Happy Hauntings

Simon's birthday was on Friday. He is 4 years old now! I can hardly believe it. We had a little family party for him (except it is always big with 3 families!). He wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so that is what he got. He got some Transformers from Granmama and Grandpapa just like he wanted, and a sword and a shield from his cousins. He has been a knight pretty much ever since, he even sleeps with them. So it was a good day for him!


Here are pictures of the kids dressed up for Halloween. I had fun helping out with the boys' parties at school. With Simon I got to help with the pumpkin bowling, and there was a witch who told them a story and made witch's brew with Skeleton Spritz and Snakes Blood. Some kids didn't want to drink it, even after they told them it was really just punch. We had a fun time doing the trick or treating on Main street and then going to our ward Trunk or Treat.

Simon was an adorable bat, Eli was a dog (he wanted to be a golden retriever, this is the closest I could get). And Alice was a cute little ladybug. It was a beautiful 70 degree day on Saturday, so no need to bundle up under costumes.

My cute 3!

Fall is falling

Fall has decided to finally come. It stayed warm for so long, but now it is actually cooling off. Although this past week out here on the plains we had several 70 degree days. Of course it starts off in the 30s or 40s, and cools off quickly once the sun goes down. But it made for a lovely day at the pumpkin patch with Simon and his preschool class. We had fun and learned things too. For example, did you know that an ear of corn has 1 piece of silk for every kernel on the cob? I did not know this. The pumpkin patch had some fun things to do. We took a hay ride and watched the "Pumpkin Pulverizer" which was like a giant potato gun that shot pumpkins instead of potatoes. I bet it shot the pumpkins a quarter of a mile! They had a little straw-bale maze for the kids, and a straw tower they climbed on. And they had a corn box, like a sand box, but with dried corn. The kids thought it was pretty fun.


I had fun and Simon did too.

Alice has been sleeping much better, so that has certainly been helping me function better. Life is just busy and crazy. I had forgotten what it was like to have a 1-year old, but it is hard some days. She is very needy. We are working on communication, like getting her to use the signs we have been teaching. She is getting better at it. Some days I feel like all I do is feed children, clean up, feed children more, do more cleaning, and go to bed. I know it will get better, or at least the challenges will change. So right now it is about enduring well (it is the "well" part I am not always the best at....)

My brother and his wife are visiting. Evan has gone off hunting with Carissa's husband, so Britney is hanging out with us all week. She is here for a fun time. Halloween is coming, which means Simon's birthday and lots of fun activities. I think there is something going on just about everyday this week. Our town does a Trick-or-Treat trail down Main Street and the businesses hand out candy. They are doing that on Saturday morning this year, which is nice and will be fun. Then our ward is doing Trunk-or -Treat Saturday evening. I am sure the children will get their fill of candy. It will be fun to get them dressed up. Eli is being a golden retriever (mostly its a dog costume). Simon is being a bat (I hope, because he changes him mind daily). And Alice can be something different everyday if she wants. She has 2 ladybug costumes and a Broncos cheerleader outfit, all given to us by other people. (I think today after the Broncos pathetic performance, we will skip the cheerleader!) Lots of pictures to come!

Trying to blog

Well I sure have not been that good about posting this year. Oh well. That is the way it goes some times. I have been in a bit of a funk lately, off-kilter or something. I am blaming it on hormones trying to rebalance since I have mostly weaned Alice, and not enough sleep. Sometimes Alice does great, sometimes she is up for 2 hours in the middle of the night, like last night. Hopefully we will be getting consistent sleep soon. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Garden goodies

We are not super gardeners or anything, but we do like trying to grow a garden and get some fresh produce. And doesn't it always taste better when you know you grew it? I am no "foodie" but I do like things that taste good, and we did make some delicious food with what we grew. We tried cucumbers this year, and boy the plants went crazy. I don't really like cucumbers, but we wanted to make pickles, so we tried it out. Well....those weren't the best, but not too bad for the first try. The dill pickles came out a little less crunchy than we would have liked, but taste good. Then Joe tried to make whole bread and butter pickles, which didn't work out so well. The sliced bread and butter came out good, but I guess all that sugar is not meant for whole pickles. Oh well.

But what did come out delicious, were things we made with the fresh tomatoes and basil. With the basil, we made my brother Josh's sausage and pink sauce pasta, with lots of basil. Yummy. Also made some pesto which turned out good. Next the tomatoes. First up, homemade tomato soup. Have you ever tried making your own tomato soup? We use a recipe by Emeril, and it is scrumptious. (here's the link http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/tomato-soup-with-baby-grilled-cheese-sandwiches-recipe/index.html) As Joe put it, "How can Campbell's tomato soup and this even be called the same thing?" I highly recommend it. Next, spaghetti sauce. While my mom and dad were here, I got my mom to help me make sauce from the tomatoes we had picked and were saving until she got here. Add some fresh basil and parsley, and a few other things, and it is awesome. I am only sorry it didn't make more. And last, but not least, Three Cheese Tomato Basil Pizza. My own creation, it goes like this: pizza crust, a little bit of sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes, lay on some fresh basil leaves, slices of mozzarella cheese, crumbled feta cheese sprinkled over, and a little bit of smoked gouda layed on top. Bake it and eat it up! Delish!

So the garden was pretty good this year, I am just sorry I couldn't get my green beans to grow. I planted them twice, but they just didn't survive the heavy rain I guess. Try again next year. What do you all have success growing?

One year later

Happy birthday to Alice! I can't believe she is one already. She is a lot of fun and it has been a good year. Here is the birthday girl:

Also, Simon started pre-school this week. Here he is ready for his first day. His teacher, Miss Stacey, seems like a lot of fun. So far, he has come home each day exhausted! He gets to ride the bus to school, then I pick him up when he is done. He is getting to be such a big boy!

The other day, Alice woke up with bed-head. She actually has enough hair, so I had to capture the evidence.

And arguably the best part of summer:

That's right. Peaches. This is a peach glacee pie I made. Delicious!

Making things better

What would summer be without home improvement projects? We have made the most of the last two weeks getting as much done as we can. Earlier in the summer we made a gate in the fence. Last week I painted the bathroom (nothing special just a fresh coat of paint.) Joe fixed the outside spigot, which was in need of repair, and together we painted the fireplace. I have not like the fireplace since we moved in, but we finally did something about it. I like how it turned out. You can't see the whole room, but I think it goes well with red curtains and the area rug we have. It is hard to see in the picture, but before it was white with an ugly faux marbeling thing. Here is before and after:

Here is Alice after she crawled into the fireplace and ended up black all over:

And here are a couple pictures of the boys at swimming lessons. They both had a good time. Simon didn't want to go under water when he started, but by the end, he became a little fish.

I can't believe summer is over already! It will be good for Eli to get back to school (can't believe he is in 2nd grade!) and I am sure Simon will love preschool. What will I do with just Alice for half the day Monday thru Thursday? Hopefully get tons of stuff done!

Summer Fun

The boys were in baseball/T-ball this summer. Eli really wanted to do it, and Simon has loved baseball since before he could say baseball, we don't even know why or where he got that love. Simon did a lot better with t-ball than soccer. He happened to have the same coach, so that was fun. His team was made up of 3 Brooklyns, 2 Bodies, 2 Rileys, an Oden, and 7 other 3- to 4-year olds. I thought it was funny that there could be so many kids with the same names in our small town of Fort Morgan! We ended up at the ball fields 4 nights out of the week between practices and games, so I was somewhat relieved when it was over. Here are some pictures:

They both spent a fair amount of time playing in the dirt, such boys. We were out of town the day they handed out shirts, so Simon's shirt was more like a dress when they found him one.

My sister's husband Daniel built a flat-bottomed canoe. We loaned him our van with racks on top to take it to the resevoir to try it out. We went along. Some people didn't think it would float, but it actually worked quite well, and we all got rides. It was a fun day at the water. All our kids like the water and playing in the sand. Now we just have to convince our husbands to find jobs near the ocean so we can move there and see it more than once every few years!

I thought Cayde looked so cute in his life vest. The boys were very good and all stayed in the boat, although every time they reached over to feel the water, I was sure the whole thing would tip.