Suddenly September

So here are a few random moments from September.  I noticed that it seemed to be a fairly easy going month.  That sounds really nice.

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 Suki decided that she would be comfortable resting her head on the lamp post.  To each his own, I guess.

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 I pass by the temple every week on the way home from orchestra and it's just so pretty I can't help taking pictures.

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 Jaaromy went running and got caught in the rain.  Poor Jaaromy.

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 Brigham likes to watch the Scholastic videos for bedtime stories and I watch with him.  It's our special time together every night.

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 This dog cracks me up.  I'm glad she feels comfortable with us.

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 Jaaromy and I went to the Utah Symphony Sci-Fi Spectacular that coincided with Comic-Con.  It was a lot of fun.

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 I'd forgotten about the lunar eclipse.  I'm not sure why all my pictures are so crappy.  I must have been busy that day.

 We kept checking on it periodically throughout the night.

 Cool!

 We even watched it fade.

 It happened at the perfect time in the evening.  The boys were able to watch the whole thing with me.

 It was a fun activity.

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 The boys had a Court of Honor.  They had both earned some merit badges over the summer.

Good work, boys!

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So there you have it.  September looks like it was a lot of fun and kind of laid back.  Sounds perfect to me.  :)

Always August

Here are the highlights from our August.

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First was my birthday.

I decided I didn't want to cook so I had Jaaromy take us to Malawi's Pizza in Alpine.  I had just gone two days earlier after going to the temple with my niece and I was so excited to go again.  It is super tasty.  Jaaromy also got me Photoshop Elements and some sweet treats.  Tasty!

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Jaaromy was so uncomfortable with our bed.  We didn't do anything about it for a long time because I have always loved our pillow top mattress.  Eventually, we decided to try a Casper.

It's super firm but I was never uncomfortable.  We decided to try it with a pillow top mattress cover and I think that's just the right amount of firmness and pillowy softness.

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Brigham's helper in Primary is one of my very favorite people.  She told me that she had made a fairy door with her daughter and so I asked if Brigham and I could come over and see it.

 It was amazing.  These two pictures hardly do it justice.  She had a main front door and a balcony door on a higher branch.  She had a cellar door in the side and even smaller doors in the back for "trolls".  Also, she had a balcony window with a Rapunzel braid coming out of it.  It was super cute and super amazing.

 Brigham thought it was pretty neat.

The funny thing is that after my neighbor told me about her fairy door, I was at lunch with my sister and after we ate she wanted to go to Michael's for some craft stuff.  She was actually a little embarrassed to tell me that it was because she wanted to make a fairy door for her grandkids and was relieved to find that I was excited instead of judgmental.  I had taken pictures of my neighbor's so I could show my sister that night.

 Here is her fairy door.  Different, but just as cute.  I love it.

 While we were at my sister's house we had Birthday Sunday.

Along with some of the cousins, Jaaromy and I were sung to.

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A week later we celebrated Jaaromy's actual birthday.  I knew he wanted an Apple Watch but I really didn't want to get it because they're so expensive for relatively little value.  He was so set on it that I decided that we would go try one out for his birthday.  He decided he liked it so we got it.  We also saw Mission: Impossible which was awesome.

That night we sung happy birthday and had brownies.  Apparently we don't have a "3" candle so we're a little mixed.

Since at the time I hadn't decided on the Apple Watch, I tried to make up for it with other cool things.  I got him his favorite ice cream bar, and iTunes gift card, and some meat from Harmon's.  That one was a little strange and he was a little confused at first.  When he saw what it was he was actually looking forward to it.  We didn't get a chance to cook it until the next weekend.  Side note: Apparently raw meat only lasts a couple of days in the refrigerator.  We found this out after it had gone bad but before we ate it.  Luckily, Harmon's had the same cut of meat in the refrigerated bin and we bought the exact same kind so it's almost like it never happened.

After we sung to Jaaromy I asked Brigham to show me a happy face.

Then a sad face.

An angry face.

A surprised face.

And an excited face.  He was nice to play along with me.

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Our last two LEGO scenes before school starts.

This one was an old set we've had for a long time.  There are parts missing and we had to improvise.

When we were at the mall getting Jaaromy's Apple Watch, I stopped by the LEGO store and specifically got the AT-AT kit and a grey base plate for our final scene.  I'm happy with how it turned out.

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First day of school!

School started so early this year!  Summer was way too short.  Brigham went back to the same class with the same teacher and even the same bus driver.  Consistency is good.

Nathaniel started Seminary at the high school this year.  This picture is actually of the third day of seminary for him because I kept forgetting to take a picture.  He started the same day Brigham did.

 Nathaniel's school started the next Monday.  It was nice to go into it already knowing what it was like.

 Jonathan's curriculum still hadn't arrived so we got started on Math.  It ended up taking two weeks to get here!

It comes with video lessons which are great!

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My niece got married on the second day of school.  It worked out because then I didn't have to worry about Brigham while I was at the ceremony.

 So, my new nephew-in-law is friends with this guy who plays basketball for BYU(I think).  My brothers all knew who he was.  I thought it was funny that my dad was the same height as him when he was standing on the little wall.  My brother got a better picture because he actually asked them for their picture and they were much closer in height than my picture.  I was trying to do it secretly so mine wasn't as good.

 At the reception, Jonathan was having a blast dancing.  I had to ask him to hold still for just a second so he wouldn't be blurry.

 Brigham was happy to hang out with Jaaromy.

And here is Darrin holding our new little niece.  It was a fun reception.  Nathaniel didn't dance or anything but really enjoyed the music and mentioned later that he wouldn't have minded staying longer.  I don't think I have ever heard him say that, ever.  I'm glad he had fun.

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Our August was super busy but super fun!

Our January

I finished off 2014 by the end of March like I promised, now on to the new year.  I'm only four months behind, but on the plus side, the beginning of the year isn't nearly as eventful as the end of the year so I'm hoping it won't take long to catch up.

Here are some snippets of January:

 I almost forgot to do a long exposure of our Christmas lights.  This was the last day I was planning on turning on the lights.  I wish I had done it sooner and planned it better.  I think I'd rather not have our garbage cans in the picture.  Also, some of our lights stopped working by the end...and there's no snow.  Next time I think I'll try and take it at the beginning of the season.

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 Jaaromy had to go to New York again for work and he sent some pictures.  He was only gone a few days this time so that's good.

 I love The Lego Movie and I love Emmet!

 Those Mormons are everywhere!

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 We decided to go to the dinosaur museum.  We haven't been in a while.  I realized that we might be getting a little old for it, most of the kids there were much younger and we walked right past the sand and water room.

 We did have fun with some of the other activities though.

 Brigham wandered around the excavation room a bit too.

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 Now that Jonathan is 11, he can go on Scout camping trips.  This was his first Klondike Derby.

 It was actually Nathaniel's first one too.  I've never made him go in the past.

 But now that Jonathan can go too, I figured now would be a good time to push him a little.

 Plus, Jaaromy was there too so I thought it would be fun for all of them.

 Jonathan was the littlest so he got to ride in the sled.

I think they both had fun, although I'm sure one of them had more fun than the other.  And one of them can't wait to come back next year.

So that was our January.  Not too bad.