Good News!

After years of trying and struggling my sweet baby sister has had her second baby!!!! I don't know his name yet, but he was born today and weighed in at a whopping 5lbs 9 oz. Teeny tiny but being that we were all worried that he wouldn't be here at all we are soooo happy that he is here and everything is looking good.

Congratulations Kaci and Brad!!!!!

I will post any pictures as soon as I get them.

Halloween Tradition #4

Our 4th Halloween Tradition is Carving pumpkins. Usually we do this with our friends the Farmers. But unfortunately with Troy's travel schedule and Edda's work schedule it didn't work out. To be honest we barely had time to do it at all. We did it on Morgan's birthday after we went Trick or treating at Troy's office and before Morgan had her sleep over with her best friend Hannah. So needless to say we were a little busy toward the end of the month. So here are some pictures of our carving fun. Here is Mikayla (crown and all) smiling brightly and Sam trying his hand at carving.
All the kids with their finished products.

its a little blurry but here are all our pumpkins all lit and looking good. Morgan's pumpkin say "Happy Birthday Morgan" you can guess what was on her mind! Mikayla had a heart, Owen and Sam both wanted scary faces on their pumpkins.


Halloween Tradition #3

Our 3rd Halloween tradition is Morgan's Birthday. We are so happy that we have Morgan in our family. She is a light and a smile in our family. Even though she started her life in a colic filled scream, (poor thing) she has turned out to be a sweetheart and a joy.
I am so grateful for her hugs and her smile every morning. She is the best at doing her homework sometimes in the car on the way home. She is a great gymnast and a fantastic dancer. She has so much potential and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to watch it all from the view of her mom.

I love you Morgan.
Happy Birthday!!!

Halloween Tradition #2

Our second Halloween tradition is our ward Halloween party. It is seriously the best Halloween party. It is the best party they throw all year. Which is saying something because I have loved each and every ward party that we have been to. This year I dressed up as a sailor from the 1940's, and Mikayla dressed up as me. She wore a sign that said "Mirror Mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all" We thought it was pretty funny. Here is a picture of us together.

Here is our Puppy Sam

Here is Morgan, our witch, Owen our Iron Man, and Mikayla, Me as I said before.

Our ward party isn't held at the church, no no, it is held at the pumps that are between the Jordan River and Utah Lake. A couple of families in our ward live on the property. That already is pretty cool and creepy. So this is what greets you first floating on Utah lake.
This is the front of the building that you have to walk through just to get to the party.
And this is what greets you inside. (I know it looks pretty creepy now but imagine it in the semi-dark)



Can you see the "man/robot" crawling on the ground that was super creepy!
Here is the room that the party starts in. There is some of the best food at this party. Chili and soup and bread sticks and tons of treats and cookies. mmmm yummy
There are Halloween decorations everywhere. There is a movie and popcorn corner with face painting for the kids. We love it. They also have a haunted maze our by the water but my kids are too chicken to go in. I wonder where they get that from. Hmmm it's a mystery.

Halloween Tradition #1

Last night we did the first of many Halloween Traditions, Decorating Halloween cookies. I say, any excuse for a frosted sugar cookie should be taken! I wasn't feeling very crafty so they are very plain but the kids had a great time decorating and eating them. They also decided to be silly for the pictures so you will get to see the crazy side of my kids.

Here is Mikayla with frosting for vampire teeth

Her first finished cookie before she devoured it.
Morgan with frosting on her cheeks and nose, again just to be funny. She is our entertainment.
Morgan's finished cookie. Both the girls chose the smallest cookies (The Bats) I was shocked the pumpkin cookies were huge!
Owen decided to be a good boy and smile nice for mommy. Honestly I think I took his picture first so he didn't know it was spread frosting on your face day. Not yet anyway.
His finished cookie. I thought he did a great job. The frosting actually ended up on the cookie. That is a first.
Here is Samuel with his cookies. He didn't have as much luck with getting the frosting to stick to his cookie. It helps though (as I told him) if you don't lick the cookie every time you put frosting on it.
Here is Sam's cookie. I made him put it down so I could take a picture of it. He frosted it probably 3 more times after this one.
This picture is just for fun, and even though most of the people that read this blog live here in Utah I still love to post a picture of the first snow fall of the year. It will all be gone tomorrow (this is Utah remember), but I love to look at the snow. Driving in it is a different story all together, but it is beautiful.

A Quick Update

The Dryer is fixed! All is again right with the world. . . ok all is right again with my laundry room. Thanks again to Jeff Dickson for fixing it!

This Post Has a PG-13 Rating!

I had the oddest day today. It will go down in history and will be talked about (and laughed about) for years to come. I will start at the beginning. This morning I was awakened to what sounded like a woodpecker pecking at the wall behind my head. I said to myself "stupid bird!" and banged on the wall. I got out of bed and heard what sounded like another bird stuck in my laundry room. I opened the door slowly so as not to have a bird fly out at me, but when I looked in. . . nothing. I went in put some laundry in the dryer to dry and washer to wash. We had breakfast and started our Saturday cleaning. After my load in the washer was done I went in to switch it. When I went to take the dry clothes out of the dryer they were all still wet. Well I of course went to the obvious conclusion that I had forgotten to start the dryer. When I touched the button nothing happened. "Oh Crap!" I thought I can't afford another dryer. So we messed around with it. Nothing, wouldn't go. So we looked up dryers on the Internet and even went and looked at a few, but decided to wait to buy one. Today was the BYU game and so we had our friends the Dickson's over to watch the game. We told them of our dilemma and Jeff who is an electrician offered to have a look at the dryer see if it was something he could fix. After only a few seconds Troy comes down and says to me "Honey, there really was a bird in our laundry room today." I was of course surprised. I asked him if it got stuck behind the dryer and he said "Nope, it some how had gotten into the dryer vent from outside and made its way down and got himself stuck in the motor and died." My first thought of course was "EEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!" So he went back up, only to come running back down to say that Jeff had just tried to pull it out and the head came off! Of course my first thought was "EEEEWWWWWW" my next thought was well now I have to see it and grab the camera cause this is totally bloggable. So here is the PG-13 part of the picture of the dead and decapitated bird. Please stop here if you don't want to see the picture. But if you can you have to keep reading cause it sooo doesn't end here.
.

So after we debirded the dryer Jeff tested it and Huzzah it works. In attempting to put the dryer back together he some how (we still are unsure how) touched metal to electricity and tried to electrocute himself! The lights flickered and we could see from down the hall the sparks! Luckily no one was hurt (besides the bird of course) but he fried a (perfectly good prior to this point) part of the dryer so we are back now to a broken dryer!!! I swear it is all true. If you want to call the Dickson's you totally can. Thankfully we found the part we need and Troy can pick it up on Monday and Jeff is going to come back and "fix" it again. And he said he would help us get on the roof and see if we can't keep the birds out from now on!!!!!!

THE END!

Moving Forward

I was released from and called to yet another calling on Sunday. I can't decide if I am just super popular or if I have done such a bad job with each of these callings that they have to move me around so I don't do too much damage. This is my 4th calling in under 3 years. I am not quite sure why but it is what it is anyway. I was the assistant secretary ( or as Heidi likes to call it "The assistant to the assistant to nobodies assistant secretary") in the Relief Society. I thoroughly loved this calling. I think that is my problem. I have loved each of my callings. I loved my Primary teacher calling, I loved to lead the music in relief society, and I loved my relief society calling. I have now been called to serve as the Nursery Leader so as soon as I love this calling I am sure I will move on from here too. I was really sad when I was released and had to move on, but yesterday while I was singing with the nursery kids and listening to them sing "I am a Child of God" I couldn't sing because I felt the spirit so strong and I decided that this is where I needed to be. I think that those sweet kids are some of the neatest of all. I love to hear their little testimonies, and watch there eyes brighten when they are touched by the spirit. I really am glad to have the opportunity again to spend some time with the nursery kids, and I hope that they have some patients while I learn the ropes. I have some big shoes to fill.

What To Do When. . .

My Dad in a Genius. I don't know if that statement is actually true or not. I haven't seen his test scores or anything but the last time when went shopping he proved it.
So to finish the title of the blog it should read: What to do when your 18 month old falls asleep in the car on the way to the store. Always a dilemma in our family. There is always one that falls asleep. And for some reason they don't have little cribs on wheels that you can push around the store. So when my nephew fell asleep in the car my dad had a brilliant idea. He put him in one of the big Kohl's shopping bags
He not only stayed asleep during the transfer from mom's arms but he stayed asleep all the way until we thought he was asleep enough to put him down in one of the stroller baskets. He woke up as soon as he was put down. He loved it. I think it was because it was like being back in the womb. All folded over. And the swinging action from just walking was what kept him asleep.
A warning for anyone who is as weird as we are and attempts this. They get really heavy really fast! I hope that you all are laughing as hard as we were!

My Favorite Things About Fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love that the weather gets chilly. I love that I get to pull out my hoodies and sweat shirts. I just love the feeling that is in the air around this time of year. Some of my favorite things that happen in or around October are these. . .

Women's Conference and Maggie Moo's after for Ice Cream. I love going to Women's conference. I don't go downtown or anything just to my stake center near home. But is is so nice to listen to the message that is prepared just for us as women and to do it without being interrupted every 3 or 4 seconds by children is even better. After conference we go to Maggie Moo's for ice cream. Ooooo that is good stuff. I love Cold Stone/Maggie Moo's. It is just delicious. But even more then that I love to sit around and chat with the ladies in my ward. I have some of the neatest people in my ward. BYU Football. This year I have been able to go to a game because Mikayla is old enough to babysit. (It is totally Awesome!) I have been going to and loving BYU football since I was about 10 or 11. It is my favorite thing. Eating popcorn and hot dogs and watching football cheering and singing the fight song. I love it!!! I love most of all being able to go out with my sweetheart for the evening. It really is the best.
Watching the boy's play. They were playing Utah State. It was a great game.


We met up with our friends Joey and Nicole, and Jeff and Melissa. I remembered to take a picture with Joey and Nicole and forgot to take one with Jeff and Melissa. I love to get to see friends at the game.
Decorating for Halloween. Our decorations are modest but I still love them anyway. I love to get our the boxes and watch the kids get all excited. I love to listen to them talk about what they are going to be for Halloween. I love the way that it changes the look of the house and also the feel and mood inside. Our front door. The pumpkin in the picture was grown by my friend Melissa in her garden. I don't know if you can tell how big it is but trust me it is really big, but it wasn't her biggest. I was blown away!
The table center piece. I have more pictures I wanted to post but my blogger isn't working right so hopefully I will be able to post some more later.