A big boy, a helper, and a growing girl

It's so fun to see my kids at their different ages.  Grant is becoming a big boy instead of a little boy (even though he's still little).  He started piano lessons and is doing great!  It's amazing how he gets it.  I think he's way brighter than I was at his age (thankfully!).

 He likes to be in charge and take care of things that need to be done.  He took charge and helped Brett with his breathing treatment a couple weeks ago when Brett was sick.

 He's starting to figure out words and write notes now.  This one, from yesterday, made me laugh.  

"Santa give me a telescope"

I hope that's not all he wants, because that's not what we had in mind for him when we made our list.

However, I'm sure he won't be disappointed in what we have in store for him.  :)

Brett is my helper.  This boy wants to be busy doing important things.  He was beyond excited to match up all the socks from the laundry this morning.  If he's left to just play by himself he gets cranky.  Give him a chore and he's a super happy boy.  He helps me switch the laundry, make beds, cook, and wash windows.

 He got to walk in the rain with an umbrella over to Grandma Jackson's house last week and make gingerbread boys.  He came home with some dough and showed me exactly what we needed to do to make them.  

 Little Camille will be a year old next month!  Wow!  She is so busy that when she's awake, and not in her high chair, she is getting into all kinds of mischief.  I think she may be my most feisty and busy baby yet.  Maybe because there are more places to explore and more bathroom doors to keep closed than in our previous house.

 When I tuck her in, she grabs the edge of her blanket and pulls in up snug around her.  It melts my heart every time!

 Nice teeth Camille!

She has a bunch more that are just waiting to burst through at any moment.

 I'm loving this outfit that she wore for the first time today.  

 She will eat anything!  She especially loves avocados and raspberries lately.

 

So grateful for these kids of mine and their fun personalities!

Pinecones and Happy Birthday Auntie Ann!

I took the two littles on a jog this morning.  I was hoping to find some pinecones along the way to use for a Christmas craft for Grant's Kindergarten class next week.  Well, I lucked out and found around 50 great pinecones!  Now the kids will have a great selection to pick from!

Camille fell asleep in the stroller just before we got home.  I put her in her crib and then set out to bag the pinecones and vacuum out the stroller.  Brett helped me.  He was a great help!  And then he went inside and promptly locked me out of the house!  That stinker!  By the time I realized it, he was on the potty and said he couldn't get off and was yelling.  I pleaded with him and told him he was a big boy and he could get down.  But he wouldn't.  I tried breaking in with a screwdriver.  I even tried to kick the door down.  Didn't work.  :)

Then I went to my neighbor's house and called Keith.  He said he could come home, but he had something to do first.  It would be 30 more minutes at least.  So I went back to the door to yell talk with Brett again.  This time he sounded closer.  He said he was in his room.  Well, if he's off the toilet (that he said he couldn't get down from) then it was time to act.  So I lied and told him that there was a big tractor outside and I could hear his little feet running so fast to unlock the door.  Ha!  Should have thought of the tractor sooner.  :)

Time to hide a key somewhere!

Today is my sister's Birthday!  Happy Birthday Annie!

I love this picture of her with her talented hubby.  These two both have awesome talents and are so fortunate to have each other to share them with.  They do lots of cool things together like: make chocolates (really fancy ones), bottle lots of yummy jams, jelly's, salsa, and other stuff, bake cool things like wedding cakes and pies, craft awesome things like goose feather Christmas trees.  They even have an Etsy shop HERE.  They live in a cute house all the way over in North Carolina with their little girl.  Wish they lived closer!

Happy Birthday Auntie Ann!

A few things and a song

I took the Brett & Camille with me for some morning errands.  It was chilly outside and Camille got to wear her boots for the first time.  

 Brett is potty training and he's getting good at going to the bathroom on his own...

even when he's outside playing.  Ha!

 Grant and Keith had their last baseball game of the season.

 The whole team got fun gold medals after the game.

I will be making pies this evening and rolls tomorrow morning to take to my parents house for Thanksgiving.  One of my sisters is in town with her cute family and my brother and his family will all be there, and my Mom's sister.  We haven't had Thanksgiving at my parent's house in years and I am so looking forward to it!
We've been listening to this song in our home over and over and over again this week.  And we also LOVE this version.  And now we have this song stuck in our heads all the time!  But that's a good thing because it's so beautiful.  It has me sitting at my piano plunking out the few songs that I know and being so grateful for music and how it makes me feel inside.  And so grateful that Keith got us such a great piano to enjoy!  It's probably the best thing we've ever gotten for our home!
On that note (haha), have a great Thanksgiving!

PJ's and potties

I turned the heater on yesterday and I slept so much warmer last night.  :)

Camille woke up bright and early this morning.  What's up with that?!

I'm loving her in her cozy winter PJ's.  She's so cuddly.  She was watching Keith in the backyard through the window this morning.  She's had a constant runny nose for a week.  You can see really see it in the reflection.  Ha!

 And this boy has been potty training since Saturday.  We are making progress every day and I know that in a few months it'll be done and seem like no big deal.  But right now it is a big deal (to me) and I'm so looking forward to being done.  He's been putting a smiley face sticker on a chart every time he uses the bathroom.  He gets so excited for those simple little stickers!

A chilly morning

Keith and I awoke really early this morning and both agreed that it was really cold and then pulled the covers up higher and fell back asleep.  It was a chipper 68 degrees in our house this morning.  And it hasn't gotten much warmer than that during the day.  I just can't turn on the heater yet.  It doesn't feel right.  How could it be the end of November already?  This year has truly flown by faster than any other year...ever!  It seems like Keith and I were just talking about Christmas presents for our boys, but here we are a year later adding gifts for our Camille to the list! 

Yesterday there was a chilly wind all day.  We bundled up (AZ style, i.e. sweatshirts and pants) and took our kids for a walk at the park.  It was close to sunset and it was so beautiful out.  There were tons of families there having their pictures taken.  I was glad that we already took care of that!  But we did take a few fun pictures while we walked around.

Keith, Camille & Brett (in the jogging stroller), Me, and Grant

Lately...

The kids have all been sick this week.  They got some virus and have awful coughs and Grant has had a fever.  Both boys got shots yesterday to help them get better faster.  Until then this is what they've spent a lot of time doing.

I even found this picture on my camera that one of them took.  Silly boys.  :)

We've had great bike riding weather here.  And we're lucky that Keith's parents live close enough to take a quick ride over to their house for a little visit.

 These two went in the stroller.

 Love those lips!

 Having fun in Grandma's backyard.  She loves having her brothers push her around in this car!

 We still need to get our child locks on the cabinet doors in the kitchen.  Camille did this the other day.  Luckily I got there quick enough that she didn't get hurt.  She is such a busy girl lately!

 We planted a little garden.  Still waiting for things to start growing.

 Brett loves spending time in the sandbox with his tractors.

 Grant's kindergarten teacher had me make 5 of these book bags for their class.  It was a fun and quick little project to do.  

 The shadows are getting longer and coming earlier in the day.

 The citrus is starting to change color.  I guess we don't get fall leaves that change color, but our fruit changes color!  :)

 Look, no hands!

 Whoop!  Down I go!

Have a good weekend.  We'll be trying to get better around here.  

It's also the Phoenix Temple cultural celebration on Saturday and dedication on Sunday.  Looking forward to both!

October Things

My dad helped me paint our living, dining, hallway, and kitchen.  We got it to a good point and just have a little bit left to finish.  My boys thought it was so cool to have a "Grandpa on a shelf!"

 Camille was excited about the new paint colors too!

 One of Keith's sisters and her family came to town.  We had fun seeing them.  We all spent one evening at the park with the kids flying down the hills at the speed of light on bikes and plasma cars.  It really is a miracle that no one got hurt!  Especially Brett.  He was really cruising down on that plasma car!  They all had a blast!

 Grant started fall baseball.  Keith is his coach.  I really luck out in this situation.  Sometimes it's just so hard to get everybody ready and fed in time for a game, but I never have to worry too much because Keith is the coach and he has to get there early, so Grant goes early with him sometimes and then I trail in later.  

Grant got hit by the ball in the preseason and for the first time in his life was scared of the ball after that.  That is so not like him.  He got his courage back after a few games and now he gives that bat a good swing again.

 Handsome coach!

 So glad to have a great Dad and coach!

 I hosted a baby shower at our house for one of Keith's sisters.  It's pretty obvious from the pictures that she's expecting a girl.  I had so much fun decorating for this.  I wish I had the after pictures so you could see all of the clothes that she got hanging on the line in front of the TV.  

 Here's the kids eating breakfast early one morning.

 My grandparents came to town.  We all got together for dinner at our place.  We had races in the backyard and here we are looking at pictures from a three day hike my parents took my niece and nephew on.

 Smiley Camille with a pony tail. :)

 Camille had her 9 month check up.  Getting shots in those cute thighs is so sad!

 Food face!