October Phone Pictures

October started off with a wonderful weekend of General Conference. And we did our traditional Conference "Store" with "Conference Cash"--which the boys enjoyed. They weren't quite as motivated this time around as they were back in April (which probably had to do with the fact that I didn't prepare enough in advance...), but it still worked well to keep them engaged (& quiet!).

I decided to try making homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time ever...and they were delicious!!! However, they did take quite a bit longer to make than I planned for...so I spent most of the Saturday morning session finishing making them. I'll have to plan ahead better next time so they're ready BEFORE it starts!

 They were so, so good, though, and between the Saturday sessions, Curt & the boys delivered plates of them to some of our friends in the ward. I think this may become a new conference tradition! :)

Remember how we taught Calvin how to ride a two-wheeler back in September, and he refused to get back on his bike afterwards? Well, we finally convinced him to try it again, and he was starting to really enjoy it (he totally remembered and had the balancing down!)...until he fell off his bike as he was slowing down--and he somehow split open his scar from when he had pins put in his arm last year. It was pretty deep and bleeding pretty bad, and the skin there is still so soft and thin, so we worried he would need stitches. Curt took him to urgent care just to be safe, and thankfully, no stitches were needed. Whew!

Curt's cousin, Austin, got married the day after Tucker's baptism (the whole reason why were were able to move his baptism to be on his own--thank you Austin!), and these were the selfie shirts we made them. (If anyone we know gets married in the foreseeable future, just plan on getting selfie shirts as a wedding gift, haha!)

The ceremony was beautiful, and the weather was GORGEOUS!! A perfect fall day!!

 We left the boys with my mom for the ceremony, then came back to take them back up with us for the reception. And I had to document the fact that they downed a 20-piece pack of chicken nuggets all by themselves!!

Bronco thoroughly enjoyed the donuts at the reception, and Calvin developed a new-found love for apple cider! :)

My dad gave Tucker a telescope for a late birthday/baptism gift, and he loves it:

We were able to celebrate Chris's birthday a few days early since they were in town for the baptism and wedding.

Two days after Mike & Chris returned back to Colorado (for the final time!), Curt & Chad flew out to help them drive all their vehicles out to Utah...for good! (while movers brought all their stuff) Curt took this final picture of their bare living room--so sad and weird for them to leave that house! But yet so exciting to have to live out here in Utah now!!

There was about a week's lapse from when they left Colorado to when their house out here was ready for them to move in, so we got to have GiGi (Curt's grandma, who lives with Mike & Chris) stay with us during that time. It was so fun to have her around--she was the best dish-washer & cleaner-upper ever! We love GiGi!

(The boys decorated the white board in the guest room for her)


GiGi spoiled us by taking us out to eat a couple of times, and a definite favorite was Chick-fil-a. There just happened to be a balloon artist there giving out fun balloon shapes for free, and the boys were super excited (and we were pretty darn impressed) with what they got! (Bronco: Elmo hat, Calvin: giant sword, Tucker: Harry Potter broomstick)

Spirit Days at school--so fun. And so fun that Calvin could join in with Tucker this year!!

Crazy Hair Day:

Hat Day:

Fake Mustache Day & Crazy Sock Day:

We had some tattoo mustaches that even Curt was pretty excited about, haha:

Bronco was Mr. Grumpy Pants McGee for a lot of the month, and he perfected his permanent frown:

I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that he went through another nap-strike phase & got super behind on sleep. This day he kept getting out of bed to read stories, and every time I came in to put him back in bed, he tried to cover his face with a book so I wouldn't see him, haha.

Bronco (& I) discovered that he LOVES cleaning (and it has only intensified in the months since)--it makes him so happy. In the middle of his grumpy phase, where he literally didn't smile for a couple of days straight, I got this HUGE smile out of him when I offered to let him help me clean the microwave. You'd have thought we were at Disneyland, haha!! (And P.S. he looks super old in this picture!)

Poor Calvin. Being the middle child is rough, and he sometimes doesn't get as much attention as we/he'd like. (We're trying!) I've found that the thing he enjoys almost more than anything is some simple one-on-one time playing games or cooking. He & I made some sugar cookies one day during Bronco's nap while Tucker was at school, and Calvin LOVED it. I let go of the reigns and let him do a lot of it on his own, and he was so happy. I'm trying to remember to make time for him like this on a regular basis. In a perfect world, I would forget about my "to do" list every day and just drop everything to spend time with the kids. (But unfortunately, food still needs to be cooked, laundry cleaned, etc.) Some days are better than others, but I'm trying to make a more concerted effort to give the boys more of my attention on a regular basis. Hence the lack of posting on the blog these last few weeks...!! Motherhood is forever a balancing/surviving act, and I'm just trying to do my best!!

Tucker got into reading the Harry Potter book series, and he turned into a little bookworm--reading every opportunity he got. Even at the park during fall break!! He read two of the books in about 8 days total...!!

This is my new favorite picture of Bronco. I LOVE everything about the fall season, and being at the park with him in the perfect weather, him happily swinging in his Halloween costume, haha, was perfect.

Tucker & Calvin grew another batch of pumpkins this year--taking care of them all on their own all summer long--and this was their harvest. We were all a little sad they didn't grow very big, but it was still pretty good for our little patch of dirt out back! ;)




Over fall break, we went down to Jaker's Pumpkin patch with Brooke & her boys, and then Lisa & the girls (& Chris!) walked over and joined us. So fun! (and a little crazy--especially when we went into the big corn maze and the boys decided not to stay with everyone else and got lost for a few minutes...but still fun) ;)

I told the boys I wasn't going to buy any pumpkins because we had plenty that we grew on our own. But Tucker REALLY wanted to buy some and offered to use his own money to buy each of them a pumpkin. So that's what we did, and everyone was happy. :)

 Pumpkin carving! The boys designed their pumpkins, and Curt carved them. (while Bronco napped...) And they turned out pretty awesome!

At the beginning of October we started a family goal of no yelling. We were all guilty of raising our voices a little too much at times, and we decided we needed to work on it all together, like a team. We had a Family Home Evening lesson about how our family is like a sports team, and we all work together and do our part to get a goal, but if one person gets a penalty, it affects the whole team. So we made this little counter to help us keep track of how many days we go without yelling. When we reach a certain number of days, we get different rewards. And if someone yells, it sets us back at zero. It has actually been a really good thing--for all of us--and it has helped us have the Spirit more in our home, which we decided was our overall goal. 

It took us about a week to make it one full day with no one yelling (Bronco was a huge instigator in getting the boys to yell at him for breaking their lego creations, etc...). The reward for one full day of no yelling was ice cream at Maceys:

It took us another few days to make it to three days without yelling, and that reward was a trip to the dollar store, where we each got to pick out something:

To this day, our record is 9 days. We'll build it up and do so good, and then one of us will have a quick slip up (each of us has been guilty at one time or another...), which puts us back at zero. The reward for 10 days is a trip to Lowes Xtreme Air Sports, so that's what we're working hard for right now. :)



The last big thing I want to be sure to remember from October is the Cougar Run 5k. I've run it the last few years with Brooke, and it's always been fun, but it's hard to find the time to train for it, and I don't necessarily love running... Last year I may or may not have told Curt to not let me do it this year, haha...but when Brooke asked me again this year, I couldn't say no. And I'm really SO glad I ran it!! (even though Curt gave me quite a hard time for it...) I trained a little harder and had a goal to run it in under 27 minutes...and I was able to do it in 25:43! Wahoo! I wasn't necessarily loving it while I was running, haha...but crossing that finish line gives you such a high! Curt & the boys were there supporting me, which was a huge help at the end.

Starting line: I love Brooke and the motivation she gives me to run!

The big thing about the run this year is that Tucker ran in the kids race (1/2 mile) for the first time! (Again, thanks to Brooke's encouragement in signing up her boys.) :) Tucker had mixed feelings about it when I told him I'd signed him up, but overall he was excited. When he first started training, he said he wanted to win and get 1st place, but after doing a few practice runs and realizing that probably wasn't going to happen, haha...he made the goal to run it in less than 4 minutes. He was pretty darn motivated, and he & I ran around the block every morning at 6:50 am during the week leading up to the race. He got pretty close to the 4 minute mark, but I had to watch the timer and push him to get him to make it. So I wasn't sure how the race would go with him running on his own and not having me there to push him. But he was such a stud and paced himself and pushed himself at the end...and he ran it in 3:56!! We were SO proud of him!!

 Both of our time cards:

It was a fun morning, and it felt so good to be done! :)


And, to end, here's a random picture of me preparing for primary one day--I did a marshmallow challenge where I put marshmallows in a bowl for all the songs the kids sang well, and then at the end I put all the marshmallows in my mouth and sang a solo. (Definitely the most embarrassing, but most-loved by the kids, thing that I've done...) I had to practice at home to see how many I could realistically fit in my mouth, to know if I could handle regular-sized marshmallows or if I needed mini marshmallows instead...and Curt of course had to document it, haha:

Oh, and one last thing I almost forgot. Bronco did the funniest thing at church, and I documented it in this text to my family:

January Recap/Phone Pictures

One of the Christmas gifts we gave the boys was coupons for special one-on-one dates with Mom & Dad. They were actually way more excited about them than we thought they'd be! Each month they get to pick whether they want a date with Mom or Dad, and they get to choose the activity--within reason. (Tucker's first choice of activity was to go to Colorado with Curt for the weekend, haha! He was pretty disappointed to find out these are supposed to be one-on-one dates, not one-on-one vacations...) ;) So in true Tucker fashion, on January 1st, he insisted on doing his first date. (it had to be done the very first day of the month!) Since going to Colorado wasn't an option, he chose to go with Curt to get frozen yogurt instead.

 Calvin also chose to get frozen yogurt, but he was okay waiting until a little later in the month. :)

Also on the first day of January, we attended a little New Year's party hosted by our friends Nate & Nora. We didn't get any pictures, but I wanted to write it down just to remember and document what a fun night it was.

A few days after we finished our mini living room makeover (pre-fireplace), one of my friends invited both Tucker & Calvin to come play with her boys for the afternoon. And since Bronco was napping, Curt & I had a very clean, newly-organized, QUIET house all to ourselves. It was heavenly! I had to take a picture to document it (Curt & I used the time to prepare our Sunday lessons):

The first week of the month, all three boys got sick all in the same afternoon/evening...and we landed ourselves in urgent care that night. All three had fevers & terrible terrible coughs, Calvin & Bronco had pink eye, and Bronco had an ear infection (and then Tucker ended up with a double ear infection two days later). They all stayed home from school & we had a big sickie movie day the next day, which actually ended up being a tender mercy because that was the day my grandpa ended up passing away; it was nice to be home together as a family and relaxing when I got the news.

Special Family Home Evening about the Plan of Salvation after my Grandpa died. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity we had to talk about and reflect more on the Plan of Salvation last month, and the chance it gave us to teach the boys in a way they would remember, since they were able to correlate much of it with Great Grandpa Rex. 

Making the drive out to Colorado for the funeral--it was probably the best drive we've ever done! 

(my mom & brothers caravan-ed with us)

Unlike our last drive to Colorado as a family (which, ironically, was for my Grandpa's 90th Birthday Celebration), Bronco did SO well!!

Something is wrong with this picture, however:

Bronco has always been a bad car-sleeper...as in he hardly ever falls asleep in the car. I thought this was so funny that the two big boys were both asleep, while Bronco--who was the one who really needed the nap--was wide awake.

He finally konked out, and they were all asleep at the same time...for about 20 minutes. :)

We stayed at Curt's parent's house, along with my brothers, and it was so good to spend time with them while we were there. Mike helped Tucker with his homework:

 While Chris spent some good, quality time reading stories with Calvin:

Mike & Bronco got some good lovin' in too :)

This was what we called "The Early-Risers Club":

One of the things Tucker was most excited about going to Colorado for, was being able to get up early with Grandpa. Tucker wakes up early every day--usually by 6:00 am--and we make him do quiet activities by himself until 7:00 am...so he was very excited to be in Colorado and have someone else to spend time with in that 6:00 hour. :) Mike was so kind to play games with Tucker and get him an early breakfast while the rest of us slept/got ready.

Speaking of sleeping...I was super excited to get this picture of Curt sleeping one afternoon in Colorado. He takes way too many pictures of me sleeping, so I was excited to finally get him back. ;)

Not pictured during our Colorado visit were: all the yummy meals, all the time Mike & Chris spent taking care of Bronco (& the other boys at times) so we could attend various funeral-related events, and last-but-not-least...a rousing game of Pass the Pigs that was one of the highlights of the trip. :)

Other random pictures during the month:

Random fun with a ninja mask & Christmas pajamas:

A fabulous minecraft lego creation:

A fun night playing the Wii together as a family:

More Selfie Shirt orders:

A leak in the wall that needed some repair, involving tearing up our theater room...

*I'm SO incredible grateful for Curt and his ability to fix these kinds of things himself so we don't have to hire someone else!

Lots of snowstorms, and a snowman that Tucker insisted on finishing...even though it was dark outside:

(Curt was such a good dad and went out to help him so he could come in and warm up)

A LONG-overdue cleaning of our couch...now officially my least favorite thing to clean. (so so gross!)
Before/After:

Cute Bronco bum in the tub :)

Literally & figuratively pooped:

He came in here to poop, and then just stayed laying down because he was so tired, haha

I died laughing when Tucker came home with this little write-up about his weekend:

"My weekend was fun. I just played video games. I know that it is bad for my brain. But it was fun. I like my weekend." Hahahaha! I may or may not have told him that playing too many video games makes his brain get smaller....!! (*Side note: I promise we did more than play video games that weekend!!)

We had Calvin's follow-up appointment for his arm since getting the cast off, and everything looks great! No physical therapy or further intervention needed!

He's going to have a pretty good scar for the rest of his life...!

Calvin has been starting to write his name (instead of just trace it) at preschool, and he is so proud of himself:

Kind of hard to tell, but this is a picture of the video monitor, showing Tucker in his bed reading the scriptures. He made a goal this year to read the Book of Mormon in the mornings (remember he has a whole hour to himself in the mornings!), and though he doesn't remember to do it every day...he's been working hard at it. We are so proud of him!

*He brought the lamp onto his bed and hung up a blanket so that the light wouldn't wake up Calvin, haha.

I still volunteer in Tucker's classroom every Friday morning, and Bronco is such a trooper to come along with me. He's getting a little better about not distracting the kids as much--it works best when he can just find a place to sit and eat a snack. :)

After the craziness of December, we were excited to get back on track doing babysitting swap with Chad & Lisa on Friday nights. Curt and I had a wonderful date night down in Spanish Fork eating at a delicious BBQ place and then going to ColdStone for dessert. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the parenting/day-to-day grind, and I forget how much I really do like being around Curt. :) Thank goodness for date nights without kids!

We were able to spend a Saturday morning watching the girls so Chad & Lisa could be ushers at the open house for the new Provo City Center Temple. We had a lot of fun, and Tucker was very excited about this castle he built out of blocks:

My grandma was able to come out to Utah for a quick weekend visit, and I was fortunate enough to be able to go to lunch with her, my mom, and my grandma's sister, Nan. It was so good to visit with my grandma again, and such a fun and memorable lunch.

My grandma & her sister:

And finally, the nursery leaders asked us to fill out this questionnaire about Bronco. They must not have looked over it very closely before handing it out, because a lot of the questions it asked were definitely not age-appropriate, haha. So I just had some fun with it and answered everything the best I could! :)