Oh, Wonderful October...

I love October.  It makes me happy in every way.  A chill in the air perfect for sweaters, bright, warm colors flanking the view of otherwise ordinary streets, gentle breezes making red leaves flutter past my face, that sound of golden aspens rustling in the wind, and of course the two major components of autumn life...football and Halloween.  These were the ubiquitous joys of fall that we got to experience during this month.  

One of my favorite days this month was just a simple Saturday when we didn't have much else going on, so we took the morning to clean up the yard.  Everything was perfect outside, and everyone was happy (well, almost everyone; Talmage was maybe having a extra-hormonal day).  I love how physical work can make a boy feel so free and useful.  Even Emery wanted to help:).

LOVE Joseph's tongue hanging out.

My unskilled attempt at capturing the deep red of these leaves.

Also this month, we enjoyed a few less expected happenings, including a rather last minute decision for Joseph to try wrestling.  This added excitement brought with it two practices a week right during dinner time to which a parent was required to attend AND siblings were forbidden to play at.  Thus, every Tuesday and Thursday from 6:00 - 7:00 while Super Seth took care of things at home, I got the privilege of beholding this sort of cuteness:

(pre-instruction play)

 

And on Saturdays, this:

The season ended last week, and after working hard to learn and complete the necessary requirements to earn his "gray shirt", Joseph ultimately decided wrestling isn't exactly his sport (phew!), but he sure had a lot of fun trying it.  

Another rather unexpected event was our decision to visit Fetal Studio at South Town Mall for an early gender check.  I normally wait until the full anatomical ultrasound at 20 weeks, but with this being our last baby, and final attempt at a conceiving a much desired girl, I knew I would not be able to stand the wait any longer.  And would you know it?

Yep, another boy. 

Another post to come with more of that story.  

Don't worry, I'm okay now.  And happy.  Boys are awesome!:) How could I not be?

On to more fun...


Now, when I mentioned football as being one of the joys of October, I wasn't just talking about BYU.  Ashton tried his hand at tackle football this year and loved his experience.  Unlike wrestling, this wasn't a last minute decision.  Seth and I discussed this one at length and decided to allow Ashton the experience.  His season actually began toward the end of the summer.  The first two weeks included 2 hour practices, 5 days a week. After that grueling initiation, they decreased the intensity just slightly to 3 days a week (still 2 hour practices).  Needless to say it was a huge commitment for our whole family.  The month of September welcomed in the actual game season.  Sadly, that month wasn't very successful for our little Vikings.  But when October came, they began to turn the season around and were actually winning games! It was most enjoyable for all.  

Football wasn't easy for Ashton.  There were moments that he wanted to quit.  But we were so proud of him for persevering and finishing strong.  By the time the season was over, he had quite a handful of key tackles and important plays to claim.  After his final practice of the season, he was thrilled to come home to find this surprise poster on our front door (the balloon had popped by the time we took the picture).  To see the smile on his face after overcoming self-doubt and some pretty challenging obstacles for a 9 year old was a truly priceless moment for this mom.  

And of course there was BYU football!  Seth and I loved taking each of the boys to at least one home game with our three season tickets.  Each of the boys savored their time in LaVelle Edwards Stadium. Talmage was the lucky son who got to come to two games with us.  Unfortunately, however, he was the attendee when we were defeated yet again by Utah.  Tears flowed. It felt like a wake inside the car as we drove home.  I think I learned that such is not the time to give a speech about having love for all mankind.  It took him a few days to recover.  When it was time for Joseph's turn, I wasn't sure how he would hold up for the whole 3+ hours of a game he, though he is growing up in the Seth Barrus household, doesn't quite fully understand.  But he loved it, the entire thing.  In fact, since we were leading by a comfortable margin by the middle of the fourth quarter, we decided to leave a bit early to beat traffic.  Joseph was acutely disappointed to be ending his first real BYU football experience prematurely. I think Seth has successfully impassioned yet another child.  

(Please forgive the poor camera phone shot.)

And finally, Halloween!!  This was a big day for us, so I will be dedicating a separate post entirely to the festivities of the day.  But for now, I will leave you with our family costume shots (one of us had to be taking the picture each time). I give you Rocker Dad (kind of his traditional-no-time-to-plan-a-costume getup), Zombie boy, mini-Hulk, Teen Beach Movie Biker, and precious lamb:).  

Oh, and I guess large, pregnant, non-scary witch (I don't do gore, much to the dismay of my children).

I hope you were all able to also bask in the wonderfulness that is October:)!

Back to School {slightly delayed}

          A few weeks ago, I had a somewhat surreal experience as I pushed the stroller into a place I never imagined myself being.  An Aeropostale store.  In the mall.  With my 7th grade son and his best friend.  Oh my goodness.  Was this really happening?  And did that adolescent looking store clerk just call me Ma'am?  Yup.  It's official, folks.  I am mom.  The mom that when I was in Junior High would be driving the van, waiting in the dressing room, holding endless hangers of clothing over her arms, and pulling out her wallet with tired hesitancy once I finally made my choices...until the next store.  That is  now me. But you know? I'm okay with it.  In fact, it is somewhat of a relief:). No more worrying about impressing the guy behind the counter and wondering if that look he gave meant he was just being polite to the awkward tall girl in the room or actually interested.  No more stressing over every article of clothing, worrying it might not be enough en vogue to pass the popular girl eye-over test.  Those stressful days are long over, thank heavens.  I realize that I often cast my maturing years as a negative thing, as though becoming like my mother is an unwelcome reality.  The truth is, I want to become like her! Every time I experience the strangeness of realizing that I'm not very young anymore, there is always comfort in knowing that at least it means that I might just be closer to achieving that goal.  And when to my children I do become that permanent, purse carrying fixture, ever in the back ground of their daily activities, then I think that might mean I'm doing something right.

Anyway, I discovered with this trip to the mall with my man child that he has become quite concerned over his wardrobe.  No more long sleeve/short sleeve combo shirts with cheesy phrases like, "I'm Allergic to Homework" or "Varsity Stud" printed on the front.  No, now we're into preppy-boy polos, and half rolled up sleeves on plaid shirts tucked into dark washed jeans, and please-no-more-cross trainer-type shoes. Okie. Doke!

Here's what he chose for his first day of Junior High:

And here is another one I just had to include.  Please, oh please, my son.  I pray every day that you will stay this sweet and innocent:

The other boys?

So much easier.  Joseph is still perfectly happy with mom picking out clothes, and since Talmage tends to set the precedent for all things "allowed" for his younger brothers, I just continued with the polo/plaid shirt theme for the other two:)  Kind of a girly mother's dream, actually.  

Ashton was another story all together.  I had to convince him to wear a new outfit for his first day of school.  I finally coerced this out of him...

So besides pouring on the toddler love at home, preparing for the Primary Program, heading up the reflections program at the elementary school, and attempting room mom responsibilities, what will I be doing with all my "extra" time while the older boys are in school all day?

Oh, how about just growing another human being?  That kind of sounds fun;)

Summer

          Around the last Monday in May, Seth and I sat down with the boys for Family Home Evening and made a list of all the things we wanted to do over the summer; things that would make our summer awesome.  We also talked about using time well to accomplish goals and the importance of maintaining productivity levels in the absence of school structure. We decided that we would do our best to make the summer fun and exciting, but also that reading, chores, and piano practice would still be a part of our daily routine. (Cue audience laughter).  Yeah. Right.  I think this was the laziest summer on record!  But, my guess is, if you were to ask the boys they would probably rate it pretty high simply because it was so lazy.  

          Notwithstanding our lack of success at achieving all our productivity goals, we did manage to complete several of the items on our list of summer awesomeness .  Our version of summer this year included lots of trips to the pool (thanks to Talmage's school walk-a-thon prize), many days spent with friends, scouts, family reunions, after dark chats on the front porch bench swing (my favorite), numberless rides on the golf cart, playing with cousins, hikes, sprinkler playing, biking/running/riding along the canal trail, Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum, back yard games, slurpees, a trip to Lagoon, and our final summer hurrah...7 Peaks:).

          Now for the bad news.  Every summer I seem to have this hope that by the end of August I will have a plentiful portfolio of beautiful, candid pictures showing the many splendid, sunshine-y moments that would tell our summer story.  And, regrettably, every August I scour my computer for such pictures and come up short handed.  Why did I not take pictures of this, or of that?  What was I thinking not bringing my camera here, or there? Such is the case this year as I struggle to find the right moment-capturing pics to tell our summer tale.  So please forgive the sub-par assortment you are about to view.

 Father's Day: 

That would indeed be a double crust, 5 meat, triple cheese, stuffed Papa Murphey's pizza before your eyes. 

Joseph, so pleased with his offering:)

One of our many hikes:

Emery Barrus, the PG Strawberry Days Prince!

And the obligatory parade:  It wasn't his favorite.

Crane Reunion in Logan:

Fun Run...

Family Dance in the chapel's Primary room:)

Lunch with sisters for Tara's "baby shower".  (Please forgive the camera phone pic, but this was maybe one of my favorite activities of the reunion.  I just love spending time with my sisters, including the others not pictured here.  Every time we are together I wish we all lived closer.)

Joseph and his best little cousin, Ava at Lagoon.  I just loves these two:)

Pre-barbecue Ice blocking on Pioneer Day:

 Okay.  Quick tangent on this awesome young man:)  This is cousin Zack.  He is Talmage's closest boy cousin and has always been the greatest friend to Tal.  It has been so fun to watch him grow up and become such a wonderful young man.  And even though he is taller than me now and has a full-on man voice, he continues to be a great friend to Talmage.  Over the summer we had the privilege of having Zack stay with us for a few days so he and Talmage could spend time together.  He was respectful, courteous, helpful, and just a delight to have in our home.  Talmage loved feeling like he had a big brother in the house and I loved seeing how much fun the two of them had together.  I just love this boy:)

 And the other boys (whom I also love) ...

Of. Course. ;)

Our final play day of the summer...at Seven Peaks:

This might be my favorite picture of Talmage ever.

          

          Although we did not manage to check off all the items on our list, all in all it was a good summer:).  Now onto the next season, which hopefully won't equal another three month hiatus from blogging! (Sorry about that, by the way.)  Bring on the autumnal equinox:) Yay for pumpkin, right?!

Birthday Craziness: Part III

       Once a year, Jewish people throughout the world participate in a practice called Bedikat Chamatz.  This is where all traces of leaven are removed from the house in order that the home may be perfectly "clean" during the celebration of Passover.  They discard all yeast and products that might have yeast in them.  They scrub down stoves, ovens, appliances, cupboards...anything that a leavened item might have touched or even left traces of.

       You may be wondering what on earth this has to do with Emery's birthday.  I will tell you:).  One of the most unique things I ever discovered about Seth was that, unbeknownst to him, he practiced his own form of Bedikat Chamatz once every year in November.  But instead of removing leaven from his home/car/office, he removed the color red.  Now, I love BYU just as much as the next [properly] indoctrinated co-ed.  But you see, Seth has a rather... impassioned loyalty to the Y.  The week before the Cougars played the Utes was pretty much the most important, perhaps sacred week of the year to him.   So out went the color red.  And pink, and coral, and maroon, and rose - basically anything that resembled red.  This is how much he loves his Cougs.

       So when it came time to celebrate the first birthday of the son of Seth Barrus, it was kind of easy to pick a theme:). 

       Here are the highlights... 

Enamored daddy.  These two are developing an undeniable bond:).

 Emery knew something was up when guests showed up and he started getting so much attention.  And he reveled in it!  He was absolutely delightful:) (And thank you, Aunt Bethany, for the balloon!)

Gift opening was a little confusing:).  He didn't quite grasp why each toy kept getting moved to the side for another.  He just wanted to play!

 Time for cake!  

In our family we avoid giving anything with table sugar to our babies...until they turn one, and then it's a sugar liberating extravaganza!! (At least for one night.)

He wasn't sure what to do with this new found freedom...

And then it became serious business.

And this may be the real reason I don't let my babies eat sugar before age one.  So I can get pictures like this one on their birthday:)

       Emery has got to be the most loved baby ever to be born.  One of my favorite things about this birthday celebration was watching his older brothers laugh and cheer all night over the tiniest things he would do while opening presents and eating cake.  I feel sad that I don't have any pictures of them with him!  I don't know what I was thinking.  Those boys adore him.  They are so good to him and he is so lucky to have them.  

       Emery has been an absolutely perfect baby.  The joy he brings to our lives is indescribable.  One night when he was about 8 months old, I discovered that he had a little fascination with my eye lashes.  As I was singing to him in my arms, he started touching them and trying to pull at them.  So I let him feel what they were like by fluttering them against his cheek .  He giggled and leaned his face in to mine for me to do it again.  From then on it became a little ritual of ours when I lay him down for bed.  It soothes him and makes him smile, and it gives me the most incredible feeling of love.  He is the most loving, sweetest boy in the world.   We are so blessed to be his parents.