First days in Arizona

A week before Thanksgiving we headed to Arizona. My mother in law booked us a super early flight- it left at 7 am so we had to be at the airport at 5, which meant we were up just before 4 am. It was horribly early but I can't complain too much because #1- she paid for it and #2- everything went so smoothly. We had a nice friend who woke up early to take us, check in and security went without a hitch and the kids behaved so well. It was seriously the best flight I have been on since having kids. I feel like I can finally stop stressing out about how the kids will behave on a plane. And one perk of an early flight- the view was amazing!

Tyler's mom picked us up and then spoiled us by making us some homemade grilled cheese sandwiches. After visiting with her, we paid a visit to my parents. They have some giant outdoor Jenga blocks that they decided to use as building blocks indoors. Tyler had fun stacking them and the kids had fun destroying them. I was a bit frightened that they were going to break something (or someone) every time they fell.

On Friday we went to the McCormick Railroad park with Tyler's mom, Keshia and Reese. I went to this park all the time when I was a nanny in Scottsdale so I feel slightly sentimental towards it. The kids had a lot of fun at it. They especially loved the Western themed park area and riding on the train. I think their cousin Reese was really enjoying having some girls to hang out with.

I had Steven attempt to take a "selfie" of us all. It was a valiant attempt but he totally left himself out and only got Ben's eyeball.

Friday night we got professional pictures with my family. I was lucky enough to have Keshia do my hair and the girl's hair. We looked super fancy and the desert background (that I requested) looked super nice. I am really happy with how they turned out. I am also really happy with this candid shot I got of Penny and Poppy. Also fun fact- Ben decided that the girl's hair looked like meatballs and referred to the meatballs on their head for the rest of the night.

A sampling of the photos that were taken, we had a hard time getting our kids to do "natural" smiles but they are still adorable and way more cooperative than they have been in previous year.

Saturday morning Tyler and I were able to sneak out and do a session at the Gilbert Temple with my mom. Tyler forgot his recommend but he decided to go ahead and see if he could get in anyways, thankfully he got in without a hitch. It was nice to have a calm morning and it makes me wish it was easier to get to the temple more frequently. It also makes me wish my mom was close by, I enjoying being able to sit with her in the temple.

After doing a session we went out to lunch with my mom at Costa Vida. So so yummy! There are so many food places that I wish Michigan would get. 

After lunch we met back up with our children who were watching the Bowman boy's football games. By the time we got there the kids had already been watching football games for 3 hours. They were getting antsy so we only stayed a little bit longer to cheer on Breenen and then we headed back to the Hatch home.

That evening I went to Kneader's with the Mother Hatch and Keshia- this is yet another place Michigan needs. I had a nice visit with them, even though it mostly involved me just talking about myself to fill up awkward silence, ha ha. They are both a little introverted which for some reason makes me feel the need to be extra chatty...

Sunday the kids helped Poppy Hatch count his change. This was quite the endeavor considering he had over $300 in change. Even though the boys didn't get to keep it all (although he did give them each a half dollar), they still seemed to have a lot of fun organizing it and putting it in coin rolls. I think they may have inherited my organizing gene, although it rarely shows itself at home. The girls, on the other hand, tuckered out pretty quickly from counting his change. 

We ended up going to Logan and Melissa's Ward for church since she was giving a talk. It was a good talk about gratitude and she told a good story about how one time she let pride get in the way of gratitude and the regret she had for that. 

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

I know it's only November and we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, but Christmas celebrations have definitely begun in the Hatch home. I figure since we will be out of town that first week after Thanksgiving and since that is usually the week when we start our Christmas decorating and fun, then that makes it ok to start our Christmas festivities now. That's good logic, right?

So last weekend we were at Walmart and we came across Santa, really convincing Santa, right? 

Then on Tuesday, the kids were off of school for Election Day so Grams and I took the drive out to Bronner's in Frankenmuth and got to see a giant Santa. I think that one is much more realistic than the Walmart one ;)

So going to Bronner's is always way more fun for the kids than the adults. At least this time it was not crowded at all, a plus for visiting before Thanksgiving, but there are still breakable ornaments EVERYWHERE and always at the perfect level for kids to touch and that is always stressful. Also, the kids change their minds at least 50 times before finally deciding on an ornament which can be annoying. Although, I think some of the mind changing was definitely for the best because I was much happier with their final choices and less thrilled with some of their earlier choices (Steven wanted to get big obnoxious cake ones, Lucy wanted to get a large sparkly wand at one point and Penny was leaning towards a Sofia the First one). Their final choices are in some pictures further down because I couldn't get any good pictures of them at the store and plus they all got boxed off when they were bought. After buying them, we of course had to take a bazillion pictures at all the fun photo spots around the exits and outside.

Penny is so funny when it comes to mannequins and little statues, she always considers them to be close friends of hers and she had to hug this penguin goodbye. Sometimes I think she loves inanimate objects more than she loves real people.

Grandma is a lover of fudge and since Frankenmuth is a touristy place there are plenty of fudge shops all about so we had to stop at one so she could stock up. The kids were excited about all the free fudge samples and Penny was pretty excited when she found a painted rock outside of the shop.

Here they are with their final ornament choices: Penny got a meow, Ben got his traditional marshmallow one, Lucy also got another marshmallow one (this time it was a fairy instead of a ballerina), and Steven settled on an owl.

Tuesday, late night, Penny came down with a really awful stomach bug. I did not get her to the toilet in time and in my half asleep and blind state, when I did get her there, I ended up having her totally miss the toilet. Poor Tyler had to clean it up and then ended up getting up with her the rest of the night since he was better at ensuring her aim. It was a rough night for them both and the next day wasn't much better for her. She couldn't keep anything down and didn't seem to recover until late Wednesday afternoon. So far the rest of us have remained unscathed and I am hoping our luck can continue. It would be miserable for the rest of us if we got it while we were in AZ.

Thursday I did a thorough cleaning of the house (hoping that will help keep the germs away) and then Friday afternoon I had a sub job. It was for a fourth grade teacher (not Steven's). It was only for the afternoon but it seemed to take an eternity, they are a challenging bunch but somehow I survived.

Friday night we had some fun with the  new filters on my phone because that's how exciting we are on a weekend, ha ha!

Look it's Poppy!

And today we had fun decorating our Christmas trees. I gave away the kid's Charlie Brown looking Christmas tree from last year so we actually went out today and bought them a smaller one of their own. I wanted to do my own thing with the big tree so I wanted them to be able to have one they could decorate too. The one we bought ended up looking far more black than green but the kids covered it so thoroughly with ornaments that I am not sure anyone would notice. And maybe with some orange lights we can use it for Halloween too, ha ha! 

I added ribbon for the first time ever on my tree and it was really tricky and I am not sure about how well I did it but it was a fun change.  

And to end with a funny story. Steven was saying that he wanted to be 5 feet tall and Lucy shouted out, "No! Not 5 feet! You can't walk with 5 feet!"

Full Week

On Sunday these two girls were able to wear their matching dresses to church. They are just the cutest, especially Penny in her crown she made in her "baby class." Also cute is Lucy's newest saying "silly boo." She must have learned it from someone at school because we never say it but it's so cute when she calls me a "silly boo."

Monday morning I subbed for Ben's class and it went really well. I love morning half days because the kids always seem to be a little more well behaved in the mornings.

Monday night we took the kids to 5 & Below to spend their $5 that Poppy had given them for Halloween. Before that we made a quick stop at Walmart to get something and they happened to have free pumpkin decorating. We totally jumped on that because this year we missed our traditional pumpkin carving. This was not nearly as fun (or messy) but they enjoyed putting stickers on and coloring pumpkins. I wish I had taken pictures! And I felt a little less guilt at skipping our tradition this year. 

Afterwards the kids picked out some super interesting things at 5 & Below (everyone but Penny who had already spent her money previously on a vintage barbie she found at Salvation Army). Lucy got a cat unicorn that she could color, Ben got a pillow that says "naughty" if you rub it one way and "nice" if you rub it another and Steven got a little water fountain. Seriously their choices were awesome, ha ha!

Halloween was on Tuesday. I had apparently signed up as a party planner for Ben's class and so I ended up planning and carrying out his party. There was supposed to be another parent helping me but she flaked out. I kept things really simple and with only 20 kids in the class, it went really smoothly. The kids played "Don't Eat Frank", Halloween charades and made a haunted house and ghosts. After they rotated through all those fun things, they decorated and ate monster cookies (which clearly turned Ben's teeth blue). I feel like the class parties I did last year were so crazy (probably because they were bigger classes) so it was super nice to have this one be more calm but still fun. Penny and Grams also got to come and help out and eat cookies :)

After the party was the school parade. Ben posed for me but Steven didn't even see or hear me (shout his name) and swore that I wasn't even there- oh that boy. Unfortunately for Lucy, her school party and parade were at the exact same time and since I can't be in two places at once, I totally missed them. I was super sad to miss her first class party and parade but was grateful for a friend who sent me a picture. Also, Tyler was able to make it to her parade, even though he didn't take any pictures.

Despite getting our first snow of the season that morning, we had a precipitation free evening for trick or treating. It was still absolutely freezing as per usual. Grandma stayed and passed out candy while me and Tyler took the kids trick or treating. I was done after the first block but the kids persisted onward. They made out quite well. People gave out handfuls of candy and there were even several full size candy bars. We also started giving out handfuls of candy in our own home because we definitely got way less traffic here than in our old neighborhood. I think this is probably our first neighborhood with a NORMAL amount of trick or treaters instead of  a bazillion. Although, most of our track or treaters seemed to be on the older side.

The next day was Miss Lucy's birthday. As per tradition, she opened gifts upon walking up. I feel like she was gypped a bit on her birthday with all the crazy that life has been lately. We got her one gift, Shimmer and Shine, that I had before the crazy. Luckily she loved it. She also got a Rapunzel Lego set and Shopkins from her Grandma Hatch. Then she got rain boots from her Grandma Brady. Her reactions were great, I love how excited she got with each present. And I love that she didn't seem to mind her lack of presents.

After present opening Lucy went to school. I was able to come visit her class at the end of the day. We gifted her class a book for her birthday (I am not a chair by: Ross Burach).  The book was about a giraffe so after I read it, we passed out animal crackers. Apparently her class had had a late lunch that day that set everything back so the story reading and snack were really rushed. That kind of bummed me out but at least I got to come in and show her that I loved her.

As per my guilt of under celebrating her birthday, I bought Lucy a balloon bouquet. She squealed when she got home and saw it and then pretty much left it die. Epic fail. 

For dinner my mom took us all out to Steak N Shake. The kids love that place because Grams always spoil them with a shake and they enjoyed their junk food as always.

When we came home for dinner, we piled on even more sugar and had some cupcakes to end the day. This was another thing I felt guilty about, cupcakes instead of our traditional special cake. Before the move I had convinced her that cupcakes with rings on them would be way more awesome than a cake since I knew we would be busy. She really was super excited about them. Before we put the candle on her cupcake it had a Shopkin's ring (Grams had wanted to buy her a giant cupcake but I was opposed due to the sugar crazy these last few days). Anyways, despite my guilt, her and her siblings really seemed to love the cupcakes.

Thursday I had the joy of changing my address on my driver's license. For some reason it wouldn't let me do it online so I had to go in to the office to get it done. They have this new fangled system where you text to get in line . It was confusing (probably because I am easily confused) and so we goofed. I sent the text and it said we had a 33 min wait so we strolled the aisles of a Dollar Store and then went in. Well it turns out your are not officially checked in until you go in so then we had a 50 minute wait. So we decided to go the mall which was 10 minutes away to have Penny play at the play area. Well when we got there we got a text update that told us our wait time was shortened. We ended up rushing back and I literally made it in when they were calling my number. Totally a wasted trip to the mall but at least I didn't have to sit in the waiting room I guess.

Friday night Tyler and I got to go to Laci and Mark's house. Laci is helping Tyler out with some swing dancing for YM's so Tyler and her needed to practice. That was basically our excuse so we could all hang out. It was so nice to get out without kids and talk to fellow adults who are in the parenting trenches. It was super fun!

Saturday Steven had a pack meeting and Scouting for food. I had a mini melt down because he didn't receive any awards at the meeting and I had just realized the other day that he has only received 2 out of the 6 requirements that he needs to move forward. I started panicking because I didn't even know what he was supposed to get done by February. His Den Leader was super uncommunicative and just got released. Thankfully another Den Leader who LOVES scouting and is amazingly helpful got me into his online account so I could see exactly what needed to get done. I was able to go in and check off things he had done already and I am feeling MUCH better about it all.

The Scouting for Food was an interesting experience. This was the first time I was able to go with (basically because it was the first time that Tyler could be there too, thanks Grams!). Steven had some issues with tying bags to the door handles. He also did not want to go to a house where the person was out, he was scared to talk to them (poor kid has inherited my issues). Then he seemed to overcome his fear of people issue only to have a man try to give him pop bottles for recycling. Instead of telling him that's not what he was collecting, he just stood their awkwardly so we had to shout from the car to help him out. Then there was the house that had a massive amount of Halloween decorations and Steven refused to go to the door because he was terrified they were going to start moving or making sounds. I literally had to push him to the front door and he was so upset, "Why are you making me go first!?" So fun.

And that was our super eventful week-- and also I got this super adorable Jr Kinder picture of Lucy. She is just the prettiest!