Nolan has really been into building this year. He got really excited in October about building a fort in the corner of the backyard. He found some scraps of wood and got part of all the walls up and two completely built before we sold our house and he stopped working on it because we were going to be leaving and would have to tear it down. While the excitement lasted, he was out there every spare moment during "recesses" or after school work was done for the day.
This was a Young Women's activity while Natalie Barton (in pink) showed the girls how to curl hair using Natalie Crowder as a model. I love these ladies - they are part of my presidency. I particularly don't know what I would do without Natalie C. There have been months where it has been just she and I doing everything and she is such a support.
Some of the girls trying it out:
Pace after scoring a goal:
The kids decided to participate in a Halloween Fun run in the community that Isabelle's team was helping with. They all did VERY well.
The reason for that was that they made up half of the runners, haha:
Anni came in last with her short little legs, but I was proud of her because she ran all the way around the track inside the Pendleton Round-up grounds without stopping. Abram was first and Pace was third.
These pumpkin rolls have become a tradition. The kids get so excited when I make them that I make them A LOT:
Captain America dressing a baby doll one morning during scriptures:
Abram read about Shackleton and then was really excited to freeze a toy boat into some water and then chisel it out. He was so excited that he got the bowl out of the freezer after a couple of hours and was really disappointed that it came out of the ice so quickly. I told him to try it again and let it sit overnight. He was pretty excited that it worked the second time. I never can tell what will catch my kids interest because I never would have expected this to! Abram couldn't stop thinking/talking about this - he explained in detail what he would use for a chisel and how he would chisel it out:)
Isabelle must have another race coming up because she's out there shaving her legs again!
Date night with Shawn at the movies. Isabelle had been teasing us about how parent's take selfies. I have no idea what parents normally do, because we don't take many, but we were early so we sat and took some selfies together. We stopped when some people asked if we had just gotten married, haha. Why else would we be excited about taking pictures together?
I thought fall was pretty in the backyard outside my bathroom window one morning:
Pace and his friend Savannah at a soccer game:
Within a matter of days, Pace and Anni got horrible-looking goose-eggs. Pace bonked his head on a wall:
...and Anni was jumping on Caden's bed and fell off and hit her head on his night stand. It always worries us when she gets an injury because we're afraid the CPS will think we're beating her or something. As the swelling went down, she got a pretty good bruise. As luck would have it, she was scheduled for some sort of assessment. We walked in and the woman did all of her interviewing in the dark for some reason, so all was well.
David Farber is doing home school this year, too, and he and Nolan are in the exact same books, so he came and schooled with us for a week. It was fun to have him and we fit in some fun activities while he was here. We all went to the Pendleton Woolen Mills, again, and swimming, made caramel apples, lots of airplanes, and to parks.
The kids who wanted to, carved pumpkins. I helped Pace and Anni:
I wish I could put a video up of Nolan in motion - he is fun to watch! Shawn was able to help coach his team this year and it was a great experience for them to share together:
Anni got potty trained!! She's so independent that it was a trying experience at times, but potty training is ALWAYS a trying experience. Dare I hope that I am finally done with it??
