Autumn is in the air

It's feeling like autumn around here. The temperatures have dropped into the 50's and 60's during the day and I hear the rains will begin very soon. So to get into the mood, we've done a bit of decorating on the outside at least.

Thank you Costco for these beautiful flowers and wreath. I like them very much!

This pumpkin-pot project was fun to do with the kids. They loved helping with it!

The tree in the front is getting into the groove, with beautiful red leaves.

But the tree on the side doesn't agree. It's still wishing for a few more warm days in the sunshine. Me too little tree!

As much as I want the warm days to last a bit longer (because everyone keeps warning me about the rainy winter) I can't help but feel a bit autumn-ish with the crisp temps outside and changing colors.

Homemade chili.....check!

If you can't change Seattle weather, join in!!

Brandon's 1st Soccer Game

Saturday was Brandon's first soccer game. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Brandon ran hard and tried his best. After a long first half without any goals for the team, Justin was able to give him some timely advice. Advice like....kick and run, don't just kick and stand there! And don't just kick it out of bounds because then the other team gets it!

Then Brandon said "Ohhhh!" Brandon was able to score the first goal for his team, and his face was priceless. This next one is his face after another goal he scored.

Here is him enlarged to appreciate his expression:

He was very excited!

It was a fun time for him and we're very proud of our Brandon!

Soccer

We decided that Brandon was ready for a sport this year, so we got him signed up for soccer. He has been very excited about it and works hard when he practices. He has so much natural ability so it is fun to see him develop his talents and learn some new skills. It goes until Halloween, so hopefully we won't have to spend too many practices and games sitting in the rain. Yes, they do play in the rain here. So I'm trying to get everyone raincoats and galoshes right now.

They had the picture day recently, but we just missed it. So we decided that we needed to have a little photo shoot of Brandon in his new uniform in our back yard. Please forgive the quantity of pictures here, but I think these are just so funny and cute. It was a collaborative effort, but most of the posing ideas were Brandon's.

First game is this Saturday and the weather should be sunny and 71 degrees. Perfect! :)

Garage Progress

We have reached a big milestone this week. We have our garage to a point where the floor is cleared out enough to park both of our vehicles inside. Justin will especially appreciate this when we get into the cold rainy season and he won't have to scrape his windshield or walk in the rain.

Justin has been working on these huge shelves that go in the garage up above since our ceiling out there is so tall. Our black shelves are probably 7 feet tall, and then Justin installed his big shelves up above that. It will help us store lots of great stuff! They were very big and heavy (4 feet/8 feet). He managed to get the lower one up by himself, but definitely needed help to finish the project. Thanks to our friends the Ortegas who came to the rescue and helped finish the job! Reuben put a lot of trust in Justin's lower shelf when he jumped up there to bolt the higher shelf to the wall. Thanks for risking your life Reuben!

We spent some time last Saturday going through all the boxes in the garage and deciding what to keep and where to put it. While going through my boxes from my childhood I found a wand that has been Lindsey's constant companion ever since (souvenir from Mesa High School homecoming),

and two handkerchiefs that the kids thought were very cool. And we even found the sidewalk chalk. It was a good day!

Here we are, stuff on the shelves and cars parked in the garage.

We still need to organize the black shelves better, get the big bikes mounted and put more boxes up high, but we're well on our way to a very organized garage! Good job Justin!

Silly Girls

We are all adjusting to our new school schedule. Katelyn is always happy on the days when Lindsey stays home to play with her. They're quite silly together!

Brandon starts 1st grade

Well, the last couple days have been pretty emotional for me (and the fact that I'm expecting doesn't help). It's been hard for me to let my little Brandon go and grow up. He was so excited for school and to ride the bus for the first time.

Then having Lindsey gone to preschool this morning just left Katelyn and I. We did have a little bit of distraction, which was nice, since we watched our friends' kids while they went and closed on their house. It kept Katelyn busy so she didn't really notice how quiet the house was going to be. When our little friends left though, I decided that we needed to leave too. And where did we go to ease the pain of kids growing up too fast and being lonely? We got some doughnuts of course! And then we picked up Lindsey from preschool so that she could enjoy them with us.

And of course Katelyn picked out the chocolate one at the store.

I feel a little better now, I guess!

Little Ladies

Before church this morning....

Matching dresses, curls

hugs and smiles all around!

Lindsey Starts Preschool

School starts so late here! Brandon isn't going to be in until after Labor Day. But Lindsey had her first day of preschool yesterday. I think she was kind of nervous, but the fact that her class has 6 or 7 girls in it and all but one are in our ward helped a lot! There were many familiar faces. Thankfully it's only 2 days a week for a couple of hours. She's getting too big!

Holding her slippers - that's what they wear in the classroom

The kids were excited to go in with me to get her situated. What cuties!

Afterwards, she was very poud of her work. What a big girl!

Next week is going to feel really lonely on those days when it's just Katelyn and I. It will definitely take some getting used to! I'm glad that the kids are excited for school and the structure will be good, but I will miss them! I've liked our summer being together all the time and doing whatever we felt like. I know it can't stay that way forever, so we're on to another chapter!

Woodpecker

Since our property backs up to a wetland we get a few bonuses. Our own blackberry picking patch,

the cutest green and brown tree frogs you've ever seen,

and beautiful trees to look at (especially when the sun rises through them each morning - reminds me of the Sacred Grove).

There are also a couple of drawbacks, one being the mole that likes to frequent our backyard and make holes in the grass and the blackberry bushes that try to overgrow the fence. Overall I think we are very happy that we live on this lot though. The kids love going out everyday to pick their own berries and it is just beautiful back there.

Other than our tree frogs, the squirrels and our mole friend we really don't get any other wild life. This week though, we had a fun time watching two woodpeckers peck at some dead trees behind our neighbor's property. They were big and surprisingly noisey. It's amazing how efficient they are at making holes with those strong beaks of theirs. Kind of fun to watch!

Planting the planter....finally!

We got some time to do a project that we've been wanting to do for a while. It was so fun to work outside as a family. The kids got nice and dirty as they helped us dig the holes and pull out the endless rocks we find in the dirt. Thanks to our "Washington Potatoes" or the big rocks we dug up, we were able to make some nice walls to deal with the slope of the dirt.

Before:

After:

It looks so different now.....I love looking out at our new plants!

All we are missing now is our little red lace-leaf japanese maple tree in the middle. Hopefully we'll find one for a good price before the winter.

I totally love these hydrangea bushes! They'll get to be about a 3 foot ball, filled with flowers from early summer into the fall.

Justin picked these beautiful purple flowers out. They'll be great to cut and bring inside!

These red beauties attract humming birds, so that'll be fun. They'll also tie in nicely when we get our red tree in the middle.

And there's just one word for these yellow guys - Happy! Couldn't pass them up!

And finally we really liked the neat leaves on this plant and its pretty flowers.

Our garden is very happy and growing like crazy.

We're especially excited for all of these big, beautiful tomatoes to ripen! (As long as we can keep Katelyn away.... she likes to pick green tomatoes. Luckily, the grape tomatoes have been her only victims so far.)

Ta da!