September

 

Meet the Teacher Day is also "bring stuff for all your kids somehow" day. Since we walk, I loaded our beach wagon and it worked!

 

Excitement for school made it all an adventure.

 

First day! Nicole is in middle school now, so wears the grey polo. She has had her best year ever, with a variety of friends and activities that keep her engaged and balanced. She loves her electives- Ukulele and Find Your Voice! (public speaking)

 

Volleyball tryouts were the first two days of school. I thought Nicole would be too tired for anything, but she begged to read John his bedtime stories. John is such a fun, sweet blessing to all of us!

 

Michael's birthday was right after school began! I tried a new method of frosting the cake with drawings and it mostly worked out :)

 

As part of the primary presidency, we do a little something for the teachers each quarter to show our appreciation. I have such respect and love for our teachers! I made four types of brownie toppings and snickerdoodles.

 

M&Ms on Oreo frosting

 

Oreo on Oreo frosting

 

Reeses on Chocolate frosting

 

 

Twix on Chocolate frosting

 

To our joy, Nicole made the team! When I showed her the list, she squealed with excitement it was so fun for the family to share her happiness. I made ponytail holders for the volleyball team. None of the girls have played on a team before, some have done a camp or parks and rec but we are a very fresh team. This is a blessing because Nicole made the team, but in games...we have lots of learning opportunities!

 

We took a family bike ride- last time my bike popped the back tire (right under John's seat!) And the SAME thing happened this time. I think John is just too big for the seat! Having a popped tire makes it very hard to get back to the truck while lugging John too!!

 

Katy's first day of preschool! She loved it last year and feels totally comfortable this year. I love seeing her blossom as the big girl at home. I'm amazed at her confidence when I know she has lots of shyness too, and I'm grateful that the loving teachers at preschool build her up.

 

First game and Nicole started front right!

 

Go team! These girls are so nice to each other, which is a blessing with all the learning that is going on :)

 

Diana made these glasses at school and was sure I wouldn't recognize her. She is growing tall- 46in (71st%) and 43lbs. She is a solid, fast bouncy girl. She has such laser focus and intensity and does everything with all her energy!

 

Diana had an awesome Saturday- I took her to her soccer game, rushed to the store to grab presents for a party and they were giving out free little stuffed animal dogs!

 

Then on to the party for a pony ride- she was over the moon!

 

These twin girls are in Diana's class and they live across the street from us. I love seeing their friendship.

 

Diana with her face painted :)

 

One Sunday, Diana announced she was throwing a dance party in her room. Her cute request blossomed into everyone taking turns dancing and being fun and ridiculous. We also had Nicole play ukulele and Mike play electric guitar. It was a fun spontaneous family time together.

 

A week before it arrived, Hurricane Florence was making its presence known. The original forecast showed it making landfall as category 4 and barreling straight through Raleigh as a 2! I went early to Costco to grab some water and the before the store opened the line was all the way through the store!

 

We stocked up one pantry with things we could heat on our propane and lots of snacks!

 

Plus water- and Diapers! My two main necessities lol

 

John is such a ham at meal times. He knows it's his time to shine and make everyone smile.

 

Amazingly, the storm path and intensity changed overnight. It downgraded to a 1 and made a c-shaped turn around Raleigh!

 

 

Because the path and intensity changed so fast, school had already been cancelled. Plus we had tropical storm force winds and lots of rain. So I got out a new board game I'd bought to distract everyone and we all played and ate snacks.

 

We never lost power or had any trees/limbs fall, but we did get over a foot of rain. It was incredible to see the clouds moving and the endless rain.

 

When school got back in session, Diana's music class had a "campfire" where they brought a favorite stuffed animal, ate smores fixings, and sang songs. The music teacher is so creative.

 

Nicole's ukulele class students could volunteer to provide the campfire song music. Nicole and Diana practiced at home as well, it was so cute to see how the middle school and 1st grade students had fun together. I love that the kids attend the same school and have opportunities like this.

 

Ready for the campfire!

 

My brother Caleb left on his mission to Fiji! We've loved reading his letters and the kids pray for him regularly.

 

Nicole found this frog while doing her weekly job- mowing the back lawn and blowing off the concrete patio. The rain from the hurricane has brought out lots of critters.

 

 

I took the plunge and got lasik! It was a lot easier than I thought and following their instructions has made it so easy. This is so lifechanging for me- every night I feel weird going to sleep being able to see. And every morning I reach for my glasses. I never have dry contacts or dust get in my eye and hurt like crazy. I really wish I'd done this years ago!

 

Although we were spared, our coastal areas were devastated. Jim and Nicole volunteered to go out that Saturday and Sunday to help, but I was dying to help too! After my lasik Thursday, I woke up Friday and felt great so we posted on several facebook groups that we'd be doing a bake sale for the Red Cross Hurricane Florence fund and taking pre-orders to make it easier. I had pre-baked 130 something cupcakes and stuck them in the freezer (makes them taste so moist!) and had mixed the cookie doughs and put them in the fridge, but didn't know if I'd be able to do it that weekend or next. With Jim leaving Saturday, we decided to do it Friday. I had NO idea how much response we'd get. I was baking cookies like crazy and frosting cupcakes all day with Kathryn. I sold all but a few cupcakes before we opened and we had a line before I'd even brought all the snow cone stuff down. I was blown away by everyone's generosity and willingness to support us.

 

I took a pic in between the madness.

 

Over 400 cookies were gone within a few hours. Tons of snowcones.

 

 

 One woman begged me to save her a half dozen to pick up when she got off work after we'd closed. I was working so hard all day I didn't get any pictures of my cupcakes, but remembered to take a shot before she picked these up. It was such a fun day and we were able to donate $496 thanks to the amazingly generous people in our school, neighborhood and friends. I truly feel that I was blessed by Heavenly Father to be able to pull this off after having lasik the night before.

 

The next morning before 6 these two were off to Wilmington!

 

They met at the Wilmington Stake Center for orders and then they loaded up and went to different work sites to clear trees. Jim said every house in every neighborhood had something down or blown over.

 

Stake center with all the tools. The Church is SO organized and efficient!

 

Jim had bought a few snacks to make it funner :)

 

At home, we had an awesome time with Grandma Kathryn, who had arrived right in the middle of all the crazy- I didn't even see her the first night because I had lasik that night and you have to wear these goggles so you don't accidentally itch your eye or something. Then the next day was full steam ahead with the bake sale! On Saturday, with Jim gone, we had 3 soccer games, some overlapping, so she was all over town with me helping it all work out in the extreme heat and humidity. She is a warrior! Then that night, the kids had fun watching a movie that night with their Grandma. John kept calling her "Grandmom" like he knew she was a Mom.

 

After all the work orders were done for the day, Jim and Nicole went fishing off the pier.

 

Camping adventure in a grassy field by the stake center.

 

Making breakfast in the truck bed. They were told to be totally self sufficient with food for the trip and Jim went all out.

 

Steak and mushrooms for breakfast will definitely start the day with protein!

 

Eating steak wearing her boots and ready to go!

 

Sunday morning they had a sacrament meeting before they were back to work.

 

Nicole and her friend Ellie

 

The men would chainsaw the big logs and then youth would drag everything to where it will be picked up by city trucks.

 

Jim said Nicole kept working even though she was tired and I think that is a way service blesses us.

 

There were some very sweet moments for their group as so many people were grateful for the service being done. Nicole will never forget how her hard work was a blessing to others.

 

Nicole turned 12! I made her a chocolate cake with pink/white buttercream frosting and topped with meringue cookies and macarons. It was fun to make the different components and see it all come together.

 

She is 5'7.5" So now she's an inch an a half taller than me. Yikes. I joke with her that as long as she hunches with bad posture I will be taller than her. No better cure for bad posture lol

 

 

Chocolate and vanilla make a tasty cake!

 

She got a hatchimal for her birthday (she's begged for years but I'd never found a good deal- this was 50% off yahoo!) Here it is starting to peck out of its shell after she really worked at playing games, putting it to sleep, etc.

 

 Jacob had to write a gentle reminder to the tooth fairy :)

 

We went with Kathryn to Marbles on their holiday this last Friday. John was obsessed with anything that had a wheel he could drive and make sound effects for.

 

Katy loved playing vet.

 

The boys were hilarious making all kinds of jokes about everything. They are at a fun age and still enjoy the museum.

 

A new outdoor sand play area was fun.

 

Nicole mostly did the crafts and woodworking area. Diana is huge into crafting- on day she made 40 paper snowflakes for Nicole's birthday! That's a lot of focus and cutting for a 6 year old.

 

Jumping around

 

Nicole invited some friends from school and church (plus her cousin of course!) to eat pizza, play laser tag and have smores. We'd also thought to watch a movie so made the party 3 hours long. Of course they were way too chatty and energized to watch it!

 

Many of the girls had never made smores and it was a fun experience to see them learn.

 

Nicole had everyone clap for each girl as she opened their present. She told me she really wanted them to know how grateful she was for them. So sweet.

 

As the party wound down, Nicole played the ukulele while everyone sang along. She really loves playing and has learned quickly. I loved hanging around and getting to know her friends better.

 

Sunday morning family council is often a wriggling mass of arms and legs with a sippy cup thrown in. Somehow we manage to plan our week and read scriptures, and this extra morning time is a blessing of having church at 1pm.