One of my favorite things in the world is when my sister comes to visit.  We've been trying to make this an annual visit.  We have so much fun together, we love to shop and eat and craft and get things ready for Christmas.  It's just awesome, I'm so lucky that my best friend is also my sister.  This year she brought Wren who was an absolute angel. First up was the Paper Source store downtown, then Starbucks for hazelnut creamers, Salt and Straw ice cream, thrift store shopping, Trader Joe's (Fondue back at the house), Burger Shack, Cost Plus and more shopping.  Then we went to time out for women and met up with KaRyn, THEN we got to stay in a super nice hotel and watch movies, get room service and make Christmas decorations.  What a week!

Bye Brielle, see you in Portland ASAP!

Poor Tia has really been struggling with school.  Tovey and I have been struggling over starting her in kindergarten this year or next.  She hates doing homework, I mean it literally takes us 30 minutes to get through writing her name on her homework assignments.  She is still trying to figure out her numbers and letters.  Reading is off the table for now.  I really felt like I may have made a mistake pushing her through.  She will always be the youngest in her class.  I know she's bright and eventually will catch up but I just don't want her to have to work so hard.  I want her like school.  We've learned a few things so far.  First of all She can't see, which makes sense why she struggles with recognizing letters.  Our pediatrician did a quick test and referred us to an optometrist.  She wasn't really trying very hard to pass the eye exam so I let it go.  Then the school sent home a failed eye exam.  So...We took her to Costco where she was seen by two separate Dr's who both agreed that she is farsighted and has a pretty significant astigmatism.  At first she hated wearing her glasses.  We had to bribe her to wear them for 15 minute intervals in exchange for candy. Now, she puts them on without asking and wears them all day.  We have to peel them off her at night because she forgets to take them off.  Things have really picked up since then.  The school has also hooked her up with a speech pathologist for her stuttering which is also coming along really well.

I love that Saree's birthday comes right in the middle of fall.  The NorthWest is amazing in the fall.  We are loving our new neighborhood and have been doing a lot of exploring since we moved in.  There is a neighborhood park down the street that we like to either walk or ride our bikes to.

This year we went to Safari Sam's for the big birthday celebration.  We had pizza and games there then went home for cake and ice cream.  Our cousins met us there as well.  It was a great day.

This year we hit up a new pumpkin patch closer to Sherwood.  We kind of missed our old pumpkin patch with the lake and the train ride.  This one had a few fun parts to it though.  The best part was the homemade cookies and jam.  Yummy!  We had a great Halloween as well, now that Shannon and Trevor live so close they met up with us to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.  Then we drove to Newberg to their ward party and then trick-or-treated again in their neighborhood.  Needless to say we went home with way too much candy.  Next year we will JUST go to Newberg.

Poor Sam looks so much like Bill Murray.

Tia started school this year. She is in the afternoon kindergarten with Mrs. Evanuk.  She is loving the social aspect of school and whenever there is a treat involved.  The kindergartners line up in the lunch room and Tia always has a million kids shouting her name and giving her high fives.  A few weeks ago I asked her what her friends names were and she said, "I don't know, but they know me".  She has been struggling a bit with learning her letters, reading and math but has become a real artist these last few months.  We vacillated for months (well years really) over putting her in school this year or waiting until next year.  Eventually we decided that since she was five we should probably give her a chance with Kindergarten.

We've been trying to wean her from her pink blankie she takes everywhere.  We do let her have it to sleep though.  The other night she was in her room huddled in the corner and I thought for sure she was eating some forbidden treat (she does this a lot).  She told me she was praying to ask Heavenly Father where her blanket was.  This being one of the first times I've seen her pray like that I wanted it to be a positive experience.  I didn't want her to be discouraged so I told her "sometimes Heavenly Father tells you to check with your mom so she can help you find it, does that seem like a plan".  She nodded her head and we started too look.  I looked in the car, in the backyard, in the laundry room, in the garage, I looked everywhere and I couldn't find it.  I noticed that she was looking a bit frustrated so I asked her what we should do.  She said, "well Mom before you came in my room and decided to look for my blankie, I felt like I needed to check under my bed but you told me to follow you around the house".  Well, we looked under the bed and sure enough there it was.  It was a true lesson of the power of a child's prayer and the pridefulness of a doubting mom.

Our pediatrician thought she might need glasses and when the school screened her vision and gave us the same report we decided to take it seriously.  We had her vision checked at Costco by two separate optometrists.  Both separately agreed that she is farsighted with an astigmatism.  This might be why she wasn't recognizing letters.  Poor Tia, but she sure looks cute in her specs (of which we have to bribe her with candy to wear).