Fall Fun and Another Girl Makes 6!

 

We skipped school Thursday and went to the State Fair with Grandma Kathryn! One vendor had these huge drumsticks they cooked over a wood fire. Smelled so good!

 

The kids spun the wheel for prizes. Diana carried around her magnet of a little chick for several days.

 

Nicole got to milk a real cow but was pretty disgusted by the whole thing it was funny to watch. She wanted to wash her hands right away :)

 

The first ride they chose had very loud horns for each car. I asked the ride operator how he could stand it (since I was going nuts before they even started) and he said he needs lots of aspirin. Poor guy! The kids loved the ride though and were honking almost the whole time.

 

There was a super fast ride the kids took Jim on.

 

The longer the ride went, Jake went from a big grin to kind of a grimace. After the ride he said he loved it but I wasn't sure if he felt that way during the ride! Michael was shrieking with glee the entire ride it was hilarious.

 

Mike and Nicole went on the Ferris wheel together for their last ride. It's so fun to see them be brave together and enjoy themselves.

 

Jake and Diana chose a monster truck ride. It was so cute to see them waiting in line together holding hands.

 

They rode together and had so much fun.

 

There was a remote controlled school bus that also had a microphone so someone in a nearby booth (where the kids couldn't see) could talk to the kids and interact with them. Diana had a whole conversation with the bus and felt so special.

 

Before we left we watched Axe Women: Loggers of Maine.

 

They had a sawing contest, axe throwing, and wood splitting contests.

 

They also did a log rolling competition and the girls were very good.

 

Jim took his mom fishing on Friday and he also got some great surfing in.

 

Jim caught a flounder.

 

Both eyes on the same side of the puffer's head!

 

Jim with his flounder.

After soccer games on Saturday, we went to Phillips Farms to go through their corn maze. They really added a ton of stuff! So much, in fact, that we left without even going through the maze! They had these huge rocking chairs the kids climbed on.

 



 

My scarecrows

 

Petting donkeys and feeding goats. Diana was intrigued by the goat horns especially.

 

The giant spider web net. My kids were running around on it rocking everyone else. We finally called the kids off since the rest of the kids preferred to sit looking around. My kids have energy!

 

The went to a bounce house they had set up and the guy running it let just our kids play in there for five minutes. They were tackling, playing tag and having a wonderful time it was so fun to watch. Katy can't wait to join the fun!

 

My favorite new thing they had was tube racing. The kids each got a tube and got it moving so they could race each other to each end and back.

 

Diana and Jake could barely move it by themselves and were determined to beat the other kids.

 

Playing some tic tac toe.

 

The kids tried throwing footballs through the holes.

 

Katy liked chasing basketballs at the hoop station.

 

Diana ran from place to place like crazy. We didn't take a picture but they also had a fun house that had a lot of black lights and was a kind of maze. The kids had an awesome time but Diana did not like being in such a dark place and held my hand the whole time. Nicole thought she was so funny trying to get ahead of us so we couldn't see her. After we got out I thanked Michael for finding the way for us through the maze and he told me he ran into walls twice :)

 

The boys went down together on the big slide

 

Nicole took Katy.

 

Diana went several times and loved every second.

 

Katy adores Nicole it is so sweet to see how good Nicole is with her.

 

The pedal carts were a favorite! Michael's was sort of broken so the seat kept coming loose and shaking around. Michael wanted to beat everyone so badly it was hilarious to watch him shaking in his seat all over the place pedaling like mad.

 

They had a huge bounce thing on sand. It was awesome and the kids could have played there all day. The weather was in the 70s, it was a wonderful time.

 

Checking out a tractor while waiting for our cow ride

 

Diana at the steering wheel. Yikes!

 

Off they go on the cow ride!

 

We came home in time to watch the BYU football game where they won by a lot of points. Grandma had brought glow sticks and the kids had them all over.

 

Nicole's celebration glow sticks for yet another BYU touchdown.

 

We had silly string from Nicole's birthday and used it to celebrate another one of the touchdowns (there were a lot :)

 

We grilled hamburgers for dinner. While cleaning up, we turned around to see Katy finishing off the beans.

 

Apparently she is a big fan.

 

We got a crested gecko from some friends that can't take care of her anymore. Her big buggy eyes are so cool. Watching her lick her eyes is crazy (she doesn't have eyelids so that is normal)!

 

She was pretty nervous about being in a new place with the kids all excited to see her and was pretty jumpy while we were cleaning her cage which is too small for her. We will be making her a new nice home and hope to tame her some more. I'm thinking we need to take our 6 lizards on the road for some kind of reptile show. Uromastyx, bearded dragons, leopard gecko and now a crested gecko!

Family fun, our own Scott Stirling, more paint!

 

We listened to a conference talk "Blessed and Happy Are Those That Keep the Commandments of God" and drew pictures of the story he told about surfers in Australia. This was one of the favorite talks for the kids!

 

Michael's drawing was of surfers saying "See" while looking at sharks. Michael had his 7 year old dr. appointment a few weeks ago. He weighs 56lbs (72th%), is 50.0in tall (86th%) and his BMI is 15.5 (50th%). He really put on a show of his 7 year old-ness for the doctor and I had to confirm that yes he does function in school :) Michael actually got chosen to be one of two kids in his class to be part of an advanced learning group and his teacher seems to really like him. The other day one of his socks, yet again, had a hole where the big toe is. I asked him how long it would take before he threw the sock out and he replied that he liked his big toe out because it was his sticky toe or something that gave him good traction. My crazy boy. He had an EPIC day in soccer yesterday. He was his team's Scott Stirling :) His coach has progressively moved him to play goalie more often when it's his rotation for a defensive position and has said he really has a knack for it and isn't afraid to take some hits. So yesterday, against a really good team, Mike played three of four quarters as goalie. He stopped kicks on the goal with his head, with his body, with his hands as he jumped in the air up and to the side. The funny part is that it's not a super coordinated effort when Mike is goalie. He just somehow has his body in the right place. He skips from side to side in the goal while waiting for action to come his way, and then he'll dive to the side and just somehow save the ball. At the end of the game the coach had everyone give Michael a cheer and called him the MVP. After their cheers and everything Michael gets back to the car and asks, "Dad, what's an MVP?" haha

 

Nicole is so creative, she was drawing her picture of the sharks through the view of binoculars just like the story describes. She had her 9 year old dr visit too. She is 67lbs (60th%) and is 4'9"in tall (off chart), and her BMI is 13.6 (4th%). She is tall and lean! She also had her annual evaluation at the orthodontist. No braces yet, but they will be coming! Nicole's vocabulary has increased a ton as she continues to read voraciously. Yesterday she cracked me up when in one sentence she used the words- fyi, note to self, and etcetera.

 

Jake took pictures of all our lizards for his Kindergarten teacher. He also told me that this last week his class was eating fruit snacks as part of an activity and that he stuffed all of them in his mouth at once. His teacher brought him over and showed the assistant teacher too. Having only heard this story from Jacob I can only imagine the fun his teachers have with him. He takes some speech class too, and was driving Nicole nuts the other day practicing "sssss" in the car and the house and the backyard.

 

Sunny comes when called. It's crazy but even in daytime when he's sleeping, if Nicole calls his name in her singsong way then he comes out!

 

For family night we did something that I remember doing as a kid. I cut strips of paper and everyone wrote something they loved about each member of the family and then glued it on that person's paper. It was amazing to see how the kids loved reading those kind words again and again. Even Diana kept it by her bed for days and would sleep with it, a reminder of how much her family loves her.

 

Jacob's notes were almost impossible to read, but the thought counts!

 

We usually have scripture study in the family room, but one crazy day we had Mom and Dad read while the kids frosted and ate sugar cookies. It was a very quiet scripture study :) We've also started singing a song from the hymnbook and found that the kids are more interested in singing at church because they are more familiar with reading hymns.

 

Jake was awesome at soccer yesterday in the 45 degree weather- we are in a cold snap for a few days! He has a great defensive kick that clears the ball whenever it's in his territory. He is so fun to watch play! The coach also likes putting him in goalie too, but at this age they only have him play it for one rotation. I'm glad because I prefer them to run around using all that energy up :)

 

The older Katy gets, the more fun these two have together. I love seeing Katy say hi to Diana and seeing them smile at each other.

 

Diana is still exuberantly kind as you can see that her "gentle" kiss on Katy's head is more like she grabbed Katy's head and smacked a kiss. But we'll get there...

 

 

I finished redoing our piano/lizard/cubby room. The dark pink-red is gone and replaced with a blue-grey shades. The hardest part of it all was that white trim which took forever!

 

But now this room looks so much more peaceful and open instead of dark and covered with holes, wear and tear. We enjoy coming in here just to enjoy a clean room :)