November

Back at Brophy. The coaches signed the boys up for one more invite hoping Weston would get a qualifying score to go to state. It worked! He did it! They have missed quite a bit of school and we have spent endless hours driving and being at dive meets these past couple months. It was pretty sweet to have him qualify!! 

ALA's Senior Meet was at EVO so there was no diving. In fact, it was really just a fun meet against ALA-QC. Being on the Boosters has kicked my butt. It's a ton of work and I'm so over the constant text messages. I went early to help set up and take everything down. All the senior parents created posters for their kids. I had to take a picture of Chloes because it was next level! This will be us next year!

Kirk Thompson does marketing for Travis and they've been good friends for years now. They took us out at the beginning of the year so we took them to Liberty Market and to see Singing in the Rain at Hale Theater. I remember seeing this movie as a kid and I still wake my kids up sometimes by singing, "Good morning, good MORNing! It's great to stay up late, good morning, good morning, to you and you and you and you!" It was a good show!

After general conference, Marcie and Leah were inspired by Pres. Oaks talk on family traditions and getting together and started texting about organizing a simple "family reunion" with all the Udall extended family. For some reason I can't just let things be and I offered to bring balls and toys and a table and plates and stayed until everyone left so I could make sure the place was cleaned up. It kind of turned into more work than I needed, but a lot of people came and it was fun to be together so I'm glad it happened. Grandma was stressed there would be mosquitos and there wouldn't be enough light so I coordinated with my dad to bring extra flood lights but they weren't even needed and we didn't see a single mosquito. I think from now on I'm just going to stay out of any Udall family planning. I think my parents and aunts and uncles should be the ones doing it but they can't get along which is exhausting having to worry about or anticipate who's going to be offended if a gathering happens at Tava and Kents or my parents or Grandmas house. I got nothing but grief planning a Valentines party for the adults a year ago and it wasn't even my idea, it was Lisa's. So I need to learn to just stop inserting myself to be helpful. 

I'm trying to be more creative with FHE activities. Instagram is helpful! This was the "hands behind your back, see who can be the first to slurp up the flan" game. Collin won and it was really funny to watch!

We went out to lunch for Abbey's birthday. The poor girl is really going through it. Cohen is so hard and David just lost his job and I felt so bad for her hearing about it all. 

I get such a kick out of Tanner loving vegetables. He loves asparagus and was begging everyone at the table to let him eat theirs because his portion wasn't enough. 

He made a cross out of Legos and had it on his nightstand when I went in to wake him up one morning.

Morning scripture study is like reading with zombies. And after we finish, these two go right back to sleep.

It was finally time for the State Diving Championships! It was at Phoenix Country Day.. a really nice, private school with great boards. We've been here many times before. Collin was anticipated to win, so the pressure was on. I was a ball of nerves. They competed 11 dives. Half way through, the next best diver was only 10 points behind him and I was stressed. Luckily, he easily pulled ahead and won by over 65 points. I almost couldn't breathe as he approached for his final dive. If he had defaulted, I think he still would have won, but I wanted him to be proud of what he did. He went in beautifully and I wanted to jump up and cheer! He had some rough meets this season and was getting down on himself. I'm so glad he was able to finish strong and end the season with a triumph. Weston did amazing too and finished 5th! We're hoping next year they'll both be on the podium. So fun for these brothers to get to compete together. It was a great day! I was so proud of them! They announced his win over the speakers at school that day and again on Monday so he got lots of attention at school. He was recognized at half-time at one of the big football games, but he had to miss it because he was at Easter Pageant callbacks that night. Pretty cool being state champ at a school that doesn't even have a dive team haha! 

Both his school coaches, his EVDC coach Laura, ALA's Athletic Director and both sets of grandparents were there to cheer for them. 

We celebrated with pizza from Collin's favorite.. Fly Bye. They deserved it!

Tanner has been complaining his foot hurts for weeks. Maybe months. Idk. I thought he'd forget about it but he bugs me every day. It was never bruised or swollen but the kid was relentless so I finally took him to get an x-ray. The urgent care turfed us to an imaging facility and they don't schedule appointments so it took multiple attempts of going in before a radiologist was even there. They said there was so soft tissue swelling so he must have sprained it playing football. Oy vey. I think he wrapped it once. 

Olive got to compete her solo for the first time at Higley Performing Arts Center. Her relationship with her dance director is so sweet. She's been a great mentor and Olive loves her. Her name is Leah Tamba. She chose to dance to My Promised Land by Josiah Queen. I love that she chose a gospel song. She wants to dance her testimony.

Austin turned 40 and we had a surprise birthday party for him at the lake! It was so fun having all of us in on this together. There was an accident on the freeway as we were all traveling up, so we had to reroute and text Marcie to stall and I thought it might not work, but in the end it all came together and he was totally surprised. Just sitting on the end of the dock, content eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with the heel of the loaf as we pulled up with the music blaring, us dancing and confetti cannons going off! It was SO FUN. We had Venezias pizza and Twisted Sugar cookies and played games and David and Jefferson did some night surfing. I love our family!

Our second Tithing Declaration with our favorite bishop. 

Abbey and I unintentionally twinning!

Another FHE game. You each grab a random object from around the house that the other person can't see and either tell them the real object or lie and make something else up. The other person can ask questions about it or have you tap it on the kitchen table to hear how it sounds. Then they guess whether you were lying or not. It's kind of interesting to see who are the best liars!

This made me laugh out loud so I sent it to my siblings, then I laughed again when Christopher responded "Well, you kind of did though". 

Grandma and Grandpa came for Tanner's Primary Program.

 (Either we forgot to invite Trav's parents or they forgot it was happening.. not sure which.)

Have I mentioned a lot of wrestling goes on at our house?

Another FHE activity...

You start blindfolded in your taped square and a song places while you march to the beat. Whoever strays farthest from their square loses. It's harder than you think!! 

What in the nuclear diarrhea is this??

Paige asked Collin to Winfo!

Tanner likes to fall asleep with his door cracked up, but that means he usually has a visitor sleeping with him in the morning!

Owen Stansfield invited Collin to his 16th birthday party so Olive went too, to hang out with Elsie. I wish we lived closer so they could spend more time together, but a 30+ minute drive to north Mesa is no bueno for planning things.

I REALLY wanted to go on a family bike ride. Family bike rides are my favorite!! But certain things needed to get done and by the time we were filling up bike tires, the imminent storm was upon us. I still thought maybe we could power through, but besides torrential rain, lightening was striking everywhere. So we turned around after maybe 1/2 a mile and we were as soaked through as though we'd jumped in a pool. Wahh. 

Allie got baptized!!!!!! Here's what I posted on Instagram:

This is our sweet, amazing neighbor, Allie! 4 years ago the missionaries stopped by saying one of Allie’s friends had submitted her name as a recommendation to take the lessons. Allie was a freshman then and she was all in. Our family had the privilege of having regular lessons with her and the missionaries in our home since then. As she eagerly awaited baptism, she attended church with us, completed multiple years of seminary, participated in EFY in Palmyra, NY and most recently served in Belize with HXP. She consistently and faithfully stayed committed to learning as much as she could about the gospel of Jesus Christ until she was able to be baptized this past Sunday! What an immensely special day that was! The chapel was filled to overflowing with her incredibly supportive family, friends and ward family. So many traveled from out of state to be there, including many from her HXP group and one of our all time favorite missionaries, Elder Christensen! As I was chatting with Allie a couple weeks ago about everything that needed to be done to prepare for her baptism day she sweetly asked, “And how soon can I go to the temple??” I got immediate tears in my eyes as I happily told her, right away! So last night we got to be there as she scanned her newly issued temple recommend and got to be baptized for others. These are the sweetest moments of life!!! I’m so overwhelmed by Allie’s pure faith. Her parents are next level wonderful and we feel like the luckiest people to raise our family alongside theirs. Allie, we love you and are so excited for what’s ahead!!

There were so many people that we had the baptism service in the chapel. Travis conducted and her mom spoke about her journey and her family friend spoke about baptism and I spoke on the Holy Ghost. I brought all these cards for people to write her notes while she got dressed. She had a LOT of love and support there! Janice hosted a dinner/ soda bar at their house afterward which was really nice. We've been praying for his day for a LONG time. It was just as sweet as I imagined it would be! 

Why do my pie crusts do this?!! Ughhh. I think it has to do with the ceramic dish. So I just made a chocolate mousse this year and brought a pumpkin cheesecake from Trader Joes. Travis smoked a brisket and Jefferson smoked a turkey. The boys helped me make the corn casserole and sweet potato casserole and I also made cranberry sauce.

It was our TENTH year doing the Gilbert Turkey Trot! Collin said he really likes this tradition. I jumped up and down when he told me! It can happen! Your kids can like exercising if you're persistent haha!

Reddin and Karen's family signed up too which was fun! Travis stuck with Tanner and I stuck with Karen, Olivia and Olive. I think we were last to cross the finish line but they did it! 

The Goodmans never do Thanksgiving with us anymore and David and Abbey went with her family this year so that left us, Jeffer's family, Craig and Camille and Leah's family! It was perfect. My kids love being with Amelia and Rigdon. The food was amazing and I put together a trivia type game for us to play too. 

Left, Right, Center is always a riot. You would think a million dollars was on the line by the way the teenagers react! I really wanted one of them to win. Stetson was so cute rolling the dice. I was out most of the game, but then I ended up winning!! I was so shocked. I decided I'll stow away the bills to play again another time.

Sleepovers call for pancakes!!

The Shaheens were here for Thanksgiving but their family left early so we got to meet them at the Westin on Saturday and we had great, sunny weather, even if we needed to warm up by the fire first haha. The kids swam and played all day while Megan and I snuck their amazing, homemade choco tacos. Then we got Fly Bye pizza before dinner before saying goodbye.

Sometimes I sing in the choir because Cassandra Ewer makes me feel like I can. I love her for that. We sang the most beautiful arrangement of It Is Well With My Soul. Adri Lee's son drew this of us on the stand. So cute. And I'm pretty sure I'm the tall gal on the right. ;)

Tasha Monahan's brother has served high up in the military for years and been on many high profile, top secret missions. They were not optimistic he'd make it home alive from this last one, but he did. His name is Johnny Crozier and he and Travis were friends in high school and worked at L.A. Fitness together. He put on a fireside for the youth one Sunday night that we took all the kids too. He spoke about the armor of God and Weston got picked to go up and use one of his swords. Weston is always eager to volunteer for things!