Happy Halloween!!

Last night after we went out to see the Michael Jackson movie and dinner at 5 Guys, we carved pumpkins. I seem to always forget that we're suppose to do that at Halloween. Fortunately Lesa reminded me or I would have gone through another Halloween without the pumpkin carving. Maddox wasn't quite sure about all the goop that can out of them.

Steve got into the carving as much as Nathan and Christopher did.

In the end we got 3 pumpkins carved and no fingers or hands got cut. I consider that a very successful pumpkin carving night.

Halloween sugar cookies

Every year (at least I try every year) to make sugar cookies for Halloween. I wanted to make them with purple and orange frosting but I ran out of red food coloring and was too lazy to run to the store.......so we have yellow frosting. They are suppose to be bats and ghosts but you can't tell by the picture. But they are good.

It's also what we had for dinner tonight :)

And I did eat the broken cookies......yum!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy/Sad

You know.......I do pretty good with change. I've lived from one side of the US to the other, Hawaii and even Vienna. So I feel like I can adapt pretty good but when it comes to seeing these kids (including my adopted kids) leave home........it's very hard. They really get under your skin :) Kevin came by tuesday to say good-bye to all of us, especially Maddox. He went into the MTC yesterday.
Maddox loves Uncle Kevin....big smiles for him!!!!
Kevin's mom, Dena, came over too.
And Nathan made him a "good-bye" milkshake. The house is going to be so much quieter. I'm not sure I like that but I will have to adapt to it.

sick....just sick

A couple of days ago I cleaned out the apples that were down stairs in the food storage. They were going very bad. Little did I know there were fruit flies all over them and as I was hauling them to the garbage outside......some of the little buggers made a great escape in the house.

Here is the gross part......last night I went upstairs to brush my teeth and what was ALL over my toothbrush???? Yep...fruit flies! Tons of them......I would say billions!!! I yelled for Steve to come up here. When he saw it he thought it was so cool!!! Only an entomologist would think that.

Sorry...no pictures of the toothbrush but just use your imagination.

Steve said to have a small bowl of vinegar and it will attract them. There are a few dead in the bowl but not as many as were on my tooth brush.. I think I killed most of them last night as they were landing on the counter.

And this is what Maddox thinks about the whole thing.

Recent Pics. and missionary chat

I got these pictures today. But just as fun as getting pictures from Jaron is chatting with him. Every monday (if I'm home) I try to time it right so I can chat with him. I just don't know from one week to the next when he's going to be online.

Today we chatted about if he's getting trunky. He said he's not but I think he is. He's also scared to come home too. Timothy and Christopher were also but they were fine after a day or two. I reassured him that we are still as weird as when he left just older.....except for Maddox and Kingston.
He has 2 more months till he's back. By then we'll know where Nathan will be going. Everyone is growing up way too fast......it's driving me nuts!!!

Next pictures I'm going to make Jaron smile!!!

Mission Papers

Yep....my Burger did it......he turned in his mission papers to the bishop today. So I guess sometime in November we will know where and when he will be spending the next 2 years of his life. I'm so, so happy for him but the mother part of me is going to miss him to death!! I am proud of him too and no matter where he goes I know he will do GREAT!!!!






















He's such a handsome little fart :)

1950's

It's funny how some things never change. Emily was invited to a Halloween Party tonight and she wanted to dress up in the 50's. I think she looks adorable!! But when I was in high school me and some friends dressed up in the 50's too.

Here is me, Kathy and Jill all dressed up for the 50's too. This was back in our senior year of high school :)

Am I missing something here?

I took Nathan to the doctors and the dentist as part of filling out his mission papers. The doctors went fine.....as fine as it can be. Then we rushed to the dentist. We got there on time and we waited and waited. A half hour later I went up to them and asked when Nathan was going to be seen and that we've been waiting a half hour. They said........oh, we scheduled you for later cuz we thought you were going to be late.

What?

What?

I have never been late to see them. They finally call him back for his 20 minute cleaning. Over an hour later he emerges from the back. He has one cavity. They said he can come in January to get it filled. I asked if they filled out his dental papers so we could turn them in. They said that they can't till the cavity it filled and will mail them to the bishop in Jan. after the cavity is taken care of. Now I'm thinking......

"What the heck!"


(Anyone who knows me knows I wasn't thinking exactly that but for the blogs sake I'll say "heck")

I promised her that I would bring Nathan back and told her Nathan needed the paper in ASAP. I guess we'll see what happens.

I thought this whole visit was just WEIRD. Maybe it's time to change dentists.

C is for cookie

What can be more divine than chocolate and mint together? Nothing! I have made these cookies 3 times in the last week and I still can't get enough of them. I eat the raw dough, also right out of the oven, and even hours later.....I would eat them while they were cooking if I could. Maybe I'll try that next time. All it is, is devils food (of course) cake mix and mint chips. How can something so simple be so good? That is the million dollar question!

Living smaller

While watching Oprah yesterday (I don't watch her a lot. I was really tired and turned on the tv and she was on) she interviewed women from different countries. The first people she did were from Copenhagen. It was nominated as the happiest place to live. There were lots of reasons but one that hit me was that everything is smaller and they didn't have a lot of "stuff". They lived simple.

I remember when we lived in Vienna we lived in a two bedroom apartment and it was very small. When our shipment finally arrived we had no idea where to put the stuff and found out that we didn't even need it. I learned that we can live on so little and still be happy


This was one of my most favorite, favorite stores in Vienna.

The Cafe Sperl was right across the street from us. In Europe, people go out to eat more and they spend a long time at the restaurant just talking with friends. I miss that too. Very relaxing.

These two pictures are the apartments across the street from us. It was taken out our apartment window.

I do miss a lot of things about Vienna. The transportation system, the architecture, small housing and simple things, eating out and talking for hours, but I also missed a lot of things here (in Utah). I'm wondering if I can bring some of what I learned there back here. I'm glad I watched her show cuz it was a good reminder to me. It's so easy for me to get caught up in "things".

Half Marathon....completed!

Look who ran a half marathon.......yep, Steve. Him and his friend ran one in Moab last weekend and they ran the whole thing!!! Look at their big smiles as they are crossing the finish line :)

They even got awarded metals for completing the race.....which they totally deserve!!! I think they should be made of gold for what they have just done.

They are already talking about running the half marathon in March down in Moab. But now they are wanting me and Steve Hawks' wife to run too.........the 5k though.

Congrats again!!!! You guys did great and what a huge accomplishment!!!!

The Scarecrow Festival

Yesterday was the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was so stormy out. You can tell how windy it was by looking at Emily's dress. It's blowing to the side. Luckily the performance was in an open tent but the wind really whipped through it!!!

Here are some pics of Emily during the performance.

All the girls did really good. You can tell they work really hard getting ready for this. I always love watching Emily dance!!

Farewell Kevin

Yep......I went to another farewell today for one of "my boys". Going to these is almost like a marching band reunion-family that you've missed and haven't seen in so long. It's so much fun!! But Kevin is leaving to Brazil also.

Kevin and his sweet mom, Dena.

Me and Emily with Kevin. I know Emily is going to miss him a lot too.

And Maddox is really going to miss him. He just loves him. When Kevin walks into our house Maddox always gives him a huge smile and starts flapping him arms. It's funny to watch.

Farewell Kevin and you are going to do great in Brazil!!! You will always be in our prayers!!!!

Little pieces of joy.

You know what's fun to watch? Maddox's smile when you put him on a pile of clean laundry right out of the dryer. He loves it and tries to roll around in it. And of course, find something to put in his mouth :)

Stephanie also came over and held Maddox for awhile. We had lots of people over last night and he got tons of attentions!!

Look at the pan of brownies......gone.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Happy Birthday Mom!! I found a bunch of random pics. of my mom to put up here. This one is of me and Greg when we were little.

And here is 4 generations of women. Mom is on the very left, grandma Jeffries, me and Em.

Mom and Christopher. Look at how much taller he is than her. Hee hee!

Here mom is with Christopher and Timothy. She has always been a very good and supportive grandma to our kids.

Mom and Dad......cute couple!!

My mom is many things.......mom, grandma, great grandma, daughter, aunt, wife, friend and many, many more. She is a wonderful person!!! Have a wonderful day and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!