Thankfulness

It is the thankful season and I have many things to be thankful for which include...(in no particular order)

*my wonderful husband who says thank you for dinner every single night, even if it's cold cereal

*all my kids are over the cold/flu sicknesses that have invaded our house

*my family and friends who are so supportive of our family

*Ben and Jerry's Half Baked Ice Cream

*my workout dvd to work off the Ben and Jerry's Half Baked Ice Cream

*my daughter who runs to me every day after school and hugs me so tightly

*books, books, books

*my little daughter who says "mom, mom, mom, mom" all day in her cute baby voice just because she can say the word now

*doris day movies

*my son who says "i love you mommy" first thing in the morning

*almost ten years of marriage to my amazing, tall, dark and handsome husband

*eternal families

This is Halloween

Even though we didn't have the beautiful fall colors of the Utah mountains out our window this year, we still had a fun October.

Started by our tradition of carving pumpkins on the Monday before Halloween...the before picture...

And the after picture...

For the record, and I quote by Jacob "Mommy, you can't carve pumpkins as good as Daddy does", so that is why these pumpkins look retarded. I wasn't even going to try to attempt carving Lizzie's.

As long as they smiled right?

And they had all the important parts of a face: eyes, nose, mouth with no jagged teeth because I don't the right motor skills to carve pointy teeth.

Dressing up the kids was so much fun this year...we turned Lizzie into a witch. When I said "smile" this is what she did. Cutest little witch I've ever seen.

Then Jacob transformed into Batman, complete with cowboy boots.

Anna was a "girl pirate", not just a pirate, but whenever she was asked what she was going to be it was a "girl pirate". Complete with girl pose. Only from Anna.

My little trick or treaters...they had a lot of fun on Halloween trick or treating with their friends. Now I wonder how long it will take to get all of their candy gone.

Talent

My husband is talented. He decided to make some shelves for our growing collection on dvd's, and those shelves actually turned into an entertainment center. I'm pretty excited and he did such a great job!

He then made me some shelves for the girl's rooms which I'm also excited about; especially painting them. This is Annalyn's; it was fun to scrap it up a little with sandpaper and antique it a little.

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with this yet; paint or stain? But I'll think of something...


My husband is also talented at entertaining our children...especially when he rides their scooters. And the kids were not the only ones entertained...I couldn't stop laughing long enough to take any decent pictures.

Gotta love the cowboy boots and shorts look...I think Jake went through withdrawls over the summer because he couldn't wear his boots. Even though its still summer here, I had to give in.

Little Lizzie, she is our little sweetheart and waited patiently for a turn with her daddy, but once she was on it, she didn't want to get off.
I am so totally big enough to ride this by myself...

I'm glad she can push and balance herself at the same time yet; this girl gets new bruises everyday from climbing and exploring.

Annalyn's 7th Birthday

We celebrated Annalyn's 7th birthday yesterday and it was a great day! I can't believe that my baby girl is 7! She has such a wonderful spirit and is a huge help to me. Annalyn is always willing to play with her little brother or sister and she is always asking what she can do to help me. She starts 2nd grade next week and I will miss her having her home during the day. We love our Annie very much and are so blessed to have her in our family.

Tangled is her favorite movie so now we get to listen to the songs all day...and you can never go wrong with Barbie movies...

Annalyn loves to scrapbook and do anything crafty so she was very excited to get more scrapbook supplies from both of her grandmothers and parents so she'll be set to scrapbook for days to come.

~7 CANDLES!!~

She was so excited to open her presents that she didn't even notice her new scooter off to the side until a few minutes later.

Making It...Without Grass

Summer here in Ajo, Arizona (land of pokiness and browness) is different than Utah we found out very quickly. Once it heats up, it stays that way with no relief, even at night. Everything here wants to poke you (cactus', scorpions, rocks) or eat you (snakes, bugs, the weather), there is no grass, and the power goes out randomly. The record so far: 19 hours. But even with all of that we are making it through our first summer in 110+ degree weather.

I really dreaded the summer coming because I knew the kids would be stuck in the house all day and I was preparing ahead of time for the whining and complaining and bauling, but its actually been good in some ways. Anna and Jake have learned to play more together without fighting as much and they been VERY creative in their play. Lizzie's legs have completely healed from all the scratches and cuts they endured from our cement stairs outside; she learned to climb just as it was getting hot. Ice cream and otter pops are becoming almost daily afternoon snacks (more for my sake than the kids) and we'll use any excuse to go swimming (you're cold? lets go swimming...you're hot? lets go swimming...you're bored...lets go swimming...what? you're hungry?...lets go swimming!)

The kids finished up t-ball and they started swimming lessons, which has been great, not so much for me and Lizzie who sit there dripping with sweat while watching them in the pool. So we've stayed busy, but I miss grass. I miss the big oak trees and the colorful flowers, and the grass. If I could have grass without having a water bill of $1000, I would do it. So I eat my ice cream, followed by an otter pop and dream of grass.

I thought these were too cute to not share...

4th of July

We had a great Independence Day and need to share some pictures...
Ajo has a parade, if you can call it that (about 6 blocks, 10 entries and 20 minutes), but we did go see it since we could walk about 30 feet from our house and have first row seats. Here are the kids with our neighbor Larry.

First up, the flag and honor guard...I thought it was awesome because it consisted of National Park Service, Border Patrol, Pima County Sheriff, and BLM. The one holding the American flag is the Chief Ranger at the monument where Cody works.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument fire engine...woohoo, go Park Service!!! (side note: my awesome park ranger husband would have been in the fire truck, but he had to work, darn it)

And another fire engine, this one from Ajo Fire Dept.

And, wait, ANOTHER one from Ajo Fire Dept.

And that pretty much did it for the parade, not kidding...
Annalyn looked at me and said, "What? Thats it?!?! Where's the rest of it?" I gave her fair warning this parade was NOT like the one in Spanish Fork on Pioneer Day, but disappointment still happened.
After the parade we headed down the main part of town where they had booths and games for the kids. My favorite was this one...
Toilet Paper Toss!!! (sigh, only in Ajo)


Then we stopped by the face painting booth, and Jake's only lasted until we got home, by then he had unknowingly rubbed it off.

So by this time its about 10 am, 100 degrees and 65% humidity because of all the wonderful rain we had the night before, so we head home and did a little patriotic painting...

Then after lunch, we're bored waiting for dad to get home so we make cupcakes, can't go wrong with that! Thank you Martha Stewart for the decorating idea.

It was all I could do to keep Jake from eating all the raspberries before they were used on the cupcakes.

And of course, it was all I could do to keep Anna from eating all of the marshmellows before they were used on the cupcakes.

Finished product, not too bad with two kids who couldn't keep their fingers in control.

Love these kiddos, they made it fun today even though we couldn't spend it with our families in Utah, but it was fun to be somewhere new.

Happy 4th everyone! Hope it was great for you!

Her Latest Obsession

Lizzie is more interested her big brother's and sister's room than her own. I am constantly finding her in one or the other dumping out baskets of toys, ripping books of the shelves, and turning puzzles upside down. Her favorite time of day is when Anna goes to school - she immediately goes into her room and steals all of the babies.

Lately her favorite thing to steal is Jacob's pajamas...the ones he wears during the winter so they are soft fleece material, which is like her favorite blanket. She is smart about it too; she only goes in his room when I'm busy with something and not paying attention. Then when she knows I'm watching she'll just drop the pj's and take off running, so in the period of about an hour there are pjs all over the house.

Well, I caught the little thief in action one day...

I'll just act casual, pajamas? what pajamas?


La da da da, I'm just walking in here for no reason at all...

Oh what's this? A dresser? Mmm... I wonder what could be inside this exact drawer?


There are pajamas in here? I had no idea!

But this is what gets to me...


It's so sweet I can't get after her.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

The kids are playing t-ball this summer, Jacob's first time and Annalyn's second time. Its actually pretty entertaining watching all those little kids running in wrong directions, or not running, just standing on the base, or catching the ball when they are supposed to be running to a base, or just running back to the dugout after they hit the ball. This beats Major League games in my opinion any day.

Here's Jacob on shortstop ready to go; he looks pretty determined, except he's facing the wrong direction.

Here's Annalyn on third, also determined, and also facing the right way.

Jacob up to bat, I think he has yet to hit THE BALL, but he always manages to hit the tee which sends the ball to the field, whatever works right?

And since this is his first time playing, the directions of the bases are still being learned.
Do I go this way?

I don't know what I'm doing! Am I still going the right way?

The helmet is a little big, so holding it with both hands while running makes for giggles.

Oh, here's mom with the camera, I better give my biggest smile!

I made it!

Great game!