Alana started School!!

As soon as we got home from San Antonio, we made some s'mores for dessert, yummm!

 Brett lost a tooth at Neil and Rebecca's house so we had to document his ever changing smile!

 Brett was only able to do one year of preschool and I figured we would do the same for Alana, but as the time came to register last Spring I started feeling more and more like it would be something she would really benefit from. Two of her church friends were signed up for a little in home school right by Brett's elementary. The tuition was a bit more than we were comfortable paying, but with a generous donation from my parents we signed her up! She started right after we got back from San Antonio. She goes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 3 hours and she loves it! She was so excited on her first day, but wouldn't give me a big smile!

 It's kinda bizarre to walk out of the house with 2 little kiddos with backpacks!

 It was rainy on her first day which meant she could try out her new umbrella. She was really disappointed to not go to recess on the fun playground though!

 Every morning when they get there, the kids have to clip their name up next to a commitment they are going to try to keep that day like raising their hand or keeping hands to themselves, then at the end of class they have to report back if they accomplished their goal or not.

 Lizzie was very upset when Alana headed down the stairs and Lizzie had to come out and get in the car with me!

 Lizzie and I went to Target that day and found this cute costume for Alana who is in love with unicorns lately!

 We got Alana a coloring book of horses from San Antonio and she loves it!

 I helped my activities committee put together a fun craft night for the Relief Society sisters. We offered 3 crafts they could choose from and then had a Fall dessert potluck.

 Alana was excited for her 2nd day of preschool, especially since it wasn't raining!

 Lizzie and I went to Costco by ourselves and it was so fun to just hang with my Lizzie girl! Also shopping with one kid who stays in the cart is a pretty dreamy experience!

 Lizzie has recently gotten more snuggly after her naps and I love the time to just hold her!

 I got new coats for Brett and Alana and Alana was so excited to wear hers one day.

 Lizzie has a step stool set up in the kitchen now so she can climb up and see whatever is going on. It has decreased the number of tears while I am cooking by at least %75. However, I am pretty scared about this girls climbing skills!

 Soccer!

I was curling my hair last Sunday and Alana came and asked if I could curl hers. I said yes then she wanted lipstick and blush as well. Sean wasn't very excited about the makeup look=) I'm not sure how he is going to handle two teenage girls!

The same Sunday Alana wanted curls, we watched the new live action Beauty and the Beast. Alana loved it! After it was over she asked Daddy to dance with her so we waltzed around the front room for half an hour!

I know I have mentioned how frustrated I have been with Brett and Alana fighting lately. When Alana started preschool, something changed! Suddenly I think they had more in common and could talk about school and soccer. Brett suddenly wanted to be more patient and wanted to talk with Alana. Alana couldn't wait to tell Brett all about her class. They have just been getting along so much better and it has improved the entire feeling in our house! Brett has started reading to Alana more and they play with princesses and starwars guys together. One night I left them in their room for 1 min while I ran to get something for our night time book reading, I came back to find them in Alana's bed with her reading her favorite color book to Brett.

With Alana staring school has come some frustration for me. Her teacher is a perfectionist (like ultra mega). She uses this online classroom social media thing to share information. A few days after school started she posted that she appreciated the parents who had read the parent handbook and wanted to let all those who HADN"T read it know that they needed to enter the neighborhood on a certain street and park in a certain way. As far as I can tell I was the only one who wasn't following procedure. The note was pretty rude and my feelings were hurt. A few days later we had another note about parents needing to send their children in proper footwear for recess since it was too cold and wet for sandals. When I went to pick Lana up, I saw that she was the only one wearing sandals. I was frustrated that the teacher wouldn't just talk to me about it, especially since I have been working so hard with Alana lately with shoes and pants, but she struggles because she thinks everything is too tight!  I ended up speaking directly to the teacher later and asked her to contact me directly, she said it wasn't just me and that there were lots of parents in other classes doing it too. I am getting used to her personality a little more. She is just very particular that everything be done exactly according to rules! She is a nice lady though and a great teacher, Alana is loving school, her teacher, and her friends! The same day I got the notice about the shoes Brett had a soccer game. I guess I looked at the calendar wrong because we showed up an hour late! Poor Brett was pretty upset and disappointed. I told him that we could go get ice cream, but he decided he wanted to come home and play soccer with the family. It ended up being a super fun evening and I was grateful that Christ's Atonement can make a hard and disappointing situation into something better! We had ice cream from our freezer and had a great night!

Brett wants to be the good Anakin for Halloween so he was excited when his costume came in the mail. I got Alana this Elsa dress up from Kid to Kid as well since she's been wanting one and I thought it would be fun for her to wear it in Disneyland.

This past weekend we went to a wedding reception of one of Sean's coworkers. My parents watched the kids for us and got them to bed. We are so grateful to have wonderful family so willing to help! We just went back and spent the night at my mom and dads and stayed up way to late chatting =) The next morning we ran back home for conference to start. Alana had a game halfway through so Sean took her over at 11. Then Brett had a game at 1. Our friends the Saffrons came for the afternoon session and dinner and for Sean and Steffan to go to the priesthood session. Neil, Rebecca, Kaden and Lexi also joined us for the afternoon session. It was crowded and crazy, but lots of fun! Right after we ate dinner, Sean noticed the garbage disposal was leaking so he called our landlord. Mr. Naderi came over and installed a new disposal and fixed the leak.

Sunday was a much more quiet day. We woke up and made some pumpkin pancakes and buttermilk syrup. Brett, Sean, and Alana all got haircuts, then we watched morning session. It was a lot easier to pay attention without so many people around and soccer interruptions. In between sessions we had some lunch then went out for a nice walk/bike ride to help the kids get some wiggles out. During afternoon session I fell asleep and so did Alana! I am so grateful for the internet that allows us to have the talks immediately available to review! We had a fairly quiet evening with frozen ravioli for dinner and Halloween decorating.

On Monday evening, I took Brett to his piano lesson and Sean stayed with the girls and prepped FHE. He showed us a film about a family doing missionary work in little ways like service, befriending others, reading missionary materials and scriptures, and fellowshipping. Then he showed the kids the quilt squares he has made for our ward's mission plan. Each family is supposed to take a quilt square and fill out different pieces based on little bits of missionary work. Brett, Alana, Sean, and I all reflected on what kinds of missionary work we have done and colored in a square. Brett invited his friends to listen to conference with him and he also says a prayer at school (usually in his heart but when I went to have lunch with him last week he had me say one out loud). Alana tries to be a good friend and she helped me read some scriptures on missionaries, Sean started this whole project, and I have shared some gospel related things on social media as well as invited a neighbor to a ward activity. We plan to take the squares and these pictures on Sunday to share with the auxiliaries to help promote the activity. The idea is to sew all the squares together at the end to display how each little act contributes to the whole missionary effort. 

Sweet Alana finding comfy ways to sit in the van!

Brett is selling chocolates for school! Last Thursday right before dinner I took the kids into Sean's work to sell to Sean's coworkers. After Brett had sold several bars, Sean broke it to the kids that they needed flu shots! They were horrified and there were a lot of tears! It was really sad.  The kids doctor, Sarah Scott was right there and grabbed the little buzzy bee to help the kids be distracted as well as an i spy board. I went first, then Brett, then Alana. They were both so brave. After we were finished Brett asked if we could go to the Pizza Pie Cafe, we of course said yes! Lizzie loved the cinnamon sticks!  I opted to wait a bit on Lizzie's shot since she has a history of strong reactions to vaccinations and I figure we might as well combine the flu shot with her upcoming 18 month shots.