September

Here is Brynn's get-to-know-me paper that she took on the first day of school. It is hard to read but it says that she likes to eat pears, applesauce, pumpkin bread, ramen noodles, and salad; her favorite color is pink and purple; she likes to play with her mom; and the one thing no one would guess about her is that she likes to wear lipstick.

Brynn drew this in sacrament meeting. When I asked her to explain what it was she said it was a shark eating someone.

Justin's work was in the Swiss Days parade again. Justin rode his unicycle like he always does. At one point in the parade some friends called out to us to do our unicycle trick so I hopped up on his shoulders for a stretch of the parade.

The kids have really started to look forward to this. They have fun running down the street throwing all the AFCU swag. It's become even more fun for them since we live here and they usually spot a few kids they know from school.

Brynn is still little enough to ride on Justin's shoulders. She also latched on to Austin Hicken, a son of one of Justin's tellers. He was a good sport and gave Brynn's legs a rest toward the end.

My parents had come up to watch so Molly and I stayed with them and braved the crazy crowds at Swiss Days to walk around the booths. Justin brought the other three kids home and sent me this picture of Ivy who fell asleep on him.

We were released from being Primary teachers. I will be completely honest-our little class of 4 & 5-year-olds was hard at times but I think they liked us and I know I loved each of them.

Justin is now in the Sunday School Presidency. I was still doing activity days but just got released from that and called to be the primary pianist which is my favorite calling I've ever had so I'm pretty excited to be doing that.

We didn't do anything on Labor Day except for, well, labor. I was feeling guilty that we didn't take the kids on a hike or somewhere fun so I ended up getting a $5 pizza and we had a family picnic on the trampoline.

I told them they couldn't jump while we were eating so they ate really fast so they could play.

Justin also made dutch oven peach cobbler but none of our kids like to eat warm peaches so they picked off the cake part and left the rest for Justin and me.

Stockton used some of his own money to buy Harry Potter glasses and a wand. He had already decided that he wanted to be Harry for Halloween so he was getting a jumpstart on his costume.

We made it to our Stake Fair this year where they have dinner, bounce houses, and games for the kids. Brynn tried everything but Stockton stayed in the foosball game the entire time we were there. Molly was at soccer practice.

When the weather was nice, Ivy and I would walk down to the bus stop to get Brynn. I usually took the wagon but then stopped doing that when Ivy started to stand up in it and refused to sit down. Our street gives us some beautiful views of Mount Timpanogas but my camera never does it justice.

Someone on Molly's team has connections to the adventure company that run the rafts down the Provo River so the team was able to do that one Friday night. I went early with Molly but ended up on a different raft than her so she could go with the girls on her team. She is the one clear in the back next to coach Matt.

Justin met us there with the other kids for dinner after we floated the river.

I told Brynn she could take a gymnastics or a dance class this year. I was secretly hoping for dance, since that's what I did, but she picked gymnastics. I found a different place this year and they do a few more of the apparatuses rather than strictly tumbling. She has really enjoyed it so far and is getting better. She has a very strong core but needs to work on strenghthening her arms.

We decided this year that we wanted to try using our wood burning stove as an option for heating our house (we had a couple of heat bills last winter that were very large and we would not like to repeat that). We had a chimney sweep come and clean and inspect the chimney and declare it fit for burning so our next item of business was to go up in the mountains and cut down some trees. Justin wanted to go scope it out one night after work so he knew a good place to go. He took his chainsaw and cut down a few trees while we ate some dinner in the truck and explored.

We saw this sheep way down at the bottom of a field and from where we were, we could not tell what it was. We thought it was an animal at first but weren't sure and it never moved. I mean never, and we stayed and watched it for a long time. Then we thought it was just a rock so I started to walk closer and closer. It finally took me zooming my camera lens way in to take this picture before we decided it was, in fact, a sheep that can hold really, really still.

The kids had their walk-a-thon during school. I lucked out because they were all back-to-back rather than spread out throughout the day so I went once and was able to see all of them. Doesn't Stockton look so handsome? I sure think so!

Stockton went first and they ran through one of the neighboring cul-de-sacs before making it back to the school's track. I tried to keep up with him but he ran off with his friends and I lost track of him. I found him when he made it back to the school though and watched him do a couple of laps.

Brynn was next. The Kindergartners just stayed at the track. Ivy and I walked a couple of laps with her and then she ran a couple on her own.

Molly was last and I found her right as she was finishing the cul-de-sac and Ivy and I walked a lap with her. She wasn't interested in getting a lot of laps but preferred to walk with Ivy and show her off to her friends.

Brynn decided that she wanted to play soccer this fall. It was just 3v3 with no goalies and small goals. Brynn had a lot of fun and was far and away the leading scorer on her team. She was good at fast breaks. I think she averaged two or three goals each game. That being said, I think her team lost every game. She is excited to take spring soccer.

Stockton really wanted to start reading Harry Potter but our paperback copy was pretty beat up with ripped pages throughout. So Justin got him a hardback to read. He didn't go through it quite as fast as Molly but he did read the whole thing. He has since started on the second but hasn't been reading it quite as much. He doesn't enjoy reading too much just for the fun of it, so he gets through books slower.

Not sure what we were doing here or how to explain this one. It came from Justin's phone.

Ivy had to sit through a lot of soccer games. She did okay as long as I had enough snacks to get her through!

Another day, more soccer.

Stockton sat through a lot too. He also needed a lot of snacks to make it through. Unless we were at a field with a park, then he was okay. Sometimes I would give him my phone and he would take selfies.

We went to Justin's Management Seminar again at the Zermatt in Midway. My mom came up to stay with all the kids this year. It was wonderful. They do such a good job putting this together and I really look forward to attending each year. This year I took a class from Jodi Brown about being someone's hero (the theme of the seminar) and made a burlap wreath. I was signed up for a pickleball clinic but skipped that one and met my mom for some shopping instead. Our day activity was supposed to be at the alpine slide but it was soooo cold that weekend that the Park City excursion was canceled. So we signed up for pickleball-guess I got to play after all! We ended up loving pickleball, Justin especially-he ended up staying and playing for two more hours after I left. We were fed well and the entertainment was good (a magician team and a men's singing group). And I got a couple of hours every day by myself in the hotel room-a luxury I did not take for granted! I went out for ice cream with some of the other employee's wives (they sell Aggie Ice Cream in Midway!) and we did some crazy late-night mini golf with some of Justin's co-workers. I hope that they continue to do this weekend for lots and lots of years to come because it is just so great.

I always look forward to taking Molly to the General Women's Meeting the Saturday before Conference. This year our stake had a service project before the meeting and we were able to go and help put together hygiene kits for girls in Africa. I love being there with Molly and feeling the Spirit. This was my favorite part of the meeting, from Sister Oscarson: "I worry that we live in such an atmosphere of avoiding offense that we sometimes altogether avoid teaching correct principles. We fail to teach our young women that preparing to be a mother is of utmost importance because we don’t want to offend those who aren’t married or those who can’t have children, or to be seen as stifling future choices. On the other hand, we may also fail to emphasize the importance of education because we don’t want to send the message that it is more important than marriage. We avoid declaring that our Heavenly Father defines marriage as being between a man and woman because we don’t want to offend those who experience same-sex attraction. And we may find it uncomfortable to discuss gender issues or healthy sexuality. Certainly, sisters, we need to use sensitivity, but let us also use our common sense and our understanding of the plan of salvation to be bold and straightforward when it comes to teaching our children and youth the essential gospel principles they must understand to navigate the world in which they live. If we don’t teach our children and youth true doctrine—and teach it clearly—the world will teach them Satan’s lies."

Two cute sisters with matching headbands. Grandma got them happy meals and that was the prize.

Molly's new dress that she got for her birthday. All the blurry pictures are from my phone. But I still put them here so they will print in my blog book.

After church snack of graham crackers and milk.

Beading necklaces with Brynn for our plan.

Any student who participated in the school walk-a-thon was entered into a raffle to win a prize. Stockton got lucky and won this basketball.

Molly was even luckier and won one of two big prizes...a flash rider. It is worth close to a $100, I think, so that was pretty awesome for her. Justin had to go to the school and pick it up because it was too big to bring home on the bus. He put it together and did a few laps around the kitchen before he went back to work.

The funny thing is that the more money you raised, the more times your name got put in the raffle. And guess what? I sent no money for my kids this year so they were only in there once each, just for participating.

I got this from the school's website. Stockton is third from left in the middle row and Molly is top right corner. All the winners.

Brynn picked this cute little outfit to wear to school one day. She was so excited and waited a few days for me to get that yellow shirt and white sweater washed. Don't know what her reasoning was with the shorts...maybe she thought they matched because they are yellow like the shirt? And for some reason she thinks that sweater vest has to go with the yellow cupcake shirt. I do not know where she got that because they don't go together. Man, I love this Brynn and love her personality. She was so proud of herself that day!

Naked baby on a rocking horse.

Stockton made a stand for his football out of pencils. At yet another soccer game. I was trying to get him to do his homework but wasn't having much success.

Ivy was there too, just eating an Oreo. She will only eat the filling and then throw away the cookie.

This is Ivy's favorite way to ride the flash rider. I don't think I actually took a picture of Molly riding it. She won it but it turned into a family gift.

One day we took advantage of the warm weather and went outside to play. We had Corbin come over and we got the ramp out of the garage. Brynn and Corbin had lots of fun riding down the ramp on their scooters and then on our little trikes.

And I thought this picture was adorable...Corbin fixing Brynn's little basket on the back of her trike. These two have the sweetest relationship and I am so glad the Anderson's are right next door.