August 2014

School started the first week of August-we got back from Utah Sunday night, had meet the teacher on Monday night, bought our school supplies Tuesday and started school up on Wednesday.  On Monday we were able to finish reading the last 2 chapters of A Little Princess-that was really fun to read aloud to my kids and they really got into it-so fun!

Aubrey-first day of 5th grade

Mariah-first day of 4th grade

Jonathan-first day of 2nd grade

Isabelle started smiling more and we finally got her to laugh more!  She laughed for Jon a few times before we went to Utah in July, but the first time she laughed for me was in Utah while I was cleaning her hand with a wet wipe!  It tickled her hand I guess and she just started giggling!  It was adorable!

Love this face!  She is such a cute baby!

Jon started his new Job as the recruitment manager for Corestaff-he hires Shutterfly employees.  He is loving being a manager (and he is a good one too-doing a great job!)

We took first day of school pics of the other kids and grandma needed an updated picture of Amelia-we did a little photo shoot and got several adorable pics-this is one of my favorites.

Jon is the EQ president and as such helps many people move, set up chairs for things, cleaning assignments and . . . you know how it is :)  Our kids have been amazing helpers!  They helped move someone, set up chairs, clean and really worked hard.  We rewarded them with Sonic slurpees-they were pretty excited about that!

Pizza Hut pan pizza is our favorite.  We decided to try out a copycat recipe and guess what!?!  It is actually really delicious!  Unfortunately we didn't have any real toppings when we tried it out the first time, but it was still delicious!

We visited Great Grandma and Grandpa one Sunday evening-Grandpa just adored watching Isabelle-he loved her chubby legs and toes and her smile.  He kept smiling and giggling watching her-very precious!

Mariah was playing with Isabelle and walking around with Isabelles feet on hers-Isabelle loved it!

The kids school holds a back to school pool party-we had a really fun time-the kids were a little too scared for the high-dive though-it was kind of cute, maybe next year :)

I am so happy to say that I finally love my new washing machine-thanks to my dad and Jon!!  We bought a front-loader back in November and were so excited as we had an old top loader that we had since we got married.  Unfortunately the front loader didn't seem to be washing the clothes that well.  It had long loads and sanitizing loads, but they just didn't smell fresh.  I even quit using my homemade laundry soap and bought Tide, which helped a little (but shouldn't be necessary).  I came to the realization that the washer wasn't using enough water to actually wash and rinse the clothes.  I started adding about 3 gallons of water to each load and that helped substantially, but was such a pain.  I mentioned this to my dad on one of our runs in Utah and he suggested looking for a regulator on it-and that it must have something that can regulate the amount of water to fit different countries energy efficient crap codes-I think Al Gore doesn't know that it takes more than 4 gallons of water to clean a large load of laundry-oh and that's total water-4 gallons for wash and rinse-let's just say that you could just tell that the clothes were wet-you couldn't actually see ANY water swishing around!!  So, I googled and I found several videos that were the answer!!  Jon and I took the washer apart, adjusted the regulator (a large screw that you turn) and took out a plastic piece that was in the rinse hose.  We started up the washer-it was a beautiful sight!  I actually saw water in the washer!  It actually was swishing around in the clothes!!  It made my heart happy and now our clothes smell clean again and I have gone back to my homemade laundry soap  :) :) :)!!!

We had our good friends, the Merrills and the Halls over for an FHE night-it was really fun and I loved having the kids be together during the lesson and hearing a friend bear their testimony.  We had a lesson, scripture, swimming, and Aubrey made an Atlas Cake (Texas Sheet cake) that was super delicious!  

My girls, myself, and a couple other friends threw a surprise shower for our good friend, Stephanie.  She is the activity day leader and so we had the girls be a part of it-they helped decorate and set it up.  We had so much fun throwing it all together.  I think she was surprised, but I am not entirely sure. . . 

Then last, but not least, I was released as Primary President-I was super excited to not have the responsibility, but I was sad too.  And now that it's been a couple of months, I really miss being there with the kids-I especially miss being there with my kids-they are all in primary right now and it was super sweet to be with them, bear my testimony, sing, teach, and see them learning and growing in the gospel with the other primary children.  I didn't know that I would really love being in Primary so much, but I did.

Here I am-blogging again-I am hoping to really stick to this month blog thing that I am starting-we have so many good memories we have shared as a family and I want my kids and myself to remember them.  Life is so busy and I am so bad at writing things down or keeping records.