September Highlights

September in my family means one thing: Birthdays! Seriously, almost 1/2 of my family has September birthdays, and then both in-laws that have entered the family (Bryan and my sister-in-law Tracie) also have September birthdays. Sadly, we weren't able to celebrate with my Dad or siblings because we are all scattered and busy. But we did get to celebrate Bryan turning 37 (he is kind of freaked out how close to 40 he is getting)! I planned to take him on a date this year since it was a Friday night and Mickell has volunteered to tend our kids once in a while. We got a pizza for Mickell and the kids and headed to the chinese buffet for a much-needed dinner without kids: good food and even better company! After dinner we decided to go check out the renovated main street theatre that costs a fraction of the normal theatres. Honestly, we have not been to a movie for almost 4 years, and there aren't many movies worth seeing these days either. We finally settled on the new Pixar movie "Brave". We enjoyed the movie for the most part, but I now know not to show it to young kids because most of the kids in the theatre were hiding behind chairs and crying. All things considered, it was a fun, much-needed date. This is the only picture we got of us.

After the movie, we went home to have some cake with the kids. Here is the birthday boy with his cake.

I love this picture of Bryan with the kids. Hoyt is looking at the cake and both kids have spoons in their hands ready to dig in!

After cake we let Bryan open his gifts.

We didn't do any big gifts this year for either of our birthdays because we knew our big gift as a family was our new minivan. But we did get Bryan his yearly Terry Brooks novel, and some new pants and shirts. Happy Birthday sweetie, we love you tons and appreciate all you do for our family!

After buying the van in August, our next project was selling the Mazda Tribute because we couldn't afford to have it sitting around not being used and having to pay insurance etc. Bryan spent an entire day washing the entire car inside and out so we could take pictures and post an ad on KSL. We got one call the first day, then nothing for about a week. I was starting to get discouraged, but then all of a sudden we started getting some serious calls. We had one guy from Provo make an offer, but it was lower than what we wanted and he asked us to drive it all the way to Fillmore. Then we got a call from a guy in Kanab the same day who offered more and we could take the car with us when we headed to visit my family that weekend. A few days later, we got a call from a lady in Cedar who took it for a test drive and loved it, but was trying to talk us down because the sunroof doesn't work and her machanic friend was asking if we had changed parts that didn't even need changing. We told her she had to decided that day, because we had a buyer the next day. I guess she decided no, so Saturday morning we drove over the mountain and that afternoon met with the guy from Kanab. He and his wife loved the car and brought cash; it was about $300 less than what we wanted, but when you have someone hand you almost $5000 of cash, it's easy to make a deal. We filled out the paperwork and said goodbye to our favorite car that has been there with us through dating, wedding and honeymoon, bringing kids home from the hospital, and many family trips near and far. We'll miss our 2001 Mazda Tribute ES, but we know it's time to move on to bigger and better things. The best part is that after buying the minivan and selling the mini-SUV, we only had to pay about $5000 for a car that should last us through at least the next 4-5 years! 

September has been another busy month for us. Lexie goes to preschool 3 days a week now, and my Dr. appointments have been every other week. We have also had sick kids on and off this month. Hoyt threw up all over Bryan during church one week, then the next week Lexie threw up in bed two different nights. We were all exposed to strep throat, but luckily none of us ended up with that! We have also been trying to get the house better organized before our new little arrival joins our family, probably next month! We have spent hours unpacking some of the boxes that have been sitting in our bedroom for over a year, organizing everything in the house, and moving things around so our baby has a place to sleep. We got out all of our 0-3 month baby girl clothes and luckily we don't have to buy any clothes for now (except for a few things I bought her for coming home from the hospital and a little sister outfit). We have also been stocking up on diapers and wipes so we are covered for at least 3-4 months...I think after a couple more weekends I'll be ready!

 

Another big event took place today; Lexie was in her very first primary program! Last year she was so disappointed she couldn't go up and speak in the big microphone with all of the other kids. This year she had her part memorized perfectly and all the songs learned. I took a picture of my cute sunbeam right before we went to church.

 I also recorded her saying her part...this is mostly for the grandparents. Her part was "I choose the right, and try to be like Jesus when I play with my little brother and I share my toys with him". She had it perfect, which you see in the video, but she got scared when she was up in front of everyone so she had to have some help from the teacher. But we were so proud of Lexie for doing a great job both with her part and also singing. Her primary teacher told us she is the only Sunbeam that can sing all the words to all the songs. Another big milestone for our cute girl!

I can't believe September is over, because it flew by so fast. And I am now officially caught up on this blog, which has taken me several months! I hope to now stay caught up and not get behind since this is my journal/scrapbook for now. We are looking forward to the many adventures we are sure to have in the last few months of 2012!