Four!

My baby is four years old! Four! He's still a crazy little guy who constantly keeps us on our toes, but he's also so fun and sweet. 

For his birthday Conrad wanted apple puff pancakes for breakfast and a digger cake. For his gifts he requested a hammock, a Christmas tree, and a peach tree! Not sure what kind of kid wants a peach tree for their birthday, but we feel like we must be doing something right haha. 

Every day while I'm working on school with the older kids, Conrad is busy with his "train school." He builds a unique track each day and just plays and plays. When he gets bored with that he'll "read" books. Once he gets bored with books, who knows what he'll be up to. Fort building, jumping on the trampoline, finding a snack, or running his own science experiments are all possibilities. 

Conrad loves to dress up. He refuses to give up on this Robin costume despite the fact it's getting so small. 

A new obsession is "ga-lect-ri-ful guitars" (aka electric guitars). Eliza made him one from cardboard, and he loves to play it for anyone that will listen. Too bad he only knows one song. Thankfully though, he recently installed a volume switch on his galectriful guitar so now he can play it more quietly. 

Video Transcript: (Hazel) "He just got back from London" 

(Conrad) "Yeah, I just got back from Wondon" 

(Hazel) "And while he was in London be became super famous"

(Conrad - SCREAMING) "Da-na-na-na-nah! Da-na-na-na-nah!" 

(Mommy) "Wow Conrad that's great. I love your outfit." 

(Hazel) "Yeah, are you cool in London?" 

(Conrad) "Yeah!" 

Eliza taught him a dance too... 

Video Transcript: (Eliza) "Conrad, do your hit your bum dance" 

(Mom) "Conrad, where'd you learn that dance? Come back" 

(Conrad) "E-wiz-a" 

(Mom) "Eliza taught it to you?" 

(Conrad) "Uh-huh" 

(Eliza) "No I didn't!

One day we were eating breakfast when Conrad looked at me and asked, "When are we having a sleepover again with Daddy's OLD Grwandpa?" It took me a few minutes to figure out he was talking about his great-grandpa Craig. Luckily great-grandpa thought it was hilarious to be called OLD Grwandpa! 

Video Transcript: (Hazel) "Conrad, who's this?"

(Conrad) "Daddy's old grandpa!"

(Hazel) Yeah?

Next up is a story that will be told and retold in our family for many years. We were up at the Farrell's Mema's house in Bountiful to trade back kids and celebrate Rose's birthday. After lunch, the adults were chatting outside while the kids played in Mema's amazing basement. When we called the kids for cake, I noticed Conrad had a huge scrape on his chin, temple, and ear. But he seemed fine and wouldn't tell us what happened. Well, driving home we finally got the full story: 

Video Transcript: (Aunt Jamie on FaceTime), "Ready for the story." 

(Mom) "Tell them what happened." 

(Conrad) "I was walking on the Shred-a-Mater. I turned it on and tried to walk and tried to walk all by myself and I got shredded and I got hitted by the wall." 

(Jamie) Wow! 

(Mom) "You can see where he got shredded." 

(Lenora) "He was on the treadmill." 

That kid!!! He not only did he figure out how to turn on the treadmill himself, but also tried to run without holding on, "got shredded," and didn't even come to me crying. We were dying when he first told us the story and we heard him call it the "Shred-a-Mater." A cleaver (and accurate) description! 

 Thanks Conrad for making sure there's never a dull moment around here! 

With all your wild adventures and crazy moments, you have the sweetest heart. Just the other night I was driving near the temple with Orson and Conrad. It was dusk, and Orson asked why the temple was so bright in the gathering darkness. I was explaining how they use lights to illuminate the temple when Conrad interrupted and asked, "Mom, is Jesus in the temple?" "Yes" I answered. "Mom, that's why it's so bright! Jesus is in there!" Out of the mouth of babes. 

We love you Conrad! Keep shining your wild, crazy, and powerful light! 

Farewell for Now Farrells

What do you do when your best friends get the opportunity of a lifetime and move to Israel for 21 months? Shout for joy, secretly cry, and make sure you see them as much as possible before they go. 

My amazing friend Heather was accepted in to a Master's program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She's an incredible self-taught scholar on women in the scriptures, and I'm so excited for her to get the chance to learn more. She's always wanted to live in Israel too! While she works on her Master's in Biblical Hebrew, their whole family will be living in Jerusalem for almost 2 years! Luckily, we got to spend two weekend in a row with them before they left. 

First up, Hazel, Rose, Eliza, Abe, and Tabby attended Heroic Youth Summit together. They had an amazing time as usual! 

Knight Abe

Princess Rose

Princess Hazel

Princess Eliza

Princess Tabby

Lenora was SO sad she wasn't old enough to go with Tabby, but luckily these three got to spend two nights with us during Summit. The second morning was Rose's birthday, so we were able to celebrate with her at breakfast, and again when we dropped her back off to her family. 

The following weekend, the kids and I headed up to Idaho to stay with the Farrells and attend Tabby's baptism. It was a great weekend! Heather and I pulled off a swimming birthday party with a dozen 8-year-olds and made an impressive rainbow Jello for after the baptism. We even got some time to sew together. The kids played and played and played. 

We sure love these people! I'm so excited for their adventure in Jerusalem even though we'll miss them like crazy. Technology makes it feel not so far away. In fact, Hazel and Rose are taking the same online science class and meeting every week to do labs together over Google Meet. After they finish, the kids chat and catch up. Have fun Farrells, learn a lot, then please hurry home! 

Back to School

We started back to school the middle of August. We're homeschooling again this year because we all love it so much! This year, we've added a wonderful co-op that meets every Monday. Each of the kids has class in the mornings with their age group, then in the afternoon they get to play with friends while I get to fill my cup in Mom's class. It has been AMAZING for all of us! 

Conrad - 3 Year Old Pre-school

Conrad is all about his "train school" this year. Every morning when we break out the books, he starts building his new train track for the day. Once in a while he plays with Duplos or cars instead. He is often found sitting and flipping through picture books. Also, he's really fascinated by the pledge of allegiance (especially when it's his turn to hold the flag) and is slowly picking it up! 

Orson- Kindergarten! 

Orson's smile says it all - he's SO excited to start Kindergarten! His goals this year are to "get really good at math" and learn to read. He actually started Kindergarten math at the end of last year, so he's already about half-way through. As for reading, he's picking it up very well and is so proud of himself!

Lenora - 2nd grade

Lenora is already in 2nd grade! I can't believe it. She's excited about moving on to reading chapter books on her own. She LOVES math and flies through her lessons everyday. She's also really excited about the digital animation class she's taking this year. 

Eliza - 5th Grade

Eliza has really taken to poetry this year. She's enjoyed finding poems she loves, memorizing them, and adding them to her book of poems along with an illustration. Eliza decided she also wants to learn some coding and is taking a beginning coding class this year. 

Hazel - 7th Grade

Hazel's schedule has changed this most this year. In addition to her work at home, she is taking an in-person Pre-Algebra class once a week with an amazing teacher. She's also taking an online self-paced middle school Earth Science class. Her best friend Rose is also taking the class so they meet once a week on Google Meet and do their lab together. This is especially great now since Rose is living in Israel for the next 21 months! Lastly, Hazel joined a children's choir in addition to her Irish dance, and she is loving it! 

Dr. Ballard - Back to Teaching Face to Face Classes! 

How's this for a cheesy first-day-of-school picture!?! Conrad has a close second! 

We've already had some fun adventures this fall. Timpanogos Cave, several fall hikes, book club meeting, and an amazing afternoon spent reading up the canyon. 

These days are long and exhausting, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.