Simplicity has been the key this month...no major house projects, no trips until Thanksgiving and sports are over for now. We have just been enjoying this fall weather, oh I dreaded it when I saw August roll into September, but God has surprised me once again with his spectacular beauty. It has been crisp and vibrant, cool and enjoying and I have once again fallen for another season. Harvest Time!

This is Cafe' Oliver...John and Jacob cook, the scarecrows serve, and the girls chat.
Jett has been added as a new customer until he is old enough to cook.
We are now getting to go on walks once again. Our lives get so busy that even simple things like walks and playing games become extinct. I have to remember to slow down. Another home school mom said those things are important but sometimes you just have to let school go to the wayside for the moment, slow down, evaluate and see what is really important. So that's what we have been doing, school is getting done but we are pushing it aside at times and just breathing and growing. We are enjoying each other.


It's funny because I don't think of my family as large, I usually refer to us as small, but when we walk into a restaurant or a small business I have begun to realize that others view us as large. I guess with so many small bodies, I refer to us as a small family until I see them putting together a table at a restaurant for us all to sit at or when we fill up the waiting room at the dentist office. Our family is growing not just in size but physically as well. We have entered the point where I have littles and bigs. I don't know when it happened or how we got here but we have arrived. And even though I get a little sad sometimes, I am enjoying it so much more. I love babies, toddlers, preschooler but I am also enjoying the talks with my big boys, I love their ideas and the way they express themselves. I love that they can do things on their own and I love to watch them accomplish goals that they themselves have set. They are becoming individuals that are slowly pulling away from me (sad yes) but gratifying also because even though they always fly back to the nest and still hide under my wings, they are exploring, venturing out, and spreading their own wings. I am in no means ready to let them go but I am enjoying seeing them fly.

We have these great neighbors who let us feed their horses and we have fallen for them. We want one, want to climb on their backs and go for a ride, brush their bodies and feed them everyday but until we can get a horse that we can call our own...we are content to feed the neighbor horses.

My little ones are keeping me busy. We are on day 6 of no pacie and it has been an exhausting time for both Jillian and me. That little device soothes her heart and there are times that she hurts and longs for it. I have been tempted more then once to stick it back in and let her have a moment with it (secretly I did for about 10 minutes one day and then offered her a snack so she would forget). I should say that it has been hard on me, Jillian and John...his heart aches for her. Corey and Jacob have both been the ones to say, she can do it.

My independent, free flyer is still soaring but she has moments of sadness where we just sit together and both wish that she could suck that pacie forever. As in all things.."this to shall pass" but in the heat of the moment it is hard to look to future days when this last item of babyhood is gone and she will officially be a preschooler in a couple of months.

The path we are on right now is so good and curvy but I can feel us going somewhere and even though I don't know where the end is, we are making new friends, seeing old ones and taking a better look at our lives and how we are raising our children. There are times when I feel like we are jogging around some curves, trotting around others and doing an old lady walk around some...but for the first time in a long time I don't feel exhausted at the end of the day, week or month, I feel accomplishment and fulfillment. I feel like I am right where God wants me to be.

I'm not trying to get in a hurry but simply enjoying what is thrown at me.

I have always told Corey that I want to be a "roller"...whatever happens in life I just want to be able to roll with it, not freak out in the normal Anne Marie fashion.

So as always I am setting a goal for myself and trying to accomplish it....only with God's help will it happen.

this horse Levi..is a fighter, he doesn't like to share or have the other horses get attention

it is funny to see my kids try to discipline him

Happy Birthday Penny...8 years old this month.

So here's to fall..I can already feel the cool turning into cold...it is creeping in on us slowly. I know these days aren't going to last for long but the roller in me is going to enjoy the beautiful winter that is to come. My neighbor has promised it won't be as cold as last year.

Hunting has started, so my boys refuse to wear anything but coveralls and camo.
They amuse me when we go out and put on nice clothes as they put it but that is only because they love their momma.

We are going to have to grow carrots next year.

Those horses go through a 5lb bag each time we go and Jilli insist they

have to have them all.

We can't go to Sams' without leaving with a bag of whole carrots.