 4PM and waited around for DS#1 to finish for an hour. It took him that long to finish just one of the assignments. We didn't get home until 6PM. Ugh!

Since it was so late, I asked him if he wanted me to pick up something for him to eat before heading home. There is a Wendy's near the school, so he specifically requested the "Baconator" with "meat and cheese only and jalapenos" and a large Chocolate Frosty. I was shocked at how many fat and calories items had, but then I looked at his smiling, satisfied face (that was chewing at the time) and it all seemed worth it. He even said, "I love you, Mama" after he finished swallowing. That made the long wait worth it. ;)

New and Old Things

DH wrote on his blog about how DS#3 was making his trains "talk" to each other this morning. I wish DS#3 had let him take a video! DS#3 did allow DH to take some pictures at the park, though. I love this picture of him--no cheesy smile, just a nice, big, happy smile! He was actually swinging on a swing today. I know that sounds weird, but he's never liked swinging. At most he would just sit in the swing but then he would want to get out as soon as you made the swing move.

This afternoon when I got home, I took this picture because DS#3 was balancing trains on the blinds again. He used to put vehicles in weird places like that, but since then he has only been lining them up on the carpet.

Also today, DS#1, my big boy, looked so defeated when I picked him up from school. He had some trouble with a couple of assignments in his Survey of Design Technology class. They're learning how to use Adobe Photoshop CS4 to manipulate images. Apparently one assignment that he had turned in was blank when the instructor tried to open it. He accidently deleted another assignment today after finishing it. He's always been good at everything at school without trying too hard and this is a new feeling for him. Hopefully he'll settle right in after a while and it'll be easy like everything else is for him.

Lifelong Friends

This is a picture of DD with her dearest and oldest friend M. M is one month younger than DD, but they've known each other since M was six weeks old and in the same "room" at the same daycare. When they were babies, they were the smallest and youngest ones in that room, but they were the "ringleaders". M is one of the few friends that DD gets to be "girly" with. M's mom and I were talking today about how they get along so well. We've never heard them quarrel. I'm sure they don't always agree, but they seem to compromise easily. This photo was taken at the pool today. They even thought of the same pose. Of course, this pose worries their respective fathers...

They spent a lot of time playing with each other this holiday weekend. DS#2 spent a lot of time playing with M's big brother A, who DS#2 has known since they were about 3 years old. Tomorrow we're back to our busy schedule, but for a few days it was nice to take it easy. I even got some scrapping done, mostly using old pictures. I'll try to post them some time this week.

Unexpected Things

Yesterday when we got home from church and eating out for dinner, the garage door would not open. DH found out that it was because the springs were broken. A few years ago something similar happened when we lived in Illinois. At that time the garage door came down on the hood of the Camry mere hours after DS#1 had been playing in that area. We were relieved that no one was hurt then, and we were once again relieved that no car was hurt either. Unfortunately, this being a holiday weekend, it cost us an extra $50 to have someone come out and fix the door. We didn't have much choice, though, because DH didn't think he could lift the very heavy garage door in order to could get my car out to go to work on Tuesday morning. Thankfully, they came out to fix it early this morning.

This also meant that I didn't go shopping with my mom and sister today. I was going to take a separate car because I don't have nearly the "shopping stamina" that they do and I needed to be able to come back early. I could have taken DH's car, but I'm not as comfortable driving it and I didn't want to leave him without a car with the four kids. It was probably a good thing anyway, because the $600 cost of repairing the garage door would have cut into my shopping money plus I would have gotten restless during the hour or so that Mom and Sis spent in the Coach store alone. ;)

Since it is a new week, that meant another trip to Target. My kids have been Target obsessed lately. DD still had her gift card to spend. My mom also gave her a gift card that she had with about $5 left on it and she also gave DS#2 $20 to spend on his beloved Legos. DD wanted some Hannah Montana doll that came with a horse. When we got there she discovered that it was out of her price range, so she got a HM dress-up set instead. That wasn't a surprise, but what did surprise me was that she also wanted to get this small Space Patrol Lego set. She has recently been more interested in Legos. It's good in a way because that gives her something in common with DS#2 and they both get along a little better when they're playing with Legos. DH took this picture just because she looked so excited about the Lego set.

Another unexpected event today was DS#3 taking his sister's HM microphone and singing into it. This picture has a weird tilt mostly because I was trying to capture the action before he stopped. He was tilting his head back and everything. He was SO hilarious! I actually saw this before, in the last week or so. I would hear him "singing" upstairs and I would hear him getting closer and closer until I saw him downstairs singing into the microphone.

Labor Day Visit

My mom and sister arrived today for a visit. Mom was just here last week, but she came this week because my sister was driving--and they plan on going shopping at the outlet mall tomorrow. I don't have the shopping stamina that they do, so I'll probably take a separate car and leave early. The last time they did this, they stayed at the outlet mall ALL DAY.

When my sisters or Mom are here in town, my DD forgets that I'm around. Whereas she usually is fighting with her siblings (and DH) to be the one who sits next to me, she now fights to sit next to my sister. At church tonight she was all the way on the other end of the pew, sitting in between them. In this picture taken at Chili's tonight, she is wedging herself in between them again.

On the bench opposite of where DD and company are sitting, all of my boys are sitting together. DS#3 has been rather clingy today. He didn't even run towards my mom and give her a hug today, even though she was just here last weekend. Of course, he had just awoken from his nap when he first saw her. Here he is pushing DH away because he claimed that the seat next to him was "for mama". Even though it can be a hassle for me sometimes, it does feel good that he still wants me around. :)

This afternoon, DS#1 went to a neighborhood friend's house. He was also there last night when I was at work. On both occasions, it rained on DS#1 as he was walking home from his friend's house. We haven't had good rain like this in several months, so it's nice to see it. Since it has rained when DS#1 is walking outside, his little brother says that he should walk outside all the time so we can get some more rain. :)

Family Outings

First an update on my drama with my contracting company. Today I got a call from one of the vice presidents. She told me that I was right and that they decided that "the right thing to do" would be to give me my four vacation days back. You're damn right that that's the right thing to do! *eyeroll* Now maybe I can stop stressing about it after over 4 weeks of being in limbo! Grrr!

Now on to happier tales... Yesterday was a day off for me, a "comp" day for working last Saturday. DH suggested going for a walk after he dropped off DS#1 at school. Up until yesterday we had a few days of nice weather where, even though it still got up into the mid 90s, there was a nice breeze that actually made it nice to be outside. There is a fairly new park area near our neighborhood that has long walking/jogging paths. It's pleasant to look at the scenery, but it's even better that the paths are shaded.

This is a picture of DH pushing the stroller that DS#3 was riding in. DS#3 was adorable, pointing out the "tees" (trees), "das" (grass), and "dawdies" (doggies) that we saw during the walk. A couple of times there was even an "air pain" (airplane) in the sky. He would point and say, "Look Papa! There's (fill in the blank)!"

Later I got to eat lunch with my friend Jen and her own adorable little 4 1/2 year old boy, and I reminisced about how he was the age DS#3 is now when they moved into town two years ago. I then got to take a nap with DS#3, eat dinner with the family, and then the kids and I went to Target.

I took this picture because I thought it was hilarious that we were taking this little family outing to Target. The kids LOVE to go to Target. We all can usually find a little something to buy. DS#1 actually actively looked for clothing on this trip and he ended up buying three T-shirts. DS#2 wasn't allowed to buy any of the Legos he wanted because he recently bought some. Star Wars Legos are his current obsession, and he counts the days until he can buy another set. DD got a gift card from her godmother for her birthday and it's been burning a hole in her pocket. She didn't end up getting anything, however. This visit happened to be a little rushed because DS#3 found some Thomas the Tank Engine Legos that he desperately wanted to play with. It was too big a set to buy "just because" but it definitely gave me some ideas for Christmas.

Overall, DS#1 came out ahead with some clothing, and DH got to do his own thing at home. I got to spend some time with the kids. It's all good.

Tooth Fairy x 2

DD finally lost a tooth the "normal" way! No dentist had to get involved this time! The "normal" way, however, involved DH brushing DD's teeth before bed yesterday, and causing her tooth to come out. I'm sure DH can describe the experience in more detail on his blog later. The Tooth Fairy gives dollar coins for each tooth lost at our house, so I thought I would take a picture of DD with her coin and her missing lower front left tooth.

Of course I had to take a similar picture of DS#2, who also lost a tooth last night. Because of the two lost teeth, DH had to "buy" a dollar coin from DS#1's stash with a dollar bill since we didn't have enough dollar coins. DS#2 decided to be goofy and put his dollar coin on his eye for his picture. I couldn't complain--at least he was letting me take a picture and showing his personality in the picture. That's all good with me!

What's interesting is the number of pictures it required to get that last picture of DS#2 with the coin on his eye. You see, he kept dropping the coin out of his eye. If this picture looks a little funny, it's because the coin dropped out just after I pressed the shutter release button on my camera. You can see the outline of the coin still on his eye but not a full image because the coin dropped out of sight. This was also a lesson on lighting for DS#2. I took all of these photos without a flash. I thought it was interesting that when I took a picture using the flash and I showed the picture to DS#2, he didn't like the picture using the flash as much as the picture WITHOUT the flash. I'm not going to show that picture here, because I already deleted it, but the color in the flash picture isn't as natural and the image looks more flattened.

Just to show a little more of his personality, DS#2 decided after all of that to put my camera lens cap on his eye for a final photo. His head is tilted back here because he obviously can't squeeze his eye around that huge lens cap so instead he has to balance it on his face. I'm just happy that he let me take all of these photos! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that as you can see, he lost the upper front left tooth this time.

Afterschool Snacks

I brought DS#1 a snack almost every day when I picked him up from his summer camp in July. I've been doing the same thing since school started. Often it's cookies that I buy at work. Yesterday I brought him one of those packages with the six little chocolate-covered donuts. Today I decided that since he had lunch ("A" lunch) at noon, that he would be hungry enough at 4PM for a bigger snack, so I bought him such buffalo wings from Wendy's.

When I saw him, however, he just looked really tired and rundown. Apparently, during last period (soccer) he had to run for 45 minutes. He didn't even get to drink water during that time, and the temperature was in the mid-90s! He only ate a couple of pieces and said that he wanted to finish the rest at home. That's when I started to worry because he is almost always gobbling food down. He explained that he wasn't as hungry because there is more food available at "A" lunch. When he has "B" lunch (the schedule alternates between "A" and "B"), he doesn't get to eat lunch until almost 2PM and there isn't much food left. That really doesn't make sense to me, except that maybe he is so hungry by that time that he needs more food to fill up. In any case, he did finish his "snack" when he got home and he drank plenty of water tonight.

This is my photo for today. It's Tuesday, so that means soccer practice for our family. DD is wearing an old practice shirt that used to belong to DS#2. DH bought her some new black soccer socks so she can match better than with her red socks. She has pink shin guards, pink soccer cleats, and a pink soccer ball, of course. I love that she and DS#2 are both putting on their gear on the bottom step together. He had tried to hide, but thankfully, he listened to my pleas for him to stay put. :)

Relaxing Mondays

I found the perfect picture for my new header! DH took this photo today. DS#3 looks so relaxed just nonchalantly blowing bubbles. Unfortunately, this was not tiring enough and he did not take a nap today. All the kids stopped taking naps around this time, but DH and I are hoping this will not be the routine for DS#3.

This is how he looked later on. Even though we were watching "Wipeout", which can be an exciting show, DS#3 did not look excited at all. I almost thought he was going to fall asleep on my lap. Fortunately, I was able to give him a bath first and he went to bed willingly. I thought it was hilarious how his tucked his arm underneath his head. He often likes to climb into my lap when we watch TV, an interaction we both tend to enjoy. He is growing up way too fast.

I took this closeup while he was on my lap. I love that for once he isn't doing his cheesy smile and I can actually see his beautiful brown eyes.

Mondays tend to be a little more relaxed around our family lately. No scheduled activities means we can stay at home and be a family. We watched "Wipeout" earlier and DH and the older boys are currently watching one of their new favorites, "Warehouse 13". Tuesdays and Thursdays are soccer days with DD's piano lessons also on Thursdays. Wednesdays will soon get busy with DS#2 and DD taking Faith Formation (CCD) classes along with DS#2's guitar lessons. Fridays will hopefully be more relaxed also so we can store up some energy for soccer weekends. That's how our fall is shaping up. I think it's better than in previous years when we have had daily scheduled activities. I'm thankful for those days when we can catch our breath. :)

A Bad Day Can Always Be Worse

I was going to title this post "Bad Day" after my bad day yesterday, but then I realized that it could have been worse. I was already bummed this whole last week anticipating that I would have to be on call at the hospital all day and night on Saturday. When I got to work, it started out as usual but after a couple of hours I started feeling a little dizzy. At the time I thought I was just tired because I sometimes feel this way when I'm really tired. Luckily I had the opportunity to lie down, but after having to get up a couple of times to get some work done, I was more than dizzy--the room was spinning so much so that I threw up. I felt a little better after that but then I ended up throwing up again. To make a long story short, after getting my resident to start an IV on me and giving me some medications and then lying down a couple more hours, I did start feeling better--much better. I was so worried that I would have to call in the backup staff to cover me, but then I didn't think I could drive home either. Thankfully I didn't have to do that. I also realized that if I hadn't been on call, I would have been at the soccer field with DH and the boys when this all happened. Now THAT would have been horrible.

The rest of the day was fairly routine and even though I skipped lunch completely, I managed to eat a regular dinner. I also managed to get some sleep before we had to operate on a very unfortunate man who was the victim of an armed robbery. Things did not end well and again I was "bummed out" when I drove home.

Things generally get better when I'm at home with my family. As I drove into the garage, the door to the house opened quickly and my two youngest children stepped out and greeted me, still in their pajamas. Their excited cries of "Hi Mama!" just lifted up my soul. My mood sank for a brief moment when I realized that I hadn't seen them for a day and a half, since I had tucked them into bed on Friday night. Again my mood lifted when they rushed up to me and gave me hugs and kisses, without my even have to ask them. Even a good day can become a great day with some hugs and kisses! :)

I wanted to also mention a little about what I missed on Saturday. DH has more details about yesterday's soccer games in his blog. DS#2 had a 7AM game yesterday morning, which meant that they had to leave the house a little after I did. Both boys are wearing all-white uniforms for their home games this year, and I thought this was a good photo of DS#2 in his. DH said that the white uniforms looked impressive, even if they don't stay white for very long. By the way, notice the "tongue in cheek". DS#2 tends to do this when he's concentrating sometimes. I just hope he doesn't end up biting his tongue.

DS#1's team doesn't have a designated goalkeeper, so everyone will have to take a turn being goalie. During one game on Saturday, it was DS#1's turn. Doesn't he look intimidating? He's the tallest person on the team at the moment, including the coach, although there are several boys that are close in height. Apparently he took his position seriously and was more vocal than ever before, shouting instructions to his defense. I think he would make a great goalie, but he doesn't want the job. I just realized that I haven't seen either boy play yet this year. I'm sure I'll be making up for that in the coming weeks.

Work or Play

My mom and dad arrived on Wednesday for a visit. Besides the fact that it has been over a month since we've seen them and they wanted to come for a visit, I also asked them to come for this particular weekend. The boys have a soccer tournament this weekend plus I'm on call tomorrow. Between them they have five games tomorrow, from 7AM to 7PM. If my parents weren't here, then DH would have to take the two younger kids with him and they would be just miserable in the hot sun all day. DH would be miserable because DS#3 wouldn't be able to take a nap. I'm not sure if I would be more miserable at work or at "play" with the family...

Because of the busy schedule this weekend, we went ahead and took everyone out to dinner tonight. This isn't the greatest picture of everyone, but it was nice that we were all together. I'm going to miss them all tomorrow when I'm at work, although I'm not sure I have the tougher job tomorrow, or DH.

This is DS#3 entertaining himself at the soccer practice fields yesterday. We have quite a busy schedule this fall. Luckily, all the kids have their soccer practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Unfortunately, DD and DS#2 have practice from 6-7:30PM while DS#1 has practice from 7:30-9PM. This means that DH takes all of them to practice and then either DH has to bring DD and DS#3 home after their practice and then go back to get DS#1 or I have to go pick them up while DH stays with DS#1. I've been picking them up since DH is already making the sacrifice of staying outside for three hours in 100 degree temps. Alas, no staying home with DS#3 while DH takes the kids to soccer practice this fall!