It's Official...

I am pretending like it is Fall. I baked pumpkin bars-yummy, made taco soup, lit pumpkin spice candles, put on a fall tablecloth, hung my fall wreath on the door, bought a sweater, walked to the park in the middle of the day in jeans-I quickly realized my mistake. But unfortunately it isn't helping channel any cooler weather. It is supposed to be 104 today.

Pretty in Pink

My Poor Baby

Addison has started Preschool for the year. She loves it! She can't wait to go play with her friends. But it is pretty funny, because at school she is so quiet and shy. Even when I am there the whole time to help her teacher. I have never had a shy child. Last week it was her special day where she could tell the class about herself, or I could tell the class about her. The day before she broke her wrist! I know SO sad! It was pretty traumatizing. 4 boys and never any stitches or broken bones and bam our little girly princess broke, literally, our streak. She was running and tripped over some little orange sport cone things and slammed into the front door. She goes to the orthopedic doctor on Tues. and they will probably put on a permanent cast. She has been very brave and didn't make a peep when I took her for the initial x-ray.

Addison and her friend Savannah from school at Bradan's pack meeting

Addison's teacher, Ms. Melissa

Bradan and the bear

Bradan turned 10 this summer! That's right double digits. It is weird that he is getting so old, don't worry he doesn't act like it. He earned his Bear in scouts before he went to KY for the summer, but he didn't get his recognition until last week. He fought the bear. He came out bloody, but still in one piece.
Bradan pinning me

Happy Campers

Nathan and Tate got to go to Scout camp this year. Our stake held a priesthood encampment, so it was full of spiritual activities along with scouting activities. Jon went up for a couple of days and these are the only pictures he took. I am hoping to get some copies of pictures the leaders took. They had a really good time and hopefully some experiences they won't forget. Tate was just called to be the Deacon's quorum president in our ward. We have 20 Deacons so it is a big deal. I am super proud of him! Last Sunday he was in his church clothes from 8am-9pm. He had church, meetings, and a fireside. Jon told him he was in training to be an apostle, and I thought Tate was going to have a heart attack. He did not think it was funny.

Summertime in the AZ

I am so far behind, I don't even know where to start. But I am semi caught up on my homework and the laundry so I decided I would try. We had a pretty quiet summer as usual all the big boys were gone for most of it. We spent most of the summer at the pool. We swam ALOT! It was awesome! I had a tan again for the first time in years. The babies love to go swimming. They dive all over the place. We have a pool at the YMCA right down the street so on good days Jon and I, or just me if Jon was at work, and the babies would go to the gym in the morning. They like to play in the childcare center they have there, and we would work out. Then we would go home for lunch and come back and swim. On not so productive days we would just go swimming. We also hit McDonald's playland a few times, an indoor bouncey place, to see Toy Story 3, to the mall with grandma, and hung out with Aunt Jenifer and Trevor while they were here.




Our 4th of July celebration was pretty lame this year. It was on Sunday so I made this cake, which was yummy, and we just went to church and hung out at home. Nothing too exciting.

Girl's Camp...SO Much Fun!!

This was at our PJ fashion show and we played a little prank on the girls and hung these pictures all over their cabin. I totally rocked these pajamas(I look like humpty dumpty), of course. Jon gave them to me 2 Christmas ago. I had never worn them, but pulled them out for camp. You can only get away with this stuff at Girl's Camp, that is why I love it!


I seriously LOVE my calling! It is so much fun! I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with the Young Women in my ward. They are awesome! We had a blast at camp! No drama-AT ALL! Our girls were perfect. They have such strong testimonies and are such an example to me. I also love the other leaders I get to work with. They are so talented and amazing! I left camp completely uplifted, wanting to be better and try harder to do better. It was a great week!

SAD!!

So our computer had some kind of major malfunction and wouldn't work at all. It was so convenient because it happened the same week that I was supposed to turn in a 1000 word essay and take my final, Bradan's science project board was due, and Nathan had a report and a poster he was supposed to make. Awesome! Finally on Monday this guy came over to fix it. It took him 3 hours. Monday night we were finishing up Bradan's science project and I was looking for the pictures we had taken of him doing the experiment a week or so before. This is the SAD part. No pictures! Not only did we not have those pictures we couldn't find any pictures at all from 2010. Somehow those must have been saved somewhere different and didn't get saved before everything was cleared off. SAD...SAD...SAD I am still trying to get over it.

Mom's Day

I had a great Mother's Day. Jon and the kids really came through this year. They made me breakfast in bed, made lunch and dinner, got the babies all ready for church, and let me take a nap. It was an awesome day! I am thankful to be a mom. It is seriously hard, but my kids help me want to be a better person and the mom that they deserve.Nothing better than starting Sunday off with a stiff drink. Okay it was just juice, but it did have a little kick.

So Shy

Addison was supposed to give her first talk in Primary on Sunday. It didn't quite go as planned. She was totally excited and all ready to go until she got up to the podium and then she froze. Hand went in the mouth and not a sound came out. So I ended up giving a fabulous talk on how getting baptized is making a covenant with Heavenly Father and how excited Addison is to be baptized when she turns 8. Addison is often too "shy" to talk, participate in class at preschool, sing, say hi to her friends etc. She has NO problem speaking her mind at home. Maybe next time.

This bird mistook a plant on my back porch for a tree. It doesn't even fly away when we go outside. We actually do have a few trees so I am not sure why it decided to make my plant its home. It is kind of cool to watch, but bird=bird poop. Gross!

Boys Boys Boys

Bradan volunteered to be the wolf in a class play they were doing at school, before he read that the wolf had to wear a tutu. He was just a little mortified. But suffered through, what a trooper. (This is a picture of a picture that his teacher took)


Benito Mussolini


Tate's Wax Museum project. He was Benito Mussolini. Look at the picture in the top left corner of the poster-pretty close resemblance. I LOVE school projects! I think we also had two book reports to do that week. More fun than I could handle!


Our super scouters at the Blue and Gold Banquet

This was the cake Bradan and I made for his Blue and Gold Banquet. It was the 100th birthday of Scouting. I am not a creative or crafty person, so projects like this stress me out.

Nathan hurt his knee playing football at the park. It looked bad, but was some word I can't spell or pronounce that basically meant he hurt his knee and it had a lot of fluid that had to be drained out. It is all healed and he is back to full playing time.

HaHaHa...

Aunt Jenifer was down for a visit last week. She always brings fun treats for everyone. She brought these for the boys, and we all had a good laugh.

The other day Jon was out mowing the lawn and I was standing at the sink and looked out into the backyard and saw this...

At first I thought it was a towel he had stuck back there in case he got sweaty. I could not stop laughing. I managed to snap this shot before he caught on. How do you even do that??

The big boys are alive and well! They have been BUSY! I have all kinds of exciting pictures of scouting activities, injuries, school projects and more, to come soon.

Party like a Princess

This year Addison's birthday was literally a week long celebration. It started on my birthday when we went out to eat with the fam. It was so close to her birthday that we had them bring her ice cream and she got to ride on the birthday saddle too. Then on Sunday we had a family party while Aunt Jenifer was here. Monday was her actual birthday so I got her some balloons and a donut. Then Jon had taken the day off so we went to Barros for lunch and then to the park to play with her new sand toys. Tuesday she celebrated her birthday at school with cupcakes and her sweet cake hat. Friday was her friend birthday party. She was SO excited for her birthday this year and wanted to invite all of her friends from school that I decided to let her have another party. We rented a princess castle bouncer and had cake and ice cream. She had a lot of fun and loved having all of her friends over. Then to wrap up her birthday festivities, they sang to her in Primary on that Sunday. I hope she is not expecting all this every year. How cool it must be to live the life of a spoiled, little princess. My big girl.

Some pics of the numerous celebrations, in no particular order of course, because my computer hates me...

Making a wish for the tenth time

Friend Birthday Party

Birthday at School

The actual birthday

Aunt Jenifer came down just for the birthday celebration! Addison and Jace LOVE Aunt Jenifer! She is so awesome with them! I am always so sad when she has to go home.

Her Majesty...Minnie

We got Minnie in June of 2005, right before I found out I was pregnant with Addison. She was so tiny and cute. She was an inside dog for a few years, until we moved and she started going potty in the house. So then she was demoted to the back yard. We have tried a few times to put the doggy door in and let her stay inside, but she always blows her shot at living in the lap of luxury. A couple of months ago Addison began to form a pretty tight bond with Minnie. They became BFFs and Addison would let her in the house constantly,so Jon put the doggy door back in and Minnie has since regained her superior status. We have recently discovered when the boys leave their doors open and clothes on their floor she likes to go in and mark her territory-GROSS! I don't know what to do about that. We have been trying hard to keep the doors closed and it seems to help. She doesn't seem to have the urge to go anywhere else in the house. We'll see how long this lasts...


Baby Minnie, she weighed almost 2 lbs. when we got her.

Heart-Attack

There is nothing better than eating heart-shaped JUNK with the ones I LOVE! Happy Valentine's Day! (We did have a "real", balanced meal for dinner.)

How Lucky am I...

Jon always tries really hard to surprise me somehow for my birthday. Which always makes me feel bad, because his birthday is on Christmas Eve so I am always too crazy with everything else to give it any real attention. This year I spent the day before my birthday all by myself. WOO HOO! I went and got my haircut and did some shopping and it was fabulous! Then on my birthday Jon arranged for us to go out on a date, but then it ended up looking like it was going to be too crazy to get everything arranged so we decided to take the whole family to Texas Roadhouse for some yummy food. Jon's parents and Gary and Lori joined us. Jenifer tried hard to get an early flight so she could be there, but ended up spending the day and most of the night waiting at the airport. We got stuck in a traffic jam on the way there so the drive took twice as long then we had to wait for a table for almost 45 min and then dinner lasted about an hour and a half, but the babies were perfect. It was so AWESOME! We had a fun night! As usual Jon gave me more presents than I deserve. He brought a whole bag full of presents and a card with tickets to BON JOVI-the BON JOVI!!! I was mega excited until I realized it was on the same night as New Beginnings for YWs. I have to speak and help out in other ways that I didn't feel I could back out of, so I don't think we are going to be able to go. I know...I totally STINK!! I somehow always manage to ruin every surprise. So how lucky am I that I have a husband that still puts up with me and makes efforts even though I try my best to mess it up.


My "Bon Jovi ticket"


Addison and I giving a big birthday YEE HAW!





The good-looking party crew

Happy Birthday Addison!