September start

We've survived the first two weeks of school.  So far the consensus is that life is good.

Logan: although technically he did have his first trip to the principal's office, it was the result of a misunderstanding and not something he did wrong.  Still, worried me for a half a second until we got to the bottom of it.  He's in a Lego Robotics group that meets after school.  He begs his teacher for more assignments (although that may be slowing down) and got 100% on his first math and spelling tests this week.  Yay, Pal! 

Brynne: has made some friends.  Loves having art class every Friday.  She isn't one to share too much of her feelings, but she's not complaining, so I think she's okay with her new situation.  Hannah's high school teacher teaches two of Brynne's classes (history and literature) and I think Brynne is enjoying that.  Ms. K is our favorite person in this house!

(see the new braces??)

Hannah: is on independent study PE so that she can run with Josh in the mornings.  They are hoping to do a 5K in the beginning of October.  Instead of PE at school, she takes the opportunity to do her piano practicing at school.  Jazz band hasn't started yet, but she's happy to be back with her friends and super happy to have only ONE math class this year.  :-)  She has a new seminary teacher and we love that seminary doesn't start until 6:45am.  Not too shabby.

Little girls and I: are loving spending more time together.  Life is slower when you only have two kids to think about instead of five.  We cook together (when I work up the energy), read a lot of stories, run errands, and hope to do some swimming later this month.  We are doing a literature curriculum called Five-In-A-Row that has all three of us excited.  Basically, we select one classic story a week.  Every day we read the story and do an activity based on that story.  For example this week we "rowed" with "The Story of Ping" about a little duck's adventures on the Yangtze River.  We did some counting activities based on the book, looked at pictures of China, made Chinese food for dinner, and talked about the way water was drawn in the book (it was so much more colorful than just blue all the time!)  Kenna and I are slowly working on a phonics program as well, and she is learning to sound out simple (VERY simple) words.  Natalie is getting practice identifying letters and learning how to write them.  And every day they help me with the housework.  Last week we sorted through some baby clothes.  You can imagine how fun that was for them - so cute and tiny!

Oh!  We were in the Labor Day parade.  I know there's a picture on the camera...maybe I'll be able to get it soon.  It was HOT.  Like, 75 degrees in the sun!  :-)  The kids and I rode on the Native Daughters float dressed in pioneer get-up.  Natty and Kenna waved until their little arms gave out.  Good thing the parade is only a mile.  I think we were all relieved when we were done.

Saturday was soccer season's opening day.  Logan and Brynne had two games each.  I think they each won one and lost one.  Brynne scored a goal in her second game so that meant Josh made milkshakes when we got home.  I think that's our favorite soccer tradition!  I know I love it. 

That's us for now.  I've got two months until baby arrives.  No solid name plans yet.  Looking forward to meeting this little one, though - we are all definitely getting more and more excited as the time draws close.