Isaac’s new glasses make him look so much older! I swear these kids are growing right before my eyes.
I just couldn’t help taking pictures of this handsome boy!
After the first day of school Emma made a comment to me about her history class. Some of her classmates were surprised that she wasn’t in the AP US History class (APUSH). When she said that, it was my turn to be surprised! I had no idea she wasn’t in the AP class, I just assumed she had signed up for it. She then told me that she hadn’t because she didn’t want to take it and wasn’t really interested in it. I proceeded to tell her why she should be interested in it. First of all, she would be good at it. Second, it would benefit her when it was time to apply to her choice of college. She quickly decided I might be right and she sent an email off to her counselor about getting in to the class. The next day she talked with her counselor and the APUSH teacher. Her counselor said it was possible to get her in, but her schedule would have to be completely changed. The teacher told her that the kids in his class had homework over the summer and a test on the first day. He gave her the material and told her she would have to take the test on her first day of class, even if it was the next day. He wasn’t too hopeful that she would be able to do it, and warned her it would be a difficult class. But that didn’t deter her. She took that material home and got to work memorizing it. We spent a lot of hours that night going over the historical timeline and memorizing facts, dates and people. She had to be able to recreate the timeline on a blank piece of paper. I was impressed with her determination and she got that whole thing down, and I had fun helping her. We quized her the next morning before seminary and she was ready. But when she got to school and met with her counselor again he told her he wouldn’t be able to make the changes for her after all (it would affect her schedule for her senior year). They talked and discussed it and came up with a plan that would work, but it took all day of her going back and forth to her counselor, the APUSH teacher, and other teachers. She stayed after to school to work it out as well. She finally texted me after school and said they got it all worked out and she would start the class next Tuesday (after Labor Day). I suggested that she go find the APUSH teacher right then and ask if she could take the test so she wouldn’t have it hanging over head over the holiday weekend. She worried about taking it though because in the craziness of the day she hadn’t even thought about it since that morning or gone over her notes. Despite her fears she went and found him and he let her take the test. She missed two tiny details, but it was good enough to be able to take the class. The teacher was impressed. I just recently talked with him and he told me that he is so glad Emma decided to take the class. She participates and is a good addition to the class. Duh!
A little rain can’t keep these Oregon kids from playing outside!
This years canning involved applesauce, pears, and peaches. Yum! I’m always so glad when the canning is done.
Sunday chess and Daddy Discussions.
We celebrated LaLa’s birthday with our traditional dinner followed by Molasses Krinkles cookies.
We love LaLa and we love giant molasses krinkles topped with ice cream!
#ocwewent
We celebrated dad on his birthday.
He’s so cute!
We love him!
Speaking of my dad… the week that I had doof on our menu just happened to be the week that we had a couple different events at our house. Several people asked me what doof was and I had to explain. Then Alyssa asked me a question about what I use for a menu so I sent her this picture. Of course she also wanted to know what doof was. Whenever we used to ask my dad what was for dinner he would say doof, which is food spelled backwards. we started to notice that he would especially say doof when he was making one of his old standbys, a sort of beef stroganoff. So, that recipe is affectionately known as doof. I had to include that little piece of family history. :)
Grace got invited to start attending Activity Days a little early. Oh man was she excited about that! We went to a mother-daughter activity night.
It was a DOTS night, where we learned how to Develop Our Testimonies. Grace loved going to each of the stations and learning about the different parts of a testimony.
What a fun group of girls and it’s so exciting to be starting Activity Days!
Lee left treats on the kids’ pillows when he went to Spokane for his school weekend. That was a fun surprise!
While Isaac was camping with Grandpa, the girls and I watched Anne of Green Gables. It was Grace’s first time and she has become a fan!
Lee kept sending us pictures like these to make us jealous.
Looks like they are working hard!
I kept sending him pictures like these. I spent most of the weekend painting when we weren’t watching Anne.
After I got the fireplace painted I put up Halloween decorations. It was a tad early, but totally worth it!
Emma and I hosted a LuLaRoe pop-up boutique at our house. The living room was full of super fun clothes, and our house was full of people trying those clothes on. It was more fun than I expected!
Even better, Emma and I ended up with some cute and comfortable dresses!
Grace and I had been looking at baptism dresses online for several months. She picked one dress that she absolutely loved. I finally ordered it in September. As I was ordering it I saw another dress that we hadn’t seen before that I thought I would like better. I ordered that one as well. When Grace got home from school that day I showed it to her online and she didn’t think she would like it. When both dresses came in the mail she fell in love with the second one and neither of us ended up liking the first one that she was sure she would love. But, it was too big. So I sent it back and ordered the next size down. I thought we were both going to cry when the next size down was way too small! It was such a pretty dress and she was so disappointed. I took it to MyLiege and she said it could be fixed, but it was too big of a project for her right then. So I did some searching for a seamstress and found one in Oregon City. We took it in for a fitting and she had it fixed just a few hours later and for only $25! We were so excited. The dress was perfect for Grace!
A friend from our ward took some baptism pictures of these two almost eight-year olds. I snuck a few shots with my cell phone. I’ll blog the real ones later.
Grace was really wanting some silly shots so I indulged her.
Isaac was getting all suave with flowers in his suit pocket.
We have not been the best gardners the last few years. We harvested our tiny carrots that were never thinned…
I love going with Emma to the Women’s Session of General Conference. I always come away feeling inspired and loved. It’s even better to share that with Emma. Next time Grace will get to go with us! Dinner at Sweet Tomatoes with a lot of friends makes it even better!
The Primary program this year was so great. I subbed for Shannon as the chorister a few times right before the program, including the last practice, so I felt vested in those songs! Hearing the kids sing and bear their testimonies gets me every time. Isaac and Grace had their parts down and did a wonderful job. This is the only picture I got that day.
Granny, Grandpa, Kaitlin, Tenley and Grandma Dorothy came to watch and have lunch with us afterwards. Aren’t Tenley and Emma so cute all cuddled up?
Phone cameras never do justice to beautiful sunsets!
When I painted the fireplace I only painted half of the family room. It had to stay like that for several days, but I finally got to it. I love the new color, it’s gray and much brighter. I am dying to paint the entryway and upstairs hallway, but I will need some help to get the vaulted ceilings. One of these days!
Baptism prep was in full swing in September. Grace gave a lesson from my FHE aresnal about preparing for baptism. She did such a good job and took it so seriously.
For the activity we played one of my favorite childhood games (the cotton balls represent how pure, light and clean you are after baptism). I so remember playing this game when we were preparing for Emma’s baptism. That seems like just yesterday! (Emma was present, she just didn’t make any of the pictures! And we were having FHE in our bedroom because the family room was torn apart for painting that day.)
My family was not very nice to me when it was my turn. They kept taking my cotton balls out of the bowls. Stinkers. Excuse my pajamas…
You can’t see it in this picture, but we got to watch the coolest spider show over breakfast one morning. A huge spider was getting ready to eat its own breakfast at the same time.
Isaac and Grace have the most amazing teacher. I love her. She has the cutest camping and s’mores theme in her classroom right now. She is also very technology minded. Lots of things come home with a QR code, most of which lead us to videos where we can see what is going on in the classroom. This is what we found when we went to Back to School night.
Isaac and Grace showed me there iPad projects, and scanned their codes for me.
It’s going to be a great year full of learning for them!
Isaac’s friend Tyce invited us to go Cub Scout uniform shopping with him. Isaac was over the moon excited for that little date. These boys were so cute!
Isaac has been talking about Cub Scouts for months and months. He can’t wait! He got home with all of his stuff and organized it so nicely (I guess he cares more about Cub Scouts than school supplies!).
That night he read his Wolf book.
He came down the next morning with the Scout Law and Oath completely memorized. He was showing me all sorts of things in the book and telling me what he needed to do to complete his Bobcat. He knows more about it than I do!
I think he’s ready! Too bad he has to wait almost a whole month!!
Our trusty library closed in September to move to new, updated and bigger digs. We were so excited for the new library and had been anxiously tracking the progress of the new building. But when it came time to say goodbye to the old library I was very sad. We have spent A LOT of time at that library and I was going to miss it. Especially this corner where we participated in more storytimes than I can count. I took Emma there for years, then Arianna, and then the twins. It was time for a new library, but we have fond memories of the old one! We also didn’t know how we would live without a library for the almost 4 weeks it was closed for the moving!
Finally, on the last day of September I made pumpkin muffins which made me happy becuase it was the beginning of pumpkin season. Yum!
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