Some Favorites

We have officially entered my favorite time of year. I love September, October, November and December. I love everything about these months. I love everything that happens during these months. One of my favorite things is getting back to school. I love getting back into our routine. This year Im trying to slow things WAY down. I've been on an "is this essential?" kick over the summer and Im afraid its changed my life and I love it. I love that we can just be home and spend time together. Kate is starting Kindergarten. She LOVES school work but did confide in me that she was concerned about the difficulty of Kindergarten.

I told Kate that Kindergarten consisted of a lot of mom reading books and the kids playing games with her. She said "whew, I think I can handle that, then."

Kate is working hard at gymnastics. She enjoys it and has almost perfected the cartwheel. She has really struggled with that thing! She loves to do the "arch-up".... I love the smile!

Hayden is starting 5th grade. I really had to struggle to remember what grade he is starting. School work is NOT his favorite thing to do. He is pretty good at everything except reading. My goal is to change that this year. We have been reading The Hobbit as a family.... he has LOVED that so hopefully thats progress.

Sariah is in the 8th grade. I messed that up when I was talking to someone about what grades they are all in. I said "7th grade."   That was wrong!  Where did an entire year go? Next year Sariah will be starting "high school" type classes? I refuse to believe that. Here is is off to her first Speech and Debate class. This class will be a challenge for her, but she and I are both excited for the lessons to be learned!

Corrine is in the 11th grade. She is growing up so quickly as well. I think having her be in her junior year is something that has pushed this "essential" mood I've been in. I can see her time at home winding down and I want to spend as much time as we can with her before she leaves the little nest.

Jakob will be starting school at the U in January. I'll save his first day of school pictures till then. Jakob did decide to use his money and buy a new car.

It was wrecked, but other than the door and the airbag on the drivers side being broken, its in really good shape.  So, he and Keith have been spending time ordering parts and are looking forward to fixing the car up for him. For now, he can't drive it... but hopefully in a week or so it will be good to go.  

Jakob also started working at Deseret Book. He will work as many hours as he can until school starts in January. Deseret Book is also one of my favorite things. Its a good thing he is a poor college student with more restraint than I have. He will probably save money for school. I would just have a nicer library of books.

Another favorite thing is finally getting the harvest from the garden. We have already done a couple of batches of salsa and several batches of jam. This is our watermelon!  HOLY CATS that big! We have a few more almost ready to pick. Just for the record, this one was very tasty.

Kate is one of my most favorite things. How could she not be?!

Happy Fall! (now if we could just get the temps to come down and welcome soup weather properly)