October

 I feel like it's the same story, different month. Our weekdays are filled with school (yay!!) and our weekends are busy working on our house.

School has been going fantastic! The girls love it and it is so neat to hear them talk about everything they are learning. Haleigh's favorite subject is math and we are working on her reading as well. Annaliese loves science and has been busy learning all about our solar system. Lydia is busy learning all about colors and recently showed me that she can write her name. We carpool with Mallory and Owen and I love listening to their conversations on our drives!

The house is coming along nicely! Thanks to Thane and his brother-in-law Jeff, all the trim that can go up is up and we are almost done painting the rooms that will be carpeted.  We had some trees trimmed last week, a new slider door goes in this week and hopefully, we will start laying the floor this week as well!! It's exciting to see it starting to come together!!

Just starting to paint Annaliese's room...she picked turquoise!

We've got our work cut out for us...load one of flooring.

And of course there are always a few random pictures that I find as I'm looking through my photos!

Malachi and Haleigh by the Nooksack River

Malachi really wanted a picture that showed off his two missing teeth!

Auntie Kim picking a few blackberries.

Making homemade pasta

Kelsey took Owen and Lydia out to Birch Bay to visit with Grandpa and Grandma (They're camping out there for a few nights.)

September

 Here we are, almost at the end of the month. It's hard to believe how quickly September has gone, and thankfully, we were able to settle into a bit of a routine. 

The girls are in their fifth week of school, which has been such a blessing. They have quickly adjusted to the routine of daily screenings, temperature checks, and wearing masks and those things just aren't a big deal to them.  It's so fun to hear them talk about new friends, bringing home books from the library, and recite their memory verses. Even Lydia came home telling me all about how she learned about Adam and Eve! They are little sponges and were so desperately in need of the structure and social interaction that school brings! We constantly talk about how grateful we are for all the work that the teachers and staff are doing to make sure that they get to stay in school. 

When we aren't in school, we are busy working on the new house. Back in August, we bought a new house in Lynden and the initial plan was to rip out the old carpet and take down the ugly wallpaper and put in new floors and paint. That led to new countertops, new trim, a few new appliances, and basically redoing the master bathroom. We've pulled down a lot of wallpaper, pulled out flooring and are now just starting to be able to put things back together! I'll put together a whole post on the house soon!

Checking out different flooring options...

The updated master bathroom

Lots of trim to paint!

In between work and the back and forth to Lynden, I finally started running again and have been able to enjoy running around Lake Padden or at Berthusen Park.  

Haleigh lost her first tooth!

4 Years Old!!

 Lydia had her golden birthday this year and turned 4 on September 4. She requested shoes and clothes for her birthday and she was thrilled with all her new clothes! Thank you!

Showing off her new bike helmet!

We also had a small birthday party with family. She was excited to spend the afternoon playing with cousins and opening a few more presents! 

Reading books with Auntie Kim

Playing with new legos.

Lydia in a nutshell: she is happy and enthusiastic and full of energy. She knows what she wants, never stops talking and gives amazing hugs. But she can throw a fit and will scream and scratch and pinch when she doesn't get what she wants! She started preschool this year and absolutely loves it! 

All three girls share a room right now so everyone goes to bed about 7:30 and gets up between 6:30-7am. She sleeps with her blanket and still sucks on her two fingers. Now that school has started, she is pretty sleepy and will nap with me in the afternoon. I love it! She is a good snuggler😀

Lydia is very particular about her clothing; she picks out her own outfits every day! 4T clothes fit her, but she can often be found wearing something of Haleigh's, despite the fact that it is too big! Shoes are between sizes 8 and 9, depending on the shoe. 

Favorite activities: this is a hard one. She likes playing with Haleigh and they can frequently be found playing with stuffies, playing groceries, or talking on pretend phones. She likes to color, ride her scoot bike, and help Grandpa with whatever he is doing. She does not like to be told what to do!

Telling Grandpa all about her first day of school.

Favorite food: this changes by the day! She lives for dessert...Friday,  Saturday, and Sunday are dessert days and she keeps track of what day it is for that purpose!!

Lydia is full of joy and is a bundle of energy and is such a fantastic little girl. I love watching her learn, watch her mind process things, and see her become her own person. 

A New School Year

After the end of last year, and with Covid still running rampant, we were unsure what the start of this school year would look like. When they announced that school would be meeting full time, in-person we were thrilled! We know that there have been many, many hours put into figuring out classroom arrangements, scheduling, and monitoring and we are so grateful to be a part of a school system that is willing to put in the effort to make this all possible! 

In addition to the transition of school during Covid, we also had the transition of now going to school in Lynden and being part of a much larger student body. This has been both exciting and a bit overwhelming! We went to an open house on Monday, the day before school started to find classrooms and orient ourselves with the campus and that helped to ease some of the nerves a bit. We also learned a bit more about the screening process: every morning, we parents have to verify that our kids don't have any symptoms (we have a list of questions...do you have a fever? headache? runny nose? been asked to quarantine etc) and check temperatures. Each kid gets a screening sticker that shows we've done these things; once they get to school, they take the sticker and check their temperature again before letting them into the building. If they don't have a sticker, we get a phone call to verify.

Annaliese is in 3rd grade this year. She is in a 2/3 combined class with Señor Berroteran. She has one new third grade girl in her class, which is super exciting because the third grade was only Annaliese and Asher! Her family moved here from California and she was part of a Spanish Immersion program there. 

Their class is going to focus on seeing and learning about God through nature; Señor Berroteran had a neat tree set up in the classroom, as well as a prayer corner. He loves to play the piano and sing with his class, so I am really excited to watch Annaliese grow during this year.

Haleigh is in 1st grade and has Señora Wolters. Her class has 5 kids returning from last year and 13 new kids! We are excited about the bigger class size and the potential for new friends. The challenging part is that parents aren't allowed in the classrooms and so it's hard to get to know the new kids or their parents!

Lydia started preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. School decided not to start the Spanish program until P4, so for the first time ever, we have someone in school in English! Lydia has Teacher Lisa and has 6 other girls in her class. They don't have to wear masks at this point, but the teachers have created some dividers on the table to help keep them a little bit farther away from one another and lots of hand washing/sanitizing! Lydia came home so excited about the first day! 

Here they are, all ready to go to school:

We've figured out a carpooling plan with Auntie Kelsey and Uncle Ben, so all five kids go to school together. My favorite part of the day is watching Lydia and Owen, with their backpacks on, walking into school together! They aren't in the same class (which is probably a good thing!) but their classrooms are right next to each other.