Family Pictures 2011

What do you do when your husband decides that he REALLY, REALLY needs to shave his head for Halloween???  You get family pictures taken the afternoon before he shaves his head.  I am grateful it all worked out.  I am very grateful for my sister-in-law Emily who was willing to take our pictures.  I am grateful for my mom who watched Emily's kids so she could take our pictures.  I am grateful that the weather was nice enough to take pictures.  And I am especially grateful that my children were good for at least a few pictures.  I think Emily did a great job.  Here are some of our favorites. 

Say good bye to Devin's hair!  I wonder how long it will take to grow back?

Yes, We Are Alive

Yes, we are alive.  We have been having lots of fun.

Nicholas has fallen in love with books.  He loves to listen to stories and to sit and look through books.

When Anna was at this stage I could let her roam around our room and bathroom while I was getting ready in the morning.  I have been doing the same with Nicholas.  He has recently become fascinated with our tub. One morning while blow drying my hair I heard water running.  Yup, he has figured out how to turn the faucet.  He loves watching the water. 

Nicholas is about ready for hair cut number six.   He is exploring the wonders of bedhead. The pictures just don't do it justice.  Side note, doesn't he have the most amazing blue eyes?

We have one happy boy.  He loves playing with the stacking cups.  He also loves to wear his fireman hat.

I spend a lot of my day trying to keep Nicholas from ripping the whole house appart.  He loves pulling the books off the shelf. Cute the first few times, not so much anymore.

Halloween is fast approaching.  It's crunch time to get those costumes done.

And our garden is about done.  I have been canning tons!  130+ pints of fruits and veggies.  

I have one more batch of tomatoes to can and then I'm done with tomatoes!  Devin brought home a HUGE box of apples today so applesauce is next on the list.

This is a crazy time of year.  The next few weeks look sometime like this...

Finish Tomatoes

Make Applesauce 

Finish Nick's Halloween costume by Wednesday for the ward Halloween party that we didn't know about until last week. (I don't know if I'll be able to pull that one off.)

Finish Anna's Halloween costume. (Good thing she is ok being Boo again for the Ward party, there is no way I could pull of two costumes before Wednesday.)

Anna's birthday

Halloween

Thanks mom for teaching me how to make a list and hack through big projects one small bit at a time! It is going to be a fun and crazy couple of weeks.  

Splashingly Fun

Anna making pancakes

Anna loves to help me make breakfast.  She loves to help measure out the ingredients and mix.  A few weeks ago, she started matching the measuring spoons to the ingredients, and so I decided to video it.  I hope you enjoy!

Mommy Time

Devin is so nice to make sure that I get plenty of "Mommy Time."  What is "Mommy Time"?  That is the time that mommy gets to run away from being a mommy and to something fun for herself so she can be a better mommy.  Here are a few things that I have been using my mommy time to do.

Quilt

(This usually happens late at night, so I don't know if it actually counts as "Mommy Time.")  I am so excited about my quilt class.  We are making a Halloween Quilt.  I LOVE fall colors and I LOVE Halloween.  I have wanted to make a Halloween quilt for years.  Here are the blocks for the first month.

Run

I ran my 2nd half marathon a few weeks ago.  The Provo Canyon 1/2 is probably the most unorganized race in the world, but I love the course.  I don't know if I will run it again.  There are just too many other half marathons out there for the same price.  So this might be the last time.  It was a good race.  I'm not quite sure why the wind was blowing UP the canyon.  Weird!  I was happy with my time and I had some pretty cute little kids cheering for me at the end.  

Education Week

A while ago I was in need of a little pick me up.  I was having one of those, "I miss life before I was a mommy" kind of days.  There were two things that I realized I missed the most.  Being able to serve in the temple once a week, and going to institute.  Oh how I miss how those two things!  Then I remembered Education Week.  Devin had been complaining about how much "time off" he had left and how he needed to use it up and I figured this would be a good way for him to use it.  Just another reason why Devin is amazing.  He would take time off (on what ended up being the busiest week of our lives) so I could go to Education Week.

It was AMAZING!  I just went to the morning classes so I could come home and feed Mr. Nicholas.  But the three classes were exactly what I needed.  I am hoping to maybe do a post on all my favorite things that I learned.  It was SO good.  I also had the chance to listen to a talk by Dr. Wally Goddard called The Heart of a Healthy Marriage and a Happy Family.  Three years ago when I went to Education week I went to several of Dr. Goddard's classes and loved them.  My mom picked up a CD that had these talks on it.  It was great to listen to as I drove back and forth from BYU each day.  It was like I got to take another class.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who is married or has kids.  It was REALLY good. 

Daddy Daughter Campout

The last thing that Devin has done to give me a bit of "mommy time" was to take Anna on the Daddy Daughter Campout for our ward.  Ok, really he just wanted to take her camping and she wanted to go and really they were just leaving Nicholas and I in the dust.  Devin said they had a great time. Anna loved playing with the other girls in the ward.

I guess there was only one small problem.  When they went to go to bed, they couldn't find any of Anna's clothes that they had packed.  Apparently Anna really wanted all her extra clothes and PJs in her own little bag.  A bag that they packed and then Anna hid behind the door.  It was still there hiding when they got back.  I'm glad she didn't mind sleeping in her clothes and I REALLY glad she didn't have any accidents and didn't need extra clothes.

There you have it.  A few little "mommy time" breaks (and a Daddy Daughter Campout).  What do you do for a break?

Sing Us A Song

Anna loves to sing and play the piano.  I came downstairs one day and found Anna playing and singing songs.  It was so cute!  I love how she makes up songs that go along with the pictures.  Some of the songs she remembers and sings the right words.  I think the songs she makes up are pretty cute too.

Garden Update

Not too long ago our garden looked like this.

Now our garden looks like this.

I was so excited when our corn got taller than Anna.

Well, now it is taller than Devin.

Our planter box has come a long way too.  Several weeks ago they looked like this.

Now our pumpkins are going nuts!

There are quite a few pumpkins growing.  Some in a more normal growing pumpkin spot.

 Others are a bit more daring and are growing out of the box and hanging in the air.  We will see how strong the vines are.

We picked our first two tomatoes this last week and they were perfect.  We have also picked quite a few cucumbers.  They are great to eat for snacks and with meals.  I decided to be brave and try making pickles.  With the help of Devin, my late night canning buddy, we were able to can 12 pints of pickles. Too bad we have to wait for 4 to 6 weeks to find out if they taste good.

Anna was a great helper too.  She helped me wash off the jars, dry them, and then put the rings back on the jars after I labeled them.

Beans are ready for the picking, corn is about there, tomatoes...when they come I have a feeling it will be a quite the experience taking care of them.  I can't wait!!! I love this time of year.  I love my bit of earth.