fall 2019

school started mid august right after we got back from FL.

jack is in middle school now, so he rides an earlier bus. while waiting for the bus I remembered I needed to take the mandatory 1st day of school pictures and when I came out with my camera, this is what I saw. I just about cried. when I saw that bus pulling away it was like Jack's childhood flashed before my eyes and I realized he's not a kid anymore.

I managed to get a pic after school.

7th grade

Ellie is in 6th and this is her last year at the intermediate school.

Charlie is in 3rd and this his last year at the Elementary school.

Charlie saw this tiger shark shirt and fell in love. I couldn't resist getting it for him... its so Charlie.

Owen started his last year at Sonshine Preschool

Ellie girl reluctantly signed up for cross country. there weren't enough girls to make a fall lacrosse team, so in order to stay in shape, she and some friends signed up.

man, did she hate it to begin with!

in fact, there were tears a few times before practice. but we made her push through because she had committed to doing it.

and you know what? 

she's glad she did. 

by the end of it, she had really improved and started truly enjoying the meets. it was so cool to cheer her on at the meets. and all the racers really. I got emotional every time watching those kids giving it their all.

Ellie ended the season with a PR of 8 min/mile

one of the races had a fun run for little kids and Owen was pumped!

and he smoked everyone

jack, Charlie, and Owen all played soccer this fall. this was the first time jack played for a school team. he did very well and I think his coach really appreciated how hard jack works at practices and games.

Amy, Tyler and kids came to cheer on jack's team when they played in Johnstown. it was pretty awesome too cause right when they got to the game, jack charged down the field and scored a goal. they must be his good luck charms :)

we stopped in for frozen custard after the game!

Charlie and Owen also had great seasons. Charlie's team was all very timid and not very aggressive, but his coaches did a fantastic job of encouraging them the entire time and really building them up. it was very fun to watch.

Owen is a local celebrity! our friends own a photography business and asked him to model for some fliers. they also own the soda shop in town so they let him pick out a bottle of soda for his payment! it was pretty cute seeing these hanging up at preschool and hearing his teachers ask if he would autograph a copy for him!

a couple weeks later, Ellie was flipping through a small magazine/flier and spotted Owen on one of the pages from his summer camp!

this old shed on our property became the bane of Chris's existence in September. our insurance company told us we had to fix it up or tear it down by a certain date. after a lot of back and forth with the insurance company, our idea to turn it into a nice pavilion out by our bonfire pit was kinda smashed and ultimately they cancelled our policy. so in order to be covered and get our policy back in place, down it came.

this bonfire was huge! in the photo above, towards the from you can see a door to help get some perspective on size.

jack is in a food prep class and loving it. he comes home and cooks things that he cooked at school that day. its been fun.

girls night with our old neighbors, Leona and Evie!

while on our date with Leona and Evie I got a text from chris with the following pic and a message that said, "at urgent care. luckily it doesn't need stitches. he was using his pocket knife". jack is definitely loving our new yard lol!

most afternoons he runs off the bus, changes into boots, and heads out. sometimes he finds a spot to read scriptures, sometimes he tracks deer. lately he's been practicing archery. he practices archery before school on M, W, F each week too. tournaments start up in January. but what jack is most excited for is deer hunting. 

we get so much deer activity in our yard, its incredible!

chris got a couple new guns that we needed to get sighted in. of course chris had to record my first shot on the shotgun and of course I looked like an idiot, but its too funny not to share lol

we have really been enjoying the chance we have to shoot on our property.

we went to a BYU game with Doug's family, Marc & DeLauna, and Tyler and his brother.
and we lost. boo.

Owen asked me to video him popping the yolk on his sunny side up eggs, which are his favorite breakfast right now. then he asked if we could add his favorite song, back in black. I think we have a future producer on our hands

apple picking with the Rich's at Lynd Fruit Farm!

we wait until Evercrisp apples are in season. they are the very best!!!

the older kids and I did a corn maze that took us 1.5 hours! it was HARD!

that night we drove down to Circleville to check out the pumpkin festival!

Ellie laughed while taking a bite and blew sugar all over her papa haha!

Chris and I celebrated our 15th anniversary on October 22!!!

we went to Columbus to test out some delectable foods at North Market... with our chaperone Owen

Owen had a field trip to the fruit farm to pick apples. they picked pixie crunch, which we had never tried before. they are fantastic little apples!

 all of charlie's soccer games were in Columbus on Saturday mornings. one rainy day after a game, we stopped at chick fil a to celebrate a great game where Charlie played goalie!

I've been so busy with my calling. so incredibly busy. but its good and I love my young women so much.

before halloween we had our Young Women In Excellence celebration. 

each girl was given a copy of the new YW theme announced in conference (I can't even tell you how amazing that theme is!) and a caramel apple to take home.

In order to keep the focus on the girls and the new theme, I wanted to keep things simple, so that's all that I had to prepare before hand. But you know me, I've gotta make things complicated somehow! the night before I decided I needed to cover the board in the RS room because it had too much going on, so I came up with an idea to paint all the girl's names on some Kraft paper. easy, right? no. not easy. it took me right up until the activity basically hahaha. my hand still hasn't uncramped! but it was pretty and the girls liked seeing their names.

another recent activity that was busy, but fun was this" Friendsgiving" for the laurels and priests. they all brought sides and I made a turkey. I think the kids liked the sparkling cider the best! I couldn't believe how many of them had never had sparkling cider before!

funny story that happened that night. my turkey needed a few more minutes but I needed to get to the church to set up a few things, so chris offered to bring the turkey since we live only 5 minutes from the building. so he brought it and carved the turkey for the kids, which was awesome! well, while he was carving it, I happened to reach across for something just as he was swinging the knife up and around and the knife caught the back of my hand, giving me a perfect little slice across it. we laughed and laughed. he raided the kitchen's first aid kit and came to my rescue with a few bandaids cause that sucker wouldn't stop bleeding. 

I got to be a special visitor in Owen's class for Grandparents day!

chris and I snuck away for a quick trip to the temple for a friend's sealing and then out for some ramen at a restaurant we have been wanting to try called Tiger + Lily.

we had our first snow on Nov 12. brrrr!

the kids loved the 2 hour delay cause we had pancakes and they got to play in the snow and the younger kids finally got to say by to jack at the bus stop for the first time!