The weekend

It was sure nice to have a long weekend.  Keith was out of town until Friday.  He was among the lucky few thousand that got delayed at the Orlando airport that night due to security concerns.  He finally got home at 3:30 AM!

We pulled a couple bins of clothes down from the attic to check out what we have for cooler weather. Brett and Tyler are set with hand me downs.  Tyler actually has way to many clothes and I need to go through and pick out what we really love and want to keep.

The kids spent a lot of time outside in our beautiful November Arizona weather.  When Tyler took a nap they were excited to be able to play out front with the neighbor kids.  Tyler is a mischievous little escape artist lately so unless Keith or I can go outside with him, he's inside with us.

We went on a little hike near the Superstition Mountains on Saturday afternoon.  And then Keith and I had a date that night.  

Brett is home today not feeling well.  I hope to have him back in shape to go to school tomorrow so he won't miss out on the petting zoo that's coming for the Kindergarteners.  He made sure I'd wash his blue checkered plaid shorts so he can wear them because they look like something a farmer would wear.  Or so I'm told.

Plans are underway for Thanksgiving dinner here at our house with my family.  Last year's set up here with Keith's family was such a success we figured we'd go for it again, but this year I'm cooking the turkey.  My mom's going to come over to help me though because I've had really bad luck with those things!  Everyone says they're so easy, but I guess I'm the exception.

This girl cracks me up!

Twinners!

Today I ran across a picture of Brett that looked just like Tyler.  I had to do a double-take!  So I found similar pictures of these two handsome boys at the same age.  It will be interesting to see if they continue to look alike as they grow up!  

Brett 2013  

Tyler 2017

Halloween 2017

 Halloween was a hit over here!  It started out with a jog to school to watch the Halloween parade over there.  The boys had class parties and Camille did too at her preschool.  

Our house was in desperate need of a cleaning.  So I spent the afternoon rushing around getting things in order and making tacos for dinner and pumpkin bread for dessert.  We had my parents and grandparents over for dinner.  Then we all went out to the driveway to watch the World Series game while passing out candy and eating popcorn and pumpkin bread.  Keith took the kids trick-or-treating for a while and then they came home and ran around like the crazy sugar infused kids that they were with our neighbor's sugar infused kids.  They had so much fun!!!

After quick baths, they were all in bed and I was sooo tired!

They woke up this morning to dentist appointments before going to school.  They had the cleanest teeth in school today.  ;)

Here's a quick picture to document this years bats.  I had them flying from an air vent over to the chandelier.  I think it's my favorite spot so far.  And it was the easiest too!

We added mini pumpkins to the chandelier and liked the pop of color it added.  The BOO letters are always a favorite around here.

Playing out back before preschool.

Thankfully Camille and Tyler took really great naps that afternoon.

Halloween for the past few years:

>>>2016<<<

>>>2015<<<

>>>2014<<<

>>>2013<<<

Pumpkin Bread

You'd never believe it by the look of things outside right now, but we actually got a little bit of rain this morning.  It was glorious!  What a treat it was to have heavy clouds hanging above, blocking the hot sun, while we went for our jog this morning!

That tiny bit of rain put me in the mood for baking something pumpkin-y.  I chose my friend Stephanie's pumpkin bread.  It's a favorite fall treat over here.  You can find the recipe HERE on Stephanie's cute blog.

Happy fall! 

(Even if it's 95 degrees out now!)

These four kids

Grant got his cast on last Friday.

 Brett making funny faces at the park:

Camille is trying to get over the croup.  She's doing pretty great during the day, but still coughs a lot at night and it's sad.

Tyler is keeping us all entertained with his hilarious personality.

A few things on a Thursday

Tyler is growing so much lately.

He doesn't talk yet, but he and I have a way of communicating with each other.  I can usually figure out what he wants.  Today he wanted to eat popcorn from a bowl with a spoon.

That cute face wins me over every time!  :)

Whatever germ Brett had last week has spread.  Luckily we had a few days of wellness so we could celebrate Brett's birthday.  Grant came down with it on Tuesday.  Tyler on Wednesday.  Now Camille has it, but with a fever like Brett.  She slept a lot today.

The recycling truck came by and these little feet all went running to watch out the window.

 I've had this recipe saved to my Pinterest account for a while and I finally made it.  It's a keeper.  I think I could've used a better caramel in the middle.  I just used the square Kraft caramels.  In my opinion they would be really awesome with a softer caramel.  Maybe even a Rolo?  And I skipped adding the sea salt on top.  I'm not a HUGE fan of salted caramel and I felt the pretzels added enough salty flavor to make these a nice sweet and salty treat.

We are in the middle of our fall break and don't have any amazing plans to speak of.  It kind of snuck up on us and now that the kids have been sick I think we're going to keep sticking around here and sneaking in little outings when the kids are feeling better.

We checked out the movie Newsies from the library yesterday and the kids loved watching that for the first time.  Sometimes I forget that the library has tons of movies to choose from, and they're free!  It just takes a little more forethought, but you can't beat it.  Plus our library is so close that it's really quite convenient.

Brett's Birthday Celebrations

Brett woke up to birthday decor galore on his birthday.  He had been sick all week.  He tried to go to school on Wednesday, but got worse and came home early.  So he got to stay home on his birthday and have fun playing with his presents all day and watching Mighty Machines, his favorite show!  We went on a jog that morning through a fun park and got the kids happy meals for lunch, per Brett's request.  He told me more than once that he was having a really good day.  :)

These kids of mine played and played all day and trashed the house really good!

A sweet neighbor couple gave him this awesome race track.  It was a hit!

Grandma and Grandpa Jackson came over and gave Brett these fun cars from Cars 3.  Another hit!

We attempted singing Happy Birthday, but didn't quite get there since Grant broke his wrist while we were waiting for him.

Let's get a closer look at that fruit pizza.  I was so looking forward to that all day.  

We sang to Brett the next day after lunch and finally enjoyed that deliciousness!

Brett really liked it.  He kept saying, "Mmmm, this is so good!"  We should have this on my birthday every year!"

Keith came back into town and we had a birthday party for Brett at the pool with grandparents, cousins and some neighbors.

First we checked out the fish in the waterfall.  Tyler was waving to them.  :)

Then we hung the piñata.

The swimming started.

Grandpas and Granmas galore!

We had pizza.

Brett had fun opening presents.

The kids all had fun hitting the piñata.

Then we had birthday cake.

It was a fun party.  Brett had a blast with all those kids, and he went home feeling well celebrated.  :)

Grant breaks his wrist

Last Thursday night Grant was rollerblading around our cul-de-sac and fell and broke his wrist.  It was Brett's birthday and we were about to sing "Happy Birthday" and have a birthday treat outside.  That treat ended up back in the refrigerator to wait until the next day.  

Luck would have it that Keith was in Europe that week for work!!  Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of Keith's parents and they came over to help.  His mom took over cleaning up and getting the kids to bed, and his dad helped get a screaming Grant into the van and we took him to an Urgent Care type place that we'd been to before when Grant hurt his finger in baseball.  

His wrist was determined to be broken and they put a splint on it.  The next day Grant had a Toga Party at school.  He couldn't miss that, so off he went!  That afternoon I took him to our pediatrician and he got a much more comfortable and sleeker splint.  He gets a cast put on this week.

He's been a good sport, but is so bummed to have to miss out on the rest of his baseball season and going swimming.  Brett had his birthday party at the swimming pool last night, so I made Grant the official photographer.  He took a bunch of pictures for us and I think it helped him feel not so left out.  :)

Brett turns 6!

We are in the middle of celebrating this handsome boy.  He turned 6 last Thursday.

Tonight we are getting together with family for a swim party.

More on the celebrating later.  

For now, here are 6 things that I love about Brett:

1. I love when he's excited about something and his face lights up with that great smile!

2. He's a hard worker and loves to help at home (as long as it's not cleaning his room). ;)

3. He's smart.

4. He's creative.  Oh, the things he makes, draws, and builds!

5. He's a good communicator and expresses himself well.

6. He's great at figuring out how things work.  Keith calls it his "engineering mind."

Happy Birthday Brett!!