VA Christmas

Geof. just informed me that I need to go take some pictures for him for work..so this'll be quick-not much narrative..., and most of these pics you might have already seen, anyway. Hopefully Le Anne will post her "Virginia Christmas Story" on here so you'll have a better idea of what we did. And "did" we did DO! There's always a handful of things to do while in Richmond and its surrounding areas.., but I'm coming to appreciate more and more the quiet (and not so quiet) time in our home.., reading books, doing puzzles (we decided to leave the card table out for a few months to do puzzles on while watching movies), enjoying meals together, etc. Le Anne and Ellery spoiled us rotten with not only gifts (can't wait to use the leaf blower!), but just their undivided attention. They're always so good at that. They're good listeners and make you feel special and important...even if you're not feeling too great about yourself. :) We dragged them all over and they were good sports about it.

 The kids loved the "tickle monster", Gma's goodies (and Pa's, of course!), movies, staying up late(r), trying on GOBS of new clothes (Yay!Thank you Meags and Hazel!), receiving gifts, buying gifts (Cole surprised Geof. and me with some things he picked out with Gma from Costco), going on walks in the rain, hearing stories of Pa and Dana's growing up years. Lucky kids. That's what Geof. said after we dropped them off at the airport. He was "so happy his kids could have this experience with their grandparents".  Thank you, Ellery and Le Anne for ALWAYS MAKING LIFE SPECIAL.

VA

Good gravy, I feel blessed this month. Busy, as usual, but happy to be where we are in life. I was going through a bit of a, "I'm done with Virginia/I wanna move back west" phase for a while there.., but lately Virginia has felt so good to me. Home. At least for now. The kids are happy in school and have good friends. I'm still trying to figure out how to be an at home mom whose kids are in school..the home school thoughts always plague me and who knows, I might home school one, two (or scary! THREE) kids next year. All depends. Trying to not rush into it, though. Take my time. Feel things out first. BREATHE.

Geof. is very happy, too. I think it's the first time since we've been married (almost 11 years) that he feels confident about what he's doing and of course, the fact that he can provide for his family. That's something men need to be secure in and I'm so glad he's there.

Cole is active as usual and just finished his tenth (possibly more?) season of soccer last week. A lot of his friends went on to play travel soccer last season, but he (and we) chose to keep him in rec soccer because the travel teams play ALL THE TIME and on Sundays. I admit, I've gotten quite competitive with Cole and wanted so badly for him to play on the travel team, but Geof. was solid and reminded me how silly it would be to devote our lives and possible testimonies to NOT recognizing Sunday as the Sabbath. He was very adament and it didn't take much for me to be on the same page with him. Thank you, Geof.

Dayne is doing well and school and is transforming from little girl to not-so-little, anymore. I never like this change-especially with Dayne who grows up faster than the other two (middle, forgotten child syndrome--or am I the one with the syndrome?). She wanted to do dance this fall but like soccer, has ended up wanting to quit. She really loves playing the piano and she and Cole have a teacher (a lady in the other ward) who comes every two weeks just so they have someone other than me to answer to. She's fun and easy-going and doesn't freak out when Dayne's wiggling all over the place, trying to play the pedals and not sitting up straight, or that Cole is rushing through each piece at 3x's the speed he's supposed to play just so he can be done sooner (he's actually VERY talented in piano). And she's super affordable which is just perfect. Dayne continues on with her arts and crafts and I'm hoping she'll continue with that..just maybe more concentrated and less rushed.

Junie. Kindergarten has been quite the adjustment. Her teacher says she's as happy as can be and sings NON-STOP (I told her to feel free to quiet her if/when it's disruptive. She assured me it's not..) but when it comes to academics, might not be "processing" the information that the teacher is teaching or asking her to answer. She said if it continues on this way, June will probably do Kindergarten again, but she's still too young to test and they'll watch her and see what happens in the Spring. This didn't surprise me or Geof., but we're hoping if she IS held back, that it doesn't affect (effect?) her socially or hurt her confidence. She's also very young (turned 5 in July) so it could just be an age thing. Geof. and I think it's a lack of interest. She does well in what she's interested in. I just don't think she's interested in reading/writing yet. With that being said, we still need to be better about working with her.

Amy and Lydia came out for Halloween and my kids were in HEAVEN! Lydia, come back and play..or stay? Amy spoils me rotten.

Need to take some pictures, apparently!

A last minute trip to OBX

OBX, otherwise known as the Outer Banks, is a 200-mile, long string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina (thanks Wikipedia!)
We're down here with our friends the Roberts..soaking up the last few days of summer..er, early fall? Weather's been perfect. All of us burnt yesterday!! We arrived late Wed night and were greeted by the crashing waves and the creepy abandoned beach homes obstructing our "beach front" rental (built to close to water-deemed "condemned"). The next morning after a ridiculously hard run on the beach with Cole (running in the sand is not as romantic as one might think), we were rushed down by all the kids to the sand and water.
Cole picked up skim boarding in no time, Dayne had us scared to death more than once getting sucked out into the ocean deep (good thing she's a strong swimmer!), and June was content staying close to the waters' edge singing happily to herself. We've also gone searching for crabs-best to do at night with a flashlight. :)

A little more of Utah 2012

Loved every minute (almost) of our trip to Utah. ALways so wonderful to see family..play in the mountains, and attend a temple session at the SLC temple! With all of Geof.'s family. Awesome. And two weeks was perfect. Not too long, not too short. Our time with my cousin Lindsey in Provo was sweet and like always, Bevan spoiled us with more fun than we could handle and yummy food. ThaNK YOU!! And the kids and I ended it all with the Brigham City Temple Open House (very good experience) and a day in Salt Lake. happywewere

Utah summer vacation Aug 2012