What we're up too lately

So this is a few pictures of what we have been up to lately. The only thing missing is a picture of us on the internet shopping for school clothes and "lumberjack plaid" clothing or of us shopping for school supplies and soccer supplies. Ugh, it's been a lot to get 3 boys ready for school and 4 kids ready with fall/winter clothing. But this is some of what we are up to since returning home from Utah 1 1/2 weeks ago. We just jumped right back into life. Oh, and pictures of our vacay will be added later.

 Melissa and I canned some strawberry jam for the very first time. We managed to get 28 jars filled. It was rather easy and now that I've done it, I will be doing it again.

 I was able to play with Audrey's hair and put it in 2 braids. It would have been slightly easier if she didn't fight me to have her hair done. Sofie was a much easier patient client to work on-she needs to learn from her cousin.

 Oh, the mess I made! We made the decision to have Colton and Nathan switch rooms. So that meant we had to re-arrange closets and dressers. And since I was doing that I also wanted to get rid of a few things. (3 garbage bags worth of clothing) Thus sometimes you have to make a bigger mess before you can really get things cleaner.

 We switch because Nate's a talker and doesn't go to bed easily but Colton and Josh will go to sleep as soon as they are tired. Nate had a tendency to keep Josh up. Also, Josh and Colton are practically the same size so it's a bonus to have them sharing closet space. They have a much larger selection of clothing now. And right now, it's seems to have created less chaos on clutter in each of their rooms. I didn't get rid of anything but clothes but somehow things are more organized and it seems there is less "stuff". I don't like "stuff"

 So the other day, Nate created this little nest. I thought it was rather ingenious of him. And although it took up most of the room, there wasn't much else on the ground, so I let him keep it there all day. Well then later it seemed to get bigger and bigger. It just kept growing. Below is what it finally ended up as.

 And this is with all 4 kids in the nest. It had some good depth to it. But he had all our blankets and pillows from our beds. So, mom made him put it all away when he went to bed. He did end up sitting in that nest for a good part of the day. 

Lastly, this is of a very happy girl "swimming" in the bathtub. She remained in this position for a good 30 minutes of her bath time. She's a silly girl but I love that smile!