Mesa Temple Lights

Ben's brother Jake and his family live down in Mesa. Despite the fact they are only 1 hour away it seems to be hard to find time to get together. Thankfully they called us to see if we would like to meet them at the temple to see the lights and we found a time that we were both available.

We loved being with them and seeing the lights for Christmas.

All of the kids in the visitor center. From back to front Bonnie, Gwen, Nate, Hallie, Jared, Brooklyn, and Cameron.

Official

This morning Bonnie looked at the thermometer in the car on the way to school and told me,

"Mom, it is freezing! I will not be surprised if it snows before the day is through."

It was 59 degrees.

Does that make us official Arizonians (is that even a word)?

Zoo

The kids had Veteran's Day off school so I took them to the zoo for a couple of hours. Nate was very excited to go because a new Komodo Dragon exhibit opened today. The zoo has two Komodo dragons and they were pretty cool to be able to see.

We went to visit the Orangutans and there was a very big one hiding under a sheet. The little one kept sneaking up and pulling the sheet off the big one. Finally the big one got irritated enough that he went after the little one who promptly ran to its mom for protection. It was kind of fun and we all really enjoyed being able to see it. This is the little one hiding with her mom.

I took this picture and realized how hard the zoo worked to try and make this exhibit very Africa-like. But no matter how hard they tried I just don't think there are any palm trees in Africa.

Overall we had a fun trip and I enjoyed spending the day with the kids. I am so glad we got a zoo pass so that we can spend a couple of hours every so often and not feel like we have to stay all day to get our money's worth.

Halloween Fun

For Halloween this year we had some fun activities. First we went to the Pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. After looking around for a while my kids picked the biggest pumpkins they could find. They thought it was great fun. I however am 99% convinced that the pumpkin patch people went and bought walmart pumpkins to stock their patch and then charged us 3 times the amount. Next year the grocery store pumpkin patch will be just fine.

Our ward had a fun Trunk-or-Treat on the Thursday before Halloween. Nate was gone to Outdoor Ed for the 5th graders and Ben is in India so I took Bonnie, Jared, and Gwen. I told all the kids that they could be whatever they wanted for Halloween as long as they could make it from what we had here at home. I did offer to buy accessories. Bonnie drew her pirate flag on her shirt all by herself. She is quite a little artist.

For Halloween we had a family party at home. I didn't want to go trick-or-treating cause I just don't really like it, and Jared ended up with strep throat anyway so it worked out well. We carved the pumpkins, made some very cool Halloween food, and watched a Scooby Doo movie. We also turned off the porch lights. We live at the end of a dead end and nobody usually comes down here anyway, but we wanted to make sure.

I love this picture because it shows a lot about my kids personalities. Gwen was still drawing her design for her pumpkin and deciding what would be the very best. Jared is already scooping the seeds out of his because he wanted to be the first one done. Bonnie is carving her pumpkin. She had made the design before the other kids started and took her time drawing her very best on the pumpkin. Nate is drawing his design on his pumpkin after deciding he had to make a design that was "different" from everyone else. Here are the finished products.

Here are the fun foods that we made. Mummies.

Witch fingers

Worms on a bun and moldy bones.

The kids loved our Halloween and I rather enjoyed it myself. I am looking forward to skipping trick-or-treating every year. The trunk-or-treat is plenty good for me.

Catching up for the last month...

Since we last posted things have been kind of fun and crazy for us. It started with Gwen taking a dive off a bunk bed and breaking her arm. This was made bearable by the fact that she got to choose the color of her cast and only had to have it on for 3 weeks. She actually broke both bones; however, she was moving it around fine the night it happened so we didn't take her to Urgent Care until the next day. After taking the x-rays the nurses were very surprised at how much she was still using it. Apparently we better watch her closely she is one pretty tough little girl.

This was followed very soon with Jared being Student of the Month for September. They always do the assemblies at the first of the next month.

Then we continued on to Jared's 7th Birthday. He is getting to be so big. Time has sure flown by. We are so glad to have this guy in our family.

As you can tell he got just what he wanted.

The Raingutter Regatta for scouts came this same week and we got Nate's boat made the night before. We love this activity and would trade it in for the Pinewood Derby any day. Despite the look of this picture Nate did win this race.

We also have been taking a Kung Fu class as a family which we have really enjoyed. We all earned our white belts this month.

So despite our lives being turned a little upside down...

And sometimes feeling completely worn out...

Life goes on without too much wear and tear.

A few fun pictures

Just thought I would share a few of the fun things going on with our family.

Since we do not have a swimming pool in which to play Marco Polo the kids decided that a pillowcase over the head of the person who is "it" is the next best thing. It was very funny to watch.

We got two kittens. They were rescue cats that had been at the shelter for 3 months. They were brothers that had both been fixed and had all their shots. They were so desperate to find homes for them that we were able to adopt them both for $20. They are both black and white and their names are Oreo and Cookie. Thankfully they both know how to handle themselves with Chancho.

On Friday the 11th I went back to work at Natip, the company I worked for last year for about 3 months. They are letting me come in part time while the kids are in school and I am also able to take days off when the kids are off. Overall I am very excited. And I got a cute new haircut this week so I had to show that off as well.

On Friday night I went in to cover up the boys and this is what I found. I don't know how it can be comfortable, but apparently it can...."Isma put your hands in the air."

This morning, Sunday, we woke up to find that someone (Nathan) had decided our house was too hot and had turned the thermostat down to 68 degrees. During the night Gwen had decided she was cold and had dressed herself accordingly. This is what she had on when she came downstairs this morning. I love it!!

Arrow of Light

Nate earned his Arrow of Light on August 20th and I am just now getting around to posting about it. We are so proud of him for putting in the work to earn this award. He loves scouts and he has had a fantastic Webelos leader that has made it much easier on Ben and I.

The Cubmaster and Cub Committee Chair put together a great Arrow of light ceremony.

Nate with his Webelos leader, Ty Brewster, and his best friend, Jesse.