Happy Halloween!

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!
Oh, and thanks to the house that was giving away THESE.....

OVERACHIEVERS!!!!

The Wonderful World of Scouting

In case you didn't know, we are pretty heavily involved in scouting around here. Chris is still scoutmaster and Caleb is now a life scout and senior patrol leader. Last night was our court of honor, and it was a BIG one!Caleb was conducting the meeting because he needed to fill a requirement for the communications merit badge. Those of you who know Caleb as being a man of few words (as the assistant scoutmaster tells me "He says what needs to be said; nothing more.") realize what a big deal this is for him to get up in front of people and conduct a whole meeting!Chris and Caleb, looking pretty sharp in their uniforms, I might add!
Caleb earned his world conservation award, totin' chip and 10 merit badges, bringing his current total merit badges to 17!

Okay, I HATE this picture, but my friend keeps telling me that I don't put any pictures of me up on my blog! It is because I usually have the camera, so when I turn it over to my husband, he is a little unfamiliar with it and we end up getting pics like this because Caleb and I gave up and started to walk away!

In honor of October, a friend and I did refreshments with a Halloween theme. She went for "gory" with her brain surgery watermelon and I went for "cutesy" with my pretzel witches!

Baking and Gardening and Other Domesticated Bliss

Savannah and I spent yesterday baking cookies. It was a cold day that grew colder as the day went on, so it was the perfect day to bake! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of our finished product (the kids were all getting home from school and eating faster than we could make and I had a house full of Savannah's friends, so things got a little crazy!) When she saw me put on my old apron and pull out the rolling pin she said "Oooh, are we going to be BAKING GIRLS?!!! Where's my apron?" It was too cute! I had to pull out an old apron of the boys for her to use, but we had a lot of fun!The weather here has turned incredibly cold and rainy, so it is no longer feasible for me to cover the cantaloupes each night. We salvaged what we could and they are now residing on my kitchen counter trying their best to fulfill their purpose in life and ripen to their full potential so we can EAT them! I am not very hopeful at this point, but I just had to try!The kids are all talking Halloween costumes and I am kind of in a funk this year about Halloween......just can't seem to get into the hoopla of the holiday. I don't really know what my problem is. I usually love sewing their costumes or I buy some stuff and just put it together to make my own creation. Savannah found a costume at the store for $12 and my immediate thought was "Great, then I don't have to make it!" The boys are still figuring things out so I pulled down my costume box and Caleb reincarnated the frog I made for him as a 4 yr. old. He is now SUPER FROG!!!

Gymnastics Awards Day

It was awards day at gymnastics where they make sure that every child gets celebrated and receives a ribbon for participation.

Samuel could not quite come to grips with this because he is a strong believer in EARNING your ribbons, so he asked Savannah over and over again what place she was. We had to show him the picture of Savannah on the top step to prove to him that she was, indeed, THE BEST!!!
Naturally, every child received the same ribbon and posed the same way on the top step, but what Samuel doesn't know won't hurt him!

I got a little creative with Savannah's hair thanks to this fun girl's hair blog that my cousin introduced me to. If you have little girls, you gotta check it out! There are lots of fun ideas and I usually take them and adapt them a little. I have found some great ways to deal with bangs that are growing out!

Race Against Time

It appears we are in a race against time with our garden and Mother Nature is NOT cooperating. I have 15 cantaloupes happily growing and we had our first frost last night. After watching the news at 11 pm, I decided that I needed to go out and try to cover my garden So I climbed out of my warm and cozy bed, bundled up in my jammies and a big coat, and grabbed all the sheets I could find in our linen closet to cover up what I could of the cantaloupe plants. I decided to go ahead and pick the one cantaloupe that had been growing the longest and smelled like a cantaloupe, hoping it would be ready. Unfortunately, it was not as ripe as I had hoped, but it tasted good enough to give us something to hope for. Now I just have to patiently wait it out and be sure to cover up the garden on frosty nights! Wish me luck!

Weekend Fun

Chris and I went to the temple this weekend and left Shelby in charge. We came home to an immaculately cleaned house because we had promised one last visit to the amusement park if they cleaned up! (I highly recommend this bribery tactic, by the way) I was loading pictures on my computer this morning and came across this one from the weekend, so it is obvious that it wasn't ALL hard work when we were gone! On Sunday we had a Special Conference with President Boyd K. Packer to attend. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from him, Elder Marriott and Elder Causay (not sure on the spelling). Afterwards, we invited Chris' brother James and his family over for dinner. It was a lot of fun for the cousins to get together and I can say that we don't do this enough! It is sad that we live 30 minutes apart and rarely see each other. We intend to do better!

Security Blankets

Sometimes your favorite blankey cannot make it through another wash cycle. Sometimes your big sister can sew it for you and repair it only to have it rip and shred in a whole new place the next time it is washed. Sometimes the best thing to do is to start all over again! After a week filled with trips to many fabric stores (SIX in all, which is ALOT because they are all over town), Savannah finally stumbled upon a print that she thought somewhat resembled her favorite blankey so we brought it home to sew.
The funny thing is I had the hardest time convincing her that we needed to tie it. She was sure her old blankey didn't have ties on it (it did, it was just so old that they had all pulled through!) and I had to finally pull out the old photo albums and show her pictures of her with the blankey as a baby! So, that was pretty much our day today......now I need to go clean my house and grab a quick nap before the kids come home!

Stretching the Dollar

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed it is now considered "cool" to be frugal? I have been quietly frugal for years and have watched my friends blow money like it is going out of style. A little blip in the stock market (okay, so it was a big blip) and now all of my friends who happily drove their gas guzzlin' SUVs all over town on a whim have decided that they need to plan their trips, clip coupons and be big time frugal since it is now "politically correct"! I feel a little out of sorts because I am used to being one of a minority and I now have all these people asking me for money saving tips! So, in the interest of sharing my latest and greatest tips with my friends and family on my blog, here is what I did today:

It was taco salad night at our house and I decided to try a little tip I had heard about for stretching your hamburger meat. I browned one pound of ground beef, drained it, then added bread crumbs (one slice of whole wheat bread crumbled to very small crumbs), taco seasoning mix and twice the water called for to make taco meat. After it simmered for a few minutes, I drained a can of black beans and added them.

Guess what......SUCCESS! No one was any wiser to the bread being added. Every single one of my kids ate up the meat just like they always do. As a matter of fact, I usually add kidney beans, but tonight I added black beans and they seemed to like that better. Adding the bread helped the meat stretch a little farther than it usually does, and the kids get the added bonus of extra fiber! I will be trying this one again!

The Piano Saga Continues......

Thanks to lots of people's advice, I let Shelby make the decision to quit piano lessons at the start of this year. Although I was sad to see her quit, I recognize that it was time to let her decide. She has played the piano some since she quit, but it has been more on a once a week basis.

Well, yesterday I got a call from a really sweet lady in our neighborhood. She used to teach piano but quit when she had her 2nd baby a year and a half ago. I met her at the pool this summer and we talked alot about Shelby and I told her if she ever decided to start teaching again to please let me know. So she was calling to tell me that she was planning to start picking up a few students and she wanted to give Shelby first chance at slots available. She is a really cute trendy young mom and I know that Shelby really likes her because she looks at her as more of a contemporary vs. the older piano teacher she has now. Also, this teacher is more advanced and can work with Shelby at the level she is at.

When Shelby got home yesterday, I gave her the information and let her make the decision whether to start taking lessons again or not, and she decided to do it! She said she had really thought she would keep practicing, but she is not doing it as much as she thought she would and she kind of misses it. This is a win-win situation all the way around because she has been able to make her own decisions and feels like we have given her freedom and I still get to hear her play piano!

If you want to see one of Shelby's projects while she has not been taking lessons, she posted this video on her blog. What she doesn't tell you is that she fell in love with this song on the radio and sat down at the piano while listening to it on her ipod and figured out how to play it by ear! The piano book at the piano is just her lesson book. She has totally learned and memorized this song without ever looking at the sheet music.

It Was a Pink Letter Day!

Back when I started blogging I used to browse around at other people's blogs to get ideas of how exactly to be a blogger. On one of my many browsing days, I stumbled upon the Pink Christmas blog and was completely taken with the idea of a girlfriend gift exchange where all the gifts are homemade and where we are able to have fun while donating to a charity which helps someone else. So I took a deep breath and entered my information (yes, this is so unlike me, because I am usually a huge internet skeptic!) Well, today was the day that I got my pink envelope in the mail containing all kinds of fun stuff from the sponsors and most importantly, information about my new pink girlfriend! I cannot wait to learn all about her by checking out her blog and come up with some fabulous gift to brighten her Christmas! I have spent most of the day in bed sick with the stomach flu, so this was a fun surprise to finish out the day! Check out the Pink Christmas blog......you never know, you may want a Pink Christmas yourself next year!

The Little Gymnast

It's been a month now since Savannah started gymnastics, so I thought I would let the pictures speak for themselves. She loves it!

I LOVE this picture! I think it is so cute of all the little girls, even if their faces aren't showing!

Boo To You!

I am a big fan of projects during General Conference weekend. I find that busy hands = quiet mouths which means I can actually listen to more of conference! Here is a little glimpse of today's project.
The kids all really enjoyed helping out with this one and they needed varying levels of supervision. We got our idea from this blog and adapted it a little.
Now we are just a little bit more decorated for Halloween!

Trying Out the Band

All the 8th grade band students at Caleb's school were invited to spend a day with our local high school marching band. It was a great way for the kids to experience what being in a marching band is like! This was right up Caleb's alley, of course! He quickly learned all the music that they play in the stands so he could participate with them at the game.
They played for the tailgate parties before marching into the stadium.

We had to take the whole family to check out the football game and watch Caleb perform, and Savannah turned into a crazy fan! What a fun night!

Sleepy......

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have felt pretty blah lately and I am sure it has something to do with me not getting enough sleep. I take care of the necessities around the house and with my kids, but I really don't seem to have energy to do much of anything extra. Exercise is not the answer because I have been walking every morning. I could be eating a little better, but I believe that has something to do with how tired I am because I seem to crave sweets and chocolate about midafternoon when I am completely exhausted and desperately in need of a nap. I am sure that it all boils down to S-L-E-E-P!

Try as I might, I cannot get to sleep any earlier at night. The kids seem to have something every night between church, school and extra-curriculars that puts us getting home after 9 p.m., then it takes a while to get everyone settled and down in bed. If I have enough energy, I try to do a quick loading of the dishwasher and wipe down of the counters (which are usually still dirty from dinner because we rushed out the door to get somewhere as soon as we finished eating) and then I fall into bed around 10:30 or 11 p.m. My 5:20 a.m. wake-up call comes too early for my liking. I know lots of people survive on less sleep, but I am one who has always needed at least 8 hours or I am grouchy. Needless to say, I am spending alot of time grouchy!