So......

Our seats for Dancing with the Stars were a little better this time than they were last time. Here's how the camera picked us up last time:

Yep. You can't even tell that's us. 

Here's how the camera picked us up this time:

Can you see me on the left? We were basically on camera every time they showed the judges on tv.  

I had a lot of fun last time we went, and I felt so blessed just to be there, but this visit to Dancing with the Stars blew our last visit out of the water.  What you can't see is that all of the stars and dancers are sitting on couches to the judges left.  They were just ten feet away from us.  Mark Ballas' mom and some friends of Val were sitting behind us, so Mark and Val would come and hang out in the row behind us during commercial breaks.  No big deal!  Carrie Ann's boyfriend was sitting in front of us with his daughter, and after she talked to him during one break, she came to our row and talked to us.  She said, "You guys sure got some great seats!"  No joke!

It was so amazing!  I felt like I was in shock during the whole two hour show!  Watching it on tv, I noticed that my mouth was open most of the time.  

Some celebrities we saw in the audience that night were Jennifer Lopez and her young boyfriend, Kym Johnson, Shawn Robinson from Access Hollywood, the entire cast of Glee, and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.  Since it was the season premier, we got to see all of the stars.  This season there's: Jack Osbourne, Elizabeth Berkley, Christina Milian, Bill Nye, Bill Engvall, Snooki, Brant Daugherty (not sure who this guy is), Leah Remini, Corbin Bleu, Keyshawn Johnson (football player), Valerie Harper, and Amber Riley, who I think is going to win this season.

Kevin will start working Mondays so that he can have Sundays off soon, so this is probably the last time I'll be able to go down to Hollywood for DWTS.  He was supposed to start his new schedule the day we went down for the show, but some mix up happened, and he won't start working Mondays until next month.  Lucky for me!  If that was the last show I get to see live, I ended on a great note! 

9 Months Old

This little chicky is nine months old.

A few new things about Lia this month:

• She started crawling about 2 weeks ago. 
• She is currently being weened to a bottle because this cute lady is getting married in Mexico next month:

Kevin and I will be gone for five days for Jessica's wedding, so I want her to be used to having a bottle all the time for my Mom's and Mother-in-law's sakes.

• She has one tooth.  I only see it when she cries, so I don't have a good picture of her with her one tooth yet.

And that's all that's new with baby Lia this month!

The kids' first day of school...

...did not turn out as planned this year. I got a call Sunday before the first day of school letting me know that the kids' new school location did not have a certificate of occupancy and would not be able to open the next day. I had a million questions, like "well when will it be open?" But I politely said "okay" and let the office lady continue to make her calls to unsuspecting parents. I'm sure this poor messenger got some backlash from parents for what she was calling to tell them. It didn't help for me to contribute to that even though I was pretty upset about the news.

We waited all day Monday for a phone call or email update and didn't hear anything until 8:30 pm. I was a wreck that whole day! The phone call let us know the school still did not have what they needed to open Tuesday, and they were shooting for Wednesday. Then Tuesday they called to say they weren't ready for Wednesday, so now they would try to be open Thursday.

The hardest part for me at this point was that I had spent the entire summer deciding if I wanted to keep them at this charter school they had attended last year or if I wanted to enroll them at their public school. The new location for the charter school had moved farther away from our house, but I also hated the thought of having Rebecca in three different schools in three years. I ultimately decided to make the drive and keep them at the charter school, and all of this starting late business had me seriously doubting that I had made the right choice.

We got a call Wednesday afternoon letting us know that the school had what they needed and would be ready for the first day of school on Thursday.

Here they are all ready for their first day of 3rd grade and 1st grade. They love their teachers Ms. McCullough and Mrs. Howard. Looking back, it was nice to have them for a few unexpected days. I even took them on a tour of the California Pizza Kitchen on Wednesday I had signed Braden up for. They are happy to be back in school with their friends, and I'm happy to have a routine each weekday again. Hopefully there won't be any more surprises. :)

8 Months Old

And such a happy girl still. William took this picture of me and her last Sunday.

Lia's had a fun month! A couple weeks ago we took a quick trip to Spanish Fork for my Mom's family reunion. We stopped in Salt Lake for a few hours to pick up some used school supplies for my sister's school. While we were there we toured Temple Square and City Creek Center mall.

Lia was a happy tag-along.

After our trip, she got to spend some time with her cousin/future bestie Avery.

A few new things about 8-month-old Lia:

• Just today she started pushing herself up to hands and knees position. From here she likes to push herself back to sitting up. She's not quite crawling, but she rocks on her hands and knees, so I think she's close. 
• She finally rolls from her back to her belly and vice versa. I've caught her sleeping on her belly a couple times this month, which is new.
• She still has no teeth. With her drool and some uncharacteristic crankiness, I've thought for the past three months that she'd have a tooth poke through, but we still haven't seen one.
• She likes to pick up her puffs and put them in her mouth by herself.
• She loves to stand up.

The kids propped her up on the couch, and she loved standing there by herself (she's not leaning on William).

I love this age when she'll start to do a lot more things in a short amount of time.

First Lost Tooth

William lost his first tooth a few weeks ago.

"Mom, get a picture of me sticking my tongue through my lost tooth."

It's hard to tell that that's what he's doing, but it's still a cute picture. Luckily dad is willing to be the tooth fairy now days. When I do it, the tooth fairy forgets to do her job. :)

7 Months Old

And finally starting to self-soothe. She doesn't constantly suck her thumb - just every other day or so. I bought some binkies from Target, and she likes those just as much as she likes her thumb, so I try to give her a binky when I see her suck her thumb.

She also sits up very well. She only falls back or forward when she is tired of sitting and wants some attention. Her siblings like to bring her all kinds of toys when she is sitting.

She still only rolls from her belly to her back. I've seen her roll from her back to her belly once.

She's not looking as much like Rebecca as a baby the older she gets.

She's taking a bottle once a day since I really don't enjoy nursing in public and we are at Wet n Wild all the time. I know that is pretty selfish, but I honestly get anxiety when it's time for her to eat and I'm not at home. Kevin and I are going on a trip without her in October, so I was going to have to ween her soon anyway.

She's very mild-tempered.  Most people who meet her comment about how good she is.

Her siblings adore her.  In the morning, Rebecca likes to play "daycare" with her, which is nice for me because she'll watch her while I go back to sleep for a little bit.

And that's my sweet Lia at 7 months.

Selfies

Lia hates tummy time, so to get her to stay on her belly, I put my phone in front of her with the camera on so she can look at herself on the screen. This morning when I was doing that with her, Braden came and asked if he could push the picture button. He ended up taking a bunch of pictures of himself. As I went in to delete them off my phone, the kids and I got a good laugh, and I decided to keep them.

I love this kid.