Soooo he's almost 9 . . .

 In August, this most special little boy in our family had a birthday and turned 8! He had a great birthday full of putting together Lego sets he got for his presents, eating cake and just hangin out with mom and dad and Darrell. Boring I know but we were saving his get together for September when family would all be here for his baptism. Just a little about Tad, I am so so so grateful he is a part of our family. He was a surprise baby, a good surprise. When he was born, he had dark hair from his eyebrows to his hair line, everyone that saw him said, "Oh he looks like a little baby monkey." ha ha ha lucky for him, I love monkeys and think they are the cutest things on the earth! After about a month, the fuzz was gone from his face and the most beautiful hazel eyes were all anyone could see. I only joke about him looking like a monkey because he thinks it is so funny. He has always been a very shy very quiet boy that just giggles when a stranger talks to him but once he gets to know you, you find out he has a very wild and silly and crazy personality. He is smart and thoughtful of others. He hates to make others sad, he tries hard to be nice to everyone. Since he was little tiny, he has always had a pen and a paper, doodling and has really developed a talent for art. He loves to draw any free second he gets. He LOVES animals. We have two new puppies and he loves to spend as much time as he can outside playing with them. He is very smart and great at math and games on his kindle. If I would let him, he would be glued to it all day long. He is good at figuring problems out. He is a thinker, Joe plays chess with the boys at night and Tad very strategically and carefully plans his moves, Joe has lost more than a few times to him. He has a sweet loving spirit and a good strong testimony in the gospel. He loves watching the living scriptures videos and learning the stories from the scriptures. He is my snuggle bug, I love that most of all. He is always coming up and giving me hugs randomly throughout the day and telling me how much he loves me. I am so so proud of him and the decision he made to be baptized and I am so very grateful he is a part of our family and that Heavenly Father has trusted us to care for one of his choice spirits!!! 

 

  WE LOVE YOU FOREVER BOOGS!

It's "FAIR" to say we had a great weekend!

 

 I have loved the month of September for as long as I can possibly remember because it is always the month of the County Fair. I would look forward to going to the fair for months before it actually arrived. I loved to walk through all the exhibits and see all of the produce, crafts, goodies, photography, and art people had entered and of course I loved getting to chat with everyone and going on rides. As a teenager and adult I have loved it because it marks the beginning of Fall for me. It seems like nights start to get a little colder, the air is a little bit more crisp, the evenings start to slowly come sooner and the sun takes just a little bit longer to rise each morning. Our County Fair was this last weekend and we enjoyed every bit of it, from the huge pile of cheesy fries to the caramel apples to the deep fried Oreos. It was all pretty much AMAZING!!!! Darrell and Tad wanted to put something in the fair this year so they got Lego sets for their birthdays and put them together as fast as they could and then put them on the shelf for safe keeping. For Darrell he has been waiting since July 27th and it has been killing him to not get it down and play with it. I entered a loaf of my banana bread (which got 3rd place) and a loaf of whole wheat bread.

 Tad came home with a 3rd place ribbon for his Lego Movie Robot he made! He was so so so proud!

 Darrell came home with a 1st place ribbon for his millennium Falcon! You would have thought he had won a million bucks!

 I have a good friend in town that is an AMAZING artist and the fair committee had asked her to make all of these awesome picture boards to take your pictures in and signs to go above the doors of each exhibit and little signs all over the place just to make it look and feel nicer and she did an amazing job on them!!! Way to go Liz! 

I had to take a picture of each boy in the mans face because they both refused to be the old lady.

 It was stormy all three days but it made for the most beautiful skies!!!

Darrell somehow talked Joe into riding the zipper with him. This I was very nervous about. Last year the boys talked Joe and I into riding on the Gravitron with them and both of us came out ready to puke our toes up so all I could imagine was vomit flying from the squirrel cage and my poor child coming out covered. But they both had a blast and nobody got sick. I was proud of Joe for going through with it! All in all we had a really fun weekend! I am so proud of my boys, way to go you crazy beasts!!!

NOW LET IT BE FALL!!!!