Welcome home

Paxton spent a week with my Dad and Vicki. She has been waiting for her turn for a while and it finally came. Caden had his turn in the late summer if I remember right. She was supposed to follow, but then I started vball, school started, Dad/Vic remodeled the kitchen and time kept slipping by. So on the 13th, we dropped her off for a week. She said she had a great time, got homesick a few times, but otherwise had full days. Walking the dogs, driving the tractor w/g-pa, exploring at the creek, dancing in hula skirts just to name a few things. A big thanks goes to G-pa Steve and G-ma Vicki for making it happen. We were glad to get her back home!

We picked her up on the 20th and headed to Flagstaff on the 21st w/G-ma Hansen. Spencer went down to Tucson with his brothers Taylor & Kimball and Dad were they rode in the Tour de Tucson again Saturday.


After their morning of riding, they joined us in Flag. Spencers parents have a timeshare there and we just went up for fun and relaxation. We enjoyed the cool weather, time at the park, played pool, used the hot tub, shopped and random games. Thanks for the invite G-pa and G-ma Hansen, it was fun.

Of coarse I had my camera there and only remembered to pull it out the last night there, which tends to happen on most of our trips. So I only got a few shots of the kids throwing food from the loft, while Spencer and Kimball tried to catch it in their mouths. They enjoyed that little game.


From there we got home Tuesday evening, unpacked and called it a day. We had one day to get ready for Thanksgiving and spent that day in Globe with Spencer's Mom and Dad. This year it was a bit of a smaller gathering, but it was fun times and good food!

Here was some of the feast.


Here are some of the feasters.




Another thanks to Mom and Dad Hansen for hosting us.

Problem solved

Back to Halloween. When Spencer got the gorilla costume and walked out with it on, Daisy freaked out. Loud cries and he couldn't console her, because if he tried to pick her up it just got worse. She was very cautious of him when in that suit, especially when he would grunt at her.

(Side note) I remembered the other day sitting at the computer a story a family member had shared. The toddler in the family was afraid of the vaccum. The same toddler would not stay away from the staircase and would tumble down the stairs often. One day they left the vaccum at the staircase and that solved the problem. Sweet little toddler stayed away due to the scary vaccum sitting there.

So back to the story... When Spencer or I are at the computer Daisy likes to come up and sit on our laps. Thats fine until she starts to attack the screen and there is no holding her back. She is relentless and screaming when you are trying to separate her from the screen.

Two days ago I had her sitting on the desk next to the monitor while I was trying to email when she went on the attack. I quickly clicked over to the blog post where I had this picture and enlarged it on the screen.

She immediately went silent, not removing her eyes from the screen as she closely watched that gorilla. She started to back away from the computer and off the desk into my lap. All the while keeping an eye on the screen. If I really want her to back away, I also just have to make a small grunting noise.

I let Spencer in on this and now when she wants up on our lap while at the computer, we quickly pull this up on one tab, just incase we need to click over quickly to keep things under control! Works like a charm!

Jokes on me

Remember this post? I thought I was being so cute and throwing family and friends for a curve. Yes I fooled a few and the rumor mill started that I was pregnant.

Man was my dad mad when he found out through a blog post, or from my brother as he misread the post(like I intended many to do), instead of a personal phone call from me to let him know I was expecting.

To my own surprise an "inside" joke was actually being played on me. When the second week of September rolled around and I found out that I am infact expecting #4. WHAT? How in the heck? Ok, ok so I know how in the heck.

Well, now I've had time to adjust to this news and just thought that if you hadn't heard yet, you are now hearing it straight from the source. We are expecting another baby May 7th.

Sweet little Daisy wont get to be the baby for very long, but she is such an easy going, sweet, fun-loving baby that I'm sure she'll be happy to welcome this next one. They will be about 16 months apart, so yes, SURPRISE!!

Treats

This Halloween I got off easy. The past few years I've made the kids costumes. This year, they both wanted to pick one out at the store, and that is just what we did. Spencer wasn't big on the idea. He is all about originality and being creative, not matching every other kid in town with the "in" superhero/princess.

Spencer: "When I was a kid, we had a box of scraps that we rummaged through to make a costume. And contending with eight kids, you had to start early if you wanted anything good....." It must have been really rough growing up in that house!

Caden was the black spider-man


Paxton was a devil girl and was thrilled that she got to wear makeup!


Daisy and I stayed home to hand out candy.


Spencer was able to go through that old "box of scraps" from home and this is what he came up with!