lately

 Late summer rainstorms.
I always want to make muffins when it rains.  I have no idea why. I love to have the lights on inside during the day, all cozy and warm as we watch the storm.  And I love the post-rain sunsets. So beautiful.

 Nicholas told Ellie,
"Eh-wie, you're ma-ked!" (naked) and then he laughed and laughed,
and because she's a little copycat lately,
she laughed and laughed with this funny fake grown-up chuckle,
and we all laughed, so of course Nicholas proceeded to say "Eh-wie, you're ma-ked!" over and over and we all laughed for a good fifteen minutes.
I love being a mom.

We were going to have a picnic in the canyon last night. I got the kids ready, Nicholas helped me make cookies, I made sandwiches, packed them all up,

Kent got home from work, and then it started raining.

So I set up the chairs, threw blankets across them, and we ate dinner in our blanket fort while we watched the thunderstorm out our windows.

 We're potty training. Ellie is crawling. We're sleep-training.
And suddenly, I'm busier than I've ever been.
I know life is going to just get busier and busier as we have more children and they get older, but this? Whew!
A normal HOUR for me:
Laundry, cleaning up potty accidents (which have been few, thankfully-Nicholas is doing great!), picking crumbs up off the floor before Ellie tries to eat them (admittedly I'm not the best at this), retrieving Ellie before she climbs onto the chairs/couch/stairs/box/etc., rewarding successful potty trips with fruit snacks/chocolate chips/oreos/poptarts, making play-doh to keep the potty-training boy busy in the kitchen (tile!), picking up tiny bits of play-doh before Ellie eats them, Ellie fighting to go down for a nap for 34 minutes, Nicholas waking her when she's just barely fallen asleep, read a book to Nicholas, get him a snack, refill sippy cups, switch out laundry...
You get the idea.

SO, long story short,
I didn't take 9-month pictures of Ellie.
I took "Just barely 10 months, still sort of 9 months" pictures of her.

 
Late summer--harvest time--is vying for my favorite time of year spot.  I'm loving it.
We've enjoyed corn on the cob, green beans, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash from my parents' garden,
and I've bought apples, peaches, and tomatoes from fruit stands nearby-
the tomatoes were so good I bought an entire box and my mom helped me bottle them last week.

Eating dinner outside-enjoying every minute of this beautiful weather.