The Bits: September 15th Through September 30th

Da Bits to October:

Monday night at the races!  Landsharks season is ON!  Before he began his first race, Luke committed to run without stopping to walk for the entire race, even if it meant he had to go very slow.  Luke ran his very hardest, smiled through the whole thing, and didn't walk at all.  He finished the mile in 12 minutes, 15 seconds.  We were so proud of him! 

Tuesday night was our Young Women in Excellence program at church.  It was a lovely night celebrating the girls' accomplishments over the past year.  Witnessing them share all the amazing things they are doing just confirmed once again that these young women I have the privilege to know and serve represent the best of today's youth!  

One of Tommy's favorite parts of preschool with Ms. Rachel are the science experiments they do every week.  It's one of the things the older class does that the younger class he was in last year did not do.  He always comes home from preschool excited to show us what they did.  His favorite was a pepper/water/soap experiment, where the pepper was repelled by the soap.  The whole family gathered around to watch when he repeated that one.  It was cool!  This week they did something similar with milk, food coloring and soap.  Above he is showing us the sink-or-float apple experiment.  He predicted it would float--and he was right!

The weather may be saying summer, but our bellies are begging for fall!  Hot apple crisp with melty vanilla ice cream satisfies that autumn-hunger quite nicely.

Honestly, I'm getting a little anxious about stay-at-home motherhood with my last little man nearly off to the bigs.  I know I have nearly a whole year ahead before kindergarten takes my baby, but I am not a person who idles well and it makes me nervous.  And I don't love house cleaning, so I don't feel as if housework is going to keep me busy, even though it probably could!  But with Tommy doing his preschool activities, the time I've had to volunteer at the school has been fantastic, and gives me hope that I will not become a gym rat just to have something to do when Tommy goes off to school.  I'll just become a volunteeraholic.  Sharing Field Day with Luke and Josh and their schoolmates was so much fun, even if crazy and loud.  I was in charge of the foxtail toss, and thankfully, no one left with a black eye.  As an almost-Eagle Scout, Zac was invited to come to lead the opening flag ceremony with two of his 8th grade buddies, also AIES alum and recently awarded Eagle Scouts.  Unfortunately, they also happen to be two of the tallest 8th graders at his middle school so he looked extra small.  But we're talking about Zac here, so of course he had a great sense of humor about it all: "It's tall, tall, short, like duck, duck, goose."  Luke and Josh both had a great time.  It's one of their favorite AIES days!

    

Sometimes date night just doesn't come together as planned.  But letting Zac and Ben get the little brothers in bed while we walk to the neighborhood Thai place for dinner and follow that with a hearty bowl of Tillamook Mudslide while watching Netflix in our jammies fills in nicely. 

Our garden yielded its pumpkins just in time for the first day of fall!

Farthest soccer game yet.  Zac's team wins one in Wyoming...making the drive home much easier.

And the view from the road wasn't too bad.

Tommy and Luke worked hard to put together "The Animal Dance: a Trampoline Performance" for the family.  It was written, directed and produced by Luke, starring Luke as the spider monkey and Tommy as the cow.  And it was awesome.

Landsharks race night #2!  Go, Luke, go!  He ran one minute slower during this race than the race week before.  No suspense as to why!  He was too busy happily chatting with his best buddy, Holden, who had missed race #1, to think about running.

Here's Josh all dressed up and looking fine to play the part of farmer/rancher for the highly anticipated 4th Grade Colorado History Fair.  Such a handsome boy!

Beautiful flowers from the garden expressing the bursting to fullness of my heart this week.

Purple mountain majesties at sunrise as we said a sad goodbye to Grandma, Auntie and the cousins.

I love when I can find the time to cheer on the young women in our ward as they participate in their various pursuits.  This group of girls is so athletic!  This season I've been able to go to two cross country meets, one for the middle school and one for the high school, and one volleyball match to cheer on my girls.  So fun!  The cross country meets make me feel so nostalgic! 

The past Saturday's soccer games were tough: two frustrating ties for Ben and Josh, although Ben had a beautiful goal off a great cross and Josh kept the other team scoreless as keeper, and a loss for Zac, his team, #3, losing to the #2 team that they were fighting so hard to beat.  Even on the losing days, it's so fun to watch these guys play.  They are all heart and determination!

No!  Don't pull out my tooth, Mom!  Id' rather suffer through the discomfort of dangling tooth for at least two more weeks before it finally dangles itself free and I accidentally swallow it!  I'd rather starve than have you pull it out so I can actually take bites without pain again!  Don't you dare make my mouth hurt for two seconds to save me from suffering for days!  You mean mom, you!

If I had a daughter to bring, we'd dress up nice, go out for a delicious bite to eat and then go to the group gathering at the Stake Center to watch together and share in the goodies that followed, but since it's just me....  Well, it sure was nice to sit in my family room, in my sweats, after a long and hot Saturday full of driving here and there to cheer on my favorite athletes, eating an ice cream cone and watching the wonderful General Women's Broadcast.

Luke is one of my favorite artists around!  Here he happily depicts his current obsession, the Harry Potter book series, while sitting quietly in sacrament meeting.  So stinkin' cute!

Over the years that we have lived here I have become less and less eager to see the cooler days arrive with autumn, because I know they are coming, so why rush things?  Knowing that the long Rocky Mountain winter is ahead, I have no complaints about our Indian Summer days, especially when we are out enjoying them together as a family.

Two Sundays ago, Josh passed off memorization of all his Articles of Faith.  The following Sunday his fantastic and supportive primary teacher presented him with a GIANT congratulations cookie.  In this picture you see just one slice.  It was very, very large.  He was over the moon with glee!  So, if you see him being rolled down the street by the Oompa Loompas anytime soon, make sure to tell him congratulations as he passes. 

I love the second grade habitat diorama project.  Because of this, I *may* get a little too involved in the creation of the project.  And this isn't the first time.  And let's be honest, there is one more to go through second grade, so it's not the last either.  I can't help it!  I love scenery in miniature!  Above you see Luke's bayou.  I promise that he did work on it with me!

A stormy Monday night meant that Luke's final Landsharks race was postponed a week, and that I was driving the carpool across town to the indoor soccer facility for practice through the lightning-filled, thunder-wracked downpour.  But it also meant stunning sunset beauty!

It's living room rainbow season once again!  Tommy loves catching the rainbows when they arrive with the afternoon sun that hits the chandelier at just the right angle this time of year.