BYU lights on Morrison Bridge

Yay for school!

So, a figured that an update was WAY overdue. Can I just tell you, I am SO, SO, SO glad that the kids are back in school? It has made such a huge difference in my sanity and enjoyment of life. The older kids just really need that extra structure and the exposure to classmates and teachers to be happy. It has been really nice to just have Kara and Cassie at home in the mornings until Lindsey gets home. I've started exercising again, and the house isn't a wreak all the time, so maybe that explains why I feel so much better.

The little girls and I have been enjoying harvesting the stuff from our garden. This year we experimented with corn, and I was amazed that I grew about 40 ears fertilizing only a couple times. Unfortunatly, I waited too long to pick them! So, they didn't taste very good- which is a ttragedy after all the work. Maybe next year we'll try again. Since the weather has suddenly changed to cool, wet Oregon, I don't think I'll be getting any more red tomatoes, but I've still got a winter squash plant, carrots, onions, potatoes, and beets in the ground. I need to harvest the rest of them soon, but I don't know where I'll store them all! I need a cool, Utah basement or root cellar or something!

Here are my messy girls! Kara just loves to eat, and Cassie is joining in! Cassie is really showing a lot of personality lately. She makes tons of sounds and a few words- mama, da, and kitty. Her favorite foods are pizza, noodles, peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, and peaches, and milk and jjunk food, of course. She just started walking between Larry and me (maybe 8 steps), but she gets really sad if she falls, so that must be why she never really tries on her own. Mostly, she crawls around on her knees so that she can hold stuff. She loves our cats and when the other kids play with her.

The kids are really liking school this year. Miranda has the same teacher she had a couple years ago, and she is excellent. She loves the whole social network and doing social studies. She is very curious about all sorts of different things. Lindsey started morning Kindergarten. She likes her class and her teachers and feels all smart because she can already read. She also gets to ride the bus home (for 30 seconds), and she likes that. Spencer is enjoying school and playing Wall Ball at recess. I think he gets a chance to be a leader at school, which is hard a home with 2 older siblings who also want to be leaders. Derek is doing good, and is probably going to skip this grade and move into 4th grade next week. We meet with the school councellor, TAG person, principal, etc tomorrow morning to make a final decision and access his IQ test. He has been going into 4th grade math the last couple weeks.

So, we had our 3 birthday run right before and during the first week of school. Kara's birthday brought something unexpected- and UNwilling birthday girl! She was at a father/daughter campout the morning of her birthday, so I sent brownies along. Larry said that she started crying when they sang Happy Birthday to her! Later that night, we had friends over for a football game and tried to sing to her. She did NOT want it. I finally convinced her to sit by the cake. She agreed as long as Lindsey blew out the candles. The next day at grandma's house, she wouldn't even come to dinner, but had a tantrum in the hallway for about 45 minutes. We decided to skip the whole cake thing, and so straight to presents. She only agreed if I opened the presents for her! Luckily, after playing with a few gifts, she finally got into it and opened the rest and had her cake and ice cream!

Spencer's birthday party was with family, so he had us all go over to the school and do races and play freeze tag. It was fun. We also played some board games and had dessert. He REALLY wanted a telescope for his birthday. When I brought out the pile of small gifts, I thought he was going to cry, but he tried to put on a brave face. Finally, when he was done, Larry brought out his big telescope. You should have seen how huge his eyes got and how big his grin was!! It was awesome.

Lindsey turned 5 and got lots of girly stuff. I think her favorite gifts were some new shoes and a frilly pink skirt from grandma.

I feel like I've got so much done these past few weeks. My resolve to not channel surf and not really watch TV have really opened up my time. Also, I seem to have more energy now that I am not pregnant or nursing. I feel like all my projects that I've put on hold for so long are finally getting some attention. I love getting projects done and making our homelife work better.

Meanwhile, Larry is in hyperdrive, scrambling around with his things- stressful work, waterpolo, Elder's Quorum, soccer, and home life. He enjoys it, but it is hard for him to stay on top of it all. Luckily, soccer ends next week, and waterpolo ends around Halloween.