November

 Rolling down the hills at Sherwood Park

The Driggs Came over.  We love having them over. Calvin read to Lineah and Jordan.

Celebrate Good Times...On the Roof!!!

We finished the Book of Mormon so to celebrate, Lyle went out early in the morning to grab some doughnuts, then we woke up the kids and went out on the roof to watch the sunrise!

 

Post Halloween...We's makin' some homemade Pumpkin Pie from scratch baby!!

Vertuccio Farms 

(Calvin's Kindergarten Field Trip)

Love this Blob!!  This is my favorite but they wouldn't let adults jump :(

This was Calvin's Favorite! 

Snack Break

Mrs. Moon's Kindergarten Class

They got to pick out their very own pumpkin at the farm.
It was cute seeing Calvin get off the bus...he looked like such a big boy!

Pizza with the Hinton's

Mommy's Best Helpers!

It is always a special treat for us when Grandma, Grandpa, Joshy, Davey, and Timmy come visit!!

-Rub a dub dub, 3 cuties in the tub-

Our Big 5's

Playing with Chasey Boy at the Hinton's

We had the Hinton's and Morris' boys over during a session of the Temple Dedication :-)

Such Good Lookin' Boys!

The Temple Dedication fell the day before my birthday, so I came home from a session to a decorated house :-)!  Thank you Lyle, Calvin, and Jordan!

For my birthday Cindy and I took the boys to Freestone Park

I just love this picture hehe

Calvin was invited to  birthday party at Bounce-U

Calvin's 1st Play (they call them "Cottages") in Kindergarten

 Mrs. Moon made a special thank you to all of the children.  We had a laugh with this one because Calvin seems to be taking after Lyle's footsteps.

Lyle got rid of our awful sliding door!  YAY LYLE!!! Now we can actually open and close the door!

Daddy's Best Helper!

We love traveling to new planets and playing dinosaurs at the Hinton's!
I would pretend that the atmosphere was not life sustaining, so the boys would have to take off to another planet so I could breathe again (I felt goofy but they loved it haha).

 The First Eggs our chickens ever laid for us!!!  Thanks for finding them Timmy!! So exciting!!!

Time Out For Women

Jamie bought my mom and I (along with herself of course :-)) tickets to Time Out for Women in Phoenix this year.  It was Friday and Saturday November 7-8.

It was really neat!

Friday night John Bytheway spoke and did a hilarious impression of Barney Fife!

Saturday Hillary Weeks sang her favorite 10 songs.

Emily Watts spoke.

Elaine Dalton, Brother Something Millett, Jennifer Brinkerhoff, Emily Freeman...

Mom bought the DVD...I will have to watch it with her again...it was great!  

Thank you Jamie!!

Too many highlights to fit in here, but I kept a journal and took a few pics of quotes I loved:

I felt a little connection with her cause I think we were the only two there with braces :-)

Vertuccio Farms

Calvin had his first field trip November 5 to Vertuccio Farms!  I got to go with him!  It was lots of fun!  (Jordan stayed with Cindy and Wyatt Hinton).

This is my personal favorite!  But they would not let the adults on this day :-(...Calvin didn't want to jump on it after finding out I couldn't jump with him (aww sweet).

This was Calvin's favorite!  They only had 20 minutes to play and though I asked him if he wanted to ride the train, or do the many other things there, he simply wanted to stay here most of the time :-)...sweet simple  joys!

They had a little snack break for us...fruit snack and caprisun
 I must mention (because I am grateful for the eye opener), that I did not want my picture taken.  Bryson Hinton was there with Dylan and asked if I wanted my picture taken with Calvin, I said "no," but as soon as I did so, I recognized my selfish/rudeness...I may not like pictures of myself, but I wasn't there for me, I was there for Calvin.  Thankfully I changed my mind and said "you know what, yes, this is something I want to remember."  I took their picture too :-).
(Do not forget, that is how life is, you are not here for you, you are here for God.  Prove yourself...become all He sent you here to become. Show him you are grateful for his sacrifice by giving your life as He did).

It thought these pedal karts were pretty cool!  He was a little pro on them...a lot of the kids couldn't pedal them consistently but Calvin was zooming around for several laps :-).
 Go muscles!!

Mrs. Moon's Midday Kindergarten Class- November 5 2014- Vertuccio Farm

They each got to pick their own pumpkin :-)!

After the Farm I brought Dylan home and was going to pick up Jordan to go home, but the boys have so much fun together and we just love the Hinton family, so we ended up staying for a while.
Cindy mentioned she didn't have dinner plans...so I suggested pizza since the boys had just gone to the pizza farm.
It ended up taking a while...but it was so worth it!  She made some delicious homemade dough and sauce, then we put our toppings together and we each made a little personal pizza!  It was lots of fun and turned out so yummy!
(Her and I went and worked out at the gym afterwards...It was lots of fun!)

The Flood

Sherwood Park after the flood.  Made it feel like we were in a nice rich neighborhood with a lake lol.
I took the kids to swim there (they advised against it, but I did it as a kid,,,and come on, this never happens...we weren't gonna miss out!  Calvin is a great swimmer, but went out a little far and I think he got scared...I thought he was joking, but when I saw panic on his face I dove in after him...fully dressed.  We saw the Morris' family there kayaking too :-). 

What a cool experience this was!  We went to the park a few times a day after the big storm.   They said it was the most rainfall we have had in almost 100 years.  It filled up our backyard but thankfully didn't come into our house.
We went to get sand bags the city was handing out for free...trying to help some neighbors (a lot of people in our ward has houses that flooded).  I tried to get involved in helping, but we had to get creative so that we were actually helping and not just in the way (with my two cuties)...we ended up bringing dinner to the men handing out the sand bags...they had been there since 5 am and hadn't eaten all day.  I want to get in the habit of serving, so that we are used to it...and when the kids get older we will be ready to help more!

Another walk over to our new neighborhood lake.

First time for everything

I Cut 4 missionaries hair on Monday while Calvin was at school.  Afterwards we had to rush out to go pick up Calvin.  I had left my clippers plugged in...
It took me a couple days to realize Calvin had gotten them and buzzed the front of his head :-).  I had thought something looked funny but didn't think twice about it...not figuring he would ever do something like that.  His hair was long enough that it covered it pretty well...I kept looking at him wondering why his hair was laying so funny and finally realized he had buzzed it.  I asked him about it and he just got that cute little guilty grin.  We both started laughing, but I tried to tell him even though I was laughing, he shouldn't do it again...

A few days later, he wanted to go outside and cut grass (which he does a lot...I have taught him scissor safety and he has shown me time and again
he is responsible enough to handle it.
Well...after a while, he walks over to me, and that buzzed area up front looked a lot different...he just gets that big smile again and told me he was "just cutting it like this."
Oh my Calvin...looks like we won't be cutting grass with scissors for a while...

Lessons learned...not so much :-).......He loves his new buzz cut!  It doesn't help that he's like the coolest kid in school now, letting everyone feel his fuzzy head (he also brought in his bow a few weeks ago which they loved).
Oh my Calvin...always keeping me on my toes:-)

Simple Joys...

Jordan loves to do everything himself...and he is pretty dang good at it :-)!
 I love when I catch him on his toilet reading to himself..
"Henry is a happy hippo, who hates to whine or fuss...:-)"

I delivered some Mary Kay this morning and had some time to kill before it was time to take Calvin to school.  We stopped by the park by Gilbert Greens and had some fun!  We had to leave early because Jordan stepped on something and cut his foot open :-(.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our new house!  One of my FAVORITE things to do is just go out in the backyard and watch/listen to my boys!  They crack me up!  They get along so well and I love seeing them take care of each other...they are both very protective of each other :-).  Motherhood is WONDERFUL!!

The missionaries came over for Elder Erickson's (his companion was Elder Coulston) 18 month mark...he wanted to burn a pair of pants, and against my advice, he also burnt a bunch of  Journals.  Mid Summer fire in phoenix :-)...lol...we had fun!

Camp Out!  I love that these boys love to be together!  We had fun...I always start out on the floor with them...
but they move around so much I usually end up in my bed :-).

A favorite bathtub activity :-)...Ho Ho Ho

This was all Jordan's idea...He would not let me feed her.  He was so sweet and gentle with her.
A lady in our ward the other day told me that he came up to her daughter and gently held her little face in his hands and was speaking so sweetly and gently to her...it melted her heart.  What a sweet boy Jordan!!

Too Cute...Feeding ducks at Freestone Park...I just love his little feet!

Freestone Park

Calvin loved feeding the ducks right out of his hand!  

Freestone Park is one our FAVORITE spots!

Of all the places to sit on the couch, they usually choose to sit cuddled up together.  As irritated as Jordan looks in this picture, he really loves Calvin's love :-).
I am so thankful they are such good buddies!