And one the year before, also on Thanksgiving:
"...thy faith hath made thee whole." ~Mark 5:34
"A house without books is like a room without windows." ~Heinrich Mann
Today I went to a baby shower for my sister-in-law, and her aunt had some great Chinese artwork. It's not something I spend a lot of time thinking about, but I love to look at beautiful things. It's hard to beat nature, but there are some pieces of art that take my breath away too. Someday it'd be fun to make a "Top 100" list of my favorites, but for now, just appreciating it all in general.
If anyone is bored, just make a public commitment to post everyday...your schedule is bound to become crazy. 
Sorry, I'm going from not posting at all to posting way too much. But I'm very excited to have this new, super-comfortable sectional. Rob, forget what I said about cleaning out the garage today—I'll be taking supervising from the couch to the next level. There is some danger that I may become permanently welded. :)
Ha ha! Just though I'd give you all something to laugh about on election day. No, my body is not amazing in the way that a swimsuit model's is. But, as much as I complain about its size, shape and increasingly, it's unreliability, I am truly grateful for all my body does. When I posted the last entry about fall, I was struck by how much joy I have thanks to my senses. I'm grateful that 80% of my senses are fully functioning, and also very grateful to science for correcting near blindness. I'm awed by what my body has done: it has carried and delivered four beautiful babies, come back from life-threatening infection and finished four marathons without too much protest. But I'm especially thankful for the daily functions and health that I take for granted, allowing me to enjoy every other good thing in my life.
Then we headed to the church for the cub scout party. Robbie and Joey got to be mummified, plus they played games, had a treasure hunt and decorated cupcakes.
After that we headed to grandparent's houses for trick-or-treating. Of course Ainsley fell asleep in the car, but woke up at the last stop, Great-grandma Clayton's. It was all I could do to not fall asleep too.
By the time we made it home for dinner I was almost agreeing with Halloween Scrooge. After some Jamba Juice, I caught my second wind, and enjoyed taking the kids to a few favorite neighbors for trick-or-treating. One of our neighbors hands out freshly made scones, and another makes flowers or swords out of balloons. It really was fun. Best of all, the kids knew they were leaving their candy out for the great pumpkin, so they were content to head home and watch Scooby Doo and the Goblin King. Sure enough the great pumpkin came and traded all their candy for some small toys—Ellie & Ainsley got Polly Pockets, Joey got an Iron Man action figure, Robbie got the latest installment in the Alex Rider series, and we got a candy-free house! 
As he states so eloquently here, Photo Scrooge's "idea of hell is a visit to Kiddie Kandids (or any other over priced photo studio) with four kids on a Saturday morning." Which is exactly what I did this very Saturday morning. He was at school, and thus spared the torture. I think it was worth it. My favorite shots are lucky candid shots, but it's nice to have a portrait besides the one taken at the school once a year. And I'm much wiser now—instead of taking each kid on their birthday and buying a bunch of poses that I'll never use, I just take them all at once for one close up and a couple of group shots. We were done in record time and stopped at Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone reward afterward. 
I really feel like I'm getting a preview of the teenage years sometimes. At three, Ainsley isn't about to be told what to do. She has picked up on some of her siblings expressions that they wouldn't have even thought of at three, like rolling her eyes at me while saying (very dramatically), "that's sooo boooring!" She loves to "do it herself" and is into everything. If I had a nickel for every time we've said "Ainsley get off of the table/counter/couch/insert other dangerous place for toddlers here" we'd be rich. No wonder she's had more goose eggs than all of my other kids combined. As we often tell her, it's a darn good thing she is so cute. I'm looking forward to another fun year.
This is probably the most significant event that I've neglected writing about over the past few weeks. It's a big, once-in-a-lifetime milestone. And though I would never expect an eight year old to fully understand the doctrines of the gospel, but I do know that Joey wants to follow Jesus, and I'm so happy that he's started down that path. We had a really nice meeting at the stake center. I especially liked the talk about the fruits of the spirit—we've used it many times since then to help the kids try to identify whether or not the spirit is present. Joey and one of his friends in our ward were then baptized and then confirmed. Joey tells me this was his favorite part, because he received the Holy Ghost. 
and a front door:
a pantry, which I'm very excited about:
shelves in the new den, which photo scrooge is very excited about:
plus doors for said den, so he can shut the rest of us out: 
Tomorrow we'll have a railing and the cabinets will be delivered!
We are now 4/5ths of the way through birthday season, which begins July 28th and ends October 17th. The days sometimes seem like years, but the years are flying by like days. It's hard to believe Joey is already eight. It's a big milestone around here—he'll be baptized next month.
Photo Scrooge is in danger of being renamed "Remodeling Scrooge." He is not dealing well with the chaos, as you may have read here, here and here. But now that the demolition is done, we will be seeing some progress—the new walls are in, the cabinets have been ordered, the plumbing will be done tomorrow, the electrical on Monday, and the insulation on Tuesday, so hopefully we'll get the drywall started on Wednesday. Anyone want to help me pick out countertops and flooring?
After two and a half painful weeks without my computer, I am happy to report the latest addition to our family is a new iMac. It is a thing of beauty. And function—I don't even think of it as a luxury anymore. I've been working on not drooling on the super-cool aluminum keyboard.
Ellie had a few extra days of summer vacation, since the kindergarten teachers had individual student assessments during the first week. Ellie's teacher is young and cute. After Ellie's assessment I asked her what she thought about her teacher and she agreed that she was very nice, then added "And I love her clothes!"
The boys were excited to get back to school, and maybe I'm a bad mom for admitting this, but I was excited to have them start too. Our kitchen/living room remodeling project started the same day, so it was good timing. 
When I started this blog, I thought it would be funny to keep an ongoing count of how many loads of laundry I had completed—maybe I was hoping for sympathy based on the staggering numbers. But I have found that keeping track of this is almost as tedious as folding and putting clothes away, so I'm shutting down the sidebar. On average, I do about ten loads a week, so over 500 loads a year. By the time Ainsley is eighteen, that will total 7800, although I fully intend for my kids to be doing their own laundry well before then, which will help. Until then, I'm trying to think of it as doing my part to make the world a cleaner (and better smelling) place, one sock at a time.
I plan to print this blog at the end of the year, and I'd like to have all our family birthdays documented, but I've already missed a few. Last week was Riley's and Matt's—happy belated birthday, you two. I still have a few hours left of Anne's birthday...I hope you had a great day Anne!
After watching the amazing opening ceremonies, I told Rob that if I had the time and money to be a super fan of something, the Olympics could be it for me. There are a lot of pros: world travel, great ideals, lots of variety, and awesome achievements. Being the cynic, he pointed out the corruption and greed of the IOC, the doping and scandals, the commercialism. But he was cheering just as loud as Robbie and I were when the US men's swimming team "smashed" the French team and the world record last night. I may not be a super fan, but I'll be tuning in for the next thirteen days.
