So... how big is YOUR leaf pile?

 I came home from picking up Colby from a birthday party and asked how Dallin was doing.  Bryan replied that he was pretty happy, up until he tried taking a picture of him in the leaf pile.  I wonder why?

Can you find Sienna?

 

Fall Break

For Fall Break we went with our good friends the Lindemanns to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park in Florida.  It is an awesome campground on the beach.  I've never combined a camping trip with a beach trip, and I was a little apprehensive about it.  But it was terrific!  The weather was perfect, the beach was beautiful and deserted since it was off-season, and the campground was great also, among palm trees and long leaf pine trees.  We'd take a short boardwalk to the beach, spend several hours there, then head back for the fun of camping.  The only downside was the abundance of mosquitoes in the morning and evening, but nothing a little bug spray couldn't handle.

The Lindemanns brought our kids' bikes as well as theirs, so they got some good bike rides in also.  On one bike ride, one of Colby's training wheels fell off and he didn't even notice.  So after a couple practice loops around the campground with Dad, he's now training wheel free.  Woo-hoo!

I love the way my friend Nathalie put it, "The beach is everybody's babysitter."  So true!


Excuse the pink hat.  We've lost Dallin's.

Dallin's first touch of the ocean.  Not too thrilled about it.

September Newsletter

Hooray for Fall!  We’ve finally moved from the hot and humid days to beautiful, sunny, warm days, cool nights, leaf-crunching weather.  We spent Saturday during and between sessions of General Conference painting the front door and filling cracks in our driveway with tar… projects that are just too miserable to do in the summer.

Saturdays this month have been busy with soccer games for Sienna and Colby.  But we’ve found some time for other fun activities as well.  On Labor Day weekend we got free tickets to a Vanderbilt football game.  We went with our friends, the Edgertons, so the kids had much more fun playing with friends than watching football.  We also went to Kentucky to tour the Mammoth Caves with the Lindemanns.  It was fun to do that again.  Colby and Bryan went to a Father-Son campout one weekend, while the girls (and Dallin) had a girl party at home: painting nails and making treats with the Easy Bake Oven.

Bryan is keeping his figure trim with his running, biking, and tennis.  He ran with some young men from church in a 5K race on Labor Day, taking first place in his age group, followed by a leisurely 10K.  Another weekend he did an adventure duo triathlon: canoeing, mountain biking, and trail running.  He placed 11^th overall by himself, and his team placed 7^th in their division.

We’ve started a babysitting rotation with some friends so we’re able to go on dates more often.  There are nine kids total (including two babies), so it can be kind of crazy when it’s our turn to babysit.  This weekend we went to dinner then a high school play of one of the young men from church.  For another date we went minivan shopping.  Our current one is on its last “wheel” and we’d like to get a “new” one before it completely bites the dust.  Another date was going to the temple with a friend from Uganda who went for the first time.  That was neat.

                                                                                                   

Sienna is doing well in school.  I had a parent-teacher conference this month.  She was praised for her excellent behavior and academic standing (she’s already almost where she needs to be with her reading by the end of the year).  But her teacher said she needs to practice listening to instructions.  That came as no surprise since I sound like a broken record at home (pick up your toys, pick up your toys, are you listening??? pick up your toys… put your pajamas on, put your pajamas on, are you listening??? put your pajamas on).  Sienna had spirit week this month where she got to wear something special every day: favorite team day, crazy hat day, pajama day, mismatch day, and Lipscomb day.  She’s been talking about mismatch day since last year.  This time she had me put curlers in one half of her hair and leave the other straight.  Different socks, different shoes, flowers and stripes…. you get the picture.  She and Bryan have enjoyed riding their bikes to and from school a few times when Bryan has worked from the public library next door.  It’s about a two mile bike ride.

(I was trying to take her picture when the bus showed up and she started running.)

                                                                     

Colby is also enjoying preschool, especially show and tell days where he gets to bring something that starts with the letter they are focusing on.  At home he is crazy about Legos.  He (and Sienna) love building things with them and they are always scattered all over the family room floor.  Bryan substituted for Colby’s soccer coach for a practice and a game.  Colby was quite upset when he had to take a turn resting on the side, and especially offended that it was his own father who chose him to sub out!  Of all the nerve…

Ashley got a cute haircut.  At first I tried cutting it but wasn’t that successful.  So I had my friend and hairdresser come fix it.  Ashley screamed and cried the whole time.  She sat on my lap and I had to brace her head while Conny worked around us, trying to trim it up.  In the end it looks cute, but she sure was a pill.

Dallin is hungry.  That’s a very good adjective to describe him right now.  I’ve started giving him solid food, as well as supplementing with formula bottles, which I’ve never really used before.  He’s also very smiley, cute, and cuddly, and has recently found his toes to suck on.

We hope everyone is enjoying Autumn as much as we are.

Baby toes

Hooray!  A new form of entertainment!

I just love this fold-in-half, suck-on-toes, squishy, smiley, want-to-kiss-all-over baby stage.

It's so fun to get Dallin to smile and laugh, but as soon as we pull out the camera, it turns into "ooooh, look at the strange toy with the bright orange light" stare.

See what I mean?

She's doing it again

I should have been suspicious when we were picking out school backpacks, and Sienna didn't even look at the princess backpack that was right at her level.  But last week when I learned she was embarrassed to drink out of her old princess water bottle at soccer practice, I realized it.  She's growing up.  Again.  Despite repeated requests and demands to stop.  Sheesh.

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Here are a few sayings we've heard around our house lately:

Ashley: "Bummit" (Bummer + Darn it = Bummit; Actually this was over the summer, we haven't heard it lately, which makes me sad.  I think it's a rather cute expletive.)

Colby: "Shoot it!"  (Not referring to a sport.  This is also an expletive.)

Sienna: "Come ON!" (Said with proper emphasis and 6 year old attitude.)

August Newsletter

The main event for August was going back to school.  Sienna is in 1^st grade and likes her teacher, Mrs. Upton.   There are only two kids in her current class that were also in her Kindergarten class.  But she has made new friends and enjoys going to school.

Colby started preschool this year.  He goes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday in the morning.  After I get Sienna on the school bus in the morning I have about 25 minutes before packing up the rest of the kids to drive Colby to preschool.  I’ve realized that 25 minutes is just not enough time to clean up after breakfast, feed Dallin, shower and get myself ready for the day.  Our mornings are typically rushed.

Colby had a few tearful mornings going to preschool the first week, but now he enjoys going and I’m hearing about the friends that he plays with during the day.  He is in a class where half the kids are “typical” and half have “special needs” (speech, hearing, mobility impediments, etc.).  So he’s been teaching me a few words in sign language. 

While Sienna and Colby are at school, Ashley and Dallin hang out with me at home or we run errands together.  Grocery shopping is so much more enjoyable with two kids instead of four!  Ashley likes to move the kitchen stool around after me, offering to “help”.  And she is always “unry” (hungry), which often just means bored.  Today she was “unry” specifically for an “eye deem done” (ice cream cone).

Dallin grows more smiley and interactive daily.  He is now in the stage where he likes to roll from his back to his tummy, but doesn’t actually like to be on his tummy and can’t roll back over, so he lays there and whines.  So I roll him back over and we repeat the whole process.

Colby and Sienna also started soccer again.  They both improved quite a bit after many backyard bare-foot games at Bear Lake.  Colby is playing on a 3-4 year old team.  He is 4 ½ and this is his 4^th season playing, while many on his team are 3 and playing for their first time.  I’m afraid the others don’t get to touch the ball much when Colby is around.

Bryan had a short work trip to Santiago, Chile.  He only had a day to tour around, and being the good husband and father that he is he spent his time buying souvenirs for the rest of us.  He has a tradition of bringing back a soccer jersey for Colby from all the countries he’s visited.  Colby has quite a collection now.  Me?  I got a cow apron.  Mooooooooo!  Sienna, Ashley, and I also got pretty matching necklaces.  Bryan always enjoys doing his morning runs at the places he visits because he gets a feel for the area.  He also took a trolley up to a lookout point to see the city.

On a sad note, I learned that my grandmother passed away this month from cancer.  My grandpa died over three years ago after suffering from Alzheimer’s, so she has gone to join him.  We will miss her.

On a happier note, my volleyball group started up again and I look forward to our weekly games during the school year.  Our most exciting (only) date for the month: getting together with other couples from the ward and going to a BBQ joint, followed by a high school football game.  Nothing like pulled pork and football in the South.

Summer recap, continued...

More fun pictures from our vacation:

Touring Minnetonka Cave.

Watching Grandpa Shepherd rope swing into freezing Bloomington Lake.

River rafting the Snake River with the Shepherds and the Packers.

Yellowstone National Park with Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd, Uncle Brent, Austin Gee, and the Sahms.

Finding unusual forms of entertainment during long drives.

Being cute.

Cross-dressing.

 Beach time with the Edgertons.

Swimming at the pool.

Feeding chickens and playing in corn with cousins in Nebraska.

It was an awesome family vacation.