October

I just can't with these chains! He wants to be just like his older brothers.

Years ago, Camilla did something like this for me. Surprised me with a mid week, self care date and it meant the world. I wanted to be able to pay it forward. No one more deserving than Marcie.

We love having Stetson and Bentley over! Olive is always so sad if she finds out I watched them when she wasn't home.

Looking for things to do during October Break and a Scheels just opened in Chandler. We rode the ferris wheel, checked out the aquarium, shopped around and loaded up on candy.

That night, we met the Porters out in Phoenix to see the old Hocus Pocus movie at the drive-ins! 

Bron is obsessed with Colorado's football coach and they were playing ASU so he came into town and met Travis and the kids at the game. Colorado won... boo!

Liam's mom, Kelly, invited me to a Halloween, painting night. I wasn't really in the mood to go, but I'm glad I did. Kelly is the nicest person and it was fun trying to exercise my creative bones. Weston came later and joined Liam in painting their own creations! 

We were so lucky to get the Shaheens over for a Sunday dinner! Megan's parents were here too. We met them at the resort pool for some swimming the next day.

This poor girl comes from furry parents. She has been getting teased about her leg hair and to be honest, it's longer than most so I decided to let her start shaving. She was THRILLED. We started with the electric razor but now she's comfortable to do it on her own with a real razor.

While we were in New York with Collin and Weston, Tanner got to be a Figueroa! His favorite! I love when he gets to spend time with Marcie's family because he has to grow up fast at our house amongst the teenagers but at Marcie's he gets to be his age! They had so much fun at the dinosaur museum, pumpkin patch, and just being with cousins!

Olive got to go with Reddin and Karen's family to Oceanside while we were in NY. Seeing all the pictures was heart warming. I love that Olive and Olivia have each other. So close in name and spirit! They went to Sea World, frolicked at the beach and had the best time! Yay for cousin friends.

This may seem like a small thing but I have been shopping for couches for years. I kept waiting, hoping the ones I loved from West Elm would go on sale, but they never really did. I also have the hardest time making decisions. I ended buying the leather looking one from Living Spaces and the gray one from Costco. The Costco one was twice as expensive as the Living Spaces one but seems really good quality. I love how they look together. What a relief to finally check this off my list!

The best clothes dryer on the go is an open window!

I love seeing Travis coach Collin in dive. This was a qualifying meet he needed to go to state. He scored well so if he scores well at the other one, he'll go to state!

It is June as I'm writing this October post, so I don't remember why I was crying. I do remember I was leaving the school after volunteering in Tanner's classroom and headed to visit Grandma. I took a picture because I want to document everything about my life. The good and the bad. Sometimes I think my blog only captures the fun and eventful. But life is also hard. And I really don't cry because I'm sad very often at all. I don't feel like I cry because I'm sad very often. But it's also not never. 

Later that afternoon, I got to meet up with Camilla for an acai bowl. This became our new go-to place. A couple times a month we met here to visit and eat our favorite treat!

The Morrison Ranch Halloween party is always highly looked forward to. I even let Olive skip dance because she's always late to this. 

I make an excellent pack horse.

I love our family, Halloween dinner. My witches fingers garlic bread did not turn as green as it was supposed to but the dirt and worm cups were a hit. We watched Hocus Pocus 2. Pretty lame.. can't beat the first one.

I think this picture was from Della's birthday party. Her face cracks me up!

It didn't work out with my first counselor, Tara, so I called a new counselor, Melanie Stimpson. She is nothing short of wonderful. They haven't lived in our ward for very long and hosted a little Halloween party to get to know some people. It turned out really fun. We played a lot of couple's games and Travis and I did so good matching each other's answers! My shark costume was not very accommodating to movement but I managed ok. I just think Trav's curly chest hair is the cherry on top!

Bishop Milius likes for our presidency to sit in the front of the room during Relief Society. He said I preside over that meeting the same way he does in sacrament meeting and he wants the women to know who their leaders are. I really love the women in my ward and especially love the RS lessons. I am so grateful for this calling.

Silly boys stuffing their clothes and sumo wrestling each other. 

So grateful that at least once a month they have activity days on Wednesdays so Olive can go!

The YM leaders took the boys to do this scary haunted house at Superstition Springs. It wasn't for mutual, it was just for fun. I think they all had a good time.

I love reading to my kiddos before bed. Olive doesn't often get to join us but I think it's sweet she still wants to when she's home.

The kids' elementary school always has a Halloween festival one of the weekday nights before Halloween. Olive missed most of it because of dance but we managed to get her in time to catch the end of it. All the teachers man the various game stations and it's really so fun. They go to a great school.

Not just snuggling the pillow... being smothered by the pillow haha.

Collin had a swim meet in Tucson and I volunteered to drive a carpool down. I have taken advantage of carpools before so it was my turn to contribute. I enjoyed getting to know the kids. It was an all day thing. The kids all hang out together under the pop up tents so I was free to sit in the bleachers or my car, blogging on my lap top. I brought coolers of snacks and food for them but left at one point to get some dinner for myself. It was just a swim meet... no diving but I love seeing Collin swim too. He's not the fastest but I don't care. I think it's great that he's trying something new. We had to really talk him into doing swim and he recently admitted to me that he's grateful we did. He's made friends and had a great season.

This was Collin's second, dive-only meet to qualify for state. Phoenix Country Day School. Fancy pants. And he did it! He qualified for state! So proud of him.

When I saw Gene Lines in the stands I was laughing so hard. I thought he was here for a grandson, but no, he was here for a son. Raymond was an extremely good diver! It made me giggle to see my son and my friend's brother competing together.

I signed Weston up for private baseball lessons. They work on pitching and hitting. Cause I need one more thing to drive my kids to. The coach was really nice to pull Tanner in one session and let give him some pointers.

I planned a RS activity at my house! I really tried to make it fun and have good food. A good amount of women came and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I went all in and painted my face green. It was intended to be face paint and yet it still dyed my skin after I washed it off. I just looked a little sick for a day or two haha.

We LOVE Marcie's Halloween party! I decided to do pictures on this night so I wasn't stressed to do them on actual Halloween. This was the first year Collin didn't dress up. I guess by 14 you are officially "over it".

The costumes were SO GOOD this year!!

Abbey and David snuck clothes from my parent's closet and dressed up as them. They got here before my parents and Abbey pretended to be my mom and get a picture with my dad. He totally fell for it! His face when he realized who he had his arm around was HILARIOUS!

Shelley and Casey dressed up as Ross and Rachel from the episode when they get drunk and draw on each other's faces and get married. So good.

Barbie and Ken lookin' ON POINT. They pull it off better than anyone else could!

This old couple was the cutest! Marcie with a luscious rump was a sight to behold haha!

Let the wild rumpus begin! We sang and danced and had a jolly old time.

My gym had a "bring your kid to class" day and Tanner LOVED it. It was really fun having him come with me. And he won the costume contest! 

I'm not sure how I found the time, but my best friend was turning 40 and I knew I wanted to do something special. I racked my brain and could not think of anything better than a book of special letters from her friends and family. She did the same thing for me and I felt so loved. It was a big process reaching out to all her people and rereaching out when they forgot. The messages were incredibly sentimental and I love how it turned out. I also gave her a mug from Israel with a nod to Texas, the best parenting book, my favorite quote, some perfume, and a cross bracelet.

Collin and Matthew are just a few months different in age. Carrie has mentioned that it hurts her heart sometimes to watch Collin and know that her son "should" be doing similar things but never will. Oh man. That was a stark reminder to me to be grateful everyday for your children's health and abilities. 

Olive and Emily ran off to trick or treat together. It was the first year Olive didn't stick with me.

We saw this funny idea online about putting a potato in the bowl for trick or treaters to choose from. The reactions of the kids were priceless! They were thrilled and often chose the potato over candy. So funny.

This guy was cracking me up! He spoke in a thick, Jersey accent like a mobster and was giving advice about always listening to your mother. I laughed so hard and I think he appreciated the attention because he pulled out a THICK wad of bills and started handing Tanner all this money! Dead. Best get- up in the neighborhood.

We can always count on Darth Vader across the street!

I can't remember how many pounds of candy Weston came home with but it was stupidly huge amount. He's always been my candy kid. He worked on a haunted house with his friend, Max, most of the night, which was fun to walk through. Another successful Halloween!