I'll start with the biggest news...

It's a boy!!!! We're so excited!  Keith is thrilled that he'll have a foursome for golf.  :)

 Grant invited Keith's grandpa to the Veteran's Day celebration at his school.  He was the oldest Veteran there and had a good time being recognized for his service to our country.

 During Grant's free time at school that day he decided to make a card for Keith's grandpa.  A handful of other kids in his class thought that was a great idea and Grant came home with his card, plus six more.  One of my favorites said, "Dear Veteran, do you like ice-cream?"  Ha!  I love first graders!

 Two peas in a pod.

Grant's school had a color run.  We went to watch him and cheer him on.  He won't let me wash his shirt because he doesn't want the colors to wash out.  So it's just sitting in the laundry room.  I think I'll have to throw it in the wash one of these days or he'll never get to wear it again! :)

 We lucked out one afternoon when the electric company drove three big trucks onto our street and changed out an old electric box across the street.  Brett sat out front with a cookie and cup of water and watched the whole thing.  He was in heaven!

Grant got a new front tire on his bike this past weekend.  His last one split open.  He was so excited about his new tire and quickly organized a bike race around the coul-de-sac.   

 Camille is proving to be quite the athlete.  She is obsessed with throwing balls and can catch a football pretty well.  Her dad is soooo proud!  :)

 We spotted a praying mantis on our neighbor's bush.

 This little girl is also obsessed with having a glove (or a sock if a glove isn't available) on her hand.  It's the first thing she asked for this morning.

 Tub hair!

 It's so fun to see Grant learning to read and write so well.  He's started leaving me notes.  Here are a couple favorites:

This one was left on the bathroom counter after he wiped it down before school one day.

 And this one was after I took him to get a new suit.  I hope he keeps leaving notes like this forever, they really boost my confidence!  :)

 Grant had an awesome baseball season.  Keith coached him again along with some other great dads. Most of the team has been together now for a few seasons and they've really made a lot of progress.

 Grant was selected as his school's town council student of the month.  He got to dress up and get a nice plaque from the Mayor.  His cute teacher submitted a letter for him to be considered for this and she was thrilled that he got picked.  She even came that night with her new husband.  I love how enthusiastic she is.  We're proud of Grant for getting this award.  My camera quit on me right as Grant got his award so I only have this group shot.  You'll just have to take it from me that he was smiling really big and looking very handsome as he received his award.

Family Turkey

 Grant brought home a plain outline of a turkey from school.  We were to decorate it all together as a family.  So that's what we did last night for Family Home Evening.  I think it turned out pretty awesome!

Afterwards Keith pulled out his magic glowing thumbs and taught the boys how to use them.  We were laughing our heads off for a good half hour.

Halloween. And an earthquake?

Halloween was a hit around here.  We had a bunch of family over for BBQ pork sandwiches before trick-or-treating started.  Camille LOVED everything about Halloween this year.  Well, that is once I pinned her down and got her costume on her!  Once she saw herself in the mirror she thought it was pretty fun.

Our neighborhood really gets into Halloween, particularly one street nearby.  There were tons of people and cool things to see.  We were out for quite a while.  I came home a little early to rest while Keith took the kids down the other side of a long street.  Then we had fun passing out candy before heading in to go to bed.  Camille was so sad to see the fun end, but she fell asleep super fast that night!

 The boys had fun in their bat costumes.  I found this tutorial and went from there.  It wasn't too hard, but it did take a lot of thinking and figuring out.  I think I'm done sewing for a while.  :)

Grant with his pumpkin.

 Brett with his upside-down pumpkin.

 Keith's pumpkin.

 My pumpkin.  I ran out of time to carve this pumpkin.  I picked it out because of it's natural smile.  :)  So I stuck some rolly eyes on it and a wig.  Camille thinks it's hilarious!

We had a lot going on this past week, including Keith getting Lasik done on his eyes.  It was nice to sit back and relax on Saturday night and watch a movie.  But we ended up falling asleep halfway through.  We are just old and tired around here lately.  :)

Then last night, as I was laying in bed with the window open, I heard a terrible noise.  It woke up Keith (which is really hard to do).  It sounded like a giant mountain lion was running around on our roof!  I made him search the house and check out the windows!  He found nothing, but he said he felt like it was an earthquake.  I was like, "No, we don't get those here.  That's crazy."  But we both started checking online, and sure enough a lot of other people in the whole Phoenix area were wondering the same thing.  And it really was an earthquake.  4.1.  That was a first for me.  Now if I hear those mountain lions running on my roof again, I'll know what it really is!  :)

Pumpkins and Bats

Our kids woke up yesterday and looked out the windows to find three big orange pumpkins in the garden.

They were amazed!  We planted our pumpkin seeds a couple months too late and weren't expecting pumpkins for Halloween, but this is the second time this has happened.

The first time, Keith's mom snuck a pumpkin in, and this time Keith and I snuck in some more.

It's hard to tell if the kids really think they grew there, or if they realize that they aren't even attached to the vines.  When they went out yesterday Grant yelled, "Wow, that one grew with a sticker on it!"  Oops.

By yesterday afternoon he was asking questions and he knows something sneaky is going on.

But they love it.  And they've had fun discussing who's going to get which pumpkin.

 The boys also helped hang bats on our wall.  They are very excited for Halloween and even more excited to wear their bat costumes.

Bat Costumes

Fall break is over.  The boys have started back up at school.

I went on a fun little trip to Trader Joe's with Camille and my mom this morning, and now I'm working on bat costumes for Halloween.  So far so good!

Brett turns 4!

Brett turned four years old yesterday.

 He was excited to wake up to presents and a giant "4" balloon tied to his chair (which I still haven't gotten a picture of).

 All of the hoopla started last weekend with a friend birthday party.  It was a hit!  Or should I say a splash!  We had a giant sheet of plastic covering about half the yard.  The kids had a blast and a half!

 It was a pirate themed party.  Arrrr!

 If there was a prize, Camille would have won it for keeping the eye patch on the longest!  She had it on the whole time.  Sometimes it was on her eye, or her forehead or cheek, and for a while it was on her nose.  She didn't care, she was just happy to have the accessory!  :)

 There were a few games played.

 But mostly these kids were flying around on the plastic!

 Of course there had to be a treasure hunt.

 It was up in the grapefruit tree.

 This is the best shot I could get of the treasure, those pirates got in there so fast.

They each got a little treasure box filled with goodies.

 Cupcakes with gold doubloons.

 This past Sunday night we had my family over for a birthday dinner.  We had baked potato soup, dilly bread, rolls, salad, fruit, and more cupcakes.

 Brett smushed blue frosting all around his mouth, so my brother did the same and had Brett laughing hysterically.

Then Keith smushed a ton a frosting all over his mouth and chased me down before planting a huge kiss on me!  I totally got frosting up my nose.  It was so funny!

 Then last night we went with a bunch of cousins on Keith's side of the family to Organ Stop Pizza.

I hadn't been there forever.  It did not disappoint.  These kids loved it and were totally captivated the whole time.  They especially loved having a dance party at the front with Grandma.

While we were eating pizza and watching the show, Brett leaned over to me and said, "This is the best birthday ever!"  Hooray!