ivar's reading lesson

Ivar turned six last week and chose to celebrate with family at the Mall of America! We ate at the food court, opened presents, ate cake, went to Lego Land and Ivar shared his latest reading lesson. I'll be back tomorrow with more details on the reading lesson. :)











We are thrilled! Hattie and baby #4 will be 20 months apart, just like Ivar and Elsie are 20 months apart. We prayed and planned for this baby and are overjoyed to be adding another life to our family!

lovely fall

These days are incredible. I can't get over this fall weather. Maybe it's always like this, but for some reason this year I am just so grateful for every glorious day. And there have been so many! We have been jumping in leaves all week, raking paths for toy combines and soaking up the sun. Hattie especially likes the sound and feel of crawling through the leaves. She's quite different from her brother! 

pumpkin carving

Pumpkin carving with kids basically boils down to pumpkin carving with kids around. :) I scooped all the goop and Rory did the carving. But the enthusiasm was high and the kids were still so proud of their pumpkins!

happy halloween!

A special thanks to my favorite church garage sale that supplies me with all our halloween costumes. Way back in May I held up this little bird get up and said, "a toucan it is!" We are off to trick-or-treat with friends at a nearby college and then will stop at a few neighbor's houses. I'm ready for the sugar!
Here's Halloween 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009.

this slice of life

+My kids were big into playing Panther Family for a few weeks. They were a nice family of panthers who seemed to mostly enjoy reading books in their cave. The panther mom never seemed to have a shirt on, and the panther dad had a lot of trouble keeping the panther baby in the cave. She would escape and he would have to drag her back in only to have her escape again. Panther Baby thought this was a hilarious game.

+My dad came over last night to babysit and I told the kids, "we need to pick up this mess, so grandpa doesn't trip on all our toys." Elsie thought about it for a moment and said, "Yes. Because he is a pastor." And Ivar added, "He's on God's team!" I told them that was all true, so just pick up the toys...

+Ivar has found a new favorite prank. Our small group comes to our house each Monday night at 7:30. The time from dinner to their arrival is mayhem, filled with barn chores, cleaning up supper, getting the kids to bed, making the coffee and tidying the house. Around 7 each night Ivar will knock loudly on the front door and say, "someone's already here!" Which throws me into a panic just long enough for him to laugh and yell, "Just kidding. It's me." The crazy thing is that so far he is 3 for 3 on this one. I fall for it each week.

+Hattie cut a new tooth on the top this week. One night I was holding her in the glider rocker, waiting for her tylenol to kick in. She picked at my lips and kept sticking her fingers on my teeth. And then she sang a sing-songy "la la la." And it dawned on me that she wanted me to sing. I started singing Children of the Heavenly Father and she lay back in my arm and snuggled into my body.