September update

So, here we are in October. Between my calling at church working Young Women's, and preschool/kindergarten schedules, volunteering at school, helping with the Teacher Appreciation committee, and whatever else has been going on I have felt super busy the last few months. Looking back through pictures there's not all that much to show for it, so it must be mostly regular old day-to-day stuff keeping things crazy. 

I this year with one in kindergarten and one in preschool, and the youngest still on a nap schedule I feel like my mornings are completely shot. I had gotten used to having a good 2 hour block twice a week where I could get stuff done child-free while Ryan and Annie were at preschool and Megan was napping. Now on preschool days we get Rachel and Annie on the bus, an hour later take Ryan to preschool, an hour later put Megan down for her nap, an hour later meet Annie getting off the bus, an hour later, Ryan gets home from preschool. I can squeeze in mopping occasionally, or a quick shot at working on a project I don't want the kids to see (birthday present for Annie I've been working on), but I've had to just switch out of my mindset from last year of saving projects for when no kids would interrupt because that just doesn't happen. 

Is it bad that I'm already counting down until next July when Ryan will be in kinder all morning and Megan will be in preschool twice a week? Less than 10 months to go! Apparently I'm not one of those "Oh, my baby is growing up too fast!" kind of moms. I still love them, even if I am excited to send them off to school. It's great for them AND for me! :) 

Anyway, I did manage to get one project done that has been waiting since April. The kids have poked holes in the leather seats of our dining chairs, so they needed to be recovered. I found this fabric at Hancock's going out of business sale and got a huge bolt for like $4. It was a steal.

 Covering them was pretty darn easy, which is good because even with a ton of scotch guard the bench is starting to get stains all over and I'm going to have to redo it in the not too distant future, I imagine. But I do like how they turned out.

Grandpa Knight saved their printer that quit working for Ryan to take apart. It's like he knows this kid. You know the Dilbert comic, "The Knack." That's totally Ryan.

 Ryan loved finding the motors and everything and they managed to hook up the wires from one of the motors to a battery and he could see the gears turn and everything. Totally made his day.

We went to this awesome thrift store to look for a bench and Halloween costumes. Ryan fell in love with a Buzz Lightyear costume and Megan wanted to try one one, too.

 Megan didn't last long, so I didn't get her one because I didn't think she'd wear it, but when we got home with Ryan wearing his she asked "where's mine?" Oops. Should have gotten it. She'll be a puppy for Halloween instead and will love it, I'm sure.

These wigs were pretty darn awesome.

 We ended up getting a bunch of stuff there because the place is going out of business and everything was 75% off, so most of the stuff was $1, or at most $2.

 Me:

 Annie thought we should surprise Rachel when she got home from school.

 Here's an awesome picture for everyone to enjoy:

 I changed out the floater/filler thingy (I'm pretty sure that's the technical term) all by myself. I'm feeling pretty handy these days. :)

Ryan's racing goggles:

 He's super fast on any bike he gets on, so apparently these come in handy. He loves bike rides and would go on one every day if I would make the time. We do go several times a week, however. And he rides in the back yard all the time.

Megan has hit that awesome stage of 2-year-olds where she has figured out how to make people laugh. She is a ham. One of her recent favorites is to put a bucket on her head and tell everyone in a robot voice: "I am an astronaut. I am an astronaut." It's hilarious.

 Grandma and Grandpa Campbell came down Labor Day weekend. Annie had been asking just the week before when they would come visit and when we told her they'd be her for Thanksgiving she said, "That's too far away!" Then all of a sudden they had plans to come to Arizona and they got to come stay for a couple days. It was great.

 Lots of games were played.

 Occasionally there are moments when everyone is happy to be siblings and there is peace in the house. Rachel took it upon herself to read new library books to everyone for a while.

 I got to go with the youth to the Gila Valley Temple to do baptisms for the dead. While I was gone Jacob and the kids had lots of fun without me and built a couple awesome forts. When I came home, this is what I found:

They weren't all that happy when we took it down because I had a meeting at our house the next day

One of Ryan's favorite activities is jumping onto the beanbag chairs. He is forbidden from jumping onto the landing on the stairs because they end up crashing into the bars on the railings, but Megan came up with this brilliant idea one morning and Ryan was more than happy to join in with even fancier moves.

So that's most of September, I guess. We had parent-teacher conferences and both Annie and Rachel are excelling in school. Annie can pretty much meet all the standards for the whole year, and it's just the end of the first quarter. She's making friends and is well behaved. Rachel is a great leader at school and is really enjoying 3rd grade, advanced math and ELP (the gifted program). Rachel passed all her 1st quarter benchmark tests with flying colors, including her 4th grade math, which she does as part of advanced math.

And now it's fall break. One week down, two more to go. We're having lots of fun cleaning out closets, washing walls, etc. ;) Oh, and we have some fun outings we've done, and more planned. More on that in a separate post to come.