Halloween Day

The day of Halloween was actually pretty chill for us.  We gave the kids the choice whether to paint pumpkins or carve them and they chose to paint them.  In the words of Mikayla, "I want to paint them so I don't have to bawl my eyes out again when I see the inside."  Every other year she has cried and cried when we lift the lid off the pumpkin.  Part of me wanted to carve them just to get our traditional Mikayla picture, but we saved her the torture.

Mammy, Pappy, Grammy, Papa, and the Tracey family came over to go trick-or-treating with us and the kids had a lot of fun with their cousins.  Our little neighborhood is just the right size for young kiddos to get their fill of trick-or-treating, but not get too tired.  Gotta say, I am never sad to see Halloween be over, but we did have a lot of fun this year!

A Lion, a Tiger and a Bear Bear-Oh My!

This year for Halloween Mikayla wanted to dress up like her "best friend", her little Bear blanket that she's had since she was born.  Maylee wanted to be a tiger and when we asked her what Daxton should be Maylee said "a boy cat".  All of that morphed into being a lion, a tiger, and a Bear Bear-oh my!

Tucson Temple Groundbreaking

October 17 was the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tucson Temple.  Dustin was asked to sing in the choir and his parents were there because his Dad is a bishop so they got to enjoy a really cool day together.  President Uchtdorf presided at the ceremony and talked a lot about the groundbreaking for the Temple being a time for us to "break ground" in our hearts and to strengthen our testimonies and become prepared to be able to enter the Temple when it opens.  He also spoke about being grateful through the storms of life.  The storms will come and go, but we can be have a grateful heart, which he said is the beginning of greatness.  During the ceremony it rained for a bit and President Uchtdorf referred to the rain as "liquid sunshine".  I loved that description because what seemed like it could be an untimely rainstorm was described as a blessing, just a blessing in a different form.  So many of the events in our lives could be similarly described.  We are so blessed to have a Temple coming to Tucson.  I can hardly wait!

The kids and I got to watch the groundbreaking at the house (Maylee was sick the night before and I didn't want to risk being at the church by myself with a sick kiddo!).  The girls thought it was awesome to watch their Dad on TV!

Mikayla drew a picture of her Dad singing and Mammy and Pappy watching him sing.

Christmas in October 2015

We look forward to the second weekend in October every year!  Christmas in October is one of our favorite traditions.  Mikayla asking been asking for forever if it's October yet (meaning Christmas in October).  Each year we have pretty much the same schedule of events, but it never disappoints.  We start off the day with the Butterfield Days parade in Benson, then root beer making and setting up, lunch, service project, coin dig in the sand pile, cousin gift exchange, adult white elephant swap, snow cones (a new tradition in the last couple of years), pinata, pie for dinner, then clean up and head home.  Here are some pictures from this year's celebrations.  Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa for such a wonderful time!

September

September was a "survival mode" month. Dustin and I both mentioned the other night that we felt like we finally felt a little bit alive again and it's so nice.  I haven't blogged in almost a month, which is totally unlike me, but I just haven't been taking a ton of pictures.  Here are some of the highlights for the past month that I managed to capture.

Spirit Days at school for Mikayla...

Dress like a book character day.  Her teacher asked them to dress like a character from Trumpet of the Swan since they were reading it in class so she went as a swan.  She ended up being the only one who did as her teacher asked and won a free donut at Dunkin' Donuts for listening!

80's Day

Fancy Day.  She made her sign that says "Fancy Girl"

Our happy little gal looking adorable in her school uniform!

Maylee has found her sense of style (starting to dip her toes in the pool of fanciness like her sister) and she is finding her own personality...

Dax has been a terror lately.  There's no other way to put it.  I don't have many pictures of him because he NEVER stops moving (and hardly stops screaming/yelling/crying long enough to get a good picture)!!! He's a beast!

I seriously wonder what our neighbors think each time they see us.  We are definitely the rednecks of the neighborhood.  Gotta love these kiddos!