Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Princess Anna, Snow Princess Abby, and Spiderman Aaron!

Home Grown Pumpkins

Blurry picture, but we carved pumpkins tonight. We have a Mickey Mouse, a bunny, and a bloody jack-o-lantern. All of the pumpkins were grown in our garden this year. Kind of fun.

We saw. . .

Yes, we saw it last Saturday! High School Musical 3! The girls loved it!! They thought it was super fun that they could take a friend. Aaron, on the other hand, about half way through was saying "I don't like this movie, I want to go home!" I know I'm totally lame, but I liked it. It was a no brainer, corny, and just entertaining. More musical numbers than the others, but same basic plot of all the others. If you have young girls (or boys?) go see it!

We also made Monster Cookies again this year. Fun, fun. Inspiration found here and from Heather. Way too much sugar to start off this super sugary season. I don't think I'll get my kids off this sugar high until after the new year! There is this dentist in town that will exchange candy for cash (they then give the candy away to different charities). I'm going to try to convince my kids to do it. Who needs ALL that candy anyway?!

A few random thoughts . . .

It has been forever since I have blogged. I have a bit of catching up to do.

*Warning* Blogger is not being my friend today, the font size is all over the place. I just wanted it normal with a few "large" words here and there. That is not what it is doing and I've tried to fix it and its not working*

* Today I have not done much and am feeling SO tired! I think it might have something to do with the fact that I stayed up until 1 am with Abby and her ear infection on Tues. night, then 2 am Wed watching Pride and Prejudice (the one with from A&E and BBC with Collin Firth, its 5 hrs long) and of course I had to stay up until 12 am last night finishing it. I L*O*V*E*D it! In my opinion it is a must see. . .

*A couple of days before my last post, we all went to a wedding reception up here for one of our cute singles, Kate, from Vegas. She's obviously not single anymore. . .Anyway, it was so fun to see her and meet her hubby. It was also a blast to see some of the other girls from the Singles Ward! Having that calling was so much fun! I miss it and all of you! Good thing we have blogs so we can all stay connected (hint, hint Amber and Tonya :) ) It was so good to see Parker and Aubrey and meet their baby. So much fun!

* Anna found a new friend. It was super cool and fun, but we decided to let her go after she started crawling up Anna's arm and clawing at her face. Obviously not a house pet.



*Last Saturday I went to Deseret Book and bought The Mother in Me a compilation of mothering essays and poems. All of the proceeds from that day went to the NieNie Recovery Fund. I felt like I met a movie star! C Jane, who has been taking care of her sister's kids and faithfully blogging about her sister and brother-in-law's recovery, was there. She was so cheerful and smiley, felt like a friend you'd had forever. While she was signing my book, we chatted about stuff, life, Target. It was a fun Day.

See?. . .I got her autograph. . .right there. ALSO, while I was at Deseret Book I picked up Paul Cardall's latest CD Living for Eden. Absolutely beautiful piano arrangements! Paul is the brother of our friend David Cardall from Vegas. He is currently awaiting a heart transplant. You can read about it here. His daughter's name is Eden, which makes the title of the CD more meaningful, and even brought a little tear to my eye. You should pick one up! :)

*On Wednesday, we had Enrichment mtg at the church. It was good. They had different little classes you could go to on marriage, raising small children, raising adult children, oh, I can' t remember the others. Anyway, they asked me to be on the marriage panel to help present and lead the discussion. I thought that was funny. Mike and I have a great relationship, we like to spend time together, but I hardly felt panel worthy! Ummm. . . be easy going and make eachother happy?. . .I don't know any advice! However, I picked up a few tips for myself.


We also made a craft. These little ornaments. They are really simple but I thought cute. They are just vinyl letters of "noel" and "wish" on the clear glass balls with ribbon. Do you have anything cute you've done lately? Super Saturday stuff or on your own? Post a pic or send me a link. I'm getting into the crafty mood. . .

Speaking of making my hubby happy, he thinks I should do a cute background. I personally like the white, I'm plain like that, I guess. We'll see what I come up with.

I'm not ready

for *SNOW* !! It snowed this morning, my kids were excited. . .me?. . not so much. Winter cannot be starting yet! Last winter was so L - O - N - G! I cannot do another long winter! So go away snow!

(Lucky for me I heard it is supposed to warm up to the 70's by the end of the week! Yay!)

enjoyable

I always enjoy my kids, but lately they have been a little extra enjoyable.


Aaron is my side-kick during the mornings. I love his bead-head hair and his silly words he makes up. The latest is "hu-li-do-di". He uses it for various meanings, he just throws it into a sentence whenever he feels the sentence needs a little pizazz!
Last night he had his first night-mare. He woke up screaming, so I came to his rescue and asked him what was wrong. He said, "A big squirrel was going to get me." That cracked me up, poor guy dreaming of giant squirrels. It was probably from when we were at the zoo in WA and a squirrel jumped out of the garbage can and surprised us all.
He loves potato bugs. Sometimes he loves them fiercely and they don't live long. This one made it and we "put it back in the dut," as he would say. Cute, cute boy.


Abby has been in to babies lately. Dressing them, putting them to bed, even nursing them. . .hmmm. Anyway, she is a darling mom.
Also, she and Anna are VERY willing subjects for my new camera. Thanks Gals!



Anna came home from school with this precious pose, at the same time saying "Peace." Poor girl living in "Happy Valley" doesn't know what she's really doing here, flashing a gang sign. . . but a peaceful one.
Mike had a business partner from Georgia here for a few days. He took her by the house to meet the fam. After a few minutes, out comes Anna with her hat on, pose and "Peace!" Oh Anna, how we love her! Never a dull moment at our house.

New Arrival!

We have a new addition to our home! One that I have been wanting, hoping and waiting for for over 2 years! I think she is fitting in nicely and I feel bonded to her already.

Her name is Canon. And she is a Rebel, but I think with some proper training we can overcome that. She is the perfect size and weight, so easy to hold and carry around.

Are you ready to see her. . .

Isn't she cute? I know we are not supposed to love things, so I don't. . .I just like her. . . a lot.

Seriously, I need some help, a few tips and classes. I've looked at some classes on line and I feel like I need classes just to get ready for those classes! Does anyone know of any really, really, really, basic, basic, basic classes? Either on line or not. They would be really helpful. All the new info is a bit overwhelming, but I am more than happy to take on the challenge.

LOVED Conference

So many highlights! Too many to list.
3 things come to mind that I am going to be working on:

1) Pres. Monson: Finding joy in the journey, here and now.
2)Elder Perry: Living a more simplified life
3)I can't remember who said it, but it has stuck with me: solving problems is not as important than loving people (or something like that). I feel like I am always going about my day solving problems: the dishes problem, laundry problem, cleaning the house problem, etc. that I put off or delay loving the little people around my feet. Going to be working on that.

What were some of your favorites?