Texas trip and first snow

The weekend before last my sister and I flew to Texas to see our grandma. When I got back I realized this was the only picture I took the whole trip. At the Las Vegas airport we parked on level 4 in a corner. As Liz said there are only four of them (corners) we are bound to find the truck eventually. I still took a picture.

My grandma has Alzheimer's and or Dementia. Fortunately for her she is going down hill fast. I can only imagine how hard it is if you realize that you can't or don't remember things. Having just watched Winnie go through this with her dad I know it will not be easy.

Between Liz and my schedules our trip was the only available time for us to go. We had hoped to make it in time to have "one last visit". We were to late, she didn't know us. To her we were nice young women that were there to visit her. There was no mention of our kids her great grand children or our husbands, nothing personal about us at all.

To say this was hard is an understatement.

 Liz and I were able to go see the assisted living center we are trying to get her into. I was so happy to see that its a very nice place. I'm so thankful that assisted living centers have vastly improved since I was a child.  Grandma was initially her normal grumpy self and complained about everything. Me "look grandma its like a cruise they have activities planned all day everyday" Grandma "what do I need activities for I don't want to do any of those things" me "well just like on a cruise you don't have to, but you have the choice". But right before we left she softened a little and started talking like it would be a good idea to move there. So hopefully we helped.

Being a happy clappy traveler (I swear I'm like a dog that gets to go for a ride hanging its head out the window) I still enjoyed and made the best of the trip. The weather was warm and perfect. We had fun visiting with family. My brother who is going to college a few hours away from Houston came home for the weekend to spend time with us. We had some great family meals together. (even if the Cajun restaurant guy looked at me like I had two heads when I said I was a vegetarian and would not like to have any fish on my salad) We spent a few hours shopping at the mall, where my other brother is a manager at the Nike store. Living in a small town means mall shopping is a big deal for me :)

It was fun spending time with liz. Things like at the airport where everything cost $21. Two waters and two magazines for the plane $21. Evey thing we did came to $21 or close to. We decided the airport is an alternate universe that goes by its own currency. We laughed about being sardines on a plane and had plenty of time to talk. Which does'nt happen all that often with our busy lives.

I know this journey only gets harder from here, but I'm thankful for the weekend we had.

On a happier note....

Kolby reaching for the moon

Love these pics!

I woke up Saturday morning to Luke yelling "MOM it snowed last night" into my ear. He bounced on the bed to wake Dew up and then ran back to his room to wake Kolby up. I barely had time to get breakfast into them before they were dressed and out the door to play.

There is something magical about the first snow of the year, just look at the smiles it brings.

They were so bummed that by the time we went into town to run errands and then come home the snow had melted. We had to reassure them that more will be coming.... we promise.

Happy Halloween

These photos did not load in the right order... so I'll be jumping around a little timeline wise.

Last weekend one of Luke's friends stayed with us while his parents took a mini vacation. Our Saturday schedule was.

10 am Main street sheep parade

11am Kolbys school Halloween carnival

3pm Birthday party Kolby and I went to

6pm Neighbors Halloween party

Stacked and packed people, it should be noted I barely made it out alive.

This year Luke wanted to be a Ninja and Kolby picked Darth Vader. It sounds easier then what the actual process was this took a long long time and much looking through catalogs before deciding on these two.

The neighbor Halloween party was costumes mandatory. This was fine and good for the boys who I might add looked cute as can be, is it supposed to be spooky?

An old leather jacket and bandanna turned Dew into a biker dude. He is flashing his mean biker face in this pic which I think goes well with the tray of cupcakes he is holding :)

At some point in the past I wore this black vampire dress, I dug it out and ta-da a vampire. Kolby flat refused to let me wear the vampire teeth, he said they freaked him out. He was not to pleased with the "Paint" on my face. Which was red lipstick I found in the bottom of my makeup drawer. He asked that I take it off as some as we got home. That should tell you how often I wear lipstick.

Last night, actual Halloween we went trick or treating to the 4 houses that are within walking distance to us. Luke got sick at school and had been home in bed all day. About 5 minutes before we left he claimed he was perfectly fine and would not miss trick or treating. Poor guy was a little slow and ran in the house to lay down as soon as we got back home.

The four neighbors we went to all expect the boys every year. Luke and Kolby are the only trick or treaters in the neighborhood. They get spoiled and their picture taken a lot.

Back to Saturday and the sheep parade. The last few years we have met up with Luke and Kolbys friends from preschool. Its so fun for all of them, and super cute for the parents to watch. Kolby put his hand on his heart for every flag that went by.

Cowboys standing on horses...yes sir

How stinking cute are these little faces?

At one point during the parade we look down and all the boys were huddled around someones little toy. (ok it was something Luke had smuggled in his pocket) It made me laugh to these little boys all intently watching a toy while a parade is right behind them.

And the highlight of the parade.....sheep down Main street.

The boys all just stood there staring, it was so quiet. I'm not really sure how you get sheep to run down a road without them scattering but they do it every year. And every year we go and watch.

Right after the parade we went to Kolbys Halloween carnival. We have been blessed with a beautiful mild fall, the day was perfect. I couldn't resist a pic of the sack race.

Monday was Luke's Halloween parade at school and his school carnival that night.

I think its safe to say we enjoyed every single bit of Halloween fun we could find and then some.

Fall fun has started

Its that time of year when it seems there is always something going on. Last weekend we drove to St. George to visit the Staheli Family Farm. It was perfect shorts warm weather. (which was a nice treat since we are supposed to have snow today)

Here's a turkey checking out Luke.... or Luke checking out a turkey its hard to tell which.

The boys loved jumping on the air pillow, we had to drag Luke away from it. Next year we really need to get a trampoline at home.

Who can resist a photo op like this? Cutest farmer, pig and pumpkin I have ever seen.

Kolby on the look out for pirates. You have to look out for them they can sneak up on you.

The highlight was the corn maze.

With real live corn :)

Rubber ducky water races anyone?

I love Lukes face in the picture. The rope swing was a big hit, the boys begged Dewey to put one in our barn.

Tall enough to stand on a hay bale and "hold" the scarecrows hand.

Notice anything different about Luke? He is now one of the proud majority members of our family that wear glasses. At his last parent teacher conference his teacher mentioned he had not done very well on the eye test. So back we went to the optometrist we had just visited with me and kolby and wouldn't you know it he needs glasses too.

I think he looks just cute as can be in them :)

And an apple update. (last post) I'm sure everyone (bahaha) has been waiting to hear how the second box of apples went. Well I'm happy to say we have 9 quarts of applesauce 11 pints of apple butter and 3 bags of dried apple rings. Oh I am in the swing of things now people, bring it fruit :)

Phone Dump

I thought it was about time to unload or upload some of the random pics sitting on my phone.

Earlier this summer we went to a local music festival in town. Dew and Luke went off in one direction to find food and Kolby and I in the other.

This is what Luke came back with..... a turkey leg. After I was done gagging I snapped a shot of him enjoying it.

He followed it up with cotton candy.

My little dog Bailey...... She is getting older and has had many trips to the vet recently. I am not handling it well.

Farm in Spanish Fork where we had our flat tire. After I had bugged Dew enough I wandered off to take pics.

Driving home from work to the sight of smoke directly North of us. The fire crews got the fire under control within a few days, always a little scary.

Kolby "bobbing" for doughnut holes at the pumpkin festival

Sign on the boys bedroom door.

Traffic jam in a small town

Kolby waiting to meet his teacher for the first time.

Close-up

Remember our big night out in Salt Lake City where I mentioned Kolby fell asleep at the restaurant?

A few weeks ago we met our wonderful friends Troy and Wendy in Las Vegas.

Even though it was only one night we had such a good time.

We saw Carrot Top, very funny.

Troy and Wendy were married here many years ago. We made them pose by the chapel picture. How cute are they?

It was so good to relax and laugh until our cheeks and stomach hurt. Such a good time, I'm even sharing a pic with my cutie hubby and me with all my chin wrinkles :)

A little random insight into me,

There is a small town to the South of us that is well know for its delicious apples. Every year they have an apple festival and local families bring their apples to sell. The last two times I tried to buy them they were sold out before I got there. This year I vowed we would get there early. Which was not as easy as it sounds since that morning was the Women in Business Pumpkin festival which I had committed to help with. Once we got there I had the four of us running to the fruit stands. As I looked around I did not see many apples. The first stand says "this is the last box", We will take it, pay the man. I might have given dirty looks to the people around just to let them know it was mine. These are yummy apples people.

 Kolby LOVES applesauce the child will eat it at every meal. So my plan was to make him lots of it. So on to the Internet to find out how to make applesauce. The first several sites listed all kinds of equipment needed that I do not have. But the beauty of the Internet is that if you look long enough you will find what what you want to hear. The instructions I decided on said the peels would neatly float to the top, you just grab them up with tongs easy peasy. At this point I should mention that no it did not occur to me that if it was that easy why did the other sites say you needed all that equipment. Once I got the applesauce started I thought it would be a fine idea to make apple butter too. So I start pealing and chopping apples for the butter while I wait for the applesauce skins to magically start floating. As you can imagine the whole kitchen is taken up with apples and every possible pan and bowl. Oh I should also mention that a few days every month I am not the nicest person to be around. (read fire breathing dragon) This was one of those days, so it makes perfect sense for me to start these projects......

It soon becomes clear to me that the first 5 sights were correct, equipment was and is needed. The apples for the applesauce are now mushy with the skins still on. There is nothing else to do but start scraping the apples one by one in the TWO stock pots I have full of them. So as a recap apples started for the apple butter all over the counter me hand scraping apple for the applesauce. It was at this point Dew and the boys came in from outside. I think I said "Make dinner" from the look on Dews face my head was spinning al la poltergeist. He starts frantically going through cupboards to try and throw something together while staying out of my line of fire. About that time the doorbell rings and our wonderful neighbor comes in. He innocently asks what I'm doing as I'm sure dew was shaking his head and mouthing "save yourself". Once I explain and he looks around at the "situation" he says he will be right back. A few minutes later he and his wife are back bringing all the special applesauce making equipment they apparently had laying around their house. As I still had half a box of apples left I was THRILLED. Dew might have dropped to his knees in thanks I can't be sure.

So hours later I had the applesauce I had started done, it came out to be 3 quarts. And the apple butter in the crock pot. (Which burned the next day and had to be thrown away)

This is when any rational person would realize you can buy applesauce and apple butter at the store and be happy with that.

I however ordered 40 pounds of apples from Bountiful baskets, they will be here Sat.

Thought I would share a little of the crazy yet ever optimistic me :)

Soccer Wrapup

Another soccer season has come and gone.

We took pictures at Kolbys last game. Luke did a great job as a sub for Kolbys team.

Kolby with his patent soccer smile. He literally just smiles the whole time, running after the ball, blocking doesn't matter he is smiling.

One of the other moms brought spray paint for the kids to spray paint their hair. So cute, the boys loved it.

Team picture they have their "mean" faces on. And yes Dew sprayed his hair too.

Kolby loved having Dewey as his coach this year. How stinkin cute are these boys?

We had so much fun with Lukes team. We met some great friends and really enjoyed this season.

Luke found his niche as a defence player. They don't have official goalies at this age so they play two kids back acting as defence. (pretty much a goalie)

Luke took right to it, and really got pretty good. He blocked countless goals during the games.

It was so fun to watch these kids progress with their skills through the season. There were some great parents that were so supportive of all the kids.

End of season team photo, again how cute are these kids?

Crazy face pic.

Until next year.... Kolby says he isn't sure if he wants to play again. Luke says for sure soccer and for sure football...... we will see :)