Moving on to grade 3 and grade 5.

How is it that a day can drag on and on, even a month....but a year was just yesterday? I guess looking forward feels like slow motion and looking back is in fast foward (x's 10). I still remember, like it was yesterday, trying to picture what my life would be like with teenagers and such. I still remember holding my bouncing baby boy Fischer trying to picture what he would be like when he was older, what our life together would be like in the future. It felt so far away and I could only "see" it with very blurred vision. What would he be like? What kind of parents would we be? How many kids would we have? What would our daily routines be? How would our marriage be different? And now here I am, many, many years later, living those thoughts I once had in my head. They are reality now.

Here I am the mother of five amazing kids. A couple teenagers, a couple elementary kids, and one little three year old. Seventeen years later, still married to the same amazing man. Whether it's better than you imagined or worse, it's never what you pictured in your head. I am a different person now than when I got married. Curtis is a different person than he was years ago. Our marriage is different. The dynamics of our family have continuously changed over the years. I'm certain we are different parents than we ever thought we would be and that we do things we never said we would do! My kids keep growing and getting older and life doesn't stop for one second. I don't even dare try to imagine what our lives will be like when we have kids on missions, getting married, having their own babies, etc. Because although it feels far away at the moment, I will soon once again be looking back like it was just yesterday!


So the first day of school didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. We didn't get up early enough, Emma was having a bad hair day, my camera battery was almost dead, we I forgot to get Stockton's long overdue haircut, etc. So here are pictures from the very first day of school and the 2nd day of school when we had time to fix Emma's hair, charge the camera battery, get Stockton a haircut, etc.

First Day. Grade 3.

Second Day.

First day. Grade 5.

Second day.

And they're off!

And here is a picture of Crew for good measure!

The older boys don't start until Monday!

Life is sweet!