Halloween Parties

Abigail's school had a Halloween party and costume parade today. It was so fun going to the school and seeing all of the kids in their costumes. I am glad that Abigail goes to a school that still celebrates holidays. Everyone from the phone company that Darin works for came to the school and went classroom to classroom handing out candy. Darin was a ghostbuster, which the most of the kids had never heard of. Abigail was excited to see her daddy at school.


Emily is testing Abigail's hat out for her.

I told Abigail to make a wicked witch face, and this is what she came up.

One of Abigail's best friends at school was a witch too.

Octo-Mom

Darin's work had a costume party and his office manager dressed up as "octo-mom." When I saw her, I couldn't stop laughing. She definately wins the award for most creative costume in my opinion.

Thanks Katherine

This blog is for Katherine Young. Thanks for the yummy Fall Dip Recipe. Darin's office had a party and I used the the recipe for his party and it was a hit. I carved out a pumpkin and put the dip inside. Everyone said that they loved the dip on the ginger snaps the most but it is yummy on pretty much anything.

Frolic in the Field

My good friend Kristin is a budding photographer. She asked to take some pictures of Abigail last June and of course we accepted. She is quite talented and I was so thrilled to get the pictures.

Puddle Play

When my friend Kristin was taking pictures of Abigail last June, I had to have Abigail's picture taken in her rain coat and rain boots. It had rained the day before. One of Abigail's favorite activities was to splash in the puddles. Such a cutie!!

Boots

These boots have had a lot of fun with Abigail.

Pumpkin Carving Time

We carved pumpkins for our Family Home Evening activity on Friday (yes, we have FHE on Fridays). We have 5 pumpkins, but we only carved two. I was left carving the last one all by myself. Everyone's attention span had gone by then. We had fun. I think this is the first time in seven years that we have carved pumpkins. The twins loved sticking their hands in the "pumpkin guts" and Abigail loved collecting the seeds. Happy Halloween!!!

Abigail's Soccer Pictures

Abigail has had fun playing soccer this year. I am happy that these pictues turned out a little better than her Kindergarten School pictures. It is pretty funny watching 5 year olds play soccer, they always forget who the goalie is and tend to leave the goal un guarded several times a game.

The Twins First Haircut

I took the twins to a cute little childrens salon / boutique called Paislee Punch for their first hair cut. They had these little cars that they could drive while getting a hair cut and they got a sucker and juice box to keep them distracted. I only got the picture of Emily at the salon because my battery ran out on my camera. I am sure no one can really tell the difference on the twins, but I can. No more baby mullett for Emily and no more uneven locks for Elizabeth.

Emily is not sure if she is supposed to be having fun or not. Elizabeth's Cute Little Cut

Emily's hair is a little more even now.

Of course I had to save a lock of hair from each girl.

Pumpkin Patch

We drove 1 1/2 hours to visit a pumpkin patch in Idaho Falls (the closest one I knew about). The pumpkin patch was pretty small and looked very similar to the farm that we live on, but the kids had a blast for the 15 minutes that we were there. They looked at all of the pumpkins, played in the hay bale maze, and ate some homemade candy. It was pretty cold and windy outside, so we didn't stay long, but we had fun as a family.

Our pumpkins on the old timey scale waiting to be weighed and purchased.

NOT YET!!

Isn't it supposed to be Fall? Who ordered this winter weather? Can someone please tell the weather man to predict 75 degree weather for the next month? Okay, I am done with all of my questions.

Camping At Bear Lake

We went to Bear Lake (Idaho / Utah) for a camping trip with Heather and Shane this past weekend. It was fun spending time with them and we had a great time with our camper "Betsy." We picked a pretty COLD weekend. We will have to remember to camp in the summer time from now on.

Happy Harvest

Our garden produced beautifully this year. We have worked reallly hard and it payed off. The only thing that I think we could have been better at is weeding our garden. The weeds grew just a plentifully as the vegetables. Below is a list of what our harvest produced:

Lettuce
Peas
Grean Beans
Onions
Carrotts
Corn
Potatoes
Cantaloupe
Pumpkins

I did ALOT of canning too!! I made:

Strawberry Jam
Apricot Jam
Apricot Butter
Canned Peaches
Canned Pears
Applesauce
Applebutter
Salsa
Canned Green Beans
Canned Dilly Beans
Canned Pinto Beans

Are you hungry yet? I think I am done with food storage for the year!! Too much work!

You Must Visit this Blog if You are LDS

Announcing My New Favorite LDS Related Blog!!

(With Angel Moroni's Help)

I stumbled across this website and it is great! This girl does LDS Church Lesson Helps and Handouts she has stuff for primary, activity days, relief society, and more. My Favorite: she makes a handout each month to correspond with the visiting teaching message. You can just print it out and it is cute and totally appropriate to give to the sisters that you visit teach. Here it is: http://emmasplacetobe.blogspot.com/ . Sorry, if you aren't LDS and reading this post. Visit my blog some other time to read about our really exciting life on the farm!

My Cell Phone Drowned

About 10 days ago Emily decided to give my cell phone a bath in a bowl of water. The picture below is not of my cell phone I found it on the Internet of someone's phone that had the same fate. I took the battery out and tried to let it dry out with no luck! It is still dead as a door nail. Of course I don't have phone insurance because I am pretty responsible with my phone. What was I thinking? I know that my kids destroy everything that they can get their hands on. Next time, I will definitely be purchasing phone insurance. Does anyone have any tips on how to revive a drowned cellphone? If you need to reach me sometime in the next month or so, you might try our home phone, email, facebook, or this blog. I pretty much check those things everyday.

Grand Nan Visit's Idaho

Grand Nan came for a visit last week. We were busy ladies the entire time. We did alot of chores, went shopping a few times, and went out to eat a few times. We always love having her come visit and we can't wait until the next time.

Princess Polly

A few months ago, one of Darin's co-workers said they had kittens and asked if Abigail would want one. Of course Abigail wants a kitten, what kid doesn't want a kitten? So, before I was even aware of what had taken place we added a new kitten to our house. So, now we have 3 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats & 6 chickens (I have stopped counting the livestock, the number changes too often). Ralphs Ruckus at it's best. Meet Princess Polly.

Our New Family Members

Our family just wasn't the same with out a dog running around, so when I found out a family in Chubbuck needed to find a good home for their Cocker Spaniel and Springer Spaniel I couldn't resist these cute faces. Meet Samson & Aggie.

The Springer - Samson means Service so hopefully he will serve our family well. He is 11 months old and full of energy he loves people and follows us wherever we go. He is still learning good manners and sometimes forgets them when he gets excited and jumps on people. We are trying to teach him some basic commands so he is not so uncontrollable. He loves to chase the farm cats, I don't think he really has interest in hurting them. He just think he needs to chase anything that is running away from him. Mr. O'Malley has had to put him in his place a time or two.

LOOK AT THOSE CUTE FACES!!

The Cocker - Aggie means Virtouous or Good and she is a good girl. Aggie is very loving and will just cuddle up in your lap to be pet. She still needs to learn a few manners too. We have to make it to where she doesn't feel like she needs to jump on people to get attention. Aggie's former owners named her Abbie, but it was really confusing having tow Abbie's around so we changed her name to Aggie in honor of our Texas A&M Aggies.

Soccer Has Begun

Abigail gets to play soccer this year. She is such a cute little soccer player.

I hope she doesn't get her athletic abilities from me.

Abigail's Kindergarten School Picture

Abigail was so excited to show me her first school pictures. She said, "see mom, don't I look cute!" Well of course I think SHE is cute, but WHAT HAPPENED TO HER HAIR???? I was very disappointed to find out that they took pictures after recess and snack. If you look really close, you can see food on her lip. It is definitely noticeable in the 8X10 that we got. Abigail's hair was not in that location when I put her on the bus that morning. Of course, I still think she looks cute, but I probably will not be ordering pictures anymore from the school and just might show up before her pictures are taken next year to make sure that she is still dressed. I will stick to going to my very inexpensive photographer friend Kristin, she does a MUCH better job. My mom took one look at the picture and said, "Well, she looks like a Kindergartner!" She still is my sweet little Abigail with a sweet little smile.

Pick Your Own

Okay, I have fallen in LOVE with this website. www.pickyourown.org It has everything you need for canning, freezing, and drying food. There are great tips and recipes for canning all kinds of fruits, vegetables, soups, salsas, applesauce, pie fillings, jams, jellies, etc. Also, they have a list of Pumpkin Patches, Corn Mazes, and Christmas Tree Farms for all 50 states. Just thought I would share, my new favorite go-to place for all things produce.