almost caught up—here's september

Huzzah for being caught up with my blournal. That's a blog journal, obviously. Warning, all of these pictures got super out of order, and I don't have the time or patience to try to fix them all. Bear with me. 

I took the little ones to the park one morning while we waited for the "big boys" to get done with kindergarten. 

Kate forgot the last E on her middle name. Made me laugh. 

We "remodeled" the bathrooms, meaning that we painted and installed new cabinets and countertops and faucets. The cabinets were made by Nate's friend Renn, and they are just lovely. We put new cabinets in our bathroom and the hall bathroom. The granite countertops are the same as the kitchen. 

This is a mediocre picture of the bike path that runs through Mapleton. This was on our first walking adventure along the trail at the beginning of the month. 

My sister Heather talked me into taking my family to the sheepdog competition at Soldier Hollow. I was fascinated, but I think I was the only one. I would have liked it a lot better if I hadn't paid SO MUCH for us to go. Sheesh. Also, it is definitely an old folks event. I was shocked by how many people were there. 

Playing dress ups in the closet. 

Yes, Kate picked out her own outfit. Yes, I let her go to school like this. 

One of my favorite authors, Brandon Sanderson, came to the Springville Library for an event. I got to be there to listen to him speak and answer questions, but I couldn't stay for the book signing. I had to go home and make dinner and care for my family. My brother Grant drove down from Cedar Hills to be there, but he couldn't stay for the signing either, because he had to get to work. So my other brother Ethan came to wait in line to get books signed. Grant had a copy of Elantris, which is the first of Sanderson's books that he read. He read it while he was in Iraq. Someone had donated the book, and Grant picked it up and read it. He liked it so much that he sought out other books by Sanderson when he got home. Brandon Sanderson is funny and personable. I want to be his friend.

Jude built himself a nest on the couch and went to sleep. 

I found some rollerblades in a pile of donation rejects in my garage. They fit me, and now I'm all about strollerblading down the bike path in Mapleton. I look like a super nerd, but I don't even care. It's fun. This is me the first time I tried them on and nearly fell on my face.

These are also from the sheepdog event.

Colin made this sweet boat at cub scouts. 

I want to live here. I wish I could afford to buy this lot and build a sweet house. This is taken from one of my strollerblading adventures. 

Trains! I was super impressed with my skills. 

Jude's birthday! We had only my family over on his actual birthday to try and cut down on the craziness. 

Yes, he's the fourth child. That's why he gets cake mix cupcakes with store bought frosting (at least it's Rainbow Chip though, amiright?) To make it a Star Wars birthday, I made chocolate Darth Vaders and Stormtroopers (or Chormtroopers, as Jude says) to go on top of the cupcakes. 

Sometimes when you're worried about your tire and have to go to the tire store, you also have to walk over to Sonic and buy your boys a corndog for lunch. 

Look how good my back looks! Ow ow!

These are also from Jude's birthday. 

A stalker picture of Ty Detmer's house in Mapleton. It is along the bike path. I found a lot near here and have been begging Nate to buy it so we can be neighbors with Ty Detmer and then he and I will become best friends and then I will become best friends with the entire team. It's my dream.

This is a view of the end of the bike path. This was a cloudy, hazy day when there were fires burning on the backside of the mountain. That is Spanish Fork canyon over there, and it was really smokey. I didn't go as far that day because it was hard to breathe. 

Just some boys, chillin' out max and relaxin' all cool. 

Just a super cute Jude in his birthday outfit from Granny. 

Colin and Gray having an epic Star Wars battle in the backyard.

Playing blocks at the library. I think this was the day when we tried the music and movement class and found it lacking.

A view of the pumpkins before we picked them. 

A view of the pumpkins after we picked them. Four big ones and four little ones.

My grape harvest. I picked these on like the coldest day in September in between like 4 other obligations. Then I started making grape juice. 

Gray likes grape juice. 

So, this is where I work. This is the baby steps class at Cahoots. We have story time, toys time, singing time, dancing time, gymnastics time, and a developmental activity. It's not a daycare. It really is a class, and I love it. It really gets the babies ready to go to movement preschool when they are two. (And I can't say enough good things about the movement preschool. It was good before, but it is just phenomenal now.)

Everyone was sitting in a line for the story, but they stopped cooperating as soon as I tried to take a picture.

Climbing on the mats and going through the tunnel. 

We played a shadow game that was super cute. 

My neighbor watched Gray for about an hour while I had to stay late at work on day, and the two of them went to Partyland. Gray found this TMNT costume on clearance, so I gave my blessing for him to buy it. He wasn't even a little excited about it.