"Dancing in September"

I love me some of that Earth, Wind and Fire.  It's about the most feel-good-about-life music you'll ever hear.  

{If you didn't catch my title reference...} 

And if you have not heard the song, "September" - you best youtube it right now.  It's amazing.  And it will make you smile. I promise.

I've always loved the month of September.  If our schedules had allowed, I would have chosen September to get married.  The air is a little crisper, but not too cold (or too hot if you're here in Arizona).  The leaves are starting to change colors.  School has started and it's fun to have the new and exciting things happening all around.  It's a month that isn't jam packed full of busy holidays.  Labor Day is great for boating, picnics and BBQ's.  There's just something about it.  It's a good month.

Sometime during this September of 2011, Lois, Simon and I had a little photo shoot on my bed.  And some of the pictures were cracking me up.  

Simon gave some preciously hilarious faces - this one is priceless.  

Mr. Dead Pan meets a terrifying ghost!  Plus a little double chin never hurts, either.

Man, that's a cute little mug.

And that's a cute mug, too.  

Simon, five months and chillin' in the bathtub. (Taken in July)

What is that, Simon?  A smile for the camera?  It's a miracle.

Simon @ seven months

Simon was channeling his inner "simon cowell" with these sunglasses.  I didn't want to burst his bubble by telling him they were super girly.  I'm sure he'll figure it out soon.

And September has brought fun changes for Lois.

She graduated to a for-reals big girl bed and she was pretty stoked with her new set up that she did a few knee twirls! SCORE!

I know it's a lot of pink, right?  This girl LOVES pink.  But don't worry.  I've thrown in white, blue and some orange to counterbalance the pink madness.  

Lois started preschool with a wonderful lady that lives really close to us.  There are six kids in her class and she goes twice a week for a couple hours.  She absolutely LOVES it and I can't complain about the few hours of a Lois-free house, shopping trip or visit.  I'm so glad she's loving it.  She's gotten down her shapes and colors for the most part.  We're still working on recognizing numbers and letters.

Lois also started ballet classes.  I don't have any pictures of her in her ballet outfits yet, but I promise to add some soon!  She's had mixed emotions about it at first but is finally coming around.  She shows us all her awesome moves all the time.  I'm thinking I'll enroll her in tumbling once she's four.  

And Simon is still giving us his "Mr. Dead Pan" faces in September.

And I love this picture of Lois.  It is rare to get a "natural" picture of her.  She's a wonderfully spunky little lady and we love her to pieces! 

What did you do this September?  

Do you love September as much as I do?  

Busath Reunion 2011

In August, we made a whirlwind trip to Utah/Montana to attend the first Alan Busath reunion - and it did not disappoint!  After driving 800 miles to Utah, we spent a few days saying hi to my family and then got back in the car and drove another 300 miles to West Yellowstone for the reunion.  We spent time in the park, ate Arrowleaf ice cream, cruised the shops, went to the Playmill, got some sunshine and water time in, spent time with family and ate lots of yummy food!  

Thanks for the good memories, Busath gang!  We're looking forward to the next one to be held in California in a few years.  It shouldn't disappoint.

I love these guys.

 Here's a picture of my family 

*there's another boy added to the mix since this picture was taken!*

 We did get a decent family picture while there.  

Well, Lois gets an A for effort.  And Mr. Dead Pan - well, he's just a chill as ever!

And off to Yellowstone!

Here we are eating some delicious Mexican food from the Taco Bus in West Yellowstone.  It is literally a bus. :)

Julie, Matt and Sam

Steve, Mari, Clint and the babes

Nancy, Scott and Cam

The Busath gang - Andrea, Camille and Ed.

Andrea got called to the Taiwan/Taipei mission and we're so excited for her!  She announced at the reunion that she was turning in her papers.  Yay, Andrea!

Me and Simon

Grandma Jan bought this cute sweatshirt for Simon because we're wimpy Arizonans.

Lois, Maya and McKenna.  What cuties!

Lois loves her grandma!  And her Uncle Nate.

It was rather windy that day.  

Nothing like a big whiff of rotten egg smell from the geysers!  DEEElicious!

The Wright Men

 How precious is this?

Loving Lois' face in this one.

 ....and this one, too.  What a goof!

Lois never and I mean NEVER falls asleep like this.  Just a good indication that she had a blast!  :)

Then we drove the 300 miles back to Utah, spent the night and drove the 800 miles back to Arizona.  It was a lot of driving for as short of time we were able to spend, but it was totally worth it!  Our kids are total troopers.  Another wonderful aspect of this trip is we got to see the Nelson's up in Park City.  We can't wait to live closer to those guys!!

July

I don't really remember much from July.  But here's Simon at five months:

For the Fourth of July, Jason had to work so the kids and I spent the night with our friends Shana and Riley and their kids.  An incredible monsoon rolled through Tucson that night, so that was fun watching the intense lightening and torrential rain.  Our night ended up watching the fireworks over "A" Mountain at a nearby park with a bunch of people.  

I bought some "illegal" fireworks from a stand (they banned fireworks because it was so dry but they were still allowed to sell them...I'm still confused about that!) so when daddy had a free night, we lit our fireworks in our backyard.  Lois was naturally sans pants.

Lois and daddy lighting the firework...

Quick, Lois!  RUN! 

 

 Simon and Jason

We've affectionately named Simon "Mr. Dead Pan" because I have a million pictures of him with absolutely no expression.  What a funny and chill kid!

Our Little Fish

We enrolled Lois in swimming lessons this past summer (June) and it was awesome!  Daily for an entire month, Lois spent 45 minutes in the pool learning the basics and by the end, she was doing really well!  She could float on her own, kick her legs, crawl along the edge of the pool, blow bubbles, jump off the side of the pool, etc.  I'm so grateful it all worked out because the first few days were were a little dicey - with a few freak outs when they dunked her under the water.  Thankfully, she ended up loving the water and couldn't wait until her next lesson. 

Allison was her teacher and Lois loved her.  After the month was up, my dear friend Alyssa asked if we wanted to continue lessons in her pool and hire out Allison do some one-on-one teaching for both our girls.  We extended her lessons by a month with this little arrangement, which worked out wonderfully.  We are so grateful for good friends who offer their pool, wonderful teachers like Allison and for our little spunk who loves the water!

Here's a few pictures of her and Allison as well as a few videos.  Isn't that the cutest little body you ever did see?  

\

 She's doing "monkey, rocket, star" move where she puts her arms out like a monkey, kicks her legs (rocket) and then puts her arms above her head like a star.  

 Floating all by herself!

 Our little fish

 ...about to swim to the edge all by herself.

 Ready...set...

 GO!

Swim!!   :)

In other news, Lois potty trained in the month of June.  When swimming started, I gave her a little talk about how I didn't want to have to put a swim diaper on her so she'd have to tell me when she had to go potty.  And that was that.  Literally.  That was that!  Best win for this mommy.  

It's quite remarkable.  Once she decided she wanted to do it, she just did it.  Slightly frustrating since we'd been discussing the topic with her on a daily basis for months with conversations that went something like this: "Big girls don't wear diapers...don't you want to be a big girl?" - to which she'd respond, "well, it's okay mommy.  I like to pee in my diapers and I'm a big girl!"  or, "I DON'T WANT TO WEAR UNDIES!!!!!"  I just knew that as soon as she decided to do it, she would and forcing her would be a completely futile effort.  She certainly was smart enough, had the bladder control to do so and she even liked to sit on the potty.  So, I hung tight and it finally paid off.  I'm so glad I waited until she was ready, even if I did have to wait until she was three!  

Wow. Six months.

It is a miracle.  I'm blogging.  I'm going to blog.    

And now a few random thoughts for this momentous day:  

1.  Motherhood is not for wimps.  Although, sometimes I do feel a little wimpy.  But seriously.  Whoa.  Motherhood is hhh-ard sometimes.  But all the while, worth every second.

2.  My last post was six days after Jason started his second year of residency.  Needless to say, this past six months has been crazy busy, Jason's worked like a bazillion hours and my "survival" mode got kicked into high gear.  Six months left to go and we'll have our dad and husband back!!  Hallelujah.  Also?  Residency is not for wimps.  Go Jason!

3.  How can it be 2012 already?  Is time just flying faster these days?

4.  How is my "baby" Simon almost a year old?  He's 11 months old today and one month to go to his first birthday. Yeesh!  Please refer to #3.  Fast as lightening, I'm telling you.  

5.  Lois had a good run in a certain "phase" which was making my life a living you-know-what.  The perfect fix for said you-know-what phase:  adoring grandmas & grandpas, cousins, aunts and uncles.  After three weeks of "family" therapy, our happy, sweet, kind, spunky, funny and adorable little lady has once returned.  Thank you, dear God.  I'm so grateful for family.

And I bet you can't wait for the long line of posts from the past six months to prove that we weren't totally off the grid.  I know.  You can't contain your excitement, can you!?  Neither can I.   Stay tuned!!

Happy Birthday, Lois!

Lois turned 3!  Ever since her big day, she has insisted that she is a "big girl" now and not a baby anymore.  Because babies are like Simon.  It is a wonderful bargaining tool when she is being naughty.

"Lois, do you want to be a big girl or a baby?"

"Oh, only babies do that..."

Works like a charm.

Thanks, birthday #3!

My mom was here with us because she was so sweet to drive us back from Utah.  She's a saint.  And we love her.  

We totally slacked this year on a big party for Big Girl Lois, but since Jason was working on her birthday and she didn't know the difference, we just let it slide and had some cake and opened presents.  I think this is the last year we can get away with no party, so we ran with it.

 Lois loved our rendition of Happy Birthday.

 "Grammasita" got her this huge horse.  She loves it.

 And again, her awesome camera smile!

 And her gift from G&G Wright - she was tearing into that thing!

She was ALL business.

 An awesome book and fairy wings!!

She loves the fairy wings.  She's a fairy just like Tinkerbell, didn't you know?

And to round it off, a Rapunzel doll.  

She really likes Tangled.   Like a lot.

Happy Birthday, Lois!  

We love you and can hardly believe you are THREE!