Friday, September 26
We have this toy cash register that quite often gets the plastic coins jammed in the slot. They purposely designed an access hatch at the side that can be opened with a screwdriver to clear the jam. One day it jammed and MJ went and asked her dad for his screwdriver and she tried to fix it herself!
Monday, September 22
Parent Preview night for the Marching Band. This time I made DH go out on the field to shadow M&M. M&M is the flute/piccolo section leader this year. The show was titled, "Starry Night" and it was loosely based on Van Gogh's famous Starry Night painting. They used large replica of the painting on the field - split into 5 different panels - that the color guard & percussion section moved around the field throughout the show.
Saturday, September 20
M&M's first formal dance! Here in Utah it is a tradition to make a whole day of the date. There were 3 couples in their group. They started in the morning played some games at someone's house from their group. Then they ate pizza for lunch and went to play some miniature golf. After that, she was dropped off at home to change and get ready for the dinner & dance. The dinner was homemade and they ate at her date's house. Then they went to the dance and afterwards made s'mores over the fire pit at her date's house - she brought a change of clothes for after the dance. She had a really good time. It was nice because she is good friends with her date and knew the other boys in the group as well.
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| M&M has a good friend that is a year older than her in school but they are almost identical in size. Her friend offered to let M&M borrow one of her dresses for the Homecoming dance. This was one of her dresses and it looked really nice on M&M! I found the shoes at a secondhand store - and they looked brand new. |
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| She did her hair herself! |
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| Posing out back for her dad... |
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| Pinning on the boutonniere |
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| I decided that since we have 5 girls and will most likely be needing lots of boutonnieres in the future, that I would learn how to make some. This is my first homemade boutonniere and I think it turned out really nice! |
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| The 3 couples in their group. These pictures were taken by M&M's date's parents. They ate dinner and did most of the activities at her date's house. |
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| When M&M's date's mom found out that M&M was going to be wearing red shoes with her dress, she had her son buy these red shoes to match! |
Thursday, September 18
M&M was really hoping to get her braces off during the summer break but unfortunately when we thought we were almost done a small gap opened up between two teeth once one of them was straightened to the correct spot. She was really excited to be able to get them off in time for the Homecoming Dance though - which two days later.
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| Before |
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| After |
With Kay in 1st grade this year and being gone for the full school day, MJ is now my only companion at home. She had it pretty nice at the beginning of the school year because when the elementary kids started school, M&M and Luke were still at home and then when M&M and Luke started school, the elementary kids had their first off-track break. So it wasn't until September 10th that all of the kids were in school together. It's been a little rough on MJ but she is pretty good at entertaining herself when I am busy doing household things and she enjoys going shopping with me. We have been taking advantage of the mild temperatures and our new deck. Here are some pictures of MJ doing a puzzle on the deck:
Friday, September 5
Our new house is pretty close to a manmade lake called Oquirrh Lake. There are nice walking trails all around the lake. We took advantage of the nice weather to walk around the lake a little and let the kids play on one of the playgrounds near the lake. (M&M was at a football game and Luke was at a friend's house.)
When we arrived back home from my parents' house on Labor Day, we were getting ready for bed when the doorbell rang. This was on our doorstep:
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| The boy's name that asked her was spelled out in the blue papers around the "minion" Twinkies. |
Monday, September 1
My parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on August 25. They had an open house celebration at their house on August 30th. All but 2 of my siblings were able to attend. The day after the open house we had a family dinner at our house on Sunday after church. Can I just say that I love this house and the space that it has to be able to have the space for events like this! At one point all of the adults were upstairs talking and the kids were downstairs playing and we couldn't even hear them! My brother and his 2 daughters stayed at our house for a couple of nights and then Kitty and Blondie spent a night at my parents' house with them. They also went to church with us on Sunday.
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| Picture that my parents took for the invitation. |
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| My mom with her 3 siblings still living. |
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| The girls after church - yes my brother's girls are much taller than mine! |
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| Group picture |
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| Family picture - with 2 siblings missing |
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| My parents with the grandkids that were able to come for the anniversary party. |
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| Making goofy faces! |
Friday, August 29
They built a new splash park in our city that opened towards the end of summer. Since the kids were still off track when we got back from Washington, I took them over there one afternoon after lunch. There is a nice family across the street from us with 5 kids and our girls really enjoy playing with their two older girls - one of them is a little bit younger than Kitty and the other is a little bit older than MJ. Since the younger one is not in school yet, I invited her to come with us so the girls had a lot of fun playing with her as well. The splash park was super fun for the kids - we will definitely go there again next summer!
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| Let the battle begin! |
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| MJ would not sit still for 2 seconds! |
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| It cracks me up that she is jumping in this picture! |
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| Blondie getting soaked! |
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| Don't let the water touch you! |
