Family Home Evening with our cousins . . .

. . . carving pumpkins!!

I love the above pic. It just captures the craziness that is when we get the youngins' together. Add a sticky, gooey mess of pumpkin guts, somewhat sharp objects and hey, now we're having a good time!!

I had pretty much decided that I wasn't going to do our traditional 'carving of the pumpkins' this year. Then my super fun SIL called and invited us to come over to Grandma's with them and have a BBQ and carve up some pumpkins for FHE. Oh the guilt!!
I caved. Mainly because I'm trying to be better about having FHE every week. That, and the fact the I didn't have to actually plan a lesson or make dinner? I was so there!!

Here's Dad, Audree, Sophee, and Josh (Kaylee was on her way from soccer practise):

I usually only buy 2 pumpkins every year, then we split into teams-one team with me, and one with Kory-that way it's not so chaotic with just 2 adults trying to simultaneously trying to help carve 4 pumpkins. The kids don't seem to mind at all, it's cheaper, and I think they like having a little 'competion' with the other group.

Sophee and Josh with their pumpkin:

Kory, Audree, and Kaylee's pumpkin is on the right:

The whole gang showing off their creations:

It was fun to get together with family for FHE. These are memories in the making!!

Us girls love our shoes . . .

Especially when they're super cheap!!

I had to run and get a couple of things at K-mart the other day. The kids and I happened upon a huge shoe sale. They were clearing out a bunch of summer shoes for over 75% off. Wahoo!!

Here's Sophee's $2.50 sandles. They have a little heel to them, which she absolutely loves. Check out these gingham checked shoes. I totally love them. Haven't worn them yet though.
They were $3.50. Even Kaylee likes them. That's a good sign when your teenager approves. I think it means I'm cool.

Audree opted for some simple white flats. $2. Thank-you-very-much.

I also happened to get these brown heels (which is actually something I needed):

A side view of the cute buckle:

And the best part? They were only $2. I'm such a bargain shopper.

Kaylee also got some shoes, but was not home when I decided to snap some pics.

Poor Josh. We tried really hard to find him something, but there wasn't a very big selection of men's shoes on clearance.

I just love me a good clearance sale.

Josh-isms

Today I was in a mood to get my disgusting floors cleaned. I realized a long time ago that when a 'cleaning mood' strikes, you better go with it right then and there or that mood might not be back for awhile. Although, I really prefer to mop when the kids are either in bed or at school (since our kitchen is the 'hub' of the home, mopping while 8 little feet are running around underneath me really isn't a great idea). But, alas, the mood was here and I had to take advantage of it. So, after vacuuming all the carpet downstairs, removing all the little rugs to be washed, moving all the chairs onto the carpet, sweeping the tile, and finally starting to mop I guess Josh noticed that I was working a little harder than I normally do on a Saturday.

He then came up to me, just before I was finished and said, "Mom, if you clean this whooooole house you can have a dollar!" Me: "Really bud? I can have a dollar?"
Josh: "Not until you're all done."
Me: "Thanks bud."

I'm still waiting for my dollar. I guess maybe I didn't do a good enough job.
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This next picture is a little blurry because it's a picture of a picture. But, I need you to see it so you'll understand the next story:

That's Audree's face in the picture. Our stake primary presidency came down and did an activity with our primary kids at the beginning of the year. While here they took pictures of all the kids. Then, some super creative lady photoshopped the kids' faces into this picture with Jesus. When Mother's day rolled around this was the little gift that the kids gave their Mom's. It was such a precious idea! I got one from Kaylee (who was in the primary at the time), Audree, and Sophee. Poor Josh missed out because he's not in Primary anymore.

So after church that day, as we were heading home I was admiring my new gifts from the girls. Josh wanted to see what they were. He grabbed Audree's picture, took a lengthy look at it, and said, "Heeeeey! When was Jesus here?"

Poor kid, no matter how many times I tried to explain how you can 'photoshop' things he just wasn't getting it. He still feels like he got jipped out of seeing Jesus.

Hometown Parade

It's a nice, quiet evening tonight. Kory and Audree are down at the soccer fields watching Kaylee's game, Josh is at the football game with his respite worker, and Soph and I are just kickin' back at home watching Bugs Bunny. I just pulled a coffee cake out of the oven and the house smells all cinnamon-y. Mmmm. I'm just loving it. So, since I have a free moment, I decided to do a little post.

Today is the High School's homecoming football game. Since Kaylee and her cousins would be participating in the Homecoming parade I decided it might be fun for the kids and I to go and watch. We ran and got slushy's and then set up our chairs along side the road. Here are the 'patiently' waiting cuties:
Here are the girls waving some banners that the football team was passing out.

Josh got a football tossed to him. He was pretty excited about getting that. Oh, and he decorated his t-shirt in the school colors all by himself:

Here comes the Jr. High marching band:

There's Kaylee-second row, second one in, wearing the black shirt with the big "S" on it (for SADD club), and white t-shirt hanging out the bottom:

Her first parade! I'm such a proud Mother!!

Audree turns 8 !!

Our sweet little girl just turned 8!!



She requested that I make 'ring' cupcakes-again. So I decided to change things up a bit and make them into cupcake cones. Yummy! I hadn't has these since I was a little girl. Oh, and since she has a super sweet tooth, just like her Mother, she helped me dip them in colored sprinkles after we frosted them.

Here's Audree getting ready to blow out her candles. We just had a simple little party at home since we would be having the baptism with all the family members later on in the week.

The following Sunday was the big day!! Grandma and Grandpa Evans even got to come, and Grandpa snapped this shot of Audree getting her hair done before leaving for the baptism:

All ready and patiently waiting . . .

Audree was baptized by her Dad. We are so proud of the decision she made to do this!

Kory and his 3 girls. They all seem so angelic now. Life is going to be interesting once they all hit their teens ;-)

Our family:

All in all it was a great baptism. We had all the family members that live in the area here-plus my parents. We are so grateful that they made the trip up to share Audree's special day with her.

Girls' bedroom make over . . .

We've been slowly re-doing the rooms in our house for the last 4 1/2 years.

Because Audree and Sophee were pretty young when we started the process, they never really expressed a desire for me to re-do their room (unlike Kaylee and Josh who nagged about it constantly until I finally dropped everything and did their rooms). So for the past year or two they've been bugging me about the fact that their room 'sucks', and everybody else's room looks good.

So a few months ago I had the girls pick a color that they both could agree on. Originally it was blue. Then Audree changed her mind and said that she wanted it to be green. So, I set out to find some bedding that had both blue and green. The cheapest thing I could find was about $60 a piece, and that didn't including shipping. I really didn't want to spend over $120 on bedding. So I waited. And waited. And the girls nagged, and nagged about how I promised we could fix up their room. Luckily, with it being 'back to school' time I was able to find some cheap twin bedding that had both of the specified colors.

Here are the before pics:
(I didn't bother picking anything up before taking these pics-just keeping it real for ya'.)

Here are the 'after' pics:

(Taken before the girls got home, just to make sure that it looked good and clean.)

That cute little tree is a sticker. When I showed the room to Kory he was so impressed with it-until I admitted that I didn't actually paint it myself.

I plan to paint some flowers on the grassy hills, but my SIL is supposed to help me do that, and she had some things come up at the last minute. So once that's done, I'll post more pics.

I made the curtains from a $3 bed sheet and a couple of spools of ribbon. They are just stapled to old pieces of wood I had laying around, and mounted with brackets.

The little shelves were once used to house some of my stamps. They used to have doors on the front, but a certain child of mine colored on the front of them with a permanant marker, and I couldn't get it off. So I just took the doors off-they would've just been in the way.

Something should probably go on that bare wall over the bed. But, Sophee likes to put her feet up on the wall at night when she's tossing and turning and trying to get to sleep, so I've decided to just leave it blank for now. I'm sure when the girls get older, and accumulate more stuff, we'll have to put up a few shelves.

I made these memo boards out of some material I've had laying around, and some ceiling tiles I grabbed from the tire store:

Hopefully I will actually finish up with the flowers soon. The beds also need a face lift-but that probably won't happen until we get new carpet and have to take them apart.

The girls are beyond thrilled with it-and that's good enough for me. For now.

Back to school

Well, since it's almost time for me to go back to school, I should probably post about the kids' first day back before all my homework causes me to be MIA.

For those of you fortunate enough to live in the blistering heat of AZ., you get to send your kids back to school at the beginning of August-Wahoo!!

So here they are-all ready to go on their first day.

Sophee & Audree: Sophee is now in 1st grade. At the end of the school year last year she asked me if she could be in her same teacher's class for 1st grade. She was a little disappointed when I told her that she couldn't, and that everyone gets a new teacher every time they move up a grade. Weeeeeellll, come to find out, her teacher ended up moving up a grade, and she get's to be in her class. Sophee was super excited. Especially since this teacher is soooo awesome with the kids.

Audree is a big 2nd grader now, and as I walked the girls to their classrooms the first day, she quickly bounded off to her class without the need of me :-(. Sophee, on the other hand, asked me if I could stay in her classroom with her all day.

Next, we have the ever cool Jr. High student, Kaylee:

Kaylee is in the 7th grade this year. She is super thrilled not to have PE on her schedule (for this quarter anyway). She is in advanced band, and honors language arts, and seems to be enjoying all of the 'socializing' she gets to do.

And last, but not least, Josh:

Josh started High School this year. I can't believe my baby boy is in High School. I'm getting old.

So far things seem to be going great for him. All the Special Education kids get to 'work' in the cafeteria to earn a free breakfast. Josh is thrilled with the idea that he now has 2 jobs-one at the High School, and one at the Tire Store. He is also thrilled to be able to take PE again-as they have an adapted class for the SP.ED. kids. Through out high school he will get the opportunity to learn more life skills-like cooking, doing laundry, etc. He keeps telling me and Kory, "I'm going to learn to cook dinner for you guys". Boy, that would be heaven!!

Anyway, there you have it. I will be starting my '3rd year as a Sophomore' (as Kory puts it) next week. In march I will put in my application for the Dental Hygiene program. Wish me luck!!