September fun

Clay County Fair

We had heard what a big event the Clay County fair is around here so, of course we had to go. On a Saturday afternoon we drove down and walked around for a while before meeting up with some friends (the Nelsons). We checked out lots of animals. While walking through the goat barn, Carter started mimicking the goats. It was funny when we realized we were hearing our son. We saw the train depot station where they have a huge display of model trains going through and around a mini town. If course with little boys, we had to check out all the tractors and farm equipment. And then after meeting up with our friends, we saw an acrobatic show and then watched a bear show. It was all really neat and we wanted to spend more time walking around but it was getting late. We still had an hour drive back home, baths to get, dinner to eat, and get the kids in bed for church in the morning. But hopefully next year we will be able to plan better and dedicate an entire Saturday to the fair. Laken wanted to do some of the rides and wasn't able to this year because of timing so hopefully next year we'll be able to let him.

Kaliya 

Kaliya is a little fruit bat. It is one thing she will never refuse. So she has it a lot. Bananas are her breakfast. She won't eat anything else. And when we she is being extra fussy while I'm trying to get things done, she'll calm down with a cluster of grapes. So we usually have lots of fruit on hand for her.

 Laken

Laken with a few of the things he enjoys: batman, his baby dog, and his blanket. One of his school activities was to put together a brown paper bag that tells about him. So we included a picture of his baby dog and blanket - two things he ALWAYS has to have and sleep with.

Bowling Bribes

Laken has had a lot of accidents at school (he gets them at home often too). So in order to help him do better, I printed out a chart and told him he had to stay completely dry for an entire week of school. If he could do that, we would treat him. And since he had been wanting to go bowling, that was the perfect bribe. I was very impressed with him. We started on a Friday and he stayed dry for 8 days before getting his reward. It is proof that he can do it, he just slips. So since this bribery worked, we're coming up with more bribes. One week at a time, and he can get a reward. Ice cream or a new movie is his next reward. Hopefully he can keep it up long enough that he won't need rewards as often. But for now, this is what's working.

Here's the happy guy

Enjoying some bowling.

Cool dude

Carter enjoyed Laken's reward as well. 

Kaliya had fun walking around and cheering. Thankfully we were the only ones at the bowling alley so she had free reign. She stayed near us but got up on the bowling platform often. A few times she headed down the lane so we had to grab her quickly. At one point after Jared grabbed her, he pointed at the line and told her not to cross it. It was as if she understood because after we put her down, she went up to the line, sat down, pointed at it and started babbling and shaking her finger. I don't think she crossed it after that.

Here are the final scores. Poor Jared had a VERY off night. It has been years since I beat him, and he didn't even break 100. 

 Pumpkins

One day after church, the Nelsons invited us over for lunch and to take us to pick some pumpkins. Paul is a corn geneticist and works in corn fields, so in the middle of one of the testing fields, his company planted some pumpkins. So after church, we went to their house, had some lunch and let the kids play outside for a while. Then we went to get some pumpkins. The kids only had their church clothes and it was pretty muddy in some spots, so poor Carter was walking off on his own and got super stuck in the mud and got mud all over his pants. Nobody saw what really happened to him, but I think that when he stepped into the mud, he went to take another step and fell forward onto his knees and hands. He started crying so Jared grabbed him and his shoes didn't come. Lisa had to pull pretty hard to get them unstuck. But we had to put them back on him so he walked around with mud and gunk caked onto his shoes. Oh well. And then Kaliya was constantly eating dirt. She was covered in dirt from head to toe - all over her face, hands, and dress. But there was just no stopping her. We found some good sized pumpkins and the kids each picked one out. So we ended up with 2 huge pumpkins, 2 small ones, and 1 small white one. 

Carter after calming him down from his fall in the mud.
Laken holding his (1st) pick of a pumpkin. The stem came off so he ended up picking another one. 

Kaliya the dirt eater.

 Dress-up

You would think that we have our dress-up clothes out because Halloween is coming, but we always have dress up clothes to play with. At times the boys will dig into the box and come out dressed as one thing or another, usually knights or pirates. But this time Laken wanted to be a clown. Kaliya, on the other hand, has decided she loves to wear necklaces. So she found all the necklaces in the dress-up box and put them on. But for the last week, she has worn at least 1 necklace during the day. 

 Fort Defiance

Our weather has gone back and forth. Some days it's nice, other days it drops down to 40*. So we try to take advantage of the nice days. Last Sunday we decided to go to Fort Defiance and walk one of the trails we haven't done before. The trail we did this time was a nice walk down to the bottom. I had us stop a few times so I could attempt to get some nice pictures of the kids (but unfortunately I think my lens had a smudge in it because a lot of the pictures are blurry). But oh well. Here they are:

Laken was such a trooper with the walk. We've been working on having him walk more while the other two are in the stroller and this was a pretty long walk for his little legs. 

Craftiness

With Laken in preschool in the afternoons, and Carter and Kaliya taking naps during that time, I have more time for myself. So this month I've been working on some crafts.  

First off, I have been wanting to get more color in the bathroom. So I painted some signs to hang in there. I think they turned out well.

My next project was a batman cape for Laken. He has decided he wants to be Batman for Halloween (his super-hero allegiance is switching from Spiderman to Batman). So instead of buying him a costume, I decided to make it. Unfortunately he was not in a good mood and didn't want to model it for me, so Carter did.
My last project is to make pillows for our living room furniture. I bought some fabrics and made two pillows so far. I still have one more I want to make. I also want to re-upholster our glider. I'm just not sure what color/pattern/fabric to do. Also, there aren't any good fabric stores around here which makes that difficult.

And just because I have kids, I ended up sitting down with their blocks. Instead of putting them away, I ended up building their names.