October

The month of October has come and almost gone.  Thankfully, this month was a bit slower than the last few months.  But not to worry, the Holiday season is coming and we'll be busier than ever.  Two days into October we celebrated Curtis' 13th birthday.  A few days later, Erik went on a hunting trip.  Of course there's all the U of O games.  We also had a big birthday party for both kids with all the family.  I started going to a 5th grade classroom as part of my student teaching. And, then to finish October off, we get to celebrate Halloween and gorge ourselves on Candy.

CURTIS' BIRTHDAY
Wow!  I can't even believe that my sweet little baby boy is 13!  It's amazing how quickly the years go by. This milestone has really messed with me.  Curtis will graduate from high school in 6 years!  If the last 13 have gone by this quickly then the next 6 are going to disappear in a flash.
Anyways, enough sentimentality.  Curtis' birthday was on a Friday this year.  He took cookies to school to celebrate with his language arts class.  Later that night, we ate pizza from Pizza Hut... with cheese in the crust.  Instead of a birthday cake he had requested a birthday cookie/pizza.  We made a giant sugar cookie, coated it with frosting and then put chopped up candies on top.  That was pretty yummy.  Then the family watched Monsters vs. Aliens together.  Happy Birthday Buddy!

The Yummy Cookie Pizza

It never changes... kids love to play with the box that the toy came in.  This is the styrafoam that came in the box with the fish tank.

 Gotta love Stuffed Crust pizza!

Sporting the new Duck Jersey.

















HUNTING TRIP
Erik has been hunting the last couple years just in the area of where we live.  He hadn't been able to dedicate a lot of time because of a busy schedule.  This year, Erik and two of his friends went out to Eastern Oregon to camp and hunt for a few days.  Erik's friends headed out on a Thursday to set up camp and Erik joined them after he preached Sunday morning.  After a little bit of truck trouble (he was driving a friends truck) and a very nice passerby who fixed the truck (for free!), Erik was able to join his hunting buddies.  All three guys ended up with a deer.  And now the freezer is full of venison.  Erik was pretty excited to get his first deer ever!

MORE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
Half way through October we finally found a weekend that wasn't filled with hunting or Duck Games so we had all the family come over for Curtis' and Sadie's family birthday party.  Everyone who didn't live too far away or wasn't too sick came over.

The Birthday kids

German Chocolate cake for Curtis
Chocolate cupcakes for Sadie. With 11 candles in one cupcake as she requested!

All of Curtis and Sadie's cousins.
Lilli, Natalie, Elan, Curtis, Emmalie, Sadie









STUDENT TEACHING
This term I started the Education Program at WOU.  I get to spend about 6 hours a week in a 5th grade classroom in Sheridan.  I really like the teacher who will be my Mentor Teacher for this year.  As it turns out, she is a Christian and has a child.  I'm looking forward to learning how she manages work and family.  The group of fifth graders I'll be working with seem like a good group of kids.  It should be fun spending this year with them and teaching them.  I can't wait to see what they will teach me!

HALLOWEEN

The night before Halloween we went to a party.  Usually, our costumes are pretty boring.  Sometimes I'm a "Mom" or a "Duck Fan".  Once I wore Curtis' football pads and shirt and was a football player.  It'd been a while since we actually put some effort into a costume.  So, it was a lot of fun to go to the party dressed like Popeye and Olive Oyl with Erik.  The hostess of the party had lots of fun games planned for the kids which included a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood.  Sadie tied for Cutest Costume with another little girl.
On Halloween night we decorate our car at the church for "Trunk Or Treating".  Kids around the church neighborhood pass by the church and "Trick or Treat" at each of the trunks of our cars.  We'll be doing that tonight and I'm hoping for no rain!

Curtis as a rapper.  CT Hammer perhaps?

Sadie as a cowgirl

Curtis carved a Darth Vader pumpkin














 Sadie carved a puppy dog into her pumpkin.
Well, that's pretty much October.  It's hard to believe that next month is Novemeber and that Christmas is less than two months away.

September Summary

Gotta love September.  The leaves are starting to change colors.  The weather is changing and even on hot days the air feels crisp.  Summer was really busy so it was very nice to find September without so much to do.  However, we still found things to keep us busy.  Here's a glimpse of September.

BACK TO SCHOOL

School started late this year on September 9th.  Sadie started 5th grade and is in Mr. Widmer's class.  Sadly, this will be the last year that we have a child in elementary school.  Next year both Curtis and Sadie will be in middle school.  Where does the time go?

Curtis is now in 7th grade and fortunately for him, no longer the low man on the totem pole in middle school.  He's trying out the advanced Language Arts class this year.  His teacher for that class is Mrs. Buhler and Curtis really clicks with her learning style.  He loves that.  Also, he has discovered that Mrs. Buhler is a Christian, which I am very excited about since he will have her for two periods a day both this year and next year.













CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP
After the kids got back into the swing of things for school, my Mom and I drove to California to see friends of ours that live in or near Roseville.  We left Thursday morning and came back Sunday night.  All in all we spent about 19 hours in the car.  An added bonus of the trip to CA was that I got to spend a lot of uninterrupted  time with my Mom on the drive which is something we don't get a lot of.
I stayed with my friend Jeni and her family.  I've mentioned Jeni before in an earlier blog. She and I were friends when we were very young and we just reconnected last fall on Facebook. I did get to see her for a few hours earlier in the summer.  But, it was so nice to stay with her for a few days and get to know her again.  We hung out, went to soccer games, made jewelry, ate lots of yummy food, and went shopping.  Apparently, we have the same taste in clothes because we both bought the same skirt, shirt and sweater.  Good thing we live in different states and don't have to worry about showing up somewhere wearing the same clothes.

BIRTHDAY PARTY!

The best part of September is Sadie's birthday!  My baby girl turned 11 this year.  To start her birthday off on the right foot we had pancakes for breakfast.  She took chocolate chip cookies to school to share with her friends.  For dinner Sadie requested a "cheesy dinner".  So, we settled on a homemade six cheese pizza.  It was pretty yummy.  Dessert was a pumpkin roll cake with cream cheese frosting.  Sadly, I did not realize I only had two candles left until it was time to sing Happy Birthday.  Instead of blowing 11 candles out, Sadie tried to gently blow the one candle 11 times before she blew it out.  Silly Girl!  After dinner and cake Sadie requested that we play family games.  Lucky for her, she received the game, "Taboo" for her birthday.

Presents!                                                                      

Sadie loves to play games.

Sadie was very surprised to find these earrings wrapped up.  She showed them to me on a shopping trip in August.  I bought them while she was in the store with me without her knowledge.  Tricky Mom!

Pumpkin Roll Cake with one lonely candle.

A few days after Sadie's birthday she invited three friends over for a slumber party to continue celebrating her birthday.  The girls ate pasta for dinner, followed by cupcakes.  Then the giggling ensued and Curtis and Erik retreated to our bedroom to hide out.  The girls played some games.  Giggled some more.  Tried to hide around the hallway corners and scare each other.  Did a little more giggling.  Watched a movie and finally drifted off to sleep on various couches and air mattresses in the living room.  Surprisingly, the four girls were all sleeping by 11:30.  Maybe all that giggling wore them out.

Hannah, Sadie, Makayla, & Ellen