August-o!

 August! You were not that long ago, but it feels like you were. While I absolutely adore October and November and Autumn and all of that awesome Fall-y stuff--I do miss summer with it's carefree days and late nights, pool days and no homework.... so now I shall blog about it and then it will really be gone until next year. 

First things first, we have Daphne and her cute little soccer team. I just love Daphne's soccer coach who's goal is to build team unity and friendship. Because these girls play on a competitive soccer team they are, well, very competitive by nature. Sometimes this includes trying to be competitive with one another and can cause some hurt feelings within the team. What is difficult for these young girls to understand is that, if they all continue to play soccer, they will eventually be lifelong friends. With so many girls together all the time, it can cause a lot of cattiness. But their coach just continues to try and build friendships and reminds them that they are on the same team, so they should encourage one another rather than compete with one another. Anyway, they did some fun swim parties and hiking days together.

 The beginning of August meant time for another cancer scan. We have to be there so early, around 5:45 for check-in. It won't be like this forever, but for the next several years while Magnus still has to be sedated for his MRI's, it will be early.

 He is always so good for everything, except for his IV. He hates that part and cries and struggles while a bunch of us have to hold him down. It's awful, but what else do you do?

 He got the all-clear from his oncologist who said everything looked great and to come back in 4 months. Yay!! Best news ever. I actually just recently scheduled his next one for the very beginning of January, so it will be closer to 5 months by the time he gets it done. That one is his once yearly full brain and spinal scan, including audiology testing. It'll be a long one.

 One morning I was walking over to the school track to go running and these clouds were the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It was like a wave of thick clouds slowly moving over the whole valley. So ominous looking. But they burned off after a couple of hours.

 These two cuties just love each other.

I did back to school haircuts on everyone. These 3 are the only ones who had big changes. Jonah and Bear wanted famous soccer player haircuts (Rinaldo and Messi--I don't even know if i am spelling that correctly) and Laylah had me cut some long side-swept bangs. I told her she would get sick of them and she insisted she wouldn't, but guess who was right? Mom, of course. Isn't she always? She hated them after about 3 weeks and totally regretted doing it.

I had to take these two cuties to the pediatrician to have their blood drawn. Daphne had been sick for awhile and had a negative strep test so the doc wanted to test her for Epstein-barr virus, aka mono. Magnus needed some labs re-done from when he had his cancer scan because his bloodwork was kind of wacky and we needed to make sure it had gone back to normal. His oncologist was alos testing him for Diabetes Insipidous which is a hormonal type of diabetes than can come from a damaged pituitary gland. Anyway, Magnus's bloodwork looked great, but Daphne's not so much. Our little lady had mono. Boo :(

 That meant an immediate end of summer break activities. Her pediatrician said that if she didn't follow his exact instructions, instead of being sick for a few weeks, she would be sick for 6-9 months. She went on to bedrest for the remainder of the summer. Absolutely no leaving the house and NO SOCCER! Sad Daphne. She had to miss all of our end of summer activities that we had planned.

Laylah was fitted for her first pair of point shoes. She made it into the highest company at her dance studio and needed a bunch of new dance stuff. It was a fun morning together.

This is actually from July, but I threw it in here. Laylah and her two friends in her primary class sung a beautiful song called "3 White Dresses" in sacrament meeting because their primary teacher's daughter was being blessed and she asked them to do it.  It was incredible. Laylah has always been a talented singer, but these three together were amazing. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. I had a very difficult time not sobbing out loud. It was just one of those days.

Cute Daphne. Bored out of her mind. She read so many books from her diagnosis until school started.

Make A Wish invited us to Seven Peaks for the Rubber Ducky Derby.  Andy stayed home with Daphne. The other kids had a blast, especially since we have some other cancer family friends who were there. I spent most of the day with Magnus. The Miracle Heroes Network (or something, I can't remember exactly what the organization is called) were there and Magnus wanted a photo with this storm trooper.

Laylah and Zoey. Zoey is actually in Jonah's class at school and both of their baby brothers had cancer. They are both in remission now, so it is pretty much the greatest thing ever.

 It was a fun (and free!) day with a yummy lunch from Chik-Fil-A.

A few days later we went to Lagoon. We always go with my family and it is the most fun. I love Lagoon. So do my kiddos. Magnus spent most of the day with Rachel and my mom going on kiddie rides.  Daphne was home with Grandma Collette. I still feel bad that she missed all the fun.

The rest of us went on all of the crazy roller coasters and all of the big kid rides. Such a fun day.

Drenched!

 It was a FUN day. I love that my kids are so close with their cousins. It's the best.

 WHAT?! Back to school already??! Okay, here's a story for ya: We are in Murray school district which is just teeny tiny compared to most other districts in Utah. There are 7 elementary schools, two jr. highs and one highschool... in the WHOLE district. It is awesome and partly why I love Murray so much. Definitely a quirky place, which is another story for another time. 

Anyway! My kids don't go to the elementary they are supposed to because of the magnet program. The school they do go to is on the other side of town from us. One of the jr. highs is right by our elementary and all of the kids from our elementary go there. Well, since Laylah was going into jr. high we had to make a decision. She could go to the jr. high by our house and make new friends, or I volunteered to drive her to the one by her current elementary, where all of her friends from school would be going. She chose to go to the school by our house and meet new friends. So we got her all registered and I didn't mind one bit because that meant she could walk to school. Well, one day when 6th grade was almost over she came home crying that she had changed her mind and she wanted to go to the jr. high that all of her friends were going to. She didn't want to make new friends, she would miss her current friends too much (even though they would all meet up in highschool...) but I totally understand that jr. high is a tricky time and can be hard enough with good friends. So I supported her and we went to the district office to register her for the other jr. high. Well, they didn't have room so we were put on a waiting lost. In the middle of August we were called and informed that she had gotten in. Oh happy day! She was so excited and I was too, because while I do have to drive her there, she has terrific friends and that is what matters most to me. Plus I am used to driving. I have driven my kids to school since Laylah started kindergarten.

That was a great story, yeah? Haha.

SO we went to the open house for Laylah's jr. high and she got her classes and her locker assignment and we looked around that huge, new school and Laylah felt like a very small fish in a very big pond. But her best friend Katie and she have lockers right next to each other and have 5 classes together AND lunch period together. What are the odds?! I never got that lucky with any of my friends in jr high. Maybe one or two classes at the most, but not usually. SO yes, my oldest child has advanced into the scary place of jr high but she already seems to be doing better than i was at her age and she loves it.

Can I profess my love of flat irons for a minute?! I do. I love them. Because this is what I look like when I let my hair dry naturally. Scary sight, I tell ya.

And here we have a little boy in his natural environment... running naked down the hall to his room. Cute little bum.

 And the day came where the first day of school was upon us and we had our Back to School Feast. But I will do a separate post for that.

The people at Make A Wish told us that in order to book Magnus' wish (a cruise) we would need to have passports in hand. So we got busy getting everything together and applying for passports. It is so much work to get passports for 7 people! Andy needed a new one because his had been expired for over 5 years.

We had to go get passport photos, too.

 Oh my heck, we about died laughing at Andy's old passport photo compared to his new one. He doesn't even look like the same person!

After sending everything in, we were told it would be 4-6 weeks before our passports arrived.

My sister Suzanne wanted a big change to her hair. I think this is the shortest (and darkest) her hair has ever been. I am so proud of this girl. She lost close to 100 pounds and has kept it off for almost 2 years. She's amazing. She is getting married in May and I am so happy for her.

 It has been so much fun to watch Jonah play soccer this year. He has this fire about him that I have only noticed when he is on a sports field and playing his heart out. I love him so much, he makes me such a proud mama.

 His team has really come together this year. They are much better friends than they were last year.

 We had an end of summer pool party with his team and the boys had a blast.

Just a random Sunday afternoon, trying to kill the boredom that can sometimes come along with trying our best to keep the Sabbath day holy ;)

And the final photo in August is of this kid who got himself dressed this particular day. He cracks me up. This shows you the difference between the first kid and the baby of the family. If I had a photo of Laylah at this age side-by-side this photo, you would see a perfectly poised little girl with perfectly styled hair and a perfectly matching outfit/shoes. Ohhhh, how we learn and grow as moms to realize the real importance of things in our lives.

And that's August!