Weekend in Pine

Nate's family (minus 1 sister-in-law Becca, and his brother John's family who live in Germany/Iraq.)
Nate, brother Mike, great uncle Don, and brother Dan

The first weekend in Oct. we were able to spend a day up in Pine, AZ at Nate's grandparents house. His grandparents have both passed away, but the family still enjoys going up there and having fun together. The rest of Nate's family went up on Friday night, but we had soccer games and stuff to do around the house on Sat., so we didn't drive up until Sunday. It was general conference weekend, so we watched the Sun. morning session, and then drove up north between sessions. We had a great dinner up there. The kids had fun playing at the park down the street and roasting marshmallows with their aunt Becca (although they didn't care to eat the cooked ones!). Colton's highlight of the trip was shooting his uncle Dan's BB gun, with his cousins Kyle and Zach. Nate's great uncle Don, and his wife Carolyn, live in Payson and also spent the day with us. It was a nice time and we enjoyed being able to spend time with family.

Halloween Festivities

Colton: Red Power Ranger, Callie: JoJo (from JoJo's Circus)
Callie, Colton & Jamie's kids: Morgan, Dylan, & Bryan

This past Saturday was our ward Trunk or Treat. I had to work, but Nate was a good sport and took the kids. They said they had fun. I guess Colton discovered that he doesn't like cotton candy - kind of crazy because he loves anything with sugar in it. Nate said several comments were made about how cute Callie was (and of course how cool Colton looked). After the trunk or treat they headed over to a party Nate's brother, Dan was having. Colton said they watched the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin show. He also had fun trying to eat a donut off of a string, with no hands. Nate said it was quite the entertainment. Between the two events, they had a fun filled night.

Monday we all went over to my parents house. We had pizza, took pictures of the kids in their costumes, and made and decorated sugar cookies. The kids seemed to enjoy the night. They love spending time with their cousins.

Tuesday, Colton's class rode the bus (his first time, he was so excited!) to a retirement home. They wore their costumes, sang songs for the residents, and passed out candy. He told me his favorite man at the retirement home was one who played the harmonica. He thought that was really neat. He also paraded around the school in his costume. He specifically asked his teacher to go to his "grandma's classroom". My mom was more than happy to let them parade through her classroom and sing "5 little pumpkins". He loves being at school with his grandma and great aunt!

Tonight, we are actually staying in our neighborhood, which is a first. Usually our past Halloween's have been spent trying to make it around to all the grandparents and my aunts houses, so they can see the kids in their costumes. This year though, they have already seen the kids dressed up, so we are going to be staying home. I guess one of us will stay home and pass out candy, while the other takes the kids trick or treating. Sounds like fun to me!

Callie - a.k.a. Busybody

Callie has been quite the little busybody over the last day. Last night she had taken my oven mitts, had them on her hands, and was calling them her "puppets". I was okay with this. Then the next thing I know, I look over at her, and this is what I see:

I just started laughing. I guess her feet were chilly or something! She had just had a bath so her feet were pretty clean, however my tile floor is a different story. I think I am going to be investing in new oven mitts very soon. (Don't mind that the mitts themselves were already filthy - I have been due for a new pair for a while now:)

This morning I was in shower and Callie comes in crying and saying, "nose, nose." She can't stand to have the slightest little booger in her nose, or be sniffly at all. I knew she needed a kleenex, but this was a problem because we were the only two at home, and I was in the shower. I proceed to tell her to get "a little piece of toilet paper" to wipe her nose. She heads to the TP, and a minute or so later, she so proudly says, "I did it! I did it mom!" She goes off on her merry way. I finish my shower and step out to discover this:

I couldn't get too upset with her, since I had told her to do it - and she was so proud of herself for making her nose feel better. (Note the empty toilet paper roll in the background. Disregard the dirty shower door!)

Callie has such a tender heart. She is always saying, "Oh, thank you mommy!" for things that I don't even expect her to say thank you for - like combing her hair, or putting a new shirt on her, etc. Neither of my kids have ever climbed out of their crib, which still amazes me because they both love to climb. I guess it never occured to them to try to get out of their crib. Well, Nate has been wanting to change Callie's crib over to a toddler bed for quite a while. I have been resisting because that means she'll have freedom - being able to get out of bed whenever she wants. (I mostly feared naptime.) However, we took the plunge a few weeks ago and she LOVES her new big girl bed! She still has been sleeping good at night (has yet to come out in the middle of the night!) and will still just go lay down in her bed and fall asleep at naptime. What a good little girl! She absolutely loves stuffed animals. Everyday she sleeps with a dog, horse, bunny, Pooh bear, Mickey, 2 sheep she calls "mommy" and "daddy", a burp cloth, and 1 or 2 blankets. I don't know how she even fits or has room to sleep with all those crammed into her little bed. She takes inventory every time she is going to sleep and definitely lets you know if something is missing. I guess it just helps her feel secure in her bed. What a silly litle girl she is!

Colton's School

Okay. I know what you all were thinking. I must have a dead blog. However, I have just been overwhelmed by the fact, that for journaling purposes, I need to do several months worth of blogging. I am going to skip to the present time, and sometime I may actually go back and blog about our adventurous summer.

Colton started an early learner's kindergarten back in August and loves it. The program is through Mesa Public Schools and is specifically for kids who have summer birthdays, or who barely miss the cut off for kindergarten but turn 5 by Dec. 31st. The kids do kindergarten curriculum and use the kindergarten report card, but the way they learn the material is different. They do more hands on activities than paper and pencil activities like a traditional classroom. Next year I plan on having him repeat and do a full day of kindergarten at the school by our house. Right now, he actually has a boundary exception to school in Mesa, where my mom is a 2nd grade teacher, so he loves being able to see his grandma every day before school. My aunt also is a teacher there, so he also gets to see her too! He has a great teacher and is enjoying making new friends. Colton is my active child, so the first few weeks we had some behavioral issues with burping every day at snack time and an occasional spitting or throwing sand incident. I think we are past that stage now though. He really isn't a terrible child, he actually is very sweet. He just tries to test his limits though. I tried to make Colton burp on command to see if that is what he was doing at snack time. He couldn't burp on command though, and told me, "Mom, you just don't understand. It is just my body." He has been known to tell his teacher the same thing. However, his burping starts the giggling at snack time and then other kids burp too. I did find that if he gulps down water, he will accidentally burp. So, we have had the discussion on just slowly drinking his water. I guess it really is just his body though! My Colton is such a true boy, and I love him for it!

Catch up time! All about Colton

I only get around to blogging about once a month, so this is my catch up post.

Colton loved going on the fathers and sons campout. They went to a campground about 15 miles east of Payson and Nate said it was a pretty nice area. I think the highlight of the trip was being able to roast his hot dog and marshmallows over the fire.


Mother's day was great. We celebrated a week early, due to the fact that I worked on the actual Mother's Day. I was able to sneak in a quick nap that day, while Nate & Colton baked me some cookies! Yum! I also was given a beautiful bouquet of tulips (they are my absolute favorite). That night, my whole family went over to my parents house for Sunday dinner and had a nice time. My little sis Chelsea compiled a bunch of pictures of my mom from all of us girls, and made a cute DVD for her that we watched that night. Of course she loved it. It's been a few weeks since then, and my kids still like to pop it in our DVD player occasionally and laugh at silly pictures of grandma! My Grandma Clement was also able to be there. We enjoy the times that we are able to spend with her also.


Colton had a mom's day at school. I had worked the night before, and had to go get his carseat from the babysitter before I went. I arrived about 5 minutes late, and Colton said, "Mom, I thought you would NEVER get here!" I was glad that I was able to spend some time with just the two of us. The kids sang a bunch of mom songs. Colton was able to style my hair with clips, headbands, etc. and then we had a picture taken of it. We also made a card and a cookie flower bouquet. When his teacher interviewed Colton about me, he said that I am 8 yrs. old, weigh 35 lbs. (wow, I'm skinny!), my favorite food is also lettuce (like Nate's, you would think that I must eat tons of salads, but I don't), and that my favorite hobby is walking (you would also think I love to walk on my treadmill). I interpret that as, he wishes I was younger and skinnier, and that I ate healthier and exercised more often :) I need to start living up to his perceptions of me!

Colton graduated from preschool this week. He looked so cute in his little yellow cap and gown! They marched in to the library were the ceremony was held, to the graduation music (Is it Pomp & Circumstance, or am I way off?) Then they sang a bunch of preschool type songs, ABC's, Color songs, America the Beautiful, etc. At the end, his teacher handed out candy bar awards to each child. Colton ended up with the PayDay award "for the student that loved counting money" and for always asking during show and tell, "how much did it cost?" His class would hide the show and tell item in a pillowcase and the other students would try to guess what it is. The teacher would hand out these little cards to each student that would prompt them to ask a specific question, like is it hard, is it soft, does it fly, what color is it etc. so each show and tell they would ask the same questions. Well, come to find out, no matter what card Colton would be holding, he would always ask, "How much did it cost?" (There wasn't even a card that asked that!) After finding this out, I questioned him about it, and asked it he knew how much the item cost, would he be able to better guess what it was. He firmly replied, "yes, like did it cost 4 dollars or 5 dollars or 80 dollars!" I guess he thinks he knows what different items cost. My dad and sister Ashley were also able to attend the graduation which made Colton very happy. We saw my dad later that evening and he said that he one complaint about the graduation: he had one of the songs stuck in his head all day. The song repeated the same over and over and over. Colton absolutely loved his preschool teacher, Mrs Snider. She was a wonderful teacher and he really has learned a lot and matured this year in school. Congrats Colton! The last day of school he had a field trip to Bounce U in Gilbert and had a blast.

Colton & Papa Colton & aunt Ashley Colton & his teacher Colton & his friend Nolan

One funny note: We came across this picture today. This was taken at the Newport Beach Temple when my cousin was married last summer. Our attempt at a family picture failed, as the wind blew up my skirt. Colton saw this today and said, "Mom, it looks like you tooted in that picture!" Referring to my skirt. What else could I do but laugh and laugh when he said that!

I spent all this time, updating my blog. I know I saved it, but somehow I managed to lose it all. I guess my story is somewhere in cyberspace! What a waste of time!