Grace is 5!

Dear Grace,

Happy 5th birthday to you! These years are going by faster than I want. However, I'm LOVING every day and am so thankful God gave you us. You are an amazing girl. Full of love, happiness, joy, compassion, humor, quick wit, and kindness. You love going to church and enjoy learning and doing your schoolwork. 

It was a hard decision not sending you somewhere for pre-K this year. However, I am so glad I kept you home. You are loving Classical Conversations and are in Foundations this year, you enjoyed playing soccer last Fall and are looking forward to doing gymnastics this Spring. I love teaching you and reading to you. You have asked to learn to read for the past two years. I know you could and we are slowing working on that. However, with you, I'm taking our time. I read a really good book about waiting to teach your child to read and how they end up learning so much more waiting. I know that's not always the case but you have such a great memory and ability to recall information. I know reading eventually is going to add to it but for now, we're taking it slow.

This year you had your birthday party at the Tumble Club. You wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese at first but I love that we could rent the whole facility at Tumble Club and it would be just you and your friends. Everyone had a great time. We ordered pizza and had the best cake (from Costco) and it was a really fun party.

Favorites:

Color: gold
Food: macaroni and cheese
Place to go: VBS at our church :)
Song: ones you make up! You are an amazing singer and love singing. I love hearing all the songs you sing.
Best friend: you said everyone. You don't like leaving anyone out. Just like your mama. :)
Boy(s) you like: Cash (from CC) and Silas (from Trail Life)
Toy: your new dollhouse and all the fun things with it!

Height: 4'10"
Weight:

This year you wanted a bike for your birthday. You got a scooter for Christmas and LOVE it. I love that you like to be active. Our goat, Pickles, had a baby a few days before your birthday. You love babies and Dill is a very cute goat kid. You love all animals and enjoy playing with them on our farm. Grace, we pray that you continue to grow in your faith. We pray you continue to show love and empathy to others, and have a great year!

Love you,
Mom

Caden's 1st Piano Recital

Last night Caden had his first piano recital. He played, "Good Christian Men Rejoice," and "We Wish You and Merry Christmas." He did great!! He started taking lessons last June. He really loves playing and seems to have a real ear for it. His teacher has a competition for all her students. The students who play the most hours get the biggest trophy. He and another kid came within 15 minutes of each other so she gave them both a big trophy. He was so excited and has really worked hard! We are very proud of him and love listening to him play.

October 2018

We got to do a lot of fun things this Fall leading up to Halloween. We took the kids to two pumpkin patches, we took a train ride on a Trick or Treat train in Grapevine, went to a homeschool Halloween party, and had a record number of friends from church come over for our pumpkin carving party. I think we had 45 people over that evening! Lots of fun for all! 

On Halloween, I took my kids to our church's Fall festival. My dad met me and so did my sister and her family. Collin had to go out of town for a work trip. We missed him! This year the kids dressed up as, Darth Vader, veterinary, and BB-8. 

Some of my family was able to come to our pumpkin carving party this year

Fall Festival at church

Pumplins my family carved

Some of the kids playing at the pumpkin party

Some of the pumpkins that were carved

Trick or Treat Train

Homeschool Halloween Party - Jackson won the boys costume
for best costume for his age group. Dressed as BB-8

Family picture at the pumpkin patch at the local winery

2018 Fall Sports

This Fall, Caden played flag football for the first time. He was on a team with a friend from church which was nice. Grace and Jackson played soccer and were on the same team. Everyone had a lot of fun playing this season. It seemed like more than half the games, the younger two had games at the same time as Caden's. So Collin and I split up so all the kids had a parent who could watch them play. I ended up watching the younger two the majority of the time and Caden when I could. Here are some pictures from this season.