Thanksgiving is days away, and I have already accomplished getting the annual Santa photo. I made plans to take Grandma Delores to lunch and get a little mall shopping done too. Shiloh joined us and we had a nice afternoon. I made a huge mistake by not listening to what the kids told Santa they wanted. When I asked Griffin in the car, his response was "I'm not telling!" I convinced him I needed to know so that I didn't get them the same things, it worked. Griffin wants some kind of soldier lego tank thing that I'm sure he just made up but wished it existed. Cooper either asked for an excavator or elevator. The way he says the word makes it questionable. Griffin said Santa took it as "elevator". Cooper just smiles when you ask him which thing he really asked for.
October granted many more beautiful sunsets from our favorite place.
We got together for some clay pigeon shooting. Not only for fun, but to practice before heading up to Pollock.
Since Griffin has been in Kindergarten, he has become even more of a social butterfly. He came home all fall knowing when every home volleyball or football game was happening and begged to go. We made it to a few volleyball games and he finally convinced me to let him sit with his "friends" across the court at one. He's in a blue shirt with yellow on it.
stolen from the daycare facebook page
We finally made it back to the pottery place to paint. Griffin had his heart set on doing a "vintage style" Christmas tree with the plastic pieces on the branches. I have a real one in storage that I'll need to get out, given to me by Grandma Delores.
Cooper painted me a leaf tray.
The horses were able to move up to the new house with new fencing and an automatic waterer. I'm thrilled that I can see them from my window now!
dream hairstyle
Another accomplishment at the pottery studio was Cooper's 3 year handprint tile. It all began with the 3 month foot tile for Griffin. When Cooper was born, we did the same. Griffin made the hand tile, and now we had just been waiting for Coop to do his. Once it came back, I got them all mounted on their bathroom wall.
no bueno
There was a community pep rally before the last home football game. It's nice to see the town come together in support of the school kids.
Katie McCall took this picture of her boys and Griffin during the national anthem.
Drew is giving the kids lessons in hunting blinds.
Drew sent me these pics of the dogs on his way to Pollock.
I was able to complete the 10 mile memorial walk/run for Macy Loveless. Very special.
It had been a while since we had a sister video chat, so long in fact, that we all changed appearances substantially.
Front yard visitors.
Griffin is into signs. You have to insert the word "ones" and you'll see what he means.
The night before we left for Pollock, we got to have dinner with Grandpa Don on his birthday.
Most of the time, I'm semi-annoyed with how many pages of paper Griffin will scribble on, or make a mark or two then leave it laying around. He thinks he needs to keep everything. This was his first family portrait that I can recall and I definitely kept it!
We also had our first parent-teacher conference with Mrs. Darter. It made Drew and I both get warm, fuzzy feelings. Griffin is so smart. He is in the group of her most advanced students and works on learning to read while some kids are still learning their letters. No wonder he doesn't come home bored like he did in preschool. Mrs. Darter told us he really has a kind heart and gave several examples where he made us proud. She is a jewel of a teacher. I often feel like most people peg him as a certain type of hyper kid without really knowing his true personality. She gets it. His improvement areas listed are within normal range of kids his age and not unusual she said. He's a good boy.
