October

Isn't he the sweetest thing?!  He's just the perfect mix! He's a crazy monster truck driving and sweet dolly caring boy all at the same time. 

Yay for warm October sunshine and a GG that lives in town and has sidewalks :)

Go Packers!  They are hard core like their daddy!

A day off of school, so mommy runs "PE" class.

Sugar is actually useful!  She treed some coons!

Three naughty but adorable nearly grown coon babes and their mama came to our house to eat our chickens.  I won't talk about how the story ended. 

Jaxon was not sure about the pumpkin guts for the second year in a row.

When I told him to try with his hands this was the look I got.

And then there's my Sierra......

She actually liked the taste of raw pumpkin guts.

The carving was hard for Jaxy, so he drew on his pumpkin.

He was happy to not have to deal with the insides anymore.

All done!

Princess Jasmine

A Princess and a Super Hero.  I'm such a lucky mama!

We've enjoyed some fall sunshine, are getting into the routine of first grade, and had a fun Halloween.  I'm never ready for the rains to return.  Never.  When it gets dark and rainy and cold it is so hard to get out of bed.  And when I do get out of bed, all I think about is crawling back into it.  But I have two little "motivators" that keep me going.... and going...... and going.

We're still getting peppers and tomatoes from the garden but this was a rough year.  Our well started giving us problems early in the summer and we were not able to water much.  We put in a new lawn and needed to keep that watered, so our garden got what was left.  And it wasn't much.  The tomatoes and peppers did okay but the strawberries and corn were pitiful.  We had a nice crop of grapes and black raspberries again, which are favorites in our house.  We also got some regular raspberries this year because we fenced that part of the garden and the deer aren't eating them anymore.   We have about 6 trees in the field, mostly apple, that have suffered from not being in a place where we can water them regularly.  We hope that someday we'll have a nice little orchard.

Sierra is enjoying school for the most part.  She's very worried about breaking rules and getting into trouble at school even though that's never happened.  So we've had lots of talks about being "corrected" which is part of learning verses getting into "trouble".  She loves PE and music.  She's doing excellent in reading and is also enjoying math.  She comes home and wants to practice math so she makes her own workbooks.  They are mostly working on single digit addition and subtraction right now, but she likes to come home and work on triple digit addition.  It makes her feel so good that she is really getting it.  I'm volunteering for 3 hours a week in her class again this year while my Mom and Dad watch Jaxon.  She counts down to the days that I'll be there.  I'm doing a lot more office work this year than working with the kids.  But I go where I'm needed and get to have lunch with Sierra before I leave.

Jaxon's still extremely into cars and monster trucks but he also goes through phases of carrying babies around.  He's very gentle.  He talks to them, feeds them, and puts them to sleep.  He's always telling me to be quiet because his babies are sleeping.  He's growing like crazy.  Sometimes I wonder how long it will be before he catches up to Sierra.  His feet are just 2 sizes below hers.  He is so active and so picky that it worries me that he only seems to grow up and never out.  But he is healthy and strong.  We stopped taking him to the bathroom before we go to bed this month and he is making it through the night dry.  We haven't had any accidents at all.  Whew.

Halloween was spread out through a couple of days this year.  Philomath didn't have school the Friday before Halloween, so they had their Halloween party on Thursday and the city of Philomath also had a trick-or-treat time after school where the businesses handed out candy.  Sierra had fun at both.  The next day we took the kids to the Corvallis downtown trick-or-treat but it was really rainy, so we didn't last very long.  On the actual day of Halloween we took the kids to the Elementary school party and then to my Grandmas.  It was pouring so Jaxon ate some candy while Sierra talked Jesse into taking her to a few stops around my Grandma's neighborhood.  She loves to go to my Grandma's for Halloween because she gets trick or treaters and Sierra loves to hand out candy.  It was a busy couple of days but we all enjoyed it (except the pouring rain part).  The kids don't eat much candy so now I'll have some candy to stick in their Easter eggs when the time comes.  It works every year!  I just toss out the weird eyeball chocolates cause that's kinda creepy for Easter.  Ha.

Here comes the rain..... so it may be Spring before you hear from me again.... ;)

September

Sigh.....

   

She was so excited to go this morning, until it was time for Jess and I to leave

Jaxon wants to go to school too!

After school nature walk at home

We have chickens!

Which also means we have eggs!

Trip to the Marine Science Center

Beautiful day at the beach!

Sierra's first sick day.  We tried to scare the germs away :)

School is here.  The first day was rough.  And by rough I mean that my child ran down the hall in tears trying to exit the building, rough.  Her first day of Kinder was such a breeze that I wasn't quite ready for the magnitude of the first day of First Grade.  She woke up excited to go and was in a great mood until it was time for us to leave.  Luckily Jess took the whole week off because he has banked up quite a bit of vacation time because we never go anywhere.  If he hadn't of been there, I probably would have followed her out of the school at a dead run too.  As soon as it was time for us to leave she LOST it !  She was crying hysterically and after trying to calm her at her desk, I took her out in the hall to try and calm her down.  I didn't want to be forceful but I had to let her know that going home was not a choice.  So after I talked to her and told her how wonderful her day would be (praying that was true), that it would go by quickly (thinking that was probably a fib), and that she had to stay and we were going to go, she got up and ran towards the exit.  I was yelling down the hall for her to stop and she just kept going.  I had absolutely no idea what to do.  Luckily, Jesse was able to get her to stop.  After about 15 minutes of this, I was just about to lose it myself when a school "angel" came and saw us struggling.  She was very kind and calm and took Sierra back into her class and told us to go.  We did.  And I cried all the way out to the car.  And then on and off for the rest of the morning.  Whoa.

When Jesse picked her up that afternoon she was in a happy mood and came home with a great report about her day.  I was so relieved.  The first several weeks still were rough for the most part.  She would get upset every time that I would try to leave.  Finally after the first two weeks Jesse told Sierra that if she would hold it together when I went to leave for a whole week, that he would take her to get a new toy.  Bribery.  Thank goodness for bribery.  It worked.  But she also got used to the new schedule, her teacher, her new bigger school, and being away from me for 7 hours.  It was so hard and I am so glad that she was able to get past it.  At the end of the month she actuallly requested that I drop her off at the front door.  She said it was easier to say goodbye that way.  When I walked her in to her classroom (which I had done every day in Kinder) she had more time to think about me leaving and it made it harder.  So I drove up to the drop off spot and watched her walk away and smile and wave.  And I cried again.  Good grief.

Jaxon's been a little bit bored without Sierra, but for the most part enjoys having the run of the house again.  He doesn't get bossed around and can sometimes sneak in and play with her favorite toys.  He usually pays for that after she gets home though. :)  He loves going places and after we drop Sierra off wants to know where we are going.  If I say back home, he argues that we need milk, or to visit GG, or that I should have a coffee.  In fact, by the end of the month when I was just dropping Sierra off, I would just wear my sweatpants and a sweatshirt.  He figured out that if I was in my sweats we most likely weren't going to get groceries or go anywhere else, so before we would leave the house he'd say, "Mama put on your pants!"  Ha! 

After struggling to get Jaxon out of diapers at night, we finally started waking him up to take him potty before Jess and I went to sleep at night.  He's a limp rag doll, but manages to pee when we put him on the potty.  So we are finally done with pull ups. Praise the Lord.  Now we're hoping we can eventually quit taking him and he'll make it to the morning.  Sierra was dry all night at 20 months, so it felt like FOREVER to be keeping him in pull ups at night.  But each kiddo is different and she was a much lighter sleeper.

To be honest, I'm so thankful that this month is over.  It's been very stressful.  I'm so glad that Sierra has settled in nicely and am proud of her for figuring out what works best for her.  Hopefully the rest of the year will go smoothly!

August

Benton County Fair!  It.Was.Hot.

Jaxon loved the rides.  He wanted to go on every single one.

Sierra went down the slide and carousel and that was pretty much it.

 

These kids love the garden!

It's full this year!  But our well is low because of lack of rain, so I really haven't been able to water it enough.

Sierra lost her first tooth just a few weeks after she turned 6....

And lost her second one at the end of the month

It's been a hot one!  And I've loved it.  We did miss out on some fair time this year because of the heat.  I usually take the kids almost every day but this year it was just too hot so we only went only went twice.  Jaxon loved the rides and we bought wrist bands on one day for both of the kids.  Jaxon got his money's worth.  He went on the roller coaster with his hands thrown up in the air and a giddy smile on his face, and went on as many rides as fast as he could after that.  Sierra went on one ride with him that went up and down and she ended up in tears after she got off.  After that she refused to try anything else besides the slide and carousel.  Jesse always works a lot during fair week, which is why we get in for free, but it's always a very long week.

Sierra continues to struggle with separation.  I signed her up for a 3 day dance class put on by the high school dance team that she was very excited about.  But when we got there she froze and started to cry when they tried to get her involved in a game she came in late on.  It's like she's a totally different child from last year.  It breaks my heart.  She ended up really enjoying the class but I had to sit there the whole 3 days and watch her for 2 hours, so she had enough confidence to stay.  I'm starting to worry more and more about school starting.  But I was worried last year, and she went to Kindergarten without any problems, so hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.  She's supposed to do a dance that she learned for the first home football game during halftime.  She seems excited about that.  So despite her need for me to be close, she is still not paralyzed by fear the way I was/am about being in front of people.

She did discover about a week into this month that 1st grade will not be half day, and she freaked out.  She apparently thought I was always going to come pick her up at lunch, and when she realized that wasn't the case we had some very rough and emotional days.  Finally Jesse was able to get her to calm down by explaining that it's not much longer than Kindergarten (to me 3 hours seems like a long time).  But she's started waking up at night with bad dreams as school is nearing.  Poor kiddo.  It's so rough growing up.

Jaxon and Sierra play so much together I wonder what his reaction will be to having her gone all day.  He's more independent than she is, so it might not be an issue, but a big change in schedule always takes some time to get used to.  I'm hoping once we get settled in to the fall schedule that him and I can do some fun things like swimming lessons or tumbling, especially once the rains start in.  We spend so much time outside it's always really rough when it starts raining and we are stuck indoors all day.  

Right now Jaxon loves playing with cars and monster trucks, riding his tricycle which he still wants to push with his feet instead of pedal because he can go faster, play with Sugar the dog, and swing and slide.  He eats almost all fruits and veggies (except tomatoes and broccoli) loves yogurt, lentil soup, bacon, and pancakes.  He doesn't eat much meat so I make a lot of meals that involve bacon.  He still will not touch noodles.  We worked hard and he got over his aversion to berries and now he eats blackberries and raspberries like nobodies business.  But he never got past his aversion to pasta.  I still work hard to try to get him to eat more things and he is finally starting to try things but still won't each much of anything new.  I'm hoping he'll be like Sierra someday and try anything he sees.

Well, school is here, ready or not.  Wish us luck!

July

Such a helper :)

Sierra recited a memory verse with two of her friends in front of about 200 at VBS

Working on her car....

Trying to finish up the garage so we can get final inspection.

This is how Jaxon felt about sparklers

The first year Sierra actually held them and didn't run too :)

Jaxon practicing tball with Sierra.  He wants to be able to do everything she does!

Warm July evenings.  I LOVE summer.

First tomato.  This girl loves her garden tomatoes.

Tball!  Ready position.

Isn't she just the cutest?!

She made it!

Sierra and Sugar have became good friends but she still misses Zoey an awful lot!

Nothing sexier than a big tattooed man frosting pink kitty cupcakes for his baby girl!

Sierra's 6th birthday party.  Such a sweet group!

The girl still loves kitties, and her cupcakes turned out great.

We sure have been enjoying summer!  It's been nice to take it easy and have nowhere that we have to be.  The kids are getting used to being around each other all day every day again and get along most of the time.  There are also days when they can't be in the same room without glaring at each other or saying something rude.  We've been trying to do two fun things a week.  Library, park, swimming, play dates, etc.  The other days we mostly stay home.  We spend a lot of time outside which all 3 of us enjoy.

It's also been nice to be healthy!  It's the first full month of health since last November.  Seriously.  That's a reason to be joyful.  Sierra went to bible school again this year.  It's a week long and from 9 to noon.  Some of her friends from school were there and she loved it just like last year.  There is a lot of music which is her favorite part.  She's also done really well at memorizing her bible verses this year and ended up reciting one of them in front of all of the families at the end of the week.  She spoke last year in front of everyone too, but it wasn't a memory verse, she just spoke about crafts. 

Sierra has been very clingy this summer and hasn't wanted to be away from me at all.  She's always been a mommy's girl, but it's been pretty extreme and I sure am hoping she'll do ok when school starts again (she did do well at bible school).  She's tried a couple of sleepovers at her grandparents, but usually ends up being brought home in tears before bed.  Jaxon on the other hand, LOVES to spend the night with his Grammies and Pop Pop's and would probably do so every single night if he could.

Sierra May turned 6 this month.  I'm having a hard time thinking about her going to first grade.  That means she's gone ALL day.  Last year just seemed to work so perfectly, but we'll make it work.  The good news is that she is finally sleeping all night and doesn't have any apnea problems anymore, so hopefully that will help her have the energy to make it all day at school. 

We had a nice little party at home for her with her friends for her birthday.  It was one of the few days so far this summer that it rained, so we had to ditch all of our plans for an outside party.  But the girls enjoyed their time together and we loved having them over.  It's a very sweet group of girls.

It's hard to believe that school will start in four short weeks.  Here's to a happy and healthy August :)