Payton's Place

Payt and Pop

Blowing the candles...Happy 7th Birthday Payton!

Mom and her boy

Singing with his weird face :) He kept moving his mouth so funny during the performance. ?!?

Oh, my baby boy! He turned 7 and I cried. It was actually a really fun day...he had a christmas concert at school and then we went to dinner at a restaurant called "Payton's Place". He thought it was pretty cool. Love you buddy!

Payton and his best buddy Spencer are just six days apart...so they had their "friend party" with a bunch of friends at "Aqua Tots" swim school. It was super fun! The kids swam, had pizza and cake. Then the boys opened presents. Happy Birthday boys!

Tucson

Ok...I was lucky enough to be able to go to Tucson to spend a few days at Canyon Ranch with Amy & Joan. Words can't really describe this place. Let's just say I found my "chi". And I worked out and ate healthy and LOVED it. We were constantly on the move...all sorts of classes and workshops, cooking demos, watercolors, photography, tons of creative and unique workout classes and mediation. OH...and the spa treatments, let's not forget those! It was fabulous. plain and simple. It was maybe a once in a lifetime kinda thing {let's seriously hope not.} Just had to share a few pics. love you canyon ranch. love you forever.

Thanksgiving pictures

Thanksgiving in pictures. What a wonderful day and time to celebrate one another and our many blessings.

We had a beautiful day...love to you all.

table setting :)
Granny & Pop with all 7 of their great grandchildren {one more on the way in February}

Gangsta Aves and Gangsta Coos...

Sydney Kate enjoying her meal! She was such a good helper setting the tables...

all the boys: Max, Sawyer, Payton, Willy and Mack.

The Turkey Trot at Payton's school. The boys did awesome!

Blue Lily-Family Pictures

Wendy Whitacre {aka Blue Lily} took our family pictures in Phoenix in early November. She was wonderful and I thought they turned out pretty great...

Giving Thanks.

We had all the Thanksgiving festivities at our house this year and I have to say...I loved it. Everyone pitched in to help so the stress was distributed evenly among us {ok, just among the women but what else is new?} and it really was wonderful. My parents and two youngest brothers were able to come down, which was super fun for me. Mike's mom and dad were in town and his siblings came too. Mike's grandparents and Aunt & Uncle were also able to join us. It was a busy house but the food was awesome and the company was even better. I am a bit perplexed at how close together thanksgiving and Christmas are...I barely got my thanksgiving stuff up before I had to take it down. Maybe we could change Thanksgiving to the second Thursday in November, huh? Oh well...bring on the holiday cheer. I got the fall leaves down and the Christmas bulbs up this morning so maybe I can start playing Christmas music. Oh, and start shopping. sigh.



Love to you all.

Happy Halloween

What a fun holiday. I just love dressing up...seriously, I planned these outfits for weeks. My husband thinks I'm o.c.d. Ok, maybe I am. But come on, take a look at Dora. She is perfect! She was so much fun this year, loved every minute of it. Boots the monkey, on the other hand, not so much. She was a little under the weather and didn't smile at all. At least she let me take some pictures before she ripped off the hood. Payton was Bumblebee the transformer because he refused to be Dora's cousin Diego or Swiper the Fox. "Oh Man!" Anyway, every year our neighborhood has a Halloween Carnival on our street and hundreds of people come. Homemade rootbeer {my favorite part}, cotton candy, sno cones, fishing pond, hot dogs and chili, cake walk, face painting and on and on. It is a ton of fun and everyone really goes all out with the costumes.

Boots, Dora & Bumblebee
Dora & Boots

This pretty much sums up Avery's feelings about Halloween and her dumb costume. At least it wasn't her middle finger :)

Popeye the Sailor Man and his girl, Olive Oyl.

Payton's buddy the Storm Trooper & our Bumblebee

"I am what I am." Please note the full bottle of gel in my "finger waves".

Kendall and Avery at the preschool Halloween Parade.

Dora the Explorer and her bunny friend, Mikelle.

fall.

Yippee for P mountain!
Chappell Apples :)

P-town in the fall.

The fam. outside of "Maestro's"...I overdosed on crepes and cinnamon gelato. delish.

These two are just too fun. Arleigh got stitches in her head a week back, poor girl.

Mike and the Q man.

"Papa" and his girlies.

the pumpkins. Andrew's is the far left...he is too crafty :)

Our other pumpkins.

Sydney and mom in the pumpkin patch.

Aves and her punkee.

Aves & Aunt Kate

sisters.

Sundance.

Payton jumping. he was doing back flips and everything! what a kid.

Climbing the rock wall. He did so great for his first time.

Sammy.

In the orchard.

wild things :)

girls riding the train.

daddy and giggly aves.

this girl was in heaven riding through the mountains on the "brrooom brrroom" with her dad. she loved it.

October break was last week and the kids had no school. so we packed up the van {correction...I packed the van} and went to Utah for the week. It was so much fun. We had a few days of chilly weather, one rainy day that ended in a full rainbow across the entire sky and the rest of the week was just beautiful and sunny. The leaves are all changed now, reds and yellows and orange. The kids made me stop on the side of the road all the time to collect the different colors. I got to spend time with my mom and sisters. We did a little shopping :) We went to Max's last football game and it was so fun to see him play. We went to a fall festival at Thanksgiving point which was really a lot of fun for the kids. Payton and Max went on all the rides including a climbing wall and big bouncy tramp. All the cousins had a great time playing together. Avery & Arleigh are buddies. We went out to dinner at Sundance with J&A and D& J. It was beautiful up there. We had a great time at the land in Alpine...picking apples and riding the rhino. The boys shot sling shots and climbed the trees. It was so much fun for all of us. I even made yummo apple crisp with the "Chappell apples"! Payton brought a whole box home and sold them at his corner sale yesterday {while I was at work...I probably wouldn't have let him sell them, they are too yummy} He is hilarious. The Rammell fam went to Santaquin to the "Red Barn" and went on a hay ride, picked out our pumpkins and then back to Kate's for soup and carving. It was a lot of fun. The babies loved it. Avery kept saying "punkee" and held on to her tiny pumpkin the whole night. Good, good times. Too bad we ended the trip by getting up at 2:45 am and bombing the whole way home. yikes. I am still recovering from that part :)

mexico.

Poolside & the beach. Perfect combo.
What Miguel spent his time doing a good majority of the day {Notice laptop not far from reach}
What Sarita spent her time doing the majority of the trip...{pina colada and book in hand}

My post will be brief because I don't want to rub it in too much ;) We had a wonderful vacation with a few friends to Puerto Vallarta. The accomodations really couldn't have been more perfect and the amigos there offered us way too much food, snacks, fruit, & peeenya coladas at 20 minute intervals. I gained 5 pounds, I'm sure, but it was worth it. I read 2 books, soaked in a few rays, lounged and went to church in espanol. loved that. We watched movies in the theatre every night...and played games. I even zip lined through the jungle! We had to rappell down in a few parts and I thought I might pee my pants, but I actually wasn't that nervous and had a really fun time. Thanks to Mike's parents who watched the kids...they had a great time with Pop and Dama Dama. Good times across the border. I love Mexico.