Pumpkin Walk

We made it to the Benson Grist Mill Pumpkin Walk this year. I wish I could say it was loads of fun, but it wasn't so I won't say it.

Creative pumpkins!

Gracie and Ava making their way through the maze.

Gracie biffing it on the way out of the maze.

Play Date

G & A had some of their friends over to play the other day. When I noticed they had got the dress up clothes out I had to get the camera.

L-R: Ava, Kenzie, Emmy, Kassi, Gracie. Kenzie and Kassi are sisters. Close in age huh? These girls are all well behaved and cute--can't ask for better friends for my girls.

Lil House

Remember Little House On The Prairie? Of course you do. Coa you know I am talking to you! lol! Anyway Ava LOVES it. She is so cute. She loves to pretend she is Laura, and "runs down the hill" after every episode just like Laura. Gracie likes it too, but it seems like Ava likes it more. She always asks, "Mom is Mary and Laura on today?" As you can tell I love to watch it because of Charles. You have to admit he is a babe for a pioneer Dad :-).

I came upon these two watching LHOTP like this and thought it was so cute, I had to take a pic. Of course Ava even makes silly faces while watching t.v. And of course Gracie always has to look prim and proper. ha ha.

My Handsome Helper

I caught Breck helping me load the dishwasher this morning when I turned around. Such a sweetie. He is getting so big.
Breck before church. Love his $4.00 sweater I got from Old Navy in the Spring.

Happy Birthday Ava!

My how she has grown! Our little teeny bundle is now three years old! Wow! We have had such a fun time getting to know our little Ava over the past three years. She is a go-getter, and is always making really comical faces and saying comical things. She cut the front of her dress with the scissors the other day. I asked her why she did that and she said, "I didn't do it. The scissors did!"

We had a b-day party for her yesterday. It was a lot of fun to have everyone come over here and have a chat fest along with cake and ice cream.

Ava made a hat in nursery that said, "I can be honest." I told her it was her birthday crown.

Ava's reaction to us singing "Happy Birthday". I forgot candles so no candle pics. Hmmm...We must have picked the wrong flavor.....

I had to add a pic of the newlyweds. So cute! Don is such a nice guy. I guess Claud's not so bad herself. :-)

Career Step

Hi again,

Ryan took the kids to Carls Jr. to play and I am supposed to be on the treadmill, BUT I didn't take my running shoes out of the van so they are sitting at Carls Jr. and I am sitting in front of the computer in my sports bra and garment bottoms which is usually what I work out in. I know I am really professional huh?

Anyway I was doing my schooling and came upon this little video about the Career Step program. I put the link at the bottom in case anybody out there is interested in a work at home program. For you lurkers that have no clue what I am doing, it is a medical transcription training school. They are awesome. The woman on the video named Susan has answered my questions countless times through out my schooling. The course is so thorough and they are always right there waiting in the wings to help. It is based in Springville, but has students as far away as Australia. Anyway that is my little pitch for Career Step today.

Here is the link:

http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=71&sid=3193015

Pi Mi 5k

OK I stole this pic off of Annika's blog so now I have proof I was there.

Do you like my nice abs? How about the sleek toned thighs? Or what about the nice tan?! Dang I look good!

Ok, Ok.....so it's not me. I don't have a picture to put up so I thought I would put on a fantasy one instead.

I ran the PI MI 5k race with my friend Annika on Saturday up Provo Canyon. It was snowing before we started but didn't rain or snow on us while we raced. We got a free 10 minute massage after, which was nice. The massuse (spellcheck says that's right...surprise) said that my back was really tense and had a lot of knots in it. I told her I had three little kids.....period! She said that must be the culprit. Anyway I finished in 31:46. I shaved 11 minutes off of my time since Sept 6th when I ran the other one. WOOHOO! I was feeling it in my thighs yesterday. Anyway the proceeds went to helping poor people in Utah county obtain health care.

Gracie Gets Creative

This is Gracie's first Scrapblog page. The little baby is some little girl I took pics of, but that is one of the pics she wanted. Can you tell she likes flowers? I figure it is better then her playing Nick Jr. games.

Great Salt Lake

We finally made it out to the Great Salt Lake last week. We have been out here two years and have never taken the kids to see it. Look how low the water is.

Try as they might they didn't make it as far as Daddy. We told the girls this was Pride Rock off the Lion King. Then we told them that Saltair was Jasmine's palace. See how creative we are? Now we won't have to take them to Disneyland anytime soon.

Breck spent his time snuggling with Dad and picking up rocks.

Crispy Ranch Chicken

I don't know why it made my ingredients double spaced!

Ingredients:

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix

1 lb chicken; either breasts or tenders

1-1/2 cups finely crushed tortilla chips

2 Tb butter

Directions:

In shallow dish mix soup, milk and dressing mix. Reserve 1 cup for sauce. Dip chicken in soup mixture and coat with tortilla chips. Place chicken on baking sheet. Drizzle with butter. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. In small sauce pan heat reserved soup mixture over medium heat. Serve over chicken.

This dish even impressed Spencer, who always loves to make fun of my cooking.

My Take On Conference

Admittedly, I was actually dreading conf. because I knew I wouldn't get anything out of it with these three running around. I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to watch 80% of the talks and really enjoyed them so much. I even had my own little miracle. Ava had been whining off and on for four days that she didn't feel good. It was the last session on Sunday and I really wanted to hear it so I prayed that she would just be calm and not ruin it for me. To my amazement she was very calm and peaceful and I was able to enjoy the last session. It was awesome! One of the strong points of my testimony is that God really does answer his children's prayers. No matter how silly they may seem.

A few of the talks I really enjoyed were Elder Perry's talk which was the first one of the conf. I liked how he talked about keeping our standards high.

I liked Pres. Monson talking about change. He said something to the effect of "One day each one of us will run out of tomorrows. Let us relish life as we live it."

I also loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk at the R.S session. He said something that really impressed me. Paraphrasing again "At the end of our life it may not matter how many prayers we said, but how many prayers we answered."

So what did you guys enjoy about conference? Anybody, anybody.............................

How the kids spent their conference weekend. Breck thought that he was hot stuff when I found him in the cupboard. Until he fell out! ;-)

Click to enlarge pages.

Pre-church

I thought I'd share this pic Ryan took last week before church. We need to figure out the self-timer on the camera so he can actually be in the picture next time. I am already "sleeping" and the day is only half over. Sad! Please excuse my white thighs--I almost put a sticker over them in Scrapblog.

Our Little Hulk

The last two times we have gone to D.I Ava has picked a basketball and a Hulk doll as the toys she wants. Yesterday she insisted on blue training pants to wear for bed time. They have a monster truck on the front. She is so proud.

Sugar Cereal

I came upon this article about cereal on KSL (click on link below). Believe me we definitely have our share of sugar around this house, but I have always been vigilant about not buying "sugar cereal," (besides the cinnamon toast crunch in my video, but that is rare); I was pleasantly suprised to see the top 4 they listed, because I have all 4 of them in my cupboard. Brag brag I know! ha ha! Well time for bed. Nitey Nite!

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=172&sid=4420656 Why all this space!? I try to erase it and it doesn't work! :-(

My House---Uncensored

You all know I hate the idea of "idealistic blogging." My life is better than yours. My husband is cuter. My kids are sweeter. You get the picture. So I looked around my house today and decided I would give you a peek into how messy it really is. Of course it isn't always this bad, but with three little kids, and two messy adults, it definitely could stand a visit from Merry Maids. To top it off I can't stand our couches; I'm not too fond of the counter tops and linoleum either. But of course I am grateful for our happy, yet cluttered home. I just feel like I have to be uncensored and tell it like it is sometimes, so that I am not seen as one of those bloggers that I can't stand. Of course Ryan could KILL me for putting this on. I told him I will have to do an "after" video, but that's no fun right? This is my version of the "parade of homes." If you want to see after go to Jackie's blog and search for the parade of homes post. Her house is immaculate. You'll have to mute the music and sorry for my mumbling. That is a bad habit I have.