October

Stockton loves his percussion class so much that it is spilling into life at home.  He taps out the song rhythms everywhere.  He plays his songs on the piano almost constantly.  And he made a drum set for Ivy one day.  Actually he did this several times over the course of a couple of weeks for Ivy, Brynn, and him.  I came home one day from taking Molly somewhere and the three of them had music blasting and they were all pounding away on their "drums."  When they saw me, they acted embarrassed and put it all away.  It is fun to see him excited about learning something new and I have to wonder if he would have been this excited about learning the cello if I had forced him to follow through on that.

Ivy finished her soccer season in October.  She really ended up loving it and I imagine we'll be doing it again with her.  Molly was working as a rec coach for her soccer club every Saturday morning so she was only able to catch the first half of that last game.  She was cute to go out and warm up with Ivy while we waited for the rest of her team to show up.

We stained the posts that we put up on the back deck.  And that was as far as that project got.  The water system took the remaining work days that Justin had.  I made him promise that we would finish that and the siding in the spring before any other projects got started.  Justin loves his projects but tends to jump around a little.  It just means he has so many plans in his head and I love that about him.  Molly loved helping with this project.  The door was open so we could listen to General Conference that morning. 

The two of them were also able to get the little library done and set up.  It turned out so good!  Molly was able to get all 150 books collected-or really close to it.  Our neighbor, Shay, gave us so many books when she was moving so that helped a lot.

 

Molly not only helped stain the posts on the deck and finished her library that day, but she also made us cream of broccoli soup for dinner that night!  She is one of a kind!

 

Ivy wanted to play hide-and-go-seek one afternoon for our activity.  Her face was so cute every time she found me.  I had a hard time capturing the pure delight in her find.

 

Stockton trying out some skateboarding tricks.  Just a simple drop where the sidewalk steps down.  Skateboarding became a legit obsession for him the fall he was 11.

I was excited when our library finally re-opened at the end of September.  The hours are weird but I'll take it.  Ivy was excited to finally get her own library card!  Our librarians don't even have to ask for my name anymore because I am such a familiar face.  I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed by that or not-I guess not enough to keep me from going each week.

 

School pictures 2020.  I love them!  I will always, always buy school pictures even though they are over-priced.  Nothing beats them.

Kindergarten

4th grade

6th grade

8th grade

We got a "jump" start on raking our leaves.   

We had so many beautiful fall days this year.  It was fabulous.  One such day was a Sunday afternoon.  We had eaten an early dinner so Justin could go to his mission prep class.  There was still plenty of daylight hours left so I told the kids that we were going on a mandatory bike ride.  I got a few grumbles but once we started pedaling, I heard no complaining.  The pictures don't really do the views justice.  It was so pretty!  We pedaled all the way to bishop's pumpkin patch and explored there for a while before heading home.  The ride home is slightly uphill so it was an endurance test for Brynn (like when we rode to the school in April) but she made it. 
 

When we got home that night, I had the kids work on their Grandkid Camp scrapbooks.  They usually do this with my mom when she comes to stay for Seminar but Seminar was canceled this year due to Covid-big surprise.

 

This is a picture of a pretty sunset at one of Molly's soccer games.  I had so much fun watching her this season! 

Sneak peek of Ivy's Halloween costume.  Gosh, she is cute!

Justin's digging created a fairly large dirt mound that the kids had fun playing on.

 

We had spent all of September and half of October working with Ivy on riding her bike with no training wheels.  I had even made it so she had one training wheel down and one up but that was not working at all.  I finally took her out one Sunday and put both training wheels up and told her we were just going to try it this way.  I promised her I wouldn't let go.  I ran down our street bent over until I couldn't stand it anymore.  I told her I was going to let go for 10 seconds at a time.  Pretty soon, she was off and doing it all on her own.  It just took me making her face her fear.  She was so excited to show Justin when he got home from his church meeting.  He could hardly believe it since she fought it so hard.  So, check that off the list!  All kids can now ride a bike independently.  Phew! 

Ivy gave me a ballet performance one night. 

The kids had the Monday after Fall Break off.  Our school district keeps adding teacher work days-you won't hear me complaining.  We had nothing planned so we decided to make our caramel apples.  Everyone helped, it was just hard for me to take pictures since it's a bit of a hands-on project.

 

Stockton decided that he didn't want to wait for Christmas to ask for a skateboard.  He wanted to use his own money to buy one when the weather was still nice enough for him to be able to practice outside.  I see his logic.  He was pretty excited when it arrived!

 

A couple of days after Ivy's ballet "concert" she gave a Frozen concert.  This one was much more put together.  Tickets, seating, and a schedule were all included.

Stockton stayed home for a few days because he had some cold symptoms.  He got bored enough one day to go out and play in the sandbox with Ivy.  We upgraded to some new, really soft sand this year when Justin had to buy a load for his pipe project.

 

After Stockton got his skateboard, he wanted to go to the skatepark.  My weekdays are pretty busy so I told him that I would take him each Friday after school, depending on the weather and our schedule.  We were able to go a handful of times before the weather got too cold.  Ivy and Brynn usually tagged along with their scooters or Stockton's old skateboard and Molly came one time with her longboard. 

We got a little bit of snow towards the end of the month so the kids had to go out and play.  We haven't gotten a lot of snow so far this year so they have had to take advantage of every little bit they get! 

Stockton's hair is so, so long.  He will let Justin trim the sides but he likes the top long.  I suppose it's the style now.  He usually covers it with a hat.  I bribed him one day to let me braid the top of it and, after some hesitation, he let me do it.  He left it that way for an hour or two and cashed in on his bribe later that week.  I kind of liked it!

he got a taste of what the girls go through each day

 

This was for the kids movie, "shoulder angel."  Ivy was the shoulder devil who encouraged Stockton to steal Halloween candy.  Brynn was the good angel.  It was for Molly's film class and it had us laughing pretty hard!

Justin drove out to Tridell, Utah to his grandpa's farm to get the hay for our lambs.  His cousin, Thane, runs the farm these days and tried to give us the hay for free...we paid him, but way less than we would have paid anyone else.  It was fun for Justin to go out there...we need to take the kids, the last time we were out there was after our Flaming Gorge trip.  The kids didn't make it out to Tridell, but they did love playing on the hay bales when Justin got home.

 

Brynn got her date with Justin.  They went to Park City and had dinner at ModPizza and then went shopping at the outlets.  She picked out some athletic pants at Old Navy and earrings at Claire's.  It had been crazy hair day that day at school, hence the many ponytails.  Also, they took this picture because her shirt was the same color as the wall.

 

Justin's digging project continued in October.  He spent several hours on a borrowed tractor and barely finished in time for us to go camping for Fall Break.  It was a lot, way more work than he was thinking it would be.

digging back towards the greenhouse

Molly decided that, with her room makeover, she wanted a regular bed.  It was actually a hard decision for her to pass the loft bed to Brynn.  She went back and forth for a couple of weeks but ultimately decided that she really was done with it.  It took her a few years of wanting the loft bed for her to finally get one-so tough decision.  She hasn't regretted it.  And Brynn is one happy girl with that "new" bed!  She has it all set up just how she likes it with her books and her stuffed animals up there with her.  What more could a 9-year-old want?