Smells Like Fish

Last night, I got home late with the kids from a church activity, and was hurrying to put them to bed. I get to Josh and Luke's room, and it totally stinks like fish. It's about 9:45, so I make a mental note to find the fishy odor in the morning. After the boys go to school, I go in their room and start picking up dirty clothes, and sniffing all over their room, trying to find the smell. I'm smelling the bed covers, the clothes, everything I can think of, when I see these on the floor:

and one of them is empty. Any guesses as to what they are? They are fish oil tablets. And what are they doing in my sons' room? I don't know, but I have a guess, so I call Tanner in. He and a certain other son of mine have been playing a lot lately, so I ask him, "Tanner, have you seen these before?" He says, "Yeah, (my other son who shall remain nameless because I may kill him) says that you squeeze them out and use them to clean the toilet." Clean the toilet? You've got to be kidding me! When he gets home, if he lives, he will have a lot of explaining to do, as well as some real toilet cleaning. Then he will be scrubbing the carpet, hoping to get the fish smell out.

Halloween

We had a great time for Halloween this year. We had a trunk or treat with our church, we had Halloween with Grandma and Grandpa Bake and the cousins, and we got fun shirts from Grandma Clayson. We had a good time carving pumpkins, and had a fun Family Home Evening that Josh helped me plan with ice-cream cookies, candy corn, and giant cookies.

Look at these scary faces!

First Snow

We had our first snow in October, and the kids had a good time playing outside. It didn't last very long, but while it was there, they played and played.

MIA

Yes, once again we have been missing in action. Sorry, life has been crazy, and on top of that, my camera battery charger has not been working, thus no pictures to post and not as much fun without pictures. So, no more excuses, here is what's going on with us lately.

Last month Shane got offered a promotion, and we decided to take it. So, next month, we will be moving to Oregon. Shane will be the station manager at a new station they will be building shortly. We are excited to be moving closer to our families, and to be back in the west by mountains, rivers, and outdoor opportunities. Our children are excited to move, too, which is a bonus. We worried about how they would take it. We are now in the process of house hunting, which is throwing us a few bumps, but I'm sure will work out soon. Our house is now on market, and we have decluttered and cleaned until things sparkle. Then, of course, the kids come home and it goes out the window. => But we are excited for this opportunity and look forward to starting new.

Kitty Cuteness

Tanner has been on a "baby kitty" kick lately. He pretends to be a baby kitty, complete with armor, swords, jet packs, cotton candy, and lollipops. No, he doesn't have all of them all the time, but sometimes he does. His imagination is just going nuts lately, which is good, unless you have to be the "mom" that "buys" him from the "pet store" all day long. Before I sent this box of goodies off to a sister-in-law, Tanner used it as his pet store and climbed in it several times a day. Sometimes he goes home on a "leash" and sometimes in a "cage", but however he goes, he plays this all day long. It's cute, but getting old, too. Good thing Luke gets home in the afternoon to take over for me.


Parker, however, chooses to play with a real kitty, and is very soft and loving lately. It's cute to see him lay on the floor with Leo and hug him.

This picture cracks me up. We have had cold weather lately for the end of September, first of October. It's only been in the 50's, maybe low 60's, which is still pretty cool for this time of year. Despite several mornings in the 30's or low 40's, Tanner has been refusing to wear pants, wears only shorts, and still wants to go bare foot outside. Any guesses who this kid belongs to? Anyway, I've been trying to convince him that he needs to dress warmer for this cooler weather, without much success. I make him wear pants to school, but as soon as he gets home he changes into shorts and "ha-ha's" at me. I am going to pack his shorts up tomorrow while he's a preschool and see who's "ha-ha-ing" then. He got cold one day, and instead of actually getting dressed to be warm, he found Luke's sweatshirt and put it on instead. At least he knows one way to get warm.

Where to Start?

Ok, so I'm a big slacker. I think everyone knows that by know. Way over a month and not a single post written. Although I often blog in my head, none of them have made it to the actual blog. Sorry, but I guess life goes on and you do what you can do. I haven't felt a whole lot like blogging lately, but it's time so here we go.

For Labor Day, some friends went with us to Nauvoo, Illinois to see some of our LDS church history sites. It was totally amazing, and I wish that we'd had more time to look around. The kids had fun playing games that pioneer children played, and we all agreed that the Nauvoo Temple was the highlight of the trip. We also went to Carthage, Illinois, where our prophet Joseph Smith was martyrd, and got a neat picture (sort of - it's a little blurry) of a picture of the window that he fell out of through the bullet hole in the door. It was a neat experience. I hope that we can go back one day when the kids are older and do a little more looking around. It was also amazing to see both the Missouri River and the Mississippi River on our way there. What a BIG river!


We also had our annual town parade, and Shane, Josh, Tanner and Kaitlin were all in it. Kaitlin marched with the bad this year, and Shane, Luke and Tanner got to be a part of the Pioneer float since Shane works there. You can't see Shane and Tanner very well, they are inside the pickup. Josh got to hand out candy, and was excited by the prospect. He had a ball.

This picture only makes sense if you know where I went to school and what our mascot was (0r wasn't). Our mascot was the Diggers and Shane loves to tease me about it. He called me to make sure that I got a picture of it.

The Fun of Chalk Roads

Yesterday Parker, Tanner and I made a chalk road in our driveway for them to ride their bikes, scooters, skateboards on. I got these fun pictures and videos of Parker as he enjoyed the road. This morning the road got washed away as it poured down rain, so we'll probably have to start over tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Shane!

Shane had his birthday this past Monday, and the pictures show you how much fun we had celebrating with him. I made a strawberry rhubarb crisp, thus not a traditional-looking cake. The kids had great fun giving birthday spankings, which, if you counted the actually number of spankings given, Shane would probably be well over 100. He was a good sport and let them whack away. Sorry that the videos cut in half-way through. It's not easy to direct and video everything at once! => We hope you had a great day, honey. We love you!!

Scoota'

I have two little boys who love the scooters. Since the kids started school last week, Tanner likes to take a ride around the block. He rides the scooter, and I pull Parker in the wagon. Well, Parker doesn't like being left behind, so he is teaching himself how to ride the "scoota," as he calls it. They now run outside to be the first to get the preferred scooter. It's a hoot!

Good-Bye Crib!!

A couple of weeks ago we had a friend getting rid of her twin bunk beds, and she offered them to us. After talking over whether we thought Parker could handle being not confined in the crib, we decided to go for it. The beds can be separate, but for extra room we left them as bunks. The boys love them!! Tanner loves being up on top, and Parker loves being on the bottom because he can now get out and play to his heart's content (or until Mom comes and tells him to get back in bed and go to sleep.) I took these pictures last night about 9:15 when I heard them playing and laughing when they should have been asleep. It was dark in the room, so the reason Parker looks like a drunk is because he couldn't see the flash coming. You can see in one of the other pictures the mess on the floor by his bed, which he gets out of bed to play with when we turn off the lights. He hasn't fallen out of bed, but he does get out to get his toys, so I guess he really can't handle yet not being confined, but oh well. So now, for the first time in 12 years, we don't have a crib or a toddler bed anywhere in our house. Hooray!!

Happy 9th Birthday Josh! - Oh Wait, It's our Anniversary, too!!!

Yes, as you can probably tell from the title, two very important things happened on Tuesday. Josh turned 9, and Shane and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. Of course, you can't just go and leave a 9 year old boy alone on his birthday to go celebrate an anniversary, so Shane and I have decided that we'll just have to pick a date in January and celebrate our anniversary then. Anyway, Josh had a pretty good day. Doesn't he look manly? Five 0'clock shadow at about 5 o'clock! Not quite sure what's on his face, but he thought it was fun.

After getting one remote control truck from Grandma Clayson while she was here last week, he got another for his birthday that is programmable and does tricks and lights up. Needless to say, he is in remote control heaven and went outside to play with it right away. Parker also wanted to play with it, but his brand of playing was trying to crash into it with his riding fire truck. Josh was not happy.

On a fun note, Josh wanted an ice cream cake, and since the nearest ice-cream cake maker is an hour in either direction, I made one. And it was delicious!!

Martin's Cove, Wyoming

I was privileged to get to go with the youth from our church branch to Martin's Cove, Wyoming, to walk the path that our pioneer ancestors walked in that area while pulling handcarts. It was an amazing experience, and filled with beautiful country. We pulled handcarts loaded with our gear along the trails where the pioneers walked, got rained on, had tents blown down, flooded, and broken, and got to see the local wildlife. No, rattlesnakes were not the only wildlife we saw, but the only ones that got close enough to us to see well. The antelope kept their distance. The snake in the picture was almost stepped on by a boy from our pioneer "family."

This is the double rainbow we got to see the first night after we survived the first rain storm.
This is hill that is right next to the area before you go up into Martin's Cove. These two pictures are of Devil's Gate, the landmark that the pioneers looked for while crossing the plains. These are the girls and their father that I took from our branch. They were the only two, and no trouble at all, so it was like a mini vacation of sorts to be free from looking after kids.

These are some of the kids from our "family", along with our handcart.This is the dog that became our shadow while on our trek. His name is Oscar, and he hangs out at this place most of the summer. He attaches himself to the different handcart groups and goes with them everywhere until they leave, and then he finds a new group to follow. He spent the night at our campsite, barking at the coyotes as they started to howl. He was featured in the "Friend" magazine in July, and we heard some very neat stories about him from the missionaries at the visitor's center.

It was a totally amazing and spiritual experience, and I hope that one day I can take my children and Shane with me to experience the place with me.