OUR MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY

I finally am getting around to adding some pics from the holidays!!! We had a nice and quiet Christmas and like a lot of you we got a lot of snow!!! It still looks like a white Christmas out there. I thought for sure Ciara would love all of the wrapping paper, but she didn't quite get it this year . . . . maybe next year?! Ky, Dal and Ciara came to our room at 6:04 am Ciara saying "present, present" over and over. I think the kids may have woke her up so they could get out to the presents. There was a doll stroller for Ciara that was sitting next to some gifts that was for Ciara and as soon as she saw it she didn't care about anything else. She just wanted to sit in it!!! I finally pushed the stroller with her in it to her presents and she opened one but eventually Dad ended up opening her gifts for her. Ky and Dal enjoyed their Christmas and Dallin has barely put his MP3 down since then. Ky is at the age where clothes make the best gifts and other teenage kind of things. It makes shopping for her super easy.

2 days later we had Ciara's 2nd birthday!!! She understood opening gifts better so she opened her gifts but once the paper came off she would just want to play with whatever she opened! It was a lot of fun and very cute. She had her 2 year check up on Friday and it went well. The doctor put her in the 66 percentile of her height and 3-5% of her weight. Not to worry though, all of our kids are tall and thin. She is healthy and developing normally, and to me that is all that really counts anyway.

I hope everybody enjoyed their Christmas! And are you ready for another New Year? It seems like each year goes by too quickly. I'm not one who really sets goals for the new year, they are just always on going. I do hope we are able to finish most of our yard this year though!!! ( Good Luck to Us! )

Have a great and safe New Year!!!

Christmas Photos

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas!!! Our Christmas Eve has been kicked off with a tradition of the kids opening their Christmas PJ's. This year Grandma Osborn made them and they were very excited for them. Ciara even wanted her picture taken! (WOW!!!)

We hope that you all have been able to enjoy the spirit of the season. I wish it was always so easy to focus on this special spirit. I am so grateful to celebrate the birth of our Savior and to remember the greatest gift that has ever been given to mankind. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives, and are blessed each day because of the gospel. I am thankful for our Savior and his great sacrifice and what it means to each of us and that through the atonement we will have the wonderful opportunity of eternal families and eternal joy! I can't think of anything greater than this gift of an eternal family .... even on the not-so-great days!!! May your Christmas be filled with joy and peace and we wish you a Happy New Year!

Love, The Ogden's

THE OFFICIAL START

Of the crazy Christmas season began about 2 weeks ago. I know it is crazy for everybody but we are normally pretty relaxed during this time, until this year. I thought that we were good this year so we signed the kids up for hunter safety. The class began last Tuesday. Not the best timing but thought it should be okay, then it happens . . .

Ky has musical theatre practice everyday after school!

Ky also has a dance concert, orchestra concert, and school play!

Dallin has basketball games!

Throw in a church calling, activities, and meetings!

Mix in a little hair appointment

and top it all off with the FLU!!!

That's the way it goes though right! Needless to say that our Christmas season has turned quite busy and I'm so grateful today is the last day of school (at least for a couple of days) and that I already finished my Christmas shopping! PHEWWW

Early Monday morning Ciara woke up throwing up and continued to do so for the whole morning and most of the day. Every time that we thought she was getting better she starts throwing up again. Apparently last Sunday the Nursery leaders had to send some kids home because they were throwing up, I guess that was just a little late!!! LOL She woke up in the middle of the night again this morning throwing up again and this time she got company from her big brother. Dallin now has the flu too and that is the way to start Christmas break! If you've got to be sick it's better to find it out at home rather than at school.

Ciara thought that she wanted to eat this morning so I made her some oatmeal and she had a pop-tart and she was just sitting in her chair staring into space. I could tell she was so tired and tried taking her to lay down but she did not want to leave her chair. Finally after about an hour she fell asleep in it and I tried moving her again and she still did not want to move, so she took a nice long nap in her high chair for about 2 hours! I guess she will sleep somewhere besides her bed if she has been sick for several days!

I do enjoy this time of year so much! Even the craziness and the sickness because it is still great to just feel the great spirit that everybody seems to have.

CHRISTMAS BOX SATURDAY

Have you all read the "Christmas Box" by Richard Paul Evans? It is a fabulous story with a wonderful message. I first read the book years ago when it was new and read it at least once a year (usually around Christmas). I love the message but now it has new meaning for our family. The book talks about a statue of a angel child in a cemetery in Salt Lake. This angel actually exists there, the original was destroyed after a flood, but after the book it was built again and placed in the cemetery. This angel is dedicated to all parents who have lost a child. They have since built more and have had them placed at cemeteries all over the world. The one closest to us is in Baby Land at the Spanish Fork Cemetery.

Each year on December 6th at each of these statues there are services held for anybody who has lost a child. We attended it last year while our wounds were still fresh and did it again this year. It will be our family tradition for a long time I'm sure. It is nice to be able to go there and have others there that know and understand your feelings of loss and to just remember. There is always a speaker, a musical number, candle lighting and moment of silence, and then we each place a flower on and around the angel. It is a beautiful and peaceful ceremony. If you are aware of others who have lost a child I would recommend that you share this with them. Click here to find a location near you.

Also on Saturday we did some family pics. I have a friend who has an awesome talent of photography so we had her come to our town to take some pics. We don't very often look at our town and think it's pretty, actually I don't think anybody has ever thought that, but it does make for a great back drop for pictures. Especially if you like old, outdoors, and farm kind of stuff. As you know Ciara isn't picture friendly and Saturday was no different, but I have gotten to see a few of the pics and they are FABULOUS!!! Yes I really said fabulous! Here are a few of them.

All right, so anybody else wanting some awesome pictures too?

Here is where you need to go...

Kristina Curtis Photography

You can see some of her other work there as well. It is all really great!!! And pricing is really great too!

THE SPOTTED ZEBRA BOUTIQUE

Have you heard of

THE SPOTTED ZEBRA BOUTIQUE?

If not then it is time to head over to their website

http://www.thespottedzebraboutique.blogspot.com/

This is the next Craft Fair I am participating in and I am super excited!

Check out their other vendors, because there will be some super cute things there.

You will find some fabulous things that will make super Christmas presents!

They are also doing a GIVE-AWAY each day until the fair next Friday!!!

Log on to their website for details!

Today's give away is some of our hair clips!

Be sure to check back each day for a new give-away!

Map of location

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a very enjoyable and quiet Thanksgiving at home. Randy's dad had brought us a large turkey breast roast a couple weeks ago and I decided to use that for our Thanksgiving turkey. I knew I would be busy getting ready for the craft fair and didn't want to spend hours and hours in the kitchen. I was worried about it though because I am one of those who bastes the turkey every 30 minutes and this turkey is suppose to cook in the bag. It was the most FABULOUS turkey I've ever had! It had a great flavor and was very moist and tender! I don't think I will be doing a whole turkey again.

It is a family tradition to set up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we pulled everything out last night. We got the tree set up and Ciara was loving it!!! This is when it starts to get fun for her too. She walked around with an ornament for about 15 minutes trying to find a place to put it on the tree and then she would put it on and take it off and look some more. It was so cute. Ky and Dal had a lot of fun watching her too! Then when I pulled out the tree skirt she got really excited. She said "oh pretty dress!" I laid it under the tree and she immediately laid down on it and pretended to go to sleep. Then she grabbed her blankets and went back to just lay there and stare at the tree. First thing this morning she wanted the tree lights back on. She really likes the tree. Last year she loved the ornaments and trying to chew on them, but hopefully this year they will stay in one piece!

What Every Mom Needs....

Two weeks ago, my loving husband sent me on a trip to Colorado by myself to go visit my sister and to see our new niece, Malia. A fabulous girl weekend was what I got!!! Apparently it must have worked well too, since I haven't updated the blog since then. I had a great time getting pedicures, going shopping, going to dinner, and even playing a little Wii. Kris was intent on getting me hooked and it worked pretty good. Guitar Hero was a lot of fun, the only person I could beat was Maddie, but I give her 5 stars for effort. I think I won a game of bowling and I sucked at Tennis. I'm pretty sure I've always sucked at Tennis though!!! On top of all this fun I got to play with our precious, little Malia. She is such a great baby and an absolute doll! And every good aunt has to teach her nieces and nephews some kind of good trick, so I taught her to wink. Okay, so she is probably a natural at it, but I like to claim that I did it!!!

I am pleased to say not only are my kids the cutest in the world, but I have a bunch of really cute nieces and nephews too!!! So thanks to Randy for sending me and to Kris for letting me come....oh and to Rich for letting me harass him. He's a good sport!!!

Randy and the kids survived their weekend very well too. I think the kids like it better when I'm gone, it seems that Dad is more fun than Mom!!!

So since I've been home I've been busy, busy, busy! It's all good busy though. I am doing a craft show next week after Thanksgiving in Spanish Fork.

So naturally I've been busy making my bows and magnets for it. Plus I had some large orders for the bows too. I thought I was never going to get stuff done for the show, but it's starting to come together! So please stop in and say "Hi" if you are in SF next weekend. Ruth is doing this show with me and will have her oatmeal/goats milk soaps there, that are great! She even did a batch of Cherry Almond that is fabulous. I'm excited to be there and even more excited to be done. Then we will be up in Draper in December doing the Spotted Zebra Boutique. I'll have more info on that one later.

TAGGED!!!

I got the

4TH FILE . . . 4TH PICTURE TAG!!!

This is Dallin's pinewood derby 2 1/2 years ago. It was his first and not the best one for him. He received the "Most Original" award if that tells you anything. He did have fun though!!!

Now I tag:

Kristine &

Stacey (who needs to update anyway!)

HALLOWEEN

Well Halloween really snuck up on me this year. I didn't feel prepared at all for it. This is the one thing that our town does well though. They have a town trunk or treat and everybody goes to it. Even the old people come and pull out their lawn chairs and hand out candy. It is nice, cause then there aren't trick or treaters at our house all night. Ciara didn't really know what to think. She thought the candy was great, especially the suckers. She wanted to hold those in her hands and not in the bucket. A lot of the costumes made her nervous though, so dad had to carry her most of the way. Dallin trick or treated with us while Ky stayed at the car and handed out candy. She had a Halloween party to go to afterwards and had a lot of fun. It sure is nice when the weather isn't cold on halloween and the kids don't have to wear coats.

The kids have decided that they would really like to start hunting and so we are getting them signed up for hunters safety. So Saturday we took them out shooting. They had a lot of fun and didn't do to bad. (They get that from their MOM!!!) Ky has a hard time closing one eye though, we had no idea that she could not wink! Kind of funny! Dallin was really excited about shooting his squirrel target (paper) right in the center. And even Ky got the center of her rabbit! And Ciara used this time to be the drama mama queen that she is!!! The kids had been shooting for quite some time when she decided that every time a shot went off that she needed to milk it for all it was worth to her daddy and would pretend that it was scaring her. It was quite cute and really funny!!!

A SMALL WARNING!!!

As you may remember I have stated in past, that blogging has been very therapeutic for me. ( My Therapists name is BLOGGER.COM, please feel free to use it!!)

The following post is no different. This blog has always been intended for our family and friends and so I have given a lot of thought about sharing the following video, and I know that I wanted to share it with those who are closest to us, as many of you were with us a year ago when we lost our little Aspyn. The video does have pictures of Aspyn. So I caution you to please watch it with reverence and respect and listen to the words of the song. The lyrics were written by a women who also had a still born child and then she asked Michael R. Hicks to write the music for it. This song is beautiful and the words are very healing and peaceful to me.

BORN STILL ~ LITTLE ASPYN

HAVE SOME HEAT

Ciara has never been a big sleep-in kind of baby. She is not much of a napper either. So when there was a couple of times that she was sleeping in quite a bit over the past few weeks I thought it was kind of awesome but weird too! You have those panicky moments when they do that and you have to go in and check to make sure everything is all right. Well here is what I found ...

She really likes the heater, she says "hot, hot!"

Her heater puts out quite a bit of air!!! Doesn't it look like according to her hair that she should be flying?!

That must be a good time!



Now I know that if the heater is on, more than likely she will be on the heater and not sleeping in!!!

SMART?!!!

Last night Randy and I went to dinner. We went to this fabulous little Chinese restaurant in Payson called Tsing Tao. We really like it there. The food is great, especially the teriyaki chicken and the coconut chicken, and the wait staff is fabulous and friendly! Last night our waiter asked if we wanted chopsticks, this is the first time we have been offered chopsticks there. Randy said yes as he has become quite good using them after spending so much time in Asia. He even has a preference of what kind of chopsticks (no metal). So we are eating our food with our chopsticks when the waiter comes up and starts talking to us. He is talking so fast that we can barely understand him, but he is saying something about how we look smart and something about if we have used chopsticks before. Pretty soon I see him handing out chopsticks to more customers and showing some of the kids how to use them. This guy is just very friendly and you can tell he is enjoying his night. He brought Randy and I some cake and then our ticket with the usual fortune cookies and tells us to come back again! He looks at Randy and says "I will remember you, you are very smart" while gesturing to his head and pointing out Randy's receding hair line. LOL I don't think he was being offensive at all but I'm wondering if the Asians believe bald men are smart because they are bald! It gave us a good laugh and of course we will be back. How can you not when dinner is that much fun.

Just as a side note, I do think that my husband is very smart and attractive, but I would never had considered that the balding part is what made him look that way!

A SWEET REUNION!!!

She's here, she's here!

And in Maddie's own words "Listen up! This baby is ours!!!"

Malia made it home, safe and sound on Thursday. Just a few days after she turned 1. She was greeted at the airport by her family and a whole lot of friends. This is their first family pic and she looks like she has always belonged. And it would appear that Mom and Malia have the same hair do!!! Having children is such a blessing and Malia is no different! She and her family have waited for so long to be united together. Kristine has said so many times "all in the Lord's time", which isn't always easy to accept, but they have been so patient through the entire process and as always, Heavenly Father DOES know what you can bare! And now she is here and is perfect. She has been an absolutely wonderful baby and is full of love and smiles!

CONGRATULATIONS JEFFER'S FAMILY!!!

Jesus Loves the Little Children

And Ciara sure loves him too! We have a ceramic figurine of Jesus with the little children and a sheep that sits on a stand in the living room. Ciara is always trying to play with it. Today she went up to it and started saying oohhhh, and gently touching it. Then she was excited about the kids on his lap and his shoes. Then she started pulling it towards the edge of the stand trying to kiss him, but she couldn't reach it. So she grabbed him off and before I could stop her she hurried and gave him a big hug. She has this new thing when she gives her babies and animals hugs that she squeezes them really tight, and makes a noise that I don't know how to write it. But it IS really cute. So she does this with Jesus over and over and giving him kisses!!! It was really sweet so I had to take some pics and share!

Pictures of Korea

GOOD NEWS MINUTE!!!

First of all, due to the fact that Randy and the crew got the install done early and it is a holiday in Korea today, he is already on his way home. We will have our daddy back tonight!!! It will be so nice to have him home. We did find out a few days ago that his schedule might be changing when he gets home, but we probably won't know until next week.

Next, and this is very exciting!!!! My sister and her family got Malia's travel call yesterday.! What does this mean exactly? This means that after more than a year of the adoption process that their sweet little Malia is coming home to her family next Thursday. Her 1st birthday is on Monday, Oct. 6th. We are so excited for them to finally be getting their little Korean Princess home! Kris, I am sending a WOOT, WOOT out to you!!!! Patience does pay off!

Is that just not the sweetest smile!

A Life of Service

"God the Father gave His Son, and Jesus Christ gave us the Atonement -- gifts of unfathomable depth and value for us. Jesus gave His gift freely, willingly to us all. One of the sure signs of a person who has accepted the gift of the Savior's Atonement is a willingness to give." Henry B. Eyring, Giving with Joy, Ensign, Dec. 1982

Our countdown to October is almost officially over. You may remember several months ago I posted a blog saying that when October came around that our family would be focusing on giving more service to those around us as a way to honor our little Aspyn. I also challenged and invited those who read this blog to join us. As the time has gotten closer I sill feel that it is very important to do but have wondered if it was necessary to make one month out of the year seem more important than the rest to serve those around us. It may seem weird to some that October is the Ogden family service month. Let me explain a little more about why we are doing this.

When Aspyn passed on we really didn't know what to do or what to expect. But before we had the time to figure this all out we immediately were given support from our family and strangers that we did not know. Even at the hospital I had nurses and hospital workers that came to give emotional support and offering to help with making arrangements for Aspyn. I was amazed at the generosity of Amy Engle and the time that she spent at the hospital taking care of things for us. Such as taking pictures and putting together a memory box for us to keep. She was there almost the whole day ready to give of her time. Not much later we began to have family come to the hospital as well. Randy's parents came and were a big help to us with furthering the arrangements of what needed to happen as well as took the other kids to eat and brought them to the hospital, and were just an all around comfort to us. My mom hopped on a plane and got here that evening and was a big help with the kids in making sure that things tried to stay as normal for them as possible. If it weren't for her they might not have been trick-or-treating last year. My sister was available for me on the phone every time I called her and was a great listener as we shed tears together, even at 5:00 am when I woke her up to talk! It didn't end there either. We continued to receive support from people all around us even from people we didn't expect. Meals were brought in for several days, arrangements were made for graveside services and burial, we received gifts of love from family, friends, and even people we hardly know. At that time we had not really ever had the need of service from others, besides the occasional helping us move kind of thing. The amount of love and kindness that we received at that time was very touching and as I look back now it was also inspiring. So now we want to be able to give back.

We are taught in church to love and serve others. The two really go hand in hand. How can you love somebody and not want to serve them as well. So we decided that October we would really focus on giving to service to others in hope that we will make it a part of our lives always. I know that we have our families that keep us pretty busy and I remember in a VT lesson a couple of years ago that it said our service should begin in our homes with our families. However, we need to make great efforts to serve those in need as much as possible and incorporate our families into that. For our children who are older they can learn so much from our example but also by being a part of it.

It is my hope that by focusing on service this next month that we will become more in tune to the needs of others and be able to bless their lives as ours was blessed last fall. When I think of the Savior I think of how much he loves each of us, and how his mortal life was filled with service and charity. He gave all he had to everyone around him. And now he still serves and love us and we get to know of his love through the service of others. I knew that he hadn't forgot our family because he sent others to us in our time of sorrow and they brought his love with them. We need to always be willing to share his love with others, which means serving others, even if by small and simple means! Let us all follow his example and be better givers of service!

(Is givers even a word?)

An Update on KOREA

I know this is about a week late, but Randy made it to Korea safe and sound, and without any sleep on his flight. He arrived in Seoul last Friday and spent the night in Suwon. On Saturday morning they jumped on a bus for a 4 hour trip to Gwangju which is where he is now and will be for the remainder of the trip. He says his hotel is decent and hasn't minded the food too much. He doesn't particularly care for the Kimchi which happens to be the main food in Korea. He's been eating a lot of rice dishes with veggies and pork. Yesterday he ate mostly western foods with lunch at Burger King and spaghetti for dinner. His first night in Gwangju he ate at a traditional Korean restaurant. You must remove your shoes at the door and the sit on a pillow on the floor up to a table. The waiter didn't speak English and I don't think Randy knew what was on the menu so the waiter brought him a whole bunch of food to eat. He says he ate it and was getting full and then the waiter brought him some more! LOL

Randy has been working the afternoon shift so he goes in typically around 2 or 3 and works until about 11 pm. Well he arrived at his hotel room two nights ago to find a strange man asleep in his bed. By strange, I mean that Randy didn't know him! The man was not waking up so Randy headed down to the front desk to let them know there was a problem in his room. They employee went with Randy to try and wake the man up and he wouldn't even respond. Needless to say he was very drunk and passed out on Randy's bed. So the employee and Randy started gathering Randy's stuff to move him into a new room . . . I guess he didn't want a roommate! As they were gathering his stuff the man still passed out began to vomit. HELLO!!! He must have had a good night or a really bad one, but it still didn't wake him up. Needless to say I'm sure he didn't have a good following morning! Randy got a good chuckle out of it. He was a pretty good sport about the whole thing. It appears that the guy got off on the wrong floor and his key just happened to work in Randy's door. Moral of the story . . . don't leave anything valuable in a hotel room in Korea and don't wander around naked!!! You never know who's going to be coming in and it may not be room service!

We are sure missing Randy here but he is doing well over there. He's anxious to get home, but while he is there I'm hoping he can get some good shopping trips in!!! LOVE YA BABE!!!

Retail Therapy Baby!!!

Okay, so I deliberately "forgot" to mention a little shopping trip Ciara and I took after we left the airport the other day. I felt so bad for Ciara missing her daddy and probably having no idea why he wasn't coming with us. So on our way home while she was crying for her dad, I asked her if she wanted some new shoes, (I know...I'm horrible!!!) and she said "yes"! I knew she would, she loves shoes. She gets that from me! So we made a side trip to the store to get some shoes. She really liked it, we got her some fall clothes and a couple pair of shoes. I tried to get a picture of her "therapy" today so she could show daddy, but she wasn't so cooperative!!! She just likes to see herself in the camera. So here is the best one I could get! BTW she says "HI DAD"!

HELLO CUTENESS!!!

From the Canyon to the Fireside, Zoo, Home Depot, and Korea

The cooler weather has been so fabulous that we have tried to take advantage of it! Randy got off work early on Saturday so we headed up the canyon again. This time we just took a picnic though so we could spend more time chasing Ciara!!! Kylie decided to go with her friends family to another canyon though, they were taking horses and 4-wheelers, so of course that was more fun. It was cool enough that we needed jackets. Ahhh . . . jacket weather is the best!

I had organized a youth/parent fireside with the missionaries for this last Sunday. I was quite nervous if anybody would show up. Our ward has a great record for not showing up...example; in a town of just under 1000 we have 1 ward with an average attendance of 27%. So I wasn't sure anyone would come, let alone to a fireside about how to fellowship and share the gospel. I had organized a youth choir to sing there as well. Needless to say, the choir sounded beautiful, the missionaries gave awesome talks, and the bishop told me that was the best attendance they had ever had. It was a great fireside!!! The choir did so good that they are having them sing their song in sacrament this Sunday. I hope that the message will stick with the youth. The spirit was really strong and the message was awesome!

Randy, Ciara, and I went to the zoo on Monday. I thought Ciara would be getting old enough that it would be fun for her, and the weather was perfect for it. So after a few wrong turns we made it there and boy did Ciara have fun! She would hardly stay in her stroller (except walking up hills) and she loved running around. Her favorite part about the zoo was probably the carousel. (Should've been our last stop) Her next favorite thing was probably the water in the exhibits. She would see the animals and make the sounds they make, or say what they were, but as soon as she saw water she would get so excited saying "water, water, see, see?" It was really funny, until we went to look at the penguins and she saw their pool and sat down to start taking off her shoes so she could go swimming! She also liked talking to the other little kids around her. We were there for a few hours and by the time we were leaving she was pooped and about 20 minutes down the road, she was out!

Well with all of this excitement that meant Tuesday we needed to make a trip to Home Depot. What's a week without HD? Don't ever let anybody tell you that the Provo HD is going under, because I'm quite sure we keep them funded!!! LOL We went to get that paint we needed for the wall with Randy's gun and of course picked up some other stuff too! Randy also finished the chimney to the stove, so now we are down to doing the brick work (any volunteers?), mantle and book shelves. Can't wait until that's all done!!! I got the wall painted yesterday and it looks fabulous. Randy took his gun out to shoot since he had a new muzzle break put on, only to find out that it was too small and had to take his gun back in to get it fixed. Then I had a nice relaxing night with the YW making "Charity Never Faileth" jars.

So now we are up to today and the Korea part. I had to take Randy to the airport this morning so he could jump ship to Korea for 2 1/2 weeks. For work of course. I know he just got back from Taiwan 2 months ago, but is anybody listening to me? I'm telling them right now, he needs to be home for the rest of the year!!! Ciara daddy, daddy, for 20 minutes after we left the airport. She was sad we dropped her dad off somewhere and of course doesn't know why. It broke my heart. She finally fell asleep in the car around Lindon. She really loves her daddy!! So the good part about Randy going to Korea is that he will get to pick some stuff up for Kristine to have for her baby. Malia is still in Seoul and will hopefully be home soon, but this way they can have some things for her from her first home! Randy will not get to see her as it is not allowed anyway. And he will only be in Seoul for a few hours and then he is off to Kwangju which is at the Southern end of the country. The worst part of these trips is waiting for that phone call where he says I'm in my hotel. Let's see, I have about 15 hours until then. We all miss Randy while he is gone. Especially his super, great, BBQ burgers!!! Ask the kids, they are the best!

We LOVE and MISS you Randy! Be safe!

Uh-Oh He is 11 Now!!!

Do you realize what that means? In one year he will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood, he will be a Deacon and will be my little man passing the sacrament!!! I'm so not ready, especially since we all know how time flies, I'm not going to be ready then either. I'm glad I have another year!

Dallin's birthday was on Friday and naturally that meant we had an early start! 5:00 am early, since Randy leaves for work around then and who wants to wait to open presents until 7:00 at night. Yeah right, like I could wait that long to give them to him! He was eager to get up and was so excited for new jeans that he could wear to school the same day. (On Fridays they get a semi free dress day) He didn't even want to go back to bed after Randy left. It is getting harder to find things for him. I think it is so much easier to shop for girls than it is for boys. I think it must be harder for him to think of things that he wants too. He could only say that he wanted a motorcycle and books. Books okay, motorcycle. . . not happening my friend! After I got done making salsa last week he wanted his own jar of that too! He likes when we can salsa before his b-day so he can get his own!!! We had some "Better than turning 11" Cake, which of course is better than a lot of things, and then had to watch Indiana Jones! It was a fun day for him. He has been a pretty easy kid to raise. He is usually pretty relaxed (sometimes too relaxed), and laid back. He has a sweet heart, and really looks out for Ciara. He really likes to play with her and her toys. He is such a great kid and who could resist that cute face?! Yes, I'm a bias mom.

Dallin's B-day

Finally a Cool Down!!!

But not necessarily a slow down! It is so nice having the kids back in school. Ciara really misses Kylie while she is gone though. Now that it has cooled down some I got to take Ciara to the park where she could play without getting burned on the toys. She really likes the park ... like is an understatement. I think she would swing all day if she could! We took a little picnic and ate, then she played on the swings for about 20 minutes. When we went to get our stuff all packed up she saw some birds in the parking lot and went to chase them off. She tried calling them back by patting on her legs like you do to get a dogs attention. She wasn't to happy when they wouldn't come back.

My mom made a surprise visit last week. I didn't tell the kids she was coming so they came home from school last Wednesday and were very surprised to see her here. They had a great time with grandma. We even woke up one morning to quite a laugh when Ciara came out of her room. Randy had put her to bed the night before and had stuck one of those plastic diaper covers on over her pants! It was very cute, but she seemed a little embarassed. Dad's are funny!

This week has been the week to get stuff done! I have canned a bunch of salsa and we can hardly wait to eat it! We are big fans of salsa especially the home-made kind so I'm sure we will be doing more so it will last at least until next fall! I dragged Randy up to Tai Pan on Monday to do some fall shopping. He wasn't to excited about it, but he ended up finding some great hooks to hang his shotgun up with. Earlier this year he did some refinishing work on an old shotgun he inherited from his Grandpa Black. He wanted to hang it up for display, so he was pretty excited when he found these hooks. We have extra wood around so he found a piece and sanded it up really nice. I was so impressed with his work. It turned out great. I stained it for him and we hung it up yesterday. It looks really great so of course that means we will be repainting the wall!!! I've given up on the idea that I could possibly be done painting in the house. Oh well, I always enjoy seeing new walls!

Pics of the Last Week