First half of September, the circle of life

September 1st is Christian's birthday and he turned five years old! His sweet sister got him this white mouse beanie baby weeks before because her little Buddy begged for it...

I made his favorite breakfast: bacon and eggs. (He wouldn't mind if I held the eggs, actually.)

He'd gotten a card from Toys 'R Us that had a $3 coupon and an invitation to be their special birthday boy, so we went by. They gave him a crown, balloon, and announced his special day over the intercom! He selected a tube of candy that had a magnetic fishing game on the top and a can of playdough so the total was barely over $3. I was in such a generous mood that I let him get a 50¢ necklace (he was so excited that he got the bone shape he wanted) out of the bubble gum machine!

We would be celebrating his birthday at the grandparents' on Sunday, but my mom wanted him to be able to open some gifts from her on his big day. She brought out two presents and they were Pirates of the Caribbean Lego sets!

He picked out a fancy scooter for us to give him and I'm surprised I don't have a picture of it. To this day both kids are constantly riding that thing around the house! I just did his favorite dinner (spaghetti) and a simple cake (chocolate with chocolate mousse on top instead of frosting) for that night.

On the 3rd we went to Alaura's baptism. She looked so beautiful! It was very special and afterward we ate together at their stake center's bowery.

On the 4th we made Christian's fancy birthday cake. Here is an artist's (Faith's) rendering of the cake plans (dictated by Buddy):

And here is what we came up with:

I baked the cakes and put together the brownie ship, but the kids did most of the frosting and all of the decorating! (This was another reason my mom gifted the Lego sets on his actual birthday.)

Here is a video of them describing all the features:

First we went to my mom & dad's.

Then over to Braegger's. Check out that pirate ship balloon!

He had an amazing birthday!!

Tony was home on the 5th for Labor Day, so we went to Lagoon.

Buddy was finally tall enough for the big bumper cars!

Christian asked me to take a picture of this on the 6th. Yet another installment in my series "keeping it real."

On the 8th we discovered that Day Farm has pick-your-own raspberries for only a few dollars per large carton. It was a huge pain, very slow going, I got completely scratched up, and there were billions of bees and wasps that scared off the kids, but it was still somehow cathartic about the experience for me. And the high I get from getting something for cheap! We ate some and made the rest into raspberry-peach freezer jam with peaches fresh from Willard.

On the 10th the kids made a police car at Lowes,

and Buddy found a friend while I was mowing the lawn.

On the 13th Brandt was born! We were so excited to meet this little guy!!

Unfortunately, Joy had to have a c-section because he was breech so we didn't get to do our hypnobirthing, but at least the little guy was here safely. Joy, on the other hand, has had nothing but multiple infections from a few weeks before he came to now (mid-December) :(

The 15th was a very, very sad day. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Crumpet. She had been going downhill healthwise for several months, and then, a few days before, started throwing up. It completely broke our hearts, but we wanted to let her go before she really started suffering. Faith stayed home from school to love on her Dumpet.

We made Sculpy clay hearts and pressed her little paw print onto them as a memento.

Then took her into the vet office.

Christian had seemed pretty okay up to this point, I guess the gravity of the situation hadn't really sunk in yet even though he knew what was going on. Right after the fatal injection, he completely lost it and became inconsolable. He needed me to take this final photo of her, just after she passed.

Faith had the idea that we needed a luncheon afterward since we had the vet cremate her body instead of bury it, and you always need to eat at a funeral. I bought the kids happy meals (irony) and we went to Barnes Park.

Christian finally settled down enough to eat and then we played at the playground while talking about all the fun times with our doggie. I know we were so lucky to have more than sixteen years with her and, other than her deafness and the final few months, she was healthy and spry as a youngster all that time.

August fun

Let's start off with some August Crazy Christian pics from Aug. 1st. This boy is always asking me to snap his photo! Here he is using a pajama shirt as pants:

and using bubbles as his five o'clock shadow.

On August 4th we went to the condo in Park City. We did our usual shopping and swimming, but instead of going out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, on the 6th my dad took the entire family swimming in a volcanic crater! We drove the little ways to the Homestead Resort in Midway where you can go swimming or scuba diving in a naturally 94º hot pot inside a domed rock mountain. It's not very big around, but it's 55 feet deep! Here are the kids just before donning the required life jackets:

Tony is afraid of deep water and didn't want to go, but dad paid for him anyway and I pressured him to try it. He stayed on the floating entrance platform that was submerged only about four feet or so, but I'm proud that he even got in there at all! My dad was pretty excited that his entire family got to experience this together. It was so awesome!!

Several weeks afterward, Christian was still excited about getting to "swim in a volcano" and drew this cool picture. You can see the sides of the rock going up, and the orange dots at the top represent the grate that covers the top opening. The orange balls in the water attached by chains are the buoys that hold platforms at different depths for divers. I think the red at the bottom is the lava that Buddy imagines is geothermally heating the water.

Just after leaving the Homestead, we noticed this mama deer and her twin fawns catching a quick bite in someone's front yard. Awwwww.

 We came home on the 7th and cooked up snow crab legs for a special dinner.

On the 8th we met up with my parents, sisters and their families at Lagoon. The kids love having fun with their cousins!

Because we were gone the day before, we celebrated Crumpet's 16th birthday on the 9th. Faith made her the cutest cake!

Of course, Crumpy couldn't actually have any, but it was darling! I love that it had dog food and water in bowls and even chocolate sprinkle dog poop :D

On the 13th Tammy and Lana took the kids school clothes shopping. Can I just mention again that we are the luckiest people on earth because both grandmas and Aunt Tam keep these kids rolling in style!! They picked out some darling clothes and shoes:

On the 14th the kids wanted a sleep over in our bedroom and, for some reason, Christian became the princess in Princess and the Pea. He loaded all the cushions from our couches in and stacked them up into a very tall bed!

On the 18th we visited the Kaysville Farmer's Market where the kids made pencil shaped bookmarks and we bought corn, beans, and apricots.

On the 20th we went to the Davis County Fair. I love that it's free and even got $2 off the $4 parking fee by bringing in two cans of food for the food bank. The petting zoo had some amazing animals this year!

baby camel

baby zebra

baby miniature horse

lots of adult and baby sheep and goats

big desert tortoise

big, super soft rabbit (which they are petting) and a calf

And we love the animal exhibits, too. Especially the bunnies

and the chickens.

We . . .

Afterward we stopped for a treat at YogoTogo.

At mom & dad's house on the 21st I had to get a side shot of Joy's ginormous belly :) (Hi, Brandt!)

 The 22nd was Faith's first day of fourth grade.She was so excited!

The next day I went out to lunch with my Kaysville girls at the Layton Brick Oven. Christian loved his giant cookie.

On the 25th I volunteered to help with Dibels testing (where kids have to read aloud for a timed period) at Faith's school. The principal bought Subway meals for the helpers and, because I could only eat the meat and cheese out of half of my six inch sub, Buddy got nearly the entire thing to himself. I even ordered root beer for my drink. He was so excited! And he truly deserved it for hanging out in the school library, entertaining himself by copying the titles of books he liked for three and a half hours! He's my little volunteering buddy :)

On the 26th we had a little baby shower for Joy. She got some cute gifts,

and there was delicious food plus games for the adults and kids.

On the 27th we did a fun school locker craft at Lowes,

then went to a promotional event at Menchie's Frozen Yogurt shop. The kids got little prize bags, this fun picture,

jumping in a bouncy castle,

and their picture with Menchie.

That evening we used a gift card to eat at Chili's. We had a coupon for a free kids meal, plus we did the $20 deal that included two meals (we did ribs, of course) plus an appetizer. Plenty of food, with leftovers to take home--score!