Last couple weeks!

I love my Cal. 

 

 He is quite the character, he will do the silliest things while we are driving and I'm always so bummed I can't catch it on camera.

 My most favorite thing to listen to while i'm in the car is all my kids singing. They get so into the music and they will just sing like no one is watching-because they think no one is. :) It's my favorite. This does not exclude Cal, he sings with the best of them. It's definitely one of my most favorite things to be a part of, and no one will ever no how cute it is except me...unless you want to take a drive with us.

 Here is a cute throwback picture of when Rod visited Eli a couple weeks ago. CUTE!

 And here is the child that takes up all of my photo space on my camera. Crazy little guy. He say's "CHEESE!" so cute, but rarely does a legit smile at the same time. SO cute, but not exactly the beautiful natural smile i'm going for. I love him.

 

 MY HANDSOM JAX!! When we did family pictures all the kids where all over those trees. In my experience, it seems kids were made to climb trees.

 "Mom take a picture of me by this tree!" Okay cute Rod!!

 

 I painted Rod's face for the ward Halloween party. It made me want to buy real face paint and make it a past-time. He looked (and felt!) pretty cool. I was excited to do it again for Halloween, I knew if I did it again i could make it look even better, but he didn't want it painted again. He didn't like that it smeared in spots after a while. I need to buy the good face paint...anyway, it was fun.

 

 That same day we went to Jakers with Natasha, so much fun! The corn pit put Cal into hysterics.  We tried everything to get him to touch it willingly. It was not happening. Natasha is so good with kids. Crazy Cal. hehe!:)

 All the other kids (in the world) LOVED that pit. I'm pretty sure they played in that exclusively for about an hour. And would have kept playing for who knows how long. Good cheap fun.

 One of the reason's it's so fun to be with the Rogers is that Mai and Hazel are always SO helpful with Calvin. Mai helped Calvin through this little maze and off hay barrels and, stayed right with him. I cant get over her helping him off this one hay barrel--holding his heavy body up high, her face in his tummy--carrying him as far as she can without putting him down. Looking like a swaying tower about to fall. It's SO cute to watch. I love it.

 

 Sweet Isaac had a birthday! We had disco lights, meat (he NEEDS his meat for his GAINS!!), Spike ball, and PIE!! We love this 22 yr old! SO MUCH!!

 

 And these next pictures are some of my favorites!! Just look at all of them and look at my kids faces and see how proud they are. It killed me, its just too cute. I love them so much. These pictures make me so happy. This is the Halloween parade at school.

 

 

 I can't even. Cute! 

 

 

 And then, the actual Trick or Treating Halloween day!!! My cuties!! If you know anything about my kids you know this is one of their favorite days. Jax particularly.   

 

 I'm going to quote my letter to Chanel to describe Halloween evening: Halloween was fun! Mom was amazing and invited us over for dinner last minute. She made those grilled pizza’s with those sliced lemons and mixed greens tossed in that vinaigrette with pesto!! It’s seriously so good.  AND she made this tomato salad with this new cheese Marci turned her onto. You would love it. I cant remember the name but it’s like fresh mozzarella on the outside and then it turns into a softer cheese on the inside. I LOVED it with this salad. Also, mom and I went to trader Joes on Saturday, and she had bought “Balsamic Glaze.” And so you put that on the salad with a bunch of basil. It was SO good. Eating good food has such a nice effect on my mood. It was just a REALLY good dinner. And then mom brought out goods: Her yummy adult chocolate. So since you’ve been away mom has discovered these large square cubes (about 1 ½ inches each side) they are a little wider then they are tall. They are called Salted Carmel Chocolates. Or something like that. They are soft DELICOUS caramel dipped in really nice milk chocolate sprinkled with a small amount of sea salt. The consistency is so amazing. You cut it in half and it cuts easily and perfectly, with clean edges on all sides. Anyway, so she gets those out and she gets out the Kirkland brand mixed nuts and the Kirkland brand cashews. So we cut the chocolate caramels into 4th’s and shove your nut of choice into them, and EAT THEM. Mine was pecan (I thought that was the best pairing). But we did it with cashews and macadamia nuts and almonds too. It was SOOOO great!! And she brought out the trader Joes dark chocolate peanut butter cups! So it was super awesome. As you can imagine, I was in a great mood to go trick or treating. J

            We went almost entirely around our neighborhood. Basically we winded our way from mom’s, to Terry Ventura’s. Jax and Rod were in heaven. Cal was SO cute, he caught on immediately. He would get a candy and say so sweetly, “day-too” (thank you) and then he would eat it directly. We brought the stroller and he would sit and eat his candy while we strolled and then when he was out, he would be on the hunt again for candy. Jax was similar in that he was constantly eating candy whenever he could, but he never stopped to consume, he consumed on the run. Chanel, Jax ate SO MUCH CANDY. It was incredible to watch, and nauseating. So we had to go to Terry’s because she had demanded it, (wink wink) and so she gives the kids candy, (what she gives everyone that comes) AND a large soda (what she gives people in the ward that come) AND for Jaxton, an extra BAG of candy, (because he is a piano student) and then a cookie with chocolate frosting, (I think this was because he was a piano student too…) Anyway. That was a LOT of stuff. My kids were sitting pretty as far as sugar was concerned. (as if they weren’t before!?!)  Yikes.

            By that time we were getting pretty cold and dark, even though it had been a really pleasant evening, so Justin had the van for us and we got in and went to Debbies. It was like 7:30 and we usually do most of our trick or treating at her house so I knew she probably thought we weren’t coming.  I had the kids trick or treat her house and she was really surprised and super happy we showed up. It was really cute. She kept saying, “I told Preston, if that is my grandkids I’m going to freak out! And it was!!” I guess they had like 7 trick or treaters the whole night. So weird. There were tons in our neighborhood! Anway, it was really cute. Calvin wore his costume the WHOLE time-with the mask even!! He felt pretty darn legit. J It was all so cute and fun. But I’m telling you—the amount of sugar Jax consumed…!! Eek!

My letters to Chanel are super articulate...It's literally me rambling for pages...! I miss my sweet Chanel.

 Can I post the most beautiful loafs of bread I ever made?? AND my sweet friend Kari is moving to Alaska, again! And came over to say a last good bye, this is her cute little one with my cute little one. They were actually getting along this time, and now she is leaving. Sad...Hopefully it's a good move.

 

 Lastly, this picture was on the Lakeview School website and I thought it was cute...