The end of cross-country season

We spent a lot of nice afternoons at Sebastian's races this Fall. This was at State. Seb didn't have the greatest race, but we had a nice time watching (and complaining about the entry fee) anyway. Gus was VERY GRUMPY and went boneless and tried to pull away from everyone's hand—until Teddy cheered him up with piggyback rides. Being carried the usual way is horrible, apparently, but piggyback rides? A-ok.

Clementine, on the other hand, didn't mind being carried any which way! When she wasn't bundled in a blanket, she was usually like this:

More races. Region, divisionals. People doing tricks and somersaults. Seb being sweet with Gussie. Seb with his long, flowing hair streaming out behind him.

Sunny days, windy days, rainy days. Cross-country runners (and their loyal fans) endure them all!

You wanted to see that chubby Gus-face closer, didn't you?

Goings-on on the hill…a big group of middle-schoolers. Ooh! Something exciting must be going on. "Mommy, those kids were playing boxing," said Teddy, at which point I had a flashback to how junior high kids all gather around in a circle and say "Fight! Fight!" when two poor, dumb boys decide they're going to beat each other up. Sigh. Luckily it only lasted a few seconds.

Another day there was a cone up on the hill for some reason. I watched Junie play with it (running around it, sitting on it, using it as a hat) for a good 30 minutes out there.

Bed snugglers. I can't get enough of them. Remember this?

Sam needed a long stretch of time to work on our book illustrations, so we had an "Our Mutual Friend"-watching marathon one Saturday. Since you can't have a movie marathon party without food, we had a Toast and Cocoa Buffet with a bunch of different kinds of bread and jam. And Sam made us cocoa in the blender with a bunch of different flavorings for us to mix in. Yum! Everything was so good!

Malachi did RaceCats Cross-country again this year, and Daisy did it for the first time. That gave us even more meets to watch, and we loved it! This was Daisy's first race, which was down in Provo at Kiwanis Park, my old stomping grounds. It was super fun to watch a race there rather than running one. Daisy and Malachi both did great! It was fun to have the whole rest of the family there cheering them on. Malachi did manage to kick past the guy he was racing with in the picture above. :) Note Seb cheering from his bike:

Some fun things. Goldie's first piano recital (and everyone's first one for over a year!). Daisy off to Young Women's on roller blades with her shoes slung over her shoulder. Girls showing me part of their dance for "The Nutcracker" (look closely for one extra-cute little dolly!)

Cute Gus things. Raising his hand when everyone else did for some reason ("Who wants a cookie?" I think). And his first real haircut!

Girls reading their book…like that. Halloween decor. A boy, a bunny, and a baby waving goodbye.

Zig in cowboy hat with binoculars. Grandma and Grandpa Nielson gave him those two things for his birthday and he's convinced they must go together. Zig in bird hat cooing at Clemmie. Zig pretending to be the Amazon man and taking a picture of the package he just delivered.

Two pictures demonstrating Malachi's strange sixth sense for when someone is taking a picture. In the first one, he is the THE ONLY person looking at the camera in that big crowd. In the second, he turns around with a grin at the precise instant the shutter clicks. How does he do it? How? (And neither of these are even pictures I took, by the way.)

Seb and his cute date for Homecoming.

I just got a kick out of this school picture proof they sent home with Seb. Really, Lifetouch? Same backgrounds and lighting as twenty-five years ago?

Silly piggybackers

Gus looking mad. Clemmie looking happy. Clemmie and Malachi with matching smiles. Daisy and me with matching shirts. Daisy and Ben (three weeks apart in age and…a lot of inches apart in height). Aaaand, Goldie out to lunch with me on General Conference Saturday, with an amazing strawberry smoothie to drink!