Praiseworthy

I recently went to parent teacher conference for Madelyn. She absolutely loves school and is doing so well. Madelyn's teacher had nothing but good to say about her. One very nice compliment she gave was that Madelyn is so nice to everyone, always willing to help, share, or make others feel good. For example, one day a little boy dropped a can of pencils that spilled all over the floor. As the other children started to laugh and make fun of the boy, Madelyn quickly bent down to help him pick it up. Mrs. Needham went on to say that Madelyn is very well liked and respected by her classmates, and more importantly, she doesn't even realize it. She is always so humble and kind to everyone. I was so pleased to hear this. As a mom, I often wonder if the efforts I make to teach my children is really working. Sometimes what I see at home, makes me feel discouraged but after such a Praiseworthy compliment about Madelyn, I gained some hope. It reminds me of a saying that I heard not too long ago that goes something like this, "How your children act outside the home, is a reflection on what is happening inside the home." Hopefully there are lessons of respect, love, honesty, integrity, and happiness being learned in our home, despite the chaos and busyness of everyday life!

Almost Forgotten

I've just realized here it is December and I never shared some of our Halloween photos! Where has the time gone? We did have great Halloween...Madelyn was (take a guess)....Hannah Montana, Mason was spiderman, and Jalen was a fireman. About a month before Halloween, Madelyn and I checked online and in several stores for different ideas for a costume. I tried to encourage a cute witch, pirate, genie, clown, cowgirl or anything but Hannah Montana. Of course I didn't win. Madelyn is like many other girls everywhere...in love with Hannah Montana so it wasn't surprising that we saw many neighbors and friends all dressed up as a blonde, cute rock star! Mason wasn't set on any particular costume, he agreed and was excited to be Spiderman when I suggessted it (I already had a costume I bought last year on sale:) This fits his personality so well...easy going, easy to please and doesn't put up a fight or fuss over things. Thanks Mason! Jalen has been very interested in firemen and firetrucks ever since his birthday. For awhile, he kept saying he wanted to be a firetruck for Halloween. I didn't know how that was going to work, but after getting the cute fireman costume for his birthday from his friend, Hannah, he was so excited. The pictures just don't do this outfit justice. It is so dang cute. It even has red suspenders, his name on the jacket, and real reflecters on the pants and jacket sleeves (that's why some of the pictures of him don't turn out so well) Anyways, they all looked adorable and had a great weekend.

Visit from the tooth fairy

Madelyn FINALLY lost her first tooth! She has been waiting for this day for months as she has watched all her friends and classmates loose their teeth over the last year. She anxiously awaited that night to leave her tooth for the tooth fairy. At 2:00 a.m. she woke me up to show me that the tooth fairy had found her tooth and left money! Now's she's even more excited for the next one to fall out.

We LOVE Fall!

The change in seasons has taken a whole new meaning since moving and living in Arizonia. I used to love fall for the beautiful colors, the starting of a new school year, and for football season. I do have to admit that experiencing college football with Alan was such an exciting time of year and there really was a feeling in the air on those fall Saturday game days. I miss those times!

Now, the fall season is primarily so exciting because we can finally enjoy the outdoors again. I love the cool crisp mornings and the time we can spend outside with neighbors and friends. It's almost like the neighborhood comes back to life in the fall. The kids have especially loved the change in season and spending more time outside. In many ways we have become very spoiled to the nice weather for the majority of the year. I came across a note I had written down last May when it had rained for about 2-3 days and the boys couldn't play outside. Here's their comments:

The sky is very cloudy and Mason says: "Why is the sky that color? Why does it look like that? I've never seen it look like that."

As Jalen opens the blinds to see another rainy, wet day he says in a gruff deep voice, "It's wet outside again! That's not fair!" (and then stomps up the stairs)

Thank goodness we only see rainy wet days maybe 5-10 days out of the year!

Here's the boys with our neighbor Cooper enjoying riding bikes outside

Run Away

Recently, after I had left for work, Alan got a call from our friend and neighbor Jeff Lundt at 6:30 A.M. asking if we were missing anyone. To Alan's knowledge, all our kids were home, but his answer to the question was, "I don't know, am I missing somebody?"

Jeff's response, "Yes, I have Jalen here all dressed with his cowboy boots and jacket ready to play with Braydon. The only problem is that Braydon is fast asleep (still snoring according to Jalen as Jeff let Jalen peek in to see him).

Yes, we have a runaway on our hands! I don't know which is more surprising, that Jalen could make it around the block and find Braydon's house all on his own, or that Alan had no idea that Jalen had gone out the front door and was gone that long without realizing it. We're definately keeping a tighter reign on him to avoid those run aways situations in the future!

Here is Jalen with one of his best buddies, Braydon Lundt