December in Arizona - Part 2

My mom's major is called Sustainability. It's all about going green! But ASU did the wierdest thing. They did not print out programs. They wanted to save the paper. So instead they handed out these flash drives.



I had to take a picture of how silly this was. It came wrapped in a large plastic case and sealed with more celophane (not pictured), this cardboard band, more plastic wrap and of course the thumb drive itself. We can talk about the petroleum that was used, and the energy used in the production of the plastics. Bottom line is this was not a good example of going green. My mom was pretty unhappy with ASU about this, considering her major.



And here is a cell phone tower looking out my mom's backyard. I didn't even realize it was not a palm tree until my mom pointed it out.



One of the best things about visiting Arizona is this mexican restaurant called Manuel's. I daydream about this place. So good. I requested this be put on our itinerary. Here we are at Manuel's with my Grandpa, Robert. It was great that he was able to come with us.



And to prove how warm it was there, I wore a short sleeve shirt. In December.

December in Arizona - Part 1

For a couple years now, I have been planning that when my Mom graduated from ASU I would be there to cheer. When the time came closer, I had to actually think about leaving and getting on an airplane and the crazy came out. I was terrified of leaving my house behind. I felt sure it was going to disappear. It was hard for me, but I am SO glad I went. It was awesome!

First, I watched my mom walk!



Look how freaking far away I was! I walked down a little and zoomed in to get a better picture.





The funny thing is, she was terrified of walking. She envisioned getting right up to the podium, hearing her name get called, and falling flat on her face in front of everyone. She was so worried about it that she didn't even want to go through with it. I am so glad she did though. The night before we did some aversion therapy. She put on her cap and gown and we acted out the whole thing. She practiced walking and falling down. It made us all laugh and hopefully made her less nervous about it.







Here we all are! Here is my beautiful sister and her 4 beautiful daughters. It was so fun to see them. They are getting so much taller! It was awesome to all be together. I wish I could have taken the boys, but that many plane tickets would have been too hard to swing. Maybe next time.

I am really late getting this posted, but oh well. A few months ago we took the kids to Star Valley and had some fun with the cousins. The boys rode 4 wheelers and went fishing.






"Ride, Ride!" Dallin kept saying. He loved the doggie up there too. She licked his face and he just giggled.



Blake got to ride a motorcycle all by himself for the first time.











We went down to the river and caught bullheads. They are these little teeny fish that you can use as bait. You have to catch them with a fork. It's kinda yucky, but then you get into predator mode and it turns surprisingly fun. Here is cousin Allie with hers that she caught all by herself.







These pictures make me wish for warm weather, but then I remember that we can still have lots of fun outside sledding. We can also head up to star valley and pull the kids around the field on sleds. Winter is fun too, right?

Fighting

The boys have been fighting so much lately. So. Much. I have been having to really get on them about putting their seat belts on too. They don't want to do it. Kyle pretends to put his seatbelt on but really doesn't. He even goes so far as making the clicking noise to try and trick me. Blake just pretends the seatbelt is so heavy, he can't pull it across his body. He writhes in his seat, saying he can't do it and crying that it is too hard. But I know he can do it, because he has been doing fine for so long. For a couple months I have been yelling at Blake in particular.

Me: "Just put your seatbelt on!"

Blake: "But Mooooooom."

Me: "No buts, just put it on!"

Last Saturday Brian was in Wyoming and I had the kids all to myself. I had an errand to run, so I took all the kids with me. Before we had even left the driveway, it started. Kyle and Blake had been fighting that morning, and when we got it the van you guessed it. They wouldn't put their seatbelts on. Blake was in the middle seats, pretending he couldn't lift the seatbelt across his body. So I turned around, took a deep breath ready to start yelling at him, when I noticed something. Kyle's foot was wrapped in the seatbelt. And Kyle was slunked down in the back seat, smirking. He had wrapped the seatbelt around his foot so that when Blake pulled on it, it wouldn't come loose. How long has this been going on? How many times have I hollared at Blake for not putting on his seatbelt when big brother was sabotaging him? And loving every minute watching the middle child getting it from Mom.

Kyle is banned from the TV tonight. So naughty.

Kyle

The other day, Kyle threw his shoe up on the roof. Don't ask me why, but he did. Being the clutz that I am, I can't climb way up there and get it. So it just stayed there that night.

The next morning when we were getting ready for school he had to wear his other pair, the ones he does not like as much. So he says to me, "Maybe when Dad gets home tonight, he can get my shoe down for me. Then he'd be my favorite."

I said, "Your favorite? You mean you have a favorite parent? Who is your favorite now?"

"So far...you," he says.

Caterpillars

Before the first snow flew here, Kyle and Dallin both happened to find fuzzy caterpillars at the same time.







They both giggled when those fuzzy little caterpillars over their hands, it tickled!

Bubbles

Halloween

I am pretty late in posting, but here is our Halloween this year.







Dallin loved the light up Jack-O-Lanterns.



Every year the boys' schools has a little parade where the kids all march around the school in their costumes. It is so cute! I love it. I had issues with the costume that Blake picked, so we negotiated. I let him wear the bobba fett costume to school that I liked, and the scary one later on for trick or treating.





My cute Kyle was general grievous. Star Wars!!

Here is Blake and his wonderful kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Kelly.







It's baby Chewbacca! So cute!



Here is the scary costume that I don't really approve of. But Blake wanted it so bad and Brian didn't seem to mind, so he got it for him.



Look at these tiptoes! Dallin was so excited for that candy.







I dressed up too, I just didn't feel festive until the day of. So I made this costume real quick. Brian didn't get it, but I was a contestant on the Price is Right. My bid was 471 (divisible by 3).

Family Pictures

Here is a new picture of all of us!

Apples

Look at all these wonderful apples! Thanks to my friend Heather. These are delicious!



I decided to make apple pie filling. Kyle was my wonderful helper and cut lots of the apples for me. He really enjoyed running this apple peeler/corer.



After cutting them up we ended up with this. So much work!



I filled jars with the apples, then added the sauce. My house smelled so good!!



We had one small mishap. Dallin took his cup of ice water and dumped it into my bucket of sugar.





When he realized he had done wrong, he squeezed his eyes shut and covered them with his hands. It was actually kind of cute. It wasn't too hard to clean up, all the wet sugar just clumped together and I was able to pull it all out in one scoop.



After processing the jars, here is what I ended up with. Some good stuff for my shelf! This is great as apple pie filling, but also as apple crisp. Mmm, fall baking is here!