We bought some dirt!

 This post starts off with a little lady and her bruise. Alice got hit by a plastic jump rope on the 3rd. Poor girl was pretty upset, and has had a shiner for a couple of weeks. She swelled up for a couple of days, but was a trooper despite it hurting. 

Kendal had a cross country meet in Buhl on the 5th. Casey got to join us since the girls ran second. They ran at the Golf course and it was a beautiful day! Despite going up a hill twice Kendal got a good time of 13:43 coming in 29th, and 7th for her team helping their overall score! 

Kendal's last meet was this past Tuesday (11th) in Gooding. At their golf course. It was a longer course with some hills and a ton of wind going at her. She came in with a time of 15:24 in 43rd place out of 108 girls. 

Alice had basketball practice on the 7th and her team had a scrimmage this Friday on the 14th. Alice picked up some skills during her time in basketball, and while she's still a bit flighty, she's five and had a great time playing and learning! 

Alice got to play on the drums during music this week and her teacher sent a picture of the kids. She's loving school and is always happy to go! I keep her busy in the afternoons with reading and other learning activities for her to grow with. 

Casey and I took Alice (Kendal had piano and homework; Peter just wanted to play with friends) last Saturday to the orchard to pick apples. I spent the afternoon making applesauce and Casey made some apple butter and sourdough bread for us to enjoy! 

Kendal had basketball try outs this past Monday and Wednesday. There was an observation day on Tuesday so I had to jet Kendal back from Gooding to make the last half an hour of basketball. (NOT FUN!) Kendal has worked hard the past couple of months taking time each Saturday to go out with Casey and work on her skills. She made the White team (B) for school and we can't wait to watch her this season! 

We got the go ahead to dig so this past week on the 11th (and the windiest day we've had all fall) Duane Loosli (yes, distantly related) started digging for us that morning! He had to take Wednesday off, but finished on Friday digging our foundation! Which was the same day (thanks to my Dad's pushy skills!) we closed on and bought our lot!! It's felt like Christmas all week and Casey and I are so excited to get our home going. ( Casey's even excited to pound in stakes for the foundation - his least favorite part of a foundation.) We even took the kids over Saturday morning and mapped out rooms and such just for fun. The weather has been so tame this fall I couldn't believe that day one of digging the winds were going crazy and picking up so much dirt - I felt bad Duane was stuck out in it. We can only hope and pray the weather stays fair for us to do cement and dry in our house.  (This dream has been an long time coming, with so many set backs, trials, and bumps in our road. The time it's taken to get to this point is pretty depressing when you think about it, but life isn't meant to be easy- we've learned that, our life has been full of waiting on the Lord's timing - we've learned that lesson ten fold. So with hope and a lot of work we get to move forward in this next chapter!)

David, Anica, and their boys came up to spend a couple of days with us! They came on Thursday. That afternoon Peter, Alice, and I joined them and went to Tubb's farm. (We thought Kendal had piano so she and Casey stayed back. They also had gone to the maze the night before with the youth in the ward.) The kids had so much fun doing all of the different activities. (Duck races, corn pit, big slides, seeing the animals, and finally the maze.) We were doing pretty well in the maze but realized we were short on time (Peter had an Activity Days night he really wanted to get back for) so David broke out the map and we made our way through getting punches and feeling lost, but having a good time nonetheless! Anica and David stayed for a while after we left to have more fun! 

Friday Morning Casey headed off to a day full of meetings while the kids and I had the day off of school. We joined David, Anica, and the boys at their hotel to swim for a bit. The kids had great morning swimming together! Casey and I had to close on our Lot at noon so we met up with David and crew at a park just down the street from Titlefact and the kids played while we gave over a large sum of monies for a lot of dirt! After a lunch at McDonald's we went to a few parade of homes houses. The kids were a bit buzzed and busy, but mostly did fine. I had to get paperwork turned into the city, and Alice off to basketball so Anica and David took Kendal and Peter with them for a bit. The kids played for a while till we ate, then we watched the boys for a little while so David and Anica could fit in a couple more parade of home houses. 

Saturday morning Kendal was at the church babysitting while the rest of us picked up potatoes from the high school and scoped out our lot. After lunch Casey and the kids went to the gym to work on basketball skills while I baked bread. Casey and I went on an "errand date" for a bit and we ended our evening watching star wars and having home made pizza! 

I've been jealous of my parent's fall leaf excursions so I made everyone pile in the car this afternoon and head up into the south hills to find some color! The first part of the canyon was burned a few years ago so It took a bit to get to see some gorgeous tree's. The kids gathered some leaves, and we went on the short hike to Ross Falls. The south hills don't hold a candle to the canyons I grew up with, but they sure put a smile on my face today!