Sunshine is Free

If I keep waiting to get pictures up then I won't be posting for another month. Here's a little recap. We took Jeremy to the ER on Labor Day. We'd gone to our church's picnic, had a blast visiting and playing with people, then the boys started a game of football. Jeremy was doing great, but the last play he was looking over his shoulder as he was running and stepped in a whole. Luckily, one of the guys there was an ortho doc and he told us to call if we needed help. At first Jeremy was just going to go home and ice it, but after we got home and started icing it, decided otherwise. We went to Dartmouth-Hitchcock's ED and the wait was 5 hours with a few more traumas arriving soon. So we called our friend and he took us into his clinic. After a few x-rays we found a tiny little hair-line fracture in the outside ankle bone. Jeremy got a boot out of the deal and was back at work the next day. We're so glad it didn't need to be casted, and he's been a real trouper still helping with the three kids as much as he can.

That Friday Jeremy was on-call and our church was having a mother-daughter/women's camp-out at a small lake East of Manchester. I haven't been camping for a while and have been wanting to take the girls all summer. I figured it'd either be crazy at home, or in the woods, so we chose the woods. I took me all day to pack enough stuff, but we did it. It was an hour and a half drive and the girls were great. I couldn't get a single picture taken because the entire time was spent somehow feeding or holding one of the three, but it was beautiful. We had a fireside overlooking the lake which had the sun going down behind it. There were other women there and several 10 year old girls just dying to hold the little ones or help with Katie. We were in a little Adirondack cabin. It had screen covered openings on all four sides and 8 bunk beds with little mattresses. I set the girls up in two pack and plays on the floor (they're like portable cribs). I knew it was going to be cold, so Katie was in two shirts, a coat, sweat pants, and winter jammies and completely buried in blankets. The girls were in long jammies, winter fuzzy jammies, and these snow suits that covered their heads, hands, feet, and everything else. They were so bundled up they were stuck in a little snow angel position. The stars were beautiful, I couldn't get enough of being in the forest, and I was so proud of us for doing it. We packed up the next morning and made it home in time for lunch.

This last week Katie had a short trip to the ER due to a playground crash. She bit the back of her tongue so hard it sliced through and there was a little flap. I felt a little silly about going in, but I wanted to make sure she wasn't going to have a forked tongue in the future. She did great and the doctor and nurses were fabulous. No repair needed, but as I was signing the discharge paper she fell on her face again and bit her lip and that started bleeding. I just picked her up and said we better go home and get you a Popsicle. The doctor just looked at me and said I was a very cool, calm, and collected mother. He was very impressed. The nurses wanted to know how I was smiling with three small children in tow (the twins were with us). They don't know I was smiling because I was so happy to converse with adults!

Those are the big happenings. I'm excited for Conference coming up. This will be the first one Jeremy will be home for in the last 2 years. I'm sure glad DirecTV lets us pick up BYUTV so we can watch it at home. To take this crew to the church to watch the broadcast would be a joke. Technology is amazing.

Fall is definitely here. The leaves are turning all kinds of reds, yellows, oranges, intermixed with the green pines. The air is crisp, we went apple picking Saturday, and the smell of apple cider was intoxicating. I feel like I need to buy school supplies (though I'm so glad I don't need to, just feeding everyone costs enough money). Pele gets super excited to go out and run in the cool air. I love being able to wear sweat shirts again. Katie likes the leaves that fall to the ground. I feel so blessed to live here and see these amazing colors! My mom's coming out in October and we're excited for that.

We've been trying out having the girls sleep in Katie's room at night again. Katie actually asks for it each night: "how bout I think the girls sleep with you tonight." Most nights it goes well, but some nights we have to go in and get her and all of her blankets and stuffed animals out of the girls' crib. She can climb out of hers and into theirs. It's so cute and at the same time you just want them all to sleep and not stay up and play or beat on each other. But I love it. Both Sydney and Cora love to follow Katie when they play. And Katie loves to include them, when she's not taking away their toys.

Life is good. There are still many a day I feel like I've lost my mind. I find some way to escape and bawl my eyes out for a bit, then I get it together and can do this again. Parenthood, particularly motherhood, is a marathon that does not end. There is no praise of man for making sure your kids get their vegetables in every day, everyone has clean clothes on, or getting the dishes done for the eighth time that day, but I've never been so tested, stretched, strengthened, guided, and blessed.