September 2013

We had a lot to be happy about in September.  Here’s a look:

Bryce and I started the month with a trip to Park City for the weekend while the kids had fun at home with their cousin Brandon Buttars and his wife, Nicole, who came to play parents for a couple of days.  Devin admitted when we came home that he probably could have handled everything at home on his own, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun. :)  We had a great time in Park City and are glad our kids had just as much fun at home.

On Sept 14, Bryce, Devin, Seth and I joined my sister Becki and her oldest daughter, Bella, at Soldier Hollow to run the Dirty Dash 10k, which was a total blast!!  We had a great time running through muddy fields, climbing over muddy hills, swimming through mud puddles and doing other obstacles, like climbing and jumping over walls, bales of hay and going down a giant slip and slide.  We were definitely filthy at the end, but it was so fun!

Autumn participated in her school’s annual Hawk Walk to earn money for the school and won 5th place in the school’s crazy hair day contest.

Autumn’s big news for the month, though, is that after years of hard work in ballet and months of doing feet and toe strengthening exercises, her ballet director decided she was ready for her first pair of pointe shoes!  I don’t think I have ever seen her quite so happy.  Little did I realize that pointe shoes do not come assembled, so after watching several Youtube tutorials, I got to spend 2 hours hand sewing the elastics and ribbons on her new shoes, all while Autumn watched over my shoulder and told me over and over again how much she loves and appreciates me. :)  She loves practicing a little on pointe each day in ballet class and loves to show us all what she is learning.

We enjoyed a visit from my sister, Kim and her missionary-bound daughter, Bethani, for a few days before Beth went into the MTC headed for the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Spanish speaking mission.  The earth is definitely being flooded with missionaries!  We currently have 26 missionaries out from our ward – the plaques have outgrown the case at our ward building!  So exciting!

We also had a visit from Grandpa Finch when he came to town for Seth’s Eagle Court of Honor at the end of the month.  It was a really great night and Seth is so excited to officially be an Eagle Scout!  His next goal is to earn more Eagle palms than Devin.  Seth has always loved a good goal. :)

Bryce celebrated yet another birthday.  Seth made him this “Happy Birthday to You” banner using a different art medium for each letter from crayons and colored pencils to popsicle sticks and pom poms – it’s pretty awesome!  Bryce has also been having lots of fun building programmable robots with his new Lego Mindstorms set.  So far, he and Devin have just got the base computer thingy up and running and now will start building robots attached to it.  Sasha doesn’t like it much, probably because Bryce has way too much fun chasing her around the house with it.

Devin went to his school’s Homecoming dance with a good friend of his, Madison Ellis.  They had a great time together, and we had fun making and serving dinner to them and their double dates, Jed and Sarah.  Autumn LOVED being the waitress and did a fabulous job! 

The Monday after the dance, Elders Legolas and Gimli showed up on our front porch with an invitation for Devin to go to the Sadies Hawkins dance with another one of his friends, Kristyanne – that will take place later this month and Devin is really looking forward to it.

Our own little missionary continues to learn and grow and teach and bless the lives of those she meets down in Houston.  We love her!!

That’s about it for September – see you all next month!