More September Fun

September just flew by because we were doing so many fun activities.  At the beginning of the month on Labor Day, the kids and I participated in the Wellsville Founder's Day Fun Run.

We all ran the mile together and all the kids came away with medals.  They ran so fast.  Emily beat us all and was one of the first kids to finish.  I kept telling Colby to run ahead and catch Emily but he wanted to stay with Logan and me even if it meant he was running backwards sometimes waiting for us to catch up.  Logan and I ran together with Charlotte in the stroller.  Logan is getting to be a better runner each race.  We all had a good time.  

Russell met us at the Wellsville park when he got off work after the race.  There was a parade starting an hour or so later so we just decided to hang out at the park and wait rather than drive all the way home just to turn around and come back.  While at the park, Colby and Logan showed us some of their gymnast moves on the monkey bars.

I swear Logan had no fear at all on those bars.  He just kept swinging up there and hanging upside down from his knees.  Every time, my heart skipped a beat because I knew he was going to fall and land on his head but, thankfully, he never did fall.

Also at the beginning of September, I had my first haircut!

My first haircut that is since my hair grew back from chemo.  It has been exactly one year since my last chemo treatment so to celebrate, I got my haircut.  It took one year to get my hair back.  I love how the haircut turned out and my friend, Chelsea Kerr, did a great job.  The bad part though is that by cutting it, all of my curly new hair was cut off.  So yes I am back to straight hair but I guess straight hair is better than no hair!  

For Family Home Evening one night, Emily taught us a great lesson about Joseph Smith's First Vision and some of his life.  As an activity at the end, we played Joseph Smith's favorite game, stick pull.

Colby really got into it and was so strong he could pretty much pull everyone over.  Even Charlotte got into it and pulled with all her might.  The kids played and played until the dowel broke in half from all the force. It was a fun activity.

We spent a week in St. George at the end of the month so we could celebrate Grandma's 100th birthday and be there for Josh and Hallie's wedding and Jacee and Stuart's wedding.  It was a busy week but Logan managed to lose his second tooth while we were there.

He was so excited be wasn't sure if the tooth fairy would find him at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Lucky for him though, the tooth fairy knows all and did find him.

Also, while in St. George I ran a virtual 5K for a Facebook running group I am in.

I was able to run my fastest time yet since getting back into running.  I ran it in 26.36 minutes and had negative splits!  I was so happy with my time. 

It has been a great month.  Now on to October and all of the fun fall activities.

Jacee & Stuart's Wedding

It has been a busy week for us down in St. George.  Our final event was Jacee and Stuart's wedding.  These two lovebirds tied the knot on September 29 in the St. George Temple.

We were all excited for them and glad we could be part of this special day.  The wedding/sealing ceremony was in the East Sealing room in the temple the same place Russell and I got married.  It was a great sealing and President Hinton gave some great advice and blessings as he performed the sealing.  We were so glad to be there and witness it.

As they came out of the temple, we were all there to greet them and congratulate them.  Then it was picture time.

All of the pictures turned out great and the weather was so beautiful.  It was a prefect day to get married.

We love walking around the temple grounds and seeing the temple.  I don't know what it is about the St. George Temple but to me it is the best temple there is. 

After the temple, we all headed over to the luncheon in Little Valley.

Stuart's family did a great job on the luncheon.  The food was great and was actually from the same place that Jacee and Stuart had their first date.  It was fun to hear Stuart's mom tell the story of how Jacee and Stuart met, dated, and finally got engaged and married.  We were all laughing.  I don't know how much was exaggerated but it was a great story.  

Finally it was time for the reception at night.  We had spent the whole day before the wedding decorating and getting ready for the reception.  We all hoped it would turn out to be memorable and seeing all of the people having a good time that night, I think it was.

The big hit of the night was the ice cream machine.  Lacie had rented a soft serve ice cream machine to use as the treat for the night.  They also had a great topping bar.  There was a constant line to the ice cream and everyone loved coming back for seconds or thirds.  It was so good.  We also just liked relaxing and chatting with each other throughout the night.  

Tami and I were in charge of the gift table.  We tagged and recorded every present.  I also got to see one of my really good friends from college.  Kassie Pitts is in Lacie's ward so she and her family came to the reception.  It was so nice to meet back up with her and chat and just catch up on everything.  

The cake cutting was pretty funny too.

It started out so nice and innocent.  They each had their piece and was nicely giving it to each other and then bam!

The cake was everywhere. Especially all over their faces.  It was so funny to watch.  Well it serves them right because they are both really competitive.

Then the fun started and it was time to start dancing.

The couples' first dance was great.  The father daughter dance was good too.  I think Klint was trying to hold in the tears the whole time.  Good for them!

Russell is quite the dancer and was teaching Emily all of his moves.  I am not a dancer so I have no moves.  Emily had a great time dancing.  She wanted to dance with everyone and was not afraid to ask.  Colby was more shy and did not want to dance.  He kept telling Emily no. Then some other girl asked him to dance and he told her no too.  We had to explain that he needed to be polite.  Oh well hopefully by the time middle school comes along, he will be interested in girls and want to dance.  Maybe...

Charlotte on the other hand was a dancing machine.

She was all over the dance floor and finding anyone her size to dance with.  Kassie's little girl, Ithaca, was a good sport and danced with her quite a bit.  They shook, rattled, and rolled to every song.  Charlotte even threw in a dab here and there.  It was so funny to watch them.

We all had a great time dancing before it was time to throw the bouquet and garter.  Everyone tried so hard to catch them but I don't know who actually did.  

After partying hard, it was time for the bride and groom to be off on their way.

We all sent them off with sparklers and cheers.  Stuart's truck was totally decorated inside and out.  There was even a surprise inside of 10 goldfish swimming in a bag.  Stuart's friends told him the fish were his and Jacee's first pets or kids and they needed to take good care of them.  I don't know how long the fish actually lasted but it was pretty funny.  

We had a really great night and the reception was so fun.  After cleaning and setting down everything though, we were super tired and ready to go to bed.  I don't think we went to bed before midnight any day this week.  It was a whirlwind of excitement and parties but totally worth it though.

Congratulations Stuart and Jacee!  We wish you the best!!

Happy 10th Birthday, Emily!

It is official, we have a child in the double digits!  Emily turned 10 this year and I just can't believe it!

Emily is a great daughter.  She tries so hard to help out where ever she can.  She tries so hard at everything she does.  Emily is always willing to help with her brothers and sister.  She is learning so much everyday and is so smart.  She does well in school and is part of the Running Club, Photography Club, and Service Club.  She is also tutoring other kids in her class during math and doing really well on her assignments.  Emily wants to please everyone and is a perfectionist.  Emily loves reading and playing the piano.  She loves being with friends and wants to grow up so fast.  I have to remind her sometimes that she is still a kid and not to worry so much.  She is a worrier but that just makes her act even more responsible.  I love her so much!  I don't know if I am ready to head into this new phase of having a tween-ager!

While we were down in St. George for a week of parties and weddings, Emily got to celebrate her birthday for a week.  Our first celebration was with Braden and Jessica.

Braden and Jess also have birthdays during the same week as Emily so we had a big family get-together party for them.  We knew the week was going to be crazy with two weddings and things going on each day of these three's birthdays so what better way to celebrate than all together beforehand.  

We had cake, which Charlotte helped to make by licking the spatula.  She loved that by the way.  We also played card games and just had fun together.

The next party for Emily was with the Farnsworth's:

We loved getting together with the Farnsworth's and having cake and ice cream.  It is especially fun when Uncle Tyler is there to try and smash cake in our faces.  Earlier that day, Grandma Farnsworth took Emily out for a day on the town.  These two had a great time shopping and getting their nails done.  They both came back sporting beautifully painted nails.  Emily told me all about how the manicurist massaged her arms, hands, and feet before painting them.  Emily loved every minute.  As the oldest grand daughter, there just might be more trips like this in the future.  

During her week long birthday, Emily decided to open one present a day in order to spread out the goodness.  She received a bunch of nice gifts including the whole series of Little House on the Prairie DVDs, the game Tenzi, a squiggly pen, and a much needed new scooter.  She loved them all.

On her official birthday, all Emily wanted to do was go out to breakfast with Russell and me.

We left the other kids with Grandma and let Emily pick which restaurant to go to.  She decided Denny's had the best breakfast.  We all filled up on pancakes and eggs and took silly selfies.  Emily's breakfast was pretty cool.  It was strawberry pancakes with Pop Rocks so it popped when she ate it.  She loved every minute of the breakfast especially being the center of attention for a change.  We love this girl!!

For her birthday, someone gave her a Wal-Mart gift card.  She decided she wanted to buy a goldfish with her money.  I finally gave in and said it was okay.  Here are our two goldfish, Guppy and Dribble.  The kids loved these fish so much!  We read everything we could on how to take care of them, clean the tank, and feed them.  Unfortunately, they only lived for about two weeks.  They were fun while they lasted though...

Happy Birthday Emily!! We love you so much!

Josh & Hallie's Wedding

Josh and Hallie finally tied the knot on September 27. We are way excited for them.  It was a great event and fun to have everyone together to celebrate Josh and Hallie getting married. 

They had the wedding up in Zion National Park at the Zion Ponderosa Ranch. The ceremony was up on a water tower over looking part of an awesome view of Zion.

The funnest part of the ceremony was the little grand kids taking part in the ceremony.  Rider was the flower girl for her parents and Cole and Cash were the Ring Boys and Bride's helpers for Hallie's dress. 

They boys had little Sheriff badges on their shirts that said "Ring Security." They thought they were so cool and important in their outfits.

The wedding ceremony was very good even though the sun was right in our eyes.  The guy that married them was actually one of Josh and Hallie's friends and he had some very good advice and council to give them before marrying them.  It was fun to see the happiness on their faces.

After the ceremony, we all gathered for pictures.

Everyone wanted pictures with the Bride and Groom.  Everyone that is except for Rider.  She did not want pictures and she really just wanted her mom to hold her.  It is a hard thing to watch your parents get married I guess... Poor Rider barely made it through the pictures before she passed out in Jessica's arms. 

Once the picture taking was done, it was off to the reception down at the lodge. We had a great time eating and playing with family. There is a funny story about the meal though. There were two types of drinks. We knew what flavor one drink was, it was Lemonade, and we thought the other drink was a cranberry drink. So Russell tasted it and got Logan a big glass of the so called cranberry drink. Come to find out though, it was iced tea. So we took Logan's drink and nonchalantly dumped it out and filled it up with the lemonade. He was not too happy at first until we explained it to him. Other than that, everything was fine.  The meal was good and the atmosphere was fun.  

They did the throwing of the Bride's flowers and also the Groom throwing the garter. It was fun seeing all the young cousins there getting ready to catch the garter. As Josh launched it up in the air, Logan was the one who caught it. He was so excited to catch it that he was running around showing everyone. He loved it even more when he put it on his arms and flexed his muscles with his older cousin.

After cutting the cake and watching the couple smash it in each other's faces, we all got to join in the party and dance.  There was a lot of fun music to dance to.  Colby was a little shy and didn't want to dance at all.  I did manage to get him to dance with me once.  I am like him though and that was enough for me too.  Logan, Emily and Charlotte on the other hand were all about dancing and were out on the dance floor all night.  They loved it!  

During the wedding, Jared's baby, Ryatt, was getting tired and overwhelmed with the whole party. Russell and I had the opportunity to relieve them of their parental responsibilities for a bit to relax.  Ryatt is so cute and all he wanted was to be fed and rocked so I was glad to help.  As you can see, Charlotte loved the baby too.

Congratulations Josh and Hallie!  We wish you the best!