october in review

calendar quotes:

"i may not agree with what you say, but i will defend to the death your right to say it." -Evelyn Beatrice Hall

the path to happiness-in mortality and in eternity-is really quite simple. "simple" however, doesn't necessarily mean "easy".

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well we started the month out with a wonderful general conference, i am enjoying going back through those talks. the messages i remember most from conference were: the very first talk by Elder Richard G. Scott "to acquire spiritual guidance" about the Holy Ghost...something i am having to work on alot lately. and i also loved Elder David A. Bednar's talk "more diligent and concerned at home" i can always work on our atmosphere at home...and i loved that he said building faith is about being consistent-i don't know if i'm reaching my kids sometimes, but i am consitent in teaching. and i will never forget Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands testimony of the Book of Mormon-very powerful!

i worked 3 days for potato harvest, driving a potato truck...it wasn't too bad-i am horrible at backing up and very slow at a big rig =) i have learned something about myself though, i can work and every job i have had i get compliments on how hard and good of worker i am...but i don't want to work-i love staying home with my family! i am so thankful that i have been able to so far.(i still have my application to substitute in the schools on my counter since august-can't bring myself to fill it out yet!)

my oldest sister had her surprise baby boy-tyden. my koy just loved holding him and has asked numerous times when we will have a baby.
we missed out on picking potatoes with christy this year, but we still made our yearly potato people-my favorite was brookes...
i said, "that is the cutest potato i have ever seen!" and brooke responded, "yeah it has to be cute, it's sirri and sirri is cute!"
we made carmel apples for FHE-they were a hit...

and they helped brooke loose her tooth...

the tooth fairy gave her $5 and she wanted to go to the store to buy some gum. she bought her pack of gum and she returned very excited to me and said, "the store man gave me more money than the tooth fairy"...she got back 4 one dollar bills and some change...what a cheap tooth fairy ;)
we were so happy that the straw maze was open again this year-we went early in the day...

we went through 4 times and had to cheat through this hole all 4 times to get out...

we did go back after 9 when they haunt the maze...it went exactly as i predicted: kelsi-was mad because we had to leave before we found our way out and kaden-didn't like the dark and brooke-left in tears after the chainsaw guy chased us and i learned koy-could run fast. but it makes for some good memories and stories told later!
my brother chad and his wife, heather and their little boy, beckett came up to visit...a long drive from washington and we loved seeing them and are so excited to spend a week with them for swim camp (and so excited that they are going to have another baby).

kaden and i got to go to a very cool show up at the college...the great kaplan (or sometimes mediocre, as he joked when tricks didn't go so well) it was so fun to see kaden in awe at magic tricks and get all his very silly deadpan humor. kaden commented at the end..."i am so glad that he shares his talents with others."

kent started a new project with all his spare time (ha,ha). he is building a much needed new deck and of course it will be fabulous. kent is amazing at designing, working, and making...i'm excited to see the finished project! the kids have enjoyed playing on it at all phases: it's just like a new playground. this night craked me up-they were having races with the cats across the boards...

of course we finished out the month with lots of halloween fun-we had a carnival for pack night, carved pumpkins, went to the rexburg motor sports carnival, the school carnival, and a carnival at the rex...yes, we love lots of halloween fun! they didn't have the carnival at the nursing home this year because of the swine flu. here's 3 of the kids...

kaden's costume was quite the fiasco this year...he wanted to be sora, from the disney game-kingdom hearts. i don't even know where he comes up with his ideas sometimes, he loves being something different and seeing if people know who he is. we looked on line and actually bid on a costume on ebay for $40...alot of money i thought for a halloween costume. well we didn't win the bid and i was floored when i saw what the costume went for, $110-for a kids costume, are you kidding? well we talked about other ideas but he really wanted to be sora, so i made it and it turned out pretty close to the real thing and all for about $20 including the key blade...

it turned out pretty fun to make and i love homemade costumes! and the best part-kaden loved, loved, LOVED it-that makes it totallly worth it!
kelsi surprised me and still dressed up this year-yay! and she wasn't even a football player...

i love when the kids get home from getting all their treats and they dump them all out and sort them all into piles and trade...

at the school carnival we had talked about going to the middle school spook alley, but after the straw maze scare-koy and brooke didn't want to so i told them they could put the $5 into the raffle drawing. koy put all the tickets into the nintendo ds jar, which was the fullest-so i told him you probably won't win. well he won...

he said "i told you i would win mom!" he couldn't be happier-he wanted one for his birthday and i told him he was too young and them he told me he would ask santa for it and i told him that i would tell santa he was too young...what a lucky duck!

koys treasures

i found this rather big screw in my dryer and i had to giggle, my koy is always putting all kinds of treasures in his pockets...he always wants to keep them and i hate finding them all over my house-so i told him you put them in your pajama drawer and i won't throw them away.
well, i discovered he has quite the collection =)

kids triathlon

see kelsi get done swimming 100 yards...

see kelsi bike 3 miles...
see kelsi run 1.5 miles...

see kaden before he swims 100 yards...

see kaden bike 3 miles...

see kaden run 1.5 miles...

see brooke swim 50 yards...

see brooke bike .8 miles...

see brooke run with all her might .5 miles...

see koy swim 50 yards...

see koy bike .8 miles...

see koy run .5 miles...

i wish you could see how proud their mom and dad were of each of them!

they did AWESOME!!!

new ward

we are part of the newly created teton river ward...it is so exciting that our rexburg area is still growing and that we needed to create a new ward (and just recently a stake)-i am so excited to get to know new people and start a new ward adventure!

our garden

"yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart..." -Doctrine and Covenants 59:18

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i love this scripture because it is so true, having a garden really gladdens my heart! there are few other places i'd rather be than working in my garden-this is the beginning...

we had a very wet spring and we were so lucky to get everything in by June. but everything also loved all that water-especially my strawberries...
i usually have lots of berries, but they were ridiculous this year-i couldn't even keep up, but i'm not complaining! when we were taking out the sunflowers, i was amazed at all the lady bugs. i always have alot in my strawberries but nothing like this, i was sad to take away their home :(
i had to get a picture of my corn this year, it was so big-all that water. and i know it is actually just normal size but for idaho this is tall...

i usually am lucky to get corn to grow to my shoulders. and eventhough i am so excited to plant and work in my garden-i do have to say one of my favorite parts is actually getting it all cleaned up for the year. it's almost like clutter to me after awhile! and who doesn't love all the colors and feeling of fall coming! i just wish fall didn't turn into winter so fast here...kelsi stuck all the kitties down her shirt as she shucked the corn...

they kept her nice and warm. kent made a make shift hanging rack for all our tomatoes and there was a bunch...

I AM SO THANKFUL FOR SUCH A GREAT HARVEST:

56 sandwich bags of frozen strawberries

24 sandwich bags of strawberry freezer jam

63 quarts of green beans

12 sandwich bags of frozen peas

about 4 gallons of rasberries (we ate them all-yum)

about 4 dozen delicious honey crisp apples

60 sandwich bags of freezer corn

53 pints of delicious homemade salsa

red potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, cucumbers, (little)watermelon, and zuccinni

frozen peaches from my mother-in-law

12 quarts of bottled peaches from my mother-in-law

24 quarts of apple sauce from my mother-in-law...

my mother-in-law is so kind!

a freezer full of elk meat (from our other kind of harvest)

super brooke

brooke loves to ask questions, a million questions...sometimes it gets a little much. after annoying kaden with too many questions one day-he commented "you know mom if brooke were a super hero, she'd be QUESTION GIRL!-
she could baffle the enemy with her endless questions!"

september in review

calendar quotes:

"in the current world-it is the mothers who take the role of soldiers, fighting in the trenches to protect their families" -Janeen Wright (mother of the year)

"earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; and only he who sees takes off his shoes" -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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well we started off the month with koy's turn to start school...he was so excited!

his teacher is mrs. jill and she just couldn't be any sweeter! koy loves going, he is in the afternoon and he is so excited on pre-school days it's hard for him to wait for it to be time to go. and he is equally excited his best buddy, connor goes too!
kent thought up a fun little idea for the yard...a bike track. the kids have had so much fun riding their bikes and the 4-wheeler on the hills.
we even get kaden outdoors to enjoy it :)
our cat had 4 kittens, the kids love to play with them...this is our second and hopefully last batch for the year. on this morning they were all huddled in the warm water feeder (empty of course).

kelsi finished her volleyball season. it will be nice to see her more, she had practice everyday until 5:30. it was so fun to see how much she improved from the start to the finish...her team did awesome, they only lost to one school.

we have had such nice weather, i love all the outside play we're getting in. brooke loves riding the 4-wheeler: it kind of seems weird that both of my girls love the 4-wheeler better than their brothers...this day she gave sled rides to all the neighbor kids. they were all laughing so hard!

we even made it to egin lakes again at the end of the month...oh yeah! i'm not ready for winter, we're having way too much fun!

and to end the month kaden had a school pow-wow. his class did a big indian unit for school and put on a program for the parents. they danced and showed their projects and talked about interesting facts...kaden loved it...he absolutely loves his teacher this year. it's so fun seeing the joy learning gives this kid :)

I LOVE HUNTING!

no kent did not pay me to say that :)

kent invited me to go hunting with him this year, i was quite surprised...but happy that he wanted to spend some of his limited time with me. so of course we had to get me some camo and practice some cow calls (my job). we left early on friday morning, but not quite early enough...just as the sun was coming up we spotted a 6 point in a field nearby where we were going to hunt, we weren't quick enough to do much but i thought it was a good sign to have seen one already. we got to the area where kent wanted to hunt and got out of the truck and started to hike. well right off the bat we start to see where a bear had clawed the trees and the very first creek we cross we see big bear and baby bear tracks...not what we were hunting for! i did not want to see a bear, or hear a bear, or smell a bear, i didn't even like seeing traces of bear. we kept on hiking-kent wanted to see if a wallow from the previous year was still a hot spot for the elk. this is the wallow behind us...

i guess the elk like to play around and cool themselves off in it. we did see some elk tracks (and more bear) but nothing recent. so kent made a few bugles but didn't get any response. we went on hiking...i actually loved all the hiking, the forest (yes, forest in idaho) was very green and pretty and a little noisy-who would think squirrells could make such a raquet dropping nuts. then kent bugled from another area and he got a bull to start responding to him. that was pretty cool-i didn't realize that kent actually can really talk to elk...full on conversations! pretty cool :) but this elk was lazy and wasn't interested in coming close to us. so we stopped to smell the flowers...
literally-the wildflowers were so pretty! we took a little break (boring part) and then hiked to another spot for the evening, we crouched down and waited for a couple hours (another boring part) but didn't see anything so we headed back for the truck and into driggs for something to eat (the first time all day). then found a spot; close to where we were going to hunt the next day, to sleep. the next morning we got up and one of kents friends-seth met us and we headed out again! we hiked for about an hour and then kent started to bugle. well we immediately got a response and kent thought he could just keep calling him in...in the mean time seth had to get back to a baptism. so kent kept calling and getting response but the bull quit moving closer, so we started to sneak up on him...this is actually quite fun-i like acting sneaky! pretty soon it was obvious that we were getting close, so kent set me up with the elk decoy (a giant cow bum to hide behind and my trusty cow call). but we couldn't get any response to the cow call...so i told kent to try to bugle again and he kind of looked at me like that's not how it works-but since we weren't getting any response anyways there was nothing to lose, so kent bugled again and what do you know the bull bugled back. this bull didn't want a girl, he wanted a fight-or he was gay :) pretty soon i could start hearing the bull come crashing through the forest and i was scared at this point...i was about 30 yards from kent in a clearing and you could tell that bull wasn't happy we were there-he kept letting out mean huffy breaths...i actually wanted to cry. well he walked right in front of kent about 12 yards away...
that's kent hiding! kent put one arrow in him and then another at 17 yards...i was still hiding behind my decoy and then i saw kent reach down to get his camera, so i stood up and that bull was just standing there. kent took a few pictures of him and then the bull walked away. well, when i went over to where kent was he said he thought that the elk looked like it was going to drop right there so he didn't put another arrow in him. we surveyed the scene and found a little blood and one arrow-kent was starting think that he hadn't had a good shot. but we ended up finding the blood trail and i was ready to go on a treasure hunt! kent informed me again that that's not how it's done, you have to wait awhile for elk to lay down and die...that just didn't seem right-i mean we got it and now we were just going to leave for awhile. crazy! so we hiked back out(it took about an hour and a half). we went to seth's house to look at the pictures that kent took. we got something to eat(only time this day too). we went back around 3 to find the elk...come to find out that elk was only about 90 yards away from where kent shot and it was a good shot. kent and seth started to gut it and cut it up: seth called his brother and father-in-law to see if they could pack the meat out on horses...they were such lifesavers and so nice to help at the last minute and give up their evening. we didn't get home until way after midnight: we shot the elk around 10-it was a long day...but it was worth it!