Extra October Pictures

October got cold, fast. We spent a lot more time indoors.

It's so fun to see her progress so much in reading. I may have talked about this already, but it was such a good lesson for me. For months I pushed and pushed her to read and made her sit with me every day to do work on reading. It was torture for both of us! Finally I decided to back off and not worry about it so much. I realized she would learn to read eventually, even if it wasn't on my timeline. And ya know what? It worked. All of the sudden after a few months something just clicked and she all of the sudden had a desire to read and she just has progressed so quickly.  I hope to remember that for all my kids, in all areas of education. That's one of the reasons I homeschool is so they can learn at a pace that is good for them, not determined by 30 other kids their age, or what "experts" say is "normal". And yet I wasn't living that. I've learned my lesson.

 General Conference weekend playing soccer with uncle Andy and cousins.

Teaching them how to do shadow puppets. It didn't last very long, they wanted to just play with flashlights. But it was fun.

Practicing writing letters (and just playing) in baking soda. I didn't mind at all if it spilled on the carpet--it's super easy to vacuum up.

 One morning while I was organizing our coat closet, these silly kids were playing "salon". They put up a chair here and were trying to sit in it and lean back in the sink to wash hair (just like you do when you get your hair cut for real, not from your mom...). But there was a height difference so they just stuck their heads in the sink. They made pretend bottles of hair products and gave each other back massages, etc. Tyler even made a business card (of course) that you can see there on the counter. I get such a kick out of listening to them come up with crazy things like this. I love when they play nicely together and are creative.

 Oh my goodness this boy is so sweet. His smile and laugh are just the cutest thing ever.

Always has his nose stuck in a book. This year he has become much more independent about his learning and it's great to see him take charge of his education.

They just like dreaming big. They thought they were building something great and wonderful, but I'm pretty sure it never got past these two boards :). 

She really likes polka dots...and pink.

Tyler made some sort of goop with cornstarch and water. The girls were playing with food coloring and water. Mixing/pouring, etc. Whatever keeps them busy right?

 It's no secret that we love when daddy comes home. :)

Here's our goldfish from the ward party. He's still alive and going strong, which is sort of surprising to me. I wonder how long he'll live...