September in Everyday Pictures

Oh September! The air starts to cool ever so slightly and it all becomes very clear, autumn is coming!!! Here's the month in everyday pictures.

One Saturday I was feeling good and ran my first 10K while pushing this cuties. The weather was perfection and I just kept finding music that I loved. Running has been a great outlet for me that I hope to continue for many years to come!

Ever since we've moved in, I've fantasized about this. I realized that it was cooling off and that sinking bathing is sort of a summer thing and so I made this happen. About 10 seconds after I took this picture, Hudson climbed up on the counter and slid around like a wet bar or soap. Hilarious and scary. How lucky am I to have these two. Seriously!

She tormented him the whole time we were at Costco, and then they started cuddling during checkout. Go figure.

Her trademark excited face. One funny/horrifying everyday moment this month was when Em stood on our scale and raised her arms in the air proclaiming "I'm skinny!!!" I probably scared her a little bit because I immediately had a talk with her about how her body is perfect at any size. I can't believe that she picked that up. I KNOW she's never heard me call myself fat or this, nor any other woman, for that matter. It's so insane that the world's beauty standard can reach my little girl. It just reminded me of how I have to actively instill positive body image and self-respect in her or the world will degrade her by default.

I mean, really--this is what perfection looks like.

I never get over the Shirley Temple hair-do. I especially love her expression in this last photo. She loves to flash those big puppy-dog eyes at me. They are most effective on her father. Lately when she's ticked at me, she says "your not a mommy! You're a step-mommy!" A little too much Cinderella, maybe?

Fun at the Ences. I always feel super special to be invited to their parties. Emme loves Brizzie too!

Ugh! This scene was a result of an Emme-tantrum. She got mad about I-can't-remember-what and swiped this vase onto the floor all around her. I begged her not to move, but, of course, she wouldn't listen and so she got a little cut on her foot. She was slightly tramautized about this and talked about it for weeks--how she was naughty and broke my vase.

This everyday moment actually came BEFORE Disneyland. We went to Vegas to see Shawn's step-son Cruise get baptized and decided to randomly stop at Build-a-Bear. I felt so over-indulgent for letter her get this $40 Elsa bear when it was just a normal day, but I'm starting to think that it's all right to do stuff like this from time to time. It's definitely well done in there--how they let the kids warm up the bear's heart before the put it inside the stuffing and how they dress the bear and give it a birth certificate. Emme was really concerned that "Elsa Bear" keep her seatbelt on. Such a sweet age.

Grandma watched the kids for a few hours one day and when I came back I found her like this. He was just too chunky-delicious to put down, I guess!

I just started getting Ipsy bags where they send you a bunch of trial sized cosmetics for $10 a month. When this shiny pink package arrives, it's lots of fun for both of us.

I sent this I-have-new-makeup selfie to Steph as a joke, but she thought I was serious and loved it. She would.

We went on a fun playdate with Erin Ortiz and little Lorelai. I got some weird looks for letting Hudson crawl through the splash pad like this, but he absolutely LOVED it!

I've been trying to keep this special Samantha doll away from Emme, but then I had this weird moment when I realized that there was no sense in saving it for a special occasion. I have a beautiful daughter which makes every day so incredibly special. So I let her have supervised visitation with my special dolly.

And that's September in everyday pictures.