I didn't clean!!

Well, so I made it through the whole night WITHOUT cleaning up my house. Of course this morning I could not get it cleaned fast enough, but I made it. A whole entire day totally void of any house cleaning done by me. Now just if it wasn't a mess again I would take pictures of the clean house. Maybe after scouts tonight, which is at my house, I will take pictures!!

10 months old

My Hayder baby is 10 months old. How did it happen so fast? He has just this past weekend learned how to point his little finger and say "DO" to things he is looking at. When talking to him he gets shy and puts his hands up in front of his eyes. He scoots on his bum all over the place. He talks and talks and talks. He has 4 teeth. He won't eat bananas. He loves pancakes for breakfast and chicken for dinner. He loves his brothers. He loved seeing Caroline and Jaden this past week. He smiles all day long. His naps are getting shorter and shorter. Right now he is scooting around under the desk blowing raspberries all over my toes. He has the most expressive face of any baby I know. He loves to make messes. He has the cutest, craziest red hair. He is the sweetest baby in the whole wide world. Mark, Colby, Cameron and I are all in love with this sweet baby.

What I did today...

This post is a little long, sorry.
Today, for the first time as far as I can remember, I didn't clean my house. My goal today was to get clean my car, which took me all day, but I did it, I got the car totally clean. I even borrowed my mother-in-law's steamer(if you have never used a steamer to clean I really recommend them, AMAZING!) and deep cleaned the darn car. It seriously took me from 9am till 3pm, and yes my poor baby was neglected and left to be entertained by Baby Einstein, but he did so so so good and I was able to get the whole car clean. Well it took me so long because I had to go to the school and do my PTA duty of weekly Fluoride Rinses for the 1st, 2nd & 3rd grades, then run a couple of errands, then give the baby lunch and a nap and walk Cameron to school because today was "Walk to school DAY". No wonder my house looks the way it does. I really can not believe that I am sitting here blogging when my house looks the way it does. I just took these pictures a few minutes ago.
After the kids got home from school I called Mark and told him we needed to go to Provo asap because if I sat in the house I was going to go crazy, it was a BIG mess and I didn't feel like cleaning it. So, Mark came home from work, we loaded up the kids and the boxes bound for DI and went to Provo. We dropped off the DI stuff, Mark even sat in the car with the kids so I could go in and browse hoping to find a treasure, (no luck) then we went on up to Cabela's. Dinner was a couple baskets of Cabela's fries and a coke. It was great seeing Hayden's reaction to all of the animals! At first he wasn't quite sure what to think and was a little scared, but then out came the cute little pointer finger and he was happy! He points at things and says "DO" then looks at us like, "Did you hear me, it's a DO?" SO darn cute!!!
Anyway... we got home around 9pm, tucked the kids in bed and now here I am DETERMINED NOT TO CLEAN MY HOUSE TONIGHT!!!!
Yeah, so I am probably a little, ok, A LOT OCD about messes, especially messy counter tops. I HATE THEM, it's all I can do not to turn around and clean up the mess. Mark says he's proud of me and that maybe I am turning over a new leaf, not likely, just a rare day! Do you see the round orange plate at the bottom of the picture? That is a plate that Mark left there at Lunch. And the ladder at the top of the picture was left there yeaterday. It is simply amazing that I have not picked them up, I am really shocked at myself. And the blankets, how easy are they to fold and put away? But NOPE, NOT gonna do it!
Yeah, those are scissors on the floor, left by Cam who was cutting out pictures for some homework, who's gonna pick them up? NOT ME.
The rug in the entry way in the picture below, the shoes, the jackets...AHHHHHH I am not picking it up, nope not tonight.
I might have to BLOG all night just to keep my hands busy doing something besides cleaning!

My car looks really good though, maybe I will go sleep in it!!

Look who came to my house!!!!!

Family!!!! Kent and Lisa and their DARLING kids came up to visit us!! Really they came for conference, but I like to think they came just to visit us!) They arrived at our house on Thursday just as my boys were getting out of school. We spent that night fishing, eating dinner, chasing ducks and keeping Jaden out of the water, at the Wasatch Mountain State Park. (probably one of the most gorgeous spots in all of our valley.) My mom and dad came up to, but I was too busy having fun and forgot to take pictures of them and the kids.
Maison, Bayli, Colby & Cameron doing a little art work to hang in the boys bathroom.

The bread man, all ducks love him.

Jaden was so so so excited about the ducks, he ran quacking after them the whole time. When the ducks would retreat to the water, Jaden would head for the water too. He would have walked right into the pond if we had let him. If Jaden is any indication of what Hayden will be like when he is walking, I am in for it!!!!

HAYDEN & JADEN
Didn't catch any fish, but that didn't stop the kids from having a great night.
Look at this cute baby doing stretches!
This cute little girl is a FIRECRACKER!!! She kept us laughing all weekend!

Thanks so much Kent & Lisa for coming up. Remember, don't eat too many Fig Newtons!!!

And Thanks Mom and Dad, we love having you come to our house.

Oh, and I made these too...

Along with making Jam and making treats for Pack Meeting I also made these delicious Pumpkin Brownies. Oh, they are sooo good and just the right treat for this time of year. I think I will post the recipe so that you can all try the goodness for yourself. After you make them and eat the whole pan all by yourself and gain 5 pounds, don't be mad at me!!!


Pumpkin Brownies

4 eggs
1 2/3 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Oil
1/2 c. applesauce
1 15oz can pumpkin

2 c. flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
2 tsp baking powder
Combine wet ingredients. Sift together dry ing. Combine wet and dry and spread on a greased cookie sheet. Bake @ 350 for 25-30 minutes. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. Cream Cheese (softened)

1/2 c. butter (softened)

2 tsp vanilla

5 c. powdered sugar

Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla and sugar. (I always end up adding at least a 1/2cup more powdered sugar just so it's not so runny)

PEACHES BABY!!!!

Last week was peach week for me. I had mentioned to Mark's mom that I would like to learn how to bottle peaches and she said that she would teach me. We got peaches from Allred's in Provo and had a marathon bottling day on Monday. When I say marathon I mean marathon...90 jars of Peaches that day!! I have never eaten so many peaches in my life, they were soooo good and juicy! At 6pm when we finally called it quits, 8 hours after starting, we still had one box of peaches that weren't quite ripe. I decided that I would take them and try to make Jam. Now I will have you know I had never made jam before and I wasn't sure at all what I was doing, (for some reason I didn't take to opportunity to learn from my mom when I had the chance. Sure I had to help mom do apricot jam, current jam, tomatoes, green chili's, corn, pickles, etc...every year of my at home life, but I didn't have the desire then to really learn how.) I went to the store, bought the Sure gel, and got started on the Jam at 9pm on Thursday night! Mark was nice enough to help me peel them, but then I was on my own. My kitchen was a disaster, I didn't have all the right tools like my MIL, it was taking a lot longer than I anticipated, my back was breaking, but right when I was ready to throw in the towel I heard it, you know that sound that says POP!!!! The sound of the jars sealing after taking them out of the steamer. The best sound in the world, aside from, well, lots of other sweet sounds, POP!!! It means that all your hard work paid off, that the jars sealed and they can now go on your food storage shelf. Woohoo!!!!!!!! I did it, I made jam all by myself and it worked, all 8 jars sealed. I even did some bags for the freezer, just cut up peaches with a little sugar to be used later as Ice cream topping or Peach Cobbler. If you can't tell, I am quite pleased with myself, the jam even tastes really good too! I sent my mom a picture text saying "Look what I did!" and she texted back and said "who is this?" Not really but I am sure she was pretty shocked!! Well, so anyone who wants some yummy Utah peaches next year come on up and get some and I might teach you how to make jam!!! Thanks Chari for teaching me how to do this, and sorry mom that I didn't learn way back when I had the chance.

SUCCESS

Well it was all worth it, being "Hunting Widow" that is. Mark got this bull on the last day of the hunt. He is happy so I am happy! He had a really great time and got to spend time with his dad and a few friends and be in the mountains so it was a good hunt for lots of reasons. I have heard all the stories multiple times and I'm sure I will hear them lots more! Mark loves to tell them and the kids are always a willing audience! The whole neighborhood came over when Mark drove up with the Elk in the back of the truck, some were grossed out, some thought it was great! Mark had a good time showing it off and then we were off to Provo to get the meat to the butcher and the hide to the Taxidermist! Can't wait for the Jerky, it's so so good! I was excited because I thought that I would have my husband back and maybe get some things done around the house...but no, he had to work of course. So I patiently waited for Saturday thinking that it would be a good day to get some help out of him, what did we end up doing on Saturday you might ask?? Well, we spent quite a long time cleaning the dirty hunting truck! I wish I had taken before and after pictures of the truck. There was not a single inch inside and out that was not covered with mud and dust. It took quite a bit of elbow grease to get it cleaned. So I will again patiently wait until next Saturday, oh wait, it's conference, so who knows when I will get any help out of him....It will be nice when my boys are big enough to help me! I am sure if you ask Mark he would say that I do not wait very patiently, but it's my blog, I can say what I want!!!!

beautiful day

I just love this picture. Cameron is always catching some kind of creature but he was really excited about this butterfly that just loved to perch on his nose. It stayed with him for about an hour then just flew off into the sky. He also has a pet leech, but I don't want to waste space with a picture of the nasty thing. He takes it to school everyday because it is their class pet!

Still Hunting.....

I was hoping that he would get an Elk today, but it looks like he will be back at it on Monday and Tuesday. Thankgoodness they put a 10 day limit on the hunt, he would go forever. We really miss having him around.

Please watch this video

I was told about this video clip in an email from my Aunt. The guy in it is from Salt Lake. It is quite a powerful message. Please watch it....then send some support to our troops.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8

Have you tried these??

If you have not tried this new flavor of Cheez-It crackers you really really should, they are so so good. They even work great in place of regular Cheez-It's in making Cheez-It Chicken.

Day THREE of the hunt

I don't know how he does it; gets home at 10:30pm totally exhausted having walked 50,000 miles, just to leave again at 4:00am. It must be hunting adrenaline. The weather is not cooperating though. It's supposed to be cold and a little rain would be nice too. When I saw the weekly forecast I was excited to have really nice sunny days, and Mark was totally bummed that it was not 32 and snowing! Maybe today will be the lucky day!

Day TWO of the Hunt

Can you say BLOW OUT??!!!

If you missed the game today you can go HERE to see what you missed. GO COUGARS!!!

(to all of my family in Arizona, yeah, I have gone to the BLUE side, sorry ASU but BYU is way more fun to watch and cheer for. And living where I do it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of Cougar Football)

I'm a hunting widow...

and so to celebrate the start of my deer husbands WASATCH BIG BULL ELK hunt that starts tomorrow, I am going to post some funny, yet true hunting cartoons!

Indian Summer Day

tonight was just beautiful. we sat outside for a couple of hours watching colby and cameron build another bike jump. oh how I don't want these great weather days to end.