Up High

Afton. The one that everyone wants when the family gets together.  She's cute as can be and plays hard to get.  Every cousin, aunt and uncle tries to win her over and get her to play with them.  We use any tactic:  food, toys, drinks, iphones, jewelry, etc.  Sometimes we are successful but usually it's not long before she's looking for her mom again.  David has always gone with a little trick he started with our little baby Trey called "up high?"  He will ask the nearest toddler if they want to go "up high" and then throw them in the air and catch them.  It usually wins them over and they come back for more.  So, this game was a hit with Afton and worked like a charm to win her over.  So well in fact that she calls David "up high".  He never was uncle David to her, just "up high".  She will see him in a picture and say "there's up high" with her cute little voice.  Or ask when he's not around "where's up high?"  We hope that name sticks.

18

Happy birthday to Trey!   He had a fantastic 18th birthday!  David and I carried on our high school tradition of checking him out for an Aubrey's lunch.  Then that evening he chose Bonefish grill to celebrate.  We surprised him with orange Hyperdunk basketball shoes that he really wanted but didn't think he was getting.  The best part of the night was the tickle fight that broke out right before cookie cake time.

As for me, I don't like being the mom of an 18 year old.  I know I've been whining a lot lately about it, but I can't help it.  I like life the way it is.  Right now.  I don't want my 10 year olds to be teenagers and I don't want Trey to grow up and leave our home.  Ok, enough whining.

I'm so proud of the truly remarkable (young) man Trey has become  (always has been).  He is an example to me everyday of how to live a Christlike life.  I love you Trey!!!

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed our traditional go to both sides of the family for Thanksgiving again this year.  When David and I first got married we couldn't bear to not go to our parents house on Thanksgiving day, so we've always shared the holiday with everyone.  Since we've been married David has always gone to the Turkey Bowl.  He started out playing with the men, then when Trey came of age he played with the Young Men, then Allie started going and he would spend some of his time coaching the powder puff game, and then this year Connor, Tanner and Sydney went and he helped coach a fun flag football game with them.  For years I have made my assigned side dishes and then headed off the the gym to meet Julie and Lori for our "pre-feast" work out.

So, this is how we celebrate Thanksgiving, and we like it.  I have to admit I have never made a turkey in my life and probably never will.

A tradition that we always enjoy at grammy and grandpa's house is the basketball shoot off.  This year there was a 3-way tie with the kids and Grammy convinced Grandpa to fork over the cash instead of having them shoot again...score!








This year we went with Sexton's to Mimi's Cafe for lunch/brunch and back to their house for pie, that Allie made with Grandmother.  So most of us ordered breakfast and then has the traditional dinner and Grammy and Grandpa's.

Integrity and Service

Senior Superlatives came out this week and Trey won two of them!!  No it wasn't for best hair or biggest flirt, he was voted "MOST INTEGRITY" and "Class Dad".  They called him in the office and told him he had to choose one because he couldn't win them both.  He went with integrity.  How cool is that?!?!  I'm one proud mom!    Being voted and known by your entire senior class as the person with the most integrity is incredible to me.  I asked him why he thought he was voted "class dad" and he said it was probably because he's always telling people to quit cussing.

So Allie is up for a service award at school.  She has been filling out an application this past week where  you have to record in detail all your service since May.  Man, this girl has been busy!  She's has accounted for about 150+ hours.  Way to go Allie!!  Anyone needing any volunteer work done, just call Allie.

kids are amazing-ly funny

Tanner continues to be such a sweetheart in our family, always the first to tell everyone he loves them and always very concerned about others feelings.  A few weeks ago we had some landscaping redone in our front yard.  Tanner apparently thought that the workers were doing a good job and needed to know about it.  The day after I found this note on our front porch along with 2 water bottles.  It reads "you are doing great!  Keep it up!  Awesome!  From Tanner:  (Lisa's son)."  I wasn't sure if the landscapers drank some of the water or Tanner had put out some 1/2 empty water bottles...

Connor's teacher (the most amazing 4th grade teacher ever) puts out the class announcements in the form of a class newspaper called the Shaver Scoop.  Connor loved this and decided to publish the Sexton Scrub.  He has published and circulated 5 issues to date.  His teacher told me at my parent conference that she is a recipient of the Scrub.  Look out Barber Pole!

Last Sunday Sydney came into our bedroom and asked with an innocent face, "where is Kroger's?"  To which I said "what do you mean?, it's in Farragut."  She then said "I mean what's the address?"  I was in the middle of having a few moments to finally talk to David for the first time that day so I quickly dismissed her with a "I don't know honey I'll have to look it up later."  She shut the door giggling hysterically.  Hmmm, oh well.  Little did I know what she was up to.  Later that night when Allie went to bed she came down laughing with this in her hand:

David said:  "I guess that's what Sydney meant earlier when she said she wanted to do a prank."

Happy Halloween!

Connor is not Harry Potter, he is Connor, a wizard friend of Ron's.

Tanner is not Ashe, the well known Pokemon trainer, he's just a regular pokemon trainer.

Sydney is exactly what she looks like, a cute little blue m & m.

Oaks Farm

It had been about 5 years since we had been to a corn maze/pumpkin patch so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall day and go.  We were impressed with the high quality destination of Oaks Farm in Corryington, Tennessee.



We started off with the hayride pumpkin patch where Tanner and Connor took about 30 seconds to pick out their perfect pumpkins.  Sydney surprised us by choosing one in just a few minutes and only changing her mind once.  Tanner said he knew right away which one was his pumpkin because it was warm and had a small stem, like him.  I thought it was interesting that they picked small, medium and large pumpkins.

We then ventured into a huge corn maze, which at an aerial view is cut to spell out "corn maze".  We each took turns finding the next number station to punch on our cards and loved climbing up the bridge which gave you a beautiful view just above the tops of the corn stalks.  

The kids said one of their favorite things to do was run around and chase each other on the hay bales.

NYC!

We had a fantastic, full, whirlwind fall break with Trey and Allie in the Big Apple.  We walked and walked and ate and ate...not sure if it balanced out or not.  Some fun things we did:  NBC studio tour, Madame Tussauds wax museum, Museum of Natural History, Circle Line ferry tour down the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty, Top of the Rock, Top of Empire State Building, King Tut Exhibit, walk through Central Park, Times Square, Mary Poppins Broadway show, 39 Steps off broadway show, National Comedy Theatre show, Ground Zero, FAO Swartz.  And just as important, here is where we ate:  Crumbs, Juniors, Eatery, Lombardi's, 5 Napkin Burgers, Shake Shack....Mmmmm

Conference weekend = cinnamon rolls

I love conference weekend.  Watching conference together as a family is an uplifting spiritual experience, and it's good cuddle time too!  Something I look forward to is when David and Trey go to the Priesthood session together and Allie and I make cinnamon rolls together.  It's been a fun tradition for us.  We usually watch something like The Biggest Loser or Chopped while we wait for the dough to rise and then by time the boys come home the house smells like cinnamonny deliciousness.

This year was a little different.  We were chatting away while we added ingredients and when it came time to combine the two it was obvious there was a problem.  Hmmm, what's wrong with the dough, it's all liquidy and not pulling away from the bowl?  Ahhh!  With much discussion we realize that we made the following mistakes:

1 cup of brown sugar was added that was meant for the cinnamon filling
1/2 c. of butter was added instead of 1/4 c.

Instead of dumping it out we go ahead and make them for a comparison to the real thing.   We then made another batch, this time double checking our measurements and not chatting as much.  The messed up version did not rise at all but we went ahead and baked them with our good batch.  This morning Tanner and Sydney tried one of each and said the messed up one "wasn't too bad".

                    Allie, wearing the 100% party girl apron, hand sifting the flour with a cheese grater

Can you tell the good from the bad?