October Update

You would think that with all the birthdays and the kids updating the blog that everything would be updated, wouldn't you? But somehow - I've still missed things.

Emmett - geeze this kid is walking EVERYWHERE! He toddles all over the house all day long - trying to catch up with Caleb. Since he started walking so much his taking has almost completely stopped. Now he is just attempting to see how loud his voice can go. There is lots of screaming these days from this little guys. And yes, his screaming is somewhat high pitched - but I can tell if he's the one screaming in a room full of kids because his voice (just like his brothers) is already deeper than other kids his age. He has gotten very good at giving kisses - at least to Mom and Dad and his teddy bear. He has also tried Grandma's cat and a pumpkin stem. Usually you can tell where Emmett kissed because there is a huge, slobbery, wet spot left behind. He is also getting good at climbing on things - and then using those things to climb onto other things. And he still loves putting things in his mouth. I caught him tasting wipes yesterday.

Caleb - This kid has so many fun things he says these days. Some of my favorites are "Ash-ka-ly" (actually), "We dis-cussed dis!" (We discussed this), "I want to be a missionary!" (usually sung at the top of his lungs during every song in Sacrament meeting), and his prayer "Dank de for beauful day, and da bands bein' crazy, and da rainbow, and da flag on the head and on the face." Last night at FHE he was thankful for "leaves fallin down" (we sang It's Autumn Time for opening song a minute earlier). He loves to add things to his prayers. It's very cute when he prays for things that happened weeks ago. He has a great memory. He is getting good at excuses lately. Though the best one I've ever heard was this weekend. He told me he couldn't go potty before bedtime because "my bum is too tired." I almost started laughing - but I didn't. I very seriously told him that if he would just go potty his bum could go to bed. He looked at me as if to say, 'ok - that totally didn't work.' He has an imaginary friend. His name is "baby Caleb" and he is in our house pretty often. Usually he is small enough to fit in Caleb's hands. Sometimes we have to make sure he gets lunch. Of course, sometimes Tey and Tey-Woof have to have meals too.

At our house we have a song that we sing pretty often. It goes like this (to the tune of You've Had a Birthday), "Emmett's a baby shout hurray. HURRAY!" Then we have other lines we put in afterwards. Sometimes "He needs a diaper change today. HURRAY!" or "He is so squir-rmy today. Hurray!"or whatever else Dad comes up with - cause he's the one who sings silly song. Shortly after Caleb's birthday my mom was singing "You've had a birthday" to him on video chat. Caleb was very distressed and told her "NO! Emmett's a baby shout hurray!" She's been laughing about it ever since. Guess we better teach him the right words before he goes to Primary in January.

The car: Friday afternoon Sam took the car into the shop where they fixed the belt a few months ago. They said it might squeal a little but it would get better. It never did get better so Sam took it back in Friday afternoon after work. He went in, talked to the car people, a guy came to drive the car into the shop - and there was a pop and then the car wouldn't move. Talk about perfect timing. Not to mention we had done our weekly shopping on Thursday night (kind of spur of the moment too). We've had family pictures planned for this weekend a long time so my parents came and got us for the weekend. We're still working on getting the car fixed (something in the transmission) or getting a new one - but I'm thinking we'll end up fixing this car. I feel like it's falling apart faster than we can repair it. We've only owned it 6 months and we've had 2 broken door handles (Sam's jimmy-rigged them both so they work), 2 broken belts, 1 broken windshield (that we fixed the Monday before it died at the shop).

The house: We put in an offer on a house. We've only been looking a month or so - and the house is fine - but the yard is the amazing part. Who wouldn't want to live somewhere with a backyard like this?

Caleb loves it - for sure. This is the back third of the back yard. It's a really deep lot and we love it out back. It's so quiet out back. You can't hear any busy roads out there. And not too many planes. I'm longing for the quiet of this back yard! It's a short sale which actually means it likely be months before we even know if we're going to get this place for sure. So I suppose for now it's kind of a quiet thing - but we're hoping and praying. And I'm so excited about this idea that I wanted to share with all of you!

Sam: Such a good sport he is to ride his bike 7.2 miles to work - even on mornings like today when it is raining - and snowing. He said he got on the bus part way to work and he was still soaked by the time he got to work. Luckily he had a change of clothes at the office. He is loving his job - and while it is definitely work and sometimes not terribly fun - a lot of the time he comes home extremely excited about what he's working on and sometimes he comes home and the things he says he did all day sound like playing - like "today we had to figure out how to wreck a basket ball system" (basket ball hoop) It apparently took 6 guys a long while to figure out how to wreck it. We are all looking forward to Election Day when Sam's 3 months probation will be up and we will be able to get on insurance. For some reason we keep feeling more and more nervous as that day approaches that something will happen before we get on insurance. We have almost all the paperwork ready to go so that we can get on that exact day. 

Stacy: I'm working on getting my portfolio ready so I can join Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. But I'm having some equipment struggles and I need to find a new off camera flash. I had almost figured it out when the car died. Now $200 for a new flash seems ridiculous. Hopefully we'll have that all worked out soon. I'm feeling very pressed to get this done. I've been doing lots of digital scrapbooking lately. It's something I love. And I'm starting to get a whole lot better too. Here are some pages that I've done recently.

The 40 day challenge has been a little off right now - so I've been trying to get other stuff done. I also have more than 10 pages that I've made for kits that haven't been released yet. 

And tonight we are meeting with a member of the stake presidency. I'm hoping the snow lets up - because walking with the boys the 3 or 4 blocks to the church isn't going to be terribly fun in the snow. Though maybe we can let Caleb wear his boots. He has been telling me almost non-stop since we first saw the snow - that he needs to wear his boots. I tried explaining we didn't need the boots till we walked out in the snow - and even then, it's not THAT much snow yet. But he didn't really like that idea. He is dying to wear his boots.

Baby Does the Blogging - 10 months

10 months old is a pretty good age to be! I took my first steps less than a  month ago and now I can consistently take 6 steps at a time. I have no fear and I don't mind falling down sometimes. I'm always holding on to something one second and then trying to walk the next. I also try to climb over things - including the shoulder of someone trying to hold me, boxes/toys/anything in my way, and anyone who is sitting on the ground. I have decided that anyone who sits on the ground is trying to be an obstacle for me to conquer. So I do just that - within seconds - even if they weren't sitting on the floor just to play with me.

I have been practicing using my vocal cords a lot lately. Usually that means screaming - especially when I don't like something. When I get excited I say, "ooooooooooooOO!" and I get big eyes and point at whatever exciting thing is there. I also say, "Dad" "done" and "yay" and "rar." When I want to talk I mostly say, "Da da da da Da Da DA!" I say that a lot. One day I got ahold of the phone and held it up to my face and said, "Dad Da Da DA!" Another day Caleb was calling for Dad to come find him and I crawled over to the front door, started banging on it, and hollering for "Da" too.

My top two front teeth came in Sept 30 and October 2 so now I have 4 teeth. I do not enjoy eating bread or tortillas. I like muffins, especially corn dog muffins (corn meal muffins with tiny pieces of hot dogs in them) and I like waffles but I will NOT touch tortillas and I'm not a huge fan of bread. But I'll eat anything else. I chewed the tops of my sippy cups till they leaked all over so I had to switch back to a bottle and now I think I need to go to bed with my bottle. Mom says that habit has to stop - but I'm not liking that idea at all. In fact, I hate it so much I wake up at night if I do not get to go to sleep with my bottle.

I love playing in the bathroom and getting in the tub. If the bathroom door is open I get in there pretty quickly and stand at the edge of the tub and try to figure out if I can get in there without any help. Splashing in the tub is one of my favorite things. Climbing is another favorite thing. I love climbing. It is starting to get me into trouble though. The other day I got the cushion off the rocking chair and when I climbed up my leg got stuck between the springs and the wooden frame of the chair and my foot went down and got stuck between the glider mechanism of the chair. Mom was pretty worried. I didn't like my foot being stuck but stopped crying almost as soon as it was out. Mom says I'm really lucky I didn't break any bones. One day I climbed up one box and managed to get into the box on top of that box. I was so proud of myself.

When we went to take family pictures Mom really wanted pictures of Caleb and me together. Dad tried throwing leaves around us and Caleb hated it, but I LOVED it! Caleb started throwing leaves on me and I loved that too! Leaves are so much fun! Almost as much fun as splashing in the bath tub.

New pages

Using Pumpkin Spice kit by Dandelion Dust Designs

Caleb's first year

Emmett 8 months (July update)

Caleb is 3!

Wild Things Cupcakes

Found these online - and figured I could make them without directions. It only took me 2 horrible ones to figure out the tricks. So I thought I'd share them.

Wild Things cupcakes: What you need

batch of cupcakes - any kind will work. Make sure the cupcakes go just over the edges of the paper. It helps the cupcakes to be flat and it gives you enough space to decorate.

 right size cupcake:

 wrong size cupcake: I tried decorating one of these - and there wasn't room enough to put a whole face on.

Reeces Pieces for eyes (I used yellow for "the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes - any color would work - M&Ms would work too)

 Candy Corn - I liked these and I don't think you can find them except during the fall. But I could be wrong on that. Regular ones would work too.

Break off some white pieces to be teeth. You'll use the brown and orange part for the nose. I used unbroken candy corns for the horns.

#1 - frost

#2 - eyes (sorry I forgot a picture)

#3 - nose - push the bigger part of a broken candy corn in between the eyes.

#4 - horns - I liked how solid the unbroken candy corns were for the horns. Also, I tried to make sure both candy corns were about the same size.

 #5 - teeth - Put your little white pieces straight up and down for the teeth. This is a little tricky, but not too bad. The bigger the pieces of white are the easier this is. You can press them down further into the frosting to hide any orange that might be left.

#6 - sprinkles around the edges - make sure you don't leave your cupcakes too long before you do this or the sprinkles won't stick as well. I pressed them on a bit and then dumped the extras onto a plate.

#7 - Use the gel decorator stuff to add black dots for the eyes and the mouth. Try to cut the smallest hole possible. I should have cut it at an angle I think because my hole was too big. But it worked as long as I was gentle. Practice on a plate or something besides your first cupcake!

And that's all there is to it! I think it took me about 45 minutes to get 6 decent Wild Things. I had 2 tries that looked horrible - so 8 cupcakes. About 5 minutes a piece I would guess. Then I added a few of these - because they looked cute and took about a minute a piece. And the boys were awake. And it's not going to be a big party here anyway. Just 4 of us. 

I think I may have frosted too many cupcakes. I did freeze the rest...but 12 might be more than we can handle with just the 4 of us. But they looked so cute! How could I stop without making enough polkadot cupcakes to make this great picture?

And my 3 year old is so excited! But it's a good thing he woke up before I finished - he couldn't figure out what they were. Hopefully tonight he'll be super excited to have Wild Things cupcakes - and we won't have to explain what they are...cause that just wasn't the grand moment I expected it to be.

40 day challenge - days 1-10

Day 1 - I am an artist

Day 2 - Why I scrap

Day 3 - A life changing moment

Day 4 - Overcoming Challenges

 Day 5 - Bloom where you are planted

Day 6 - What inspires you?

Day 7 - Your worth

Day 8 - Where your heart is

Day 9 - Solitude 

Day 10 - Home

Fall is here!

It certainly does feel like we're falling around here. Life has been SO crazy this past week.

Saturday 9/29:

I went to the Women's Conference meeting with my mom and my best friend, Jenna. Jenna and I rode the Frontrunner and Trax - so cool!!!

Sunday 9/30:
New family pictures up the mountains.

Monday 10/1:
Humidifier leaked all down into my dresser drawers - and it sat that way all night so I had lots of laundry to do!

Tuesday 10/2:
Caleb, Emmett, and I head to Salem. With stops along the way at a meeting for photographers working to get accepted into the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep organization (they do photography for stillborn babies) and lunch with my friend Kimberly (who is my inspiration for doing NILMDTS)

Wednesday 10/3:
My mom and I headed down to Saint George to see Aladdin at Tuacahn - an awesome outdoor theater. We stayed with my grandma, Mom's mom, Joan, and her sister, Rhea and her two daughters, Brenda and Barbara. It was so much fun. I think the funniest thing was listening to Brenda and Barbara argue (jokingly) about arguing with the GPS. The play was amazing! They had fireworks, live camels, a 3-d part of the play where you had to wear glasses and a part where the background (for the cave of wonders) was projected onto water. It was so neat! The music was fantastic - some songs that were cut from the movie were added and even some beyond that. I love musicals!

Thursday 10/4:
Mom and I went to the temple in St. George. It was very beautiful and so neat to think about how old that building is. So glad we got a chance to go. The boys and I came back home that night.

Friday 10/5:
We head to Idaho for Conference. We stopped in Logan to get cookies from the Pepperage Farms place and then we headed to the FatBoy ice cream sandwich place. The boxes of extras were on sale buy one get one free - so we ended up with 100 FatBoys for $20. Can't beat that!

Saturday 10/6:
We couldn't have picked anywhere cooler to be to hear the announcement about the new missionary ages. Sam's twin brothers turned 18 in July. There was so much screaming and hollering our hearing was kinda shot for the rest of the session. They headed to the Bishop's house as soon as the session was over. They are starting their papers ASAP as is my brother Devan, also 18. There is lots of excitement about this announcement!

Sunday 10/7:

We celebrated Sam and Caleb's birthdays  with cake between Conference sessions. Then we visited Sam's sister who lives in Pocatello on our way home.

And I got our October newsletter done:

And this page won the layout of the week!!!!!

And I'm way behind on my 40 day challenge now - ok - only about 4 days now... I'll start working on that - sometime soon.