Catching Up...

It was a fun summer.  We did so many things and spent some fun time together.  There was also the typical sibling stuff and mom trying to work them to death pulling weeds (or so they claim).

 Brooke and I planted a garden...

We've been having zucchini bread, sauteed zucchini, zucchini quiche, you get the picture.

The weekend before school started we went to the living planet aquarium.

 Our neighbor Daniella came with us.  Their family entertained Brooke a lot during the summer and we were glad to take her to do something fun.

 I love how happy Sam looks in these pictures!

 Everyone wanted the cool stuffed animals they had at the gift shop.  I said I'd take their picture with them and we could bring them home that way.  Yeesh, what a "mom" thing to say.

 Sharks in Salt Lake???  Awesome!!

Kacey's weekend before back to school wasn't so fun.  She got her wisdom teeth out.  I had posted this earlier but Terrence said I should take it off so I don't embarrass her.  Kacey said to go ahead and put it on because it's such a great memory, not to mention we looked at these pictures about 100 times and laughed every time.  Kacey's sense of humor is awesome and she's surprisingly not vain at all for being such a pretty girl- so here they are- the lost post buried in this one.  Hope I don't get in trouble!

With Wisdom Teeth:

Without Wisdom Teeth:

Maybe there's a reason they call them wisdom teeth!

Then came the dreaded day (for some), dum-da-dum-dum-da! SCHOOL!

 Sam's going to be a Junior this year.  She was bolting for the bus in this picture so I had to be quick.

 Conner's a mighty freshman this year and has been so interested in being organized.  He totally raided the basement office supply shelf, even after I bought his school supplies.  I was okay with it because I'm secretly addicted to office supplies so I can understand the attraction.

 I hope these two are always friends because they have such a cute relationship.

Brookie's in her final year at elementary school.  At back to school night I went over to the volunteer table in the classroom and started signing my life away.  She said, "Mom, are you going to sign up for everything?"  Yes, and she'll be lucky if I don't follow her to  school to make sure I don't miss out on any lasts!  Today she called to say she forgot her lunch.  I was there in 5.

On Sunday Terrence grilled some amazing steaks.  We sat at the dining room table and introduced our theme for the year, 

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;"- D&C 58:27. 

We want our family to focus this year on being present, not drifting from one thing to another but being truly engaged in the moment, learning from it and living in it.

Then we went around the table and wrote down everyone's goals for the school year.  After our meal Terrence gave the kids and I back to school blessings.

I'm thankful for the different seasons such as Summer that gives us a chance to play and be carefree and for Fall that gives us a chance to become organized again and back to the business of learning and progressing in other ways.  I'll wait until Winter's here before I can say if I'm grateful for that season or not!