Picture Session

I absolutely love everything about photography. When I was younger I took a 4-H photography class and my pictures when to the county fair and I received 1st place on one of my pictures. It is my passion in life! I would love one day to have a fantastic camera to take pictures like the pros.

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I took some pics of my girls at our friends barn and I was not too pleased with them. They just did not have the look that I wanted so I decided to see if my Sister in law could do anything with them. This is the pic that I sent her of Hailey.

When I received this picture back I was shocked.

If you have the right know how of how to change the pictures and if you have the right software even so so pictures can turn out to be beautiful. Thanks Pam! I love them.

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I am working on a new header with the other pics of the girls that I took so I will put it up once I am able to figure out what I want to do.

Ward Harvest Festival

Mitchell is pretty much a home body and loves to stay home in which I usually am the one to take the girls places since he just wants to relax after a long week at work. I knew that our Ward Harvest Festival was coming up so I knew I had to get him to go, somehow.

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After finding out what we would be doing at the Festival I realized we were going to have a Pumpkin Carving Contest where you bring your own pumpkins and decorate them there for about an hour. Well, this did the trick and Mitchell was so excited. He is a competitor and wanted to have the best pumpkin there.

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When we lived in Utah they had a pumpkin decorating contest and he won the competition. He made these pumpkins of Spongebob and Patrick. They were adorable!!!

We searched online and he found some different ideas on what he wanted to do and then made his plan of attack.

Mitchell has his game face on.
There were a lot of fun pumpkins there but the embarrassing part is he was pretty much up against a boy that stuck half of a pumpkin on his head for a pumpkin hat (it was Mitchell's pumpkin) and he almost won because you cheered for the one that you liked the most and since there were a lot of youth there, they wanted their friend to win. He was also against our Bishop that did a great job on his cat pumpkin.
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This is what he came up with. It is a scary pumpkin eating smaller pumpkins and the he has his boiling soup bowl with other small pumpkins inside (somehow they did not end up in the bowl but on the table, but they were suppose to be in the bowl). It was really cute and no one else thought of dry ice, who would. :)

So, Mitchell won and loves his cool trophy that we are to bring back next year. It is seriously sitting on my kitchen table, not sure if he will let me take it down.

THE INTERVENTION

Now we have a problem, he won't put the trophy down, as you can see...

25 Random Things

Ok, lets see if I can think of 25 different random things about me and if you try it also please let me know so I can check them out.

1. I have always had a stash of chips or candy laying around since I was young. If my brothers or sisters wanted a treat, most likely I had one hidden under the bed.

2. I absolutely hate it when people eat and speak with their mouth open. HUGE pet peeve of mine. When I was young I would not eat at the dinner table because of the select "chompers" as I used to call them.

3. I am very afraid of mice. They are disgusting and I want nothing to do with them. We once had a mouse in our house and while I was on the couch screaming my daughters ran to the neighbors and he was able to get it out of the house. Thank heaven for good neighbors.

4. I love things nice and tidy but my house is never nice and tidy. I am a pack rat and my house, and car, show it.

5. I sleep on my side every night.

6. I failed my driving test once, another time my car's lights were burned out so third time was the charm.

7. I have always wished that I kept with my piano playing as a child. Every now and then you will find me at the piano singing my heart out and playing away and my neighbors can attest to this one.

8. I get along really well with each of my brothers and sisters. It is fun to have such a great relationship with them.

9. I was on the soccer team while in High School and our team NEVER made a single goal until the last game of my Sophmore year.

10. I love amusement parks but as I get older the roller coasters give me headaches. I do love seeing my children love the roller coasters now though.

11. I have never dyed my hair and I have no plan in doing it either.

12. I am VERY afraid of flying! My husband is a pilot and you won't even find me on a plane with him. It terrifies me!

13. I hate folding laundry. I have piles of clean clothes all around my house.

14. I never make my bed and my thinking is why when I will be in it tonight anyways.

15. My parents are the best parents a girl could ask for.

16. I had to pursue Mitchell during High School. After our first date I did not hear from him for about two months, until I emailed him...the rest is history.

17. Mitchell was my High School Senior Prom date!!! I still have the corsage that he got for me. (I actually bought it and he never payed me back, but oh well, we are married now so who cares.)

18. I absolutely love carnations!

19. I dislike cold weather and snow!

20. I have never had a cavity and I do not wear glasses, the same goes for Mitchell. Hopefully our children will not need either also.

21. Every couple of minutes I call Hailey's name to make sure she is okay. If I don't I get sick and can't physically get myself to not see where she is. I have done this with each of my children and even my youngest brother.

22. Each of my children were C-Section due to different reasons. The DR has told me I can only have one more child, due to scarring, so I am waiting for the right time and hope that when the time comes that Heavenly Father feels like it is time also.

23. For our 3rd wedding anniversary Mitchell and I went on a cruise and we hated it. Not sure if we will ever go on a cruise again.

24. I love the smell of pine sol, coconut and rain.

25. I love blogging and will one day make a blog for each of my children so I can print it up for them when they are grown. One day...

Cute Halloween Bags!!!

My friend just made these cute Trick-or-Treat bags and put them on her Esty Shop if you would like to check it out and buy one or two or three or more :) from her. They are absolutely adorable and very durable. Check it out!!! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=8132754

As A Mom

It is 2:30 AM and I can not sleep. I have so many things going through my head. My three beautiful daughters lay sound asleep on the couch and I am so thankful for them and their sweet spirits. They are the number one concern in my Mommy Brain. I want the best for them, I want them to be taken care of, I want them to have the wonderful life that I had when I was a child and growing up.

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The times are changing and the world is a pretty scary place. My children come home with stories about what other children talk about and it is pretty sad. When my children play on the playground they have to wear earplugs so that they do not have to listen to the garbage that some kids let out of their mouths.

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Being a PROUD Conservative Mother of Three one of my top concerns is their education right now. I can sit down and just let the girls do their homework day in and day out but I learned that I need to do more then that. I need to also be their Teacher at home and teach them how to cook, how to budget, how to be physically fit, how to eat well, how to speak nicely to other, how to do all of those things that Mommies need to do. Being a Christian Mother also brings to play that I need to teach my children about prayer and that they are not alone.

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As I flipped through the channels I found Glenn Beck. I am not an avid watcher of Glenn but his show intrigued me tonight. He had three Moms on there that were talking about getting out of their shell and making a difference in the world. Glenn Beck said his number one Pet Peeve is when Moms say, "I am just a Mom." I find myself saying this all of the time, but we are so much more then just a Mom. We have a lot to offer and so much power and influence.

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On his show he had a lady that started a group on her website www.asamom.org. I had to check it out. It is such a wonderful support group for Mom's out there that just want to know what is the best thing to do for your children. She has twelve values and they are:

1-Honesty

2-Reverence

3-Hope

4-Thrift

5-Humility

6-Charity

7-Sincerity

8-Moderation

9-Hard Work

10-Courage

11-Personal Responsibility

12-Gratitude

They also have nine principles that are:

1. America is good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me

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I love the second Principle that states, "I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life," and number seven that states, "I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable." On facebook the other day my brother made a comment that stated, "I see way higher taxes in our future." A girl that I grew up with made the following comment, "Do you make more than 250000 a year? If not, your taxes will not go up. If so, I believe that giving and sharing with those less fortunate is a keystone of the Christian faith, is it not?" This comment floored me and upset me. She was putting down our beliefs and was putting our beliefs on the spot. I showed the comment to my husband and he, being the very Conservative Christian told me what to write back. "Being Christian means not being forced to give like the Government will make us. Charity is when you do it on your own free will like Christ taught. Everyone in America, rich or poor, will pay higher taxes. Congress passed the CAP and Trade Bill which will cause everyone's utility bills to almost double. They are also trying to pass taxes on sodas, foods, and your own health care which everyone pays. The government doesn't spend my "charity taxes" the way that I want them to. If you had to every payday write the government a check for your taxes instead of the government taking it out, you would have a different opinion of taxes. I work too hard for Nancy Pelosi and for Obama to foolishly spend my money as they see fit." Yes, he is a genius, I know. Ha. I felt good being able to stand up for what I believed in. I belong to the group now and I am very excited to read the other comments by Mother's just like me who struggle with the day to do questions of my children's future.

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If you want to join the group go to www.asamom.org (remember that it is 2:30 in the morning so hopefully this makes sense.)

WHEW!!!

I can not believe how long it takes to post that many posts but I am finally caught up for the year. Now I just have to keep my hands off of the camera so I do not take any more pictures and have to blog some more. Ha, yeah right.

Hailey's Preschool

Here in Oregon if you are five before September 1st you can go to Kindergarten. Mitchell and I debated over sending Hailey since she turned five August 24th. I really struggled over it and finally came to the conclusion, with a lot of prayer, that she is just not ready yet and neither am I. I did not ever want to regret putting her in school and since there was that possibility, I did not want to take it. Ashley is a late birthday and since she was the oldest in her class I have loved that. So our decision was made.

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I did not want her sitting around the house all day, and I could tell myself a million times that I was going to do preschool myself with her but then I would not get around to it. I decided to look into some preschools. I found an amazing preschool at St. Frances Catholic School. It is called Mini Hearts Preschool. Her first day she was nervous but excited at the same time. Mrs. Patti and Mrs. Jen are her teachers and they are so sweet. Since school had already started three weeks before everyone else knew each other so it was fun for her to be the new girl.

She is growing up way too fast. It is sad not having a baby around the house anymore. We had a plumber come here the other day and he asked her why she was not in school and her reply was, "My Mom says I am her baby and so I can not go to school." I have learned to watch what I say, but she will always be my baby.
(By her cubby)

(By her name tag on the wall)

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So, what do I do while she is at school for four hours M, W and F? I get to clean up things like this.

SO RIDICULOUS! The worst part is it was worse when i got to it. I cleaned Ashley and Hailey's room and took three bags to Goodwill and all of the toys to storage. It is so clean and has been two weeks since I cleaned it!! YAHOO for me!

Standards Night Cake

Mitchell has the privelege of being our Priest Quorum Advisor in our ward and he was able to participate in the yearly Standards Night. This is a special night where the Youth of the Church are able to talk about Standards. Our Bishop answered some of the questions that the Youth had.

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Mitchell decided Saturday night that he wanted to make a special cake for the special day. It is always fun to see how they turn out.

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We decided to use the book pan that our Grandma Couch gave us. Mitchell wanted them to represent the scriptures. We finally settled on writing the Theme for the Year for the Youth which is found in 1 Timothy 4:12 and it reads, "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

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The girls have fun helping us. Ashley was rolling out my fondant balls that went around the bottom of the cake.

These flowers were fun to make since I had never made them so small. I wish that they did not have to eat them because they actually worked out better then I had hoped and wanted to keep them.

We decided to use the Temple that we had on our Wedding cake. I thought it made a special touch to the cake.

Next time we will use our own cake recipe. It looked good, but Mitchell said it was pretty dry so sorry to whomever ate it. :)

Randomness

My girls look forward to Friday nights. We usually watch a movie and the girls get to sleep in the living room. Ashley had a great idea to sleep in our tent, in the living room. They had a lot of fun and so did Teddy.

I walked into the living room one day and Teddy was laying just like this on my telephone. I thought it was so funny. Right after I snapped this pic he moved so I am glad that I was able to get the picture.

When Hailey was four she wanted to have her own yard sale. When I would tell her no she would say to me, "When I am five can I?" I told her yes, you can when you are five. Well, she is five now and look at what she did.
She was determined and sat out on her little Home Depot bucket for about an hour. No one came to her little sale, but she still had fun. About a week later she decided to try something else to get money so she set up an obstacle course that she called a FUN FUN. She had a hopscotch drawn on the driveway, had balls, had jump ropes out in hope that someone would pay to play with her toys. I ran into the house and got some change and gave it to the kids and to some of the neighbors so she could have some customers. I guess that was a bad idea since she wanted to do it all night since she made some money. What a determined child.
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Some funny things that Hailey has said lately that I posted on facebook but I have to post it here so I remember it. She was spitting in the air and I wanted to know what she was doing and she said, "Running through the sprinklers." I also asked her if she could do some kind of chore, can't remember what, and she was wearing princess costume and she told me she could not do it since princesses don't work.

Ashley's 9th Birthday Party

Ashley had the privilege of celebrating her birthday on the first day of school so we decided that she can have her party the following Saturday. She was so excited to have a costume party. The night before Mitchell and I set out to make her special birthday cake. After making the fondant Mitchell was tired so he went to bed so I was able to come up with everything on my own. At 2 in the morning, I will still working on the cake and was not happy with it. I had yellow fondant, a blue ribbon and a purple flower on the top. It just did not look good enough for my special birthday girl but it was late so I went to bed. After about 5 minutes I decided I was going to jump out of bed and start all over. I finished at 3 am and I absolutely loved how it turned out. I do wish that it was two layers, but oh well.

When the guests arrived we had hair ties ready for the girls to make which was a lot of fun. We did the same thing at our Stake Activity Day Girls Activity so we decided to steal the idea.

Games are always fun. Ashley wanted to play 7-11 and play at the park which made it easy for me.

Ashley does not usually wear bright lipstick but she was a rocker for her costume party.

She has wanted this gift for such a long time! When I took the picture, she figured out what it was and was SOOOOOOOOO excited.

Her very own guitar. She was in heaven and has fun playing it every now and again. She thinks that she can get out of piano lessons since she now has a guitar, sorry Missy.

I love you Ashley. You add such a joy to our family. You are so helpful and such a great friend to the kids that you play with. You know the gospel and you understand it. You are a great missionary and a great example! LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!

First Day of School

If you can not already tell, I am trying to play catch up with my blog. It will be nice once I am caught up and thing will actually be posted as they happen. That is what happens when you have a crazy Mom with three crazy and busy kids.

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September 8th, Ashley's Birthday, was our first day of school. For some reason the summer kinda dragged on so I, and the girls, were so ready for school and for a change. They were so excited to set out their clothes and have their backpacks ready. I swear that Lindsay's backpack weighed 20 lbs. She fell over when I put it on her back.

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I asked them if they wanted a ride to school and they both said that they wanted to go on the bus with their friends. My routine is I get to watch out the office window and wave to them as the bus drives by. I waited and waited and NO bus. School started at 7:50 and my girls were still waiting. I hurried and woke up Hailey and put her in the car then drove Lindsay and Ashley to school. When I came home, at about 8:05 or so the other kids were still waiting for the bus that was now 35 minutes late so I piled 7 kids into my van and drove them to school also. It was pretty sad that they were late their first day of school. When I arrived home I called the transportation department and they told me that the bus driver must have forgotten them, duh! So far it has not happened again.

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LINDSAY - Fifth Grade

Lindsay is in Mr. Williams 5/6th grade split class. She is really enjoying school. She was sad that none of her good friends were in her class, but she is good at making new ones and has made quite a few. She is a great speller and her goal is to work really hard on her Math this year.

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I was really worried about her having a Male teacher since I never had a Male before I was in sixth grade but she loves him. He plays guitar and has fun with the kids. At our Back to School Night she told me that he is by far her favorite teacher, which says a lot since her other teachers have all been exceptional.

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ASHLEY - Third Grade

When I moved to Corcoran I was in the Third Grade. It was one of my hardest grades due to a challenging teacher and being new to a school. I was worried about Ashley, but she is not one to worry about because she loves school and is really good at it. She is my little writer. She is writing a story in class that is already a couple of pages long and her teacher, Mrs. Greenlee, has already commented on how descriptive she is in her writing.

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Ashley's strong suit is being a huge helper for the teacher. If she is done with her work the teacher asks her to help the children that are behind. She loves being a helper.

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I am so thankful that my children go to such a wonderful Elementary School.

Rheinlander

Summer was coming to a close and we thought it would be fun to celebrate back to school with the girls. I took Lindsay, Ashley and Hailey and their friend Naomi to the Hillsboro Aquatic Center. Naomi kept telling me that was the funnest thing she had EVER done in her life. I thought that was so sad but I was glad that she had fun. We also wanted to do something fun with Dad so we decided to go out to eat to Rheinlander in Portland.

Lindsay and Ashley intently studying their menu's.

My favorite part of Rhienlander is their fondue. It is heavenly. Ashley did not care for it too much which was great for me since there was more. Ha Ha

The ambiance is wonderful. It looks like you are sitting in a little village and people play the accordion and sing while you eat. They have some pretty fun songs. The guy playing in our room loved playing fun children's songs for our kids like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Barney's Theme Song and some songs from Sesame Street.

He played a special song for Hailey, the ABC's, and asked her to sing it by herself and she actually did it. She got a round of applause from everyone in the room.

Our food was exceptional. Lindsay had Schnitzel with Noodles, Ashley had Frankfurter with Mashed Potatoes (she was not happy when they plopped a hot dog down, she did not know that was what she ordered but she enjoyed it), Hailey chose Roast Pork with Mashed Potatoes, Mitchell had their famous Schnitzel Cordon Bleu which he said was exceptional and I had a Grilled Bone-In Pork Chop with their Red Braised Cabbage which is to die for!!!

We were sad to see the summer come to a close but I was ready for our schedules to change and get into a normal routine again.

Cat and Mouse

We have really enjoyed having our sweet kitten Molly around the house. Teddy, our dog, absolutely loves her and does not leave her out of his sight. He grooms her and sleeps right next to her, and best of all she keeps him company. Molly has started spending a lot of her time outside and has become really independent. Luckily she has not brought any fun surprises to our doorstep like Smokey, our other cat, likes to do.

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The other day I was watching Molly out the window and she kept running around and around the front tire of our van. I could not figure out what she was doing, mainly because it was pretty dark outside. After about two minutes I finally realized that she was chasing a mouse. The dang mouse kept running around the tire. This lasted for at least 10 minutes and who knows how long she was doing this before I noticed it.

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I ran in and grabbed my camera to take a video but it was too dark outside to see anything. We were laughing so hard because we kept thinking, why does the mouse not just run straight onto the grass and then it could run off and Molly would not be able to see it.

Finally, the dang mouse did just that, he ran behind our garbage can and we never saw it again. It really made for a fun and eventful night.