1st Band Concert

Here is Braxton making his debut on Trumpet at his first band concert.

GIVING THANKS

This year I have much to be Thankful for, but most of all this year I am truly thankful for an unexpected wedding.

Because of this wonderful day we not only got to welcome Virginia into our family but her two daughters also, and because we had to travel to  Idaho for the 3rd time this year.  We also got our fill of SNOW . . . .

and, Thanksgiving with family . . .

Arizona Winter Camp

I guess this is what you would call winter camp for the boys, only in Arizona it is the only camp that the boys aren’t sweating to death.

Braxton had a lot of fun and even completed one entire merit badge.  YEA!

Honoring our Veterans

Since we have been up since 6am so that Megan could walk with her Brownie Troop in the Veternas Parade.  I thought I could take  a minute and wish every one a Happy Veterans Day!

HALLOWEEN

Well you know we gotta blog about Halloween!

So here we are carving our pumpkins. Notice Megan is the only one working?  That is how it went most of the night.

And . . .  . . here is our finished products.  They looked beautiful, but it has been a little warm here and 3 days later we lit moldy pumpkins for Halloween night!

SOOOOOOO GROSS!

And here they are all lit up only 3 days later,  remember so gross with their mold.  Good thing it is dark and no one can tell. 

 But, back to Trick-or-Treating.  Here is Megan our Witch.

Braxton being his whatever he made up person so he could wear his hooded cape and carry a sword.

And, here are all the gang ready to head to Trunk-or-Treat.

Then we ended the day with the annual dumping out of the loot and trading candy.  My kids were just excited to be able to trade with someone other than each other.  The funnest was listening to the girls wheel and deal for their favorites.



FALL BREAK

I thought I'd better start off with our Girl Scout....

Right before Fall break Megs was welcomed into Girl Scouts.  Which she is very excited about, especially because they had cake at the ceremony.

 

Then we headed off on a road trip to

Grandpas house with the cousins. 

Don't they all look so excited! 

And that was only after about 2 hours in the car.

Once we got to Grandpas house it

was a Manwaring (Working) vacation.

The boys worked on helping grandpa dig some big trenches

and the girls got to clean windows.

And of course get a ride in the bucket of the tractor.

We spent one afternoon making homemade apple juice

Yummy, Yummy!

And when the kids were bored of pressing the juice

they all had to try bobbing for apples.

We also went to a corn maze which is something new for us Arizonans

Jenny even found us a snack to much on. =)

Over all even though a Manwaring vacation includes a lot of work

we always get a lot of play with cousins and that makes it the best vacation ever.

The Funnest Chore Ever

We have been keeping 2 liter bottles of water in our shed for years and years for our food storage, and finally we decided to get 5 gallon containers instead.  Now came the chore of emptying all those 2 liter bottles out.  So we invited a bunch of the neighbor kids and told them to empty all the bottles.  Megan said in the end " THIS WAS THE FUNNEST CHORE EVER" I'm just glad she thought so.

And, yes we have begun another season of soccer.  So far it has kept us busy and wears the kids out enough that they are ready for bed by 8pm every night.

All's I Want For Christmas????

Megan was a little bored last night when she went to bed so she decided to pull out her other front tooth. Now we will just call her the toothless wonder, and of course I had to teach her the song

" All's I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"

End of Summer Fun

Well however much I wish summer isn't really ending here in Arizona yet, but I thought I would post a few last end of Summer Break happenings.

Brian has been trying to decide what next to do in the back yard and has decided to add an arbor to our fire pit / patio. I am not sure I want the area enclosed, he really want to do it.

What do you all think?

Brian has already started Braxton with driving lessons WHAT!!!

Megan and I have decided to try our hand in beaded watch bands. This is Megans first one and we are patiently waiting for our next shipment of beads to come to make us some Halloween ones.

We have been getting a lot of rain and last Sunday went for a walk and got a wonderful surprise.

This Beautiful rainbow.

And last of all Megan finally lost one of her top loose teeth. They have both been loose since April, and finally we got one out now we just need to work on the other one. We might have to have aunt Beth come for a visit ;)

Back to School Again...

I know it seems like only yesterday we were getting out of school for summer break and now we are back. Every year we have lived here in Arizona the school year beginning date gets earlier and earlier. My greatest fear is that next year we will be starting in July!!!

SOOOOO....

Here is my cute little 2nd grader,

who was totally excited to start school up again:

and my I'm to old for this, hurry quick before other kids see you 6th grader:

Hopefully this will be another awesome year!