Autumn Wreath

This is the craft project I've been working on the past few days. I would have finished it in one evening, but I ran out of leaves and had to go back to the store. I really like the way it turned out. The ribbon looks a little neon in the pictures, but I think that's because it has a bit of a shimmer that reacted funny to the camera flash. It's really pretty in person. Now I just need to decide where to hang it up.

Allison is 9 Months Old!

Yes, I realize she'll be 10 months old in few days.

Yes, I realize I'm slacking in my picture taking/blog posting duties.

No, I have no excuse.

She sure is a cutie pie though!She loves to eat broccoli, unlike her brothers who think they're being tortured if we even put a small piece on their plates.And she's learned how to give a high-five and she'll get in moods where you have to give her a high-five in between each bite of food. If she doesn't get her high-five, she'll swat the spoon away.She's so much fun!

Sammich

Take two slices of white breadPut about a dozen goldfish crackers on one sliceAnd 1 red grapeTop with the other slice of bread

And you've got the first sandwich Hayden has EVER eaten in his life. He made it all by himself. Apparently he's never eaten a sandwich before because I don't make them as good as he does. Perhaps he has an aversion to condiments, who knows?. But he ate the whole thing for lunch today.

This is the same kid that picked a sparkly silver magic wand from the treasure box at school today. I love this boy!

Lost in Austen

Alright all you fans of Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, Mr. Darcy, (I prefer Captain Wentworth myself) and Elizabeth Bennett... you have got to watch this movie:
"A thoroughly modern heroine threatens to ruin one of the world's greatest literary loves stories. Bored bank worker Amanda Price literally becomes lost in her favorite Austen book after she finds a strange portal in her bathroom and swaps places with its heroine, Elizabeth Bennett. Once she gets entangled in the affairs of the Bennett family and the dashing Mr. Darcy, how can she keep this celebrated romance on track?"

One of my favorite lines: "Badly done Bingley, badly done."

And you get to meet Mr. Collins' brothers. Woot-woo!

There were two "questionable" parts, but they were short so I overlooked them. This was originally a British miniseries, so the movie is 3 hours long, but it didn't feel that long while watching it. A very fun romantic comedy. If anyone's up for a movie night, I wouldn't mind watching it again.

The World is His Canvas

You can add these to the list:

Pencil scribbles on the two-by-fours in our "construction zone." (They'll get covered up by drywall, but still!)

Yellow highlighter drawings on the kitchen tile.

*sigh*

Jared Van Gogh

Crayon on the walls in the hall.

Pencil marks on my craft project.

Pen scribbles on the computer screen.

Pencil etchings in my kitchen table.

Blue Sharpie all over Allison's bed.


I have a very artistic two-year old for sale!

Gilbert Temple

This is an artist's rendering of what the new Gilbert Temple will look like. Construction hasn't even begun yet, so it will be about 3 years before it's finished. The temple site is about 8 or 9 miles south-east from our home. The Mesa Temple is about 7 miles north-west of our house. We don't know which temple district we'll be in.

Here's an article about it from the local newspaper:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2009/09/03/20090903gr-temple0904.html

Ward Camping Trip

We had a great time at our Ward Camp Out last weekend. And the fact that it downpoured on us twice just made it all the more fun.

Allison is 8 Months Old

It's time for some new pictures of Allison. She loves to play with her uncle Chris' dog Gunner. Here she is trying to get him to play with her toys.And the other night she just wasn't tired so I let her crawl around while the boys were going to bed. When I came back to get her, this is where she had finally crashed.Side note: Kyle begged and begged to have his own room, so we moved him to the back bedroom over the summer. It didn't take long for him to realize that sleeping in a room all by yourself isn't as much fun as it sounds. So we've moved his mattress back in with Hayden and Jared while we figure out a new arrangement. That's why he's sleeping on the floor.

First Day of School Continued...

I know I'm late getting these posted, but I forgot I took these pictures, so that's my excuse.
After Hayden's first day of Kindergarten I took him out to lunch, as is our tradition (if you've done something once before, you can call it a tradition, right?). He wanted to go to McDonald's (blech!) so that's where we went. He would play on the playground and come take a nibble of his lunch, then play some more, then nibble his lunch. When it was time to go, we packed up his lunch and headed back to Grandma's house to pick up Jared and Allison.

On the way there he said, "I hope they didn't have macaroni and cheese!"

I asked him, "Would you rather have chicken nuggets at McDonald's or macaroni and cheese at Deedum's house?"

"Macaroni and cheese!"

I'll have to make a note of that. :-) So Jared ate the rest of his chicken nuggets and Hayden ate the rest of Jared's mac 'n cheese.

The First Day of School

This morning I dropped Kyle and Hayden off for their first day of school. Kyle is now in the 2nd grade and Hayden is in kindergarten. Kyle was mad at me because he wanted to ride the bus and then just as he was about to run to the playground the bell rang. So he wouldn't even say goodbye to me. He just sulked off to get in line with his class. And we forgot Hayden's sunshine nametag that he was supposed to wear this morning. So he was worried his teacher wouldn't know who he was. But he was being surprisingly good until it was time to follow his teacher into the classroom. Then he got scared and started crying, which made me want to start crying, but I was brave and waited until he got into his classroom. Then I cried all the way back to the car. Oh, and when I got home I found out that the bus never showed up this morning, so Kyle wouldn't have been able to ride it anyway. I love the first day of school.

Where's Allison?

It's time for another exciting episode of everybody's favorite gameshow..."Where's Allison?!?" *studio audience cheers*.

For today's game your clues are:
1) she's in the kitchen
2) she's crying
3) you can't see her

Any guesses?

Oh, I'm sorry. That's not correct. If you would have guessed, "In the back of the tupperware cabinet" you would have won the dinette set and year's supply of dishwashing detergent. Better luck next time.

Happy 8th Monthaversary sweet girl!

Happy 7th Birthday Kyle!

Kyle is such a sweetheart. He's so smart and fun and hard working. And being the oldest, he gets a lot more responsibility dumped on him than he probably deserves, but he's been such a big helper since Allison was born. He's starting 2nd grade next Monday and I think he likes school more than he admits. He's always up for playing a game, whether it's a board game, card game, or video game. And he can watch Star Wars or Harry Potter movies over and over and over again.

He invited a few friends over last Saturday for a party. They had fun on the slip 'n slide and got in a water fight with Clint.Today we went to Krispy Kreme in the morning to get his free birthday doughnuts. In the afternoon I took the boys swimming. And for dinner we went to Red Robin Hood (as Jared calls it).Then it was time for cake and ice cream at Deedum and Papa's house. This year Kyle wanted a Jango Fett cake (Star Wars character) but since red is his favorite color, he asked Darlene to make it red instead of white. It turned out awesome!Happy Birthday Kyle!! We sure love you!

Birthday Pictures

Kyle is almost 7, Hayden just turned 5, Jared is 2 1/2 (but we needed a group shot so he got new pictures taken too) and Allison is 7 months (but we're counting these for her 6 month pictures. (Sorry about the quality - these are just the proofs they e-mailed me. I don't have the prints yet).