Playing Catch-up Again

Doug leaving Ammon, Idaho in an enormous moving truck.

Kids playing at Thanksgiving Point. We got a membership right when we moved here.

He liked to pick up wet sand a splash it in the water. If he splashes other people, it's even more fun.

The kids at Thanksgiving Point gardens.

Snuggly baby Corban

Doug's screen saver on his phone.

The kids at Scheels.

The Highland Splash Pad

Doug playing at his retreat in July. I watched the kids by myself for a week.

More playing at the retreat.

And a final beach afternoon for him before he came home to us. He got a sunburn that day.

Waiting their turn to ride the ponies

Beautiful Brooklyn

Happy Cason

Handsome Isaac

Happy Daddy with our banana split

Doug helped the CNAs change diapers one day, and then went to the driving range the next. His job provides a lot of variety.

Cason getting to sit on a motorcycle at our amazing Fourth of July breakfast and parade right across from our house. It was amazing.

This is how Corban likes his car rides. He likes snacks and resting on Mom.

All of us in Island Park. It was a really good trip/

Doug and Ashley went fishing together on our last morning at the cabin and both said it was their favorite part of the trip. I love that! Doug found his fishing buddy.

How Corban looks a lot of the time

The kids at the Joseph Smith building on Friday

And at the reflecting pool by the temple

Corban will be two months old tomorrow. In the past two months, I gave birth,  packed up my house in Ammon, submitted a piece of writing for possible publication, attended a few hours of the BYU-I online conference, we  moved to Utah (exactly one week after Corban was born!), we unloaded our belongings into my Mom's basement and a storage unit, we put things away as well as we could, I finished my Spring semester teaching, we adjusted to life in a new home, ward, and situation, got a Thanksgiving Point pass and some punch passes to the AF pool, Doug adjusted to his new job, we played at the pool and splash pad, met up with and made friends, did two sessions of swim lessons, played with cousins, Tanner came home from his mission and left for Minnesota with everyone else in our family except the Bowens a few hours later, I helped my grandma take Jet to the vet and the groomer (quite a loot of adventure in there), we took a little trip to Salt Lake to stay at Little America and go to Temple Square and the zoo, Doug began a war against mice in my mom's house, and I'm starting teaching a certification session tomorrow. The summer is quickly coming to an end, and I am not ready for that!

School starts for Isaac and Lucy at Highland Elementary on August 22, and Brooklyn starts a week after that. I am worried that her vaccinations will prove problematic because I couldn't see all of them listed that Utah requires. Hopefully, that will be figured out this week and Brooklyn can start school on time.

The kids are anxious for their cousins to come back from Minnesota and I am wondering about how we'll swing gymnastics and soccer for Lucy and Brooklyn and flag football for Isaac. He mowed the lawn for the first time yeterday, and it looked like you might expect. (I mowed the front lawn and learned that you should never run over a newspaper.) There were lines running all over the place from Isaac's mowing and there were some tears shed in the process. I haven't figured out how to train my children really well so they do an amazing job on chores. I'll keep working on it.

This summer, kids woke up every day by around 10, cleaned their rooms and their areas (either upstairs or downstairs) and then needed to read for twenty minutes and do two pages of workbook. Brooklyn began reading with me at the start of August and it has definitely not clicked. She does flash cards, and is getting better and better with them. She will not go into kindergarten as a reader, but she is on the road there.

Lucy is still not a strong reader, but she likes a Fairy Book series she is reading to me right now. I plant books in Isaac's room, hoping he'll take the bait, and he has a little bit. He read "Call it Courage" and a few of the "Battle of the Books" books he and I will be reading, and The BFG and a whole bunch of other things. The kids love Garfield Comics right now.

So how is life? It's not bad. I am learning how to relax after all the chaos that took place throughout the first part of the summer, and I keep hoping Corban will figure out how to sleep in his own bed in his own room. He's not quite there yet, but I am getting hours of sleep each night, for which I am thankful. I'm still nowhere near my pre-pregnancy weight, which frustrates me. I feel like going through the sacrifice of being pregnant merits the reward of a healthy, strong, attractive body after the fact. But no. I have tried abstaining from sweets and white foods (rice, bread, potatoes) a few times, but then I fall off the wagon. My commitment for today: I'll plug my calories into my phone and abstain from treats and whites.

I feel like I am finally at the end of an era. My child bearing days are over (I hope!) and I can embrace a life where this is my very last newborn, and my children will keep getting older without resets with newborns. I get to rear them now with all the love I have and all the help the Savior will give us. I adore my sweet little Corban and my other amazing kids. I love my husband and I love my whole family. I'm so thankful that I have all of them in my life. Happy Sabbath!