Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

stubborn..uh, I mean strong-willed...

You can ask any of my in-laws and they will tell you that the Hammond kids (all 8 of them) are very strong-willed individuals.
Heston is truly a Hammond in this respect. He has started talking a lot more in the last few months. However, he has refused to say his own name. We have tried to get him to say Heston, but then the strong-willed Hammond gene kicks in and he gives us this look like, ‘You ain’t gettin’ nothin’!’
Today, at 2 years and 3 months old, he finally broke down and said his name for the first time.

Today, I have hope for my stubborn, uh I mean, strong-willed Hammond child.

a fun Thanksgiving craft

Thanksgiving is right around the corner! I'm so ready for my favorite Thanksgiving dish, Frog Eye Salad. (It always tastes better when my Mom makes it :)

I wanted to share a fun craft that I’m working on for the big day. I got this idea from the November issue of Parents magazine.

Instructions:
-Cut a 1-inch sliver off the bottom of a 9-inch polystyrene ball. (I found an 8 inch one in the craft section at Walmart for around $8.)

-Wrap sphere neatly in thick dark-brown yarn, covering surface completely; knot on bottom.
-Make a 4-inch ball from light-brown yarn and attach to body with a wooden craft stick.
-Create simple facial features using felt: white circles (approximately the size of a quarter, with 1/8-inch pom-poms for pupils) for eyes, yellow triangles for the beak, and long red felt teardrops as the wattle. (I'm just using googly eyes and scraps that I have on hand)
-Cut feather shapes from colored craft paper (or old scrapbook paper you’re not using anymore)and bend in half lengthwise to create seam.
-Have the kids write or draw things that they are thankful for
-Glue wooden craft stick to the bottom third of the feather and insert in a fan shape on turkey body.

stepping out of my comfort zone

This last weekend, we attended our ward campout at the Peralta Trails just outside of Apache Junction. One of our bishopric members does team building stuff for a living. We camped at this place where he does his trainings.

When we woke up refreshed and ready to go on Saturday (can you sense the sarcasm? I don't enjoy sleeping in a tent but I was a good sport) we did a couple of the high rope activities. One of them involved a set of partners where each person walks into the middle of this rope and then they help each other to get to the other side, while being suspended 15 feet in the air. Aaron and I made it through that challenge. (The whole time I kept saying to the church folk, 'I'm trying really hard not to vocalize any profanities right now'...if they only knew how hard that is for me when I'm freaked out)

The other challenge involved us climbing to the top of a 25 foot pole and standing on top. Braden was fearless!

These are the Superstition Mountains. Living here, I have a greater appreciation for how beautiful the desert is.

I love this cactus. It was so tall and the way it leaned to one side like that...I've never seen that before. A tall cactus with bad posture...it's built like me :)

Veterans Day

This is the day each year that we have to reflect on the millions of Americans who have served our country. Usually on Veterans Day, the kids write papers about what this day means to them and they send drawings and essays to my Grandpa. This will be our 1st Veterans Day without him. I'm missing him, especially today.
I have so many favorite pictures however these two are very special to me.

is it Thursday already?

This week has flown by! I finished up my "Week in the Life" project on Tuesday. I got 4 out of the 7 days done but Blogger is not letting me post them, I'll try again later. The whole week I was doing this project, one of my favorite quotes kept coming to mind:



"Enjoy the little things in life...for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things."



As I was taking pictures and writing things down, it reminded me that life really is a series of "little things". I needed to be reminded of that. It was so fun to take pictures of everyday things that I do that I don't even stop to think about. It takes a little time but it was worth the experience.

This morning I did a digi layout from a picture I took this weekend. I love digital scrapbooking! I still love my paper but being able to just sit down for 20 minutes, knock out a page and not have to clean up...it's a good thing!

Halloween recap

My parents came down this weekend, we had so much fun! They got here Friday night so they were able to go trick-or-treating with us. Braden is dressed up as his idol Obi Wan Kenobi (Grandma Martha made the cape but I worked some magic with some fake leather and clearance fabric from Walmart) Paige is Snow White of course (remember I said I was going to make this costume? I ran out of time! And it was cheaper to buy it. I wussed out.) Heston is a cute little M&M. I was going to be the yellow peanut M&M but I think I'll save that for next year. (there's red-eye in these pictures, I hate that and I apologize...I'll fix it later)

On Saturday, we went to B&P's soccer games. I'm glad they play their games in the morning because it got up to 93 on Saturday. I didn't make P's Halloween costume but I did do my soccer mom duties and made B's team banner.

Tomorrow is the last day of my Week in the Life project. I need to go through all my pictures and notes and get the book put together.

Have a good Monday!