Life is good...and we work at it.

At our reunion in July, after our family's ballroom dance talent number.
Jason is a great dancer, but decided to be shy that day.

We still have lots of issues that we're struggling with, but overall life is so good. Nels and I have a great marriage - not perfect - but wonderful none the less. Secrets to our happy marriage: "Love his strengths more than you hate his weaknesses. Weaknesses are temporary issues of mortality anyway, and we're after eternity together!" We respect each other. We SEEK opportunities to be together, even sit next to one another. We are also blessed to have five beautiful children who love the Lord, love us and love each other. We are trying to teach them responsibility, and they keep learning bits and pieces of it...

Gregory's b-day party, with best friends
 Amanda Hobbs & Kyli McPherson in attendance.

Kimberly with Amanda, one of
Gregory's and her best friends.

Kimberly got her patriarchal blessing - with promises that she will be a great blessing to her mother and father for the rest of our lives. Such a sweet blessing for a sweet girl, and I'm so glad we'll have her for the years ahead. She really is SO much easier than I ever expected a teenage daughter to be. (I really believe it is because she set a goal at the beginning of her freshman year in Seminary to read her scriptures at least 10 minutes every day, and has been keeping that goal!)

Date night - handsome!

Gregory's having a great time attending the regular stake mission prep classes. I love the happiness he walks around with. Testimonies are such good things! He is very much enjoying his senior year, social life, and all. We may even have an Eagle court of honor for him soon...

Samuel's learning how to organize his homework time, usually successfully. He is becoming a very responsible person. Jonathan has finally got caught in the web of reading. He can hardly put his latest Harry Potter book down, but he did get moved up to the highest math group in school recently! His "wanna-be-twin" Jason absolutely LOVES his teacher at school, and she's helping him develop tools of a responsible student.

The kids are all enjoying their schools, loving their teachers, and making progress. We have kids in ballroom dance, choir, orchestra, language classes (all kids are taking some language from Latin to French to German), advanced math classes, etc. They love learning. Love their friends! Love their schools! Love my job at one of them!

Two kids finished drivers' ed and the required driving, even dark hours, but we now have to w a i t  for the appointment for the driving tests then I won't have to do all the driving! Hopefully someday we'll be able to afford another vehicle for them so they can get themselves to school and I wouldn't have all this driving every day! Okay by me for now though; it gives us lots of visiting time.

Gifted musician Jason
at a piano lesson.

We often listen to the KBYU classical radio station in the van. It often starts when one of the kids says, "Mom, that's not a good song, change the station." Then Gregory will say, "Put it on Classical 89. You never have to worry about that station. I've even been telling my friends about it." Aren't they great kids?

I have lost about 40 pounds this year so far. I'm not afraid of food anymore, but am comfortable in my new lifestyle. I look and feel so much better physically. That's a whole post on it's own - I need to document it. I look at our beautiful family picture from last year, and love everybody, except that mom's not me anymore! :)

Our house with an autumn storm coming!

This world is SO beautiful. I LOVE autumn. Everything is so fully grown, colors are plentiful, and the colors of fall, usually jewel tones, are my favorite, especially at dusk. I have a hard time closing the kitchen blinds at dinner time! Autumn provides LOTS of vegetables for yummy meals. I love a new menu, (soups again), and the touch of chill in the air invigorates me much more than the heat of summer. Of course, I also love the spring, when it comes. Contentment - what a blessing!

The cutest peach we found this year -
and my very favorite autumn fruit!

I've been enjoying cooking again. Change of seasons makes that easier, and so has occasional use of a very fun new website: pinterest.com! I've been adding new recipes from there to my recipe site too, so I can remember them. (Here's a link, or there's one on the side of my blog.)

Happy Autumn!