For a second there, I thought fall was come and gone within a one-week period, and I was definitely emotional about it. We had one warm sunny week followed by frigid temperatures and frost on my grass in the morning, and I just knew we were done for. But luckily for everyone else in my house, the warm weather came back and I was able to enjoy the rest of our September and the first week of October with true autumn colors and weather.

The first weekend of September I shot a wedding for Adam’s uncle, so all my kids got to visit me while at work.

On Labor Day we lost our minds and added another member to our family. The first two weeks were pretty rough and despite those big, brown eyes I kind of wanted to give him back. My stress levels spiked and needed some time to level back out at a higher, new normal range. He does fit right in with us and is doing much better with housetraining 🙂 He is Kainoa, which means “junior” and also free-flowing water. We joke that he moves like water, slipping out our front door with only a crack open.

The day after our puppy joined our family, Adam and I celebrated our 8th anniversary by jumping into the freezing cold Tibble Fork Reservoir and taking pictures together.

Mirabelle turned 7 months. She is the best, cutest, sweetest, snuggliest, happiest thing we’ve ever had in our home. We all still just adore her. She isn’t crawling yet, but she at least knows she wants to be crawling! She is close. She is still “dainty” as many have called her. She is only 7th percentile for her weight, which is unheard of for my ginormous boys!

At the end of the month, we were able to go to the Hogle Zoo with our online Homeschool program, My Tech High. I was really glad we went when we had a discount, because the size of the zoo (small) didn’t seem to quite match the (large) price of admission. It was also fun for me to keep up our tradition of visiting the zoo in the fall, though I was quite sad to not have our usual crew with us (see here for last years adventure). 

Not pictured: Axton climbing over a clearly-marked fence, almost hurling himself into an animal’s den, Rhenner throwing a ginormous fit because he wanted to “walk himself,” but just standing there and not moving while I tell him, Sure, go ahead! Walk yourself! and Mirabelle napping on me through it all.

Other small feats:

Axton read his first book all by  himself! Hop on Pop! We are attempting Cat in the Hat next but it is much slower going.

I learned some beginner canning skills from my friend Becky! She brought over all the equipment and I now have a small stack of home-grown goodness. Our garden this year was a huge hit!

We hiked BattleCreek Falls for the second time.

September was a good month 🙂