* Emily came home from Seattle. Yeah! We're all so glad she's home.
* Seth turned 12 on August 31. He was so happy Emily was home in time for his birthday.
* We started school a couple weeks ago. It's been somewhat of a slow start, but we're picking up speed.
* Last week a nice little stomach bug went around the family & a good percentage of the kids caught it. Deborah, Emily & I all had it as well. Fun times.
* Yesterday Emily decided that we should all go to the park & take pictures of the kids. Emily took the most pictures & probably got lots of good ones. I got a few cute ones myself as you can see. The kids were all pretty well behaved for the most part, until the end. They started getting a little antsy. Trying to get 7 little kids to hold still for pictures is pretty much a pointless undertaking. Not too many things went wrong however. Olivia only fell in the mud once. That upset her, so Deb picked her up to comfort her, wearing white pants. What a nice mommy, sacrificing her pants to console her baby. I wasn't as nice when Olivia got herself into a little predicament (see the pictures to your right) & I had to snap a picture of it before rescuing her. And, really, I didn't rescue her because she fell before I got to her. Don't worry, it was only a six inch drop into soft dirt, though SHE probably didn't know that. She WAS pretty terrified hanging there. Poor thing. In my defense, I did pick her up & hug her after she fell. Of course, I was laughing at her..........but she was cool with that. Jarod & Micah climbed to the very top of a tree & I didn't take a picture of that. It was a little more than a six-inch drop, and I really didn't want to catch their deaths on camera. I just yelled at them to get down. The reason the girls are crying in the pictures? That was towards the end of our fun picture-taking time & the kids were quickly fizzling out. Emily & Deborah were kindly asking the kids to "SMILE AND SAY CHEESE ALREADY, DANG IT!!!" They decided, for some reason, that that wasn't very good motivation for the kids to smile, so they started singing the Veggie-Tale's classic song, "God is Bigger Than the Boogie Man" & tried to get the kids to be happy & sing along. It came out a little more grumpy & scary-sounding than it was supposed to. Strangely, it didn't have the desired effect. (Deb & Em's voices did blend nicely, however.) I think that's when we decided that picture day was coming to a close. We got a few more cute candid shots & let the kids run around a bit. Sarah bought everyone happy meals at McDonald's (I ate my 2nd big & tasty cheese burger of the day. I really like cheese burgers right now.) & we called it a day.
