Two concussions and a broken nose

Those are our injuries in the past two weeks with the boys in football. Tommy took a hard hit and had a mild concussion in his game last week, then Ryan got his bell rung in practice. He was pretty out of it and I started to take him home, then turned around and went to the ER. He was swelling up at the top of his nose, between his eyebrows. Turns out he had a mild concussion, and probably a broken nose. Apparently, they don't do anything for a for those, unless he has problems and needs surgery when he is fully grown. He will probably have two black eyes as the swelling drains, just in time for school pictures.

Labor Day Parade

We had quite a crowd to pass out information cards for Tom at the Cantaloupe Festival parade on Labor Day. This was before Nathan's and Adrienne's families got there. It was a very successful parade and we had a great day with the cousins after.

I was a little surprised to see how much taller than me Tommy has gotten, but notice his feet!

First Day of School

Lots of new things on this first day of school, Lauren started at the high school, Ryan, Alyssa and I were all moved to a new elementary school, so that was new for us. But at this point, two weeks into the year, everyone is doing fine, despite this nervous-looking picture.

On this day...

Nineteen years ago Tom and I went to the Washington DC temple to get married. We had lots of guests and family, many of them from across the country, who drove all over Maryland and Northern Virginia to participate in the events of the day. It was a wonderful day!

I guess you really don't know how it feels to live something that you haven't lived before. As we made our marriage covenants that day, I had no idea what the road ahead held for us. I had watched my parents and I expected to be happily married like they were (and still are - Happy anniversary to you Mom and Dad - 42 years today!!) but until you do it yourself, it is hard to know how it will be. Even though I was in love on my wedding day, I could never have known then how much more my love would grow as we experienced our life together.

I count it as a true blessing to have a wonderful husband and to have been blessed with our children. We have had many happy times, some struggles that have been great learning experiences, and also some difficult times. Tom has been by my side for everything. I don't know what the next nineteen years (and beyond!) will hold, but I'm glad we'll face them together.

Lyon County Parade

We had a great parade day on Saturday. We had many people helping and we couldn't have done it without them!! We got Tom's new campaign card in the hands of every adult there. The card looks really nice and we got positive feedback on it. We also had plenty of candy, an important detail in a parade. There were enough people that it wasn't too much work for anyone (I hope!). It was hot, but really a great day for a parade and we were so happy with how smoothly it went.

Monopoly Games

My boys have spent many summer nights playing Monopoly with Brandon Bird. They are addicted to the game. I can't say that I understand their interest in that particular game, but I love that they are having some good old-fashinoned fun. Maybe one of them will go into real estate development when they are older.

Braces, braces, braces

Alyssa got braces this summer. We didn't expect that to come up so soon since she is kind of young, but they said it was time. So, we have had three kids in braces this summer. No popcorn or Now n' Laters at our family movie nights. Here are our three in braces.