September Birthdays!

September is a busy month, with Ashton & Conner's birthdays & our wedding anniversary. Our tradition is having their bday gifts waiting for them to open when they wake up (which explains why our kids are always in pj's & looking a little blurry-eyed=).  Conner's birthday fell on a Sunday this year! Jared made him a special birthday dinner and we had "the Grandparents" over to help celebrate.  

 Ashton got some of his birthday gifts early.  (A basketball from G&G S, a soccer net that was to both Ashton & Conner from G&G H, and the Nerf glasses above, that have lights to reflect off of the Nerf ball)

 Ashton's birthday is Sept. 12th, a Wednesday this year. Wednesdays are busy-busy, but we decided to go to dinner that night for his birthday (late, like around 8:00.  That's usually when I'm getting kids ready for bed).  He also got to have a special dinner of his choosing on Sunday, and he asked for ribs.

Happy birthday to my boys!!

Ronan

I usually only blog about the happenings under my roof.  I was on KSL today and came across this story.  I  decided to watch the video of Taylor Swift singing the song "Ronan" from the Stand up to Cancer" telethon.  I had actually heard some of the song the night before on iTunes (it's #1), but dismissed it.  I thought it was probably another break up song of hers, and I was just telling my girls the other day that I'm so sick of her always singing about break ups.  Well this isn't that kinda song.  Far from it.  I read the story, and saw the picture of that beautiful, blue-eyed boy and listened to the words of her song and I was bawling.  It's very touching.  I need things like this to remind me to hug my kids a little longer. Listen more intently to the stories they want to tell me about their day.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  Take time to enjoy the "normal" days we have.  Make sure my children know that they are so important to Jared & I.  Sometimes I yell, sometimes I freak out about the messes, the homework that was left to the last minute, the wet towel left on the floor.  In the big picture it's not important at all, it's just remembering to stand back and look at that big picture and put things into perspective that I need to work on.  Becoming a mother is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Back to School

Back to school time!!  The fun started last week with Back to School night at Union for Kelsey and Emma.  Jared went with Emma to her classes & I went with Kelsey.  I annoyed her by taking pictures of us with my phone and texting it to Monica, acting like we were students in class.  ("Hey, wazzup, I'm in Spanish").  Kelsey didn't think it was as funny as I did.  I'm easily entertained.  Unfortunately that school is a black hole of cellular service, so nothing would send.  Those poor students!

 Emma's friend Rylee fits in her locker.

Kelsey leaves first at 6:30 for early morning seminary.  I almost didn't get a picture of her!

First day of 5th grade for Ashton, 7th for Emma & 2nd for Conner

  

 First day of 1st grade! She wasn't nervous at all.  

She was excited to have two recesses and eat lunch at school.  

 Mallory & her cousin Paige

So from 8 until almost 3 it's just Sophie and me!  And Jared if he is working from home.  I think she is bored with it, have to find some things for her and I to do.  All she wants to do is "Go bye-bye".  That's easy!

Soccer, soccer, soccer

Ashton played in 3 tournaments this summer.  The first one was in Layton, so Neil & Amy came to two of his games there, which was way fun.  

They got 1st place!  And it was H-O-T!

The next tournament was the Park City Cup.  They lost in the semi-finals there.  They had one early game (8AM), and when we got to the field is was below 50 degrees outside!  So weird.

Practice with the U14 team.  Ashton's team can hold their own against them!

 These two pictures were from the Sparta Cup - where we got our butts kicked!!

Nothing like soccer at sunrise!

Conner played in one tournament, the USA Adidas Cup.  We were slaughtered!  It was ugly.  Conner was only happy after the second game (which ended 11-2 for the other team) because he had scored a goal. 

 Ashton has a great team!  We are lucky.  Great coach, friendly parents and boys that are all buddies.

A Bunch of Summer photos

Man oh man did summer fly by!! I hope my kids feel like summer wasn't a waste.  We didn't do a lot of the things we wanted to.  Work, soccer & illness got in the way (first part of the summer was spent with fevers and strep throat!).  I'm excited to get back into school, routines & schedules.  But summer is fun, getting to do whatever, whenever, sleep in and stay up late.  Here are some pictures from our summer!

 Mal & Whitney are little twinners! 

Jamie & I love that they are such good friends.  

Will & Sophie chillin' on my bed watching Mickey Mouse.

We took the kids to City Creek twice.  They love it!  But, how can you not?

 Jamie watched Mal & Sophie while we went to a ReAL game with Jared's cousin and her kids who were visiting from Florida.  It was an AWESOME game & we had great seats!

We rented a bounce house for a family reunion with the Carter side of the family.
(My mother-in-laws side).  The kids we totally entertained.  This fabulous foursome are the 2009 babies - Sara, Kadee, Casey & I all had babies that year!

Pictures below from our trip to the zoo.  We have a zoo pass, and it's best to get there right when they open, get it all seen in a couple hours and get home in time for lunch.  Which is exactly what we did!

 These two photos are really the only good ones I got of the 24th parade.  Sara & Fred saved the spot this year, and we headed down around 5:30.  First stop was to get breakfast at einstein's.

 The next 4 photos were from our lemonade stand day! Emma & Rylee made homemade rootbeer, lemonade, and I made some chocolate chip cookies for them to sell too.  It was a scorcher! But they stayed out all day (glad to have my big umbrella for soccer) and I think they made around $60.  To help the little ones cool off we put on swimsuits and turned on the hose.

I decided to take the kids to lunch one day.  We went to Sweet Tomatoes.

The next 6 photos were our trip to Cottonwood Heights.  We got there at 4:30 and stayed until close at 8:00.  Ashton went off the diving boards over and over, and Conner went down the water slides over and over!  By 6:00 Kelsey was bored & ready to go home.  Such a teenager.

 We went to a fancy-schmancy "gala" at the Salt Lake Country Club for a Bonneville Realty thing.  We got to spend the night with Mom & Dad, which is always fun.  Bonneville Realty even bid & won on some silent auction items!  The dinner was great - I took a picture of the menu.

 The last Saturday of summer was spent at soccer & a BBQ & swim party that night with some families in the ward.  Sophie got moody as the night went on and she felt feverish.  When we got home, around 9PM, I took her temp & sure enough she had a fever.  What a trooper to swim and play!  She even smiled when I took her picture!

I think that's about it! Summer was also busy with soccer tournaments, but that's a post all on it's own!