SEPTEMBER 2016

We started September off with a busy fun filled weekend. Labor Day is always Peach Days and I am in charge of the Peach Days 12k race. We had 50 runners this year. It's a fun race, everyone projects their finish time, and no clocks or watches are allowed, whoever finishes closest to their projected time wins. I like races where the fastest person doesn't always win! I have great help for the race, so this year it wasn't too stressful. The first year I did it all by myself and that was a mistake! It poured Friday evening hence the naked pictures of Oliver running in the rain. It never rains, so when it does we take advantage of it and play our little hearts out in it. Gus entered his bug collection into Peach Days and won Reserve! He got a huge ribbon and 5 bucks. Gus and Ollie entered gourds out of Grandma Linie's garden they both got blue ribbons for those. One of Kyle's customers from work came to experience Peach Days weekend with us. They live in Vegas and came early Saturday morning for the parade, we let them experience navajo tacos, then we took them swimming at Gma Linie's, they stayed at the Sand Hollow villas, we met up with them for dinner then took them to their first rodeo. We met an awesome couple from France who use home exchange dot com. They literally just change houses with random people and stay for free. I'm already planning my next vacation. Sunday we went to church and then took his customers to the cabin to stay a night there. They did so many firsts with us Labor Day weekend. Let me think if I remember them all. First; rodeo, time shooting a bow & arrow, time eating navajo taco, fishing, catching a fish, eating dutch oven ... that is all I can remember right now. Thats a lot of first though. It was a fun weekend and we were happy they had so much fun.

I like finding random pictures of my house that the boys have taken. I never take pictures of our house. I feel like one day I'm gonna wish I remember what it looked like in 2016. Notice how our Halloween decor got put up like 6 weeks before Halloween! I spy my spider outside and my Halloween wreath. 

Some of our pictures from our adventures on Kolob over the past September weekends. Jack decided he wanted to eat Sage's treat. yuck. He is my animal lover. He loves Sage, and our duck Alpaca Gumby Ballard. Grandpa and Grandma told the kids stories one night. They were quite depressing scary stories. Kyle kept yelling up, don't you guys know any happy fun stories. We found the tree that all of Kyle's siblings wrote their names on.

The alumni of HHS aka Gma Linie, Marylu and such dress up for the Homecoming parade. This year they were clowns. 

Adventures at my moms. One day I helped her make slush for a wedding, well I thought I was helping.. I looked over and Jack spilled the entire container of oatmeal on the floor, then Gus and him started eating it dry then Gus had a cup of water that Jack spilled all over it then when I was cleaning it up I saw little black bugs all over in it then I started dry heaving then I told my mom and she looked then she decided it was just her chia seeds that spilled earlier that morning. Yikes! Close call on eating the bugs. Linda put it correctly the other day. Jack is Hell On Wheels thats what he should be for Halloween. The Devil on Wheels

April sent me this the other day. One of my boys were picking their nose and she told them a snail might bite their finger off. We were confused so she found where it came from.

Random sleeping pictures. Oliver asleep while still trying to drink his juice, boxing gloves close at hand. Jack asleep on my bed. He never falls asleep in random places so I had to document it.

I took this picture of these three building a tent. They are WAY into building tents these days. Kyle hates it because it always is messy. Well, I took this pic and sent it to Kyle with the title "Sometimes they play nice" it is few and far between, but nothing makes this mommas heart happier than hearing laughter of all three boys in the other room playing nicely together. That was a way long sentence. They don't always let Jack in on the hut building he is more of a tear the hut down kinda guy then Oliver will start crying because Jack tore down the tent then Jack will start crying because Gus or Oliver hit him because he made them angry by tearing down the tent. So is the saga of a happy home of the Ballard's

Gus and Oliver went on a bike ride with Marylu and Kelly one evening. They found a tarantula, I guess when Gus put it in the bottle he was saying "come here little fella". We needed a tarantula for Oliver's bug collection so it was perfect. Or did we feed that one to the scorpions? Either way it was well used.

Grandma Linie and Gus got a caterpillar from crazy lady Mathison (sp?) in her ward. We put it in a jar with some milk weed and a few days later it made a chrysalis. It had the prettiest gold specks all over it. I don't know what that is attached to it, kinda creepy. Well the story of the monarch chrysalis goes like this. I let it sit in the house for a week, then I put it on our windowsill, and the gold disappeared now it looks yucky and maybe I killed it? I don't know. it was really pretty though

Oliver Bruce. My happy little boy. He loves nursery. I watch him in their every week and I realize he is my clown. You can tell by his smile in the first pic. He is always goofing off and his leaders tell me random things that make me believe he is a goof off just like his daddy.

It was pouring one night, and we knew Gma Linie was going to turn off the pool (she had been heating it to like 91 degrees for us) soon. So I said lets go swimming and I got weird looks from all of them, but it was so much fun. Ive never swam in the rain, Kyle the spoiled kid said they used to a lot. It was a straight downpour, and we swam our little hearts out, we ended in the hot tub.

Gus, Kyle, and Linda went frog hunting the night it rained. They caught a fat old sucker they said. I dislike frogs. I also dislike grasshoppers. I have decided its because they jump and who knows where they will land.

Gus has become very good at shooting his bow Shane Tooke gave him. Well, one Sunday we were trying to keep the sabbath and then we looked over and Deloy Emmett the expert at all things bows and arrows was outside shooting flew flew's. Totally not how you spell it but its an arrow that he makes that has these little flew flew's on the end that make it only go a few feet so its pretty safe to shoot in your backyard. He fixed up Gus' bow and gave him some pointers. Deloy works for the Scouts at a high adventure camp all summer over their shooting division so he is good at teaching kids how to do it correctly.

Oliver loves to help me cook. Sometimes I have patience for it sometimes I don't. We made rolls together one day. His roll had lots of fun additions to it like already cooked bread and such. He is a character for sure. Don't we all wish we could cook in our undies, no shirt, and high top shoes...

Hurricane had a safety fair one Saturday so we took the boys down. We wanted to be one of the first 40 their so they all could get free helmets, which we did. They did a bike course and learned the proper biking rules, and even got a license to bike.

Kyle and Gus went with Uncle Keith to his property to sight his gun in. This is a pic of Gus shooting. I forget how many yards away the target is maybe 500? Idk, but Gus shot bullseye 

Gus has made some good friends in Kindergarten this is him playing with Brigham Holt (Cassadee and Brady Holt's kid). Brigham is hilarious he reminds me of Oliver. He loved the duck. He told us he used to have ducks but they grew big so they had to let them go. Cass said they took them to Grandpa's pond but thats a secret and she will deny it if anyone brings it up.

I finally got to meet baby Rosie. Gus, Oliver, and Jack have been sick then I got whatever they had so its been like 4 weeks since she was born. Look at her cheeks! she is amazingly cute. Almost makes me want to try for another, but then I remember a cute little boy named Hell on Wheels

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Jack Jack Attack had his 1 year check up. All was well. 

weight 20.66 or 11percentile

length 30.5 or 53 percentile

head circ. 18.9 or 83 percentile

does that say skinny, long, with a big head or what

Hunting started for us in September. Kyle is a dedicated hunter so he could shoot muzzleloader which is what starts first. I love love love the hunting part of it, kinda hate the killing part. I like to be disconnected from my food I realized. If I had to kill my own animal for food I would be a hardcore vegetarian for sure. Anyway, I love the hunting part of it because we see some amazingly beautiful country. Places I have never been too or new existed, we see lots of animals, and the kids love being outdoors ANNND my house stays clean all at the same time. Win Win. My favorite place we went to this year was up Johnson Canyon in Kanab to the Paunsagaunt. Its a trophy deer unit, but Kyle can shoot a spike elk in any trophy unit. It was so very beautiful, sheer cliff walls that people have built there houses on right at the base of it. Petroglyphs everywhere. Its like Zion but people live right by the pretty mountains. Its crazy and I didn't take any pictures. Next time. A lot of people make fun of me for going hunting not really make fun but can't believe I like it. Whats not to like about hiking in the outdoors, in beautiful areas, letting your kids play around looking for cool things. I love it. He got a deer (I will post about it in Oct.) and that was really sad or traumatic but we love the meat especially Oliver. He always wants "deer meat" for dinner. We begged Gma Linie to stay with us at the cabin the night before the hunt started so we could hunt up there the first day. We had a lot of fun with her. Shane and Indie drove up super early and hunted with us for a few hours. We saw "Kyle's" 3x2 deer. It has crazy antlers. The one side has a little 3 point but its a tiny one thats goes in. Its crazy.  We let him be though

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I write on our calendar like a little mini journal of what we did. This is September in all its craziness