The end of September

Well, here is a smorgasbord of pictures from the end of September.

Sept. 15

 Lydia got new glasses.  She calls them her nerd glasses because they are quite a bit bigger than her old pair.  I think she looks really cute in them.  She was very excited to get them and knew exactly what pair she wanted.  

Sept. 16th

 Noah doing a craft.  He is making an apple.

 We had soccer that night and I think it was the first game.  Going in for a team huddle and cheer at the end.  

 Then coming straight back to mom

 She finally got that crooked tooth out.  Cute little smile.

 On Monday I got 50 lbs of apples at a really great price, so I thought I would try to make stuff with it--like applesauce and apple butter and apple pie filling and dried apples.  Then on Tuesday, I got another 50 lbs just because.  I've never done anything with apples, so this was a new experience for me.  So, for the next week I worked on those apples.  

This is Garrett one Saturday helping me peel apples.  I usually put the kids to work peeling apples.  Bella and Noah were my biggest helpers.  They loved to peel.  Then Garrett came and showed us how a man peels apples.  :)  It was quite a bit faster though, and I really appreciated the help!

 When it was all said and done I made 21 pints of apple butter, 14 quarts of applesauce--which is really yummy!, 5 frozen apple pie fillings, at least 4 batches of dried apples--which my kids devoured, and 2 loaves of apple cinnamon bread.  Most of it was quite easy, just a little time consuming.  I'm so glad I tried and I'm looking forward to doing it again in the fall.  

September 18th

 More soccer.  Noah and his friend Kyle

 I love how he uses his hand to stop the ball before he can kick it.  

 Sept. 19th

 Our new niece was born!  This is Garrett's sister Meggin and her new baby girl--Hazel Lois.  She is adorable.  Meggin also has 2 other little girls.  

 Beautiful Sunsets

 Sept. 20th

The Activity Day Girls had a daddy daughter hike in the morning.  They didn't get any pictures of the dads and daughters together, but Lydia took this picture of her friend Kali on the hike.  Later that evening, Kali and her sister Ashley (who is good friends with Paige) invited Lydia and Paige to go to John's Incredible Pizza with them.  (Kinda like Chuck E. Cheese, but better from what they've told me.)  

 These are pictures from there.  Lydia and Kali

 Paige and Ashley

 Lydia and Kali (again)

Sept. 24th

 These next few pictures are from Noah's preschool.  I love that the preschool teachers take pictures of the things they do there, so the parents can see.  They can't take pictures of the kids faces because they do post them on Facebook.   But this tower is definitely built by Noah, Cooper and Eli--his friends that we carpool with.  

 fingerpainting

 And these are just pictures of the rooms they get to play in.  It's a great school.  

 This is their teacher, Miss Christy reading them a story.  She's great! 

Sept. 25th

 Cooper over to play with Noah.  They both love playing with cars.  Noah's kind of going through a weird phase where he's really terrified of going to other friend's houses to play.  I'm not sure why.  Like he will freak out if he thinks he's going to someone's house.  So, I try to have friends over here once in awhile so he's not completely bored.  Hopefully, he'll grow out of this fear because he used to love it.  

 That afternoon, right before we were supposed to head to soccer--it poured!  Lydia had to go out and play in it.  My kids love the rain for some reason.  (True Oregonians!?)

 I dropped the older three at soccer and went home because I didn't want to sit in the rain and watch the little kids play soccer, but after it cleared up, this beautiful rainbow came out and so did the sun!

Sept. 27th

 I found out that our Parks and Rec has Family 5K's throughout the year.  We had missed most of them, but I got us signed up for this one.  It was just in a park and you had to run around the park 6 times.  We brought bikes for Bella and Noah, which they rode for the first 2 or 3 laps, but then they got tired of them and so walked the rest of the way.  Sometimes very slowly, with Garrett or I trying to encourage them.  They were pretty tired, but we finally made it.  We didn't have very good times, but at least we were out trying.

Sept. 28th

 Hanging out in our backyard after church

 Don't mind the pool, we hadn't put it away yet.  The grass came in really nicely.  It looks so much better than it has in the past.  

 Paige finishing her dinner

Sept. 29th

 Maggie and Lydia are always taking selfies.  I thought this one was cute.

 Another beautiful sky

Sept. 30th

More soccer!

 Love the sky

 Lydia (on the left)

 Lydia going after the ball.  Lydia didn't want to play at all this year, but then Kali joined her team and so she was OK playing one last year. (They can only play until they are 12)

 Maggie coaching her team in a game.  Garrett couldn't be at all the games because of work meetings and such, so it actually turned out well.  Maggie made coaching the soccer team one of her YW personal progress projects.  She really had a good time.  

I love this picture of Paige doing some stretches out on the field in the middle of a game.  Silly girl.

And we're onto October next!!!