Sweet September

 Life really settled in and got serious quickly this fall! September means fully back to school, but it also means a lot of fun along the way!

Poor Noah got left with this lunchbox one morning. 

Emma, helpful big sister that she is, has taken it upon herself to help Noah prepare for any touching that may happen between Prince Eric and Ariel in the fall musical. He hates it. 

Letters from Leah! Always unexpected, always a delight! 

One Sunday, we all matched so we had to take a picture!

Friday night lights are the best part of the fall. 

The sunrises that reward the kids for their 6:30 AM practices are pretty incredible too! 

Look at these characters!

Locked. In. 

High brass dinner parties are always entertaining.

Noah considered switching to percussion this fall, which would have made the father's secret dreams of having a percussionist in the family come true, 

but then he remembered how good he is on the trombone! What a stud. 

Leah is with us every week, and we always try to take a family picture! What a bunch of realtime snapshots of life on a Tuesday!

One night Leah and I had extra time together, so we brainstormed an acronym for her goals- IDEA seems much better than the first attempt (DIE). It stands for Initiate, Diligent, Earnest, and Amable (friendly)! 

Do you?!

Sweet pup, she always views clean laundry as an invitation to snuggle up. 

Even when I offer her her baby blankie. 

Bird-nado! That is a bajillion turkey vultures!

Nine turkey-turkeys!

The turkey council was making some very important decisions this fall. We decided that they cast their votes by standing up or laying down. 

"When I was a kid we didn't have TV! We just watched the birds out the window." 

I promised Leah I would wear her vintage Stake Smoke-off t-shirt to this year's picnic. I felt so mean! 

These sticky guys have been on our ceiling since February! They come down all the time, then get thrown back up again. Spiderman fell into a downward dog!

I love hearing jazz music on a random Tuesday in September!

Back to School

 Ooh we're back in the schools! Summer never feels long enough, but the pull of school always gets us eventually! 

Adam and Emma had to take each other's back to school pictures this year because Jason was out of town and I was zipping Noah over to Stilwell! Adam is a junior! All of the sudden he's on the downhill slope of high school, locking in, receiving college recruitement mail on the daily, and just as busy as ever. He sure is a good high schooler! This picture in the music hallway confirms. 

Emma is a freshman!!! EEP! She is ready to take on the world at Valley Southwoods, and has already stacked her academic, extracurricular and social calendars! 

Noah was sporting a sling on the first week of school, and if that didn't give him enough unwanted attention, getting cast as Prince Eric for the fall musical The Little Mermaid definitely did the trick! He has entered Stilwell with a bang and ready to uphold the Morales name!

And I went back to school too!

 I *hated* the week before school, when I had to be in the office and missed out on some of the last mornings with my babes, but I LOVED watching Adam sing the National Anthem at the district back to school meeting- the chance to connect with my kids during their school days is the entire reason that I have this job in the first place!

Jordan Creek, let's go!!! 

I bought myself a cute little desk fan and I use it every single day. 

I love flowers in the office! 

Our colorful media center.

On my first day of school, I got to say an extra close hi to the cows while I was waiting to grab Emma! 

Me and my new office partner Cora on the first day of school. I can't believe how much has already changed since I first accepted this job (new principal, new principal secretary, new responsibilities), but I'm rolling with it! 

The Chick-fil-a dinner tradition lives on! 

And so did the walk at the arboretum, this time with just me and Noah since the high schoolers had marching band practice. 

Jason and I joined in a back to school Christian prayer group- it was sweet and a bit different from how we pray in church, but not all that different from how we worship in the temple! IYKYK.

We used apples for our back to school banner this year! I guess that means we're ready for fall. 

All of us except Laney. She is never interested in the times when she has to be alone at home. I try to take her out as much as I can, which always ends up making more work for me and more anxiety for her. 

But we both love the afternoon snooze!

Back to school fit check!

Some days fancy, some days comfy! 

It's going to be a great year!