October

Coloring and Conference.  Trying to keep the kids quietly entertained.  I love the way Ivy was crossing her legs to be just like Brynn.

And not-so-quietly entertained.  All Justin's doing, obviously.

Reading books.  I wish I had more time to read to my kids.  I try, but with them gone all day it just doesn't happen as much as I'd like.

Here's Ivy lining things up again.

Ivy ended up on my lap one night during dinner because she wanted to chew on the ties on my shirt.  Brynn thought she needed to try it too.

School pictures.  They are over-priced but I love them so much.

Here are some samples of Molly's drawings.  I love them so much too and love when I find something like this in her backpack.

Brynn took a break from gymnastics during the summer and during the month of September when she was playing soccer.  She started up again in October, just through the rec center this time.  I have been liking it much better than last year.  She enjoys it as well and I am anxious to see what she can learn this year.

Stockton's last baseball game was played on a beautiful fall day.  Stockton had a great time playing ball and it was fun to watch him.  He was a little bummed because it was at the same time as flag football and he would really like to try that sometime.  Justin would love for him to stick with baseball and get really good at it but we will see what the future holds.  For now, he is looking forward to Jr. Jazz basketball which starts in January.

Gene, April, and Brett came to watch the last game.  Ivy and Brett.

After the baseball games, we drove down to Wheeler Farm to meet up with our old friends from Spanish Fork, the Phillips and the Woods.  We picked up some dinner and ate there and then just walked around and caught each other up on the last couple of years since we'd seen each other.  They are such good friends and it was so fun to hang out again.  Hopefully we can continue to get together when everyone is in town (the Woods only live in Springville but it might as well be Oregon like the Phillips since we only see them when we see the Phillips).

Molly, Stockton, Mikki Wood, Alleah Wood, Corbyn Phillips, Brynn, Ivy, Logan Phillips, Elsie Wood, Peyton Phillips

Kelli Wood, me, Shauna Phillips

Brynn finished her soccer season.  Oh, I love this girl!  Soccer is not likely to be her thing but she is so happy to be there and has no concerns about what other people think of her.  Also, notice how much smaller she is than the other girls.

We took a Sunday afternoon to scout out a good spot to cut down our wood this year.  We went up towards Kamas.  It started to snow on us a little!

One of our biggest fall projects is to get the wood cut, chopped, and stacked for winter.  Justin took a day off and Gene and my dad came up to help cut trees.  My mom stayed with Ivy so I could go and actually be helpful.  They cut all the trees down with the chainsaws and my job was to haul them all to the trucks and trailer.  It was a chilly day but we were kept plenty warm by all the hard work.  It ended up being a beautiful day and we had a big log pile when we got home.

Molly finished up her soccer season as well and that ended our month of crazy.  Soccer for her never ends and she has continued training and has started on indoor soccer now.

She is #10

Playing in the leaves at the Anderson's.

Brynn, Ivy, Stockton, Easton, Corbin, Molly

Justin was having the young men over for a campfire and tinfoil dinners so we decided to join them and I  made some for my family as well.  Justin was outside getting the yard ready and it was such nice weather that all the kids ended up outside with him.  They were running around, playing catch, and I was so grateful for our little space that they could just be kids.  They played late with the boys-soccer and basketball, we enjoyed our dinners, and roasted marshmallows.  It was a perfect fall night.

 Ivy loves to be out helping Justin in the hard or in his shop.  She doesn't always love the noises that his tools make.

Brynn had been wanting to go ice skating on a date since Valentine's Day so I finally found a Saturday afternoon that we were free and took her.  She loved it and I loved being there with just her.  I wondered how she would do on the ice but she was really good at ice skating!  I credit that to all the rollerblading that she does.  She held my hand the first few times around the rink and then just did it by herself the rest of the time.  She even got good enough to do spins.  I think she only fell two or three times.

 On Thursday of Fall Break, the kids and I met my mom and sisters at Temple Square in the morning.  We missed doing this during Spring Break because we were in San Diego.  We walked around and then ate our packed lunches at City Creek.

Stockton, Grant, Lucy, Gavin, Molly, Brynn, Seth

Brynn, Ivy, Seth, Grant

 After lunch, we drove over to Gardner's Village, an October tradition.  We've been during Fall Break before and it was so crowded that we swore we'd never do it again.  We though that maybe if we went during the afternoon, it wouldn't be as crowded.  We were wrong.  It was a madhouse.  But the kids didn't care, they found all the witches for the scavenger hunt and then patiently waited outside the bakery while grandma took their papers in for their cookie.

Gavin, Molly, Grace, Chloe, Abby, Brynn, Grant, Harper, Tessa, Ivy, Stockton, Spencer, Ben

 

Ben, Lucy, Gavin, Grant, Stockton, Grace, Tessa, Abby, Molly, Harper, Spencer, Seth, Ivy, Chloe, Josie, Brynn

On the second day of Fall Break, I told the kids they could decorate our front door to look like a monster.  We looked on Pinterest and they picked a design they liked and I picked up the supplies from the dollar store (all of it was less than $5 so a really cheap craft project).  They went for a Frankenstein look and added some of their own embellishments.  They were very proud of their finished project.

This picture just cracks me up.  Molly took my camera and took Brynn outside and posed her this way.  I  think she was trying to see if an idea for Reflections would pan out.  She ended up not doing anything and now I have this gem on my computer.

Stockton won a finger football game at Molly's birthday party and was excited to expand it with a field and teams and turn it into an actual game.

We went to Cameron and Sam's baptism and Stockton was able to give them the blankets we made.

Cameron, Stockton, Sam

A love note to Justin and me from Stockton and Brynn.

October brings all the leaves.  That is our second big fall project.

Crazy hair day!  Brynn let me put mini cups in her pigtails and then she wanted lots and lots of bows added.

Molly just wanted it wavy so we braided it the day before and then brushed it out.  It looks less crazy and more pretty.

Stockton had a mohawk and then we sprayed it.  He wasn't in the mood that morning to have his picture taken.

Dress-up day at storytime.  The children's librarian here is amazing.  She is not afraid to be silly and she loves the kids so much.  Ivy loves going to storytime and seeing Miss Sally.

sitting with Maive Pauley

Dress like what you want to be when you grow up.  Molly-architect, Stockton-baseball player, Brynn-teacher.

We knew we were going to be needing a new roof in the near future but we were hoping we could last a little bit longer-at least until spring.  We had a couple of companies come out and give us a quote and the second guy actually got up on our roof and told us that it wouldn't make it through the winter.  It was time to bite the bullet and just get it taken care of-it was a bummer but not much we could do about it.  Justin didn't feel like he had enough knowledge to get it done himself and there were a few other factors that made us decide to hire the job out but they did give us credit toward the final cost if we took the existing shingles off and hauled that garbage away.  We were so grateful that Eric took a day to come up and help Justin do some really hard, totally not fun work for us.  Those two brothers are work horses and they were able to strip the whole roof of all the shingles in one day.  We definitely couldn't have done it without Eric's help.

Heidi brought her kids up for the afternoon while Eric was here and it was nice to get some time with her.  And the kids, of course, loved playing together.

Ivy and Eli

The next day was clean-up day.  My parents and Gene came up and together we cleaned up all the shingles and nails that were littered all around the outside of the house.  It was not fun work but we got it done.  We had borrowed a trailer from a friend in the ward and it was so big that there was room on the top of all the shingles for lots and lots of leaves from the yard and the kids loved playing in the leaves when they got home from school.  And I was thankful for the help in making a small dent in all the leaves!

Grandpa Gene and Molly

Corbin Anderson, Brynn, Stockton