Why there haven't been pictures recently

It has been a while since I posted anything, even just pictures of the kids. Hmm I wonder why. Could it be that my monsters aren't a photographers best friend. This one grabs and eats any part of the camera he can get his hands on, and the other one appears to have an aversion for photos being taken all together.

Oh finally kids, there are your smiling faces.

Blogger Face Lift

Do you like the new look? Jill with the Bird and the Berry made the header for me. The least I can do is plug her blog, which actually doesn't really need my simple props. She is a Utah party planner friend of a friend. I love her Dr. Suess ideas especially here, perhaps I will put a few to use somehow in Samuel's Dr. Suess themed room. Go check her out.

The Good Stuff

The kids have been doing really well with playing nicely with one another. Much better than when Kate used to smack Sam in the head whenever we weren't looking. I occasionally leave them for a minute or two to run laundry upstairs or pack a diaper bag. Sometimes it doesn't work out so well, like when I came back three minutes later to find Kate lathering Sam's face in Diaper Rash Cream. But this day being unsupervised momentarily was more to his advantage. He found the pantry door open, crawled across the entire living room and kitchen, pulled down a bag of generic frosted animal cookies, and started munching down. He cried like the baby he is when I took them away.

Favorite Children's Books

For a friend a few weeks ago as a shower gift I compiled what have been my kids favorite books. It was fun to think about the books they love. Some of the books Kate loves leave me wondering why for sure. While the kids and I were shopping for the gift (aside for trying not to laugh/ cry), I was reminded of my love for the bookstore. Though I usually order our books from Amazon, there is something so perfect about the bookstore on a cold fall evening.
I have always enjoyed books in my adulthood, but since I became a mother my love for books has certainly multiplied. I think my motherly love for books is actually three fold. I have stocked my bookshelves with everything from the "What to Expects" to the -how to sneak broccoli into your children's food -type of books. I have enjoyed reading them, and they have given me some confidence that I might in some way be capable of caring for another human being. Plus they area much better place to go for advice I have found than the "mother's I know" club. You get all kinds of crazy information for people you know.
Secondly, I have always read novels and autobiographies and enjoyed them. But now they are an escape into a world where I have a brain, and give me something more to talk about than the bowel movements of my children. Seriously it is sad how much mom's talk about that.
But third, and the reason that is best above all, is how much I love the magical moments laying in a toddler size bed turning pages for eager eyes. So far my intent to pass on a love for books has been successful.
Here is a list of the top ten Children's Books in our home.
1. Bright Animal Babies Board Book: Priddy
This book is simple, but Kate learned a lot of her first words out of this book.
2. Goodnight Gorrilla: Rathman
Liked much more than Goodnight Moon by our night time crew
3. Hand, Hand, Finger Thumb: Perkins
I think I loved this book when I was young too. Dum Ditty, Dum Ditty!!
4. What Makes a Rainbow:
The most durable pop up book we have ever encountered.
5. Brown Bear, Brown Bear: Carle
Anything by Eric Carle is a winner around here
6. Thumper Counts to Ten: Richards
This book looks like nothing speical, and I don't really get why Kate loves it still, but she has memorized it completely and will recite it when prompted without the book to even help her.
7. A Tree Named Steve: Zweibel
Okay, Kate just thought this book was alright, but it my favorite. It makes me cry- and I hate crying.
8. How do Dinosaurs...: Yolen
This whole series is lyrical, appealing to looks at and teaches manner... yes you heard me.
9. Eight Animales Out on the Town or Say Hola to Spanish; Elya
We love pretending like we are teaching our kids to be bilingual. This is the best Spanish vocab children's book we have found so far.
10. Heaven is Having You: Andreae
This was a bedtime request at our house for six months straight. Kate still loves it, especially when I do the actions I have made up with it.

With the holidays coming up there will be more books added to our children's library with out a doubt. What are some of your families favorite children's books?

Halloween Run Down

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because its only reason is fun. Which is exactly what we had planned for the weekend... lots of scary fun. What we were most afraid of this Halloween however ended up being the swine flu. Kate woke up Thursday with what we thought was H1N1. Turns out she- and then Jake and I- just had some other seasonal flu (see why I don't believe in flu shots), but enough fevers and snot to warrant canceling most of the partying. I was disappointed, for Kate, and for myself, but our quiet sick weekend in turned out to still be fun.

We carved one pumpkin. The least amount of pumpkins our household has ever had despite the fact we have more actual people in our family than ever before. Samuel just got to chew on carrots and watch. Kate helped draw on the face- refused to touch the goop, and demanded we make him look ANGRY.

My first attempt at a spooky dinner. I think it will be a new tradition in years to follow.
We had blood soup with eyeballs ( tomato soup with cheese and olives), witch fingers (carrots with almond fingernails) slime monsters (jello in a baby food container with googly eyes), mummies in blood (hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls with ketchup), magic potion (Dr. Pepper) and ghost cookies (nutter butters in white chocolate)
It was so fun to do. I love making food that looks special. It actually was not the most delicious meal, but that didn't really matter as much to me.
Remember how Jake and I are incredibly into costumes. Well this year we didn't even have one. I meant to take a picture all night of us, sitting in our regular clothes so I could compare it to previous years where we are almost unrecognizable. How pathetic. At least the kids turned out super cute.
Trying to reuse a bear costume we had from Kate, I came up with making it into Cosmo the mascot for BYU and Kate could be a cheerleader. It took a little convincing to get her to not want to just be an elephant from last year, but once I showed her the pom poms she got into it.
We trick or treated at all of three houses. We tried six, but most people weren't home. The kids got the idea, and enjoyed it.


Cuddling one tired Cosmo the Cougar.
Once the kids were off to bed Jake and I watched the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. With our expectations set low, we were pleasantly surprised.
All in all our sick Halloween turned out just fine.

Bowling Alley Storyboard

Friday night for our evening out we went Bowling at the Bowling Alley in Heber. We hurried to get there beofre 6:00 so we didn't have to fight the crowd. As you can see we really didn't need to, it was pretty empty.
Kate loves bowling. We took about a year ago for the first time and she loved it. In fact we have an awsome video of her eating a corn dog at the bowling alley when she is like 15 months old or something. I should dig that up. Anyway, we've been back a handful of times since. She always comments when we pass the Bowling Alley driving that she wants to go. She likes picking out a ball, wearing funny shoes, rolling the ball down the ramp, sitting at the computer, and getting a drink and some food. Actually she likes going anywhere, so just add this to the list. Jake is a pretty big fan of the psuedo sport as well.
Kate doesn't even wait to see if any pins fall down to cheer for herself with a high five to Dad. She thinks rolling the ball is what this sport is all about.
Picking out a ball.
Kate likes the shoes.
Poor Samuel. He is such a good sport, watching us do everything all the time, while he just has to sit and be patient.

Majesty bowls a Turkey. Why does he have to be good at everything, and me... well not so good at everything? Kate even beat me by 5 points.

After our game we ordered some food. Kate said she wanted a soda and some chips (oh what great eating habits I have taught her). I told her they didn't have any chips, hoping she would go for a grilled cheese sandwich- or at least something resembling a meal. She promptly pointed at the wall, where the chips were located and informed me otherwise. It was a funny moment to me, realising that my child may just be too old to fool. Chips and Soda for dinner it was.... at least she ate a piece of my chicken.

Want Ten Bucks!

So you may or may not know my obsession with Emergency Preparedness. Its new- well as of the last year or so. I try to hid my obsession- as it stems from being a worry wart- on my other blog readysetplan.blogspot.com. Today though I posted something, I think everyone wants to read about- free money. Okay well it is only $10, and you have to spend it at Emergency Essentials. Free is free though I say. Go check out this link.
you just have to post a button like this one.

3 Great Things That Made My Day

1. Kate saying "Mommy you are my sunshine"while she was coloring and singing this morning, for no reason at all.

2. That I have eaten 15 sugar cookies in the past two days. My sister told me how to make sugar cookies out of a white cake mix. The kids and I whipped up a batch, decorated them Halloween style, and now finished them off.
350 degrees
1 white cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup veg oil
3/4 cup sugar
cook for ten minutes
cool and frost
I have no pictures because as I have already explained- they are all gone

3. Watching what was surely the most disastrous first date experience play out before me as the kids and I spent the evening at Borders. Knowing Jake was not going to be home until 8:00 tonight I thought the kids and I might enjoy shopping around the book store. Oh how I love a book store in the fall. On a related note I am reading The Wild Things by David Eggers, a grown up novel of the kids classic turned movie... and am loving it.
In the children's section two BYU co-eds sat at a kiddie table having a conversation that left me unsure at first whether this was some sort of tutor/ student interview or truely the most self destructing date ever wittnessed. I have been known to hang out with a date in the book store, but this young eager lad took the idea to a new demention. They had apparently scoured the store searching for books that described them best and where now meeting to discuss. From what I could gather, he spent the next seven minutes excusing his choice for what was either the Kama Sutra or some other work on human sexuality. Jake and I often observe "Daters" as we are out and about with a chuckle but the urge to roll my eyes within their range of vision has never been so strong.

Perfect Pumpkin Evening

To celebrate Columbus Day or really because Jake had off of work slash for Family Night...
We headed to Thanksgiving Point to get us some pumpkins. It was $10 a tickets for each adult and the kids were free. Thinking this was a lot for a pumpkin patch/ corn maze admission fee, we hoped for the best and headed out. After 90 minutes there we concluded it was worth every penny- and a new Fall tradition for the Team.
Kate looks for a pumpkin. Really for the pumpkin choosing she was crying because she was hungry and we told her it was time to leave. She didn't want to leave and didn't want a pumpkin because it was dirty and she didn't like them. Once home though she found pumpkins appealing once again. Plus if Thanksgiving Point doesn't have a real pumpkin patch who does. I mean a field with pumpkins not just bins of them and some haystacks with a few sitting there. Whatever they lacked in actual pumpkin patchness, they made up for in entertainment.


Pumpkin Princess Playland was our first stop.
Kate wonders the corn maze. Will she be lost forever???
Tons of silly faces. I can't hold Kate up and get my face in the hole.
Riding on the Grain Train. Dusty. Bouncy. Still Fun.
Adult size tricycles. It sounds lame but everyone was having a blast on them.
Jake attempts a lasso. Boy I love my farm boy.
Jumping Pillows were one of the best things.
Add in about eighteen other things, like hay slides, make your own snow cones, pumpkin launchers, millions of things to climb. chicken shows, etc. that I didn't take pictures of, or we didn't have time to do and you get one- well four- satisfied customers.
Top it off with some burgers from JCW's (the best burgers we have ever eaten), a compliment from a stranger on what well behaved children I have, singing songs all the way home, and kids so tired they fell asleep promptly at 8:00 pm you get a Perfect Pumpkin Evening.

Mama's Boy

Sweedish Thrones

The kids and I made a quick trip to IKEA today. The more I go there, the more I don't really like it there. Sadly where I was once a huge fan, their recent quality, pricing, and lack of customer service have turned me away. That is not to say we didn't get some perfectly simple seating. This cheap and easy to clean high chair for our little prince, and not pictured, a new potty chair for the princess of the family. Sam looks like such a stud, as always.

Go MIGHTY COUGARS!!

We are so good at taking pictures of our selves.
I'm a crazed fan (not really)
Trying to get the "Y" in the background.

Sometimes as it turns out the universe is not as against me as I think. Jake and I planned a date last minute for this Friday night. With the fall colors out and the cool (okay very COLD) crisp, fall air, what would be better than a football game at our Alma Mater? With two young children dates alone are few and far between, if we get one in every season I think we can call it good. This can be our FALL themes date. I am always complaining that things never turn out for me, thankfully my normal luck didn't follow we this night. Our last minute order of tickets on ebay came it time, and were valid. We were able to leave home a little after 5:00, find parking, make a quick dinner of Panda Express (very college us), and cheer for a not-so-cold after all BYU win. We even managed to not get stuck in traffic and shop for a new printer quickly at Wal-mart after. Our children fared well will out us at home and were sound asleep when we returned. GO MIGHTY COUGARS!

The only thing that did not turn out as well as I might have planned was how it was hard for us to sit for four hours. Not having children to care for for this long and not usuing it to get work, projects and chores done seemed wastful. And I fell asleep on the ride home because I am old and it was late.

Have I mentioned that the brainwashing of our first born has been a success. When ever she sees anything BYU she recognizes it and starts to either sing the fight song, or says "BUY U" close enough for now. She even says "BUY U" to letters that stand alone and are in similar font to the "Y"... like an "L" on some socks she has signifing they are large size. She calls them her Cougar socks. AWESOME

School and Crackers

Sam likes to eat. This is nothing new. I have been letting him have more regular foods. His favorite are Saltines. He loves these things. I think he looks so old sitting in this chair eating a cracker. He is old. He crawls, following me around room to room, he "talks" making sounds that seem to be capable of turning into "Mama" any day now. He is so grown up and it makes me so sad.

This is how Kate feels about going to school.
We joined a co-op so Kate could go to "school" this year. I guess she is growing up too. So far "preschool" is going well. She is one of the youngest in the group so I think it will be good for her. Also it should be a decent co-op seeing as how most of the mom's are former teachers of elementary school or preschool. We are eat taking two weeks to teach and host it in our homes. I had a policy class my senior year of college that I loved. I remember my professor had a formula for what would cure the ails of the nation. The first was to stop teenagers from having children. The second was to have free daycare/ preschool centered in your own community. There were eight points I think, and I believed every word then of his explanation . I am now a happy participant in the second piece of solving the nations ails....well at least theoretically.
Kate's first day of school
Kate has to eat breakfast on the go... going to school is busy.

Weekend Wedding Storyboard

....and its a long story.

We started our drive Wednesday night with one throwing up little two year old. Hoping she would soon recover and feeling like we needed to be at Jake's youngest sisters wedding we kept going. We slept in Primm, NV and found her much better in the morning. Much better although apparently still very contagious. The wedding was beautiful but the weekend was miserable. Over the next two days all twenty something family members staying at the Freeman Farm minus one niece and (thankfully) a bride to be fell ill to the malicious virus. Sick everyone's with little sleep and lots to do to pull of a completely do it yourself garden wedding made for a stresstul and exhausting visit with little actual time for visiting. Below are some of my pictures from the wedding, both those I liked and others needed to tell the story. One highlight from the trip was that although it was exhausting (can you be sore from taking pictures?) I am pleased with the results.The Freeman orchard 7:00 am day of the wedding. Up early to the cries of sick children. Ready for a beautiful early fall wedding with temps of 102 degrees projected for wedding o' clock.
The Fresno Temple is one of the mini temples they built in 2000. Although it is smaller with smaller grounds it is just as beautiful. Plus you know most the people inside. The kids waited in the waiting room. Kate kept telling me "I need to see my Jesus at the temple."
Father of the bride and father-in-law Calvin. This guy has been puking all night but he is still the most photogenic guy I know.
Elisabeth and Cami. My sister-in-law and niece. She let us stay in her daughter's room giving her and Mark little sleep, let me wash our puked clothing in her washing machine, feed us, gave me a quick tutorial on her photo editing software so I could have some ready for their slide show that night and in the end were some of the wedding weekend warrior viruses sickest victims. Thank you Mark, Elisabeth and Cami.
Did I tell you how the Freeman's can throw a do-it-yourself wedding and you would never know they didn't hire help. Here is Dave (Jake's brother if it wasn't obvious) as videographer. I player photographer. Lisa, a sister, did all the amazing food, for 150, while pregnant and sick. Doris (mother of the bride) as if she didn't have enough to do made an amazing wedding cake...picture to come later. Everyone contributed in some way helping with cleaning, decorating, cooking. Good work Big Team Freeman! They had another friend to a slide show and another DJ. It worked out so well.
DeeAnn and Drew Ensslin. Recently pronoucned husband and wife.

All seven siblings looking so good. Especially that first one.
Jacob, Lisa, David, DeeAnn, Joseph, Kirstin & Mark. I am so lucky to have so many great friends as in-laws. Not only are all the siblings people I love and admire, there are amazing and enjoyable spouses to go along with them.
Bride's maid pictures. DeeAnn has a lot of great friends. These four were her bride's maids.



These are two of my favorite shots I got.

Drew's mother had a lovely luncheon, none of which I got to see sadly. She did have these water bottles made. I love customised drinks!
Nothing like a little glamor on the farm.

My amazing mother-in-law and her cake skills. She always does the cakes for wedding and you would never know they weren't ordered.

Thanks to Jake, his job was harder than mine. Because I had a camera in my hand the entire day he had to corral two cranky and tired children. He missed the whole day really. Not to mention that we rarely saw each other the entire time we were there as we tried to divide and conquer two children who hadn't had a good night sleep of nap for days. That goofy grin is hiding an egg roll I believe.
Dee and Calvin at the reception.
Drew and DeeAnn's first dance. Dee had to have dancing at her wedding, so her mother painted the driveway to look like tile and strung lights.

There are so many more pictures I would love to share, but that is long enough. I can't wait for Dee to get back from Mexico so I can show them to her.
We left the next morning as early as we could get out and made it home around 10:00. It was a long drive, but we made it in under 13 hours so we'll consider that good time. Our home never seemed to nice, comfortable and clean, that is until I started cleaning out the car and doing the laundry.
We only regret not being able to stay for a few more days. Not being sick, with nothing to do and eating wedding reception leftovers with those you love sounds like much more fun than work and chores to Jake and I.