First Snow!

I came home from school the other night to find this...

I can't believe we had enough snow to build that HUGE snowman! It's so funny because it has a drain pipe for it's mouth, donuts for the eyes and buttons (which are gone now! Who ate them?), a shovel for the nose, marshmallow roasters for it's arms and my flower pot for the hat. The kids were so proud of their creation!

UPDATE:

These are the only pictures Jason took of his and Jordan's first hunting trip! Men! Jordan said he loved shooting the BB gun and riding around on the four wheeler. Jason said no one ever got drunk, which was a relief for Jordan. They had fun hangin' with the boys!

This was a moose Jason ran into on the mountain. He said they never even saw deer only moose. I'm glad I don't have to eat it!

Carving Pumpkins

To be honest I don't really LOVE carving pumpkins. I loves baking the seeds and eating them but the whole cleaning out and cutting and carving isn't my favorite. The kids did a pretty good job of cleaning out their own this year with just a little help from me. Dad is always watching some sport on TV and loves to walk around and compliment the goings on, but let's face it, isn't much help! And, someone always ends up in tears because it just doesn't turn out right! This year it was Mikayla, whose in the end turned out to be the best!

Saddie used the punch outs this year so she was done pretty quick.

Jordan did awesome carving his own skull and then some... He even messed up and was okay with it...

Nicole helped Mikayla showing her what to do. She carved a bird that ended up falling out. I saved it with some needles though.

I helped Brinley carve a cat that turned out super cute!

So here they are. Mikayla's is the bird and that's a tree not a giant hand. Jordan's is below hers with the scull. Saddie's is the star and bat face, Brinley's is the cat and Nicoles is Egore holding a skull. They all turned out very cute! We had a fun night and the kids LOVED it! That's all that matters right?

HaLLOwEEn TrEaTs!

Nicole and Matt came over for treat night. We had a yummy (scarecrow) chilli dinner and then decorated caramel and chocolate covered pretzels (witches fingers), mummy and monster cupcakes and caramel apples. We had a blast!

Nicole, Mikayla and Saddie rolling the apples.

Me and Miss Saddie

Brinley and Jordan...Jordan ate all his treats before the night was over! Talk about sugar rush!!

Admiring the apples mmmmm.....

The boyz stayin' out of the kitchen playing Nintendo.

Makin' the pretzels, aren't they pretty?

These are the cute cupcakes we did. Super fun!

Zoo time!

My friend Christy invited us girls to go with her and her girls, Nicole and Emma, to the zoo last Saturday. I was left home for the weekend with no car while Jason and Jordan were hunting so she was kind enough to come pick us up. It was such a beautiful day and there were oh so many babies!! We had so much fun and the kids were so happy to see her girls!When we first got there we saw the tiger and her three cubs. She was laying right next to the fence nursing one of them...So cute! I wish I had a better zoom

This was Nicole's birthday day and she chose to take Mikayla with her somewhere. The zoo was their choice... Happy Birthday Nicole!

Saddie girl

Mikayla and Emma

Saddie girl again... and Brinley girl...

We of course had to ride the train!

The baby elephant was by far my most favorite! Definatley worth the money just to see her! She was so cute! She came running out so full of energy running around and rolling in the mud. She climbed into a little kids pool and tried to sit in it. She was very entertaining!

The kids also loved the baby giraffe

Saddie and Emma

Nicole and 'her sculpture'...

The giant tortiose

This cute little monkey sat right against the window and watched the girls hands. He was so cute!

Kids...

Remember how I said our trampoline was well used? Well, we finally put it to rest. It had so many missing springs and we had 2 head bonks (one on a neighbor) so we decided our good ol' tramp was better off resting in peace. We bought it at a yard sale from our friend CeCe about 8 years ago and I think she bought it when I was about 14 so it is around 18 years old....Not so bad if I say so myself! The kids were very sad to see it go, in fact the next day Saddie laid it out on the grass on tried to jump on it...

This is one of my friends little girls Haylee. She and Brinley were playing school. I left them alone for maybe 10 min and came in the room to find this...

They had found my scrapbook paper and colored on probably 40 pieces and taped them all over the walls. Such silly girls!
Jason took Jordan deer hunting this weekend with some friends. It's a first time for them both. I'm secretly hoping they don't kill anything. I'm curious to see if Jason really has it in him to shoot one. He loves animals so much and has such a tender heart. I'll be sure to post his pictures. The friends they go with aren't members of the church and they drink. Jordan was so worried about being around 'drunk people'. Everything we have told him about drinking and alcohol has been 'bad' so that's all he associates it too. I'm hoping for a good teaching opportunity when he get home tomorrow...

Sweet Saddie

I had to write this before I forget. Saddie has always said the most thoughtful prayers and always surprises me with the precious words that come from her mouth during prayers. Tonight she said, "thank you for Heavenly Christ and thank you for Mom and Dad," So this was our conversation after.
Me: "Saddie, there is no Heavenly Christ, just Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ."
Saddie: "But who is that other guy?"
Me: "The Holy Ghost?"
Saddie: "Yeah, but does he live with Heavenly Christ?"
Me: "No, there is Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost"
Saddie: "Do they all live in the clouds?"
Me: "Well, they all live in Heaven"
Saddie: "Do they get to sleep and eat there?"
Me: "yeah...." (I just wanted her to go to sleep and knew she wouldn't understand otherwise)
Saddie: "But does Jesus get to sleep on the top?"
Me: "The top of what?"
Saddie: "The top of the bunk bed?"
Me: "I don't know honey" I was laughing and kissed her little face and said good night.
It was so sweet! I love the way they think! Oh, the innocence of the little ones.

Happy Anniversary!!

Jason and I have been trying to decide which anniversary to celebrate. We had both planned on the new one in November but feel like our original one is equally important. So, we're kind of doing both I guess... Today is our original. Jason had to go to Cedar City to work so we'll celebrate tomorrow and then we'll do something in Nov. too. How fun is that? One more reason to celebrate!! I love you more than anything babe, happy anniversary!!!!

She caught the cleaning bug!

Mikayla woke up yesterday and started cleaning. She has always been a really hard worker and a really good cleaner really paying attention to detail. They've all had their chores everyday too but today she did exceptionally well!! She pulled out one of the little toy bins and made it into her 'cleaning box' and I found this note inside of it.
*clean your room
*When everyone wakes up clean their room and every part
* Clean Den and front room
*Then go to living room and clean
*Clean kitchen, dishes and counter top
*Laundry room, organize
*Vacuum everything you think of up down and side to side
*Then mop, toilets, windows, then counters, then floors
*Just in case check everything again
*Go outside pick up dog crap
*Clean up back yard and front yard
*Turn on waterfall
*Then the car
*Then the basement
*Check everything again
*When your done you can PLAY!
And she did!! She cleaned this house, I mean deep cleaned from 10 am to 4 pm non-stop she scrubbed all the bathroom, shower and toilets and mopped and vacuumed the entire house! She cleaned every ones rooms, bed, toys, and dusted. She picked up, wiped and scrubbed everything in sight, It was amazing! I actually felt a little guilty a few times because I sat down to watch the news once and to read a book to Saddie while she worked so hard around us. I did help keep it clean and I did all the laundry. She was so cute and so sweet! I kept debating if I should reward her. She did this this amazing service without even being asked and it was interesting because we are talking about this in class, about how not to reward your children with food, or money, or gifts, they should be rewarded with your positive attention and self reward of feeling good and knowing they did their best should be reward enough. So I really debated this with myself. So I sat her down and told her how amazingly happy I was with her and how it is such hard work and asked how she felt about her work, she said she felt really good and happy inside. I told her I was so proud of her and then let her get back to work. She beamed with pleasure and seemed to work even harder. She didn't seem to mind not getting paid, or getting a toy. But, I gave in, about 10 min later I called her up and gave her some fake nails that I had bought forever ago, she's wanted some for so long! They were just the little press on ones, and they're really short too. She was so excited! I think they only lasted a day but it was worth it! So sweet! I was so proud of her hard work!!

Scouting Adventures

Jason and I took the Bears and the Wolff's up to Kennecott coper mine. It was really neat, I've never been there before and the boys loved watching the big trucks down in the pit. I actually was very disappointed in their visitor center. With how much money they bring in I think they could make it really neat. They also had a really really old couple running it and they kicked us out 10min early and we weren't even done with our work sheets, I wish I knew what time it was cause I would have put him in his place! Him and his little wife that was on oxygen! Okay, I know I'm being a little hostile but seriously? They knew we weren't done and he was pretty ornery with us... Oh well, we had a great time and the little scouters love it, that's all that matters, right?

Yes, Jordan is growing his hair out to look like Zack Efferon. His hair is so super straight that it's taking on a style of it's own, it has been trimmed since this picture but it is still very long and he loves it!