September 2012

On September 1st Christian turned 6 years old! On the 2nd we celebrated at the grandparents'. Tammy's display of awesomeness:

Christian's self-designed Avengers cake:

Happy sister and doggie enjoying the festivities:

He got lots of fun presents at my mom & dads including a suitcase,

and Tony's parent's including a Lego Pirates of the Caribbean bedroom set.

September 4th was the first day of school!

Christian's first day of kindergarten was just an hour of introduction to the Chinese immersion program where parents attended, so here's me trying to make the ride home fun. Buddy was way disappointed that he didn't get to ride the bus until the next day.

The 5th was the first day that both kids were away at school and Skiddle-doo was SOOOOO excited to have them home again!!

On Labor day our family had reservations to tour the Brigham City temple, but when we got there we found out that they weren't really requiring reservations and it would be over three hours of waiting in the insane heat for us to get in. We decided to bag it and just head home, but my dad, who had met us there, set up a new reservation for the morning of the 6th. I was sad that the only time Tony could go had been ruined, but the kids and I got up early and had a beautiful tour.

Sorry that there's just random art in the middle here, but when I take it down off the wall and put it into memory box storage, I like to get a picture for my blog book! Here is an awesome lion that Faith painted:

The 15th was Christian's first soccer game! He was so excited that he finally got to play instead of just being on the sidelines.

Here is a vampire that Buddy made out of a balloon later that day:

On the 22nd Faith had a piano recital.

She did a beautiful job and aunt Tam came through with some gorgeous flowers!

September 23rd we went to Lagoon for the first and only time with Tony this year and timed it just right so that we could enjoy Frightmares.

The weather was perfect, we got Christian to go into a haunted house (he's more afraid this year), and we had tons of fun!

September 27th I volunteered to help out with 5th grade splatter paint day. The students were painting pieces of tissue paper that lined the grass, but had even more fun painting themselves and each other!

On the 29th we enjoyed some lunch at the Greek Festival and my dad was kind enough to buy for us. Tony had never been there before, so we had him try a bit of all of our favorites: gyros, tiropitakia (feta cheese pie with flaky pastry), spanikopita (spinach pie), souvlaki, and galaktobourekos (pastry with custard that we affectionately call "galactic burritos").

We drove up into the mountains to enjoy the changing leaves on the 30th. It was windy and we couldn't find many great places to pull over and take family pictures, but the scenery was beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen so many dark red trees!

August 2012

Sorry to be so late in updating my blog, but it took me forever to figure out how to get the pictures off of my phone. I'm now using my new iPhone 4s as my camera! The picture quality is not as good, but it is so much easier to just carry around the one device and use it as a phone, planner, gps, camera, video camera, shopping list, computer (at least to view email, facebook & blogs on), scriptures, hymn book, and the list goes on and on. Someday I hope to be the proud owner of a DSLR camera to get some quality pics of my kiddos on, but for now these slightly blurry shots will have to suffice.

On the 6th the kids and I went to Lagoon with Mom & Dad and Sarah & her family. Since we didn't do passes this year, this was our first visit!

 

The kids loved riding the rides with their cousins.

On the 9th we went to the condo in Park City. Lots of swimming, as usual!

 

I came home early on the 10th and left the kids up there with the family so that Tony could take me out on a date FOR OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY (coming up midweek on Aug. 15)!!!! He planned it all, which was the best gift he could have given me. He took me to the Gateway in Salt Lake where we dined at Tucano's. This was our first visit and we absolutely loved it. It is very similar to Rodizio Grill, but we thought it was even better. After that, we shopped a little bit and then went to a laser light show at the planetarium called "Rock on Demand." It was such a fun night. We rarely go out as a couple, but this made me realise that we need to go on dates more often.

On the 17th Skittles got the pin out of her leg. It took her months afterward to start walking on it normally, but she is doing just fine now.

 

Here's our fuzzy buttons on the 18th:

 

 

And one not-so-fuzzy button showing his teeth growing in.

 

Later that day, we headed out to the Davis County Fair. We looked at prize winning cows and sheep,

 

and made cool, glowing goop.

 

Faith dared to hold a live scorpion,

 

both kids petted snakes

 

and sting rays.

 

We checked out the chickens and bunnies,

 

and had tons of fun at the petting zoo.

 

 

It was a great day at the fair, but the kids missed their Skittle-eee-doo!

 

On the 20th Ann brought her kids over for a playdate. They had fun setting off diet coke/mentos bombs and making s'mores inside with these gel flame pots.

 

Sierra made this poster for Skittles awhile ago and I'd had it hanging up at the house. I love the name spelling, it's so "street"!

 

On the 25th the kids started soccer. Christian was so excited to no longer be sidelined!

 

It had been awhile since I included a picture of the kids using our log canopy bed as a jungle gym, so here's a pic I got later that day.

 

We took our baby out shopping on the 29th. We didn't buy a Halloween costume that day, but the kids wanted a picture of their favorites.

 

On the 30th we went to the farmer's market and got these cute baby melons. They were strange new varieties for us, but they were delicious.

 

We also got some extremely long Chinese beans (which Buddy thought would make a nice wig) and some raspberries.