When the kids are at school.....

My children begged and begged this fall to let them ride scooters over to the bus stop. I finally relented and found a good way to get home.  M, M and I would take turns riding them back home.  It was surprisingly fun, and I think we all got quite good at it!  Now if only the kids could see us.....

Sneak Peek

In October, our dear friend and neighbor Natalia took family pictures for us.  I am so grateful for her patience, kindness, enthusiasm, joy, and bribes offered to my children during our photo shoot.  It is amazing how demonic my children can become when it is time for family pictures, but somehow Natalia managed to snap some very nice pictures of each child separately as well as in a group.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for your hard work and "quick fingers"

Here is a sneak peek of our pictures

*these are my outtakes that were NOT used for the annual Christmas cards.....for anyone who cares, I will post the other pictures after our cards are mailed off in order to keep them a surprise*

Tuck Tripod

Guess what? 

I did something incredibly adventurous, new, and slightly dangerous this fall.

I joined a real, bonafide hockey team. {okay maybe just tripod but still}

Crazy right?! 

The best part was that it was one of the best selfish decisions I have made.  Normally when I come up with a selfish thing that I want to do, the guilt always takes over and I end up making the choice that puts myself on the backburner.  Whether it is doing a girls night/trip, buying a coveted clothing item at the store or simply choosing a fun activity just for myself; I will normally plan on doing one of these things only to let guilt intrude my mind and I eventually choose to stay home and not buy/do the wanted thing.  Why you ask?  Well, I always feel the pressure to buy the needed and not wanted items, and the compulsion to just stay home because I am already gone three nights a week at work as it is.  It seems as though I am letting my family down if I leave them.

When I first heard about Tuck Hockey last year I said I didn't think I would ever want to play Hockey.  It was so far out of my comfort zone that I didn't really think twice.  Jesse played on the men's league and I went to a few games; that was it.  Then this year I had a good friend mention that she was thinking about playing.  I started to debate doing it and eventually asked Jesse's opinion.  He immediately discouraged from it, saying that I wouldn't like getting pushed and shoved around.  Plus I would have to buy new equipment which is fairly expensive and I would have to pay to play in the league.  I felt guilt big time and gave up on participating until I found out that another friend was going to play as well.  

After debating back and forth for awhile I finally decided literally the last minute to play.  Several days before the games started I headed over to the local sporting goods store and picked up my equipment and then I was ready to play. 

The first game was a little overwhelming as I really didn't know the rules to the game and I had never worn all the heavy padding, hockey skates, or skated around with a stick in my hand.  Not to mention that fact that I have never stopped on skates before {my normal stop is a grab at the wall or a spinning stop}.  Thankfully there were several other girls on my team in the same boat as me. 

Now a few months later I can confidently say that I understand part of the rules of Hockey and manage to follow most of those, I am slightly more accustomed to wearing heavy padding and skating with a stick, and I still don't know how to stop. Nevertheless, I feel braver and proud of myself for putting myself out there and trying something I didn't already know how to do.  It makes me feel like I can try other things that are hard and new.

And I confident that whatever team I am on during second semester of Hockey we will improve from this year.  After all we were 0-8 so you can only go up from there.

Our last game of the regular season toast of champagne {sparkling cider for us Mormons/non-drinkers}

GO MOTHER PUCKERS!!

*this picture was taken after our playoff game where we {once again} lost.  I couldn't make it because of a work conflict

Taken by my good friend right before my first ever game

"Give me your meanest, toughest hockey faces"

*my cute friend that helped jump start this entire adventure for me #loveherforhelpingmebebrave

Hmmmmm

I'm not really sure how my three-year-old managed to be the ONLY child that took a normal school picture.

I've got my fingers crossed that our retakes will turn out better today for the other two.  

Death threats were issued of course :)

Sick Little Miss

DISLIKE DISLIKE DISLIKE

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate when my kiddos are sick? 

Poor little Miss was home sick with a fever, cough, NFW type day.  It always breaks my heart to see my normally crazy, active children laying on the cough dead asleep in the middle of the day.

Thank heavens she was in much better spirits by the next day.

Conversations

I am always intrigued by the conversations that my children have in the back seat while we drive to our various recreational activities.  Sometimes it is a discussion between two three year olds, namely our good neighbor buddy Brixton and Eli, other times it is my older two "deep thinking".  

Last week Eli and Brixton had a very lively conversation on the way to preschool about which color of power ranger was the best fighter.....they seriously crack me up.  Eli was sure that the "rainbow colored" power ranger was the best.  Brixton wasn't really sure but told Eli there wasn't a ranger that color.

Then a few days later I overhead this jewel of a discussion between Maddie and Robby:

Robby: "Grandma and Grandpa must be rich because they had a pool in Arizona"

Maddie: "Yeah, cuz pools cost THOUSANDS of dollars"

Robby: "I have a five dollar bill, so I have almost a thousand"

As much as my children drive me crazy on a daily basis, when I listen to these innocent discussions they have with each other it makes me ever so grateful to have them in my life.  They remind me about the simplicity of life, they remind me to take a breath and enjoy what I already have, they remind me to appreciate their ages, they remind me to not worry so much about the future.  I love my little nuggets and wouldn't trade them for the world.

*these pics were taken up in the White Mountains on a very cold hike....Robby and Maddie were showing us their "I am freezing cold faces"

Halloween 2012****picture overload

This was a great year for Halloween at our house.  I love that my kids are all old enough to pick out their own costumes, walk independently for trick or treating, be excited, dress themselves {mostly}, and go to parties and have a good time without being mean to others--for the most part.  Although it was a bit of a downer to have our Monday evening Tiny Tuckie parade/party delayed due to the hurricane, Halloween more than made up for it.  

Eli was able to wear his costume to school and went on a tiny parade with his class and did some fun Halloween themed crafts while he was there.  The other two weren't allowed to wear costumes to school but were able to change as soon as they got home {don't even get me started with how ridiculous it is that the school doesn't celebrate a children's holiday}.

This is honestly the best picture I got of all three children in costume attire.  Jesse and the kids were very excited to go trick or treating and they weren't the least bit interested in spending any amount of time taking pictures with me.....grrrrr

--and yes, that is red marker dots all over Robby's face; not a sudden case of chicken pox.  He decided to do this while we were at Sachem's halloween party--

I felt bad that we never carved our pumpkins for Halloween AGAIN, so I quickly did one after school. Most of our pumpkins were attacked by the crazy squirrels near our house.  They chewed holes through them and would proceed to eat the pumpkin seeds out.
So gross to walk outside to pumpkin guts strung all over the porch and half-rotted pumpkins.
I will definitely NOT miss this part of New England forest life

SPIDERMAN: Mr E

 BATMAN: Rubba

MONARCH BUTTERFLY: Maddie-Lynn

We started our Halloween post-school celebration near our friends house where we went on our annual Sachem parade to the community center showing off the spectacular dress up clothing. We tried to take a picture of all the kiddos, which was hilarious as always.  Eli was so excited he could hardly hold still and Robby truly thought he was Batman with his costume on and had some great poses to show all.  Maddie was hysterical with her "gymnastics" pose as she called it; she did a great job maintaining this position throughout most of the pictures.   

We truly have some magnificent friends here in New Hampshire and several of them organized this fun party where we all ate Pizza, treats, and drinks and they supplied lots of fun crafts and games for the kids to play.  Once again it was chaotic, hectic, semi-crazy, but loads of fun.  

I love how my boys are just starting to like doing coloring/craft projects (especially Robby)

Pretty soon it was time to go trick-or-treating.  With the days being shortened with earlier sunsets and the cooler weather, we all headed out much earlier than we were typically used to in Arizona.  By 5:30pm, the trick-or-treaters were in full swing in Sachem, the Toronto's included.  This year we cleaned out nearly the whole neighborhood over a space of an hour.  The kids did surprisingly well and I only got a few complaints out of them towards the end.  Robby and Maddie held their own bags the entire time and all three walked for the whole event {every other year we have brought our wagon along}.  The best part of all, was that we were able to trick-or-treat in a group with some of our good friends: Brynlee and Laura Hawkins, Candace, Joey, and JJ Monteleone, and for a little while Damon and Michelle Holbrook.  We all got a kick out of our excited kiddos practically forming a mob at each door demanding "candy candy candy".  We even headed over to the "shady section of Sachem".

The end result= more candy than we should ever eat, happy/tired children's faces, and fun-filled evening that we will always remember.

On a more serious note, we are so grateful for all the meaningful friendships that we have formed over the past fifteen months of living in New England.  Last summer, we were a bit unsure as we ventured far away from our state that held nearly all of our friends and family.  We had met several amazing families that would be going through the exact same experience with us, which DID make the move a bit easier.  But we were still hesitant about whether we really would be able to every feel at home somewhere other than Arizona.  Once we arrived it was full-swing parties, get togethers, playdates, etc. Although all of this was helpful, the children and I were still pretty homesick last year.  It was hard to be breaking into a new rhythm, and very difficult for some of my children to make new friends.  There were plenty of sad evenings, anbger at being pulled away from a familiar place and tears shed as we struggled to grow and become closer as a family.  Now looking back I can see just what a wonderful experience this has been.  I feel like I am a much more well rounded individual, I have more confidence in going out and making friends with people from diverse backgrounds, I have more confidence as a mother and wife, and I now know that I can feel at home wherever we go as long as I have my family with me.  I know that it will probably be just as difficult when we say goodbye next summer to all of our grad school friends, but I will also be able to bring along this experience with me as I prepare to settle down in yet another new city.  

So once again I wanted to give a shout out to all of my New England friends and say thank you for your friendships. I have grown to think of many of you as closer than just a friend....you are more like family to us.

King Arthur Flour: Twice!

Last year I was a tad bit jealous when all of my TP friends signed up for a cooking class at the famous "King Arthur Flour" baking center near us.  I was wait listed and then ended up working on that night.  This year I was intent on not missing out so when a friend forwarded me the info on some classes that they might sign up for, I jumped right on that bandwagon and immediately signed right up.  I am so glad that I did.  I had so much fun hanging out with friends, learning a few more cooking techniques and getting out of the house in a non-work way.  It was worth every bit of babysitting money that I shelled out.

The first class we attended was on how to make the perfect New England crisps, cobblers, and crumbles.  It was interesting to learn that there is a specific difference between each of these types. I never knew that before and I also learned how to correctly measure flour...don't judge me, my mother never taught me. The scent in the room was to die for. It included pears, berries, and apples and we can't forget the smell of their amazing cinnamon.  Mmmmm, I am getting hungry just thinking about it.  I didn't take any pictures of our group at the classes, but thankfully I have a photographer for a friend that took them for us. Thanks Maren for allowing me to steal these beauties!

 I may or may not have scooped a ridiculously large amount of whipped cream on my crisp and then proceeded to devour without any shame

 My creations which lasted less than two days at my house. 

Andrea, Maren, Michelle, Tiffany, and Brittany

The second class I attended was a cake decorating class.  It covered the basics on how to make a Meringue Buttercream frosting.  I felt very naive as I learned that you can make frosting without powdered sugar.  Wow, my eyes were opened up to the possibilities.  Now I just need to convince the hubby that I need a Kitchenaid mixer to handle all of my baking necessities.  I don't know if I will ever be an expert cake maker, but I was able to learn a bit more on how to make your cake look smooth and nice around the sides and on top. 

--never mind how tired I look in this picture.  I had been up for over thirty hours straight when we snapped this beauty

Preschool Projects

 
Eli brings home quite a few papers and projects from school.  I think this one might be my all time favorite so far.  I love how it COMPLETELY reflects his personality and as I read each of the "things about me" I can totally see him coming up with each one on his own.

1. I like rainbow colors

2. My favorite toys are ships

3. I like to eat watermelon

4. I have 1 brother and 1 sister

5. My favorite books is scary about 3 bears {"The Spooky Old Tree" Berenstein Bear book}

Halloween Outdoor Decor

I have this really amazing family who live right next door to us.  She is crafty, kind, energetic, patient, happy, friendly, helpful, basically the list goes on and on.  Every year for Halloween she puts up some really cute decorations and then passes the supplies to me to decorate my house as well.  For the second year in a row we have matching spiderwebs on our porches and fun decorated windows.  I love how she inspires me to make the holidays a bit more fun for my children.  Although we anxiously anticipate the day when we are done with graduate school and back into real life, I am also dreading leaving all of the amazing people we have grown to know and love in New England.  The time is truly flying by for us.  As we welcome our last winter in New Hampshire we are trying to appreciate every aspect of this unique atmosphere and experience life to the fullest.

 *I try to ignore the fact that because one of my hubby's hobby's is fixing his bike, we have a constant mess of supplies on the side of our porch. In this regard a garage cannot come soon enough for us*

Pumpkin Patch

Maddie, Eli, Brixton, Damon, and Robby

We finally experienced a non-rainy day last Wednesday, and to celebrate my good friend and I took the kiddos to our favorite farm to pick pumpkins.  We had such a great time walking through the pumpkin field and picking out the perfect ones.....there were quite a few rotted pumpkins in the running.  Initially we had discussed taking them through the corn maze, but when we found out how much money that would cost we quickly nixed that idea.  Luckily you had to walk through part of the corn maze just to reach the pumpkin field so we told our kids that we did go through the maze :)

Eli was in love with the funky, flat pumpkin.  I was all on top of that one until I realized it had a large crack in the side

Maddie scoured the field trying to find the "perfect one" and came up with this small beauty.  Too bad only a few days later her little bro decided to see what would happen if he threw her pumpkin like it was a basketball.  Let's just say it definitely does NOT bounce like a ball

Sorry Rubba for making you take a picture with the sun in your eyes.  He really was quite happy at the field and was trying really hard to find the biggest pumpkin out there

 The cute decorations on our little walk through the corn maze :)

 I am totally in love with the fact that E has his legs crossed in this picture.

He needs to seriously stop growing up.

Not the best picture of us (we had a 7 year old snap this), but we had to laugh when we both showed up in pinkish pants, a grey top, and sunglasses. Total twinners

FYI: I am NOT pregnant even though I totally look like it in the picture.  I suppose I should start laying off my newest drink obsession:

Hmmmm.....or maybe just really start ramping up my workouts.

It really is that good :)