A Touch Of Tyrell

One Tuesday I was hosting the 8/9 year old primary girls activity at our house. We were learning about tithing and made little tithing banks.  One Tuesday I was hosting the 8 & 9 year old primary girls' activity at our house. We were learning about tithing and made tithing banks out of the mini Pringles cans.  It was fun, CRAZY CHAOTIC, but quite successful. I had just put up some Halloween decorations earlier that day and the girls were obsessed! They were all so in love with our house & and back yard that some of the girls mentioned this was their "dream house!" I felt pretty special receiving all of their happy comments and feedback 😁 I feel like I work really hard to have/keep a nice home and it's great that we have turned into the neighborhood house. We ALWAYS have extra kids over!  

No-screen Sunday always brings the kids together.  Roxy let "Aunt Edna" wear her shirt and scarf... And Jake leaves me funny surprised in the car 😅 Everett's hair is so long that I could but it in a little bun and he looked like a Sumo Wrestler! Also, he and a friend from school drew a map of where the each lived so they could ride bikes to each other houses. It was adorable! Roxy and I are always sporting the "crazy hair, don't care" look! Speaking of crazy hair, Emily & Breckie really nailed it on crazy air day! Roxy and I were at Ross and she found a "giant high heal!" It made me smile :)  (it's a baby bath tub seat) Since COVID, parents aren't allowed to watch at dance class... so I don't even know if she pays attention or not, but she looks pretty cute! These girls are ALWAYS dressing up! And my favorite little boy next door (Carter) made me a little love note!  Roxy's knobby knees made me smile. 

One morning I woke up and threw on some comfy clothes (because I was going to work on the guest room)... when I went downstairs I discovered that Everett was wearing his camouflage shirt too.  Later, when Carter came over, we discovered that we had al accidentally matched! It was pretty ironic! Roxy wanted to take a picture too! We've been working on a project in our guest room for quite some time.  A few years ago when the house was getting framed, we noticed that in the guest room (& Everett's room upstairs) the window is set back in the wall about 30+ inches. It left tons of wasted/empty space in the wall.  So we cut into the wall and created built-in shelves.  The neighbor kids are always willing to help and they took every opportunity to learn new skills during this project. I've been able to teach them quite a few things. How to use a hammer, how to paint with a roller & how to caulk seams/corners.  It's funny how my own kids never want to help! Em...

Breckie is amazing a writing notes and drawing cute pictures. One day she randomly wrote Everett this note and but it on his pillow.  It was such a sweet gesture.  Even sweeter that Everett turned it over and wrote a reply!   I'd have to say, the kids are all at really amazing ages right now. They play well and get along for the most part. We're really lucky to be a family!

My mom's mom, Grandma Gwen turned 80 this September! (We call her GG) My mom was hoping to have a big celebration but COVID kind-of ruined that.  Breckie drew her a birthday card and my mom/Tim/Braxton went to go visit her in NM. They taught her how to play Skipbo and she totally won! Grandma has woodpecker at her cabin/house that are driving her nuts! But she keeps busy with her animals and enjoys living on the mountain. 

Jake and I heard about a restaurant that "has the best salmon" in Downtown Gilbert. I LOVE salmon (especially at restaurants) so we went to check it out.  It was such a cool restaurant (and the salmon was AMAZING!!!).  The monkey bread for dessert was pretty great too 😋 We walked around Downtown a little bit and failed epically trying to take another selfie... this was the best we could do :)

I adore my kids (as, I'm sure, most parents do) and right now Roxy is in the most adorable stage.  She is funny and learning and says (and does) the most hilarious things.  She was showing me how to do yoga the other day: We went to Ikea on Friday.  I had been meaning to return a set of curtains for almost a year! My little shopping buddy fell asleep on the way there... at 9:30 a.m.! She was all tuckered out from 3 days of school and dance.  Roxy was a champ and walked around the entire store. She managed to talk me into buying paints & a bunch of fabric play food. It turned out to be a great purchase and it provided almost 2 whole days of playhouse fun.  We've been seeing Halloween decorations in stores lately too so Jake got our bins of decorations down. We've had fun digging through them and making plans for the month of October. Little cutie! Everett has always loved the Transformers movies and cartoons. The other day the kids were watching a Transformer...

At the very beginning of quarantine I bought lots of PE type things to help encourage the kids to be active and outside (dodge ball, kickball, baseball & bat, jumprope, relay race activities, etc).  That's when I discovered that Everett was really good at hitting a baseball.  *He's the tallest kid next to the coach. Once sports teams opened back up we got Everett on a team. Luckily Jake was able to take Everett to every practice and game. He was barely young enough to get on a coach-pitch team (to practice and build confidence). They never kept score at the games so it was a nice introduction to the sport for him. We're thinking it's going to be his sport 😁 He really enjoys it and seems to have a knack for it. He even used baseball as the topic for his paragraph of the week (that I dug out of the recycle bin to read!) I love that he has a sport and that he and Jake can connect over it!  

It's almost been a week since I got my abs sewn together.  I had the surgery last Friday and my first follow up on Tuesday.  I always wondered how I acquired a golf ball-ish sized wad of stretch mark-y skin to the right of my belly button. My surgeon told me at my follow up that I didn't have any abs for two inches to the right of my belly button and an inch to the left (and they were really stretched out everywhere else).  He tried his best to repair them.  It ABSOLUTELY kills to sneeze or cough. It BURNS and hurts SO BADLY!  Also, it's impossible to try and sit up without them burning.... so I kind-of roll to the side and stand up once my feet are on the ground.   I can't stand up straight yet... this is as good as it gets for now :) I feel like I'm doing pretty good though. I've been reading and trying really hard to rest. But today I got a little stir crazy and walked upstairs and cleaned Roxy's room. She's been sick so I washed her bedding and clean...