Pumpkin Carving

Last night Brent decided to carve a pumpkin with the kids. The past couple of years he has carved some really detailed pumpkins. It has been more of a spectator sport for the kids. This year the kids helped with the carving. They had a great time.

The finished product. I'm impressed, Good Job guys!

Puff Paint

Several weeks ago I read a post on Tara's blog where she had made this fun puff paint with her kids. She got the idea off flipflops and applesauce. Last weekend when Brent and Mark were both gone hunting, Jaymi and I decided to get together with the kids and do some fun things. We decided to try the puff paint, and the kids loved it.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

1/4 cup self rising flour

1/4 cup salt

water

food coloring

*You mix the ingredients and then add water to make a thin paste, then add food coloring. You apply it using Q-Tips. When your done you pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds, it will puff up and harden. So Fun!

Kaleb and Kensley
Allie and Kayley

Ethan and Kaytlyn

Allie with her masterpiece

Ethan made a fun smiley face

Kaleb's Shaving Already!

Last Thursday I was in the bathroom getting ready, when I turned around to see Kaleb gearing up to shave. Thank goodness that Brent's razor is put up in the medicine cabinet. He has watched Brent shave so many times that he new just what to do. Boys will be boys!

Hunt Week

This year's deer hunt almost went empty handed. It was a long weekend. Long story short... always make sure your rifle has recently been sighted in. Fortunately, I brought a back up. Unfortunately, this year I had to settle for little Bambi. I guess I've been a little lucky for the past couple years, so I was due for an under average hit. I got him on the last day of my hunt. He was a fun hunt though. Mark spotted his little group across the canyon about a half mile away and we started hiking the back side of the entire valley, only to find once we were almost to the other side that they decided to cross over to where we originally spotted them. So, we had to hike all the way back. We could have saved a couple miles and an additional hours workout had we just stayed in the same spot. Gotta love it. I've been pricked by so many cactus this weekend, I can live without ever seeing one again. I've still got a couple thorns that need to be dug out. It turned out to be a good hit at about 200 yards.

Here are some pics of my 2007 Elk Hunt. It was a blast. Mark, my Father in law, Dale, his buddy Brad, and I had a workout carrying this "little guy" out of a couple valleys.

My 2006 Deer Hunt was a good one, too... Good 'ole Darell Christianson spotted this beauty about 2-3 miles away and Brad helped me track him down.

He was definitely a keeper... and now he graces my hunting room with his splendor and glory.

Kalebs Missing Again?!

I'm not sure why Kaleb can't just stay in his bed. The other night Kaleb came into our room at 4am. Brent and I were both tired and I figured Brent would be getting up in an hour to leave for work so I let him climb into bed with us. When Brent got up to go to work he asked me WHERE IS KALEB? That was a great question! What is with this kid. I got up and started searching everywhere. I couldn't find him anywhere. (I'm having a deja vu moment) I went downstairs and the door was still locked so I new that he was somewhere in the house. I told Brent that I couldn't find him and he helped me look. This is where Brent found him. He had climbed into bed with Rylie. He must of been really quiet not to wake her up because the monitor was on and I didn't even hear him. I guess he was just lonely. CUTE KIDS!

How is that safe???

Yesterday when Brent got home from work he went upstairs to check on the kids. They had been playing in the boys room. This picture is what he found. Now you might be asking yourself, WHERE IS THEIR MOTHER?! I was in the kitchen finishing up dinner. It had probably been 20 minutes since I had physically checked on my three little angels. As you can see they were not sitting quietly on the floor looking at books. OH NO, Ethan had some how tied his sheet to the bottom of his bed and my kids were climbing inside of the sheet. I'm not entirely sure, but I can't imagine this is very safe. Thank goodness the only injury was a fat lip for Kaleb, and that had nothing to do with the sheet. That was the result of flying train track. I guess I am going to have to keep a better eye I on my kids.

Such a Good Girl

I'm not sure how it happened but Rylie has to be the best baby ever. Now I realize that I might be a little bias, but she really is the best. She is ALWAYS HAPPY and ALWAYS SMILING. She is so content to just hang out and look around. I think that maybe Heavenly Father sent her to our family because he knew that the other three were giving us a run for our money and Rylie was all that we could handle. What ever the reason I am really grateful that she has such an easy going personality. Our family just loves her and we know that she belongs with us. We Love You Rylie!!!

Tag

I was tagged by Sharla and Natalie for the same thing. I am going to kill two birds with one stone. Here we go.....

8 TV Shows I Love to watch...

-Bones
-Brother's and Sister's
-Army Wives
-American Idol
-CSI
-Lost
-October Road
-So you think you can dance

8 Favorite Restaurants...

-Manuels
-Red Robin
-Macayo's
-Islands
-Olive Garden
-Claim Jumper
-Paradise Bakery
-Any Pizza Place

8 Things That Happened Yesterday...

-I taught preschool
-went for haircuts
-took Ethan and Allie to the dentist
-Made a deposit at the bank
-went to the gym
-made dinner
-talked on the phone
-watched some TV with Brent

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To...

-the holiday's (Christmas is my favorite)
-NO MORE DIAPERS (since Rylie is only 5 mo. this is going to take a while)
-My brother Scott coming home from his mission
-a vacation (hopefully Hawaii)
-Kaleb getting a grip when it comes to throwing fits
-did I mention no more diapers
-getting more organized
-having time to scrapbook

8 Things On My Wish List...

-cleaner house
-more time
-good night's sleep
-more patience
-a Joanne's and Old Navy in Surprise
-weekly date night with Brent
-happy healthy kids
-a day that does not include cleaning up a spill or some sort of food mess

8 People That I Tag...

-Brooke
-Loni
-Mom
-Jennifer
-Courtney
-Joanne
-Susan
-Marci

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

Thought this would be pretty fun. Found it on Christy's blog. MyHeritage does a face scan of a photo and pairs you up with celebrity look-alikes. I decided only to post the closest result as for some reason I also seem to look like a number of different women, in addition to Will Ferrell. It's really starting to hurt...
B:)

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Genealogy search - Pedigree

Frosting Fun

We had our once a month dinner at my mom and dad's house yesterday and my mom had this fun activity planned for my kids. I guess she got the idea from her friend Wendy. She took a paper plate and spread frosting all over it them let the kids decorate it with all different kinds of candy. Their favorite part was eating as they went. THEY LOVED IT, what a fun idea! Thanks Mom!!

Family makes the best friends

On Saturday we decided to have a picnic dinner at the park with Brooke and Wayne and the kids and Spencer and Lizeth. The kids always have a great time at the park and nice free entertainment.

Ethan and Landon

Allie and Ella
It was a little windy, so Rylie hung out in her car seat most of the time. She was happy as usual.

I could not keep Kaleb's shoes on. Every time I turned around he was taking them off. I hate the sand at the park. I always wonder what yuk thing could be hiding in their, so when he was barefoot it was driving me crazy! That might be his goal in life. If so he was successful.
Brent and Spencer were playing catch when these random parent less kids just showed up and started joining their game. For some reason this drove Brooke and I crazy. We thought it was a little rude. I was thinking "GET YOUR OWN FAMILY". Now I realize this was probably not the right attitude to have, I guess I should repent for my hostile attitude. Brent and Spencer were really patient and just let them play too. What a good example!:)

Bike Ramp 101

Ethan loves to ride his bike in the front yard, and especially loves jumping the curb. The only downfall is that I get nervous of him riding out in the street to do so, so I set up a little bike ramp for him in front of the driveway on the sidewalk with some extra wood blocks that I had laying around. He got so excited he wouldn't even wait for me to get the camera before he took his first jump. He kept wanting to go faster and faster, and I kept telling him the faster he went the more it will hurt if he falls. Long story short, Ethan took his first trip over the handlebars, and now has the elbow scuffs and burns to show for it. He only screamed for a little while I cleaned and bandaged him, but got over it quick. He actually became discouraged when he found out that I had taken the ramp down, as I guess he wasn't finished mastering the art of "big air".

"Don't fret young grasshopper, there is much time to learn..."

Unfortunately, I wasn't recording video when he crashed...just got a lousy photo. It does speak for itself, even though it's a little blurry.

Here's a little video of one of the successful runs...

B:

Friday Fun

Today we had Jennifer, Kaylee, and Connor over to do lots of fun things. The kids always love getting together.

Connor was hanging out with Rylie. I guess he didn't want her to be lonely.
Allie and Kaylie got all glam'd up with the makeup. BEAUTIFUL GIRLS!!!
I have these pumpkin molds and we made rice crispy treats in them. They turned out really YUMMY!
The kids all made aprons out of place mats. We found the idea on flipflopsandapplesauce.blogspot.com. They turned out pretty cute and the kids loved them. Next we painted these bags to look like pumpkins. I don't know what it is about boys, but they can't do anything without making a mess. Ethan and Kaleb both thought it would be fun to paint their hands. I have no idea what would posses them to do this, but I guess I'm not a boy. Their minds are a mystery. We had a FUN day. Thanks guys!

Watch out....... They might run you over

My kids have had jeeps for a couple of years. We use to keep them in the garage and Brent would get them out and the kids would drive in the front yard. Recently we decided, what the heck, lets just put them in the backyard. I have to say, I am so glad that we did. My kids have been driving and driving. We are constantly charging the batteries. They love the freedom to cruise around the backyard.

Allie and Kensley
No hands? Now that's real safe. Look out when she's 16!

Conference Weekend

This past weekend was general conference. We usually get together with my parents to watch at least one session. Then usually between sessions Brent will BBQ and we have a little fun. I have to say that I think my kids are so lucky to have such WONDERFUL grandparents. I'm not sure that they realize how lucky they are, but it will eventually "CLICK". Anyways I snapped this picture of my mom jumping on the trampoline with my kids. Now maybe I am just really out of shape, but I can't jump for nearly as long as I could when I was younger. My mom jumped with the kids for quite a while and then my dad took his turn. The kids LOVED it! Go mom and dad, you guys are the BEST!!!

My dad taking a breather with Kaleb.
I snapped this picture of Brent, and I just happened to catch him at the perfect moments. Nice air Brent!

I have been crying myself to sleep each night for the past week. I don't know how many of you have been absolutely kicked in the berries this week by the stock market collapse, but I have watched about 10K evaporate over the past couple weeks alone. The thing that really hurts is that I had a feeling a few months ago that stocks were going to drop and I actually pulled everything out and put it in a stable fund for a couple months, then thinking that the worst had happened threw it back in not 24hrs before everything started tumbling down. And of course you keep thinking, "Don't pull it out now, or you'll shoot yourself in the foot when it jumps back up." Right? Wrong. It just seems to keep falling and getting worse each time. Well, so much for thinking about an early retirement. Yeah, I know it's about 30 years away (well 35 now), but I can still think about it, or cry about it now.

B :(

Running a Tab

Today, we got a bill in the mail from Ethan's school. We were a little confused what it was for. We asked Ethan if he had been buying anything from the school without paying for it. Ethan tried his hardest to claim that he had nothing to do with it and didn't know what it was for. After a little prying, he confessed he was secretly buying "chocolate milk" from the cafeteria and running a tab. He obviously didn't know that they would send the bill to his parents. Boys will be boys.

Amount due: $3.80

Where's Kaleb?

Last night we lost Kaleb. We had placed him in our bed to keep him from constantly getting up, since he was having a hard time staying in his own bed, and sometimes he feels more comfortable in his mom and dad's bed.

Well, at about 10:30pm when we went upstairs to put him back into his own bed, he was gone??? We went in to see if he got back into his own bed, but he wasn't there. We checked Ethan's and Allie's beds, too, but he wasn't there either. We checked the hunting room, the loft, under all the beds, the bathrooms, the bathtubs, our closets, but nothing. We even checked Rylie's crib to see if he decided to bunk with her. We started to frantically call his name, hoping that he'd jump out and surprise us. Then, we started thinking that maybe he snuck down stairs and went out the front door without us knowing. He has done it in the past.

We were both about to start running out the front door looking for him, when we started to hear a quiet tap on what sounded like a door. We followed it to the upstairs hallway linen closet. We slid the doors open to find him half asleep behind the blankets stacked on the floor. He had crawled under the bottom shelf and fallen asleep. I can only imaging the embarrasement that would have taken place had he not tapped on that door, causing us to involve the police or FD.

Lesson learned: There is no need to panick until all closets and cabinets have been checked.