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!?!