blessings.

My favorite back to school tradition growing up was when my dad gave us our Father's blessing the night before.  I am so grateful to be married to a worthy priesthood holder that can do the same for our children! The kids look forward to it as much as I do.  It was so adorable watching each of them climb up into the chair and smile at Daddy.

Even Peter wanted one!  He climbed up in between each kid and said, "My turn!"  There were tears shed when he was told that he only got one.  I was so proud of him as he received his blessing.  He sat there with his arms folded and eyes closed the entire time!  He's growing up so fast.

Lincoln is way too old for pictures.

I adore this.  Love that man so very much.

more catch-up.

Before school started the kids all tried on their new uniforms to make sure they fit.  I am a big fan of uniforms.  I don't love that they are so particular about the shoes/socks/accessories that they wear with them. It's a little much.  Gracie loves her uniform but doesn't love her gym clothes.  She thinks she looks like a boy.  At first she thought it was hilarious... now there are tears when it's gym day.  Luckily everyone looks the same and it's not just her.  

We went to the park with friends to pass the time when school was postponed the second time.  Link looks so old in this picture.  It kind of kills me.

Peter adores Gabby.  She is such a nice friend for him.  I don't have to worry about him wandering off when she's around.

I have this huge to-do list I keep in my phone.  Most of it is stuff that I need to do before baby Henry makes his debut in a few weeks.  I wanted to cross a few things off my list... but these two begged me to help them make a fairy house instead.  It ended up taking much longer than I thought it would... but I am so happy I scratched off my plans and spent time with my girls.

Here's the finished outside....

And the inside.  They have played and played and played with this thing!  They even made cardboard furniture and decorated the inside.  It resides in their bedroom now.  It was so fun to build with them.

The boys wanted in on the action too when they saw the girls house.  We made a jungle for them.  Graham was amazed at my building skills.

These two are characters.  One minute they are the best of friends... the next they are at each others throats!  Somedays I don't know what to do with them.  I definitely prefer when they are best friends.

A dear friend of mine spied some baby items at a garage sale right after I told her we were going to start trying to get pregnant.  She bought them in hopes that I would have a baby sooner than later.  Peter and Jayne have had so much fun playing "family" together practicing for what it will be like when Henry is born.  Peter looks so old in this picture.  He really is turning into such a studly little guy.

Our backyard oasis has turned into our backyard forest of death.  The kids all broke out in this horrible rash and the doctor diagnosed them with poison ivy.  Two of the boys from Lincoln's sleepover have been diagnosed as well.  I can't even talk about it, it makes me want to cry.  The picture on the left is from wikipedia... the picture on the right is from our backyard.  Look similar?  It is everywhere.  I don't even know how we are going to get rid of it all.  We got some potent killer from Home Depot and plan to go at it this morning.  Here's hoping it will work.

Having a laundry room on the main level with a nice washer and dryer has completely changed my life.  I'm not even kidding.  Gone are the days of once a week mountains of laundry nights.  I do three loads every other day and it has been so great!  I still have a hard time with the putting away of the clothes.  Mostly because carrying it all upstairs is hard and I have to wait for the kids or Jeremy to help me.  Jeremy was teasing me because hadn't "Chelle-fied" the laundry bins with cute labels.  He didn't know which bin was which.  I Chelled them up one night when he was away.

We have been baking more.  Cookies, muffins, bread.  Yum.  The kids have a new love for muffins.  We made double chocolate chip last Sunday.  The boys love to watch them bake.

I have so enjoyed my time with these two since the other three have gone back to school.  They are such good friends and I adore listening to them play with each other.  It got really quiet one day and I thought they had fallen asleep on the couch.  Then I heard a little voice whisper, "Momma, come and take a picture of us pretending to be Sleeping Blooty!"  My favorite is the grin behind the binky.  Love them so.

The two littlest have been my shopping buddies as we have been preparing for the next few months with a newborn.  We went to Home Depot and picked out some fall mums to put on our porch.  It was like Fall in our trunk!  The leaves are starting to change and I am getting so excited.  I am so happy I get sweater weather right after giving birth!  Cardigans are my favorite article of clothing.  They hide all the extra 'stuff'.

I love having a front porch.  It is a little narrow to put any seats on... but I am still determined to find a way to make that work.  Maybe next summer.  For now we have enjoyed using the hooks in the ceiling.  Right now we have two hanging baskets, a fun bird feeder and a wind chime.  The wind chime reminds me of my Grandma Christensen.  She collected them.  Every time I hear ours it brings me right back to visiting her in her little trailer in Idaho growing up.

My bestie gave me her chalkboard when she moved.  It somehow got lost in our move and I was so sad.  I may have cried over it.  Okay, fine... I totally did.  I have been in search of a new one ever since and was thrilled to find one at Kohl's the other day!  It is perfect.  I plan to put a verse of the week on it, as well as what's for dinner.  I love chalkboards!

playing catch up.

Our computer is working!  No more blogging from my phone... YAY!  That was super annoying.

Things have been pretty low key the past few weeks.  We enjoyed our last few days of summer.  The school called twice and postponed the first day due to construction.  The first time the kids were mostly happy about it.  The second time, not so much.  They love school.  Graham may have cried that second day.  Looking back, I'm so glad I had that extra week with them.  They are such good kids and I really enjoyed spending my summer with them.  It was a crazy one... so glad we made it through it!

This has become one of my favorite sites to see out my kitchen window.  The swingset is the favorite toy in the backyard.  I love the double swing.  It makes my heart happy to see two kids enjoying it together.

We got rid of the cable and have zero television programming in our home when we moved.  The kids still have a huge supply of movies they can watch when they have down time.  It's been so nice to be able to control what types of media enter our home.  I haven't watching television in nearly a month.  It's so weird.  I even missed the bachelorette finale.  That was a little rough... I just read the recap and found out who she picked.  There have been a few times that I wished I could veg out in front of the tv... but for the most part I haven't missed it all.  The kids have been champs about it as well.  There are two shows that I simply can't live without, Parenthood and Downton.  I will be watching those online when they start their new seasons.

Without the tv or internet we have had to get creative.  The kids are playing more together, either outside or in their bedrooms.  The fighting has gone down.  It has been amazing.  We spend more time together as a family and as a couple.  We have made a few trips to the craft store to pick up things for the kids to do when they get bored.  Gracie chose a beginner cross stitch and did an excellent job on it!

We have had friends over more than we have been able to in the past because we have more space.  One day Graham and his buddy came down and said, "We built a temple!"  Talk about a proud Mommy moment!  Love these boys.

This is a typical after bathtime ritual.  These three would lay like this forever if I let them.  I adore it.

Jayne asked me to take a picture of her after she got dressed to send to her friend, Lincoln, in Utah.  She misses him so much.  She says she's still going to marry him someday unless he forgets all about her and then she will marry the new boy named Owen in our ward.

We miss these kids now that they are back in school!  This was what was supposed to be our last lunch together.  Glad we got a few more.

Peter has been fighting naptime lately.  Well, I can't really blame him.  Sometimes I am too tired to take him up to his bed so he gets lucky and doesn't have to take a nap.  On those days we usually find him asleep somewhere random at around 4 or 5.  This time the girls took a picture of him.

He was down in the basement watching a show and totally crashed.

seek.

Despite school being postponed for the second time about an hour beforehand... We went ahead and had our Back to School dinner last night.  I decided to do the fun and business part of it tonight and we'll do the Fathers Blessings on Sunday night before they head to school on Monday morning (fingers crossed they finish the construction and we actually get to go!  My kids are so bored and ready for school!)

   

The kids helped me plan, prepare and decorate this year.  We had so much fun working together. 

   

We had a waffle buffet.  Something I knew everyone would enjoy and be happy about. 

My adorable little family.  I feel so blessed every time we sit down and enjoy a meal together. 

Most of the kids made faces with their waffles...

Others made faces at each other...

After dinner we introduced them to our family theme for the year.  A quote from our beloved prophet, President Monson.  We talked about how we find happiness when we are serving those around us.  I want my children to learn more about giving of themselves this year. They can do this at home, at school or play.  We had the best discussion with them.  I can't wait to catch them in random acts of kindness for each other. 

My favorite part of back to school is the routine it brings.  We hung up our morning, after school and night time routines in each of the kids bedrooms along with the theme for the year.  Hooray for routines!

blueberries.

The doctor we bought our endo practice from has a blueberry farm!  He has been inviting us to come visit since it opened for the season.  We finally had a free weekend and made the hour trek over to visit.  We had the best time!  He hooked Jeremy up with a belted bucket so he could use both hands. He looked dashing...

As I looked down the line and saw our little family all picking berries together it was one of those moments that made my heart melt.  All was right in the world. 

Jayne thought the tiny berries were so cute!  Turns out they were the yummiest too!

Link was very worried about all of the bees.  Luckily nobody got stung. 

This made my heart so happy. 

Peter stuck to the same bush for the first little while.  He thought it was amazing that he had his own bucket to fill!

Look at this, mom mom!

He was so excited to fill that bucket!  He probably picked a total of 100 berries but boy was he excited!

This girl wins the prize for Miss Photogenic. 

So proud of their berries!

We picked over 7 pounds!  I didn't think I liked blueberries.  I've learned that I don't like store bought blueberries but straight off the bush are delicious!

Dr Uhrich treated us to a freshly made blueberry pie when we were finished. SO yummy!

All of the kids were kind enough to try a polite bite.  Graham was the only one that really loved it.  That's my boy!