While Mom's away . . .

Tad will play!

Actually mom was just in the other room helping Darrell with his homework. She was distracted enough to not realize little man was in the office playing on the computer! Every window that could be opened was open and the last one I came to were these pictures taken by our computer!
What a goob!

Is it to late?

So I have been a little lazy at posting, I am just getting around to Halloween but I don't want it to go undone!

This year Darrell wanted to be a vampire. He has been telling me he has wanted to be a vampire since about June. So we made him a quite scary vampire! He looked so different with dark hair!!! I kept staring at him cause he just looked so strange to me! He thought I was crazy, I thought what happened to my sweet little boy? This demon keeps growling at me! Still very cute but I love his lovely blonde locks!

Tad really wanted to be green lantern. He has never seen the movie but this is who he really wanted to be. I don't know why he decided to choose this, but he was cute even if he doesn't know what the green lantern is all about. I don't even know what the green lantern is all about. Maybe I should watch the movie! ha ha ha.

I got the chance to make cookies for my first ever class party! I guess it was Darrells first ever class party but I think I was just as excited as he was about it. I find myself being emotional for my kids. Does that make sense? I get sad for them when something is sad for them, I get excited for them when something exciting is happening to them and I get embarrassed for them when they get embarrassed. Is that just a parent thing? None the less, I am very very excited that he is getting to experience fun things in his life like school parties, friends and reading. He is doing well with reading and enjoys doing it for a short time.

Ok I kind of got side tracked in this post. That doesn't take much for me to do through out my whole day though! ha ha ha They had a ton of fun getting to run door to door trick or treating and can't wait for next year. Now on to another favorite holiday, THANKSGIVING!!! I have an excuse to stay in the kitchen all day cooking and ignore everything else that needs to be done around the house, my idea of heaven!

All Hallows Eve

We are preparing for the grand night of trick-or-treating and dressing up and intentionally putting ourselves in situations we know will most likely scare us!!!!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!! It has always been one of my favorite holidays.

We put up a few yard decorations made by the boys and I out of some old pallets we found driving around.

Today we carved pumpkins with Nica's two little boys! It was so funny to watch them, they wouldn't stick their hands down in the pumpkins to pull the "guts" out for anything! They used spoons! Darrell kept telling me, " mom I just can't make myself, it is to icky!" Seriously, my child that loves to get dirty and make a mess with whatever he can?! It was just to slimey for all of them. It was a ton of fun and we finished just in time for the storm to roll in!

To snow or not to snow, that is the question!!!! I'll let ya know what it does!!!!
(Let it snow!)

Leaves are falling all around . . .

Last Sunday morning Joe and I were sitting on our couch before church just enjoying the five minutes of silence we had together while the boys were nicely watching tv. We were each trying to prepare lessons for our classes but kept getting distracted by the amazing view out our front window. The trees are the most beautiful yellow I have ever seen. They cast a yellow glow over our whole front yard. Joe broke the silence with," I love our trees. I love that I get to experience a real fall." He grew up in a town that has a very short fall season. One day the trees are green, the next they are bald and it is freezing and since we have been back up here we have lived in a house that didn't have any trees or shrubs or flowers in the yard. It made me that much more grateful for the seasons and the beauty of each one and that I have got to experience that for most of my life.

"Come said the wind to the leaves one day, Come o're the meadows and we will play. Put on your dresses scarlet and gold, For summer is gone and the days grow cold. -"

Betty Crocker

That has become my new nickname around this house. I have been in the kitchen for the last week straight I swear. After redoing the dresser, I decided I needed to can my apples before they went bad so I tried making apple butter and apple pie filling for the first time and it turned out SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! I didn't know what to expect with the apple butter. I think I was expecting it to be more butter like and it is really just like a thick cinnamon applesauce which I love!

The boys thought the "Apple Worms" were so cool to eat!



Saturday they had a community clean up and they served them lunch afterwards and asked all the young women in the stake to make some cookies so I whipped up some super yummy peanut butter cookies for that, ended up taking them at noon when most people eat lunch and they had just finished eating! So we ended up with four dozen cookies!!! Nobody was sad at this house!

My dad had given my sisters and I some bananas that were given to him because they were starting to get spotty. Which is when they are perfecto for banana nut bread! So before they started leaking all over my counter, I made up some loaves of banana nut bread and it turned out so so so good!


It was a most delicious week!!!
Next on my list. . . . Martha Washington Candies!!!! They are absolutely sinful!!!!!

Facelift!!!

When Joe and I first got married, his Aunt and Uncle gave us an old dresser to kinda help us out. It was the most horrible orangie color with these oriental scrolly handles. Not pretty, but we were grateful to get any kind of furniture. That was almost nine years ago and the ugly duckling is still with us. I tried my hand at antiquing when we first got it and it turned out kinda pinkish white but it was ten times better than when we got it. When we moved up here, we got a new dresser and the boys inherited the old one. They didn't appreciate the beauty of the pink beast so I decided yesterday to make it more to their liking! I love how it turned out, a little more boyish than before! I love to recycle furniture! Hopefully it lasts us another nine years!

Before

After
(It is a little darker in the house)

Is it really you?!

Fall oh Fall, my forever loved Fall! How I have missed you!
The other night I opened my windows like I always do at night, climbed into bed next to my hubbie and absolutely enjoyed every second of the cold crisp air that blew across my face. It was as perfect as could be! I love fall and all of the holiday festivities and reminders of what my life should really be about that come along with it, being thankful for everything in my life and for my savior Jesus Christ! It is so much more fun now that the boys are at an age they want to decorate and dress up and make yummy goodies and start their letters to santa! Yeah they are way excited..... almost as excited as me!

NEW CALLING!!!!!

I had the most wonderful time on Sunday enjoying my new calling in the . . .

I was so so so so excited when they called me to be the new Laurels adviser in the Young Womens! I fell in LOVE with these girls when they asked me to be our wards Girls Camp Director this last June. What amazing women they are growing up to be and what powerful testimonies they have! They increased my testimony more than ten fold! I look forward to every Sunday I get to teach them and learn from them!

What a beautiful sunrise there was this morning. Joe was running late for work and as I rushed him out the door I remembered that it was trash day so I took the trash can to the road which woke me up enough to stay out of my bed and not watch tv till I had to take Darrell to school. It was nice, the sun was just coming up and it made for a great start to a great and productive morning!!!

I swear the sunflowers were stretched as tall as they possibly could be trying to get that sun!

I got the stinky beasts fed!

Enjoyed the beauty of my butterfly bush that is swarmed in humming birds.
Took Darrell to school.
Helped Tad make cards for everyone in our family and his cousin Bradlee.


This would be Joe. He had to have a tool belt cause, " my dad is a hard worker and he needs his tools in his picture" :0)

This lovely lady would be me, THE MOM, not to far off from what I really look like in the mornings!

This is his card for Darrell. He drew him a train because he said, " I know Darrell loves trains so much and I know he would love a card with a train on it" he is so sweet and always thinking of what he could do to make someone happy!

I love love love when kids are learning how to write! I love watching their chubby little hands write cute wiggly letters! Tad is our writer/drawer! Any chance he gets he is drawing or coloring or something like that.

Welcomed Darrell off the bus. His nice bus driver let him give Tad the grand tour!



Finished up a cute little project I started last night. I saw these way cute pumpkins on another blog and had to try to make them, they turned out cuter than expected! Then finished two of the million baby burp rags I am making for Staci and Andrews baby girl! I found this sock monkey fabric and couldn't resist!!!!
Laundry is in and dishes are on their way to the wash down as Darrell would say! A great start to a great day!

That's why I love him!!!!

After a frustrating day that didn't end very well this is what I found on my mirror in my bathroom the next morning written in my eye liner. . . .


Joe has always been way good about leaving me little notes all over the house since we have been married, where ever we have lived. People thought we were crazy when we lived in our cracker box in Show Low cause we put up a dry erase board next to our toilet in our bathroom! Ha ha ha but it was always nice to find a note whenever you went in there.

THANKS SWEET CHEEKS, I LOVE YOU TOO!!!!

What a weekend!!!

What a fun and productive weekend it was!!!

We relocated the boys sand box to the back yard under the Juniper tree so they have more shade and room! I thought my arms were going to fall off after carrying the eight railroad ties with Joe. It probably didn't help that we had helped my dad earlier that morning load 3 tons of pellets into our truck then from the truck into the shed for my gram this winter! Then we went and got new sand for the sand box out in Richeville. I had no idea sand was so cheap! We got it done and they love it! It is world war three trying to get them out of it to go anywhere, they just want to stay and play in it all day!


We built our piggies a new pen! Holy smokes those stupid things can SCREAM!!!!! They are still small enough that Joe and I could just carry them. So Joe sent me in the stinky muddy pen they were in to grab them by their back legs and "wheel barrow" them out. So me wanting to look tough (I have a problem with this) I say no prob and went in to get them. I learned my lesson. They stink they are loud and they are strong little beasts. I got the little one "PIGGY BANK" over to Joe but "BACON" is a little bigger than Piggy Bank and was a little more intimidating and stronger than the runt so Joe had to crawl in there with me and catch her. After she was caught I was tough again! ha ha ha we put a grain sack over her head grabbed her by all fours and ran! I am shocked the cops weren't called over. It seriously sounded like we were ripping someones toe nails off! Glad it is over was way fun though to build the pen and move pigs with Joe and have some time together, even if it was stinky!






We got the back yard all cleaned up and got some much needed relax time next to a little bonfire! It was nice to just sit and chat or not to chat just sit together and enjoy each others company! I don't get many pictures of Joe but this one I got, I love!!!




Sunday was our day of rest! ha ha ha we went for a drive up to Big Lake to see the areas that were burned and enjoy the cool air and the beautiful views. We saw SEVEN huge Mule deer bucks right when we got into Round Valley! Seriously why couldn't we have seen them in an unprotected area two weeks ago during archery season!!! The boys decided they wanted to push down a tree and be cool like Paul Bunyon and they were successful in pushing over a small tree!!! Ha ha ha Being Sunday and a way good day at church, I was already feeling thankful for my Father in Heaven and what he has given me and done for me and my family and going for a drive up the mountain and taking in all the amazing things that were surrounding me just made me realize even more how blessed me and my family really are!

It was a great end to a great weekend!!!!