My last year of youngness!

I am going to try to enjoy my last year of being "officially" young! Yesterday was my 29th birthday! I have had a great couple of days! On Friday I got together with two of my girl friends and went to Vegas! Wahoo! Stu came home from work early and took my kids and my friends two kids so that we could go have fun! We shopped, ate, shopped again, rode the NyNy roller coaster, ate again, and then headed home! We didn't get home until 2:30am! I loved the car ride and shopping with no kids. When I got home there was a cute sign on the garage that Stu and the kids had made for me wishing me a happy birthday. Sunday night our friends brought me a birthday cake, and Monday I did nothing! I literally read a book and played piano basically all day! My cute neighbor took our kids, and Stu and I went to dinner where he got this GINORMOUS taco. ( We laughed our heads off because this was in addition to his already huge burrito.) We went shopping for halloween costumes and if you know Stu at all you can imagine how funny this adventure would be. He is really a hilarious person. We went and got a frozen yogurt and ate it on our cozy couch while we visited. I would say a pretty great birthday! Oh yeah and I love how excited kids get even about their parents birthday. Camden asked me if I wanted a princess or a Dora pinata! I guess everyone has to have a pinata for their birthday huh? So I am basically 29 from here on out right?

Bread,Politics,Apples,and Pumpkins

Okay so here is mish mash of a post!

Yesterday I was in a "domestic" mood and decided that I was going to learn to make bread, so I tried white and wheat and it wasn't too bad! I really felt like I need to at least know how to make a loaf of bread if I am going to have wheat and flour in my food storage so here it is. I'm going to be a bread MASTER soon!

There is no white bread left, and this is all that's left of the wheat. Josslyn loved it!

While the bread was cooking I also made some oven dried apples. They seriously ended up cooking for 10 hours, but they turned out yummy! I got this new peeler, corer, slicer and LOVE IT! I will use apples more cause it won't be so hard!

Okay now about Politics. I have had some seriously engaging conversations lately with family and friends regarding the political here and now. I am really sick of it, but I can't stop listening, and being bugged by all the ridiculous things that are going on. I am more convinced now than ever where I stand regarding economic policy, moral issues, and other political issues, and for some of these things I am ready to make a stand. I am looking forward to voting and then having the election over. I also have been interested about the churchs position on certain issues, (issues, not candidates or political parties). I feel like it is seriously refreshing that the church has publicly shared our views and our responsibilites on issues like abortion, marriage, stem cell research etc...If you haven't read them, You should. You can find them on Lds.org or even in this months Ensign. Don't forget to Vote!

I know this is a bad picture, but here is our annual pumpkin carving results. Stu get's templates from online and We let the kids pull out all the "guts"! Then he and I end up carving the pumpkins. It was pretty fun and messy. Making memories though right?

Picture tag

I've been tagged again...I am supposed to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder in my pictures.

Here is the blurry picture of Braden and Mitchell, climbing the rock wall at the Children's Museum at the Gateway in SLC! We really had fun that day!

I tag Debbie J., Jenni, and Sarah W.

I'm just going to say it....

I HATE SHOPPING! There I said it. I've been pretending for years that I actually like spending my free time with my gal pals looking at all the things that don't fit, or I can't afford, but I am going to break free and say that the only thing I like shopping for is FOOD and even that isn't that fun! This probably explains why I don't have any cute clothes. I know that I am not your typical "girl", but I have had enough experience to know that everytime I go shopping I come home thinking that I look like a vagabond, and feeling somewhat depressed or discouraged. Part of my problem may be that there are NO stores where I live. I have to travel 2-4 hours to get to any stores that I remotely like. I don't like shopping for furniture, decorations, accessories, and especially clothes. Now don't get me wrong, I do love new outfits, I just don't like finding them. I think I may need a personal shopper. I set out today to find some cute clothes for our family pictures and after searching EVERY store in the area hauling around 3 kids, I went home feeling yucky and a bit ticked. I'll try again tomorrow. I guess, if I have too.

Funny little Mitch

Okay so Mitch is pretty funny these days. If you know him at all you know that he is a bit intense. There are two things that he is pretty intense about right now...Football (or whatever sport is in season) and the mail.

Mitch is basically obsessed with the mail. He comes home from school eats lunch and then sets off on his bike with a grocery bag and the mail key in hand to get the mail. It is so funny to watch since the mail box is quite a bit higher than he can reach so it takes several jumps to make sure that he has gotten every little piece of mail. Then it basically goes like this...Mitchell with a sad face; "Mom, I know, I know there is nothing in there for me."

and I always say "Well let's see. Sorry Mitch not today, but you can have this letter from Geico if you want." Then Mitchell says "Really? Thanks mom, but why does Braden or you get mail all the time and I don't?" It has progressively gotten worse and to the point of tears sometimes. Finally I called cute Aunt Kara and had her send him a letter and when it came you should have seen his face!! I thought it would make it better, which in some ways it did, but he is more intense than ever. Kara, We may have created a monster!

Okay and one quick story about football. Mitch isn't old enough to play football, but Braden is, soooo in true intense Mitch fashion he has been to every practice. At first it started with Mitchell walking the sidelines all practice, then he would walk right next (and I mean siamese twin close) to the coach and finally the coach started puting him in the line up. Thank goodness Bradens coach is so great and let's Mitch practice with them. Yesterday in practice Mitchells intensity was paying off and he was playing pretty well against the older boys. Finally the coach said "Come on guys can the whole team beat Mitch?" Again, you should have seen his face. All the other players were laughing and saying "Let's see what you can do little man." He thought he was the coolest kid ever when the coach had the whole team line up against just him. Let's just say the score at the end of this little drill was 5-0 with Mitch being the winner. He still can't stop talking about it!

I'll never miss it!

I LOVED conference. There is nothing like hearing straight from a prophet! I tried to make packets for the kids so that they would somewhat listen and so that I could in return listen as well but, it was still hard. The music of every session was incredible as usual, and Stu even told me about the preisthood session which sounds great. I can't wait to read it all again! It's amazing that you can still feel the spirit with kids talking and yelping, but I did! I loved how President Monson told us in the begining of the conference that the messages were meant for us! They really were. I again am renewed and ready to try harder.

We had fun visitors again too. My cute sister Kara, My brother BJ and his wife Katie and their brand new, month old baby Emmy came to stay the weekend with us. We had good food, good talks and felt the spirit. Not to mention that I got to snuggle that baby ALL weekend. It makes me baby hungry. Mitchell also really loved that baby. So cute!

Here they are working on the conference kids packets! Thanks for your help Kar!

Marathon??Nope just the Mayors Walk

On Saturday morning was the 32nd annual St. George Marathon...Me and my boys got up at 6am to meet at the park for the "lazy mans marathon" aka the Mayors walk. Basically you walk/run the last 3 miles of the marathon and then they give you breakfast and free stuff while you watch the real marathoners start to cross the finish line. My boys were real troopers and we had fun racing each other and cheering each other on. It was fun going with our neighbors the Wilsons too.

There really isn't anything as cool as watching the determination and the mastery that these athletes have over their bodies. It always makes me want to be a runner for about 5 minutes! It was a blast even though it rained and was windy. I want to give shout outs to all my people who actually finished the real marathon...Marianne and Lauren. Good work gals!

Brians Gone

So you may have heard me mention that we were tending an injured dog for my cousin, well after weeks of tlc on his broken leg I got the news that they were going to have to amputate! WHAT?!?! I did not want to be the mean old person that took this sweet dog to have his leg removed. Yikes! After two episodes of crying I finally got over it! We had him for another week or so after the amputation and then we took him back to his true owners today. Camden just kept giving him hugs and telling him goodbye. Mitchell says he misses him. I would say that I'm sad, but after cleaning up after the dog ie hair and #2, feeding him pills twice a day, and watching him suffer I'm pretty relieved that he is no longer my responsibility. I will however say that he had one of the best temperments that I have ever seen on that breed of dog. He was easy to love. We'll miss you Brian!