October Halloween

John looking super cute in his new suit.  He got to do a month long rotation with Homicide during October. He thought it was super cool and He loved dressing like a stud every morning. (I loved seeing him like that too)  He is back to working patrol and he is happy that 45min-1hr commut down town and the 5:00am mornings  are now a thing of the past. 

Here I am looking a little smug.  matching the wall behind me. 

Here is a short audio of knoxx talking. he had been talking like this for about 5 min when I decided to start recording. the original video was 5 minutes long. 

Halloween Turtle style.  the was right before we went to the ward trunch-or-treat.  I made all the costumes that day!  John was really happy that I had costumes for us all. He LOVES to dress up for Halloween. It was just felt on a green T-shirt but john said that they were made with love and that made them cool. 

and here we are Halloween night. I had to fight Knoxx into his costume. and then i had to try and fight rocklond into his. Was begging them both to go trick-or-treating with me.  If they would put daylight savings time back to when it was then this wouldn't have been such a problem. 

rocklond had been sick on and off all Halloween week and had stayed home Tuesday and Thursday, but I had told him he had to go to school on Friday if he wanted to go tick-or-treating. Well that backfired because he was  exhausted after school and decided to stay home with dad and sleep. :( 

Speaking of sleep. They are tied to the sun for sure. Up at 5:30 am and asleep by 6 or 7.  No matter if mom stayed up till midnight or I need to go shopping at 6pm. 

They are super cute and I love them so much. 

Knoxx and I were reading scriptures to Rocky. I read a phrase and then Knoxx just copies what I say.We  read 3rd Nephi 27:29  Therefor, ask and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened.     Knoxx stopped and looked at me and said with the cutest two year old voice in the world. "Jesus said my name."

   I said "what?"  and looked at the verse again. 

Knoxx repeated "Jesus said Knoxx."  

School IS Back

School IS Back

Ok I know that is it now October and we are actually headed into our 7^th week of school.  But For me in the grand scheme of things school is just starting.  Rocky started off Kindergarten Just how every mom dreams they will.  He did amazing since the first day. He has made friends adapted well to the LONG hours.  He seems to be learning a lot of stuff, and is always coming home singing some new song or telling a new story.  

About two weeks into the school year I started teaching Preschool at my home for the 4^th year in a row.  With Rocklond in Kindergarten Knoxx is officially in my class this year. 

He has been having a rough adjustment, and doesn’t like sharing his mommy time. The first few weeks he had to get sent to the principal’s office (John) a few times.  Now Knoxx is doing much better and learning to share his mommy’s attention. 

Rocklond went through a faze when Preschool started up where he was asking If he could stay home for preschool.  He said he wanted me to be his teacher. This really meant a lot to me that he enjoyed having me as his teachers for the last 3 years. 

I knew however that it was time for him to go to Public school.   One morning he was being particularly difficult. He said “I want to be homeschooled! Why did you sign me up for school at all?”   I felt bad for him because I knew it was really his tired talking (we had gotten up at 4:50 am to take my mom, and dad to the airport)   I said “Oh, I am sorry you miss me do you want me to come and eat lunch with you today.”   His scrunched up his face and thought for a second and he then carefully said.  “Actually I want to eat with my friends today.”   Then I gave him a hard time about how if he wanted to be home schooled then he wouldn’t have his friends to eat lunch with every day.  He laughed, and I haven’t heard him mention home school again.

 

As mentioned above my mom and dad came down for a visit. I have lived here in Houston now for almost 5 ½ years but this was the first time they have both been here. (My mom came here a few years ago to help watch Rocklond, but we didn't do any sightseeing.) We were the last stop on their cross country trip to see all the grand kids. I think they were ready to just relax, and go back home.  I had other plans since it was a particularly stressful weekend for me.  They were good sports, and helped out when they could.  The best part was taking my mom, and dad to NASA. I have a friend who works there, and she took us on a special tour.  I have been there a few times, but I knew that it was super special to be there with my dad who has loved anything NASA since he was a small boy.   I have don't have any pictures from their visit my dad took a bunch but my phone was on the fritz and so I didn't take any that whole weekend. 

In other news I got my Texas Teaching License. It was so nice to have it physically in my hands.  I can teach K-8^th grade.  My Utah one expired about a year ago. I was worried that I would never get everything on my list done so I could get my Texas license. Of course now that I have it I feel like it is burning in my hands for me to use it.   

John has been busy. He works a lot, and then works out at the Gym a lot.  He recently ran a 5K called the 911 Heroes run. He ran the whole 3 miles in his full uniform.

And here is my little swimmer. I realized in my summer post I hadn't taken any pictures at the pool. 

BEST Summer EVER

This summer has been so much fun. I kind of feel like this will live on as one of the best summers of my life.   I am also the tannest I have ever been in my life. (the picture above shows my tan face and some yummy Ukrainian candy sent to me for my birthday from Viktoriia.)  

On Monday Rocklond Starts Kindergarten. This will usher in a new era of life as we know it.   

Some highlights of this summer have been.

Boys went to Utah

Rocklond and Knoxx Went to Utah to stay with their Grandma and Grandpa Pickett.  They were gone for 11 days.  John and I reverted to our college days staying out late and working a lot.  I think john has 2 days off the whole time they were gone.  I worked hard on my newest endeavor which is becoming an Author.  While the boys were gone I worked on my book 5+ hours a day and FINALLY after working slowly on it for the past 3-4 years I finished my rough draft of my Book.   It is called Hermit, and is based on a game that my siblings and I invented one rainy day while I was in college.  Now this is all great, but if you have been reading my blog at all you probably notice that if this book is anything like my blog it is going to require a lot of editing before it is ready to be published.  I hope to have it almost perfect before my sister Hillary gets home from her mission. She has been the biggest cheerleader keeping me writing this whole time.  

Family Reunion and wedding in Utah.

The plan was for just me to go and pick up Rocky and Knoxx in Utah, but then I found out that there was a family reunion and wedding the same weekend and so I convinced John to come with me.  We so much fun seeing all of John’s Extended family.  Some of his cousins he hasn’t seen since we moved to Texas 5 years ago.  

 We hiked to Timpanogos cave which I remember vividly hiking with my Aunts and Uncles when I was 4.  Rocklond and Knoxx have never been on a hike and it was a little rough on their Sea level developed lungs. Thankfully we had a good supply of aunts and uncles to help carry them the rest of the way.  

We had a huge get together at John’s Aunt Kayla’s house. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. It was so much fun we played a lot of great games and even had a cake decorating party.

Then we also go to go to a Temple Wedding at the Provo Temple.  I feel like this temple gets a bad rep about not being very Beautiful. I was amazed by how absolutely breathtaking it was! The gardens were so full of colorful flowers and the Mountains behind it were so Huge.  

Inside the temple was one of the most beautiful I have seen! It was also really big inside. And everyone fit comfortably in the sealing room. It was a beautiful wedding. We had fun taking pictures before and after.    Some of us more than others.  

We got to stay with my parents while we were in Salt Lake. 

Sunday morning we went to hear billy in Music And the Spoken word. 

We went to church with them on Sunday and I got to see them teach Sharing time in their Spanish Branch.

All to soon we had to head back to Houston. Rocklond and KNoxx were really good while we flew home. It was one of the smoothest flights I have ever had.

Texas Educators Exam.

I took my 1^st and 2^nd teXas test a few months ago to start the process of getting my Texas teaching license. I have my Utah license, but since I don’t live there it doesn't do me a lot of good.  Well after getting home from Utah I took my final test.  I am happy to report I passed all 3!!!  I am so glad that I didn't have to retake any of the tests. It was really motivating to refresh my memory on all the teaching theory that I learned back in college.  My Texas license will be good for 5 years and so I am planning to get a full time teaching job sometime in that time frame.

SOS

I did Summer Of Seals Last year and placed 1^st with my team and 3^rd in my age group.  This year my goal was to place in my age group again.  John and I both signed up and we worked really hard all summer on the training. John only missed 3 days for his workouts all summer! I didn’t do that well but I usually only missed one day a week.  (There are 12 weeks and you can earn 6 workouts per week)

I set some goals for the competition and today was the big day.  John and I have the same swim time and so we got into the pool at the same time. We both did extremely well on the swim. John was swimming a 17min swim at the beginning of the summer and today he did a 11:03. My swim was 11:30  this was for swimming 500 meters.  Since we started at about the same time we stayed together through the whole competition.  I must say it was really motivational. We have trained all summer together taking turns watching the kids, It meant a lot to compete side by side.

Here are our stats (these are just from memory)

Lindsey 500 meter swim 11:30min

                Push ups   25

                Sit ups        53

                Pull ups      1

                Run 11:30*   50second penalty

John 500 meter swim 11:03min

                Push ups   66

                Sit ups        53

                Pull ups      8

                Run 11:30*   50second penalty

John also pulled a big shocker by having a 21lb weight loss.  My weight stayed exactly the same.

We are both really proud of how we did. We improved so much this summer. Last summer my run and my swim were both 14 min long and so I was proud to get to shave off a good 3 minutes from each.  However the competition was a lot harder this year and they changed a few of the scoring rules. So I didn't place in my age division. I got 25^th place over all. 

  My team was totally different than last year, We were Very happy to find that we had made 5^th place.  We were really proud of all the hard work we had put in over the summer.  John’s team had fallen apart so he ended up being the only one there from his team. He did get 11^th place over all.   What we cared about though was that we both did really well and beat some personal records.

Kids:

And here are some cuties from our kids.

Knoxx getting into some butter

 and Knoxx playing with his “Batman & Superman”

I find hundreds of these pictures on my phone every day. 

Soon I will be posting some back to school pics. 

Sisters comes to visit

Here is Emily My Younger sister. Her and her family came to visit this last week.  She has 3 boys about the same age as my boys.    Her and her husband flew in from Colorado last Saturday and stayed the whole week.  We also got a surprise visit from Johns' Brother Kaylon and his friend Marie. I was a little worried where everyone would sleep but it all worked out just great and Kaylon and Marie were really good about playing with all the kids. Since Kaylon was in town Ammon and his family drove up from Clear Lake and Joined us for Family dinner.  So we had 9 kids from ages 10-0  Kaylon was in town for work, so early Monday morning we took him to get his rental car. We then we didn't see him until later in the week.  

Emily and I drove up to a place that I have wanted to go to called Washington on the Brazos. we got there and had lunch, but it was pouring rain so we weren't able to go and see anything. So we went to the bluebell Iceream factory that was 20 min down the road and had a good time eating ice cream there.  up until 2 months ago I had never been there and now I have been 3 times.   Emily and her family drove up to Ft hood to stay with Valerie. I went back down to Houston.  

Then on Wednesday I met up with Valerie and EMily (and their kids) at Washington on the Brazos. this time the sun was shinning and it was a beautiful hot summer day.  we had lunch at the picnic area and then headed over to the living historic farm.  This place was really simple and it was perfect for all the kids. 

the old farm house is adorable and felt so nice after walking in the sun. 

the kids loved sitting up on the old porch. 

here is em in front of the kitchen 

and me. 

the kids got to help wash laundry. 

I need to set this up in my back yard. the kids washed all the little rags that they had and could have kept going. 

then they had wooden blocks on the porch as well as other games,  With all of my sisters kids and mine we had 9 kids ages 5-0  three girls and 6 boys. 

Here are me and my sisters. Just missing Hillary who is on her mission in Kentucky and my brother billy who was just here last week. 

We came home and all the kids crashed. 

The next day we went blackberry picking.   

the blackberrys were super ripe and juicy. 

after being in the hot sun we were happy to come home and then we had a cousin party. 

 

We all live spread out and so the cousins miss going to each others birthday parties so we came up with a cousin party Idea. Emily was in charge of all the games. the played balancing an egg on a spoon. and duck duck goose. 

then David surprised them all with balloons. 

Next was cake.

We let each child blow out a candle. 

then we all ate cake and Pizza. 

As if we hadn't done enough we all went to the splash pad. the kids loved this and so did the moms. I think Valerie and Emily took a bunch of pictures.  I take my kids there all the time so I only took this one of Knoxx who kept losing his shorts.  When we got home I took the bigger boys swimming at our pool.    

then that night my sisters and I and our husbands (minus Brandon who is in Korea) all went to dinner without the kids!   I felt really bad for the baby sitters.  We have a hard time juggling all the kids and we are there moms. We weren't gone very long though. 

On Friday  after a bad nights sleep by almost everyone.  We took the kids to Monkey Bizness.  the kids hated it at first. Luckily I had made a few sandwiches and we all sat them down and had lunch. then they all went back out and played for the next hour and a half with very little issues.   When we got home it was time for Valerie to pack up and head back to her house.  It was funny to feel how much calmer the house was once we were back to having just the 5 boys.  We went swimming for a while and then came home and just played until bedtime.   This morning Emily and Her family all left to Finnish their vacation in Florida.  They will stop by here before they fly home to Colorado.