A Bittersweet Day

OK-I'm a week behind, but it's been a crazy week.

 

Last Sunday I was released from the primary presidency, I knew for weeks that it was going to happen and I was fine.  However...when I was sitting in sacrament meeting last week and Brother Bailey got up and started releasing us I just started sobbing!!! I LOVE primary and I LOVE the sisters I was able to serve with and I grew to LOVE the kids, each and every single one! So it was hard, a lot harder than I thought it would be! We got lots of hugs and little handmade cards from our little kiddies that will be cherished forever! So it's back to Relief Society for me It's been a LONG while since I've been. Like 5 years long...So today was my first Sunday back in Relief Society and it was good, the lesson by Sister West was awesome!! That's the wonderful thing about the church, it's great no matter where you are!!!

I was in charge of the food for the ward Christmas party last night, this has consumed me for the last month, I'm sure my mom was sick of hearing me talk about it! Love you!  Side note: My favorite "Keep Calm" poster that I've seen to date is:

  Keep Calm

 

   and

 

   Call Your MOM

 

 

Any way, All I can say is that the Lord's hand was helping me yesterday because everything went SO. GREAT! I kept thinking yesterday, man this is going so great but I'm sure once 5:00 rolls around everything is going to get crazy, well 5 came and went and everything just went so smooth! I had a

lot of help behind the scenes and I mean a lot! I don't think I can thank everyone properly.  Nate did

SO (like probably more than me) much work, he was amazing. I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband.

 

 

I decided that the old blog needed to be changed up a bit, I mean Hudson's picture says he's 3 and he

will be 5 in a few weeks! (except his is the only pic I didn't change out...didn't have one that was

"sidebar worthy" We'll work on that tomorrow!) I mean how hard it is to update your profile? Come

on! It was 2 years old!

I had a ton of suggestions on how to fix my problem (thank you!) my sweet friend sent me this message today..."as I was doing a little research I saw that you can add a second admin (second email) to the account and it will give you another GB of space for that user" So I did and It seems to be working!!! Thank You Krissy!! So that will buy me some time for now, then I think I am going to make some blog books.

 

Pinterest: I recently joined pinterest...I know I'm a little late to the game but better late than never.

Right? I am loving it, I've already tried a few things.  The sugar cookie bars were just OK unless you

make cream cheese frosting, don't even waste your time. ;) We are doing a cute little Christmas countdown that is fun for the kids too. I love looking at all the creative things people do and most of

the time I just dream about being creative.

 

A note on journaling:  A couple of weeks ago I got out my old journals from when I was first married

to about Brody as a baby, and I realized how much I enjoyed going back and reading about my thoughts and my life. I was laughing so hard I was crying, and in awe of how positive I was, boy I've

turned in to a grouchy old fart! I was AMAZED at the crap we went through with Braiden, with his

severe allergies and asthma, it's amazing that the poor kid is alive! Anyway that is the reason for this

long boring pictureless post, I want to remember these little things, about the time I was released

from primary and the time I was in charge of the ward dinner. And I will read all of these old posts

and think, man, I was so positive! I've turned into a grouchy old fart. haha! So here's my attempt to

document more of the little things.

 

I put a few of our new family pictures on the sidebar, the family one and the kids one, I love love

love that one of the kids it is adorable!!! The river was so low that they are actually standing on the

riverbed, cool!

Big Changes & A Cry For HELP

It's been almost a month since my last post eek! How did that happen?? First of all here are a few pictures from Halloween:

 

We were so lucky this year and had BEAUTIFUL weather for trick-or-treating so this was all they had to wear, no coats!!! yay!!!

 

Helloooo, little princess, camera's this way. :)

 

This is the original costume we bought for him to wear this year, however, he also dressed up as spiderman for one party and a star wars clone trooper for another.

 

Braiden had officially graduated from nice, superhero type costumes to creepy costumes, not fond of that change.

(Still in the "nice costume stage") Ninja version 2. The ninja costume we already had in the costume box just wouldn't do. (grrr)

After the trunk or treat we came back home and there were still a few straggling trick-or-treaters knocking on doors, I swear the kids had more fun passing out candy than they did gathering it!!!

Here's the big change...

Sooooo, we got home from church on Oct 21 and got a phone call, you know "THAT" phone call, the one from the Stake Executive Secretary asking Nate if he and his wife would come in to meet with the Stake Presidency... Uh, OK. I am nothing but a bundle of nerves for a good 2 and a half days, it could be anything really, Stake Athletic Director...yeah, that would be good. But when you are sitting down across from the whole Stake Presidency your hopes for Stake Athletic Director quickly go down the drain! So Nate was called to be the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. Whoa!

The next two weeks were filled with stress (on my part) and a LOT of fibbing (mostly on Nate's part) I only had one person ask me if the new 2nd counselor was going to be Nate and I did a horrible job of lying. I'm sure she had it all figured out by the time our conversation was over. : /

I feel like I have been well prepared for his calling in some ways, he has been the Elders Quorum Pres for half of our married life, YM Pres. and Ward Clerk so I am used to Sunday mornings on my own, I don't know what I would do with myself if he WAS home on a Sunday morning. What I am not used to is sitting by myself in sacrament meeting, my first Sunday the older 2 were worse than the younger 2, WHAT? His first week in he had meetings on 3 nights and Sat was a chaotic mess.  Sundays after church are sad and lonely, that is the best part of the day when we come home and I get to tell him all the things that went on in primary that day. :) It will take some getting used to I am sure! That is the whole point of this life after all, to learn and grow. He is lucky to be able to serve with great people who will help him along the way.

Our sweet niece, little Ruby Rose was blessed on the 4th, the same day Nate was put in the bishopric, it was a big day!!!

I was also asked to be in charge of the ward Christmas Dinner YIKES!!! Actually when they asked me I thought they were going to say "decorations" but when they said "the dinner" I laughed! I can think of a few more qualified people in the ward to do that job!! (uh hem...KARLA) ♥ ya! I understand you can't do every ward dinner so I'm gonna need your help!!!

Last week was book fair at the school, I was in charge. That was a toughie, once the schedule was filled, the biggest job, and the books were set up, the second biggest job, the rest went pretty smooth. Glad it's over though!

We got our family pictures taken on the 3rd we couldn't have asked for a more BEAUTIFUL day!!! in Nov too. Lucky!! Everyone looked great and everyone cooperated, I can't wait to see them!! Christmas cards are coming this year for sure!!! Make sure I have your address! ( or I need to make sure I have your address, something like that.)

Thanksgiving is going to be pretty low key this year, all of our brothers and sister are going to the "other side"...hmm, how did that happen? Any way we are going to eat with Kurt and Terril and do a trail run of the ward Christmas dinner. I'm sure we will go out and buy a paper and look at all of the black Friday deals that we won't take advantage of. :) It's still fun to look, maybe we will catch a movie this year!! Know any good one's coming out?

Brody's Birthday and BAPTISM is coming up in a few weeks WOWEE! Here we go scouts round 2! What do I do? Buy another scout shirt? Braiden only needs it for another 4 months. hmmm.

I need your help...

My blog says that I am out of space, apparently I talk too much and I have too many "picture heavy posts.  Have any of you had this problem? What should I do? I am not very tech savvy but here are a few solutions I have come up with. The blog just wants me to buy more space (surprise) $2/month not much but that is just annoying, don't want to do it. I could stop blogging, yeah not gonna do that one either. I could start a new blog. I worry about that, what if no one reads it any more...what if no one reads it now. hmmm. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!!!

A Rather Blustery Day

Get ready for another picture heavy post. You know what they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." so you see, you really win in the end, I'm sparing you a thousand words. :)

 

There are about 2 months out of the year that the wind doesn't blow around here and those months are July and August.

So the wind is back and Tuesday was a "rather blustery day" (name that movie)

 

Dad is in the middle of beet harvest when that blustery day causes trouble with the power lines therefore causing the power to go out, therefore causing the beet dump to close. can't dig beets when you can't dump em'. Mom is in town (thank goodness) taking Scott to work and getting parts and what not, because that's her life during harvest. Anyway so dad goes home because who wants to sit in a tractor if you don't have to. When dad gets home he finds this: (minus the grandkids and Scott;) )

 

 

 The wind blew their 50 + yr old elm tree down!!!

Scott is a tall guy check out that root ball! Braiden and Brody are climbing on it like a jungle gym.

 

Those of you who have been in my parents yard will know how big these trees are. The one that blew over is the one in the middle of the back yard.

 

Look at the root ball on this thing, this is Braiden Brody and Hudson standing next to it

 

Trampoline is history...

 

 

 View from the house, you can't even see into the backyard!

 

 

 

 

 Christopher standing on top of the root ball

Nate surverying the damage.

 

 

We went and rented a wood chipper to chop up the small branches, the logs will be cut into firewood. Can anyone say, "firewood for life"? 

 

He had a hard time keeping up with all the branches we were hauling over.

 

 Christopher in the thick of it.

 

Christopher and Casey had fun playing Paul Bunyon

 

 

 Dad finished beet harvest (yay!) Sat morn just in time to help out :)

 

 

Jim too!

 

  Making progress!!!

 

 

 

Poor thing! I logged (no pun intended) alot of hours on that thing when I was little.

 

The beet truck full of wood chips...

 

 

My brothers and I...and a nephew... and a couple of nieces.

 

The fam, minus Kristy, Kailey (the ballerina) Braiden, Brody (were at the Boise State game) Ethan and Bella (were at a soccer tourney.) and Lillian was inside taking a nap.

 

 Regan and Christopher being gutsy.

 

 

 Em

 

 

 Regan and Em

 

 

Can you believe with that massive tree falling over the only thing that was really damaged was the trampoline!!! Blessed!

 

There is still a ton of work to be done but we made good progress! I love my family!

 

I wonder....

 

No one was home,

So did it make a sound when it fell?????

 

The Pumpkin Patch & More

The football season is over. Brody played his last game on the 11th, he did great this season scoring lots of points! He's really got this game figured out, until next year at least when he becomes the underdog again.  Braiden played his last game on the 13th.

 

"Hi Mom!"

 

 

 Here is Braiden playing center (getting ready to hike the ball)

 

 

They had a small team this year so Braiden got to? had to? play on offense and defense, so if he was ever on the sidelines he was begging, "Dad, put me in. Dad, put me in"  He loves the game!

 

Nate and Braiden (#33) leaving the field.

 

 

So now that football is over and the yard work is very minimal what shall I do with all my free time?

hmmm lets see:

feed the missionaries

go to pack meeting

fight a case of strep throat

orthodontist appointments

get ready for the primary program

cut up a tree (more on THAT later)

and

 

go to the pumpkin patch:

 

 

 Brody

 

 

Hudson

 

 

Braiden

 

 Joslyn

 

 

 Hey, even mom and dad went to the pumpkin patch!!!

 

Braiden and Brody finding their way through the corn maze.

 

Friday evening was beautiful, perfect for hunting for the perfect pumpkin!

 

Here's some great news!

 

This little pumpkin

 

 

is POTTY TRAINED (cue hallelujah chorus) It was my goal to start when we got home from Disneyland. In my mind "when we get home from Disneyland" meant maybe the Monday after we get back or sometime that following week, when I get caught up on the laundry. Well when we got home we had 3 diapers left so I kinda had to do it right then. So Saturday morning the panties were on and I was taking her potty 200 times a day. :) Well Joslyn is queen of the potty and was accident free by Tuesday!! Not to say that she hasn't had an accident here and there since then but she had it figured out! Yay!

Out of the crib, out of diapers, my baby isn't a baby anymore! and NO it isn't time for another .;)

Days 3 & 4 Disneyland!!

Get ready for the longest post in the history of mankind.

 

"The happiest place on earth!"

 

 Family picture in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle take 1:

 

 Family picture in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle take 2:

 

Family picture in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle take 3:

 

Come on guys it's only 8:30 a.m. ;)

 

The park was decorated SO cute for Halloween

 

 

 

 Cara, Travis and Dillon:

 

 

Even the Haunted Mansion was all decked out:

 

 

 

Visit to Toon Town...Mickey Mouse here we come!

 

 

 

 

OK we can go home now (just kidding)
Gotta see Minnie too!



Joslyn LOVES Mickey and Minnie on TV but in person, she wasn't quite sure. Hudson was at the perfect age for meeting the characters.

 

Playing at Minnie's house:

 

 



 







 

 

 

Some other characters we met:

 

Tigger:

 

 

 Pooh:

 Rapunzel:



 

 

I waited in line for 45 min for Joslyn to see Rapunzel. whhoooweee! It was SO worth it though. Joslyn loves the movie Tangled she even has Rapunzel's dress on! You can see how excited she is... HA! Once we were out of there she was so excited to tell daddy that she got to see "Rapunzeled".  I guess she is just a little shy around her favorite characters.

 

Rides:

 

Nate, Hudson and Joslyn on Dumbo:

 

The whole fam on It's a Small World:

The kids LOVED Splash Mountain we went on that one again and again! Look at Hudson having a blast, I love it! Nate is trying to not get wet.

 

 

Braiden, Travis Hailey, Jake, Cob and ?

Lucky for us Joslyn's favorite ride was right across from Splash Mountain...The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh we probably did that one 10 times, she LOVED it!

 

Another favorite was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters which again was perfect because the little ones could go on it while the big kids went on Star Tours and Space Mountain, Brody was NOT a fan of Space Mountain though. :(

 

The Haunted Mansion was decked out in The Nightmare Before Christmas, I like the original mansion better :/ We all LOVED Pirates of the Caribbean they've added Jack Sparrow here and there since I've been.  We were Sad Sad Sad that Indiana Jones was closed. BOO! There's always one right?

 

A little down time after dinner:

 

Sword fighting with their Jack Sparrow Swords



Waiting for the parade to start:

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

The parade was awesome!! The perfect ending to a wonderful 4 days!