Got my haircut

Finding a hair stylist here has been one of the hardest things. I have been doing my own maintaining and creative dye jobs on my own. It is hard work, but had to be done. I am pretty sure I should have just gone to hair school. Anyways, about a month ago I met a new girl in my ward here, Stephanie Haretuku. So guess how excited I was to find out that she did hair!!!! Anyways, I finally made an appointment and got my hair cut. Feels soooooo good! And of course here is an extra bonus.. a picture with me and Jaida!

Leaves Galore

 In Maryland we have no shortage of leaves, that is for sure. There are leaves galore and it always makes a fun fall project. We raked some of our leaves, not all because we still have quite a bit on our tree. The boys had a fun time jumping in the piles and hiding treasures in them too. We buried Pierce.

 Brock was all over the place. He loves being outside and being a boy. He had a great time finding every possible twig/ stick in sight and claiming them as his "Special Sticks". This kid will collect just about anything and everything. He becomes instantly attached as well.

Jaida was having so much fun too. She loves when her brothers will include her in on the fun. She had a great time running around and diving in to the leaves. We got about 2 1/2 big bags of leaves and still more to come. The boys then went around offering to our neighbors for "us" to volunteer to rake their leaves, which actually means "me" raking their leaves. We had a good time and I guess we felt good after serving our neighbors too!

Basketball is done

 Today was Pierce's very last basketball game of this fall-ball season. Wow, was it a great experience. He learned so much. It was fun to watch his team really come together and have such a connection with each other. today as we were saying our goodbyes, I was really sad thinking about us not seeing them every week. We were really so fortunate to have such a great group of kids. Their parents were top- notch too. I am not kidding you, our post game snacks were really out of this world.

 Trent coached Pierce's team and loved it. They both did. So after today's final game we set up a little pizza party. The kids all had a really good time together. The parent's once again went above and beyond and had each kid draw a card/picture for the coaches and then they all went in on some gift certificates for both coaches (and their wives) to a pretty nice Italian restaurant.

 Here are the two coaches, Coach T.J. and Coach Trent!

Here was today's post-game snack pull-apart cupcakes.. isn't that so cute! We will miss the Bulls! We signed  Pierce up for Winter league and it starts in January, we can hardly wait. Trent will coach again and maybe if we are lucky we will get some of the same players??

Irresistible

 Really this girl is pretty irresistible! How could you not fall in love with this girl, even when she is crabby and throws tantrums. Most of the time she is a gem, but when she isn't happy~ watch out!! She thinks she is big and in charge!

 Her hair is the best too. I love to go and get her when she wakes up because she always has a big ol' beehive/ birds nest going on. I can't tell you how many people stop and talk to us, when we are out, about her hair. I think she is one lucky girl.

 She is such a cheese ball sometimes.

I love you my little lovey. You make my heart happy. I am thankful to be your mom!

Soccer Season has come to an end

 This was Brock's first year at soccer. He had a great time. He wasn't as aggressive as we had imagined, but he was very entertaining to watch. He was always trying to trick the other team so that he could score a goal. He mostly enjoyed talking to the other teammates and of course the after soccer snacks.

 He was pretty proud of his trophy. He said just before this game, "Mom, do you think I am worthy of a trophy?" I said," I don't know what do you think?" He said," hmmm... I guess it is coaches' decision."

We were pretty lucky to have one of Brock's really good friend Spencer on the team. They had a good time cheering each other on and goofing around on the sidelines together. Way to go Comets!!

So grateful for Grammy Russ

See this cute girl here...

.... She loved that her Grammy came to visit. Who wouldn't love someone that holds you 24/7 and lets you do the things your mom always says no to. We are still recovering from her visit, but so glad that she came. We miss her already. The morning that my mom left( She left before the kids woke up) Jaida went all around the house crying out" Grammy, Grammy, Grammy, Where are you?" She was so sad! :(!!  Thanks mom for coming and visiting and just being you! I love you.

Halloween

 First stop was to go and see Brock at his preschool. The morning of he decided that he no longer wanted to be Scooby-doo. I was so disappointed, because that costume was so hard to find and he cried for weeks to be scooby! He had decided he would rather be Iron Man. I told him that it would be better to Scooby because everyone is always Super heroes and nobody else was going to be Scooby. I finally talked him into it. What do you know we get to school and there is a kid in his class that has the exact same Scooby costume! I could tell he was mad. He turned to me and said,"I told you Scooby was a bad idea Mom!" There wasn't on Iron man either! Oops.

 He snapped out of it and was happy eventually. He really loves his preschool.

 We then headed over to Pierce's school to see his costume parade. He is dead center of this picture flexing his Captain America muscles. We came back home and ordered some yummy pizza and then went over to see Brown Papa and Gramsie.

 One of Trent's Co-workers, Tracey, Invited us to come over to her neighborhood and trick-or-treat. Jaida was not cooperating with taking a picture with just the kids. She wanted nothing to do with her Minnie Mouse ears. I was thinking that trick-or-treating was going to be a pain.

 Our family for Halloween.

 Jaida snapped right out of it, after we went to the first house and realized that these people were just giving away free candy! She was thrilled. She started running from house to house and by the end was even saying trick-or-treat and waving goodbye and saying"bye-bye" after she received her candy of course.

Brock was cracking us up too. Once he got into his costume he was in full- character mode. He started to talk like scooby, with sayings like "rut-ro". He would stop mid-walking and sniff the ground and told us he was sniffing out the trail. When he would go up to the door he would put the bucket in his mouth get down on his knees and beg like a dog to get the candy. Everyone was getting a good laugh out of our realistic Scooby-doo! Buckets filled up and it was time to go~I think this Halloween was a success.