School, Family, and the BEST Time of Year!

I'm afraid that being back in school is going to cause me to be a very sporadic blogger. It's so weird trying to get back in the swing of this whole going to class/doing homework/writing papers thing. I'm really enjoying it for the most part though, and it's been interesting to see the difference in my work ethic and time management skills since the last time I was in college.

 I feel like I'm a lot more on top of things and much less likely to procrastinate. So that's a good thing, eh? Having to keep my school life organized has also seeped into other facets of my life, and I feel like I'm much more on top of my housework and yard work than I was all summer (sorry to all the spiders I've evicted who were living in the weed jungles in my back yard).

As far as my family goes, I feel like we're all closer than we've ever been. Now that the weather is cooler we take walks together every night after dinner, and it's so much fun playing with my two crazy little boys. This morning they were playing dinosaurs together, stomping up and down the hallway and growling at each other. It was adorable!

A few weeks ago we added a furry little member to our family - an adorable calico cat named Nova. We adopted her from a local shelter and she's such a sweet fur ball and puts up with all of Ollie's abuse without so much as batting an eye at him. She's so patient and so snuggly and we're just super in love with her.

My spirits have been especially high lately because it's finally FALL! This is by far my very, very favorite time of year and after a very long summer I'm so glad harvest time is just around the corner. We've been taking drives up Provo Canyon every weekend to see all the pretty colors, and I love looking up at he mountains and seeing them all speckled in red and orange.

I'm really looking forward to next month, full of visiting farms and pumpkin patches, playing in the crunchy leaves, going to parties, celebrating Doba Day, and decorating our house and yard for our favorite holiday! There's just something about autumn that makes me feel so peaceful and recharged. Love it.

Another momentous occasion is right around the corner - Sean is turning THIRTY this weekend! To celebrate this huge milestone he's taking all of next week off. We'll have a nice long nine-day "staycation," full of lots of lounging, napping, and taking the kids on adventures. I think this is definitely something we both need, and it'll be great to have him home so I can spoil him rotten.

One kinda lame thing that happened recently - I broke my toe. I was running into the living room at full speed to stop Oliver from doing something naughty and slammed my foot right into the foot of our ottoman. I didn't think it was broken at first, but after a few days my toe turned black and blue and hurt so bad there were times I couldn't walk on it at all. I spent all last weekend on Lortab with my foot propped up. No bueno. It's feeling a little better now but I still can't wear regular shoes and I'm just living in flip-flops right now (thank goodness the weather hasn't gotten too cold yet!). If you can't tell, it's the one next to my pinkie toe on the left foot. Ouch.

In more exciting news, Taylor is really enjoying kindergarten and has already made lots of friends. Unfortunately his teacher quit unexpectedly, so he's had to get used to another teacher which has probably stressed me out more than it's stressed him out. I think I'm still trying to get used to my baby being in school, and when we got his school pictures back I just about had a complete emotional breakdown. He's growing up too fast!

Speaking of growing up to fast, Oliver will be two in just over two months! He has started talking like crazy and really developing a crazy little personality. He's much more mischievous than Taylor was, and we're constantly having to keep him from killing himself (or someone else). He can be really sweet when he wants to be though, and when he yells "Mama!" from across the room and runs at me and gives me a big squeezy hug he just melts my heart.

 Sean and I are doing amazing. It never ceases to amaze me that I can continue to love him more and more all the time. He is honestly the most supportive, loyal, and loving man and I feel so lucky every day that he is my husband. I'm just absolutely head-over-heels for him.

Well that's pretty much our life right now - crazy but great. I hope you're all enjoying this awesome time of year!