August Wrap-Up

I'm so excited to be in the same blogging-month as I should be (since this post wraps up last month)! Wahoo. Anyway, can anyone explain to me why Lincoln always takes a bite out of things in the middle first?! Whether it's toast, pizza, a sandwhich, whatever...he shoves it against his face to take a bite right out of the middle first. Just one of those quirky things about him that I know I'll forget if I don't document it...

Noah asked me to take this picture of him one morning while he had a messy face from eating Nutella toast. Silly boy.

Lincoln excited about getting ready to color - which always ends with me taking away his crayons or markers because he's eating them. Seriously, it's like he's got baby-pica.

Back on August 15th a bunch of Sister missionaries from my mission got together (I served an 18-month mission in Berlin, Germany for my church about a decade ago) . It was really fun to see everyone, catch up, enjoy some yummy food, and even see some of their spouses and kids! Thanks so much, Emma for putting this together and hosting it at your beautiful home!

The boys "kung fu fighting"


This is Mark & I before leaving to go volunteer at the University Hospital Foundation's Ebony & Ivory Gala at La Caille. Last year we had the opportunity to attend the event as guests. This year my friend Claire and I worked for months on the event's auction committee soliciting donations for the live and silent auctions. I learned a lot about how to put together a successful auction and enjoyed getting to know some great people in the process. While I only participated in a portion of what it took to pull off such an elaborate event, I felt that I'd invested enough time into things that I was really excited to see how things came together. The event was lovely. Before the event all the volunteers enjoyed a wonderful meal together. Then during the event Mark & I were assigned to assist the photographer (Joanna) that was there to take complimentary photos of each of the guests. I had approached her about the possibility of her donating her services during the event (I've used her multiple times in the past and she does great work), so I was excited to get the chance to work with her at the event - we had a great time.

The event was held on August 22nd, and at our follow up meeting we found out that it was the most profitable Ebony & Ivory Gala that they've ever hosted over the years! So, that was very satisfying to hear. The only big bummer of the night was our jeep overheating late that night while trying to drive home. Thanks for coming to our rescue, Donnelly's!

During the middle of August I had the opportunity to watch our friends' (the Luthys) kids for a couple of hours. Man, those are two well mannered kids. We ate and played outside most of the time and had no problems at all. I was so impressed with Nate's vocabulary and how well he articulates (I've never really spent one-on-one time with him) and how sweet and happy Naora is. We had fun.

Sweet Naora.

Smarty-pants Nate.

I had to take this picture while we were at our friend Leah's house one day. Welby (Leah's husband), Ryan (Claire's husband), and Mark were playing in their weekly pick-up basketball game. We each have two kids and the 6 of them were all piled up on Leah's couch (6 kids 4 and under) watching the old Superman. I had to snap a photo. {left to right: Lincoln, Ezra, Zoey, Michael, Noah, Drew}

August 28th was the UCRM's annual picnic that we always look forward to. They always have good food and a great magician that the kids love (and the adults too - he manages to fit in plenty of adult humor among his routine). It's lots of fun, and also kind of crazy to look around at all these kids and to know that they're all IVF babies too (like Lincoln)! Here is Noah sitting on the grass with all the kids watching the magician.

There were a few times that the magician had the kids laughing so hard their faces were turning red. It was so fun. The kids get a pretty good laugh towards the beginning of this clip. It's not great quality (since I'm zoomed in), but I had to get a clip to show Mark since he got called into surgery and couldn't come...and since our car was in the shop we were lucky that my mom saved the day and came to take us!


Lincoln LOVED going down this slide over, and over, and over...


Noah with my sunglasses and Mark's baseball cap. It's happening more sporadically that Noah will actually ask me to take a picture of him if he thinks that he looks cute, or cool, or something. This was one of those moments. I think that he felt pretty cool in the glasses and hat - he must have just not realized that wearing Finding Nemo pj's could put a tiny bit of a damper on the coolness factor :)

And lastly, a picture of Lincoln throwing an oatmeal tantrum. I grabbed away the bowl, but not before he dumped some out on his tray...and then he promptly began to throw the sticky stuff onto the floor. He was absolutely not pleased (as evident by his expression) with my reaction to grab my camera. Gotta capture those moments too though, right?
Goodbye summer & welcome autumn!