Falling Behind...

How is it October 13th already?!?!?!? I still haven't blogged September yet!

Well, September was a very emotional month.  I am still having days where little things will remind me of the loss we all experienced.  But first, Labor Day weekend...

The first Friday Danny took my van to work to get it ready for our trip to Blanding so he let me drive his truck to work.  WHAT?!?  The kids LOVED it!

 They found one of Danny's hats and had to take turns wearing it while riding in Daddy's truck...

We spent Labor Day weekend in Blanding at Danny's parent's house.  Perfect weather and it was just so beautiful down there.  So relaxing.  Best part was we were the only ones there except for one of Danny's sisters who came down from college so it was quiet and not crowded.  PERFECT.
We spent one day up in the mountains fishing, cooking food by the fire, and just enjoying the great outdoors.  I read a lot this weekend it was the best.  Just what I needed.

Danny and I always sneak in a date night while we are down there.  Grandparents and aunties=the best babysitters!  We went out to dinner and then we went and watched the sun go down.  So beautiful because of the open landscapes and the fact that you can see millions of stars at night is my favorite.  Danny has been trying to get me to shoot his guns for forever so I finally agreed.  We went back behind his parent's house and Danny set up some targets for me.  I had to shoot all of his guns.  I  hit a clay pigeon on my first try!!!!  My mom would be so proud.  She kinda has a thing for guns too if you didn't know;)

Kayzee turned 6 on September 4th.  6!!!!  My baby is not a baby anymore and that is making me sad. We always celebrate birthdays for a week at our house and Kayzee was spoiled as usual.  She had fun celebrating at school, at daycare, at church, she had a friend party, and she got to celebrate at her grandma and grandpa's while we were down in Blanding.  Like I said...SPOILED!

We had two people we know pass away in September.  They both have impacted our lives in very different ways and it was hard.  Both funerals were in the same week so both Danny and I were emotional wrecks for awhile.  But I am glad we had each other and our families.

My dear sweet Grandma Blanche Astle (my mom's mom) passed away.  It came very suddenly and I am still in shock that she is actually gone.  I am so glad that I got to see her right before.

I have always looked up to my grandma.  She was one of the reasons I went into teaching.  She retired after an amazing career in teaching and I remember going to her classroom and helping her when I was growing up.  She always tried to discourage me from going into teaching only because she knew how hard it was going to be but she was also supportive.  I got most of her teaching stuff when she retired.  I also got a copy of her master thesis on the importance of parental involvement in reading with elementary aged children...

I also got my artistic talent from my grandma.  I am great at drawing and hate painting but my grandma was an amazing oil painter.  I have her paintings on every wall in my house.  My favorite ones are the ones of places that we have been together.  That is another thing I love about my grandma.  Even though she lived in Utah and I lived in California she was always coming to visit and support me in everything I did growing up and we got to go visit different places all over the western half of the United States.

Her funeral was beautiful.  The weather was perfect.  Of course it was for a sad reason but it was so nice to see all the extended family that we don't see very often.  I was doing fine until we had the great-grandkids practice the songs they were going to sing for the funeral.  It was hard to play the piano...

 My mom, her sisters, and her dad...

 LOVE YOU MOM!

 The flowers were gorgeous...

 My family minus one sister, two brother-in-laws, and my nephew...family is the best!

We stayed for a few days in Logan before and after the funeral (grateful for paid bereavement) and helped clean out a lifetime of memories and junk from my grandparents home.  It was so sad to see their house empty.  I never heard the exact amount of truckloads to DI, the dump, and family members homes it took to clean out their house but it was A LOT and many weeks of hard work.

I think I cried the hardest when I got home because the impact of it all just finally hit me.  I would talk to my grandma on the phone at least twice a month and go visit her a lot and the other day I actually called her cell phone before I remembered that she was gone.  Good bye Grandma...I WILL MISS YOU!

I had so many friends and co-workers show so much love and support.  I am so grateful...

The rest of the month my priorities seemed to be my kids, my husband, my job, and working out everyday.  My house didn't even make it on the list and you could tell.  I kept telling everyone to not come over.  I use to stress out about everything in such a bad way I got sick a lot and I have been really trying to just focus on my family, my health, and my job and let everything else not bother me and just be happy with my blessed life and I have been feeling so much better!  It helps that I have amazing kids and husband who help around the house.  I either work out with Danny or my kids and it is so fun.  One day we were doing an insanity workout and the instructor took off his shirt so Memphis took of his ha ha.  LOVE MY FAMILY!

I have been struggling with plantar fasciitis (so painful it wakes me up in the middle of the night) and labyrinthitis so it has been rough but I am figuring them out and slowly getting better!

The best thing about this school year is having both of my kids at the same school as me.  FINALLY!  So fun to see them in the halls and especially to have them in PE with me.  One rare occasion both my kids were outside at the same time as me during the school day and they had found each other and were swinging side by side.  I had to take a pic...

Danny had recently been on a date with Memphis and I had gone out with Kayzee so we decided to switch.  For my Memphis date we went to the arcade and got ice cream cones and played arcade games.  Memphis is my best buddy!

Danny and I finally tackled our garage.  I think cleaning out my grandparent's house made us want to clean and declutter our house!  It only took us 5 hours!!!!  We took EVERYTHING out and cleaned it then only put back in the stuff we really wanted to keep and organized it better and threw the rest in our back yard where we are making piles to take to the dump.  Our yard is another story.  Some day we will get to that...

 Our neighbors love coming over to play in our JUNGLE and hack there way through.  Great place to play hide and seek...

Now to just get ready for the crazy busy holidays coming up...

August

August was great because Memphis was FINALLY feeling better!  Now we could enjoy our last few weeks of summer together before school began. 

I got to join a grade level team at my school for a summer grant and I aligned my health curriculum with their new literacy curriculum.  We met for 3 days and Memphis and Kayzee had fun playing with their Auntie Nita while I was at the school all day.  There were so many sweets at our meetings but me and another teacher were so good and helped each other NOT eat them! We rock!

I spent so many nights with Memphis during his recovery I told Kayzee I would have a couple sleepovers with her.  One morning I woke up to this sweet face...

 We went swimming a lot at Danny's brother's apartment pool.  So fun to have a free pool to go cool off in and family to hang out with.

 We fell in love with Frisbee golf and have found a lot of courses all over Utah County we are going to try them all out.  I am getting better too!

 The 2nd grade team I did the summer grant with planned an outdoor movie and invited my family.  The teacher who's house we went to also happens to be Memphis' new 2nd grade teacher.  Memphis thought it was so cool to go to her house before school started.  

 We spent one day going to our favorite park.  Memphis loves this climbing pyramid.

 And Kayzee loves the spinning.

 We also found this hidden train park and had to try it out.

 My sister Annalyn found out they are expecting a boy.  Christmas can't come soon enough!

 Lehi finally got their own splash pad and we had to try it out too.  My kids didn't want to go but once we got there they didn't want to leave of course.

 I am still working out getting stronger every day!

 We found out some devastating news about my grandma Astle.  We knew we needed to make a weekend trip to Logan to go see her and my mom was staying for a few weeks so we went to help move some stuff to my grandparents new assisted living place.  We also found a new park for Memphis and Kayzee to get some energy out.

 Moving to the new place...

 Kayzee holding my cousin's new baby.

 And of course my kids had to take a bubble bath in my grandparents jetted tub before they sell the house.  I always put in too many bubbles.  OOPS!

 I went back to work on August 17.  The first day of school was officially August 22.  I started my 12th year of teaching!  CRAZY.  Also crazy...Memphis started 2nd grade!  I still can't believe he will be 8 and getting baptized soon.

 It was father's and sons' campout for our ward the next weekend and while Memphis and Daddy went camping, Kayzee and I went to Ross Jarvis' wedding reception.  I still can't believe this little boy I use to babysit and I was neighbors with growing up, and I lived with his family for a year before I got married, is old enough to get married himself!  I haven't seen him forever.  He is all grown up.  

 Kayzee had so much fun dancing there.  Here she is doing the YMCA...

 And here I am with his sister Jessica.  LOVE THIS GIRL!  We called each other sister growing up.  I baby sat her and taught her piano.  I loved living with her when I got engaged because she went wedding dress shopping with me because my family lived too far away.  Love and miss her all the time.  

 Congrats you two!

 I always forget how exhausting the first week of teaching school is.  Last year we didn't have to be at school till 9:00 but this year we have to be there at 8 for Memphis and I am still trying to get used to getting up earlier.  I definitely slept in this summer.  I went to bed at 8:30 every night the first week of school.  But I do love getting to work earlier instead of later like last year.  I don't start till 9:20 so I get everything done that I need to like grades and then we all get home by 3 instead of 4 so I have an extra hour to be with my kids and I have time to work out!

 The previous computer teacher at my school that our team became good friends with invited us to her baby shower.  We are so excited for her and her baby girl arriving soon!

 Every August I make my grandma Thorpe's famous chicken soup to remember her by.  I definitely miss her.  Making this soup made my house smell so good.  

 Kindergarten starts a week later so the teachers can get testing done so Kayzee's first day of Kindergarten was August 29th.  FINALLY both of my kids are in the same elementary school as me.  I LOVE having both of my kids in PE with me once a week and seeing their smiling faces around the school.  Can't believe my baby is all grown up.

 Remember my sister Alicia's baby that was born 13 weeks early and only weighed 2 pounds????  He turned 1 on August 29th!!!!!  He is the cutest thing and I miss him.  Wish they lived closer.  He is doing amazing!  Starting to walk holding on to things and has passed development tests.  He is an amazing miracle.  

 Thanksgiving Point by our house does $2 Tuesdays and you can get into the museums for $2.  Totally worth it.  Danny had never been to the dinosaur museum so we went there one night.  I was surprised it wasn't crowded so that was nice.

 NO HEADS!

August, ok summer, went by too quickly.  Fall is in the air and Kayzee's birthday snuck up on me too fast. We are in Blanding for the Labor day weekend and have been celebrating Kayzee all week.  More to come in another post.