Various and Sundry etc. . .

It’s redundant, I know.  But there is a story behind it.  I just got back from a trip to Utah.  I went out for Labor Day weekend to see my college roomies and help my parents move.  My sister, Courtney, also came into town and she and I were tasked with packing up the kitchen.  My kids were with Geri so we had plenty of time without interruption or fear of little hands breaking things.  I’d been helping pack up for a couple of days and my parents have a lot of things in their kitchen.  We were trying very hard to be exact in our labels on the boxes because my parents were hiring movers and needed it to be clear where everything went.  Also, my mom is very organized and labeling well makes unpacking so much easier.  As packing often goes, random things often ended up in boxes, so I frequently added labels like etc.  I started to get bored with that and started labeling every box with words like “etc, various, sundry, et al, misc.”  It should be noted that I had labeled dozens of boxes at this point and the permanent markers my parents had were fume-tastic (read, I may have been a bit high).  Courtney and I were very amused with ourselves and I even used some painter’s tape to label myself at one point, and, yes, I included etc or et al.  I don’t recall. 

All in all, it was fun and exhausting and I LOVE my parents’ new place.  So do my kids.

I didn’t take many pictures, but my mom did, so I will have to get them from her, including the pictures of me with Paige.  I think Dani has the pictures of us at her grandparents’ place.  It should be noted that Ben and Dani’s little boy James had the greatest time together.  Seriously, I have never seen two kids take so quickly to each other.  They were thick as thieves and spent most of their time trying to vanquish aliens.  It was all very exciting and loud.

We had a great time in Utah, in fact, we had such a great time that we extended our stay twice.  Eventually, I decided it was past time to get back to my husband and get into real life.  So I braved myself to make the 18 hour drive again and we came back.  I have more pictures from when we got back because my mom gave me her old camera (you may recall that Penny broke ours).  It is an awesome DSLR.  The smaller lens has a cracked casing, but it’s still a huge step up from the camera Penny broke and puts my college camera I’ve been using to shame.

We made it back in time for Ben to start preschool.  Actually, he missed the first week of preschool, but since he only goes two days a week, it wasn’t a huge deal.  Still, I had to take pictures of the first day he went.  The lighting wasn’t great and I am still learning the ways of the DSLR, so they didn’t turn out great, but Ben is still adorable.

What a cutie! He had a great time and his teacher said he did great.  I also have to say I am rather proud of his little messenger bag that I made.  I have some better pictures of just the bag somewhere, but you get the idea.  I embroidered his name on the back, too.  I used to tutorial here, so I don’t pretend to be awesome enough to come up with this.

I also put Penny’s hair in pigtails for the first time.  I know she is nearing two, so it’s silly that it’s taken this long to do  it.  In my defense, her hair was very slow in coming in.  Plus, her little curls are so adorable on their own and I never have the energy to wrangle a very lively toddler to do her hair.  I finally broke down and did it, here are the results:

Last but not least, in honor of today’s BYU game against Utah, I dressed the kids in their new Cougar duds that Geri bought for them while we were in Provo visiting Robert and Michelle.  And all I can say is, oh man, they looked cute.  We just took these in our backyard, and yes, it is that crazy wild and overgrown at the moment.  Also, it was super overcast all day so I was still struggling with the lighting on the new camera. The kids were being really cute with each other, too.  I have to say that I definitely stole the dress from Dani and Mat who had already gotten one for their little Allie.  Can you blame me though?  Check it out:

Off to the races.  These two love being outside and it was rainy all week so they were pumped to be set free.  Penny insisted on wearing the hat and Ben did not want to take his hood down even though it really wasn’t cold out.

Penny is entering her “cheesy smile for the camera” phase.  Also, note the adorable pink high top Converse.  Our friend Marca gave those to us when Penny was born and I am so pumped that she can finally wear them.  Although, if memory serves, Marca is a U of U girl, so she may not be pleased with the rest of the ensemble.

I am normally not a huge fan of from behind shots, but I love this picture and the next one.

I just love those cute little behinds.

Again, I am still working on better focus, but, seriously, does it get any cute than this?  It should also be noted that as soon as you put a dress or skirt on Penny, the first thing she does is twirl around and watch it flare out.

Finally got Ben to take the hood off.

It was impossible to pick a picture of these two being adorable together, they kept chasing each other and then giving huge hugs.  A lot of the pictures were really blurry because they never stopped moving, but I turned one series into a little video slideshow.

Just a slideshow of my kids being adorable together

And my favorite pictures out of that series:

Just melts my heart.  That is all for now, although there were definitely more pictures.  But it’s time to watch the game!

Edited: Apparently this didn't post last night when I told it to.  Alls I have to say is I am no fairweather fan and I still love the Cougs, but YIPES!