August Randoms

And August is already gone!  Once again, I had all sorts of random pictures from throughout the month so here we go...

James' parents have an apricot tree that had produced enough apricots to feed a small nation, so Amy and I went over one day and picked a bucket full.  A few days later, we made about a million little containers of freezer jam and Amy dehydrated a bunch.  Now my freezer is full of jam!

Porter and I go out for walks quite often in the morning.  One day we went out and all the wildflowers had bloomed along the path.  I love it!

Funny kid sleeping positions!

This kid loves chocolate!  This was after I shared a few chocolate chips with him while I was baking one day.

One day I had to wake Porter up from a nap and I snuck in to find him like this...talking on his "cell phone".  It's really the little remote to our tower fan.  He cracks me up!

Someone in our ward was getting rid of this horsey.  Porter is obsessed with horses currently so I had to grab it.  He loves it and always gives it kisses.

One night we walked over to a playground that has swing for littles and played for a little while.  Porter loves being outside...especially with daddy!

We are gearing up for football season over here!  I think we have successfully taught Porter to love Cosmo and to say, "Go Cougars!!"

One morning, Amy and I took the kiddos up to Temple Square.  Sure love this crew!  Luke's face!!

Porter mostly just makes Luke bonkers, but sometimes they really love each other.  It was so sweet one day when Lukie was sharing his Popsicle with Porter.

I am in love with this pantry organizer that I bought for my pantry door.  Isn't it the most amazing thing you've ever seen?!

Porter and Hudson playing!  Hudson wants to move and grab things so bad!

We have jalapenos coming out our ears over here!  I took a shot at making jalapeno jelly.  It turned out delish!

We got P some sunglasses...that he leaves on for about 0.02 seconds, but he thinks he's pretty cool.

We have reached the phase where we have to hid all treats that we don't want to share.  This is me enjoying my Swig behind some laundry.

Pony ride at the farm at Thanksgiving Point!

This kid just looked so cute in this romper I had to take a couple of pics!

Our tomato plants are out of control but not producing tons of tomatoes.  Gardening is so frustrating to me!

Just love this kid!

This is the picture we took on James' first day of work. He really misses his mornings with Porter, so we wanted him to feel the love!

Boom!  August is gone!

Happy Birthday James!

Yesterday James turned 35...such an old man!  Haha!  We actually partially celebrated on Sunday with Mel, Byde, Syd, Ryjul, and Wren.  Melanie was so nice and brought peach and apple cobblers for dessert.  Porter loved helping daddy blow out the candles.

On James' actual birthday, he had to work.  He started a new job on Monday!  He is an account manager with BrightView Landscaping.  I'm so proud of him and we think this job is going to be a perfect fit.  With this new job, I will be able to stay home with Porter full time and just help out with James' other job a few times a week from home.  I feel so incredibly blessed.  I should say WE feel so incredibly blessed.  James has always wanted me to be able to stay home and be a full time mom, and now it is finally happening.  It is going to be a little crazy around here with him working two full time jobs and being in the bishopric, but we will make it work!  Back to James' birthday...that morning I got up early to make him breakfast and a purple cow before he left for work.  With his new schedule, he leaves before Porter wakes up, so Porter had his purple cow a little later.  He loved it and kept saying, "more, more, more".

Later that day when James got home, we had a dinner of his choosing and cake before he went to scouts.

Then when we opened presents.  It was a fun day and I love celebrating this guy!  I'm so blessed that he's mine!  He's a compassionate, thoughtful, and loving husband and an incredible father.  Happy Birthday, James!!

Merry Christmas James!

Last Christmas, I gave James a kit for applying an epoxy to our garage floor.  It has been on our home improvement wish list since the beginning, and James was particularly excited about this.  We had to wait until the summer to do this for the temperature to be right to do it.  Then with trek and everything else going on, summer almost got away from us.  So we reserved yesterday for doing the garage floor.  The process actually started Friday.  I cleared out most of the garage and moved everything into the house or into the backyard.  James helped me move the big stuff when he got home.  Then we had to clean and etch the garage floor and let it completely dry to prep the floor for the epoxy seal to stick. 

Our hose isn't very long so we actually had to feed it through our house to reach the garage.  Haha!  It was pretty special around here!  Yesterday morning, as soon as Porter went down for his nap, we got to work.  There was a really tight time frame that the epoxy had to be applied from the time we mixed everything together.

My main job was sprinkling the paint flecks.

Within a couple of hours, we were done!  Now we just can't put anything on it for 3 days and can't park on it for a week.  It looks awesome and we are so excited to have it done!  I've sort of been dreading this and secretly wished James would do it all by himself some weekend that I was out of town, but it ended up not being too bad.  Hurray for completed home improvement projects!