Sidney's Baptism

Last Saturday (Nov 8th) Sidney was baptised! We are so proud of her for making this decision. I can't believe she's old enough! Time flies. We had a really good turn out at the program. I looked back at who was attending and I saw several little girls with their moms. It was so cute. Pete's family came from eastern Arizona (we got to see their new adorable baby Thomas), my dad came from Utah and Josh's mom and step dad came from Utah too. Sheila of course made a yummy brunch for everyone afterwards. We have such a good ward. We love them all. It's so great to know that no matter where we move to (or how often) we always have a ward family. We're never alone. What a comforting feeling. I feel truly blessed.

And of course I have lots of pictures...

She looked beautiful in her white dress


Grandpa loving his grandkids


Josh and Sid


Sid with her nana


Proud parents

I'm A Sister!

I submitted a layout for a challenge on Sisterhood Of Scrap and I was chosen to be sister of the week. I feel so honored since I have been following this site for quite some time but finally decided to enter a challenge. Check it out and leave a comment!
http://sisterhoodofscrap.blogspot.com/

Halloween

Halloween started with a little halloween parade at Parker's preschool. They were all so cute!



Then we carved pumpkins. Parker was so funny. He was talking to his pumpkin saying, "Its ok pumpkin. I'm just going to cut your head off, ok?" Then he didn't want to put his hand inside the pumpkin to gut it because he thought it would bite him. So Sidney gutted it for him.


Then is was time to dress up and go trick-or-treating. Mason finally let me put his monkey costume on.(Though not the head). Makenzie was a bat and Sidney was a chic diva. They could hardly wait till 6:30 when dad got home to treat-or-treat.



Bringing home the loot!!




And my favorite pic of all...(it reminds me of Ralphie on A Christmas Story)

In Search of the Great Pumpkin

Maricopa has one pumpkin patch in town. And all the pumpkins were really good ones. Josh and I were picking out nice pumpkins saying, "this one's perfect". -Trying to speed the kids' choices up. Parker picked up a pumpkin and said "this one's perfect." We laughed so hard because it looked like a flat butt. And it was probably the worst one in the patch. We should have got a pic of it.

A Binki-Free Life

We are on our way! Today is Day 4 of a binki-free life. I made up my mind that Monday was the day I would wean Mason off of the pacifier. He was way too attached and of course way too old for it. It hasn't been easy but it's getting better. Day 2 was propably the worst. He had been asking for his "bee" since the day before and I just kept telling him no. He finally looked at me and said as clear as day, "I unt my binki." As if I hadn't understood him before. He has never pronounced binki right before. It was so cute. But not cute enough to give in. Today he is happy and smiling and hasn't asked for it once. I am so proud of that little bugger.

Shnepf Farms

On Friday we picked the girls up for school and headed for the Arizona State Fair. But then someone told us about a farm in Queen Creek that has pumpkins, rides, food, music and much more. So we went there instead. We had a blast! The kids' favorite part was the "spooky train ride". The train takes you around the farm and into a short stretch of woods where real life ghosts and monsters jump out at you and scream, making Parker jump every time. Mason just looked at these people like, "what's with you?" Everyone had so much fun!
I took these pics with my smaller digital camera because I thought it'd be easier to carry around. I wish I hadn't. They didn't come out as well.

They even had grown up tricycles. They were so much fun!

Mason on the carosel. Every pic of him he has a binki in his mouth! I'm so tired of it. My goal is MONDAY!! I take it away on Monday. Wish me luck!



Checking out the pumpkins...


Josh and Mason watching the blue grass band. At one point Mason got down and boogied all around. He is a dancin fool.

The kids got their faces painted. They turned our really cute.

Najavo Nation

The kids and I went up to stay with Josh for a week on the Navajo Nation reservation (it was the kids' fall break). There wasn't a whole lot to do but we brought all of our bikes and did a little sight seeing. The country is beautiful out there!
During our visit to the red rocks (in the pics)I got the truck stuck in the sand and couldn't get it out. I was so scared and worried. We walked out to the main road where I flagged down the next car and a nice lady gave us a ride back to Josh's job site 15 miles away. (I was crying like an idiot by then). Later Josh and a co-worker headed out to rescue the truck. I asked him how he got it out, did he pull it? And he said, "I drove it out." I swear I tried that!! I didn't know where the 4W drive was. Now I know.

D-Backs Game

Josh and I got to go to the Diamond Backs vs Colorado Rockies game last weekend with the Young Men and Young Womens. I was called to be an advisor in the Young Womens. Yay! So now I get to follow along when the ward does fun stuff like this. I know the D Backs won but couldn't tell you the score. Too busy chatting to pay attention.


This doesn't do the fireworks show justice at all. It was awesome! I need to do some research on taking good pics at night.

The stadium. Don't ask me what it's called...I told you I wasn't paying attention.

Us!

I'm Bragging I know...

We got a letter from the Orange County school district in Virginia saying that Makenzie achieved a PERFECT SCORE on her 3rd grade SOL test last year in MATH and HISTORY. She achieved a 600 in both subjects. Woohoo! We always knew she was smart but didn't realize how smart! We are so proud of her.

My Birthday

Josh is working near Winslow, Arizona (about 3 1/2 hrs from here.) He stays there 4 days a week and is home for 3. He's building a school on a Navajo reservation. Its extremely interesting. Anyway, my birthday was on Wednesday and I spent all day with the "poor me's" because Josh wasn't home for my birthday. (Even though I got so many calls, emails and cards from my wonderful friends and family.) What's worse is that he acted like, "sorry, there's nothing I can do about it." But around 4:00 he surprises me at the door with a balloon bouquet and a beautiful rose bouquet. Awe!! He also had a babysitter lined up to take me out for a nice birthday dinner. Love you Josh!..... . .I told him next time, don't do that.





Let them eat cake! Next time I'll remember the spoon.

Visit to the Chidester Gang

Another visit to The Chidester Gang. These kids have so much fun together. They get along so well. Except for in the incident where Parker punched Jesse in the face because Jesse wanted to watch a movie intead of play with him. But he's sorry! It's so nice to have family close by.

Parker and Jesse got their own wheels. Parker needs some bigger ones.

Makenzie and Elizabeth the tree huggers

Mason and cousin William jumping. Check out that blue sky!


With all these kids in the same room, there wasn't much sleep going on. I had some pretty grouchy kids the next day.

Parker's a Pre Schooler!

Parker finally started school! We've been talking about preschool for probably about a year and he's finally made it. Fyoo! I enrolled him in the Jungle Explorers preschool. It's held in the teacher's home where she has transformed part of her house into the classroom. He goes M-W-F and so far he loves it. On his first day I snuck in a little early and watched him interact with the others and I was so proud of him. He was laughing and having fun. Im so glad he's comfortable there.



Parker is ready...he has been for months! Right down to his old hand me down Bob The Builder backpack. (Which I wanted to replace with a new one but he put his foot down.) Whatever makes him happy.

For the first 15 minutes, the kids play in the backyard and unwind. Parker ran towards the toys as soon as we got there. He's not shy!

Reminiscing Summer at the Beach

Well, Labor Day is around the corner which means to me that summer is over. I wouldn't mind getting some cooler weather here soon. Here are a few scrapbook LOs of our trip to the beach (Nags Head, NC)

Sidney...posing


This is my friend, Sasha's little boy, Josh. I LOVE this picture of him.


My 4 beach bummies

Kite flying on the beach...what could be better?

First Day of School

Parker's big day is next week. Today he was happy to say "see ya" to the girls.

Lining up

Sidney waiting....and waiting....

The girls have to wear red, white or navy polo shirts. Talk about easy school shopping. (But not as much fun)

It's the first day of school...the day the girls have been looking forward to for so long. I enrolled them in a public charter school called Legacy Traditional. They have to wear "uniforms" and its a bit of a different carriculum than public school. It'll be a little challenging but I think they'll do just fine. Problem is there was some construction delay in the new campus (this is only their second year running) so until all the buildings are complete the school was forced to split the school into 2 half day sessions for a few weeks. The girls are in the PM session which is from 11:40 - 2:40. Since the kids all get up around 6:30 there was a lot of anxious waiting around all morning. Sidney wore her backpack at 9 and wouldn't take it off. Their first day went really well. They were both happy and talkative on the way home from school. I was so releived!!