The Pierce Family: Fall 2015

Life is never dull at the Pierce house, especially when you have a little guy who loves to dress up! Whether it be a knight,

a soldier,

a Viking,

or Xander's own personal butler, Noah's costumes always entertain!

I decided to incorporate weekly cooking lessons into our schedule. So far it's been really hit or miss...well, definitely more miss. But we have had a few good lessons, including how to make chicken noodle soup. Savannah obviously thinks she is very funny.

The soup was delicious!

We continue to love both our cats;

even Noah has started to develop a good relationship with them, including Princess. She loves to sit on his lap and have him pet her.

Big Googs continues his attempts at being a house cat. Poor guy just doesn't realize that I'm never going to give in!

Early morning scripture reading continues, with blankets in tow...

as well as attending special church meetings, like the Women's General Broadcast.

David and I also continue our monthly attendance at the beautiful DC temple.

Nature out here in the East is a sight to behold and I love taking pictures of it!

It's even better when I can include my kids in the middle of nature's beauty, especially the amazing fall colors we get in Maryland.

They just can't quite remain serious for very long.

Who can blame them for wanting to play in the leaves?

We cheered on our Ute football team through the good times...

as well as those tough losses.

Another birthday came my way. Blah!

But I did get a fabulous gift from my sweet friend Lenae:

my very own Olaf!

And of course I had to pick up my free birthday cupcake from the Cupcake Flavory!

The boys were extremely jealous.

Nightly demands for being carried to bed like a sack of potatoes...

and "can I please have some Dr. Pepper" were common during our fall days.

The boys have been very involved with activities at school. Xander was chosen once again to write an essay for the Ben Carson scholarship (unfortunately he was not chosen) and he also submitted a design for the yearbook cover, also which was not picked. I am totally okay with that, though; I am just proud of him for trying.

For Character Day Noah dressed up as the Black Knight from the Sisters Grimm series for the third year in a row...

and both Noah and Xander submitted entries for the Reflections Contest with the theme "Let Your Imagination Soar!" Noah did a drawing of himself soaring through the sky, surrounding by images from his imagination

and Xander wrote a story. Due to the lack of literature entries, Xander's story went right to the county for judging. We'll find out in February or March how he did.

I attended American Education Week which is where I first found out that Xander had been selected as the Golden Eagle student in his class.

I had a great time hanging out with him in his Science class learning about the Dead Zone in the Chesapeake Bay..

and then listening in on him and his best friend discuss points to make in their class debate in Reading.

With Noah and his classmates I learned all about turkeys and then accompanied him to Art class where we made all kinds of cool designs out of scraps of paper.

One of my absolute favorite soccer campers was in a play at his high school so I made sure I attended. It was so much fun to be there and he was so excited to see me afterwards, yelling out "Coach Mommy!" and hurrying over to give me a big hug.

Star Wars has always been a favorite in our house but with the new film coming out at Christmas the kids were even more involved with their Star Wars antics. Darth Maul made a few appearances!