Basketball

       Bronwyn's Team: The Blazers.  She had very nice, very dedicated coaches. They were
        a husband wife team and had both played basketball in college. Bronwyn learned a lot from them!
       We learned she dribbles better with her left hand then her right, even though
          she is right handed. Isn't that quirky! Ha ha!!

                                  Look at those red cheeks. That girl was running hard in her game!

         This is Aftyn completely caught up in her game. Her coach taught the kids to clap to let the player                   with the ball know they were open.

                                   Her team was The Magic. I couldn't get the whole team
                                                           into one picture. Ha ha!!

Mirren's Real 3 Year Old Birthday

 The best parts of Mirren's birthday: Waffles, sausages and scrambled eggs for dinner. (Her choice)
  It was still warm enough outside that I encouraged the girls to go outside and play on the new patio
while I made dinner (and decorated for her party that she didn't know anything about. Also I
decorated and made her cake without her knowing. She loved all the surprises!!) We actually
celebrated a day early since the next day we would be at Grandma and Grandpa Bishop's house
for our once a month dinner with his family.

                                              The balloons were a hit! They are kind of Mirren's thing. :)

                                           This was Lochlan's reaction to the balloons. Ha ha!!

        Mirren got such fun presents. Her favorites are probably the things I picked

        up at the DI, so I think I've learned my lesson. Always check the DI

        for newer toys before purchasing full price ones. I think I spent $3 and would

       have easily spent 7 times that amount for those 2 toys. A singing tea pot

        and a Minnie Mouse cell phone that both had TONS of battery life in them!

      Where did 3 years go? Mirren, in true Mirren fashion, is taking her sweet time
       growing up and is such a sweet girl.

      She cares about everyone, but also likes to have fun and will

      carelessly hurt you in the name of fun at any moment. Ha ha!!

       She gives the best hugs, but could break your ribs if she loves you enough.

      She has so many talents, but she loves to sing. She has an amazing

      memory and as her personality continues to truly emerge, I am

      thrilled and touched by her sweetness and goodness. She is just as

       sensitive and tender as a rose, so her middle name suits her well.

      We love love love our Mirren girl. What a fun and happy change she has

                                      made in our family!!

8 Years in the Making

                                               Waiting for the cement truck. . . .

                                              Here's the before:

                                           This was yesterday, only 12+ hours old
                                            with lots of little cement blobs
                                                needing to be taken off

                                             Today, 2 days after the initial pour.
                                               Notice how much lighter it is!

                                                     The transition point between slabs

                                          The box I built to put around the faucet for easy access.

The box has a lip on it so that when he pulls it out next week, there will be an inset for a grate to rest on.
I'm so pleased! This whole job came out SO awesome! I was worried that maybe it couldn't look like a professional job, even though Reed has had lots of experience working with concrete. He did GREAT! And Brian and I were pretty awesome helpers. :)

Birthdays and Glasses

Mirren's 3rd birthday is coming up in just a couple of weeks.
I can't believe how old she is! 
She is still our sweet hearted girl who loves to play with her big sisters and little brother and the cats.
I love her smile.
It lights up her face.

Yesterday, something happened that aged her. Let me show you with pictures what I mean.

Yup. My little 2 year old almost 3 year old got glasses. And now she looks like she should be in kindergarten. But at least she can see. And my little Mommy heart is just a little broken that my little Mirren looks so much older, and that she will be different now than other 3 year olds. And I think this is a totally normal thing to mourn. But really, she can see! As you can tell, I'm trying to focus on that. I'm happy for her that she can see better. Her glasses are a lot stronger than Aftyn's, and she keeps exclaiming over the things she can see. A lot of them are surprising, things I just took for granted that of course she could see, but I think I was wrong. She has been spending a lot more time just looking around at things since she got them. It's kind of comical.

Sunrise, Sunset

                  

I love sunrises in October.

Here's a picture of a harvest moon I caught a few weeks ago. 

This picture doesn't show any of the orangeness the moon had. 

It was beautiful.

Linder Farms

We went to Linder Farms last Monday for Family Home Evening.

It was SOO much fun!!!!

Reed met us there after work so we could go when it was still light.

We started out in the corn maze.

 We did the medium rated maze. It was still hard. We found two Linder Farms workers to walk us out after about 25 minutes in there. The kids were beginning to complain because they wanted to go and do some of the other fun things there and it seemed like we were never going to find our way out.

First we hurried over to the ponies so Aftyn and Bronwyn could have a ride. Mirren kept insisting she wanted to ride, but she is emotionally all over the place. We weren't sure it was safe to put her on a pony in her current emotional state. Ha ha!!

They loved it!

Next up: the swings!

All the girls got to ride this time.

It was SOO very cold by this time. Everyone's hands were cold, Lochlan was insisting that I take him out of the stroller which we had forced him to stay in through most of our activities. In fact, here is our patient little boy:

So after the swings, we went to get some hot cocoa and some corn puffs. It helped a little, but mostly, we huddled around the huge bonfire that was going until our kids could feel their fingers again.

Then we ended our night in the corn bin, where corn is like sand and the kids can go swim and jump and hide in it and then come home with corn kernels in their undies and shoes. Ha ha ha!!!

We had some tired but happy kids. We love the tradition this has become for us!!

Lochlan's Phone Problem

This morning, after talking to my sister on the phone, I turned off the phone, laid the phone on the couch and went down the hall to the laundry room. After switching the wash over to the dryer and then as I was refilling the washing machine, I heard Lochlan start to cry. Going back into my front room, poor Lochlan was sprawled on the floor with the phone clutched in one hand.
A little backstory. This boy is obsessed with the phone! He likes to push buttons and he also likes it when I'm talking to Reed and I hold the phone up to his ear and let him talk to his Daddy.

So back to today. I scoop him up, notice the phone is on so I turn it off and then proceed to clean him up. Poor guy hit his gums on the phone when he fell, he had been walking, so I wiped him and his bloody mouth up.
 The phone rings, just a few seconds after I begin to clean Lochlan up and it's my sister again. She informs me that she had been on the phone and the phone was turned on, when Lochlan started pushing buttons. She told me that when he started pushing buttons on the phone, at first, she told him "No no! Don't push buttons!" and then prompted him to "Go bring the phone to your Mommy." 
 I can collaborate that that is exactly what he WAS doing when he fell! He had been walking from the couch all the way to the hallway (where I was) with that phone. Ha ha ha!!!!

After my sister explained the situation to me, and I told her he did bring the phone to me (in his way), she said "Let me talk to him!" so I put the phone back to his ear. I could hear as she told him "Good job! You brought the phone to Mommy, Lochlan!".  I could see the way he listened and the expression in his eyes, he understood and felt really happy about being praised. Oh my little guy, what a good helper he was trying to be. I had to record this because it just makes me giggle and makes my heart really tender toward his sweet little spirit.