August (Wishing I wasn't always a month behind)

School is in full swing and Andrew is always looking forward to tests and SPs (standardized patients), even after he finishes a course or takes a test there is always another one two seconds later. I have been doing "school" with Alex a couple of times a week and he loves the one on one attention. We are moving very slowly, so far we are only to letter G in the alphabet. He has caught on to some things really well, ask him about the letter E if you get the chance. Mckenna is just as sweet and nice as ever. She started "crawling" on the 21st of August. Her version of crawling involves using her arms to pull and her toes to push, she doesn't use her knees at all.

 I wanted to take a picture of Mckenna in her cute dress, of course my little buddy had to join in!

 We got some new neighbors and they got new appliances. When Andrew and Alex saw this treasure of a box outside they couldn't resist. Alex decided he wanted it to be a car so creative super-dad went to work.

 Alex was so excited about the car, but did not understand Andrew's full vision, he ran around and talked about the car while super-dad was hard at work. Alex drew on headlights and made a dot where the steering wheel would go. When Andrew put the seats in the kid was hooked and did not move from the car the rest of the night, I'm sure he had no idea how cool it would be when it was finished. He loves it of course and enjoyed spending two days coloring it.

 Mom failed to supervise one morning while Alex was coloring his car, the car is still not completely colored because someone was grounded from the markers for the rest of the month.

 I walked in to find this wonderful scene one morning. These two kiddos melt my heart.

 This little girl turned 7 months old! Crazy. Don't tell Alex, but I took these pics while he was out running errands with his dad. I was so happy to get some good ones really fast, but sadly the little ham who can barely restrain himself in order for me to get even one picture of Mckenna alone, is not featured this month.

After weeks and weeks of coughing with very little sympathy from his wife, Andrew brought home an X-Ray showing that he did indeed have pneumonia. So since I felt so bad for him I left to go to my family reunion without him. (I will never win any awards for being a loving and caring wife during illness). This was my first chance to meet Lindsay and Carson's three new babies and I was NOT going to miss it, not to mention the home-made ice cream, sorry Andrew.

After one throw up break and one stop for gas and snacks me and the cuties arrived in Moab after only six and a half hours. I was feeling like super mom. My car of course, literally broke down in my dad's driveway.

The reunion was at the fort in Bluff this year. It was really neat to see the cabins and learn more about our ancestors journeying through Hole in the Rock and settling the area. We also were lucky enough to try sorghum (something I will never need to do again). Alex was just happy that there was a big pile of sand for him to spend the entire day playing in.

We were so happy to meet little Emery, and Korbin and Braxton. Alex as usual thinks that he needs to be in every picture.

Alex holding Emery. Most of the time even the chance to play with cousins couldn't persuade this kid to put down those babies

 I was surprised as how small those babies really were.

 Cousins!!!!!!!

 This little girl got to have her first bath in a sink. She loved it of course.

 Still holding a baby.

 Sunday evening we headed up to Stan and Cheryl's for the traditional brothers dinner (with home-made ice cream). Alex was so excited to go upstairs where there was "another house on the house."

 Alex went for a walk with uncle Carson and brought me back flowers. It was so special I almost cried.

 Holding another baby.I kept telling Lindsay she should take Alex home with her so he could help at feeding time. Alex has now decided that I need to have three babies as well, thanks a lot Lindsay.

 Alex got to spend Labor Day helping grandpa paint, it's a good thing grandpa knows how much Alex loves to paint.

 We of course got in a game of Settlers.

 Only missing two of the grand-kids. We sure make cute kids.

 This little girl dropped from the 24th percentile in weight to the 8th so against her will we have been trying to fatten her up. This is the result when she really isn't all that into eating her carrots.

Alex was so happy that he got to play with Grandpa and Grandma Holyoak and that Grandma Marie is nice enough to let him do whatever he wants, meaning she brought the kitchen set upstairs for him to play with. My Dad and brother fixed my car and everyone took such good care of us.We were so sad when it was time to leave and even more sad when I-70 was closed and we had to sit around for two hours on the road outside of Grand Junction. So much for waiting until Tuesday morning to leave in order to avoid the holiday traffic. As I sat, un-moving on the road my children became more and more grouchy and my super-mom feelings quickly left as I vowed never to make that drive by myself again, or at least until I forget the yelling and the tears shed by each person in the vehicle. After eight hours we did make it home, and I will admit the trip was totally worth it to see family and to meet the new babies and of course to have aunt Cheryl's highly anticipated home-made ice cream.