Kids Keep Me Busy

Charlotte had her wellness exam recently and the doctor said to go ahead and start putting Bio Oil on her scars from her dog bites to help them fade. They are healing slowly and so I hope this oil helps. Here's what they look like at this point.

Top of her arm

Underneath her arm

Alice was star of the week last week in her class at school. She said she was the first one this year to have this opportunity. She got to bring home a poster and fill out information about herself and we got some pictures printed for her to take in and share. There was also one day where she brought a couple of items from home for show and tell. I'm not actually sure what she took to show.

Jack had two concerts in one week, the first one was the marching band and wind ensemble. Those were the ones he was in. They also had concert band and orchestra perform the same night as well. Then two days later they had a jazz night with the jazz band and jazz choir. Jack even had a solo. He did great and I love that he volunteers to do solos when he can. 

Wind Ensemble

Jazz band

Jack playing his solo for jazz band.

Saturday the 9th was a busy day. The music department for the high school was having a Christmas bazaar. Jack signed up to help the entire day. I went a did a little shopping in the morning. I found a couple of cute decorations and some yummy peanut brittle. After I got back, Alice was all ready to go do some pictures for her upcoming baptism. I told her we'd better get pictures done sooner rather than later because it's only going to get colder. The weather turned out just about right for us. It was a little cold, but no wind and it was cloudy, so I didn't have to wait until the end of the day to do it. Photographers say the best time of day to do outside pictures is the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. But cloudy weather also helps because it covers the sun and keeps from getting shadows. Anyway, the girls and I drove over to the temple to do the pictures. Charlotte was my little helper and giving me ideas for different places to take pictures and different poses. It was fun and we got some good pictures. Here are a few samples:

Wearing the same dress that Nikki and Charlotte wore. She can't wait for me to let her wear it to church, which will probably be next Sunday since it's Thanksgiving week and then December is her birthday month.

We're actually on the side of the building where the baptismal font is. I was surprised to still see water in the fountain. Lucky us!

After we were done with pictures the girls really wanted me to take them to the big playground by the river, called the Playground of Dreams. I took them home to change but also made a deal that after the park they had to help me with a little bit of raking leaves. And they did! We had just enough time before it got dark. It gets dark quick these days!

They were happy to help so they could jump in the leaves, even though it was a small pile.

Here's Jack with his group of helpers who helped at the Christmas bazaar. I'm not sure how well they did for the fundraiser but I heard there were over 90 vendors! I just know there were tons of things to look at when I went to check it out. I'm proud of Jack for signing up to help, and ALL day. He didn't do it at all last year. He's sure growing up into a great young man!

The pictures of Alice at the temple reminds me that I also got some senior pictures of Garrett. We needed one for the yearbook and so the Tuesday before Halloween, I took him over to the park by the library. The weather was perfect. I had originally hoped to take him that Sunday, but it was very windy that day. There wasn't any wind on Tuesday and the weather was nice. Here are a few from his photo shoot.

This is the shot we sent in. We had to send it to my sister-in-law Michelle to fix the lighting and it turned out great. Unfortunately, when sending in the picture for the yearbook, it made us crop it off the top and/or bottom. That's something I'll have to remember next time.

I have to admit I was a little nervous to take his pictures because I don't do this all of the time and I don't know the good poses to do, so I looked up some ideas on the internet. We got some good ones. I plan to take more next Spring since his braces WILL be off by then and he can show some teeth!

On Monday for Veteran's Day, the kids were out of school and so Sister Gale and I decided to have activity days earlier and extend it to 2.5 hours so we would have plenty of time to do a project for our veterans in our ward. They glued some patriotic fabric onto a jar, then filled it with yummy goodies and a note, then decorated it a little more when covered. Then each girl got to deliver one to a veteran. Here are the one's my girls did. We are thankful for our veterans!

While the girls and I were at Activity Days, Jack went over to his friend, Eli's house with a bunch of other kids and played games. He was kind enough to send me a picture of their group afterwards. It's not the best quality since it's coming from his phone. They hang out in the garage but they have so much fun.

Alice filled her reward jar recently and a couple of things she wanted for her reward were some lazy readers glasses and a balance bird. She was having fun with them after they arrived in the mail last week.

The bird came with a stand to balance on, but Charlotte tried it out on multiple things, including her nose!

Then Alice tried it also.

Wearing her lazy readers. It has mirrors that reflect so you can see things at 90 degrees. She was laying down and watching TV while eating her snack.

She can also lay in bed and read a book while resting it on her lap. That would come in handy actually!

I know this post is getting long but one more thing I wanted to share on this post is about my girls having Western day last Friday at their school. Thursday night I had asked if either of them wanted to wear my hat for western day and of course both of them wanted to. I told Alice that we should let Charlotte have my hat because she's older and it's her last year in elementary school. I went and found Curtis's Australian hat, which is kind of a western look. Neither of them wanted to wear that one at first. Alice was hoping that Charlotte would change her mind by the next morning, but no she did not. I finally convinced Alice that Dad's hat matched her boots in color, and it was cool because Dad got it from Australia when he and I went back in 2012, and she can tell everyone the hat is from Australia. She finally decided that it would be okay to wear it.

She at least got a picture wearing my hat.

Then wearing Curtis's hat.

Charlotte wearing mine and ready to go. She was one of two 5th graders that actually dressed up all the way. Usually, my girls don't feel like dressing up when they have these dress up day opportunities, so I'm glad they both did it this time because it's fun!