Stupid busy...

Seriously, I HATE being busy. Some people thrive on busy. Me, not so much. To me, busy = stress. Don't get me wrong, I like to be involved. I just don't like feeling like I have every minute of my day planned. Sometimes I just want to lounge around in my PJ's and read to my hearts content, or be crafty and creative, ya know? But, apparently this is the busy season of my life, and I need to learn to love it. Or else just learn to say no. There is my rant for the month.( I can say that, since October is almost over.)
So, good grief! So much to catch up on! Seriously, I can't even remember the last 2 1/2 weeks. I guess I'll just tell ya what I can remember.

Highlights...
*we noticed Jaxson's 1st tooth on Oct 22nd.
*Gabby and Alex both have straight A's on their report cards this quarter. And both are top AR readers in their class.
*Alex tripled his AR goal.
*The kids all had fun dressing up for spirit week at their schools.


*I'm now the room mom for Alex's class, kinda last minute. They had their Halloween party yesterday. We watched a movie and ate popcorn. I felt like it was lame, but they loved it.
*Helped set up for the school book fair. I love books. Bookfairs are not a good thing for me to attend.
*Decorated an empty classroom for an AR reading room. The theme was "RIP" (read in peace) The kids got to read in the dark with flashlights. It was a hit!
*Went to the Ward harvest festival. LOTS of people and not enough room. But, fun anyway.

Remember that new calling I was telling you about? Well, I've finally been sustained. I'm the new Beehive advisor. (that's the 12-13 year old girls in our church.) There are 14 of them right now. Wow. I'm really excited, though. It will be fun to experience Young Women's with Madi. And she says she's excited I'm in there with her. There's one more thing to keep me busy!!
Cory just got back from a fishing trip with Alex and my Dad. They went to Hell's Canyon last Friday, and got home this past Wednesday. They seem to have had lots of fun. Alex caught a few fish, and was pretty proud of himself. When he wasn't catching fish, he was starting campfires. He's such a pyro. Here are some pics...









Mom came to stay with me while the boys were fishing. It was a lifesaver to have another adult in the house. Thanks Mom, It was fun having you here! I don't like being alone. I'm glad I'm not a single parent. Those people have it rough! I don't think I could ever make it. Jaxson started crawling while Cory was gone. Of course, Cory had the camera, so no pics. He also started pulling himself up to standing position at the couch and anything else that would support him. Unfortunately, he's pretty wobbly once he gets standing, so he falls over a lot. He keeps crawling into the laundry baskets and getting stuck. It's almost impossible to get anything done when he's awake. He is constantly going, putting things in his mouth, bonking his head...he's a busy boy!



Well, that's a little bit of a catch-up. Time to go get something done while Jaxson's still asleep. Happy Halloween!

Random Post

Do you remember Jr High? Was it really that cool to stand outside in 25 degree weather without a coat on, jumping up and down and hugging yourself to try to keep warm? I must be one of those old fashioned-type moms who insist my daughter wear a coat in below freezing temperatures. Crazy. Luckily, Madi doesn't complain.

Have you met His Highness?

Gabby found her princess crown and put it on Jaxson. He looks pretty regal, don't you think?
Here he is addressing his loyal subjects

and taking time to be among the commoners


Cory and I have discovered a new weight loss plan. All you have to do is get a cough. No really. You've got your cardio-coughing over and over and over and over raises your heartrate. At least it raised mine. You've got your toning-coughing is a good ab workout. And it even helps decrease your caloric intake, if you cough until you throw-up. It looks good on paper, but the scales aren't changing much. Dangit.

Did you get snow this past weekend? We went to Burley to get pumpkins. It started snowing late Friday night. It never stopped. We left at around 4pm. This is what we drove in.

Two and a half hours later, when we were almost home, this is what we were driving in.

Can you believe that? No snow in Poky or IF. But all together, about 16in at my parents house in Burley. They had to cancel church. Crazy to see that much snow so early in the season. Must be that silly global warming again.

And here are all the pumpkins we came home with. We got most of them in Burley, and the rest came from Pocatello. We had to get our share from BOTH grandpas.

have you ever seen a cinderella pumpkin before? My Dad grew these this year. Kinda hard to see in the pic, but they are a really dark orange, almost red color. I think they look so cool.

Looks like we've got a lot of carving to do!

Well, I'm all outta random. Have a great day!

I've been...

Hi. Holy goodness, it's been a long time since I've blogged. Crazy. Here's a rundown of what's been going on.

What I've been doing...
1. Painting. Last week we painted my in-laws kithen, living room, and hallway. It was our (all the kids) Christmas gift to them. It turned out so awesome. My favorite is the red wall in the kitchen. I want a red wall.



2. Got a new calling. Can't tell you what it is. Haven't been set apart, yet.

3. Travenling. We went to my sister's house over Conference Weekend. We had so much fun. We went to Discovery Gateway. It's a children's museum at The Gateway in Salt Lake. The kids had a lot of fun. Afterward, we went to California Pizza Kitchen. Just a note. If you go to California Pizza Kitchen, when you order, be aware that the pizzas are meant to be individual meals. Nothing looks more pathetic than 3 people sharing 1 pizza the size of a dinner plate. It was good, though! I wish I pics to share, but true to form, we left our camera in the car. My sister took some pics. Hey, Crazy Mommy, send me those pictures, please!

4. Sick. Jaxson and I have been sick. Nothing serious, just enough to make you want to sleep all day. I sound worse than I feel, really. Jaxson sounds better, but he still has a cough and boogery nose. Love this season, don't you?

5. Having parties! I hosted a luncheon for my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law that live close. It was fun. We sent the kids downstairs (I love having a basement, even if it isn't finished. Just throw some old carpet on the floor and voila...instant playroom!), and we stayed upstairs and made smoothies and quesadillas and visited. We've decided to make it a monthly thing. Can't wait till next time. Thanks for coming gals!

What I'm doing now...
1. Checking out my sister's new blog. You can check it out here. She is known as the funniest person in the world. Also, self titled "The Queen of Everything". She also has one of the cutest little boys in the world. She's my hero.

2. Typing. Obviously.

3. Waiting for Snow. The forcast (depending on who you listen to) calls for like 4-10 inches accumulation this weekend. Yuck. At least we got the kids new coats.

What I should be doing...
1. Typing the school's newsletter, and getting ready to announce AR awards at the school.

2.Cleaning, laundry, packing for a trip to Burley. We're going to go to Burley this weekend to get pumpkins. Dad grows pumpkins for the grandkids. He has 10. Only 5 live close enough to run over and get some. We love him, though! The kids can't wait.

What I'm going to do next...
1. Put in a load of laundry, and then take a nap. I hate being sick!

Want free jewlery?

Yes, I'm totally serious! Just go here to enter. She's got some beautiful necklaces!!

Gettin' Creative...

Good day to you! It's been awhile, no? Well, I'm back. And I've brought pictures! I haven't posted any pictures for a while, so I thought today would be a picture fest! Here goes!

First, I've been visiting alot of crafty-type blogs lately. It got me itching to make something myself. This is what I came up with:





I got inspired to make this after visiting Amber's blog. I thought "I wonder what I have around here to make something like this..." So, I rummaged throught my scrapbook stuff for supplies, and then found this frame I had got at Shopko a couple years ago. Then I took the little pumpkin memo holder and tied a bunch of ribbon around the top, and Voila. Halloween decor. I love these colors. I felt good to create. I haven't made anything for a long time. But now I have all these things I want to make, and limited moola with which to do it. I can't wait until payday, so I can go buy the stuff to make these. They are so cute!
When I was checking out this blog, I was inspired to make these:



Again, I just made them with what I had. I like her's better, but these will do.

Jaxson is getting so big. He'll be 6 months old on Oct 2nd. Good grief. He's doing the army crawl and exploring his home. He used to go only on carpet, but has found he goes so much faster on a hard floor. He likes to think he's pretty cool.



The girls put hom in a toy shopping cart and pushed him around like he was their baby. He loved it. And take a look at that tie. He IS fashion.





Her's Jake lovin' on Jaxson. He's a good big brother. Unfortunately, he's been spending alot of time here:




Poor kid.

And that's the end of my picture fest. I just realized I take pics of the little kids while the big ones are in school. So I'll work on that. Until next time!

Ahoy, Me Hearties!

Did ye know? It be National Speak Like a Pirate Day! Arrrr! If ye dinnae know how ter speak like a buccaneer, ahoy is a buccaneer speak translator.



I reckon I shall nab fortywinks afore I go fetch Jake from preschool.
May fair winds find ye, and be havin' jolly!

Oops...

Apperantly the cake-in-a-mug link didn't work. I've fixed it, but here it is again. Thanks for the heads up, Lynn. I've actually never tried it before, but I thought it looked yum. Let me know if it's good!

I share...It's what I do.

Hello my bloggy friends. I've come across a few things on the Internet I thought were priceless, and must me shared. Because, like the post title says "I share....It's what I do."

First, As I was browsing some of the blogs I read, I came across a link to a blog called "Made with love and glue. Lots of glue." How could I not go check this one out. Glue? To me, glue=craft possibility. So off I went, and she didn't let me down. And guess what! There is humor, too! (I love funny) So, I share a link to a funny video on her blog. I laughed. I hope you do, too. Let me just give you one clue...period.


Next up? Chocolate.(this is for you, Ashlee) One of my friend posted a yummy cake-in-a-mug recipe. Go here to see it.

And last,a good old fashioned debate over high heels.



So, I can't decide how I feel about that. The little black ones looked kinda cute on the little crawling babe. But really, high heels for a newborn? Kinda over the top. And pricey. What do you think?

Need a lift?

So, are you having a bad day? Do you need a lift? My sister introduced me to these blogs.






These are two awesome blogs. Nie Nie is a blog written by a gal named Stephanie. She's from Arizona. In August, her and her husband were in a plane crash, and both were burned badly. They are both in the burn unit of a Phoenix hospital. Currently on her blog, her sister is re-posting stuff from Stephanie's archives. C Jane is Stephanie's sister. She is caring for 3 of Stephanie's children, and she has a newborn as well. Reading these two blogs makes me want to be a better sister, and better Mother, a better woman, and better spouse, and a better friend. It's sometimes sad, and I shed some tears. But mostly I'm inspired and in awe of the support this unfortunate accident has inspired from many, many people. So, if you're having a bad day, read these two blogs. Then go hug your kids.

Revenge of a 4 year old brother...

Jake is angry at is sister, Madi. She has a recorder that she got in school in 5th grade. She found it this morning. Jake wanted to play beautiful music on it this morning. Madi said no.

Jakes revenge: He ran down the hall to her room, stuck just his bum in her room, and farted.
My reaction: If I was a good Mom, I would have told him that wasn't nice. Instead, I laughed.

Boys.
Where do they get this stuff?