My Little Salesman & September's End

Logan's school just finished a fundraiser and I've never seen a kid so excited to sell stuff! I'm not sure if it's because he's selling chocolates and fancy popcorn, or if it's because they bribed the kids with prizes if they make a certain number of sales. Either way, he got home from school with his sign up sheet and insisted we head out and sell to our street before we ate lunch. The minute Dave got home he insisted Dave take him back out to visit the houses on our street that weren't home earlier in the day (He has sold to 100% of the houses we've talked to).

He sold enough to earn all 4 of the prizes available. His little sales pitch cracks me up too. One retired gentleman asked him "Logan, what would you recommend?" and he got out his sales paper and pointed to the chocolate covered caramels shaped like an owl "I would buy these ones, they look so delicious." He insisted I email his Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles and ask them to buy too. He's so devoted to this!

We also had Parent Teacher Conferences last week. Logan is doing great in school! He took a standardized test and scored in the highest division! His teacher got out the goals for the first phase of school and he had reached all but one of them already. So we are working on his reading. She also told us he would start getting homework (something I was hoping we weren't going to have to start this year). Overall Logan enjoys school and has made many friends. I was a little worried about him making friends, but he always has someone telling him bye when he leaves for the day.

This Saturday we went to a political event for Jim Dunnigan (going for re-election for Utah state legislature). I'd been doing phone calls all week inviting people to the event and it sounded like fun, so we decided to go. They had a free breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and cake (a guy must have made that add on), and rides. They were supposed to have hot air balloon rides, but since it was raining that was canceled.

But the boys had a blast riding the train, bouncing in the bounce house and eating cake and bacon. I felt bad for Jim, you could tell they planned for a big crowd, but with the rain not a lot of people came. We played for about 2 hours and headed home. There weren't lines for anything, so it was constant playing. Brooklyn slept through it all (as always).

That night I had Women's Conference at the Stake Center. After they had apple cider and sweet breads (including some Gluten Free breads). I brought Brooklyn with me and she slept the entire time. The boys and Dave headed over to our church because the Elder's Quorum decided to host a pizza and movie night! BEST. IDEA. EVER! They had so much fun chasing their friends around the gym and eating pizza. And Dave had a great time chatting with the other men there. They were having so much fun I got home and fed the baby before they returned.

Brooklyn is doing great! She's been gaining weight like crazy (she's up from 7 lbs to 11). She's gained so much she doesn't fit in her blessing dress. So next week I need to figure out how to alter it so it fits. I tried it on her two weeks ago and it fit great! Oh well, such is life. She has leg rolls and a double chin. She also rolls over and wriggles her way across the crib. this is her at a 80 degree angle of what I put her to bed at. She also can scoot  half way across our bed, so we can't leave her unattended!

I had my 6 week post birth check up today and everything looks great. So next week I'm going to start exercising and eating more healthy. I thought about starting this weekend, but with the weekend consumed with Conference, I thought it would be best to wait until next week. I figure it's best not to fail at the beginning.

We've been planning a few trips this past week as well. I found out my Grandpa Yoder has cancer, so we've planned a trip down to visit him in October. I booked a hotel with an indoor pool, and we look forward to visiting. Dave's family also is planning Thanksgiving in Moab this year (with all his Plastow side of the family). So we booked a hotel with an indoor pool for that as well. So hopefully we'll have two good trips in the next few months. 

Other than that, I've been helping collect things for 30 refugee families in our neighborhood. It's not exactly a convenient time for me, but I'm sure it's not a convenient time for them to be relocated from Venezuela. Their stories are so sad, and with the cold weather coming soon they are in desperate need of warm clothes as well as furniture and household items. It's been great to help so many families in need.

Dave's Race!

Last Saturday Dave finished his first Marathon! He did a great job, although he hurt his knee about 4 miles from the end and had to walk the rest. He still finished in 4.5 hours (let's be honest, it would take me 4.5 days to go 26.2 miles). He was disappointed that he got hurt, but glad he got to finish. Before the injury he was pacing to make it in 4 hours (which is fabulous for him).

This Saturday we decided to make salsa. We had TONS of tomatoes, so I decided it would be good to make 3 batches... it ended up making 41 jars, which was WAY too much to process in one batch. But we finished and won't need to make salsa for another 3 years (hopefully). It took us from 9am to about 2 in the afternoon (with several breaks to feed the kids and baby).

I've been dreading making salsa since before the baby was born, so I'm glad it's over. Now I Just have to convince Dave we can kill 2 or 3 of our 5 tomato plants now that the salsa is done... either that or I'll be making spaghetti sauce next. We'll see!

Before Brooklyn was born, my sister-in-law Angela got me connected with this phone survey company that lets you make phone calls from home. So this week I picked up a survey and was able to earn a little extra money from home. It's an easy work from home job. I get on and do a few phone calls while Dustin & Brooklyn are napping or after the boys are in bed for the night (they only require 10 hours a week). 

The last survey was about Hillary and Trump (and it was awful!), but the one I was calling on this week is just inviting people out to an event for a local Republican. The event actually sounds fun, so I don't mind making calls and I get to earn money for our Thanksgiving trip to Moab.

The best part? When nobody answers I get to quilt (or today write a blog post)! So I'm getting paid to work on this bad boy. I hope it will be done by December. JOB BONUS!

This week we found out my Grandpa Yoder has cancer and will probably die in the next 2 - 4 months. I love my Grandparents like crazy, so this was horrible news! We're planning to go out and visit them in October, so hopefully he'll last that long so we can see him at least one last time and get to help out with whatever they may need help with. 

I was talking with Dave about my Grandpa while eating with the boys and we had a cute conversation. It went something like this

Me: It sounds like he's ready to go, but I'm not ready.

Dustin: I want to go with him

Me: I'm talking about dyeing. I would miss you if you died too.

Dustin: I want to die. Then I could meet Jesus.

It made me smile. I'm so glad we know about God's plan for us and that we can be with Him, our families (and yes, Jesus) again. It makes it a little easier to prepare ourselves to let go of a loved one. What a testimony for Dustin to share with me! 

I'm also so grateful we found out about this in advance so we can have a chance to say our goodbyes (and maybe play a last game of hearts while eating a huge plate of Costco double fudge brownies). I'm so glad for the positive influence my Grandpa has been in my life. He is such a loving, hard working, devout man. I wouldn't be the same if he wasn't my Grandpa.

Baby and First Day of School!

August 13th Brooklyn Marie Plastow was born! She's such a sleepy and easy baby, but 3 kids has been a big adjustment. She's so sleepy that for the first two weeks it was hard to get her to eat a complete meal and she lost a lot of weight. We switched her to bottle feeding and she is now gaining weight. So I'll continue to pump and bottle feed her as long as I can. I'm hoping I'll be able to pump for a year, but at least for 6 months.

 Dave loves how sleepy and snuggily this little girl is. I frequently find them snuggled up on the couch together, asleep. I swear this baby sleeps 20 hours a day. Not complaining, she's so easy to take care of.

Some time this month Logan harvested his watermelon. We planted this bad boy, and the same day there was a hail storm that killed Logan's watermelon and our zucchini plant. So I pulled a Grandma Sheila, bought a watermelon and stuck it in the weeds in the back yard. Logan was so proud of his watermellon.

I've tried to get several pictures of our three kids together, but they usually end up pretty goofy. This is the best I could do.

What can I say,  a totem pole of kids...

These's brothers are pretty silly to say the least.

But they are completely enamored with this little girl. Logan tells me all the time how much he loves her and Dustin tells us what a cutie pie she is. They will do anything to help her out.

Logan started school a few weeks ago too. He went in the week before school started to have an assessment test. He did great! He only got a few questions wrong.

He's in the same class as his friend Abby from church. Although they don't sit at the same table, they are so glad to be in the same class. He's made a few friends too. When we were leaving school today two little boys yelled "BYE LOGAN P!" he waved and told me they were his friends.

 Logan and Dustin on the first Day of School! They were so excited to get to wear their super hero jackets!

Dave's work had a baseball game activity last week too. We got to go see a Bees game. 

The boys had a blast! They cheered for our team, loved to look for the bee mascot (who moved around the stadium from time to time). Dustin's highlight was meeting "Mr. Bee" He told me he got to give him a high five, but next time he meets him he will give him a hug. The bee sent a baseball player to throw us a ball! The boys were pretty proud of Mom for catching it. Dustin stores it in his sock drawer.

And because I can't help but show off my cute little girl, here are today's pictures. We just love her!

End of July & Beginning of August

Things got crazy in August (had a baby, go figure). So I left out a few fun things we did at the end of July and the beginning of August. We did tons of fun things, a few of which I got pictures of. We did a lot of sparklers and pop pops. The boys loved them because they weren't too loud and are just at their comfort level.

For the 24th of July we hiked around a lake. It was fun to get out and enjoy nature, even if it was 100+ degrees out. We had a good time on our picnic lunch and hike.

The boys loved seeing all the animals and mountain climbing.

August 8th was Logan's 5th birthday! He wanted all things lime for it. So we made a lime cake and had lime sherbet to go with it.

He had a great Birthday! In the morning we met some of his friends and cousins at the river behind the West Valley library for water play and cupcakes! Logan had a blast playing with everyone. In the afternoon my friend Tenille took Logan on a treasure hunt (they went geo-cashing at Wheeler Farm). He had a blast and came home with a crystal! That night we had our family birthday party. We opened presents and played until bedtime.