October 2015 - Xander's 12th Birthday

October 15th

My boy was turning 12 and had a small birthday party with a few of his close friends, Tate Gause, 

Josh Slaugh and Trey Facer. Xander wanted to have a late night party and play games. 

They started the night with some pizza, bread sticks and soda, then went on to play Smash 

Bros WiiU. This is Xander's favorite Wii game and he loves to play it with friends and family.

After Smash Bros, it was time for cupcakes and the birthday song!

Jaina wanted so badly to give Xander a present that night. She and Mara had 

been doing watercolor paints and Jaina made a bunch of pictures for Xander.

It was so cute to see them so happy with each other. They are usually fighting 

or upset with one another. I know that they love each other even when they fight.

Xander got a pack of Pokemon cards from Josh.

Terraria figures and a gumball machine from Tate.

A giant multi pack of Pokemon from Trey!

He was pretty excited to get a Mega EX of Hoopa. He loves the Mega EX cards.

This was the, "I want a group picture"

Then I said, "be serious"

Jaina painted Kirby, Xander's favorite Smash Bros character.

October 16th

The next morning was Xander's actual birthday. Jaina wanted to look at Pokemon cards with him before breakfast. They were really cute going through them. Jaina even got out her cards and they traded a few.

This girl really loves her big brother.

We got Xander the Metroid Other M game for the Wii.

And a really cool RC Nano Drone.

After opening the drone and charging it up, it was highly difficult to control and was very frustrating. 

So Pat and Xander took it back to Walmart, used that money, plus $20 from Grandma & Grandpa 

Tolman and upgraded his gift to the new Super Mario Maker game for the WiiU. Xander was 

really excited about this one because he can build his own levels!  He's such an engineer 

and loves to build with anything he can get his hands on. Weather it be poker chips, plastic 

cups, mega block, legos, and games like Minecraft and GeometryDash.

We went to dinner at Red Robin with my side of the family then 

Max slept over that night. They boys watched Pacific Rim and loved it.

On Saturday night, he invited cousins over to play none other that Smash Bros. Carter, Alex, Noah, Maddox 

and Jacob were able to come and hang out all evening. Oddly enough I didn't get a picture of all of them.

On Sunday Oct 18th, Xander was ordained a Deacon by Patrick. Some of our family was 

able to come and support him. Grandpa Tolman & Jacob were able to be in the circle 

with 2 of our bishopric members, Bro Prigmore and Bro Brinkerhoff.  Grandma & Grandpa were 

able to bring Noah with them too!  I love the support that he gets from family, and that Mana tries 

to come to everything we have going on. We can feel their love for him and us so fully.

My two priesthood holders!!

I am so proud of him and know that he is and will be an amazing young man.

Quick family pic, even with the sun in our faces.

Afterwards, they all came to the house to have some Nameless cake and to chat for a bit.

Later that day, it was birthday time at Mana's house. Karri made a Smash Bros cake for him.

Sawyer and Finley drew him pictures for his birthday.

 They are so cute and love to make cards/pictures for anyone having a birthday.

Mana gave him some blind boxes of Minecraft figures. 

He was pretty happy to get something good from both boxes.

She also gave him new/updated Minecraft books.

And a cool Lego Power Functions set that you can put batteries in and it can power 

your inventions. This is awesome because he loves to make things with gears 

and has made a ferris wheel among other things, now he can finally power them!

This Mana sure loves our Xander.

Trying to get a cake picture for Mana, he was being funny and blew out the 

candles with his hands! So we had to 'fake' this picture for Mana's sake.

After Mana's house, we stopped off at Morri & Liza's. Melody just loves their cat Tiger Lilly and was 

overly excited that she was actually out in the open, but hiding on a kitchen chair. For at least 20 

minutes, all she said was "Kitty, chair. Kitty, hiding, chair. Kitty funny." she was very amusing.

Meanwhile these boys played Smash Bros!

The next day, Monday, we went out for our traditional Birthday 

Ice Cream at Cold Stone. He got Pumpkin ice cream with cookie dough.

Happy Birthday Xander Man. I love you so much!

October 2015 1st-15th

Melody has a pile of toys in her crib at all times. They are usually thrown about, but this 

day I decided to 'organize' them a little. With how many plush toys we have, you 

would think that these were all old one, but no, all of these, except for Minnie, 

Daisy, Care Bear & Rowlf, have been purchased for or given to Melody.

I can't remember what she was watching, but I just loved how she was sitting.

Friday Oct 2nd

We had our monthly Family Dessert Night. We usually have it on Sunday's but 

Ben & family were in town to attend Conference. It was so great to have the 

whole family together and be able to enjoy the company. Lana started to take a selfie 

with Morri & Ben, but then Pat & Gwen joined in to make it a sibling selfie!

But they didn't stop there! 

This family needs a selfie stick for sure!!!

Saturday October 3rd

While watching conference, Xander set up pillows and blankets on the 

floor and Melody joined him. I just love when they snuggle together.

After a bit of craziness, Pat & Xander were able to go to Salt Lake to attend the Priesthood 

session with Ben & his boys. There were enough tickets for JR & Noah to join them. 

Pat loved being there with Xander for his very first Priesthood session. 

It was so great to be able to go to the Conference Center with family.

Carter, Alex, Caden & Spencer were there too, but there weren't enough tickets for 

all of them, so they watched from the Tabernacle on Temple Square. Jacob and 

a friend were there too, so they got a group picture with the temple.

While the boys were gone, the girls and I went to Lana's to hang out with her, Liza, Addi & Tammy. We had

 dinner from Costa Vida and just hung out. It was really nice to be with my sisters and let the kids play.

During conference, Mara was drawing the whole family, and she drew this for me.

It was nice to be able to watch conference while Melody napped. I was able to really listen this time around, 

as opposed to 6 months ago. I am grateful for the Prophet and his Apostles and their council. They 

helped me remember that I am a good mom and that "You're doing better than you think you are".  

I am thankful that I could listen with my girls and I hope that they heard something that helped them.

While playing with the Mega Blocks, Xander decided to make a tower that was 

taller than him. This was one of his first attempts and it stayed up for a good bit. 

Mara & Jaina helped to try to make an even bigger one, but it kept falling over.

It was Red Ribbon Week at school and they had a crazy hair day. We did our best 

with what time we had, but the kids were happy, and that's all that matters.

Jaina and her messy bun.

Mara with an upside down french braid with a bow on the top.

Xander just spiked all of his hair.

Jaina is starting to really like to draw and color, and I love it. Because of 

that, Melody is always wanting to color too. I love when these two get along.

Pat bought the new Wall-E Lego set and was putting it together. Melody was very curious 

to see what he was doing. She was really cute and just pointed and looked at all the 

legos. She will come into my room and I'll get down a few of my princess sets and she will 

just play around with them. She usually pulls all the people apart and brings them to me to fix. 

Saturday Oct 10

The kids had earned free movie tickets to the Water Gardens Theater through school. A bunch of the 

movies that were there had been seen by one or more members of the family, and we didn't want to have 

to bring Melody to the theater. So we split up. Jaina and I went to see Minions. It was really fun and Jaina 

was asking questions during the whole thing, and she even cried at one point. But it was fun to be able to 

have a mommy daughter date with her. Jaina got popcorn and Swedish Fish, so that made her really happy. 

Pat took Xander and Mara to see Pixels and they loved it. It's tough that we can't all be together, but 

at the same time, it's nice to swap so we can let Melody nap while we each have a chance to play.

While helping me in the afternoon, Xander set up this little bed for Melody 

so she could drink her milk before her nap. He is so cute with his baby sister.

September 2015 - Lunar Eclipse

September 26th

We had spent all day at Comic Con, got back to Mana's around 5. Mara and I changed our clothes to get 

ready to go to the General Woman's Broadcast with Mana, Conli & Sawyer. It was a really great meeting 

and I love that Mara can come with me now. Afterwards we went to Taco Amigo for some ice cream! Yumm!

The next day while we were at Mana's for dinner, Melody got into the 

cupboard and found the box of Vanilla Wafers and just dug into them.

That night there was an amazing Lunar Eclipse that was also a Blood Moon, because the moon was the closest 

to the Earth during the eclipse. The eclipse started to cover the entire moon around 8:15. We had made 

it home from Mana's, got the little girls to bed, grabbed my camera and tripod and camped out in the front of 

the house. I took a ton of pictures of the different phases of the eclipse, but these are my favorite.

I used a flash on this picture to get a different look of the moon.

It was so fun to stay up with Xander and Mara to watch the moon. Mara ended 

up going to bed early, and Xander and I stayed up until after 10:30, but went 

to bed before it was completely over. Definitely a fun memory with the kids.

September 28th

Almost every morning after the kids go to school, Melody and I curl up on the 

couch and watch a movie. I just loved how she cuddled up with me this day.

It's finally that time of year!  Egg Nog and making Egg Nog shakes!!

Sept 30th

Some days I feel like Melody watches too much TV, but some times it's the only way I can get anything done 

in the house. I had looked down the stairs to check on her and saw how she was sitting. It made me smile.

These book ends of mine sure love each other so much.