I love September because...

I just love September! Okay, maybe it has something to do with it being both Sasha's and my birthday month (as well as quite a few other family members), but it's also the crispness (is that a word?) in the air and the changing of the leaves.

Sasha got the most adorable skirt from Grandma and Grandpa Henson for her birthday (among many other fabulous gifts). She's such a girly girl so I thought she would jump at the chance to wear it, but she proved me wrong. She was totally against wearing it at first. Now she wants to wear it every day. Girls, go figure! Here are a few cute pics we took of her while wearing it and dancing around the family room.

For my birthday, Aaron planned a special day starting with homemade breakfast of turkey bacon, eggs and toast. This was followed by an exercise class, an afternoon shopping with my mom, dinner with my sweet hubby at Sweet Tomatoes (probably one of my absolute favorite places to eat) and a REAL soccer game. Phew, what a day! The game was incredible! The weather was perfect - warm, but with a little chill in the air, we had great seats and there was a great energy in the stadium. It didn't hurt that REAL won 4-1 and we saw some sweet goals. I even saw my childhood soccer coach at the game. :) It was such a fun day and Aaron was so sweet, making sure that I was completely pampered. The fun doesn't stop there because he has also planned parties with both sides of our family coming up so it's like my birthday will go for 2 weeks. Doesn't get much better than that! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful, thoughtful husband. Thanks, sweetie!

For the last component of enjoying September, Aaron and I got to go on a hike with some friends up north. It was a great hike with beautiful scenery, good company and fall colors. Thanks, James, Vicki and Dmitriy (hope I spelled your names right!) for the fun afternoon!

Summer fun!

We've really been slackers in the posting department, but at least this time it has been due to busy schedules rather than just plain laziness. Here's what we've been up to for the past month and a half:

The first week in July, I was away at Girl's Camp so it was a whirlwind getting everything ready over the 4th of July weekend and leaving the next week. We had a terrific time playing games, doing crafts, enjoying the great outdoors and being together. The girls were so great with helping out and being so friendly to each other. We got back on Friday afternoon so Friday evening and Saturday were spent catching up.

On Monday of the second week in July we left for a family vacation in McCall, Idaho. It was so great to finally get together with all of our family. Pure chaos, but lots of fun! We stayed for most of the week, but end up leaving early in order to attend the funeral of my grandpa Hull. He was a wonderful, quiet, humble, strong man with the best work ethic I've ever witnessed. Although I will miss him, I'm happy that he is with his beloved wife Beth and many other siblings who have gone before.

The third week in July Aaron went on the annual Henson backpacking trip and enjoyed being in nature. John, our brother-in-law, set up a zip line that was fun for everyone (even the dogs)!

While Aaron was gone, Sasha and I went to the huge Hull family reunion in Peterson, Utah and had a blast with everyone. We played "Minute to Win It" and laughed as everyone attempted crazy stunts. It was great to spend time together.

We have loved having Shelley stay with us. She and Rob came to visit and brought their adorable bunnies as well. Sasha was in LOVE!

Here's out little cutie, ready to attend her first wedding. We got to see Tony and Cassie get married in a beautiful place in Bountiful. It was fun for Aaron to see Tony again after so long and support them on the beginning of their marriage. Sasha was really excited to wear a dress, bow and carry her own little purse (I know, is this girly girl really my daughter? yes, apparently girls who grow up as tomboys have girly girls in order to educate them).

Kim, Aaron's sister, went on a trip to China and brought Sasha back this adorable dress for her upcoming birthday. Thanks, Kimmie! It was priceless how Sasha wanted to show everyone her new dress!

Construction. Yes, we've had a construction project literally in our back yard since last December. The photo below is one I took from our kitchen window. We're hoping that most of the actual construction will be done soon and that they'll rebuild the brick wall in our back yard even sooner so we can have some privacy and a barrier from the noise. I won't hold my breath, but a girl can always hope. :)

Kim and Abrie came to visit us for the day and the girls had such a great time together. Abrie and Heidi (Aaron's sister) are in town for a year since Heidi's husband Michael is deployed. Although we're sad to have Michael gone, it has been a joy to have Heidi and Abrie here and see the girls play so well together.

Sasha and I went to the petting zoo at Gardner Village since she adores animals and it was definitely a hit. I think there must've been 15-20 goats there and Sasha probably hugged every one. Here's a photo of just one of the hugs. They had horses, goats, cows, bunnies, llamas, emus, pigs, chickens, dogs and lambs.

What a fun summer it has been! We're excited for Sasha's 2nd birthday coming up and are so blessed to have such a happy, silly, funny, intelligent and loving daughter. She is talking so much more and says the most adorable things. I love this age (even with the tantrums) and I'm so excited to see her continue to grow.

Happily Ever After...

Happy 5th Anniversary to my sweet husband! Here's a little video I made for the event and for his birthday. Enjoy!

MacGyver Diapering

Aaron, Sasha and I had three firsts on Saturday:

1. We visited Promontory Point;
2. We visited the Spiral Jetty;
3. We created a diaper using a maxi pad, a t-shirt and a grocery bag.

After hiking up an old favorite (Adam's Canyon) in Layton, we decided to join Aaron's side of the family for a trip to see the Spiral Jetty. I was excited because I had seen many photos and read information about it while working at UMFA (the Utah Museum of Fine Arts). We packed into the van with not a space to spare and headed out on our 4 hour round trip adventure. Sasha decided that this would be the day for the worst case of diarrhea in her lifetime. We thought it was no big deal since we had one diaper left, but it turns out that it was a decoy. It was a bib posing as a diaper.

Needless to say, we arrived at the Spiral Jetty with no diapers and yet another poopy diaper. Angela, Aaron's sister-in-law, found a maxi pad and offered her t-shirt. We secured the maxipad to the t-shirt and tied it snugly around Sasha's legs. Then we found a grocery bag that Aaron put some leg holes in. We put Sasha's legs through those and tied the handles around her waist. It was basically a MacGyver work of art. Sadly, it also made Sasha appear as if she had a huge growth and walk very uncomfortably. She was a trooper until we made it to a store that thankfully had some diapers in her size. I took a moment to be grateful for the technology of diapers and thought of how it would have been to be a pioneer crossing the plains with a young child. We ended up laughing about the whole thing and chalking it up to a great story.

We had a fun time and enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day with Kerry and Ang, two incredible moms. On the Mother's Day note, I have to say how grateful I am for my mom and my mother-in-law. They are both amazing women and I'm especially thankful that my relationship with my mom has deepened so much over the last year. I am truly blessed!

A New Perspective

Such a powerful and positive way to look at things...

Heartbreaker

I can already tell that Sasha is going to be a heartbreaker because she's already starting denying the fellas. Here's a little sample of Little Miss Attitude with her cute (and persistent) friend Spencer. I love the look she gives to the camera at the very end - priceless.

You are amazing!

Some days I feel like I'm a rock star and other days I wish I could have stayed in bed. This is especially true as a mom. Being a mom is like a crazy rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs, but always worth the ride. I watched this video on a friend's blog and loved the message so I wanted to share it with all of you mom's out there. You are all amazing!


P.S. I have a new goal to keep track of more of these ups and downs by "typing" in my journal three times a week (yes, I've gone for the technology route of typing up the entries on my computer). I'm sharing this little tid-bit with you in hopes of having some accountability and support. Here's to keeping a history of our lives and our families!