September ... all ready?!!

Where did July and August go? I'll do my best to remember and let you know how September suddenly arrived, or at least how we have been passing the time. And I'll even throw in some photos of our house! The pictures are in order, but they don't exactly coordinate with the words right next to them. I can't quite figure it out. Anyway...

We had a great time on July 4th at my Aunt and Uncle's house, the Hunn's. It was great to see so many cousins there with so many little kids! I haven't seen a pool that full at a Quist party since I was a kid. We spent half of the month trying to finalize buying a house and the other half fixing the truck... again. After many hours of research and repair Ryan got it running good just in time for Scout camp. He had a great time at Geronimo again this year.




He was there from the 18th to the 25th and, I'm very glad to say, he took a camera with him this time!



I spent the week packing and cleaning the town home we've been renting form Ryan's parents since we've been married. It's amazing how many things you can accumulate in almost two years!



Matthew turned 24 on the 18th (Yes, my little brother is 24!), so since Ryan was leaving for Scout camp and the Poll family was headed to the Grand Canyon that week as well, we celebrated a few days early. Matthew didn't mind that of course. He loves all the church books he has by Matthew B. Brown. We are still trying to figure out if we're related to him since one of our ancestors is Benjamin Brown. Matthew loves the books on CD and other gifts he received, and has all ready listened to all the new ones!
I enjoy reading the hardback books to him as well. He's doing really good.

August was a little busier month than usual. After Ryan got home from camp the truck was on the fritz again. We got it repaired just in time for moving day. This was only the second house we had put an offer on. We've felt a lot better about everything than we did with the first house, and all the little details of buying have gone very smoothly. We know we have been guided through this whole process by our Father in Heaven. It was bitter sweet to say goodbye to our ward in Tempe. We will miss the wonderful people there a lot, especially the youth, but are looking forward to getting to know our new ward. We don't have any callings yet, which feels a little weird, but I'm sure they are coming. We officially became home owners and, as other people have said, signed our life away on Aug 1st and we couldn't be more excited! We have slowly but surely been unpacking and are loving our house. The sprinkler system needs a little work, but there's a lot of good shade trees and planter areas. I can't wait to start growing things! It's kind of nice to have more room than we know what to do with inside and outside of the house too.



We bought the house from a great LDS family. They have been awesome about helping us figure out all the little quirks, which really aren't too many. Isn't the superhero room great? I had to take a picture!

There were a lot of extended family showers and such in the Quist family, and Ryan's cousin Amy is engaged! We are very happy and excited for her and Seth. One of Ryan's cousins came home from his mission too. My 1st cousin once removed even had a baby on my birthday! Congrats to Joey and Camie! For my birthday on the 3rd Ryan gave me all kinds of great kitchen gadgets, and now I have room to use and store all of them in the kitchen! I really love the cutting board with grooves along the edges so watermelon juice won't get everywhere.
I love the cake too!
He also got me a purple mini-mag lite! I mentioned to him a few times that I had one when I was younger and it would be great if I could find one again. I just love my husband! Bethany and Benjamin were having fun making a dog pile on Jason so I snapped a shot. My family found the sequel to the Man From Snowy River on DVD for me! I'd been looking for it a long time. I also was given some great Stampin' Up stamps and some cute wall stars from the Stewart side. Thanks to everyone for a great birthday! On Aug. 8th the first of our 9 nephews and nieces was baptized! We are so happy we were able to be a part of Parker's special day. I had my camera there, but the battery was dead;( I just finished the quilt for him (that I've been working on since before we moved) a couple weeks ago. In December it will be Bethany's turn to be baptised! Yikes! I better get started on her quilt soon.

We were able to visit with some of our friends in Tempe at the Scout Court of Honor for this summer's Geronimo experience. Ryan was the Assistant Scout Master the whole time we lived there. It was great to see some familiar faces. We are warming up to the Three Fountains Ward in Mesa North Stake and starting to get to know a few people, but we miss the Del Rio Ward.
Ryan got the "Polar Bear" award, which he hasn't received since he was a 12 year old Scout, and the "I did it all at Geronimo" award. He didn't get that one last year and the boys wouldn't let him live it down. Ryan and I have both been making visits to the chiropractor for a few weeks now. We started going because of a sleepless night Ryan had from back pain, probably due to his falling and being crushed in June. So far he's has felt a vast improvement in everything from working to sleeping.

Labor Day was a some what lazy day for us. Ryan helped his dad on their roof in the morning, which isn't really lazy, and on Saturday he worked at organizing the garage all day. I'm really loving being able to park in it now. It makes a huge difference in the temperature! Anyway, on Monday night we went on a hike half way up to the Wind Caves at Usery Park with our friends Jeff and Kelsey and Dallas and Trisha. We would have gone all the way if it hadn't started to get dark. It was pretty cool to watch the bats come out and on the way back down we saw some more wildlife. A tarantula! Ryan and I had never seen one in the wild. I thought it was pretty awesome so it turned out to be the only picture that I took.

This post is really long. I hope to never go that long between them again. Too much to catch up on. I think that's all for now...enjoy the pictures!