Rachel's New Do

Last Monday I got a phone call from Sarah needing help becuase Rachel had decided to cut her own hair, but not only that, she decided Bethany needed a new look too. So she brought the girls into the salon to see what we could do to fix their newly cut mullets.

Bethany's wasn't so bad, and as long as her hair is pulled up some how, you can't tell. Rachel however wasn't so lucky. So she got a cute new bob with some cute swoop bangs, which she actually cut herself and did a Really good job!! haha. So really, if you think about it, Rachel got a cute new hair cut AND got to miss school all from cutting her own hair, not too bad of a deal. :o)

The after, new bob

Daytrip to Prescott

Johnny and I took the kids for a day trip to "Arizona's Christmas City" - Prescott! We had an absolutely wonderful time, and I would highly reccommend it. The drive up was exciting cause it rained the entire way.

First we went to the extensive gingerbread house display and then we enjoyed the electric trains, then we decorated (and ate) gingerbread cookies.

Mason loved the trains and even got to operate one.

Then we bundled up the kids and went to the parade and drank hot chocolate and apple cider to keep warm. It even hailed on us, but we loved it. After the parade we visited the trains and gingerbread houses again, then we went to the "Walk through Bethlehem." Finally, on our way out of town we drove through the Valley of the Lights display. The whole day was so festive.

More Thanksgiving

Here are a few more for you

Thanksgiving Day

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Thanksgiving. Feel free to add any more and/or any commentary to any of it. Sorry, I'm being lazy and not cropping the pictures or anything. Katie, I don't have any good ones of Blake in his potato sack but they need to be on here. enjoy!!

Polar Express

We had a great (if a bit hectic) time at the Polar Express. Grant and Eric were inseparable, and Will discovered that he loves to run up and down the aisles of train cars. :)

Montezumas Well

GILBERT DAYS!!!

Saturday was the Gilbert Days Parade and what better a thing to do on a Saturday morning than go to a parade? Stacy, Bubba, Mason, Jane and I got to go. It was a good time, a little warm compared to years past, but there was still fun to be had. Mason liked it all, but he got REALLY excited when the tractors came around. Here are a few pics of the moring.

The Reading Family, Johnny is wearing tootsie roll for teeth

Mason Henry

Mason showing off the Candy he rummaged for

Stacy and Jane

Mason attacking me, wish we had it on video.... notice the hair pulling and biting preparations

Here's a stinker!

Our little stinker. If you've held him at one of her particular moments then you already know that this was the perfect costume for him! What can I say? He is super cute (even when he's a little stinker)

--Happy Halloween
Katie

The other twins...

This is probably my most favorite picture of Anne and Mckay! I just love it. I don't remember much about when I took it but it's so great! Don't you just love it!!!

You girls are adorable. I love you!

Mason's favorite place

This is where I spot Mason about 20 times a day. Johnny bought some Eggnog and introduced the yummy stuff to Mason and he can't get enough. Also, we had a bag of chocolate chips in the fridge and Mason kept sneaking a few at a time all day until we hid them. So between searching for the chocolate chips and trying to get out the eggnog, this is where Mr. M spends his day.

Trick or Treating to Great Gma Robinson

On Halloween night, our kids were great sports as we made several stops, each one requiring a drive in the car. Here are a few pics of the kiddos with Great Gma Robinson.

My 1st Pumpkin Pie

Johnny grew up eating homemade pumpkin pie for Halloween. His mom made them and even used fresh pumpkin. Well, this Halloween her kitchen is under construction so I thought I'd give it a shot. I've never made any pie before, even though my mom has made them my whole life. Really, I don't like making the crust. So, I will admit, I cheated and bought the kind you just roll out. But I was very proud of myself. It turned out great!

Pumpkin Patch pictures

The night before Halloween, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch to get pictures in their costumes. Well, Jane was darling and loved eating the hay. Mason fell asleep in the car on the way there and wouldn't let Johnny put him down the whole time.

What is that?!?

Long story short - this is what Johnny pulled out of our plumbing pipes...(For the not-so-short story, read on...) So, three weeks after we moved in, the plumbing clogged so badly that we had raw sewage backing up into our tubs. Johnny tried plungers, he bought a snake and then even rented a heavy-duty snake from Home Depot. But to no avail. Finally a plumber came out and after a few attempts got it so everything drained. Whew. We sanitized everything and were grateful it was done. Well, two weeks later it all happened again. Johnny had had a pretty bad day, so this was just the icing on the cake. He was determined to fix it himself. So he rented another snake from Home Depot which was broken, exchanged it for another one and hauled it up on the roof (they are very, very heavy) and snaked it down one of the toilet vents (where the plumber had finally been successful before). But it didn't work. He eventually tried another spot and lo and behold he caught something and everything drained. When he pulled the snake back out, it drug out a big rubber black ball, connected by two inches of a small chain, then two cables - one yellow and one black with an air valve on it. No wonder the plumbing was backing up - the black ball was similar to the ones in toilet tanks and was as big as the pipe. Why in the world that was there, we'll never know. But it was truly a miracle that the snake caught one of the chain links. After describing our catch to some plumbers we learned that it is a device called a test ball used to test water pressure, etc. They are expensive gagdets and the plumber should have told us he lost his in our pipes. Johnny's cousin Ryan (a plumber) said he has never known of anyone who has been able to snake those things out. Usually they dig up the pipe and cut it out. Again - a miracle he snaked it out. Oh, and don't worry. We've sanitized everything again!!