Simons {6}.: September 2016

We started off the month by dropping my parents off at the airport so they could go to Japan and visit Nate and his family. I am always sad when they leave.

Why are sleeping babies so irresistible?

And the day has FINALLY come - Bodie's first day of kindergarten.

It makes it a little easier when you have a big brother to show you the ways.

"Bodie put your arms out like this - we are soaring off to new things"

I had to document that Bodie loves to wear tall socks - all.the.time. My theory is that he is so cold it keeps him warm - he was also pretty dang excited about those new shoes! Isn't the new school year so exciting?

Here comes the bus.

This picture would have been AWESOME if it was in focus :(

I am including it anyway.

All the big kids let Bodie get in first - so sweet.

We picked Bodie up from the bus in the ranger all ready to go straight to the pool - still trying to make up for lost time with Pete.

We met our friends at the pool who brought their slide over ... ha ... so fun.

The kids found this newt or salamander or whatever it is.

The goggles!

Buddies.

Swiss Days!

Girls trip shopping.

Sauerkraut sandwich at Swiss Days is so good.

We told the boys that after one hour we wanted them to text us a picture of what they were doing and that everyone had to be in the pictures {see Nelsons's leg! We wanted to make sure everyone was accounted for}. They did a great job and we got home before the babies woke up.

My Swiss Day's purchase was this wooden temple for our bookcase.

Love it.

The boys each picked out a little missionary that looks like them for their night stand.

Truman spent all his money on this wooden sward which I found him sleeping with

Apparently I need to stop taking picture of my sleeping children and husband :)

I love seeing pictures like this of my dad, Nate and Tagg in Japan.

Also love this picture of my dad playing at a Japanese park with Tagg and the caption one of my brothers added.

Sneaking in another mountain bike ride while we can, this time with Hopkinsons.

Gregg forgot his helmet so he borrowed our niece Quinn's helmet.

Beautiful Midway afternoon.

My kids LOVE my uncle Vaughn {technically there Great Uncle} he always give my kids matchbox cars when he sees them. He looks so much like my dad - I think little Pete misses his grandpa Quinn who is still in Japan. He snuggled Uncle Vaughn instead and I think they both liked it.

I am taking ace of my parents raspberry bushes while they are in Japan.

Bodie came home from church and said they got to meet "a real live missionary!" His teachers are our next door neighbors and their son just returned home from his mission this week. Bodie drew this picture of himself and his companion who happens to be is cousin Enoch :)

For Labor Day we tried out a new hike that was on my list of places to see.

Bloods Lake.

It's practically in our back yard, it's just up the canyon behind our house.

These two goofballs.

{notice Bodie's long socks!}

Gregg on the rope swing over the freezing cold lake.

I still can not believe Truman did this - I guess I was hoping on a prayer that he wouldn't fall or let go and that if he did he would remember that he knows how to swim even in really, really cold mountain water.

I love Gregg's animated FHE puppet shows.

Bodie finally found the confidence to ride the trail behind our house - ya!

Now we just need to convince him to do it on his bigger bike and not on the 12" bike.

Pete and I feel the same way about not getting to go on the bike ride.

Sorry Pete, someone has to run the shuttle.

It is never too early to get on the Halloween PJ's.

We might just turn into raspberries!

We have eaten every. single. berry.

Harvest!

Bodie texted our neighborhood to see if anyone was interested in purchasing fresh produce. He sold all these produce in an afternoon. I took him around to drop them off.

And now his wallet is full!!! He is one happy dude.

Truman YACKED McKay's ear off one afternoon in the trailer while McKay laid the new floor.

Oh Pete.

I left you for two second's while I put my clothes on.

I love two year olds.

We get super exciting deliveries around here.

clean baby

Where has this trick been my whole life?

You can shred cooked chick in your Bosch mixed with the whisk paddle.

Who knew?!

Watching football together.

If you look close Gregg is holding a binky in his hand - it looks like he took it out of his mouth for a reaction from the football game.

We finally got our hands on the new bike trails map for Wasatch county.

Look who showed up at our house in a matching shirt!

It's that time of the year again.

BYU football season calls for "Y" cookies.

We decided to try out McKay's new ovens in the trailer.

After school baking in the trailer.

First day out selling cookies.

Our annual BYU vs. Utah party.

Our friends the Fife's who are huge Utah fans only have BYU fans as friends :)

That is a lot of blue and only a little red!

Each couple brought a game to play.

This was Tara's kleenex pulling contest.

Me trying to blow marshmallow's across a table - much harder than it looks.

And they just keep giving despite the freezing weather.

I made yummy stuffed pepper for dinner from my parents harvest.

Caramelized onions from the garden.

The lady I visit teach and I went on a walk for "visiting teaching" for 2 hours one morning - the kids were in the stroller most of the walk.

Biking with our friend Jake after school.

Bodie at the dentist.

Another beautiful Midway evening.

Pete loves to hold Norah.

Twinners.

Groceries for the Father and "kids" campout that Gregg was incharge of.

Biking with Jake and Luke.

Pictures I took for McKay and Rachel's Circled Cookie business.

Pete and McKay helped grandma with her pumpkin harvest.

Pretty soon she is not going to let him do this!

Bodie and his many battle wounds.

She is exactly like Truman in so many ways - including this foot fetish.

It is hard to get things done with this cutie around.

More pictures for McKay.

Love Bodies portrait hanging on the wall at school. Not sure about his red face but the all back clothes is definitely indicative of Bodie.

He still has yet to add feet and hands to ANY of his drawings of people.

School walk-a-thon.

I got to walk with Bodie in the morning - have lunch and then walk with Truman.

Hey dads, this is a WALK-A-THON not a TALK-a-thon!

Gregg and his brother-in-law Chris.

Pete wanted to walk so we picked up our buddy Ty who rode along with Norah.

I have no idea who the girl is on Truman who insisted on being in our picture!

Out with Truman now.

Pete walked about a mile like this hand-in-hand with Bodie.

I picked apples at my friends house.

The politically correct "Father and Kids" ward campout. Not sure how I feel about that - but ... whatever makes you feel better.

Gregg was in charge and he blew it out of the water.

Some people in our ward have this beautiful property on the Provo river. They offered it up for a perfect place to host the campout.

I went over in the afternoon and helped Gregg set up.

The family in our ward plowed their field so the tents could all be set up here.

I did a "drive by" to check out how it was going.

They had the biggest moon that night which made it extra fun.

There was tons of the dutch oven apple spice cake left over from the campout so I snuck over and picked up the dutch ovens from Gregg. I texted all the ladies in the ward to come over and have the leftovers with me. It was so much fun!!!

The next morning I found this darling basket on my front porch with a 'Thank You' for helping with the campout.

Norah's first BYU football game.

She was out cold the entire game.

Gregg's little brother was in town from Wisconsin visiting so he came and found us to say hi.

The entire Simon's family was in town one weekend in September so we took advantage of the chance to have a family photo taken.

{Tara, Chris, Sella and Presley McGown. Brad, Amber, Evelyn and Rosie Simons. Krista, Matt, Jonas, Elliott and Gwen Faulkner. Lynn and Bob Simons. Becka, Eric, Lincoln, Ender and Lucy Cragun. Gregg, Camille, Truman, Bodie, Pete and Norah Simon.}

Us.

2016.

Read this book and loved it.

Also read this book and really loved it.

{How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting, awful tag line. We don't yell ... but it's still a good book}.

Gregg went backpacking in the high Uintas with his dad and brother. Here is a map of where they went. I had this picture on my phone incase they went missing.

Distributing their junk up so that their dad didn't have to carry as much weight.

The following pictures were ones my father-in-law took and sent me!

What a great guy! Just what I asked for. Thanks Bob.

Bob always sleeps under the stars.

BURRR.

A selfie.

They are so cute.

Brad really wanted to fish.

Cousins and Pokemon cards.

Circled Cookie at an event in Herriman.

Text message thread from McKay one night {my parents were out of town}.

Bodie's cute creation.

My friend Tami and her girls came to get cookies and have their photos taken for Circled Cookie.

Waiting at the bus with Oreos in the Ranger - life couldn't get much better.

Harvesting and cleaning out the pumpkin patch.

Fried our own tortilla strips to go with our soup.

Colder weather means its soup season.

Two-year old tantrum on the front porch - not sure why.

Bodie got second place in the school walk-a-thon.

So proud of him.

Cutest little hot cocoa model ever.

His name at the bottom of the sign is the cutest.

That is four HUGE boxes FULL of chocolates in my garage.

Oh ya!!!

Caught McKay crafting at my parents house.

Went to dinner and the General Women's broadcast with some friends - so good.

My new calling is the "evening Relief Society committee chair"

Here was our first activity "flyer" we put in the RS room to advertise our event.

Cute random picture that was on my phone of my grandpa Arave on a tractor in a field.

I took family photos for my friend Tami.

Pete found the raspberry containers at grandpa and grandma's and then started crying when I told him the raspberries had frozen and we couldn't go out and pick them.