A new teacher

Yesterday afternoon I took Brooklyn to the Fort Morgan library to meet her 1st grade teacher for the first time. Brooklyn loved her. She is so nice! There, Brook was given a DIBLES test. She tested Brook on her letter naming fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency and her nonsense word fluency. Brook did very well. She tested at low risk and established which are the highest ratings she could get at this point.
I got to set some goals for Brooklyn for this semester.

Afterwards, I let the kids play at the park just outside the library. It was a really nice park with a rock climbing wall. I have never been to the Fort Morgan library before and it made me wish we lived closer so we could get a library card. We just don't travel to that town often enough to make it worth it.

A new chapter

The decision to school our kids with an online public school was a process but we are finally settled and have (almost) all our stuff. First they sent us Brook's computer minus a USB cord. About a week later we got the rest of her books and shipments. Each box was so exciting. Brook was in awe of the books, lab sets, and all the fun stuff. I just love how well put together K12's curriculum is. Everything is so easy to follow, I'm sure Brook will be a pro in no time. Each subject takes 30min-1hr. Her lessons include: Math, History, Science, Language Arts, phonics, Art, PE, and Music.

I am so grateful for this experience. Its been stressful and overwhelming but even with the couple of days we've been doing it, I have felt such pride in Brooklyn. I have learned more about her that I didn't already know. My daughter is a hard worker. Sometimes she wants to give up but she sticks with it. Brooklyn is somewhat of a perfectionist. She hates to get anything wrong. She can be too hard on herself. I really feel that we will grow closer as mother and daughter through these days of ours together. I love to watch her little mind work.

Estes Park

Last Saturday we went to Estes Park with Jer's mom and dad. I thought it was a perfect time to go. The weather was perfect. It was warm but the wind was blowing. Its my favorite time of year again and that means the trees were starting to turn. We were lucky to be able to see a few Elk before we left the park. The kids had a blast climbing on rocks and hiking. I loved seeing the Stanley Motel. I wish we could have gone inside for a tour.The Stanley Motel (from the shining). It is beautiful!

Here are my kiddos enjoying the views (actually they were scared until we proved that the railings were safe).

Our family

Dallas and mommy

Brooklyn being queen of the mountain.

The pretty little fall we hiked to.

Dallas loved playing in the water.

Here's the fam watching the bull elk. Such a nice day.

8 months!

I can't believe our little Dallas is 8 months old already!

He is 17 lbs

In the last month, Dal has gotten 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom. He is a biting machine! He doesn't try to bite to hurt but he does think its funny to get a rise out of someone when he tries.

His little sense of humor is showing more and more these days. Dallas gets a kick out of making everyone laugh, especially his big brother and sister.

His favorite thing to do lately is crawl around and get into anything and everything! Ugh!

Dallas is eating toasted Os, shredded cheese, mashed bananas, pieces of bread and pasta noodles. He doesn't really like to eat food from a jar anymore so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with what I have left. Maybe I'll sneak in bites between feeding him big kid food. ha ha.

I feel like he is growing up way too fast and isn't my baby anymore.

Akron Air Show

September 11th was a great day to remember the twin towers but it was also a great day to remember our armed forces and all they have done. Our little town holds an air show every year and this year it landed on 9/11. The kids sure did enjoy looking at all the camps, tanks, planes and muscle cars that were there. It was so hot outside but we still had fun. We only live a few blocks from the airport so we walked all the way there. by the time we were done, the kids were exhausted!Mommy and the kids beside the trenches.

Watching a "bumble bee" plane- as Mase would call it.

The US camp area. Everyone was in period clothing and had guns and all manner of neat things. It just gets bigger and bigger every year.

A US tank.

This was my favorite the wing walker. She strapped into the wing of the plane and he did some tricks while a story played.

We went home to watch the F16s from our backyard.

They were so loud, Mase was scared but our neighbor bonnie gave him some ear muffs to use. Thanks Bonnie!

They were so fast! Barely got a picture. ha ha!

Dallas standing up

Dallas is such a big boy now. Time is so flying by!

Buena Vista visit

So, in our usual Smith family style, Jer and I decided to spontaneously drive 4 hours to visit Buena Vista yesterday.

Jer has a friend Cara, who went to mission prep classes with him in high school. She e-mailed Jer about a possible job opening at her husband's electric company called Sangre De Cristo there in BV.

The more information we find out about this tiny 7,000 pop. town, the more I love it. But I really wanted to see for myself if it was something we'd want to set roots down in.

Like usual, 12pm rolls around and I got cabin fever so Jer said why not? The first thing we did was drive down 24 into town. We saw Sangre de cristo, city market, a couple Mexican restaurants (one of which we learned for ourselves never to go eat at again), and subway. We then went down main st. and saw the older part of town, a couple museums, an elementary school and a couple of missionaries! Jer decided to follow them so we could ask them where the nearest branch was. I felt like we were stalking the poor guys. One just about jumped out of his skin when I rolled down my window to ask him our question.

The Branch is so pretty! The whole town is beautiful surrounded by Princeton Mountain and all the other mountains. I felt like I was in one big bowl of mountains in every direction. There were also a couple of neat parks and lots of ponds in the area. Before we left we stopped by Cara and Matt's house. They were so nice. Cara told me more about the branch. It doesn't have a lot of kids I guess. I wonder how that would be? I guess now all we do is wait. I can't help but get excited about this maybe opportunity. It would be just perfect for our family. I wouldn't feel too terribly far from civilization and Jer would get his mountains! I guess we will have to see...

Good Things to Come

Jeremiah is at Church with Mason and I am home with Brook and Dallas who have awful coughs.

Maybe its because I'm home alone that my thoughts prey on me. I think Satan likes me to feel discouraged. I came across this video on lds.org and it was exactly what I needed to hear today.

Just another day...

I loves the days when Jer is home, the weather is perfect, the house is clean, the kids are happy and I feel like life is wonderful!

Today Dallas was getting fussy so Jer took him outside. He isn't feeling well. (Jer even ignored his football game *gasp*)! Brooklyn was inside cleaning her room and Mason was taking a cat nap. i just had to get these pics.

Here is Dallas crawling toward mama.

even upset he's cute. he pulls his ears when hes really upset.

Like father like son.

I just love this face!!!

New beginnings

I just needed to add this post today. Ever since school started we, as a family have committed to reading our family scriptures together and having family prayer morning and night. Jer and I talked about setting a specific time in the evening to do so. We can push that time forward if it is more convenient. Like last night, we read scriptures before dinner so the kids could get ready for bed after dinner. It worked out wonderfully!

I have been feeling so overwhelmed with the spirit in our home since we have made this commitment. The kids tend to play even better together, I do not get discouraged and yell as often, we feel a closeness that I am so grateful for as well. I feel like this is a new beginning for our family to grow closer to our Heavenly Father. Brooklyn and Mason are learning as well and it makes me so proud of them. I hope we keep this going. I am sure as long as we remember how good it feels, we will.

I love this quote from Elder David A. Bednar:

Each Family prayer, each episode of family scripture study, and each family home evening is a brushstroke on the canvas of our souls. No one event may appear to be very impressive or memorable. But just as paint can compliment each other and produce an impressive masterpiece, so our consistency in doing seemingly small things, can lead to significant spiritual results. "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great" (D&C 64:33).