Pictures & Captions

Our Book of Mormon reading chart. We have a family goal of finishing it together before the end of the school year. Once we do, there's a big surprise planned. It's a surprise even for James and me, because we have no idea what it is yet. Whatever it is, it will be AWESOME.

  

Pumpkin painting, because the kids and the pumpkins were too small for pumpkin carving this year.

Cadence actually painted a face on hers. ;-) Megan just painted all sorts of designs.

Connor got paint everywhere. We discovered the blue paint would come off with paint and water, but a blue stain remained. Luckily, baby wipes did the trick!

Dentist appointment!! Both girls were cavity free once again, but the dentist did remind me we'll have orthodontic bills rolling in eventually. Poor kids likely inherited my crowded teeth.

That's right, I'm hired! Made possible only because of amazing family! This of course segways into how excited I am for Robyn coming out in a few months (well, and Jen will be here for the holidays until then, yay!). Of course, Robyn was planning to come out before I even thought about taking a job, but super glad she's able and willing to help out for a few months until summer break.

Visiting the pumpkin patch. It was actually hosted by the same place I'll be working, though I had planned on going to this one before I even contacted the director of the preschool program.

Family picture, thanks to a very sweet woman who instructed us to smile and say "Cucaracha!"

Riding on the barrel train. Boy was I cramped, but the kids loved it. I might have loved it more if the guys in the background hadn't catapulted a pumpkin toward us. They were so focused on looking one way, they forgot to look out for us. It launched over 250 feet, but came less than 20 feet from us. A little scary, but all was well. They apologized profusely as soon as we pulled up to the "train station".

The girls in their barrel as we drove through the "woods".

Time for a generic update post:

Connor

Connor has had a few updates recently in this blog. His first day of nursery (first and only day, since we had General Conference then a sick day) and his 18 month check-up with a check-list of his milestones. His most recent excitement was teething. He had four teeth attempt to break through at once and they are finally ALL through, so no more teething for us for quite awhile. Thank goodness!

Unfortunately, we started some BAD sleep habits during his teething nightmare and I''m still trying to fix them. Essentially, my sweet boy who would read a book with me then run to bed, now refuses to go to bed willingly and we wait him out on the couch in a darkened living room before quietly transferring him once he's in a deep enough sleep. Yeah, bad habits, but I'm not sure how to fix them without a monster session of cry-it-out and I'm just not sure I can handle that. The boy is a pro at tantrums and can cry for 30 minutes over nothing even with me attempting to soothe him. If he actually has something to cry about... I don't think it will matter how tired he is.


Cadence

Cadence has lots of exciting updates. She is still excelling at school and loving every minute of it. She's still getting "purples" most days at school. She had her first "yellow" a couple weeks ago and was quite upset about it, but it was a one time thing. Every day she comes home with more stories and things she learned and stories she read and pictures she drew. I am eagerly awaiting the parent teacher conference so I can hear more about how she is doing and have time to ask the teacher a few questions. My biggest concern is her making friends. It seemed like she was becoming good friends with one little boy, but recently that seems to have cooled off. She's getting along with her classmates, bu I do worry that she's not making any real friends.

Her biggest achievement that I've seen is reading the scriptures. We've made it a goal to focus on our family scripture study, so Cadence has her own Book of Mormon and she usually reads one or two verses each night. I am constantly amazed at how easily she figures out words that I'm so sure will stump her.


Megan

Ah, middle child syndrome. It's something I have been keenly aware of lately. It doesn't help that this little girls lives for her brother and sister. I had a chat with her primary teacher at a Relief Society event and her teacher mentioned that all Megan talks about is her siblings in class. Then, her milestones are so close on the heels of Cadence's...

Megan is reading, though. As much as Cadence is self-taught, Megan is more so. Of course, she wants to be reading just as fast and easily as Cadence, which means she'll guess on a lot of words so she can "read" them at a glance, then grow frustrated when it isn't that easy. However, I can quiz her on Cadence's sight words from school and she can read most of them without a second thought. I'm collecting easier books for her and I to work on together and we're trying to review letter sounds so they're ingrained in her head. She still sometimes stumbles over vowel sounds and mixing up "y" and "w" and thinking a little "l" is a capital "I".

She is having trouble with the whole "friends" thing. She's never really had to worry about it before, always having Cadence to fall back on. It doesn't help that she's the only one her age at most playdates and only one girl her age in her Sunday class, so... I need to take up a friend on her offer for playdates. Her daughter is a year younger than Megan, but they're close enough it could be good for both of them. Megan would undoubtedly draw the quieter girl out of her shell and Megan would have somebody closer to her age than Connor to play with.

James and Me

"New" stuff is definitely a thing for the younger generation, but we do have a few goodies I suppose. James is continuing to work. We have had a few ups and downs recently, but that's the norm for life, right?

I have also actually begun looking for part-time work. With some family coming out to help us out, I've put some feelers out and actually had an interview for a part-time job at a mothers-day-out program nearby. Nothing official yet. I still have a telephone interview with the head of the program, but... It's an amazing opportunity and I am cautiously optimistic. Thinking long-term, for when I won't have help with watching the kids, the hours would allow me to drop both girls off at school, take Connor to work with me (he'd be enrolled), work, pick the girls up from school and go home for the rest of the afternoon with my family. It would give Connor the socialization he's used to once his sisters are no longer around, and I'll get some socialization too. So, wish me luck. ;-)