September 2018

September started with a short and sweet birthday celebration for my dad, who turned 60 this year. We are so excited for him to retire soon and can't wait to spend more time with him and my mom!

I underestimated how large the cake pans were though; let's just say we had a LOT of cake left over. Good thing Dave and I teach primary at church and can share it with our classes.

Macy turned 7 months old on September 9th. She was not growing like she should have been at her 6 month check-up, so we spent the last month trying to fatten her up, and it's working! Over 6 weeks she gained 3 lbs and grew a couple inches. She's definitely still the sweetheart in our home and we could not lover her more.

We spent a large portion of our Saturdays in September at the soccer fields. Cole, Lexi and Clara all wanted to do it this season. Cole loves playing Goalie (mostly because he doesn't have to run up and down the field - the ball just comes to him), Lexi just loves doing everything, and we learned that Clara has quite an aggressive streak in her. We will see if that translates into a good soccer player or just a pushy sister... ;-)

Macy loved just being on the field watching everyone and being a part of things. We had a super warm September here in the Springs this year, so our little pop-up shade tent came in handy.

We finally purchased a piano for our home! Cole started piano lessons this past summer and is doing really well so far, and we will probably start Lexi this coming summer. Cole is enjoying having a real piano (instead of just a keyboard) to practice on though. Welcome to the family!

Clara is still a little sunshine. Most days she can be found playing happily with her dolls in whatever dress-up costume she has found or chasing after her siblings or friends. She does not want to be left out of anything and is deeply offended if you refer to her as anything but a "big kid".

Excuse the picture through the screen of the window, but I love the view out my laundry room window - little girls dressed up playing in our backyard happily.

Lexi has been invited to several costume birthday parties recently and she won't miss a chance to be a princess either.

I was getting ready and came out of my room to find Clara happily playing with all of her friends on our side table. I just adore her imagination and love listening to her pretend with her toys (including the princesses, ponies, animals, dinosaurs and Buzz Light-year - she doesn't want to leave anyone out).

The kids went out to pick wildflowers and brought me in this bouquet. Isn't it beautiful?! I think they're better at making an arrangement than I am.

I was working on my flowers in my courtyard when I found this beautiful but entirely creepy jumping spider on one of my purple cone flowers. I have never seen one in real life like it, but it kept jumping huge distances from plant to plant. I couldn't help but watch it for a long time, partly because it was fascinating and partly because I was scared to death it was going to jump on me.

This is the view from my stairwell at sunset. Can it be any more majestic?! I love living in Colorado!

Lexi tried BBQ ribs for the first time this month. She has a new favorite food!

Lexi's Kindergarten School Picture.

I love seeing the work that she brings home from school. This picture of my overly voluminous hair made me laugh.

She's still pretty proud of the fact that she can rider her bike with no training wheels now.

Cole's 2nd Grade School Picture.

Cole came home with this. I'm glad that his biggest worry right now is if I am going to make fish for dinner!

I regularly see work come home from school talking about one thing or another with his Grandma and Grandpa Blacker. He is making good memories with them.