Life Lately

...according to my phone

New walpaper that I've been wanting forever.



A crafty Daddy.

A family day. Movies and dinner.

 A visit to the new temple construction site. So excited for this temple! It is so close.

 Park days with friends.

Our anni.

 Libby's gingerbread house that she made at school.

 Libby and her best friend, Kayle, going on a choo choo train ride.

 A Christmas package.

 A gingerbread party with my friend Erin and her family.

 Christmas Sunday with my boisterous, but handsome/ beautiful CTR 7 class.

Life has been super hectic lately! This week I had two preschool parties, scouts (i am a wolf den leader), shopping, wrapping, gift giving, parties, package mailing, park play dates, cookie making play dates, temple lights visiting, preparing for my Sunday school class, and making their gifts! I think December needs to be two months long just to comfortably squeeze all the merriment in! I cant believe Christmas Eve is TOMORROW. Oh my! I need to get on wrapping, grocery shopping, cooking and baking. We have Shawn's family spending Christmas day with us. Then my Mom will spend the rest of the week with us until the new year.

 

I am not sure who is more excited for Christmas morning. Shawn keeps asking if we can open presents! Libby talks non stop about Santa, and "when is Lovey visiting?" I always worry about all the presents that I've picked out. Did I buy enough? Did I get the right thing? Will they love it? Will they know how much i want them to have the best Christmas ever? Oh my, it so much pressure to have everything just right. There are breakfast requests, dinner requests. Did I get enough batteries to go with the presents? But somehow everything always works out. And everyone always has a great day. So I am crossing my fingers for another successful year.

 

And I'm looking forward to the day after Christmas when my Christmas woes will be over. And the kids can just happily play with all their loot, and I can just listen to squeals of delight and laughter. (HOPEFULLY!) And my favorite part shopping the day after sales and start planning for....next year.



Halloween 2012

Libby's (and mine) preschool Costume Parade (That is Polly holding Libby)

Zorro-Douglas, Ghost-Ethan, Vampire-Ryan, Ghost-Hayden, Headless Horseman-Alec,

Cowgirl-Lulu, Ninja-CJ

Ethan and his friends were determined to hit every house in our neighborhood.

Our friends, the Dent's joined us for some Halloween lasagna and trick or treating. We are definitely making this a tradition! Shawn's parents joined us for dinner as well and handed out candy while we went around the block.

Everyone sits outside to handout candy to the neighbors.

It was a beautiful night to enjoy being outside.

 

Libby was a beautiful butterfly. My friend Paige and I made tutu skirts for our little girls. They were so easy and fun to make. To bad Libby didn't love wearing it, or her wings. Sad. And of course she had to pee like 8 times while wearing her costume! I think she did that just to annoy me! Wink!

Trunk or Treat at the church.

And a few of my festive Halloween decorations. Which are all down now! On to the next Holiday. Hello Thanksgiving!

October

 Camping at Mormon Lake, taking an ice cream break.

 Rain Gutter Regatta Ice Cream

Oh my gosh! Is time time flying by? Or what! Sniff. Sniff. So a little catch up for October.

We started out the month with camping up Flagstaff. We wanted to go somewhere where it would actually feel like fall. It was so fun. We went to Mormon Lake and had ice cream, said hello to the buffalo's, hiked, had a campfire and even roasted smores! It was freezing at night. We skipped fall and experienced winter. It was a little odd being cold after being soooo hot for so long. We relished the feeling and bundled and cuddled up!

Hayden had his first rain gutter regatta in cub scouts. All the boys made boats similar to the pine wood derby and then they race them in actual rain gutters by blowing on the sails. Its always a fun event. The boys favorite part of the evening it when they empty the rain gutters and we fill them back up with ice cream and toppings! and let the boys and siblings go crazy. We also made a trip to the Fire Station with our scout den and friends from another troop.

Both of the boys started flag football in September. We have practice or a game every day except Friday and Sunday. Its so fun. We love being at the park and hanging out. Its been a great season so far. Ethan and Hayden are both on good teams and have been winning every game!

Baptism Weekend

The baptism weekend was fantastic. Amberly, Aaron, Ethan Thomas, Radley and Annie as well as my Mom and Darryl came out for all the festivities! It was so great to have them. And good thing we all like each other because it was a full house. Poor Aaron was sicker then a dog the whole time, but still made it to the baptism. Shawn's parents and brother, Eric, joined us for the service. After the baptism we went to Pei Wei for lunch, and took over their restaurant. Libby ate her weight in fortune cookies, and the boys had fun with the touch screen soda machine. (Yikes! Is that my son? No couldn't be!)I think the owner might have been happy to see us go! 

Sunday after church we were all enjoying our dinner while Libby and Radley played outside. They wanted to play and we wanted a peaceful dinner, so good deal, right? But after hearing shrieks and giggles we find them running through the sprinklers, in the church clothes! They were having a ball, but I think our plan for a peaceful dinner backfired on us! Libby loves her cousin Radley and adores baby Annie too.

It was a great weekend. I am so grateful Hayden made the choice to get baptized. Shawn asked Hayden why he wanted to get baptized, and he said "because I want to be like Jesus." I am grateful for his sweet spirit, and his obedience to our Heavenly Father.

I am so proud of you, and love you so much Hayden!

Let's Glow Birthday Party

Make a wish Hayden! (Colored flame candles.)

Freeze tag. The boys each had several glow sticks. The "it" person had to wear a glow mask!

Glow in the dark Bowling

The boys catching frogs. Yes, we have tons of frogs right now.

Hayden's Birthday Party was Friday night. And can I say I am so glad birthday's are only once a year! Phew! Hayden had a great time with his friends. Hayden was very grateful, and must have said thank you a hundred times! It was very sweet. A few highlights of the evening were freeze tag, an Easter egg hunt with glow bracelets inside, glowing bowling and football. I wanted to make glow in the dark slime but I didn't have any takers, they just wanted to wrestle and play football! Oh boys will be boys! This party was fun.

If I were to do it again I would definitely find a big black light, because it wasn't dark enough to see everything glow. All I could find was a scorpion hunting black light, which is tiny! So plan ahead and order online. The Easter egg hunt was so cool, but you have to have the larger eggs to fit the bracelets inside. It took me forever to squeeze them into the regular eggs. I couldn't get a good picture to show the eggs glowing because of the flash on my camera so you just have to trust me-its a must do! Also next time I would start decorating a lot earlier because the glow bracelets last a really long time so its OK to light them up early. And my last piece of advice would be two and a half hours is way to long! Two hours would have been plenty!! What was I thinking!

Party Invite

We are pulling together a super fun party for Hayden this weekend. He wanted to do games in the backyard. But I thought, what is better then games in the backyard? Games in the dark, that's what! We are going to do some fun games with glow sticks. And maybe even some fun experiments with glow water; which who knew you can make from a highlighter? So cool. Can't wait. Hopefully it won't rain, or be to hot. Or both. Oh gotta love AZ weather.

Preschool Time

Welcome to my new classroom! This is my three year old preschool class. If you follow me on pinterest you may have already guessed at my new job. Possibly because of the bombardment of all the preschool activities that I've been pinning. Sorry! I am teaching two classes, and both of my classes are so great. We just started on Monday, and I've already received lots of hugs and even a declaration of love! Preschool is decidedly the BEST! Last year I was teaching at the high school so I am loving all the genuine sweet love in the room this year. We definitely still have some attitude, but at least there aren't any swear words being tossed around the room (my ears appreciate it). I just got the job two weeks ago so it was a mad rush to get my classroom pulled together and organized before the "Meet the Teacher Orientation" last week. Thank goodness for my Mom and Darryl; they came to my rescue. We spent several long days, and one long night where everyone was being quite silly, I think we were tired because everything was funny, cleaning and hanging up bulletin boards. I had so much fun with them and seriously could not have done it with out their help.

I think this job is going to be a good fit for me right now.  I am home in the morning and can help the boys get ready for school, and I am done by nap time for Libby. And...Libby gets to go to preschool too. An added bonus! Although it still costs an arm and a leg for her to go there. It is great program. She will have two days of Spanish (Si!), and two days of gymnastics! As I was putting together my lesson plans for our first week of school, I realized how fun preschool is. I get to sing songs, do crafts and play! All my favorite things! We are going to have so much fun this year. I'll keep you posted on fun activities that are worth doing with your toddler.

Doing something new is scary! I feel completely out of my comfort level for sure. I've been filled with self doubt, questioning my ability to do this. And I keep thinking that is why I need to do this. Its my ammo. Just to prove it to myself. Is that the wrong reason to do something. Maybe. But I will be a good preschool teacher. So watch out. (a little overboard? Ya, probably. I'll tone it down in the future.)