Halloween

Fall 2008

Happy Late Halloween...here some picture of our activities. The treat there is called cake balls and we had a blast making them. Of course I had to include the jumping in the leaves!

Hot Stuff!

These Days Ryan thinks he is pretty hot stuff. Here are some pictures of his newest achievements. Last night we had spaghetti and he made his first attempt at eating spaghetti all by himself! He also is very into pulling up in things to stand up and I finally got a picture this morning of him doing that. Yes, that is his tongue always sticking out :)

Chili

Hi all,
Well, I am looking for a chili recipe right now and I have no idea where to even start sorting out all the recipes avalible online. My husband loves chili and I would like to find a good recipe. I need all the input I can get, seeing I am not much of a chili fan myself (unless it is cincinnati chili!). Please help:)

Winter is Here!

Yes! Winter is upon us...slippers, robes and extra blankets have been broken out along with turning with heat on! Can it really be this old already? The kids were ready to get their snow pants on and go out and play...thankfully nothing stuck so there is still hope to avoid the shoveling today.

Potato Harvest Read-a-Thon

Well, schools are out for the next ten days for potato harvest. Matthew was not very happy about not getting to go to school for 8 days but then he got very excited when he found out about the read-a-thon. It is our fundraiser and the amount of money is determined by how much they read. So I thought I would keep a running total here as much as for his sake then you who probably don't care too much. We are reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone together...tonight he was so tired when we were reading that he started to fall asleep but he didn't want me to stop!

Grand Total: 1269 min

Abby's Fourth Birthday

We had an interesting birthday with Abby being sick but she still had a great time. She loved the necklace and braclet that Matthew made for her. She really wanted a princess cake so we put all of her princess toys that she already had around her castle cake.

Celebrate Youth

Here are some pictures from the Celebrate Youth activity that Richard worked so hard on this summer at work. He was able to arrange for a Blackhawk helicopter to come over from Boise for this activity. The Fire department agreed to allow Richard to go up on the ladder to be able to take pictures of the entire park.

Family Reunion July

Here are some fun pics from the family reunion in July.

First Hair Cut

Before

My hair all spiked up ready to get chopped.

A view from the other side...I was getting to squirmy sitting up so I got to lay down :)

Distraction anyone? I just needed something to hold onto...I think I was trying to wink at the camera!

I guess we missed an after...that will come tomorrow after I wake up.

Necessity: the mother of invention!

Ok, so yesterday Ryan was in his bed trying to take a nap and he lost his nuk and this is what we found him doing...yes, he is sucking away on his crib slat. Richard and I laughed so hard and thought you would too.

Happy Father's Day

Sorry once again I am having a hard time posting the video...i will continue to try and get it posted.

Video

Circus and Ryan at Four Months

We went to the circus on Monday and Ryan happened to be 4 months that day too. I am including some pictures of the circus and then a video of Ryan talking. (video is forth coming...it wasn't uploading)

Look Grandma, I'm wearing my new shirt.

Matthew's favorite of course were the clowns that kept hitting each other and making farting sounds...they really weren't all that funny but I guess to a 6 year old they were hillarious.

This was Matthew's face for almost the whole circus. He thought everything was just amazing.

(not sure why there are two and I don't know how to remove it :))

Abby's favorite part of the circus were the animals but especially the elephants. These elephants did some pretty funny stuff.

Richard's Birthday

Here are pictures from Richard's birthday. We had a good day. I can't believe how big Ryan is getting :)

Memorial Day

For Memorial day we went out to the Rexburg Cemetery to put flowers on Christina April DeGraw's grave. We did the best we could to find where she is buried and then we took a picture of the grandkids there.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

Fun Books

So I am going to actually post something that applies to adults :) I have just started a new series of books and had to share with all who are book lovers. It is called the "Once Upon a Time Series". It is so fun to read. They are retellings of Fairy Tales that we all think we know. It puts a new spin on it and it is quite an easy read. Here is a list of the books.

• The Storyteller's Daughter: A Retelling of The Arabian Nights By Cameron Dokey
• Beauty Sleep: A Retelling of Sleeping Beauty By Cameron Dokey
• Snow: A Retelling of Snow White By Tracy Lynn
• Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of The Little Mermaid By Debbie Viguie
• Scarlet Moon: A Retelling of Little Red Ridinghood By Debbie Viguie
• Sunlight and Shadow: A Retelling of the Magic Flute By Cameron Dokey
• Spirited: A Retelling of Pocahontas By Nancy Holder
• The Night Dance: A Retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses By Suzanne Weyn
• Golden: A retelling of Rapunzel By Cameron Dokey
• Water Song: A Retelling of the Frog Prince By Suzanne Weyn
• Before Midnight: A Retelling of Cinderella By Cameron Dokey (This is the one that I just read and really enjoyed it)
• THe Rose Bride: A Retelling of THe White and the Black Bride By Nancy Holder
• The Crimson Thread: A retelling of Rumpelstilskin By Suzanne Weyn
• Belle: A retelling of Beauty and the Beast By Cameron Dokey

Hope this gives you something good to read :)

Ryan's Blessing Pictures from Uncle Andrew

Here are the pictures that Uncle Andrew took of us for Ryan's blessing.

Happy Mother's Day

A special Mother's Day Message for our Grandma's. We Love you...Matthew, Abigail and Ryan

3 Month Old Ryan...Kids Flying Kites With Uncle Andrew

We blessed Ryan today. Here are some of the pictures...more will be forthcoming when we get the awesome pictures that Uncle Andrew took for us at the temple. I love the bottom picture with Ryan and Uncle Ryan.

Welcoming May...Rexburg Style!

May 1st in Rexburg and this is what we woke up to.

Cookies

Being on a no chocolate and no dairy diet I have had to find some sweet treats to fill in for the chocolate and ice cream that I crave so much when I am nursing. I have discovered these two recipes in the last month or so and thought I would share them with all of you since I can't seem to get enough of them. I double both recipes because between me the kids and sharing with friends I go through them way to fast.

Drop Sugar Cookies

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup butter
½ cup shortening

Preheat oven to 350 F
Sift Dry ingredients together
Cream butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy
Add egg and vanilla
Beat in dry ingredients until smooth
Belnd in Milk
Drop as normal cookies onto a foil lined cookie sheet
Bake for 8 minutes...do not over bake...if they start to turn brown they are starting to get over done.

Reese’s Double Peanut Butter Cookies
I found these at www.hersheyskitchens.com

½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
1/3 cup Reese’s Creamy Peanut Butter (I just used what I had on hand)
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup Reese’s peanut butter chips

Heat oven to 350 F
Beat Butter, sugar and peanut butter in large bowl until creamy.
Add egg and vanilla; beat well.
Stir together flour, soda, and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
Stir in peanut butter chips.
Drop by about ¼ cup of dough…this recipe makes 12 cookies.
Bake for 10 minutes.

Kindergarten Circus

Matthew's class put on a play the other day. Here are his favortie parts of it. Enjoy!

Baby Bumblebee

I taught this song to my kids a couple of weeks ago and they just love to sing it. Thought I would share with all.

Two Month Old Ryan....with his sibs

I guess it is time for an update of pictures. When babies are this young they change so much everyday. Hope you enjoy the pics.

All Wrapped Up!

Abigail gave daddy her blanket and asked him to wrap her up like baby Ryan. We were laughing so hard, as you can see from Richard. She stayed wrapped up for a good five minutes...I guess these kids are pretty observant.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everybody! We had a very different Easter here, between there still being snow on the ground and Ryan not being allowed to go to church yet. Every year our community has an Easter egg hunt on the high school's football field, well, because it was still covered in snow they just passed out candy from grocery bags, Abigail even asked me if she was suppose to say Trick or treat because it was like trunk or treating. Saturday night before we went to bed we talked about Jesus Christ and his resurrection and why we celebrate Easter. Well, Matthew was very excited when we were talking about Jesus being resurrected and living again because he realized that it was becuase of Jesus the President Hinkley would live again...for those who don't know he cried and was very upset when the prophet passed away. Then of course Sunday did not feel like Easter to me because Ryan and I stayed home from church, it is the only Sunday that I have been truly disappointed to not be able to go. We had a great Easter though as our little family.

Maybe Spring is on it's way

For the first time since before Christmas we can see our grass, brown as it may be! We are excited for the prospect of being able to go out and play without fighting snow. Hopefully this is not a false sense of Spring that you can get in Rexburg.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Well, we went all out this year making a green dinner. One of Matthew and Abigail's favorite books right now is "Green Eggs and Ham", so we took dinner one step more. We had Green eggs, ham, pancakes, jello, orange juice and milk (although daddy refused to drink green milk :))

Testing

Here is my test run to see if I can figure out what I am doing!