November Photos

Here are just a few random pictures from November (excluding Boston's Birthday) Sadie went to a birthday party at a house with giant tortoises.

It's that time of year again, to seed winter grass!

Boston's adorable preschool creations

Boston's preschool took a tour of the local Fry's Grocery Store.

We got lots of free snacks. One silly thing about this trip was when the pharmacy gave each kid a weekly pillbox. Kind of a weird gift for toddlers, but the kids were fighting over them. They loved it. Kids are so funny!

Genevieve made a 'train' for Boston, Caroline, and Maggie

Cute girl

Sadie was worried about the homeless people in town, so she made them some notes. It was sweet to watch her trying to make a difference.

Our poor Sadie has ever-increasing allergy symptoms despite medicinal intervention. We had allergy testing done with more to come. Poor girl. At least she doesn't have any food allergies! (Thank goodness!)

Our traditional "Thankful Tree" was scanty this year because of our crazy, busy schedule. We didn't even put it up until the last 2 days of the month! Maybe we can get ourselves together a bit better next November!

We had our friends, Del and Michelle Black, over for Thanksgiving dinner. Both our families are out of town, so we partied together! I failed to take a picture of the whole family.

Ryan and I had a talk about his new schedule serving as Bishop before he was sustained. We knew Sundays would be full of meetings and we decided that two nights a week should be expected. Our goal was that three nights a week would only be occasional. So far this plan has gone well. We didn't really discuss weekends at that time because we had no idea how many Saturday obligations he would have. That was a HUGE eye-opener for us. He is great at delegating things, but he still has 2-3 partial Saturdays a month obligated for the calling. This is NOT meant to be a complaint at all. It is merely a learning curve and new expectations. We really love our ward and feel their support and love. They are awesome!

October

We had a few Halloween parties throughout the month. We started with Brittney Mengel's party. It's too bad I only got one picture. We had a lot of fun!

Carving pumpkins

Sadie was Dorothy

Boston was the Cowardly Lion (turned fierce)

Brooklyn was Glinda the good witch

I was the scarecrow, and Ryan was Tin Man. I am so glad my family lets me choose our costumes. I'm sure someday they will revolt against me.

Although the kids ended up sick the weekend of Halloween, we still had a good time. I sure love my family!

Tolmachoff Farms

Well my dear friends, you probably haven't wondered about where I've been, but I'll tell you anyway. :) We have successfully survived 6 months of Ryan serving as Bishop! Hurray! We've been really busy and it seems things are only going to get busier so I better catch up on the blog. Back in October, my dear friend, Cynthia treated us to a day at Tolmachoff Farms. It turned out to be a little more hectic than we had anticipated, so we didn't get a picture together. I did, however, get a picture of her cute kiddo, Andrew.

Aint she sweet?

Classic pumpkin patch photo

Corn filled play area

BFFs Genevieve and Sadie on a tractor

All the kids had a great time on this giant blowup tarp. (Obviously I don't know what to call it.)

Pigtails were flying!

Her little legs couldn't reach the pedals, so I had to push her around the track a few times.

Holly and Caroline checking out the goats

Boston, Genevieve, Sadie, and Maggie

Holly and Erin

Boston and Brooklyn in the tractor pull

Holly and Caroline

Sadie told me March 8, 2016: "Mom, remember that day I went in the cow tractor pull? That was the best day of my life."

I'm grateful Sadie is so easily pleased; and even for the rest of us, it sure was a memorable day!

September Photo Dump

We are settling in to our new busy schedule and we still managed to have some fun in September. Ryan and I went on a date to a "Ballet Under the Stars" night. While walking from our car to the park I spotted THEE biggest scorpion I've ever seen in Arizona. I stopped Ryan and he wanted to go pick it up! Thankfully it was dead, but It was as big as his palm. I didn't know that they got that big here. Eeeeww!

Ballet Arizona featured three different pieces that night. It was so fun!

We got a care package from my Mom. She's the best!!

It finally cooled down enough that we could have a comfortable picnic in the backyard for dinner.

We loved having Grandpa and Grandma for Labor Day weekend!

Uncle Nate and (Our future Aunt) Shelley came too!

Grandma Lark too!

We went swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's hotel pool.

I love this shot!

Sadie's school had a "Walk to School" Day. 50% or more of the school is out of the boundaries, so either kids are dropped off and school by parents or they walk because they are in the boundaries. So that day, the whole school meets at the park a half mile down the road. They have breakfast snacks and a police squad escort. Then the whole student body and parents walk to school. It was quite the spectacle.

Sadie and Allie

We had a lot of fun.

Well...most of us had fun.

I am grocery shopping and look down at Boston's head. What happened to your hair? "I cut it at Genevieve's house." Luckily it is really hard to tell! Stinker pot!

Autumn art craft from preschool