September

Some fun photos from September…heavy on the selfies for some reason!

Mommy and Avery ready for church:

We have been so blessed with good neighbors and friends since moving to Midlothian.  Our neighbor, Emma is the sweetest.  She is an only child and loves to play with our kids.  She is especially sweet to Avery! These girls got to come with us moms to get our nails done, and Avery even got a pedicure, which she thought was really special.

There is a little fishing pond in the neighborhood; we went to feed the ducks one night for Family Home Evening. 

School picture day! {4th and 1st grade}

We went to Corsicana to celebrate Papa's (60th!!) birthday.

The little ones and I enjoyed lots of picnics outside in the yard or at the park.  (Also, pretty sure I kept Sonic in business for a while there!)

One of the best things about moving to this new house is that the elementary school is in the neighborhood! I love that the boys ride their scooters to school; I just walk them to the corner in the mornings and meet them there after school. I also feel better knowing they aren't far away if something happened.  Every now and then we will go have lunch with them. Hudson and Avery feel pretty big having their own lunch boxes.  Hopefully this will help Hudson feel more comfortable starting kindergarten next year!

Another selfie with this girl…I have a lot of photo opportunities with her since she's pretty much always wherever I am. 

October Happenings: Halloween Week

I am kind of a Halloween Scrooge. I'm just not a big fan.  I definitely would skip right over it if I didn't have children.  But since I do, and there are so many of them, I will be celebrating Halloween FOR-EVER…

Don't worry, we did all the requisite Halloween activities.  This year we painted pumpkins rather than carving.  With how young they are, I feel like carving is not worth the effort.  Jamie ends up doing all the actual work, I have a huge mess to clean up, and they are over it in about 10 minutes. So we got some mini pumpkins and some glitter glue and decorated pumpkins for Family Home Evening this week.  Everyone liked it because they could do their own thing.  

Hudson was very focused on his globs-of-glue design. 

Avery's turned out the best with a little help from Daddy...

I helped put together our ward's annual Trunk-or-Treat on Wednesday night. We just did trick-or-treating in the parking lot, with hot chocolate and finger foods.  Simple, but fun for everyone.  We threw together some costumes from our dress up bucket.  Boston was an Air Force Pilot, Cade was Bumblebee the Transformer, Hudson was a dinosaur (for the 3rd year in a row…he loves that costume!) and Avery was the cutest stinkin' cowgirl around. 

Ready to score some candy with friend, Jon

Avery and her bestie, Alice, aka Tinkerbell

Thursday I got to go with my favorite Kindergartener on his first field trip to a pumpkin farm.  I just love being involved with his class and getting to know his little friends.  He actually surprises me with how outgoing he is at school.  It didn't take him long at all to adjust to the school environment. 

Probably the worst possible spot for a class photo…staring straight into the sun!

Buddies Caleb and William.  William kept telling me, "Cade is my best friend!"

  

Everything was going along great until it was time for the corn maze. I was seriously having a mini panic attack.  I must have a touch of PTST, since last time I went through this corn maze I almost didn't make it out.  I'm not even joking.  

But don't worry, I made it out of that corn maze LIKE A CHAMP! {But let's be honest…I stayed with the group, and we were basically herded toward the exit by a farm employee.  Maybe they learned their lesson after a mom and 4 students got lost in the maze three years ago?} After that it was smooth sailing  for the rest of the trip. 

Cade said his favorite part of the field trip was…wait for it…the bus ride! Silly boy. I would have thought he'd say feeding the cow was his favorite part.  He was brave and got right up in there with his bread! 

IMG 5180 from ashley walker on Vimeo.

Phone Dump

Alternately titled: "I have nothing to blog about, so I'm uploading a bunch of random pictures from my phone."

Alternately titled: "my everyday life in iPhone pictures."

Cade always asks me to make silly faces when he's taking pictures with my phone. I call this look "crazy frumpy mom in pj's."

One happy (and clean!) boy

Oh this?? Just some art work on the side of my couch. Boston was the culprit. I knew without asking because of the design. I think he must have just had a total brain cramp. He's never drawn on anything like this before. When I asked him what possessed him to do such a thing, he just said, "I don't know." Me neither.

Hudson was not feeling this brotherly moment...

Funnest Family Home Evening activity...making paper airplanes!

I will have to remember to thank Boston later for teaching his brother this silly face. He looks like this in about 75% of the pictures I have of him. (And Hudson sliding behind Cade's back!)

Pumpkin patch in October...love his cheeks and that hat.

Table-1, Cade-0. He ran full speed into the corner of a table and got a goose egg.

It swelled up like a golf ball and the bruise lasted 2 weeks. Poor kid! He barely cried, probably about 5 minutes.

Armor of God FHE

We had a fun family night tonight. I decided to introduce Ephesians 6:11, putting on the Armor of God, as our family scripture for this year. I knew the boys would enjoy the armor, and I hope with some further focusing on the actual principle of the scripture, Boston will come to understand that too.

I printed off this little boy and his armor. For Family Home Evening, we talked about how armor protects us and then glued all the armor on the little boy. Then I gave the boys their own armor and it got a little crazy after that! We read the scripture and tried talking about how Satan wants us to make bad choices, but the Armor of God protects us from Satan and helps us make good choices. I say "tried" because Boston was too busy asking people to throw different objects at his shield and see if it would protect him!

Even though it was a bit rowdy, it was fun for all of us and I have to remember that the family time spent together is key, not necessarily the impact of the lesson. I want "The Armor of God" to be somewhat of a theme for our family this year, so I know Boston will understand it more as time goes on. Earlier in the day when I told him we were going to do Family Home Evening tonight, he said, "You know why I love Family Night, Mom? Because I get to spend the whole night with my family, and I love my family."

I know exactly what he means.

Boston was in charge of the activity (he's pretty much the designated activity-chooser) so we made some puppets from a kit he got for Christmas.

I took 5 pictures of him and he was blinking in every single one! I kept telling him to keep his eyes open, but he said, "I just have to blink all the time Mom!"

Taking a break from the project to spit out more apple peel--this time from dinner!

Family Home Evening Revamped

I remember being touched by Elder Bednar's talk in General Conference a few years ago, entitled, "More Diligent and Concerned at Home" (read the whole thing here). I especially liked this analogy:

In my office is a beautiful painting of a wheat field. The painting is a vast collection of individual brushstrokes—none of which in isolation is very interesting or impressive. In fact, if you stand close to the canvas, all you can see is a mass of seemingly unrelated and unattractive streaks of yellow and gold and brown paint. However, as you gradually move away from the canvas, all of the individual brushstrokes combine together and produce a magnificent landscape of a wheat field. Many ordinary, individual brushstrokes work together to create a captivating and beautiful painting.

Each family prayer, each episode of family scripture study, and each family home evening is a brushstroke on the canvas of our souls. No one event may appear to be very impressive or memorable. But just as the yellow and gold and brown strokes of paint complement each other and produce an impressive masterpiece, so our consistency in doing seemingly small things can lead to significant spiritual results. “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33). Consistency is a key principle as we lay the foundation of a great work in our individual lives and as we become more diligent and concerned in our own homes.

We struggle with having consistent Family Home Evenings. I have a few excuses, but I'm not going to list them because they are just that--excuses. After being reminded of this talk and the importance of being consistent in Family Home Evening, I have set a goal to make that a priority in our home again. Even if our "lesson" is just one verse of scripture and our song is ABC's, I know we will all benefit from the consistency and the time dedicated to being together.

Tonight we had a great Family Night (I work almost every Monday night so we are doing our FHE's on Wednesdays for now). We sang ABC's, I read the quote above, and then we did a craft project. We made a Family Home Evening assignment board of sorts. I want everyone in the family to participate in their own way, and I think this is a visual reminder throughout the week so we can be thinking about our assignments. This is on the side of our fridge and our faces have magnets on the back so we can rotate jobs.

I like mine the best. I think she looks sassy...

Boston got to glue all his pieces on (thus the crooked hair) and Cade got to help with his eyes too. Afterwards we played hide-and-seek in the dark with flashlights. Everyone was giggling by the end of the night. And that what it's really about. In the past I have slacked on FHE because I felt like I had to prepare a big lesson. Then when I didn''t have time to prepare anything, we just ended up not doing anything at all. But I think it's nights like these--Cade squealing when he finds Daddy curled up in his crib or Boston finding me thanks to Cade yelling, "Bossy! look!" from our hiding spot--that we'll all remember!