Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. ~Elizabeth Lawrence

LOOK. . .

Mother Nature decided to whip out her crayons and color on the mountains!

FALL'S here and I'm lovin' it!

I so enjoy watching the leaves changing on the mountains! My grandparents have always lived near these mountains (Mount Timp and Squaw Peak) and so they have always been my favorites! And now I have a fabulous view from MY very own bedroom window!

So many memories come flooding back when I see the leaves turning red, yellow, and gold!

Over the weekend we had a storm and the mountains were dusted with snow. I snapped this picture and thought it went perfect with this quote:

"October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter" ~Nova Bair

She's Seen Better Days!

The afternoon after Jared ran his half-marathon we all returned home for what we (at least I) thought would be a nice, quiet Saturday at home.

Boy was I wrong!!

I had been running some errands and when I pulled into the driveway I was greeted by Logan who informed me that Megan had fallen and was really hurt. When I got into the house she was sitting on the couch with ice packs on both of her wrists.

Apparently she had been riding our toddler scooter along the sidewalk when she hit a raised crack in the sidewalk. DOWN she went with both of her hands out in front to catch herself!

After a while she was able to move her right hand, but her left wrist was still hurting.

After about an hour of her just sitting there (and remember this is MEGAN we're talking about) I decided to take her in for an X-ray.

So after a visit to the pediatrician where she received a fancy new splint and sling, a trip over to the hospital for the x-ray, a jaunt over to Sonic for a slushy drink to make the patient feel better, we arrived home just in time for the radiologist to call us and confirm what we suspected. . . . She had indeed broken her left wrist.

Later that evening however Megan started to complain that her right wrist was also hurting. So we wrapped it up and decided to see what it felt like in the morning. And in the morning it didn't feel too great. And in the afternoon it didn't feel too great. And by Sunday night we knew it was either sprained or broken.

So Monday morning, we headed down to the pediatrician's office where Megan received another splint (but no sling this time) and then it was over to the hospital for another set of x-rays. I pretty much knew it was broken when the x-ray tech came back in and told me 'he just wanted to get one more angle.'

And an hour later it was official: there was a break in the right wrist also!

Poor Megan!!!

Luckily the breaks weren't too bad and my pediatrician was able to cast them. Which they did the next day, Tuesday.

Megan didn't even want to hear the color options-it would be purple for her!

She had a few challenges in the beginning:

Our biggest hurdle was using the bathroom at school. It's a little hard to get your pants buttoned and pulled up, but that's why Big Sisters were invented right?!

She's missed every soccer game but one.

And homework takes a little bit longer to do if she wants the teacher to be able to read her writing!

And lately, she's been breaking out into hives on both arms!

But despite those setbacks, life with 2 broken wrists isn't all bad!

For instance, you get a lot of sympathy from family members and even total strangers!

Sometimes you even get a gift or two to cheer you up! Like new CDs or a pair of cute new PJs.

But the best thing of all: No practicing the piano!

Can You Guess Who's Starting Preschool?

If you guessed this adorable little girl-you are correct!

Janie had to wait 2 whole weeks after the older kids started school for her school to begin.

Everyday she'd ask me if today was the day she got to go to school with Miss Heather.

She was so excited and didn't want me walking her in when I dropped her off!

Seriously, could she get any cuter?

Just Look at My Man Go!

A few months ago, Jared started training for his first ever half-marathon. I knew it would happen. Whenever he sets a goal for himself, he accomplishes it.

I slowly watched as he began his training schedule. First he started running 5 miles, than 7, than 10. . . until finally he did it!

He ran all 13.1 miles of the Spanish Fork Half-Marathon.

AND he wasn't even out of breath when he finished!!!

He had set a goal for himself of what time he wanted to run it in and you know what!? He came in WAY AHEAD of what he said he wanted to do. Of course he did-he's amazing!

The kids were so excited to cheer him on at the finish line (everybody, but Chloe. SHE wanted to get down and run!)

And thanks so my super sister-in-law, otherwise known as Shane's Angie, we had an amazing poster to hold up while we cheered!

My little brother Marky also ran it and we had fun cheering him on too!

And SOON all be posting about his full Marathon (he's already set a goal to run one).

Soccer Stars!

The girl's soccer games started last month. They are on the gold team this year and named themselves the Shooting Stars! They have a great coach this year who just happens to be their dad! I just love how Jared has made time out of his already hectic schedule to be involved with the kids.

Madeline scored her FIRST goal during the first game of the season! After she kicked it in she jumped about 10 feet in the air! She also has ventured into the world of goalie and is really great at it! She is really aggressive and has no reservations about grabbing the ball!

Megan had a great first game too! She is so good at getting in there and getting the ball. She also loves to be the one to throw it in when it goes out of bounds or being the one to kick it in! Of course she likes making friends on the field too. She can usually be seen out on the field chatting with someone!

(Unfortunately, Megan only got to play one game and you can find out why here!)

I Gotta Go Back! Back, Back to School Again!

Back to School already! Wow THIS summer just flew by! I was completely taken back when the week before school it dawned on me that I only had 6 days before the first day of school!

*The first day of school , August 20th, also happened to be my birthday. Three years in a row I've go to claim the birthday gift of sending them off!

I can now officially be called thirty-something. Still trying to figure out if I like that or not! Does 31 seem old? It doesn't to me., but I remember thinking how OLD people seemed when I was younger and now I realize they were only my age!

And here's a little fun fact! My mom had her ninth and last baby at 31! I know-she's amazing!

Anyway, back to my kids--Don't they look adorable! They were all SO excited! The night before we got out the paper, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, folders, scissors, pencil sharpeners, etc... It was so fun watching them organize their piles (under Madeline's direction of course!)

This year I decided to cut a few apron strings and let the kids pick out their own first day of school outfits. It was a little tough for me, but I knew eventually it had to happen!

Also, this year I signed the kids up to be AM students which means instead of going to school at 9:15 they start at 8:00. We're already one month into school and it's been awesome! I love sending them off so early!!

Megan started 3rd grade and although she keeps saying she doesn't like school, I think she secretly does! If we could just eliminate ALL reading I think she'd be happy! She is such a good reader-she just doesn't enjoy it. Now that's a mystery that needs to be solved. It's not in her genes-that's for sure!

This year she has a great teacher who made home visits to ALL of her students so that she could get to know them and their families better!

Maddie is in the 4th grade this year. The whole way to school Madeline kept saying, "I can't believe this is happening!" She is my one child who LIVES for school. Nothing is more exciting to her than getting into class, writing in her notebook, and getting a homework assignment! In fact that morning I had to tell her that I didn't want her to get to disappointed if the teacher didn't give them a homework assignment because on the first day most teachers don't. She just looked at me and stared!

Logan is a 5th grader this year! I still can't believe that in 2 years he'll be in Junior High! I'm just not thinking about it! This year they are studying American History!! It's finally happening-his dream subject (he did tell me he wished they would just focus on Frontier History. I told him he can't have everything!) I think his history teacher was a little surprised at how much history he does know. He asked him to hold off on answering some of the questions to give the other kids a chance!

I just had to put in this picture! It's blurry and everything, but I had to wake up the little girls to take the kids that morning! After months of sleeping in they weren't too sure what was happening!

More Family Fun

We had another family reunion the first AND second weeks in August. Only this time it was for Jared's side of the family and let me just say-it was most definitely a Norris World here in Utah!

It was the first time that we had been together in 4 years and oh boy did everybody make up for lost time!

We stayed local (local being Orem and Provo) and because Jared's brother lives just down the street from us, everybody had fun house hopping.

Some of our adventures included:

• Tubing down the Provo River (and in case anyone is wondering. . . there's a little bit of danger involved with that!-kind of like scary fun!)
• Hiking to the Y , luckily on a cloudy morning!
• A tour of BYU- given by BYU alumnus Jared Norris
• Attending a session and sealings at the Provo Temple with the adults for Jared's ancestors
• The 2nd annual Norris 5K
• An evening of pure entertainment (otherwise know as the family talent show)
• BBQ at the park with baseball games and kickball games on the side
• Attempting to take family pictures in my backyard (thanks to Keith and Tracey's camera they turned out awesome!

We LOVED seeing everybody and the kids had a blast just hanging out with their cousins!

There were many, many, MANY Otter Pops devoured, games played, jam sessions, late, late LATE nights conversations, and even a new blog (or two) created so we can keep in touch better!