Thanksgiving

Sophia stayed with us for Thanksgiving this year. It was so nice having her visit us again! One day I took them to a park we haven't been to in awhile. We were the only ones there and had a blast. We ended up playing hide and seek.

Halloween

The weather was perfect for this year's Halloween. Mikayla didn't wear a coat! 

One house we discovered made cotton candy in their garage! They were giant!

Anna

Elsa

We went to Cyndi's house for the weekend before Halloween and got to carve our pumpkins with the rest of the family. So much fun!

Nate's pumpkin

My pumpkin

Mikayla's

Elyana's

Fall Activities

This fall, Elyana took a gymnastics class through community education. She really enjoyed it!

She also kept on doing fun experiments from science kits my mom had shipped to her. She has such a passion for science!

She has a helper...

I led the rock climbing badge in American Heritage Girls and Elyana started taking Wednesday night rock climbing classes.

September House Projects

With the kids in school, I could focus more on finishing the basement. We needed to paint the walls and the ceiling. 

Insulation in, drywall almost finished. Nate also wired the projector in the walls.

Unfortunately, we had a defective piece of drywall and this bubble formed when I started to paint.  I had to cut it out, patch it up, mud it, and prep it, then paint again.  Big setback.

 

My mom and I started with the ceiling first. Everything had to be protected and taped to use the power paint sprayer which is recommended for the popcorn type ceiling.

Full recommended gear.

Painting the walls next.

Standing against the ladder for days painting led to some inner and outer pain...

Finished room!

We found this neat pot rack at the Habitat Restore!

Back To School

Elyana is entering 5th grade and Mikayla is going into 8th.  Both are starting their last year at their schools!  Crazy!

It's early in the morning again and she was a teenager not too thrilled with me wanting her photo.

We had a Quarry Hill nature center field trip at the beginning of the year. I got to learn to belay the students. Yikes! Little did I know but Elyana would discover a love for rock climbing!

Here is Faith not wanting Elyana to leave for school without her.

Of course going back to school means picking up illness again. Elyana was home sick and Faith is wondering what is going on. She splashed Ellie in the face with toilet water.  That should help...