Back to Routine

School started one week ago! Emily is in 4th grade (yikes! where did my baby go?), and Josh is in 2nd grade (yikes again!). I can't believe how fast the summer went! And we didn't even do anything terribly exciting as a family this year, other than reunions. But we have enjoyed a lot of time together as a family.

It is good to be back to a routine - sort of! Life seems much more pleasant (for me at least) when there is structure! Everyone knows pretty much what goes on in a day, and there is plenty to keep us all busy. But, it is always nice to not have to be ready so early, to enjoy carefree mornings with the kids, to just BE! I always miss that once school has started!

I was pretty impressed with what the kids accomplished this summer. Emily read all 700+ pages of Harry Potter #4 - and it only took her 6-7 weeks!! Josh read and read and read, too. He started the first Harry Potter book, but we had to return it to the library before he finished it. We'll have to go back and get that one soon because he keeps begging me to take him (always after the library has closed for the day)! Emily finished off one set of piano books and is cruising her way through a second set, and Josh is making good progress on his set. They both got very good at cleaning the bathroom, and more importantly, keeping it clean between cleanings! And Rachel and Caleb have turned into quite the two-some! If he's not bugging her, she's bugging him! But they hardly ever do anything apart!

I have loads of pictures -when I get some time I will do a picture post!

Where Were You...?

Where were you on this day in 1999 when this happened?

I was on my honeymoon!! More precisely, I was running to get into the Jeep that Jared had pulled up to the front door of Olive Garden (where we had lunch) and trying not to die by hail pelting! In the process, I stepped on, and crushed, the container that had our wedding cake in it!! Good thing my parents took some home to freeze!

I am soooo thankful we didn't decide to have Aug. 11 as our wedding day!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 10th anniversary!! And it's a magical one too, because it's also the 10th of the month!! I had planned to put some pictures of our wedding day in this post, but for some reason, our older pictures aren't showing up on the computer! So instead, here is some fun trivia about the past 10 years...

• Location of our wedding: Salt Lake Temple
• Places we've lived: 6 (4 different cities)
• Most we've paid for rent (not a mortgage): $1700 a month
• Least we've paid for rent: $440 (our first apartment, 2 bedrooms, no A/C, but a great little apartment)
• Number of jobs (Jared+Heather): 9 (I think)
• Number of degrees received (just since we've been married): 3
• Number of perfect children: 4!!!
• Number of vehicles: we're currently on #5 and #6
• Tax seasons we've made it through: 8!!
• Number of gardens we've planted: 5

And now, 10 things I love about Jared (in no particular order):

• He's handsome
• He's strong
• He's a hard-worker, willing to provide for our family
• He loves music
• He is thoughtful
• He loves to play games
• He is smart, and also wise
• He is trustworthy
• He has a rock-solid testimony
• He loves me, even when I'm my absolute worst!

I love you Jared! You are the best thing that has ever happened to me! Thank you for being my husband and wanting me for your wife! I look forward to the rest of eternity with you!

Happy Birthday Josh!!

Joshua is 7 years old today!! Can't believe it's already been 7 years since we brought our little boy home!

We've had a great day today. Josh chose crepes for breakfast, and we put cherry pie filling in them - yum!! Jared was home for the morning (because we were getting some gravel and a shed), so Josh was able to open presents this morning. That turned out to be a great thing, because he got to spend the day playing with all his new stuff. Surprisingly, I think his favorite gift was his Webkinz snake, which he named Stripers. We got to go out for lunch (Sonic), and we had his favorite food for dinner - SHRIMP!! Can you believe a kid his age loves shrimp??

Josh is such a great kid. He is a hard worker, a deep thinker, and very energetic. He has a great memory, and he loves to ask lots of questions. He can always make us laugh, and he is very helpful too.

Here's a look at then and now...

We love you Josh!! You are "totally wicked" and we're glad you're part of our family!

Flowers and Jam

What do flowers and jam have in common, you may be asking?

Nothing at all, really!

Here is a picture of the beautiful flowers Jared brought me for my birthday last week. Aren't they pretty?!! He is a smart man! He remembered that lillies are some of my favorite flowers. And the coloring on the two roses is sort of like tulips, some of my other favorite flowers.

Maybe you remember the movie "Alice in Wonderland" - not the cartoon version. I remember watching it as a kid, thinking what an odd story it was! And maybe you remember a song about jam. I think it went something like, "Jam tomorrow, jam yesterday, but never ever jam today." Well folks, we've got jam today!!

{Thankfully we don't live in Wonderland, although sometimes it feels like we do!}

We bought 3 flats of raspberries yesterday, which gave us 43 pints of delicious raspberry freezer jam, with 4 pints of berries left for eating!

Here's a picture of the whole process - 4 batches going at a time!

As a sidenote, I love jam, especially freezer jam. But after realizing just how much sugar goes into it, I'm kind of grossed out!

Do you realize that for every tablespoon of jam you eat, about 2 teaspoons of it is sugar?!?!?!

We used 23-24 POUNDS of sugar for all that jam!

Now that's a lot of sugar!