September

 September was a great month. The kids went back to school after a six month long break! Alberta announced that schools were opening, with some limitations. Kids except for K-4 had to wear masks at school, and there's a bunch of new rules in regards to visitors and how the days are run. They try to keep each class together in its cohort without mixing with other classes. It's a bit of a bummer that there's still restrictions, but the kids were still really excited to go back to school! Also funny thing was that CBE decided even K-4 needed to wear masks, but luckily Red Deer Lake school is part of the Foothills school division which did not make that rule. So I was super excited Bentley didn't have to wear a mask! She was excited to see her friends again, especially Violet who I think is her best friend. Luckily they were in the same class again! We carpool with the McNaughtons, so Bentley likes seeing Abigail on the drive, and I love only having to do one drive a day. 

Deacon went back to Renfrew for one more year of preschool. Preschool kids don't have to wear masks, but they take his temperature every time he gets on the bus. He was nervous to go back, but ended up liking it and making a friend named Lincoln. His teacher's name this year is Miss Courtney. He doesn't always want to go to school, but I think he has a good time once he's there and the kids on the bus always yell "Deacon!!" when they see him step on. We are still working on his speech in hopes that he will improve before Kindergarten or, more importantly, grade 1. 

Bentley is doing amazing in her grade 1 class. Her teacher's name this year is Mrs. Felske. She is reading everything in sight, so creative and great at drawing and coloring, and very organized. I haven't had a parent teacher conference yet, but I doubt they'd be able to say one bad thing about Bentley.

We love being a part of the food drive every year so once again, we delivered and picked up food bags. It was such a fun activity for the kids to help with and get some exercise too! I went with Jeff and the kids to drop off the bags on a beautiful night, but he was out of town for the pickup so we did it with my parents. The kids had so much fun running to grab the bags full of food. And apparently Calgary hit a record, even with the economic downturn because of covid, so that's pretty cool!

We officially announced our pregnancy, so I tried to take some cute pictures of the kids. It feels good being able to tell everyone, although I did tell most people I saw way before I should have! It was cute seeing how excited the kids were to have a sibling, although Bentley will be very disappointed if we don't have a girl. I still can't believe we're gonna have four kids, and honestly not really sure how we're gonna do it, but I'm getting really excited. This will definitely be the completion of our family! Jeff and I went back and forth about if we could do four kids and both felt that our family would be missing somebody if we didn't. We got pregnant super fast, so I guess it was meant to be! I had barely gone off birth control, and normally it takes about a month for that to get out of your system to be able to conceive, but apparently not for me. We were aiming for a May baby, but the baby is due Mar.29, 2021. We can't wait! So far things are looking good with my pregnancy, besides being sick and more tired physically than usual. 

This September, and beginning of October, was the best we've had in a long time. The weather stayed really warm the whole time, and we just loved every bit of it! We started up play dates with our friends and every Monday we meet at a park to play. We went to the corn maze more, and out to Bragg Creek one day with my parents to see the beautiful fall colors. It's not very often Calgary actually gets a fall, but this one was beautiful! 

Bentley started up piano lessons with Grandpa again, and basketball for the first time! We put her in tykes with SoCal, because that's the only one able to find a gym with covid. We got really lucky and registered her just in time to get the last spot. She has gone once so far and really liked it so I'm pretty excited for her!

Here are a few random pictures I found including a robot costume Dakota made, Deacon's funny face he loves to make, our back to school fashion show, and Leo chilling with Grandpa Cooper. We've been staying home a lot, playing in our backyard, and visiting my parents often. Being pregnant I don't feel like I have a lot of motivation, but we've been hanging in there!