I Heart September

Oh man, this must be my favorite month. That is why this is my third year in a row of doing a post with this exact title. I love school starting, football starting, the leaves turning color, then the crunching sound when we walk on them on the ground. We live so close to 3 schools, one elementary and 2 high schools. Around mid-day I hear the kids yelling from the playground as they play after lunch. In the afternoons I hear the marching band practicing, and the yells and whistles of football practice. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

There are other reasons why I love September other than the beginning of fall. It is Matt's birthday, which we get to celebrate next week. He will be 33, oh man. He is so old!! ;)

This spring, Reagan received a sunflower seed from primary to plant at home. She was so excited to do it and she planted it and it GREW! Actually 2 huge sunflowers bloomed and I had to take a photo. She watered these flowers everyday, was so excited when the first sprigs popped up, then a flower that grew and grew. What a fun treat for her.

Reagan also started school! Now we are a couple of weeks into it and this girl loves school. She chats the whole walk home about what she did, learned, tells me everything. And I eat up every word because I know that there will come a day when I say, "what did you do today?" she will respond "nothing." Oh please never, Reagan! These pics are of her first day and Nolan didn't want to be left out.




Nolan loves to sit on the potty and he is ready to potty-train, but just doesn't GET IT! He will sit on the toilet forever, announcing "I PEE, I PEE" then hops off and pees on the floor. So for now I just let him get used to sitting on the toilet and someday soon when I have more desire and I have bought that last box of diapers I swear I will ever buy, we will jump into it. We went camping Labor Day weekend...in our own yard. Matt bought this SWEET tent from REI using his gift cards from Christmas and we broke it in. We roasted smores, and tucked ourselves into bed. The kids took a while to fall asleep, but I woke up around 5am to Matt sleeping ON THE COUCH! I brought his bum outside, then he was a sweetheart and let me sleep for a few more hours inside. All in all, a good time, maybe next summer we will head out camping with the families.
We headed to Discovery Kingdom on Labor Day. Reagan was so excited that she barely made the height requirement for the new SkyScreamer ride. We each took a turn taking her while Nolan chilled in the stroller.


I think Reagan swiped my camera earlier this week because there were about 50 photos of just random, unfocused things around the house and a few that looked like this below:

Yeah I honestly laughed really hard at those!!

And now Reagan plays soccer! She likes it, but she is shy and intimidated often. She will go to town against us in the yard when practicing, but she holds back in games. But I am not worried, I just want this chic to have some fun with a really great sport :)

Reagan is #4
Practicing her throw in.
All 5 of her teammates, the BLUE DOLPHINS!
Dad is the referee here. I get to give Nolan suckers on the sideline to keep him from running into the field. His "soccer" season starts at the end of the month :)
Here is Reagan going up against the defenders, her two coaches!
Well, that is our month so far in pictures, but I guess I didn't document everything with photographs. We headed last Saturday down to a beach/reservoir with some friends in the ward called Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton. It was a good time! It felt like a real beach, no waves though. The kids had a good time.

I also got to reflect a bit on 9/11. I have to admit I obsessively watched the documentaries this year, there were tons since it was the 10 year anniversary. I memorized the faces of the victims, listened to the stories of bravery from firemen, PD, etc, listened to families reminisce about the worst day of their lives. It really touched me deeply. I felt more of a gratitude for each and everyday I have with my family. The toughest one to watch was the Diane Sawyer special on Sunday night that talked about the women that were pregnant and their husbands died. She met these moms after their babies were born, then again this year. All the children, probably 60 or so, are happy healthy 10 year olds. It was interesting to see these children talk about how they never met their dads, but how they still knew them. They know that their fathers legacy lives on and it has inspired these kids to be better. I completely lost it as they showed each of these kids with a picture of their dads held up to their own faces and Lonestar's song "I'm Already There" played in the background. I wasn't even embarrassed because Matt usually makes faces at me when tv makes me cry. But I am pretty sure I saw him wipe away a tear and he turned to me afterwards and said, "Well, it doesn't get more real than that." It definitely doesn't.

To end this post on a less serious, but random note, I finally picked up Catching Fire to read it. I think I am ready to stomach some more Hunger Games. I finished another one of "these" books, called Delirium. Anyone else read it? Please tell me, did Alex die? Goodness, I hope not. I am just shallow that way, I seriously want my fairy tell ending. Two more books to go in that series, though.

Love you ALL!