October

 The weeks really do go so quickly with homeschooling, sewing, keeping our house clean, organizing and moving bedrooms. We have finally gotten everyone in the room they are planning to be in. The rooms are painted and (mostly) decorated! We are still finishing organizing the master closet and getting things put away in Sean's and my bedroom since our new dresser came and we gave our old one to Brett. 

Brett has settled into the basement nicely and seems to love having his own bathroom. He has been obsessed with some graphic novels called Nathan Hales Hazerdous Tales that teach all about different parts of history. Most nights he has been staying up late reading and Sean and I have to tell him to get to sleep, lol! Sean and I are reading the books too since Brett has loved them so much and they are pretty impressive. Sean has already read 3 of them and I just finished the first one on the revolutionary war. My problem is every time I sit down to read, I fall right to sleep! Gotta keep moving so Audible is better for me I guess! 

Alana really loves her new bedroom, although she is having a really hard time getting to sleep and staying in her room. Last night after talking it through with her nearly till 11, I went to sleep in her bed with her (I was glad she has a double size mattress now!). Then when I moved back to my bed, she came with me. We need to figure that out! She has a super fun tent that her bed goes in and she got a new art desk. Alana is learning a ton in homeschool and I love watching her learn to read. I'm pretty sure that I why I chose to be a teacher, there is something just so magical about watching a child learn to read! She is loving math and reading, art, and science. She also loves doing Dad lessons with Sean on Thursdays. She is learning to program her robot!

Lizzie now has a bunkbed all to herself that she gets to pick bottom or top each night. She has adjusted really well to having her own room! She does get nervous and often wants one of us to sit with her, but she falls asleep so fast its not a huge deal. She decorated with dinosaur stickers and got a fun table that she likes to put her toys on. Its so fun to see how neat and clean she is, She loves to have things put away and cleaned up every day. I hope that keeps up! 

One day I put my hair in a messy bun and it looked so cute, but the picture didn't really do it justice! 

Heres the new color in Alana's bedroom. 

We've had Brett's friend Preston over a lot lately!

Hollow Knight is a video game Brett and Sean have been enjoying, so naturally it go turned into art.

We were able to get two new ipads and an apple pencil with our school funds. They have made school work so fun and easy. Alana drew this with the apple pencil the other day. 

Brett taking selfies with Oreo on his ipad. 

We celebrated Papa's birthday with cake and ice cream. Happy Birthday Papa!

General conference was a huge hit as always. Filled with lots of treats, fun prizes for each kid and so much hope and inspiration! 

Sean and Brett spent a good amount of time wrestling and tickling during the sessions. 

Brett earned his blue belt in karate and the awards ceremony is certainly different with covid! 

Cousins snuggling on Papa and Mimi's bed. they were watching Harry Potter and Donald Duck at the same time.

We woke up to snow last Sunday and it was cold! The kids and Oreo were so excited to play! 

Mimi makes this delicious wheat bread and we saw her original recipe card that she wrote right after her and Papa got married. 

Brett does read alouds for homeschool sometimes and the girls love it!

Alana is so dedicated to reading. 

Lizzie and I play a game called Mouse House that she LOVES! We take turns hiding a mouse under a house with a letter on it and then we have to guess which house by saying the letter. 

Oreo thinks this chair is his! 

He flips his bowl over when he wants us to fill it up. Sean says its like snoopy. 

Here are the shelves Sean build in Brett's closet, they are so nice!

There was a casualty from this saw-Sean forgot to move the measuring tape and sawed right through it! 

the carpet came!

More pictures of general conference 

More from Papa's birthday

Papa and Mimi got this cute dress for Lizzie

Alana drew our neighbors husky named Frog.

Oreo has started enjoying more blankets and snuggly spot since the weather isn't so hot. 

Alana got to help paint her room!

Alana's new desk

The kids and I have been enjoying hangman =)

Lizzie made a pumpkin out of her tortilla

Lizzie's bedroom:

We decorated for Halloween

I bought tons of handsoap and the girls played with it all for more than an hour pretending they were people getting married.

For homeschool one Friday we had the Ellis family over and Sean taught a fun magnet lesson and I did a fun arts and crafts lesson. 

Alana's tent

Alana reading to Afton Saffron in her tent

Brett and Alana got new bikes and Lizzie got a new scooter. She is doing great on it!

Halloween 2020: Magical Mermaid Lizzie, Grim Reaper Brett, and Belle Alana

Oreo went to the groomer and came home with this awesome bandana

I have loved all the extra time together with homeschool and the opportunity to watch these kiddos play together and learn together! 

Only in 2020 would the kids be putting masks on all their stuffed animals! 

Hot air balloons for the stuffies!

Our science lesson last Friday was to make Halloween sugar cookies and talk about all the different kind of energy we were using as we baked them.

Alana got some watercolor lessons in her art subscription box this past month and Sunday we all did water colors together. The kids did a solar system and I did a unicorn. 

We made pumpkin kids yesterday and then the kids painted them. Its funny how much the kids like the gory Halloween stuff =) 

Playing with Oreo during recess.

Here is Lizzie painting, how did she get yellow paint on the chair??

That sums it up! This week we are getting ready to celebrate Halloween. We will hopefully carve our pumpkins tomorrow afternoon. We are going to do a school party on Friday morning with the Ellis family (luckily I have so much fun stuff saved from being a room mom for 4 straight years). Then Saturday night (Oct 31) we are going to do a little party with just the five of us, lots of candy, games, and a movie. The kids are being really great sports about not going trick or treating.