Life is finally slowing down!

I can't believe I went so long without blogging... Oh well, such is life. I'm doing it now so I guess that's good.  This post will be overloaded with pictures, I'm sure...

I never posted that I was pregnant, so for those who weren't aware, I was pregnant... until 11 days ago when I gave birth to a beautiful baby GIRL! (there will be a whole separate post on that one).  When we went to the ultrasound, we were all convinced that we were having another boy, and were perfectly happy with that- I'd accepted that I was going to be a "boy mom" and was LOVING it. We joked with the US tech that it would definitely throw our life into a little bit of a frenzy if it were a girl, but we were sure it was a boy, so no problem! Then she said "Looks like some big changes are coming to your home...It's a girl!" I didn't believe her and made her show me a couple of times to be sure. Adam's response was "Well, this baby just got a whole lot more expensive!" How true that is, but it's been so fun already!

 (The boys drew my outline on the sidewalk- baby and all)

Our summer was relatively uneventful besides just spending a lot of time playing outside and enjoying our relaxing life with a little side of morning sickness all along. Ritter ended up having 2 more seizures in May and June, both accompanied by Croup. He hasn't had another one or croup again since, so I'm a little nervous how this winter will treat him, but he has had a couple of fevers that did not cause seizures, and I'm hopeful that maybe he's outgrown it?! It is not fun to watch your child have a seizure, and it only got slightly easier the 2nd and 3rd time. It keeps me on edge anytime I leave him or if he feels even the slightest bit warm.

 Adam and I made a quick impromptu trip to Colorado for a weekend to celebrate 9 years of being married. It was fun to go back "home" and show Adam all around where I spent the best and worst of my teenage years!

Kickball for Griffin

 

After the kids were almost approached by a sexual predator at the park this summer, and our sheriff's dept. was so helpful in finding him, we took cookies to say thank you and let the kids see the jail.

In early spring, we decided we wanted to get chickens for our backyard. Each of us picked out a chick and it has been a lot of fun to watch them grow and to gather eggs from the backyard. The kids (Griff especially) love to play with them and chase them around the yard.

In August, Adam and I flew out to Illinois to interview for a job in a town called Bourbonnais near Chicago. We were both excited and nervous about the idea of moving (right before having a baby too). I spent the day driving around and exploring to get a feel for the area and see what kind of homes were available while Adam spent the whole day interviewing, touring, etc. Shortly after lunch, I was getting a little discouraged because I felt really uneasy about the area and the whole thing just seemed like it wasn't right for us. I got a text from Adam about 20 minutes later when he had a short break between meetings and he told me that he was feeling like this wasn't the right place for us. There was nothing undesirable about the job, the area and the pay was almost double what we make now, but it just felt wrong. It was such a relief that we both got the same answer without even having to think twice about it. We feel really good staying in Cache Valley where we know it's a good place to raise our children, we have a lot of support around us and Adam has a good job. Until that interview, we were both a little antsy to move somewhere new, but I think both of us are pretty set on staying here, or at least in northern Utah for a long time.

First day of School pics

We have continued to homeschool and Griffin has been teaching himself to read and write (with just a little help from me, but not much because he's still young and I don't want to push until he's older).
Deegan is doing really well and working a grade level ahead of where he should be. He's become a major bookworm. If he has a book he is interested in, he'll read for hours. We try to get to the library every week because if not, he's bored with the books already since he's read them all at least once in the first few days.

 I hesitate to say this, because it always brings trials to my life, but right now life is just good! Today is the first snow of the winter and the kids are LOVING being outside in it while I am loving snuggling my sweet baby girl!