Smile

Last night we were looking on the internet at different smiley faces on houses, cars, trees etc.  There were just a bunch of them that were pretty cute.  Well today I hear tell mom to get the camera and look at our smiley face on our car.  The smile is actually snow (1st snow storm of the season).  I have been paying attention a little more and there are actual smiley faces on a lot of things.  It has been fun finding more ways to smile!

 

Fly like an Eagle

My Dustin boy finished up his stuff for his eagle in June but we have been waiting for Jordan to finish his up and in the mean time Ben finished too.  So November 16th we finally had their Eagle Court of Honor.  Rhett, Ben, and Dustin posting colors.

 

 Jordan, Ben, and Dustin

 Dustin getting his award from his dad.  (Uncle Scott is Scoutmaster)

 Trying to get the Mother's pin out and on me.

 These are some good boys!

 Each of the boys had a table with stuff that interested them.  This is what Dustin had picked out for it.

 These boys love each other!  I keep telling them that :)  Not too much longer and it will be Rhett's turn.

It was a bad night to have it because Mogollon was going to State Champion Football game that night and Snowflake had a playoff game there that Grandpa had to do the chains at so he couldn't make it.  We were glad Grandma Flake, Austin and Cayden could come.

 The family!

 So proud of this boy for all his hard work.  One of the people Dustin really wanted there was Sis. Doran Despain.  She was a huge key in Dustin getting his eagle at such a young age.  Dustin loves that lady and had lots of good times with her.  He son was playing at the State game that night.  Dustin wanted her to talk but since she couldn't make it she wrote some things down that I read.  He gave her his mentor pin.

 The scouts that were there.

 Grandma and Grandpa McLaws were able to come.

 Afterwards we had soup, rolls, and cake.  It was nice to sit around and visit and eat.

Yeah it's over!!  One more scout to go!  Great job Dustin!

Random

We were all at Walmart after Halloween and they had these dog Halloween costumes on clearance for $1.  We decided it would be fun to get a couple of them and torture Sammy.  Here he is in the bat one Tylinn put on him.  The other one was too big but it was a witch hat with purple hair attached to it.  It was pretty funny - but Sammy didn't think so.

 

 These 2 girls - don't know what I would ever do with out them and what they would ever do without each other!

 Oh and this 3rd girl!

Halloween

We had a good Halloween.  It wasn't the most eventful one we have had though.  Kids carving pumpkins.  Bridget had practice and didn't have time to carve hers so Bruce did it.

 

 Tylinn and Kaylee opened the Halloween box and both grabbed something out of it for Halloween so $$ spent on Halloween costumes this year was $0! Very nice!  Tylinn was a kitty.

 And Kaylee was a cute little witch.

The kids had their Halloween Dance for mutual Wednesday night.  Bridget was a thing and Rhett just put western clothes on.  Dustin decided to be a cereal killer (see pic below).

Dustin cut a magnet out of poster board and glued paper chicks to it so at school he was a chick magnet.  We went to the Trunk or treat at the park on Saturday and trick or treating on Halloween night so it was pretty eventful! :)

Wood Box

Saturday a miracle happened at our house.  Dustin and Rhett helped Bruce with the house a good part of the day.  We cleaned up a big pile of wood scraps and garbage that was in front of the house.  There were lots of board scraps that we wanted to save to use for firewood.  I put the boys in charge of using some of the scraps to build a little wood box for it and cut the pieces of wood the right length so they would fit in our stove. 

 

 The next part is the miracle.  These boys worked and played all day long right next to each other and didn't have 1 fight at all.  They learned it was good to just work hard and help out and most important to just get along.  It was a happy day in this mama's life!

Happy 15th

The day after our wreck was Bridget's 15th birthday.  We were pretty much in survival mode this day.  We were all bummed and tired and sore.  I had good intentions of doing something fun for her for her birthday but it didn't happen.

We did have lunch at Casa Romos and watched a movie that night for FHE.

 

 Bridget wanted Éclair dessert for her cake.

 These sisters sure love each other.

Bridget is such a great girl and such a great example to me.  She is a joy in our family and is such a peacemaker.  I can't believe this girl is 15 and will be driving in 6 months!

WRECK!

Last weekend we went to Phoenix to Towanda's house for Shaylene's wedding and Mitchell's missionary homecoming.  I was not one bit excited about going and kind of tried talking Bruce into staying home.  We decided it was family stuff and we needed to go.  We hadn't seen Kyi and his family for a long time so we needed to go down and visit.  Saturday we went to Shaylene's wedding.  That evening we went to a little reception. After the reception we heard the awful news of the passing of the kids librarian, Mrs. Porter.  She was involved in a fatal 4-wheeler accident in Mexico and died instantly.  Us and Scott and kids were staying at Towanda's house.  We woke up Sunday and got ready for church.  We left Towanda's house at 8:25 so we could get to Kyi's church on time.  Towanda took her granddaughter Kayla, Kaylee, Tylinn and Megan in her suburban.  We had Bridget, Kim and Kay in with us in the van.  All in the middle seat and Scott and Rhett in the passenger seat and Dustin and Jordan in the back in his little black work car.

We were driving down the road and I thought that Sunday mornings were sure nice to drive down there because there wasn't any traffic hardly at all. 

A fire truck was coming down the road with it's lights on.  It wasn't going very fast.  We were in the fast lane and all the sudden Towanda slammed on her breaks to stop for the fire truck - Bruce slammed on ours and stopped just in time.  I was thankful we didn't hit her because it was pretty close. Next thing we know here comes Scott slammed into the back of us and we hit Towanda in front of us.

Kids were crying - airbags were everywhere.  I knew everybody in our van was OK.  Bruce and I got out and I was SOO thankful to see the boys walk out of Scotts car.  I knew the girls were OK in Towanda's suburban.  Well it was a very long emotional morning trying to get things cleaned up in the road and get kids taken care of.  Bruce and Scott went with the cars to Kyi's house. The rest of us went to Towanda's house to try to settle down.  We were very blessed there were only a few cuts and bruises and bumps and minor whiplash. 

Well our van is totaled.  We haven't heard from the insurance company yet on it for an amount.  It totaled Scotts car too.

Scott got the cars hauled home and are at his shop.  Yesterday (Sunday 1 week after) we went to the shop to take some pictures since we didn't really get any the day of.

Accidents are the pits because from what we have heard you never come out equal for what you had.  We loved loved loved our van.  It was just the perfect car for us and just what we wanted.  We took great care of it and tried not to put miles on it.  It was a 2009 Honda Odyssey.  It had 38,000 miles on it and we loved it. After the accident there weren't tons of rental car places open because of it being Sunday.  They didn't have a van for us to rent to we got a car.  Grandma and Grandpa McLaws took the boys home and the girls went with Bruce and I.  Last Friday I traded the car for a van.  It is nice to have a car big enough for our family.  I remember when we first bought our van I was talking to Tiff M. and told her we loved it and were driving it till it died.  I told her "watch this is probably the vehicle we will end up totaling".  I was joking and she didn't like my comment too much.  Well I was joking but it happened. 

 Kaylee has been SOOO sad about all of this.

We all shed some tears at the loss of our van.  I have thought ever since then why was it so upsetting about our van getting ruined because we were very blessed and no body was hurt. 

I  have come to the conclusion that our van is what took our family places.  We laughed in it, we cried in it and we fought in it.  It took us on family vacations and trips - it was part of our family.

It will be missed.  We may buy it back from the insurance co and have Premier Autobody fix it but that is a huge project and don't know if we will come out ahead in the end.