Saturday, November 30, 2013

November Videos

Here are some video moments of November. Love my family.

Mason had a scripture to recite in the Primary program at church, it was John 3:16. I had to include the classic Mason Moment at the beginning.



And here is a typical Hochstein Dinner.


The boys are racing to our bed. I just couldn't stop watching Donovan. He cracks me up. It's kind of long, but I couldn't find a place to stop without cutting out a great Donovan moment.

Justin is the only one who gets Weston to giggle. 


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Leaves!!

We had a gorgeous red maple in our back yard, and all the leaves fell, and we left them for a long time because it was so nice to have another color than brown and yellow in our outdoor life. But the time came to pull out the rakes, and that is always a memory to capture.
Here it is.








And a video, for those die-hard fans.


Saturday, November 9, 2013

Mason's Preschool

I do a co-op preschool with some ladies in the area. We began with five kids, but two decided not to continue, so now we have three. And it's all boys. For now. We may add a cute little girl in January. Mason loves it! We always do a lesson or two, but really, the boys just want to play. We teach two days a week for two weeks and then swap houses. It works out really nicely. Here are some photos of when I taught in October. I had an outerspace theme. We ate real astronaut ice cream, made helmets, went hunting for space rocks, made paper mache planets. and learned about the letters I and J. The boys loved learning about rockets and Saturn V. I had a blast teaching it all. I made sure to plan only things that I would have fun doing, lol. For their "play time" they would take toy planes and rockets and run up to Mason and Donovan's room, and that was flying into space because it's got planets on the ceiling, and then they would run back down to earth. Over and over and over.
These boys are adorable.
Writing time. Or scribble time, whatever works for them.


The Letter I

Little i



Hunting for Space Rocks

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Halloween 2013

We went with a football theme this year. It was the only thing I could get the boys to agree on. I usually start planning Halloween in July (because I LOVE IT!), but Mason has reached an age where mom is no longer the costume dictator. And I happily resign from that post because I know how fun it is to dress up in a favorite costume, but Mason changed his mind every week. Transformers, Backyardigans, dinosaurs, Lightning McQueen, Despicable Me people/minions, Wreck it Ralph characters, . . . the list was quite extensive. But I finally got him to say "yes" to football uniforms and he stayed excited about them for over a week, so that became the game plan. Justin dressed up like a coach with headphones, and I was a ref. We didn't get a whole family picture, but who cares about what the parents look like, anyway?
Pumpkin Carving! It took Mason a while to be brave with touching the pumpkin guts, but he did it and was so proud! Come to find out he is allergic to them (we realized this last year, but totally forgot about it). He had hives on his arms and face for the next week. I looked it up online and apparently it's not such a bizarre allergy. Maybe we'll carve watermelons next year.

Final Results. The rabbits ate our pumpkins' faces a few days later. We didn't think about that. Do you like our skeleton with a Nebraska hat? Justin wanted to be in charge of decorating our front porch for Halloween.

Here are the kiddos. Love them.




We had equal representation

I ordered a football outfit for Weston online, but realized too late that it was literally coming on the slow boat from China and would arrive after Halloween. So I went to Walmart and got a brown shirt and some fabric paint and made my own. Cutest little pigskin I ever saw. I'm glad he was happier with this football photo attempt than the previous one last month. . .
And here is Mason at the ward Halloween Party.




Friday, November 1, 2013

October Misc

I've forgotten stories, I just have these pictures. I'm setting the date of this entry as if I wrote it in October for chronological purposes, but I'm writing this in January. The first three months of Weston's life is now a blur, unfortunately. I'd totally forgotten about some of these moments until now when I saw the pictures of them.

Tummy Time

I found this one of Sarah that I missed when I posted about their visit. It was cute, so I put it in .


A new indoor playground we found while Mary, Lee, and Sarah were visiting.

One Month Old!

Party Hat

Mason: Mom those pumpkins are wearing hats!

First day of church. Slept the whole time.

Daddy made a fort!




See all my flowers?! I'm a lucky lady.


Snow on Oct 20. It's gorgeous with our red maple. But way to early to be welcome.

Boxing. I have a video of this... I'll put it at the end.

He loves to hang out on this mat.

Watching a funny part in a movie. They are adorable.

We made birdhouses. Justin likes to take pictures of me when I don't have makeup on. Which is pretty often, lately.

Playing with his friend, Chester.


Sometimes I wear makeup!