August 2017 :)

August was a pretty busy and crazy month. A lot happened! The first weekend of August, we were able to go see our nephew Caleb be blessed. Their ward was at nine, so we woke up early to get there on time since it was in Roy, and that's about a 45-minute drive. It was a really nice blessing. :) Afterwards, we met up at Nate and Kelsi's house to have brunch. There was a lot of yummy food. Breakfast casseroles, fruit, muffins, and cinnamon rolls. It was really nice to see family. :) That evening, we went to Evan's parent's house for dinner. They gave us some cool things they brought back from their trip to California. :) On the 12th, we went to Golden China for Braelynn's birthday. :) it was really yummy! It's one of our favorite places to go :) we were going to go to Chuck a-Rama, but they were too busy! On the 14th, Braelynn turned two! I can't believe how fast time flies! It feels like yesterday we welcomed her into our family :) When Evan got home from work, we gave her her present from us. :) We had actually had it for a long time.When the Toys R Us in West Valley was closing, we got her a couple of things and held on to them for a few months haha. One was a little people zoo train, the other was a tractor. :) she loved them! I also got her a Moana shirt to go with it and a Cinderella birthday card. :) for her dinner, I made mac and cheese and veggies on the side. It's one of her favorites :) we got a call from Evan's family asking if we wanted to get dinner with them at Freddy's, but we had already eaten, so we told them we could come for dessert. When we got there, his family sang happy birthday to Braelynn :) it was really sweet! We got some yummy custard, but Braelynn dropper her cone on the ground, it was sad. :( The first couple of weeks I had started to plan her birthday party. We were having a princess theme party with a pasta bar. We came up with some fun ideas. :) wagon wheel pasta was going to be carriage wheels, spaghetti was Rapunzel's hair, and bow tie pasta was princess bows. :) I found some really cute things to use at Seagull Book and I got fun party favors there :) We also went to Logan this month so Evan could meet with his rheumatologist so he could get his medication. We stopped by the Seagull Book there and got some things I forgot at the other on in Salt Lake. We got lunch at a drive-in in Perry that we had been wanting to try, but hadn't yet. We decided to try it because Maddox was closed. It was a nice quick trip up there :) We stopped by Smith and Edward's on the way home. :) when we got home, we had to get Evan's old laptop put together so we could ship it to a seller... which long story short, was fraud. Luckily, we were able to get it retrieved and get out money back for shipping. Evan wanted to sell it so we had some extra money, but now we are keeping it. That was a big nightmare. When we got it back, I opened it right away to make sure it was okay. Luckily, the person who "bought" it never opened it. FedEx was awesome to work with! Now, I can get back on track after remembering some other things that happened this month haha. That same week of her birthday, we went to Boondocks with Evan's family for the Cyprus Credit Union party. :) Evan's parents picked me and Braelynn up since Evan wasn't getting off until 7 that night, so he was going to meet us. For dinner, it was pizza and pasta. We also had creamies. I didn't need to save Evan a plate because he wasn't feeling well. :( It was so much fun! :) We played arcade games, mini golf and took some pictures in the photo booth. I have never taken pictures in a photo booth before, so I really wanted to. :) we met up with everyone and played mini golf last. Braelynn was having so much fun with her grandpa, he was helping her out. :) Evan and his dad also play the batting cages, Braelynn loved watching them, it was so cute :) During our game of golf, some of our balls got stuck, so Joey got us some new ones. Almost everyone hit a hole in one at the end. It was probably close to 11 or a little after when we went home. It was a long, but fun night :) I got a call that week from our bishop asking if we could move our party to the stake center because there was a funeral and they needed to use the other building. He brought by the key on Friday. We also had to move the time of her party to 1-3pm because Evan found out he had to work from 7 to noon. That morning, I made the pasta and sauce. My mom made the spaghetti and meat sauce. I made the cupcakes the night before. My mom and sisters came to help me set up and bring things over since Evan was working. I was so grateful for the help! The building was confusing to get into because it had an electric key fob and only a few doors could be unlocked. Once we figured it out, we unlocked the back of the church and set tables up in the multipurpose room next to the kitchen. The kitchen was really big! Once the tables were set up, we put the table clothes on and some of the decorations. Jessie ran to Wal-Mart to pick up some more decorations to hang up. Evan got there around 12:30 or 12:45 and helped with the decorations. He had to run home and grab some things we couldn't find in the kitchen because a lot of the cabinets were locked. More family showed up. Evan's parents brought drinks and relish trays. We also had salad and garlic bread. It turned out really well. :) I felt more prepared for her second birthday than her first haha. It was nice to have the family together to celebrate Braelynn. :) After everyone ate, we opened presents because some people had to head out. Katie had to go to work and Rachelle had to take Ben to another party. Braelynn got a lot of fun things! To name a few, a Cabbage Patch doll from my cousin Megan, a sock monkey blanket for her and her doll from my auntie Helen along with some outfits, a piggy bank and some change to put in it from our family friend, Pat who is just like a grandma :) blocks from Katie, a Moana barbie from my parents, a Rapunzel doll from Jessie, a Rapunzel barbie from Nate and Kelsi, a cute dress and dinosaur cars from Clarissa, her family and Logan and Rachel. Matt and Rachelle got her a Peppa Pig camping play set and Matt and Christie got her some Peanuts figures :) Emily got her a baby doll that talks, she absolutely loves! My grandparents got her a book and some magnets. :)Evan's parents got her a Peppa Pig toy and a play phone.  I think that might have been everything actually! Haha just about anyway! It was a lot of fun, I'm glad we were able to have a party for her :) The kids loved their party favors, I was glad. :) we had cupcakes after she opened her presents. After it was over, we cleaned up. Evan's parents and my mom and two sisters stayed to help us out. When we got home, we unloaded her gifts and everything we needed to bring inside. Braelynn and I were going to the Randall family reunion for a little while because my grandma wanted us to come for a little bit. We brought some of the leftover cupcakes, but no one really ate them haha because, by that time, everyone had pretty much eaten. My mom gave me some of her pasta salad to take home. it was really good. :) I visited with a few people, then left. On my way home, I picked up Chick fil-a for dinner. It was nice to relax after a long day! The next day, Braelynn wore her cute new dress to church :) She looked adorable! The following Saturday, we went to an end of the summer party at Matt and Rachelle's. Evan went shooting with Nick, so he wasn't going. I went grocery shopping, then headed over there. They rented a big blow up slide and bounce house. I went down it a few times, it was a lot of fun! :) Katie took Braelynn down it, but her favorite thing was the little pools, she had so much fun! :) They had hot dogs, snacks, and fruit. We stayed a couple hours then headed home. the next day, we all made it to church, it was nice. :) We went over to Evan's parent's dinner. It was fun. :) On the 28th, Evan had to go to the hospital. It was a crazy day. I'm grateful I had our families to help me out and take me to get our car. He stayed there for a week. It was a really long week, I did my best to keep busy when I couldn't talk to him or visit him. Visits were only Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and only two people were allowed at a time. I was able to see him on Monday and Tuesday and Sunday. Nick and Clarissa saw him on Thursday. I am not going into too much detail about what happened. He was originally supposed to go home that Friday, but they told him he had to stay until Monday. It was really frustrating because we had plans to go to the Shakespeare festival that weekend, so we had to push it to the next week. I did a lot of things to keep busy, like cleaning and organizing and spending time with my family. It was a hard week, but we got through it. I got a call that Monday morning, Labor Day, telling me I could come pick him up. :) I was really happy! I'm glad Braelynn didn't realize what had been going on that week, but she was happy to see her daddy. :) It was so nice to see him! August ended on a rough note, but we got through it. Here are some pictures from our month: