Turkey Trot 2014

Justin once again skipped out on the Turkey Trot.  At least this year he had a good excuse........he was watching Ella.

The kids and I think it's a great tradition.  Then when Thanksgiving dinner comes you feel fine about pigging out!  This year Kason Hawkins joined us.  Hunter was really excited to wear his camo body suit!

This is the first time I walked the 5K.

Since I had just gotten my boot off the day before the Turkey Trot I decided not to push my luck and to give my healing foot a break :)

Tressie agreed to walk with me since she said there was no way she could run it.  It was nice to walk and visit.  Maybe walking it each year should become my new tradition?

Love that we got a picture with this turkey....lol!

Stephanie Hoopes is stinkin' awesome!

Kiersten, Hunter and Logan all ran the 5K.  Silvio was a good sport and he stayed with Chase and Mr. Grant.  MG was spoiled by Chase as he got a shoulder ride for a good part of the race.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

This year we were having my parents and Quincy's family join us for Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  I also made the turkey for the in-laws, like I have for a good 6 years now.

We have so much to be thankful for this year!!

Wish Fulfilled

Hunter has begged me for a full mohawk for years and I just never could give in.  I finally decided why the heck not?  Him having a mohawk doesn't change the wonderful kid that he is and anyone that things that is pretty judgmental.  

Honestly, Hunter rocks the mohawk look pretty easily!

Hunter was super happy about his haircut!

He ended up keeping his hair like this for about 6 weeks and then decided all on his own that mohawks are way too much work :)

Only been Waiting for this chance for a YEAR!

Hunter has been waiting since Christmas of last year, 2013, for the chance to go deer hunting.  Needless to say when the day finally came for his hunt he was Ecstatic!!!  Justin, Hunter and Uncle Quincy all got drawn for deer. 

One of the first days of their hunt Logan and Grant join them.  They all loved it!

Hunter thoroughly enjoyed his week off of school out hunting!

Quincy was the hero, as usual, and took Hunter out most of those days.  Justin did take off one day and lucky enough it was the day Hunter shot his first deer.

How did I get so lucky to be blessed with 4 handsome men in my life?

This was Hunter's spot when he shot the deer!

Hunter and Quincy both shot the deer.  So together they killed the deer.  One person shot it in the neck, which they think was Quincy and then there was another shot to the lungs, which they believe was Hunter's shot.  Regardless, they shot a deer and all was right with the world!

What a wonderful memory for all these guys to have!  If I didn't have a broken foot I would have loved to join them for a day or two of hunting!

Dressing the deer out in the field was "TOTALLY AWESOME!"

They are guessing that it weighed 160 lbs after it had been field dressed.  

Hunter loved all the blood and guts.  Logan and Grant were so excited to go see the big kill at Grandpa's house.

I'm ready for some jerky!

Grandpa Boswell did a fantastic job mounting the antlers!

Hunter was thrilled beyond words with how it turned out.

What a great experience his first hunt was.  I see many more hunts in his future.  He is already talking and planning next years trip.  I'm sure missing a week of school helped raise the excitement to some degree.

Prayer Works!

This is going to seem like a ridiculous little story to some, and I agree, there is some level of ridiculousness to it! :)

This is the background to the story.... I am the primary chorister in our ward and I had made some bookmarks for my kids.  On the bookmarks were heart shaped leaves I had found while on a hike up on Mt Graham.  It was something that would not be easy to duplicate due to having those leaves on the bookmark.  I had this whole music time about "Looking For the Good," planned out and then for several weeks I was unable to present this singing time.  So needless to say I misplaced the bookmarks in the mean time.

I knew I had put the bookmarks in a "good and safe spot," I just couldn't find that spot...hahaha!  Happens to me quite often really :)

So I looked for these bookmarks for a good week and a half....off and on.  I thought really hard about where I would have put them but I never could come across them.  I asked all my kids if they had seen them.  I spent a good deal of time looking for these silly bookmarks. I just could not find them.  Over the week and a half of looking for them, I kept thinking I should get down and kneel and ask Heavenly Father to help me find them.  But then I would think, oh I can find them.  I kept thinking that is what you tell your kids to do when you want them to learn the power of prayer.  "Go say a prayer to help you find it," you'd say.  I've told my kids that many of times because I wanted them to learn to go to Heavenly Father when they have problems.  I know this lesson myself, but in my adult mind this wasn't a big enough problem to bother my Heavenly Father about and so for a week and a half I didn't.  

Then one evening, tonight actually, I was frustrated that I still hadn't and couldn't seem to find the bookmarks.  And so I finally humbled myself and knelt down in Hunter's room and ask my Heavenly Father to please help me find the bookmarks I had made.  It was a short and simple prayer, but full of humility and faith.  I stood up from saying my prayer walked into the kids office and did like I had done a gazillion times before, I thought about where I would have put the bookmarks.  A minute hadn't passed when I had the thought that I had left them in a box I was going to use that Sunday, back a month ago, for my singing time.  I remembered right where the box was hidden in my closet behind my clothes.  It wasn't a place I would just run across at all.  I walked straight into my closet, looked behind my clothes and into the box and sure enough the BOOKMARKS WERE THERE!!!

I started to cry!  I was grateful to learn 2 things in that very moment....

I learned that prayers are answered, sometimes in 2 years and sometimes, like tonight, in two minutes.

The bigger lesson I believe was that Heavenly Father cares about the little things!  He really does!  He cares about me individually and he cares about silly little bookmarks.  Why does he care about the bookmarks, because they mattered to me and therefore they matter to him!

I immediately knelt by my bed and said a prayer thanking my Heavenly Father for teaching me this lesson.

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know that prayer works and that prayers are answered.  I am grateful to know that Heavenly Father is real and that he loves me.    

Grant the Hair Stylist

Grant has become obsessed with combing his own hair.  And now he is obsessed with combing anyone else hair.

Silvio is a great sport and victim!

Grant did a fabulous job on Silvio's hair!

I am pretty sure this is the first time Silvio has had a young kid comb his hair!

From the looks of it I think he enjoyed it too!

Go Silvio!!!

Ella is super in love with Silvio!  He plays so good with her know and really has warmed up to her!

Ella got a special outfit to cheer on Silvio at his football game!

Logan, Hunter, Grant and Ryker

These boys have loved cheering on Silvio!  They got all into it and dressed like this on multiple occasions!  Love our little town of Pima!  There really are some great perks to living in a small town!

Pima football ended up winning all but one game this season.  They made it to the last game before state, but lost that game 12-28.

Silvio has really enjoyed being on the football team and has made some great friends from the team!  Not sure what he's going to do with all his free time now that football is over.

Silvio really enjoyed being part of the Football Team!

The Team did really well this year and barely missed playing in the State Championship game.  Great job boys!  GO RIDERS!

Girls Weekend

We had planned a fun girls weekend to go to the Time Out for Women and Time Out for Girls.  These events got moved up a weekend due to the Phoenix Temple open house so they then landed on the same weekend as Kiersten's dance competition in Gilbert.  This meant that we would have to miss some of the talks but it was still a wonderful weekend!

Kiersten invited Alani to come with us way before the schedule change but she said she didn't mind.  Plus she was excited to see a dance competition!

We did some shopping at the Chandler Mall Friday afternoon and then had Pazooki at B.J.'s.  So yummy!  These girls are so funny together!  We then went to the evening part of TOFW.  It was wonderful!

We had to get up early the next morning to get Kirsten all ready and to travel from downtown Phoenix, where my mother in law had booked us a room, to far east Gilbert.  Tif and her girls were suppose to be with us too.  But Brian is in Texas at a treatment facility for his issues so her and the kids are flying out to visit him this weekend.  Our girls weekend kid of got ruined for lots of unexpected reasons.  But we made it to Kiersten's competition and her group did AMAZING!!!  Loved watching them dance!

After Kirsten danced we didn't even stay for the awards.  We hurried back to the TOFW event.

Even though I was in a different part, the girls and women have their own talks and music entertainment, it was still so much fun spending time with Kiersten and Alani.  It was fun to see all the Mesa cousins and to visit with them.  I just love an chance to get to see them.  They are so fun and I wish we lived closer to them!

This is Kirsten's best friend!

I am so grateful Kirsten has her!!

It was super nice to get away even though the weekend was jam packed with activities.

Fun Times

One night late I was seriously at the end of my whit......I was so exhausted and tired of having this broken foot, but I still needed to get several things from Walmart.  I talked Justin in to coming with me.  His only rule was that I let him push me in a wheel chair.

Oh My Word!  It was the most hilarious thing ever!  He honestly made me run into so much stuff.  He was a horrible driver.  I got to laughing so hard I was crying and I could not stop!  Then he was dying laughing.  

Add to this the fact that Justin had his shirt on backwards..........he put it on that way himself.  When I brought it to his attention before we got to Walmart I told him if I was going to have to ride in the wheel chair then he had to leave his shirt on backwards.

What a couple of crazy people we looked like!

Honestly we plan to use my boot again and go do this same thing another night in the future.

It was so funny and by the end we had so much crap there wasn't room for it.  I had stuff on my lap and we had tubs of ice cream and baby water on the handles.  
I love my crazy man!
It was a fun and silly night!

So Funny...

Today as I was trying to do Grant's hair for preschool he tells me, "Mom, it's Comb Your Hair Over Day at school today!  So you can't spike my hair.  It's not allowed!"

Seriously 5 year olds are the BEST!  I want to bottle him up and keep him at this stage!

"Comb Your Hair Over Day at School"

Totally made up by Grant!

Guess he is tired of having his hair spiked up!  If you're smart enough to come up with that scheme you deserve to comb your hair over!!!

Mr. Grant's Candy Shop

Mr. Grant is such a funny kid.  He decided all on his own that instead of having his Halloween candy that he would rather sell all his candy and have the money!

So he ripped up pieces of paper and with Grandma Boswell telling him how to write the prices, he made price tags for all his candy. 

He organized and set up the a whole candy shop in his bedroom.

It really was the cutest thing ever!

Funny story I posted on FaceBook how cute it was that Grant wanted to sell his Halloween candy.  Several people commented back that they would buy some of his candy which just thrilled him!!!  One person that said she would buy some was Jenny Rogers, our good friend.  So when I took one of the kids to dance I let Grant run in and give her a bag of his candy.  considering he was selling the candy for 5 cents, 6 cents and 10 cents.  The bag should have cost about 50 cents.  When he jumped out of the van I told him to tell her she owed him 50 cents.

He ran into the dance studio bursting at the seams!

When he came back to the van he had a 5 dollar bill!  I asked him what happened.  He said, "Jenny asked how much she owed me and I told her fib dollos and she didn't care!"

We both got a kick out of it!

I love my Mr. Grant!

Such a smart idea selling his candy.  He made about $15 and still got to eat some candy so he was a happy boy!!!

Family Party For Silvio

I wish I had taken a picture of Silvio's expression when he found out we had bought him birthday gifts.  It was priceless.....he was so shocked and happy!

He is just part of our family and fits in so well with us it's crazy!

Ella got Silvio his own package of yogurt drops....Love that Italian boys smile!

Mr. Grant wanted to have a party hat just like Sivlio.

Silvio is so good to Grant and Grant just adores Silvio so much!

It's been fun to see the different relationships with Silvio grow and blossom in just a few months.

Happy Birthday Silvio!

Buon Compleanno

Happy Birthday Silvio!

Silvio turned 17 on November 3rd.  But because that was a Monday and our schedule is busy on Monday nights we decided to throw him a little surprise party on Sunday evening.

The cake was so delicious!

Due to having the party on Sunday there were several kids who couldn't make it.  But it was a fun party just the same.  It was kind of nice to not have so many teenagers so that they could play games easier and stuff.

Silvio was completely surprised!!!!

It was so fun to surprise him!

I think Silvio was happy with his party!

I printed off the words to Happy Birthday in Italian so we could all sing to Silvio in his home language.

Making his wish!

I love that Ryker's face looking like he is blowing out the candles as well.

Looks like a happy birthday boy to me!

The kids played a crazy game that ends up in making one person doing some type of dare.  Usually it involved eating something nasty or drinking something.  One time I think a couple of boys had to run around the house with their shirts off.  Silly fun!

It was pretty funny being a spectator to this game.  I believe Silvio ended up eating 2 bananas and chugging a large cup of sprite.........yuck!  Then they made a drink concoction with different spices in it and several of the boys ended up having to drink some of it.  They also did a cinnamon challenge several times.

They played the What If game.

To start the game you sit in a circle and have pieces of paper.  On your piece of paper you write a "What if" question.  Then you throw the papers into the middle of the circle.  Everyone grabs a paper and writes a answer to the "what if" question.  It gets pretty funny at times!

Then of course they played pool.

They enjoyed some air hockey as well.

It was a fun party and we hope Silvio had a great birthday here in the US!