September

Excerpts from emails to Abby and Keenan:

9/8: I canned 21 jars of peaches yesterday. I will save some for you Keenan:) I don't think they would ship very well. And we are canning pears tomorrow and Tuesday night. I'm so grateful that David will help me. I'm hoping to get 35-42 jars of pears. That was the favorite last year. Well see though. I need to get more jars if I want to do that many. 

We had a ward ice cream party on Thursday. At the end of July, our bishop handed out papers to keep track of personal and family prayer and study habits, along with temple attendance, family history work, missionary work, etc. The goal was to get us to improve and see how many points we could earn by doing all of the activities. We weren't good at keeping track of our points but we definitely improved in a lot of areas.  The ice cream party was to celebrate our efforts. I thought it was a great idea. So I told Annika that we were going to a ice cream party at the church. She then asked. "What we gonna do there?" Before I could answer her she said "actually I yike (like) frutaletas better." :) she is understanding so much and it's so funny to hear the things she comes up with. 
Benson still isn't walking. He takes a few steps but then goes back to crawling. I think he will be walking by the end of the month. I was released from nursery so it was kinda crazy trying to keep him entertained during SS and RS. David took him during third hour and it was so nice to go to RS. I haven't been from probably 3 years. I went down to nursery with him during 2nd hour and he was much happier. That kid loves to scream in the church bathroom. The acoustics are pretty awesome.  But it's right next to the primary room. I hope it's not too distracting because I usually have to take him with me twice when Annika goes potty. 
Tomorrow I'm taking both kids in for their well child appointments. Benson has to get shots but not Annika. Their appts are back to back so I hope it works well. 

eating grapes from our yard. Benson LOVES fresh fruit. Unfortunately, his little bum suffers greatly from all of the fresh fruit he eats.

in her dress that Papi brought back from Spain

at their well child check ups. 15 months for Benson, 3 years for Annika

twin babies at Lions Park

with friends Chaim and Amayah Vonbracht

9/15: We had so much fun at the fair. Our kids are at perfect ages for the fair. They loved all of the animals. I think the sheep and goats were their favorite. We watched an "air dog" show too. The dogs ran down a long platform and jumped at the end into a long pool. They were jumping 18 plus feet. Pretty impressive. My favorite part was watching the 10 year old FFA kids try to get their enormous pigs back in their cages. Very entertaining. 

On Saturday we weren't planning to go to the rodeo parade but it looked so fun when we were driving home from Walmart. So Annika and I decided to go even though we were 10 minutes late. David and benson drove over and joined us. It was one of those perfect memories. I loved sitting on the curb next to some friends and watching our kids get excited over the tractors and candy. The weather was perfect and the kids looked darling. 
We celebrated David's 30th bday yesterday! I gave him some new brown church shoes, socks, and a shirt that has an American flag and says "back to back world war champs." I will send a pic of the shirt zackery sent him:) he wanted double layer chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. It was so yummy! We went for a nice family walk and ended up at the bakers house after she drove past us and invited us for dessert. So we had a lot of dessert yesterday:) 
The kids and I walked to the library this morning. That is a pretty good hill coming up Main Street! Benson kept throwing his binky on the road. And then he would whine until I gave it back. Not a fun game for me:) he fell asleep a few minutes before we got home. But we woke up promptly when the stroller stopped in our back yard. The kids are both down for naps now. Annika has been talking to herself for the last 20 minutes so I hope she falls asleep soon. I'm ready for a nap. I went running at 6 this morning again. I think this might be our last week. It's getting cold and dark that early. I will miss running but I'm looking forward to getting more sleep. 

this girl is adorable. I got her dressed in this before we went to Walmart one Saturday. On our way home, Main St was blocked off for the Fair Parade. We decided to go watch and called Dad and Benson to come join us. Annika was dressed perfectly for the Fair Parade in her overalls. I love all of the parades this small town has. I love Othello parades because we always see people we know, you don't have to go early to get a spot, they are short, and they throw candy to the kids.

Uncle Daddy turned 30!

Pam's Playground

before his first big boy hair cut. I trimmed his locks in June. But, Debbie was visiting this month and I decided it was time for a clean cut look.

9/21: We had a fun week. We cut bensons hair. He looks so different and older! We went for a walk to the library. That was a long walk. 
Were not running anymore. It's getting too dark that early. 
I made homemade enchilada sauce and froze a bunch. It's so yummy!
Benson is officially walking everywhere! He is so darling! He carried a little basketball around the house for about 20 minutes while he walked around the kitchen over and over. 
Well I have to go. I will try to write more later. Benson is in desperate need of some attention. 

driving Papi's car, one of her favorite pass times. Every time Papi comes over, she asks to play in his car. They pretend to drive places and always have a great time.

after church cutie pies

I surprised David with an overnight date to Tri Cities! We went to the Mercantile for dinner on the way. We went to a HS football game to watch his cousin play. We went to the temple and grocery shopping in the morning. I had a stomach bug earlier in the week, so I was grateful to feel well enough to keep our plans. Funny story: I found I was pregnant a week or so before I got the stomach bug. It was earlier than I started having morning sickness with my first two. But, I still thought that the nausea and vomiting was just morning sickness for the first half of Monday. By nap time, I was crawling to benson's room to put him down. That's when I started to think this might be a stomach bug. I knew that going for a walk and getting out made me feel a little better with pregnancy sickness. So that's what we did in the morning. I felt so sick and weak and just went a few blocks before we looped back towards home. I was very grateful to realize it wasn't morning sickness and that I would have another week or so of feeling decent before that set in.

she did great at the dentist, again!

my sweet babies by our front yard pumpkin patch. I planted some pumpkin seeds in one of the dog kennels in our yard. I never watered it and nothing grew. (Surprise, surprise) Weeks later, I took dirt from the kennel to fill my flower planters in the front. The pumpkin seeds were thus replanted, unbeknownst to me. When I saw the vines taking off, I just couldn't pull them out. The vines got a little unruly in the front yard. But it was so fun to watch our pumpkins grow!

this boy loves to play outside and "ride" the trike!

just chilling' in the corner of the kitchen with the broom and a zucchini