October Catch-Up

Ok, I finally admit defeat. Every time I feel like I have a bit of down-time I feel guilty because I know how neglected this blog is. Yet, I want to go no where near it because of how behind. So, we're settling for month reviews!

So here is the rest of October in review:

 We LOVE the fact October is still warm enough to help Daddy wash his car after work!

While the boys were at school, I had some fun with Kalei and Taiven learning to tie balloon animals.

 We missed Hawaii so we got soaking wet at the splash pad and went flying down the slide so we could feel like we were being thrashed by waves.

 Hung out with the Hudson Hawk (school mascot) at Costco

 Tavita came limping home from school one day. He got home, took of his shoe and said, "awww, that feels better!" I asked what was wrong and he pulled this little treasure out saying, "I've had this in my shoe ALL day!" I asked him how it got in there and why he didn't take it out. His response: "Mom, it's soooo cool and I was worried my teacher would take it away." So instead he endured a day of PE, recess and other activities with what we believe is a blown out spark plug in his shoe!

 Enjoyed watching this little munchkin gain more control of his cute little body.

 Sometimes we went sliding under parked cars. (and yes, I'm the mom that sits and takes pictures before helping her kids)

Finally mastered being a solid sitter.

 I was trimming the bushes and Tavita couldn't believe I was wasting all the flowers. Next thing I know, he was presenting me with this beautiful bouquet. LOVE his tender little heart.

 My parents came for a visit and took the kids up to Prescott for a fun night at a hotel. There's nothing my kids love more than staying at hotels. They don't care what hotel or where it is. They still keep going on and on about this trip. How fun it was to sleep in the hotel, swim in the pool, sit by the fire etc.

Junior, Taiven, and I joined them the next morning (as did Uncle Jon and Auntie Janica).

We headed to a lake and spent a few hours fishing, feeding ducks and looking for crawdads. We were only successful at 1 of  the 3 (feeding the ducks) but had a lot of fun none the less.

The fruitless search for crawdads.

 Feeding the ducks. These suckers were FEARLESS and Kalei wasn't so sure she liked it. In her opinion the ducks should stay IN the water while being fed. I have to admit it was kinda scary when this goose (who for some reason ran with the ducks) came charging out of the water in search of some bread. Brought back bad memories of my childhood being chased by the neighbors geese on the way to school. Luckily this one was very nice and just wanted some bread.

 Brayden was brave enough to let him eat right of his hand.

 Then on to the fishing.

 We caught a lot of moss.

 Next we headed to a pumpkin patch I remember going to as a kid. It used to be a cute little country farm with a patch and some animals to look at. It's under new ownership and is a big fat commercialized money trap! We had made the drive so we bit the bullet and opened our wallets.
This was definitely the highlight of the pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast in them. (Notice Brayden covering his ears in the back. The instructions were to crouch down, close your eyes and mouth and cover your ears while the inflated the ball with a leaf blower)

 Kalei being catapulted into the water.

 Brayden about to be sent flying by Uncle Jon.

 Bumper balls

 4 cutest kids in the world

 Our attempt at a family pic. This is the best we got.

 After a tractor ride around the farm, they went on trek through the worlds priciest pumpkin patch.

 We only let them pick one, and this was the biggest we let them get (this one cost twice as much as the giant one we bought from Wal-Mart a little later)

 Kalei, was having so much fun with all the fall festivities she was often found doing what she does best. Falling asleep in all kinds of places! This is only a small sampling of the MANY ways she has fallen asleep.

 We have NO idea how long she was like this. We're thinking about 45 min, thought she was in bed.

 Couldn't even finish climbing into bed

 Daddy and Taiven are also pretty good at it. These two fall asleep together often.

 Carvin' us some pumpkins

 World's cutest pirate baby. We were all pirates for our neighbor's party (somehow never took a family picture)

 The party was after a VERY busy day of double header soccer games, parties, and all sorts of other activities. Our kids were barely thriving (this was the night we found Kalei on the toilet)

 School trunk or treat

 Ward trunk or treat. We've kinda adopted Colton into our family and he wanted a pic with the gorilla baby.

 The costumes the kids wore to most of the Halloween activities.

 Little pumpkin baby.

 It's things like being able to climb trees after church late into October that make us grateful to be living in the Valley of the Sun.

Welcome Back!!!

It's going to be awhile before I'm caught up and the blogs most likely won't be in order but I need to get a post up so I don't always cringe whenever I think of blogging.
We've been here in Arizona for nearly 6 months. We are adapting and adjusting and there are things about Arizona that we absolutely love (for instance it's the middle of November and we were able to take a beautiful bike ride to the park today). However, bottom line is our hearts still ache for our home and friends in Utah. The kids had a week off of school the beginning of October and we couldn't pass the chance up. Junior couldn't come along so my visiting teaching companion was a saint and offered to come along (all her kids and grandkids live up there so she had motivation but still a 12 hour drive with 4 small kids is no small feat).
The parents all knew we were coming but it was a surprise for all the kids. My kids didn't sleep for over a week they were so excited to go. Days were spent drawing pictures of the cul-de-sac and making "play books" for all the games they were going to play with their friends. We left at 2 am and got up there around 1pm. We had very little on our agenda (all the kids wanted to do was play in the cul-de-sac) so it was overall a very relaxing and enjoyable trip. It was SOOOOO amazingly great to see everyone again. Not gonna lie I teared up more than once about being back and Junior may or may not have started applying for jobs back there (no we aren't moving, just VERY tempted because we miss it so much!)
I didn't do a great job at taking pictures unless we were actually out doing something but rest assured most of the trip was spent running crazy with friends like they were never apart. There were a few tears spilt (mostly by Kalei, when "Sister Beezy" left and then when she had to leave Jandi. She wanted to make Jeremy sleep on the floor so she could sleep with Jandi. Wasn't very happy when we told her it was a no go.) Everyone was sooo hospitable and made the trip so incredibly fun. We had a great time and will always cherish our "family" in Utah. The kids drove home already counting down the days til we head back in December.

We started the trip by hiding the kids in the back of the Shorts car. Once everyone was off the bus to gather their cookie from the Sykes (yes, the bus lets off in front of the house of the sweetest older couple who has cookies waiting for the kids everyday) we had them jump out. We tried to video/snap pics of the moment but it was sheer craziness. It involved a whole lot of yelling and hugging and jumping around with a few new kids trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

 Rach and Jandi were awesome and threw a bbq in our honor so we could sit and chat with all of our friends. This was the big kick off of cul de sac craziness. The kids had been up since 2am, not slept a wink the ENTIRE drive because they were so excited and still ran and played hard for hours. (and yes, my friend Jen is naturally that beautiful!)

 The next day all the kids had school but luckily our good friends the Simmons home school so we got to do a park trip with them. Brayden and Zachary make the cutest dynamic duo have ever since they were little babies.

 Enjoying catching up with eachother.

 Kalei with her two favorite friends: Brookie Cookie and Rachel.

 We got to go and watch Little John play a game. My boys absolutely idolize Little John and loved being able to watch him play (though they watched in about 2 minute increments than ran to play). Here's everyone waving high to Junior who was at home pouting about missing out on all the fun. We sure love him for being willing to work so hard so we could play!

Future NFL Champs!

Tavita in ready stance

 The boys love to brag about how they know a "real football player"

The next day we got to go to the firestation open house. We had done this before when we lived there and the kids were so excited to find out that we just so happened to get there the week they were having it.

The kiddos with Smokey the Bear (what the blonde hair blue eyed girl doesn't look like she could be mine? she might as well be!)

 Final little excursion was a trip to Jakers Pumpkin Patch (well the final was a trip to Discovery Park but I forgot my camera for that). Other than playing in the Culdesac, this was the one other thing the kids insisted we had to do. We've gone every year as a family and it's such a fun little patch. Greatest part, they aren't scared stupid about lawsuits and the kids can truly be kids leaping from bale to bale of hay 20 feet in the air. We wound up with quite a crew and it was a GREAT time.

 The enormous pig htat looked like a cow.

 Some of our bunch, we're missing the Gees.

Of the 1000's of pumpkins in the field the kids insited on getting one that was half green and totally flat on one side. The flat side made it "totally perfect for carving a face"

 Mattson and Taiven got to know eachother a little better. Makes me sad these two don't get to become best friends.

 We played hard all day and night until we just collapsed much like this.