Little Things in October

A moment of sharing this book together... it's kind of rare.

Dane pulled out a tooth all by himself right after church on Sunday. You can still see it's bloody, haha. 

Lucy being a cutie at my doctor's appointment one day.

OH MY GOSH. I almost died with the cuteness of this. I was trying to read my scriptures one afternoon while the kids were awake (which I rarely do--I usually do it during naptime or after they're in bed because there's little chance of getting anything out of it while they're awake). But Lucy saw me reading and I said, "I'm reading my scriptures!" And she ran into the family room and grabbed our scriptures that we use every night for family scripture study, and came back and said, "Scriptures!" (It sounded like "hip-sures!") Then she sat on the ottoman in front of me and read the scriptures with me. I could not believe that she knew what scriptures were and that she could say it. It definitely felt like a nice parenting moment. 

Jack-o-lantern Dane, just in time for Halloween!

Lucy and I went and had lunch with Dane at his school one morning. 

Lucy was very sad one afternoon after her nap, and needed some extra snuggle time with her hippo and blankie. 

Graham was SO proud of his new construction truck jammies, which we pulled out when the weather got cold, because he'd talked about C is for Construction in Joy School this week. So he insisted on getting a picture taken in them. 

Lucy's clothes are almost all hand-me-downs, and Tommy and I just couldn't stop laughing at this pink Adidas jumpsuit we pulled out for her in the 18-month pile. So funny.

She is a baby of the 21st century. Any time she sees my phone she says, "hone!" and runs for it.

Graham doing a science experiment in his Joy School (not at our house... I'm not this skilled!).

Joy School friends... so cute.

They were sitting in this tent, pretending to go camping, and telling each other stories. 

We talked about S is for Safety one day, and practiced being Safe while walking to our park for playtime. 

We were so lucky and got Aunt Kiki here to visit this month! It was the BEST to have her! Graham immediately dragged her over to the couch the second she got her and begged her to read to him. 

We brought her to our favorite pumpkin patch, although it was super muddy with all the rain we've been getting. 

And we had a super nice afternoon at our park with bocce ball and our kite.

We took them to dinner at the Shake Shack near our house at this super nice area in Plano--it was super fun!

And Kurt and Kiki both came to Dane's soccer game and cheered him on. 

We were sad to say good-bye to her. It was so nice of her to come and so fun to have her. Aunts and uncles are the BEST and our kids are so spoiled with so many!

Dane is 6!

Our cute big boy is six years old now. After about a week I heard him telling someone he was six and a half already... slow down, buddy. He is so enthusiastic about life and about getting older. He seriously could not be happier about kindergarten and about getting bigger. I feel like this year has been such a big one for him, with so many milestones. Just in the last year since turning five, he's learned how to read, learned how to ride a bike without training wheels, learned how to tie his shoes, learned how to swim, lost his first two teeth (just a few days before his birthday!), started playing sports, and started kindergarten. That's a huge year for a kid! He's truly a real kid now. Luckily he still lets us watch Winnie the Pooh sometimes at home, haha.

Dane's kindergarten picture. Pretty sure that's the only time he's worn that shirt.

He scored his first goal in his soccer game! It's been fun to see how much he's improved in our second season. Last season he really didn't do very much, and this season he has really gotten into chasing and kicking the ball. 

His second tooth that he lost! His first one came out while we had a bunch of people at our house for a ward activity, and he lost it and didn't even notice it was gone. I just saw at the end of the night that it was missing! He was so excited but sad that his tooth was missing so he wrote a note to give to the tooth fairy. It was so dang cute.

Dane was the spotlight in Primary the week of his birthday. I love being in Primary and seeing these small moments.

The day before Dane's birthday, we all came to his school to eat lunch with him. It was so cute!

And we celebrated his birthday with presents and birthday cereal!

The big present was his new scooter, which he is in love with. It's so cute.

He had a soccer game in the morning and then we went to Hurts Donuts afterwards. All Dane wanted for his birthday was to go to the beach at the lake near our house. But the forecast said rain all week, so we decided it wouldn't be a good idea and scheduled a last-minute bowling birthday party with four other boys in the ward instead. Then, of course, it didn't end up raining after all... thank you Texas! But we did the bowling party anyway and it was great. I think since I didn't plan it until two days beforehand it was way less stressful and I didn't mind it.

First thing Dane did was roll a strike on his very first roll! What a great birthday!

I love the dabbing boys, haha.

Then we came home and they played on the trampoline for a while, then we had pizza and cake.

I just want to talk about this cake. Dane was dead set on having an ice cream cake for his birthday. So I spent like three days making this cake (because you have to let it freeze for a long time in between stages). It had a layer of chocolate cake, then a layer of ice cream, then a layer of Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, and hot fudge sauce, then a layer of ice cream, then a thin layer of cake, and it was all covered with whipped cream. 

Can I just say that I AM AWESOME for making this amazing cake??? (It wasn't that hard, I just had to plan ahead. I would totally make it again because it was delicious.)

So glad that our boy had such a good birthday! He is such a great kid and we love him so much.

Cute Pics from September

This was the first summer that I was sad to say good-bye to summer. We had a great time this summer. I think part of it was that Dane became a self-sufficient swimmer, and Graham got pretty good as well, so it was much less stressful for me than last year. The last weekend of the summer we went to the outdoor pool with all of our friends for one last swim, and everyone was so happy.

Dane with his two best friends, Ben and Preston.

Cute Graham!

Graham and Lucy love just playing on the handicap accessible ramp down into the lazy river. They love running from the top and then crashing down in the water.

Dane and Ben had matching goggles for the day.

This guy has the cutest little stink face in the whole world. I see this face way too often.

For Labor Day, we had plans to go to the Fort Worth Zoo, but it rained like crazy all day so we instead went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. I was pretty underwhelmed, to be honest. I think it was great for our kids, but not worth an hour drive, sadly. 

Watching a 3D show!

It's the Fort Worth museum so naturally they had longhorn statues in there.

Graham and Lucy and I went and had lunch with Tommy at his work in September.

I just love seeing all the little nursery kids together. There are maybe 12 of them that will be Sunbeams next year. Can't wait to see them all being in Primary next year.

Graham is very serious about the potty.

Lucy on a date with a little friend at the park.

Lucy kicked Tommy off of his chair when he was trying to plan his YM lesson one day...

and then kicked the boys off of their chair while watching a Sunday show. She is IN CHARGE.

And she likes it that way!

She also insists on feeding herself now, all the time. It's kind of a hassle.

Cute matching boys!

I love this action shot with Lucy's hair bouncing as she jumps on the bed.

Library story time!

Lucy loves wearing sunglasses.

The boys made some birdhouses and were so excited to hang them up in our trees.

Lucy also really loves umbrellas. We've had lots of occasions to use them the last few weeks!

I love this girl.

Lucy has reached the milestone of being able to basically do everything at the park without me having to worry about her or follow her around any more. IT'S THE BEST!!!! She can even climb up the ladders and up the rock hill on the side of the playground. She is so coordinated, it's crazy.

Cute boy reading books to himself.

Lucy is in love with bubbles right now ("Bubbles? Bubbles?") and Dane said he wanted to do something kind for her and blew bubbles for her.

There was a Frisco Cowboy Days event near our library a few weeks ago and Tommy took the kids. Lucy was so cute in the petting zoo.

And the boys rode on the bull! One loved it and one did NOT.

We also went on a big group date with some friends to do Top Golf. It was pretty fun, although I don't think I will ever be good at golf.