September iMoments

These are my afternoons. Just me and (most) of my boys. I know I'll miss these days when they're gone.

We have a picture of Danny and Luke that is almost identical to this one...right down to the jammies! We love watching Joseph grow up and love him while remembering Luke through him.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, and this year Kneaders ran a promotion. All of the proceeds from every elephant cookie they sold went to Huntsman Cancer Research, right here in Utah. It's there that they are researching how elephants can help us cure cancer. We had to get our Lukey cookies! And so many of our friends did the same. :)

Jessie and her family moved to South Carolina this month! It is a dream come true for Jessie to live our there, and we're so excited for their new adventure!

Sophie and I enjoyed a "Mom and Sophie Date" while we shopped for her baptism dress. We even got lunch! I don't get to spend enough time with my sweet Anne Girl...

We finished the Book of Helaman! And we've maintained the streak of not missing a single night of reading. Go us! To celebrate, we made cantaloupe sorbet using the garden cantaloupes. It. Was. Divine!

Johnny found a special friend in the lettuce from the garden. He built him a home and everything! He lived a grand total of one day. :)

Danny lives for this...his naps with our babies. I picked the best Dad for my kids.

Sporting the "5 Months" tie! And it looks like it's time for another haircut. :)

Crazy Hair Day!

Danny and I decided to be wild and crazy and we bought tickets to the Def Leppard and REO Speedwagon concert! We went with friends from Danny's work, and we had an absolute blast!

While we were at the concert, the kids had pizza movie night with Ruby and Lucy. Then they went to spend the night with Grandma and Papa. Papa took them to Aunt Julie's Shakespeare play on Saturday morning and these are the crazy kids we got back!

After four long years, our ward did another Super Saturday. I love what I made this year!

Sophie got to have her Game Day date with Daddy for the home opener against UCLA!

I {heart} suspenders. :)

Sophie's birthday present from Grandma and Papa was to go see "Beauty and the Beast" at Hale Center Theater. Sophie absolutely loved the play!

"Bring on the zombies, Mom. I got this."

Johnny has become obsessed with chess. He loves the game! And this was the moment when he legit beat Danny. :)

I tried my hand at peach freezer jam! It tastes delicious, though it's more syrup than jam. I'll have to find a new recipe next time. :)

Claire and I enjoyed the General Women's Meeting with Grandma Candy and Isabelle this year. I love this meeting! It always fills my bucket. And I love that I get to share the experience with the women in my family.

A huge part of Claire's 4th grade experience will be book reports. She has one due every month! Her first report was on the book "Foxcraft". She begged to get this book for Christmas last year, but I couldn't get her to finish it! Well, she finally did...and got 100% on her report!!

BYU vs Toledo

We have been waiting for Sophie's birthday home game for months! We ended up with an extra ticket, so we let Sophie choose who she would like to invite...it being her birthday and all. :) She wanted Isabelle to come, and Isabelle was delighted to join us. 

Because it was a very special game, we decided to leave early enough to allow us time to grab dinner at JCW's in Provo and listen to Michael give his pre-game show. We didn't tell him we were coming, and he was excited to see us! We just love that guy. :) It was crazy busy, but we got our food in time to eat and get to the game on time. The food was well worth all the hullabaloo!

I love game day! There is nothing quite like the stadium at night. And we started the game out with at  touchdown on our opening play!! That got the crowd going, and it was an awesome game all the way through! We won, and we were all hoarse by the time it was over. And I think Isabelle is a fan for life now! ):

I love that we have turned Danny's passion for BYU Football into a family passion. We have already made such wonderful memories, and I know we'll make many more in the years to come. Go Cougs!!

Happy Birthday, Sophie Anne!

Our sweet Sophie Anne turned eight!! At long last, it finally happened!! :)

She started the day with her birthday message from Daddy on the window. She was excited to go to school and hand out her birthday treats. But the real fun started after school. We were celebrating Sophie's birthday by going as a family to the BYU vs Toledo game! But before we could head to Provo, we had to open presents. :) Sophie got a scripture case for her new scriptures, along with some scripture pencils. Sophie also requested a "Sophie Wall" like Claire got for her 8th birthday, and I was happy to oblige. I loved shopping for the perfect saying for my Sophie, and finding a frame for her picture from when she was my cute little one-year-old. She also got a memory box for all the fun things she would get at her baptism. She was a happy girl. :)

We had a wonderful night at the game...and I'll cover all of that in a separate post. And since we celebrate birthdays for days and days in this family, there's more Sophie-birthday to cover! :) On Sunday we had the family over for cake and presents...and we lumped Danny's birthday into the fun. Sophie loved being the center of attention and got some pretty awesome presents. Claire and Johnny got her a "My Life" doll and accessories, so now she can play with Claire and her doll. She got fancy color books, colored pencils, lotion and chapstick, Shopkins, and a beautiful painting for her "Sophie Wall" from Grandma Candy!

Sophie picked out a "Descendants" cake, and she graciously gave some space on the the cake for Danny's candle. ;)

We love you so much, Sophie!! We wouldn't be us without you, and there wouldn't be nearly as much sunshine in our life. Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

To My Sophie, On Your Birthday...

 

Happy Birthday, Sophie Anne! Can you believe it? You're eight years old!! The big baptism birthday is upon us!! 

You've grown up so much this last year. It's so fun for me to write these letters to you. Before I write, I always read the letter from last year. It gives me an idea of what things have stayed the same, and what things have changed. It's been a big year for you, Sophie! You started the 2nd grade this year, and just like years previous, you love school and delight in learning. You are so successful, both academically and socially. This has been the first year that you weren't the youngest in our family at school, and you've been a great big sister to Johnny as he has adjusted to kindergarten. You love your "walking home" group of friends, though I know you wish Claire wouldn't dawdle quite as much on the way home. :) You have continued to work on both your art and your penmanship, and you have continued to get better and better! Every spelling test that has come home so far has a "Nice Handwriting!" note at the bottom. I'm so proud of your hard work!

Our biggest change this year has been adding Joey to our family. You have LOVED being a big sister again! There's something very maternal about you, Sophie. I know you are going to make a most excellent mother! Since the minute you laid eyes on Joseph, you have wanted to take care of him. Change him, dress him, pick him up, carry him, hold him....everything and anything that boy needs you are happy to provide! And just like with Luke, you have a special ability to make Joey happy. You get the biggest smiles from him, and can always make him laugh. You have missed Luke, but I can tell it has healed your heart to have Joey to take care of. How grateful we all are to have him in our family!

You're still best of friends with Claire, and you and John still go between love and hate on a minute to minute basis. :) You still love your Daddy best, of course. But you seem to need me more than you used to. I like that. :) You are still every inch of the fashionista you've always been. You love clothes, make-up, nail polish...all of it! And you're getting quite good at putting together your ensembles.

You are such a beautiful girl, Sophie! I've noticed in pictures how much you've changed over the last year. My little girl is gone! And now you're a big girl, and I don't know how you'll manage it, but I know you're just going to get more and more beautiful. Honestly, it's just scary!

In just a few days, you're going to be baptized. You've been waiting patiently for this to finally happen. You have listened to all your lessons, both at home and at church. I am confident that you understand the covenant you are making with your Heavenly Father. And I'm confident that you want to make that covenant for yourself. I know you feel how important it is for us to make it back to our Heavenly Father so that we can be together as a family forever. In the Primary program this year, you gave a talk about the importance of being worthy to enter the temple. You did an amazing job...I was so proud of you! I remember helping you write that talk, and I remember being impressed with everything you understood. You wrote most of that talk yourself. You love reading the Book of Mormon, and you never complain when we gather as a family to read. You are always counting how many chapters we have left of a book, and how close we are to finishing. You are so excited to have read the whole Book of Mormon!

Sophie, I just love you. I am so grateful that you are my baby girl forever. I admit that a lot of the time I don't understand you very much. And I know I spend far too much time trying to teach you and keep you on schedule, and not enough time just enjoying who you are. I will do better about that. We had the chance to have a special date together to shop for you baptism dress, and we had so much fun! It was the first time we had the opportunity to do something together, just the two of us. It was good for us to have that uninterrupted time together! We'll have to do it a lot more. :)

Happy Birthday, Anne Girl! I love you forever and always!

Love,

Mom

Johnny's First Field Trip

Johnny has been waiting years for his chance to go to Black Island Farms! He knew it would be his first field trip of Kindergarten, and he asked me if I would come be a parent volunteer. How could I resist? Danny took some time off of work and stayed home with Joseph and even took Sophie to her well-child check up so I could go spend the morning with Johnny. What a great Dad!

It was a beautiful morning!! If anything, it was a little warm. :) We took a ride through the corn fields, and got educated as to the cultivation of carrots and cabbage. We got to pick our own pumpkins and learned about what "broom corn" is. It was really neat!

Then it was time to play! It was fun to watch Johnny with his friends. One of my biggest concerns for Johnny was how he would adjust to the social interactions between boys. He spends so much time with girls! But he's made a best friend already, Cannon, and a couple other good friends...like Paxton. He's also come good friends with William, and he was in our group so we spend most of the play time with him. 

It was such a wonderful field trip, and a great opportunity for me to not only spend some time with Johnny, but to see him away from me and just being a kid. Turns out, he's a pretty awesome little guy. :)