Catching Up!

Shame on me. I've gone over a week without posting. So, coming to you now is a triple post of awesomeness, where I will stick a bunch of pictures together and put some thoughts in with it all. So, here it goes:

I love falling leaves. Lately, I have found myself spending more time staring out of windows than I ever have before. This could be because I have been longing to get out but have had sick children for a long time, or, more likely, it could be that it has been windy around here and there has been a constant rain of leaves coming from the trees. I love watching them fall. They blow and twirl and finally rest on the crunchy yellow grass. With all of this watching I have been doing, I decided to take the oppourtunity once the kids were feeling better to go outside and play with them in the leaves. What liberation! It is amazing that the simple acts of putting leaves in piles, throwing them around, and sitting in them can bring such a sense of joy and appreciation for the world around me. The kids seemed to feel this too. They squealed with delight over and over again.
Next Thought:
I got a haircut on Friday. I know, I was supposed to be growing it out, but there is a story behind this. A little while back we got all these coupons for free stuff since we'd just moved in. I think it's a Town of Gilbert thing. One of the coupons was a free haircut. Well, I cut the boys haircut, and I wouldn't dream of getting Jades cut since she just got enough hair to do stuff with it, so naturally I was the winner. So, I went in on Friday thinking about a trim just to even out the overgrown mane I had. Then I got in there and started talking to the stylist and told her I wasn't sure what I wanted. We were bouncing ideas around, and I remembered how much I had loved my last haircut. So, I went for it... an inverted bob with mild layers all around and texturing in the front. We thought about doing a long bang with it, but after she had finished the bob, it looked great and she thought the bang would distract from the sleekness of the style. So, you see, I tried pretty hard, but in the end my poll mattered less than my need for a change. Sorry (but not really).Third Thought:
I love my brothers. They are kind of like night and day, but they both have great and endearing things that I just enjoy a lot. On Saturday, the family and I had a chance to meet up with both of them at Tempe Town Lake for a picnic. We all brought our food and just ate and hung out and watched the kids run after birds. It was so chill and so fun. The definite highlight was the birds. They were not afraid of people at all and were all about getting a handout. We'd throw a piece of bread and then suddenly out of nowhere, there'd be like 30 birds swarming around it. So, of course, Spencer took advantage of the situation. Whenever someone walked by, he'd toss a little piece of bread on the sidewalk and then suddenly there were birds flocking around the person (or people). There was this one bird with a mohawk that was so crazy looking. I just had to get a picture of him.
So I hope you've enjoyed this lovely mass of posts. I'll try to be better about keeping up instead of catching up!