Halloween 2017

Mario and the little bumble bee buzzed around the neighborhood for treats!

A cheerleader this year. Went out with her ward friends, then Eden's dad took these girls (Eden, Brielle, Maiah, and Hailey) to Spanish Fork for some more trick or treating. 

He's so creative! Came up with the idea to be homework for Halloween! Made his own costume. 

Paige and her buddy Penn Oct 31, 2017

School Halloween Parade

School Halloween Parade

Halloween 2016

I love these kids. And that man? He's the best! Happy Halloween. 

Halloween 2015

This year I wasn't such a scrooge about Halloween. It still isn't my favorite holiday, but I did my best to be happy about it.

 Miles was Obi Wan Kenobi. I was going to spend about 40 dollars on a costume for him. I decided that because I had never bought him a new costume before and last year the only thing he could find to wear trick-or-treating was his scout shirt (poor kid) I was going to do what was necessary to help him have a better costume this year, especially since he had his heart set on this idea! Then out of the blue, we found the same costume on KSL classifieds for 8 dollars just about 5 minutes away! I will call this a tithing blessing! 

Hailey was a veterinarian. She is a huge animal lover. She has said a lot in the last year or so that she wants to be a vet when she grows up. So I wasn't surprised when she asked if she could be one for Halloween. We were able to pull together child sized scrubs, doctor coat, hat, and all the accessories pretty easily. 

Clay WAS going to be Hulk but decided last minute to wear his same costume from last year and be a skeleton. I am glad he was pleased with his choice, but that costume has seen better days and was super tiny on him so DI will be acquiring a skeleton costume soon.

Paige was a cute little monkey. I was a dollar store black cat (same costume Hailey had last year, a dollar well spent!). And Joey put on that pirate costume again, yes!! 

The candy part of this holiday grosses me out. BUT--Miles has informed me it is WAY uncool to be THAT mom who hands out pencils. So I tried to hold onto my last shred of coolness and bought a huge bag of chocolate candy. Yum. You're welcome kids. :) (Please Halloween fairy, come take all our candy away!)

Here's some photos:

Ward trunk-or-treat

Hailey was very sweet to help Clay make it around to go trick or treating. She's a great big sis!

Clay and his buddy Kyle at preschool the Friday before Halloween. 

Miles' 4th grade class. 

Hailey in her second grade class.

Beautiful sunrise Oct 30th. Miles came back from the bus stop to show me the beauty. It makes me happy he wants to share with me things like this.

Morning before school October 30th, 2015

Paige's first Christmas (and 3 and 4 months old)

Paige turned 3 months old on November 3rd. Things were getting easier for me by this time. November started out warm and sunny, we enjoyed playing outside every day we could. Paige saw her first snow ever in mid-November. The best way to take Paige out into the snow is to put her into her little carseat and use this thick, warm carseat cover. It was like a nice warm cocoon for her. 

How grateful I am for these two children. On this day (November 7th) we enjoyed a very warm and sunny day together in the back yard. I remember thinking Paige might be too hot in her little jacket. 

However, just a few days later it snowed. Clay LOVES the snow. He constantly wants to make tracks in it where ever we go. Luckily, the snow melted quickly in November. This winter has been a very mild winter so far.

I love this car seat cover, which was given to us by a neighbor (Jaimi Wilson). I can put blankets around her and then slip this cover over the car seat and I know that she will be toasty warm when we venture out in the cold.


Paige turned 4 months old at the beginning of December. This was actually a very tough month. Her sleeping took a turn for the worse, and she started waking up every 2 hours at night again. I was trying to prepare for Christmas, take care of the other kids and household things, and take care of Paige and I was exhausted. I have read there is often something call the "4 month regression" where babies this age stop sleeping well because they are growing so fast. Perhaps this is what happened to Paige. Here are some photos from December:

On a December afternoon...

Right before the ward Christmas party...


Meeting Santa for the first time at Maple Mountain Pharmacy...


Reenacting Luke 2 as a family...(Clay was the angel...)

We opened our gifts here under our tree on the 22nd. Then on the 23rd we drove to Arizona. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning with my parents and then spent the rest of Christmas Day with Hancock relatives. 

Our 2014 Christmas card...

Happy Easter!

The Friend magazine for the last two years has little daily activities the family can do on the days leading up to Easter. We used The Friend again this year and read a scripture about Christ's life each night leading up to the Resurrection (which I assume is tonight's reading).

This year Joey's brother John and his daughter Stephanie came up for a couple of days and we got to celebrate Easter with them. John was attending a funeral of a friend and Joey accompanied him to that. I took the kids to the ward Easter egg hunt, then to the playground, then we dyed Easter eggs. Looks like we'll eat deviled eggs with dinner tonight. :)

I am grateful for my testimony and to celebrate Easter. I love so much about Easter, the simplicity of the holiday compared to other holidays, the deep meaning behind it, and how it is always in the spring--a time of year I cherish.

Happy Easter!

Miles, Clay, Stephanie, Hailey 

Love how they love each other!

Stephanie was a lot of fun to have around

It was such a beautiful day, after the ward activity we went across the street to the playground.

As soon as he hit the playground he became barefoot. 

Hailey, Stephanie

This kid LOVES the playground. He has been known to cry real tears when we drive by and can't stop to play.

Dying eggs. I gave everybody 3 eggs to decorate at first but they talked me into boiling more!

Miles, Hailey, Clay, Joey, Stephanie, John. 

Halloween

I've made peace with Halloween. 

For the last few years I've held a grudge against it. I didn't appreciate the candy. I loved the candy as a kid. But now that I'm grown-up and have kids of my own--all the Halloween candy looks awful to me!

This year I once again pulled out the dress ups the day before Halloween and let the kids rummage through and pick whatever they wanted. They were excited and spent a long time trying on things. They were happy and it was simple.

I tried to have a good attitude and gratefully accepted the crap, I mean candy, that was generously given to my children. I have started to realize that there are some things in life that are going to happen regardless of anything I do--candy on Halloween is one of them. So I smiled and tried to not think too much about the nutritional nightmare piling up in each of their pumpkin buckets.

Deep down I wish we would all hand out other things on Halloween--like fruit snacks and pretzel packs, packages of crackers, and little boxes of raisins or toothbrushes and pencils and bookmarks, or even nickles and pennies. I know people who like the candy would probably think that's lame, but I can dream.

I do have to give Halloween a little credit because there have been some pretty cute memories along the way. I looked back on our previous years of Halloween and got a little sentimental. I enjoy having memories of these kids all dressed up.

2013

2012

2011

2011

2010

2009

2008

2008

2007

2006

Easter 2013 and Grandma and Grandpa Hancock

The older I get the more I love Easter. It is such a sweet, meaningful, simple holiday that as a mother I can really enjoy. No need to feel that I need to get a list of things accomplished to really participate in the holiday or make it enjoyable for my family.

This year we tried a couple different things. We did an Easter countdown in the Friend Magazine with a little puzzle where the kids could put a piece together each day until Easter and do the activity associated with it. It was simple and really great. Each day had us do a different Christ-centered activity together. Loved it! We also dyed eggs a few days before Easter.

On Saturday we attended an Easter egg hunt on BYU campus. It was chaotic and crowded. My wedding ring slipped off my finger on a crowded inflatable slide. My wedding ring is very loose because my fingers are skinnier than they used to be and because of this it often slips right off. I was super grateful when the Nordstrom's daughter found it for me. After the crazy egg hunt we went to a BYU football scrimmage game. 

On Sunday it was so quiet in our little home. There were Easter baskets for the kids in the morning. We could smell ham cooking upstairs in the afternoon. Joey made us a great dinner and we made cookies and just spent time together. 

The week after Easter we had wonderful visitors---Grandma and Grandpa Hancock! We had so much fun seeing them.

And, the same week of Easter we just happened to snap this photo of the kids after bath, before bed. Some pictures make my heart melt and the one below is one of them. They just look so happy. How thankful I am for my family--the family Joey and I have as well as our extended family. 

Christmas...and now...

A little about Christmas 2012...We drove down to Tucson! We stopped in to see my mom and dad on the way to and from Tucson. I think the highlight of the trip for me was seeing all our old friends from Marana. We went to church on Sunday and had a great time hugging and talking and just seeing everybody.  It was so fun! We drove by the house and all the neighbors were outside so we had so much fun talking to them too! Of COURSE, I have the most awesome in-laws so that was fun to visit them too.

My parents are always really sweet to the kids. I think it's fun that my dad always reads to them.

Sophie got a bubble machine for Christmas and the cousins loved it.

Back here in Utah, it's COLD outside. Apparently our introductory winter is the coldest and snowiest winter Utah has had in years!! And man oh mannnn....I am dreaming of Hawaii, and Cali, and Tucson every time I go outside! I think I can handle the 30s and 40s a little better than the fridgid 0s, 10s, and 20s! Brrrrrr! I spend my days shiv-er-ing! Right now, at this very moment (Jan 10th 9:58pm) there is a SNOW STORM outside!!

However, even with the cold there is beauty. The snow sparkles and it really is pretty.  The other day I brought in our recycling bin, it had been snowing large snowflakes very slightly (just a flake here and there) the top of the bin was covered in frost plus these individual new snowflakes that stuck perfectly to the frost...and I could see on the lid EVERY SINGLE individual snowflake! The details were amazing, they were all perfectly shaped--all with six sides, all different, but perfect and intricate patterns, I just stood there admiring the beautiful snowflake patterns and even brought Hailey and Clay to see it too, and was grateful for Heavenly Father's creations.

Here we are on a cold night.

We have also been sledding a lot lately. It is our new favorite winter activity. There is a sledding hill about 5 minutes away and it is PERFECT--not too steep, not too small, and in nice safe park away from moving cars. The best way to go sledding is with hot chocolate and lots of layers. Hearing Clay's little gasp of joy when he sledded down the hill on my lap for the first time was an awesome memory.

It is SOOO BRIGHT when the sun hits the snow!

This boy loves baby dolls!

I can't leave Clay outside by himself in this kind of weather, but Hailey and Miles will get their snow gear on and go outside and play for long periods of time. I guess they are getting acclimated...I sure wish I would too, but I don't think I am yet!!

These two love their baby dolls, they put hats on them and wrap them up and carry them around and put them down for naps. I love seeing them play together!

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I have lots of faith for the coming months. I have faith that it will warm up!!! I am already dreaming about all the fun we will have this summer, we are going to LIVE outside (at least in my dreams we will--picnics, gardening, bike rides, swimming, long, lazy, relaxing playground trips! We'll open the windows every day. I have TOTAL faith it will warm up :)...just not tonight ;)!

I have faith that as I read to, talk to, and work with Clay on his language skills he will learn how to speak. (he was recently tested for speech therapy and did NOT qualify which is good because it means he's in the "normal" range, but he's still not saying a whole lot. Little by little.. )

I have faith in small in simple things. Miles and I are reading the Book of Mormon before he goes to bed each night in preparation for his 8th birthday. We read as a family each day, but it can get crazy and hard to focus on the words being read! I know he has 1.5 years until he is 8, but I really felt like I should start now. It has been a good experience.

I also have faith that each and every day if I make the choice to read my scriptures, to exercise, to read to my children, to hold them each day and tell them I love them that I can help our children and our family and myself grow and be stronger and joyful. (P.S. Hooray for me I have been on the treadmill a LOT lately!!!)

Happy 2013. I think it will be a wonderful year.