Boyer 5

I am sitting here trying to be diligent about my new goal of blogging - and a fly is SERIOUSLY getting in my way! Just when I think it's gone, it buzzes right in my face again. Ugh! I swear the darn thing is in love with me or something.  ;) Anyway...back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here are five little tidbits about our family this week. :)

1. It is almost autumn. Autumn has almost beat out winter as my favorite season. I know, right? Who would have thought? I love feeling the chill in the air in the mornings (as the dreaded heat of summer finally dissipates), the leaves turning colors, lazy Saturdays raking leaves or watching football. Nothing can beat it. Fall is also harvest time. Of course, we are really not gardeners in any sense of the word. We hate yard work. We can barely keep the weeds from taking over our small flowerbeds, much less tend to an entire garden! Fortunately, there are those in our family and ward that take pity on us and have shared of their abundance with us. We have enjoyed fresh peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, corn, green beans, and more! My cute visiting teachers came over and taught me how to make fresh homemade bread - which was uber delicious and surprisingly easy. Joe has made zucchini bread (or bikini bread, as Bekah calls it, haha) multiple times. Zachy can't get enough of that good stuff.

Fresh Zucchini bread, cucumbers, and corn on the cob (which came already shucked!) all from the sweetest elderly ward member

2.  "We can do hard things" - Our family goal/theme for this school year is "We can do hard things." Most of our little Boyer family really struggles with some sort of social anxiety. Sigh. They got it from their mother. It is extremely difficult for us to "put ourselves out there." We decided that we need to work on overcoming these issues. We have set goals to invite friends into our home on a regular basis. This is very difficult for a couple of the kids who shall remain nameless (but their names start with A and L, haha). For some of the kids where it is not quite as hard a thing to do, they are working on other aspects. We all have areas where we struggle with this - in one way or another. Hopefully we can overcome some of these weaknesses this school year.


3. Homeschooling - Lizzie is homeschooling this year. She is doing the Idaho Virtual Academy and is wonderful at her work! She is diligent about getting right on it every morning. She typically spends 3-4 hours on her school work. She then practices the piano and calls it a day. She is really a great helper for her mom at home. She watches Zach whenever I need and takes care of things during my meetings. One thing I am concerned about with Lizzie at home is her social anxiety. She is very nervous about making new friends, but I know how important it is for her...especially since she will be starting at Kuna Middle School next year. Even though she is not at a school building, she still has to "do hard things" when it comes to friends. As such, she needs to get together with friends whenever possible. She doesn't love it. I mean, don't get me wrong, she usually always has a fun time once she's there, but it is the setting it up and initial awkwardness that is tough. We're working through it! Last week, I took she and her friend Holly (who also homeschools) to Wahooz for a little fun during the day. Lizzie had a great time.

Lizzie and Holly loved the video games. They probably would have been happy just playing with those!

Lizzie spent some of her "tokens" to let Zach try a ride. He was...well, very Zachy. Nervous!

I can't say that either Holly or Lizzie have a future at professional mini-golf :)

My cute, chubby boy!

Fun on the go-karts

4. What did we do for fun over Labor Day? Well, not much, haha. We did take the kids to U-Swirl (of which I have no pictures) and Walmart (of which I do!). Once upon a time, we used to take lots of kids to Walmart on a frequent basis. Today, it is rare to have more than one or two (and most often I don't have any kids). It just really isn't that fun. :) After U-Swirl, though, we needed to swing by the store. Initially, Ammon, Hannah, Lizzie, and Emma wanted to stay in the car. We just took Caleb, Bekah, and Zach in with us. I told the kids that if anyone decided that they wanted to come in, that they ALL had to come in (I had visions of the Boyers spending the entire day searching for one another throughout the store). They had a single cell phone on them with which they could call me. Well, somehow the car alarm got set off and they didn't have the keys to turn it off. Needless to say, Emma got totally freaked out. I can just imagine what people thought - all the windows were down, the car alarm was blaring, Emma was screaming, and the older kids were probably getting all frustrated with her. Anyway, they made their way inside to find the rest of us.

The chaos as we're reunited. I like how you can see that Joe is trying to make room for other shoppers. :)

Ammon was thrilled about the whole thing - actually, he soon went back to the car

Emma chose to stay with her other Amigos, where she was safe and sound :)

5. Z to the T to the B. We say that a lot. Okay, maybe just me, lol. It means Z (Zacharias) to the T (Timothy) to the B (Boyer). We call Zach a lot of nicknames. Z, ZT, ZTB, Zachy T., Mr. T, Mr. Baby Pants, Pants, and I'm sure the list goes on. Zach is just almost nearly, not-quite a full-time walker. He is trying, though! He walks most of the time, but can probably only make it 15 steps or so before he falls. We are so proud of him, though! It is very exciting for all of us. Emma loves her baby brother. For school, she needed to bring in a bag of things that represent her. She wanted a picture of she and Zach together. Darn it if I couldn't find one for the life of me. No problem, we figured. We'd just take one. Easier said than done...

Can you tell that Emma was frustrated by the end??

We finally just took one with Dad holding Zach (the next day too...as you can tell by the change of clothes). It wasn't just she and her baby, but as close as we were going to get!

We love our Z!