1. The other night, while putting Jonah down, Jase left the room while saying “love you, buddy”. Only tonight Jonah returned with an “i love you, daddy”. Jase swung around, so excited and came back for another hug and a love. Sweetest moment ever.

2. It was a great end of the day since Jonah has taken to throwing everything he can get his hands on. It’s exhausting. And it hurts when whatever random item smacks you. Duder has a shiner right now thanks to Jonah and a remote control. He’s been to time out for the last two days, for the first time ever, and it’s just heartbreaking for him. This throwing phase is going to end soon….right?! And the hitting, oh my, the hitting.

3. My mom has been staying with us for the last few months for her knee replacement surgery. She’s did really, really well and has returned home to Alabama with a fancy new knee.

4. My mom isn’t the only one around here with surgery lately. I had surgery on my leg to have the melanoma removed. The first biopsy came back that I needed more removed. We did that, after a lot of research in to the pain med injections (I ultimately had them compounded) and it went good. The second surgery came back clear and they are 99.9% sure they got it all. No lymph node removal needed, thank God! Ty is also set for surgery here pretty soon. His shoulder injury has gotten worse over the last year and when he went to camp I think we all realized how much it was really holding him back physically. So we are moving forward with surgery. His recovery period will be about 6 weeks instead of the 6 months they originally told us. We definitely want to do it while he’s still at home and living with us and while he’s still on our insurance.

5. WE ARE ON HOMESCHOOL BREAK! Yes, it was necessary to yell that. Huge blessing. It’s been so long since I’ve we’ve had more than a week off, we are SO ready. Right when the little kids were ready for break last fall, Ty made the decision to come home for school, so I continued on with him and jumped in to the 10th grade. When we go back in January we will officially be homeschooling 4 kids. 11th/12th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade and early pre-k for Jonah. And Ty is set to graduate early…one more year of high school, hard to believe.

6. Have you joined Raising Foodies? At over 450 members strong there’s all kinds of wonderful info to be found about boosting the immune system, healthy recipes, essential oils and much more. Come chat about Thanksgiving food!

7. I’ve been online shopping like a crazy lady for the last month. I’ve been planning outfits for not one, not two, but three photo shoots. The first one was with Tara and she will be photographing all 6 of us. The second is a session I’m planning is for the 4 kids only. And last, Jonah’s 2nd birthday session! That’s more shooting with my family than I’ve done all year long. Coordinating outfits for so many people and so many sessions has been crazy. I’ll come share pics from all 3 sessions very soon!

8. 2 weeks after my moms surgery we went camping. It was awesome. I went crazy the week before trying to get ready to go out of town during busy season but it was so worth it to disconnect for awhile and return to nature. We were lucky that this time we were able to have Jason’s parents join us in a cabin next to ours. The kids were in heaven with so many grandparents around and for only being 2 weeks post-op, my mom did wonderful. She was happy sitting by the fire, going on short walks with the kids and sitting by the river in her zero gravity chair we picked up off amazon. I took 32 gb worth of photos on our trip and can’t wait to dive in to them! I also did 3 mini sessions with Jonah for his birthday while we were there. He turned 2 while camping. And somehow I pulled off a paleo chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in the tiny cabin oven. My baby is growing up.

9. Does anyone else have a kid that’s addicted to the dustbuster? Jonah stands outside the pantry door, banging on it, yelling “BUSTER! BUSTER”, until we relent and give it to him. This works in my favor since he actually cleans with it. Parenting win.

10. Click over to Instagram for this adorableness. Our neighborhood was having a craft fair. Ty and Taryn both had items to sell. Ty made wood advent calendars and taryn made 100 homemade lip balms. Jude and I had the idea he could sell hugs, cause, well, he’s a hugger. HE MADE A SMALL FORTUNE! File this under things that are only cute if you are a Jude and are 6 years old.