Thanksgiving week!!

 The kids had a little art show at their school on Monday. It was fun to see their work and to see how proud they were. Jaxton is pointing at his, Rodriks is the one with more red around it, on the bottom. He didn't want to point.  

   

  The kids made Thanksgiving hats, here is Rodriks. He loved it, and it looks amazing, who could blame him? Also, the necklace he is wearing his friend Makayla made him and he made hers. I thought that was a cute detail. Also, Makayla is the probably the opposite of Rod in class, she is a little crazy; so it's cute they are such good "friends," wink wink.

 

Cal and Justin, forever. :)

 

And here is Jaxton's turkey hat. Cute kid.

Natasha had a birthday (30!!), and we celebrated on Wednesday afternoon, luckily Clarissa and Zach were in town. It was tons of fun to just hang with everyone all day!! She requested pizza for lunch, it was SO GOOD!! My mom is SUCH a great cook and host. Also per Natasha's request, I made her that chocolate tart that hasn't failed me yet...! :)

Last minute Natasha and I signed up to do this 5k Thanksgiving morning run with a bunch of awesome family. Here we are after the race! Love them!

This weird picture is just our family winding up to do a "jump..." It's too good...! HAHAHA!!

Love it!!

 AND I ran a super fast time for me, 24 min. 7 sec. for a 5k!! That is faster then I have ever ran! AND I got 2nd place in my division! I was REALLY excited. The whole thing was so fun!! 

Also, my mom got 1st in her division! She is a boss! The whole experience was a highlight of my Thanksgiving break. Also, I didn't mess up on ANY of the food I made later that day. It was a blessed day... hehe!:)

 

 

In my  fist draft of this post I left out the Thanksgiving meals! Yikes! I have no pictures (which is why they were left out...my bad.) They were super great! We did Thanksgiving with my mom on Thursday with my family that was in town and Lisa's family and Grandma and Grandpa Haight, it was DELICIOUS!! Family and food! We loved it. And the leftovers were excellent...!!

We did Thanksgiving with the Gause's on the Saturday directly following. It's extra nice because we were able to get together with ALL the Gause's (except the NY fam) and we don't get to see them all very often. It workout out perfectly and was super relaxing and yummy. But it was very nice to chat with family we haven't seen in a long while. It makes Thanksgiving extra special.

 We have always done a red and gold Christmas tree. But the last couple of years I could see my kids wanting more color, so I have been collecting a couple of colorful decorations. I decided this was the year to make the colorful switch. I had to make a last minute stop at the store for some more decorations, but the finished tree is really fun. Rodrik was in for the long haul. I always forget setting up the tree takes a million years. Those poor kids get so excited and then have to watch mom and dad assemble the tree (they help, but can only do so much--and it takes a while,) and then they watch mom and dad do the lights (which take FOREVER- pre-lit trees are NOT overrated) and then they have to wait while I put on the fuchsia sparkly ribbon, AND THEN they can put on the decorations. And then they had to wait for me to go get more decorations. It was torture. Rod hung in there and helped with all the decorating. He was my little helper.  The lighting is weird, but it's a cute tree.

 

 Here is some documented proof that my kids still always just eat toast and chocolate milk for breakfast every single morning. Since birth. They are SO cute.

 

Calvin has turned into quite the violent child. Though I'm sure a lot of it is his natural tendency, his brothers have molded him VERY recklessly. And then they act shocked when he throws a metal toy at their head. Everything is about power and hitting and physical force for this one. It's best to be aware when you are around him, at all times; you never know when he will strike. It's usually not too bad, just occasionally...:)

  

He always say's "Cheeeese!" for the camera! :)

Following suite behind his brothers, Calvin LOVES to watch Cars, and Planes. Best purchases I ever made. He is always captivated. He loves them the most. :)

 

 Rodrik is helping to vacuum at Maimai's, He loves it!  It's extra cool because her vacuum is just his size. 

These next pictures are just cute. The kids had to walk to school in the snow this morning and Clavin wanted to go with them. He is wearing a backpack, gloves and boots just like his brothers. He wants to do what his brothers do. I love all their cute faces. My heart melts.

 Here is a cute little picture of the kids that walk to school together. Some older girl neighbors (Marin and Kate) sweetly walk with our boys and my other neighbors little boy (Kai). Those poor girls suffer a little from these crazy boys. It's so nice of them walk with them. :)

A post about Calvin's hair...

Well, mostly about Calvin's hair. A few things first:

This is a CUTE picture of Jax after one of his basketball games. It is so fun to watch him play. He plays well, he loves it. I love watching him.

 

This is the worst picture ever of Rod a Karate. He is in black behind the white guy kicking the black thing. He is punching his way back, and it was the cutest thing EVER. And I tried to video it, and I didn't have enough space on my phone. So I just got this lame picture. Also it's blurry. I'll get a better one if he continues. Despite him have a blast every time he goes (I can see it in his face, he loves it! Rod=Karate) he is insisting that he doesn't want to go anymore. It would be way cheaper for us if he stopped, but because I can see the light in his face when he is practicing, I am going to make him go for a while longer...we will see how long. He does so well. He is a good listener and tries his best and loves learning and doing all the moves. I don't know what his reservation is. I'm wondering if it's just to be contrary. Anyway...

 Also, it was our real anniversary on the 17th. Happy 10 years to us. Justin is amazing and got me these beautiful flowers and YUM chocolate and dried mangos from Costco (the BEST!) AND he got his mom to watch the kids (thanks Debbie!) So we could go out. All were completely unexpected. We had celebrated at much cost in St. George a week ago. It was super dooper nice of him.

 NOW on to Calvin....

Here is me trying to get some pictures of him with his cute hair about an hour before my appointment. If I say, "smile!" He does this face:

 Or this:

 Or this:

 So we went to Cookie Cutter Cuts. It was awesome because he got to sit in this little pretend race car and he had a TV about 4 ft from his face, they give him a balloon and a sucker. It was crazy cool. Look at my beautiful baby...!!

 Here is the back. She put 3 little rubber bands in his hair and cut them off and gave them to me to keep per my request. They are such beautiful little locks.

 And here is some progress. He was SO good. And cute!

  

I think it was a little after this point when she got it looking really cute. Like a little baby cut. It was darling. It was what I had in my head for what I wanted it to look like. And for some reason I said "maybe a little shorter?" I think I said it because I didn't want it to grow out in one week and look super long again, or get all snarly in the back again. And that, sadly, took it to a very strange length. And suddenly his wavy hair was getting more poofy and the sides looked suddenly feathered... It looked like an older women's hair cut. Or like hair that needed a hair cut...So I was about to pay, and I was just like, I can't take him like this. He looks ridiculous. He is a cute kid, he shouldn't look so silly on my account.  And I said, "Just cut it off..." !!
 There was a child who had gotten their hair cut while I was waiting and I asked that it be like his. So the sides and back were short, but the top was longer and swoopy. That way I could still have the little cute highlights on the top of his hair. It was way shorter then I was originally going to go, but it look so much better that I knew that was what had to happen. Phew! But sad...

 This is what it looked like after she was all done and it was styled. He looked so handsome. But SO different!! It's sad for me, but he looks really cute with his little neck showing.  

  

Here is the before and after, pretty big deal for me:

 Here it is a little dry, he has this natural wave. He stole grandpa's glasses. Haha!

 

And then I took 5 trillion pictures this morning after his bath while he was drinking his smoothy. He just looked so cute. 

   

     

I love him.