Covered Wagons

This summer we finished reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series.  We've been reading this book together as a family since forever.  We've started and stopped a couple of times, and then we really got into it this past year and finally finished.  It's a tradition that we've loved; the incentive of being able to read a chapter (or two or three) altogether before bedtime has been enough to get even the littlest (or most talkative) ones to hurry up and get to bed!

Sometime I will write about why I think this series is the best parenting manual ever written, aside from the scriptures.  Now we are reading "Anne of Green Gables."  Kensington had a hard time getting into it at first because she didn't understand all of the flowery language, and the themes at the beginning were a little over her head.  But now she loves "Anne" and has even suggested naming our new baby girl Minnie May or Anne after characters in the book.  We have about fifty pages left, and I think "Little Women" will be our next read.  Oh, how I love the classics!

On one of our rainy days this past July, which also happened to be Pioneer Day, our creative Raleigh decided that the girls should all make covered wagons.  I donated some supplies, and they went to work.  I even let them have free reign of the hot glue gun, which they thought was the happiest thing that could have happened to them all summer!

Choobers and her wagon

Madeline's wagon

Raleigh's wagon from the front

Inside Raleigh's wagon

I think we need to remember this activity for another rainy day.  It kept them occupied for hours, and they were so proud of their work!

Rosie Pie

"Emery, do you want a quesadilla?" I asked from the kitchen while Emery sat in a stroller, grooming Carlo's tail (wearing her favorite dress) while he played Squinkies.

"Yes, dear," she answered.

Our Troopers

These two have been hard at work for a long long time.

Kensington and Dallas

And so has the rest of the family, for that matter.  We have (mostly Dallas) been working many late nights and many long hours to work on a little family business outside of our regular pursuits.

It's been an amazing, growth-filled experience, and we're not sure what will come of it or how hard we will pursue it, but our whole family is so proud of what we (mostly Dallas) have achieved together.

Here's what we've been doing behind-the-scenes:

Behind the scenes at Hensley Shoes

Dallas is carrying Choobers (to keep her shoes dry) with a brush in his back pocket (to handle Kensington's fly-aways), Madeline is holding the shoe box, and Raleigh is corralling Emery so that I can take shots of these amazing shoes that Dallas has handmade. 

It's been an adventure.

Our Good Girl

One day during the summertime before school started up again, Madeline wrote something on the calendar.  I asked her what she was doing (messing with my calendar), and she told me, "I was trying to have more sincere prayers like you asked us to do, and I felt prompted to do something, and I didn't want to forget, so I wrote it on the calendar."

Oh.

How can you say, "No," to that?

"Help Justice, Pranav, and Spencer feel included."

That was several weeks ago. 

Then Tuesday night we were having scripture study, and Madeline shared an experience where she stood up for Spencer at school that day.  He is a boy who was in her first grade class at a different elementary school, and she took him under her wing there because he is a little different from the rest of the kids.  

Madeline with her 1st Grade teacher and Spencer

She spoke up when another kid was trying to get him in trouble.  Afterwards, Spencer thanked her.

Thanks, Madeline, for teaching me.

I love you!

Oh, Raleigh!

We had so many rainy days this past July, we could hardly stand it.  But one day we made a really great girly-day out of it and watched the long version of Pride and Prejudice.  Every single one of our girls (including Kensington and Emery) sat through and enjoyed the entire movie.  Yay!

Then our spunky girl decided to curl her (and Kensington's) hair like they did in old times, and she made "bonnets" for whoever wanted one.  

Raleigh and Mr. Bennett

Funny Girls

Don't mind the still-unpainted piano in the background.

Another L-O-N-G rainy day, Raleigh spent most of the morning studying a library book about ancient Egypt.  Then our stairway looked like this:

I thought it was a bunch of craziness until she explained to me all of the meaning behind each picture.  The one above has Dallas and I in the center.  On each side are some of our siblings.  Each one has a name written out in her own little language and other symbols she created that all have meaning.  She explained all of them and remembered what they all meant.  Wow!

I can't remember what all of these are, but each little picture is unique.

We also decided (at kind of the last minute) to go to Chick-Fil-A for their Cow Appreciation Day for dinner.  It was pretty fun, and Raleigh cut out all of the spots we wore (which were made of real leather, funny enough: Eat more chicken!)

We also celebrated Raleigh's 11th birthday . . . I can't believe she's just a year away from TWELVE!  I love how we're all looking at our special girl in this picture.

Raleigh gets ready to blow out her candle

This cake was supposed to be just like this one.  But our frosting was too thin and drippy, so this is what we ended up.  At least it was still an ombre cake, which she wanted.

Then all of her birthday dreams came true . . . 

 . . . except for the iPad Touch she was hoping for . . .

Raleigh the "Food Stylist" Fashions Breakfast

In the meantime she'll have to just play with sausages instead.

We just love this girl!

More Pink Belle

I think every picture I post of Emery (a.k.a. - Pink Belle) will have her wearing this dress in it.  It is her favorite dress of all time.  It was the best $1.49 ever spent.  Because as she tells everyone, she got it at the "Friff Store."  That's where I play treasure hunt.

Yesterday Emery helped me after buying groceries to peel all the stickers off of the apples.  These fuji apples from ALDI are incredibly crisp and tasty.

Let's get a closer look at "Pink Belle"'s birthday banner.  Thanks again to a thrifted book, I was able to use one of my favorites to dress up her birthday: vintage prints.  This one was so easy, it makes me want to cry thinking about how much time I spent on Raleigh's birthday decorations, even though I loved preparing for both of her and Emery's birthdays.

But seriously, keep it simple, Simon.  (And hang onto those balloons for a month and a half, too!  Ha!)

All of Emery's "Pink Birthday" dreams came true . . . especially when our good friends gave her these fun things:

Josh, Mike, Emery, Audra

They know her well.  We also got to celebrate with family . . . two 30th birthdays for Kenda and David, and a birthday for Emery, and one for Kensington.  Grammy hung pink and black balloons - it was so fitting - we loved it!

Labor Day

On Saturday our wonderful neighbors, the Josephs, decided they wanted to cut down a large tree in front of their house.  It had grown out into two separate trunks.  

We (Dallas and the three older girls) had quite an adventure helping out with it.  

The Fallen Monarch

Phil, Dallas, and Kenny: The Crew

Riley: The Audience

Our Littlest Helper

 . . . because the trunk needs to be swept . . . 

 . . . and so does the sidewalk.

Raleigh