September & October 2019

 Spencer has to take pictures of himself when he submits his labs.

Spencer took Jacob and Marie trick or treating while I was teaching on Halloween. Charlotte had lots of fun staying home with Grandma and Grandpa Hess and eating candy with Grandpa. 

When the weather was still warm, I walked Jacob to school with the girls and then let the girls play for a bit after we dropped Jacob off to Kindergarten. We're happy with the progress Jacob has made. The first month of school, he was having a hard time talking to other children and finding others to play with; but now he has a good group of friends that have fun together. He is also learning lots and doing great!

Charlotte was sick, so I took her to the instacare. 

Spencer roughhousing with the kids

Got Charlotte a backpack at a garage sale and she loves to wear it when the other kids do

Marie's preschool friends on a day I taught

Jacob's fun run. He let Marie walk with him for part of it. She loved it. 

The kids watching Baby Shark video with Grandpa before he goes to work (Charlotte requests is every day)

The kids having a very fun weekend when Nikolia and Serenity came to visit for a few days

They even came to church with us - I subbed for the girls' class and they took turns dressing up in the armor of God

Preschool field trip for Marie to a garden center with fall activities

 Highlights of the past two months:

Jacob - is liking school now, making friends, and making great progress with his reading
Marie - has become such a great sister to Charlotte. She loves her preschool group, and loves playing dress up
Charlotte - is using more words to express herself, up to 2-3 at a time. She is making her opinions known. She also likes to wake up at 4-5 in the morning to "play". I'm a little exhausted
Kristin - defended my dissertation proposal and it was accepted. I got my IRB approval (the ok to collect data) from Johnson and Wales. I'm still teaching at all 4 schools, including one online for JWU, one face to face at JWU, CCA night class, BYUI online, and 3 CCCOnline.
Spencer - making great progress with his online physics II class. His health is stable and he is much improved.

August 2019

August was hail storms

the end of swim lessons 

Jacob's 6th birthday!

cuddle island (they read a book about cuddle island, so now have to regularly make their own)

cousin time

more cousin time

Trying on Aunt Robyn's wedding dress

petting zoo and train park with cousins

super babies (or Aunt Robyn made Jacob an amazing pokemon cape that Charlotte had to try)

Airplane museum with cousins

Jacob's first day of KINDERGARTEN! 

The Pete the cat with a pink heart and stripes that Jacob made at school for Marie because he though that she might miss him (first week was rough! We all missed each other. Marie missed her playmate. But Marie and Charlotte are building new bonds as Charlotte gets older)

The girls playing at the library

Jacob and Marie trying the water balloon toss at Popsicles at the park Primary Activity

Jacob's lego creation - the dragon from how to train your dragon. We found instructions from the internet and he improvised

Marie's pink lego creation

This was the mother's day card that Jacob made me on Mother's day. I wanted to take a picture of it because it will probably be thrown away. But he did a great job and it really made me happy. 

Marie and Charlotte like it when they come with me to take Jacob to school because they get to play at the playground for  a little bit first. By the way, Charlotte is really good at saying "cheese" and smiling for pictures.

Aunt Kelsey and Mathew surprised the kids and Spencer and came to visit for a couple of days. They had so much fun with Nerf, swimming and playing. 

So in August:

Jacob - started kindergarten! He was a excited but the first few weeks were so hard. He was tired and it was long (this year was the first year Colorado went to full day kindergarten :( He's doing better now

Marie - started her co-op preschool with 4 other little girls and loves it. The first two days wore her out. She was upset that I picked her up and that she had to leave

Charlotte - likes to climb on the table, play in the bathroom, feed herself, do what the big kids do ... basically wear us out.

Kristin - started back to school this month. I'm really missing the calm of summer.

Spencer - also starting school, Physics II. It just feels much busier and I'm tired.