I put in the winter lawn by myself on Saturday. When we were ready to throw out the grass seed, Eliza asked, "What is that?" Pointing to the giant bag of seeds. I jokingly responded, "Bird food." Because anyone whose planted a winter law in Arizona knows the biggest challenge is keeping the darn birds off of it. So as we were spreading the seeds, Nora cups her hands over mouth and starts yelling, "Birdies! Dinners ready! Dinner, Birdies! Dinner Ready!"

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Blogger isn't letting me upload the pictures easily so this is it for now. But we had a great time at Vertuccio's Farm today. The kids loved the giant slide, the mini zipline, and my favorite thing was watching them in these giant hamster wheels that went up and down a track. They all had so much fun, I'm so glad we stayed. We were going to go on Saturday, but it rained all day. Not usually a problem here in Arizona, so I was quite disappointed. But Aaron still had off from work so we decided to just stay an extra day and go today. I am so glad we did. My sisters in law came with their kids and all the cousins had a blast together. I'll have to try to figure out how to add the pictures from my google album because we did a manage picture with all 13 kids. 

The van did great on the drive and we survived having no DVD player. Though about 2 hours in I was looking up after market ones on Amazon. On the way home we were better prepared with Nintendo DS's and sleeping toddlers. 

Mesa was wonderful. We had a great time hanging out with cousins and relaxing. We were able to go on a double date with Douger and Allison one night and had a lot of fun. Allison and I also went garage sale shopping in the rain. I regret not buying more while I was in garage sale mecca. Seriously awesome deals and I was trying to have restraint. On 10 cent books! All I could think of was how many books are currently lying around the floor of the kids rooms and playroom -- but they were all fighting over the few books I did buy and having to take turns reading them.

Is this guy not just THE cutest? 

I mean C'MON!

Loves of my life

Eliza acting too cool for the train ride.

My Favorite Month!

It's been October for 11 whole days and I have yet to fully appreciate it's beauty. The last few days have been hectic. Babysitting for friends, kids awards assemblies, and buying a new giant van. Yes, the Mormon Limo. A 15 passenger shaggin' wagon. The last row has been removed so it's only a 12 passenger, as is, but with lots of cargo space. With 6 kids we didn't all fit in our normal mini van anymore, and we've been taking two cars everywhere we all need to go for the last 14 months. Decided it was finally time to just do it. I am LOVING it. We are taking it up to Mesa this weekend. We are going to visit some family and do some pumpkin patch stuff.

Aaron and "The Beast"

Nathan with his straight A's and advanced placement (He goes to 2nd grade each morning for read)

Abigail with her Advanced Placement and Straight A's.

Not pictured is Olivia with her same awards. Aaron was actually home for that so he took her, and I didn't ask him to send me the pictures yet.

Got Eliza this cereal and it was the best $6 I've spent in a long time. Just look at that face.

I also got a new laptop. Abigail asked if we won the lottery or something because all of a sudden we got a new computer and a new van on the same day! I actually ordered the computer a week ago, and the van we've been looking for a while now, this was just too good of a deal to pass up. But funny how it worked out that way. 

I've been on yet another self improvement kick. Finally rejoined the gym and have been going consistently for about 4 weeks. I'm reading some good books (Starting Monday and The Obesity Diet and A Slob Comes Clean). Trying, always trying to create good habits. Also participating in a 10 day social media fast. I'm not counting blogging as social media since there are so few actual interactions on here, and it's really just my (public) journal. I've been carving out time to meditate and really study my scriptures. Still waking up at 4:30am to teach English to kids in China. Still loving it. And tonight I start a pottery class! There are no words for the excitement. It's a lifelong dream to stick my hands in wet clay and spin it around on a pottery wheel and make a bowl or something. I have no idea when or why this dream started, but I'm so excited for it come true tonight. And it feels great to be doing something just for fun. I've said going to the gym is the thing I'm doing for me. And I am. And it's good. But it's not really fun. This is going to be so much fun. My friend is coming with me, her daughter is going to babysit and put my kids to bed. I can't think of anything better. Oh and she's bringing dinner. So when I go clean my kitchen right now, it can stay that way at least until breakfast tomorrow!