The End of September.

September has been a most lovely month.

I've truly enjoyed getting back into the flow of things with school starting. It's quite different with just Maylie home in the mornings, but we're getting used to it. As bitter as change is, it's also terribly sweet. I love to flow and adapt to the changes and different seasons of my life. I find that with the end of each chapter, another one presents itself--just as sweet, if not sweet than the chapter before.

And I feel just the same as my mother did when we were growing up. When people ask me what stage of my children's lives has been my favorite? My answer is always "the one they're in right now!"

Each day is full of wonder. Each day is full of surprises. And I have thoroughly been enjoying my 2014: My Year of Celebration!!!

This Fall I've been volunteering in Tater's classroom every Thursday morning. My neighbor and I trade off our little ones so we can volunteer in our kindergartner's classes. So I have her little girl and boy on Tuesday mornings and Maylie goes to their house on Thursday. This has been such a joy to be in the classroom again. Not only do I love being my sweet little Tater Tot and see him interact in this brand new environment, but I LOVE just being in the classroom. The second best thing to teaching is getting to volunteer, and in some ways much better. As much as I loved being in charge of a classroom when I was student teaching and writing the lesson plans, I love letting another teacher be in charge so I can spend more time helping the students. Also, I have been noticing the blessings of service in my life. And they are very grand.

This Fall has brought us several lunches and dinners with Daddy at the hospital. Every week or so we meet him at the cafeteria to dine on the most delicious, healthy, inexpensive food I've ever tasted.

Yes, this season has been ever so sweet.

 {The fish are always a highlight of Daddy's work}

{Somewhere I have pictures of me at my Daddy's work when I was about the same age. It's tender for me to see generations repeat themselves.}

 {I froze a whole bushel of fresh Brigham City Peaches!! And we ate almost as many as we received fresh peaches every week}

{These were our very first golden tomatoes!}

 {One day I made Sumo de Pessego (Peach Juice). It tasted just exactly like the Compal Portuguese Peach Nectar I drank nearly every day in Portugal. PS--the recipe is super easy. Put a whole peach (minus the stone) in a blendtec and push the "whole juice" button.}

 {This picture represents a special half hour I enjoyed with my boys. We had a "build-your-own lego car contest" the other day. I am absolutely amazed at the creative geniuses I have as sons! They outdid me for sure without even trying!}

 {This is Tate's class singing a song. His teacher is so sweet and bubbly! She is the perfect fit for my Tater Bug!}

{Every day Maylie and I wait around the corner and down the road for our Tate to come home.}

 {And this little girl models for me}

 {And explores.}

 {I love her so much}

 {Lastly, this is my newest portrait--chalked by Tate...I love my curly cue hair. Isn't it the cutest?}

The End.

Mixing Paint...

The play continues.

{And this one was my little creation...}

Tate's Play

Tater and I have been buddies the last few weeks.  We play together everyday.  Lately, his favorites have been building castles and swimming pools, building train tracks, and playing house.

Today we played house and he was "the dad." He talked in this nice deep voice calling me "Kid," and telling me to take naps and eat my dinner. (After a few times of being called "kid," I reminded him that my name was Jamie).  Maylie was the mom, and every time Tate left the room, he would forget to close the door and Maylie would promptly hop up and start moving towards the door.  At about the same time, Tate would remember and say, "Oh! I forgot to close the door so Mommy won't escape!" And he'd rush back to close it just in time.

He made me blueberry applesauce and cakes for dessert with milk and red juice tea (since real tea is bad).  He did the dishes in the little play sink, but told me it was much too small.  Then we took a nap on the rocking chair together before morning time came.

I love you sweet little boy Tate.

St. Patrick's Day Spaghetti

 For one of our St. Patrick's Day activities, we made green spaghetti to play with.

And despite my tries to prevent it, they all decided that eating the spaghetti was just as fun as playing with it.

We also did a rainbow scavenger hunt where the boys had to find each arc of the rainbow scattered throughout the house and then assemble them to read the clue to find the pot of gold.  I didn't get any pictures, but it was a fun little diversion. :)

Play {Part 2}

"The revelation that we have everything we need in life to make us happy but simply lack the conscious awareness to appreciate it can be as refreshing as lemonade on a hot afternoon.  Or it can be as startling as cold water being thrown in our face.  How many of us go through our days parched and empty, thirsting after happiness, when we're really standing knee-deep in the river of abundance?"

~Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance

Mommy-Playtime has still been going well.  I am so grateful that I have accepted myself as imperfect, because imperfect I am.  There are days that individual playtime with each of my little ones doesn't happen.  And many of these pictures represent play activities that the boys invent on their own.  And we are connecting in grand and glorious ways and the Lord is truly blessing us.  All it takes is the desire, and He works miracles through us.

Here is a Sunday activity we tried one day.  It's called "Scripture Hero Cars" and it was an idea from my good friend.   We asked the boys to choose their favorite scripture prophets and heroes and then we wrote the names on pieces of paper that we taped to the tops.

Then they each picked a car and told the story of the prophet (or as much as they knew).  We filled in the details and then they got to race their cars down the ramp.

We repeated the activity for all of the cars.

And in the middle of the event, we heard cries from Maylie's room...

She had sneaked away, crawled inside her toy basket, and couldn't get out.