Pumpkin Carving

Kyren and Abbey were partners and it took awhile to convince Abbey not to have a princess pumpkin.

Jacob and Brooke designed theirs entirely on their own

Aurora and Olivia were a good team, Aurora scraped the innards and Olivia scooped them out

Crazy Hair Day

Our Favorite Spirit Day!

Kool-aid Hair Dye

With Halloween around the corner Kyren and her friend tried to dye strips of hair with kool-aid.  Her's didn't turn out so well, she left it in too long and it was very stiff.

They did not get a picture of the final product

Experimental Cooking

Jacob is always begging me to experiment in the kitchen.  I don't always want to let him do this, since he has no idea how to make desserts and what ingredients are involved to make them.  He normally just wants to take everything that tastes good and throw it all together, because that should taste good too, right?

I did steer him down this path a little by saying that powdered sugar and peanut butter combined can make a kind of "dough."  So here is his latest creation, his spider.  In the middle of this peanut butter dough ball is a chocolate covered almond, the m&m's are the eyes, with red vine legs.  To help offset the excess of peanut butter flavor he added chocolate chip studs around the spiders body.  Needless to say, it wasn't too bad.

(This is a dessert plate)

80's Day

So at Kyren's Jr. High they have a themed day every Friday.  While she doesn't always participate, here she is in her 80's outfit.

And, no, I don't normally let her were her shirts like that but figured I would allow it for a costume

My Little Girls

With the kids gone most of the day, and Laine now old enough to play with Abbey, these two have such a great time together during the day.

They love to get their nails done, have indoor picnics, watch movies, play outside, just about anything!

The Restaurant Store

So we decided a while back to switch back to all glass for our plates, cups, bowls, etc.  We have been going to goodwill every 50% off day and collecting the thin Corelle plates that we all remember from our childhoods or grandparents houses.  We have come up with quite the eclectic collection.

While this works well for our dinnerware, we were having a real problem knowing what to do for drinking glasses.  We wanted something sturdy and that we could at least stack 2 high, this really wouldn't work the same way as our plates.  Someone at Jason's work recommended the restaurant store, where you could find anything you would need to open up your own restaurant.

Okay, so this is now one of my new favorite places to shop for kitchen supplies.  Almost anything you could need is in this store.  As we walked down the aisles I kept thinking about all the times we've had to go in search for certain gadgets or what not and here the've been in one place this whole time!  And this was actually my favorite find of them all, this large size spices!  With the amount that my family goes through continually buying those little ones was annoying, I can't even tell you how giddy I was!

Labor Day 2011

So I was gone most of labor day weekend up in Midway, UT for Swiss days with Deveren.  When I got home we decided that since I was gone the whole weekend, that we wanted to have labor day just for the family.  Here is our spread of food for the day

We also had a bocce ball tournament, a just dance tournament and watched some movies.

It was definitely a great day!

New School Year

And here we are at the beginning of another school year...

Kyren started Jr. High this year, 7th grade

Jacob is in 5th grade

Aurora is in 4th grade

Olivia is in 2nd grade

 Brooke is in 1st grade

Abbey goes to speech preschool to help her with articulation

And Laine wants her picture taken like everyone else

Hair

I've been experimenting with hair, here are a few...

D and C

In the church people think scripture when they hear this, the nurses called it a dusting and cleaning, but I found out for myself that this is a procedure known as dilation and curettage.  Last March I had my second miscarriage.  I was not as lucky as I was with the first one where everything took care of itself.  No, this time I would not stop bleeding and after 4 months of it, I finally sought out a doctor and found out I would need to have a d and c.  I was not happy and very stressed through it all but luckily I am well now and am no longer bleeding.  Hooray!

What Pen Wars Taught My 4 yr old

Needless to say it's been a little tough to get her to stop coloring on herself.  She had always done it before but now she went all out!

Pen Wars

In the mythical realm of Naun their were mighty contentions among the Gods.  To settle their differences they sent each of their finest warriors to battle for peace.

Eli the Enigmatical was sent by Bast the Cat Goddess.  Eli became her finest warrior when fighting off a sphinx that was terrorizing the local villages.

Kyren the Courageous was sent by Vila the Wind Goddess.  Kyren was always her finest warrior since birth, blowing down anyone in her path.

Jacob the Just was sent by Ares the God of War.  While he is the finest warrior and swiftest in his judgements, Jacob is also the most fair.

Brooke the Brave was sent by Isis the Rainbow Goddess.  Brooke is the newest and youngest of the warriors but has a colorful personality that no one can equal.

Battle ensued for many days.  These warriors fought valiantly and with strength beyond that of a mere mortal.

When all was said and done these warriors were too good and no one could rise above the rest and so a truce was called.

And the land of Naun is peaceful once again.

(The weapons showed in the individual pictures were not the weapons used in the actual war.  These were for artistic purposes only.  The actual war consisted of 1 marker for each person.)

Pioneer Day

Here in Mesa they don't really celebrate Pioneer day.  So I have taken it upon myself to do something every year for my kids.  We were supposed to get together with some other friends and do food, crafts, and games,  I was in charge of the food part.  My friend unfortunately had to back out at the last minute so we only ended up doing the food part.

First I had everyone shake some cream to make our butter.

While they did that I made wheat biscuits, beef jerky and corn on the cob.

While the kids ate I told them about the pioneers, who they were, why they moved, and why we celebrate them.  While it was done on a lot smaller scale this year we still took some time out of the day to remember them.

Brooke's Party

Kyren wanted to plan Brooke's party and it was less work for me so why not.  She planned a "Princess Party."  All of the guests showed up dressed as princesses.

Then they had to get ready for the ball so they had their nails and make-up done.  During this time our "servants" served popcorn and drinks while being pampered.  Those waiting for their turn watched Princess and the Frog.

Our "servants" served popcorn and drinks while being pampered.

After they were all ready for the ball they walked down the red carpet as each princess was announced and cheered upon arrival.

A good game a Freeze dance was played at the ball.  They were a little shy to get into the dancing so i had to dance along.  Why is it that I was so out of breath and they weren't even panting?

After freeze dance we learned that Cinderella lost her slipper and we had to go on a scavenger hunt around the house trying to find it.

Cake and Ice cream followed and we didn't have any time left over, a perfect party in my opinion.