Happy Halloween!

For those of you who get grossed out easily, this is not a story for you.  First of all, on Wednesday I bought Lauren and William each a pumpkin bucket for Halloween.  Lauren's is the one pictured above.  Well, yesterday I had to work  so I missed out on what Lauren did with her pumpkin.  Lucky me!  Matt picked the kids up from my mom's house after work and brought them home.  Apparently he sat down on a chair in the front room not meaning to fall asleep, but he did....for 20 loooong minutes.  When he woke up, he went to search for the kids.  The back door was wide open so he thought they would be in the backyard.  (Our backyard it totally fenced in so no worries:)  On the back porch was Lauren's pumpkin and a whole bunch of wet toilet paper.   (The plot thickens.)  He asked Lauren what she had been doing and she replied, "I peed in my pumpkin!"  "What!  Did you pee here in the backyard?"  "No, I peed in my bedroom."  "What!"  So apparently, she had to go to the bathroom and she was playing in her bedroom.  So the genius daughter of mine decided that she would use her pumpkin as a toilet.  Then she didn't know what to do with it so she got a lot of toilet paper and took the pumpkin outside.  What a stinker!  Matt went into the bedroom and searched everywhere and didn't find any spilled so that was good.  Especially since there is a tiny hole in the bottom of the bucket.  He's so lucky!  Lauren's excuse was that she really wants a bathroom in her bedroom.  Nice excuse.  Well, too bad!  This incident reminded me of another time when Lauren did a similar thing.  We were at my brother and sister-in-law's house for Rob's birthday.  All of the kids were in the basement playing and all of a sudden we hear someone yelling, "Matt!  Matt!  Matt!"  Thank goodness they yelled his name and not mine.  He went downstairs and found that they had been playing house and had designated an area behind the food storage to be the 'bathroom'.  So Lauren took it to heart and got a bowl and pooped in it!  Disgusting!  Now you can see why I'm glad they called Matt's name.  So the lucky guy got to clean it up.  The funniest part about it is that we were at Kathy's house and if any of you know Kathy, well, you know she likes her house to be clean, very clean, bleach everything clean.  So I'm sure she just chucked the bowl.  And my daughter thinks she's a princess!  I don't think princesses do stuff like that.  So now that I've grossed you all out...HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

More of Yellowstone

Here's my fam.  Blake, Luke, Mom, McKell, and Dad.  Tom is on a mission and Lindsey was going to come with her kids, but her little boy got sick so they couldn't.

Here are the promised pics of the bull moose.  This one kind of shows you how close we were to it.  Probably about 30 feet, but we were at the top of a small hill and it was at the bottom.

Aren't those antlers HUGE!!!  We were a little nervous.  My mom and I walked back to the cars with my kids just in case because they wouldn't be able to run very fast.  Luckily, that wasn't necessary.

The Grand Tetons.  This is where we were when we saw the moose.

Will and Lauren loved getting rides on the baggage carriers at the hotel.

What a crazy 10 minutes!

So today I decided that I would make a dinner that I never make.  Ham, potatoes, and rolls.  So I set the rolls at to raise in the sun and went into the kitchen to open the ham.  I was cutting open the package and the knife slipped and I cut my finger.  It wasn't too bad, but it hurt and bled a lot.  If you can't tell, it's my ring finger towards the top.  Anyway, I put a bandaid on it and went into Lauren's room to get a sympathy hug from her.  While I was doing that I thought to myself, "I don't see Will and I bet you anything he is in smashing those rolls!"  Sure enough, he was.  Hence Exhibit A below:

So I thought to myself, "I guess we're having scones tonight."

Then the phone rings and it's my mom.  So while I'm talking to my mom, Will comes over into the kitchen/hallway and smashes a ritz cracker on the floor and spreads the crumbs everywhere.  Talk about Mr. Destructo.  Then right after that, Lauren opens the pantry and dumps a fourth of a bag of Reese's Pieces on the floor along with the Ritz cracker crumbs.  My goodness!  At least I knew I wouldn't have a problem cleaning up the candy.  And Lauren used a picture of Matt's sister and fam as a table to pick up the candy.  Sorry, the picture is turned.  I thought I took care of that.

Then I went into the kitchen to continue making dinner and we were listening to music.  So the kids started to break it down.  I love it when they dance.   When the song was over, they went outside.  So I had about 5 beautiful minutes to myself until Lauren decided that she didn't know how to pump on the swing.  Kids sure do keep life interesting!  I don't know what I would do without them.  I love my kids so much!  Oh, and the dinner still turned out pretty good scones and all.

More Yellowstone

Here we are overlooking Jackson Lake with the Tetons in the background.  Right after this a giant moose came out of the bushes and walked about 30 feet from us.  It was at the bottom of a hill so we were a little nervous, but not too back.  It was really cool though.  Here also is a perfect example of Will's 'stone face'.  Picture of the moose will come.

William and Uncle Blake

I'm not sure the name of this river, but it's the one that runs right by the Grand Prismatic Spring near Old Faithful.

Grand Prismatic Spring.  We couldn't see it very well because the steam was so thick because of the cooler temperatures.

Lauren loves apples from Grammy's tree.  And no that's not Lauren's ginormous hand, it's Luke's.  She loves riding in the 'spurban' with McKell and Luke.  I guess they're much better company than Mom and Dad.  Oh, and it has a DVD player.

Yellowstone!

Here are just a few pictures from our trip to Yellowstone this weekend.  The rest are still on Matt's camera.  On Thursday, we drove to West Yellowstone and checked into our hotel.  We went with my parents, Blake, McKell, and Luke.  That night we drove around looking for a place to eat.  We couldn't find the place the hotel told us to eat at so we went to this place called Coachmen Diner or something like that.  Well, it was choice.  The 'host' was a greasy old guy with a horrible smokers voice.  They told us the food was fantastic and blah blah blah.  So we stayed.  I ordered chicken fingers and the waitress was like, "Oh sorry, we are all out of chicken fingers."  Then my mom said that she wanted popcorn shrimp.  "Oh sorry, we're all out of popcorn shrimp too."  So what else are you out of.  "We're out of T-bone steak and Walleye as well."  Thanks for telling us that when we sat down!  Also they said that the salad and soup bar was complementary that night.  Well that's cool, except all it was was brown lettuce from a bag, cheese, and tomatoes.  And the dressing was disgusting so none of us finished it.  We finally got our meals and they were GROSS!  Anyway, they included the 18% gratuity because we had 8 people which was annoying and when we went to pay, the lovely host guy says, "Oh sorry, the credit card machine is broken."  That was the icing on the cake.  Luckily we had just enough cash but it was all we had for the whole trip.  Needless to say it was a very interesting experience.  The next morning we went into Yellowstone and it was gorgeous!  The picture of Luke and I is when we stopped to watch a huge bull elk in a field that was bugling and everything.  So cool!  I'll post more pictures later.

Here is my beautiful sister, McKell.

Here we are at Tower Falls even though you can't see the falls.

We saw tons of bison and elk and the scenery was incredible.  All of the grass was really yellow which made the lakes and rivers look really blue.  We loved it.  Plus, the weather was fabulous which was a bonus.  We had planned on freezing.

Lauren saw this side and said,"That sign means that you should watch out for walking people!"  It was so funny.  Kids are great!

This would also be my first tag (thanks Linds)

20 years ago (1988):

1.  I was 8 years old.

2.  I was baptized.  I don't remember much except that my mom made my dress, we had cinnamon rolls at the lunch, and my Grandpa Carlile announced to everyone that he had cancer.  Thankfully he survived and is still alive and kickin'.

3.  There were only three kids in my family.  Me, Lindsey, and Blake

10 years ago (1998):

1.  I graduated from MVHS, MVHS the best!

2.  I was working at Storehouse Markets as a customer service person.  I totally loved working there.  It was so fun.  And now it doesn't even exist anymore.

3.  I started college up at Ricks (yes, it was called Ricks College back then and that's what I still call it).  I loved my time up there and will never forget it.  I made such great friends and had great experiences.

5 years ago (2003):

1.  Matt and I went on an awesome 10 day trip back east with some other people from UVSC.  It was a 'history class' that they were going to film to put on the t.v. and Matt was hired to be the cameraman.  I was able to tag along at a fabulously discounted rate.  It was a great trip.

2.  Matt and I had our one year anniversary.

3.  I graduated from nursing school at UVSC and obtained the job that I still have as a labor and delivery nurse at Orem Community Hospital.  I LOVE it!

3 years ago (2005):

1.  It was my first year as being a mom.  Which I love!

2.  Continued working full time while being a mom.  Which I hated!

3.  Matt graduated from UVSC with his Bachelors. YEAH!

4.  Went on vacation to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone with Matt's family.  Some of the most beautiful places on earth.  I love the Tetons!

1 year ago (2007):

1.  I had another baby (Will).

2.  Continued to work full time:(  Although working full time isn't as bad as working full time as anything else.  It's only 3 12 hour shifts a week rather than 5 8 hour shifts.

3.  Matt started graduate school at BYU.

4.  Attempted to potty trained a very stubborn 2 year old and finally succeeded one week before her 3rd birthday.

5.  Lots of diaper changes.

So far this year:

1.  Was able to go to part time in January.  Hallelujah!  Matt was hired on at Orem High as well as Mountain View so he is now full time.  That allowed me to go part time.  Finally.

2.  Learn the joys of raising a girl and a boy.  They're so different!

3.  Vacationed in San Diego with my family.  Absolute heaven.

4.  Watched Will learn how to walk way too early (10 months) and then proceed to start climbing and creating havoc everywhere he went and still continues to do.

5.  Sent Lauren to preschool for the first time.  Luckily for me she's brilliant.

Yesterday:

1.  Matt and I bottled 15 pints of tomatoes.

2.  I posted on my blog.

3.  I finished sewing my new baby bag.  I'm so proud of myself!  Thanks Lindsey!

4.  I attempted to sew Lauren some gloves to go with her princess costume for Halloween.  I sewed one and it was very frustrating so I didn't do the other one.  The one I did do look pretty sweet though even though the fingers are a little stubby.  It's out of red fabric with sequins.  

5.  Sort of watched the BYU football game while Matt actually went to it.  We missed the first half though because Lauren was watching Mary Poppins.

6.  Matt and I watched episodes that we had missed of The Office on the internet.  It so nice watching without commercials.

Today:

1.  Woke up and sat on the couch with the fam watching the beautiful snow.

2.  Went to church and was actually able to go to Sunday School for the first time in months because William is officially in nursery now.  And they didn't even have to come get me!!!

3.  Received a speaking assignment for Lauren for the primary program in November.  I can't believe I have a child old enough to be in the primary program.  Crazy!

4.  We are now going to my in-laws for dinner and fun times.

In the next year:

1.  Matt will be done with grad school.  I can't wait.  I will enjoy having my husband back again.

2.  We don't know what our plans are once he's done.

3.  We may possibly have another child.  But that's a scary thought.

4.  I will enjoy watching my kids grow and learn.  It's an amazing process.

I tag:  Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Fronica (my peeps from Ricks)

One thing I forgot to mention.  The reddish chair in the living room does not belong there.  We haven't decided where to put it.  I bought it for $40 up in Park City.  It was a steal.  I just need to figure out where it goes now.  Also while we were in Park City we stopped to get some gas and you'll never guess who was there pumping gas at the same time.  Tom Hanks!!  Yes, thee Tom Hanks.  He said he was there on vacation with his family.  I didn't get to talk to him, but my brother-in-law John did and shook his hand.  Scott was with him so he saw him too.  I saw him from two cars away but didn't realize who it was until John told me.  So I got to pump gas right after Tom Hanks pumped gas from the same nozzle.  I still haven't washed my hand:) and that was two weeks ago.  It was pretty cool anyway.

Our house

We have had some requests for pictures of our remodeled house. So for your viewing pleasure here you go. First of all, last night, Lauren, Will, and Jordan completely dismantled the kids' bedroom in about 15 minutes flat. Of course it wasn't completely clean in the first place, but they trashed it. We put the bead board up and painted the walls yellow and replaced the carpet that you can't even see.

I think a tornado went through here.

This is our room. It originally had lime green carpet and peach colored, padded, satin fabric walls. This room needed the most work. There were tons of staples in the walls and there is a lot of molding. Matt worked really hard. The mirrors are all closets and behind the chair there are 6 dresser drawers.

Here's the kitchen/dining room. The dining room used to be carpeted and the kitchen had linoleum. We repainted and put in new floors. The door on the right goes into the backyard and the door on the left goes into the garage.

Here is the kitchen from the opposite angle. The doorway you see goes into the laundry room and a half bath pictured below.

This room used to be peach colored and had fabric on the lower walls that you can't see. It also had carpet that we replaced with tile.

I just finished making that bag Will's holding. It's my new baby bag. Isn't it cute?

Here's the front room. It also had carpet that was mauve and the walls were a gray color. The brick was gray as well. Matt restained the wood floor that was under the carpet. We repainted the walls and the brick. That door goes into the dining room.

Opposite angle of the same room. The door is the front door.

Here's the 'main' bathroom. It was also carpeted and had wallpaper on all the walls and ceiling. So we ripped that out and textured, painted, and tiled the floor. The tub and sink tile was also white with pink dots so we repainted that with an epoxy so it's just white now.

Here's our bedroom again, opposite wall. There is tons of storage in our room and beautiful built ins and molding.

These archways used to be curvy looking with the fabric attached to it. Matt cut them straight and put the archway into it. Then he built the wood to put over them to give in a column look. Painting this room was really hard because of all the molding, but it turned out really nice. We love our bedroom. We have a basement too that's finished, but I'll save that for another time.

Oh to be 18 months old again

Last night we had spaghetti for dinner and William got it everywhere. I mostly love the face he is making. Last week, he was still sporting the 'stone cold face' look whenever a camera popped up. We even got our family pictures taken two weeks ago and out of all the pictures we took, he smiled in a whopping two pictures. And in those two, Lauren had her hands up to her face because she thought the photographer was extremely funny those times. So I just got a picture with Lauren and her hands in her mouth. Suddenly, everytime Will sees a camera he's cheesin' it.

Here is the bath following the spaghetti and he is still cheesin' it.

This morning he stood in a little spot in our bedroom that only he could fit and once again decided to cheese it. What's up? I definitely prefer the cheese to the stone face.

And moments later he is having a tantrum over something that only an 18 month would freak out about. I don't remember what it was. Oh to be simple minded again.