Brian, Lindsay, Van, Brielle, & Mason: September

Uncle Tyler came to Utah to pick up his new stud horse, King Solomon, and we got the pleasure of his company for a night. I don't think either kid was ever father away from him than this for the entire time:)

We attempted potty training at the beginning of the month until I very quickly concluded that her little body was not ready yet. She has been mentally ready for months and completely understands what she is supposed to do but she simply didn't have the bladder control to go along with it. Potty training attempt #1 ended with Brielle sobbing in my arms yelling "I can't do it! I can't do it mommy! I no like potty training! I wanna diaper!!!" She was so frustrated and ashamed! So sad! She REALLY wanted to be able to do it and understood the concept so I know it wasn't that she just needed more practice or time. We will try again in a couple of months:)

Our little chef:)

My sweet kids with my beautiful birthday flowers.

My sweet kids eating the delicious birthday cake my man made for me.

Van was extremely proud of this wall of toys he built and wanted a picture to remember it.

Now that it's finally starting to cool off (hallelujah!) It has been a little chilly in our house some mornings so the kids often eat breakfast wrapped in blankets. On this morning Van took it to the extreme:)

Warm oatmeal and a blanket on a chilly fall morning. Perfection!

Van is LOVING playing on his soccer team and we are loving watching him.

I was going through Brielle's closet, reorganizing clothes and I came accross these blankets all together. These are all blankets made for her by women from

different parts of her family who love her.

From left-

1. I made this for her and a matching one for her birthmom Amy while I was waiting for her

2. my sister in law Amy made her this blanket right after she was born to welcome her to our family

3. her birth great grandmother sewed this completely by hand. She had been working on it for years before Brielle was born and gave it to her at placement to show her how much she is loved by her wonderful large birth family.

4. her birth great great grandmother made this one for her and likewise gave it to her at placement.

It brought me to tears just thinking about how loved she is and how lucky we all are to have such incredible family in our lives.

We are so glad we chose to put Van in afternoon kindergarten. It allows these two all morning to play together and although they definitely fight they also have SO much fun playing together. They spent a couple of days playing book store in Van's room. (side note, Brielle dressed herself in this picture, yikes...)

Someone is getting all four of her 2 year molars right now so we have been seeing lots of.... we'll call it emotions:) I don't remember what she was mad about in this picture, it's usually something irrational, but she was very upset and spent about 10 minutes calming down under Van's bed. She is cute even when she is throwing a tantrum:)

With the cooler weather we have been trying to go to the park as often as possible.

Van is such a good big brother! He is always wanting to help Brielle.

Van went through a life-size maze kick. The basement and the library were both covered in mazes for days.

Van really wants a brother to share his room with. In the absence of a brother he decided it was a good idea to have Brielle sleep over. We agreed to try it since they shared a room and went to bed at the same time when we were in McCall and did fine so we though it might acutally be ok. We were wrong. They giggled and giggled and then when Van was ready to sleep and Brielle kept giggling he got aggravated and asked that we move her back to her room. When we did she was devastated and cried and screamed until Brian rocked her to sleep. Fail!

I love this kid!

Ready to go to the school carnival. They both had the time of their lives!

Consolation doughnuts when Van's soccer game got rained out.

Every Sept or early Oct I make a pumpkin pie to welcome fall. I always make it from "scratch" but use canned pumpkin, this year I decided to really go homemade and used a real pumpkin. The kids thought it was awesome.

It was seriously the best pumpkin pie I have ever had and Brian concurs. I guess we will have to go with real pumpkin from now on!

We have a rule in our house that states coloring only happens at the kitchen table. There are several reasons for this rule including to prevent accidents but mostly it's because Brielle can't be trusted and at being in the kitchen at the table always seems to minimize any damage. One morning they talked me into this...