On to November

I can't believe October went by so fast. Here's a few highlights:

I had a great 25th birthday. I guess I'm growing up since i'm a quarter of a century now.... A lot of my day was spent with these 2 boys... couldn't ask for cuter boys!

 My mom, Julie, and Shaela also took me to my favorite thrift store and babysat while I went out to lunch with James. My mom also made me dinner and my favorite Oreo ice cream cake.... It doesn't get much better than that! It was so fun to be back around my family and I sure felt spoiled and loved. Shaela and Jared took us to "Abuelo's" for another birthday dinner and to a place called "Primp and Blow"...the hair styling bar. Somehow, Shaela's hair was the one that turned out amazing. Hmm...

Halloween was sure exciting for Jackson this year. They had been doing a ton of halloween activities at  Orange Patch and he knew he wanted to be a superhero. (Ok, well he calls it a super reader from PBS, but making a super hero costume was SO much easier.) While he was taking a nap one day, I threw his costume together and boy did he wake up so happy! When we went to the ward Halloween party at montagues...he was the hit with his little friends. I think it's because he was so happy about it. no one knew he had girls' tights on! :)

James has been put in charge of renting out the cabin, and he's actually had a lot of renter's sign up. We spent veteran's day weekend there to try and get a few things ready/taken care of, etc. It ended up being an incredibly COLD trip, but still relaxing all the same. We even drove through the snow to go into town for the broadcast stake conference. Elder Holland spoke on how the missionary work in Arizona will be growing immensely and we need to be prepared to help with it. Elder Eyring then talked on remaining optimistic despite all that seems wrong in the world. Inspired message seeing as president Obama just got elected for his second term. 

We made it back in time for the veteran's day parade. The tanks were of course a big hit.... 

I stood by this mom who's son was "somewhere fighting al quida" she didn't know where, but hadn't seen him for 4 years. He told her he was finally able to come home for Christmas, but only if they could pay the 4000. She cried as she told me she couldn't afford it, but sure wished she could see him. I was so impressed with her story and realized that for the first time in a long time, I actually thought abotu veterans on Veteran's Day! Ha! imagine that! 

To say that all has been right with our world isn't quite true. James' job has gotten pretty stressful. He took on this job knowing we couldn't make it work on just his salary. But, he would get paid commission for any properties he could bring on, and he really felt things would improve. Well, it still has only been 4 months, but out of the 60 properties he's contacted, he hasn't had a single one go through yet. Naturally, he is starting to get frustrated. And adding to that, he's somehow gotten in the middle of a little feud going on between his company and a competitor. It's been such a mess and the competing company sent out a letter to several properties, which needless to say, wasn't very nice about James. It made me mad, but mostly just added to James' stress levels... That and one property he had, that might have actually gone through, ended up being an even bigger mess. Unknowingly, he had gone with an unlicensed landscaper and thus, would've taken lots of business away from Jared, my brother in law. To put it nicely, the past 3 weeks has been really bad for James. I don't know he takes bad news, after bad news, after bad news, and just keeps going. He sure is incredible to me at just still trying and finding ways to mend relationships. I've done my best to stay positive for him, but man, it sure  gets hard for me....and I'm not the one going to work every day any more! We've done a lot of thinking about it, and we both know he needs to stay with this job...it just seems right. But, things better start picking up real soon! And, I just thank James every day (sometimes several times a day) for being the man that he is, and willing to take on so much responsibility for his family. Looking back on our marriage, things have never really gone "the easy way" for James, he's always had his fair share of difficulty in whatever he has faced, but it always has worked out to his advantage....sometimes it just takes a LONG time. :) And let's face it, who really likes waiting? 

Tommie has sure started showing his personality. He has picked up laughing and sure surprises us at what he laughs at. Most of the time, it's just whatever Jackson does gets him laughing...To quote my niece, Macey, "I'm not sure what's more funny...Tommie laughing or Shawnne's singing...." But, whatever, I'm not ashamed of my great entertainment skills (or lack thereof). Tommie's laugh is still cute... and yes, we are BIG caillou fans in this house. Here's the link....

We've also had Sadie over while Shaela and Jared went to Disneyland. Jimmer has been going NUTS. He plays non-stop and let's just say he's definitely hit puberty and knows that Sadie is a good-looking girl! :) But, he's also started limping and been really fatigued. While doing some research, he may have been a little to hyperactive lately, and probably has severe growing pains. Guess what's supposed to fix it? Vitamin C! Ha! Who knew! We'll see if it actually works. 

So many mosquito bites

When I planted the garden this week, I hadn't noticed that poor tommie was getting attacked. I was more concerned about Jackson and Jimmer following behind me, digging back up my seeds! I felt so bad when I looked over and saw that the mosquitos were swarming around him. Needless to say, he was so happy to get some calamine lotion on!

new family pictures

I took advantage of all the pretty leaves in prescott and took a few pictures with my good-looking boys!  I think they turned out great! 

 And a few others of my favorites from the week:

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! 

Kate and Eliza here

Brad and Julie went to Hawaii to celebrate their 10 year wedding anniversary and I volunteered to take their kids. Its been so fun to have cousins around 24/7. Granted, 4 kids under the age of 5 is a little hard for me, but I've loved having something for jackson to do ALL day. I've laughed a little at their craziness. They all 3 have to take a bath together, and BOY is that a mess! One day, they deicded to empty all the water from the 5 gallon jug on the water cooler. They held the faucets down and let it drain into different bowls. Claimed they were helping me because i was going to do that anyways! Brad and Julie packed the girls a present to open each day so we've had fun with new little toys. 

Jackson brought a doll up to me yesterday and said "Mom, will you help me put these cute shorts on?" James about died.... 

not too mention They watch "My little pony" twice a day and have conversations about strawberry shortcake!! Guess I've become way too accustomed to being surrounded by boys!