October 2013

PRESCHOOL

Nathan was excited to have Preschool at our house this month.  The kids did the 3 Little Kittens for their Nursery Rhyme, so we acted out the poem.  The kids had fun eating pie with their mittens (socks) on their hands.  (In this picture, taken the night before preschool, they are holding ghosts they made by filling nitrile gloves with water--a craft they came up with all by themselves.)

They had to wash the mittens afterward.

And of course, hang them up to dry.

We also did a field trip to the police station.  Nathan enjoyed seeing the cool police cars.

 JOG-A-THON

Maddy did the jog-a-thon and was a great runner.  She was just 2 laps shy of the record for the most laps run by a Kindergartener this year.

Nathan had fun running with Maddy.  He also was excited to meet one of his favorite characters--Clifford!

SOCCER

The kids finished up their last month of soccer.  Here is Maddy doing drills.

Nathan had a lot of fun with the other boys on his team and having his dad as the assistant coach.

Abby had an excellent coach that helped teach her the basics of playing soccer.

 HALLOWEEN FUN

We took a trip to Country Mercantile for our family Halloween outing.

Jared with our 3 little pumpkins.

We enjoyed the kid straw bale maze and the corn maze which was a little more challenging for the taller members of the family.

The kids also had fun climbing to the top of a giant straw bale pyramid.

Maddy riding on the carousel.

Nathan liked all the big pumpkins.

Nathan kept bumping into his sisters'  cars to make them go faster.

The kids think it's lame that I don't decorate much for Halloween, so they decided to remedy the situation by making lots of Halloween decorations for our home.

Here are a few more.  I told Jared that in our next house we need an entire wall for me to display all their crafts.

Here are the kids ready to go trick or treating with the new Halloween  pillowcases I sewed for them.

Maddy was Rapunzel.

Nathan was a knight in shining armor.

Abby decided to be Merida from the movie Brave.

HOMESCHOOL

Abby was learning about money in homeschool this month, so she decided to set up a store in her room.  She called it Kid World.

Abby labeled toys with price tags and worked as the cashier when Maddy and Nathan came to buy toys with their play money.

The kids decided to make their own kites one afternoon; here they are trying to make them fly.

September 2013

NATHAN

Nathan on his first day of Pre-school level 2.

We love his sweet smile.

Nathan started soccer.  Jared is the assistant coach for his team.  Nathan loves it.

Nathan learning how to swing.

ABIGAIL

I decided to take some pictures of Abby since we got her all dressed for picture day at Homelink and then it was rescheduled due to a bad storm.  We love her sweet smile.

Abby decided she needed a prop if she was going to pose for a picture.

Pretty darn cute.

Abby playing soccer.  I'm afraid I put her shin guards on the outside of her socks since I've never been a soccer mom before and I didn't know what I was doing.

Abby on the first day of Homelink.

Abby after she accidently opened the wrong side of the parmesan cheese and poured half the jar on her pasta.

MADELINE

Maddy on her first day of Kindergarten.

Maddy was probably the most excited about riding on the school bus.

Maddy was sad one day when she came home from Kindergarten because she didn't know how to swing herself.  Abby went with her to the back yard and gave Maddy swinging lessons.  Ten minutes later she came in screaming with excitement because she learned how.  Yeah, for big sisters.

Maddy was really shy at first, but now she loves playing on her soccer team.

OUR NEW CLOSET

Jared has been awesome and built all these shelves in our master closet to create more storage space.

Look at all that shelf space!

Hooks for jackets.

The girls got really excited about the shoe shelf and started trying on all my high heeled shoes.

Jared rebuilt the drywall box (that covers the stairwell below) to include this awesome long drawer that is great for storing wrapping paper.

PARTY

The kids had fun jumping in the bouncy house at the Homelink family social.

One day the kids had fun dressing up and having a fancy tea party.

On the 29th I made a cake and we celebrated Thomas' first birthday.  We sure miss our sweet little guy.  For Thomas' birthday, Jared did one last blog post about him:  http://changedforgood3x21.blogspot.com/2013/09/not-post-i-wanted-to-write.html?spref=fb

The Strawberry girls.

August 2013 Update

NATHAN

Nathan now refuses to take naps, but sometimes he gets really worn out and I find him asleep in the funniest places.

Nathan did really well in swim class.  The teacher thought he was probably a good enough swimmer that he could skip the next level.

Nathan had fun kayaking at our ward Fathers and Sons outing.

Nathan caught napping again.

He loves his new construction pjs from Grandma.

Now that we have started homeschool, he does a lot of puzzles while I'm working with Abby.

ABBY

Abby is getting to be a really good swimmer.  Her only problem is that she is so skinny she doesn't float very well.

Abby learning the front crawl.

MADDY

Madeline has overcome her fear of the water and has really taken off with her swimming.  She even passed all the tests to get into the next level.

SECOND HONEYMOON

Jared and I always planned on having a second honeymoon for our 10th anniversary.  However, we spent our 10th anniversary in tears since I was pregnant, and we had just found out about all of Thomas' health problems.  Needless to say, we didn't really feel like celebrating.  So we decided to make a big deal out of our 11th anniversary instead.

Jared planned a fun get away in Cascade, ID which was near our free babysitters in Boise.  Thank you Eric, Amy, and Grandma Collett.

On the first day we hiked to this beautiful alpine lake.

Knowing that camping isn't my cup of tea, Jared decided to plan a glamping trip where we spent the day doing fun things outdoors, and then we came home to this fancy suite.

We stayed at the Ashley Inn which was a nice Victorian style hotel complete with a pool, a jetted tub, and free access to canoe and kayaks, not to mention freshly baked cookies every night.

On Friday we went on an awesome and somewhat scary zip line course.

This is me scared to death at the top of a huge pine tree.

Jared walking along a suspended bridge.  Here is a video of one of our zips.  It is a lot scarier than it looks.  In some places we were 200 feet above the ground.

On our last day Jared and I went jet skiing, but I don't have any pictures because I didn't want to risk the camera.  We also enjoyed some nice hot springs before heading back to Boise to pick up the kids.  We stayed in Boise on Sunday and were able to attend Jenna's baby blessing and have Sunday dinner with Jared's family.

Later in August, our family hiked Badger Mountain for the first time since we moved here 5 years ago.  We had a FHE lesson on enduring to the end and started up. I was impressed with how well the kids did.  Abby and Maddy made it on their own, and Nathan only had to be carried for a short time.  The hike was ugly (no trees, only dust, rock and sagebrush) but the view was worth it.  At the end we took at trip to Baskin Robin's to show that after we endure to the end we will get a reward.