October

The end of September brought on some huge and marvelous changes for our family.  In one day our lives picked up some serious speed and both October and November became wonderful crazy and exciting months.  In less than two months we bought a new house and sold our old house.  But the house we bought is not just any house.  It is our dream house.  More on that to come.  For now, I want to record some of the other things that happened in October.

We had a wonderful General Conference weekend where we were able to watch almost all the sessions through without falling asleep.  Both Timmy and Mark fell asleep for a little while at Mark's parent's house.  These two are so adorable when they sleep I had to take pictures.

I took the kids to the zoo one beautiful afternoon.  October had some amazing weather!  It was warm enough to play in the splash zone.

Timmy had to be especially patient this month as I cleaned and sorted through years and years of accumulated stuff in order to get and keep our house "show ready."  He is the best little buddy and he didn't mind that we ate out a lot and when I say a lot I mean pretty much every meal except breakfast.  This is one of the many lunches we had while our house was being shown to potential buyers.

Sometimes I would just keep driving around to give him a needed nap.

I did my best to stage our house and then keep it show clean.  I did it long enough to know selling my house is not something I want to do again in the near future, but I'm so so glad we got it sold in one month.  Boy do I feel for anyone who has to show their house for months and months.

One Saturday we had an open house to get more showings and Mark stayed home while I took the kids to the Ranch for a sleepover.  It was a much needed diversion and the most beautiful day!  It was perfect.  Brian caught a big Leopard frog.  No one has even seen one at the Ranch for probably 20 years so it was a pretty big deal.

Brian and Timmy finished up an 8 week Saturday morning sports camp.  They learned a few fundamentals of soccer, football, baseball and basketball.

Timmy's preschool class took a little field trip to a community garden where he got to pick his very own little pumpkin.  He absolutely loved that experience.  He came right home and painted it and then kept it in a special place in his room until after Halloween.

I took the boys on one hot afternoon to the pumpkin days at Wheeler farm.  I couldn't believe we were doing Halloween activities in 80 degree weather.

Then came Halloween activities like Timmy's program.  He did a great job, especially for not feeling well.  When I came to pick him up from school he had a raging fever.  Luckily he felt well enough by the next night to do a little bit of trick-or-treating.

I got to make it to Brian's school parade as well.

Brian got to experience his second piano recital.  His teacher has a Halloween recital where the students get to dress in costume.  Brian played a song called Creepy Creaky Sounds, which made for a cool sneaky ninja performance.  He played it perfectly!

September 2014 Happenings

Timmy started Pre-K

 Timmy goes to preschool Monday-Thursday mornings.  He loves school this year mostly because his teacher has tree frogs in the classroom.  Timmy is turning out to be quite the animal lover.  He still has to say hello to those frogs first thing each morning at school.  He is doing great in school and he's learning to read at home.  I'm so proud of him!  And I think he's the cutest four year old on the planet.

One of Timmy's art pieces from September.

This is one of Brian's art pieces from September.

Mark finished his really sweet motorcycle

It is a 1982 Honda 450 that looked nothing like it does now when he bought it.  I wish I had a picture of the before.  He did an amazing job with it and loved every minute of working on that bike. Here he is heading off to work.

Labor Day at the Ranch

 Silver Lake outing on a Friday afternoon

Practicing super human tricks at the Hsiao's

Speaking of the Hsiao's, I have fallen in love with this little donkey across their fence.  I could seriously take him home with me.

Goblin Valley Camping Trip

We went to Goblin Valley with our friends the Cookes.  It was one of the best camping trips yet!  The kids were so entertained playing together.

August Catch Up

Here's a few more August happenings.

Brian started First Grade

 First Grade was definitely a bigger adjustment for all of us than Kindergarten.  Brian started the Chinese Immersion Program where he has two different first grade teachers.  He goes to Chinese in the morning where he learns mostly math and science all in Chinese and then in the afternoon he has a different teacher that teaches him reading in English.  He is doing great and loves the Chinese.  The biggest adjustment was going all day.  He is still super tired when he gets home and needs to go to bed very early.  Timmy and I miss him all afternoon.  We wish he could be home with us.

The first day of school was a party at school!  We arrived and our faces looked liked Brian's below.  We were wondering what was going on.  Then when we realized that the Jazz Bear and The Bees Bee and some Jazz players came to help us kick off a fun school year, Brian turned to all smiles.

We went for a family bike ride on the parkway

The kids finished swimming lessons

Mark's parents opened their mission call

They will be going to the Taiwan Temple!

The boys milked a cow at Wheeler Farm

Brian experienced his first emergency

Brian was smashed by the ramp to our trailer.  He and Timmy were playing on the utility trailer and they each took out a pin that held up the ramp.  The ramp moved out just enough so that they could not get the pins back in place.  The boys knew they were not supposed to mess with the pins, so instead of coming to tell me, Brian went down below the ramp on the outside of the trailer to try to push it back into place so they could replace the pins.  As he was down there the ramp came crashing down on top of him.  We are not totally sure, but we think Timmy pushed it a little on accident. It smashed Brian's face into the ground and hit his back and his head pretty hard.  I was outside already and got him out of there as quickly as I could. His nose and his head were both gushing blood and Timmy was screaming like a wild man.  I think Timmy thought he had killed Brian.  I assessed the damage in probably not the most calm way possible, but in my defense it was a lot of blood.  Timmy grabbed towels and Brian's blankie to help calm him down and we headed to the Instacare.  It seemed Brian was fine except he had a cut in his scalp that I assumed needed stitching.  After the doctor checked him out and we monitored him for any head trauma issues the doctor concluded he was fine to go home with just two staples in his head to hold the cut together.   

Each of us learned a lesson or two from the experience.  Brian and Timmy learned the importance of following rules.  At least they will never mess with the pins on the trailer again.  I learned that my natural reaction in a time like that is to kind of freak out a little, which I know doesn't do anyone any good.  I want to be more aware of my emotional state and remain calm if an emergency happens again.  We are so so so grateful that it was not any worse and we all learned to be more grateful for our blessings and our bodies.