Wednesday, November 24, 2021

October


October is always a full month for us.
3 pumpkin patches, pumpkin carvings, pumpkin pie, Halloween decor & movies galore…

Dates in October: 
2nd - Tia Stephanies baby shower for Asher
9th- Fantozzi’s pumpkin patch in Patterson
( great slides, chicken feed swimming (girls favorite) and corn maze (mom and dads favorite) )
10th - Aleece’s birthday party for Noelle
16th - Noelle’s ears pierced! Chicken Barn and Turlock pumpkin patch with Tia Sophia, Uncle Brett & Mason
23rd - pumpkin patch in Modesto with Harley, Michael, Perrin, Soph, Brett & Mason 
( all of the egg rolls, activities and a silkie chicken!) 
29th - building of balloon arch with soph and Brett & Nightmare before Christmas
30th- The Addams Family 2 in Riverbank (first theatre movie since March 2020 Onward for the girls!)
31st - Primary Program (we participated remotely) 


Drive-by shower so fun! 
Can’t wait to sip our sparkling cider to celebrate the birth of Asher!

General conference weekend


Primary Program screenshots 









Their pants were black going into that chicken feed thing! Crazy but they loved it! We did a family hayride and corn maze that lasted about 10 minutes and the girls (rightfully so) got nervous about me and Michael’s navigation skills. We lost count of how many times they slid down those slides! So fun.  
Sweet little cow ride that even Gwinna had fun on. Good family day.  


Turlock pumpkin paled in comparison this year to Patterson. Not much to do but the girls had fun running around the hay bales with Tia Sophia while I sat with the snuggly Mason baby. 


OK so the story of this weekend (insert eye roll here). The plan was Friday after school with Tia Sophia at Claires but morning of Michael was talking to Tara and she said “oh don’t do the gun, get it done with a needle, so much better” so I researched and there really is no contest as to which is better?! Who KNEW? Well…Tara did.  
Anyway I switched gears and called Yonans & was told to call before coming because girl that does it with needle may or may not be in.  We did after school and poor Noelle….she was not in.  SO…. Michael got involved we drove to the mall after he called a place that said they do it.  WHEN WE GOT THERE they said oh we need her birth certificate and school ID…of course we had neither.  Ugh.  Tia Sophia had driven to Modesto too, thinking it was happening.  Nope.  Headed home and continued to call places and finally found Erin at a tattoo place in Modesto.  Michael was not going to have Noelle go through the excitement just to be so disappointed for a third time. 
Erin was amazing.  Had her take deep breaths so she would calm down, had her do a “practice breath” and did it all before she even realized it was done.  After the first poke “wait did he do it? Is it done?” Me and Soph held one hand each and just told her to keep breathing :) YAY. Sweet Noelle has been wanting this since kindergarten.  Beaming. The date is November 7th and she is still beaming about it.  
Cannot wait to put fun new ones in on the 27th:)  



OH and BEFORE we did the ear piercing he told us to eat so we went to Brett’s childhood favorite The Chicken Barn.  Really good, despite the name;) 


Next pumpkin patch date was in Modesto and we cleaned them out of egg rolls. Girls ran around with Soph and did a huge slide, zip lining, animal petting, hamster wheel running, bouncy balls, trampoline jumping, and of course pumpkin picking ;)



Matilda and pumpkin carving followed up with pumpkin pie. 


This Jack Skellington puzzle drove me nuts. Final straw was the cat jumping on the table and sliding into it and messing up the border.  DONE. 

Sweet Noelle with sweet Aleece:) 


👇a few CRAZY windy, dusty days this month too! 
Blew over trees and a ton of dirt on everything. 



Movie time

Modeling each other’s clothes 








Happy place














Sia losing teeth.  So excited with every one.  Me too, since its happening naturally nowadays. 😑

Two field trips in a week for this one. Pumpkin patch & fire station!



And now onto the next. .  .

Thursday, October 7, 2021

September

 
Parade in September this year.  Michael Joe, Tia Sophia, Mason and the girls:) About 93 degrees out and Michael was sweating a lot holding an umbrella over me and Mason while the girls ran out for candy;) 




So my sweet Noelle was “exposed” to someone who had COVID so we were given two options.  Quarantine for a few days or wear a mask all day to school and then take a COVID test at the end of the week.  Which would you choose?!?! Haha.  OBVI she stayed home with mama and did such a great job helping me create amazing Halloweenie art.  Little hanging paper ornaments that are on our kitchen light, candy corn on the back of cotton candy for the bedroom and just perfect sweet painting to replace bathroom art for the season! LOVE it all.  Also helped me place spiders up there. 


Sia got student of the week, as well as Gwinna the week before. Both first in their classes so that was very exciting.  And actually as I am writing this (Oct. 7) Noelle got it this week! Woo! My girls.  They are very good little people. 

Noelle created a pillow fort around Michael as he took a nap:) 

Halloween kitty home for Halloween 

FaceTiming Remington.  He wanted a picture of all the girls. Too cute. 

Stacking Sia…still at it :)

Daddy cleaning out our popcorn machine for our weekly watching of Monsters Inc episodes….and most recently Dug on Disney + and this upcoming weekend Muppets Haunted Mansion.  Yay! 
We try to do it every Sunday.  Popcorn and a movie or episode.  


Noelle and Sia are set and Gwinna wanted her toddler pumpkin one until this past weekend when she found a hotdog at Target! Ha! 

Last spraying with the hose by mom session of the season, I hope! Haha! This was after picture day. 

Dancing with JACK. 

“Send this to Miss Cota.” 

Love our kitty





Love reading with this girlfriend!




Halloween tree this year….getting crazy!

 

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

First half of August

Last & cutest puzzle of the summer😢

LAST visit to Aunt Lili’s house in Merced 😢😢😢





Not quite the last swim of the Summer at Grandma’s



August 6, 2021 Michael Joe lost his sweet Grandpa. 
He said it was a really peaceful experience to be able to see him and talk with him right before & pray with his family after. 


Our sweet Sia’s first day of KINDERGARTEN! 










2nd day of school (technically Sia’s first full day)
 - made cookies, cleaned house & cried into my kitty


8/11/21

Fasting has been a recurring reminder that’s been jumping off the page at me and then deeply into my mind until I forget and then am reminded again and I need to write it down. I NEED to fast. I will fast in September and every month following. A real one. 
Another word feeling like it’s ricocheting around in my brain when I read it is “idle” which of course always brings me back to my mission days. It’s the reminder I needed daily & the scripture I chose for my plaque. A favorite but also a bold reminder to get in line. CEASE to be idle. Having the girls going back to school this week is an abrupt awakening as to how idle I’ve really been, unfortunately! Ugh. Grateful that I enjoy early to bed and early to rise and being organized, calendars & timers to remind me. My dad made fun of my “brush teeth” one when it went off at their house but I’m really happy that I am this way. It does make life smoother & helps us be in much better moods, I think :) 


8/13/21
Sia’s first official day of school
Popped her neck on the way to school and complained and cried of shoulder pain on the way home 🤷🏼‍♀️ Can’t tell how intense it is or if it’s just an overwhelming day for her little self too. I cried for a long while this morning not unloading any babies from the van when I got home. Grabbed my kitty and made him sit with me a while. Michael had an extraction and bone graft this morning. Ugh. FaceTimed Jet and Lil and Jet said I love you at the end and it set me off again to tears. I can’t believe they’re leaving in less than a week 😩 when it rains it pours. Life just SUCKS sometimes but proper perspective definitely helps me here. Sia is HAPPY to be going to school maybe overwhelmed but so excited! Gwinna and Sia are so HELPFUL for me. Taking her to class and reassuring her all the way to school that they will be with her. Gwinna prayed for me this morning that I would be strengthened by the Lord and know and remember that Sia won’t be gone all day. Michael’s dental stuff all went very well. Hoping he’s not in too much pain tomorrow. Hoping Grandpa will help sias shoulder. Love my fur ball baby that TRULY brings me peace and comfort. Grateful for cookie dough for my lunch and a great vacuum cleaner & my able body to make 2 trips to pick up my kids from school everyday even though it’s not ideal 😬
I AM excited for Lil and her little family to get where they want to be. Owning a house and renovating it soon:) this one is hard to look on the bright side because it will be HARD not to see them every week but they’re moving onward & upward & I am very happy for them still. Selfishly though. UGH. :(
But happy. But not. But yes. Ok. Done. Can’t think about it.