Calvin-Student of the Month

Calvin was honored with Student of the Month for November from his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cope. He was presented an award in an assembly at school. Mrs. Cope said this about him, "Calvin: C is for conscientious and caring, A is for awesome work habits, L is for his loving nature, V is for vim and vigor as he plays, I is for interested in all new things he learns and N is for nice guy all around! Here's to you, Calvin." He has such a sweet teacher! He said that he was kind of shy as he got the award. I was able to go and stand by him as he was honored in front of the school. We all love Calvin and are glad that he is such a special part of our family!
(Calvin and his cousin, Briley are best buds.)

Doesn't it look good!

On Monday, my Dad called me and asked if I wanted to go with John and him down to Thatcher to see Brittany and baby Mayley. I was so excited! Devin and Ashton went with us. It was so much fun to see them. Don't I look like a natural? I think that I will need alot of practicing holding a girl before I will ever have one. So that means I will have to hold Mayley alot!

It's a Girl!

My sister Brittany just had a baby girl. This is such an excititng this for our family. For those of you who don't know, I have five boys. I have another sister, Bridget, with three boys. And Brittany has two boys and a girl...and now another girl! Yea! She was 7lbs 2 ounces. Her name is Mayley. She had her on December 1.
Here is the family: Wes and Brittany, Dayton, Colton, Mayley and Briley. For more pictures, see the Miner's Blog.

Branding Calves

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to my parent's house and helped with branding the calves. There were three to brand and our family got to do one. There are so many pictures to see. To read the whole story and to see more pictures, go to the Reed Family Blog.

Here we are holding down the calf. Each boy has a different part of the calf to hold.
Ben did the branding. Doesn't he look so handsome?
All of the smoke went right into our faces and just stayed there. For those of you who don't know, it really stinks! It smells like burning hair, but worse!
This was before the branding actually began. The boys were listening to Grandpa Reed give the instructions.
Here we are getting the calf situated. We had to throw down the calf two times. It was a strong little bull calf. Click on the above link to see the throwing of the calf.

Ashton's Fall

When we were at Aunt Barb's house for Thanksgiving, Ashton took a fall off of the skateboard. Thank goodness he didn't need stitches! After cleaning it out, a couple of butterfly bandages did the trick!

Thanksgiving Day

I know that this entry is all about Devin. But it is only because I could never find any of the other boys because they were off playing with cousins the entire time.
Devin and Caleb were hanging out in the ditch, which was empty thank goodness! And over the ditch is the soccer goal.
We when first got to the Bear's Thanksgiving Dinner, Devin would not leave Ashton's side. I guess he was a little shy, we finally got him to go to other people. Ashton and Devin spend alot of time together while the other boys are in school. They are good buddies and Ashton is always looking out for Devin.

Our Sunday Best

I caught the boys after church to snap a quick picture. Needless to say, they weren't very happy with me because they didn't want to stay in their Sunday clothes any longer than I did! And I guess that it is nearly impossible to get all 5 boys looking and smiling in the same direction at one time. I guess a perfect world doesn't exist, but we'll take this one with nothing but smiles!

Ashton's Birthday

Ashton turned 4 on November 7th. He was sooo excited that he is now older! He said that since he is 4, he can now close his eyes during the whole prayer! It's amazing how much one year makes! :)
He wanted a Bob the Builder cake. He didn't like the way I did the mouth originally, so we had to change it to what you see now. After that he was satisfied.
I know it doesn't look like it here, but he loved opening presents. After he would open it, he would look at it, toss it to the side and begin on the next one. He loved every present.

Trip to Schnepf Farms

A.T. Still University hosted a party at Schnepf Farms. It was a lot of fun. It was nice that it was only a mile for us to drive to. We got a wonderful lunch provided and had a chance to ride on all the rides. Here is a picture of the train ride. We rode around the farm and got a good look at everything there is to do.
Here the boys are waiting patiently to ride the train. Even a short wait is a whole lot of fun for this group of boys!
All the boys rode the airplane ride (including Devin). This is Calvin and Caleb ready to go!
Ben took Devin on the roller coaster. I know it's hard to see, but Ben is holding Devin. I don't think Devin or Ashton liked the roller coaster very much. But Calvin loved it! It's a small little roller coaster, but I was impressed! It really had some good dips and turns. I was literally coming out of my seat! Yikes!
Ben took Caleb, Carson and Calvin on this ride. I think that Caleb and Carson like the race track the best. They had little cars that you peddle around a track. Some of the cars had four seats: two in the back that you peddle and two in the front to sit and relax. Ben and I had races with our kids and other families to see who could go the fastest. There was also a carosel that all the boys went on. We all had alot of fun! We stayed longer than Ben and I thought that we would. But all of the boys loved it!

Happy Halloween

The boys dressed up for Halloween several times because of all of the parties. This picture was actually Halloween night. I posted more pictures on my parent's blog and Ben's parent's blog.

They got so much candy, it is ridiculous! So to prevent myself from picking up candy wrappers all the time we have a new rule. For each candy wrapper that I pick up, I get to take one of their candies and put in my own bowl. Boy! I have never seen a bunch of boys so eager to clean up garbage even the neighbor kids were helping!

abc Tag

I was tagged by Jenn

A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Ben
C- Cake or Pie: Pie
D- Day of choice: Sunday (Ben doesn't study on Sunday)
E- Essential Item: hair tie (I love ponytails)
F- Favorite Color: red
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: both!
H- Hometown: Queen Creek, AZ
I- Indulgence(s): playing violin and piano (it's a stress reliever, I do it everyday)
J- January or July: January
K- Kids: 5 boys
L- Life is incomplete without: the church and my family
M- Marriage Date: May 14
N- Number of Siblings: 6 (3 brothers and 3 sisters)
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples
P- Phobias or Fears: disappointing someone
Q- Quotes: "everyday in a new day"
R- Reason To Smile: my family
S- Season: Fall
T- Tag Three: Brittany, Eevi, Janae
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I love getting my feet tickled
V- Vegetarian or Meat Eater: both
W- Worst Habit: Being too busy and wanting everything done perfect
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: ultrasounds
Y- Your Favorite Food: ice cream
Z- Zodiac: I don't know for sure

Our Hike

After we went to the Mesa Southwest Museum and saw the exhibit on the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine, the boys were hooked. All they talked about was going to the Superstition Mountains and finding the treasure. So one Saturday, Ben didn't have any studying to do. So we took advantage of it and drove to the Superstition Mountains and went on a hike. Ben and I went to enjoy the outside and to get away. All the boys went to strike it rich!

Ben and Carson are using "primitive tools" and looking for any type of treasure. We brought lunch and had a picnic. It was kind of funny because we left in such a hurry, that we forgot to bring untensils to scoop out the peanut butter and jelly. We got inventive and ripped the cardboard box apart and used that. You can see the box we used above.

The boys saw a "mine", which happened to be a hole in the mountain. So we all had to hike up to it and see if the gold was there. No luck! But we ended up getting some cute pictures! What a load of boys! It was kind of scary with Devin and Ashton. I was worried that they would fall down the mountain. So we didn't stay there very long.
Ashton did his share of exploring.
Carson was so "cool" with his sunglasses.

Caleb was our scout and climber.

Calvin was just happy to be there.

I think that Devin was just interested in the food. Who knows what he is eating!

Every trip has to have a "break" if you know what I mean. And I guess that everyone is on the same schedule. OOPPS! Did I actually just post that!?!

Tagged by Janae

WHAT WAS I DOING 10 YEARS AGO?
Ten years ago I was a Senior at Queen Creek High School. I was working 30 hours a week at Olin Microelectronic Materials in Human Resources.
WHAT WAS I DOING 5 YEARS AGO?
Five years ago we were living in Mesa off of Dobson and Broadway. The twins were 2 years old and Calvin was about 5 months. I think that Ben was at ASU at that time (it honestly is all a blur!). At that time, my sister Brittany and her husband Wes were living in our same subdivision and we would do something everyday. It was a fun time of life.
WHAT WAS I DOING 1 YEAR AGO?
One year ago we just barely moved to Tucson and our new house. And I was searching for a school to put them into. Ben was traveling inbetween Tucson and Phoenix doing his air conditioning business. It was an adventurous time, but we loved it.
WHAT WAS I DOING YESTERDAY
Yesterday the boys and I cleaned the house (sadly, it's not clean today). My brother, John, surprised us and ate lunch with us. He was down visiting from Holbrook. Ben helped his brother, Travis, move. Then we went over to the Richardsons and visited with Ben's Aunt and Uncle that were visiting from St. George. After that we came back home, Ben did some studying and I took a nap trying to get rid of a headache that I had all day. During the evening we had a BBQ and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores in the campfire. What a day!
FIVE PLACES I'D RATHER BE
Out of medical school and residency. Does that count? Anywhere fun with my family. There are so many places I would love to go to with them.
WHAT I’D DO WITH 100 MILLION DOLLARS
Pay for medical school, invest and give everyone of mine and Ben's brothers and sisters and parents 1 million dollars. Wouldn't that be nice!
FIVE FAVORITE TV SHOWS
Who has time to watch TV? :)
MY MOST MEMORABLE THINGS RIGHT NOW
My goodness! What a question! My husband and boys! Family is what it's all about! Is that too generic?
FIVE PEOPLE I’M TAGGING
Anyone who reads this!

What's It To You

This song is dedicated to Brittany. When we lived in Snowflake we LOVED listening to this song. We thought Clay Walker was so cute! I think that he kinda reminds me of John. What do you think? Do we have a rising star for a brother?

Hair Bows

My sister-in-law, Kobie Hatch, makes the cutest hair bows. She just started a blog for them and you've gotta take a look! I just have to pass on the news because I can't take advantage of it until I get a girl, and that's not happening anytime soon! :)
Here's the link: http://pattycakebows.blogspot.com

Mesa Southwest Museum

We visited the Mesa Southwest Museum towards the end of September because Ben's school, A.T. Still University had a special room there that taught about the human body. It was really amazing! Everything was interactive and hands on. Carson especially loved it because he was studying the human body in school. The day we went, the Museum let everyone in for free that was associated with A.T. Still University and fed us breakfast.

All the boys absolutely loved the gold panning! It's a good thing that we went to the gold panning last because that got soaked! Each one of them took home a little sack of "gold".
Another highlight was the jail. I remember going to this same jail when I was a kid. I always tried to be a good girl so that I wouldn't have to go to jail and stay the night there. (That's where my Dad said the bad people go.) So needless to say, all the boys where very good the entire time so that they didn't have to stay the night there. (Are we bad parents. :) Ashton really had to work up his courage to walk into the jail cell and he forced that sweet smile you see.

Bedtime for the Twins

Believe it or not, this is how the twins sleep every night. Even though we bought them bunkbeds, they still sleep with each other! On rare occasions, they sleep in their own beds and under the blankets. Isn't it funny how they still sleep in the same positions!

New Blog

Hey everyone! I just created a new blog for my parents. So if you are interested, you can give it a try. It's still being set up, but it's pretty much done!
http://reedsranch.blogspot.com

Caleb Swallowing a Penny

Right before we left to Church on Sunday, September 2, 2007, Caleb rushed into my room and had a panic look on his face. He said that something was stuck in his throat.

I looked at him briefly and said, “Well, then spit it out.”

He was more persistent and said, “No, Mom, I think I have a penny stuck in my throat!”

I looked at him in bewilderment. How could my 7 year-old child have a penny stuck in his throat? That is something that I worry about with my 2 year-old, but not my older boys! But I could tell that he was being serious and looking very worried.

“Why do you think that you have a penny in your throat?” I asked.

“Because I put one in my mouth and swallowed it.” He answered with such simple logic.

I knew that he wasn’t in immediate danger because he could still talk and breathe, but now he was starting to panic.

So I tried hitting him hard on the back trying to loosen it. Didn’t work. I tried sticking my finger down his throat to try to grab it out. Didn’t work. Caleb tried spitting it out. Didn’t work. Ben tried the heimlich maneuver. Didn’t work. Nothing we tried would work! So we decided to take him to Urgent Care. To make a long story short, the Urgent Care was closed so Ben brought him back home and finally convinced Caleb to get a drink. (This is something that we couldn’t get him to do before. And Ben knew that Urgent Care couldn’t do anything that we couldn’t do ourselves at this point. So I think that Ben was relieved.) Finally after about one hour of going through this whole ordeal, he swallowed the penny with a simple drink of water!

Caleb told us after it was all over and after we assured him it would be OK if he swallowed the penny, that he thought he would die if he swallowed it. Poor kid! The whole time of panic and pain he endured would have been shortened if we just knew his concerns so that we could have addressed them. I guess that is how life really is, sometimes people just struggle everyday to get by and we try to help, but we don’t know what their concerns really are and what is bothering them. But once we find out and gain some insight into what they are going through, help is easier to come by.

After everything was said and done, I asked Caleb what he learned from the whole “penny experience”. He said that he learned to “never look at coins or pennys, never go by them and never to touch them.”

I looked at him and tried not to laugh and said, "Well, what about putting them in your mouth?"

"Oh yeah...and don't put them in your mouth."

Devin feeding the Chickens

I thought this was too cute to pass up! Every time we go to Grandma and Grandpa Reed's house, Devin loves feeding the chickens. I don't know who gets more scared, Devin or the chickens! But Devin has to act brave no matter what!

Horseshoe Men

The boys asked Uncle James if he could teach them how to make something in the Blacksmith Shop. So since today was a half day of school, we went over to the Shop and James worked his magic!

They started out by finding old horseshoes. It helps that James shoes horses and had a few lying around.
Then they pounded and pounded and pounded the horseshoes on the anvil. And let me mention that it was HOT!
And then they pounded some more. The boys got pretty good at using that hammer.
The finished product! They are so proud! James and the boys did a great job. You can't see it here but James welded sideburns on all of the men along with their cowboy hats.

Our House

This is a picture of the house that we are living in while we are in Queen Creek. It's exciting and fun to be so close to our families. We are so fortunate to be able to live in such a nice house while Ben is in Medical School. Believe it or not, it was just as much to rent this house as it was to rent a small apartment next to the school. We live in my parents Ward and we live a block away from the boys school, so we just walk to school. I love it! Now we just have to sell our house in Tucson. Good luck to us in that venture! We need all the help we can get.

James and Larissa's Wedding

My brother James just got married to Larissa Skinner on August 10. They both looked great! They got married in the Mesa Arizona Temple. And believe it or not, her Mom made her wedding dress! What talent! I'm jealous!

Right when you come out of the Temple, people are taking pictures left and right. It's hard to know who to look at, but every picture they took looked fantastic.
This is my Mom and Grandma Bear (her Mom). I thought that is was really sweet when they walked out from the Temple together, I couldn't let the moment pass by.
Carson was being a good brother and watching out for Devin. Caleb was helping to, but barely missed the picture.

The Boys Start School

Caleb, Carson and Calvin started school on the same day as Ben, July 30. They were all so excited! This is the first year that Caleb and Carson have been in different classes, they are in 2nd Grade. Calvin started Kindergarten. So all three boys go all day to school. They loved their first day of school. The house is really different with only Ashton and Devin at home. I get so many things done and everyday we have to play "Go Fish". Ashton looks forward to it and reminds me constantly until we play, it's his favorite game.

The Journey Begins

On Thursday, August 2, Ben had his white coat ceremony. It was really fun to see the whole class of 2011. Everyone was so excited and the program was really nice.
Doesn't he look so handsome!?! The nametag says "Benjamin Richardson - Student Doctor"
This is when they announced his name and put his coat on.
Then he walked across the stage and shook the Dean's hand and the President's hand.

They are all really nice people.

During the opening ceremony on Tuesday, July 31, one of the speakers got up and said how there are so many differences in the students of the class and how one of the students served in the War in Iraq, and a few are surfers. And then he said that there is one student who has five boys. The whole crowd oohhed and awhed. And then he said, "God help him." Everyone laughed and laughed. There are actually quite a few students who have children. It is really exciting and everyone is so nice. It's not hard to believe that Ben has already made a name for himself and classes haven't even started yet. They start on Monday, August 6!