Times Are A Changing.......

Does your life just fly by? Mine does and I don't like it! Maybe it flies by because we cram so much into a day. One thing I do know and I say it constantly....I'm livin' my life! What has happened in October? Just let me highlight some of the best times!

We watched the oldest grandson, Hunter play football every Tuesday night! He also spent every Tuesday night with us. Have I mentioned that I love this boy?

We also went to Las Vegas and spent 4 days with these crazy people! Let me proudly introduce Mr. Nanny's brother and his wife. She may be my sister-in-law but I love her like a sister. We treasure any time we get to spend with them. Back in the day, we spent all holidays and vacations together. Now that our kids are grown and we have grandkids things are a changin'!

Much to Claire & Drew's dismay the pool has closed! How crazy that they were still swimming in October? They love the pool, especially because it is heated! We closed the pool on October 23rd. Here's a little before and after, how sad!

This is Jarad being Jarad! This is what it looks like now......

Spending time with my babies.........

Drew loves to spend his days stripped down after preschool lets out!

Cohen is having a bath in the kitchen sink. My little secret is that this is a great place to put my little ones while I'm cooking!

On Sunday, PaPa went and picked up Claire so she could see the fish at Bass Pro. She came home with a new coat and Prancer!

Which reminded her that Christmas is near, so we pulled out a Christmas show (before Halloween!

The things I love about the fall......

And it's all inside of my favorite place............

We have fallen.......in LOVE!

This boy holding this baby hiding the face of a beautiful girl is Jarad! Jarad is my baby boy and I still fondly refer to him as such! So for all you young momma's (what he always called me) out there the answer is YES, your baby is always your BABY! Even when he is twenty six and a daddy, and a husband. So Jarad called last night and had to change his mind about our attending the Sarah Palin rally. They moved her speaking back an hour so that would put him getting out of town too late. He is leaving today for Atlantic, Iowa to quail hunt. This will be the first time that Mr. Nanny will not be going with him. I'm not sure that I feel great about that! Refer back to the "always your baby" part! Once I get better at this blogging thing I will post way better pictures, I'm sure. But, back to this one.....so the faces that you can't see are my beautiful inside and out daughter-in-law, Ashley and youngest grand baby, Alivia. My love for Alivia is a given! Falling in love with a new baby is never hard! But Ashley......picked by my son to join our family! I publicly announce and will always stand by the fact that we think she is PERFECT! I thank God. He picked her just for Jarad! I love so many things about her. I love how they are best friends. I love how she mommies. I love her assertiveness. I love her loyalty. I love how she loves her parents and sisters. I love how she sings. I love how un-materialistic she is. I love her faith in God. I love how she reminds me of ME and love that Jarad picked someone with similar qualities. I love how she has bonded with Mr. Nanny and that they do things just the two of them, actually it's usually 3 (Alivia) of them. I'm sure I could go on and on if I was truly awake! So just let it be said, WE LOVE HER!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What I Do.....

As I'm sitting here reflecting on my day, trying to get the energy to get up and finish cleaning the kitchen, I realize that I should be tired. My day started with me crawling out of bed and joining Mr. Nanny downstairs for a cup of coffee that he made! At 7:00, I woke up the oldest grandson, Hunter (who spends 1 night a week with us because he wants to!)so he could get ready for school. At 7:05, Drew is dropped off by his dad, Scot, who declares that he is running late and after kisses and I love yous runs out the door. I make Drew breakfast and run back upstairs to throw on some clothes. At 7:30, Drew, Hunter, & I head out the door to take Hunter to school. Yes, Drew goes with us even though he has the option of staying at home with Mr. Nanny! We stop at Starbucks for Hunter's Wednesday morning treat from Nanny, yes iced coffee and a muffin. We drop Hunter off at school and yes that 7th grade boy gives me kisses and I love yous! Drew sitting in the backseat says, "Nanny, Hunter sure is a good boy." Drew is our wise one...... Back home at 8:30 and more coffee for me! I spend some time checking email while Drew is watching his shows and doing flips on and off my bed. Jarad stops by and tells me that he has an opportunity for he and 1 other person to go see Sarah Palin on Friday on the MSU campus. He wants to ask his dad. I'm jealous. I'm intrigued and wouldn't mind to see her in person. It's now 10:30 and I must get in the tub because I have to be out the door by 11:30, with a 4 year old dressed and ready. Thank goodness I've had 4 cups of coffee by now! Leave the house at 11:40. Drew informed me he was having pee pee issues. More time in the potty room than I expected. Left the house and headed for the Highway Patrol office! No, this Nanny isn't in trouble with the law! Drew's PaPa Ed works for the patrol and they were having a fundraiser for Drew's family. Drew's mommy, Steph (my forever friend) has Stage IV colon cancer. We met Mr. Nanny (Kenneth), Chrissy, Claire, & Cohen there! It was very heartwarming to see and meet the people who helped raise money for Steph's foundation. People who work with Ed that may or may not personally know Steph are there giving time and money. So humbling.... Chrissy, the 3 kids, and I took off for a shopping trip to the mall. By now probably around 1:30. The kids have pictures tomorrow at their preschool and we wanted to get them something new to wear. Something a little fancier than what they usually wear to school. By 3:30, we had purchased outfits, visited Build A Bear, and had a snack at the food court. I had invited Chrissy and the kids to come home with me for dinner due to the fact that Brian (awesome son-in-law) left today for Phoenix to visit his dad and step-mom. I immediately started cooking dinner so that we could eat early. I made a new recipe tonight called Autumn Lasagna, salad, apple wedges, and bread/butter. I also made a new pumpkin pie recipe but everyone left before it had cooled. Kenneth, oops, Mr. Nanny has never cared for pumpkin pie but said this could change him into a pumpkin pie lover! I fed 5 adults and 4 little ones dinner tonight! It's times like these that I love and know that I'm so blessed by God. It's also times like right now when I'm sitting in our very quiet house that it is so clear to me that I do love the chaos and the quiet is equally as cherished! Oh yeah, Jarad asked his Dad to go to see Sarah Palin and he isn't available so I was asked next! I don't have a problem being second choice! I'm thrilled to be invited. Hmm....now what should I wear?? My Sarah Palin suit or at the very least my new Sarah Palin glasses?

Here We Go.......

I will now attempt to tell everyone in my life, if they're interested, what goes on in this crazy house! I also hope to share all of the wisdom of my many years on this blog. I live everyday for God and my loved ones. I try really hard to serve everyday of my life! I encourage the people in my life to do this. It truly is what it's all about. There are 2 very scary things about blogging to me. The first is that I have been out of school for so long that my sentence structure and punctuation have suffered terribly. Please don't judge me! I really was a pretty good student back in the day! Second, I really don't need another thing to distract me from all that I have to do in a day! So on this note I think that I will stop my first blog so that I can finish putting up groceries, cooking some dinner for Steph and the boys (and hubby of course), fold and put away laundry and go to a football game. Was that a rambling sentence? I'll work on that.....