August Recap

So the month of August has been pretty much consumed by the happenings with my twins, but believe it or not, we did do other things during the month besides just hanging out at hospitals and cemeteries (although we did do a lot of that too).

Hyrum continues to do very well. He is up to 2 pounds, 4 ounces (he's finally gaining weight pretty good). The doctor told us that I could potentially start trying to nurse him in two weeks, so I'll be spending a lot more time up there then. The nurses all love him and keep telling us what a sweet little guy he is. He's also very wiggly. I think he had Eli's antsy gene; he's ready to be out of there.

This is a totally random picture of a guy we saw on the way up to Salt Lake one day. We got such a good laugh when we saw him. He looks like he's right out of a cartoon.

On August 11th, we attended the inauguration of my uncle as he became the Governor of the State of Utah. My grandma still can't believe that her son is the Governor.

He will do a great job. I may be a little biased, but I really feel like he has Utah's best interest at heart.

It was so neat to attend his inauguration. We were already planning a visit to see Hyrum, so it worked out well to attend.

On the steps at the Capitol after the ceremony

We had really good seats. I am so excited for the two of them. They will both do a great job!

Here's a better shot of the vault Eli made for Joseph. He really did a good job, and it cost us a lot less than buying one. The girls really had a good time decorating the top. You'll probably never see a more unique vault. Sydney wanted to make sure and include everyone's name on the lid.

Samuel is such a happy boy and is definitely a boy, but having two older sisters does expose him to girly things. He really likes hats, and since we don't have any boy hats for him, he wears the girls' hats around. Eli wanted me to let everyone know that if they want to buy Samuel a Christmas or Birthday gift, it needs to be boy hats or boy toys. =)

I had the BEST preschool teacher when I was little. I attended 2 years of preschool and I remember so much from that time of my life. My preschool teacher is still teaching (and she still looks the same as I remember her; it must be the water) so last time we were in American Fork, I took our little family to see where I went to preschool. It was pretty much exactly the same as I remember it. The preschool is called Peppermint House Preschool, and Andrea Johnson is the teacher. My aunt Tami now teaches with her and I'm sure she's fabulous too.

The girls really had a good time exploring the preschool. Andrea read them books and they played with several of her toys, many of which I'm sure I played with. I've done a home school for my girls instead of sending them to preschool, but if I lived in American Fork, I would send them here.
I have no idea how old Andrea is, but she seems ageless and still has as much energy as she did when I went to preschool. She has more energy than me (which isn't saying much right now, but still; it might be better to say she has more energy than Eli). =)

This room is exactly the same as when I went to preschool, back in 1983. Since Claire is my clone, I thought I'd take her picture in the spot where I remember sitting.

Speaking of school, Sydney has started first grade. With everything else that has gone on this month, I was much more emotional sending her to first grade than I was sending her to Kindergarten. I cried quite a bit the night before she started. It's just so sad to think that she is gone all day. Luckily we had a girl move in close to us that is in Sydney's class, so she's really enjoyed school so far. I'm enjoying being able to carpool too.

Here she is after school, still smiling.

It's hard to let our children go; having let Joseph go has really made it hard for me to let my other children go.

Sydney obviously isn't leaving in the same sense that Joseph left, but it's the whole idea of letting our children grow up and move on. It's another thing I can't control; everyone grows up and moves on.

Instead of celebrating this milestone in her life, all I can think about is whether or not I've spent enough time with her, or if I've prepared her well enough to make choices on her own.

This parenting stuff really is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
I've never been a fan of change, but I'm beginning to see that if I was any sort of peace and happiness in this life, I'm going to need to learn to embrace change.