Last night

Twas the night before school, and all through the house.
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
The dishes were washed, the chores were all done.
In hopes that tomorrow there would be sun.

The children were snuggled all warm in their beds.
While visions of snow flakes danced in their heads.
And me in my jammies and George with no cap
had just settled down for a long winter's nap.

When out in our yard there arose such a clatter
George sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window he flew in a flash
tore open the blind and threw open the sash

The streetlights shone on the new fallen rain
and the wind blew and blew again and again.
When, what to his wondering eyes should appear!
A whole freakin' TREE leaning to near.

Guess what!

Hope and Ryley are getting married!

Time out

I went to Time out for Women this weekend. This lady was sooooo funny, she did a great job! I also got this way cute tote she is holding! Awesome, the tote alone was worth the price of the ticket :)

The theme this year was Infinite Hope, "We hope all things....." Articles of Faith 1:13

The lady up above (never caught her name) asked us to write down a list of things we Hope for: I have to say other than true Happiness I couldn't really think of anything at that time, so I guess I will work on that list.

All the speakers and the music was geared towards HOPE. Friday night Michael McLean sang for us, and talked about his mission to be happy, I guess he suffers from depression and sadly I kind of found him to be depressing, so friday night was not the highlight of the weekend. I did like Mark Mabry's pictures that he has out, they are called "Reflections" of Christ, I really enjoyed his presentation.

Saturday bright and early we were back at the convention center. The music was by Hilary Weeks, that woman can sing! She made me laugh, she makes me cry, but it was all great!

I am going to write about who talked and the one thing they said that struck a cord for me:

Ardeth Kap: Do you look at the scriptures as a letter from home?

Emily Watts: Talked about Mother Hopes (things mothers can hope for) 1) Hope children can improve 2) Faith that our work is important 3) Hope that because of importance of motherhood, we will be helped

Hilary Weeks: Look for good in others and self: Be kind, everyone you meet is going through something.

Michael Wilcox:Look forward! Barriers and comfort zones are no excuse for not going forward.

Mariama Kallon: Her talk was the most amazing! After listening to her speak I was so thankful that Tayler did Hygiene kits for his Eagle. This woman went through so much and still has Hope, it was amazing to hear her. She told about running for her life, literally every day! EVERY DAY! In all of that running one time she had a hygiene kit that she shared with 25 women, they made one tube of toothpaste and all the stuff last for as long as they could, even cut the tube open to get every last drop. Count your blessings!

She did make it to America, served a mission on Temple Square and is going to LDS business College. Just amazing!

She uses the Scriptures as her therapist.

Merrilee Boyack: Only thing you can control is your head, stay postitive and have hope.

Kris Belcher:Christ is her light (she is blind) LIGHT: Love, Intelligence, Grace, Hope, Truth!

It was truly amazing, I do have to say that I felt weird clapping after a song where the spirit had touched me though. Not sure if I like that part, I might just stick with Womens conference, but for this weekend it was a much needed uplift.

Halloween Carnival

I signed up to bring two dozen cupcakes to our ward Halloween Carnival and since I enjoy torturing my kids (it's true just ask them), I decided we were going to make cute cupcakes.


I think we succeeded!

Pumpkins

We finally did it! I wasn't sure it was going to happen. I had fun, not so sure about everyone else but I really enjoy pumpkin carving every year.
Jackie and Tayler, serious and probably racing to see who could get done first! Emma working away and of course George coming up with a new pattern, not in our books and Me just having fun.

George's pumpkin lit up inside, then I was off to boot camp and George and Tayler went and got candles so we could enjoy our hard work ;)
Jackie did the smiley face at the top, George did the scary face, I did the spider, Emma did the trees and owl, and Tayler did the electric face at the bottom.

Jackie's Senior Pictures (taken by moi)

These are my favorite. Which one is your favorite?

Witchey witchey

Here is the craft I have been working on while watching way to many episodes of Bones :) Kinda cute don't ya think!

Rocky doing some tricks

We decided to make a short video of Rocky doing some of the many tricks he can do. He gets so excited for a treat, he would do tricks forever. He is probably the best dog we have had, and the smartest.

Sore

Some of you are aware that I have been walking for years. I have added other things here and there because I need to but I can't seem to keep doing them. A friend of mine told me about a boot camp that some ladies go to in my area so I went and wow, what a work out.

Lunges, skipping, grape vine, jumping jacks, sprints, jogging, walking, running the bleachers, weights, planks, crunches......the list goes on and on. Every day something different, three times a week. I am sore!

Bones

In a previous post I mentioned that we watch a lot of TV. We also love Netflix instant play. I like to watch past episodes of different series and watch all the way to the present if I can. One of the many series I am at the moment hooked on is Bones.

I am now on season three and so far I really like it. Why you ask, well Temperance Brennen makes me laugh. I like it for her honesty, She just tells it like it is. I think the world would be a better place if people could just be honest. I will say that I don't agree with everything she says or does and I like other characters but she definitely makes the show more interesting to me.

Now before you start worrying that I am wasting too much time, let me reassure you that I am not just watching TV, I am crafting at the same time and of course eating ;-)

Highlights summer 2010/ Parents 50th and Family Reunion

On June 29th, around 4 in the morning, Me, Jackie, Tayler and Emma headed to Angels Camp, California. It was a long day and a little scary especially when we were in Eugene, Oregon and our GPS started doing weird stuff and telling us to exit in places there weren't any exits and then kept "recalculating" for miles and miles, luckily I had a map and it was a pretty straight run for us.

The moaning cavern was close to the resort so we went to check it out. I had a good time. It was fun to be there with family. I forgot how scary a dark cave can be to little kids. Heidi's kids handled it very well and we all had a good time.

Cute picture of Emma and Kara!
We all took a day and drove to Yosemite National Park. There was this rock that had to be conquered.
Yosemite falls was awesome! I wish I could remember numbers to wow you all but I can't just believe me it was gorgeous.
Chance and Jaxon had to conquer this rock. It was a day full of conquering :)
Emma, Jackie and Marc up close to the fall. I couldn't believe how wet we got just standing at the base of the falls.
Emma and Jackie close to the Yosemite falls.
This is us walking to a lake, I think mirror lake. It was hot and muggy but we all had a good time. Below my Dad and Judy enjoying the freezing water.
At Yosemite there were so many huge mountains with big bare rock faces and the one called El Capitan was on Jackie's picture taking list so every mountain I saw I would say "Look El Capitan" Jackie didn't think it was funny and I am sure nobody else will find it funny but I was amused so I am sharing. (Pictured below not El capitan)

In the picture below is a brown bear out in the meadow, hard to see but it was a highlight of Yosemite.
Kellie, Tayler, Chance, Cody, Jaxon, Emma, and Kara. The 7 musketeers.....they ran around all over the place together.
Alyssa, Jackie, Katie and Ashlee.....Don't know where Cortnee or Krissie are but they had a fun time together.
We were in the famous Calavares county (The jumping frog of Calaveres county by Mark Twain). There were frogs everywhere. On the sidewalks there were squares with a year and the world record length the frog had jumped. One of the world records was 0 feet 0 inches, I thought that was funny.
Josie, Emma, Amanda, Kara at the parade on the 4th of July.
Lora and Emma at the resort.
On our last Monday in California, we all got together and had a Family Home Evening. We had so much fun in California, I always have such a good time with my family and the kids just love their cousins. It was so much fun and the fact that we were there to celebrate my parents being married for 50 years made it even better.

Highlights summer 2010/ Wilson River and Saddle Mountain

On the way to the coast you can see a river. People are playing in the water and look like they are having so much fun. So I had added floating down the Wilson river to my things I want to do list. Sid called and asked if we would like to go so off we went. The water was so cold but it was hot that day so it made it very enjoyable. It was a nice break from the massive amounts of TV watching and facebooking that had consumed most of my children's summer.





Another thing that has been on my to do list was to hike Saddle Mountain. I didn't want to go alone and sometimes it is hard to get my family to leave the comforts of home (i.e the computer and TV) and go venturing in the great outdoors with me......so I used my Birthday to make them all feel like they needed to say yes when I know deep deep down they all wanted to say no. So the day after my birthday Me, Emma, her friend Hannah, and Tayler went hiking :)
This is us on top of the mountain, we should have been able to see the ocean but alas we didn't. I think we saw the Columbia river and Astoria but there weren't any signs telling us what we were seeing so I am just guessing. It was a beautiful hike, I hear it is spectacular in the spring, so I guess I will have to go back and do this hike again. Next time I will drag the rest of the family along.