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. 

July!

We spent the beginning of July in Blanding with Danny's family for the 4th.  It was crowded with everyone who showed up but luckily the weather wasn't too hot and we had fun!

Friday we went to the temple to see Danny's brother and his wife get sealed in the Monticello temple.

 Saturday we went to our Nephew's baptism and then that night was midnight madness softball.  Danny played all night with his family.  I stayed home with the kids and got some sleep!  Sunday we just hung out together.
Monday was 4th of July fun.  Blanding goes all out.  First we went to the city parade.

After we went over to all the booths set up and had some lunch and watched Danny and his family play in the horseshoe tournament.  We went back home to play in the little swimming pool to cool off and for a bbq then we headed back over to watch the fireworks.  Blanding has the best firework show! It was a great weekend!

Here is my cute little nephew Max (my sister Alicia's) on the 4th of July...

When we got home I had to take a picture of Kayzee's bruises she got from playing hard outside while we were in Blanding.  Pretty sure she got them from climbing on and off the trampoline.

When we got back we went to the American Fork Steel Days Carnival.  We go every year with our neighbor friends.  This year both my kids were tall enough and only wanted to go on the big rides!!!  Too much fun!

We also tried out a new Top Golf place.  So cool!  We will definitely be going back!

Kayzee has been begging me to take dance but it's so expensive but I found this princess dance camp and since Kayzee loves princess' too it was perfect.  It was a week long and each day they focused on a different disney princess and did crafts and learned dances.  The last day they had a performance for the parents.  Kayzee was in heaven and did great!  Love my princess.

Memphis was nervous about getting his tonsils out and the hospital offered a pre-op hop for kids to tour the hospital and learn about what would happen the day of his surgery.  It was perfect and the kids loved it.  They even got to bring home a ton of stuff and get a slushy!

The day finally arrived and Memphis got his huge tonsils out!  Memphis' dr said they were some of the biggest he has removed from a little boy his age.  And they had stones in them so he is so glad he took them out now instead of needing emergency surgery later in life if we didn't take them out.  Right after they wheeled Memphis away to surgery a boy in the next room just came back from getting his tonsils out and he literally cried for an hour.  I was nervous about Memphis coming back but he did great.  He didn't even cry at all.  The only bad part was he kept throwing up.

Here is Memphis right before they took him back to surgery.  The nurses gave him the donated blanket and the dr gave him the teddy bear:)

 Being silly waiting for his turn.

 HUGE tonsils!  Gross!

 Made it home!

 While I was with Memphis for his surgery and recovery, Kayzee got to spend the night with her auntie Nita at her apartment.  She was nervous about going and cried cause she was going to miss me but once I dropped her off she was fine of course.   They had too much fun dancing, swimming, and going out to eat.  Nita taught Kayzee how to swim.  YAY!  Kayzee had so much she cried the next day cause she missed Nita so much.

Let's just say that Memphis' recovery has been AWFUL!  Everyone I talked to warned me that a couple days would be really bad but Memphis had more like 8 awful days and nights of non-stop crying and pain.  Medicine barely lasted 3 hours before he needed more.  He didn't eat at all but we kept him hydrated.  He has lost 10 pounds (luckily he had 10 pounds to lose so it's ok).  After so many nights of getting no sleep I kept sleeping through all the alarms I set for Memphis' medicine so Memphis would wake up screaming in so much pain and it took longer to get him to calm down.  I felt so bad for him.  My heart broke every time.

One day the pain was so bad he kept throwing up and couldn't keep medicine down.  And of course the throwing up was so bad it was everywhere so I had piles of clothes and sheets and blankets to wash and Memphis wanted a bath.  I went in and filled up the tub but it was freezing!  NO HOT WATER!  I went to do laundry and no hot water either.  Danny checked our water heater and the pilot light would not stay lit.  I started crying along with Memphis at this point.  I heated up some water on the stove and while Memphis stood in the shower I dumped it on him to clean him up and warm him up.  My wonderful neighbor came over and took all the bedding and clothes and washed them at her house.  THANKS!  Danny figured it all out and bought a $12 part and fixed our water heater!  So grateful we didn't need a whole new one.  Saved us a thousand dollars!

We have had so many wonderful people help us out.  So many neighbors and friends and family have come and taken Kayzee for the day so I could try to take a nap while Memphis took a nap so I didn't have to worry about taking care of her.  I turned into a mombie (mommy zombie) not getting any sleep for a week.  My visiting teacher showed up every day with a dr pepper for me and a slushie for Memphis.  I have a fit bit that tracks my sleep and this was basically how I slept every night...basically morning-not cool.  I think because Memphis cried all night we finally fell asleep in the morning exhausted.

Saw this online and thought it was fitting.  Danny didn't think it was funny but I can totally agree!  I knew this whole experience would be over but it certainly wasn't fun while it lasted.

Finally Memphis slept a 7 hour stretch last night and hasn't needed medicine all day.  Great sign! And he is starting to eat some soft foods.  He was crying today and I asked him what was wrong.  He said he was so sad because he wants his old voice back.  His voice is completely different right now.  Don't know if it will change back or what.  And he was sad cause nothing tasted good.  He was worried he would never like food again.  Poor guy.

Memphis also has told me to sit and relax all day and that he would take care of me.  Memphis is seriously the sweetest son a mom could ask for.  I asked him why and he said since I took care of him this whole time it's his turn to take care of me.  AWWWWWWW.

I have loved snuggling with Memphis all day and night but I am missing my Kayzee snuggles.  She is at her cousin's right now in Ogden.  She was just going to stay Friday night but she was having so much fun she is staying till Monday.  I am catching up on my sleep though so that's good.  And good timing because I have to go back to work tomorrow.  I got a summer grant and I have to meet with the 2nd grade team for the next 3 days.  It's going to be rough trying to wake up in time because I have been sleeping midnight-9am the last couple nights.  We will see if I can wake up and be at school by 8 am!

All packed and ready to spend the weekend with her cousins.  

While Kayzee was going to the Preschool Day Care the last two years she made a friend.  They were inseparable at school and they both cried on their last day.  Luckily her mom wrote me a note with her phone number which I found later in Kayzee's backpack and I called her up.  We met at a park and decided they needed to be friends forever so we take turns letting them play together at each other's houses.  And every friday during the school year after school she is going to be picked up by her friend's mom and spend the day together till I get off work.  Friends are the best!

 We found this awesome climbing tree!

 We went to the curiosity museum with some of our neighbor friends.

 Danny helped put on a stake softball day for our stake with a bbq and his sister Nita came to play.

 I have had a fun summer and the best part has been spending so much time with my kids.  My favorite memories are when we just lay in bed laughing and talking and being silly.

 Ha Ha saw this and immediately thought of Danny.  He is the worst speller but the best mechanic!

 With so much time spent stuck in the house I have read A LOT this month.  I have read 60 books so far this year.  Ahead of my goal to get to 100 by the end of the year!

 I am also doing a fitness challenge group with some teachers.  This was last week showing my workouts for the week.  I killed it and I feel so good!  I lost 4 pounds in one week!  Don't know how I did all these workouts with only 3 hours of sleep every night.

 I just need to work on my eating.  Chocolate and dr pepper are my downfall.

 I have fallen in love with weights and I got beach body on demand so I can stream any beach body workout to my laptop and I found my new favorite program...ChaLEAN Extreme!  I have never sweated so much.  Seriously dripping.  Feels so good!

 Our neighbor friends let us borrow their adjustable weights cause my 10 pound weights were too light.  Definitely going to get some of these for Christmas!

 My favorite workout is called Burn Intervals.  It's 2 minutes of cardio and 2 minutes of light weight lifting fast reps for 50 minutes.  I burned over 700 calories!

Getting stronger ever day and getting some definition in my arms.  Now to work on my eating!