Fall Fun with Friends

A few weeks ago Will and Kayla had a day off from school, so we joined a few friends at a local pumpkin patch.  It was muddy, unusually warm, and hard to keep track of all three kids at the same time but in the end I'm glad that we went.

We had A LOT of kids in our group, ranging from just a few months old to age 10

Sarah the Gourd

The Pumpkin King, Queen and Princess

I love Will's face.  He's got the preteen "I am too old for this place" attitude down.

New House - Part 4

These pictures show the primary reason why we decided to move into a place with more bedrooms.  We realized that having all 3 kids share a room wasn't working anymore.  There was an increase in sibling fights, plus Will is at the age where sharing a room with his little sisters wasn't a good idea anymore.  Kayla is a bit jealous of Will for getting his own room (she has started asking for her own room in her bedtime prayers), and she doesn't appreciate the fact that Sarah isn't very good at helping clean up their room, but for the time being the situation is going well. 

New House - Part 3

One part of the house that's a bit of a novelty for us is having 2 bathrooms.  We don't use the back one very often, but it's nice to have it in case we need it. 

Back bathroom

Main bathroom

The legacy lives on

Will has been taking piano lessons for about 4 years now.  He struggles with wanting to practice, but he has natural talent and is quite good now.  Now he is entering a new phase in his musical career.  He has decided to join the 5th grade band, and his instrument of choice is the trumpet.  He had been debating for a while whether to do trumpet or trombone, and I have to confess that I secretly hoped he wouldn't choose the trombone.  This is mostly because he comes from a long line of trumpet players.  My dad, my grandpa Rollie, and my great-grandpa Ray all play or played the trumpet, and I wanted Will to continue the tradition.  He just got his trumpet today, and I am excited to see how quickly he picks it up.  He is really excited about learning to play, and I hope that excitement continues for a long time. 

New House - Part 2

Today's pictures are the front living room and the front entry.  This is the area of the house that Bill and I love the most, and the area that we made sure got unpacked and put together first before anything else.  We love having two separate living rooms. There's a room in the back of the house (picture coming later) with the TV and computer, which we call the entertainment room.  This front living room is where we do things like FHE, scripture study, home/visiting teaching, etc. 

Only in the Midwest...

Will you find a festival devoted to cheese.  Every Labor Day weekend hundreds of people travel to Arthur, Illinois for their cheese festival.  We used to go almost every year when we first moved here, but we hadn't gone for at least a couple of years so we decided to make the hour drive on Saturday.  We had hoped to make it on time for Bill to compete in their cheese curling competition (he's a two-time champion of the event), but unfortunately we arrived just as it was ending.  We were still able to find plenty for everyone to do to have a great time.

The happy festival attendees

 

The bounce houses and pony rides were popular attractions

   Any cheese festival has to have a cheese and mouse mascot as part of the parade

New House - part 1

 As most of you know, we moved into a new house about 4 months ago.  We are loving it!  There is so much more room; the kids can walk to school; we are near friends, a park and a walking path, etc.  We are still unpacking things and getting settled, but it already feels like home and we are so grateful for the people and circumstances that made it possible for us to live here.  Since I can't give everyone the grand tour in person (although we are always up for visitors!), I will post pictures at various times.  Today's pictures are the kitchen and our great backyard.

Still Alive and Kicking

Hello!  I'm sure that most of you had given up on us updating our blog, and to be honest I didn't think that we ever would again.  Life has been very busy and very crazy for our family over the past year, and trying to keep up with the blog seemed like something I didn't feel like adding to our lives.  Plus I'm on Facebook so much that I felt like that was a good substitute for the blog.  But then last night something happened that changed my mind.  I was working on a family history project, and I needed to go back through the blog to get some information.  As I was looking around I came across a post from back when Will was about 6 years old.  I had been having a hard day and I was sitting at the table with my head in my hands, and Will could see that something was wrong.  So he went off and drew me a picture of a rainbow with all of our names written around it.  And when he gave it to me he said "I drew this to make you happy again Mommy".  Looking at that old blog post, as well as many other ones that I found last night, made me realize that if I hadn't started this blog I wouldn't have all these pictures and wonderful memories to look back on.  So I've decided to start up the blog again.  I can't promise frequent updates, but we'll see how it goes.