September

America First was back at the Swiss Days parade again this year.  Our kids like running next to the car, throwing out swag, and waving to people they know in the crowd.  My mom and dad and the Walker's came up to watch and after the parade Justin and Grandpa took all the kids to our house and Erin, my mom, and I braved the insane crowd at the park to look at the booths.

about half of Justin's employees and their families

Isaiah, Stockton, Ivy, Brynn

Justin did this the entire length of the parade.  It was a nice workout for him!

We didn't have any plans for Labor Day so my mom suggested going to the cabin.  I asked Justin and he jumped at the chance.  He had just finished the greenhouse the weekend before and a relaxing weekend was just what he needed.  It was only our family but our kids loved having Grandma and Grandpa all to themselves.  We went up after church on Sunday and came home on Monday.  We had a campfire and couldn't get Brynn and Stockton off the 4-wheeler.  We ate breakfast outside.  Molly went golfing with Justin and Grandpa while my mom and I took the other three on a Rhino ride, down to the beach, and to the park.  We went and got burgers and shakes for lunch and then played with Grandpa's remote control car on the golf course.  It was beautiful weather and a great couple of days spent relaxing.

This is Ivy showing off her back bend.

This soccer season has been different and Justin and I haven't been as happy with the club as we have in years past.  Molly is playing for two teams, the premier and the select.  She wasn't looking forward to it in the beginning but she is starting to like the select team a little better.  They are not very good but they are positive and optimistic and have way better sportsmanship than the more skilled premier team.  It's been busy getting her to all the practices and games for both teams but it has made her a more confident player.  She is the very best player, no contest, on the select team and since it moves at a slower pace, she has been able to try some things that she wouldn't be able to in the faster-paced premier games.  As long as she still enjoys playing soccer, we will continue to support her and be positive but we are hoping to see some changes in the overall structure of the club.

in the black

Justin drew piggy faces on Brynn and Ivy's bellies.  Leave it to him to do something silly.

Baseball practice in the yard.

We gave away two of our kittens at the beginning of September-Sofia went to the Hansen's from our ward (they found out it was a boy and renamed him Minky) and Tigger went to the Broadbents.  We kept Chipper and Simba.  They have been fun to watch together!

A trip to the dollar store got these girls Halloween suckers and unicorn hair.

Story time at the library is a weekly must.  Miss Sally is the best children's librarian I have ever seen.  She is energetic and silly and treats every kid as her favorite.  Every time we go to the library she has a big hug and kiss for Ivy.

I'm not sure what was going on here.  I do know that Ivy is always packing her bags!

Ivy and I met Heidi and Eli for a picnic and walk up to Bridal Veil Falls.  We had a fun couple of hours with our babies who are not babies anymore.

I love Eli's "thumb's up!"

I have lots and lots of selfies on my phone of Molly blowing a bubble.

Seminar time again.  I look forward to this because even though it's a work thing and it's just in Midway, it feels like a vacation at the same time.  My mom was gone this year so April came up and stayed with the kids.  On Thursday while Justin was at his classes, I went to a DIY class in the morning and a Christmas tree shelf class in the afternoon.  We are always done early so I checked into our room and was able to read and relax until Justin was done.  We had dinner and entertainment.  The next morning I did a work-out class and then Friday afternoon is the partner activity.  We haven't done golfing for a few years so we did that this year.  I golfed a little but mostly rode around in the cart.  It was a beautiful day in the valley!

We left early because Justin had to present that night at the dinner.  He was assigned one of the Board of Directors and had to interview and write up a little presentation about her.  He was not excited to do it but he did a great job and now he won't have to do it again for a very long time.

Dinner and entertainment and then the closing speaker on Saturday morning.  We made it home to catch the last 20 minutes of one of Molly's soccer games.

We went to Huber Grove one Sunday afternoon to look for golf balls.  We have done this a couple of times before but I have always stayed behind with Ivy so I never knew what finding the golf balls really entailed.  It was intense! They climb down this riverbed and across the river to find them.  They climb over and under sticks and downed trees and Brynn even found a couple of houses that critters had made out of sticks.  Brynn found the most by a lot. They counted when we got home and the total found was something like 172.  Then they all had a golf-ball cleaning party.  They are so lucky they got a fun dad who will do stuff like this!

One of the moms from Molly's soccer team was in an accident and broke her neck.  She is lucky she was not paralyzed.  She has always been so nice to me and so encouraging to Molly (some of the parents are clique-ish and she never has been) so I was wanting to do something for her.  I reached out to all the other parent's and we were able to pool our money and get her a minky blanket and a $220 gift card to Walmart.  She was choked up when all the girls went to her house to give it to her.  This is one thing I love about Molly playing soccer-the sense of being part of a team and doing things outside of the sport that build unity.

Regan Heywood, Natalia Wagstaff, Kate Giles, Molly, Lexi Harris, Kylie Bishop, Lucy Miller, Sarah Cope, Carley Anderson, Hannah Risto, Aspen Ivie

Molly likes to come home and make a smoothie most afternoons as long as I have all the ingredients.  She made a big batch one afternoon and everyone got their own.

Brynn, on her way to gymnastics.

I haven't been able to go to many of Stockton's baseball games because they've been on Monday nights in Spanish Fork and I usually need to stay home and get Molly to practice.  For one of their practices they scrimmaged the team just older than them and I made sure I stayed to watch the entire thing.  Stockton doesn't like pitching but his coach still has him do it once in a while.

Justin has had to work every other Saturday since one of his lead teller's is on maternity leave.  It makes some of our Saturdays long.  One Saturday the kids had done so well getting up and getting through all their chores that I told them we could make caramel apples.  We made 5: apple pie, rocky road (marshmallow and almond), toffee and almond (Symphony bar), mini M&M, and chocolate drizzle (white and regular).  We ate one that night, two for Sunday dessert, and the last two during the following week.  They were all delicious but I liked the apple pie and Symphony the best.

And here is a random picture of my kids before church one day.  I was making a postcard to send to April as a thank you for watching the kids and needed a picture of the four of them.  The postcard didn't work but I did get a cute picture.