Halloween 2015

 Oct 31, 2015 - 6:00-9:00pm

We went to Jay & Jaylene's to trick or treat this year with their younger cousins Millie and Corbin.  Shaylin went as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Emmalyn as Elsa from Frozen, Bronson as Iron Man, and Coleton as Spiderman.  They had fun going all the way around their fun block, which included a haunted house and a live band.  Jay & Jaylene also had their traditional chili dinner as they sat out in front of their house passing out candy.  We made it back to our neighborhood at about 7:45 (we were going to try to make it earlier but the kids were having too much fun in the Brugman's neighborhood).  We stopped by Curt and Mitzi's and then our friends the Hughes and the Brown's who are in our ward and live the next street over.

With Millie and Corbin...

A few more poses...

Our Volleyball Players

Oct 31, 2015 - 8:00-9:00am

Shaylin and Emmalyn are in the middle of their first season of volleyball, playing in the NYS league.  Jayna, in spite of her busy schedule right now, volunteered to be their team's coach.  They played their fourth game today and are learning fast!  They both did a great job of serving the ball over the net (the most consistent they've been yet) and did a great job of moving around and trying to bump the ball back over on serve returns.  Jayna is a natural coach and is great with the girls!  Today they won the first set they've won all year (they've been really close several times) and actually ended up winning all three sets to win the match, so they were all really excited!

Phoenix Rock Gym

October 30, 2015

A few weeks ago we bought 'Pogo Passes' with a discount code we found online.  They include free admission to a ton of fun places around town.  We decided to try the Phoenix Rock Gym first.  We knew the kids would probably all like it since they like to climb on things, but they surprised us with how much they liked and it and how well they did!  On their first try up the wall they all made it about halfway or less, but by the end they had all made it to the top of the 30 ft walls multiple times!  They even tried some of the harder walls. They spent about 2 hours, from 5pm to 7pm climbing and probably would have kept going if they weren't all hungry for dinner.

L - Coleton climbing the wall, Shaylin starting to climb the wall, and Matt belaying.

R - Shaylin almost to the top of the wall

 

  

Coleton at the top of the wall...

L - Emmalyn at the top of the wall with Jayna belaying

R - Emmalyn & Bronson at the top of the wall, Jayna & Matt belaying

L - Bronson at the top with Matt belaying.

R - Bronson at the top with Shaylin climbing

Coleton climbing in one of the crevaces...

After climbing we found Pei Wei - one of our favorite restaurant chains nearby - to eat.  Bronson liked watching the cooks prepare the food.

Autographs and Baseball

Oct 31, 2015 - 11:30am-4:00pm

 Shaylin has been so excited to get autographs before one of her Uncle Jaycob's Arizona Fall League baseball games.  We got to the game about an hour earlier (we went straight from Bronson's basketball game).  The kids all got to talk to Jaycob and one of his teammates - Chad Pinder - who was super nice and was asking them about what they were dressing up for for Halloween.  We forgot the cards I bought for the kids to get signed, so Shaylin just had them autograph on old tee ball she had grabbed out of the van :).

Shaylin also asked a few other players who were nice enough to come over and sign autographs for their signatures.  We didn't know who they were before but we're fans now for their willingness to sign and take a picture with Shaylin!

Shaylin & Coleton with Corey Black, a pitcher in the Cubs organization, after getting his autograph.

Getting Alan Busenitz' autograph and a picture.  Alan is a pitcher in the Angels organization.

Getting Kris Hall's autograph.  He's a pitcher in the A's organization and was one of Jaycob's teammates last year with the Midland Rockhounds.

Our Kindergarten Graduate

We are now the proud parents of a kindergarten graduate :).  Shaylin graduated from Legacy Traditional School last Tuesday, May 22nd.  She was so excited for graduation and wanted to go back and do another one as soon as it was over.  She learned so much this year and really liked her teacher there - Miss Wertman.  She can now read very well (she's able to read her own verse when we read scriptures as a family) do addition, subtraction, understands basic fractions, can tell time, and has learned many other things.  We're so proud of her and love that she is a self motivated learner.  We helped her with her homework when she asked, but a lot of time she was able to do it all by herself.  

We made a video of the graduation, you can get to it by clicking the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76BBm2xZBlw


Here's some of the pictures from the video that we got after the ceremony:

Shaylin with her proud parents

Bronson, Shaylin, Coleton, Emmalyn

Shaylin with her Grandma Hedges

Shaylin with her Grandma Jaylene and Grandpa Jay

Shaylin with her Aunt Jaymee

Shaylin with her Great Grandparents - Pam and Jay

Shaylin with her Great Grandparents - Nilsa and Roy

Shaylin with her teacher Miss Wertman

Mother's Day

Jayna and my mom with the kids in April 2012

I've been very blessed to have many amazing mothers in my life from grandparents and parents to my beautiful wife. 

Jayna is an amazing mother.  I'm in awe of her ability to love and nurture our children.  She is always coming up with fun things to do with the kids.  She almost always has a smile on her face and her happiness is contagious with the kids (most of the time :).  She is not only a beautiful person inside and out but she is also a very talented hair stylist, pianist, cook, photographer, and the list could go on.  I am so lucky to have her in my life and fall more in love with her every day.

I am blessed to have an awesome mom.  She is the most selfless person I know.  She has always put others peoples needs in front of her own wants.  She is always looking for opportunities to serve and to help others.  I've still literally never heard her say a bad thing about anyone.  Our kids love spending time with her because she's so good at dropping everything else she's doing and just focusing on them.

Jaylene holding one day old Jayna

I am also blessed to have a wonderful mother-in-law Jaylene.  She is also incredibly selfless.  Even though she is very busy she always makes time to come down to our house and help us out with different projects.  She's also always willing to babysit when Jayna and I want to go to the temple or go out and she's always willing to give the kids baths when we're at her house to give us a break. 

What Happens When I Fold Laundry.

April 24, 2012

  So I finally decided it was time to conquer the clean pile of laundry that needed to be folded on our guestroom bed.  The girls were at school and during my 1 1/2 hours of being home before I had to pick them up again I decided to try and fold the laundry real quick.  I put Coleton down for a nap and Bronson was just hanging out in the kitchen eating from the stale bag of Cheerios on the counter that I was going to throw away.  As I was folding laundry in the nearby room, I heard a noise that sounded like cereal being poured all over.  (I always tell the kids I have eyes in the back of my head and I'm always aware of what they are doing)  I came out to the kitchen and saw Bronson holding the whole bag of Cheerios upside down over the table. Normally I would have gotten upset, but since I was planning on throwing the bag of cheerios away anyways, I didn't care...AND it was keeping him busy while I was folding laundry.  I just looked at him, didn't say a word, and turned around to get our camera.  Right as I started to take pictures, he started smiling.  It was pretty funny.  Now, if it was a brand new box of cereal...I would be telling a different story right now. :0)

Cute little stinker.

He actually sat and ate them for awhile!

Probably wondering why I was taking pictures! :0)