Harvest, Wedding, Birthday

 

Sunday night watching Music and the Spoken Word.

 

Sourdough baking continues. I just love the aged taste when I let the sponge work magic overnight!

 

Waiting at the doctor's office. Always a lovely time where we play 100 ways to stay relatively quiet. Simon says, I spy, lollipop promises, etc.

 

The Koffords are doing some major work in their back yard. They enjoyed watching Brandon with the big digger driving around moving dirt.

 

The sweet potato vines grew everywhere. Tendrils even went through the fence posts (which are narrow!) and grew leaves on the other side. Crazy! We weren't positive when to harvest. We had some huge ones at the root of the main plants, but those runners were also putting down roots and growing more so those came out small. Overall we had a harvest way larger than we could possible eat!

 

We let the kids dig with their hands after I'd loosened the soil with a shovel. They thought it was a treasure hunt!

 

Nicole with "THE MOTHER LOAD!" haha

 

I finally finished the bathroom. We had no idea what we were really going to do, only picked out paint colors we liked and then went for it. It's funny to feel happy about a bathroom!

 

Katy at the park climbing up. She is a mover and shaker now. She LOVES to be on top of the table at adult height.

 

A year ago we were at Alexandra's baptism and it was great to be a part of setting up and Jim being a witness at her wedding to Robbie, who is returning to activity in the church. They both have courage to make big changes in their lives and it was a blessing to be a part of this special ceremony.

 

Nicole had her birthday party today. The boys were especially eager. They sat on the front porch and Michael would say "The party's here! Come on in!" and Jake would take their present. And if they were lucky, they'd hear Jake tell about how he caught a wild lizard in the backyard that bit his finger and wouldn't let go until Daddy helped. Quite the welcoming committee.

 

The girls made bracelets from beads- apparently I was too busy helping to take a picture of that- and Jim was a sweet daddy helping Diana take part by stringing Cheerios on a bracelet. Gold star award goes to Jim for keeping Diana apart yet a part of the party!

 

Since rain cancelled our back yard plans we played a bunch of minute to win it games! Knock the water bottles over with a tennis ball in nylons.

 

Everyone had to keep their balloon up for a minute!

 

Unique way to get a cookie from your forehead into your mouth. I guess laying down helped because Nicole did it when at New Years she couldn't!

 

 

Cup stacking in a minute only using one hand.

 

Marshmallow toss.

 

My favorite was the human knot- and they actually did it! You put your hands in the circle and randomly grab someone else's hand. Then without ever letting go you untangle the knot until everyone is standing side by side (although someone might be facing a different direction).

 

It was awesome to see them go from mad chaos to really working together to solve the knot.

 

Nicole drew me exactly the cake she wanted- colors, strawberries, sun and all!

 

So hard to believe she is 9!

 

The weather was mild enough that we could open gifts outside.

 

We played Vaseline move-it right before everyone had to leave. You put Vaseline on your nose and use it to move cotton balls from one bowl to another. Such fun to watch!

 

Diana really made good use of the Vaseline. And was thrilled to be a part of things!

So blessed to have fun friends and family! Friends really mean a lot to Nicole and it is such a wonderful blessing to have these sweet girls over laughing and playing while having a good time.

Hike, Motto, Planes, Paint

 

I love finding little selfies the kids take like this. The boys love making train tracks on the back porch together!

 

Nicole and I made cinnamon rolls together. I'm trying to make sure she learns how to cook all of the important stuff.

 

I have been dying to have a shredded beef chimichanga that doesn't kill by allergies...and found a recipe for oven-fried ones. Total yum!

 

Katy with her mouth full of food. She's like a squirrel packing away food in her cheek pouches.

 

Diana has a pretty fierce smile.

 

Nicole and the kids playing the Flare.

 

Cinnamon rolls disappear so quickly around here!

 

Monday was Labor Day and we went to Umstead Park, this huge forested park with tons of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding.

 

The kids loved finding mushrooms! They got so excited when they saw some names carved on a tree. They were sure they were seeing "ancient writing!"

 

Michael kept asking where we were and loves following the map.

 

Diana with her cracker snack.

 

The first part of the trail was paved. The weather was beautiful and the trees were gorgeous and green.

 

Exploring the river. The water level was very low but it made for interesting exploration.

 

Of course there were a few slips but only Jacob got a foot completely wet. By some miracle Diana didn't get soaked :)

 

The kids found an inchworm and were very sad when they lost him. He was pretty cute.

 

For family night we created our family motto. I showed the kids a picture I had taken at our hike that morning. The roots of the trees crisscrossed much of the trail and we talked about how the roots of one tree strengthen the other trees. We shared ideas of how we can strengthen each other. I made a column of legos and showed how easily it could be knocked over. I made several columns with an interconnected foundation and showed how strong all of the columns were ...because of the strong foundation. We talked about how each member in our family is a strength to each other and how we can help each other. We talked about how the daily building blocks of prayer, kindness, scripture study, forgiveness, patience, church attendance, etc make our family stronger. Those daily building blocks build the eternal foundation of a forever family. Our family motto is a verse from Doctrine and Covenants section 64 verse 33: "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." I love my forever family.

 

 

Michael got pretty exhausted towards the end of the hike, but when I asked him to help Katy walk, all of a sudden he was eager to help her. It was really sweet to see how helping her gave him the energy he needed.

 

The kids got tired of their hats so Nicole, who has now grown even to my nose!!, put the hats on me.

 

After the hike we went to the Raleigh airport (Umstead State Park is 5 min away) to an observation deck and park they have. There are plaques with pictures and descriptions of different plane types and the kids loved identifying the planes and watching them take off and land. My favorite was Jacob yelling "impossible! impossible!" as we watched a plane take off. Nicole told me when the nose of the plane goes up that's when she wants to throw up on every flight. The kids really made me laugh.

 

There was a little park where Diana got in touch with her inner dog?

 

And Katy's curly hair was all over the place.

 

Waving bye-bye to a plane.

 

Diana loved running "with" the planes as they went by.

 

Diana started preschool! This is not your normal first day of preschool shot, but in the rush of getting there I didn't take one yet. However, her day at preschool was so fun that she came home talking a million words a minute (mom can sympathize :) and then totally crashed on the couch for a very long nap.

 

We had some extra birdseed, so Jim put it on the wall. We had squirrels for days eating it up. One squirrel got so full he just spread out, completely stuffed, on the wall.

 

I got to meet the kids teachers as they shared their curriculum for the year and it was fun to see all they will be doing and get a sense for their teachers. The kids had cute welcome letters and projects. Jacob had a cute picture of his family. I think he only included school-aged siblings haha.

 

We moved the playroom downstairs to the front room. We haven't finished arranging stuff, but at least the toys have moved and the kids love it. They made a castle of legos and Michael told me he was like the statue of liberty.

 

On Saturday Diana was eager to go with each of the older three to their soccer games. She is such a live wire and can't wait to play!

 

I started a project I've been dying to do. I've never painted at any house we've rented because I figured it wasn't worth the effort. But now, the pink bathroom is finally going to go!