PLAYING CATCH UP...........

First, Halloween.....we had a lot of fun. It was a week full of lot's of part's and dressing up. As my kids get older, I get less and less excited about spending money on costumes and more excited about seeing what we can come up with on our own. This year, Madi decided to be a baby. Not too hard to come up with things for that, since MY baby is not that old. Well........she is almost 2, but still.

And Wyatt......well, no surprise here. He wanted to be a hunter. Camo, guns and all!!!

And my little bumble bee!! She was so cute and fun this year. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the back, but she has little wings and a little stinger. Super Cute!! She started out a little shy, but after a few minutes, she was walking on her own and trying to say "Trick or Treat!!"

And the canning is FINALLY done!!! This was all a first for me, but I really enjoyed it and we are so excited to have our cupboards and freezers full for the winter!!

We did pickled and frozen beets,

bottled and frozen beans, and frozen peas (minus the picture)

Thanks to a GREAT friend I have bottled peaches that my family LOVES! :0

(My frozen beans)

Frozen corn, and corn on the cob.

And a TON of apple sauce!! My kids LOVE this. This one was a HUGE mess. But we had lot's of help and lot's of fun!!! :)

I also did apple pie filling and stewed tomatos. Those I did not get pictures of because they all got put away before I could snap the shots!!!

I am so greatful for my mom who taught me how to do the beans and beets, and how to use a pressure cooker! Those things are scary!! I am greatful for good friends, Heidi for teaching me how to do peaches. For Kasha for all of the help with the corn. We did a TON of corn and made a HUGE mess, but we had A LOT of FUN and LAUGHS!!! :) For Brandon and J'Lene for helping with the apple sauce and apple pie filling, and also for there HUGE help in picking the apples. We did use a few of them!!!! :) For my mother in law, for helping me with the last of my beans. And especially for my husband for planting the garden and taking such good care of it so that I had a reason to be able to learn all of these things! Next year..........he wants a bigger garden. UM......I don't know if I have enough room in my storage room!! :0

OUR MUCH NEEDED VACATION..........

The 9th through the the 14th of October Bryan and I and the kids enjoyed a MUCH NEEDED vacation to Park City with my parents. They have a time share there and we go and enjoy a couple of days with them every year. This year, it worked out that we got to spend 6 days!!! And we LOVED every minute of it!!

This is Oakleigh with my new nephew Creed. She is such a baby lover and is always wanting to hold them and give them kisses and loves.

The condo has 8 hot tubs and 1 big swimming pool. My kis LOVE the water. They would have been in heaven spending every second in the pools. We took them down every night for a while, and when we weren't out shopping, they were down at the pools. I wonder sometimes if they are really fish?!!!! :)

Every year we spend atlest 1 day at Cabella's for the guys!!! We get up and get ready and drive to Cabella's. We spend a couple of hours looking around and then go up stairs and have lunch in their little caffateria area. The food is really pretty good!! They have lots to choose from.

My kids love to look at the animals that they have displayed and to feed the fish. We always have to go to the big fish aquarium and watch them feed the fish. Wyatt loves the guns. Him and my dad and Bryan could spend forever in there. Infact, this year, they spent two days there. On tuesday while us girls went to the outlets, they went back to Cabella's.

Ya, she is a little young!! But why not start them early right?!!!! This is a little target shooting area that they have and the kids spend a lot of time, and money, here too!!!!

Isn't she the cutest?!! :) She is so much fun, always making us laugh!!!

Wyatt catching a fish!!

I don't know if you can see it very well, but this was when they were feeding these fish. They drop a bunch of little fish in from the top and all of these fish go CRAZY!!! Some of them will even attack other fish that have the food in their mouth.

The girls spent a lot of time at the outlets. We pick the perfect time to go every year. And every year I get quite a bit of my Christmas shopping done while we are there. I wish they had those kinds of sales around here!! But if they did, I guess I wouldn't enjoy going to Park City!!

CARVING PUMPKINS.....

We had a fun family home evening with some good friends of ours last week. My kids pumpkins came out of our garden this year. They were still a little green, but they were fun to carve anyway.

Even my little Oakleigh got her hands in there cleaning out the pumpkin.
Sorry about some of my pictures, they turned out blurry. Not sure why. :(

Ya, my kids are weird!! But what do you expect when their buddy isn't a very good example?!! Nice Brandon.....look what you are teaching my kids!!!!!! :)

Oakleigh had a little help from her daddy with her pumpkin. But it sure turnded out cute!!

Oh, and we had dinner before we carved pumpkins. I didn't take any pictures, but it was the funnest thing. J'lene did dinner in a pumpkin. She just took the pumpkin and cut the top off and cleaned the inside as if you were going to carve it. Then they put it in the oven and cooked it for a while, then they made a soup and put it in the pumpkin and cooked for another hour. When you can poke a fork through the pumpkin it is done. Pull it out and serve the soup out of the pumpkin. And you can eat the inside of the pumpkin too, tastes just like squash. It was SOOOOOO YUMMY!!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY G-MA!! :)

YES, it is time for an update!! We have been SUPER busy the last couple of months. I am not going to blog about everything, but there are a few things that we have done are ARE blog worthy. First, my G-MA turned 90, yes 90, on the 11th of September!! My mom and I and my sisters put together a Surprise Party for her. And she was SURPRISED!!!!

I have so many fun memories with my grandma from when I was little till now. It is so fun to sit and talk about all of the fun things that we did with her. She will sit and laugh with us forever!! One of my favorite memories with grandma was one year we got together for Thanksgiving at my Aunts house. After dinner a bunch of us sat down to play Chicken Foot. For those of you who don't know, Chicken Foot is with dominos. You add on your dominos by the number and it starts looking like chicken feet. When you are down to one domino, you are supposed to yell chicken foot. Well.......G-Ma, she had one domino left and she got so excited that instead of yelling Chicken Foot, she yelled "Chicken Sh$*!!" Yes, she had us rolling and laughing!!!!

When Madi was born, I decided instead of calling her "Great Grandma", I wanted Madi to call her "Grandma the Great"!! And it stuck. That is what we call her. Well, that is what my kids and call her. I have given her the nick name "G-MA"!!

I am SOOOOO greatful for my grandma and the wonderful example she has been to me and my family. I do not know what I would do with out her. She is so happy and so healthy. I hope that we get to celebrate many more birthday's with her!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY G-MA!! WE LOVE YOU!! :)

LABOR DAY.....

Again a late post. But here it is! We had a GREAT Labor Day!! Usually we go to the fair on Labor Day but not this year. Infact this year, we didn't go to the fair at all. Different for us, but not the end of the world!! :0 We had some friends invite us to go boating. We weren't sure how things would turn out because the weather wasn't so warm, but it was a TON of fun and the kids LOVED it! It was actually warmer in the water so my kids loved the tubing!

We went to Ririe Resivoir. We put the boat in and found a dock and unloaded the coolers and a few things. We had a little picnic with the kids and spent the rest of the afternoon in the water!!

Wyatt just HAD to take his fishing pole. While we were at the dock he tried a little fishing, with NO luck! But he LOVED it anyway!

Wyatt, Braelyn, and Kamia!

Doesn't she look SOOOOO HAPPY!! This was actually her first time in a boat! And she LOVED it as much as the rest of us!!

Madi and I on the tube!

Madi and J'Lene on the tube!!

I had to stick this picture of Brandon in because I thought it was so AWESOME the way he rode this tube. Seriously, he was like Spider Man on this thing the way he would fly and climb side to side with the waves and trying to stay on. I didn't get a picture, but this guy caught some air once or twice! Bryan was driving and took him for a couple of pretty good rides!!

And Brandon gave Bryan a couple of pretty good rides too!!!!!! :)

Wyatt enjoyed more of a slow ride. Brandon told them when they were ready to come in to pat their heads. So that is what he did!!

At the end of the day J'Lene and I took it EASY!! We had a nice relaxing ride back in to load up the boat. Thanks Brandon and J'Lene for a GREAT day!! Can't wait to do it again!! :)

BACK TO SCHOOL....BACK TO SCHOOL

I know, school started almost a month ago. But here it is. Late? Yes!! But I am now caught up!! Madi is in 5th grade this year and LOVING it!! She has Mrs. Clayton. It has been an interesting last few weeks. She has become very independent. She got herself and alarm clock and gets herself up every morning. She gets herself breakfast and gets herself ready. It was a little hard for me at first to accept that she is growing up and not my LITTLE girl anymore, but it's great that she is such a big help.

Wyatt is in 1st grade this year. His first year going all day. He doesn't love it so much. He has never been a fan of school and can't wait till he gets home. But for the most part is doing well. This was also his first year riding the bus.....and yes, it was hard for me. :(

It's always hard to go back to school after such a fun summer. But it's nice to have structure and schedule. And lot's to look forward to in the fall and winter!!