Marsh Madness: September September

The events of September started on Labor Day with a day in Park City. We'd been wanting to go up there for a while. Some of our friends were getting closer to moving East to Virginia, and Brad wanted to get me a "first day of school" outfit for preschool starting the next day. We had a lot of fun and started off eating waffles at Bruges Waffles and Frites. It did not disappoint.

yummy strawberries, chocolate, and whipped cream
breakfast of champions!

School started the next morning and I was super nervous! I just didn't really know what to expect and how things would go. I just kind of gaged it by my experience working with the older kids in nursery and it worked out quite nicely. It is obviously going to take some adjusting for kids (and me) to understand "structure of school", but we are having so much fun! I am doing thematic learning and it seems to be working out well for the kids' level of understanding and interest in learning.
Later that week, I had one of my dearest friends get married. We've been friends ever since she moved into the ward when she was 12 yrs old. It was such a beautiful wedding for a couple that has been meant to be together forever. I am SO happy for them and can't help but smile when I think of them being together forever.

Next. Brad has a special spot in his heart for our cousin's little girl, Reagan. Her and her older sister Brooklyn are some of the cutest girls I know and we love that we get to spend so much time with them. Little Reag has a bit of a growl that she is known for and she has acquired the nickname, Reagasaurus. When Brad was little he had a favorite shirt he made that said Bradasaurus. Ever since he made the connection he has been wanting to make a shirt for Reagan. We thought it would be fun to do that and then let Brooklyn make one of her own. They turned out so cute and Brad did Reagans all by himself :)

working on Reag's shirt

helping Brooklyn with her shirt

LOVING her new shirt!

finished products

The next weekend my cousin, Shaylee and I got the surprise of a lifetime! Over the past year or so we have acquired a bit of an obsession for Luke Bryan. We LOVE his songs and are consistently found listening to our Luke Bryan station on Pandora. Once we found out he was coming to Utah for a concert, we promised each other we were going to go. You can only imagine our devastation when I learned at the local copy store that all the tickets were sold out and they were being sold by private buyers for ridiculous amounts of money. Even with as much as we loved Luke we couldn't justify spending that kind of money on tickets. We talked to our hubbies, and exhausted all of our (Jason's) resources. We held out hope until the day of the concert, only to realize it just wasn't going to happen. Jason and Brad wanted to take us to dinner that night, so we thought maybe it could happen. But when we learned we were taking their little girls with us, we through that dream out the window.... Only to discover Jason's parents were meeting us at the restaurant to take the girls because WE WERE GOING TO THE CONCERT! YAY! I caught on a little earlier, but we were both still ecstatic! Not only were we going to the concert but we were in the second row, behind the floor seats. We couldn't believe it! There were SO many people there! It was packed! Naturally, we had to go out and get a concert t-shirt. Please don't judge - we couldn't resist, and it was probably the most tasteful one there.

hottie hubs

shay and I in our new shirts

That is one thing we learned: Luke Bryan isn't the classiest of country singers. I guess you could call us a little oblivious. But we quickly learned he has a slight obsession with pelvic dancing and throwing beer out on his fans. Luckily we were just far enough away to not get hit with any of it. I will admit, now that we know the "real Luke" it wasn't one of our proudest moments, we've lost a little respect for the man - but it was so much fun to be a part of something we'd given up on and belting every song we knew. Thanks to the hubbies for pulling through and granting our wish above and beyond our expectations!

That weekend my beautiful cousin, Ashlee had her farewell. Her talk was amazing, focusing on the importance of having a relationship with the Savior. It was so powerful and she is going to be an amazing missionary, teaching so many about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

love this pic of her... and I don't have any of her mission pics yet :)

Last of the month, but not least... I chopped my hair off! I have been going on and off about cutting it off since this last April. It seems like every time I finally decide to do it, people come out of the woodwork telling me how much they like my long hair, telling me, "don't EVER cut your hair", etc. Unfortunately that has held me back every time. Until one day I just needed it - mental or physical, I needed a change and this was the only way I was going to get one in my life right now. haha. So I did it. I wanted to have a little more purpose behind cutting off a bunch of hair besides just doing it. So I decided to cut it a little shorter than I would have liked so I could do the full 10 inches for locks of love. I did it once right after graduating from high school and it was kind of fun, so I did it again. It's always a little comforting to know that I got more out of it than just a change - you can learn more about Locks of Love HERE