Austin at preschool

I'm so thankful that Austin was able to start preschool here in SD while we are here. Mrs. Lowder and Miss Haskins have been so kind to Austin and really seem to "get him." He's a special boy who often needs a little extra care. He has gained so much confidence and has so many friends. There are some really sweet children in there that we will miss when we move. Ezra, Danny, and Blake are among his best friends.

Here he is reading a book he wrote to the class.

Ezra and him playing with the baby dolls. Such sweet boys!

Lately...

Austin just finished his soccer season. He was so excited to go every week, really improved, and was a great team player. He was always cheering on his teammates. He says he got second place because the medal is silver and not gold (ha!), but he's still extremely proud of his first medal. Love this little jackrabbit!



Went to eat lunch with Parker at school. 9/10 parents brought McDonald's for their kids despite the email that said, "Please come eat a healthy lunch with your first grader." ha! I was one of the 9, but unfortunately no one else at our table brought in lunch, so it made one of the girls very sad. Can't win em all.


And this is how Jackson does church. Now that he's more vocal and on the go, he doesn't really like the restriction of the pew. So we sing songs about Jesus in the hallway.

Photo catchup

This is the start of trying to get caught up on posting...

Jackson... not walking... crawling like a maniac... stands on his own and then laughs and slowly lowers when we tell him to walk.


He sings A LOT! It's basically the best. He sings, "Goodbye Ella, goodbye ella..."

We took some shots with the kids in their new moccasins from Freshly Picked. So cute!

The littles love the mall play area.

Austin has loved soccer this season. It's been a great introduction, the coaches are so animated and fun, and he really feels empowered when he's out there. He looks forward to going every time, which I was quite surprised about, and next week is our last week. So glad we did this for him! He has been so sensitive lately and not wanting to be left anywhere or do anything if he doesn't know people, but this has been one area where he's been super brave.

Carving pumpkins with Ella. I cut the top off and they scooped out all the seeds and guts. Then I carved the face. It was the most painless carving session yet. It was great.

I took Parker to see the "Wizard of Oz" and it was his first theater experience. He loved it. It was a really well done production (my friend's daughter was in it) and with every scene change, Parker would close his eyes and say, "I want to be surprised." It was such a fun night out.



Pete and the boys helped Papa to dig some trenches for the sprinklers out back. I love that they are learning to work hard and fix things. They love helping and getting dirty!

We are so lucky to be living here while we aren't ready to move to Camarillo. We have a house there all set up for Pete to live in during the week, but without a first-grade spot open at the neighborhood school, we will just wait a little longer. The boys are so happy here and their school situation is so good, we aren't pushing to leave any sooner than we have to. But I am getting weary of being in limbo. To not have all my stuff in one place and not be able to plan ahead too far because we don't know where we will be... it gets old. But I'm grateful to have two great locations to go between in the meantime.

Halloween 2016

We had a fun time dressing up for Halloween this year. Parker was originally supposed to be a Ninja Turtle, but like I predicted, we bought his costume too early (beginning of Sept) and he changed his mind by Oct 1 and wanted to be Black Panther (Marvel character). Austin was the cutest Yoda. And Jackson was a bluebird. I had to search high and low for the right size costume in that thing but finally got it right. So sweet.

We had trunk or treat on Saturday night and went trick or treating on Monday night.

Parker's friend Charlie was the world's strongest man. The whole family was a circus theme.





Trick or Treating:











Austin's Costume parade at school with Mrs. Lowder.









Parker's class party.

Cuties in the kitchen.