Watching the Tractor

One of the things that we really love about our house is the fact that we have a field behind us (we just hope it stays that way, at least for a couple more years!) Sometimes the field is home to horses, but this year, they planted corn. The boys have really enjoyed getting to see different types of tractors doing all sorts of jobs, and can spend a lot of time just watching them from our sliding glass door. It's fun because they now know what a tractor sounds like, and they go running for the back of the kitchen, whenever they hear one, so that they can watch it.

Thanksgiving

Wow! I can't believe Thanksgiving is over, but what a day it was! I love this time of year, and I love Thanksgiving. There is just something really wonderful about a day dedicated to reflection and remembering all the many things that we have been blessed with. It really sets the tone for the start of the holiday season. It helps me to get in the mood for giving and thinking about others, and not just about myself. I also love being with family, cooking good food, smelling good food, and eating good food.
We really had a good time spending the day out in Morgan with James' parents and two of his sisters, and their families.
We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday, as well, and wish you the best.

Five Things Challenge

Five things I was doing 10 years ago...

I have to say that I don't love the fact that I have a "10 years ago" to write about...What? I'm not 18 anymore?

1. I had just decided that I wanted to be a free-lance photographer for National Geographic (My family had recently taken an impromptu trip to Glacier...when we got in the car, we had no idea where we were headed. We ended up in Glacier and spent the night in Kallispell...we hadn't even brought a change of clothes because we hadn't planned on spending the night anywhere. It was on that trip, surrounded by the beautiful autumn colors at Lake Macdonald, that I decided I wanted to be a photographer...I got my Nikon SLR for my 16th birthday about 6 months later.)

2. I was really involved in Pep Band...my favorite extra-curricular activity

3. I was counting down the days to my 16th birthday, even though I didn't go on my first "real" date until I was a freshman at BYU (blind dates to prom don't count as "real dates"!!)

4. My friend, Jennifer, and I decided to "hit the weight room" everyday after school in preparation for tennis season in the spring...yeah, that lasted like two days!

5. I was super obsessed with my grades, I just HAD to get into BYU!

Five things on my "to-do" list today

1. Shower and get dressed (done)...yes, basic hygiene makes my to-do list these days

2. Do some Christmas shopping

3. Make toffee (why? because I like it)

4. Finish up a project I've been working on

5. Check e-bay to make sure the thing I'm bidding on is still mine

Five snacks I enjoy

1. Gala apples

2. Cheese

3. Chocolate

4. Tootsie Pops

5. Toffee

Five songs I know the lyrics to

People actually know lyrics to songs?

1. Super Why theme song (PBS kids show)

2. Bob the Builder theme song

3. Change Your Mind (All American Rejects)

4. 100 Years (Five For Fighting)

5. Winter Wonderland (yes, I've been listening to Christmas music already)

Five of my bad habits

1. PROCRASTINATION!!!

2. Stressing out over little things that don't matter

3. Spending too much time on ebay (I've only bought two things my whole life, but I spend a lot of time just looking at things)

4. Saying "just a second" when the kids want things, which really means "I hope you forget about it so I can keep doing what I'm doing"

5. This is embarrassing, but not getting out of my pajamas all day...he he

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire

1. Pay off our house/move to a bigger "permanent" house

2. Go on a really nice vacation with James

3. Buy the best digital SLR camera on the market

4. Hire a housekeeper

5. Save and invest

Five things I will never wear again

1. Pink stretch pants with purple and white layered scrunch socks

2. Hot pink anything...that used to be my color of choice back in the day

3. Huge colorful bows in my hair

4. A perm...they don't hold in my hair, they look bad (on me), and it's just not a good thing for me

5. A t-shirt tied in a knot on one side

Five of my favorite toys

1. Digital camera

2. Stereo

3. Lip gloss

4. Little Women (the book)

5. All my scrapbook supplies

Five friends I am going to "tag"

1. James

2. Andrea

3. Lisa

4-5. I don't know anymore people with blogs, so EVERYONE else has to email me their list

Matthew Says the Darndest Things

Matthew, Matthew, Matthew, where do I even begin? I'll guess I'll start with yesterday. I was helping out with Matthew's senior nursery class, because they were a little short-handed. Well, the lesson was on reading the scriptures, and the girl giving the lesson pointed to her scriptures and asked, "how many of you read these with your family?". A couple of kids raised their hands, and she was about to go on when Matthew's hand shot up and he said "We don't read those in my family, I don't even know what those are!" I think I turned about 14 shades of red, I was so embarrassed. The girl teaching was trying really hard not to laugh, but had a hard time composing herself. I didn't know what to say, so I just said "Matthew, shhh! Stop telling on us!" And, just for the record, James and I read our scriptures together every night, we just haven't included the boys in it, yet. My plan is to get a Book of Mormon reader for Matthew and Ethan for Christmas and that will be their bedtime story, but it's just not Christmas, yet, so I haven't done it. And, as far as not reading the scriptures together as a family, no we don't, I'll give him that...but to say that he doesn't even know what they are?! It's not like he's never seen them before...I don't know what he's talking about...

It kinda makes me wonder what else he says about us when we're not there...maybe I don't want to know.

Then, the other night, while we were waiting for dinner to finish cooking, the boys were at the sliding glass door in our kitchen watching this big tractor harvest the corn in the field behind our house. James came in and gave me a kiss, and Matthew turned around in time to see us, and said "Not again! Would you guys please stop kissing, you can come watch this tractor if you want." I know, obviously the kitchen is no place to be kissing, and it's totally disgusting that your parents would even think of kissing...yuck!

The other thing he said also happened at church yesterday. They let the senior nursery kids go to opening exercises and sharing time, just so that they could get used to it before they become sunbeams at the beginning of the year. We gathered them up, and were heading out of our classroom towards the chapel, where they have opening exercises. As they were leaving the classroom, one of the little girls in Matthew's class tried to grab Matthew's hand, but Matthew didn't see her, and she looked heart-broken, so I asked Matthew if he would hold Savannah's hand as they walked to the chapel. He said okay, and the two of them walked hand in hand all the way down the hall. Well, the little girl was wearing a big poofy white dress, and Matthew was all spiffed up, and they did look really cute together, but everyone we passed kept saying things or humming the wedding march, and I don't think Matthew appreciated it. When we got home, I asked him how he liked going to primary and he said "I didn't like it, I don't want to be a big kid, and I'm definitely NOT holding Savannah's hand again!" I guess I'm okay with him not wanting to hold girls hands, that can wait for awhile, but I hope he changes his mind about primary!

Well, that's it. Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Call for low-salt/low-sodium recipes

On Sunday, I signed up to take a meal to the Bishop of our ward and his wife (a little while ago, she fell, and shattered her ankle. She's had to have at least two surgeries on it, so far, and can't get around very well). Anyways, after I signed up, I found out that they would prefer to have a dinner that has no broccoli, and low-salt. Well, my style of cooking is more what I like to call "cardiac arrest on a plate", and I don't think I have anything that fits the bill. I've been doing a lot of searching on the internet, and found lots of recipes, but I'm nervous to make something for someone else that I've never tried before. So, I was wondering if any of you have any low-salt recipes that are good...if you do, send them my way. Thanks.

Super Saturday

Well, yesterday was Super Saturday for our Relief Society, and this is what I made! If you can't tell from the picture, it's a Family Home Evening chart. I haven't hung it on the wall yet, and the lighting is kind of bad, but I think you get the idea. Our ward had a lot of different projects to choose from, but I only wanted to do one...I couldn't decide between doing a cute little wooden FHE board, and doing a magnet board, so I combined the two. I signed up to do a magnet board (basically a piece of sheet metal in a wooden frame that you could paint any way you wanted), and then brought a lot of my own things from home, and turned it into an FHE board. It was a lot of fun, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm also glad that James took care of the boys, so I could spend four hours having fun, eating delicious soup (they had TEN to choose from!) and mint brownies (the mormon dessert classic), and that I got to know some of the other girls in our ward.

Uh, I guess I should also mention that I feel kind of dumb saying "hey guys, look what I made", but not dumb enough not to do it...sorry...

What a ham!

Ethan is such a ham! I don't know where he got it from, but whenever I get out the camera, this is his pose of choice. I usually get several of him making this face before I ever get a "nice" picture of him. The maddening part is that he holds really still while striking this pose, making it easy to get a nice clear picture...however, when he gives me a nice smile, it's rather fleeting, and he moves...the end result is a blurry picture. Oh well, at least it's funny. He'll look back at his baby pictures, and this is the face he'll constantly see...funny. The one good thing is that when I brush his teeth, I just have to tell him to say "Cheese!!" and then I can scrub all his little pearly whites. Hope you get a kick out of the pictures...I sure do.

Oh, and the ones of him holding the cookie are two different pictures, they just look really similar because he's got that pose down!

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun. Matthew and Ethan both really enjoyed getting dressed up...I think Ethan even enjoyed his sideburns and glasses, because he never touched them, and if I ever took off the glasses, he would beg me to put them back on. We went trick-or-treating in the mall, mainly because Ethan could walk around on his own a little bit, and because it's indoors and we could get away with putting Ethan in a T-shirt and shorts. As you can see, they were both very excited...Matthew even got into character a little bit, and insisted on carrying his bag with his hook.
I don't know if Ethan really knew what was going on, he just knew that it was awesome. Any place that just gives you candy for walking around is a place that Ethan wants to be. He would get so happy when people would give him treats, that at the very first store, he grabbed the sucker they gave him, and chucked his trick-or-treat bag on the ground so that he could use both hands to try and rip into his precious candy. It was pretty funny. Later, we got him to understand that if he held onto the bag, people would continue to fill it up with the good stuff.

The only slightly disappointing thing was that people kept thinking Ethan was Santa Claus. It's hard not to get irritated, since I went to so much trouble to get in every possible detail of Smee...and then to have some people not get it... But, enough people did get who he was, that I can't be too disappointed.

After the mall, we went out to Morgan so that Matthew could go "real" trick-or-treating with his cousins. We bundled Ethan up in a stroller, and would let him get out every now and then (like when a house would hand out full-sized candy bars or soda) so that he could get in on the experience, too. Mostly, though I think he was happy to just go along for the ride in his warm, cozy stroller.

Matthew had a GREAT time trick or treating with his cousins. It was the first time that he had actually gone door-to-door, and he thought it was the best thing ever. He would run from house to house, and the parents had a hard time keeping up with him. He loved saying "trick or treat" and then shouting "Happy Halloween!" over his shoulder as he steamed ahead to the next, glorious, candy-giving house.

The only thing that he didn't like was once, he tripped, fell, and then skidded down the sidewalk, en route to the next house. Luckily, by that time, we were almost done, because falling down really seemed to take the wind out of his sails, and he wanted to be carried to every house.

All in all, we had a good time, and the kids made quite a haul (which I'm as excited about as them, due to the "mommy tax").

I can't believe it, but now that Halloween is over, we're starting to think ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!! Where did the time go?

Well, hope you all had a Happy Halloween, and are looking forward to the Holidays as much as we are.