Hello Fall

Good bye summer, hello fall. This morning I saw frost on Zach's car and on our roof tops. It was chilly last night and this morning I had to put a sweatshirt on. It was lovely. Won't have too many more days to do this though.

Love you

I told Ruthie "I love you" this morning and this was her reply-
"I love it, doggie". (stuffed dog she sleeps with and drags around)
"No Ruthie, I love YOU!"
"I love it, Doggie."
Great, glad we had this mother daughter moment.

Perspective

Our yard is a work in progress. Zach has spent some serious hours in the past two weeks laying some sod and preping the rest of the ground for grass seed. From this angle it looks like we have a lovely front yard. Lay some sod, toss in a few flowers and bam! Instant walk way. From the street a few days ago though, you get a different picture. There was a huge mound of mulch left from grinding a stump before we moved in, tons of weeds which I pulled out, and very sparse grass in between. (The picture below is from the spring and much greener than it was when we moved in in July.) Well the Lord was kind enough to send rain so here's hoping to a real lawn in about a month.

Cozy

Mom is knitting and dad is reading. All must be right with the world. 

Some very generous individual, who shall not be named, gifted Zach's parents with an anniversary gift of plane tickets out to see us so that we can enjoy them for a week. Thank you!

First Day

       Even though the temperature still very much feels like summer, my sweet boys started school this week. Gabe and David got into a charter school that is phasing in uniforms, Ridgeview Classical- hence the matching attire. They were excited to go and I hope they love it. They will be learning Latin and Gabe will also be starting the Greek alphabet this year in addition to the Riggs phonetic system of reading and other rigorous scholastic endeavors.  (Can you tell Zach found this school and fell in love with it?) Oh and they do karate at school too. Since Gabe is a transfer student he is in the lower math class for now since he didn't learn to do multiplication in 1st grade. HA! Pretty sure I didn't do multiplication till 4th grade. It will be good for them. David is just starting out though so he will get the chance to learn his multiplication tables in 1st grade like the rest of the children. Go get'em guys. 

I can't remember what was so funny, Gabe just loves to laugh

Big Mac ready for preschool 

Be Our Guest

We had our first house guests in our first house! That was exciting. Zach's nephew Roger and his friend Lee (a.k.a Bologna) breezed through here for one short day on their way to BYU in Utah. We enjoyed them while we could before they hit the cross country trail again. We didn't let them leave however, without a few rounds of Dominion and some rough housing with the boys. Payment was chocolate cake and something softer to sleep on than the camping ground. Come again soon!

The Black Needle

This labor day our family participated in our very first pinewood derby race at the "Harmony Mormon Motor Speedway". I helped the boys draw out a design and paint their cars but Zach did the actual construction and weighting of the cars to get them to the proper 5 oz. It was a team effort. David and Gabe opted for "fast" cars and Mac stuck with a "fun" car. Zach, as the ward assistant mission leader, was appointed to be in charge of the race and did most of the foot work for the event including setting up the tracks, helping with weigh-ins and being the MC. He did a great job and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Well, that is, until the end when there weren't enough prizes to go around. David was heart broken he didn't get a prize since Gabe's car won fastest and Mac's car won 3rd for creativity- a Waste Management Truck. Sorry David, maybe next year. 

The "black Needle", winner of the pinewood derby races. A fragile design but apparently a fast one. 

Mac's garbage 

Pretty sure Mac told her to put her name sticker on her head. She was all too happy to comply. She was very disappointed we didn't make her a 'tractor' to play with but otherwise a happy little girl. 

Yes folks, that is a live lizard on the car to the left- "Smog". I feared for his life every time he raced to the bumper with some of the other unstable cars that would flip. He made it out okay though. Definite win in the "Creative" category. 

The Black needle strikes again. 

Yeah Gabe!