September Celebration!

We had so much to celebrate in September! Eliza turning 2! Our cute niece/cousin going to serve a mission! The end of soccer season! Where to begin? Clearly, with Eliza (you know, since her birthday is really early in the month...)

So, Eliza turned 2! She was so happy and enthusiastic about everything birthday-related.

We got a have dinner and cake up at Tyler's sister's house and she loved her cute Very Hungry Caterpillar cake (several months later, it is one of her favorite books).

She thoroughly enjoyed opening gifts from her siblings...

but her very favorite gift was a trio of helium balloons. You want to make a 2 year old's day? Give them helium balloons (clearly, with supervision so they don't die and all). Since we actually celebrated on the 1st, we also had cake on the 2nd--which is her actual birthday.

Since her favorite animal is a kitty, we made her a slap-dash kitty cake.

Why slapdash? Because we started with the stomach flu in our family that day. 

Could have done without those sort of fireworks.

But she never caught the bug and happily devoured her cake. Eliza dug the birthday thing!

Her favorite color is pink.

Her favorite animal is a kitty. She also really likes monkeys, pandas, and puppies.

Not long after Eliza's birthday, our favorite Brynn came and visited! We plied her with BYU ice cream and tried to convince her to stay, but she was going on a mission for Jesus Christ. She was called to serve in the Pocatello, Idaho mission, and even though it's close we can't really go and visit her. Mission rules! So we were so glad we got to spend some time with her. Brynn has a soul like a bright yellow light, and we just soak up every ounce of her glow when we spend time with her.

September also brought Tyler and Henry the chance to go to a BYU football game! We celebrated some big wins with the Cougars this season. There were also some rough losses, but we didn't so much celebrate those. Go Cougars!

Sheridan and her cute friend competed in a "Battle of the Bands" at their school carnival. They didn't win, but those girls were fearless and performed, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," excellently. 

September finally brought somewhat cooler weather (by cooler, I mean you didn't feel like you were baking alive when you stepped outside at midday--just maybe like you were in a slow cooker). The shady trails by the river are a great place to cool off in September.

Those trails are also a great place to battle for supremacy.

This fall, Tyler coached Cole's 1st grade soccer team. Go Orange!

Amelia played 3rd grade soccer and had a love-hate relationship with it. She's pretty sure she wants to play in the spring, even though every practice and game was a battle to get her to go to. 

Micah honed his artistic abilities by getting into a paint fight inside his friend's brand new house. Micah then learned the value of hard work and that cleaning up after a paint fight isn't worth the thrill. I learned that Micah is going to be responsible for a lot more grey hairs and probably heart issues for me.

Amelia and Tyler got to celebrate an awesome year with a Daddy-Daughter date. Howdy do, pardner.

And Tyler and I continued to pound the pavement, since we signed up to run our half-marathon in October! Eek! Thank goodness for the aforementioned river trail, since we put in most our mile and hours there!

September also brought change for Tyler--he left Utah Valley University, where he had worked for two years as the Assistant Dean of Development for the Woodbury School of Business. He started as the Executive Director with the Alpine School District Foundation. The years at UVU brought a lot of opportunities for growth, along with opportunities to raise millions for the Business School. While he was grateful for the chance to collaborate and make a difference with some amazing people through UVU, he is looking forward to using his talents and skills to make a difference in the Alpine School District.