September part 4- Superhero Fun!

 About a week ago, I came downstairs, and Andy and Daniel were trying to use blankets for capes.  It wasn't going very well.  I had been thinking about getting them some capes for awhile and that sweet scene made up my mind.  Andy likes the capes, but Daniel loves them.  He wore them all weekend, sometimes changing every 10-20 minutes.

Captain America

Spiderman (I think that's his favorite, that's what he's wearing right now) 

One night, batman came to dinner, he even said the prayer 😊

On Sunday night, after a weekend of playing, Daniel sidled up to me and said "Thank you, Mom".  I said "for what?"  He paused for a second and said, "Thank you for you."  It was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever told me.  💗

September Part 3 - Happy Birthday Joy!

 

Our sweet Joy turned 11 on September 28th.

Her good friend Norah got to come over after school and she stayed all evening. 

We bless the day that these girls met, it is a gift to have a true friend.

Joy and Norah did a great job decorating the sides of the cake.

I did the writing and flowers on the top.

Happy birthday Joy!  You are such a blessing to our family and a light to all who know you!  I'm so grateful that you're in our family!

September Part 2

 September 25th was Dave and Carma Rogers' 50th Anniversary.  Lisa Rogers had the idea to throw them a surprise Anniversary party and we all chipped in.  

Mark and I were in charge of dessert and decorations.  

The party turned out really well, it was a special night celebrating a wonderful couple.

This month, Joy and BethAnne started taking horse riding lessons in Eagle (halfway to Emmett).  Daniel came with us to the first lesson and we spent the whole way there explaining to him that he was just going to watch, not actually ride.

But near the end of the girls' lesson, the teacher offered to let Daniel ride and he loved it.  But he kept asking the horse to go faster, it was very funny.

Both girls love to ride and and it's a great hobby. I'm a city girl myself, I wish it wasn't so dusty out there 😆, but I love that they love it.

September 2020 Part 1 (Back to School, kind of)

Like I explained in the previous post, the 4 older kids are doing various forms of online school/homeschool.  I decided to take some pictures on their first day.

Sweet Joy is doing homeschool with some subjects online.

Andy is doing traditional homeschool, not online, but he loves to play minecraft (that's what he's doing in this picture)

BethAnne and Grace are doing great with their online school  They sometimes struggle to find quiet places to get their work done and have their meetings, but they are getting great grades and keeping up with their challenging work.

The day before school started, I got the impression that Daniel should go to preschool this year.  He just turned 3 in May, and there's a pandemic going on, so I hadn't planned on it. But the direction from the Spirit was strong and got stronger as I considered it.  I called my friend Michelle and she had a spot in her 3-year-old class, so a few days later Daniel started Preschool.  

One reason I didn't consider preschool is because Daniel has been attached to my hip for the last 3 years.  He doesn't like to leave my side. He was never willing to set foot in nursery without us.  I had serious concerns about him being able to go to Preschool and enjoy it, but I was completely wrong.  He loves it; he talks about it constantly.  Every day he wants to know if he can go to preschool (but it's only twice a week).  Preschool has really helped Daniel be more independent, he's even willing to go to sleep in his own bed now.  This experience has been a great example to me of how Heavenly Father knows best and if we feel directed to do something, it is for our good (and our children's good).  I'm grateful for revelation.

 

August 2020

 I think the whole world was hoping the pandemic would be pretty much over by the end of summer, but it actually got worse, with large surges around the country in July.  By August, things were improving a little, but not much.  

Here's Daniel and I on my birthday.  We went with Mark to the Village for a birthday lunch (which was very yummy).  I splurged on a cute mask for me (and eventually for the rest of the family) and I think that helps.  

We spent the summer trying to figure out what to do for the kids schooling in the fall.  There were a lot of options to consider and none of them seemed good (see above meme).  I hadn't wanted to homeschool Andy again (we had a difficult homeschooling experience in the spring of 2020).  But the other options (online school or 1/2 time school wearing masks) weren't a good fit for Andy so we decided to homeschool him again.  And I'm glad we did because it's going a lot better this year. Joy is doing great at homeschool and Grace and BethAnne are doing online school through the school district.  Grace's spot at the Fine Arts Academy will be held until next year.

We had a lot of fun outside this summer.  Andy taught Daniel how to swing himself on the swing and for a few weeks, if we couldn't find Daniel, he was out on the swing.

Grandma got a great new swing and the kids had a lot of fun on it.  Here are Daniel, Leeya and Andy.  Our kids and Suzie's kids got along so well this summer!  We can't wait to see them again next summer!

Grandma and Grandpa Baker were carefully isolating all summer, and they still are, but they were able visit us in their backyard.  It will be great when we can get together more normally.

I'm so glad Mark made this Lego table for the kids this last Christmas.  It has been a lifesaver with the Pandemic and it has gotten hours and hours and hours of use. 

Joy, Andy, Daniel and Norah (Joy's good friend)

Some cool creations!

Andy especially loves the Legos, but Daniel is getting better and better at making awesome creations!

I sure love these brilliant, creative kids!

July Part 2

 

The highlight of our summer was when Suzie and her kids came to visit.  They arrived July 19th and stayed in town until August 11th.  We got to have them at our house for church for 4 Sundays and it was so nice to have a large group for home church.  

Joy and Grace got to go horse riding with Suzie, Eva, Aiden, Stephanie and Livi.  They had a great time.

Grace had her 14th birthday and we got to celebrate with cousins, which seems to be a yearly tradition.

BethAnne made her this pretty origami flower.

Chrissy had a new baby, Jake, at the end of May.  I love to hold him when he's around!

July 2020 Part 1

July started with our fridge breaking on Andy's birthday and we had to scramble to get a new one before our food spoiled.  After a lot of consideration we found an awesome fridge that is huge inside, with a lower freezer.  This was a big blessing when Suzie's family stayed with us for a couple weeks. 

The party went on as planned amidst the chaos of the broken fridge. Andy requested a rocket cake with a swimming pool and a raft full of lego guys.  We made it happen 😆

The next day we did some fireworks to celebrate 4th of July.  I had high hopes that Daniel would let us stay out to watch the fireworks, but as soon as they got going, he panicked and we ended up inside.  

Trying to help him deal with the fireworks with headphones, it didn't work.

But in the end, my mama heart was happy to be inside with my little buddy.  Maybe we can watch the fireworks next year.

We were able to go swimming a few times this summer.  Lots of fun!

We enjoyed riding bikes this summer too, before it got  too hot.  Daniel learned how to ride a tricycle!

Stay tuned for more summer posts!