September 2014

 Ah, September. Month of craziness and catching up before Magnus' treatments started. Magnus came home from the hospital on Sept 4th. A few of these photos are from the last week of August, mostly of stuff Rachel sent to me because I was missing things with my kids and she had taken over as mom of the year. She has 5 kids of her own (which included a new baby at the time) + my four, so she was taking care of 9 kiddos. Yeesh. Talk about amazing.

Anyway, September also had some crazy rainstorms which I loved. Some beautiful rainbows followed those storms. So applicable to my life at the time.

Our elementary school does a Parent Picnic after the first week of school. I have missed it the last 2 years due to unforeseen circumstances. I promised my kids I would be there this year, alas, I missed it once again. I have yet to go to the Parent Picnic with them. Thankfully, Aunt Rachel and Grandma Claudia sufficed and were excellent fill-ins.

Soccer was in full swing while we were in the hospital and we were able to sneak away for a bit to watch Jonah and Daphne play in the Mayor's Cup, a soccer tournament up in Ogden. Jonah's team one 1 game and Daphne's team got into the finals. They lost, so they took 2nd place overall in their age group. Pretty impressive!

 

Baron played rec soccer again and it gets pretty competitive once they go into first grade. He decided this year that he really doesn't like soccer all that much. I doubt we will sign him up again, unless he changes his mind in a couple years.

And just a random apple I cut open one day to find that the seeds inside had SPROUTED! Sick, huh?! This apple had probably been sitting in our fruit basket since before we went to the hospital. SO gross.

Rachel had some lovely flowers waiting for us when we got home from the hospital. I'll blog about the rest of our hospital stay and coming home in a separate post.

It was cousin Liam's birthday the day Magnus came home. The next day we went to the Clark Planetarium, out to lunch, and to get ice cream. It was a fun outing for Magnus since he had been cooped up for the last few weeks. We had to be very careful since he still couldn't walk or really talk at this point. He rode in the stroller or I carried him everywhere. Not an easy task with a 50 pound kid.

Andy's brother, David had gotten engaged over the summer and the wedding was at the end of September. With everything happening with Magnus, we had to be really quick about finding outfits for everyone to wear. The boys were easy, Andy's mom got them all matching ties with instructions for white shirts and navy pants. But, the girls had to find something in with in either blush pink or cream. I took the girls shopping and we had fun trying on lots and lots of dresses.

 We were all able to find some cute stuff and it was a fun time with my girlies.

Laylah decided to try out for Mountain West Ballet's Nutcracker. She did a great job and got the part of a King's mouse as well as a Chinese Dragon. She had lots of practices every week from September until performances started in December. More on that later.

We had so many people do so many nice things for us while Mag was in the hospital. Andy's best friend, Paul, works for McDonald's Corp and sent us a gift card. We snuck the kids out of school to go get lunch one day.

I had to do some last minute searching for the wedding and Magnus tagged along. He had started walking really slowly at this point with hand-holding and lots of support. His favorite thing to do at the mall is ride up and down on the escalator. We went up and down, up and down, up and down. He loved it.

One side effect from M's surgery is personality change/frustration/lack of control over frustrating circumstances, etc. One day his toast broke and I thought it was the end of the world when he started screaming and carrying on for 15 minutes. Luckily he has gotten better since then, but it sure was weird to see my normally calm, and easy-going little guy to freak out about something so silly.

My dear friend Lori invited us to the zoo one day. It was so much fun. Even though all of the other kids are in school all day, Magnus and I don't get nearly enough one-on-one time together doing fun activities. I always thought it would be easier to get out once everyone was in school full time, but I find the opposite to be true. I'm always shuttling kids everywhere once school gets out, so I find myself wanting to be home more during the day. When my other kids were little, before they got into school, getting out for activities was crucial for my sanity. Mag has always been so easy-going, I haven't ever felt the need with him. I have tried to change that and we try to get out at least once a week for a fun activity together.

Lori's darling girl, Eleanor, is so tiny compared to Mag!

Andy's sister Stefanie is married to Travis, who is a Highway Patrolman. He let Magnus "drive" his car one night and Magnus had a blast. He now wants to be a "Police Doctor" (?!?) when he grows up.

Rachel and my mom took Magnus to the Thanksgiving Pint Farm one day so I could catch up on some stuff at home. He always has so much fun with his cousins.

And the night finally came where we were able to celebrate David and McElle! We went to their wedding dinner the evening before their wedding and it was so much fun to be ALL together. That doesn't happen very often since some of Andy's family lives out of state.

Their wedding day was absolutely beautiful. The weather couldn't have been better. They were married in the Logan, Utah temple in the morning and that evening they had a reception in Bountiful. It was just beautiful. Such a wonderful evening to celebrate the lovely couple.

 All 20 grandkids!

 Like I said, absolutely beautiful. 

One day Andy and I decided to get the kids out of school early, grab lunch, and then head to Discovery Gateway. We hadn't been there in years. In fact, Magnus had never been there. He asks to go there all of the time now. We all had so much fun and played for hours.

And that was our September. I mentioned earlier that Andy and I both dropped our classes for the semester to just focus on Magnus' treatments and therapies. I am so glad we did. I would never have been able to handle it. I promise I will do a separate post on All Things Magnus that includes more hospital stay, therapy, doctor appointments, and whatever else I can remember. 

Love these two boys.