September Moments

Moments in September...

We had a lesson about being kind and showing love to each other.  I cut out a lot of paper hearts for the kids to write messages on and give to each other.  I thought I'd lead by example and wrote nice things to each of the kids.  No one else wrote messages...I left the hearts out for the week and then put them away to use another time...They weren't interested in doing it.  We'll try again when they are older.  Sofie and Noah are still learning to write.  But I liked writing messages to the kids.  :)

I got to eat lunch with a friend!  Natalia is my neighbor and she is wonderful.  We ate at The GOAT.  I enjoyed our conversation and the food.  

Friday donuts.

I'm proud of these kids for making it through another week of school!

Isak's friend loves Takis.   Isak begged me to buy him a bag so he could try them...The chips are super hot and spicy!

I bought the kids IXL math workbooks.  When they arrived, they were all excited and immediately started working on them.

Isak and Kira have 5th grade math workbooks.  Sofie and Noah have 1st grade math workbooks.

Noah especially loved it.  He's decided he really likes to think and use his brain to figure things out.  It's been so fun and amazing to see him grow in this area.  Just last year, he would barely color or hold a pencil.  Now he loves spending his time doing worksheets!  I'm happily surprised by this positive development.

This is what our Saturday night looked like...I think we are a wonderful family of nerds.  🤓

The girls and I painted our nails...

Sept. 5th we finished our 100th reading lesson!!!  Yay!!

Costco had my favorite chocolate cake.  Nels was so nice and bought it for us to enjoy.  He also made me play dough flowers.  Heehee.   

I made this vegetable bake...delicious!  Zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes.  I loved it.  

A short, wonderful moment...Blankets and books...

Kira, Sofie and I went shopping together.  We stopped at a little bakery and they picked out a little cookie.

It was very little...but they liked it...probably because it had pink frosting.

Kira and Noah stayed home "sick."  They built hot wheel tracks.

And played the piano.

I sent this cute card to a friend.  :)

Nels left me a love note...

When he was going to grad school, and I was working.  He would pack my lunch and write me a note almost every day.  💜

Kira got a Math Whiz award.  Good job Kira!

This is a picture of the Tennessee blue sky!  No clouds, just blue sky...

Sofie was a top Dojo point earner for her class.  She earned points for good behavior.

Isak is really interested in football and likes to play it at recess.  After school, Isak and I toss the football back and forth to help him get better at it.  I enjoy my time with him.

Lego man...before...

after...he did it by himself!  Yay!

Sofie wrote this song about pandas and performed it for us.

Friday treat...Brownies...

Playing outside.

Kira, the unicorn, playing the piano.

I played Cashflow with Isak.  He whooped me.  He's very good and strategic.

Nels and I went on a date!  A sweet teenager in our ward babysat the kids while Nels and I went to Pucketts downtown Murfreesboro.  

We met up with Nels's missionary companion!  It was fun to hear their stories and eat yummy food.  

Isak whooped Nels at Othello too!

Meanwhile, Sofie made a game out of the brownie box.  

She even made a colored dice, and game pieces.  It was fun to play with her.  She's creative!

Kira and I made some cornbread together.

Sofie with her Panda hat that I crocheted for her.

Sunset walk...

Kira went to the dentist.  No cavities.  Yay!

She was happy with our time together and she got those two little prizes from the dentist for being so good.

Morning panda snuggles.

Sofie and Noah wake up and just want to be cozy for a few minutes before eating breakfast.  

Nels and I grabbed lunch together at Whataburger...

It was ok.

I got to read to each of the kids' classes.  It was so much fun.  I'm so thankful our kids go to this school.  It's so welcoming and it's been a good fit so far.  

They also became a reward school.  I'm not sure what that means.  They also became a STEAM designated school too.

Here are the books I read to the kids.  For Isak's class, I read "The Smart Cookie."  For Kira's class, I read "I Wonder."  For Sofie and Noah's class, I read "Giraffes Ruin Everything" and "How Spider Saved Halloween."  I remember reading the spider book to my first grade class!  So I thought it would be fun to read it to Sofie and Noah's first grade class.  Nobody wanted me to read the Berenstain Bear book "Ghost of the Forest."  That was one of my favorite Berenstain Bear books.

The Vice Mayor read a book to Isak's class.  His teacher sent a picture.

The Mayor read to Kira's class.  No picture.

Mrs. Edell took a picture of me and Isak...Yay!

Sofie is so sweet.  She made these perler beads for her two friends in the neighborhood.  We took a walk and delivered them.  

Just playing a good ol' game of Mouse Trap.

We went to a neighbors house.  They have boy/girl 6 year old twins too.  Here's Sofie and Kira with the girl twin, Gia.  Noah and Isak played with the boy twin named Dominick.  

Isak loves to play the piano.  I'm so grateful we have a piano. 

We finally bought a tree to replace the one that blew over and snapped.  Nels, of course, loved researching all about trees and finally decided on an Autumn Blaze Red Maple tree.  The kids were excited to help.  

While they planted the tree, I sanded this yellow picture frame.  I'm going to paint it blue.

We love when Nels makes Sunday Pancakes.

We explored a hiking trail that's only 8 minutes from our house.

A nice paved trail with lots of trees.

Afterwards, I played frisbee with the kids.

Then Kira helped me make some brownies.

Matching sisters.  💜

I bought Sofie and Noah matching halloween jammies...

Here's Sofie reading to Nels.

Funny Sofie face...

Cute Sofie face.

Here's her new Halloween shirt.

For a YW activity, I brought apples for the girls to try.  We tried 7 different kinds.  I had never tried the Envy apple...and I didn't like it.  But I liked all of the rest, especially with caramel.  

The other YW brought their favorite fall treat and then we just talked and ate together.  

I bought a few things to spruce up our home...The flower vase.

Two pillows for the couch.

And a fall outdoor tablecloth and mum.  The mum died...But I loved having the tablecloth.

And this was a favorite lunch date.  We ate outside on the patio at Mimi's Cafe.  The food was delicious and we just enjoyed a great conversation.

Stuffed French toast.  Mmmmm.

September in Tennessee is gorgeous with lovely temperatures.  We enjoyed our vacation and explored a few places together.  I caught up on a few things and I enjoyed reading a lot more this month.  I'm trying to allow myself to enjoy relaxing!  Sometimes I feel guilty when I'm not being "productive" or accomplishing a lot.  So I'm working on being ok with watching a show, reading a book that's just for fun and doesn't really accomplish anything.  I still make goals, but not as much as I did two years ago...Hopefully, it's ok to rest for a little bit.