FHE in December

I love Family Home Evenings in December, because they are already pretty much pre-planned, sweet and simple, with a built-in message (and usually a necessary treat!)
We usually decorate our Christmas tree on the first Monday in December and it seems to get even more fun every year. I love watching my kids get all excited about each ornament. It reminds me of when I did the exact same thing growing up. Brielle seriously wanted to put up the star, but Daddy is the only one even close to tall enough!

Last year we began the tradition of writing a letter to Jesus about what we want to give Him for His birthday each year. Each child gets to decide what would make Him most happy, write it in a note, then place it on the tree. It's a great way to bring the celebration back to the Savior, and it often provides a bit of comic relief as well. Brielle's first two attempts (which, unfortunately didn't make it into the card because everyone was too busy laughing to spell it for her) began with "maybe He would like some cards!" and "how do I spell, 'Dear Jesus, you are sooo cute!'" Gotta love her!

A "love"ly Thanksgiving weekend

We had ourselves a Thanksgiving weekend full of fun, delicious food, great shopping, and gobs of love!
Love is ...
Brielle and Sienna snuggling on the couch instead of falling asleep, just cause they "haven't seen each other in forever!" Love is.... showing Aunt Heather lots of love over our oreo turkeys,

just cause we know how much she needs it!

Love is squishing 5 cousins into the 2 closest chairs at a 10-chair table, because waffles just taste better that way!

Love is ... Lucy putting up with Uncle Jody's antics,

and even bonding with Trayson over computer games (while the entire pathetic family stares and giggles for a good 15-20 minutes).

I love my family!

Fall Crafts

I usually don't actually get a major urge to craft until all the Christmas tunes start blasting on the radio, but this year has been a serious exception. I don't know if it's because I'm really trying hard to start making my gifts earlier, or what, but each time I try to focus on Christmas, I end up with another autumn themed decoration. Oops!

Burlap has totally been making me happy this season. I think it just seems to fit out here on our mini-ranch! We had a fun Relief Society activity where we got to make book-pumpkins --- right up my alley! I have to admit that I didn't actually cut them out -- I left that to my super crafty friend, but I did do the rest. I think we were only meant to learn how to make one, but I ended up with an adorable little trio! And they look so cute with my floral wire pumpkins!

My last craft was really just an FHE cop out. It was Monday night, I had no plan, and I REALLY didn't feel like coming up with a lesson. For me, finding a branch, spray painting it, stuffing it into an old spray-painted pot, and cutting out a million paper leaves seemed way easier than coming up with a spiritual thought.

I was sure the kids would just roll their eyes and demand a treat, but it has been one of my favorite things this year and is sure to become a trad ition. The things my kids are thankful for make me smile everyday!

Just a quick laugh

I may get around to posting pictures again someday (my kids are still truly adorable, I swear!) but for now I just had to jot down some recent conversations I had with Brielle that totally cracked me up!

After preschool, yesterday, Brielle and I had a delightful conversation that went a little something like this:
Brielle: "Hey, Mom, neither one of my teachers told me how beautiful I looked today!" (seriously broken-hearted face!)
Me: "Well they don't have to say that every day, do they?"
Brielle; "Uh yeah" (eye roll)
Me: "My friends noticed how cute you looked today"
Brielle: "Oh, well, ok. But I probably should've told them that this dress is new "(new as in, we just found this adorable little dress in a box that I had completely overlooked --thanks again Hayley!)
Me: "I actually did"
Brielle: "Oh good. Thank you!" (serious relief)

Help me! What have I done to this child?

Later on, she was helping make some Christmas presents (cause I'm totally on the ball like that!) and asking all sorts of Christmas questions. She wanted to know why we talk about joy so much at Christmas, so I reminded her that it's because we are celebrating Christ's birth.
Brielle: "Oh yeah. I already know all about that. Tray told me last night. Then Kutter overheard so he totally joined our discussion".

REALLY?

Soccer

Since I can't seem to download my more recent pictures (like Halloween!) I've decided I might as well post some of the stuff that didn't quite make it to my blog this fall.
Soccer season was even more crazy that usual, this year. We had three kids on three different teams, and of course we caved and agreed to coach Brielle's team.

It was actually pretty fun to watch Tray's team this year. He's getting really good and his team did awesome!


Brielle's games were more for comic relief. I love this pic --Jody told the kids to give us their ready faces.Pretty much the only time Brielle was able to kick the ball was when Jody let her kick off or do a corner kick . . .

...I love that this picture shows how far the ball actually went after the kick!
That's quite the kick!
Is it just me, or does she seem to be the only kid running away from the ball in this picture?



Kutter's games were a lot of fun to watch, too.
He 's getting really good and had a blast because two of his best friends were on his team!I am so relieved that it's finally over -- at least until spring!

Last Weekend

Most people probably considered this weekend their last blast before the outdoors freeze up and turn from gold to a murky gray--their last chance to play before winter sets in. For us, last weekend was the pinnacle of all our fun until the holidays roll around.

The fun started with the delight of having a visit from Grandma and Grandpa -- who came on Wednesday for an extra long weekend! This meant that Brielle had the pleasure of dragging Grandpa along with Daddy for her very first field trip -- to the pumpkin patch and corn maze. She could hardly sleep the day before and was so enthusiastic that it almost made them as excited to join her.

The best part of that whole deal was it meant Breje and I were free to spend a whole day with Grandma in Boise -- and we literally shopped til we dropped!


The only way this weekend could get better was by having Travis, Hayley and the girls arrive on Friday afternoon. We kicked the celebration into high gear with another trip to Boise for dinner.
I'm pretty sure Brielle and Sienna were the only ones who didn't notice what a long, hungry drive that was!
We eventually made it and delicious Mexican food was had by all -- along with yummy brownie sundaes for Kutter and my birthdays! Whooo hooo!The real highlight of the weekend was that Kutter was able to be baptized. I got this shot just while we were waiting for everyone to arrive. Can you tell that Kutter is "seriously nervous and really happy"?
We were able to have a very simple, small ceremony with just our friends and family, and the only thing that could've made it better is having the rest of the fam there!


Grandma Linda always makes a special baptism book for the kids to remember their special day. Besides all the fun pictures, she includes a personal testimony from everyone in the family that the kids can read whenever they want.
It was a pretty big hit and Kutter even admitted to me later (although if you tell him that you read it here I will deny it with all my heart and then hunt you down!) that he cried when he read all of the testimonies. We were pretty much worn out after all that, so we spent the rest of the weekend eating great food, playing games, and just watching the kids hang out.

You can't really beat that weekend!

Kutter's Eighth Birthday!

I can't believe our little Kutter has reached the age of accountability! There are so many things to love about Kutter, but I think my favorite is his sheepish grin! I adore how much he loves school and how quickly he makes friends. He loves all things boy -especially sports, which is why we threw him a football party for his birthday. I tried and tried to get him to agree to USU colors, but he's officially ditched my team in favor of BSU blue and orange -- we'll try to forgive him! I'm kind of proud of my BSU blue turf tablecloth ....... it was supposed to be bad weather, so I planned all sorts of football themed games -- a football toss and football bingo...

.l. but I was thrilled when I was able to ditch that plan and just send them outside to play football!

I eventually had to let them in for dinner -- good ole ball park franks, blue and orange nachos and some nasty orange gatorade. They thought they'd died and gone to heaven!

I have to give Jody credit -- I started whining about Kutter wanting a real cake and not just cupcakes (I am so not one of those talented cake decoraters) so Dad stepped in and created Kutter's football cake!

Gift time was the best part! You know you got good stuff when you're older brother is sneaking up behind you to snatch your new toys!

He liked his new BSU shirt way more than he's showing. I swear! Happy Birthday Kutter!

Feelin Crafty

It hasn't exactly been feeling like fall around here lately, but something happens to me when the kids go back to school and I just desperately need to craft. The problem that I constantly run into is that there are hardly any places to buy craft supplies in this small town -- so I literally jumped for joy when I found this idea somewhere out there in blog-heaven. The supply list was surprisingly do-able.
Old sweaters: check
Twine: check
Rubber bands: check
Stuffing: Well, you're supposed to use actual stuffing, but if you're as cheap as me then you just use the wasted pieces of the sweater and then you feel even less terrible about cutting it up in the first place). So check!
The cost of this adorable little pumpkin patch? Totally and completely free. That's not even the best part. It involves no sewing and it's completely possible to complete them in one afternoon (as long as you and your friends are prepared to completely ignore all of your sweet little girls and not notice that all the flowers have been decapitated and a frog may or may have lost his life in what possibly could have been a science project gone horribly awry!)

Such lovely proof that summer is not quite over... ... do you love her outfit? Nothing says "I will never trust daddy with a hose" like wearing a bathing suit to help wash the car....

.. and you didn't miss the perfect pairing of the black cowboy boots did you? Which brings me around to mentioning that the other day, when I was dropping Brielle off at preschool and didn't have anything scheduled, I asked her what I was ever gonna do without her during class. She thought for just a few seconds and then replied, "Maybe you should just go shopping .... and buy me a whole bunch of shoes!" Had to ask!

And since you asked (okay, 2 of you asked!) Breje titled her poster "centered around a great oak". The oak represents how her family is her center, her ctr ring and her torch represent how important her faith is and standing for truth and righteousness. The tent symbolizes how much she loves camping and all the flowers represent her closest friends. The muic notes represent her love of music and the lightbulb represents her glorious brain! The cats represent her pets. Whew!

School Projects

I think I need to dedicate this post to my mom, in honor of all the ridiculously complicated school projects that she helped me complete in the wee hours of the night, because I either forgot all about them or just couldn't face them until the last minute. Mom, remember the miniature log cabin which counted for half of my grade in Interior Design 305? Remember helping Jody and I (yes, I was a grown married woman for crying out loud!) glue individual floor boards on until 4:30 in the morning? Even Cody helped me with that one -- his Styrofoam chimney rocked!
At least Breje has given me some advance notice so far, this year. She had me puzzling over how to create a scale model of the earth's crust for at least a week. Here's what we came up with.... ... yep, that is an enormous brownie, covered in several flavors of chocolate chips. Leave it to me to make a science project out of chocolate. Breje and I were carefully placing chocolate chips until early the next morning, and yes, that's to scale baby!
The next week she gave me the entire weekend to help her with her project for English -- a poster decorated with at least five symbols that represented her. She even convinced her friend MacKenzie to come help. I figured it would be a piece of cake.

Clearly, during all those late night creative sessions, my passed along her "seriously this is not problem and it'll be done in no time and we can still make it way cooler than any one else's" gene. At some point I convinced Breje that it'd be way easier to build a tree out of packing paper and silk leaves than to draw one. It spiraled a little out of control after that, but the good news is that she did get manage to get both projects turned in on time and received w A's! We make a great team.

Preschool

Brielle finally got to start preschool this week. It is her new favorite thing. She had butterflies and nervous giggles for an entire night before-hand and woke up with explicit instructions as to her attire and hairdo. (Not a control freak at all!) She begged for lunch at 9:00 because she knew she was supposed to go to school after lunch. She couldn't wait for pictures--apparently this is the official "I am old enough and cute enough to go to preschool" pose. Maybe Sienna taught it to her?! She went in with hardly any hesitation and gave school glowing a review when I picked her up. She told Breje that the only time she was "nuhvus" was when they did "that scout thing, with the flag, you know, the plex a burlegence"! I guess we'll be practicing that one at home for awhile!
Since she's getting so gosh-darned old these days, I find myself hanging onto her more naive moments. One of my favorites was when she demanded curly hair for our Labor Day party. When I finished she said "People are going to say that I am so beautiful, but (noticing my straight hair) they might think you just didn't do your hair!"

New Schoolyear

So, school actually began for my children last week and I am just getting around to this. Don't judge me! I currently have 3 kids in 3 different schools. One in EARLY MORNING SEMINARY. Brielle starts preschool in yet a 4th school next month. Throw in 3 kids in piano, one in Young Women's, one in scouts, groceries, play dates, exercise and seriously crappy Internet, and it is an outright miracle that these pics have finally made it to the worldwide web.

Breje's picture was taken on her first 5:30 am day -- she looked gorgeous, but let's face it, neither one of us is at our best at that time of day! At least she's smiling!The best part of taking the boys to school is that it is actually looking like daytime when they leave -- at least for now. It is also possible to take them both at the same time, and they are actually both willing to get into the car --bonus! (Do you love that Kutter looks like he's going backpacking in the Uintah's or something? This kid needs his stuff with him!)Although Brielle doesn't actually start until September, she had a way fun open house. She was seriously looking excited about it until she got there and saw all those people. She had a death grip on me until she saw the hermit crab, the fish, guinea pig, and a gecko! Then she found a slide and some dress ups. Twenty minutes later she was outright refusing to leave! Seriously? This time of year always makes me feel like they are getting way too old way too fast, so I'm trying really hard to remember the funny, innocent things they say. Brielle had a great one the other day. She woke up completely distraught, saying she had a bad dream. Now, Brielle never actually remembers here dream, but this one left a mark and she couldn't wait to share the horrors with me. "We were going camping and boating (sob, sob, sob) and we were in the truck with the windows rolled down (crocodile tears) and suddenly my necklace blew off and out the window and it got crunched!" (way more sobs). It was a bit difficult to hide how amused I was at her "tragedy", but I couldn't help be a little bit thrilled that she is still young enough that this was the most awful thing her little brain could conjur!

A Farewell to Summer

to swimming lessons -- and to learning that we'll all learn a lot more if the girls have a cute girl teacher, and the boys have a cool boy teacher.

to thinking you're the bravest kid in the world for being able to dunk your head under the water "10 times!" and believing you're floating even when some one's holding on!

to finally being brave enough to jump off that high dive

and even attempt a real dive!

to family reunions (the one's you're really really looking forward to, and even the one's you're not)

to dirt in your fingernails, your nose, your food, your bed -- and not noticing because your cousins are right there.

to the sweet imagination of childhood, that can turn a bunch of tree stumps and sticks into t "the coolest rock and roll band ever"! (the "blue bandannas" in case you were wondering!)

to making some new friends, and reconnecting with some old ones.

to slip and slides-- to those who rock that thing on their very first try (Sienna) and those who will probably never really get it (Brielle) but are having too much fun to notice.

to Popsicles, sunscreen, wet towels, picnics, and way too much candy.

to last minute camping trips, just cause the summer is almost over. to the smell of campfire permeating everything, the joy of marshmallows cooked perfectly (or not) to discovering that french fries can be had in the wild and bacon should be cooked with everything. (bacon fried pancakes -- oh yeah!)

to sleeping in way too late just cause you can, shooting stars, sleep-overs at Grandma's house and movie night smack dab in the middle of the week!