Bantam football

We were into football full swing by early september! This is Carter's last week of peewee football, I tried to embrace it even though its been an interesting year with coaches and players. Right off the bat so many kids were hurt! Like carried off on stretchers, hurt! Carter had to step up big time and fill some postions he was unsure on but did well with it. 

This is him scoring his first touchdown that Chad and I were both gone for! I was so sad we missed it but so glad that someone caught it on video for us and had this picture! He was so happy and so glad he scored this season! 

  Way to go! More on their season later!!!

Goodbye trusty van!

Over the summer as we traveled, squished in our van, loaded to the ceiling, now with a 40 pound dog in tow, we started discussing a bigger car. Our kids are growing, our dog comes with us a lot and we are finding that we need more space to take the trips we want to take. Chad started looking online. i wanted a bigger car, but didn't want a car payment! We haven't had one for a while. Chad found the one he was interested in and mentioned to a friend he was looking. A few hours passed and that same friend, Mason, called him and he explained that they were looking into buying a van because their family is growing. 

One of our biggest worries was getting out of our van what we needed to to make our payments affordable. They were willing to pay what we would have got for a trade in. I couldn't believe we were facing buying a car so soon! Who ever calls you and asks if they can buy your car before you're even selling it!  We took a day and went and checked a few out. I loved an ivory suburban but the sellers wouldn't budge on the price. They didn't seem very motivated to sell. 

We drove a red one that had all the cool bells and whistles but I didn't love the color. It was nice and had low miles. Chad wanted it. I was open to it. The salesman got under my skin and we decided it wasn't right. We went home and thought some more on it. We went ahead and sold Mason the van. Within a few days we had cash in hand. 

Here we are enjoying the massage chairs and free soda in the sunshine while they worked out a deal.

I frantically cleaned out spaces I'd never even opened before! kids are gross. 

I loved this van and was so sad to see it go! So many people have told me they recognize my van because of the stickers on the back. I had to scrape those off. Sad day!

One last hug! It was easier to let it go knowing it was going to carry our friends cutest kids and give them a good deal on a car that was great. 

 The dealers tried to force us into buying the red sub...i don't tolerate that at all. As we thought about it and looked some more, we realized this one was probably our best bet. We went back and bought the car on our terms, when we were ready. 

We got it home and kind of panicked after finding some cosmetic things that they said they'd fix but made worse. We called and tried to return it! They said we couldn't. I was upset for a bit...until I drove it. It drives like a dream, has heated everything, so much space and as I spent some more time with it, i grew to really like it. We decided to suck it up, fix the cosmetic things that bothered us and go on with life. It's been a good choice for our family and I think we will enjoy it for a long time, even if it is red! HAH!

September

We came home from church one day to find our truck window was busted out! After some neighbors did some doorbell video digging, we came to the conclusion the neighbors hired someone to till their yard and flipped up a rock. Not cool. But I was glad it wasn't something done on purpose. Still frustrating! I spent hours vacuuming glass. I found a small white pebble on the running boards which I'm sure was the culprit. 

We got it fixed a few days later. 

Jilly loves Chad so much and whenever he sits down, she hops in his lap immediately! She's no small dog so sometimes it hurts!

We've been freeze drying up a storm...a candy storm! We decided did a bunch for some friends so they could decided if they liked the candy or not. The milk duds were AMAZING!

Oh, I stabbed myself. I was reupholstering our bar stools and as I was picking out the staples with a knife, I slipped and stabbed a steak knife right into my arm! Yeah, I know, not smart. But trust me, I tried several different things and none did the job as well as a steak knife with a sharp tip! 

Blood gushed everywhere. As I ran for some paper towel blood went all over the floor, countertops and chair. I was sure I might bleed out the way it spurted out of my arm! I knew Chad was due home soon but I was starting to feel queasy so I went outside to get some air and hope that if I passed out, someone would see me and help. Chad arrived home to lots of blood. He was coming off of an 18 shift with no sleep. I wanted him to be able to sleep but he was sure I needed stitches. I hadn't looked at my would yet because I was just holding pressure. I had him peek at it. It wasn't wide but it was deep. I convinced him I'd be fine with some butterflies on it. It was....kind of. Every time I flexed my forearm I had blood gushing out. For several days. My brother told me I probably should have had some stitches. But we made it work. 

Bri and the famous fit-your-whole-body-in-your-pants picture. 

 We got our first watermelon out of our garden! We grew a watermelon! And it was DELICIOUS! It was small but we all devoured it. We grew 4 but only 1 was very good. 

With sports in full swing these kids are TIRED! Carter has also been sick for over a month with an awful cough. I was sure it was covid but his tests were negative. So who knows. But he was so sick and weak for most of Sept!

Jilly joined in on the napping. 

Chet and Mindy came into town and wanted to hit up the state fair! We got all kinds of food to share. These kabobs looked amazing. But they weren't quiet cooked all the way. The veggies were still hard. But it was yummy. We ate jalapeño poppers, pizza, peaches and cream, corn dogs, and all sorts of good things. We love these guys and we are so glad we got to hang out for one night! 

When we were all done we went into the city for more food! gelato!! It was so yummy!
 

ReAl Game

We finally got to take our whole family to a ReAL game! They all loved it! We had pretty great seats. This was my first time too. 

Mollie quickly found Zhane and was invited to go sit with him. I kept an eye on them the whole time and giggled at them trying to talk to each other. 

We almost left, but I was so glad we stuck around for the fireworks on the field after the game! WOW they were amazing. Probably the best display of fireworks I've ever seen. 

The kids were in heaven. 

And these are my new favorite fireworks! They rain down and its so pretty!

We sat with the Baker family and enjoyed our time on the field!

And the next day, church of course looked like this!

It was a great end to summer. I'm glad we did it and stayed for fireworks! it was worth the sleepy sunday!
 

Stake Primary Activity

Wow what a huge activity this was!! We went for kind of a vacation bible school where you learn about different bible characters at different stations and do an activity. There was dancing, singing, crafting and decorating cookies. We had just over 10 kids and it was such a fun time, even though it was slightly crazy. 

The kids were put in "tribes" and thats how they traveled. We had lunch for them and they also got to walk to the temple and chat with the missionaries there. They also made a large thank you sign for the temple construction workers. 

 Such a fun day! So glad its over too! Haha. We already know we need to scale back for next year but every now and then, its awesome to have a great big activity. Especially since we are coming out of covid and trying to get people to gather again. Rebekka is awesome and has such great ideas and great talent for carrying out big things!

14

14 birthdays

14 years

14 candles

14 years of being a mom

I can't believe it! Carter is 14!

He's wanted a nintendo switch so bad but I didn't want to pay the price it cost! He actually worked so hard and saved up his money to buy one. For his gift, we went and picked one up and surprised him and put some money towards it for some of his gift so he didn't have to spend all of his money. He was surprised and so very excited!

Look how big he looks! He's huge! And very handsome.

He wanted to take a few friends to Zax Zone to play video games. While we waited for everyone to get there, they played ping pong and had snacks. 

He had trifle again because he doesn't love cake. The boys gobbled it up!

Here they are at Zax Zone! I sent them out the door with Chad and it was the easiest birthday party I've ever done!

 Happy Birthday C-man! I am so very proud to be your mom. You have a great desire in you to do good and it is my favorite thing about you! Keep being the good. Love you!

Babies

We had baby blessings in early Sept and Oct! Ivy was first in Sept. 

We all fought over the babies during sacrament meeting as quietly as we could!

Adam and Brit had a nice lunch at Adams work on ISU campus. Here's the 2 newest Reed family members!

Oh Chunky Tuck!

Since it was a holiday, we stayed over and had a Labor Day picnic the following day. Chad had to work so we just took our time and enjoyed some Idaho and family. We played and passed around babies and enjoyed the perfect weather. 

 Love my family and watching it grow!!!!