Happy Halloween!!!

Erin - Cowgirl

Ethan - Gangster

Jamie - Wicked Witch

Laura - Good Witch

Kelcie - Fairy

Talin - Magician

Jack-o-lantern!!!

Last night we remembered that it was time to carve the big pumpkin - so, at 8pm we started carving (half our kids' bedtime). We got this big pumpkin this year at Sam's Club and it was so fun! They took turns carving and deciding what to make it. This is what they came up with:
Kelcie was helping get the "guts" out and came in to wash her hands, "That's just gusting!" I love how she says it that way - one day I'll have to tell her it's "disgusting", but not yet.

YUM - we love the seeds!!!

The finished product - difficult picture to get! Kelcie's mouth is all chocolaty because I was inside making cupcakes for her party at school today :)

OOOOooooooooooooooo! O.k., he's actually kind-of cute.

Laura's 8!!!

My little Laura is 8 now!!! Can you believe that?

She was pretty excited knowing that she would probably be getting scriptures for her birthday (the advantages of having older siblings!) and she wanted a doll that she could do her hair.

Laura is so loving, smart, tender and has no fear ( well, of swimming, roller-coasters, etc. - she is, however, afraid of flies - almost to the point of mental meltdown if they're stuck in the car with her - outgrown that, mostly) She loves to be with mommy and is really good at getting out of work - magically. She loves to read and enjoys a good laugh with friends. She's my sweet little Laura.

Happy Birthday, Laura!!!!!!!!!!

Fall Break Part 2

Readin' at the campsite - I thought this was so funny ;)

Before we left on Saturday, we drove over to Tuzigoot - another ruin similar to Montezuma but on a hill instead of in it. It was really neat because you could walk through it this time.

Then we drove up to Jerome - an old mining town up on the mountain - literally on the edge of the mountain. It's known for being haunted, I guess - haven't looked into that much. But, it was really fun to see - an old town and seeing how they built those houses onto the mountain. They had the NEATEST Kalidescope store ever!!! So many and so many different! We had a BLAST in there!
Anyway, that's what we did - had fun. Talin had been asking for probably 6 weeks to go camping in the trailer. So, we finally went - the first thing he wanted to do when we pulled up - at 10 in the morning - was to go to sleep in the trailor :) Everywhere we went he just wanted to go back to the trailer - quite a relationship he has with our trailer, I guess. So, today he's already told us 3 times we need to go camping again ........ with the trailer. Sweet boy - we'll have to figure that one out - it gets darn cold at night now!!!

Fall Break

So, for Fall Break this year we decided to go camping at Dead Horse Ranch State Park - sounds great, huh? It actually was really fun - the Park had great campsites for GREAT prices. It was a little warmer than we were thinking - since it's north from here, I just figured cooler - but, it's still desert there, apparently, and we were only about 5 degrees cooler than here (104!!! What's up with that?) So, we set up camp and then we went to see Montezuma's Castle which is really cool! The Sinagua people built it in, I think, the 1400s up on the wall - it's so amazing to try and imagine living that way. The kids thought it was great!Then, we went back to camp and made Hobo Dinners for dinner with campfire Banana Splits for dessert - the campers next to us were so curious she had to come over to figure out what we were doing :) Next day, we decided to go to Out of Africa wildpark - we LOVED it! First, they do a little safari where you can feed some of the animls and they are right there next to you. Then, we went around and saw all kinds of animals and watched a couple shows. In the Safari, Talin was getting done and complaining until the guy pointed out the tractors on our right (as a joke) and Talin sat up "Tractors?" - that's my tractor boy! Here are a bunch of pictures - I'll try to label them:

Talin feeding the Giraffe

Zebra

Kelcie and Erin feeding the Camel

Talin petting the Snake - SO soft and smooth!

Laura and Talin petting the Tortoise

Ethan and Laura petting the Water Monitor - he was so cool!

Grizzly Bear

Tiger - I just LOVE big cats - I want to just hug them and pet them......

White Tiger - BEAUTIFUL!

Tiger Splash Show - really fun, too!

By the end of the day we were pretty hot and dehydrated, but it was so worth it and so fun.

She did it!!!

Sooooo...........I mentioned to Kelcie this afternoon - because I wanted her to go outside and play on a beautiful day - that she needed to ride her bike so she can get ready to take her training wheels off, and she came back 10 minutes later, "I'm ready". So, I took them off.............. and.......

SHE DID IT!!!!!

I was pretty surprised - she just got this bike in May, and if you remember what AZ summers are like, she pretty much hasn't had much practice riding it. Anyways, so exciting!!!!!!!

General Conference

Ethan turned 12 this year, so we're trying to do the tradition of taking them up to Conference when they turn 12. Ethan was SOOOOOOOOO excited (as was Lafe :) )!

Ethan at the airport -

they got through security in 20 min.! I wasn't even home from dropping them off yet!

This is actually on the way home, but isn't it cool?

By the fountain outside the Church Office Building

The Waterfall on the Conference Center

In the "picture spot" in front of the Temple.

Standing by the Handcart that his Great-Grandfather made for the Church History Museum.

In the Tabernacle

In the Conference Center - They went to 3 sessions!!! (no fair)

Leaving the Priesthood Session - Beautiful!

O.k., so funny story: Lafe calls me as soon as the airplane hits the ground in SLC and had forgotten the tickets to Conference!!! So, I frantically call everyone we can think of that is going to conference to see if they can take them up, but nobody was home. So, I call the Conference Center (did you know you can do that?) and they said I could fax them up and they'd reprint them - I figured this had probably happened before. So, phew - they got their tickets. This was also Ethan's first time on an airplane (that he remembers) so that was really exciting, too! All these pictures were actually taken on Lafe's phone - that's why some are not so clear - because our camera is breaking and the camera on his phone is actually better quality than our normal camera - time for a new one!!! They had a great time!!!!! So glad they got to go and have that memory!!!

Garden

So, we're trying out Square Foot Gardening!!! We've heard great things about it and we've read his book (the new edition) throughout the summer, and we've been SO excited to start! So, yesterday was the day. We used leftover paint from the house to protect the wood and then put the boxes together. We had to put a special metal stuff on the bottom to keep the gophers out ( they even eat through chicken wire!). Then, we mixed up Mel's special Mix and planted the plants! I sure hope it grows. It looks really pretty right now.

Erin is helping with the garden for one of her 10 hour projects for Personal Progress in Young Women's. She helped us plan out what to plant and helped with everything - wonderful!!! We planted Peas, Broccoli, Leaf Lettuce, Butter Leaf Lettuce, radishes, green onions, beets, carrots, swiss chard, and Marigolds. Wish us luck!!!

Erin's 14!!!!!! (no, really)

Can you believe I actually have a kid that's 14?????? I'm sure something's not calculated correctly!!! Oh, well. Happy Birthday, Erin!!!!! It's so fun watching her grow up and become such a beautiful young woman. She's loving, kind, a great friend, a wonderful student, works hard at everything she does, and is a great help! I hope you had a great day, Erin!

Welcome Fall!!!

If only we really saw more of this around here. We are dipping below 100F this week in celebration of Fall - only for a couple days, though. That's o.k. - at least we know it's coming! Happy Fall everyone!

Erin's Party

Erin had her birthday party on Friday night! We had quite the group of 12-14 yr. old girls over here! She invited several girls from school, church, and her best friend from Mesa. She did the whole thing - they played the "fruit game" - where everybody is a fruit and if you don't call someone else's fruit before the girl with the newspaper gets to you then you get hit with the newspaper - REALLY FUN! Then, they played white elephant but with candy bars -yum!

I made a bunch of different snacks thinking we had WAY to much food - HA! It was ALL GONE by the time they left - even the carrots!

Erin opening her presents just before they watched National Treasure 2. Fun night - exhausting, but fun for Erin.

Students of the Month

Erin

Laura

Kelcie

I forgot to post about 3 of my kids getting Student of the Month for August!!! I knew that Laura and Kelcie were getting it because their teachers called me, but then Erin came home with one, too! She said her teacher leaned over to her at Flag Ceremony right before and told her - "by the way....." And, I knew about Laura and Kelcie's for about 2 1/2 weeks - too long, I decided, because.........I forgot. I felt so bad. Last year I went every time someone got something, and for these two, I missed. I even jumped in the car knowing that by the time I reached the school, they would be done and in their classrooms. I apologized and, of course, it didn't really bother them - phew! But, just wanted to have a shout out for my girls that I'm so happy with how hard they work at school and how they treat other people.( The Value for August was Respect - they choose the Students of the Month based on the value.)

Olathe Corn

Next up, CORN!!! I had a roommate at BYU that would bring this amazing frozen corn back from home and we all LOVED it! So, I got her recipe and made it when we were first married, but haven't made it since. Well, I came across bulk corn this week and wanted to freeze some - but, of course, I've lost my recipe box in the move. Luckily for facebook - and blogs - I got the recipe again and that's what I've been doing all day (thanks, Sandy!) It's sooooooooooo yummy! I got 15 bags of corn that are almost 4 cups in each bag (big family).

Back on peaches - 14 quarts, 3 gallon freezer bags, and 24 cups of jam!!! Cobbler and Pie tomorrow - yippee!!!

Utah Peaches!!!

Utah peaches are the best in the WHOLE WORLD!!! So, that's what I'm doing for a few days. Yesterday, I found all the ripe ones if my boxes and cut them and froze them for smoothies - or just to eat like candy when it's hot! I got 2 gallon bags full so far. Hopefully today they'll be more ripe enough to make jam and then I'll bottle some.

9-11

I know it's long, but it's so worth it.

Gilbert Temple

WE ARE SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!

Kids Rooms

I took these pictures a couple weeks ago hoping I would get the whole house clean and show you the different rooms - well, the kids rooms got done. I think it actually was the first day of school and I was "done" with their mess :)

The Boys Room

The little girls room

The Big girls room - Jamie's half

Big girls - Erin's half

The big girls have a little feaux dormer between their closets because they wanted one like the other kids. They were excited that to make that happen they each had to have their own closet - oh darn! Sorry, you can't see everything and I didn't want to post every angle, but you get the idea.

Just Ramblin'

1. I love being a Homemaker!!! I've noticed this week how much I really love doing the domestic stuff around the house - making bread, laundry, feeding chickens, collecting eggs, feeding bunny, making freezer jam, canning chicken, finding great deals on groceries, etc. Even cleaning up isn't so bad because I love how it looks when I'm done. Of course, my house isn't perfect - because I don't enjoy cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors, and dishes - and I don't enjoy this stuff all the time, but this week I really enjoyed it. ( Ask Lafe how many time I asked him if he saw my jam and chicken!)

2. I LOVE how having it rain in Arizona is the best entertainment!!! Whenever it rains it gets announced throughout the house and we love to sit outside and watch it. Even Talin earlier this week said , "It's raining! I gotta go outside!" We LOVE rain here and thunderstorms are SO fun! And, because we don't have an attic above the kids' rooms, they can really hear the rain and they love it - as much as I would have!

3. I love that my daughter will get up at 5:45 in the morning to exercise with me!

4. Why do restaraunts bring you an odd number of appetizers (breadsticks, etc.) when there are an even number of eaters? This drives Lafe and I crazy - it makes no sense. There are 2 of us - why bring 3? Bring either 2 or 4 - duh! We're only going to ask for more anyway!

5. I LOVE the mountains, latch-hooks, and cross-stitching - and I'm off to do that all weekend - woo-hoo! O.k., only Saturday, but it's still a welcome relief - and a chance to see Grandma and Grandpa who haven't been home for more than 2 weeks in a year and a half!

6. And...... I still love chocolate -which is probably why #3 hasn't helped me lose any weight yet :)