Monday, October 29, 2012

Fall Festivities- Part 2: Arizona State Fair

Some friends of ours had tickets to the state fair they weren't going to be able to use, so they offered them to us. We snatched them right up, & headed there after the pumpkin patch. The boys were the only ones who rode any rides, but we had a good time just watching them!



 They liked the airplane so much they had to go for round 2! This time, they chose a helicopter.

Roman was so excited to ride the roller coaster... until he got on it!
He was NOT a fan!
Here he is asking me to make it stop!
Anthon & Roman both had fun on this slide
The one fun thing we did- teeth whitening. A blast, right?!
I wanted to get family picture in front of the Farris wheel
Hilarious, right?!
This one turned out a little better :)


All in all, it was a great night!! I love when we get to do fun things as a family!

Fall Festivities, part 1: Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we decided to get out of the house & do some fun fall activities. We started off by going to Dewitt Stables with our friends, the Spier's. We went to this same place last year & the boys had a blast! It was just as fun this year!
We started off with playing in a bouncy house and then some pony rides. They had a little barrel train & face painting for the kids, as well. Then we took a hay ride to the petting zoo & pumpkin patch. Here's some pictures from all the festivities!
Sterling wasn't very impressed.
Roman makes a great little cowboy!
Ellie & Roman
My little man
At the petting zoo- Roman & his chickens! He loves catching them!
The bunny rabbits were HUGE!
Heading to the pumpkin patch- Sterling thought he was pretty cool sitting on the bench (see the hint of a smile?!)


Tried to get a picture of all the kids together... this was as good as I got!
Here we are
These are our friends, the Spier  family- Michael, Ellie, Chelsea, & Joey. They're awesome!
Roman playing on the old tractor
My love & me. Seriously, where would I be without him??
 We had a great time,  LOVED the cooler weather & fun company!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Family pictures

A friend of mine, Lindsey Gettler, took some family pictures for us a couple weekends ago. I can't even begin to describe how much I LOVE them!!!! So, I'll let her work speak for itself :)









Like I said, LOVE them!!
If you want to see more, you can check out my album on Facebook by clicking HERE.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Fall FHE

We decided to do a little pumpkin carving for Family Home Evening last week! A family in our ward came over & joined us, & it was a lot of fun!
 This was our first time carving pumpkins, & the boys seemed to really enjoy it!
Sterling loved his little pumpkin top! He thought it was the coolest thing to take it off/ put it on.
Here's Roman with his spider pumpkin!
I  carved a kitty cat in mine :)
Anthon wanted to do a Fox head (you know, like the BMX brand?). I think it turned out looking like a werewolf! But he did a good job :)
Here we are- our little pumpkin family!
  PS- It's still in the 90's here, so the darn things were wilted & moldy by Thursday :-/, but it was a lot of fun while they lasted!

Monday, October 8, 2012

The Rest of September... there's a lot.

I decided it's about time I posted about what we did for the rest of September, since this little thing known as nursing school occupies a majority of my time these days & I haven't had a chance to play catch up! While looking through my photos from September, I realized that all I had was pictures from camping & the mud run & a couple random (crappy) snap shots! Thank heaven for Instagram... at least I have some picture documentation of my children's life!
First & foremost, we have a family pet! He's a desert tortoise & his name is Tito. Anthon almost stepped on him in a customers back yard & they let him have him. I wasn't sure I liked the idea of having a pet when Anthon brought it home (especially one as long term as a tortoise!), but he seriously is the easiest, coolest pet!
 The boys LOVE having him in their room & love to watch him walk around his cage/ eat.
Sterling still isn't sure about holding him though :)
We lost Tito for about 2 & 1/2 weeks when Roman let him go in the back yard :(. We helped Roman pray that he would find him, but after a few days I thought for sure we'd never see him again! Thankfully, Anthon spotted the poor thing stuck to a glue board in our garage and we were able to get him off of it with out any injury. I'm glad we found him & that Roman recognized it as an answer to his prayer!!
Anthon has been playing football on Thursday nights, so me & the boys like to go watch him. I LOVE this shot of Ster... it's like he's thinking, "I wanna be just like him!"
Another thing we've been doing a lot of is playing hide-n-seek... so fun!
I could NOT find Roman during one game, & Anthon swore he didn't know where he was hiding... yeah, he's a liar. It was pretty funny though! I can't believe Roman stayed so still & quiet up there!
This is us watching General Conference... it was such a GREAT weekend!
 Now onto the boys individually. First up, little Sterling! Oh, how I LOVE this little boy! He is feisty, a roughian, hilarious, & sweet. He's still pretty small for his age, but is slowly putting on weight. His little personality is really starting to shine & he's so expressive- I love seeing the faces he makes (too bad I can rarely catch them on my camera)!! Here's a couple that I have caught:
 
 
I feel like the poor kid has been teething forever! He has 6 on top (4 in front & 2 molars) & I think the same on the bottom. He gets grouchy when he teethes so hopefully the last few stragglers will come in & we can be done with this teeth stuff!
He loves to "help" us with chores- dishes being his favorite (all he does is play with the dishes I already put in the dishwasher, but it's cute)! He's really good at helping clean up toys & throwing things in the trash for us. He learned to blow his nose this last week & it's Soooo wonderful! Since he's been teething so much (on top of having a pretty gross cold) he's needed his nose wiped a TON. Have I mentioned how much he HATES having his nose wiped?!? It was like the end of the world for him... but now that he can blow it, he thinks he's pretty cool & is more than willing to let us wipe it, then he throws it away :)!
 Lately, he's been talking a lot more- he says "No" REALLY well & quite frequently. Other things he says are "Yeah, I don't know, Uh-huh, Dad, Momma, Oman (Roman), car, truck, pees (please), Jesus, apple, nose, & bye-bye". Random list, but I love anything he says- he has the cutest little voice & I really enjoy listening to him talk! He completely adores Roman & watching them interact is the BEST thing in the world! They play really well together & really do love each other! I love how he hugs/ kisses his brother every time he goes to sleep & wakes up.
Onto Mr. Roman man! This kid is smart, independent, sassy, witty, adorable, sensitive, compassionate, & loving! He is a great helper (when he wants to be)!! One thing that always has a guarantee he will help with is cleaning the bathroom. I do floors, tub, & sink- He does mirrors & toilet, and does an awesome job at it too!
  .... it's a pretty sweet set up, if you ask me!
I love how he's smiling at himself in the mirror!! So proud :)
 We got to go swimming a few more times (we could probably go again this month since it's still in the high 90ºs!) . He has really gotten the hang of swimming this summer & I enjoy watching him in the water! He loves diving for rings, jumping in & climbing out the side, & being "a fish" (swimming under water).
I'm so proud of this accomplishment he has made!
 Poor kid hasn't been loving preschool these last couple of weeks as much as he was in the beginning. In fact, he's cried & begged not to go! I'm not sure why, he doesn't say, but he did go a few times & not get to do show & tell because he wasn't obeying his teacher, so that may have affected his sense of security with his teacher. He's super sensitive & if he doesn't feel welcome/ loved it really upsets him (not that his teacher has been mean to him- she's great! Just the fact that he got in trouble affects him).  Hopefully he'll get the hang of not talking & staying in his seat & start to like going again!
On the flip side, one thing he still adores is his little brother! He says all the time "Sterkey (his nick name for Sterling), you my best friend- I wuv you!" He's so great at teaching Sterling things, playing with him, helping him in any way he can, & loving on him. It's seriously the BEST feeling watching my sons together!!
Apparently, he got a hold of my phone one night & totally photo bombed me! There was over 30 silly photos of him! These were my favorites- it seriously made me laugh out loud going through them!
Well, that about brings you up to speed on our boys. As far as me & Anthon go, our lives consist of school, work, & a heck of a lot of team work to keep our house, family, church responsibilities, & all that other good stuff in line! It's definitely been an adjustment (me being gone so much & him working & taking several tough classes), but we're adaptable creatures & must be doing something right because we're succeeding. Our house is in order (most of the time!) & we're both doing well in school. So far in nursing school I've taken 2 exams (tests for lecture) & got 90% on both and 5 practicums (skills tests) that are graded as pass/ fail and got 100% on all those. I start clinical on the 17th & am really excited! Without the support of Anthon I know nothing I've been enjoying would happen!! He's so great at helping me not feel guilty about putting my books down & playing with him & the boys! It's all about keeping the balance and we've really been blessed in the sense that we've been able to find the time we need for our studies, our boys, & each other! & now I've found the time to document the rest of our September...
Life is good.