An indeterminate period of Fall

I don't know why it seems so indecent to post pictures of early Fall when it's late Fall. For some reason this is the time of year time passes so fast that each group of pictures feels like it belongs to some unreachable, unfathomable past. Was all of this only a month or two ago? Seems unlikely. But here we are.

Ziggy got some birthday money from Grandma Nielson and pestered Sam until he took him out to the store to spend it. (It was a month past his birthday by then.) Somehow he found this cute little barking husky dog and he was SO HAPPY. He even had some more money left to buy some little toy cars. Half the time, I deposit the birthday money for the kids and have them pay their tithing on it, and then forget about it (sorry Grandma). But I should remember to let them go out and spend it more often, because it is so fun for them!

Here are some other goings-on from October and November:

Pretty temple

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Coloring in the sunlight

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 Beautiful sunrise! I like the brief window of days when the sunrise happens right at the time we're getting up for scriptures. Seems like it doesn't last long.

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 A pretty fall morning before Halloween

Another pretty Fall day—dark skies and sun are one of my favorite combinations

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One of our neighbor families had a sort of talking skeleton (?) on their porch at Halloween time. I think it was a skeleton waiter holding a tray and a glass. When you walked past, it would turn its head and start talking, which both delighted and half-terrified Zig, I think. He rode his bike over there practically every day so he could listen to it, and he memorized its entire recorded speech. Teddy helped him write it on a paper one day. I wish you could hear the way Ziggy imitated this speech in a spooky, sort of vaguely British voice. As I was writing this post, Zig came up and saw the picture and immediately launched into it again, so I will transcribe it for your benefit:

Hello, booty, what may I get you today? I've been told I'm best lawten from tip-top to comptec.[???] So please, step up to the bar, and I'll serve you what is likely to be the best beverage you've ever had…and your last. Ha ha ha ha ha.

(As you can see, some of the words didn't quite make it into his comprehension…like when you sing along to a song you don't quite know the lyrics to.)

Here's another picture by Ziggy. It's the BYU policeMEN pulling over a University of Utah car with a "Utah is Good" (or goob) bumper sticker. Can't have that now, can we?

Another great picture. This is a caver (cave-man, if you take my meaning) who is exploring a cave—note the spectacular column he's found, where stalactite met stalagmite—with his rope and helmet light. He had to climb up quite a narrow passage to get into this chamber!

 

Then there's this "pirit" getting caught by the Navy Police. Serves him right!

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Another glorious sky. Sunset this time.

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On Thursdays I take Daisy and Junie to a math class (two different math classes, actually) held at someone's house in Bluffdale. There's not time to go home and back while they're at their classes (I also drop Malachi off at debate nearby…it's complicated) so I usually just bring stuff to work on and sit in the car to wait for them. (It's actually wonderful. Sometimes the only time in the entire week I can get any writing done.) It's a little bit more rural in that neighborhood, and I always turn the corner onto this tree-lined street where there aren't many driveways and mailboxes, so I feel like I won't be bothering anyone. It has been so beautiful over the weeks of Fall! I love sitting there in the quiet car (unless it's really cold…I need to start bringing a blanket!).

Even on a rainy day it is beautiful. Hopefully one of these days I'll see how it looks in the snow!

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Goldie got Clementine ready for church one day and put her in this nightgown. I decided it looked dress-like enough for her to wear it anyway! She was pleased with herself.

The poor dear got an eye infection and she could hardly open her eyes for a few days. It was so sad. She kept saying sadly, "A-hurt a-eye!" We all got it, eventually, and it was pretty annoying.

Picture drawn by Clementine

Piling things on Grandma Nielson. Do all toddlers do this? I feel like all of mine have gone through this stage, where they just keep handing you thing after thing after thing until you have no more room to hold it all.

Daisy made Clementine this little bonnet. She looks elfish in it.

(You can see her eyes still weren't quite better.)

Morning hair

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Sweater-and-boot girls

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Daisy got the part of Clara in the Nutcracker this year! It's been so exciting and fun for her to prepare for it. It was a little sad because Junie was the other person who everyone thought might get the part, and when Daisy got it, it meant Junie didn't! I was worried about how it would be for the two of them, but Junie has been wonderful—she got over her disappointment quickly and has been just so happy for Daisy. It helped that Junie got six other parts (!) including a couple really good ones like Arabian and Russian.

Anyway, we have been practicing ringlets for the big day, and we got these interesting curlers to try out. There is a long hook that goes through these long tubes. You hook it over a piece of hair, pull the hair through the tube, and it springs back up into this shape. It works really well; much better than trying to get Daisy's masses of hair into sponge rollers somehow like we usually do. We also used some kind of setting spray that keeps the curls in, but isn't crunchy like hair spray!! Who knew so many marvelous things had been invented.

Even a few days later, her hair was still ringlet-y! We were astounded. Hopefully it will all work just as well for the performance!

Of course Junie wanted a turn with the curlers too, even though she isn't a Party Girl this year. (Goldie will be, though, so I'll have two heads of curlers to get through. Better than three as it has sometimes been!)

So cute and curly!

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The kids did the Fall yard clean-up (it is SUCH a hard task that we pay them for it, though they don't usually get money for chores) which means cutting down these enormous grasses, taller than their heads! It was a multi-day project, but everything looked so neat and tidy when they were finally done!

Gus mostly just wanted to be outside near the others

Sooo much grass!

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Daisy and Malachi went to a cross-country race in Arizona and my brother and his wife, bless them, went to watch the race—which was crowded and chaotic and muddy (the only rain Arizona had seen for months)—so it was definitely beyond the call of uncle and aunt-ly duty. Ky and Daisy were so pleased to have people there cheering them on!

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We did three days of fall cleaning during Thanksgiving Week, and I reluctantly put The Nutcracker on, knowing the girls would dance instead of cleaning. They did, of course, but it was so cute and fun to watch them, I didn't mind too much. They mostly only danced the dances they are actually in—though sometimes they snuck in a few principal parts they just wish they could dance! Ha!

Teddy will be a Party Boy again this year (they're always recruiting brothers to come fill the parts) so he at least knows and likes the music, even if he doesn't dance to it as much!

Goldie lovingly cradling the window cleaner and rocking it to sleep while Junie blows her Lysol-trumpet in the background!

The thing that allowed us to accomplish anything during these cleaning days (the ONLY thing) was that I assigned a "play leader" to watch the little kids and keep them out of our way (and keep them from making worse messes everywhere else in the house). The leader rotated every hour and the girls quite looked forward to it, since it got them out of cleaning for a bit. They thought of such cute and fun little activities to do with the little ones! Junie had them all do a little play for us during one interval. Here they are bowing afterwards.

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Little friends matching

Building "forklifts"

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These pictures are blurry and hastily-taken (one shouldn't really take pictures during Primary, should one?) but I just can't resist that little Gus the Good whenever he gets up to help in Singing Time. He's so sweet and dutiful and proud of himself!

Gus also drew this wonderful police car

And made this temple with…Moroni on top?

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My brother Philip took over the BYU Football Season Tickets several years ago when Sam and I thought we were going to have to let them go (my dad bought them way back when the stadium was new!). He comes up from California a couple times a year for games and shares the rest. This time Daisy and Junie were the lucky recipients of tickets for a cold, cold November night game. They bundled up and were excited to go all by themselves! They were especially looking forward to buying themselves a "cougar tail" (long maple bar donuts served at the games), and then…the concession stands didn't take cash! So they didn't get one after all! And the game ended as a bad loss.😩 So sad. But, I think they still had a pretty good time?

There were a few warm nights in October where it was nice enough to get out the tent! Or should I say…set up the tent, since it had been left out for months since Seb last used it and never put it away.😡 Anyway, the girls set it up and made themselves all snug out in the backyard with blankets and stuffed animals and books to read. Very fun.

They also helped the little boys get all set to sleep out there on another night, and Clementine was so excited about it all that we ended up letting her sleep in the tent too!

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Malachi's been in fine form lately. He talked three friends into going with him to the Brandon Sanderson convention in Salt Lake. They had a fine time, in spite of (or because of?) being just about the only teenagers there (it was during school hours).

In November Malachi got asked by two different girls to the Christmas dance (waaay in advance; the dance is still not till the end of this week) and had to tell one no, which was sad. But the one he agreed to was the lucky recipient of this huge bike ramp. Seb made it out of old wood scraps over a year ago and it's been sitting in our garage ever since. I was THRILLED to get rid of it. I think the girl was a little taken aback to open her door and find a ramp sitting there (with Ky's answer on it: "I would be inclined to acquiesce to your request"—a quintessentially Malachi-ish response if there ever was one). He doesn't know her very well so I'll be interested to see whether they have fun together or whether she decides he is the weirdest weirdo ever. Either way, good life experiences!

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A fleeting rainbow through some leaves

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We had a unit on Pirates for homeschool (are still having it, in fact) and one day the kids made these cute Pirate Puppets. I like the Caw puppet best!

Clementine took this pirate flag Ziggy made and held it SO proudly for me to take a picture! As proudly as if she'd made it herself!

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And last of all, another beautiful sunrise!