Feeling SCROOGED...but not so much anymore.

That's kind of how I have felt up till this weekend. I just could not get into the christmas spirit and get excited..even after decorating and shopping, sad huh? I really was not looking forward to Christmas this year until this weekend, what fun. Saturday we went out as a family and cut down our tree, which here in Monticello only costs $5 and $.50 per extra foot on top of that. So this is what happened. It started out looking for trees,

which turned into this,

SNOWBALL FIGHTS..YEAH! Which we did not come too well prepared because we were wearing this,

yep regular shoes, not boots. Guess we need to pass that note onto santa soon.

But in all fun we eventually found the right one which was this,

it's not too bad. So after bringing it home, and decorating I was starting to feel kinda excited, and then we went to go listen to the live broadcast of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on Sunday. That just set the tone for the season and got me feeling better. To put the icing on the cake, our little town had it's Christmas light parade tonight,

Ok, ok, not so grand, and it was a really lame parade this year and it was really cold outside, but it was the fact that we were all there together as a family enjoying the beginning of the Christmas season.

Some HELP please!!??

Before I got a job I found myself to post one blog per week. Now that I work from the time the kids go to school and don't get off till they get out of school, I have surprisingly been very tired by the end of the day. Why is that? It's not like I'm overdoing it. I have so much to think about and do in the next week it's not even funny. One thing on my mind right now is our ward Christmas dinner party that just so happens to be scheduled for Tuesday December 2nd. Right after Thanksgiving. Well as I am on the activities committee I have been put in charge of coming up with the program for that evening. I am so lost, I don't even know where to start. I want to start the program off with a reading and play of Jesus' birth. Our theme for this party is "Christmas Around the World". As we thought it would be fun to tell short stories of different countries and how they celebrate Christmas. The only problem...what to do while you tell that story. What is some fun things to have people do for the program to tell the tale of another country? Example: like in Switzerland on Christmas day they have bell ringing contests. People in the villages hope their bells will ring out with the most beautiful christmas sounds. So that would be fun if we could come up with enough bells. And my other problem is..it needs to last at least 45 minutes.??? I have 15 different countries and their stories to tell, but I am very OPEN to any suggestion that any of you who read this may have. I know there are more creative people out there other than I, so any input would be fabulous! The down fall....it all needs to be planned and ready for that Tuesday after Thanksgiving; that's just a whole 11 days left...Some HELP please??? I am open to anything.

DDD

What does this rebus represent?


shadddes

I'm Blue!

BLUE

You give your love and friendship unconditionally. You enjoy long, thoughtful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

Okay I'm not feeling blue...this color test described me as Blue. It is a pretty good description of me. But I am so much more as I am a true Gemini.

Riddle

As you may know, a group of fish is called a "school", a group of lions is called a "pride", and a group of seagulls is called a "flock". Some are a little more unusual. See if you can guess what animals belong to the following groups:

Crash
Exaltation
Mob
Murder
Parliament
Pod
Sounder

Our Halloween

All four cuties....

The Cowboy

Kitty #1

Kitty #2

Little Lady Pirate



We created a spook alley out of our front sidewalk...the pictures just don't do the justice of how cool it really was. It was really dark with black lights, a stobe light, lighted pumpkins, and a hackling witch. Little kids who came to trick or treat got scared for a second, but everyone loved it. I tried to take video at dark, but you couldn't see much. It was really fun, and I will outbeat this year by tring harder next.

The kids got plenty of candy....the sad thing we didn't have tons of kids so we got left with this.....

WOW! Maybe I will have to save it for the Christmas pinata. Hope everyone had a good halloween.

"Dead Breakfast"

What does this rebus represent?

1.Bob drowned Frosted Flakes
2.Joe buried Cap'n Crunch
3.Sarah threw Rice Krispies off a cliff
4.Emily shot Cocoa Puffs

Can you guess this riddle of the week?

Can I have a Napkin Please?

This was so funny I had to share with all of you....enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPq3_LbM9k

Brainy Thoughts

A doctor and a bus driver are both in love with the same woman, an attractive girl with an unusual name of Pibbles. The bus driver had to go on a long bus trip that would last a week. Before he left, he gave Pibbles seven apples. Why?

It has been a while since I last posted. So much has happenend my head is spinning still thinking about it. Since I couldn't get a job anywhere that I applied, I went back to my old job at the hotel to ask if they could work me some hours for a while. So greatfully they have done so and have put me to work. I must say that you know when your getting older when you work the swing shift, go to bed after 11 pm and can't get up at 7 am to get the kids up for school. Instead I hurry and get them up and ready without showering before leaving the house. Remember what I said in one of my posts about leaving the house without showering? I hate it! I feel slugish and dirty all day. Needless to say that because of all of this I now now feel tired all day long, and I can't take naps while I am home. Once I'm up, my mind just automatically starts going 100 miles per hour thinking of all the things I need to be doing. Does this ever happen to you? So anyway until I get used to this position, eye make-up will be my very best friend for the next couple of weeks.
Secondly, Jason's boss at Napa is letting me put in some hours there during the day and on Saturdays to earn some extra cash. It has been a true blessing to finally get some financial relief off my shoulders, especially since the 'holidays' are just around the corner.

Last weekend my mom and sister Katie came down to visit us for a few days, and it was nice to have them here. Friday night we went to a restaurant/cowboy show just outside of Moab. You go watch a gun fight, shop in the village, and then have a nice all you can eat dinner (very old fashioned), and then watch a comedy, musical act. It was fun. I wished I would have taken my camera... that was so dumb not too, the kids had a blast. So thank you Katie for inviting us to go, it was truly fun!

In case your wondering what the purpose was of the brain quiz at the beginning of my blog post, there is no true reason why. It just sounded fun. I found this fun website with all types of brain teasers like these, and I think I will try to post one every week. So I have a question, does anyone decorate for halloween anymore...I mean truly decorate? Not just buy candy and dress up and that's considered celebrating. People where I live just don't decorate the outside of there homes for halloween. When we lived in Salt Lake you could find homes almost on every block that had some fun decorations for the spooky holiday. You know, I went to Walmart last week to go buy some more outdoor things and most of it was gone. As in not sold out, just put away to make room for Christmas. Geese people can't we celebrate Halloween first? I know it's fun to start seeing all the christmas things, but I can't truly get excited about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. It it just me? The only pre christmas thing I can bring myself to do is hang christmas lights..IF it's warm weather. Even then I don't turn them on until December 1st.
No wonder the holidays are so stressful and nobody enjoys it. It's dragged out 3 months prior to the actual holiday itself.
Anyone who feels the same way about this please let me know what you do about pre-holiday celebrating and buying. Im just curious. I for one am looking forward to halloween next week even though the wind has destroyed all of my decorations. I guess that will make it fun to redecorate on halloween day. Im looking for scary ideas for halloween night...any suggestions?

My baby is growing Up

It is sad but true, my sweet little baby just turned 9 today! I still can't believe how life just goes by so fast. We had such a busy weekend for her birthday...let me begin. Friday she wanted to have a birthday party with her friends, so her party was set for 5 pm friday night. She had a detective party. The main objective of the party...to find out who had been murdered and bring them back to life for dinner and dessert. The girls had to follow a random number of clues that took them all over the house and outside, and some clues had pieces of evidence. At the end they had to put all the evidence together to found out who died (it was Cierra), who killed her (me), and how (being tickled to death by feather), motive (for stealing cookies from the cookie jar). It was so funny to watch all the kids get excited. After said and done, I don't know if can do it again next year though, birthday parties have so much planning.



Everyone made their own pizzas....
we had pumpkin cupcakes....and the most hillarious is some of the girls even came dressed to play the part

Here is the whole crew!

You may think this was the end, but she wanted to have a family party for her birthday on Sunday. I must be a sucker because we did it. We called all of Jason's family that lives down here and invited them for dinner, cake, and ice cream. Cierra wanted a castle cake...it took me all day sunday to decorate; ok ok only like 3 1/2 hours, but it was a lot of work.

That's ok, I didn't mind I think I let her get away with more because she is my 'baby'. So here's to her, she is a sweet girl who brings lots of joy and laughter to our home..."baby girl here's to you..HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Pic Tag

I was tagged by Monika, and Ihave to say that after the last two tags I was kinda dreding it, but this one was fun. Once tagged the rule is go to your picture file, pic the 10th file, and post the 8th picture in that file. Here it is.....

We were at my nephew Josh's birthday party. This is Konner taking his shot at the pinata...his absolute favorite at any party! It was cute to watch him. My favorite part is my nephews aunt giving the funny look and duking on the other side of Konner in the brownish sweater. Were not realated to her but her expression is funny isn't it? This picture was taken though over 2 years ago. My kids are the always the victims of my constant picture taking; after all that's what 97% of them are.

I want to tag Muriel, LaNell, Jenn W., and Sandi. The game is not hard and we all get to see cute pictures of anyone or anything. Hope to see your postings soon.

Weekend 'Woes'

Last week some friends of ours asked us to help them cut wood for their home this winter. I woke up Saturday morning to rain thinking that it wasn't going to happen because the mountains were just pasted in clouds. Was I wrong. The men decided it was going to happen. So there I was bundling up the kids with boots, coats, hats, and gloves hoping that was enough, I mean it's not like we had to go that high up to get the wood. By the time we were up there it was really cold and raining harder. The guys cut logs and the kids played. At the end of 1 hour, we were all drenched...literally! Soaked through on shoes, socks, gloves, even the coats. I put the kids back in the truck and made them sit while we loaded up logs so we could start heading out. Now this story doesn't end exciting, it was my long way of saying that I can't believe we went from having semi-warm fall weather to rain turning into SNOW? See it for yourself. That's right, were supposed to recieve it all week here. I guess that's what happens 7200 ft up, and living at the base of a mountain. I just thought the snow would wait this year. This is the beginning of an early winter I'm guessing. Oh, the kids by the way were soaked and cold, but had fun despite the weather and were very good sports. Now were just crossing our fingers hoping no one ends up with colds. I know lame story, but it made for a new post. By the way who can spot the horse on the mountain??? These pics were taken just right outside by back door on Sunday evening. So there you have it, my version of weekend woes because of the early cold weather. Hope you all have a good week.

Quirks!

quirk:n. 1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" Harriet Beecher Stowe. 2. An unpredictable or unaccountable act or event; a vagary: a quirk of fate Here are 6 quirky things about me:

1. I pick at my nails all the time, I don't know why but I can't keep them long.

2. I love watching psychological thrillers and reading them as well. I'm just twisted I guess.

3. I dream Deja Vu all the time, and have the most twisted dreams.

4. I eat way too much sugar, and have the candy cuboard to prove it.

5. I am a perfectionist, and everything has a peticular place in my house..I know when something is missing or has been moved. It will bug me until it's taken care of.

6. I can't stand things on my bed, couches, or counters. It's a pet peeve of mine.

So as it usually goes with these things I'm supposed to tag 6 people, but I've decided to twist it this time. Instead, I want everyone who reads this post to leave a comment on what one of their worst quirks is. It should be fun.

TOO FUNNY!

I recently recieved this e-mail and decided to share. I am one who likes getting funny e-mails and I just have to share them. However this time I had to share with everybody because it's so funny.

Here is how to maintain a healthy level of insanity:

1. At lunch time sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars..see if they slow down.

2. Paige yourself over the intercom, don't disguise your voice!

3. Everytime someone asks you to do something ask "do you want fries with that?" ( I did that with Tara last night, and she says NO with a confused look on her face).

4. Put decaff in the coffee maker for three weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions..switch to Espresso.

5. In the memo field of all your checks write: for Marijuana.

6. Order a diet water wherever you go out to eat with a serious face.

7. Specify that your drive thru order is 'To Go'.

8. When the money comes out of the ATM scream.."I Won! I Won!

9. When leaving the zoo start running towards the parking lot yelling "Run for your lives, they're loose!"

And last but not least..........

10. Tell your children over dinner "that due to the economy, were going to have to let one of you go."

I don't agree with all, but these were pretty funny anyway. They are posted here for your laughing enjoyment! ENJOY.

Family Fun Night

Our little tiny town every year has what is called Blue Mountain Entertainment. It is where they invite various artists to come perform, and September thru April they have a total of 11 performances. The tickets only cost $45 a family for all the shows, and I finally broke down and bought one this year. Well last night they invited a man by the name of Franc D'Ambrosio. If you know who this man is then you've heard his fantastic singing voice. He is best known for being the longest running Phantom in 'Phantom of the Opera' from 1992 to 1999, and performed just over 3000 times. He sang broadway tunes last night and it was magnificent; he even performed his 'Music of the Night' from Phantom. It brought goose bumps to my skin. The performance lasted two hours and he even took a 20 break 1/2 way between the show to sign autographs. He had cd's for sale so I bought the one called Franc D'Ambrosio's HOLLYWOOD-Songs From The Silver Screen. I even had it signed to make it more authentic. I couldn't even find him off of playlist so I can't let you hear him. If you ever get a chance to hear him you will be amazed. I took the girls and they really enjoyed hearing him; Jason is not so into this type of music so he and Konner stayed home..too bad for them because it was a blast.
This is only the beginning of our Family Fun Night.

Being Tagged

Rules Once Tagged:
1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6).
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
5) Let them know they are tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger (who tagged you) know when your post is upSix random things about me

Kriss tagged me and so now to bore you with 6 random things about me:

1. I can't stand a messy house. The dishes have to be out of the sink, clothes picked up, and things put away especially in the kitchen..nothing belongs on the counters. However out of all this, I'm not stickler about the beds being made.

2. I just love to bake. Once a week at least for trying out new sweets or just making one of the old. Then I take 1/2 of those sweets and give them to my friends to try. I would love to open a bakery one day.

3. I can never keep furniture in it's same place. My family will tell you I am obsessive compulsive about it. I probably re-arrange furniture about once a month. Except the kids' rooms, they really only go one way; and trust me that drives me nuts!

4. Although I live in a small town where people leave there houses unlocked 24/7 and keys in they're cars, I lock my house even during the day, and lock my car even when the garage door is down or when I'm at the store. I still think like a big city person and it drives Jason crazy.

5. I forget easily and so I bet that when I turn something off or put something away I recheck my self 2 or 3 times before I realize I've already done it.

6. I can't leave my house in the morning without showering, and getting ready for the day. If I have to leave than I am so uncomfortable with myself until I get ready.

So there you go, all 6 boring things about me. I now tag Melissa, Erika, and Kristene.

Dumb Deer

A lot of people think that deer are so fun to look at and admire..on most occasions they are fun to see. But not when you see this...that's right descruction. What else did you expect. So distrubing, however this garden was experimental and we didn't know what quite to expect because a fence cannot be afforded at the time. I just maybe hoped they would save some for us. Out of the 30 + pumkins we had we are now down to maybe 3 (provided they don't find them first), the tomatoes what tomatoes?, the squash, and now the canteloupe. Oh well what else can you do when you live at the base of a mountain? I am open to creative suggestions... in the mean while :
corn may be the only thing we eat this fall. Oh well better luck next year!

Born to be Wild?

Is this my girls? They have been wanting to ride these small four wheelers for the past couple of months now..and as of Saturday they got their wish. They were not allowed to go to fast, but of course all but Kylie had to push there limits..especially Cierra. Konner did not want to ride, he is a bit more conservative, but the girls are my WILD ones!!!

Kylie

Cierra

Tara

Activity Day

This last Saturday our stake had an Activity Day for all the girls ages 8-11. It was a half day event but the girls seemed to have lots of fun and learn a lot of things about life's adventures. There were many activities such as BB gun shooting, nature walk, obstacle course, and a few other listed below:

archery,

good eats (learning to cook),

bracelet making,

even family history.

And when all said and done we can still smile.

Our last Summer Vacation

As our last little bit of summer we went to Salt Lake City for a number of things. The main reason was because Jason's sister got married, and she asked me to arrange her wedding flowers for her. Here are a few pictures:

Her wedding bouquet...

grooms cake top..

the wedding cake top...

and other table arrangements...

So that's just some of the work that I did, not all. I had a very busy week. This was propably one of the biggest wedding orders I've ever had...I loved it!

So here's to the happy couple..may you have a wonderful marriage and much happiness together

Rock It...Yeah!

Talk about wild. The game 'Rock Band' made for the playstation is an exact description of that word. Saturday night Jason and I took the kids over to his sisters house and ended up playing this game till 1:00 a.m. Jason usually would rather stay back and just watch, but

after a few "c'mon you've got to try it", he was giving the guitar a shot. If you have not ever watched the game it is so fun!

There are 2 guitarists, 1 drummer, and 1 singer. The songs starts out easy and gets harder; and of course you can choose your level of difficulty. It didn't take Jason long to get the hang of it and after a

short bit he was having fun. I fail everytime I try to play the guitar (as I can't even get past a simple song on 'guitar hero'), so I became the singer. When going home, I said to Jason "so would you buy guitar hero now?" He says "no, it would be more fun to buy Rock Band."

My latest project

I have to say that I'm not normally the type of person whom would normally adventure to go out of my way and make glamorous birthday cakes...that's what Katie is for. However I do love to bake. A friend of mine wanted a barbie doll cake for her 6 year olds birthday party this week. And she asked if I would do it since I have her foolishly tricked that I'm a really great bakress..he, he, he! Alright then, I took upon the challenge and started searching on the internet for pictures and ideas. I got several..I love the internet. So I was just going to do something simple with buttercream icing, until I saw photos of cakes with fondant frosting. I had to try! I was warned not to for the difficulty of fondant, but with a couple of mistakes I think the cake turned out pretty cute. I found a recipe for the stuff and made it 2 days before I decorated the cake. Letting the fondant sit and then rolling it in flour made it easier to work with and was not too bad. Here is my result...

not bad huh? I will definately do something like this again. Practice makes it better right? Cierra want's a castle cake for her bithday in October. Well see how that works.