September 2011

~September 30th at 3pm~

Air temp: 111 degrees

Pool temp: 84 degrees

Fall

September 2011 was a fun month filled with new routines to adjust to and lots to do.  After M's previous piano teacher (whom we really liked) moved away suddenly part-way through the summer, the search was was on to find someone willing to take on M and now Li'l J.  Fortunately we found someone who has proven to be a very good fit for both boys.  M and Li'l J began weekly lessons with their new teacher at the beginning of September.  While both boys enjoy playing the piano, we cannot keep Li'l J away from it, he takes every chance he finds his way over to the piano and starts playing away.  We try not to discourage Li'l J from playing, but when he finds his way over to the piano when he should be spending time elsewhere like helping to unload the dishwasher, or should be tying his shoes so we can leave for school on time, then we do redirect him to where he should be.  Funny boy!  Also, at the beginning of September M traded in his trumpet for a French horn and has enjoyed learning how to play it.

Li'l Sis

C-sta is making great progress potty training--again, THANK YOU preschool!  Daily she likes to "practice" wearing her panties.  For the most part she has gotten the concept of using the potty well and stays dry throughout the day until, a bowel movement is involved.  *Sigh*, she still has a way to go on that part of the process.  Progress is progress, right?  Aside from potty training, C-sta has continued to enjoy preschool and loves to come home and tell us all about it.  One of her most recent joys is to sing and act out for us the songs she has learned each preschool day.  Recently she surprised a few of her classmates by completely shedding the "shy" front she was putting on at the start of the school year.  Once little boy said to her part way through September, "You talked?  You CAN talk!"

~Beautiful C-sta all ready for pre-school.~

~She actually let me curl her hair for church!~

The Boys

Thanks to a friend in our ward who I swap babysitting with, in September I was able to begin spending two hours every Tuesday afternoon at the boys school helping out for an hour in each of their classrooms.  My friend's oldest son is in Li'l J's class (both at school and in our ward) and she has a daughter a year older than C-sta.  The girls love that they get a play date twice a week and both of us moms enjoy being able to help out the 1st grade teacher and observe our children as they learn.

~The Norse explorer Leif Erikson (for a class presentation).~

Also in September, M and Li'l J began participating in our town Fall sports league.  Opening day was held late in the morning of a particularly HOT September Saturday (we are talking triple digits by 10am!).  Li'l J played his first coach-pitch baseball game on one field while M played two back-to-back soccer games on another field.  By the middle of M's second game that morning, most of the parents and siblings that were there to watch and cheer on the team made their way back to their cards to watch from behind the full-blast of the car A/C because it was SO hot out there and we just couldn't sit out there any longer!  How any of those kids running around and playing so hard didn't collapse due to heat exhaustion, I will never know.  Who thought that beginning the Fall sports league when it's still full-blown SUMMER temps out here was a good idea?  I'm thinking that waiting until October to start the games would be just fine.  A few fun side-notes about M's team: we were able to get him onto a team coached by a couple from our ward; the team chose the name "The Cougars"; the team shirts are BYU blue, and the team is primarily made up of kids from our ward and a neighboring ward so it's been lots of fun for M to play with lots of kids that he knows.

~Opening Day~

Family Fun/Friends/Pool Fun

Speaking of BYU and the Cougars, despite the ugly and painful losses throughout the season we thoroughly enjoyed the college football season this fall!  We had lots of fun having friends over to watch the BYU games and exchanged some friendly banter with friends who cheer for rival teams as passionately as we cheer for BYU.  For the BYU vs. Texas game we had a family over from our stake that are HUGE Longhorn fans; though we didn't think it was possible, they are even BIGGER and MORE obnoxious Texas fans than we are BYU fans!  Fortunately we were able to satisfy both our appetites with Longhorn shaped pasta and Cougar shaped pasta I found through a local school fundraiser--I did say we are obnoxious didn't I?

~Well at least the kids had fun!~

~C-sta takes flight and LOVES it!~

The following week we surprised out Ute friends the morning of the disastrous game by wrapping blue and white balloons around their porch, wrapping their cars in blue and white streamers, and taping a huge white banner across their garage door that read in blue marker: GO COUGARS!  The look on our friends face when he walked out to see what we had done was PRICELESS (though not quite worth the HUGE loss for BYU later that night)!

~Rise n' shout!~