I did it!

So I finished the Book of Mormon this afternoon. All in one month. I still almost can't believe I did it! My mother probably can't believe it, either. If there's one thing I don't like doing, it's reading. But I did it! Wait, did I say that already? Who cares, I'm pretty proud of myself! And more importantly than proving to myself that I could do it, or not having to be ashamed on this little blog that I gave up...more important than that--I really enjoyed it most of the time and was reminded of what I already know. It's true. The whole thing. And it made so much more sense since I read it all so quickly and didn't have time to forget who was who, etc.

I hope that now reading for 15 minutes a day will seem much easier now and my scripture reading habits in general will have improved. I learned a few things in case you ever want to do this yourself.

1. Missing a day is really hard to make up!!!
2. Pick a month with 31 days to give yourself the best chances!
3. You CAN do it!

It was a great experience, but I am glad it's over and I can have a little more time to blog and craft now. Almost any extra time this month went to reading...so unlike me... So Mom, hopefully you can look forward to many more posts in November than I was able to fit into October. :)

Karate kids pictures

As promised, here are some pictures of Ryan and Sydney in their karate uniforms. What's cuter than Syd in that uniform??? And after lesson number 2, they both seem to like it even more--especially Syd. They haven't really learned much yet, but they sure like to pose as if they have. :)

October Rush

Wow, check me out--3 posts in one afternoon!

In July, the Young Women in our ward did what they called a "July Rush" and all read the Book of Mormon in its entirety in that month. They all talked about how wonderful it was and I thought, "Wow, I should really do that." But it was summer and life was crazy, and I just knew it was not a good time for me to try and tackle that. So it's been on my mind that I still wanted to do it, and October is my month! It comes out to about 20 pages a day, a little less, actually, which took me maybe 45 minutes today to read. I found a little chart online that shows what you need to do. I'm excited to read it much more quickly than usual and really see all the stories come together like never before.

Halloween Sneak-Peek

Can you guess what Little Miss Sassy-Pants is going to be for Halloween?? We saw these shoes at Wal-Mart and she was coveting them, and I suggested she could be Dorothy for Halloween, then we just might have to buy them for her costume. She's no dummy! She realized that she'd end up with some sweet shoes out of the whole deal...so I bought the fabric today and am excited to sew up a cute little dress. She's already talking about how she needs to carry a little basket with one of her stuffed doggies inside. Well, duh!

Sage Valley Football

This year, Brandon is finally able to play for his school football team, instead of in Optimist. For those of you unfamiliar with Optimist, it allows younger kids to play flag and tackle football, which is great, but they practice 4 nights a week for 2 hours and have games every Saturday--rough! Now that he plays for the 7th grade team, he just stays after school and practices and is home by dinner. And games are on Tuseday afternoons! It's been a fantastic change! We actually have dinner around the table most nights now. :) BTW, he is #33 in the navy jersey and while pants.

That's him with his hands up in the air, just before a tackle, haha!

Going in for a sac--watch out, Mr. Quarterback!

Here he is starting to take a guy down. He still really loves to tackle. This year he has been playing mostly defensive end, but then last week he started at fullback and even got to carry the ball a couple times. It's always so fun for me to watch him and cheer him on. At the particular game, he had a nice run at fullback, a great sac, and was in on several tackles. Go D-backs!

Karate Kids

Ryan and Sydney started an after-school karate program today. At first, only Ryan was going to do it, since he isn't in anything else right now...but Sydney has been bugging me and bugging me about it. I kept telling her that she couldn't do it because she was already taking dance, and every time she would say, then take me out of dance. But I really didn't want to rip her out of something that just started back up a month ago... But is it fair to not let her choose what she wants to do??

So today, I signed Ryan up (he's been wanting to try this for a while, and this year it finally works out, schedule-wise...) and Sydney, Jake and I were just watching. Sydney started in again with the "pleeeeease" and those big brown eyes... So I told her she could try it out and see if she liked it and the instructors. She loved it, of course. Long story short, ballerina-girl has been replaced by karate-girl.

I should've known this is the type of thing a girl w/ 3 brothers would want to do. She can be so girly sometimes, but it's not that way most of the time. She loves worms, frogs, getting dirty, and helping her daddy with all things manly. And she can't wait til she's old enough to go hunting w/ him. Go figure.

But I really can't wait to see her in her little uniform...should have pics of that in a couple weeks...

Jake's 2nd Birthday

Where has the time gone??? I know people say that a lot, but it's so true... How did all the sleepless nights, dirty diapers, first smiles, and runny noses turn into two years? Little man turned 2 years old yesterday. It was a bittersweet day, as all my kids' birthdays are. I think I was a little more nostalgic that normal, since he's the last one. I remember SO not wanting to admit that we should have another one before Jake...and finally submitting to the Lord's will...and all the blessings that he has brought to me personally and to our family. What do you know, Heavenly father knows best...I know, it shouldn't be a surprise. I just think it's amazing that he can know what we want or need before we even have any idea that we would ever want it. I remember at Time Out For Women last week, a speaker talked about "What's the WORST thing that could happen?" She said we may even find out that we LOVE the worst thing. There was a time in my life that I thought having a 4th would be the worst thing, and now it's hard to imagine that I ever even felt that way...

Long story short, I'm So glad I listened to those feelings about 3+ years ago, and I truly cherish the time I have with Jake--just the 2 of us for most of the day. He has been the happiest, funniest, sweetest, cutest thing I could have ever hoped for. I love him more every day. O.K. Enough sappy talk. On to the birthday...

He had fun opening his presents and tearing off "BIG" pieces of wrapping paper. Anything "big" is awesome in his book... His favorite present is the ball hopper-thing...I can't remember the name...but he LOVES it! He loves all kinds of balls right now--and throwing them as hard as he can--and throwing anything, for that matter, but that's another story...

Since he loves balls so much, I made him a ball cake. When I brought it to the table, he goes, "BIIIIGGG BAAAALLL!!!" and was uber-impressed. Just the reaction I was hoping for! He blew out the candles all by himself, with a little coaching from Tim. He also tried to eat a candle afterwards when he saw Sydney lick one...we need to work on learning the difference between licking and eating, apparently... I love the pic w/ his hands up high--he's showing that he's "SO Big" now. :)

My favorite part of babies' birthdays is watching them eat their cake. He decided a month or two ago that he's way too big for the highchair, and he wants to sit at the "big kid's table" now, but he can't really reach, so he just stands on a chair most of the time. I'm sure he'll be falling off any day now...awesome! He loved every bit of his cake and ice cream cone, though, and ended up w/ a cute little blue "Hitler" mustache in the end.

Today while I was posting pictures online, he was playing with all his new toys being so good, when he came to me whining, saying something about balls... This is what I found when I got to the family room...he had stuffed Trix cereal all in his ball toy, and didn't understand why it would no longer work. Go figure. The more I thought about it, I realized, he probably just thought they were itty-bitty balls, so they should work right??