It's my birthday!

I mean, it was a week and a half ago. And it was a fantastic day. I've figured out how to have a happy birthday every year. I just know that it's going to be a quiet day, exceedingly normal in every way, and I don't expect anything to be any different than usual except that I won't force myself to do the things that I don't really want to do (like making dinner). And I try to be more grateful than usual for my blessings in my super boring normal life. And it always works--I always have such great birthdays now. I had birthday cereal for breakfast, and Tommy got me Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit and a racquetball racquet (which I've won both weeks of playing with so far, so it's magical), and he came home so I could go out for a quiet, enjoyable lunch by myself, and it was perfect. And I kept hearing from family and friends all day saying happy birthday, which just made things even better.

Going for a walk after Dane left for preschool.

My mom always used to tell us, "All I want is for you to be nice" on her birthdays. I remember thinking that was so lame and not as easy as just getting her a present. But now I said the same thing this year. Look at them obliging so nicely.

Going in to the gym with the three cuties.

We went out to dinner as a family. Dane took this picture of us--not bad!

I asked for a Nothing Bundt Cakes cake so that nobody had to make it. It was awesome.

The only thing I really wanted to do for my birthday was just have some quality time with some friends. So the night after my birthday, I invited some friends over for a "pajama party," aka just hanging out and talking. They were here for like 5 hours and it was super fun. All women want to do is get together and have girl talk. I realized in all the time we've lived here, I've never just invited a few people over, partly because I feel guilty for excluding anyone (since you can't fit everyone you know in your living room, and because I wanted to have a small enough group that we could all talk to everyone at the same time) and partly because it makes me feel vulnerable to extend invitations to people--what if they don't want to but feel obligated to come? And dumb concerns like that, which I knew were silly even as I was sending out the evites. I forced myself to do it and was so glad I did--it was the most fun I've had in a long time.

AND then the night after that, Tommy and I went out on a date--only the second time we've gotten a babysitter since Lucy was born. (I really worked the birthday weekend perfectly this year.) It worked out perfectly and we got to eat dinner at the Honey Tupelo cafe (which we'd been to in Asheville, NC when we visited there). It was AMAZING. Look at the size of the biscuits. 

So, a great birthday celebration for myself in the books. Happy birthday to me! Up next--Tommy's birthday next month.

Beginning of October

October: One of the best months in Texas, when it finally starts to cool down and the temperatures rarely get past the eighties. HEAVEN! It's my favorite time of the year, and not just because it's my birthday. I looooooove fall temperatures (even though it sadly doesn't actually look much like fall here in Texas). 

Graham just enjoying some Paw Patrol on a morning by himself.

Dane dunking someone in the dunk tank at Tommy's work! He totally did it!

We've gone on lots and lots of walks since the weather's cooled off. It's magical.

The boys spent hours one morning taking care of their babies (the only two dolls we have in the house) and putting them down for naps. They co-opted my closet and made that their "home" and put the babies down for their "beds" in our dresser drawers, and pretended to sleep and be woken up by their crying babies over and over again. It was so dang cute.

Graham actually asked me to read him stories out of the illustrated Book of Mormon book. Good parent points! Don't worry, he lost interest after about 1/2 of one page.

Lucy is SO PLEASED to be sitting up like a big kid at the table!

Cutie pie.

Dane and Graham were trying to do "cheers!" with their cups at lunch, but only when I wasn't looking. Jokes on them! Totally got pics of it!

Such a messy eater.

She loves being read to. She only gets read to about 1/8 of the amount of time I used to read to Dane at this age. Maybe three times a week. Haha.

One glorious Saturday while Tommy was cleaning out the backyard and the boys were playing in the dirt, I moved Lucy's bouncer outside and she was thrilled to be a part of it all.

The boys have been super into our Richard Scarry books lately. They'll sit next to each other and look through all the pages together, only fighting over them SOMETIMES.

I can't stop taking pictures of him wearing sunglasses. It's just soooooo cute.

First attempt at a ponytail!

We are so close to being done with the 100 Easy Lessons reading book. Only like 16 more to go. WE CAN DO THIS.

Stunned in the morning.

She got a Puff in her mouth all by herself and she was so proud of herself!

We figured out what her Halloween costume should be. Little Cindy Lou Who. Am I right???

Ready for church this morning, and feeling good!

Dane on his way to stake conference a few weeks ago. He strapped his baby into the seatbelt so it would be safe too.

Dane giving a talk in Primary. Looking sharp!

Lucy is getting way better at sitting up! She's really close!

We had a fun evening with the Dallas Myreses tonight. 

General Conference

We had our best General Conference this year that we've had since having kids! There was minimal screaming and begging for attention from Dane and Graham, which was really the goal. I don't necessarily mind if they pay attention (I mean, obviously not Graham--that's never going to happen--but even Dane too), I just want them to entertain themselves so we can watch without them whining constantly for us to come play with them. But I don't know what it is--once you sit down on the couch and look like you're not busy (watching TV), they instantly assume you're available for them to hijack and drag to the toy room to play. I've tried lots of different things and they've never really worked, but for some reason, this year, it clicked. Dane was apparently old enough to enjoy the little activities and coloring sheets I printed out and Graham enjoyed all the snacks. I had LOTS of snacks (I don't know why that never occurred to me before--buy lots of snacks if you want them to be quiet!) and activities for them for each apostle while they spoke and candy they could take every time they heard the words "Jesus Christ" or "Book of Mormon." It was adorable--Graham TOTALLY got the candy thing and totally was listening for those words the whole time. He'd yell, "Dey said Jesus Tist!" and run grab a Skittle. It was so cute. 

Lesson learned: With kids this age, it takes a lot of prep work to keep them entertained, and sometimes, it still won't even work because they won't be the right age. 

So funny--they are like little twins.

Uncle Kurt came down to watch with us!

Getting the candy for hearing the right words, haha.

Ice cream sundaes for Conference Sunday! Maybe a new Conference tradition.

Fossil Rim Drive-Through Safari Park

We ventured WAY WAY out of our regular comfort zone and did a full-on day trip, two hours away, for Columbus Day. The reason we felt it was worth driving to was to go to Fossil Rim, which is basically a drive-through safari park with tons of safari animals that you can see and feed out of your car. I thought it would be pretty cool, but I was BLOWN AWAY by how cool it really was. We got to see SO many animals right up close to our car. They were sticking their heads INTO our car and pecking at our windows and crowding around us so we couldn't even drive sometimes. It was amazing. Tommy and I kept saying, "Can you believe this? Are you kidding me?" We were totally excited, more than the boys were, even. My favorite thing was feeding and petting the zebras. Like, I PET A ZEBRA. Can you believe that? It was kind of an expensive outing and a long drive, but in my opinion--totally worth it. At least once. Seriously, it was so cool. And we saw so many different animals. 

The first animals we saw--there were maybe fifty of these just hangin' out in the road waiting for people to throw their food at them.

Graham giving the addax a kiss.

The real highlight of the place is the giraffes, because you can feed them out of your hand and they stick their heads in your car. It was awesome.

Graham was not thrilled about it. He had to get out of the way.

A little petting zoo halfway through--I can't handle this guy's adorable face.

^^This guy stuck his head in our car.

Ahhhh! 

ZEBRAS. THE BEST.

The ostriches are feisty. We didn't open our windows for them because we heard they would peck at your hands. This one stuck his head in the car in front of us and was going at it with their bag of food.

After we finished there, we went to a park nearby called Big Rocks Park that had, literally, big rocks for the kids to climb on. Unfortunately, it also had a river that they immediately climbed in and got covered in slime as well.

Tommy had to follow Graham around and keep him from falling nine thousand times.

They also had a place called Dinosaur World, which was basically the same as the Ogden Dinosaur Park. The boys thought it was fine, but they were pretty tired and weren't overly impressed.

Cutie loving the swing! Lucy was there for all of this, just being nice and quiet all on her own.

Dane's face when I told him that was a T-Rex claw, haha.

Cute boys were exhausted after a long day of excitement. We were worried there would be a ton of traffic as we headed back, but it was totally fine! It was seriously a great day and everything went surprisingly smoothly. I was so happy it all worked out so well and we were able to do all those things.