Crazy Hair!

Trick or Treat!

Kaitlin was a pretty Witch.
Tyler was Joe Dirt, check out his chest hair.
Derick, as a Rubic Cube, won most educational at our Ward Party.
I had to dress up for my job so this is what I came up with! I even had crows on my shoulder and hat.
What a scary looking bunch!

BOO!

For Family Home Evening we did the traditional "Carving Pumpkins" I did though, try a couple new things.

• Instead of cutting off the top of the pumpkin and having to reach your hand in to light the candles, we cut a hole in the bottom so that you just have to put the candles on the ground, light them, and then cover them with the pumpkin. Worked great!
• I also heard that if you put Vaseline on the cut parts of the pumpkin that it won't dry out as quickly and therefore not mold or shrivel up. Worked great!
• This is the first year that I roasted the seeds! I didn't use any recipe, I just washed them and then soaked them overnight in water and salt. I then drained them off and sprayed them with olive oil and roasted them in the oven. They turned out pretty good for the first time, next time I won't put as much salt, and also might try flavoring them.

It was a fun evening, and the kids did a great job carving their pumpkins.

Grandma BB's Spudnuts

The other night we made my Great Grandma Bebensee's Spudnuts. They were delicious!

The picture above is of my Great Grandma Evers and Great Grandma Bebensee, I never did know my Great Grandma Evers, but I remember my Great Grandma Bebensee, she was a soft and cuddly grandma.
This is a picture of Kaitlin and my Mom making Grandma BB's doughnuts when Kaitlin was three.

Kaitlin's Fall Concert

Kaitlin is in a singing group at school this year, she meets every Wednesday on short day, after school to practice. They all did such a great job! We look forward to more of her concerts this year.

Volcano Erupts in Cedar City

Fall Photos

I love fall and everything about it! The colors, sweaters, smells, soups, pumpkins, etc. The kids and I drove up the canyon the other day (and that is where I got my very first ever in my whole life, ticket) and took pictures with all of the fall colors. Anyway, it was beautiful! It's always quite the adventure trying to get good pictures, between funny faces, sibling doing silly things behind your back, and getting impatient, it's a wonder that you get any good ones.

Don't blink or you might miss Derick on his long board.

"Long Board" or long board?

Derick decided that with the money that he earned helping me with my vinyl order, that he wanted a long board. So he found one online that he liked and ordered it, he would check every day with his friends to see where the long boards journey was and how soon it would be here in Cedar City. On the day it arrived he wasn't home until the evening so I thought I would have a little fun with him. I opened it up and found one of my blank signs and put it and a photo copy of the board he ordered back into the box and taped it back up. When he came home he opened up the box with anticipation.

• Derick, "What the heck!"
• Mom and Dad, "What?"
• Derick, "All there is is a piece of wood and a picture"
• Dad, "You paid how much for that?, they didn't even give you wheels?"
• Mom, "Did they put any instructions in there?"
• Derick, "No, I'm going to go show this to Kyle" (Kyle is Derick's friend across the street who had just received his long board a few days earlier.)

Needless to say Derick ended up with his "Long Board" after a few laughs.

His "Long board" will be forgotten about some day, but he will always remember the story about the long board.

Find JOY in all things now!

I always enjoy this time of year when we get to listen to General Conference. This session was wonderful. There were many great talks given, one of my favorites was Robert D. Hales talk on "Christian Courage". He talked about how Abinadi stood up for what he believed in even though it cost him his life, and then how through his example Alma was converted to the Gospel and then also showed Christian Courage. Another talk I enjoyed was Elaine Dalton who talked about Temple Ordinances and "Returning to Virtue". Then I loved our Prophet's talk on CHANGE. Here are some of the quote that he stated that I wrote down.

• Nothing is as constant as change
• Find joy in the journey NOW!
• There are no tomorrows to remember if we don't do anything today.
• The circus will come back again, childhood doesn't
• Be greatful for the abundance that is present.

How grateful I am for the Gospel in my life DAILY, and that we have a living Prophet on the earth today to lead and guide us.

Thanks to Tyler, we were able to watch Conference in our living room as a family instead of in our bedroom on the bed and floor.Since Tyler is the smallest and the bravest, he got to go up into our attic and help feed the wires through holes in the living room ceiling. He came down covered in the insulation up there.

Happy Halloween 2003

Getting in the spirit for Halloween? Here are a few pictures from 2003. I love the looks on Tyler's face during Pumpkin Carving. We also had the tradition while we lived up North to go to "The Halloween House" every year at least once. Thanks to Aunt June and Uncle Den who introduced us to this fun experience.

Kaitlin, how old are you?

When Kaitlin was going to turn one, we taught her to hold one finger up. So whenever we would ask her how old she was she would do this...
We use to roll her hair in curlers, she always looked so cute with them in. Such fun memories!

Kirk HATES his picture taken!!!!!

Kirk hates to have his picture taken. About the only pictures you can get of him is with something held in front of his face. A good trick I've come up with is to make him think he's not getting his picture taken, but I am taking a picture of the cute kids he's holding. Or else like in the other picture, which really isn't Kirk, it's a picture of a redneck with a shirt on that belongs to some other guy named Kirk. SHH he's incognito.

Mrs. Payne likes Monday's

Tyler comes home from school on Friday, this is our conversation.

Tyler: "Mom, can I have a shower every night"

Mom: "Yes, you can have a shower every night" Mom is wondering how she got so lucky

Tyler: "Mrs. Payne says that she likes Mondays because when she bends over to help us she can smell our clean hair. She says that by the end of the week we start to smell."

Tyler who likes to impress his teacher will do anything, even take a shower/bath every day!!!

Tyler: "Mom, do we have any coconut shampoo?"

Child of Royal Birth

I am trying to catch up on my old photos that I haven't finished. I thought that it would be fun to put some of them on my blog to remember fun times. This is one of Tyler, when he came home from primary he had this HUGE crown, not just a simple basic one. I thought that it was great, He is really making the statement "I am of Royal Birth!!!!!". How appropriate.

Family Night with the Elison's

17 years and wiser

Kirk and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner and to the movie. We took Kirk's truck and I decided that I would make it like our firsts dates when I would slide over into the middle and sit by Kirk. So I slide over, get a wedgie with the seatbelt thingie, and my knees are in my chest because I have the hump and no space for my legs.

What did I learn from this?

1. You are silly when you are young and in LOVE
   
2. Comfort is too important to my old bones.
3. My hips can't fit between the seatbelts anymore.
   

So I said "Forget this" and slid back over to the passenger side and enjoyed the rest of the evening in comfort.

What a rollercoaster these past 17 years have been. We just put our hands up in the air, scream, hold on for dear life, and then have a blast enjoying the ride. I am so greatful to be married to my best friend for Time & All Eternity.

Ta-Da!

Well we, (meaning Kirk and some great friends), finished the chimney. Notice their idea of scaffolding, good thing we aren't licensed contractors, just "do-it-yourselfer's". I love the finished result of all of the hard work from start to finish.

Thank you, I love you Kirk!

Teenagers are Silly!

Teenagers + Pink Gorilla Costume = Sweaty silliness

Tyler's a poet and we didn't even know it.

Tyler came home from school and had written this awesome poem. It describes him perfectly. He was able to read it to Mary Ellen Edmunds, who is an LDS book author. If you haven't read her books or listened to her tapes, I highly recommend them to you. Love is a Verb, is one of my favorites. She is a wonderful lady and will put a smile on your face. She was here visiting in Cedar City for a highschool reunion and we were able to have dinner with her one night. Tyler was quite tickled with himself when Mary Ellen gave him a standing "O".