Book titles to pass on

My blog will temporarily have to do without any photos, due to the death of our digital camera #3. The blog is to blame actually. I was taking a photo of something cute, and by doing so upset my daughter, causing her to knock it out of my hands - causing it to die a sudden death on the ceramic tile in the kitchen. It seems not everyone is happy to have the cute little things they do photographed.

I actually wanted to write about some of the books Brad and I have been reading. I don't know what has happened to us, but lately we both love to read, and will stay up late just to do so. I keep a long running list of books I want to read, and I'm always adding to it. A few months ago I searched online for "Clean Reads", because I was tired of checking out a book, only to find it filled with language I didn't want to read. I found a couple of excellent websites. On one of them, a suggested book was "The Witch of Blackbird Pond".

I never read this in school, and actually thought maybe it would be a good book to read before Halloween. It was actually more a story of independence, friendship, & romance, and had absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I finished it last night (early this morning at 12:15), and am convinced that I want a copy for my book shelf. There wasn't a single boring page in the entire book in my opinion. It actually reminded me a lot of Little Women. Most people have probably read it, but I hadn't, so maybe you haven't either. Anyways, GREAT book, and a quick read!

You'll be surprised by the titles of these books that Brad is reading. There's a story behind these. Dan Wells (the author of the series) actually worked with Brad as a writer for ICON HEALTH & FITNESS in Logan. Brad and I became friends with Dan & his wife while we lived up that way. Anyway, Dan wrote his first book series. Our library didn't carry the books, so Brad put in a purchase request. The librarian laughed at the titles and said "Are you going to leave those books lying around with your girls in the house?" The first one, which he just finished was "I am not a serial killer", and now he's 30 pages from finishing "Mr. Monster". The third book in the series is "I don't want to kill you". Keep in mind, this guy (Dan) is a good guy - we had no doubt that they were going to be clean books. Brad has really liked them, and thinks that they are really clever.




We both liked The Mark by Marilyn Bunderson


I loved this book, and am excited for the sequel that's coming out in November:


Brad recently read and liked:
Slathbog's Gold - ML Forman

The Horn of Moran - ML Forman


I read "Flipped" by Wendelin Van Draanen, which I'm hesitant to recommend, because it does seem like it had some language in it. It was good, just not my favorite. However, when I finished it I couldn't stop thinking about the message of the book. One chapter would be from the girl's point of view, then the next was in the boy's point of view. You relive the same exact instance two chapters in a row, but completely differently. It's all about how sometimes we judge, but we don't know the whole story. What we're thinking might actually be totally wrong. It did have a great message.


I'll be taking a night off, so I can watch TV. It's Biggest Loser tonight! By the way, anyone else liking Terra Nova? Those are the only 2 shows were even watching. Maybe that's why we have time to read! :)

Fall Photos

Since winter weather is supposedly hitting tomorrow, I thought I'd better get around to posting these fall photos we just took. Fall is a fun time, but it just doesn't last long enough around here! Brad and I have enjoyed taking fall pictures ever since Megan was really little - just for fun. I'll be thinking of my sister in Arizona tomorrow while I pull out the winter coats.

I LOVE Ashlie in this picture - I kind of think she steals the show! :)


Here's Us:

Choose To Be Happy Now

After listening to Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about the forget-me-not flowers this past week (if you didn't hear it, go to lds.org to view his address he gave at the General Relief Society Broadcast), I've kept in the back of my mind a couple of the things that he said. He talked to women all around the world, counseling them to take joy in even their "small successes". He also related the story about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (where people forgot the simple pleasure of the chocolate bar, and were only chasing after the golden ticket), and compared it to us, and how sometimes we forget to be happy NOW in our lives. Well, this stage of my life entirely revolves around my children, and it's the small, crazy, happy moments that make up my life. These girls remind me that I'm doing something right. They make my life happy. Enjoy! Hopefully this post will help you see the small things in your life that make you happy!

(This is courtesy some kind person who posted it on sugardoodle.net)


Crazy morning hair! (Apparently this is what curly hair sometimes looks like in the morning)



Playing in the Halloween costumes:


Homemade earrings (which she taped to her ears):


Paige demonstrating a stretch that she had to do for a "test" in PE:


Milk mustaches at dinner time:



Picking fall leaves in the mountains with the Johns:


Taking the round about way home from picking leaves, so we could pick acorns:


Taking the long ride home from picking leaves caused us to drive by the Cheese Factory, which is when I saw THIS. What you don't see, is that all three of them are standing on Brad behind the sign!


Watching Megan's soccer games twice a week! The season was half over, and she'd never volunteered to be the goalie. However, this particular game she shot her arm straight up in the air when her coach asked who wanted to be the goalie. That's her, wearing the "red goalie shirt":


Here are some un-photographed, but recorded moments that made the list:

When Ashlie saw her daddy getting dressed in church clothes to go Home Teaching, and she immediately stripped off what she was wearing and insisted that we dress her in tights, church shoes, and a dress.

When Paige came home from kindergarten and dropped onto the living room floor because of utter famish-ment. She was too hungry to even walk into the kitchen for lunch - I had to carry her there. Wow, it's amazing what 2 1/2 hours of grueling school work can do to someone! :)

You know how people ask for things and say "pretty please with sugar on top"? Well, Paige REALLY wanted Frosted Flakes the other day, and this is how she asked for them: "I said please with all the candy in the world...and that means a really please. It means I really want it."

Not to be forgotten was the moment this week when I had to deal with the following tantrums:
#1 - Ashlie insisted that I pour milk into her baby doll's plastic bottle. As you know, they don't open. So, after telling her over and over again that I couldn't put milk in it, I finally decided to fake it. I pretended to pour in the milk, I handed her the bottle, and she shook it next to her ear. She didn't hear any milk jiggling around in there, and she was NOT happy with me! :)

#2 - Ashlie was insistent the other day that I add sugar to her Frosted Flakes. Have you ever tried to explain to a screaming 2 year old that Frosted Flakes don't need any extra sugar? Well, after weighing over in my mind whether it was worth listening to her cry any longer, I gave in and let her add a spoonful of sugar onto her Frosted Flakes. Needless to say, she really enjoyed that bowl of extra sweet cereal.

Afraid of dogs, & of something else too!

I'm sure every one has things they see at their homes that are unique to where they live. For us, hot air balloons have been one of our most favorite things about living where we do. The kids never get tired of seeing them. In fact, we all saw one on our way to school this morning. When you see the hot air balloons, you know summer has arrived! Well, this was the first hot air balloon we'd ever seen look like this! (I know the photo's small. If you can't see it, it's a Pepsi can!)

The kids thought it was hilarious!

Yesterday I was talking with Brad in the garage. Ashlie and Paige were home with us, and I had noticed that Ashlie had walked up the front porch steps and was standing by the front door. From the garage I heard her instantly begin to cry. It wasn't a hurt cry. I recognized it immediately, because she had cried like that this past weekend while visiting family. Every time Brad's parent's dog came near her at all, the panic cry began. It was bad enough that we asked Brad's dad if he could put the dog away for a while. Well, it was the panic cry. I immediately scoped the front yard to see if there was a dog in the yard. Nope, no dog...
...a deer! A buck was just strolling past the house, causing my 2 year old to want to escape into the house as soon as possible. It was really funny, honestly. We have a love / hate relationship with deer around here. In the spring, they devour our plants just as they are beginning to grow. Come fall, we have forgiven them a little, and we're able to laugh again when we see them. We get excited to see them walking along the road, and we laugh when they creep into our girls' club house (in the field across the road). Last night our girls' friend, Trevor (who helped create the club house with them) shouted over his fence that there were two chickens in the club house! Off Paige and Megan ran to go see if they could get a glimpse. Fun stuff!

Kindergarten Begins!

Paige has waited, and waited, and waited to go to school...and finally today, she got to! Just like Christmas morning, she woke up super early, and without even being asked she made her bed & got dressed. School is only 2 1/2 hours long, but when I picked her up she said, "Mom, you said I'd only get to go half a day, but I got to go ALL day!". Of course it's hard to get too much info. out of a 5 year old, but she didn't forget to mention that she got an M&M cookie & chocolate kisses. Sounds like the year's off to a good start. Megan seemed so excited to have her little sister going to school too. Now I have a couple of hours just with little Ashlie, & I have to get in the groove of what the two of us are going to do! :) It's a good problem to have though...I'm not complaining!

And....she's off!

Megan's officially off to school! It seems like our district starts later than most, but that's fine with me. Boy did the day drag on without my big helper around the house. When I asked her what her favorite part of the day was, she said, "When we got to play cops and robbers!". Recess will forever be the best part of a school day, won't it?? :)

When I picked her up after school she was all smiles, and excitedly said, "We're the last ones to eat lunch!". Wondering how in the world that could be a good thing, she tells me that now all the kids in her class are allowed to bring a snack from home to eat at 1st recess!!! Yeah!!!! One more thing to think of in the morning!!! :) Isn't that funny?! She assured me it could be something easy like an apple or a granola bar. :) Shows you that she's not the one packing the lunch (and now the snack) before 8:30am.

At Back to School Night her teacher sent each parent/child home with a letter. The letter told us a little about her, & closed with her asking each student to write her a letter in return. Megan worked so hard on it last night, and I couldn't believe how sweet the ending was to her letter...


Happy Back to School everyone!

I had to add THIS to the happy list...

Brad and I woke up early this morning and picked our beans, and he FINALLY decided his beloved beet was ready to pick. He planted a row of beets in between our two different varieties of peas, but why he chose beets I've had no idea. All along I've told him that they are his, because I'm not going to eat them. This gave us such a good laugh this morning!!! Obviously, we know how to grow them, just not when to pick them!

Brad comparing the beet to a softball:



By request of my sister, here are some photos of our recent Park City vacation with my family, and some photos of the carpet. A highlight was when we took a drive up near Brighton Ski Resort, and when we stopped and walked until we saw this beautiful hidden lake by Guardsman's Pass.

Here's the carpet...it seems to look a lot lighter in the photo then it actually is. We're loving it:



Now onto Park City...

The wildflowers were so beautiful up on this hike we went on. My mom loved the flowers, and Megan and Paige both picked a bouquet.






Thanks Brooke for telling me about this fun splash pad! There was a tiny breeze blowing, so the kids didn't last long, but we'll have to try it again.

Things to celebrate!

I have no photos, but I thought I'd pass on what's been making us happy around here...

1. We got new carpet on Tuesday. It is soooooooo soft and beautiful, and it's given me the chance to re-decorate a bit. Love it!

2. Ashlie's slept in a toddler bed since Tuesday, and has never yet crawled out and opened up her door. She talks to herself in her bed in the morning (and after a nap) like she's waiting for me to go in and get her. I guess she doesn't know that she could just walk over to the door, and walk out of her room herself! She's very good lately at opening doors. That's something that has been AWESOME!!!

3. This is big. OUR TOWN GOT A WALMART!!!! It opened up a few days ago. We've been driving 45 minutes for the last 5 years to shop at Walmart. Unless you've had to do this yourself, you may not know how exciting this is. Brad and I no longer have to keep a running "Walmart List" on the fridge.Yeah!!!

Summer Photo Shoots!

We had a lot of fun this weekend taking photos of the girls. Ashlie turned out to be nearly impossible to photograph because she's so fast & so wiggly, but I guess we'll forgive her since she's two, and wiggling is what they do! A couple of years ago I watched a segment on TV (studio5) where they challenged the viewers to keep their eyes open for great photo backdrops around town. Ever since then I have looked around for fun places I can take photographs. It really is fun. If you notice some of the backgrounds in the photos, that's what I tried to do. We live right by "Heber Old Town" which has lots of chipped paint walls, and rustic benches. We went up to the Homestead, by the river, by the train, and my favorite was a huge wood wall that was literally a one minute walk from my house! I hope you enjoy!

Here are the ones we printed / enlarged:




Choosing a photo of Ashlie was easy, because we were LUCKY to get the one you just saw above! :) These are some of the other photos that we loved...
Don't you love this wall?! I've lived in my house for nearly 5 years, and just realized this is a one minutes walk away! It's tucked behind some businesses that are near my home.






We loved this one!