Recent Fun

A couple weeks ago we went to Safeway for Lydia's preschool field trip. They were awesome and showed the kids around the store and gave them little free samples.

The bakery was by far the best part of the store! They let the kids come back and the lady was so good with the kids showing them the big boxes of sprinkles and buckets of frosting! She let them have a little taste too.

She showed them all her fun tools and all the stuff she makes in the morning. She has to start at 2am! Then she had a cupcake for each of them to decorate.

She told them they can come back and say hi to her anytime and she would give them a free cookie. And she of course them gave them all cookies haha.

Then the kids got to go over to the seafood area and the gentleman there let them touch a crab claw and also had a little fun pretending it was his hand.

Then they took us to Starbucks where the nice ladies had chocolate milk all ready for them with whipped cream on top.

And last the nice bakery lady had a big batch of dough all mixed up and wanted to show the kids how the different machines work to make the different shaped bread and rolls.

To make french bread  was pretty cool. She would throw a chunk of dough like a frisbee into the machine and out it would come in a perfect loaf. We had so much fun at Safeway and the kids loved learning what went on behind the scenes.

Harley Davidson has built a new location here and about a month ago we drove past the building and Easton got all excited and exclaimed "it's a castle mom!!!" It really does look like a castle. I told him there was motorcycles inside the castle and ever since he has talked about how Dad needed to take him to the motorcycle castle. So last weekend we took him and also had Jackson with us. They were sooooooo excited to see all the bikes.

Then we headed next door to Ride Now to look at more fun toys.

Jackson and Easton really wanted to take these home. Jackson was hilarious because he was calling for Shama (Grandma Miller) thinking she would buy it for him. No luck kid haha.

Uncle Mike and his band played at the Sahuarita  Festival Saturday night so we went to check it out. It was a lot of fun. They had a free little ferris wheel and jumping castles. The band sounded great and the kids also enjoyed climbing the rock wall.

While I took the girls to the festival Chad took Easton to the U of A football game. His work gave them free tickets and Easton was talking nonstop on how he was going to watch football with Daddy.

Sadly the wildcats lost but Easton talked all the way home on how he did his cat cheers and he wanted the cats to win and he was a cats fan. Even when Chad asked him about being a Bronco fan he teased Chad and said he wasn't. Easton is a funny kid he is pretty talkative normally but if you end up one on one with him he talks your ear off. Chad luckily caught the conversation on video it was too cute.

30 Random Acts of Kindness for Our Favorite 30 year Old!

Since Chad turned 30 years old this year we did something extra special for this awesome man! His parents joined us on Saturday on a mission to perform 30 random acts of kindness! I meant to take a picture of all of them but kept forgetting but here is what we accomplished in 3 hours:

1. Chad spotted a gentleman on the side of the road with a flat tire and helped him out

2. We gave a box of candy to a Fire Station. When the girls gave the firefighter the box, mom told him it was in honor of their father's birthday. When they got back in the car Chad started laughing because he was sure that because of the way mom said it the firefighter thought "their father" was dead. So they were doing random acts of kindness to honor their dead father. haha

3. We also gave candy to the staff at University Medical Center Children's Center

4. We stopped at 2 Police Departments with no luck of finding anyone but Chad spotted some EMT workers parked in a parking lot! I am sure he scared them to death when he jumped out of the car and offered them the candy. They looked pretty apprehensive but then laughed and said thank you when he told them why.

5. Chad gave lollipops to the Boys and Girls Club 

6. We volunteered at Bens Bells

7. Mom donated some money to Bens Bells also

8. Smiled and made eye contact with 5 people

9. We took carts from the parking lot into the store

10. Held a door open for someone

11. Gave a compliment

12. We jumped out and helped a lady unload her groceries into her car

13. Picked up trash

14. We asked the Target cashier what her favorite candy bar was and bought her a Twix

15. We taped positive messages to the bathroom mirror in Target

16. We put quarters in the candy machines at Frys

17. Taped a note that said "You are an awesome Mom!" on the changing tables. 

18. The kids made thank you cards for military that said "Thank you for keeping us safe" I  am kicking myself for not getting a picture of this one. We stopped at Golden Corral and found a WW2 vet eating his dinner and the kids gave it to him. His face totally lit up and he told the kids they were so sweet. 

19. Passed out stickers to kids waiting in line at Target and Frys.

20. The kids put heads up pennies on the sidewalk for kids to find

21. Said hello to everyone we saw for 5 minutes

22. Placed happy notes inside books at Target

23. Gave popcorn to a couple renting a Redbox movie

24. Gave out Hi-Fives to people hanging out in front of the library

25. Left a note of encouragement on a random car

26. Let cars in front of us while we drove. 

27. Handed out lollipops

28. Picked up clothes that were dropped on the floor at Target and hung them back up

29. Left coupons next to items at Frys

30. Parked in the back of the parking lot everywhere we went to leave the front spots for others.

31. Handed out bottles of bubbles

32. Sent a picture "I Love You" text message to a bunch of people we love

Okay so we ended up doing extra since 2 were unplanned but it was a lot of fun. It was funny to see people's reactions. Most of the time they looked at us like crazy people but once we explained what we were doing they would smile and say happy birthday to Chad and say what a great idea it was.

Happy birthday to the best guy ever!!!

Park, Football, and Quilting

A few weeks ago we took advantage of the nice cool evening and went to the park. The kids had fun playing at one we don't go to often.

We brought their baseball gloves and they love throwing the ball around and the girls are actually getting better at catching it. Easton we finally got him out of the habit of trying to throw the ball from the glove.

Friday was the first Boise State game of the season!!! So of course we had to get all geared up for the game!

And they won!

Sophie wanted to learn how to sew this summer and while I was at girls camp Grandma Clayton helped her make a quilt for her doll. They got the top all sewn together and then this weekend they quilted it. It turned out so cute!!!

August Happenings

I had my ultrasound earlier this month and got to see our little one!

We were successful in not finding out what the sex was even though it was really hard to keep my eyes closed. Chad has always wanted to have a surprise baby, but I am crazy about having everything ready and wouldn't let him. He made me promise on our third child we would , but then I panicked that maybe it was a boy and we had no boy things. But now that we have both I am good with waiting, Easton didn't close his eyes of course and kept yelling "Mom mom its a brother!!!" The nurse that he was pretty funny but was really good about not spoiling it. I guess we will find out in December if Easton is right!

This month I have been kinda nesting a little crazy. I went through all of the kids toys and donated a bunch, got rid of old clothes, cleaning random things, and rearranged the house a bit. So the house rearranging was instigated by Easton. He had croup last week and wasn't sleeping. So Chad blew up our queen air mattress in the office so Easton and I could could try and sleep, much better than the couch. Then Easton kind of claimed the bed as his big boy bed and never looked back at his crib! We pulled out his big boy quilt Grandma Clayton made for him and he was so excited!!!

He has done so awesome! He just goes right to sleep and always talks about "Easton's Big Boy Bed!" He loves having his own room and the girls love having a girls only room. We think he is probably relieved to actually just go to sleep and not listen to the girl giggle haha. We thought about buying him his own mattress but since Chad has an interview in Oklahoma this week we weren't sure if we would be moving soon or not. So we just bought a twin air mattress for now until we know what we are doing. And blue sheets his favorite color!

Sophie is loving school and often comments how she never wants to come home. I don't know if we should be happy or sad about that. She also lost one of her front teeth. She gave us such a hard time for a week and wouldn't let us touch it. Then one night she was playing on her bed and caught it on something and it came out. She came bolting out of her room in a panic. She thought she had lost her tooth in her bed but we found it.

Lydia has been loving pre-school. She talks about it everyday and cant wait till the next pre-school day. She has also been doing a night time chart and has been doing so well lately! This morning she finally filled her chart and is so excited to go buy new church shoes! She is also getting better writing her letters. She practices her writing while Sophie does her homework and she has done so well.

Chad pulled out his blow guns the other day and the kids had fun shooting at our dart board.

On Saturday we cleaned the church in the morning and then went to Chad's boss' daughter's birthday party. It was at Pump it Up which the kids thought was so awesome.

Easton was one fearless kid on those giant slides. He would just climb right up and he looked so tiny flying down. On one slide he was actually in mid air he was going so fast and he loved every second. Then we had a fun game night at Sarah's house with Craig and Mike's family too. It was so fun to hang out and play games with each other. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and were definitely tired by the time we got home late that night.