Leaves

Yesterday we raked and bagged up all the leaves in the front yard. Then mowed the lawn. It took about 2 hours, but it looks great now. We ended up with 9 full garbage sacks of leaves. And when we were all done, I looked up at the tree and you can't even tell that any leaves have fallen. There are so many still up there. I love having big trees, but the clean up in the fall is sure a lot of work. And we didn't even start in the back yard where the really big tree is.
This year I have been observing my neighbors and their methods of leaf clean up. The people across the street told us to put all the leaves on your garden area and it kills all the weeds and is good for the soil. So I think that's what we're going to do with the leaves in the backyard. I watched them and they pile theirs on a big tarp and drag it onto the garden area. That will be a lot easier than bagging it all up.

Family Football Finger Food Feast

Today for the BYU football game, we made a bunch of food and had a picnic in our family room while watching the game. We had mini pizzas, chimichangas, popcorn chicken, tater tots, garlic bread, chips and 7 layer dip, and lots of cookies and candy. It was way too much food (and all junk) but so much fun.

Halloween

Dressing up, getting free candy, what's not to love?

Last night we participated in our first "Trunk or Treat". It was so much fun. There were a lot of cars that were decorated so well. I had to help with the Primary kids at the beginning so we didn't have any time to decorate our vehicle, so we just played scary music while Jason handed out the candy. But, I was really impressed with some others. There was one SUV that made the whole back into a little graveyard and they had dry ice and everything. It was pretty spooky. My favorites, though, were the ones that made their trunks into mouths. There was one with big spiky teeth, so it looked like a big mouth. There was another that wasn't quite as scary, but it was cool because they made a big tongue inside it too. It was pretty cool.

My neighbor, George, made all sorts of cute jack-o-lantern type things out of pumpkins and zucchinis, and other crazy-shaped squashes. He connected some together to make crazy hats on the pumpkin, etc. It was really cute. He's a big gardener, so it was perfect for him. This morning I was outside talking with another neighbor and he was driving around showing everyone that wasn't there last night his trunk. It was pretty cute how much fun he had.

My kids had a lot of fun dressing up, but they haven't quite gotten into the whole "getting a lot of candy" thing. Britton is really afraid of talking Halloween decorations, so after a few cars, he didn't even want to go around anymore. He didn't care if he didn't get any more candy. Haley went around with me to all the cars, but if anyone looked at her or talked to her, she'd hide behind me and not take any candy. It was pretty funny.

Britton dressed up as a white ninja and Haley was a dinosaur (Britton's costume from last year). They both were really cute. I dressed up as a witch and it was so much fun. I bought a really long gray haired wig. That was the best part of the costume. It really changed the way I looked. I like my hat too. It's a witches hat, but it's purple velvet with a black buckle on the front so it's a bit different than your typical one. Then I just wore a black dress (the one from my nun outfit) and a black cape. It was fun. Not too many adults dressed up, so that made it even more fun.

Weekly Random Question

I have this list of questions that I think is meant to be a party game or some kind of get-to-know you type thing. Anyway, I decide to just draw one randomly every so often and write about it so that I at least post something every week.

So, for this week, the question is...
What is one of the most unusual meals you ever ate?

The first thing that popped into my mind was Frog's Legs. While on my mission in France, the Elder's in Albi decided to make us Frog's Legs one week after District meeting. In France they sell frog's legs frozen in big bags like they sell chicken here. But, none of us had ever tried them before, so we thought it would be fun. I think what made it even more unusual was that they had no idea how to prepare them or what to serve with them. I think they made some sort of a breading and deep fried them which I'm pretty sure is not what the French do with them. And then we had mashed potatoes with them. My favorite part about them was that they actually look exactly like frog's legs (go figure). We kept hopping them around our plates and stuff as we ate. You have to eat like 6 or 8 of them since there's very little meat on each one. It was a fun meal, but definitely quite unusual.

Impetigo

This past week Britton has had impetigo. It's an infection that is on his face. At it's worst, he had big sores all over his forehead, nose, and chin that were all oozy and shiny. He's been on antibiotics all week and we've applied a cream and he looks a million times better. It's amazing to me all the random infections and sicknesses kids seems to attract. It grosses me out when I really think about the way they are contracted. Impetigo isn't that gross since it's just a strep or staph infection that somehow gets under the skin. Since Britton picks his scabs, it's not too hard to picture how it got there. But, when Haley had Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, I didn't really want to know how she got it. Some neighbor kids had it at the same time, so I kept telling myself that they got it first and gave it to her. I think that's actually true, but who really knows. I guess considering how many things kids lick or put in their mouth, it's amazing they're not sick all the time. Anyway, I still think it's pretty gross.

Fifty States Revisited

On our trip to Jason's mission, we went to Fayetteville and Rogers, Arkansas. If you look back to my other map, you'll notice a hole right in the middle of all the red--Arkansas. It looks much nicer now that I can fill it in. Now, I just have gaps around the edges for the most part.

Only a few more trips to go to get all of them in!

I could visit Melissa and Claire in Minnesota and try to go to N. Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan all at the same time.
Then, Emily Anderson lives in North or South Carolina (I can't remember which).
Then, trips to New England and Alaska and that would just about do it.
I don't ever really picture me visiting Rhode Island or West Virginia, so maybe one of my friends will move there or I'll just have to drive through sometime. Or, who knows, maybe they're really great vacation spots that I just don't know about yet. I'll have to research a bit if they end up being the last two left.

Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma!

For Jason's birthday, we surprised him and took him on a trip back to his mission. He's been really thinking a lot about it lately and even talked of wanting to move there, so it was a great time to go back and visit.
We had a great time there and I got to meet a lot of people that he knew when he was there. Everyone was so nice. It was fun to hear all the stories about him on his mission from other people's perspectives. And to see him through the eyes of people who only know him as a missionary.
Our kids loved the whole trip. They were amazing on the 18+ hour car ride. I couldn't believe it. DVD players in cars are the best!
I'll be posting pictures when they get developped and then write more about our trip.
I think it was the best birthday for Jason in a long time. (Thanks, Amber, for the great idea!)

Happy Haley

A while ago my mom mentioned, "I love how Haley gallops wherever she goes." And that made me start noticing. Haley never just walks. She runs, skips, dances, or gallops from place to place. She's always excited and energetic. It's fun to see how happy she is about life.

Fantasy Football Freak

Jason and I are playing on two different fantasy football leagues. And, I have to admit, I'm kind of a freak about it. I've never been a fan of NFL football, probably because there's not a team here, and it's always kind of bothered me that Jason thinks he has to watch so many of the games. But, now that I'm playing in the fantasy leagues, I'm just as bad, if not worse. I don't really know anything about the players, other than the names of the ones on my team. So, I just watch the games to cheer for my players and against the other players. I don't really care what teams win as long as my players do well.
I think it's made this season so much more fun for Jason and I because we're both into the games. A couple weeks ago, I was hurrying Jason up so that we could get home to watch Monday Night Football. He just smiled and said, "I never would have thought I'd see the day that you were begging me to watch football."
I'm proud to say that I am in first place in one of our leagues (the one with all of Jason's brothers and friends). My mom and I are the only two girls in that league and she has been in first place up until last week when I took over. I hope one of us wins it and the other takes second. It's nice to have girls at the top. And, I'm also proud to report that in both leagues, when I played Jason's team, I beat him pretty easily. That's nice too. (I have to brag about it now, since it's still really early and who knows where I'll end up by the end.)

Rub a Dub Dub

About a month ago, while my mom was watching my kids, she gave them both a bath in the sink. Her sinks are very deep, so it works just fine. And they had so much fun.
Well, the other day, I heard the water on, so I went into the kitchen to see what was going on. Haley had taken all her clothes off, climbed on a chair and into the sink and was filling it with water. I can't leave her alone for a second.

"E" Week

This week for preschool, it was "E" Week. So, we learned a lot about elephants. It's amazing to me how much little kids already know about animals. I think because they're just naturally curious and interested in them. They knew all the general facts about them, so we got to learn more of the details. Like how much a baby elephant weighs compared to how much they weigh.

We got to have two adventures (field trips) having to do with elephants. On Thursday we went to the zoo and on Friday we went to the circus.

The zoo was really fun for my kids. Julie took her older kid's out of school to come with us and we met Desiree and her mom and kids there as well. They have fixed the zoo up quite a bit adding lots of nice displays. There is a whole new tiger section that is really nice. Unfortunately, none of the tigers were out, so we didn't even get to see them. One of my kids' favorite things was a big wooden statue of an elephant. The kids could sit on the trunk. The elephant would play "pop, goes the weasel" and on the "pop!" part, it would blow air out of its trunk. The kids loved it and wanted to stay there forever. We missed one of my favorite parts, the reptile house, because Britton refused to go in because of the smell. It did smell really bad. Britton kept trying to go in then would turn around and run out. Then he'd say, "I have a sensitive nose". It was pretty funny. We spent most of the day there and had a really good time.

The circus elephants were much more entertaining than the zoo elephants. In fact, the elephant part of the show was one of my favorites. They are such smart elephants. They did a catwalk type thing where they announced an elephant and it would walk out and do turns and strut its stuff. Then they did a whole act of them sitting and laying down and running and skipping, etc. The little elephant was my very favorite. All the other elephants would kick their front legs out when they skipped, but the little one kicked his back legs out instead. It looked so cute. Like he was clicking his heels or something.

The rest of the acts at the circus were really good too. They had a trapeze man that walked upside down. It was so cool. There were little loops hanging down and he would swing and just get his foot caught in the loop, then swing the other foot to the next loop and so on. It was really neat.

Then they had all the other usual acts--clowns, horse riders, motorcyclers, acrobats, jugglers, etc. The last time I went to the circus, it was a 3 ring circus, so it's always hard to watch everything at once. But, this time they just had one act going on at a time. I liked it a lot better. They had so many cool things. I have always loved the circus and have been many times (including one time in a limo!), but this was by far my favorite I think. It seems like all the acts were really high quality and fun to watch. Plus it was fun to see my kids get so excited. Haley was so fascinated by it all. She kept her eyes glued on the stage the entire time.