This blog post has nothing to do with the movie, “August Rush”, and everything to do with the fact that I’m trying to rush to get caught up on posting by sharing a quick summary of August. Although, I did watch the movie on Netflix last month while I was avoiding blogging. It’s such a good movie with some amazing music! Fun fact–after I first watched the movie years ago, I put the name “August” on my list of boy names. Obviously we never did use it but I still love the name so much! Okay, so I guess this post does have something to do with the movie– now it just makes the title a little more relevant.

This past August 11th marked 3 years of living in our home. We started a tradition on the day that we moved in to get a family picture in front of our door every year. It’s fun watching our family grow (and door color change.) You can click HERE to see all 4 pictures.

This sweet girl will be 2 years old tomorrow! No matter how many kids we have, I will never get used to how quickly time flies by! We’re going to take the day off of school to go to the zoo and have donuts and milkshakes (her favorite treats!) I’m going to be setting up for her birthday pictures today so hopefully it turns out how I envisioned so I can share tomorrow!!

And I’ve learned that everyone is most eager to join pictures when I say “can you guys stay out of the picture please?” Don’t worry, I’m definitely taking advantage of it and have been known to use reverse psychology to get them to willingly join in haha.

There is a fun wall in an alley in St. Louis that we like to use for pictures sometimes. (It’s right by the Fox on the KDHX building.)

I don’t get as many pictures of the 4 oldest together. They’re usually running off to play (as opposed to the little ones who are always right by us.) So I love that I got a few pictures of these 4, showcasing their personalities.

Even at 10 years old, Liam loves matching his siblings and parents. He is actually often the one who suggests it. I don’t know how long this will last but I’m loving it right now!

Getting a group shot of all the kids is almost never easy and it sometimes ends with me swapping faces/bodies in photoshop. But the results are so worth it. Eventually we will make a video from start to finish of getting a group shot and the things we do to make it happen. I’ll probably also write a corresponding blog post. Would you also be interested in a quick run down of how I swap faces? I am nowhere near qualified to teach anyone to use Photoshop (my husband just taught me a couple of months ago.) But I also don’t have any tutorials to refer you to. So if you’re interested, I can just quickly show I how do it.

We don’t typically do birthday parties for the kids. We usually just make their birthdays a special day with our family. But since Liam was turning 10 this year, we made it a little extra special by letting him invite his friends over for a party. He chose a LEGO theme (which he had been talking about since his 9th birthday.) He had such a great time and it was so fun to decorate for him (even though primary colors are my least favorite haha.)

Anyone have any idea what color her eyes are? I can’t decide if they look green or brown. Maybe they’re hazel? All I know is that they are not the obvious blue that her big siblings have had. Even Clementine, who doesn’t have bright blue eyes, still has some blue to them. Primrose is just mixing things up for us.

On Liam’s actual birthday, we had plans to go check out the renovations at the Arch. But as we were heading there, it started raining. So we switched it up and went to the Magic House instead. We got a membership for Christmas last year and we have loved having it!

Liam’s birthday was also Primrose’s half birthday as well! That smile melts me every time I see it!

And of course we had to get a picture of the (half) birthday girls together! Their first birthday party is already in the works and I CANNOT wait.

And I just thought this test shot of Evangeline was so sweet!

We didn’t get to go to the Arch on Liam’s birthday but we went a couple of days later. We checked out the newly renovated museum underneath but we didn’t go to the top. However, our family has been invited back to take a ride to the top. I’m a tad bit (okay, extremely) nervous about it but I think the kids will love it so I’m trying to get over my fear!

Thank you all for being patient with me as I get all caught up on posts! We have a very full, exciting fall this year and I’m so excited to be able to be able to share it all here!!

One last question before I go–

I am not very active on Facebook but I know some people prefer it over Instagram. What kind of content would you like to see over on my Facebook page? I’d love for you to follow along over there and give me ideas on what would make it more exciting!

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Well hello there! It’s been a while since I’ve updated this space. What started as an unintentional break from blogging turned into an intentional break. Over the past few months, I’ve lost my motivation to blog. It started to become a chore. So instead of forcing myself to do it, I took a break. And I loved it! As I think I’ve mentioned multiple times before, my blogging time is after the kids go to bed. But that’s also my “relax and watch Netflix” time. And these past few months, Netflix has won. But since I’ve run out of shows to watch, I guess I’m back here now haha.

I got about 3/4ths of the way done with a blog post about sleep when I just started feeling burnt out. So I’m holding out on that one just a little bit longer while I get my posts all caught up. But I do plan to get back to it soon! For now, another picture heavy post to catch up on some pictures from June and July that make me happy.

We have to climb on a ladder to get everyone in the frame. It’s totally worth the effort.

This picture of Primrose is from a couple months ago. She has changed so much since then. She spends her days scooting around, watching/playing with her siblings, and eating anything she can find on the floor. She does much better with the crumbs dropped on the floor than any of the foods I intentionally try to feed her.

Our “stair step” photos are some of my very favorites. I love watching them grow. I’m just wondering how soon it’ll be until one of the kids grows too quickly and messes up the lineup! The oldest two are wearing the same size clothes now so it’s possible Kai may catch up with Liam soon.

My kids do fight quite a bit. But they also love on each other a lot. It always makes my heart melt when they’re being sweet with each other.

I never got the chance to share about my silhouette picture here! I had the chance to work with a shop called Dapper and Darling, the creator of the most beautiful keepsakes. The detail she puts into each silhouette is seriously amazing. She perfectly captured each of the children…right down to the sweet fly away hairs on their heads. There are options for watercolor portraits, jewelry, ornaments, and these wooden plaques (which are etched by Paradise Laser Co.)

I was not asked to post about this on my blog but I have had multiple people ask me about it when visiting my home so I wanted to share the information here for anyone who missed it on Instagram!

We do a lot of singing and dancing while taking pictures. Desmond is usually entertaining us all.

My oldest and my youngest. Exactly 9.5 years between them. I love the way he adores her.

I took Evangeline and Clementine out one day to take pictures in their dresses (from Remie Girl.) There was lots of cotton candy and twirling in the most twirable dresses ever. These outings make me so happy to have 3 daughters!

And have I mentioned Desmond’s love for his baby sister? He calls her “Hosie” (Rosie) and loves to play with her and help take care of her. I’m soaking up these moments before she starts to annoy him and take his toys! haha

I adore all the pictures we get of Primrose and her bestie, Sylvia. We’ll be spending this weekend with them so I think a new picture (or 10) needs to happen.

Fourth of July–when we deck out in our patriotic clothes for a couple of weeks. (Our matching jammies are from Hanna Andersson.)

We miss having a covered porch to watch storms. But this view isn’t too bad sometimes.

We celebrated Desmond’s 3rd birthday in July. His smile in these pictures perfectly showcase his personality. He is such a fun, hilarious, sweet little guy.

There’s an old abandoned church in the city that makes such a fun photo backdrop so we headed out there one evening.

What started as a picture of the two oldest boys..

Soon turned into a picture of the oldest 3….

Which then ended up as a picture of all 4 of the boys. This lasted about 15 seconds before someone started complaining about being squished. But it was adorable while it lasted!

Did you know St. Louis has a sunflower field??? Well, a little north of the city. There were a billion bees but it’s so pretty!! (p.s. the flowers are dead now. They were in bloom during the beginning-middle of July.)

If you made it through all these photos, I am thoroughly impressed! I know that was a lot!

As for a little life update–

Our basement studio is almost finished–which means that Don is finally going to be able to get back to vlogging (he’s been mudding, sanding, and painting for the past few months so he hasn’t had time to create or edit videos.) He’s also going to be able to start teaching guitar again and working to build up his website, Strumcoach. This job transition has had some hard moments but also a lot of really, really good moments! We’ve loved having him home more!

Like I already mentioned, now that I’ve taken a little break, I think I’m ready to get back to blogging more regularly. It was good for me to take a short break. I think it will help get me out of this rut that I’ve been in. Ideally I would post at least once a week. But I’m not making any promises. But thank you all for sticking around! I hope you have a great week!!