Quick Quote

 

"No, Sewesly (serious), the cran (crayon) just drew on the wall all by his own self!"

( We have smart kids AND smart crayons at our house!)

September

This is what I remember about September which was a million years ago:

It was so warm!  It was lovely to be swimming into late September.  Most pools close the end of August, but we have access to our local lake so we canoed and swam and skiied through the end of September.  I kept reminding myself that when I feel like complaining about our crappy June weather, I need to remember that September is usually glorious around here.

The kids went back to school.  I was not ready till about a week before (melancholy about the growing up that it symbolizes, not excited about busy extracurricular schedule), but then they all just started fighting like crazies and I was ready.  First day of school photos:

We celebrated Labor Day with Grandma and Bekah visiting.  We also had a fun Labor Day triathlon organized by the Shenemans complete with prizes.  Breakfast was hosted by the Beykirchs.  I love our active, social friends!

Gabe played football.  What?  You don’t think the kid is built like a football player?! He LOVES that game and it was fun to watch him get to practice and play it every day.  He was junior varsity, but he got lots of playing time because he played offense and defense.  I’ll try to hide my very strong desire for him to run track since he enjoys wearing those pads so dang much.

Faith was bereft without her siblings!  She was clueless as to what to do without her 4 playmates.  It was a little disturbing when she complained of hurting teeth and we realized it was because she was sucking her thumb so much (out of boredom) that she was literally injuring her teeth/gums.  (What do I do about this, people??)  I, however, was happy to have her all to myself and am just reveling our alone time.  I do let her go to preschool two days a week and it’s the highlight of her week.

Ryan and I started the Eat to Live eating plan…basically lowfat, no sugar, vegan eating.  I’ll have more to share about that later, but I must say:  I truly have never felt better.  I lost 20 lbs by doing it for 6 strict, straight weeks and am working on how to modify it to work in the world that doesn’t eat that way.  I will say that we eat vegetarian/vegan dinners here at least 5 days a week and the kids are great sports about it.  Here are pictures of my grocery cart and some meals (and a reminder why I’m not a food blogger…have you ever seen uglier food photos?):

I finished off the month with a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate my sister Bekah’s MBA graduation.  It was a first girls trip for the three of us, and while we probably won’t repeat the location (NOT a Vegas fan!), we will definitely need to keep doing them.  We did a session at the Las Vegas temple, caught the Cirque du Soleil Love! show (so so so good), shopped, and visited Red Rock Canyon.  Loved the chance to talk and talk and talk without distracting (albeit cute) kids around.

 

 

One more summary, done!

Making snowmen out of snow

So, I have this little thing: if it doesn't start snowing till December, then I'm good. I figure I live in a place with 4 seasons and I get all the good parts of that, so I can't complain about the not-so-good. As long as the snow holds off till December.

It started snowing tonight. And I was feeling really grouchy about the portent of the long, dark winter ahead.

But my sweet, very last 4 year old ever was jumping out of her skin with excitement. And my oldest was helping everyone into their rusty snow gear. And there were hot jars of applesauce cooling on the counter. And someone got the fireplace going. And I have 4 happy kids rolling the season's first snowman out in the dark backyard.

Who would be dumb enough to be grumpy on a night filled with that kind of joy?















Not me.


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What are the chances?

 

(Had to call a few days ago for replacement ballots for both of us.  The person of the phone at the election office asked for my husbands name.  Me: “Romney”  Him: “How do you spell that?” Me: “Like the presidential candidate”.  Him: “Oh.  Okay.  What’s the first name?”  Me: “Ryan”  Him: “Are you serious?”)

Grateful to live in a country where we can vote… regardless of whether the presidential ticket is EXACTLY the same name as my cute husband.

The birthdays we celebrated this summer

(Last summer post! It’s appropo considering today is Faith’s birthday…frankly these summer birthdays look a little more fun than Faith’s is shaping up to be.  Hopefully she won’t figure that out till she reads the books in 8 years.)

Jessica’s birthday

• planned totally by me ahead of time.  I truly think Ryan likes me telling him what will make the day nice for me
• Friday night sushi dinner (Ryan’s not a fan so I capitalized on my birthday-ness so we could have it) with couples we love and a shopping date for new pans
• the Hiawatha trail with kids…executed completely by Ryan.  ALL I HAD TO DO WAS SHOW UP.  He’d rented the bike trailer, gotten the tickets, directions, headlamps, lunches, everything.  That was probably the best part…although the ride itself was SO SO great.  Beautiful, easy family time that went off without a hitch.  Highly recommended.
• a simple Sunday (the actual birthday) lazy day…but I made my own cake and it was awesome (ugly, but awesome).

 

Gabe’s birthday

• it was never-ending (but fun) due to family activities and constraints
• the actual day was spent at the lake houses, after our big Greg arrival surprise.  He spent the day with his buddies Braunson and Beaudry, tubing and eating and we gave him presents and red velvet cake for dessert
• his friend part was an Amazing Race theme that he basically planned.  I executed the details (invites, clues, getting yelled at by the gym owner for allowing non-members to swim, the Pit Stop mat) and it was loads of work fun.  He told me thanks a million times, which was so sweet.
• he wanted his birthday food requests on a different day than his birthday, because we were at the lake…so a week later we gorged on caramel peach french toast, appetizers for lunch (Pesto Rounds and shrimp cocktail) and Golden Corral for dinner.  We lucked out the Grandma and Bekah got to join us for the feast.  The Birthday Boy may or may not have thrown up on the ride home which may or may not be a commentary on whether buffets are awesome for our bodies or not.
• present highlight:  receiving enough birthday money to purchase the Ipod touch that he has been saving for for two whole years.   We cannot express how happy we were that he sacrificed and worked for that length of time to get the $200+ together to buy it for himself.  He’s a good kid, that Gabe.

 

Seth’s birthday

• three days after Gabe, also at the lake house and included LOTS of family visitors
• such a happy, easy to please kid…enjoyed spending the day with cousins swimming and boating
• birthday food included coffee cake, mac and cheese and hot dogs.  A cheesecake bar was his birthday cake.
• Ryan scoured Amazon a week prior and ordered some fun things for Seth that boring Mom would never have thought of:  a stomp rocket, a science kit, etc.

Birthdays are such a fun time to focus on each kid and what they bring to our home.  We love our traditions and we love those boys!