Feeling Like Fall

 Michael:
Worked hard at work and hard at home this week. He's digging up our entire side yard outside of our fence to change it from dying grass/weeds to mulch/rocks/plants. He worked so many hours out there! It's going to be a lot of up front work but then it'll look better and be less maintenance. He's such a hard worker. We also went to a retirement party for an assistant who retired just before Michael joined his practice. It was fun to meet his coworkers' families. Our boys were sooo wired at that party -- I forget that they quite literally just don't get out much anymore. So they were just having the time of their lives eating chips and playing corn hole. He took me on a date to Ginger and Baker on Saturday night and it was such a cute place. They're famous for their pie, so I had to order chicken pot pie for dinner and apple pie for dessert. It was the best pie crust I've ever had. I really want to learn how to make pie like that! Pies are my biggest kitchen failures. It's so fun to get on dates more regularly now that we have some babysitter options and no nursing babies.

Maddie:
I spent a couple hours clearing our old water fixture of rocks so that Michael could pile dirt/grass in there, and so that he could have more time digging with the missionaries when they came by to help instead of having to spend their time clearing rocks. I rarely work outside with Michael -- there's just always so much do be done inside and outside and our worlds have naturally split, but I liked doing a little bit of that project. Inside projects (except painting) get so quickly undone or need redoing. Looking at you, laundry. I finally visited a specialist about my wrist this week, and got a steroid shot for tendinitis. I hope it helps -- I'm so tired of it being in constant pain. I didn't paint any walls this week because of giving it some rest, which was such a bummer since I was so excited to roll all those walls I've spent so long edging. I did do some trim while wearing my brace but decided to take a little break from bigger projects for a little bit. So this week I spent my painting time reading instead and it was fun to read a couple novels. I haven't read much since moving because of all the paint hours.

Westin:
is pretty over online school, aren't we all. He loves Halloween and keeps wishing we had more decorations or spooky snacks. I feel like I'm spending all my house energy getting us to a "blank canvas" state and holiday decorations just feel far away. But I should get a couple things just so he can love putting them up. He helped my neighbor decorate her house for Halloween with her granddaughters and he really loved that. I've been feeling a little melancholy about how much time he wants to play with friends lately instead of be at home, which I know is so silly -- I'm always wishing for breaks to get things done. But it's Camden I need breaks from to be productive, not Westin... haha. I love you, Camden. 

Bennett:
was being so silly during his online speech therapy this week and it was cracking me and his speech therapist up. He was playing a game with her where you choose one of two objects to feed to this little cartoon man. One is always a food object and one isn't, but he purposely chose the non-food item every time and then would just giggle and giggle and giggle as she'd feed the man a boat, or a jacket, or whatever else he wasn't meant to eat. Bennett was just cracking up. This is their last week of online school, woohoo! We went and played at the playground a few times this week during lunch, and one time a group of boys were unkind to Bennett and Westin. Kids are kids and we get that, but I LOVED the way they stuck together and had each other.

Camden:
The magnet, the monkey, the whiner. These are his names right now and we love him. He's just bored, I can tell. His body isn't quite keeping up with all he wants to explore, and COVID keeps us from too many fun field trips. But he does love laughing at his brothers and playing with little cars. He does just fine when babysitters come, and he loves Kitty. He empties the play kitchen of all its contents about 4 times a day. He takes that job seriously. I'm tired of cloth diapers, but I've made it this far and it is really nice to have so much less trash... but I feel like once my kids hit a year I have to change them even more often and they also start hating being changed more, so, it's not the best combo. He still looks so much like baby Westin to me.

Sometimes he's my little island helper.
That often gets cut short when his helping becomes hazardous.

Making a man with his school friends

We should've bought this play kitchen two years earlier than we did.
It gets played with every day by all ages.

Diggin' up those holes

Westin LOVES a good holiday snack project.
He found this little magazine in our junk mail and was so thrilled about making all of them.

Our friends were over for a bit on Friday and we made some paper bag jack-o-lanterns.

Left side of the doorway trim vs. Right side...
I just can't believe how much white trim makes a difference.
I love white and bright so much.

We had pumpkins for seriously just a few hours before squirrels had a feast.
This probably explains why no one else in our neighborhood has pumpkins out yet.

I mean, he doesn't even care about us being very close to him at this point.
Just loving his fall feast.

This chicken pot pie. I don't even love chicken pot pie. I just have to order what a place is famous for or I feel like I'm majorly missing out. It was so delicious.

Such a cute place.