Axel!

Nearly 14 pounds, 24 1/2 inches long, and cute as a button! Except when he's awake at 1 a.m. Still cute, just not appreciated.

For Amy

I can't believe it's warm enough on OCTOBER 27TH that Axel is wearing this. But, there you have it, I live in the South now.

Halloween!

Last Friday night our ward held their "Fall Festival" and "Trunk-or-Treat". It was a fun activity, and the boys certainly enjoyed themselves.

 Guy was a cowboy, and Leo dressed up as a belligerent-two-year-old-who-wouldn't-wear-anything-fun. Ahem.

Josh took them from car to car, while Axel and I minded the back of MY FABULOUS MINIVAN. I can't get enough of this vehicle. It's a blessing to get the kids in and out of the car without fuming with anger over how difficult it is.

Swagbucks

I have now earned and spent $100 on Amazon using Swagbucks.

Check out the referral link on the sidebar; it's pretty awesome making money doing something I do anyway.

Day at the Park

 These children bring me so much joy. And when did Leo get so big?

Jiffy Lube; and dinner chez Marcos & Metta

 Family resemblance, much?

 Leo makes this face what feels like all. the. time. I keep blaming it on the molars.

 These men are so awesome. (on the left, Marcos, our neighbor, and his ADORABLE 6-month-old Giovanna)

 Everybody loves dinner on a cardboard box!

Journals

My Relief Society president sent me this today. Something to think about.

"If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than
the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more
speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the
inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The
memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at
others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic,
so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our
powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past
finding out."
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

The prophets have told us time and again to keep a record. Heavenly Father has been saying it for centuries.

So what will you do? Make a decision! Stick to it! Write in a journal, or write letters to family and photocopy them to save, or blog regularly and keep a backup. Keep photo albums. Just choose, and keep at it!

As for me, I'm going to start writing letters weekly to family members, and saving photocopies for my kids. If I don't feel like writing to family, I'll write directly to my sons, and save them for the future.

Relaxation

This weekend was a good one! We sold our Hyundai Sonata, bought a minivan, and visited the Knudsens in Virginia. And we did a lot of relaxing over the weekend, let me tell you it was marvelous:

(Johann absolutely loved holding Axel and dozing with him)

Can I just say how much I LOVE our little Leo? He is a ray of sunshine, with such a charming and sunny personality. He is also pretty high energy!

And yesterday at the park, Leo discovered what Guy figured out this summer--the swings are AWESOME!