Mish Mash in a Flash

Ok, that title just means I'm going to cover a lot of territory in a short time.

Halloween dinner is starting to become a tradition, it happens sometime just before Halloween and it's something "gross".  This year we has Sheep eyes (turkey meatballs with olives) and worms (spaghetti that I used black dye on that turned the noodles purple) and we had blood (fruit punch)to drink, naturally.

 Jacob gets a spotlight in this post, just because he made me laugh.  If you want to see the rest of the kids costumes go to my facebook page.  Jacob and Ben got to dress up for Halloween at school for the first time EVER.  Jacob couldn't wear his Gorilla costume to school because it has a mask so he found a witch costume in our costume bin.  His friends at school didn't even know it was him.  Jacob is a pretty confident kid to wear a girl costume to school!

 I got all the stuff for this craft and cut and sanded the wood and invited my mom over for a craft day.  I love that my mom is retired now and that she's getting into crafting.  We plan on doing craft projects together regularly now.

 Micah's birthday has come on gone and now I have a deacon (church thing if you're wondering)!  I cannot get over the fact that I have a 12 year old 7th grade child, am I really old enough???  This year he requested cake balls, or cake pops.  I had made some with my friend Yolawnda a few weeks before his birthday and he loved them.  I also made a carrot cake in case the cake balls went to fast, we had lots of leftover cake balls and Micah was happy about that.

 I could not get him to just look at me and smile, but that's ok, I got about a dozen pictures similar to the one below, he just kept making all these different faces at me and moving his head.

 My sweet mom came over to babysit so we didn't have to worry at all about the kids.  Micah (Jacob) usually watches his siblings and everything goes well, but we wanted to be able to have a night to just focus on each other and not have to check in on kiddos.  My amazing and wonderful husband took me to dinner at PF Changs, we had gone there for our anniversary a few years back and I loved it but it was too pricey for regular dates, so we saved it for a more special occasion.  Then we rushed over to the William Saroyan theater to see Kristen Chinoweth!  We were in the VERY back row and could hardly see her but we could HEAR her and that was the important thing!  She was amazing and I like her even more now.  She has a great personality and is a Christian woman.  Great night with my best friend.

 Lastly, this has been the big thing in our lives lately.  Our little girl got her ears pierced!  She was so brave and didn't cry or hesitate at all.  Daddy had previously said that 12 would be the age she would be able to get her ears pierced and I thought that was RIDICULOUS, so we compromised and said she could get them pierced when she asked (but I couldn't prod her).  She has been asking for earrings since she was 2.  I would tell her that she couldn't wear them though because her ears weren't pierced and she would just say that when she was older she wanted to get them pierced.  Tyler somehow finally decided that he liked the idea and HE was the one to ask her if she wanted to get them pierced.  We were at Fashion Fair Mall and she wanted to go into Clair's and Daddy asked...she was ready and she picked out these cute little Rainbow Daisy earrings.  She even lets me do her hair now without a fuss so you can see her ears.  Just in time for Santa to bring her some earrings in her stocking!!!

Tagging Along

At the end of September Tyler had to go to the exotic location of Bakersfield for work and we went along with him.  Friday evening we had dinner at John's Incredible Pizza and then hung out and relaxed in the hotel room.  The boys played on their i pod touches...

 Peyton slept and Tyler and I watched House Hunters.

 Saturday morning we checked out of the hotel after Tyler left for work and I took the kids to Moo Creamery, they make their own ice cream and a friend of mine that used to live there said we should try it.

 So, the kids ate ice cream for lunch, and then I took them through Jack in the Box drive thru for dessert (burgers and fries).  On our way home we stopped at Bravo Farms, very cool place, they make their own cheese, which I tasted.  They also have lots of animals and a really tall tree house.

 We climbed up all the way to the top, it's filled with all kinds of funny sayings inside and the kids and I had fun reading them all.

 I know this is kind of gross, but it's too funny not to mention.  In the women's restroom they have mother daughter toilets...

Is anyone still here?

I guess things have been busy lately and i just haven't been to keep up with life!  I am going to be blogging again, and the order they come in will most likely be pretty random!  I have a kid in jr. high this year and he's loving it.  He'll be 12 in less than 2 weeks and he is so ready to be out of primary.  He got all A's and is still playing the piano (level 4) and taking violin lessons from my mom.

 The first day of school we dropped him off and this is the best picture I could get of him.  We also heard the "F" word within about 3 seconds of him getting out of the car, here we go.

 Jacob is in fifth grade this year and in the best class.  His teacher is amazing and helping him come right out of his shell.  He's in band and chorus, he had his play tonight which he had the lead role in, he ran for student body (didn't get elected) and he'll be starting basketball in about a week!  He also, like Micah, got all A's on his report card.

 So far all of my boys have had the same teacher for 2nd grade, we like her, Ben is doing great.  He is loving gymnastics and doing really well at it and in school, all A's as well.

 Peyton is sure something, I don't even know what to saw about her.  She is stubborn and strong willled and funny and she really knows exactly what she wants.  She is still shy but not as much as she used to be, sometimes she doesn't turn away from people when they talk to her, and sometimes she even smiles.  She is also in gymnastics but I'm not sure she loves it like Ben does.

 This is Jacob with his campaign poster.

I had this little chest at my grandma's and she gave it to me, I changes the pulls and used it to organize my small pieces of upholstery fabric. It's right by my sewing machine.

 I love how the fabric looks in the drawers.  It makes me want to sew.

 This drawer also has the regular fabric scraps I just can't part with.

 My boys all love each other very much, they hang out together even in a stinky bathroom while one of them is pooping.

 I have a date every few weeks with my little girl.  Her date place of choice is a frozen yogurt place near our house.  She likes spinning on the stools.

We got a very sweet and cute dog and then 4 months later, got rid of a very cute and sweet dog that loves to dig and chew.

A New Laing

Tyler and I had the opportunity to fly to Arizona this past weekend and witness the sealing of Brent and Monique.  Brent is Tyler's youngest brother and Monique is his WIFE!  They were sealed for time and eternity in the Gila Valley Arizona Temple on Saturday June 23rd.  They had a beautiful sealing ceremony and a beautiful reception following that evening.  I'm so glad we got to go and so thankful to my parents and sister for watching the kids and taking care of the pets while we were gone.  Here are some pictures of the newlyweds...

A few things that made me Happy!

I just have too many interests, plain and simple and blogging fell to the bottom of my list. I do still want to blog, but I will just have to get to it when I can! Here are a few things that have made me happy recently.

I love conference weekend, not just because of the great words we hear, but because my family is all together in one room for longer than we ever get to be any other time of the year. Saturday sessions are my personal favorite and this year the kids all chose to sit and really listen, they were angels. My sister Morgan and her son were with us for the am session and Hannah and Tanner Dockstader even joined us for a while too. I got to work on my digital scrapbooking and enjoy just sitting there with everyone, relaxing and listening to conference! And yes, those are jelly beans, in the morning.

For Valentine's Day I made a Love word art with my mother in law that I loved so much I decided to make a similar one for St. Patrick's Day. Tyler hates the word luck, but I persisted and this is what we ended up with. The wood is not what I really wanted but we had it, and after 3 or 4 broken scroll saw blades it finally got cut out. A little sanding and Martha Stewart glitter paint and I was happy. I know the picture stinks, sorry, I am just not a photog and I can't add anything more to my list of interests.
My Grandma, a very interesting lady in many, many ways is somehow still with us and says now that she finally feels back to her old self after her time spend on life support a few years ago. I love this woman. I wanted to spend some time visiting her during Spring Break and it just wasn't working out, so I just went and grabbed her from her house and made her join us in our regularly scheduled activities. It turned out perfect, I think she liked it much better than just us going over for a visit anyway.


Our final creations.
I saw these on pinterest and loved them. Why did I never think of dying the egg whites?
We get to have cousin Essien over a lot and the boys were all enjoying my one and only wii game, the best game ever, Just Dance 3. It makes me so happy to see them all dancing together, they are just too cute, I'm happy to share my game with them any time!

A is for airplane!

About a month and a half ago Peyton and I embarked on a new adventure with a few other mom's and their kids. We have begun preschool! It is an awesome group of moms who I am delighted to have teaching my daughter. I get to teach my own little girl and her friends, but I also have 5 other moms to share the burden with. My friend Barbara already had a curriculum set up from doing preschool elsewhere and we decided to just jump in and follow it. This last week we started over at the beginning of the Alphabet with letter A and an airplane theme (we also have color, number and shape as well). Sandy Humann, one of the other moms, set up this amazing field trip to Chandler Airport. We got to look at her father in law's plane and see the parts of the plane that the kids had learned about the day before. We also got to ride in the airplane, a little four seater. It was so much fun! Peyton and I were in the group that went up first along with Connor Linford. They were so cute the whole time. Connor kept saying, "Roger that" and Peyton was just commenting here and there about the things she saw, her little voice so quiet I didn't catch what she was saying. They were both grinning from ear to ear though. What a great experience for such young children! When we were back on the ground watching the other kids get their turns Peyton told me that she wanted to go back up, I guess 20 minutes was just not enough for her.