A visit from Mike and Shelby for the Balloon Fiesta (Oct 7-9)

Mike had been dating a neat girl for a few weeks and brought her to visit and we are so glad he did! Saturday morning, way too early, we woke everyone up and headed to the Balloon Fiesta. We made it just in time to see the flag being raised. It was moving to watch our nation's flag being raised.

A nice man gave the boys some balloons. Sterling kept trying really hard to blow his up

 

Scott was so grumpy, which we were so sad about because we thought he would love this. He was cold. Stan finally got him to smile a little

See...grumpy Scott. But Mike and Shelby look great!

We just did things around the house, smoked ribs, and had a great time the rest of Saturday.

This boy LOVES puzzles. He can't do jigsaws by himself but he carries them around everywhere and pretends to put them together.

Sunday was church and just hanging out.

Our bishop gives the kids a piece of Candy as they leave. On this day, it was a little pack of Sixlets. Sterling had it in his hand as we left and I didn't think anything of it...he tried to open it himself.

"Smile Sterling"

Someone loves his food...a lot.

Laughing at Dad.

Look at those smiles! James just loves Stan. He follows him with eyes as Stan walks around the room and is always so quick to smile at him.

A little book reading before they have to head out on Monday morning.

We loved meeting Shelby! The boys liked her a lot and she was so helpful with them all weekend. And we loved having Uncle Mike come visit. I am so blessed with such wonderful brothers!!

Around September

Our first full month as a family of five

Sterling had gone outside and I went to find him...just chillaxin'

So many little baby pictures

The green chile and tomatoes on this hamburger were grown in our backyard!

Clean boy after a bath

Sweet smiles in his sleep

These boys love to sit by Stan while he works on the computer

A yummy fall BBQ. Stan decided to pick up smoking! Luckily it is a kind of smoking that benefits our taste buds!

It was so, so, so delicious!

We finished the meal with some ice cream mixed with home grown raspberries, extra delicious! (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the raspberry starts that have done so well!!)

Sterling loves his "eyes". They are often on upside down.

Sweet sleeping newborns.

I promise we weren't praying yet...but this is one of my favorite scenes. The boys are so good about praying. Scott and Sterling used to "kneel" by laying on their stomachs. We are one step up from that. :)

Another yummy BBQ.

Stretch!

Scott is SO sweet with James. He loves to hold him.

Eating the fruits of his labors :)

We bought a kite some time ago and finally it was a good evening to go fly it:

Getting it up.

Little boys running is one of my favorite things

Personal space?

Just doing a little pondering

Super Sterling

He wouldn't look at me and smile, so this'll have to do.

He was so cute with James this evening. Scott and Stan were camping and Sterling was loving the Mom attention.

It might look like a peach in the picture but this was a home grown cantaloupe and was so so so good!

Always wanting to hold him

And then he wanted to read to him :)

We went to go pick out a halloween costume. I wish he had picked this one because it was so adorable.

But he got this one instead, which was cute.

"Smile Scott"....enter the awesome "smile" phase.

This reminded me of my childhood and all of the lines of toys we set up over the years. I love how these two play together.

A white chocolate raspberry cheesecake made by this amazing man. And it was beyond amazing.

Note the hair tie around his arm. This kid loves his accessories. Hates, bracelets, hair ties turned into bracelets. And he'll entertain himself all the time!

We were twirling in the chair and they loved it!

Wearing Dad's shoes

And bringing him his lunch...the boys fight over who gets to bring Stan his lunch every day

This video was after they went fishing to Shady Lakes. Funny, funny kid:

Love how these two play together

More ribs :) Look at that smoke ring!

Sweet sleeping baby

"Oh brother!" (Wonder what he was dreaming about)

First trip to the park with all three boys. We did ok!

"Mom shoes!"

Scott came running saying he found a friend...yuck :)

This is my favorite newborn outfit we have. I always get a picture of each boy in it.

Has got his duck face down

Sterling started to talk a little bit in September. He loves music and singing and would go around singing this primary song all the time:

Homemade salsa. Tomatoes and chiles grown in our garden.

Caramel cheesecake...soooo good.

I love our roses in our yard.

The ones from this plant are my favorite!

😍😍😍

love this boy

1. Always the bracelets. 2. I snatched this picture really quick. We were walking back to the car from the store and Sterling reached back and just rested his hand on mine.

We were watching a Scooby Doo show and the bad guy was chasing Scooby and Shaggy, Sterling's reaction:

Beautiful sunset

Oh this boy. We have a little hole in the backyard that got full of water during a big rainstorm. The boys were playing in the water while I was weeding one day and I warned them to be careful or else they would fall in. They said ok and moments later I looked up to see Sterling do a face plant into the hole. :)

Smoked BBQ chicken. It was so delicious

Lazy Saturday hanging out with Dad!

September was as fun as it looks!