eye doctor, outdoof adventures and lots of pumpkins...

Sometimes when I am sitting down with my kids and we are working on school I just get so overwhelmed with gratitude that I have this opportunity to be home with them. Yes, they drive me crazy. But I can't help but think all I would miss from them growing up.

For about a year I have been planning on getting the kids in to get their eyes checked. I didn't have worries just wanted to do a routine check, especially since we have coverage for it. Both kids did great despite the long visit and they hated having their eyes dilated. They both are far sighted with a bit of trouble focusing when things change distance but I guess that is normal eye maturing.

Such a beautiful sunset on my way home. Loved the glow on the lake.

We were doing a science lesson which then I had the idea to do this when talking about symmetry. It was so fun to see what the kids did.

In the tree.

I know I say this a lot but I love the blue skies here.

Her love of bears.

The weather was so nice one afternoon and I had been wanting to take the kids to this museum since it isn't too far from us. It was so cool! And the kids really loved it.

This is Mac.

This is Oak.

There was a super cool bridge that crossed this creek which leads into the Williamson river I think.

We haven't seen many deer this year. But one day this deer was literally right at my moms window looking in. It moved away before I took the picture.

We headed to the one and only tiny two acre pumpkin patch with our homeschool group. The new owners did a great little presentation on their process of planting the pumpkins.

Our pumpkins.

I finally got my wall finished! I love it! I can see it right when I walk into my house and I can see it sitting on the couch. I think it is beautiful. Just don't look too close. I have some major touching up.

We decided to do Train Mountains pumpkin express this year. Thankfully it wasn't raining because it has been raining a lot lately. And this time we got to bring Grandma who says we always do the fun stuff when she is gone. Which is only because she is gone a lot not because we try to do them when she is gone.

They had their little "pumpkin patch" set up so cute!. Oak wanted a little pumpkin and we found this one hanging in a tree. A little bit later she said she wanted a bigger small pumpkin. It was so cute!

Oak has been letting me do her hair in fun ways lately before church. I am loving learning some fun things and her hair has turned out so cute.

My first attempt at Sunday photo.

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Lots of reading and family visits...

These were introduced to Mac and he is OBSESSED! He has read them all at least three times. And he is asking for the whole set for Christmas. 

Is this not the cutest picture you have ever seen?! Oak reading to Gloria our pet chicken. She loves our chickens and spends at least an hour everyday out playing with them, well mostly Gloria. 

Oak finished her first reading chart. She has earned herself a trip to Jump N Jax. Just like Mac, her reading improved so much from doing this chart. 

My Aunt and Uncle (my moms brother) came to visit. It was such a nice visit. One night I let the kids stay up a bit later and listen to my Uncle and mom tell stories of when they were kids and my Uncle read us some poems he has written over the years. It was such a sweet moment. Mac attached himself to my Uncle just like he was his Grandpa. It was so sweet to see. 

My Uncle served in the US Navy and Mac loves that his Grandpa did too. It also just happend to be the birthday for the US Navy so we had to get this photo. LOVE!

Oak and I played Farkle to help with her math. 

Cute girl reading to me. 

My kids love our tradition of pizza picnic and movie night on Fridays. They don't like to miss it for anything. Hopefully it stays that way when they are teenagers. Love having traditions like this. 

The kids had their Primary Program and Grandma and Grandpa came for a quick visit to watch them. 

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I bought this cute fabric for grandma to make Oak a skirt with. It turned out SO CUTE!

Oak was giggling so much playing thumb war with grandpa.

Lots of learning and reading...

In all my posts you will have to ignore the sideways or upside down photos. No matter what I do they never stay turned right. 

We have been learning about Vikings for school so we were making rune stones and writing on them with viking alphabet. 

Oak's hanging out with the chickens. She goes out every single day to play with them. 

Our finished rune stones and our read a loud that talks about vikings. It was a great book. 

Oak and I had fun making these for math for her. 

The kids had friends over and we showed them how insta photos work. They thought it was so cool. 

We were learning about our lungs so we played a little game of blowing puff balls. 

For Mac's stay up late night he wanted to do genealogy. He loves family history. 

Mac found that I am related to some royalty of Denmark which was a cool find while we have been learning about vikings and the book we were reading is set in Denmark. 

We finished The BFG and we loved it. It was hard to pick a new read a loud and these were my picks. The kids ended up picking Homer Price. We are loving that book too. 

The boy reading. 

The kids left on a bike ride with grandma on a beautiful day. I stayed home and took a shower because I didn't feel very well. 

They have been getting a long so much better lately. The was a sweet sight to find. 

This is pretty much how my family room looks on a regular basis. But at least it is all books. 

Sorry it's upside down. Mac had to write a paragraph describing someone. He chose Oak. I loved this so much. 

Saturday was "Saturday cleaning" day. Which is a thorough cleaning of rooms. During the week I allow them to just pick up and not make a fuss over being spotless. I dread doing this with the kids but it is a necessity. They hate it too. Mac had so  much junk behind his bed and decided he wanted to spend an hour throwing a fit about picking up the stuff behind his bed instead of taking five minutes to clean it up. That it why I hate it so much. 

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I made this dish on Sunday and it was the yummiest thing I have ever made. HERE is the recipe. 

scouts and general conference...

Loving Oak's drawings lately. She has been coloring the whole paper. I love it.

Mac had an assignment for Cubscout pack meeting to make a sign that showed the Leave No Trace Principles. We discussed a lot about what kinds of things he could do and then he did it all by himself. I though it turned out great. I was sad that nothing was done with them at the pack meeting though. 

We were admiring our summer sandal tans.

Mac my little Math thinker. I found this just sitting out. I had no clue what he was trying to do but when I showed it to my Mister he figured out that Mac was multipyling. And when I asked Mac what it was he said he was trying to figure out all the combinations of bills he could get with his $50 for his birthday. Love his little mind. 

My sweet cuties.

All dressed up for school photos. Our homeschool center gets to participate in school photos since it is through the school district. 

We got smoothies at McD's and I didn't want to finish mine so they figured out how to share it. Ah, I love them!

He was so excited to get 6 new belt loops for his belt. 

Dressed in camo from head to ankle. 

Oak figured out how to do this on her own and she was pretty excited. 

Saturday morning at 8am and 30 degrees Mac was out laying in the apple tree. We were all still in bed because it was too cold to be out of it. 

It was General Conference weekend. I was shocked by how well behaved my kids were and how much they actually listened. And we always make a lego temple. 

He spent most of his free time up in the apple tree. I don't really like them climbing it because there are giant boulders underneath and if they fell out they would crack their head open. But I told I didn't want him to and what could happen and let him make the choice himself. I refuse to let Oak since she is seriously accident prone and I know she would fall out. 

My Mister spent the entire day working on putting a new roof on the chicken coop. He listened to conference while he did it. He worked so hard. He was so exhausted and finished just in time to take a shower and hurry over to the Stake Center for the priesthood session. 

Sunday forty