Monday, November 24, 2014

Fall Update

The last few weeks have been very busy so I thought I would catch you up.

First of all, October was hot!  I'm pretty sure it was the hottest October we've had since I have lived here.  And here is some proof:
This was October 30!
I assumed that we would have an unusually warm winter but when November came, the temps dropped all of a sudden and I'm pretty sure this has been the coldest November since I have lived here.  Pretty weird. Although, there is a warm front coming through and we are suppose to have 80 degrees on Thanksgiving Day.  I'm pretty sure that is because Nicole will be here in a couple days and she has been praying!!

Since we have been back from NY, I have been trying to spend a lot of time on my Latin American history class.  I finally got to the point where I was ready to take the midterm, which was great because I really wanted to get it done before Thanksgiving. I took it last Friday.  It was very hard and I had to write one essay that I was hoping would not be on there and it was, so I did not do as well as I had hoped because of that.  I don't know my grade yet, and I'm not expecting to until after Thanksgiving.  For now I will enjoy the holiday and get back at it next week.

I have also been trying to learn more about cub scouts and get more comfortable with my calling.  I went to a big training that they had a couple weeks ago and Scott has been a big help too.  We have 11 boys in our den and after December 5 we will have 12!  They called a third den leader to assist which has been very helpful.  It is still a new experience and they are super rowdy boys and I just try to breathe deeply and evenly while I am there for the most part, ha!

Scott has been busy with work, calling and planning a big block party that was a huge success!  We bbq'ed and had all sorts of games and there was a big turnout. We even had a live band this time.  Everyone loves that he plans these parties.  We know our neighbors so much better now. 

Here is a visual of what we have been doing in our spare time.
The Phoenix temple had their open house and we met Ashley and Jason there one night.

The temple is gorgeous and Jason's parents treated our whole group to dinner at his country club.  Great evening!
The following Friday was Halloween.  We went over to the Robinson's for dinner and then came back to our house to pass out candy to the trick or treaters.  Here are some of the kids in our neighborhood (taken at the trunk or treat the week before).
Zach the football player

Josh the army guy
Agnes the mummy and Malia the zombie cheerleader

So the guys were all cute and the girls were all scary.....go figure.
I went for a bike ride with the neighborhood kids one day and we ended up at the park.


Like I said, I went to Pow Wow a couple weeks ago and learned some games to play with my den, like how to make a paper house that you can stack a book on without falling......
My life is so exciting.
A couple weeks ago the neighborhood kids came over on a Saturday and Scott convinced them that helping him wash the car would be a really fun thing to do.  It didn't take much convincing, they jumped at the chance and had a blast.  Agnes had a goal of getting completely soaked from head to toe.  Zach said he would help but only if nobody got ANY water on him.

They decided it would be fun to keep soaping up the places Scott already rinsed to see how long it would take him to actually get it rinsed.  He was very patient and let them run the bucket completely out of soap.

Agnes met her goal.
Zach and Malia decided to see how cold the pool had gotten.  A picture is worth a thousand words!
We have also been to several concerts and football games....
5th Grade orchestra and band fall concert

Zach plays the trumpet.

Clark plays the cello.

East Valley Youth Symphony....Gurrie on far left playing violin, Oscar on far right playing cello.

Good job Gurrie!

He's such a boy.

Zach and Clark's last football game of the season.

Last Saturday after the game the kids came over and Scott told them he would give them one penny for every acorn they picked up in the back yard.  We have a tree that drops them by the bucket and so he devised this ingenious plan to get them cleaned up.  They picked up hundreds of them and had a blast doing it.  Scott counted every single acorn and paid them accordingly.  Best ten bucks he ever spent!

Riley looking on cautiously.....
There you have it, the last month of our life! 

This week we are looking forward to seeing all the kids for Thanksgiving!! So stay tuned.....


1 comment:

Dan and Nicole said...

looks like fun! We can't wait to get there! I don't remember penny incentives to pick up rocks ;)