Little Miners

For DAYS these kids have been sporting headlights at every opportunity.  Even at meal times, the lights are glowing! 

 

I Adore these cute boys!

 

 

One day, while Nathan was home with stomach flu, his drink was getting low, with a little grin on his face, he looked at me and asked for "Mas siete arriba, por favor."  Yep, I think the Spanish is sinking in! Yesterday, when asked what one of the good parts of his day was, Nathan answered, "Spanish Class!  Because I could understand EVERYTHING!"

Ashton has THRILLED in the magic of Christmas this year.  We've been for neighborhood walks and drives to see the lights.  Ashton shouts and claps and his whole body trembles with excitement when we go to 'see Christmas!'  Ashton has also visited Santa at the mall a couple of times, though he had to warm up to it the idea for a couple of weeks.  Now he knows exactly who Santa is, and willingly, albeit shyly, sits on Santa's lap.  He's not too concerned about telling Santa anything, but enjoys getting a treat or coloring book, or even a little reindeer for going to visit.

NQ's Award

This Year's Reflections theme was "The Magic of a Moment."

Nathan turned in a Sun catcher he called, 'The Colors of the Rainbow.' He made the sun catcher from plastic beads spread into a pie plate and melted in the oven. He did the design himself, 100%!  Once he decided he was done, I put it in the ready oven and Viola!  A project was created!

He turned it in on November 1st, and a few weeks later he received notice that he was the winner of the 3D category!  He was thrilled.  He won $10 cash, a kid's meal from Carl's Jr., a free pass to the swim pool, and a free event at Lazar Mania.  The project went on to the next level, but didn't place there. 

At any event, Nathan was thrilled with his win!  Now he's thinking he'll do more than one category next year.  YAY Nathan!!

November!

Lot's of things happening in November:

NQ's 6th Birthday!
We had lots of fun friends, ate a picnic outside, played games, and when it got dark, we retreated indoors for present opening!

Shane is still home on Worker's Compensation with back pain.  He's had two injections and will see a Surgeon this week (December 20th) to see what the next step is.  This is a picture of a day when Shane was in considerable pain, and unable to leave the bed for lunch.  So he and Ashton had a picnic on the bed!

Thanksgiving, Grandpa Barney came back to St. George and we had the Holiday with the Shepherd Family!  And then the next day after viewing the Temple Lighting Ceremony, the clan came over with the Cannings for a pizza dinner! The boys all went for a bird hunt, and made some mighty and plentiful kills!

Cami's Birthday - she enjoyed a sweet dinner with her little family and then a mini mama vacation for some spa treatments, a nice dinner and some Christmas Shopping with Holly! Grandpa helped and funded the purchase of Birthday Trees!  A Chipulta, a Crepe Myrtle, a Cherry, a Plum, a Granny Smith and two new Peach trees now reside in my 'orchard!!'  Can't wait until spring and blossoms and posting beatific pictures of them!


Grandpa's Birthday - Upon Grandpa's return to St. George, we had some gifts for Grandpa Barney, and we also checked off a whole bunch of To-Dos for Grandpa - Doctor appointment, a new windshield, new frames for his glasses, Christmas shopping and more!

Pink fruits!

Our watermelons grew!  Only 4 of them, but they looked great! We also have pomegranates, red and picked from our tree.

Finally we picked one of each and opened them up. They were pink!!  The insides are full and ripe and ready, but they are pale pink!  Does anyone know a reason for this??

Thank you Pinterest: the Kid Table

I found on the St. George Yard Sale site an old kidlet table for $5.  It was dirty, grungy, sun faded, but otherwise sturdy...

I should have, but did not, get a before picture - but it was something like this, only green, red and tan - faded and scratched:

After some washing, and spray painting, about a yard and half of fabric and vinyl from Wal-Mart and a staple gun it looked like this!!

CUTENESS!  Thanks Pinterest and thanks to Shane for pushing all the staple ends down and helping me screw it all back together!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! 

The Petty crew had a fun few days gearing up for the Holiday.  We painted pumpkins, decorated up the house, had a school party and parade and a neighborhood dinner party and a good old fashioned time trick or treating door to door.


With Shane's back out (we are currently awaiting workers comp to approve surgery) I did the busy travel work while Shane encouraged, tasted and supervised.

At Nathans School there was a parade - I think there must be 1,000 students!! (I'm honestly going to check on the number) It went on and on and on.  There were kids all the way around the track, and still some waiting to go, and some even finished lining up on the grass watching before they got through them all!!



cupcakes for the carry in party

The neighborhood puts on a party every year in one of the cul-de-sacs.  One family furnished the meat (pulled pork) and the rest of us bring something to share.  It was fun, many of parents get into Halloween, and it's a fun time to showcase the costumes!




Little Pirate and Darth Vader



Gypsy Mom and Small Sith

Ashton has been watching some Halloween Dora and was very excited to go "Treating!!"  He RAN from door to door and with MUCH exuberance shouted "TRICK OR TREAT!"  long before the door ever opened.  After we got half way around the block, he was getting pooped out, and dragged on home. I was quite sure Ashton would insist on wearing his super hero cape, but consented to be a pirate with a sword. (The sword was later replaced by a glow stick which he admired greatly much of the evening.)



The little man of plunder

Nathan, being 'much older' was enjoying the decorations, and other costumes, music and spooks.  He very concernedly looked over each candy bowl, and picked out only his favorites. We went to a few more houses after taking Ashton home. 

The force is with him, Always.

A Sweet Post!

My kitchen has been in use lately doing some fun projects! So I shall put all of the sweetness in one spot so as to cause you, the viewer a super sugar overdose! 


In September My Cousin had his mission farewell, so I make these little 'message cupcakes' to take to the super tasty fiesta that commenced after the sacrament meeting.

 Wyatt is the boy on the left, he had quite the gathering! Ashton enjoyed his cupcake with obvious zeal!  (Notice his tiny light saber and mini flash action figure - I love this age!)

Then, thanks to face book and my "Cake by Cami Jo" page, a cute gal contacted me to make this Scarface Cake for her boyfriends birthday.  Lyda's first language was not English, I have some of the cutest emails and text messages (over 50!) from her explaining how she wanted the cake design to look.  She was pleased with the result!

Our neighborhood does a "Phantom Ghost" treat swap.  The lucky families of our phantom ghost got these adorable cupcakes left at their doorstep!

And I signed up for a funeral assignment.  I've always wanted to make one of these cakes, so when better to try it out?  I hope that I put the fun in funeral :) At least I hope the people enjoyed the inside of the cake, which was lemon with a whipped raspberry cream filling - YUM!