In December?

I have done more canning this fall than in the last 4 years combined. By the time I finished my salsa, beans, jam, and pears I called it quits and put everything away. Then on December 1st my mom brought me some pears from my uncle's tree. My first thought was, NO! I'M DONE CANNING! They were ready to put in bottles when I got them so I spent the first day of December bottling pears. It's a good thing they came later, because I had to use bottles that I'd already canned in once this year, but we had emptied. These pears even turned out yummier than the ones I'd already done. Thanks mom and Uncle Clare! Now I'm officially done canning for the year!

All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!

After JR and Conrad crashed on the trampoline JR had two really loose teeth. I tried to pull them out the day before Thanksgiving, but they were hanging on. Sunday after dinner I convinced him to let me try again and this time I was successful. It's been funny watching him try to eat things like apples and take bites of pizza. Maybe he'll get some new ones for Christmas.

How do mom's know so much?

I logged onto my blog today and realized it's been quite a while since I posted anything. I don't have any new pictures, but Addie made me laugh the other day. After I fed the girls lunch I put her down for a nap, as we do every day. I went downstairs to work on a project and who would you know came down about 15 minutes later. She just walked in the room and said, "Umm, that was a good nap." I thought this was very clever of her, but what amused me the most was remembering back to the day when I tried the same thing on my mom. It didn't work for me either! How do mom's know so much?

Mmmm, the good stuff!

I know I haven't updated my blog for a while, but if you know me you know that I like to make little projects big by letting them pile up and tackling them all at once. So now you have a months worth of events to read about

The past two years I have ordered bulk Guittards chocolate chips and dipping chocolate from Karen so now that we live 900 miles apart I had to place my own bulk order. Thanks to a friend here who knows far more people here that I do we were able to gather the minimum 500 lbs. required to place an order. Emillie and I laughed about me weighing out 5 lb. bags of chocolate on my new "Biggest Loser" kitchen scale. Do you think they had this in mind when they marketed it?

Volleyball

This was Taralee's first time playing volleyball on a team and she really had a great time. Her team was undefeated when they finished their season. She is already looking forward to playing next year.

Trick-or-Treat Time

Can I just say that we had the best weather in Halloween History this year! I'm pretty sure I've never been trick-or-treating in flip flops before! I made Emillie put this costume on (she wore it to school) for a picture, but then she was off in a flash to spend the holiday at the corn maze with her friends. Taralee trick-or-treated with us for a while, but she, too, eventually went her own way with her friends. Addilee was so cute running from door to door, with Boots waving his hand out of her backpack, collecting treats. She only lasted about a half hour or so and then she wanted to go home. I took JR and Melanie a little longer, but after another block they declared that their bags were too heavy and they just wanted to go home and eat their treats. I wasn't about to argue! I think they had just as much fun handing out treats at our house, and yes, you guessed it, we passed out toothbrushes!

The Great Pumpkin Carving

Carving pumpkins is something that I could really do without, but in the essence of making memories it is something that we do every year (usually another great FHE). Melanie was so careful with her pumpkin and spent over an hour carving it's delicate little features, right down to the ears! She was adamant that no one help her and even asked the next day if she could work on it some more.

Time Out!

Karen and Elizabeth have been asking me to come back for Time Out For Women since before I left. I really wanted to go, but didn't feel like I should spend the money to make the trip. I guess I got over that because a little over a month ago I booked a flight to Omaha and found a couple of Grandma's to stay with my kids. I really had a great time catching up with friends and staying up late laughing. Look how tall I've grown since I moved away!

This is just a really great shot of Karen. She and Elizabeth thought it was really fun to take a bazillion pictures with my camera. Although this was my favorite, the one of the strange lady walking by was a close second. Oh wait, my second favorite was the one of Karen's second and third chin.

Here is the group of ladies that I went with. Most of them I already knew, but a couple were new to Nebraska since I'd left. Tracy and I discovered that we both grew up in Idaho only she attended our rival high school. I guess she turned out alright despite the obstacles she faced. Just Kidding! We all enjoyed the speakers and came away feeling glad we had attended the meeting.

Only Karen had trouble with the Mime statue pinching her butt.

Trip to Nebraska

Of Course all good trips involve food. Here is the group eating at the Old Mattress Factory (sounds yummy, right?) during the lunch break at Time Out. My bunny ears are complimentary from Karen.

Here are the mom's of our group, Tayna and Amy. I couldn't believe how big these boys grew since I saw them last!

Isn't this a flatering picture of me? We had to really squeeze to fit all of us in at P.F. Changs. Our fortunes last year were so close to our own personalities and current life situations, but this time they weren't nearly as fun. We laughed about how good they were last time and since I was the one to keep them I told them I would include them in this year's blog so here they are:

Natasha: Life is a tradedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think

Wendy: You are contemplating some action which will bring credit upon you (she had a baby the next year)

Kristina: You have a deep appreciation of the arts and music

Suzanne: Depart not from the path which fate has you assigned

Karen: Maybe you can live on the moon in next century (I hope she lets me come and visit)

Colleen: Your future is as boundless as the lofty heaven (I'm still waiting)

Elizabeth: You like participating in competitive sports (She's back into running races since she had her twins later that year)

I had fun going to the Y early Thursday morning and surpising my friends there. As luck would have it Sue and Nancy already had a Starbucks date set for Friday morning so they babysat me there while Karen was hard at work folding shirts at Scheels. We had a good time catching up and laughing. They were both leaving for trips the next morning. I can't wait to hear how Italy was!

Halloween cookies

Every fall we have a FHE where we decorate halloween cookies as a family. Addilee was so cute this year, being so careful with her frosting. After 5 or so minutes on one cookie I asked her if she wanted to put candy on it. She got so excited and proceeded to cover her cookie with a mountain of candy corn. The next morning she went right to the kitchen to find her cookie. It took her all day, but she eventually ate the whole thing by herself.

JR's Flag Football

JR had so much fun playing on this flag football team. He looked forward to every practice and every game. The last two games were so cold that I was glad the season was over!

Taralee's Halloween Party

Taralee wanted to have a Halloween Party with some of her friends so we took atvantage of a day off of school and planned a fun party. The weather was warm enough to play our games outside and of course we had fun making and eating ghost cookies, mummy pizza'a, pumpkin rollups, and candy corn cake. The girls all got to make a halloween hair scrunchy to take home.

Our Flood

We had our first big rainstorm since moving here about a month ago. We were so bummed when the water ran down the foundation and through the footings of Taralee's bedroom. We pulled the carpet back and dried things out as fast as we could, but we will probably have to replace her carpet. We now have a long hose attached to that downspout to take the water away from the house!

MVC

As a Most Valuable Customer at Kohl's I was recently awarded with an additional 30% off, which I have been waiting for. I bought new towels for our bathroom and the main bathroom, but my most exciting find was this mirror and picture that were on clearance.

Progress

We had a cement patio and 3rd driveway poured over the last couple of weeks. They are done now which is nice, but we still have alot of work to do before we are ready for grass.

How to tell your not a vampire...

Justin and I signed up to give blood last week. I've never donated before so I was a little nervous. It really wasn't bad, even though I was declared a slow bleeder and watched people "hook up" after me and finish before me. The best part: they told me no strenuous exercise the next morning! My running partner didn't mind so we walked instead. It's sure good know that we are not vampires :)

School Spirit

Last week was homecoming for our high school and Friday was spirit day. Emillie borrowed a cheerleader costume from the neighbor and wore it to school. She was a hit with her friends and even won best dressed for spirit day out of the whole school. Her big prize: a crunch candy bar. YEAH! It was even better when the team won the game that night!

This week we play Highland. I'm pretty sure a bobcat can take a ram anyday! (We'll see what some of our cousins have to say about that)

What I've really been up to...

One of my good good friends, who shall remain nameless, informed me that I need to update my blog more often. I've been trying to think of what I've been doing that is blog worthy. I don't have pictures, but if I did they would be of chopped vegetables all over my kitchen for salsa, kids helping me "pick" beans (I finally had to give Addilee her own bucket to snap in so that I could go through them when she was done), and jars and jars of plum jelly. We were late getting our garden in because of the move, but we spent the 4th of July planting beans. We aren't getting as many as we would if the weather was still hot, but I've still managed to get 57 pints and I'm hoping for another picking. Our really great neighbors noticed that there is no way our tomatoes will be ripe before frost (since they are barely starting to get green ones) so they gave me enough tomatoes from their garden to make 2 batches of salsa. Another friend gave me plum juice which I turned into yummy jelly. Of course we had to have warm homemade bread to go with it!

So that is what I've been up to the last few weeks!

Eleven!

Taralee was so excited for her birthday this year! She almost couldn't stand waiting until 9:00 that night when Justin got home to open her presents.
When he got here he gave her a picture of a "really cute boy". Too bad he is the only one that can see him. She was so excited for mirror that she wanted it hung up immediately.
Her new luggage tag for her new suitcase.
All her loot
You know birthdays at our house are all about the cake! She picked this one which made me happy because it was so easy and cute. She didn't want writing on it. Happy Birthday Taralee!

Office Party

I made this cake for Justin's first Office Party. However, I forgot to charge the camera battery and when we got to the party it was dead so this is the only picture I have.

Your how old?

For her 13th birthday, Emillie picked this present cake. She was surprised with a flower delivery as school from Mom and Dad.
She loved the ice cream cone so much that she couldn't put it down long enough to blow out her candles. All the other pictures show her licking it while we were singing Happy Birthday.
This is Emillie's new friend, Laurie. The are together about 27 hours a day.
She was so surprised with her gifts, even though they weren't boxers. :)
This is the face of a true party girl!