Our Ultimate Life

Justin and I celebrated 9 years of marriage this week - wow. So crazy. Arranging to leave to go on some sort of date was an undertaking: we found a sitter for the big kids and left Beckham with Mom to go to Idaho Falls. Justin booked an escape room which we conquered with 6 minutes left! Then we got a pick me up at Great Harvest Bread before we did sealings at the temple. This was our first time back to the temple in two years! Crazy! I had to rent a dress because mine doesn't fit 😂 and I needed some help getting dressed, what with remembering what goes where. Our sealer was fun; he would say, "The wording says this and this...why don't you think about that on this next one." And then afterwards he'd say, "Did you think about it...?" When nobody gave any profound response he said, "Well, go ahead and think about it some more," and did the next one. Ha.

After the temple we went to our dinner reservation at D'Railed. The food was amazing; I could go for a lamb lollipop right about now.

We didn't have time to do our monthly Costco shopping so we headed to Walmart. At dinner I had a stroke of genius for what to do next week for my classes, so I bought some supplies for that, much to Justin's chagrin. I still haven't signed a contract, which means I'm not on the payroll so he's like...what the heck lady. Ha!

We couldn't get a pic it the front of the temple because cute kids were getting married and had dibs 😂

ahi tuna appetizer

lamb lollipop appetizer

Justin's filet mignon

my New York strip - we pretty much shared our steaks evenly because they were both so good. Probably the best steak I've had in my life

We saw this outfit on display in downtown I.F. and I HAD to have it for Beckham... it's 6 month size and he fills it out just fine. 😍

Saturday I bottled a box and a half of peaches. They were tiny and not AS delicious as last year, but we enjoyed them after church today all the same.

Logan was TIRED Wednesday after school...Mom was gracious and took them for the afternoon on Thursday so they got a break.

Making coloring pages for the kids.

Emmett insisting this costume from when he was 3 still fits

Logan helped me make cornbread that went with our taco soup - I'm SO ready for soup season!

Logan's favorite chore: mowing the lawn with Dad!

We did a drive to the dam to throw rocks ... you wouldn't believe how low the water is

lol family selfie

Wow, four week since an update. Here we go!

I accepted the part-time teaching position but have yet to sign a contract. Ha! Typical Butte County I suppose... I bring Emmett and Logan to work with me. For the time being, a para professional comes to take them for the afternoon while I teach. The district is still working on hiring an official preschool teacher for the "program" which will probably consist of 4-5 kids...or maybe just my kids. We'll see. The fact that they're hiring someone just so I can come teach is pretty phenomenal, so in the meantime I'm trying to remain patient and grateful. Justin bought me a wagon and we load it up with my teaching supplies plus activities for the boys to do every day. The fact that it is only four days is HUGE: four days on, three days off. The biggest challenge is prepping two classes. At my previous teaching jobs I had the same subject all day - here I have Life and Earth Science to prep, so that's a challenge. But it feels good to stretch my creativity muscles again and come up with lesson plans. My students are a dream. Logan pops by my room to say hi every day and gives me a great big hug. I love having them just down the hall from me. After my last teaching position of students breaking light bulbs and vandalizing my room, fist fights around my pregnant-Emmett belly, and pot smoking in the bathrooms, Butte County should be a welcome experience.

The day before school started my sweet three year-old got a hold of my thumb drive that I have saved ALL - and I mean ALL - of my teaching-everything on....student teaching, Vegas, Washington... all of it! And he broke it. Justin took it to a repair shop for me and we have yet to hear back if they can recover any data. That was a sad, sad day indeed....crossing my fingers they can recover those materials because I can't bear to think if it is all really gone. Justin says it's my fault I didn't upload it all to the cloud...sigh.

But enough about me! Moving onto the kiddos...Beckham turned two months old and he's growing like a weed. After seeing the chiropractor a couple of times he doesn't have any reflux issues. I started the "takingcarababies" sleep "training" when he was 5 weeks old - by 7 weeks he was nearly sleeping through the night. Now bedtime is at 8:30 and he sleeps solidly until about 5:00. I either give him his binki which he usually takes and sleeps until 7:00-7:30, or some night he needs a feeding. In other words, he is sleeping amazingly and we are so grateful!

two months 💗

With Emmett's late summer birthday I've decided to wait to start kindergarten until he's 6. That's not really news as much it is just executing the idea I've had for a long time. I will probably wait with Beckham as well with his June birthday, and may even wait with Logan. I've had a lot of questions more recently about it since it's that time of year when people ask, and I can't tell you how many times moms have said to me, "I wish I would have done that." I feel it's the right decision for our family. It's not necessarily based on whether he's ready for Kindergarten as much as what I want his 3rd grade, 7th grade, and high school experiences to be like.

We had our first emergency room visit with Emmett this month. He ran into the bookshelf while playing hide and seek and split his eyebrow open - pretty much the exact same injury Justin acquired as a kid. Thankfully the visit didn't require stitches, and the wonderful doctor didn't see the need to check us in. She put a strip band aid on in two spots and sent us on our way, avoiding an emergency room bill. Bless her!

Justin has started two (maybe three?) side-hustle contract jobs for x-amount of hours. We are really picking things up to save a hefty down payment on a construction loan hopefully in the spring. He was doing activity days for the 6-11 year old boys in our ward but was recently released. No new church job for him yet. He organized a ward party which happened to fall on the coldest, rainiest day of the summer. We had a good turn out anyway.

James came to visit for a few days! Apparently flying across the country was cheaper than finding child care while his wife traveled the world for two weeks. Crazy nut I say! But we enjoyed his company. He spent the majority of his time in Emmett with his in laws but ventured out to Arco for a few days just to say hi. I thought that was so nice for him to make that huge effort just to see us and sleep on our floor - ha! It felt like old times when Justin and I were newlyweds and would hang out with James in Rexburg...plus five boys 5 and under 😄 We enjoyed Jo Jo Rabbit with him and his Redneck board game and my boys enjoyed their cousins.

Well, that in a nutshell was our August.

I decided it was time to take my kids to my favorite fossil finding spot. Emmett found the first one of the day! We've been back twice since. I found some gorgeous calcite crystals to use for teaching.