“Bed, bed, bed, head down stay down”- after watching Sully, Simon came up with this chant noticing my (fruitless) effort to get everyone to stay in bed.

A Bird flew through the back door into the house. It was black with yellow tint on its tail feathers. We tried to coerce it out with brooms and verbal directions. Getting exhausted but still flying spastically it landed on my shoulder and I froze.I didn’t know what to do. Eventually it mustered strength and surged right into the (closed) window. Stunned, it then let us gently pat it to the open side.

Simon got excited about and Jack got jealous of Simon’s very first zit.

I had glue in my lashes for 4 days after Grandma Jani’s awesome Halloween party.

On a run, Dave and I discovered mountain biking trails and the Cooolest, prettiest park right next to the mountain with a swing at the top of the big hill.

We tried in vain to get into the conference center for General Conference but still had fun together. We stayed in the tabernacle for a while then headed back home.

Dog sitting – Seven throw up messes was a lot. But Peachy sure loved having a friend around and Jazzy was pretty sweet.

A drive on the Alpine Loop

Pumpkin patch together =)

Making dinner felt like old times – a no pressure weekend without school was so nice.

Took the frustration with the joy- it’s a package deal. It all means I have a family to love.

Trip to the dollar store for kids earning the hard-workers special.

We have the return air vents off while we do our flooring and baseboards. A tennis ball fell in and out of reach. Dave and I have been sleeping in the basement and in the middle of the night we heard it roll a ways, then drop and bang down into the furnace area. Every time the furnace went on it sounded like popcorn and I envisioned the ball hovering in the air stream and wondered … what will happen to it? Kernels eventually pop.

Dave and Simon finished the flooring in our room and we moved up from the chilly, spooky basement.

A nice visit from Dave’s parents, grandparents and cousins and a trip to the BYU football game.

Kids got out the orange and black bin and decorated porch.

Playing Telestrations together

Putting tools on garage shelves reminded me of finishing the school room at our old house- moving the food storage reminded me of the awesome shelves we also built there.

Transmission went out- but not totally, thankfully it can be repaired. The mighty white bison has been good to us. A friend let us borrow his old minivan- I was pleased to experience no fear. After our freeway accident in January 2016, minivan travel was a no go. We replaced our totaled Town and Country for a hefty Toyota Sequoia- little did we know that beauty would pull our house 14,000 miles all over the country.

Beautiful accidental discovery of Wadley Farms with my mom.

Grandma Jani and Grandpa Mark coming to play games, play the piano and sing together.

Kids making choices to eat whole food plant based diets (healthy vegan) with 3 exceptions a week. As an immediate award they earn cash if they participate. They are doing awesome and their junk food cravings are getting less and less.

Evening Fishing trip

Working as an aide at a neighboring school and having tough and good days.

Conversations about friends (or lack of)

Emotions and attitudes swinging through our crew

Watching Simon and Jack be ball boys at V-ball game, kicking or rolling the ball to each other. Burton being positive and doing amazing sets during warm ups. Ollie made basketball team and put together awesome Halloween costume. Max great job reciting and singing in 6th grade devotional.

This fall we went to our own stake conference 💛. Last year traveling we went to several stake conferences and several primary programs. The conferences were nice, shorter and we didn’t feel as obviously “new.” The primary programs pulled at my heart strings because that was one thing our kids weren’t participating in because of our road life. The kids, on the other hand were just fine!

We put together a halloween party for our kids to help build friendships in our new area.

Saturday jobs motivated by “find the mess” scavenger hunt. We took pictures of messes then the kids had to find, clean, and then earn a minute of screen time.