Leaf Pile

Hooray, it's Fall!!  We've had a pretty decent number of leaves fall off our trees in the backyard, so we got to pull together our first leaf pile of the year!  I raked it all off the grass so I could mow the lawn, but raked it all back into a pile when I was done!  Everyone was very excited to jump in and play!  Grayson was a little unsure, but was enjoying himself until his sisters started dumping loads of leaves on his head... then he started to cry and that was the end of his first leaf pile excursion.

Rolling all the way back to last Sunday, we really wanted to head out for a family walk/bike ride, so we did and just joined my family call on my phone while on the trail!

On the way out, we headed over a bridge then up a hill and down the other side.  Winry took off going down the hill and left us in her dust!  Winry really loves to ride her bike and likes to go fast.  We're often jogging to catch up to her.

Here we are on our way back to the car, heading over the bridge right before we make it back to the parking lot.  On the way back, Winry got off her bike a few times to run, and I had to chase after her carrying her bike.  By the time we were heading up the final bridge-hill she was quite tired and I had to help her make it to the top.  On the way out, Brooke was a little hesitant on the bridge and Winry crashed into her a few times because she kept stopping...

Monica and I made it to the temple this past week.  We set up appointments to go together a few times before, but Monica ended up with really bad migraines or we had sick kids each time.  This past week we went separately and were both able to make it to our session!  It was great to be back in the temple, and it had been a LONG time.  I'm glad they're open again, it was great!

Monica and the kids headed to play group this week with some other people in the ward.  While going through pictures from the week I found a fun video of the girls rolling down the hill!

Winry started E&E preschool this week!  She was so excited!  I mean, she was super excited a month ago when it was first going to start, and then absolutely heart broken when it didn't happen because we were the only ones to sign up.  Well, there are two other kids in her class with her now, and she is loving it!  She has so much fun and loves to show us her crafts and tell us about what she did each day.  Also, on her first day when filling out the sign, she said she wanted to be a school bus driver.  That's a new one.

On Saturday we made our first leaf pile!  We had so much fun playing in the leaves.  Here's a picture of Winry jumping into the pile!

And this just ended up being the cutest picture I've taken in a while, so I had to include it!

And I caught Brooke in the air as well!  As I mentioned, the girls were having so much fun jumping in, throwing the leaves everywhere, and then raking them back up.  I wish I got a picture of them raking... maybe I will this next week.  Brooke got a garden tool set for Christmas I think last year, and it had a little rake in it.  Winry would use that, and Brooke used the big rake.  It was nice that they took care of everything themselves!

Jelly joined us for the football game in the afternoon, though I'm not sure football is really Jelly's thing...

Grayson enjoyed watching the game with me.  We cheered as hard as we could!

You can tell this picture was taken before the 4th quarter.  In fact, judging by the smile it was probably in the 1st quarter.

And that's a wrap for this week.  Brooke went up and bore her testimony today, and that was GREAT!  I was in the primary room walking around getting Grayson to take a nap.  I like going in there because no one else goes in there, and I can turn on the chapel audio.  So I still got to hear Brooke, and Monica told me Winry also ran up and started bearing her testimony.  She made it to about "I want to bear...." and then stopped.  Good start!  I'm very proud of both of them, and Brooke's testimony was wonderful!  One of Brooke's friends got up when she did too, so there was a whole little children's block!  Well... that's all I've got, have a great week!