Pumpkin Carving

We're a little slow this year but we finally took the time last night to carve and paint pumpkins. It really turned out to be a fun evening with the girls. We celebrated with homemade pizza for dinner and a bath!

Let the painting begin.....(take note that it's still daylight out the window)

Ashley, my little Picaso......(take note that it is now dark out the window)....she painted her pumpkin for over 45 minutes. She kept asking if I LOVED her pumpkin. She was super proud!

The final product.......

Nicole, Where Are You?

Wednesday night I was in the bedroom helping Hannah and Ashley was at the counter finishing her treat. I knew Nicole had walked into the bathroom but I was aware that the toilet lid was down so what trouble could she get in? I remember hearing a bit of a thud but no crying followed so I fluffed it off. After finishing with Hannah, I went searching for Nicole and this is where I found her.......

Completely proud of herself......but......it doesn't end here......

I finished taking pictures of her, left her in the tub to play with the toys, and walked to the kitchen to put the camera in the cabinet. I was gone no more than 30 seconds. Upon my return, she was out of the tub! I turned to Hannah and asked if she'd gotten Nicole out. NO....she was getting ready for bed. Ashley was in her room getting ready for bed. THE LITTLE STINKER CLIMBED OUT!! Oh dear, I think we're in trouble!!

Tagged by Jen T......

7 THINGS I CAN DO:
*bake
*cook (yes, baking and cooking are different!!)
*ride a bike
*scrapbook
*read
*make people laugh
*love my kids and husband

7 THINGS I CAN'T DO:
*ice skate (tried to learn at 18.....bad move)
*snow ski
*gleek
*sing (I think I'm pretty good in the shower though)
*text (it's much easier for me to just dial the number and chat)
*I can never find the picture inside the 3D/4D pictures.....totally bugs me!!
*drive a motorcycle

7 THINGS THAT ATTRACT ME TO MY HUBBY:
*his optimism
*his laid back attitude
*his ability to be a good dad to our three girls
*his ability to fix most anything
*his looks
*his big heart
*his willingness to serve others

7 THINGS I ALWAYS SAY:
*get your clothes changed!
*we're leaving in five minutes!
*don't talk, touch, or look at each other!
*Ashley, take your finger out of your mouth
*Are you kidding me?
*Whatever
*Bless it and Release it (you have to see the hand and foot movement with this one)

7 THINGS I LOVE TO EAT:
*chocolate chip cookie dough
*Grandma Nana's famous homemade fudge (I have some now...it's so good!)
*pizza
*paprika chicken from Copper Mill
*scrambled eggs with cheese
*Utah truffle from El Sol
*chicken alfredo
*diet coke

7 FRIENDS I TAG:
*Emily Snow
*Jessie H
*Risa A
*Heather E
*Kendal
*Brianne
*Pat

Another Week Gone By

It has been a week since I last posted. Last week was a busy week but nothing major or exciting occured. I can't really think of what to post, so I'll go ahead and give a recap of the days.


Monday
Nicole had her one year check up on Monday. She ended up with a clean bill of health and six shots. Yes, six shots. Five vaccines and a flu shot. Poor girl. She actually handled it quite well. She was upset with the shot idea and made sure I heard about it all the way back to Traci's from the doctor's office. As far as soreness, oneryness, or fever, she had nothing. What a champ.


Nicole weighs 19 pounds 13 ounces (25%), she's 28 1/2 inches long (25%), and her head circumference is 45 (40%). She's doing great!


Tuesday
This day ended up having Dave find someone to cover his Peer Court so I could go to an Enrichment Committee meeting. Well, after driving around trying to find the house that the meeting was at, I came home to contact the leader. Yea, the meeting was changed to Thursday night. Oops! They forgot to call and let me know.



Wednesday
This is a busy night of the week. This night is gymnastics for Ashley and TaVaci (singing/performing group) for Hannah. After work, I met Dave at the Sheriff's Office so I could get a flu short. How bizarre is it that the jail nurse gave me my flu shot? I actually had to walk to the medical area of the jail. I did see some inmates fixing dinner and I remember one lying in a cell. A little freaky!!!


Dave decided to tag along for the running around of kids so we were off to pick up Ashley and Nicole from Traci's to get Ashley over to the Sports Academy for gymnastics. We watched her for 20 minutes and then ran back to Traci's to pick up Hannah and take her to TaVaci. Hannah's treat on Wednesday is getting out of school at 1 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. and getting to stay longer at Traci's while Ashley is taken to gymnastics.


Grandma Peterson gets off work early on Wednesdays to pick Ashley up from gymnastics (4:45) while I run Hannah to TaVaci which begins at 4:50. We loves grandma!!! After dropping Hannah off, Dave, Nicole, and I met Grandma P and Ashley at Albertson's for a few groceries. Once that was done we picked up Hannah at 5:45 and headed home.


Phew! Wednesdays are crazy!!


Thursday
Dave had a Mt Crest football game Thursday at 7 p.m. and Hannah and Ashley were scheduled for flu shots at 5:10. After work, I picked up the girls from Traci's and we went shopping for clothes for Hannah. Some shopping was done with no luck in finding pants for Hannah that she will wear. We went for flu shots and then to dinner with Grandma P at Chili's (the girls favorite). After dinner, we went to DI looking for clothes for Hannah. She is going through a hard stage right now where she won't wear any clothes. There is something wrong with EVERYTHING! We actually found her a bunch of winter shirts, two skirts, and a pair of pants. She was in heaven! She loves her new shirts, wore one of her new skirts to church on Sunday and actually wore her new pair of pants to school today with out bocking at anything. Small miracles do happen!


Friday
Dave had to work this night doing shoulder tap, which is where they get young kids (decoys) to try and get adults to purchase alcohol for them. So, with Dave going to work us girls decided to play!


Thursday while at Grandma P's Hannah saw a commerical for High School Musical 3. It came to the theatre on Friday. She so badly wanted to go. She asked if Grandma could take her Friday night. I told her that I would check online to see if there were still seats available but I was thinking that it would be sold out where it was opening day.


Friday while dropping Hannah off for school, she reminded me to check online for tickets. While looking for tickets and chatting with my mom we decided to take both Hannah and Ashley to the movie for a "girls date" and we had Grandpa Welker watch Nicole.


The movie was interesting. I think I left a total of four times to take kids to the bathroom (note to self.....don't share the big drinks with the kids......bad idea!). Hannah even got to the point that she went three times by herself! Ashley had ants in her pants. She could not hold still. I think through it all we got the jest of the movie and Hannah seemed to love it.


After picking up Nicole from the Welker's, we headed to Paradise for dinner at the Cracker Barrell. Again, Ashley could not hold still but we survived. We lost Nicole's binki in the car on the ride to drop Grandma P off at her car. We still couldn't find it and had to drive from Providence to Mendon with Nicole hysterically crying in the car because she was tired and wanted the binki. We survived....barely!


Saturday
Dave headed south with his brother to a snowmobile show in Salt Lake. The girls and I headed to town after Nicole's morning nap and went shopping to get Grandma P a new cell phone and to Sam's club for a few household things. The rest of the afternoon/night was spent at home. HURRAY!


Sunday
This was the regular church day and then Hannah and Ashley were picked up by Grandma P to spend the afternoon with her. Me, Dave, and Nicole had our Sunday afternoon naps and then headed to Grandma P's for a yummy steak dinner and to pick up the two girls. It's always fun having a nice relaxing and lazy Sunday afternoon.


Monday
Here we are to Monday again. I woke up this morning with a head cold so that's a bummer. All four of us (me, Dave, Hannah, and Ashley) went to the dentist after work and school today. I am happy to report that there were no cavities! Hurray!!!! They do want Hannah to go back and have a sealer put on her permanent molars. I need to check into it with the insurance company and then decide if it's a good thing to do. I guess it's for preventative measures. Has anyone done it with your kids? I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Here we go with another week. We'll keep you posted!

Some other fun weekend things.....

Here's a few other fun things I captured with the camera over the weekend.

Dave and I have been trying to break Ashley from her finger sucking habit. Thursday night I put some oregano spice on her finger nails so she wouldn't put them in her mouth. Outside the bedroom door was some of Nicole's socks on the floor that needed to be put away. When Dave and I went to bed this is how we found Ashley:

I guess she didn't want to take any chances of putting her fingers in her mouth!

Dave changed the oil in the van on Friday afternoon. Nothing like starting them young with learning how to maintain the car!

Happy Birthday Nicole

Nicole turned one on Friday! I cannot believe how quickly this past year has gone. Thursday and Friday was UEA (Fall Break) so me, Dave, and Hannah were all out of school. Even though Friday was Nicole's official birthday we didn't celebrate until today. She did do a few fun things on Friday. She went for rides with Hannah in the golf cart. Dave strapped the car seat in the golf cart for safety. She had her first day of walking outside with shoes and no walker. She played in her car seat, which was out of the van while I vaccuumed, fell out and received her first scraped nose. She also got to spend the night at Grandma Peterson's so Dave and I could have a date night (Ashley and Hannah were at Grandma and Grandpa Welker's with cousins). What a big day for just turning one.

Golf Cart Fun

Notice the scraped Nose and bonk on the forehead....

Tonight was the official birthday party. What a treat it was to have Great Grandma Nana come for the celebration. We had her with us for dinner and for the cake and ice cream celebration. Grandma Peterson, Grandma Welker, and Grandpa Welker were also here to celebrate.

Me, Hannah and Ashley baked and decorated Nicole's cake.

Nicole wasn't too sure about having her own piece of birthday cake. It took her a few minutes but then she got the hang of "digging in". Her favorite part was putting the frosting in her hand and squishing it between her fingers.

I believe Hannah and Ashley had more fun playing with her new toys than Nicole did. She got a piano caterpillar from Grandma Peterson, some fun playing balls from Grandma Nana, and a ball slide from Mom, Dad, and the girls. The theme for this year must have been balls!

For just turning one, Nicole is a goer. She has been walking now for three weeks. Give her three more and she'll probably be running. Hannah taught her how to climb the stairs on Friday so we now have to watch her. She can go up but she can't come down.....well, she can it's just much quicker than it should be. She can say a few words.....ought oh, dad, mom, kitty, and hi. She can sign for more and all done.

Nicole is such a fun baby. She can bring a smile to anyone's face. We love having her in our family. I can't imagine life without her.

We love you Nicole! Happy Birthday!

A View From the Kitchen Window

One of the things I love about my new house is the views! We purposely put in large windows so we could have views. I especially love being able to look out the kitchen window while doing the dishes at night and see the glow of the Temple. It is quite mesmerizing. As I was looking out the window Saturday afternoon/evening, I was awestruck at the view of the clouds on the mountains. Everything looked so fresh and clean from the rain of the day. I had to take a moment to walk out onto the patio to take a picture. The picture doesn't do justice of the actual view but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Happy Birthday Grandma Nanna!

On Friday my Grandma Nanna celebrated her 85th Birthday. Way to go Grandma! We had a family luncheon on Saturday at the Copper Mill to celebrate. It was good food and a fun time was had by all.

On Friday night the girls and I made Grandma Nanna my famous baked spaghetti. This is one of Nanna's favorites. Hannah and Ashley each made her a birthday card. It kept them occupied for nearly an hour!

While at the Copper Mill we took the opportunity to take a 4-generation picture. I put a copy of it below. There's my Grandma, my mom, me, and my three girls. A picture I will always treasure!

Happy Birthday Grandma....we love you!

Farewell to the Llamas and a few other things

Tonight we bid farewell to the llamas. They were loaded in the trailer and sent back to Nibley. Are we sad, you ask? Heavens no! It's probably in the llamas best interest to be taken back to Nibley before Dave decides to use them for target practice.

The llamas were brought to Mendon in July. We do not have a fence around our pasture so a two strand electric fence was put up. It doesn't take much to keep llamas penned up but once they find out they can get out, it's over.

We have had on and offs with them getting out since July. However, the last couple of weeks have been TERRIBLE. One llama in particular figured out how to get out on a daily basis. He has been out every day this week and twice on Tuesday.

As Dave was driving to the new elementary school in Mendon today, he turned the corner to come past our house and there it was over at the neighbors and this time he brought a buddy! Dave had had it! He made a phone call to his brother and over came the trailer and off to Nibley they went.

Let's just say I'm sure before they come back a different fence will be erected.

Here's a few other fun things that happened while playing outside tonight:

Here's a hello from Nicole. When she sees you she will wave in your direction to say "Hi".

Hannah and Ashley had a fun time playing with Bridger and Sam (cousins) on the golf cart while Nate and Dave loaded the llamas and pulled out some fence posts.

and finally, Nicole enjoyed her first Oreo cookie!