Lately

Friday Oct 7:
We said good bye to our puppies. We were giving them away for free and they were gone in 45 min!!!! I was shocked.  It was an emotional day, excitement, worry, sadness. I was excited to send them to new homes, 4 dogs was starting to wear on me. Oh and the dog food we went through there at the end...they would have eaten us out of house and home. I was worried about the new owners...would they take care of them and be kind to them? Sadness- oh the tears that were shed!! Poor Braiden had a hard HARD time letting them go, I'll admit I shed a couple too. There at the end I thought for a second about keeping one...but just for a second. One man said to us, "The most expensive thing in the world is a free puppy." HA HA we got a good laugh out of that one.

Here they are, all washed up and ready to go.

Here's some animal arithmetic for ya: in a period of 7 weeks we went from 1 dog + 2 kitties + 3 puppies - 1 kitty - another kitty - three puppies and now were back to 1 dog again.

Nate's Birthday Oct 11:

I made these little jars of pumpkin cream pie for everyone at his office, I got the idea from the Crafting Chicks Yummy!

Dinner with his parents at the Drift Inn! Yummy!

His very own camp chef. Do you like my wrapping paper?

 Oh and the German chocolate cake (from scratch) is a must! Yummy!

Aren't  birthdays Yummy?

Oct 12 Brody's last football game:

Oct 15th Braiden's last game:
He's #75-
The one who's hiking the ball-
the one with the grey sleeves.

It was fun... what are we going to do with ourselves now that football is over???

After Braiden's game we met up with Christopher and the kids at the straw maze.

Bella and Joslyn

Hudson played on the slide all night.

Scott driving a go-cart.

Brody and Ethan

Braiden was nice enough to give his baby sis a ride.

My kids were not interested in going through the haunted maze so we will have to go back in the daytime for the regular maze.

Joslyn's First Haircut

Joslyn got her first haircut yesterday.

 Now she is not a baby anymore :(

We chopped off all her sweet curls...it had to be done, it was a ratty - uneven mess.

It totally turned her into a little girl.

SNIFF!

Good News: This morning when I got her out of the tub the curls were still there, they were just shorter. :) I round brushed it again today because it's nice for a change.

Joslyn is really into bandaids lately, I have to be careful and leave that door shut or she will get into them and bug me for a "bam-A" until I put one on her.

She loves flip-flops and I mean LOVES! She wears them around the house ALL the time no matter whose they are.

You can tell she has brothers that are into football because she sees a football game on TV and exclaims, "football!" The funniest thing ever though is when she says "down" and squats down, then "hike" and takes off running.  Oh dear me!  

Speaking of football, it has consumed our lives lately, it's been fun though.

Braiden LOVES the game, he is on the yellow team and he is playing center (?) anyway he is the one who "hikes" the ball.  He also plays defensive tackle, so by the end of the game is he worn out and happy as a clam.

Brody is also playing flag football and having a great time.

All Hudson gets to do is watch, pretty soon buddy, pretty soon!

Last call on the puppies, they will be 6 weeks old on Saturday so we will be saying goodbye. sniff sniff (not!)

Puppies-Bottom Braces and Stitches

I may be no good at kitties, but I AM good at puppies, look how cute they are!!

My trusty assistant-yeah he's pretty cute too!

The puppies are so funny they are starting to do all the little things that puppies do. "Play" with each other, bark, wag their tails, shake their heads, scratch their ears and escape from the kennel (not to bad though, they won't go far from mama.) They are 3.5 weeks old now, we better find good homes for them soon before we get too attached!

Yesterday was one of those days.  Presidency meetings, dentist appointments, Orthodontist appointments and football games and hardly enough time in between each to take a breath.  We were settling into the after school routine, of snacks and trying to get homework done.  I went outside for a minute to take care of the puppies, so Brody decided he could be sneaky and open the box that came in the mail.  I  heard screaming and crying coming from inside and not the arguing and fighting kind, the "something's wrong" kind. I ran in to find Brody's little arm (and everything else) covered in blood I grabbed a towel and tried to clean it up enough to see how bad it was...yup we're going to need stitches. : (

It wasn't a long cut but it was deep. He got two stitches, it looks to me like he could have used two more? No?

Ewww! Yucky! Sorry to gross you out.

I think he learned his lesson about playing with knives.

I was joking with the ER staff that my other son had a football game in just a little bit so I hoped that I wouldn't be back in later. Well after Brody got all fixed up we made it to Braiden's game only 10 min late!! Pretty good! We were in the second half and J was getting restless so I was chasing her up and down the bleachers I glanced up to see all the players on one knee (that means that someone is hurt) I didn't see what happened so I stopped... pretty soon #75 comes limping off the field, WHAT #75! That's Braiden!! ugh! He was fine, thank goodness, he got a drink, toughed up and was back out playing within 5 min. Gave his momma's heart a little start though!

Braiden got his bottom braces yesterday, he was excited because now he could do alternating colors, he chose orange and blue...GO Broncos!

About the Kitties

I hesitate writing this post for fear that you will all think terrible things of me, but the stories are amazing and sad so I'm going to take a chance.

Right from the get go those two little kitties loved to hide out.  I tried to keep them out of the garage but they would run over to the neighbors and hide in their bushes all day.  I didn't think our neighbors (as nice as they are) appreciated having our cats hang out in their perfectly manicured yard all day.  So I gave in and let them hang in the garage, we did have a problem with mice last winter so I thought this might help anyway. Well just being in the garage wasn't good enough for those sneaky little fur balls, they loved to hide up inside our cars. Every morning before Nate left for work we would coax them out of his engine and off he would go. We started to learn where in the car they would hide, they had their favorite little spots, and as soon as you would call "kitty - kitty" they would answer back. 

Kitty #1 was a little more shy than kitty #2 but wherever #1 was #2 wasn't far behind. Braiden had a football game one night Kitty #2 was in the garage so I figured that's where kitty #1 was.  When I got to the football game at 4:00 we heard meowing coming from the car, #1 rode with us to the game! Well after Braiden's game we had to help in the concession stand and we didn't get done until about 10:00 we return to the car to find #1 still there and it made it back home!! Crazy!  #1 and #2 were so happy to see each other.

The next day- the only thing we can figure is that it rode in Nate's car to church and hopped out, before he left he called them and #2 was in the garage so off he went. We never saw #1 after that.

Fast forward a couple of weeks... #2 LOVED just hanging out in the garage, lounging in boxes of junk - I've never seen a lazier cat and no more hiding inside the cars thank goodness I think #1 was the instigator of all that madness.

 Hudson loved the kitties most of all, usually in the afternoon When things slowed down around here and sis was down for a nap you would find Hudson out in the garage playing with the kitty.

Last Friday we headed for Utah to attend Nate's cousin's wedding.  We left here Friday morning and the plan was to head right to the Hogle Zoo and meet Grandma, Cara, Travis and Dillon and spend the afternoon enjoying the zoo.  Kitty was munching on her food as we were loading up (remember she kicked the habit of hopping into cars) we cracked the garage door so that she could go in and out as needed and away we went.  Well when we got to the zoo imagine my surprise when I am getting Joslyn out of the car and I hear meowing "What!! No way on earth!"  I think. Just as soon as I was done "thinking" Out hops Kitty Oh. My. Word!!  My first thought was, I can't believe that poor kitty made it all the way to Utah going 75MPH for 3+ hours. My next thought was, what on EARTH are we going to do with a cat down here.  Well we were already at the zoo so we hoped it would do like kitty #1 and stay in the car until we got done and then we would have to find an animal shelter to take it to. Well when we finished up at the zoo and made our way back to the car, we called for Kitty Kitty and she was no where to be found. :( Braiden started crying because he was the only one who really realized what was going on.  I feel so bad poor kitty kitty.

Monday Hudson was out in the garage for about a half and hour yelling for the kitty, I had to go out there and tell him that kitty was gone, kitty was at the Hogle Zoo.  That just made him mad.

I'm SO sorry Karla for not taking better care of your kitties, OH SO SORRY!! I will understand if you never want to give me a pedicure again.

I'm so sorry kids, for letting you get kitties and falling in love with them and then taking them to the zoo.

I'm so sorry everyone else that reads this for being such a bad kitty mama, I hope you don't think I am TOO horrible of a person.

I"m sorry kitty for putting you through that trauma, I hope you make new friends at the zoo.

Oil Spills

We've had a few oil spills in the past few weeks ( three to be exact) and all have been disastrous!!!

The first oil spill- Nate likes to change the oil in our vehicles if he has a free Saturday here or there, he had just changed the oil in his car and had the pan of used motor oil (about 5 quarts) sitting on a bucket. Fast forward a few days... we adopted two kitties (mmm more on that another time) Anyway those kitties like to hang out in our garage, there are lot of places to hide from that crazy dog that is around here.  I'm sure you can see where this is headed, yes we had a LAKE of oil - dirty filthy oil all over the floor in our garage.  I was amazed how far 5 quarts could spread, it looked more like 5 gallons!! We are still cleaning.

The second oil spill was Hudson's doing. I made stir fry for dinner- I left the bottle of vegetable oil out while we ate.  I don't really know what happened next or I would have done something about it right away!  I noticed two dishtowels on the counter soaked with something. The lid was tightly on the oil so I didn't think anything of it. After the kids were in bed for the night I went up and started cleaning up the kitchen when I noticed my (3 month old) cell phone sitting in a LAKE of vegetable oil!!! He spilled about half the bottle- eeek! I'll give him credit for trying to mop some of it up with the towels though. My phone is still seeping oil but miraculously it still works!!!

The third oil spill was MY fault- We were leaving for the weekend and the lawn needed to be mowed.  Nate had to coach Brody's football team and Braiden had football practice so I volunteered ;) to stay home and mow while they did the football stuff.  I got all geared up with my grubby shoes, ipod, sunglasses and bug spray and found out the lawn mower was out of gas...so was the gas can. No big deal I'll just go refill it.  Nate told me to only fill it about half way but I behaved like a teenager and didn't listen thinking I knew better.  Needless to say I spilled gasoline all over the back of my suburban because I filled the can too full.  Luckily most of it got on the mat and I was able to take it out and hose it of and scrub scrub scrub.

Jeesh! I need a break!

Puppies & The First Day of School!!

Ivy had her puppies early Saturday morning.  She had a small litter of only 4 (fine with me) but the runt didn't make it (so sad) so we have three little black puppies that are fat and happy.

Notice the swimming pool? My brother wonders why we are trying to drown them. (hehe)  She had her puppies in there so clean up was a breeze (sorry probably TMI) and now it keeps those little fatties nice and contained, I even layed a nice scrap of carpet inside so it would be soft and cozy.

Puppy anyone????

Today was the first day of school, the boys claimed that they didn't want to go back, but I could tell this morning that they were excited.

Braiden started 4th grade and Brody started 1st grade.

Off they go!



This is when I started bawling, I'm telling you this never gets any easier, it's sad to see them go. I wonder if I will still cry when they are in High School?

More Summer Fun

Baseball {check}
Swimming lessons {check}
Impromptu trip to Challis {check}

My grandpa has a cabin in Challis and we decided to go up there for the weekend with mom, dad & Scott and Christopher and his kids. The place is a time capsule from the 70's it's great!!

1983

Here is a picture of me when I was about 3 years old, we spent Easter there one year as a family, looking through my photo album I've noticed one thing. The decor has not changed. One. Bit. 27 years later I return to find the same table cloth on the table and that same ole barstool...see.

OK so I messed up and used the gold barstool instead of the burnt orange barstool but you get the picture.

Happy Hudson 3 years old.

Joslyn is not interested in getting her picture taken.

Give her the baba and the bebe and she's much more willing.

Cuddles with Regan - I love having Regan around she is a great babysitter...now if only she lived a little bit closer to me.

One day Brody and Bella played together building fires ALL morning (not kidding) the little pyros. I loved watching them play together- friends and cousins.

On a nature walk we spotted a baby deer in the cemetery.

See him under the lilac bush? The kids thought it was great.

One day we went to Challis hot springs for some swimming. The boys rode 4 wheelers all over and had a blast-while mom, Regan and I did some (ahem) decluttering :) We have our work cut out for us in that dept. We had a blast and we are excited to come back, it's nice to have a place to get away to even if it is a cluttered time capsule from the 70's.

A weekend stay at the Sun Valley Lodge for the ISDA Annual Conference  {check} I have one word. Awesome.

Annual Redfish Lake camping trip {check}

I love this picture...taken from our campground, we had a beautiful view.  It was a rainy and sometimes thunderstormy camping trip. Glad I wasn't tenting it or I would have been going home, party pooper- I know.

The sister-in-law tube ride was so MUCH FUN!!! The sun peeked out of the clouds for a few hours so we hopped onto the tube!

The boys got a turn!

Joslyn had fun playing in the sand.

We did have rain but we didn't have bear scares like last year so that was a plus.  The boys love love love coming to Redfish and are always so sad to leave. :(

Injured dog {double check} OH poor POOR Ivy!! So this wasn't in the plans but I took Ivy to my mom's while we were in Sun Valley so she could take care of her. I thought she would have fun with Atticus (mom's dog) and going out on the farm with my dad. Well she did have fun until my sheltered, not used to riding in the back of a pickup dog decided to jump OUT of the moving vehicle.  Mom and dad took her to the vet and found out that she broke her leg. She had to have surgery to put in a pin to hold the bone together. Oh and she is going to have puppies in about 10 days oh that poor miserable dog, can you imagine!!

A HUGE thank you goes out to my mom and neighbors who nursed our dog back to health while we were camping!!!

Back to school shopping {check} The kids are all geared up for school, we registered on Thurs. and they start in 1 week. Two kids in school all day- that will be weird, I will miss my helpers. Braiden got to pick up his football equipment last week and he starts practice on Tuesday we are so excited for football season!

WSWS

What She Wore Sunday

Sis had to get some back to school clothes too! :)

We have 1 week to squeeze every last drop of fun that's left in this summer vacation, so far we've done pretty good!