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."