WHY THIS IS A GREAT MONTH

The little PJs Ashlynn has on I bought 4 pair for the winter at Costco. I love them, as does she. The other day it was raining and I look out the front window to see Ashlynn sitting in her chair watching Britton do tricks with his skate board. It was pretty darn cute. I especially love the brown shoes she has on the wrong feet with her PJS.

COOKIES

I don't know what it is about the Fall months, but when they arrive I gain a LOVE for certain flavors. Cinnamon, Cloves and Ginger are some of them-all of which go perfectly in these delicious gingersnap cookies:)
YUMMOOOOO!!!
( 3/4 c butter flavor crisc-1 c sugar- plus some for rolling-1 large egg 1/4 c molasses-2 c flour I always need a little more-2 t bkg soda-1 t cinnamon-1 t ginger-1/2 t cloves-1/2 t salt) mix roll in sugar bake at 350 8-10 min or until just set around edges and you start to see the edges crackling on top. Do not overbake these have a great crispy outside texture melt in your mouth inside texture. If you overbake they are just crispy but still good in milk:)

SEMINARY

So, although I am NOT a fan of getting up in the morning or running to the church before 7 A.M., I have to say you can't beat the sky at this hour of the day. It is Beautiful!!! Every morning as I pull out of the driveway, it is a different scene & I find myself actually getting excited to see what the view will be. It is amazing how different every morning's view can be. With it getting darker I will truly miss this part of the morning.

Ashlynn & I got this cute little book at the library, then printed the things from it off the internet. It has been fun for her to do her own little stories. It its adorable for Halloween. We have had a blast with it. It is a fun Halloween project if you are looking for one:)

If you do not have this CD you should get it. It is adorable. We LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!
It is fun for the little kids & the older ones get a kick out of it as well. JD enjoys it and his scouts always ask for it when they are driving to activities.

HOMECOMING
DADs R THE BEST

Alyssa wanted to go to Homecoming this year with her friends. I decided that since she went to Minnesota with her friend to help her chose a dress for the dance, she should get to go with her. J.D. was not sure he agreed-since he thought she should be 16 and have a date. After talking to a few other parents (apparently kids go stag with friends to homecoming around here) he was on board. He even bought her corsage. She had a great time, but said dinner was the funnest part due to the fact that the dancing was not appropriate most the time. which makes it different from a church dance where the dancing is always appropriate (I THINK:).

I'M LOVIN IT

Lately every day I find myself thinking of things I just love about the day. Things I am excited to do, make and take part in. #1- I am LOVIN being a mom. Motherhood has many phases and this year as my kids have been gone more & more with school activities I find myself missing them a ton. I miss the Summer days of hanging out at the pool & just having the laughter of kids in the home. I love weekends when they are home however they are more often then not wanting to leave to hang out with friends but hey I will take what I can get.

#2-I am lovin the Fall weather. I LOVE our fire pit & having BBQs out back. The other night I found left over sparklers from the 4th- glow necklaces and we had a BBQ & played kickball it was a great night. However I think we need to work on purchasing some outdoor furniture the little table just doesn't quite fit our family anymore:)

#3- The zoo I think I love the zoo more than my kids do so they go to humor me. This year the zoo has some great attractions. My boys favorite is feeding these fish and trying to catch them. KINDA GROSS!

MY FAVORITE FAVORITE is the parakeet exhibit. You buy this little stick with food on it for a dollar go inside this cage thing and hold out the stick. The birds come flying all over you & it is so awesome.

The kids all loved it. It kinda freaked Ashlynn out but it was funny to watch.

I actually loved it so much that I paid for it twice.

#4-If you have a world market how fun is this pasta. I'm LOVIN it. They also have a FAll bag with leaves. I thought it would be fun to make with a white alfredo sauce so you could see the shapes. I LOVE the holidays the decorating, the crafts, the fun food I LOVE it all!

FAMILY COMES TO VISIT

Over Labor day weekend J.D.'s sister Wendy & her family came to visit. We were so excited & loved having them stay. Ashlynn is still saying she wants them to come back. They arrived late Friday & we headed to the Iowa Cubs game.

Britton & Alex were great buds. Britton drove with Wendy & Will EVERYWHERE. We went & clued them in on the facts about Iowa.

Wendy & I took the little ones home early and left the other children with the "ADULTS."

Britton doesn't know it isn't nice to give bunny ears to your cousin in a picture:)

Saturday morning it was pouring & we had football games to go to. The older boys left early & these little ones played with the play-dough I made a few weeks ago when Ashlynn was missing her Granny. I took Ashlynn to the dollar store and let her pick out about $10 dollars worth of stuff to use with her play-dough & it has been some of the best money ever spent.

After taking this picture, Alyssa took her camera for the weekend. & Ours wasn't working, so the rest the weekend spent at the science center & hanging out, we will just have to remember. It was so fun to have them visit. Thanks a million, Will & Wendy, for driving all the way to see us.

IDAHO

So the great thing about traveling in the car is you can let your kids watch videos for 15 hours and not feel guilty. Or you can feel guilty turn the videos off, have all HECK break loose & turn them right back on. We choose the peace that comes from leaving them on. Lucky I have the most BRILLIANT HUSBAND EVER & when our DVD quit working about 2 hours into the trip he pulled over bought a new one rewired it & we were off on a pleasant trip again.

Typically when we travel we stop at fast food & eat however it is kind of a nightmare. Kids screaming I want that. No one wants to sit because we just got out of a crammed car. So I packed picnic style this time. It saved us a ton of money & was so much nicer. We actually enjoyed our stops. Unless its freezing I think that will be the way to go from now on.

I love the 1st half of the trip when its just an adventure & everyone still loves each other. Its such a better picture than the 18th hour when everyone is LITERALLY killing each other.

This is J.D. every minute or maybe hour of the trip guzzling the DP.

I don't know what it is about this fire pit but it just seems to bring boys together.

Ashlynn has not stop talking about how much she misses her cousins since we got home. She always has so much fun with them. I love how her & Grady have such cheezy grins.

The older these 2 get the better friends they become.

Granny has the BEST neighborhood & Ashlynn loved hanging out with them as well.

CAMPING
Iowa has many great things. Mountains is NOT one of them. The first week we went camping and it was so much fun. I haven't had that much fun in a long time. I loved every second of it as did my kids. Scott & Rae are always so great to bring us along.

Every trail we went on was breath taking. The scenery was so beautiful. The air was so UN-humid is that a word? It was just so much fun.

J.D. had to come home & work so we could have money to play:) which left much off the mans work in my dads hands. I am so thankful for all he does for us.
My Dad worked his butt off getting his camper ready for us & helping us with everything from meals, to keeping 4 wheelers full of gas & motorcycles with full tires of air. He is so amazing.

All the other gals we went with were so much fun. They helped us with meals & just made it such a great week for our family.

Ashlynn sure loves her Grandpa & misses him like crazy!

These boys like to beg Grandpa relentlessly to ride the 4-wheeler-take them somewhere or do something for them. He is pretty good at fulfilling their wishes.

Houston & Daxon love to hang out together. I think the day we left they both cried.

One day we went on the most beautiful ride up to this lake. The kids had a blast when we got up their catching salamanders.

Daxon has 9 of them in his shirt ugh!

I love how the boys are teasing the girl in this picture.

JoAnna was adorable with them she just wanted to bring them home.

The meadows all the way up to the lake were just full of flowers like this. It was gorgeous.

I also love how blue the sky was. I think one of the things that made this trip so enjoyable is it turned out to be much longer than we had anticipated but my wonderful dad had Ashlynn so I got to just take it all in. It was a wonderful day!

These 3 could be seen just following each other around camp having fun. TOO cute:)

One day we went into Bear lake & Ashlynn got an ice cream cone that is as big as she is. She took maybe 3 licks & we threw it away. Now that is money well spent:)

My dad took the older kiddos to a play with everyone else & they loved it. Daxon who complained for an hour about how dumb it was that he had to go liked it the very most.

Once we were back home Jana came & stayed at my dads & the kids just played. It was such a great few weeks & we had such a great time. It's always hard to say good buy to everyone because we know it could be awhile before we see them again. Ashlynn is already saying how much she misses everyone. We made playdough the other day because she kept talking about her granny who ALWAYS has playdough. Family we love you & miss you thanks for always making coming such a fun memory!

1st HALF SUMMER FUN

In June Britton was able to attend his first day camp. I have rarely seen a boy so excited. Some days can be REALLY long for him. He doesn't have many friends in the neighborhood. Many are at day care & the rest are girls wanting to play dolls. His brothers are enough older that he often gets left out. A few days away with fun focused on him was just the type of thing he needed. One of his friends Tim went also & he had a great time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Jers turned 38 . His favorite movie is cars & since Ashlynn LOVES birthdays & parties & would appreciate fun decorations we celebrated with a cars theme. Jers & I both agree cars 2 was kind of a let down. He celebrated the day before his birthday playing golf, going to cars then him & I going to dinner at Texas road house. He was at scout camp for his birthday, that's why we celebrated on the 2nd and 3rd. J.D. is such a great man he does so much to bless our family. We would all be lost without him.

NAUVOO we love you!!!
So I decided we had to get out of the house this weekend I was going stir crazy to say the least. I do not enjoy tent camping but it is affordable. so we loaded up after work on Friday & headed to Nauvoo.

We stayed at Nauvoo state park. The great thing about camping in the mid-west is you camp in a park with grass not a pile of dirt. We had nice hot showers, flushing toilets, so other than the spiders it wasn't too bad. The best part about the tent sleeping is Ashlynn doesn't really remember ever sleeping in a tent so she LOVED it & thought it was the funnest thing ever.

In the morning she kept saying "mom we are having a picnic." Jers made a mountain man breakfast. It was yummy however I forgot salt & pepper so it could have used that for sure. I loved that we didn't have to do dishes .

The main reason I wanted to go to Nauvoo is to do the 3 mile trek . I wanted my kids to at least have a glance at what the pioneers had to endure. With pioneer day coming up & living so close to so many pioneer sites I have so much appreciation towards them & the many sacrifices they were willing to endure to do what they felt was right. So Saturday morning we went & picked up our handcart and off we went.

Daxon was a trooper & stayed with the cart for most the trek. J.D. made it possible to finish. We would have died without him.

Some very small hills when Alyssa & I were pulling needed help to get up. Others like in the picture below needed help to not roll down too fast.

Ashlynn was in the cart a lot. However when she was out she LOVED it. Just out wandering doing her thing, getting all dirty. She was really fun. Alyssa eventually decided she wasn't going to die & that it would be okay to at least try to enjoy it. At that point we started to get a few smiles from her.

It was so HOT & humid we stopped to take lots of water breaks. The kids all enjoyed these.

Alyssa is pulling & smiling it is a wonderful moment. In all seriousness she is an amazing kid. I don't know how her momma would survive without her.

The last 1/4 of the trek Alyssa & Riley left & ran back to the end to rest. Ashlynn fell asleep. Britton was sure he would die but somehow he made it & I thought he did amazing. He was so tough the whole time. Dax kept right on with the cart to the very end.

After we cleaned out about 30 water bottles from our cart we got to clean it up. Ashlyyn didn't budge as we scrubbed away.

Going on the trek was so much fun. We had a great time however
after 3 miles we were more than ready to be done. We also had all the water in ice we could drink, food, treats & we stopped every time nerves started to flare. How those pioneers made it with a full cart with so little to eat I don't think any of us will ever fully understand or appreciate. I am so thankful for the pioneers & the willingness they had to do the right thing & not complain even when it was hard. Often I will do the right thing but I may complain even if it is only in my head. It was funny towards the end of the trek a horse buggy of people were going by & the people all started taking pictures of us. I thought we are in Nauvoo they know what we are doing but still take pictures. Imagine being a pioneer with your kiddos & handcart full of stuff traveling to Salt Lake. I am sure they got many stares. I am thankful we had this opportunity even if for a ever so tiny glimpse of the thankfulness I have for not having to pull that empty handcart with 5 children more than 3 miles:)

After the trek we went back to camp, cleaned up and went over to Nauvoo where we played at the make believe area. Ashlynn & Britton loved this place.

Ashlynn played in this house forever & didn't want to ever come out.

These 2 just ran from 1 thing to another competing with one another.

I was surprised how much Britton wanted to play make believe. He thought all the old pioneer things were pretty cool.

Ashlynn kept wanting to ride the animals & change outfits.

After about an hour everyone from Daxon & older was tired of the heat & decided to go to one of the indoor places.

Ashlynn was not happy about this decision. So we took her kicking & screaming.

Sunset on the Mississippi

This is a fun play & the kids loved making hats to be in the parade.

Before pageant starts they have tons of pioneer games- The area where they had dancing Ashlynn kept going up to dance & was asked to dance by some 16 year old and here response was priceless. She timidly looks down walks over to me & hands me her sno cone straightens her shirt walks back over to him & holds out her hand. It was adorable to watch she was laughing & smiling & twirling with this really tall kid dressed like a pioneer. I really wish I would have had the camera.

We went to Nauvoo 2 years ago with J.D.s parents & it was so much fun. I just think it is such a great place to visit.
The pageant has lots of inexpensive food also. We kept buying the kids sno cones & pop so the heat wouldn't get to them. It was a great weekend & although I still have tons of work to do today to clean up from going I am so happy we went. It was a great weekend getaway.