Sentiments By Sophia: HELLO, SEPTEMBER!!!

I started this post on the first and am just getting back to it. CRAZY!

Our Labor Day weekend turned out being something completely different than what we had planned. Everything feels different with Quayd gone and having only two girls... No boy to please, not five just four of us, missing his tastes and interests makes things totally different... from where we go and do to what we eat. It's just so odd!

I can now say that Quayd has been out "a couple of months". July and August are behind us. Although it's really only been seven weeks, two months sounds much better than two weeks! Doug and I were on a little drive this weekend and I asked him what he missed about Quayd. Immediately and without thought, he responded, "His laugh". We both miss that laugh of his!

I digress... Labor Day brought a sudden surprise. Liza texted and called a few times while were in church on Sunday morning. I didn't answer until our meetings were over. I went outside, called her and asked if everything was okay. She'd forgotten that we changed meeting times. She asked, "What are you guys doing for Labor Day?" I told her, "Making salsa and going to see Tarzan with the girls. She then explained that she and Buddy needed to make a fast trip up for less than a day.

Following their church meetings, they left and stayed in SLC at Buddy's grandmother's, then did what they needed to do in SLC on Monday morning. They came to our home at around 3 on Monday, but we sort of waited around all day and didn't do anything because we knew that they would be there soon. We made a very late lunch, then played a few games, they went through some boxes of baby clothes that we are storing here for them and they left and went to dinner with Buddy's folks. They came back from dinner after 9. We spent 30 minutes with Aylabelle before bedtime and Liza and I stayed up chatting till midnight. We are talking about a serious short visit! Last month, they were here for 12 minutes. This time, fifteen hours. That's better! We packed as much into our hours together as we could, regardless!

I love this picture of Aylabelle giving Gramp her "hello" hug! I think it's one of my favorite pix ever of both of them together!

Aylabelle thought that picking tomatoes was pretty awesome. She was pretty good to just pick the red ones.

We snapped quick pictures for Quayd while going through baby boxes in the garage because Quayd was online on his P-day!

Bedtime... We played a "match game" with this little bowl of resin acorns. Aylabelle created the game, as we played. She would place the acorns in a circle around the pumpkin bowl that they were in. Then, we would find "matches".

As she placed them in the circle, I told her that they were acorns. Then, when the pumpkin bowl was empty, I asked, "What's this?" referring to the pumpkin shape. She looked at me like "DUH!" and said, "A bowl!" Okey dokey then!

Aylabelle is such a joy to be around. I can't say it enough. She woke up this morning and came running into my bed. The girls were gone. Doug was gone. She said, "Good morning, Grammie! I'm freezing!" I said, "Good morning!!! Do you want to climb into Grammie's bed and cuddle and keep warm?" She said, "No thank you, but I do want breakfast." Okey dokey then. She asked for cold cereal and I said I was going to make her waffles. She said, "Oh! I like that!" She's too fun!

It broke my heart when she left so soon. She said, "I want to stay at Grammie's house for a long time." She's never slept just one night, so this was a change. That was the hardest part... just knowing that she was not excited to get in the car and head home yet. Oh my, I adore that child. And her mama!

It was lovely having Doug and the girls home all weekend! We had a great weekend together. Here's a few other weekend pix...

I made waffles for breakfast Monday morning. Doug added my cucumber salad to to it as "syrup". Sick and wrong???

Grace, our pickiest eater of all six kids, tried it and said it was pretty tasty. Doug said it tastes like salad with extra croutons. Okey dokey then.

Here's the recipe, in case you haven't tried it. It tastes like summer and is our favorite August food!

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

lots of pepper

Pour over veggies. I double the sauce and use about three or four chopped tomatoes, 1 or 2 sliced cucumbers, 1 sliced small onion. This year, we've been adding fresh peppers, as well.

Zeej spent three hours while we watched old movies braiding Graces's hair into corn rows. Grace did not like it as much as we did. She liked the braids but not at the scalp. She wore her mint beanie and loved it. I teased her all weekend... "It's summer, why are you wearing a beanie?" It really was darling!