Where or where has the time gone.

So honestly, my first-liners of "It's been forever!" or "Where has the time gone" are getting pretty monotonous around here and it's almost funny at this point. I think one of the main reasons it has taken me this long to blog again is I've been trying to figure out how to sum up everything that we have done since Easter. Did I just type Easter? That must have been a typo....nope Easter was the last time I wrote. That means Lexie was 2 months old! Yikes, I'm really bad at this. I guess blogging needs to be bumped to the top of my Weekly To-do list. I'm just going to spew things out as I think of them, so it will be a jumbled mess, but hopefully I can at least count it as a blog catch-up and move forward from here.

In August Uncle Cody came home form his mission to Santa Maria, Brazil. It was so great to see him and even better than that, we got to take a 2+ week vacation to Utah to visit everyone. Unfortunately daddy wasn't able to join us for the whole time because of his new job, but he came at the tail-end of the trip.

The kiddos and I were able to go to cousin Mike and his beautiful new wife Courtney's wedding in Idaho Falls the weekend after we got there. It was beautiful and they are so happy. Attending weddings always make me reflect on our wedding and I can't believe we are almost at our 10-year! Happy times.

We had a great time spending time in Idaho with lots and lots of family. That is one thing we really miss about living far away now is seeing all our family on a more frequent basis. I guess we just have to cherish the time we do have with them and always make the most of it.

We went back to Utah after that and I was able to hang out with aunts Debbie and Janie, Dustin and Amy, and Christy (whose loving husband let her spend a week in Utah without all her kids). I also got to see some old friends from high school and Lehi and it is always fun to catch up.

Cody arrived home on Tuesday, August 16 and we got to meet him at the airport with the banners, balloons, and the sorts. And what airport homecoming wouldn't be complete without a full-size cardboard stand up of Cody with a sign saying, "Have you see me?" A lot of bystanders got a kick out of that one.

Grandma and Grandpa Hill rented a huge inflatable double slide that kept the kids entertained literally all day. I said "literally" because really from the time they set it up (about 11 a.m.) Carter and Scotty played on the slide from then until sundown. I kept thinking they would get bored of going down the same slide over and over again, but they just couldn't get enough. Jax loved it too. I even took my stab at it and had a lot of fun.

Sunday was the Homecoming and it was great to see family come to celebrate. We had a chance to see Great Grandma Shane and Grandpa Shane for a few hours and that was really fun. We headed home Tuesday afternoon and arrived home late Tuesday night.

Carter started 1st grade this year. He has loved it so far and is getting really good at reading. His teacher is teaching him sign language which is very cool and so he comes home and shares it with us every night. Carter is a very good student and the minute he gets home, he pulls out his homework and is reading books and gets his homework finished. I'm impressed by his discipline. Hopefully he will keep it up throughout his school years! I'm crossing my fingers...

Jax started preschool and loves it as well. He asks every day if preschool is today. I think he would want to go every day if I let him. Jax is so fun to have home, even though he likes to test me in every way possible. I have had fun seeing Jax and Lexie interact. Lexie's face seriously lights up when she sees Jax and she gets all excited, waving her arms and kicking her legs. It is almost as if she is anticipating what he is going to do next. I'm glad she doesn't look at him with terror in her eyes, because he does like to mess around with her a lot and he does love to pick her up and play with her, sometimes to her dismay! In fact, the other day, he figured out that he could pull her around the tile floor when she was lying on her silky blanket. She was just laughing and laughing.

Lexie has changed so much and continues to every day. She is now almost 8 months and crawling all over the place. She loves to pull her self up and stand up by the couch and it almost seems if she is so proud of herself when she does so. She is so funny and kind of a stinker at times and definitely has a little "diva" inside. She tries to roll over when I'm changing her diaper and I'm scared for what is in store if she is already being a little tease at only 7 months old. LIke I said above, she loves her brothers and loves that she has mobility. I can barely hold her at times without her trying to jump out of my arms. She has started solid foods and some of her favorites are sweet potatoes, pears, peaches, muffins, oatmeal, and peas and beans (she doesn't like these so much).

That is our life in a nutshell right now.