Finally Got Pictures to Share

Here is a cool video of how to take down a tree. It's like a swarm of bees going after some honey!


The following picture is one of the many reasons why our ward loves Tom. Last Saturday Tom impressed a large group of men from our ward with his chain saw/tree falling skills. And I must admit Tom was very impressive. He got up there and worked this huge tree over with a chain saw.

By the time I took a picture half of the tree was already down. This was the second phase of taking the tree down. It was tricky because it was leaning towards the house. With a chain hooked to a truck to assist this part of the tree came down "flawlessly" as Tom put it.
Now on to Halloween pictures. We were in Logan for Halloween.
Trick or treating at the mall with cousins Leah, Carter and Keaton (ninja) is practically a cousin

Painting pumkins

The crew

Darling

Cute

Crazy

I Have a Moment to Update

Hello Everyone!

Today has been a good day. Unlike yesterday when Trey had a fever and I spent the day stressin' about getting the swine flu. You never know these days. We didn't leave the apartment. I was unproductive the whole day. After my nap I straightened up the place, did my hair and make-up and by 5 pm we were ready for Tom to be home. Thankfully Trey's fever only lasted 24 hours and we were able to get out of the house today. Today has been so sunny and warm. So we went to the park and to Costco.

I have been thinking about how I want to really savor the holidays this year. I'm talking Christmas music playing non-stop, red and green lights around our windows, drinking hot cocoa and wassail alot, mistletoe, candy canes and cinnamon pine cones, baking goodies for friends and so on. Today I spotted a couple things at Costco that I would like to add to our holiday savoring. First, a beautiful nativity. The set is rather large but I love it. Second, a darling little village setting (I think it was $35) that is also an advent calendar. This is the cutest thing with 24 doors located all over this little village I think the children would love to open a door each day before Christmas and find a little surprise. If anyone has any ideas of what to put in the little doors they are like 1 inch x 1 inch let me know. And finally the big tin of Almond Roca is also a must this year!

Cheers to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Read On

My computer is out of commission. So I feel like a fish out of water. It's just not as easy to check email or blog from Tom's computer. He has his set up all funky with 2 monitors and I just don't need all the extra stuff. But for the sake of updating our blog I'm using his computer.

We had our first parent/teacher conference last Thursday with Samantha's kindergarten teacher. This officially starts us on the road of academia that will last for many, many years. We have figured it out that when Samantha is in 3rd grade, Seth will be in 1st grade and Trey in kindergarten. Since we have such a HUGE gap between Trey and our baby girl due this Dec., she is going to be a straggler starting school when Trey is in 3rd grade. There is a 2 1/2 year gap between Trey and baby girl. My goodness what happened there?

Also along the lines of school. We have year round school here. That means that Samantha has the next three weeks off also known as off-track. Tom and I are not fans of year round school but unless we enroll Samantha in a Charter school, year-round school is our only option. Charter schools fill up fast here. I don't mind the 3 week break especially leading up to Halloween. It gives us time to do Halloween activities.

On to parties and the primary program. Last Friday was booked with Halloween parties. We had our playgroup party which I didn't get to stay at very long because we had to rush over to Samantha's school party. Samantha is beautiful Belle for Halloween, i was so happy she settled on Belle because we already had the dress. The boys are Mario and Luigi. Walking around with them is like walking around with celebrities. Tom and I took them over to the school for Samantha's costume parade and everyone was saying Hi to Mario and Luigi and pointing them out. They are so adorable. Pictures will follow. Then Tom and I went to a party in the evening. Tom dressed as a lumber jack again like last year and I had to improvise and dress as a country girl, plaid shirt, jeans, freckles and pig tails.

Sunday was the primary program. One of my favorite things of the year. As many of you know our children are not performers. They do not like the attention on them. Upon getting to church they were refusing to go up and sit with their teachers. It drives me a little crazy. After Tom worked his loving fatherly magic both Samantha and Seth agreed to participate in the program. They sang and sang. Seth held a picture with his eyes squarely on us the whole time and Samantha said a short one liner in the microphone "I love my family" without crying. Many people in our ward were so sweet and encouraging after the program, tell them they did a great job. I was happy to see their progress and gave them the candy bars I bribed them with. The real key, prayer.

This Morning I Was Treated to...

A Rock Concert in Our Kitchen! The kitchen table was the stage.

It was a sold out show.

Some of my Favorite Things....right now

-Malt o Meal (hot cereal) with vanilla ice cream and brown sugar
-Pants with elastic waist bands
-Thinking of Halloween costumes for the children
-Feeling baby kick
-Walking Samantha to school then going to pick her up
-Our clean carpets
-Making banana bread

Raspberry Picking

My energy level goes in waves. Some days I just lounge the day away. I bearly get the apartment straightened up let alone my teeth brushed. Then there are days like this. We drove 2 1/2 hours to Clarkston, Utah (In Cache Valley) to go raspberry picking. Tom was very fond of this idea. I blame it on my mom who would take all 7 of us kids strawberry picking when we were younger. (Thanks Sariah for telling me about this place) Raspberries were $2 per pound. We picked 11 lbs. Tons of raspberry bushes. You almost feel like you are standing in bee hives because there is a constant hum of bees. Hundreds of honey bees are buzzing around the bushes as you pick. After explaining to the children that the bees are doing their job of collecting nectar and if you don't bother them they won't bother you, the kids went to town picking berries.

This picture sums it up. Yummy, luscious raspberries. All you wanted to do is eat them.

I froze all the raspberries. Tom has had vanilla ice cream and raspberries every night since we went. We will use them in smoothies and whatever else. Sariah told me it I want to make jam I can pull them out of the freezer and make jam. We will see.

Fishing at the State Fair

I really wanted to go to the State Fair this year. We have missed it the past 3 years. Last Thursday evening was open so I begged Tom to go. He agreed to go. Yippeee!

I knew the kids would love the animals. But the highlight of our evening was this little catch and release fishing pond. We had to listen to a little presentation about fishing safety then each child redeemed their pretend fishing license for a fishing pole. This is really the way to fish. Within 20 minutes each of our kids had caught a fish. The men dressed in brown were very helpful by putting worms on the hooks, and unhooking the fish and releasing them. They did all the messy work. Like I said my way to fish.

Trey was the third one to get a fish. He caught the BIGGEST one but I didn't get a picture. Not sure why? Seth got to hold the fish and release it back into the pond.

Seth's catch. Look at Samantha squealing with delight.

Samantha's catch. She caught the baby.

Smile.

A big wrecking ball spider.

We did the fair for only $12, just admission. We just couldn't do the $5 per ride price. We ate little ceasars 5 buck pizza on the way there and got artic circle shakes for the way home. We need to start saving for those ride wrist bands for next year~

Life's Moments

I had to add a picture to this very wordy post!

Singing in the Rain

Mom Can You Help Me...

Yesterday Seth asked, "mom can you help me build a train track?" I said I would in a couple of minutes after I finished cutting up some carrots. Then a few minutes later Seth yells, "mom, I don't need your help, I'm doing it myself". Then I thought 'wow, these are the days to help them when they are young because before too long they will grow up and not want my help.' So I finished the carrots and went in and helped him put the finishing touches on his train track.

Costco

I went to Costco twice this week. The first time to redeem my raincheck for Jiffy Peanut Butter which I found out they don't carry any more, just Skippy Peanut Butter. But before we looked for peanut butter we looked at all the fun toys they have stocked for the Christmas season. The boys and I pushed every possible button on every toy truck at Costco. It was so fun. I just get so excited. The next day I had to run to Costco to get dessert for a young mens activity (Tom told me 3 hours before the activity). This time I went hungry. We sampled all the samples and let me tell you they have awesome samples Tuesdays at 4 pm. We saw some of the same sample people so I'm sure they were thinking I visit Costco everyday for lunch but I don't but maybe I should. Not a bad idea. So we strolled passed the Pumpkin Pies. I'm not a huge fan of Pumpkin pies but for some reason they looked really good. So I told the kids we are going to have Pumpkin pie and ice cream for dinner and I was serious. So we finish our Costco trip. We get home and I'm having second thoughts about getting the pumpkin pie. It's a huge pie, you know Costco pies. I could save the pie for our ward dinner the next night. But when we brought it in Samantha was all about bustin it open. Since I had been the one to suggest such a silly thing of having pie for dinner I thought I should just stick to me word. Pumpkin pie has to have some nutritional value. SO we get the pie open I have everything on the table to dish up pie and ice cream. Then Seth takes the ice cream scooper and smack dab in the middle of the pie takes a scoop out. And there you go. Over the last couple of days we have eaten pumpkin pie at all times of the day. I have discovered a very important thing: Cool Whip on pumpkin pie is way better then vanilla ice cream. Our children are fans of pumpkin pie now. Thats an important thing with Thanksgiving a round the corner.

Playing Cats

Does everyones children play cats? That is what my children are doing at this very moment. All three of them are in the kitchen with small bowls of water ( I would not let them use milk because of the mess factor) and bowls of dry cereal. Samantha is the owner of the cats and the boys are the cats. Seth has a belt tied around his belly for a leash type thing. Now they are mooing like cows. I just heard Samantha say "lets put your collar on, gotch ya...Now lets go"


I Have a Strange Baking/Cooking Bug

When the weather turns a little cold, rainy, wet I get into this baking mood. It happens once a year. On Sunday it hit. I made banana bread, homemade brownies and sugar cookie dough. The cookie dough was Tom's request. Samantha and I got to sample the dough right after making it then Tom took the whole batch to work with him on Monday. Haven't seen it since. I do need to make another batch of sugar cookie dough to go along with the huge box of cookie cutters I bought at a yard sale on Saturday. (I won't get into my love for yard sales. I love them.)


Yesterday we had our annual Harvest Dinner at the church. Along with stuff out of our garden we have had several people give us produce. So I took it upon myself to use it up by preparing food for our ward's Harvest Dinner. I made the vinegar cucumbers, a tomato/cucumber with a vinaigrette, and some roasted red potatoes with seasonings. It was all consumed at the dinner which is great so nothing went to waste.


Now I better get back to the children.....Have a Good Day!

Thanks for the Fun

My younger brother Marcus and his wife Chelsea came and visited. We were so happy that they came by our place twice while they were in Utah. They are like celebrities to our children because they live in Delaware so we don't get to see them too often. There were pillow fights and wrestling matches galore. We squeezed in a game of Settlers of Catan with all our favorite munchies popcorn, ice cream, brownies and twizzlers (it's no wonder I gained 10 lbs according to my last prenatal doc visit). Thanks for visiting Marcus and Chelsea. We love you.