Snippets of September

September is always a busy month with school in full swing, fall sports and soaking up the remnants of summer. I think we had a pretty good month with all of that!

Bikes, bikes, bikes! 

All the boys from the cul de sac fell back in love with their bikes and for a couple weeks this was my view every night:

 Jayden bringing his ramp out definitely helped with the sudden bike loving.

And there was no way Wes was going to stay out of what the big boys were doing-

 And Eve and I just sat back and watched all the fun happen!

I can't think of a better girl I would want to bike watch with!

Wes impressed us so much with his bike riding skills on his Strider bike that we decided it was time for a big boy bike!

Brian spent about 8 minutes with him one Saturday morning and this boy was OFF!

Strider bikes are THE WAY to go.

It is so much fun to watch him keep up with the big boys a little better. I am so proud of him and his determination to get it done. Good job, Wessey boy!

Speaking of big boy Wes, he also started going to "preschool."

I started a co-op with three of my friends and we bought a curriculum and are taking turns teaching. Wes LOVES it and is definitely benefiting from the social and academic interaction it provides him.  

Annie.Coco.Wes.Ian

And Wes is eating all this big boys stuff up...

Including playing on a sports team for the first time.

He did so good at his first practice and was so excited for the second week when the games began. Each week he has 30 minutes of practice and a 30 minute game. It is the perfect set up for three year olds and he is pretty spectacular to watch out on that field! 

Thad has flag football practice the same night so they aren't able to cheer each other on every week, but they are both pumped about their teams.

We let Thad choose what he wanted to do and flag football it was! He is having so much fun learning a new sport and is improving the more he plays. 

Molding a mouth guard was new to me but brought back some fond memories for Brian. It's fun when little things like this can be nostalgic.

We also had some fun watching a young man, Preston, from our ward play on the high school football team!

It was hot, but we managed! 

We let the boys stay up late to watch the Super Moon turn red. It won't happen again for another 18 years, so we figured it was worthy of a 9:30 bedtime on a school night!

No pictures gave it justice, but it was a fun night sitting on the grass as a family waiting for a break in the clouds to witness a rare event. I like any fun excuse we can make to hang out together!

And then, there were just lots of perfectly cute moments with these three that we love so much-

Facetiming with a topless Wes is always a good time!

Eve just representing like her big bro, Thad!

Now that was a yummy ice cream!

The Dukes had us over for a fun FHE-

And grown up boys loving babies is one of the cutest things ever!

And this Eve is just about the cutest girl ever- 

I love everything about this picture: 

1. All three kids in one box.

2. Thad reading.

3. Wes' beaver teeth.

4. Eve desperately wanting out!

Lunch with Thad is always a silly, good time!

And so is watching him put on every accessory he owns! 

 Thanks for being super, September!

BirthDAY Success!

Eve's birthday yesterday was a total success. I didn't have much planned because, well...because I knew she wouldn't care. That's why. I didn't have it in me to plan some big kahuna party for her because I just knew it wouldn't matter. And I'm no Birthday Conservative by any means. I love a good birthday celebration, and I center all my focus on whomever's birthday it might be, so that is pretty much what I did for her. And simple definitely did the trick.

She soaked through her diaper so jammies came off first thing and this girl wanted to play in the rain!

I rarely let this girlfriend be in just in a diaper, let alone crawl out the front door...she was loving it! 

A birthday bath was in order, so maybe that was a big reason I was so willing. I know I should maybe loosen up a bit, but then what would I do for a one year old to make them feel special on their birthday? 

After a birthday bath with Wes we packed up and headed to the elementary to have lunch with Thad, because let's face it, he was more excited about her birthday than she was!  

We walked in the school and Ms. Sayegh and some kids in the class said, "It's Eve's birthday!" That was a confirmation that I made the right decision to have lunch with this boy. Of course he had told his whole class it was her birthday...he loves his siblings!

 Tristan and Caden wanted to sit with us, but only one friend can so Thad chose Tristan. He's a quiet kid, but fun to have around!

Eve can think that she is getting big by turning the big O-N-E, but this is a perfect shot to show she is still my baby-

 I'm all for kids growing up, but I'm fine with some of the baby for a while, too! No rush, girlfriend. 

 Luckily Ms. Sayegh has fallen victim to Wes and his darling everything just like Mrs. Knight did last year, and she lets him join in line with the big kids so he feels like he's just one of them.

 This may not seem like a big deal, but I'm so glad Thad goes to a school that has a fun, understanding faculty and staff. I know Wes will have no hesitations walking through those doors when his time comes!

Straight after lunch we headed to Target to get this girl a gift.

I was serious when I said I didn't plan anything. Not even a gift.

She was pleased as punch with these Little People princesses and has played with them for about five minutes total since getting them. I love her.

We FaceTimed with Aunt Brigy before nap time and they had a great time making each other smile! 

Daddy got home shortly after nap time with another gift in tow. 

He had tried to meet up with a lady from Craig's List for a while to get this gem-

She b-lined straight to it (because why would we plan to wrap it? That is the beauty of a one year old's birthday), but she was mostly interested in the baby doll at first!

  

She came around and was pushing it in no time! 

We hope it encourages her to walk around a bit more because we are kind of over the crawling thing. She doesn't trust herself yet, but she is standing on her own more and more so hopefully we get some action in the next couple weeks!

After a little while we remembered that we had this little table in a box in the garage that we hadn't opened since our move from Connecticut. 

We got this as a hand-me-down from Aunt Haley and gifted it to both Thad and Wes for their first Christmases. It is the gift that keeps on giving!

We got some shots of this cute girl before heading out to her par-tay (that was not planned).

I told the neighbors the day before that we would be doing cake and ice cream in the driveway and would love to have them join if they could. It was a hot night, but we had a lot of fun! 

She was so happy that I let her roam free on the driveway. She gets so filthy and I try to contain her when we are out, but it was her birthday so I let her. This is the #1 reason I'm over crawling...I want to let her play when we're out and the ground just isn't very friendly. 

Friends and neighbors started showing up and we got our party on! And by party I just mean hanging out in the driveway...

Kristen would take Eve as her own and I'm so glad she and Cali were able to make it. They are the only friends we invited outside of the neighbors on our street.

Anna and her kids come to church with us and live three houses down. I'm so glad they are so close! We don't get to see them as much as we would like, but we are so happy they could come love on our little Eve. 

The kiddos started to get antsy for treats, so we got a family picture before the mess began- 

And got our cake on!

So I'm not quite sure what this cake is supposed to be. There were two design options and I chose the rectangle cake but I wanted it to have the cupcakes still. That is a thing and I have done it before, so that's what I did because when I saw the cake pictured above on the design page at Wal-Mart I thought it was cute, but then I realized I didn't really know what it was. A dress? A thought bubble wearing a skirt? Not sure. My order obviously got confused and we ended up with this design. But you know what? Eve didn't care and neither did anyone else! And it was $7 cheaper than the other one, so win-win.

Plus we got an awesome FREE smash cake:

I thought it was going to be much smaller and less cute, so this made up for the design mess up. Isn't it so cute??

Eve sure thought so and was so excited to get started! 

 And OOPS! I didn't blow it out fast enough and she touched the hot wick, not the flame, but the hot wick. Sad. I should have known better...

 What was I thinking? 

It took a few minutes for this girlfriend to recover... 

But with some encouragement from her brother and a taste off the spoon...

She gave it a go! 

And we all had a fun time watching her! 

(And this is pathetically the only picture I got with the neighbors. I'm so sad I didn't have everyone gather by her for a group picture. Like so sad. But know you were very loved on your first birthday, Miss Eve. Anna, Charli, Wendy, Danielle, Kristen and Liz were there with their kids to love on you!)

I gave her the fork and that's when things really started to pick up!

And she was a crazy mess when all was said and done, but all that meant to us was birthday success! 

Doesn't that look like one happy birthday girl? 

Daddy was a gem and got her all cleaned up while mom finished chatting with friends and I think she was kinda happy to be clean and in the cutest birthday jammies from Grandma Cindy.

What a wonderful day we had celebrating our wonder Eve!