Trick-or-Treat!

I DID IT!!!

I'm finally caught up on my picture pages for this year!!!

I'm so excited to have them all finished and it was fun to go through them and remember the things we did this past summer. And since I didn't post at all really during the summer I am putting a link here for everyone to go see them in my album.

So take a look!

Buddy Walk

We walked for our cute little nephew Westin this past weekend in the annual Boise Buddy Walk. He is such a sweetheart, smiles all the time and full of love. We love you Westin!!!

His Grandma Carol came to town for the walk and taught us girls how to make these adorable little scripture bags. I made this one for Alex to go with the scriptures we got her for her 8th birthday.

Content

I don't know why or when it happened, but I have lost my compulsive desire to blog. What is wrong with me? Do I need to see a doctor? This is bad. I haven't even downloaded my pictures from our trip to California we took a week ago.

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Alex is in the other room, practicing the piano. Not the keyboard, the piano. We bought her a piano off of Craigslist yesterday. Almost broke my husband and father in law's back, I really really, really appreciate the sacrifice guys. Alex's practices are so much more affective on a piano and she enjoys it more too! We would go over to the church on occasion just so she could use a real piano. Now we have one in our home.

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Johnny is kind of a kiss up at school, a goody tooshoes (how do you spell that non-word anyway?). He brings home green happy faces every day, follows the rules, runs pacers at recess for fun, focuses on his tasks and listens to the teacher. He is a new kid, who knew?

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We have eliminated tv during the week. No more watching cartoons in the morning before school. There are tasks that need to happen in the morning and prying them away from the tv is always a struggle. In the afternoon they can't watch it until they have finished all of their homework and chores. It hasn't gone on in the afternoons though, they seem to have forgotten all about the tv. It's been so nice, I already feel a better spirit in our home. It might have something to do with more time to read the Friend and to remember family prayers in the morning.

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My house is organized. I didn't say it was picked up, but it is organized and somehow organization makes my world a happy place, I have quality time with my kids and time to help them with their homework. We are going, going, going, every day but at the end of the day I feel good about what we've accomplished and I don't feel bad that I haven't blogged. So please forgive me if I'm not popping up as often. I'm still reading everyone else's blogs and enjoying them. I'm just feeling content to refrain from writing for now.

Well Pleased...

I don't know if it can really be considered as pride because they are just so happy inside at what they have done. They aren't putting themselves above others "less talented" than them. When they learned to walk and their face lit up with a sense of accomplishment and wonder, they weren't thinking "look at me, I can walk on two feet and that baby over there is still on all fours!" So if it isn't pride, I don't know how else to explain it other than they are well pleased? As I am well pleased with my two beautiful children?

My heart swells when I see that my kids are well pleased with themselves and their accomplishments. Whether it's riding a bike or buttoning up a shirt, reading a book or fixing their own hair. You want them to have confidence in their abilities and to see themselves as the extraordinary beings you know they are. The other day we were rearranging furniture to get ready for when Sariah and Hunter move out and I had to go grab the camera and take a picture of Alex's masterpiece she made last March. It's been hanging over her bed since she brought it home from school and you can see her light up whenever she looks at it. I'm so glad she sees herself as an artist and I love watching her be pleased with her work.

Then yesterday Johnny just had to have me come out and see what he could do on the skateboard! He was all decked out in his protective gear and a grin that stretched from ear to ear. He was pretty well pleased with his accomplishments and I could see it in his eyes.


Then, Tuesday I decided it was time to do something with all of the tomatoes, onions and peppers I had harvested from my garden. I took my Mom's and a friend's salsa recipes and married them to come up with a big batch of my own yummy homemade salsa. My only problem was that I have never canned anything before, nor do I own any of the tools needed to do this. So with my Mom on the phone and my sister in law's water bath canner and stove at hand I sealed it up for future enjoyment. I have to say, I was quite well pleased with these little jars of garden salsa. Next year I will have to invest in a food processor and make multiple batches to last us throughout the year.

I don't measure much when I'm cooking but this is pretty close to what I ended up with.

8 c. roma tomatoes, diced and drained
1 1/2 c. chopped green onions (because that's what I had in my garden)
1/2 c. chopped red onions (because I had some in the fridge)
1/2 c. bell pepper (I used bell and aneheim w/o seeds)
2 chopped jalapeno peppers (not much heat, add more if you like)
4 cloves garlic, minced
handfull of parsley, minced
1 t. cumin
1 t. pepper
juice of 2 limes
1/8 c. canning salt (I used sea salt, just stay away from iodine)
1/4 c. sugar
1/8 c. vinegar
1 can tomato paste

I simmered all of the ingredients as I was adding them, then boiled it for about 10 mins.

First Day

The day has come.

Johnny went to his first day of school.

He knew the drill,

he's been shadowing Alex for the last couple of years.

My kids were ready to head to the bus and hour early. I think the bus was a great distraction for Johnny so he didn't have to think much about starting school. All he could think about was riding the bus, without his Mom, on his way to school, that he was going to be attending! To him, it doesn't get much better than that. He has asked at the beginning of each year if he could go on the bus with Alex and now his day had come. To save on funds, our convenient bus stop a block from our house was taken off the route. So the kids couldn't see the bus stop and were convinced everyone else was out there waiting and they were missing out on "all the fun". I could only hold them off for so long so instead of waiting at home we waited on the corner in the front of the subdivision. First ones there of course. A tad too cold to be wearing shorts and standing still. Oh course I followed them over to the school and was there when they got off the bus. Johnny quickly lined up against the wall next to his classroom and Alex took off to find her own. I called out to my independent daughter and asked for a goodbye hug which she willingly handed out before she raced back off to join the crowd. I barely had time to take a few pictures, all of which Johnny was wiggling too much, obviously wanting me to stop taking pictures. So I put the camera away and watched as this monumental event became quite anticlimactic. No puppy dog eyes, no final hug before entering the classroom door, only one big grin through the doorway as I worked to make eye contact. He was excited and knew it was his turn to finally grow up. I wonder if he's always acted so insecure and immature because he thought it was expected of him. But now that people are calling him a Kindergartner there is a feeling of expectation that he can't deny.

Oh and can I say, "sweet sweet freedom".....

Summer is over?

I know, summer is gone and I am just now getting around to posting some pictures of our adventures. I am only making time for it now too because in a couple of days Johnny will have his first day of Kindergarten and I know I will want to post about that. So here is one big squished post from our family's summer, 2010!

We started it off with a trip to the Oregon coast with Brad's family. We drove out on my birthday (July 1st). Brad woke us all up at 4am, tucked us into the car and just drove. It really helped pass the time for the kids. I caught a little nap in at the hotel while family entertained the kids and then Brad took me to the Portland temple for a session (we were the witness couple and my poor chauffeur was having a hard time keeping his eyes open). It was the first time we had been back there since our wedding day. What a great way to spend my birthday! We topped it off with dinner at Chevy's, yum! Wish we had one in Idaho, I miss it.

We spent one of our days there, next to the ocean, at Yachats visiting some family burial sites. It was nice to be able to talk to the kids about family members that are dear to our hearts but that they never had the chance to meet here on the earth.

The fourth found us with all of the cousins in a field, overlooking one of Portland's big firework shows. The kids played soccer, ate junk food and waited for it to get dark so they could light their glow sticks and enjoy the show.

Then to top off our week we hit the Portland Zoo the day before heading home. I've never seen a more beautiful zoo, tucked up in the mountains, surrounded by trees. The kids got to see Alex's favorite animal, the elephant, and Johnny's favorite, the hippo, for the first time. As well as a real BYU cougar!

Luckily we were able to fit in a couple of trips to the lakes with Jason and Tiff this summer on their new boat. Alex had fun on the big 4 man tube but Johnny was happy to hang out on the boat most of the time. Luckily his cousin Ethan was happy to keep him company. Johnny's favorite part was actually peeing in the lake and "had to go" every time we stopped. Go figure.

Between packing and unpacking from trips, Alex was in volleyball camp and art camp. She learned how to draw all sorts of zoo animals as well as some crazy cartoon faces. Both camps are on our to do list for next summer. She had a blast and learned some fun new skills. Speaking of skills, we spent a couple of weeks over at Suzy's pool for swim lessons. Alex moved up a level and Johnny is more confident than ever in the water (it helps that he can touch a little better in the shallow end now).

We spent more time in the water this summer, once at Roaring Springs with Brad. Johnny's still an inch too short for the bigger rides. We tried to fake it once to go on one he thought looked like fun and then we had to make the walk of shame back down the stairs after a good 10 minutes in line on the way up. Alex is of course tall enough, but doesn't have the guts to go on them. Too bad they can't switch places.

And then we hit the water again on a trip to Lagoon with Auntie Jo jo. We took turns picking rides to go on. Alex and Johnny would each pick a ride that the adults were too big to ride on, then we would have to force them to stand in line for a little faster ride for ourselves. We didn't really go too far out of kiddie land but they usually ended up enjoying the rides we had to encourage them to go on. Except of course once when Johnny ended up upside down in a rock-o-plane cage with Jolene. Alex was glad she was with me at that point in time. Then Alex hated the haunted house Terroride, which Johnny LOVED. So he went through Dracula's castle with Jo while Alex hung back with me. He enjoyed being "tougher" than his older sister when his height didn't hold him back. We enjoyed cooling off in Pioneer Village on the Rattlesnake Rapids and helped ourselves to some ice cream before splashing into Lagoon-a-Beach. I told Alex that we aren't waiting for Johnny to be tall enough before we go to Disneyland anymore, we're waiting for her to be brave enough to ride a few roller coaster rides.

Then our last adventure, and probably my favorite, was our trip to Yellowstone for some good old tent camping near the lake. The kids were troopers, hiking around old faithful for an hour while we waited for it to go off. I gave them a pocket camera of their own and they had fun photographing all the many springs and geysers along the paths. I think they were a little amazed when Old Faithful went off, they weren't expecting it to be so big.

We spent another day hiking to a bunch of different look out point for some of the water falls along the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. They did great, even though they each took a turn scraping their knees and we had to bum band aids off the passing hikers.

Although we did see lots of deer and elk and even one moose, one of the coolest experiences was having herds of buffalo walk right through our campsite, inches away from our tent and car. The kids were quite anxious at the closeness of these huge creatures but they pretty much kept to themselves. Luckily, they didn't decide to campout in our tent site with us like they did with some of our neighbors. They did however sing us to sleep one night with their moaning and bellowing. Luckily, once the kids were in their sleeping bags, they were out. They pretty much were begging us to go to bed every night once it started getting cold out.

They days however were pretty hot and we found a couple of different hot springs to swim in on the days we didn't spend the money on the showers. The kids collected kindling every day and we roasted marshmallows every night before bed. I'm glad we took this time to be together as a family, doing something Brad and I have always enjoyed. I hope our kids grow up with a love of the outdoors like we did!

Aside from all the things they had done this summer, the kids have grown leaps and bounds. Alex learned how to skip a rock in the lake, braid her doll's hair and blow a sizable bubble with her gum! Johnny has memorized the first Article of Faith, can produce a faint whistle but a whistle none the less and rode a 16 inch bike all the way to Albertson's and back (that's almost 4 miles round trip). He started off very unsure about himself. I ran next to him and he insisted on me touching his back or arm the entire time so he knew I could catch him if he fell. We didn't get too far before he wanted to go home. I hollered at Alex to turn around because we were going home and reminded him that he wasn't going to get the monkey I had bribed him with if he made it all the way to Albertsons. They come out of the 25 cent machine and are less than an inch tall. Boy does he love his little monkeys. He hopped back on that bike and shouted "I can do this!" and "Eye on the prize!" the entire way there. Then on the way back he was peddling faster and telling me I didn't have to help him anymore up and down the curbs. He just needed the practice and a monkey was just the incentive he needed to keep him going.

Next summer Johnny will be popping wheelies on his bike, Alex's hair will probably be down to the middle of her back and Brad will be DONE WITH SCHOOL! We already have some plans simmering in the back of our heads. Summer 2011, I'm looking forward to you, but for now I'm happy to get back into the routine that school provides. Till Monday!

Birthday Boy

It's happened, Johnny turned 5!

Our family came over to help us celebrate. He got "everything he ever wanted" for his birthday and is presently in toy heaven. He thanks me many times a day for his remote control truck (anyone want to take bets on how long it will last?) He loves his Lego's, they all drive or fly or have doors that open and close. He is lucky enough to have a sister who is willing and able to help him assemble them. He takes his Darth Vader Lego guy with him everywhere. He loves the guns that came with his G.I.Joe guys and is excited that the guys fit into the finger snowboard he got. He loves to wear his transformer watch around while he incessantly throws his retractable yo yo towards the ground. There are constant drops of water all over my floor from his color changing cars and Bumble Bee music and blast noises filling the air. He is trying his best to share all of his new found loves and he even used some of his birthday money his aunt gave him to buy Alex a little present. So thoughtful. He feels special right now, on top of the world, equal to Alex (which is a lot in his mind) I hope this feeling lasts for a very long time. He deserves it!

Also, I am not a fan of making cakes, so when Johnny started talking about what kind of cake he wanted, I knew I had to do something special with my cupcakes this year to make up for the fact that they aren't a cake. I had fun making these little Toy Story Alien cupcakes and he liked the sour candy ears and antenna. I was running around all day and once everyone was gone and the kids were in bed I went to work making crepes for Brad's Father's Day breakfast so he didn't miss out since we don't have a lot of time in the morning before church. We had a nice relaxing day together as a family on Father's Day, what more can you ask for?

Friday night was the Father/Son campout for our ward so Johnny got to spend some quality time with his Dad and wake up in a tent for his birthday. Alex and I took the opportunity to have a girl's night out. We used one of her Kid's meal coupons and went to Red Robin for dinner. They had a balloon guy there who made her a horse. And while other kids were choosing their favorite crazy colors for their animals, Alex wanted her's to look like a real horse and picked brown for her balloons and named her horse "Peanut Butter". Such the realist. And since it is summer and Alex's 16 inch bike was literally too small for her to ride and Johnny just learned to ride a two wheeler, we decided she needed a larger bike now and it couldn't wait for her birthday this December. Her criteria for her new bike was that it had a bag in front to hold things and streamers on the handle bars. So who's birthday is it? Really. She has no reason to complain.

Two Wheeler

So it looks like both of my kids are taking steps towards growing up. Johnny has been asking to ride a two wheeler since the sun came out this spring. So today I threw his bike in the back of the car and we headed over to the church parking lot where we had so much success with Alex. This time I made sure he had on long pants, long sleeves and knee pads.

He took off right away on the first try and his face was beaming with pride (as was mine). I think his seat was a bit too high because he had a hard time reaching the ground to start or stop himself. He didn't mind crash landing though and got pretty good about hopping off to the side of the bike when it was going down. He actually liked using his knee pads though when it was necessary. It wasn't too long before he wanted to try to go up curbs and stuff all by himself.

He wanted me to help as little as possible and as he was riding, any obstacle he needed to go around became his main focus and he would always end up going right towards it instead of in the opposite direction. I got quite a workout keeping up with him but I did manage to get a couple of videos of him riding his two wheeler! Check them out here and here.

Still lots of practicing to do but I'm sure he'll be a pro in no time!

Growing Up

Alex has been asking to get her ears pierced since she was 3. I wanted her to be old enough to take care of them on her own so I told her she needed to wait until she was 8. Well here she is, 6 months away from her 8th birthday and my friend gets me thinking about Alex's ears. So this Saturday while we were at the mall (shopping for a father's day present) we stopped by Claire's and made it happen. They said that ideally it would be best to keep them in for 6 months so now she will be ready to take them out FOR her birthday and try on some new earrings. On our way there she was asking me and her Dad if it would hurt. We assured her that it would pinch a for a second like when she's gotten her shots but it would be over really fast and she would have glamorous ears. The lady at the store told her that she would feels a pinch and her ear would feel hot but that they would cool it down with some cleaner afterward. Alex had lots of questions for her as she hugged the little "Claire Bear" they let her hold. She had the girls reading her the label on the cleaner and even picked up the little "gun" they use to pierce her ears with her finger on the trigger, we took that out of her reach real fast. As soon as she saw the earrings to choose from she was dead set on her December birthstone, the blue zircon. Since then she has tried to pick out blue clothes to wear and has had second thoughts on her color choice. I assured her that her clothes don't have to match her earrings, but that she (being a blondie) just plain looks good in blue. We topped it off with some bright Barbie pink nail polish to balance out all of the blue. She has been growing her fingernails out lately which I told her she was welcome to do as long as she kept them clean. I asked her what I was doing, letting her get her ears pierced early and buying her bright pink nail polish and she just said "making me the most fashionable!" When I sent out a picture text to our family she was anxious to read all of their replies and was walking on cloud nine through the mall with her "I just got my ears pierced at Claire's" bag in her hand. Our little girl is growing up.

Matilda

This past weekend I was lucky enough to take off solo and visit these wonderful girls and their Mother, Sarah, who is like a sister to me.

I spent of lot of my time being put in my place by this one...

And most of my time oogling over this one...

And snuggling her...

And playing with her...

She was quite the highlight of my trip. And since she is such a sweet, easy going baby, it left me lots of time to talk Mom to Mom with Sarah.

Today is the last day of school. Alex is so excited for summer to begin and even more excited that I let her wear a dress to school today! Yesterday was field day and after a weekend away and waking up with a migraine that morning it didn't even occur to me. So Alex went to school with no sunscreen, no hat and no water bottle and came home a little pink around the edges. Poor kid, how hard is it to keep an extra bottle of sunscreen out for the fair skinned children who's mothers flake out on field day? And would it really be that bad to allow the water-bottle-less kids a chance to run inside for a sip from the fountain once in awhile? Or maybe a phone call saying "Mrs. Day, you are a bad Mom and didn't take care of your child today, please come to school with sunscreen and a water bottle asap!" She survived, lesson learned...I hope.