Sunday, December 18, 2011

November

So we are moving! Staying in Pima, but changing houses…. We just found out this month that the owner of our house wants to move back in and live here, so we are moving the week after Christmas… Needless to say, things have been a little hectic – especially this time of year – so I’m going to make this as quick as possible…. (If that’s possible for me!) :)

Big events from November:

Colette has been taking a dance class this semester, and at the beginning of November they had a show class for parents to come and watch. She is absolutely loving dance!! She is definitely our little ballerina princess. It was fun to go and watch her. She enjoys car-pooling with her friend, Lucy, as well, every week. They’re so cute to listen to, sitting in the back of the van, jabbering to
eachother the whole way there and back. It’s a fun little activity for her to be involved in…. :)




(Timothy now insists on getting his picture taken these days as well, whenever we pull out the camera - he will not be left out of anything!)














Well, we had the very fun opportunity of spending Thanksgiving in Mesa with all of
our family this year. It was a fun weekend! The kids just have a blast with all of their awesome cousins, grandparents, aunts, & uncles. The Thanksgiving meal was with Jared’s Mom’s side this year – all the Browns. It was so much fun to see everyone and visit, and the kids had such a great afternoon playing with tons of cousins! The weather was just perfect that day!






(Samuel was attached to this football the entire afternoon)(All 10 grandkids from the Ray side)



(Jared with all of his brothers and sisters)



Of course we had to do the crazy tradition of Black Friday shopping for Thanksgiving weekend!! (Which technically could have been considered Black Thursday this year)…. We had quite the stories to tell from that this year – but I’m excited about some of the things we were able to get – and mostly, I don’t know why – I just think it’s fun to see all the craziness…. We get a kick out of it! :) And then, of course, after going to bed at like 2:30-3am, we were then up bright and early for the Mesa High Alumni Soccer game they have every year the day after Thanksgiving! Jared and Daylen got to play together this year. (On opposing teams – the young versus the old!) :) He was worried about being in good enough shape for it, but he did awesome! It was fun to watch them – Samuel especially loved getting to see his Dad playing soccer for the first time!


And then we were also able to go to Jared’s Grandpa Ray’s 80th b-day party while we were there that weekend. Again, tons of fun to see family we haven’t seen in a long time, visit, and catch up with everyone. And for the kids to play with tons of cousins once again! This is the 4-generation picture of Ray boys! Such handsome guys…. :)

And last of all, for the month of November – the last day of the month was our ward’s Young Women in Excellence – I am in Young Women in our ward right now. So we did the “Happily
Ever After” theme, (I even got to write my own “Happily Ever After” book with a little summary of my life w/ pictures to take and display there with the Young Women – that was fun), and all of us who had young daughters were able to bring our girls to the event dressed as princesses to help out! Brielle and Colette were of course thrilled!! They had such a fun night that night – handing out programs and helping with refreshments, and running around with the other little “princesses” there that evening. It was a fun little memory for me and my girls! :)



Well, that’s about all I have time for for November. Life is busy and great!! :)
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:

Thursday, November 10, 2011

October

*(Don't ask me why it's having these weird huge spaces in between pictures in this post - tried to fix it but no more time for trying - just do lots of scrolling down on this one)... :)

Well, first big event from October - Uncle Daylen is home from his mission to Argentina!! We were able to go and visit for Conference weekend and see him for the first time in two years! The kids were SO excited! And this was also his first time seeing Timothy, of course. He got them each these cute soccer jersies from Argentina, which they loved. And we had a great weekend there visiting and seeing family, and the kids getting to play with all their cousins.... They have a great time with their fun Uncle Daylen - so excited to have him home again!





















So Timothy's obsession these days is most definitely, Trucks! He reminds me of Samuel how he has his favorite toy ones that he carries around and lines up on any surface he can find - except with Timothy it has to be trucks! (Samuel was always cars).... Any drive we go on now, the entire experience is filled with the constant yelling out of "Big truck! Big truck!" as he points out every single one we happen to drive by - you never realize how many trucks there are out there at one time.... :) And he will say it over and over until we repeat it so that he knows we had the pleasure of seeing it too! And he loves to get the little bathroom stool and stand up at our front window in the house and try to see "big trucks" drive by - the most exciting days of the week are garbage days!! The garbage man will even wave to him when he stands there at the window to watch - oh such exciting parts of life!! :)



So the kids have a Disneyland Fund going right now and are always trying to come up with ways to earn money. This particular event finally occurred after many weeks of begging me beforehand - they did a little "bake sale"! Well, I was quite surprised - it actually ended up going really well! They had such a fun time doing it! They set it up out on my Mom & Dad's driveway, and they waved their little sign at anyone who passed by! We had made cupcakes and brownies, and they ended up selling all of them! (Of course, that was largely thanks to their sweet Grandma & Grandpa, and Jared and I bought some as well, of course, and they actually each ran back home during their sale to get money from their banks and each buy one for themselves too!) :) So not too much of a surprise that they all got sold! But what surprised me was that they actually had some sales to non-family members who did actually stop for them! Those were some exciting moments to these kids! It happened to be really cold and windy that day, but they were determined to stick it out there and sell their goodies! They were very proud of their earnings afterward! It was cute! (Also, a funny story with that - my Dad came driving home when they first had started, and their happened to be a little boy riding his scooter down the sidewalk. My Dad stopped and talked to him across the street, and what do you know, the boy came right over to the little "bake sale" after that with a whole dollar to buy treats with! :) That was the kids' first sale, and oh were they ever excited!! Lucky for their sweet Grandpa, they're not quite old enough to catch on yet to such a coincidence, and were so excited to have proven so quickly to their mom that people would be buying their goodies!) :)

The County Fair! Always been one of our favorite traditions! It was so fun this year because Heidi, and Athena & Brennon (with their new little Jacob!) were able to come! We had such a fun afternoon at the fair - it was the perfect weather that day and not too crowded yet at the time we happened to go. The kids were so excited - had a blast on the 2-3 rides each they were allowed to choose and then with looking at all the fun animals at the end.... And it was a fun weekend with family visiting - so fun to see Athena & Brennon with their new little baby, and the kids just always have such a great time with their fun Aunt Heidi! They decorated for Halloween and made Halloween cookies with her and things like that. Brielle always has a hard time when she leaves - she just adores her Aunt Heidi - always goes by too fast!


Samuel's kindergarten class had a 50th Day party like Brielle did last year, and had the little 50's dance again! He was so excited about that for weeks beforehand. They got all dressed up and did dancing to 50's music, rootbeer floats, etc. Colette & Timothy were excited to get to dress up and join the party as well. It was so cute! All the kids were running all over that gym having a great time! I still just can't believe sometimes that my little Samuel is already in school - he's so fun to watch with his friends. According to him, Hayden (in the car with him) is his best friend from school and from soccer. He loves that he can say he has a best friend now like Brielle always does. And he even got invited to his house this month after school, which was just the all-time most exciting thing!! (Inspired him to get his whole morning schedule done before school that day!) :)







































































There was a fun little Reading Under the Stars at the school this month where all the kids could come and listen to stories under tent covers and trade and take home books, and also look at the stars through telescopes! It was really neat and the kids just had a great time! My Dad was asked to be one of the story-tellers, so that was even more of a fun memory for them - getting to listen to their grandpa read a story out there - he is quite the fun story-teller! He did "The Hallo-Weiner" and had stuffed dogs all around his little set-up - the kids loved it! It was a fun evening....


Colette is still loving this little mom-swap preschool we're doing. She got to have her own little jack-o-lantern this year, which she drew the face herself for and which she was very proud of!







































































Carving our jack-o-lantern.... They wanted a mad/scary face this year.... Finally, our older kids are doing the cleaning out of the pumpkin now - the younger ones have stuck with tradition, and want nothing to do with it! Timothy kept shouting "Yuck!" (Because that is what he does these days - shouts, not talks... He is quite the loud boy - must be too used to chaos around here).... :)



Going to the Stake Halloween party! We learned our lesson last year about how big this one is, and we got there early this year, didn't have to stand in any lines and got home at a decent hour, so we had a lot of fun this year. The kids absolutely love the little "horse" rides and getting a free hot dog for dinner (that's them sitting and eating those in the last picture)... :)












































































We actually made a gingerbread Halloween house this year - the kids loved it! I love this time of year - always so many fun memories... These are supposed to be scared faces... :)



Halloween! I was able to go help out in Brielle's classroom for her class party that day! It was lots of fun - Samuel's class was doing a costume parade, so we got to see him come thru the room, and then we did games like musical chairs and pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin.... Colette & Timothy were so excited to get to be part of the party, and I had so much fun seeing Brielle in the classroom environment - she's a good girl! It was a fun little afternoon together!.



















.





































































Halloween night! Brielle wanted to be a cat this year; Colette chose a ballerina - and of course had to throw in other accessories along with that costume - a princess ballerina was more like it! Samuel wanted to be a Knight - very excited about his sword; and Timothy wore Samuel's old pirate costume - as he of course had no opinion on the matter! :) Trick-or-treating was a blast for them as always - it was really nice this year because all the kids were able to just walk up to every house on their own - Brielle was holding Timothy's hand, and once he figured out the deal with people giving him candy, he was more than willing to be led from house to house - constantly saying, "Tweets! Tweets!" (for "Treats").... They had a great time, and we always enjoy watching them and listening to all their funny little comments throughout the evening. Also one of their favorite parts - handing out candy afterwards, which they got to do at my Mom & Dad's house. Jared and I think it's hilarious how these kids find more enjoyment out of their candy by playing with it together and trading and what not, more than in eating it! (Maybe that's because they have such a mean mom who only lets them eat one candy a day at the most!) :) But yes, that is the new favorite thing to do around here these days - get out the buckets of candy to play with it! :)














































































And lots of fun soccer games to go and watch every Saturday! Samuel actually started scoring some goals this month - his first ones - he is SO excited! I had to put the video on here of his first goal - I could tell he was going for it, so I got the camera out as quick as I could and just barely got it as the ball was going in. But I love how he walks off like it's no big deal, but secretly is just so proud and excited inside! This boy is just in love with soccer!! He actually started crying the week that they didn't have a game when he found out he wouldn't get to go to soccer practice OR play in a game that week... I think it's so neat that they do these little league soccer teams - so appreciative of all the people who volunteer their time for these kids. These guys just love it!













Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)