Home projects and birthdays and parties

This sweet girl had a big birthday yesterday. She's 10! We had a lovely family party Saturday night celebrating her and her cousin, Michael, who shares her birthday, just 16 years earlier 😁 We went to the splash pad by our house and had pizza and lemon bars and cookies and the kids played and we opened gifts. It was simple and fun and very windy, as is very typical for living in Bluffdale. All in all Genevieve got 29 new pairs of earrings, lololol. Plus a stuffy or two and roller blades and some bracelets and some treats. She said it was the best birthday ever. We had stake conference Sunday so that was a little different. It was broadcast to our building, so we just went and watched that and then came home. We had German pancakes for breakfast, then her cousins came over to play and stayed for a few hours. We had breakfast for dinner, so waffles and watermelon and bacon and sausage. It was delicious. All in all, a lovely weekend to celebrate my favorite redhead.  

A few decorations for the cute girl. 

Friday night was my South Jordan Run Club Annual BBQ. We went to Blackridge Reservoir for it and the kids had the best time building sand castles and paddling around in our friends' kid kayaks. 

We've been doing a few home projects. I upgraded a few light fixtures. This one in the living room. 

These three pendants in the kitchen. One is waiting on a replacement glass cover. It came shattered. 

And a third of these fun ones to finish off our front entryway. 

Got a holder for the kids' piano books. 

Bill painted this accent wall Saturday and I did the touch up Sunday. I love it SO much! Doing these home projects really makes me start to love my home more. Personalizing it to our tastes is really satisfying. I looked forward to that all the years we rented.  

Bill won a gold medal in the Salt Lake Corporate Games for pistol shooting. He's now got a gold, silver, and bronze for the different activities he's participated in. That's been pretty fun and the medals are super cool. 

Aaron had some fun playing with a fan, balloons, and his little stuffed cat. 

School's back!

School's back in session! This is the last year the kids will all be at the same school. And all of them are in full day school, so it feels like a golden year. They were all together last year too, but kinder was only half day and that was just a lot of pickups and drop-offs. But this year is that magical one year where I have a sixth, fifth, third, and first grader. They all can get to school on their own. We send them on their way at 8:30 and don't see them back until 3:45. Chloe isn't so sure about going fully on her own, which is fine. Genevieve is taking care of partnering with her for the bike rides over and back. They're super sweet together. 

I'm just thrilled the kids are back in school. This summer was intense. First summer Bill and I are both working full time, and my work vacation didn't kick in until August, so we had to get creative with what to do with the kids without taking any work off. I didn't particularly have a budget to do a zillion camps. We did one for the oldest two but aside from that we had to craft our days at home mostly and it took some serious effort to be able to work and help them out all summer. 

But thankfully, it wasn't actually awful like I worried about when I started full time in February. Just intense. I can take intense. It'll get better each year. But for now I'm really glad they're back in school and seeing their friends and making new friends and learning and growing. They look so big. I honestly love it. I don't get worked up about them growing up. I love each phase they're in, but am always excited for new ones and I'm definitely packing up and donating the stuff they grow out of the moment they're done with it. Not a lot of nostalgia here. I do love seeing old pictures of them when they were tiny. That never really gets old. 

I did a super fun thing this weekend. The Mud Girl Run. It was so, so much fun. Did it with my FiA friends and we had the best time. Got so muddy. It was a 5k and so cold at the beginning. We had a random thunderstorm that morning that dropped the temps like crazy and delayed the race a bit. But once we got going I wasn't cold, so that's nice. 

This is my buddy Rachael, or Primetime as we call her at FiA. I'm Trailblazer. We ran together and had the best time. 

Yay FiA! Yay for amazing friendships and ladies that support each other and help each other work harder. It's an amazing group. Spencer is dying to do one of his own now that he's seen all my pictures, so I'm sure we'll do more of these. 

When you don't take any pictures

I took like five pictures this entire week. It was just too busy apparently. But we definitely did do stuff this week. Spencer mowed his grandparents' yard. First time ever for this 11-year-old. He did a great job! 

Genevieve found this picture she liked and then turned it into the purple version on her tablet paint program. She's unendingly creative and talented with her art!

I bought this nativity just because. I couldn't pass it up, lolololol. 

I didn't know I was going to pass my feet on to my child. This is me on the left, Spencer on the right. Basically identical feet. He wears my same shoe size. Pretty fun! He tells me if he jumps he's taller than me, but I've still got probably four inches on him. Maybe six. I bet he'll pass me this year though. Not like that's a huge milestone in actual height, but still fun! He's hit eating us out of house and home stage. He loves gnocchi and he ate an entire package yesterday. Before he was eating half a package at a time. I don't think I can go to the store often enough to keep him in stock with gnocchi at that rate, haha! 

 

Summer winding down

 

Last week I had a zillion photos. This week I’ve got hardly any. August is here and we’re winding down summer, looking forward to school starting. Still have 11 days left, but it’s getting just a tad cooler and school is sounding mighty good again. 

We took the kids mini golfing on Friday right after several hours of wonderful, lovely rain. The course was so wet and it was so humid. Genevieve and Chloe’s hair both curled right up. I love their curls. 

Chloe got a hole in one!

Some run club days we have a big group, some days we forget to post and I’m the only one there. Whoops! It was still a good run.