A Pumpkin Chuckin Good Time

Breezy volunteered to make a Halloween costume with Annie this year. They hit up Goodwill and the dollar store to gather supplies to make the most beautiful fairy costume ever!

How magical is this picture?!? Breezy knocked it out of the park with the hot glued flowers and photography skills.

Mimi did some deep YouTube research on butterfly facepaint in preparation for Annie's birthday party. She put her skills to further use to combine with the Halloween costume!

 

Our first Halloween activity of the year was a trunk or treat at the Villas where Papa lives. He dressed up as an Army guy. 

The Barbie movie is still culturally relevant.

Creepy ice cream sundae cup bar!

The next activity was the ward trunk or treat, which we didn't take any pictures of. I actually did somewhat decorate our trunk this year- we made a lollipop farm with a brown sheet and all the tractor toys we had around. It ended up being quite contentious because the kids couldn't agree on what color the box with holes for the dum dums should be. The fun family lollipop farm craft turned into me painting a box by myself while the kids cried. I should have stuck with our tried and true Frankenstein nose picker!

Claudia's house has cute witch hat decor. Aaron makes them even cuter. 

We carved pumpkins a few days before Halloween. Isaac picked a super cute and simple design. 

Annie's pumpkin was a lumpy pink one that ended up being SO THICK. I am impressed that I managed to execute the requested kitty corn carving as well as I did- it was a challenge! Elliot decided to do a pizza slice, but the kind where it is scraped instead of cut for a translucent effect. We did not have the right tools for that. He worked so long on it with a steak knife and our files, but he couldn't get it thin enough for our little light to shine through. He eventually poked a hole in it. I was pretty impressed that he handled the hole after an hour of scraping as well as he did. We carved a normal face on the back to salvage it. Felix's was easy- I didn't take the seeds out, just drilled a few holes in it to make polka dots. 

We ate eyeball meatballs for dinner on Halloween night.

The trick or treating crew!

Another picture in worse light after mothman Breezy joined us!

The day after Halloween, Rancho hosted a pumpkin chuckin event where we could bring our pumpkins and catapult them in the overflow parking lot. They left them out for the javelina and crows to enjoy. 

Fall Fun

 We decided to take Joanna to the Marana pumpkin patch on a weekend when Rayne was out of town. The flaw in our plan is that it was 100 degrees that day. We got there early to beat the lines, but it was still stinking hot and not nearly as pleasant as it could have been.

Not the best lighting. Felix was neutral about his first pumpkin patch photo op.

This slide is always a favorite! (Ignore the giant finger please.)

Isaac was very tickled by the singing animatronic tractor. I love the sweetness of preschool aged kids.

This guy was a champ for the whole sweat fest!

An ice cream break was very nice. Isaac didn't eat his as much as rub it all over his body.

Family fun in the blinding sun!

Another fun trip with Joanna and Rayne was to the Desert museum. I was glad to squeeze in one last trip before our annual pass expired. 

Annie got the "Owl"Standing award at school! I love going to the awards assemblies at her school and hearing the kids sing their school song. "We aaaaaare the owls! Hoot!" 

Annie went on a 6 mile bike ride to Nellie's birthday party at the clubhouse!

Isaac had his first croup attack in two years. Just like the last time, he went to bed with just a hint of a stuffy nose and then woke up barely able to breathe. The raspy sound he makes is horrible. Luckily a steroid treatment fixed him up in no time. He was almost completely better then next day. 

One morning, the kids were very excited to discover Annie's sequined shirt doing cool things in the morning sunlight. Elliot ran to grab some stained glass peel and stick stuff that Breezy had gifted them. I love these moments when the kids are united by the simple joys like these. 

Hackberry Harvest

Before my parents moved in, Breezy started selling stuff left behind by the previous owner on Facebook Marketplace. One day my friend Hannah went to buy something and recognized Breezy. She also recognized the plethora of Hackberry bushes lining my parent's driveway. Naturally, we had to do a harvest!

 

I thought our army of children would gather up a big bowl in no time, but they were deterred by the thorns. Hannah developed a technique for whacking the bush with a stick to get the berries to fall onto her picnic blanket. A bunch of leaves fell with the berries, so we put them in a big bowl of water to separate out the berries which sank from the debris that floated. 

We tried a couple of recipes from my 'Eat Mesquite and More' cookbook. The first was hackberry milk, which was a fun color with a little bit of spices. The hackberry jam was a bigger hit. I love how orange they both are- I'll be wanting to make this every October for a fun Halloween desert snack!

Andrew was visiting for his fall break. We got his stamp of approval.

This is the only Jam we have ever made that has Aaron's stamp of approval as well. He was delighted by the high fiber content. The seeds make it crunchy which is different from normal jam texture, but I like it!

Andrew and I decided to try to make quail egg eyeballs for another Halloween snack. The hole punch black paper definitely looks the best. Hole punched basil leaf is my second choice. Sadly, the Quail stopped laying eggs shortly after this. My lady hens are getting old!

The Cool Bug- A Love Story

 One magical Saturday morning, Aaron excitedly told me he had a surprise for me. I had slept in with Felix while Aaron was outside doing yardwork (already a delightful surprise). He led me downstairs and showed me... this.

He knows me so well. 

The bug was stiff and dead, but still incredibly cool. It had metallic spikes and the most intricate details all over it. It was like Bowser from Mario in caterpillar form. I did some research and found out that it was a Hubbard's silk moth caterpillar. I left it on an index card on the counter and kind of forgot about it.

Fast forward a few days and Aaron again tells me he has another surprise for me.

A pupa crawled out from the caterpillar husk overnight! I thought all moths spun cocoons, but apparently most moths actually burrow and have a pupa stage. It turns out that my butterflies and moths unit from Elementary school left some gaps in my knowledge. 

We left the pupa in our butterfly cage. A few days later, the moth emerged! She was beautiful! We noticed her at night, and I planned on checking her out and releasing her in the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't think to give her food or water. She was dead in the morning. Whoops. She had also laid a ton of eggs.

The moth has a really cool pink wing with a fake eye pattern that is concealed when she's in the resting position. 

The whole life cycle, all from the same one specimen! 

Needless to say, this was a very cool naturalist adventure for me. Thanks, Aaron!

The Big Move In!

 We have been talking about my parents moving to Arizona for years now. It is absolutely life changing now that it has finally happened! 

Here's the picture they took as they left the house in McLean for the last time. I had an exceptionally good childhood in that house. 

We had a very fun time checking out the new house before they moved in! We were able to be there for the home inspection and some other stuff before the move. They closed on the house a few weeks before moving out here. 

We definitely tested out the pool for them. The previous owner left lots of pool toys in the giant garage!

They decided to send one pod and both of their cars a week in advance, and then cram a second pod until the last minute. The buyer is a developer who is going to tear down the house, so they negotiated into their contract that they are allowed to leave all the stuff they wanted behind. They even left some dirty dishes in the sink! It has been funny helping them unpack- some deep storage things like a whole box of paper plates and cups made it into the first pod, but there wasn't enough space by the end for them to fit their toaster and blender. 

The actual move date was Oct 8, which was conveniently during the kid's fall break. We pretty much spent the whole week hanging out and exploring the new house. We went swimming and hot tubbing every day. Hanging out with my dad in the hot tub brings up so many fond memories of Myrtle Beach trips growing up, and it warms my heart to see my mom embracing her new ward and neighborhood. Naturally, she's immediately involved with the stake choir, stake creche festival committee, and hosted the second empty nesters dinner that she attended. She's hitting the ground running! I'm in love with their yard for both the pool and the beautifully landscaped acre lot. 

They keep saying that they are pinching themselves, unable to believe that they are living the dream of finally living out here so close to the grandkids. I feel the same! I play volleyball with my Dad twice a week, and he goes to play with the competitive group on Saturday mornings as well. We signed Elliot and Annie up for cub scouts with the plan that Mimi and Grumpa will take them. Mimi will frequently take the kids to the library or have them over. It is still very new and exciting, and I feel like I'm on vacation whenever I'm over there.

There was a neighborhood yardsale a couple weeks after they moved in. The previous owner left a lot behind, so we decided to put out whatever Breezy hadn't managed to sell on FB marketplace. 

The yardsale was a hit! Annie was majorly hustling. The boys were less dedicated, but luckily Mimi had the best activity ever- a magic potions kit. They spent ours outside working on the potions while manning the yardsale. 

When life couldn't get any better, the kids discovered that sleepovers at Mimi and Grumpa's house are an option!

Isaac loves helping Mimi cook while wearing the apron from my cooking birthday party when I was a wee lass. 

Blake flew down to celebrate his birthday. We are going to see all the family more often now that we are living in the gathering place! 

It's hard to overstate how life-changing this is. My kids have always had a good relationship with my parents, but now that relationship will be deeply engrained. Felix and possibly Isaac won't remember a time before their Mimi and Grumpa lived 10 minutes away. We will see each other every week instead of a few times a year. Let the good times roll!

Papa Move In

The big project while Mimi was out here with baby Felix was an earnest house hunt! My parents have been planning on moving to Arizona for years. They were fully prepared to move once Grammy passed away in May, but the perfect house was not materializing for them. After months of fruitless searching, they were debating renting a house out here while building or waiting for the right house to come on the market. Near the end of my parent's visit, an amazing house came on the market. I'll do a full post about it later, but suffice it to say that it's a great fit for them!

The plan was always that Papa (My grandpa, Norman Loback) would move out to Arizona when my parents did. He just wouldn't have enough support back in Virginia. Mom and I toured four or five assisted living facilities while she was here in August. The day she left to fly home, Papa fell in his condo and ended up needing to be checked into a skilled nursing facility with a neck brace for a cracked vertebrae. The situation abruptly changed so that he could no longer go home to his condo- he could no longer walk or do do the things he used to self sufficiently. My parents were moving in October, but Papa would need to move somewhere when he was discharged in Mid September. 

Through a major team effort, my mom, my Aunt Wendi, and I managed to find a great place for him that is super close to my parent's new house. It is out of our price range, but we found that he qualifies for government aid that could make up the price difference. We made our way through the complicated paperwork to apply for the Villas and government aid and managed to get everything set up in an impressively short amount of time. 

Aunt Wendi and Uncle Troy had an absolute superhero week. They took upon themselves the project of physically moving Papa from Virginia to Arizona. They put in heroic effort to clear out his condo and get him ready to travel.

 

These troopers checked Papa out of the skilled nursing facility at 4am to catch their cross-country flight! It went better than anyone could possibly have imagined! We were all half convinced that he would just refuse to go when he woke up the morning of the flight. Papa slept most of the way and was in good spirits about the move. 

We took Papa straight from the airport to his new home at The Villas in Green Valley. It is such a lovely place. He lives in a Villa with rooms for 10 residents. He has his own private bedroom and bathroom and a shared kitchen and living room. There are two caretakers on site during the day and one overnight. I have been very impressed by the level of care they are able to provide for him!

The move in crew. We spent a jam packed three days moving furniture and getting Papa settled into his new place.

We visited with Breezy a few days after they left

I found a sweet deal on this nice recliner on Facebook marketplace! Doesn't Papa look comfy? Also note the classic Isaac koala hug.

It is truly a miracle how smoothly this move ended up going for Papa! It will be good to have him close by. 

Breezy Bday

Breezy always has 3 very excited volunteers to help her with any project. They pretty much mob her whenever she comes out of her room, eagerly hoping she's going to do something thrilling like make a salt gatorade or work on a craft. 

Isaac is always her most devoted lil' buddy

Annie celebrated Breezy's birthday by doing her best to mimic Breezy's signature makeup look with the wings and drawn on scar. Also, you better believe that Elliot diagrammed that cake for her. 

Max and Morgan came to visit for the birthday weekend- this time trying out the overnight Amtrak from LA to Tucson. Apparently it sucked but was at least better than last time when they had to buy a new car to drive home. Blake originally wasn't going to be able to come, but then changed his mind. He didn't tell Breezy he was coming to make it be a fun birthday surprise! It almost worked. We were hanging out when Breezy said "I wonder what the lad is up to" and checked his location on the family location sharing app. He was at the Phoenix airport. It would have been better for him to walk in the front door, but the reveal that he was a couple hours away was pretty cool too. 

Max and Morgan brought their juicer out with them again for a repeat of the Best Activity Ever. Naturally, Blake went rouge and created a club soda that somehow tasted like Chinese takeout. It was somehow kind of good, but in a confusing kind of way.

We went to a korean bbq place called Kotu for Breezy's birthday dinner. It was SO GOOD. I loved being there with my foodie brothers. Excellent choice, Breezy!

Here's a picture of us celebrating Blake Friday with our Blake shirts. 

Sometimes Breezy and I will say the same random thing perfectly in sync with each other. It makes me so happy every time. 

Breezy invented live action chicken horse. She throws beach balls and other objects at the kids while they navigate an obstacle course. 

She's really been a third parent to our kids. They adore her. She took on the brunt of talking Isaac into eating dinner for many, many nights. One night, Isaac was having a bedtime meltdown. He was very mad that we ran out of time to go swimming, so he had stripped himself naked in an attempt to put on his swim suit. We put him to bed, but he kept stripping naked and screaming at the top of his lungs that he wanted to go swimming. Breezy sagely told me "just hand the kid an ice cube." I went into his room and handed him an ice cube, which he took instinctively while carrying on with his tantrum. Soon he started looking at his cold hand and asked me, "Why am I holding an ice cube?" I was able to say, "Oh, are you cold? Let's put that ice cube down and wrap you up with a blanket." I was able to read him a book and then get him in PJs and tucked in to bed. The ice cube disrupted him enough to forget that he was determined to spend all night screaming. Truly a stroke of pure genius by Breezy.

Breezy is awesome. We absolutely love living with her. She is so insightful and witty. She greatly enhanced our scripture study discussions with Elliot. Aaron and I loved our evening chats and watching shows with her. Having her move in was one of the best things that ever happened to us!