ben's homecoming

Dave's youngest brother, Ben, returned home from his mission at the beginning of September.  Unfortunately, Sam (Dave's other brother) and his wife, Tanya, missed their flight out.  So, they weren't there as Ben got off the plane, but they did make it a few hours later.  The kids had fun decorating a sign for Ben.

not sure why i'm not smiling, but here we are. so excited he's home! not pictured: jonathan, katie, sam & tanya

mama and her baby.  can you tell she's happy to have him home??

about to meet with the stake president

I'll spare the guys, and not post the next pictures.  Not that they don't look good, I just don't think they'd like it very much!  The first thing they did after Ben had been released was to go and get him a swimsuit, and take him swimming at our pool.  Fun times!  We girls stayed home to get dinner ready, so we could head out to our next adventure...

Dallas soccer game!  Who hoo!  It was a blast!  Ice cream and cotton candy kept the kids happy, and the rest of us had fun cheering and chatting.  The game ended with a spectacular fireworks show - one of the best I've ever seen.  We had some serious fun!

The next day, Sunday, we all attended church together.  It was the first Sunday of the month, so it was fast and testimony meeting.  It was really nice to get to hear all the guys' testimonies, and be all together.  Monday we headed up to the lake for a picnic, swimming, and sand castle building.  We didn't get to see him for very long, but it sure was a fun visit.  Welcome home, Ben!

balloon festival

In September, we went to a balloon festival that is held every year around here.  It was so fun to see it all.  We went with Jonathan and Katie & co., and also met up with our friends Jared and Melissa and their kids.

getting ready to lift off

a pirate

i know this is sideways, but it's too much of a pain to change, and too cute to leave out :)

a shot of the boys, by naomi

light show after it got dark

arboretum

The Tuesday after Chris started school, Naomi and I took a trip to the arboretum.  It's so hot in August around here, that they only charge $1 to get in.  Tuesday was our last chance to take advantage of that, so we went for a little adventure - just the two of us.  We had a lot of fun.  It was a great mommy-daughter thing to do.

explored cute little houses

walked under beautiful trees

saw all sorts of beautiful flowers

and fun water features

checked out the kid-sized pioneer houses

chris starts elementary school!

Chris started kindergarten on the 23rd of August.  I can't believe he is old enough to be in kindergarten!  The Thursday before, he got a chance to meet his teacher and see his class room.  His teacher is really nice, and things have been going great so far.  On the first day, Naomi and I walked him to his classroom and got him settled in.  I explained to him that I would be there after school to pick him up, and gave him a big hug and told him I loved him.  I didn't get emotional that day; mostly, because I felt that he was so ready to be there, and had been so bored at home.  I did have a bit of a time the next few days, though, when I had to drop him off at the front doors.  After the first day, he had to make it to his room by himself.  He did do carpool drop-off at preschool last year, so it wasn't a totally foreign concept to either of us.  I guess it was just that there were so many kids, and he's expected to find things on his own a lot more.  I kind of felt like I was feeding him to the sharks.  Fortunately, that's just my over-protective motherly instincts kicking in.  He has done great, and is loving school.  I am realizing how important it is to make sure he has the skills necessary to make the right choices, since he's home so much less, and making his own choices so much more.  I love this kid, and am so grateful to be his mom!

dave gets his tonsils out

After dealing with strep, at least twice a year since moving to America, I finally convinced Dave to see an ENT and get everything checked out.  Especially since we had been passing it back and forth multiple times between our vacations.  The doctor took one look at his throat and said, "Those are some angry looking tonsils!  They need to come out".   It is an outpatient procedure, so we were in and out in about 4 hours.  The doctor also decided to take his adenoids at the same time.  He felt great as he was coming out of the anesthetic, and was even chatty. 

I brought him home, got him settled, called everyone to let them know how things had gone, and headed out to get his prescriptions.  The first and second days were okay.  He'd get sore if he talked too much, but was pretty mobile and not too sore.  Day 3 and 4 weren't as nice.  Getting your tonsils out as an adult is a pretty major deal.  I was worried about him, and did a lot of research before he went in to the hospital about what I could feed him during recovery.  What I discovered is that everyone is different as to what is tolerable, so I stocked up on lots of things so he would have choices.  He ended up going with stage 1 baby food (found that idea on a website - brilliant, right?!), tons of blue Gatorade, some water, avocados, natural Cheetos (since they're mostly air, and dissolve), boiled eggs after a week or so, and occasionally a popsicle.  From what I read, dairy products aren't good for people recovering from getting their adenoids/tonsils removed.  They cause a build up of phlegm, which creates a need to cough.  Coughing can rips the scabs off prematurely, and cause a lot of bleeding.  Something I didn't want either of us to have to deal with!  He did bleed a bit a few times, but didn't ever have any gushing.  It took him a full two weeks to recover, but now he's back to full health.  We're hoping to have put the strep behind us!