September

After our fun with the alternator going out on my van, we were lucky to make it to the museum because we had registered for a math class.  The boys had a great time.

 Asher came up from his nap and said, "I'm a bad guy!"  He does a thing right now where he will point his palm at people and say, "ccccccc.....you're dead!"

 This is a fun record of our summer.

 September means the mornings are cool and I am starting to run again.

 We had the Schultz kids over one day and these two had a great day.  And, I got to have fun braiding.

 Benton wanted a Minion birthday because he likes  yellow and bananas.  I bought Minion Teeny Ty's to put on a cake instead of decorating it like a Minion, but I got carried away and did do some Minion decorating.

 We decorated plates and cups to look like Minions.

 We had scrambled eggs and toast and cake and Minion popcorn.

 Benton wanted to play games for his party. We started with Cranium, which was a little too complicated.  He invited multiple kids from the Halterman, Leybas, and Schultz families (plus Cooper).  He wanted Asher to have someone to play with, plus he tends to be friends with multiple siblings since I watch all the kids at the same time when they come over.

 Mike stepped in to help the little kids while I helped the big kids.

 Asher fell in love with these chairs while we were shopping for Benton's birthday.

 Nana got Benton a scooter.  We always let them ride their new toys around in the house on the first day before it gets dirty.

Benton loves this roller coaster set from Grandpa Joe and Grandma Dianne.  He played with it for at least 2 hours before switching to the laser maze they also got him.  

 Minion mega bloks from the Jeppsons! 

 I made Benton a reading corner.

 The next day he woke up and sat there to read and read a story to Asher.

The Hanshaws sent us some hand me downs, including this costume.  We brought the TV out to watch the BYU game. 

 It is fun when Asher and I have a morning to play together.

 I went down to check on Asher at nap time and found him like this in the toy room.

 We got lunchables that were on sale and Asher thought it was amazing.  The big boys loved them too.  They like the pizza ones, so I made a bunch of mini pizza crusts and they are loving having those for lunch.

 I went to the school to watch Benton in the Hispanic Heritage parade.

 Look at that face; he was eating it up.

 Asher got in line while we walked back to the front of the school.  Benton thought it was awesome.

In addition to the alternator problem with my van, we also had to replace Mike's window after it was broken into.

 
Then I had a piece of plywood fly up under my van on the freeway, puncture and scrape the bumper, and detach the cover under my van.  I zip tied the cover back up, and hopefully it will be okay.

 There was also a Hispanic Heritage Family Night.  The PTA brought in some fun performers.

 Asher loved it!  Ethan mostly read and Benton liked watching it and had fun dancing with friends.

 There was a bulletin board contest.  This is Ethan's contribution to his board that got 2nd place.

 Lily came with us.  She and Asher are so funny.  Lily just follows and copies everything he does.

 Then they showed Book of Life.

 That Saturday I couldn't figure out what to do to exercise, so Mike suggested I go run on the Mountain.  I hadn't done that since the Spring and it was amazing!  The weather was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I ran about 6 miles and wanted to keep going, which felt good after a summer of hardly running at all.

 When I take the time to curl my hair for church, it makes me wish my hair just grew this way.

 After a baby shower we threw for our friend Ali, Katie and Stacey and I went to Goodwill.  I found this Star Wars Mad Lib book and the boys think it is hilarious.

 Asher is such a stinker sleeping downstairs.  He takes forever to go to sleep, which has really messed up our gym schedule (Mike and I had been going to the gym two nights per week).  Asher kept going up to the top bunk and bugging Benton, so we took the ladder down. Then he climbed the drawer fronts to get up there.  We turned off the light by pulling the chain on the fan so that he couldn't turn the light on, but he leaned dangerously far over the top bunk railing to pull the chain anyway.  We can lock the door from the outside, but left a screwdriver hidden on top of a book shelf so Benton could open the door.  Somehow Asher got it and came out.  We often find him with added accessories, like in this picture.  A lot of the time, he has his Thomas the Train tent on his bed.  One time I went in and he had it filled with balls and he was sleeping on the floor with his hat on.

 They play hide and seek sometimes at gymnastics.  On this day, he tried to hide outside of they gym, and then found this spot.  Even when the teacher found him, he kept staring straight forward like this.

 Mike and I went hiking together.  Hopefully we get a few more hikes in before Havasupai!

 Asher getting what he wants when he wants it because that's what Asher does.

It may looks like he is remorseful here, but he is not at all.

 One really fun girls night I like to plan is going to dessert before cleaning the temple.  Every time we go someone forgets their recommend.  This time, I reminded everyone a bunch of times.  When we pulled up at the temple I realized that I didn't have mine because I had left it in my temple bag the week before. 

 Our neighbor's son had a birthday party today.  She has recently gotten to know several of my friends through a preschool co-op and Paseo Pointe, so the four kids invited were all from our ward, kinda funny.

 We bought cinnamon rolls from Daisy (a YW in our ward who always sells them Conference weekend).  Asher LOVES cinnamon rolls.