Wake me up when September ends...oh, it's over already? What??

 I swear, you blink and it's gone.  September that is, I know October too, but I never got around to September yet people, so give me a break.  September is worth remembering.  We attended Tanner's good friend (and mine!) Natalie Levitt's wedding reception.  It was lovely and Garry and I had the privilege of attending her temple wedding too.  Tanner joined us on one of our late night Saturday night game nights with Shafer's before he went back to BYUI.

 I loaned my temple wedding dress to the stake YW for a Beehive conference.  Cynjyn tried it on.  I couldn't give them my real wedding dress because I believe it's still at my mom's house (at least I hope it is!).

 Once I started back to work Tanner cooked a lot of dinner's for us.  That was nice until he left.

 This was his last night home.  I sure do miss him.  He had to go a detour route by Lake Mead to get to BYUI because the week he left there was flooding and the road to St. George was washed out!  It was crazy, it just took away part of the highway.  This year, he drove himself to school as we didn't need to go since he is no longer a freshman.  That was bittersweet, but he made it without any incident even though he left at like 4:00 am and he'd been sleeping past noon most of the summer!

 Garry, Cynjyn and I cleaned the church one Saturday morning.  Taz had a CC meet and wasn't able to help us.

 He's taken to wearing this hat to his meets now ever since he used it at homecoming.  At this particular meet, he wore it clear to the starting line and had his team convinced that he was going to wear it during the race, but at the last minute, he took it off!

 I wanted my hair trimmed, so Cynjyn watched some YouTube videos and gave it a whirl for me.  She did great.  And my moto is, hair always grows back!

 
 Periodically as a book club, we go see movies in the theater that we've read in the past.  Then we go out to dinner.  We always invite our husbands.  This was one such event.  But this time it was only the Thatchers and Hills and us that went.  The Shafer's did however meet us for dinner.  We went to Maze Runner and I really enjoyed it.  It helped that I'd been watching Teen Wolf with Taz and Cynjyn and the leading man was a major character that I love from the show, so it was fun watching Dylan O'Brian. 

 

 We had our primary program the 21st of September.  The day before it at an open house for a member of our ward who had just passed away, Brother White cornered me and informed me that I was going to be release the next day.  REALLY??  I was floored and didn't see that coming!   He said the Lord had great plans for me, but that was all he said.  So I carried on and was released that Sunday right before the program.  I did finish it though and the kids did great.  I had made them this gift as a thank you for singing so great and I was planning on giving it to them the next Sunday because I didn't want to interfere with the goodies from the Primary Presidency, but I ended up whipping them up the night before after I got my news and went into Primary to say good bye and deliver it.  The kids were all sad that I was leaving and they all said they would miss me.  I have had so many teachers and kids come up to me since then to say how much they miss me and  appreciated my hard work in the calling.  That makes me feel good.  I really miss it and hope to have the calling again some day as it truly is one of my favorite callings. The next week, I got these thank yous from each class.  It was sweet.  I did get a phone call that morning to meet with a member of the High Council after church and was called to be the first counselor in the stake primary presidency.  That was a shock since the President is my best friend and as far as I knew, she was fully staffed, but I guess her 1st counselor was moving out of state in about a week.  So I accepted and jumped right in attending the different wards primary programs.  That was awesome, and they were all so beautifully done.  We have 10 wards in our stake, so, I wasn't able to attend them all as some were at the same times, so we split up as a presidency and did double duty.  But so far it's been different, but enjoyable.  But I really do miss singing time.

 Cynjyn made this adorable book for her best friend from school, Adrienne.  It is 52 reason's why you're my best friend and she used a deck of cards and cut and mounted cardstock that she had inked the edges to and personally wrote on each of them a different reason and then included a picture of them at the end.  Taz and I helped her by Taz rounding the corners of the cardstock and I glued the pieces onto the cards for her.  It was quite cute.  Cynjyn babysat for Shafer's now that Tanner is gone, she was happy to have some spending money.  Mikel, Cynjyn and I went to the General women's broadcast then out to Red Robin for dinner with Hills, Thatcher's and Andrea.  It was a fun evening.

 Talon and Mikel are still together and still here.  However, we went from seeing Mikel almost daily, to barely weekly now with their jobs.  Talon works 1-9pm at high desert prison and has Monday's and Tuesdays off.  With an hour commute each way, he is gone from about 11:30-10 when he works.  Mikel works grave yard at a Dr. office as a CNA.  Her shifts are Monday and Tuesday.  So they are basically on opposite shifts and hardly see each other.  We see Mikel at church and sometimes she comes over for Sunday dinner.  The night that Walking Dead premiered, she watched it with us and Talon got mad because non of us waited for him, so now she waits until Monday to watch it with him and so we don't see her much anymore.

 Garry and I went to the temple three times in a month.  For Natalie's wedding and then for Gavin Thatcher's endowments and Bryson Tanner's endowments.  They are both leaving for their missions Oct and Nov respectively.  We didn't make it to Jared Thomson's endowment because I had to play for Cannon's choir concert that night and that meant Garry had to take Cynjyn to HKA.  That is three of his YM that he is losing to graduation and missions.  The best thing to lose them too!

 Taz's class won the homecoming float competition.  He didn't help with it, but I thought it should be documented anyway. 

 

 Cynjyn had a sleepover with Becca and a new friend Kandace that goes to Becca's school.  One weekend they went to the Frightdome at Circus Circus and Cynjyn was brave enough to get her picture taken with a worker who was out and about roaming trying to scare people.

 Garry got glasses for night driving and distance.  His lasic is losing the battle due to aging, but it does help him see better at night.

  Elder Silata was a frequent dinner guest and it seemed like he always stayed longer that dinner lasted.  He is the elder Tanner did his mini mission with.  Here he is with his new companion, Elder Oveson.  They stayed for two hours that night and Elder Silata told us that he feels like he's at home when he comes here and it's so relaxed and he just doesn't want to leave!  Alas, he got transferred this past Tuesday, and boy will we miss him!

 Taz had a bowl of cereal one day for an after school snack.  Talon had just eaten, but he had to have one too because Taz made it look so good and he hasn't eaten cereal in forever mom!

Cynjyn...being Cynjyn...

 I told Talon one day that I never get any pictures of him because he's not around much.  We happened to be outside at that time, so I told him to do something picture worthy.  So he went and stood in the jacuzzi.  Then I made him pose on the swing with Cynjyn.  So now I'm glad to have some pictures with Talon in them!

 Our ward had a daddy daughter night at the climbing center.  It was for 4 hours.  Cynjyn and Garry had a great time and apparently it was a good turn out.  She's getting quite good at climbing and belaying. 

Homecoming 2014

So since Taz turned 16 in August, he was able to go to his first homecoming dance this year. He decided to ask Courtney Eddington.  His good friend Lawson was going to ask Shae and they were excited to go together in a group.  We were thinking and thinking on how to ask Courtney.  Cynjyn came up with some cute ideas, but Taz was having none of it.  He asked Lawson what he was going to do to ask Shae and he said he had talked to Brother Van who owns horses and was going to ride up to her and ask her on a horse.  Taz loved the idea and asked if he could do it too.  Lawson said sure.  So they worked it out to do it on Shae's birthday since they knew Courtney would be there too.  I didn't know exactly what day they were going to do it, so I get a text from Taz while I'm at work asking me if I'd help him make a poster after school to ask Courtney.  I immediately said no way, poster are so what everyone does.  We need to do something different.  Tanner was still here at this point and he was coming up with some pretty creative poster ideas though. We were going to go with a roping one since it was cowboy themed and then it dawned on me to make a wanted poster in Photoshop. I made it and sent it to Sam's one hour photo and got it before he got home.  I had it waiting for him and I thought it turned out super cute, but he said no way!  I explained to him that everyone and their dog was going to be asked to homecoming with a poster because creativity is limited in some people and that this was still poster like, but just different enough to be special.  The more he looked at it and thought about it, the more he liked it and agreed.  His friend Lex was telling him it was cool, so that helped his decision.  We borrowed some cowboy boots and a shirt from the Thomsons  (where's grandma when you need her and his cowboy birthday clothes she thinks he outgrew??)

He met Lawson at the Van's and from there they went to Shae's neighborhood  to get saddle up.  I know I posted these earlier, but this was a shot of them waiting at the Van's and then riding up to the girls who were waiting outside.  Lex was helping them by having all the girls outside on Shae's lawn at a certain time. Then Lawson rode up with his poster and a rose and asked Shae.  Then he left and Taz got on the horse and rode up to the lawn and asked Courtney.  It was funny because they were laughing and giggling from Shae and then all of a sudden another rider starts coming and they are freaking out asking who it is and who its for.  It was pretty funny and  I'd given my phone to Lex to video it all for me.

So after their big asking they had to wait until the girls replied.  That came a few days later...The girls had texted me and Linda to see if we could get Taz and Lawson together at my house at a scheduled time.  So we planned for a Tuesday at 4:00.  The doorbell rang and when T and L opened it, these two were on the front doorstep.  No sign, no nothing. 

A few minutes later the girls popped out from behind the pillars and had Raising Canes chicken and posters with their answers.

A cute ending to the asking saga of homecoming.

 Homecoming was on a Saturday evening.  Taz group got pretty crazy.  More and more people kept jumping in on it.  In the end, it came down to 11 couples.  Ryan and Andrew Pappas organized it and because both of their parents work on the strip, they were able to get all of the activities discounted for the boys. 

They met at the St. Rose Cancer gardens for a group photo shoot that all the moms and some dads were at.  That took about an hour and a half and there were other groups there...a popular place.  From there, a party limo came and picked them up and escorted them around to their various locations since most of them had just turned 16 and could only drive family members.  The first thing they did was the gondolas at the Venetian.  They went in groups of 4.  Then they did dinner at Bucca's in Excalibur.  Then they all rode the linx, or high roller Ferris wheel.  Then the NYNY roller coaster.  He got home at 1:15, but by all accounts he had a great time.  We had purchased him a tux figuring he'd be going to 4 formals including 2 proms and another homecoming.  With the discounts it came out to $170/couple for the evening.  I ended up making Courtney's corsage from a similar one I'd found on Pinterest.  I thought it turned out adorable and different.  It is something she can keep as we bought a pretty blue bracelet that matched her dress and attached the top part with ribbon that she can take off and then wear the bracelet separately.  The top she can keep as a keepsake, or turn into a hair barret or something like that.

 So, here are more random pictures from the shoot that didn't make it onto the layout.

 Taz and Andrew

 Taz and Lawson and Taz and Josh.

 Taz and Lex and then Lawson, Shae, Taz and Lex.  They've grown up together and been in the same ward since forever.  So glad they are still friends and like doing things together.