Happy 1st day of Fall! Here's why I love it so much....
After a rough summer heat, my flowers are blooming again,
I get to put out decorations,
I get to smell my favorite candle, Pumpkin Spice,
The mountains are starting to turn red and leaves will be falling soon,
and...I get to have a baby this season! 
That's enough to put a smile on my face!
Here's a look at some fall flashbacks...
Happy Fall to you too!
Yesterday, Brandon turned
You would never guess it by just looking at him! He worked all day yesterday, even some over-time, so when he came home, this was all he wanted to do!
We just found out yesterday that his company is flying him to Portland next week to go check out the center out there and help out. The regional manager came to his office last week and talked to him about Portland and Washington to transfer to and told Brandon that they are opening 2 new centers in Washington--one in Seattle and one in Olympia. It's crazy to think that we might actually move one day soon!
So anyway, back to the birthday! After just throwing Amy a party less than a month ago and throwing Brandon a big 30th birthday last year, I just wanted this one to be relaxed. I bought a batmitton set that we played a few days ago and had so much fun, so we set that up again and had a few people over. If you don't know, we really love to play games, so that's just what we did--all night long! That, and eat. That's another favorite thing to do too!
Here's some reasons why I love Brandon:
1. He's never too old to do anything!
2. He has the loudest most contagious laugh I've ever heard.
3. He's a romantic.
4. He can't spell, but he's an English major.
5. He's the best dad and puts up with all kinds of girl drama.
6. He was proud to drive my metro for many years without complaining.
7. He is pretty much good at any sport and we love to watch him.
8. He's content to play board games with just me.
9. He gives me pedicures when I can't reach my toes and spends more time on them than I would!
10. He writes poetry.
11. He loves family and especially his brothers.
12. He HATES running, but recently started running 5ks to get in shape.
13. He falls asleep in the car like a baby, but wakes right up as soon as you turn off the engine.
14. He plays the cello. (that one was a shocker to me when I first met him)
15. He's always first to say "I'm sorry".
16. Sometimes he talks in his sleep and it's always something funny. I wonder if he has funny dreams every night!
17. He's scared of heights and was secretly happy when our Hot Air Balloon trip fell through because it was too windy.
18. His dream is to one day swim with the dolphins and was very upset when we were at Sea World and some people got to and he didn't.
19. He lets Samantha paint his toes.
20. He's rarely ever mad, but yelling is just a part of his personality. He doesn't even know he's loud!
21. He loves animals, but is insanely jealous of our cat because Tigger takes away Brandon's snuggle time from me! He wants a bulldog one day to watch football with.
22. He'd do anything to make me happy.
23. He is ticklish pretty much everywhere--even on his hobbit feet.
24. He loves movies and can remember lines from every one he's seen when I can't even remember what the movie was about.
25. He sings at the top of his lungs, even if he doesn't quite know what the words are.
26. He's very protective of me and never lets the girls disrespect me in any way.
27. As I just wrote that one, I started to cry a little and then remembered that he puts up with all sorts of crying from the woman with the crazy hormones.
28. He works hard so I can stay home with the girls--something that was inspired by a speaker in one of our Stake Conferences.
29. He's worn my pink flip flops numerous times to the store and probaby a necklace the girls put on him, and doesn't care what anybody thinks.
30. I can't go a day without talking to him--I miss him too much.
31. He is my best friend.
I could go on and on, but I'd probaby just start crying more.
Happy Birthday Brandon! I love you.
Okay, I'm really behind. Samantha started pre-school a few weeks ago and absolutley LOVES it! Anyone that knows her knows she's super smart and I didn't put her in school last year because I thought she would be bored doing the same thing for 2 years. She was looking forward to this day all summer.
She looked like such a big girl and I know I'm going to be an absolute wreck next year when she goes to kindergarten. She's always been my best buddy and when I left her, I got a little emotional--must be the hormones, right???
We were lucky that Brandon could come with us to drop her off so that he could meet her teacher and see her classroom.
Amy didn't like any of it one bit! She was sobbing in the car--after all, Samantha is her best buddy too!
Everyday, Samantha comes home with an art project and it's so fun to see her get excited to learn new things. She'll be reading before we know it--then we'll really be in trouble!
Jason & Dianne had free tickets to BYU's first home football game, so we went! I used to go to all the games when I was single, but I think this was only the 2nd game Brandon and I have been to since we've been married. It was sure a hot day, but not to worry, I had my portable squirty fan. We also got to see our friends from our old ward, Darron & Ashley and their 2 kids, who now live in Southern California. And, we ended up sitting in front of one of Brandon's best friends, Jimmy and his family. Somehow, we were the only ones smart enough :) to not bring our kids so we could enjoy the game. Thanks Karen for watching them! It was fun to be a BYU fan again and sing the song...Brandon didn't know a lick of it--he's never really been a BYU fan. What's wrong with him?? We had so much fun--thanks for the tickets Jason & Dianne!
Okay, so I'm a little late in posting this, and it's pretty long--sorry! For Amy's birthday this year, we decided to explore the different ways to play with water. We had 2 pools with a waterslide, a slip-n-slide, waterballoons, and squirt guns. We were so lucky to have so much family and friends come and celebrate with us!
Pre-party fun. I think Laura was the one who started all the grown-ups getting in the little pools with their clothes on!
Here's Amy's little friend from church, Sara.
Brandon and I filled up 3 coolers of water balloons. Here is the before.....
....and the after! I think they lasted only a few minutes, but they were sure fun!
Samantha kept throwing them right at Dianne!
The kids finally decided to gang up on Brandon and then Brandon thought he would be funny and throw a bunch of balloons in the air and get everybody wet!
Samantha is doing a belly flop!
Birthday girl!
The start of opening presents...I love watching all the kids get so excited!
Dora Birthday Cake. This is the 3rd time Amy got to blow out candles for her birthday this year. She gets so excited for the Happy Birthday song!
Here's Kimmi getting re-aquainted with her best buddy!
And to finish the party off, Brandon pushed Shawna into the pool and then dove in after her! All in all, I think pretty much everyone that came to the party got wet except me! Laura got in the pool first, but Kylee, Shawna and Brandon got in too. And then poor Michelle got thrown in against her will! The water balloon fight was probably the highlight and pretty much everyone got into it, though I think the grown ups had more fun than the kids! :) Thanks everyone for coming--we had a blast!
