What Brady loves right now!

Brady loves to color. If someone else is drawing or coloring he has to get in the thick of things. We have had a few drawings on the wall, door, or body. We hope that when he had to scrub the door with his Dad he will not do it again. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

October Snow

We woke up Sunday morning to snow. It was such a heavy and wet snow. It snowed pretty much all day Sunday. The kids were just begging to go out to play in it. Finally, the parents relented and the kids played until they had blue fingers and toes. Katelyn and Eva made a snow dinosaur and Garret and Will made a snow dinosaur.(my camera died before I could take a picture of Garret and Will's) The snow was gone by Tuesday but it was nice to see snow, but it was telling us winter is just around the corner.

Apple Pressing!

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It is that time again, when we get to pull out the apple press and make yummy apple cider. Well, it just so happens that everyone bugged out on us this year, so we recrutied Kim and her family for the adventure. So rude that Grandpa Manwaring went to Kentucky and Blake's family moved to Michigan. We picked apples Saturday morning and then pressed apples all afternoon as we listened to conference. In all we made 41 gallons of apple juice. The morning we went over to pick apples in the freezing cold. All the kids picked apples until we had filled all our containers. We headed home with the kids wanting ice cream after freezing outside, don't quite get that. We got home getting ready to press apples all afternoon. As always the younger kids usually have fun for alittle while and then they lose interest. Katelyn was our babysitter for Luke and the rest of the kids in the house. Blakely stayed outside with us, manning the bottles. I kept reminding her to be careful in pouring the juice into bottles, but soon enough Mom hits the bucket on the table and spills juice out of the bucket. We thought about making applesauce and pie filling, but by 6:30 we decided just to juice everything. I still would like to try pie filling, so maybe next weekend. We have been offered more apples so maybe Shawn and I will juice some more. It is nice to have yummy apple juice in our freezer.

Mom, Can I keep it?

Sunday morning brought excitment around our house before church as Blakely saw that our pack of dogs had a baby rabbit. She and the rest of the kids ran outside and rescued this little bunny. She brought it in the house and had Shawn check it out. We got a shoebox and put the bunny in it. The kids of course couldn't resist touching it and watching it. After church the bunny was still in the box and seemed to be doing okay. Brady even brought out his stuffed animals to watch over the bunny while we were gone to church. When we got back from visiting Grandmas Sunday night the bunny was out of the box. So we moved the bunny to a bigger box and fed it some water and corn husks. By the next night it was getting pretty active so it was decide by the parents that it was time for the bunny to return to its home so Shawn drove out to the field and release the bunny saying, Go, Free!

Girls Day Out

I have been promising the girls a day of shopping for school clothes. So Saturday we headed to Boise just the three girls. Shawn tried to talk them into Utah(More malls), but Blakely wanted to go to Boise. Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out. It made me laugh as the girls walked into the mall. We are country bumpkins for sure. That my girls feel like they have never really been to a mall of that magnitude. They thought the escalators were the funnest. We shopped and looked around that mall for 5 hours.(I meant to get pictures of different outfits)Blakely enjoyed shopping a little too much. Katelyn had to be convinced to shop because all she had eyes for was the Disney Store. When we were looking for shoes, Katelyn wanted high heels and her mother had to keep saying that the shoes she was trying on were not "age appropriate". (She did not appreciate me)We then headed to Red Robin Yum! for lunch/dinner. We hit the outlet mall on the way out of town and headed home getting home about 9pm. They had to show their Dad each outfit. On Sunday we headed to both Grandmas to have another fashion show. What a day!

Back to School 2009-2010

We now have been in school 3 weeks. So I guess it is time to update the blog. Blakely is now in 7th grade, Katelyn in 4th grade, Garret in Kindergarten, and Mom is still in first grade. Blakely of course loves every minute of school. She was bummed that she got a bottom locker again this year, because she is always getting hit by books. She is still in band playing the tenor sax.(Of course Mom is on her about praciticing) She is now 5'4.
Katelyn has Mrs. Osterhout for her teacher. She is enjoying school, but for some reason since school has started to sleep in Shawn and I's closet because she feels safer. She sneaks in every night somehow; Mom and Dad are getting tired of it. Her very best friend Emily is not in her class so that has been a hard thing, but two special girls Rachel and Rebecca are in her class and she has enjoyed being around these special spirits.
Garret has been waiting all summer to go to Kindergarten. He is going to kindergarten in the afternoon and has Mrs. Mendenhall as his teacher. He is enjoys every day so far.
I have a class of 26 kids. My first day was crazy as 5 kids showed up not on my list. I had 29 children the first day and then with a few switches all of us now have 26 kids. I think for some reason Wednesday is our class' best day. I am starting off the school heavily loaded as I am taking a math class every Tuesday until 9pm. Blakely and Shawn pick up the slack. Only 7 more weeks to go until the class is done.
Brady is continued to be watched by Tara, who is a wonderful lady. She is expecting a baby at Thanksgiving, so I am sure he will love being around a baby. (He loves babies.)

Blakely's Braces

The time has finally come for the jaw dropping expense of braces. Blakely had her braces put on Aug. 5. She did very well getting them on. I have never had the experience of having braces so I relied on the experiences of others to prepare Blakely. I expected tears as they put on her braces, but alas that never came to be. She chose blue brackets because her favorite color is blue. She truly looks older and a teenager as my sister said. Her mouth was very tender for the next week or so as she learned what she could and could not eat. She has taken great care of her teeth brushing after every meal.(Hopefully this continues) She is sad when at the fair everyone else got cotton candy and she couldn't have any. So we will look ahead until Aug. 2011 to see her very expensive smile pay off. My camera went down so I will get the picture put on later. Sorry.