Here are some random September pictures.  I'll just title this first section, "Alaina."  She is always giving me a reason to photograph her.  Like this first picture.  I looked over at her and realized that she was gorgeous.  Boom.  Reason to be photographed.

Or here, when she auditioned for her theater group.  While everyone else sang Disney songs or random monologues about boys or parents not understanding...she recited and acted out 'The Jabberwocky."  By memory.  She had memorized it on a dare.  That summer I had told her what a hard poem it was to memorize because it is made out of pure nonsense words.  She regarded them as fight'n words.  And off she went.  By the time of the audition, we had all heard that poem a million times.   Alaina was so fun to watch.  I was in charge of taking the pictures, which all freaked out in the weird lighting.  Ethan was in charge of filming.  He sat there and held the camera so still for the entire thing.  Then he looked down and realized he hadn't pressed record.  Between the two of us, all we got was these two pictures.  Boo!

Here she is, just being herself.

Crazy hair day.

Jason at the park...so tired.

Austin and his BFF, Bella.

On our way back from Grandma Nickie's we stopped by the beach.  Here are some fun pictures from that day.

I know it was the beginning of October, but here are a couple of shots Robert got when we had the total eclipse of the moon...and it turned it blood red.  

Fun lunch.  Some days I have a little too much time on my hands.

Future snowboarder

And future kindergartener  :)

I forgot to mention in my lengthy birthday post, that Robert also took me zip-lining.  His mom came and watch the kids so we could spend the day being dare-devils and we spent that night in the city.  It was so much fun to take a break from our normal, every day grind.  Flying through the air on a zip-line through the desert was a new experience for us both.  I found it rather relaxing...I just wish the line could have gone on for a few more miles...

When September rolled around, inevitably, so did my birthday.  My 40th birthday.  Sheez!  How did that happen?  Actually, if I stop for a second and think about it, I know exactly how that happened.  If I made a list of all the places we lived this last decade, of all the places we visited and of all our crazy experiences, I bet I would be shocked to know how we fit everything in 10 measly years.  On my 30th birthday, I was holding my 6 month old, gorgeous, Ethan boy, wondering how I ever got so lucky to have that child in my life.  In the back of my mind, I'd wonder if he would be the only child that I'd ever have.  Would I adopt more children?  Would we always live in Colorado?  I have a good imagination, but I don't think that even I could have ever predicted the amazing, wonderful, happy, scary, exciting or frustrating things that filled the last 10 years.  Twins.  Moving across the United States...twice!  Two more bonus kids.

A typical day back then was holding my sweet little redhead, staring adoringly into his copper eyes, reading him stories, holding him until he was asleep, and possibly taking a little adventure out to the grocery store to buy some groceries.  (More likely than not, I'd leave him with Robert, because, let's face it, grocery shopping with a baby was just a little too crazy.)  Now a typical day involves waking up at the crack of dawn with one baby, trying to get the middle schooler out of his bed and out the door before 7, feeding the second baby while getting the twins ready for school, taking both babies to the store for a van full of food, nap times, diaper times, homework times, chore times, music practice time, taking all five to whatever activities they have all evening, maybe getting some dinner on the table, clean up, babies to bed, reading a chapter out loud to big kids and falling into bed.  No wonder time started passing me by so quickly!  This also explains why my memory is kaput and why I've consumed so much chocolate lately.  And...I wouldn't change all the crazy for anything.  I'll take the wrinkles, the baby-belly, the thin hair and the bad knees.  I'll take the worry and the stress.  I'd take all the bad for just a little of all the good in my life.  I have more to be thankful for than I ever dreamt possible for me.  It's a good thing that we aren't limited to a life that we could only imagine or plan for ourselves.  Think of all the great things we'd miss out on!

So.  40 and Fabulous.  That is my mantra for the next 10 years.  With the older kids coming up on teenage years, I'll be lucky if I have any hair left by the time I turn 50.  (Yikes!  50!)  Hopefully we all make it through alive.  I don't have the time to stress about how crazy those years will be, but I know that at the end of it, we'll have two wonderful young men and a beautiful young lady on our hands.  They'll probably even like us again by the time they are 20!  (fingers crossed!)  And our little boys will be the same age the big ones are now.

My head just started spinning.

I think I'll just stick to today and not even think about the future.

Today, everything is awesome.  Today, that last sentence made us all think about the Lego Movie.  Today is almost over and I'm ready to go to bed.  Before I do, I'll treat you with my Birthday pictures.

Robert made me a...well, how to put this delicately?  An interesting cake. It was very tasty.  It was very thoughtful.  It was a little creepy.  You'll see.   He made it with the idea of honoring the fact that had spent 2 whole months (count them!) getting up at 4:45 in the morning, three times a week, to get to the gym.  I still look pretty much the same as when I started, but just getting there was a pretty big achievement.  So.  Robert thought he'd celebrate that fact with a giant muscle cake.  The strong arm was made out of red-velvet swirled with  vanilla cake.  It had the unintended effect of looking like a slab of meat.  Raw meat.  Good intentions.  Not so appetizing outcome.  However, if you closed your eyes, the cake was quite delicious.

I love this cake.  Who else in the world would ever have a cake like this?  Just me. 

To make a good birthday great, the kids each had a special gift to give me.  Each present fit their personality perfectly.  The first was Ethan.  He decided to give me a concert.  Ethan just started playing the cello this year, and so he played every song that they have learned so far.  Because he hadn't learned the bow yet, the whole thing was done plucking.  He had an impressive repertoire of songs for so early in the year.  He was very serious and I loved every second of it.

Austin gave me a present of...well...himself.  He wrapped himself up...

And when I unwrapped him, I got a giant hug.

Perfect.

Alaina gave me a wonderful card with some of her beautiful art.  Her thoughtfulness always comes through in the cards she writes and I love how her love for art has grown these last couple of years.

 

Robert gave me a very nice present.  He wrapped it in a diaper, which was not as nice.  It was clean, so, bonus there.  And I guess it is a step up from the old paper bag wrap job.  And for my present, he stayed on the sports theme and gave me a very nice mp3 player and a sports band to wear it with.

So, you see.  I'm now fully prepared for my next 10 years.  40 and fabulous!  Let's do this!

Jason loves his little brother Emmett.  I mean, he's really crazy about him.  He loves to pet his head like a puppy.  He likes to lift him up to precarious positions so Emmett will have a better view.  (I've saved that child from toppling to his death from the top of the couch a hundred times.)  Jason especially loves to give Emmett bone-crushing, body-slamming, face-smushing-into-the-floor, full-of-love hugs.  If I'm lucky enough to be holding on to Emmett, Jason will body-slam us into a hug and shout, "We hug brother!  Hug together.  Mama, Jason and Brother!"  This chant has recently been simplified into a shortened mantra of, "Together! Together!  Together!"  Every time we hug.  Just the other day, I caught Jason dragging his baby brother around AND petting his little head at the same time (no easy feat when the object of your affection is half your size.)  As I rushed to the rescue I heard Jason saying, "You pretty.  You pretty dare Emmett!"  Aw.  So sweet and dangerous.

Luckily for us all, Emmett has proven to be the most calm child I have ever owned.  He just rolls with the punches and gets right on back up with his sweet, slow, heart-melting smile.  We all just adore him.

Jason has officially reached the age of possession.  He owns everything.  All day long we'll hear Jason's little voice claiming his many things.  Mine food.  Mine turn.  Mine Emmett.  One day, while I was getting ready in my room, Jason rushed in, full of tears.  When I finally got him to calm down, he informed me of what had distressed him so completely.  Austin, it turns out, had touched, "mine Emmett."  Yup.  That dirty, rotten Austin.  Always causing problems with his helpfulness!

One last little Jason saying.  Whenever I tell that little guy something like, "You are so cute!"  He'll reply, "My no cute!  My Jason!"  Man.  He is that cute.

One little funny comment from Alaina.  That girl is always coming up with little tidbits of information.  Like the other day when she asked me, "Did you know that when you exercise, your body release a chemical that makes you smile?"  Then, without skipping a beat, she added, "Dad should exercise more."  Ha ha.  Guess who had a grumpy morning that day?

On our way to baseball practice, the sun was hitting Ethan just perfectly in the eye, showing off his amazing eyes.  The color of his eyes have always amazed me, because, although they are a green, with brown and gold flecks, when you look at him, his eyes always seem to match his hair perfectly.  I mean, they look like a reddish gold.  I told him this, and Ethan immediately took my phone and started taking a million pictures of himself.  "You are right!  My eyes ARE amazing!  I need to get a good picture of this!"  Well, he got quite a few great pictures of himself.  I would have chastised him for being so vain...but some things are just so fabulous, that you just gotta document them, or no one will believe you.  :)