I Love the Fall Colors....

I love all the colors of the trees during this season. I drive around amazed by the beauty that surrounds us. It is like looking at a fine painting. The bright yellows seem to illuminate the area all around. When I see these beautiful trees, surrounded by their fallen leaves, I want to have my family sitting in the middle of those leaves for a portrait. I love outdoor photography and always want a great family portrait outside. As I am driving my kids around I will see different settings that would make great portrait sites; a rustic fence, a big tree, piles of leaves, abandoned buildings. I can see the set-up and know the time of day that would provide perfect lighting. I am always taking those beautiful shots in my mind.

I took this shot above after I dropped Logan off at Scouts. His leader lives down a long driveway and this tree is in the neighbors yard. I just had to stop and whip out my little point and shoot camera and capture this scene.
In my backyard I have a little bit of this yellow, a rustic swing, and some cute kids. I was making dinner and saw this photo in my mind as I looked out the window. One of the kids is missing, Jon was at church for Mutual. He would have whined about being in the picture anyway. I aspire to be a great outdoor photographer. However, it is all in my mind for now.

So sleepy....

I went to the office to look-up a recipe and so I put Emily into her Exersaucer to keep her in the office :) . She was playing and eating a snack and I turn around from the computer and see her snoozing! She didn't make a peep, no fuss at all! She did get up at 3:30am and 6:30am so she should be tired! I know I am!!!! (she still has her toy in her hand!)

Emily's First Halloween Costume...

My sister bought Emily her first Halloween costume the other day. The kids couldn't resist putting it on her and she didn't mind a bit! You can't really tell but she is a piece of candy corn! My favorite!!

School Fall Carnival

We spent last Saturday afternoon at our school's
Fall Carnival.

The kids had a great time at all the activities.

Happy 1st Birthday Emily

We are all grateful for this little ray of sunshine we call Emily! Her birthday(10/23/07) has come much too quickly! This last year has flown by. I am so glad we have had the blessing of another child in our home. No one would have ever convinced me when I got married almost 22 years ago that I would adopt 5 children, going half-way around the world to do so and then give birth after I turned 40! It has been an incredible journey, a daily thrill ride of adventure. While we were getting ready for the party Emily was in her seat at the table. She decided she had had enough of that seat and she wanted the book in the middle of the table. So she climbed out of her seat and got that book! The adventure of this infant/toddler is going to be fun!

Emily's First Birthday cakes.
I bought her the little one to eat and destroy and
I made the second one for everyone else to enjoy!
Emily's birthday celebration really began the week before her birthday with a visit from Steve's parents. It was a beautiful day, the kids were out of school for Fall break and so we had lunch in the park and opened a few presents. Emily has really enjoyed the musical book, phone, and piano. Emily really enjoys music. She will start her wiggle-dance whenever she hears any kind of music. She had a musical toy in her hand, her piano at her feet, and she would lean over and push one of the song buttons on that piano and put her foot onto the keyboard so she had 3 kinds of music playing at once. She did this over and over! She will come and sit under the piano when I practice too. Maybe #6 will actually play the piano!Emily was a little tentative with the cake. She just looked at it. We even stuck her hand into it.
Then Grandma gave her a bite and that was it all it took!This is all that was left when we finally took it away so she could open presents.
I don't think cake will be safe around Emily any more.

Who me?

Emily is having just a little too much fun with the baby wipes! Her look is just priceless.
We couldn't help laughing, which in turn made her pull out more wipes.

School Projects

This is one of my least favorite of school projects. This is my 4th and 5th time doing this project too. In 4th grade, each of the kids have had to do a salt dough map of the state of Idaho. They have to show the surrounding states, major rivers, cities, the capital, etc. The only time I liked this project was when Jonny did it. He completed his at school! Steve helped the kids make the dough and get it formed and spread into the shape of the state, and give it the relief it needed. Then I help the kids get stuff labeled and painted. I am pretty hands off too. You can always tell when the maps come to school who had parent "help". I could have taken this as an opportunity for a little crafty work, but I figure it is their grade, they should do the work. I am just glad it is done and I won't have to do this again for 8 or 9 years when Emily gets to 4th grade!

A beautiful day at the park...

We spent Tuesday afternoon at Tulley park enjoying the beautiful fall weather. We ate lunch with Steve's parents, who were visiting from Washington, and the kids played on the big toys and over at the skate park area. Emily loved playing on the big toys too. This is the first time she has been to the park and been old enough to do more than swing. This time she got to crawl around a little on the toys. She loved being in the tubes. The kids would take turns taking her down the slides too.

These shots are all from my cell phone, pretty amazing coming from a phone-camera!

Grandma & Emily

As I was looking through photos tonight I saw this photo and had to post it! I think it is a cute shot of Emily and her Grandma! We were at one of Logan's Cross-country meets and Grandma came along to cheer for Logan!

Emily loves books....

Emily has her own basket of books that she dumps out many times a day and I pick up many times a day. She will flip through the pages and chew on the corners. It is fun to watch her growing interest as she spends more time really studying what's on the pages. She will point to the pictures and talk. As we were driving home from Mountain Home yesterday, I gave her one of her favorite books and she was delighted. She opened it up and started "reading" her book. She was seriously studying the pages. I thought it was funny that she was doing this so seriously with the book upside down! If only we could see or hear what babies are thinking!

Way to go Logan!

Thursday was Logan's last Cross Country meet. We drove to Mountain Home for the League Meet. I am not sure how many kids there were but the line-up was 4 or 5 rows deep of runners. We are proud of Logan for sticking it out the entire season and running his heart out at each meet. I am sure Logan didn't know what he was really getting himself into when he joined the team, but he stuck it out and did great! It was fun to watch him stand up a little taller as we cheered for him when he went by. I was always fighting back tears I was so proud of him!

It was so very cold in Mountain Home yesterday. Steve did not bring a jacket. Luckily we had a blanket in the car to wrap around the baby. She didn't seem to mind the cold too much. She did mind when I tried to wrap her up too much!

You should annoy them....

Background: Katie came to me afterschool, upset about some things a girl in her class had said to her. I commented to her that what that girl said was inappropriate and this girl should not behave like that at school. I told her the best thing to do was not let it get to her and ignore her.

So tonight the scene goes like this...

Carson was harassing his sister Katie and she had her ears covered with her hands and saying out loud "blah, blah, blah...."

Steve asks: "Katie, why are yo doing that?"
Katie: "I am doing what Mom said. When someone says something not nice you should annoy them."

Learning to spell....

The kids have these foam letters in the Harry Potter closet and they have been making mess with them and having a little fun too. They think it is funny to stick one on Emily's forehead and see what she does. She is such a good sport she will just wear the sticker and keep on going. At one point they had her name spelled across her forehead. It was there for a couple of hours before her Daddy removed them for her!The first photo reminds me of a game we played on one car trip to Washington. We figured out how to say each other's names if their names were spelled backwards. This kept the kids entertained for hours. Give it a shot, but some of the foam letters would make it a lot of fun! Only if you don't mind the sticker peelings all over the place!

Who needs Gerber?

Emily is turning out to be a bit of a picky eater. We will break up her food into bite size chunks and she reaches over the pieces to take one that is not been bite sized! She has her Dad's sense of sour. Things that I would never call sour, like canned peaches, well, they are sour. She really has never liked any Baby food out of a jar either. If I put the baby food from the jar into another bowl like everyone else is using she MIGHT eat it, but only a few bites. She does enjoy tomatoes, apples, oranges, rice, sweets and dog food!

"There are a million little bugs in my bed!"

As I was working on my last post Logan gets up to tell us that he has "a million little bugs in his bed" and he was sure he wasn't dreaming either! Steve asked him to show him the bugs and he was a little reluctant so Steve turned on the bedroom light to look for bugs. There were no bugs and Logan realized he was dreaming! Too funny!

Fun Stuff...

I found this on another blog and gave it a try.
It is kind of funny the things it asks.
You should take the test.

97 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Who needs Fisher Price?

We don't need to spend money on Fisher Price or other great baby toys. We have an entertainment center with cupboards full of stuff and a TV with an on/off button within reach and the "hidden" door with the volume and channel buttons too!

Emily has discovered the cupboards under the entertainment center.

She loves to empty everything onto the floor, and then chew on stuff.Once she is bored with that she stands up and proceeds to change the channel or turn off the TV.Then she turns it on again. All of this happening over and over again. Usually during a critical part of a show. The kids don't think it is funny. I just laugh, I think it is cute!
She is so proud of herself. She will turn around to be sure that I noticed.

I've been tagged....

Angie tagged me a few days ago and so here I go: 7 Random Facts about myself

1. When I as a kid I wanted to have feet as big as my Aunt's feet. Now I don't know why I did but I thought it would be cool. Now I would like my feet to be small and petite, size 6 would be fine. Every shoe looks cute in a size 6, but not in 8.5 Wide!

2. I fix my own sprinklers. I enjoy making my sprinkler system work and fixing things that don't work. I work on my sprinklers and my sisters too. I am the one to turn on her complicated system each year as well as ours. I just need to learn how and get the equipment for blowing out our systems each year.

3. I started making bread when I was in Jr. High. I still have the cookbook that has my favorite recipes. I have finally after all these many years make what I would finally call the perfect loaf of bread.

4. I love the smell of school. Wierd huh? I love the smell in the drawer that I keep the pencils and other school supplies in for the kids. I love the smell when I walk into the school. I loved school and have enjoyed working at my children's schools. But I am glad to be home with our sweet, sweet, baby!

5. I love sunrises and sunsets. There is something calming about a beautiful sunset or sunrise. I like to think it is Heavenly Father's hug for me at the start or end of a day. It is a reminder to me that He created this beautiful earth for US to ENJOY. I will often stop and will comment to anyone around me about the sunset. I would stop people and point out the beautiful sunset while I was walking across campus at Ricks College too. Now my children notice the beautiful sunsets and tell me about them. My sister will call me to tell me to go and look at the beautiful sunset.

6. I love to fill out forms! I don't know what more to say about this one, it is random and wierd, I know.

7. I don't lose things and when I do I can't deal with it. I had a pair of socks from Jr. High up until I was 35. I loved those socks when I got them and I finally got rid of them when you could see through the bottom of them like a window. I still remember a purse that I lost at a Stake Center when I was about 8 years old. It was a cute little black, patent leather purse. To this day I am frustrated that I lost it.

I tag: Tami, Melissa, Chrissy, Penny, Sara

Conference Packets

I like to put conference packets together each year as a way to keep the kids in the room during conference, quiet, and anxiously engaged too. I have done packet #2 in years past. It is done in half pages and it covers 14 whole pages so you end up with 28 page booklets. Hopefully good for all 4 sessions. I really like the all of the artwork and the activities in packet #1. It is only 7 pages long. But some of the activities will cover many sessions of conference if the child is inclined to do it.

Conference Packet #1
from Deseret Book (younger child friendly)

Conference Packet #2
Older children