Fall Fun

Nova's Dexterity

Nova can now feed herself with a spoon and a fork.   All I have to do is give her a bowl of cereal in the morning and she feeds herself the entire bowl.  

Nova also loves to take pens and draw on paper.  She holds the pen just like you learn in school.  If allowed, she enjoys writing on her own body, especially her feet.

Nova will be 15 months tomorrow, but she is still not walking, and hardly ever crawls.  She continues to scoot on her bottom to get around the house.  Nonetheless, she enjoys climbing into cupboards, and dumping out the cereal boxes.  We've relocated the cereal to a higher shelf to prevent this from happening.  Nova has just started pulling herself into a standing position using furniture, so we do have hopes that walking is in the near future.  She has also mastered climbing the entire staircase, and absolutely loves to climb it.

Nova continues to be the championing of nighttime sleeping!  She rarely ever wakes at night, falls asleep on her own and usually sleeps 12 hours.  She also takes a long nap every afternoon.  The is wonderful especially considering that she has been growing a lot of teeth, which has made her much more difficult and moody during the day, especially when shopping.

First Day of School
Aria and Zade  began school at Twin Oaks Elementary.  We debated all summer over which school to send the kids and finally decided that they would go to the local, public school.  The Waldorf School, which was the one we were also considering, was just too expensive.  So far school has been mostly positive for the kids.  Zade seems right on track, has made some new friends, and comes home cheerful.  Aria is in a split 2nd/3rd grade class and has complained that the class is too easy and the kids read too slow.  We have been told that there will be more differentiation and that Aria will be reading more challenging books in the near future, so hopefully things will improve for her.  She has made some friends, and is usually positive.

                                                       

 Ryzen  started preschool at Bethesda Lutheran.  The preschool is located just a 5 minute drive from our house.  In fact, I can even run to the school, if I'm feeling ambitious.  Many families from our ward send their kids to this school and Ryzen seems very happy.  He especially likes a little girl named Eliza who is from our ward.  Eliza and Ryzen often have a play-date every Friday, switching off at different houses.

 Ryzen is still the master at using the toilet.  He is now potty-trained during the day and night.  He never has to be reminded and is completely self-sufficient.  Hip-hip-hooray!

Goat Farm
I took the kids to Lone Pine Farms on a Saturday afternoon when Dane was away on a business trip. Feeding the goats was one of the highlights.

Aria is still very faithfully caring for the feral cats outside.  The cats wait at the back doors, looking in on us.  When Aria goes outside they follow her around like she is the Pied Piper. 

Attack of Poison Oak

This is a picture of my second rash from poison oak in one month.  Turns out the poison oak was growing next to our front porch, and even reaching onto the porch!  I was weeding next to it, and I think I may have even tried to pull it out as well.  You can see that my skin does not like poison oak! I had to take a steroid for a week and then after the pills were done, the rash came back for a few days.  Awful, awful, awful!

Fall
Fall has come with all of its colors. Sometimes in the morning the fogs rolls in and makes for some nice views. This picture doesn't do justice to how pretty the scene was.

Aria gets her Ears Pierced

I took Aria to get her ears pierced on a night when Dane took the boys to the fathers and sons camp-out.  She was brave, especially considering that she was very nervous.  She has been diligent about cleaning her ears, and now is already wearing other styles of earrings.    She has a few days where the ears were real sore, but they've healed up nicely now, and Aria loves to wear her earrings.

Father & Son's Campout

Dane took Zade and Ryzen out to Camp Alpine for the annual Father and Sons camp out. It was held at Camp Alpine, which is where Dane's dad used to take him for Father and Sons. Since Dane had to head to a meeting at the university early the next morning, they decided to continue the tradition Dane's father had started of using the car as the tent.  He also let them each pick out a story and some candy. They had fun playing with the other kids, and Zade enjoyed capture the flag with glow sticks (Ryzen had passed out by that point.) Overall, they had a nice time. Here they are playing at the ropes course.

Oregon Football

Each year the Accounting Faculty at the University of Oregon go to one football game together. This year it was the Oregon vs. Colorado game. Dane enjoyed being in Autzen stadium, and had a nice time, despite the Ducks dropping the game.  

Ryzen's Photoshoot

Ryzen grabbed Tara's phone one day and decided he was going to be a photographer. He then took well over 100 pictures, and as part of his adventure, he did a photo shoot with his dear mom. Here's just one excerpt.

Date Night

After roller-blading (Tara) and biking (Dane) along the Amazon Creek, we went to the Lotus Garden for dinner. Little did Dane know that it was a vegetarian joint. :) Oh well, he managed to get the tofu down.

Afterwards, we went to a little shop nearby for desert.

JetPack

Zade got into playing the game JetPack on our phones, and decided that he was going to build his own jetpack. So he raided the recycling bin and found the materials he needed.  Very creative.

White Blankey

Nova loves her white blanket. It's become something she's quite attached to, and she always requests before going to sleep.   She even likes to have it during the day, and sometimes wants it while she's eating, which isn't ideal. 

After letting the grass grow really long during the summer, Dane decided to mow down the back. It looks so much better.

Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze
We went as a family to Lone Pine Farms to pick out pumpkins and conquer this year's corn maze. The kids picked out 3 giant pumpkins to carve.

The corn maze was challenging, even with the hint card. There were several moments that some of the kids got frustrated with our lack of progress. But we persevered, and to reward the kids, we took them to Dairy Queen afterwards, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Before

After
(Notice how tired Ryzen is, even though Dane carried him a good portion of the way. Aria was so tired by the end she refused to join the picture.)

Fall Leaves

The leaves on the trees in our yard are changing colors and starting to fall. The kids gathered them up and put them on the trampoline and had a great time jumping in them, stuffing them in their shirts, and throwing them at each other.