Prescott

Shaela and Jared were nice enough to let us tag a long for October break to Prescott. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to just play! The first weekend was conference, so we went on quad rides in the middle of the sessions and ate great food. The big news from conference this year was of course the change in missionary age, so we all called Matt realizing he could leave in like 8 months. No more BYU for him this next year!

You know you have watched too much conference when Jared starts sitting like the general authorities! :)



While the boys were in priesthood, Shaela and I went into the mall. Yep, 6 kids at JC Penney on saturday night! However, I think we were like the only people in the whole mall. You would've guessed it was closed down or something cause no one was there. The big hit of the trip was Shaela's new orange stretchy pants. She is fascinating isn't she?

Jared and James left us sunday night to go back for work in Mesa. Shaela and I entertained the kids all day, not too mention 10 dogs!  Shaela's dog Sadie had 8 puppies and I took up Jimmer too. Let's just say that in the mornings there was a ton of poop to spray out of the garage!

Actually, Jimmer loved it. I was always scared he was going to bite the puppies heads off, but the puppies always ran back to play with him again. Shaela actually only sold 1 puppy in prescott.... she tried to sell Jimmer too but they didn't want him! He really is WILD, but the trip actually helped him calm down a little. Besides, he is getting really cute!

We took the kids to catch tadpoles one day. It was such a pretty place we stayed for quite a while and ate lunch. The boys were so excited to have so many tadpoles, but Macey started feeling bad for them (all cooped up in that ziploc bag) so she let them ago. Ha! She reminds me so much of shaela! Everyone was mad at her for letting them go, and she was mad at everyone for trying to hurt them! 

Towards the end of the week, the fighting really set in. Jackson just became so angry at Weston and would hit SOOOOO much. I'm sure weston's whining didn't help any, but man, I sure ran out of parenting ideas to keep Jackson from hurting everyone. Shaela decided he needed an anger management class called "huffy hippos" at the child crisis center. I tried everything from time out, to spanking, to sending him out with the dogs, prayers, ignoring it, etc. By the time James made it back up that weekend I was sure completely out of ideas! We finally just decided he's a boy that just needs his dad around! James is always helping him relieve his "competitive energies". That, and he really has been through A TON these past 4 months... moved, had JaNae's kids, Wilford and Kathleen lived with us, had a baby, got a dog, started preschool, had Julie's kids, etc. Poor kid! The whole world used to revolve around just him! I laughed at this picture when weston barricaded himself in the corner so Jackson couldn't get to him when he was playing! Someday they'll be best friends I'm sure! 

By the time dinner was over, the kids went straight to bed at 6:30. Macey, Shay and I watched ALL the Anne of Green Gables movies. There used to be a day Shay would make fun of me so bad for watching those, but we sure had fun falling in love with Gilbert Blythe! :) Macey must not be at the age of liking boys yet, cause she slept through all the "good parts". It really was a fun week though. And, while I was gone, James worked real hard to get the garden ready to plant and planted a winter lawn in the front. Our whole front yard had completely died, as in, just dirt in parts. Seriously. Look how amazing it looks one week later!