Gingerbread Trees

I think Gingerbread houses are neat, but not neat enough in this instance to warrant dealing with crumbly graham crackers that won't stay glued together. So we did trees instead. Short, sweet, fun with no "glue" involved. Lauren thought it was "SO FUN MOMMY!" I'll call it a win!

Gavin just ate his. :)

Lessons from the Vacuum Salesman

We ran into an unexpected missionary opportunity last night with the Kirby vacuum salesman. I'm such a sucker for free stuff and getting the chocolate milk stains out of Lauren's carpet for "free" was too good to pass up. But long story short, the salesman ended up being stuck here for over three hours because the boss was being slow to come and give the final price and what not.

We were ready to eat dinner and he was all done with the presentation thingy so we invited him to eat with us. Chase asked if it was okay if we said a prayer and he asked if we were religious. We talked a little about the church and then he was amazed with the bottled pears I'd brought up from the storage room. So we told him about emergency preparedness.

He asked questions about how long we'd been married, school and such. He made a comment that made me think he was sad that he didn't have anything to "show" for his life up to that point... especially since he was only two years younger than we are and selling vacuums. (Not that it isn't an honorable profession...but yeah.)

I commented later to Chase that he had seemed intimidated by all we'd done with our lives as far as school, house, and family. Chase responded, "Well, that's what the Gospel does for us. It gives us a purpose and a direction so we don't have to wander and wonder what to do with our lives."

So true, I guess I'd never thought about that in terms of the decisions I made to go to school, get married and have a family; it was just second nature to choose those things because I'd been taught the Gospel my whole life.  I felt sad for this guy; we could tell he was floating in life, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do and not having any answer.

How blessed we are that the way to happiness is lined out so clearly and living the Gospel makes it possible to make the decisions to get there.

So in the end, we learned a lesson, and I got to vacuum our whole house with a fancy vacuum for free! :) (And for the record, Bissel vacuums don't hold a candle to Kirby's.)

Lately

Seems like we've been busy... but not sure with what! We've been getting ready for Christmas I guess.

Lauren is really into the whole Christmas thing this year. Christmas morning is going to be awesome! She is a little upset that there isn't snow every morning, so hopefully we'll get some eventually so she can build a snow castle. She's been doing great at preschool. She's so funny; she doesn't like to walk in by herself but will wait in the driveway until another kid gets there and she yells, "Hi friend!" and then run in together. She's become quite the creative little negotiator trying to get out of things. I'm excited to see how she does starting sunbeams in a few weeks.

Twirling in the tree skirt

Gavin is just Gavin, sweet and spunky. He never sits still, loves to empty all the drawers in the house, squeal and scream, run, play outside and eat cookies. He learned how to fold his arms for prayers and thinks he's hot stuff. He's such a tease and so friendly with everyone. Both of us are very ready for nursery though! Three more weeks... First time back in Relief Society last week with him was interesting, to say the least.

"Chillin' on the couch Mom."

Chase finally got some contract work coming through after a year waiting for the company to come through. It's been exciting for him to try out something new.

I've just been sewing, cleaning and cooking. Although with two kids trying to give up naps it's been interesting trying to be sneaky about getting presents done!

My brother was in another bad typhoon last week. Not as bad as Haiyun last year but still strong enough to evacuate and move the missionaries. He was finally able to email this morning with some crazy stories. The wind blows the rain so hard it seeps through the concrete walls of the apartments! We're very thankful that all the missionaries are always watched over.

Primary

I said goodbye to primary on Sunday. It made me sad. I loved primary... it was happy, simple, and fun. The saying " All I need to know I learned in Primary" is true; Heavenly Father, Jesus, Prayer, Faith, Families and choosing the right.

It was my turn for sharing time. After the lesson, starting to close by bearing my testimony I said I was sad. One cute five year old boy looked up at me concerned and asked, "Why? Why are you sad?"

"I don't get to come to primary anymore and I'll miss you."

"Oh, that is sad."

In senior primary later another boy said, "I'm sure you're going to a better place." And everyone cracked up.

"I don't think relief society will be quite as fun as primary though."

"Mmm no... but it will be okay!"

And I smiled. That's why I love primary.

I'm excited to see what experience I'll get with a new calling, and relief society really will be okay. 😊

Mixed Emotions

This is how Lauren and Gavin feel about the snow:

 

 

And this is how I feel:

The lovely fall weather was great while it lasted!

The Sparkly Shinin' Princess and a Growly Bear

The "Sparkly Shinin'" Princess

....and the growly bear!

Cousins make the best trick-or-treating companions.

Bobbing for donuts, Gavin had the right idea- just pull it off!

Lauren thought it was pretty fun.

"Singing" at her preschool parade. She wouldn't crack a smile or sing the whole time! Little stinker! :)

 We had a great Halloween! How about you?

Autos Anonymous

Hello, my name is Amy and I'm a car killer.


Update: The van is fixed. It wouldn't start leaving us stranded in a parking lot. But thankfully my sister came to rescue us. After replacing the starter, taking it back after the mechanic broke a solenoid...we have our "reliable" vehicle back. I must have jinxed it with my previous post. Seriously, but all's well that ends well! :P

Sassy Pants and Dapper Dude

Took some pictures the other day... this is what I got. Sums these two up just right! Now to pick some for the Christmas card.... :)

Transportation

I think I can safely say we now own reliable methods of transportation.

Introducing: Dash, a 2005 Honda Odyssey. Pretty sure this van was designed by a mom. It's awesome.

 And Big Truck-Truck, a 2003 Ford F250. It's HUGE! The acquisition of this vehicle was completely unexpected. A few weeks ago when Chase's grandparents were in town, Chase mentioned he was casually looking around for a bigger truck: one that he could haul drywall and cement to finish the yard and basement with. Lo and behold Papa was in the market for a smaller truck, like a Ford Ranger, that was sitting in our garage and he happened to own this nice F250. Papa was so generous to just swap trucks straight across! Chase couldn't stop smiling for days!

 So now he has his "man-card" back since his truck is now taller than the van. His manhood was in jeopardy for awhile since the van was taller than his truck. ;)

And not to be outdone... Gavin had to pull out his truck too. :)

Lauren is quite taken with this new Big Truck-Truck. 

We're sure feeling royally spoiled and blessed around here!

Big Kiddo, Little Kiddo

We've been watching Cinderella a lot lately. Lauren was dancing and asked if I would dance with her, I grabbed her hands and she said, "Phew! My prince is here. I'm the princess and you're my Prince Mommy!"

Playing the other day I was pretending to be asleep after spinning Lauren around... without skipping a beat she jumped on top of me and said "You wanna build a snowmaaan?" I had a good laugh.

Tub time is a favorite, especially when it involves bubble fights.

Even his sad face is cute...life is hard when you're little and get stuck behind the couch.

"I'm a good helper Mommy!" She thought the apples were magic that they turned into applesauce.

Playing at the park enjoying the fall weather. (Lauren did have fun. :P)

Whenever I'm carrying both of them Lauren tells me they're my two kiddos. A big kiddo and a little kiddo. :) Gavin really is a little kiddo, today at his well check appointment he'd dropped to the 8th percentile for weight, but jumped to the 32nd for height! Guess that's what happens when you live on crackers and cheese! Lauren, on the other hand, is already transitioning out of toddler clothes and into girls. Sad day.

Conglomerate Update

Gavin's walking! Has been for about a month now. It seems like one day he decided to let go of the furniture and the next he was running. He has a temper. For the most part he's pretty chill and content. But now he knows how to stomp his foot and scream, very loud. He's still a great sleeper, he hardly makes a peep when I lay him down. He just giggles and grins, grabs his blanket and rolls over.  I feel like he's grown up a ton these last few weeks. He doesn't seem like my little baby anymore. He has the cutest smile ever, it just makes me happy.

Lauren loves preschool for the most part. Today she didn't want to go because the other kids have giant hands. (?) Can't figure out that one. I was worried about melt-downs but she's done great! She's trying so hard to give up her daily nap. I don't think she needs one every day, but I can definitely tell that she needs one every few. She gets quite ornery when she doesn't have one for a few days! I'm quite sad that she's almost given them up.

My birthday was last Saturday. Chase's family took me out to breakfast, I went to lunch, shopped and Women's Conference with my mom, sisters, grandma and aunt. It was a great day! I was thoroughly spoiled by my family and good friends. Chase found me a patio umbrella for our picnic table. I'm excited to try it out. Maybe next year.

We've been canning up a storm this year. Pears, tomatoes, and salsa are done. Applesauce is tomorrow's project! I like seeing all our shelves full.

We found a reliable vehicle! We found one here in town that we liked fairly well, we just didn't like that we'd need to do some maintenance on it in the next few years and the leather was all cracked, but it was a good deal and had low miles so we thought we'd just go with it since we hadn't found anything else. But Chase looked online the day before we were supposed to buy the one in town and found an awesome one...in Provo. Long story short, I ended up going to Provo with my sister driving us and our three little kiddos, frantically trying to find the dealership and the bank before they closed. But we made it! We named the van Dash, since the first movie we watched in it was Incredibles and it was seriously a mad-dash to get it.

Chase's sister blessed their baby this past weekend so we had family in town. Chase's grandparents from Arizona stayed at our house and it was fun to see them again! I was glad Lauren was so excited to see them, it's hard to remember people when you're that little but she knew exactly who they were.

I've got a ton of sewing/craft projects on the docket... so many that I'm not sure where to start. So much fabric and so little time! I've got sewing ADD I think. Work for a few days on one project, then move to another so my sewing rooms ends up looking like a fabric store threw up. In my defense I'm trying really hard to use scraps and not buy any new fabric!

Dirty Dash=Done

Months ago a good friend asked if anyone would be interested in running the Dirty Dash. Chase signed up and took it up a notch and got my group of high school friends to sign up too. The idea of running wasn't appealing to me, and add mud on top of that...I decided not to do it, just be the cheerleader. Someone dropped out last Monday so there was an extra spot, so what the heck! I might as well try.

And I did it! There were a lot more hills than expected and the mud made it harder so I did walk most of the way, but I'm glad that I did it and now there are great stories to tell! Next year I am definitely going to prepare more and do the 10k. I've never done anything like this before and I'm kinda proud that I actually did it!

At one point in the race there is a HUGE inflated water slide, I went down head first, got to the end and realized there wasn't a way to stop, so I flipped around flew off 4 feet off the ground and smacked the back of my head on the mud mountain below the slide. Thankfully I didn't get a concussion, although my neck is pretty sore from the whiplash. :)

We spent the whole weekend at a condo in Midway with all of us. Nobody ever thought we would still get together, but 8 years later, we're still going strong! Thanks for the fun weekend everyone!

First Day

She did it! I know I must sound like a million other moms out there, but I'm so proud of her! I've been a little anxious for this, not knowing how she would handle the first few days. But she did great! She walked right in and didn't look back! This morning she jumped right out of the van and ran in all by herself. She wouldn't give me a smile when I tried to take her picture... she was ready to go and annoyed that I was taking too long. :)

Ducks!

We took the kids to feed the ducks a few weeks ago up at First Dam. They had a blast! Best 84 cents we've ever spent for a whole loaf of bread. It started raining while we ate our picnic so we huddled up under a tree and watched the rain till it blew over.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I'll start with the good:
We have a swing set! Not in our yard yet, but it's on its way! And a trampoline! There's very much excitement going on here. We've been keeping an eye out for an affordable swing set for months. We headed up to Idaho again this weekend for my cousin's homecoming. It was so fun to see family that we haven't for a long time. (Carly saw my brother in the Philippines after the typhoon when they were transferred to the same area for awhile. She gave an excellent talk!) My Grandma and Grandpa are selling their house and offered the swing set and trampoline in the back yard. Yes! So it's still up in Idaho in pieces, we'll get it here...eventually! Very good; good to see family and blessed to get a sturdy swing set and trampoline for free!

Now the bad:
The van died. Pretty much we're sick and tired of having unreliable vehicles. We considered the idea of getting a horse and buggy, but figured with our luck in transportation lately...the horse would probably die. We were blessed though that it was acting funny and then died right as we pulled into the auto parts store. Could have been a lot worse...although we are in the market...again. We finally made it home and thankfully, Chase's parents were willing to drive the van down when it's out of the shop. I was really sad we had to miss the Ogden Temple Open House this morning though, hopefully we can make it down before Saturday!

And the ugly:
The weeds in the garden grew like 3 feet while we were gone. But our beans and tomatoes look awesome!