October 2020

You would've thought the world was ending when I told the kids we were going to go get flu shots.  We went to Walgreens where cousin Ashlee works as a pharmacy tech so she could give us the shots.  She was bragging that no one had ever cried on her...well that all changed.  My kids are total crazy kids when they get the shot.  Actually Jaron is ok but Siena and Aria are possessed crying/screaming, pulling their arm away.  Ashlee had to clean their arm 3 times for Aria cuz she kept grabbing her arm.  Then afterwards they complained their arm was sore. I kept telling them it would hurt less if they would relax their arm, but apparently they didn't believe me.

I was proud of that all 3 kids entered the Reflections contest this year.  They did a great job.  Jaron created his own Piano piece, Siena entered a picture and wrote a story, and Aria drew a picture.  Jaron and Siena both won prizes and moved on to the next level and they all got some great prizes, coupons and candy just for entering.

We made our annual trip to Gardner Village Witchfest.  We've been going so many years now that the kids all have their favorite witches and we had to search them all out.

I love that my kids mostly participate in all the school activities and they're getting braver and braver about crazy hair day.  I thought they all turned out so cute this year.

Our normal Pumpkin Patch we've been going to every year closed down last year.  We weren't sure where to go to get some good pumpkins.  We found this one in Pleasant Grove, although small, they had huge pumpkins for a pretty decent price.  It was a quick trip but I felt better than last year when we had to get them from the grocery store last minute.

Siena got invited to a girl in her class's birthday party to go to Cornbelly's.  We've never taken our kids there so Siena went to the party and then afterwards Shane took the other 2 kids and met Siena there and they spent the afternoon there.  They had a lot of fun doing all the different activities, slides, corn maze, etc. that they have there.

We had our first snow in October.  The kids had to run out in their flip flops first thing in the morning and eat some snow, and run around.  They love the snow, me on the other hand, just took their picture quickly and went back inside.

The girls made guinea pig costumes for Chip and Ozzie.  They were a witch and a wizard side kick.  They sure have fun with these guinea pigs.

Highland City had their own Covid safe Halloween activity.  It was all decorated cute and they had different businesses set up handing out candy at each station we walked around. 

We had a break through this year with carving pumpkins...Siena and Jaron carved their own pumpkin with little or no help from us, and Shane helped Aria.  It is always fun to see little things like this change and see how they're growing up.  I was happy not to help but then observed from across the room and felt a little sad that the days of them needing us for everything slowly comes to an end.

Halloween was fun as always.  Siena was a witch, Aria a Veterinarian and Jaron was a Minecraft Creeper.  They trick or treated for a really long time and of course got a ton of candy.  Our next door neighbors the Robinson's got Covid that week and weren't able to trick or treat.  Lisbon and Leo were so sad so we took bags for them and at each door told the people we were trick or treating for our neighbors with Covid, everyone was so generous and it felt good to have a little meaning around trick of treating and of course it made Lisbon and Leo's day!

September 2020

 We did a picnic lunch and swim the Saturday of labor day weekend.  I expected the pool to be crowded since it was a holiday weekend and the pool was closing after the weekend but we had the pool to ourselves for almost the whole time we were there.  It was so fun.

Soccer season started up.  Jaron had a great season and has really improved this year. He's more aggressive and has really good ball handling skills.  He was on a the team with his best friend Graham. The girls got on a great team this year with a great coach and had a lot of fun.  They both scored goals this season which always makes it more fun.

Jaron lost his first tooth.  It was weird because one night while we were eating dinner he started crying and complaining he had a popcorn kernel stuck in his teeth and that it hurt.  Since he hadn't had popcorn recently I took a look and behind his tooth was a new tooth already growing in.  When I wiggled his tooth it was pretty loose.  So he wiggled it and about an hour later he pulled it out.  All my kids pull their own teeth out.  He was so happy!

The Pace's bought a house and are moving back to Utah!  They bought a house in Provo and although they aren't moving officially until January we stopped by to check out their new house and help them move some stuff in.  We took a walk down to Will's Pit Stop which is just down the street and got slurpees.  Welcome back to Utah Paces!

We took a drive up the canyon one Sunday to see the fall leaves.  The canyon was soooo super crowded, it was nuts, so we didn't last a long time but still pretty to see.

We got a new piano.  The kids have been using a keyboard for 2 years and it was time to get something a bit nicer.  We got an electronic piano but it was all 88 keys and they are weighted so it feels just like playing a real piano.  It's been nice to have a better quality piano and the kids love it because it came with headphones that they can plug in and I can't hear them practicing so I don't know when they've made a mistake or if they've played all their songs enough times.  Now I put rules in place when I want to hear them play.

The Girls turn 9!

 Siena and Aria turned 9 this year.  I have seen so much change in them this last year.  Their legs have grown a mile and I can tell they just aren't all little girls anymore.  They have their own opinions, emotions, likes and dislikes.  Sometimes they say things and I take a step back and just look at who they've become.

Together they are still best friends and fight just like sisters do.  One minute they are mad at each other and the next they are laughing hysterically.  They love their guinea pigs and although it's a struggle to get them to clean the cage and no leave a mess down there, they make them costumes, make videos with them and are constantly borrowing my phone to look up how to train a guinea pig or take pictures of something cute they've done.

Siena has taken up sewing a lot this year.  She sews stuffed animals, finger puppets and anything else that she thinks of.  She loves to craft.  She is still taking piano and is improving a lot.  She recently started learning Fur Elise and it's fun to listen to her play that.  She is great at school and helps her teacher a lot when she gets her work done early.  She loves computers as well and wishes I would sign her up for a coding class.  She is constantly creating slide shows or any thing else she can do on a computer.

Aria still loves horses and unicorns and wishes I would sign her up for horse riding lessons.  Actually she wishes we would sell our house and buy some horse property so she can own her own horse.  She is really creative and really good at drawing and can draw much better than I can.  Aria loves to read and will read and read and read.  She is consistently reading way over the minimum number of minutes she's required to read at school.

I put them in different classes for school this year.  I debated a while about it, and even with changes due to Covid, wondered if I was doing the right thing.  Both needed a chance to shine in their own ways and progress academically at their own pace without worrying where their sister was at, what level they were on and who got more right on math tests.  It's also helped that they've had different homework so they weren't complaining who got down faster.  Both have done great and although they were resistant when I first told them about it last spring, they were fine when school started.  I'm glad that they still meet up for every recess and play together.  Both have adjusted great and don't seem to have any issues which I'm so happy about and I can't wait to see how they each shine this year without being in the shadow of their sister.

They went to school on their birthday but after school we took them to Classic skating because they got rollerblades for their birthday.  It was really quiet there so no worries about social distancing or covid, we felt very safe.  It was a fun afternoon and that night we came home ate dinner and had cookies and sang to them.

The next night we invited their friends over for a birthday party.  We did a pj, late night, breakfast for dinner party.  The girls thought it was so fun.  We ate pancakes, made a craft, opened presents and then they played ghosts in the graveyard outside.  They had so much fun and were seriously so loud.  12 screaming 9 year olds.  I had to text the neighbors and apologize for the noise...luckily they were just laughing at the noise and didn't care.