I sure like it when I surprise myself!

Day 1.

I decided that this year I wouldn't spend money on new decorations.

I went up to the attic, and these two inflatables were sitting there waiting for me.

I had forgotten that I'd bought them last year after Halloween.

I HATE it when that happens!

Whoooooouuu

Late last night, I went to get the mail, and as I turned around to come back to the house,

I thought I was under attack. My mailbox companion scared the living daylights out of me.

Apparently...

Someone was disappointed to only see two pictures and a very short write-up of how busy he is, so I added more "busy-ness" and more pictures to my last post.

.

.

It has been raining here since before 7 a.m. It is now after 10 a.m. That means all the marathoners had to wait in and run in the rain. Brrr.

.

.

.

Kyson was supposed to play with the Jazz Band this morning and serenade the runners as they passed the Tabernacle, but was extremely disappointed when his plans got rained out.

Busy Body

This one is in 9th grade and made the high school swim team. We'll see how long this lasts with swim practice 2 hours every morning,

gets out just in time for 1 hour of Jazz Band practice

3 times a week,

and gymnastics practice

3 hours every afternoon.

(Peter Vidmar Meet in West L.A.)

(pirouette on parellel bars)

and plays the piano at least once a week in seminary and usually for Priesthood.

Our Hiking History

I know that you are all just dying to hear about our hike.

We went up the Angel's Landing Trail. It is 2 miles one way with a gain of 1500 ft.

And he wondered why his back was sore the next day....

He pushed or pulled the stroller almost the whole way.

Kinzie and Kauri took turns sitting in it most of the way.

Kinzie did really well walking most of the way up with 5-day-old stitches in her toe. Kort kept making his own photo ops and making me take his picture in all sorts of places.
I couldn't resist this spot.

.

This is "Walter's Wiggles."

My kids counted the zigzags. There are 20.

We are almost to the "Scout Lookout."

.

We got to "Scout Lookout" and turned left to go up the West Rim Trail for a ways.
This is our "picnic" spot.

We didn't turn right and go up the steep, narrow trail to get to Angel's Landing.

Something to do with small children, me, and nightmares.

.

.

The bottom of the "V" behind us to our left is where the Angel's Landing trail goes.

You can see the ridge of the mountain behind us.

The ridge is the trail.

Angel's Landing is behind me.

The trail is this steep almost the whole way. At least 1 1/2 miles of it is paved like you see here.

My kids found this cave along the trail. We climbed up it,

and it was a mini "Fat Man's Misery" like the one on the Red Hill.

For this picture, they climbed up the wall like we all used to do

in the hallways at home when we were younger.

He is pointing to the two hikes we've been on this summer.

See you next time!

Space Invaders.........

.

Ya gotta luv 'em!

.

This One's For You....Jana

Sunday, we let/made each one our kids make their own pizza. They each dipped their hands in flour, flattened out their dough, spooned on some sauce and picked out their own toppings. We haven't done this a lot with our family of 8. (Okay, we have NEVER done this as a family of 8. It was a huge mess. It took hours. My kitchen isn't big enough for 8 chefs all at once.)

.

We made our own sauce which was surprisingly easy and good. We mixed up 5 packages of pizza dough (add water and stir), not knowing that 2 packages was enough to fill us all up.

So, Koby flattened little balls of dough in muffin tins,

and we made mini pizzas for leftovers.

If you look closely you'll see which one was impatient while waiting for a turn in the oven

(man I wish I had a convection oven about right now.)

One of her corners is missing ALL of the toppings.

Can you tell which one burned her arm on the pan?

Can you tell which one got first crack at the dough?

(It would be the one with 1/4 sheet of pizza.

And he was still hungry after he ate it.)

And, no, he is NOT taller than me yet.....

I should get a countdown clock and count it down? I predict 3 more months.

Kauri's Funnies

Kort: "Kauri hit me for no reeeeeeason!"

Kauri: "NOOOO, I hit you for 2 reasons!"

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I like to watch Good Things Utah, because I get lots of good tips and an occasional recipe that I'll actually make. Kneeeader's Bakery comes on once in awhile, and when they do, I pay attention. I made their Strawberry Pie recipe when it was on, and let's just say that my kids don't know if they like it or not, cause I got the 1st taste. Then out of guilt, I shared it with my hubby. We ate the whole pie! Both of them! This cookie recipe is from Kneader's Bakery in Northern Utah.

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but if you try it before me, let me know if it's as good as they say it is. I'll give you the URL since it's copywrited: http://www.abc4.com/content/gtu/recipes/story.aspx?content_id=14123687-4282-4baf-9cc9-c454bbd50b12

If You're Sleepy and You Know It...

Kort and Kauri are on the computer desk watching an older sibling play games. Or at least Kort still is.
.

.

Somethings missing.......

He wanted it pulled, but dad was gone with the scouts. He let me try it once, and when the pliers slipped off, he wouldn't let me try again, and wanted to wait for dad to do it. The bottom tooth was pulled 2 days ago and the tooth under it is already showing.
.
Kort asked me if he could play gamecube today. He said that since yesterday was school picture day and his hair was spiked for the pictures, that it must be long enough to spike so he should get to play gamecube now. He hasn't played it since he cut his hair. I told him he couldn't play it again till his hair grows back, so I can spike it.

Another Day In the Life of Me and Mr. "Murphy"

I put some cans of pop on the counter, then I found myself some b-fast. When I opened the microwave, the door swang open faster than I thought it would.

It knocked the pop cans onto the floor. Time seems to stand still as you realize the pop can is going to land just right to splatter everywhere. Well, it did. It startled me so badly that I dropped my bowl of oatmeal all over the counter and in the microwave as well. It took less than a second for ALL of the pop to be out of that can. Most of it went straight up and all over me (freshly showered.) The rest of it went all over the kitchen: up to 15 feet away. I got a good laugh out of it until I put cinnamon and raisins in my oatmeal before I realized it wasn't cinnamon, it was Nestle chocolate milk powder. Umm, chocolate raisin oatmeal? By the time I cleaned up all my messes, my oatmeal was cold, and no, it did not taste good.

Everything's Coming Up .......Not Roses

We planted manure, and it came up GREEN!


At least it smelled like it for 2 weeks. The tree roots had taken over our lawn-they floated to the top and were actually sitting on top of our lawn. A lot of them were pushing up our concrete. My hubby had to cut off all the visible roots with a hack saw. It took months. So when our neighbors smelled that our new lawn had been planted, they commented on how much better it looks.

Kyson says there's usually several "toms" in a parade, but since their guy plays so loudly, they only need one. (It's the guy with 3 drums that's right in back of Kyson.)

The rodeo parade route is half as long now that they don't go down the Boulevard. They start at 200 W. and go to 400 E. on Tabernacle. Kyson said it was still plenty long enough to have been stuck in front of the loudest drum player the whole way.

"Happy" Bestows A Lot of Pressure On A Birthday

My day started by Kortlen calling his cousin, Jaydan, in Bellvue, Nebraska. He used a feature I rarely use on my phone. Caller Log. He scrolled through the numbers that had recently called me, until he got to the one that started with a 6. Don't they all? The one he called the day before, that he thought was his dad's, happened to have Jaydan on the other end. So he did it again. And again this morning. So, Jana stayed on long enough to wish me a "Happy" Birthday.

.

.


I did something on my birthday that I have NEVER done in my life. I did it JUST so that I could say I did it. I ran 2.5 miles on my treadmill without stopping! Not bad for a non-runner. My furthest was 2 miles that I had done 6ish months ago.
.

.

I was almost done with a project that I had been working on all week, and I wanted to finish it, so I didn't go to lunch. Although Cafe Rio was probably where I'd have gone.


.

.

My son, Koby, is a space fanatic. He painted glow in the dark constellations all over in his room. I promised him a "silky" blanket but put it off forever. Anyway, here's the finished project.

Then, my hubby got done bidding the 400ish plans at work that took a whole week, and came home and made his "Once A Year" cake he has to make.
It doesn't really matter the flavor of the cake as long as the frosting is

the one on the Hershey's Cocoa box.

Then, he cleaned the dressing on his wound.

Warning, Graphic images. Do not look.

.

.

.Then, Kinzie got home from school, and he redressed hers.

The picture didn't turn out, but the expression on her face had to be posted.

The doctor, who we found out is a 17th cousin, once or twice removed, told us wrong.

He put in 6 stitches, not 5.

Kauri decided to take a nap. Or, it just sorta happened.

Grandpa was brave enough to feed a 5 month old homemade ice cream. She attacked the spoon trying to get it to her mouth. Soooo cute.

I wasn't going near that pastel green shirt with chocolate ice cream.

.

My day really started out with me finding a pile of wet, rotten, smelly dishrags in the laundry room (pet-peeve,) and being out of clean underwear, I had to dig out some maternity ones, (don't you even think I don't think YOU'VE ever done that.) And ended with me finding at midnight, that Kauri hadn't made it to the toilet after her nap, and the carpet under my toilet (that had just been shampooed for my b-day present) was sopping wet and stinky (pet-peeve.)
Therein lies the pressure of everyone wishing you a "Happy" B-day.

So, I will tell the BEST part last...

Kortlen wandered into my room just after I'd finished the blanket. I was sitting on the floor. I asked him if he knew who's birthday it was today. Of course, he did. Jana had told him when he called her that morning. I asked him if he knew how old I was. He didn't. So, as he was twirling circles in front of me, I told him. He was repeating what I'd said as he twirled, "Twenty-nine..."and just as he was finishing his circle, stopped, crouching, with his face right in front of mine, "AND A HALF???!!!!!"

Love that kid.

Instacare Anyone?

No, he isn't the one who had to be fixed at instacare. But the nurse

at instacare heard his story and fixed his finger. You'll have to wait to see the picture of his knuckle that isn't there anymore. His finger needs to stay wrapped.

This is the culprit. We wanted the VHS tape that was stuck inside, so Kyson and his dad took it apart. Somehow Daddy's finger slipped and this thing ate a chunk off his knuckle (just smaller than a dime). He complained to me that he couldn't get it to stop bleeding. Just as it stopped bleeding, we heard someone scream in the other room. The metal edge on the back of this VCR caught it's next victim between the toes.

.

.

.

Warning, graphic images, do not look!

.

.

.

Guess who's foot this is...

.

.

.

BeforeBefore numbing shot...
After numbing shot. After...5 stitches!


Kinzie's second time for stitches.