Pictures to come soon!

I have dozens of new pictures of all the kids, but have little time to post them. It's on my "to-do" list though. We had a wonderful summer. Lots of family came in town and we went to the beach, the zoo, the waterpark and more. Kiley started school on Aug. 24th and is loving it. She kept saying she didn't want a specific teacher, Mr. Ginsberg, but I know she was secretly hoping for him. He is hilarious and they have a lot of fun....I was cleaning out her school cubby (her own cupboard in our laundry room) and found a note that she had written...I guess to herself, that said "School is about to start. I don't know my teacher yet, but I hope it's Mr. Ginsberg. He is funny. I know he will embarrass me though because he always calls me fashion queen". I was also hoping she would get Mr. Ginsberg. Having a fun teacher can make school so much more enjoyable. It wasn't easy to get back into the routine of waking up early, getting lunches and school bags together, taking her and picking her up, etc. Oh, how I miss the laizze-fair lifestyle we live during the summer :)





The boys are doing great. Cort is almost walking. I can't wait!! Creighton is beginning to potty train and talking more and more. We officially kicked off "operation baby #4" a couple of weeks ago. We are going to try for a girl following the ovulation method, but we will be thrilled with whatever God gives to us. I am SO excited to be done having kids. We are hoping for a mid-June due date, so that I can have a few weeks off before the chaos of the school year comes. Of course, I have names already picked out. If it's a boy, I like Carter Brooks and if it's a girl, I like Cheyenne Isabella. I also like some other C and K names. Chad is the really picky one. I like the middle name Brooks because it fits in with Creighton and Cort's middles names of Walker and Sawyer. They are older, not very common, and distinguished. Of course, I am planning on my boys being architects, lawyers, doctors, or engineers, so I should name accordingly :). Chad thinks they will grow up to be professional football players and I have had to build a case against the name Champaigne Shaffer for each boy. He thinks it's a cool football name and I agree, but the odds are against them for becoming professional football players.





Chad is officially a licensed architect!!! Yay!! It takes so much work. He had to get his Masters degree, work for 3 years, acquire hundreds of hours in specific areas of work, and take 7 tests. He had to take a couple twice. Each test is about $300 and he spent an estimated 100 hours per test studying. It took 1 1/2 years to take all the tests and get licensed. I am so proud of him. His work just got in a huge 10 million dollar job too, so he may get the increased salary and bonuses that typically come with getting licensed. Although, we know that it probably won't be as much as it normally would be, I am still happy to see things start to recover.

Chad and I are doing what I like to call "The Marriage 30 Day Challenge." We want to make every effort to be kind, considerate, affectionate, respectful, thoughtful, etc. towards each other every day for the next 30 days. It's so easy with jobs and kids to forget about those things. We started two weeks ago and it's been great. It's amazing how little gestures can make a huge difference. It's kind of a fun experiment to do and I like to fulfill my desire to be a marriage councelor by seeing what I can do to make my own marriage the best it can be. I think my husband gets annoyed with me sometimes, but it's important to make your marriage a priority and to always be working on it. It's easy to fall into a rut, become complacent, and let your marriage take a backseat to everything else in life, but we all know that is not a healthy approach.



Our Las Vegas trip is quickly approaching. We will be leaving in about 2 weeks. I am not sure if I am excited or not. I am not the girl you bring to Vegas. I don't drink, don't party, don't gamble. I like to be at home, taking care of my kids, cleaing house, and cooking. We are taking Kiley with us too. She had asked to go to Pheonix for her b-day. Her grandparents have a beautiful home down there. That would have been more my type of vacation: swimming, shopping, sitting in the hot tub, and golfing. It's very relaxing. My twin sister is getting married though in Vegas and we decided to take Kiley along for her birthday. I have a lot of fun activities planned for her.

I will post pics soon. You can see the original post date for this is 9-22 because that's when I started it! I get a paragraph written and have to stop and pick it up at a later date. So, 2 weeks later, it's ready to be posted...minus pictures and, I am sure, some very exciting details of our summer, but this will get the grandparents up to date and I can fill in the holes later! :)