Quiet-ish mornings

Every morning, after McKay kisses us goodbye and leave for work, Tyler, Jamie, and I carry bowls of steaming oatmeal topped with brown sugar and frozen blueberries to the dining room table. Jamie reigns over us from her high chair smearing oatmeal on everything in reach; Tyler picks out all his berries, puts them on the table, and carefully spoons out the top layer of dissolved brown sugar on top ("DON'T STIR IT MOM!!!"), eats it, and leaves the actual oatmeal more or less untouched. I sit back in my chair and look out our dining room window, which I would show you if I knew where our old camera's cord was.

Our backyard is magic in the morning. The sun at 7:30 just starts to filter over the trees into our yard through all the leaves.

This is not our backyard, but this reminds me of it. I love sitting there for the ten minutes that Jamie will let me, just soaking in the goodness of green and light and life, thinking about big life decisions that have to be made and diving into some good news:

A friend from BYU whose blog I stalk regularly shared her wonderful idea/goal for this year, and I am doing my best to keep up:

http://alicianstephen.blogspot.com/2011/08/goals.html

I am almost through with Acts now. I'm amazed at how much more sense the scriptures make when you read them more than a chapter at a time. Also at the gems I never noticed before like Acts 17:27-28.

Que soul resonation.

Typical conversations

Daddy: Tyler, do dinosaurs eat their mommies?

Tyler: No! They eat leaves!

Daddy: Oh, like these leaves?

Tyler: Yeah! And then they turn it into poop!

(At this point, Tyler finished putting an expired driver's license into his "purse", zipped it up, and announced he was going to the store to buy wheels.)

I love this boy.

Practicing our snooty faces

With the much needed weather cool down these last few weeks (hello, 80s!!), the babies and I have started running again! We've had our double jogging stroller for a year now, but it was always such a hassle dragging it up and down three flights of stairs in our apartment, and as soon as we moved into a house it soared into Satan weather. But now we can use it!

Our route takes us one street north of our neighborhood into a community called Highland Park. This is the Big Deal, the Beverly Hills of Dallas. This is where the rich people live, like President Bush (when they aren't at their ranches or whatever).

For 2.7 miles, these are the lovelies that greet us:

I love it! Even more than looking at the architectural goodies, I love pretending that I live there, waving nonchalantly when we pass people. Of course, we run at 10AM, so most of the people we pass are Guatemalan nannies and landscape day laborers, but hey, it's a good time.

Tyler and Jamie get so excited for our run every morning. Tyler likes to walk the first block of the route, and he likes to wave at the elderly people walking their poodles. We keep a sharp eye out for tractors and trucks along the way. Jamie squeals when she sees the stroller, and runs to grab a handful of shoes out of her room.

Speaking of shoes, this girl is seriously crazy about them. We keep them in the bottom drawer of her dresser, and she muscles it open, rummages around, grabs a few, puts them on, takes them off, walks around with them, and discards them around the house.

We probably won't ever live in a neighborhood like this, but we can dream.

And plan on trick-or-treating there. Can you imagine the size of candy bars they must give out!?

September, Where'd You Go?

Our camera had the misfortune of taking a swim in my parents' pool while we were on our California trip, and I hate blogging without pictures! But September went by so fast, and we're still camera shopping (suggestions are welcome!)

1. I started the new semester, and I'm taking (gasp) 16 credits. It's a tad crazy, but if I can get these last few classes in Dallas finished quickly, I can be done with my B.A. by next September, and that thought is carrying me through late night Biology labs. I've been waiting for this since Tyler was six months old, and I'm finally being able to do it! It's funny, when I was in school, I never appreciated the fact that I was in school. Now, I LOVE learning. I love reading for my classes. McKay makes fun of me because I actually read everything and take tons of notes. After three years of only being concerned with taking care of babies, it's wonderful to feel smart and to learn new things. I feel like a real person again! :)

2. McKay had his 28th birthday while we were gone! That was not in the plan, but a couple of sick babies had other plans. There are presents in the works right now, so more on that later.

3. We are finally getting settled in the new house! It's been cool enough to do yard work lately, so we ripped out everything in the flower beds and planted big bushy chrysanthemums, and in the spring, we'll have daisies and tulip bulbs. So cute! We're also finally getting around to making curtains and hanging pictures, all those things that make it homey.

4. We had a huge yard sale this last weekend with our friend Eve and her two kids! I was really glad for the chance to get rid of all our extra baby clothes (four big gray bins of just Jamie's stuff! Ridiculous!), and maybe make a little extra cash. We did get rid of everything by the end, thanks to rabid freecyclers (don't invite them if you aren't prepared for crazy town). I did make a little money, although I just turned around and bought a bunch of Eve's stuff. It was a ton of work, but I'm glad we did it, and our house is looking more and more uncluttered. Flylady would be so proud!

So life is going on. September went by too fast! The holiday season is already here, and we don't even have our decorations out of moving boxes yet!

More updates to come, and hopefully pictures soon!