November

I woke up one morning to a text from my sister asking if I had felt the earthquake. I guess it hit around 11:30pm the night before. I was definitely snoozing. And it definitely did not wake me up. My mom and sister said it was very creepy to feel it, but I still couldn't help but bust a gut when Shelley showed me this meme. I mean, I haven't laughed so hard in I don't know when. Cackle laughing is good for the soul. So. Bravo, earthquake. 

I've been inching my way up since July, but I finally had Shelley do a real chop. I LOVE it. It's a little bit sad to not have long hair anymore, but ... no, wait, it's not sad at all. Short hair has been such a welcome change this year!

Collin's class took a field trip to the zoo. I went as a chaperone, but there were so many parents, that Chelsie Lindblom and I just followed our kids around, along with one other boy. I don't love driving into Phoenix, but I was really glad I got to be with him for this. Even though Collin and Brooklyn are second cousins, I think they a might a little bit like each other. ;)

Karen told me about her daughter's gym that has "open gym" hours on Fridays for preschoolers. We gave it a try and the Weston and Olive can't get enough. There is a ton to do and the hour flies by. 

Every time I put on my turquoise jewelry from Megan and Brinn, I get homesick for my friends and Gallup. I wear them a lot. So I miss them a lot.

The choices for going out to eat are endless! On this particular date night we tried a new sushi place called Yanagi Sushi. It's top rated for Gilbert and we liked it. Then we tried Peterson's Icecream in downtown. It's supposed to be an award winning ice cream place from Chicago. All I know is it was really expensive and not awesome enough to warrant the $$. 

In case you couldn't tell, these are our "not good faces" outside Petersons. ;) 

With this beautiful weather, we've been enjoying bike riding/runs as a family on Saturday mornings. We follow Lindsay road over to Williamsfield, then down the canal and back up Lindsey. It's around 3 1/2 miles and been such a fun outing for us!

I got myself a date with this cute boy! A Happy Meal for lunch, (I got Rubios),  picking out a backpack at Wal-mart for his new preschool, and then seeing Pan. One on one time is one-derful. ;)

I gave a FHE on temples and thought it would be fitting to go visit the Gilbert temple. They have been begging to see it up close since we moved here. I just didn't think about the fact that the gates would be closed since it was Monday! Boo! So this was as close as we got. I still can't get over this beautiful building. We are so, so lucky!

My friend, Anjane, has been battling horrific health problems for well over a year. It breaks my heart. But there was about a week where she felt well enough to do a playdate. So we met her and Benson at Freestone for a few hours. Poor guy got stung by a bee, but other than that it was great! He is adorable and full of happy energy. I wish we could do this more often.

Abby went to the temple for the first time and we got to go!!! Hooray! I haven't been able to go with any of my siblings or their spouses for their first time. I either hadn't gone through yet for myself, or lived too far away. It felt so good to be apart of this one! We got Nielsen's afterward and enjoyed spending more time with Abby's family as well. Paula came all the way to our house to watch the kids so we could go. So grateful!

On Veteran's Day, I met Leah and Shelley at Discovery Park to let our kids go wild. Wild they did and I soaked in all my visiting time with my bestie cousin and sister. Olive preferred to snuggle Leah though, instead of me when she got hurt. Hmpf!! 

The Shaheens were in town to get their family pictures taken and we harassed them until they agreed to stay with us for a night. We got a sitter and had the BEST time going out for steak and Nielsen's custard. Disaster struck right after we got home though. Steel had thrown up all over Olive's crib. So sad! They were mortified and wanted to leave but we forced them to stay. The contamination was done, we might as well enjoy the visit! I just felt bad for them being up all night with him. We still had our "puffy pancake" breakfast in the morning and after just one more barf, Steel seemed good. So we took the kids to the park for a few hours, and ended with Gecko grill for a late lunch. The kids had a ball together and us parent's might have enjoyed it even more. We're already trying to scheme the next visit!

Collin's funny phase right now is that he's so concerned about who he will marry. I really think it's on his mind a lot, even though we've tried to explain countless times that he doesn't need to worry about it. He asks us all the time about how we met and got married and agonizes over the fear that he'll marry someone that is not a member of the church. And how will he know or find a girl that is a member??! He has asked Lilly is she would marry him but she tells him that she wants to marry Kabren. It's so sad for him and hard for us not to giggle. The poor boy. I wish I could think of a way to calm his mind about it.

The next night, we got to go to a "Fall Ball" game with Aubrey, Trevor and Gretchen! I had never heard of it before, but Aubrey is a big baseball fan and shared tickets with us. It was a fun night and even more fun because Aubrey is an awesome aunt and took the kids around the field to show them everything. That gave me more time to sip my hot chocolate, because it was COLD! I guess I thought that once I moved to Arizona I'd never be cold again. Boy was I wrong! I haven't even built up an immunity from my last 8 years in the snow. If it's under 60 degrees, I need a fire. 

My first time attempting Megan's homemade pot pie recipe. You could taste the flaky lard in the crust and it went down real nice. ;)

Ever have a morning that you'd just rather stay in bed? I always get companions when I try to do this. ;) I was messing around with some quotes from an app that features Josie and I thought it would be fun to include one.

Lest you think my life is ALL fun and games... I didn't exactly document with pictures, but the week after the Shaheens left was no bueno. Each of my kids caught what Steel had, but they did it on different days. Weston started puking Sunday night. Collin on Monday night and Olive on Tuesday night. Not to mention that I had missed church that Sunday because I felt so sick I couldn't move. It had been escalating for several days. The typical, sore throat, cough and body aches. Blech! It was a miserable week. The silver lining was that even though each kid got it, they really only barfed for one night and were fine by morning. Thank goodness it wasn't any longer! AND, noticing that I wasn't at church on Sunday, one of my visiting teachers took it upon herself to drop dinner off Tuesday night. I mean, really?!! SO kind! I felt so loved and taken care of. It couldn't have come on a better day. .. one where I hadn't even gotten out of bed all day! So there was the low light of the month.

We don't get to Harvard without starting young!!

Davy Love Handsome Boy got MARRIED!!! That deserves it's own post, so stay tuned. 

This was a busy Saturday! The day after David's wedding. I woke up and went to a class at our Stake's Family History Conference. Then we took the kids to the Franklin Fall Festival. We had just enough time to get them lunch from one of the amazing food trucks before Aubrey (bless that girl!) came to the rescue and took over for us so we could go to the ASU game!

Somehow we lucked out and got on Rachelle and Jimmy's good side! Good enough to be invited to THE game of the season! ASU vs. UofA. I was almost baffled by the passion I witnessed. These people are HARD CORE. We won't tell anyone that I had to run to Target that morning just to get myself a t-shirt!

Another yummy find... Dragon Wok! This Walnut Shrimp is from the heavens!!! I'm sure each bite takes a year off my life but I kid you not it is worth it!

With Christopher, Jael and Lucy in town, a dinner was in order! I puzzled everyone by making homemade chicken noodle soup that didn't have any chicken in it! BAH! I forgot to throw it in at the end! I finally realized it right before everyone left and I was not a happy camper! I hate when I do stuff like that!

I had also made cupcakes for dessert so we could turn this into little turkeys. I took one bite of mine and spit it out. I forgot to set a timer and over-baked them. Gross. This was really shaping up to be a dinner fail. SIGH. Always more frustrating after knocking yourself out for a day cooking. At least the kids didn't seem to notice. And I got to snuggle Lucy.

The next day was Collin's Thanksgiving feast at school. Weston was at preschool, but I still had Olive. His class is crazy town. Every time I'm in there I feel so bad for his teacher. And a lot of guilt over leaving him in such a chaotic environment. But he has a really good friend in there so he doesn't want to move. There's just so many kids that are really disrespectful and make things hard. 

But we'll just smile and pretend it isn't so.

Before I found Weston a preschool, I signed him up for a preschool-ish type class at the library that is run by the city of Gilbert. It was every Tues. and Thurs. from 9-12. The library isn't close, so it made for a lot of driving, but he liked it and it was worth it for the time being. Now he goes to a cute lady a couple of miles from our house, where a few women from my ward send their kids. The two preschools overlapped for 3 weeks, so Weston had a busy November!

Speaking of that cute preschool... here he is with his turkey hat, on the last day before Thanksgiving break. They sang us some songs and I swooned! This is exactly the type of preschool I had always wished Collin could have gone to!

We met Karen and Olivia at the Mesa Children's Museum on the day before Thanksgiving. Collin didn't have school but the rest of Mesa and Gilbert did, so it was really empty, which was great!

They changed their glow in the dark room to an Alice in Wonderland theme and he was cracking me up in these costumes!

It was a BUSY day, because after the museum, I made 3 pies from scratch and cranberry sauce, then took the boys to FatCats for Rusty's birthday party. Then we got a babysitter so we could meet Travis's high school friends for dinner at Arribas. Jeff and Ashley were in town, so they rounded the gang up. Mark and Tara, and Jason and Courtney finished up the group.

Then, after the kids were in bed, Christopher, Marcie and Austin came over and we had our traditional donuts and FRIENDS Thanksgiving episodes, washed down with egg nog. NOW we could start Thanksgiving. ;)  

We have always gone to the Mesa Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, but now that we live in south Gilbert, that is just too far away to be worth it. Very conveniently, Gilbert started up their own Turkey Trot at the San Tan mall which is 2 miles from us. Score. We walked right up and registered, ate a free donut, enjoyed the "bubble" snow that meant we were not in actual freezing temperatures and ran our race!

"Ran" into Heather and Rachelle. Bahahaha.

There was a big posterboard set up that you could write on what you're thankful for. Collin's is in black, to the left of his head.

It was a 5k and Collin ran the entire thing. And really at our pace. We didn't slow down all that much for him. He whimpered after a mile that he had a cramp but he refused to get in the stroller. He really wanted to run the whole thing. He thought he would get a medal at the end like he's seen us come home with after different races. I tried to tell him that I didn't think there would be a medal, but he didn't listen. He would say off and on that his stomach hurt or his leg hurt, but nothing would get him in that stroller! 

On the home stretch, Olive and Weston insisted they get out and run too. That girl's Nike shorts and tennies kill me!

There was no medal at the end. Poor Collin! But we were so proud of him for sticking it out and finishing something that was hard. The weather was perfect and we had fun waving at the police officers and shouting "thank you" as we jogged past. We drove home with the windows down and the music up, dancing and singing. I couldn't have asked for a better morning with my family.

We hurried and made the sweet potatoes and corn casserole and showered and were off to Grandma Ann's house for lunch! 

It was a small crowd. Just our family, minus Shelley, Aunt MaryAnn, Uncle Monty and Aunt Tava and Uncle Kent's family. Which actually felt nice because it's not very often I get to sit and visit with my aunts and uncles! Collin fell twice from the top branches of the fruit trees and earned some bad scrapes on his chest for his efforts. The second time I watched him fall and he landed hard on a concrete slab underneath. I thought for sure he had broken something and it scared me to death. Angels must have cushioned him because he was fine and really shouldn't have been. 

We switched to the Evans house around 4:30, where everyone gathered to relax and eat leftovers. 

It was a very happy and memorable Thanksgiving. I don't know what I did to deserve all that I've been blessed with.

The next night I was not much in the mood for cooking, so we tried out the Gilbert Food Truck square in downtown. Trav and I split the TNT Jalapeno burger from Burgers Amore and also a BBQ rib grilled cheese sandwich from a different truck. The kids shared a pizza and we ended with a couple of waffles from WaffleLuv. I think I could subsist solely on liege waffles and biscoff. It wasn't exactly easy on the wallet, but fun to try.

Saturday morning we switched it up with a hike I heard about from Rachelle. It's at the base of the San Tan Mountains, only 20 minutes from us. It was cool to look out on the valley and spot the Gilbert Temple from our peak. 

It was lunch time on the drive home and the boys have been begging to go back to Higley Hot Dog, ever since Christopher treated them last week. Trav and I have never tried it, so we indulged. Nothing like a chili dog smothered in cheese to get back all those calories you just burned off!

Putting up the Christmas decorations! I always let the boys decorate the tree, then slowly rearrange it over the next couple weeks. ;)

I can't even remember what he was asking me (I mean his mouth never stops running), but it must have been cute because I took a picture. I love this freckly face so darn much.