Fall Break, Sad News, End of Football

We've had unusually warm weather all fall. Like annoyingly warm weather. And then when we finally  have fall break from school, we get slammed with cold.

So Justin went camping. We had Thursday and Friday off of school so Justin took the littles up camping in preparation for the deer hunt starting Saturday. He borrowed a wall tent with a stove so he was prepared. Justin's parents also went up with their trailer.

This tent was huge. Justin has wanted a wall tent for years so this was a good way to test one out.

Meanwhile back at home the biggles traded rooms. This also required a 3-way bed trade since Sarah wanted her big queen bed to go with the bigger room downstairs. So now Sarah has a bigger room, bigger bed and her own bathroom. Henry has a smaller room, a regular twin bed instead of his squeaky loft bed, a walk-in closet, and across the hall from Erica and James which is what he likes--to be in the middle of everything. Erica got her twin bed back so she has the biggest room, small bed and it feels very spacious in there especially since I made her do a deep purge of her clutter.

It's so nice they are big enough to do the heavy lifting. I  helped a lot but they did most of the work.Meanwhile the littles were keeping cozy in the trailer playing games.

Despite not seeing any deer, they had a blast. Every time I talked to Erica, she would go on and on about what they saw and did. James is a man of few words on the phone.

Sarah went up Friday night then they all came home Saturday night and then Justin, Corey, and James went back up Monday morning and came back Tuesday morning because they got word that Corey's mother had passed away. 

It was a sad and abrupt end to their hunt. We are all still processing her passing and we will miss her.

Saturday was Grandma Kendall's funeral. We took the opportunity to take a big Dye family picture.

And a smaller Dye family picture.

From there Henry and I left to get him to his playoff game. They fought hard but had a disappoionting loss. I'm so proud they made it to the semifinals regardless. They improved so much over the course of the season. (Henry forgot to grab a shirt to wear under his pads so he's wearing the t-shirt I brought for myself to change into. Lucky for him and hilarious for me.)

He was more sad a couple of weeks ago when we picked him up from practice and realized it could have been his last practice. I think playing in two playoff games that extended his season helped in giving him more time to process the end of things. He's had so much fun and has learned a lot from his coaches and teammates. We'll see what happens next year since 9th graders can try out for the high school team or still play for this league.

Family Pictures 2024

I love this crew and I think the photos are worth the effort but family photos are not for the faint of heart.

Next time we do this I might have kids as tall as me.

This is how we do it

Around here general conference means cinnamon rolls. And I think these beauties are my best batch yet. I used this recipe but replaced 20% of the flour with gluten powder. (Give me all the gluten.) The texture was amazing and they were still great the next day. I smothered them with cream cheese frosting, of course.

Sunday morning these two went on a walk with me. I hoped the neighbors goats were out but we couldn't see them.

Sunday evening we went up the canyon to do family pictures. We do the the tri-pod plus timer thing and yours truly is the designated runner. If this photo doesn't sum up family pictures.....

And I didn't notice that one kid ruined 80% of the shots until we packed up. That earned us all another round of pictures.

This was after he poked James with a stick and made him cry (you can see his face is still red). Needless to say, James got Henry's "wear what I tell you to wear and smile when I say" good sport $1. I'll post some decent shots once I find one.

Monday, Henry had his first junior high orchestra concert. They played some fun songs and Henry was right on the end so we had a good view. They got to dress in costumes; he didn't come straight from football practice.

Tuesday was the elementary school's Fall Festival. It's the PTA fundraiser that my basket was for. Sarah got roped into helping out but she needed the service hours for youth city council so she was okay with that. I didn't get any other pictures of my kids because I spent what little time I was there watching the bid sheet for my basket then I had to go get Henry from football practice. I have no idea if the festival was a financial success but people looked like they were having fun.

My basket sold for like $150 so the family that won it got a steal of a deal. I saw them taking a group photo with it and they looked so excited.

Sarah took some great pictures of the northern lights.

Yesterday was James's best friend Calvin's baptism. Calvin looks so dapper in his suit.

These boys are so funny (missing Jay). I hope they are friends forever. 

Upset of the season, Henry's team won their first playoff game! They beat the number 2 team as the number 8 team so they fought hard. They have a break until the semifinals and I hope they feel ready. (Henry is second from the right, standing.)

That evening Calvin's and George's moms let James tag along to the Scarecrow Festival at the city park and sent me this picture.

So that's that. Work is going okay. I feel like I have lost more than 3 hours a day and don't get as much done each day as I'd like. I'll be glad when football season is over so I can have my Saturdays back and less driving around during the evenings. The student teacher is teaching solo for the next several weeks and the kids are so naughty for her I come home a little frazzled. I think it will get better once they get used to the idea that she's the teacher. She's talented and capable; they are just stinkers and there are 25 of them. I enjoy the work and most of the kids the kids most of the time. I am a pro with the laminator and will start next week doing one on one progress assessment which I know I will enjoy.

It feels like fall but it also doesn't

Football football football. It's that time of year.

Huddling is their favorite part. "It's a huddle, not a hug." I don't remember if it was a coach or player that said that.

One day the kids dragged the trampoline near the shed and began jumping off it.

The blankets on the roof are because the shingles were hot.

It does look pretty fun.

After I took more pictures and videos I told them they couldn't do it anymore.

Calvin's mom was kind enough to bring a bunch of the boys home after a birthday party at a trampoline park. I KNOW how this group in a car sounds because I've also done it. These boys are hilarious and full of it.

James lost 3 teeth in September. Two on top and one on bottom.

He likes that he can do this.

Sarah went to the homecoming dance. This was the first dress she tried on and ultimately her favorite. (Took a couple of tries on the shoes)

Her date was a kid named Jackson and I hear they had a great time. Their group played disc golf up the canyon then later for dinner they ate one of the parent's house. After the dance they watched a movie and played on a zipline at Jackson's house

He's tall and she's short in case you were wondering.

While they were at the dance I took the littles to Chick fil a and then we watched Toy Story.

Somebody loves mac n cheese.

Somebody else loves the French fries.

And while we were doing that, Justin and Henry stopped at Wendy's because Henry thinks it's the best place in the world.

And then they went to the BYU game.

The littles and I only stayed up until 9:30. Sarah got home at midnight and who knows what time the football boys got home.

I saw a deer on my walk one day. They startle me every time but then I like to watch them hoping they'll hop a fence in the way deer do.

One night we had FHE outside and roasted marshmallows. Justin took this photo and not sure why but I like it.

This is spooky James skull. It's from his first visit to the orthodontist as a patient. (He's gone as brother 100 times). He was really hoping he didn't need braces and just a ramp to help his front teeth over his bottom. He was wrong. He has an underbite and a crossbite so he'll be getting braces but only after he has a pallet expander put in and then possible headgear. He goes back in November to get started and we're looking at 15 months of treatment. His poor eyes welled up with tears while this was all being explained with pictures and animation. It was a lot to take in. 

Luckily all his siblings have some experience with orthodontia (how did we get so lucky?) and he's since learned of some kids that have had an expander so he's getting a little more used to the idea. He keeps reminding himself he can still eat chocolate, ice cream, and doughnuts so he'll be okay.

As the list of unknown duties as Erica's class room parent expands (I was tricked by the PTA into taking the job, I tell ya), I finally finished the class basket for the silent auction for the fall festival. While it was a little fun to spend other people's donated money, I was completely out of my element. I literally googles "auction basket" to see what this should even look like. 

I bought cellophane for the first time and dropped it off at the school 3 days early so I could stop stressing about it. But I still stressed about it and peeked in the room for days later to see how my basket stacked up against the others. I did fine. (Would you bid $200+ for it? It's more than $200 worth of stuff. Yikes, right?. I hope parents weren't better off just donating their money straight to the PTA.)

Justin, Sarah and James went up hunting Friday night. They didn't get a deer but they did see some beautiful sights.

James played his last flag football game tonight. He loved it so much and wished that the games were longer and that there were more of them. 

It helped that he had great coaches and a few of his best friends on his team.

So that's that. October we'll see the end of Henry's first season of tackle football, general conference, fall break, Sarah's 16th birthday and maybe some fall temperatures below 85 degrees.