Pumpkins and A Crazy November

I will post pictures tomorrow, but it is that time of year again... the school's pumpkin decorating contest! This year we are making the character Spooky from, The Legend of spooky the Square Pumpkin. Ha ha ha... yes we are making a square pumpkin. It will be super cute. I am excited! I think we are also carving our pumpkins tonight. Looks like we are going to have to army men and Benji's costume... is TBA.
Tomorrow I am canning apples, and making applesauce. should be fun fun fun! I am excited. I have to make my own spaghetti sauce for my next batch though. I cannot find Mrs Wages Pasta sauce anywhere! Unless I want to pay double the price and order it online.. and I don't want to do that!!
November is pretty much planned and all events are accounted for. BYE BYE November! The 3rd is our Enrichment Winter and Spiritual safety Dinner, the 7th we go to the Temple, the 14th we are hopefully going on a double date with the Lloyds, I am organizing a can drive.. maybe for this month, and Thanksgivingand hopefully finishing up Christmas shopping. Life has turned into a whirlwind! It is a fun whirlwind though!

Goings On

Not too much to report. We are on a 5 day break from school this week, and no soccer this week. It was sad the other day, I was talking with Trenton about soccer and playing, and he said " I like soccer mommy, but everyone else is a lot better than me, but that's ok. " He is a really good goalie , but I admit he is not that fast and does not score any goals, but he still helps out. Poor guy. He is ready for soccer in the spring still.
Ben is everywhere lately, and has a new found hobby; climbing! Yikes! We have baby gates everywhere but he still climbs on the boys' chairs and my step stool. crazy boy.
Joe is becoming a computer whiz. He can navigate around like no other and love to play games on PBS kids and Thomas the Train of course.
Next week I am going on a cooking venture. I am making more bread, pasta sauce, apple butter and home made apple pie/ I am looking forward to it.
tomorrow marks the 1st day of October. A great month, but SUPER busy this year. We have the boy scout auction, General Conference, the Enrichment party, Trenton is cheer leading at a football game (yes I let my SON be a cheerleader, and I don't care) 3 more soccer games, visiting teaching, and Halloween. There goes another month! I am looking forward to it though.
I really like visiting teaching. It is nice to talk with the other sisters outside of church and share a nice message. It is the same message for everyone, and everyone does visiting teaching, so it might seem repetitive, but everyone has a different perspective on everything. I love our faith and the people in it.

This was part of the lesson for September, and it is ringing so true as we live our lives and face mockery and persecution.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (1917–2008) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “Faithful members of the Church should be like oak trees and should extend deep roots into the fertile soil of the fundamental principles of the gospel. We should understand and live by the simple, basic truths and not complicate them. Our foundations should be solid and deep-rooted so we can withstand the winds of temptation, false doctrine, adversity, and the onslaught of the adversary without being swayed or uprooted. …

“Spiritual nourishment is just as important as a balanced diet to keep us strong and healthy. We nourish ourselves spiritually by partaking of the sacrament weekly, reading the scriptures daily, praying daily in personal and family prayer, and performing temple work regularly. Our spiritual strengths are like batteries; they need to be charged and frequently recharged” (“Deep Roots,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, 75).

I love that our church, while strong in it's convictions, places no judgment on other religions, or how other believe. The simple message is given to all of us when we do missionary work in our daily lives. Pray, and tell others to pray. Let the Spirit be with you and guide you, and just pray.

This is so simple and so true. In all the times Rex and I have talked with friends and family, these simple steps ring true and work.

So thank you to all who helped my family get to where we are now. we love our life and would not change it for anything

"

Mini Update

We had an ok experience at Kiddie Kandids for Benji's 1st birthday pictures, but now I have 1 year pictures of each boy, all with the same setting. So it is nice. I am bummed that the free 8X10 is no longer totally free. You have to buy a sheet in order to get the free 8X10. Oh well. My picture wall is now fabulous!



Mr. Ben at Tman's soccer game


On a more serious note, the Jerome Middle School has 2 confirmed cases of H1N1 virus. BLEH! It is only a matter of time before it hits the other schools. We are prepared to pull Trenton from school if needed. The schools are well prepared though. They are doing health checks every morning, doubling up on hand washing and sanitizing, canceling all assemblies and field trips, and moving desks farther apart and things like that. I am not too too worried, but prepared. I have tons of home schooling stuff here, we do extra work with Trenton on weekends and after school through a homeschooling program, so I do not think we have much to worry about.
On a funnier note, I highly suggest watching Modern Family on ABC every Wednesday at 8pm. I was laughing so hard I was crying!! It is a GREAT show. Tonight we are also watching Flash forward. I hope it is as good as it looks!!
Trenton's soccer is going well. They only lost by 1 point last week, and I only yelled a little bit. :-D. I am canning spaghetti sauce today, and baking bread, so that should be fun! Canning the sauce will help so much. It should save us a good sum of money. I am really seeing the upside to my garden and creating our food storage! It is great! I am freezing corn and bread today as well.
Let's see, Ben is now RUNNING with his brothers everywhere. He loves being mobile!
We found the boys' Halloween costumes last night. Mario and Luigi!! Rex and I think we might dress up as the same thing, as they have adult size costumes as well, and then we could make Ben a Bobomb. FUN TIMES
I love fall, and I am so glad it is here!!!

Nothing New

I thought I would "check in" before Rex's days off.
Let's seem Rex has been working like a mad man, Joe was sick this week, I don't have to babysit, and I am a very sleepy woman!
I have tons of pictures to upload but we are in the process of cleaning out everything on our computer and saving all the important stuff on our new hard drive. So long story short, I don;t have my program to upload pictures on our computer right now.
Out outside cat had kittens AGAIN. I hate to say it but we are having to take her to the animal shelter. We can't have anymore cats, and the prices to get her fixed man oh man!
My grandma is buying me a new area rug for my birthday, and I am so excited! We just got new curtains too. I never thought i would be so excited over rugs and window treatments! lol.
We are going driving tomorrow afternoon just to drive and take pictures. There are a few places i have been wanting to check out and take pictures of in the Wendell area. FUN TIMES.
Biggest Loser is going great! Rex and I are so happy with our progress. We really think that the way we are approaching the weight loss is healthy and will stick with us, beyond the contest. I was reading on diet fads of the past century, and boy were they funny! In the 80's everyone was told to eat carbs as much as possible, and then after that failed and everyone ballooned out the low carb diets came along....and so on. I am enjoying just eating healthy and feeling better! We have been mixing up our workouts between the bike and the treadmill and strength training. It has been so rewarding!
The boys are well, and everyone is feeling better for now! Ben is sitting up but still not rolling. Oh well! Trenton got another perfet report card! We are very proud. And Joe is Joe and is working on being a good boy every day!
I hope everyone is well !