October

October is coming to an end and I have yet to post anything this month.  Life during harvest time just seems to be a blur.  Here are some things we've done and things that have happened in October.

Mikayla has been battling strep throat off and on throughout this year.  The pediatrician sent us to a specialist because she has had it four times already this year.  The specialist says the tonsils need to come out.  Strep has colonized in Mikayla's tonsils.  Mikayla is a carrier of strep.  The doctor recommended we take them out as soon as she has a school break so she won't miss so much school.  As of right now, Mikayla will be having her tonsils removed sometime during Christmas.  Something we are dreading and not looking forward too.  She has been through 3 surgeries all ready and the thought of having to go through another one, especially during Christmas time is just not pleasant.

Mikayla got her new hearing aids on the 21st of this month.  Here are her new Zebra Print Hearing Aids.  She loves them.  She is able to hear more with them because the technology is better than her old hearing aids which were 5 1/2 years old.

Ashlee got new glasses on the 29th of this month.  Her other ones were cracked and broke completly the day before getting her new ones.  Her vision has changed too, so new glasses were a must.

October 12th we had parent-teacher conferences.  Both girls are doing very well in school.  Both of them have straight A's 4.0 GPA for both of them.

October 22nd John and the girls decided they wanted to go for a quick camping trip.  So they packed up  the trailer on a Saturday afternoon and went to Lake Mc Swain.  I drove up to the lake and met them that night after work.  They got a camp spot by the lake.  The girls did some swimming and fishing and we came home Sunday afternoon.  I took some pictures with my phone because the camera got left at home. But the battery went dead on my phone so this is all I got.

October 25th was crazy hair day at school.  The girls wore their hair to school looking like this, except once they got to their friends house that morning they added orange hair color and glitter to their hair.  I didn't have the camera so I couldn't take a picture of that.



Mikayla has blue, pink and yellow streaks in her hair.  But the picture doesn't show that well.



October 28th they had a carnival at their school here are some pictures from the carnival.

Jordan and Mikayla

Mikayla's class made these ceramic plates and had them for sale.  They turned out very cute.

Mikayla and Allison

Ashlee and Hannah working at their classroom booth.

October 29th we carved pumpkins for the first time in a really long time.  Something we haven't really done with the girls.

Scraping out the seeds and pulp.

Mikayla has decided that she does not like the smell of pumpkin.

Putting on the pattern.  Ashlee chose a difficult pattern with lots of tiny jagged edges.

Carving the pumpkins

The finished product.  After all that work.  Ashlee dropped her pumpkin and it split (thus the huge mouth on her pumpkin) All those little jagged edges fell out and the masterpiece was destroyed.

Mikayla's pumpkin a witch and her brew.

Ashlee's huge mouth jack-o-lantern

Life in a "Nut Shell" Lately

September has flown by.  I've been meaning to post, but it's almond harvest and it literally takes every minute of everyday to get through the day.  This week is my seventh straight week without a day off between both my jobs.  Life has been nuts lately.  Here's a bit of what's been going on with us.

A few weeks ago we decided to take a Sunday drive to look at our old house in La Grange.  From there we went to Lake Mc Swain and let the girls do some fishing.

Our ward had their annual Daddy-Daughter Campout on September 23rd.  John and the girls went to it.  While I went and had my first ever Brazilian Blowout (compliments of my mom).  For anyone who has frizzy, curly, unruly hair.  I definately recommend a Brazilian Blowout.  I now have perfectly straight, soft, shiny hair that doesn't require straightening everyday and doesn't frizz up the minute I walk outside.  Four minutes of blow drying and I am done.  Whoever invented that treatment deserves a Noble Peace Prize or something.  It's great!  Here are a few pictures of the campout.  Needless to say, it started to rain on them in the middle of the night and John had to wake them up to move the tent.

Hannah (a girl in our ward)

Savanah and Hannah playing in our tent

John is now up to ears in chickens and rabbits.  Those chicks we recieved a few weeks ago are now much bigger.  Here is what they look like now.

1 day old chick

6 week old chicken

Ashlee decided to go for a walk one Sunday afternoon around the farm.  Here is her attire.

They carved the walking sticks in activity day.

And lastly, a month of school without at least one homeowrk project assignment seems to be unheard of.  Mikayla and Ashlee both had projects to work on this month.  Unfortunately, Mikayla's project went to school before I could get a picture of it.  Here is Ashlee's "project of the month".  A plant cell.  Designed and created by her and John.

We also received news that we are getting a grant to help pay for some new hearing aids for Mikayla.  Her new aids were ordered today.  Zebra print with pink and silver glitter.  Can't wait to see what they look like.  I will post pictures when they arrive.  That's our September in a "Nut Shell."  Thankfully the drenching rains we experienced on Wednesday this week have given us a little bit of break this week.  Hopefully we can catch up.

The Ugly Bug

The ugly bug keeps attacking Mikayla.  The ugly bug being the STREP bug.  Mikayla has had strep throat 4 times this year already.  3 times since April.  Wednesday she was diagnosed with strep once again and spent 2 days home from school.  She is only 4 weeks into the school year and has already missed 2 days.  This isn't good.  The doctor said there is a rule that if a child gets strep back to back or 4 times within a calendar year that they have to see a specialist.  Tomorrow we are going to see the specialist to see what they recommend.  I think she is going to have to have her tonsils removed.  5 years ago when her adenoids were removed we were told the tonsils were large, but they thought it was due to the adenoids being so infected.  Every visit to the doctor I hear how big her tonsils are.  We will see.  One thing for sure, the ugly bug must die.  Mikayla can't keep getting sick like this.

Mikayla's Glasses

After noticing some problems with Mikayla's school work and homework I decided that she should have her eyes checked.  Last week I took her to the eye doctor and my suspicions were confirmed.  She is farsighted.  That caught me by surprise.  Ashlee and I are both nearsighted so I figured if she did have vision problems she would be nearsighted.  She got her glasses yesterday.  Here is how she looks with her new glasses.

John's New Projects

 The last month has been spent preparing forms for a new rabbit barn.  Last weekend John and Paul poured the cement for the new barn.

Friday morning at 7am 62 Poulet Rouge chicks arrived.  Yes, John is now in the business of raising chickens too.  The guy the distributes the rabbits for us has a demand for chickens as well.  So he asked John and Paul if they would raise chickens too.  The first 62 arrived Friday.  The rest will follow over the course of many more weeks.  Supposedly all the chickens are already sold, it's just a matter of raising them up the the desired size.

Mikayla couldn't wait for school to end so she could go and see the chicks.