17 MONTHS

Silas hit the 17 month mark back in August.  He finally started to get his second tooth on the top.  He is still wearing size 3 diapers and fits best in 12 month or 18 month clothing.  He is growing up so fast and thinks that he is just as big as Phin and Millie.  He loved all of our summer adventures.  The splash pad was a favorite.

He become more comfortable on the rides at Lagoon.

We even checked out Lagoon-A-Beach and he loved the kid area.

He has mastered stairs.

He is in to everything...here he is helping himself to some cheerios.

  He loves straws...but mostly likes to push them in cups and take them out of cups.

He can climb up on our bed now.

When he is concentrating he sticks his tongue out.

Seth continues to be able to get him to sleep just about anywhere...this time it was at the loud Bee's game.

He loves the car shopping cart...but we don't make it to this store very often.

He loves  his Mama and will often stand at my feet begging to be picked up when I am busy in the kitchen.

He started doing a little fast feet move that is almost like dance move in Flashdance.

He loved the bubbles on our bubble run...but preferred to not have bubbles up near his face.

He is talking more and more and in this particular picture was saying "duck."

Silas for the most part is very chill and also very curious.  I imagine him being our engineer because he likes to figure out how things work.  We sure love you Silas!

Back to School

The night before school started this year we had a yummy dinner at Nona and Papa's.  My cousin Greg and his family were in town bringing his second oldest son, Chase to the MTC.  When I told Millie that Penny would be at dinner she said "I love Penny." Phin and Millie were also happy to become reacquainted with Kenny.  He played hide and seek with them and was a great at hiding.  We had to leave to get them in bed and they were quite concerned that Kenny would be lost forever.

Phin's first day of 1st grade was the following morning.

His new school has a flag ceremony on the first morning back.  All of the students and teachers line up in the front of the building and then after the ceremony the students follow their teachers inside.  It was pure chaos but it was also nice to see so many neighborhood kids and parents at the ceremony.

This was also my first day too.  Phin and I had both talked about how we were excited and nervous for our new start.  I have been so anxious about this change. This is what my new room looked like when I started back at the beginning of August.

This is what it looks like now.

I had serious regrets about transferring schools right up until Phin started.  The first day as we walked home from school he told me about all of the neighborhood friends that he had seen at recess and my heart knew that although this change was hard for me, it was just what Phin needed.  His third day of school was a day that I didn't work.  It was so lovely to just walk him out the front door and wave goodbye and then to walk out just as the bell was ringing in the afternoon to greet him as he walked home.

Millie and Silas' first day of school was the following week.   

 I spoke to Millie's teacher at a back to school orientation and she talked about how shy Millie is at school and that she was just starting to come out of her shell at the end of last school year.  It shocked me because at home this little one is not at all shy. 

 

The Young Women I work with also held a Back to School Carnival/Fundraiser.  It was fun to see them all jump into action to help out.

  

It has also been nice to have some more one-on-one time with Millie as Silas is napping.  One day Seth came home for lunch and spent some time reading to Millie.

Phin was definitely missed while he was at school.  This was from his first Friday early out...these two snuggled while they watched a show to relax from a busy back to school week.

They all try to snuggle with me while I am relaxing on the hammock too...can you spot me under this snuggle pile?

Water Lantern Festival

The Water Lantern Festival was officially our last summer activity.  It was held at Jensen Nature Park up in Syracuse on a Saturday night.  We stopped at Chick-Fil-A on the way up to grab some food and then enjoyed our picnic dinner next to the water.

When I signed up for the Festival the idea was that this would be our farewell to summer.  We decided to draw pictures of all of our summer activities on the lanterns as a way of reminiscing about all of the memories we have made.

 

Phin and Millie also loved throwing rocks into the water while we waited for it to get dark.

Here they are showing off their lanterns.  I love Phin's thumbs up in this picture.

We had a cute group that was on a double date take our family picture and then we walked to the other side of the lake to let our lanterns go.

The wind seemed to be blowing towards the other side so our lanterns went out into the water.  We felt bad for the people that had released them on the other side because the wind kept their lanterns very close to the shore. 

So Long Sweet Summer!  We will remember you as the summer that Silas started to walk, the summer of our epic Idaho road trip and also a summer filled with lots of memory at home with cousins and friends.