Halloween Fun (plus some)....

The girls had loads of fun with Halloween this year. Emily was Eeyore for Halloween. Emily wasn't too sure about her costume, but as soon as she figured out she gets candy when she wears it, she thought it was a good idea. Brooke was a witch (again) this year. I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween this year, and she said, "I want to be a witch. A nice one."

For Enrichment in October, I made a Christmas table runner. I do not claim to be good with a sewing machine...so when I made this runner and it actually tuned out decent, I was pretty pleased with myself and my little project. Here's a picture of it (Sorry about the quality, but I don't have the best of cameras, yet...I keep hinting for one for Christmas, so we'll see if I get my wish or not!).

A side note....can any of you believe it is already November? In my brain I knew it was just a short bit away, but I can't believe it is already here...before I know it, it will be a new year. Where does the time fly?

Pictures I promised...

Here are some pictures from our latest rendevous to G&G Tolman's house.

Brooke is showing mom what face she wants carved. She said she wanted a "scary face." She found an owl face that looked scary, so we tried it....

Parents and kids start in on their pumpkins they picked from Grandpa's garden.
Yep, Brooke is taking a "much needed" break...Mom scooped most of the junk out and did most of the work, but Brooke helped some, too.
The grandkids (and me because Emily wouldn't sit) with their final products!
Here they are!! Brooke's pumpkin is the first one (remember it is "suppose" to be an owl...no laughing, please). :0)

Visit to Grandpa & Grandma's House...

So the girls and I made a quick trip to Idaho for the weekend. We left Thursday and got back yesterday afternoon. It was a fun trip, but it is always nice to be home. My mom had surgery on her hand and my younger sister, Katie, had a her second baby girl, so it was nice to go visit the new addition and to help my mom out (if I helped any).

While I was there, I made 36 pints of applesauce, too! After finishing off the first box of apples and 1/3 of the way through the second box, I told my mom, "I'm done." That was enough for me for one day. The night before, I had a long night with Emily. I think she is getting her two-year molars. She gets a fever and doesn't feel very well when she teeths. So, of course, I didn't plan on her teething while we were gone, so I had no meds with me or anything of the sort. My dear brother and his wife were kind enough to run into town to get a few things for me, while my mom ran to a neighbor's house toget a thermometer (somehow, she had gotten rid of all of hers). After we got some motrin into Emily, she felt a lot better. Through the night, however, her fever returned and she didn't sleep well. She only would sleep ON me, and for everyone who has ever had a kid sleep on them, you know neither of you sleep well. But, by the next afternoon, she was feeling well, and still no teeth have poked through. Yipee! We get to go through this again!

On Sunday, we had a birthday party for Jill's husband, Josh. We had dinner, cake and ice cream, and then carved pumpkins from Grandpa's garden. It was a lot of fun.

But, all in all, it was a good visit. I didn't take a camera with me, so when I get pics back from my sisters, I'll post some pictures of the trip! Happy Fall, y'all (if Mr. Winter doesn't come early)!

Updates...

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I've last updated my blog! I've updated the pictures of the girls and of our family--hope you like the pictures.

Life has been super busy here, and I don't even know why! Mike has been gone a lot lately with his calling and with work, plus he is trying to study for his P.E. Exam (Professional Engineer). So, I guess I've just been busy being mom (isn't that busy enough?).

Mike and I have been fighting a cold this past week. I think Brooke has a bit of the same cold, but it has not slowed her down one tinsy bit. Yesterday I took some cold medicene. The package didn't say it was night time or day time, so I took it. It ended up making me drowsy the whole day! At first I thought the cold had taken a turn for the worst. I couldn't get off the couch, and when I did, I felt light headed and extremely tired! By the time the medicene wore off, I was feeling a little better and put two and two together to realize that the medicene had me feel so horrible. No wonder I didn't feel very well, it was making my body want to go to sleep and I was fighting to stay awake! I looked at the package later in the day and under the warning section, it said it may cause drowsiness. Hmmm, smart move, Jenn! Anyway, I feel like a new person today. I still have the cold, but feel like I have soooo much more energy today.

The girls are doing well. I took Brooke to a speech therapist earlier in the month to check her speech. When she talks she misses a few sounds (i.e. the "th" sound, "l", "r", and some others). The therapist said she wasn't too worried about Brooke's speech for her age. The therapist said some of the sounds Brooke was missing were not worrisome until she turned 7 or 8 years-old. She did, however, give us a couple of ideas to try and gave us some material to practice saying some of the sounds. Brooke is already picking up on the sounds and learning the correct way of saying them, now it is only a matter of making it habit to say the sounds the right way!

Emily is growing. Mike still calls her "Squirt" because she is a lot smaller than Brooke was at this age. Emily is 19 months and average for her height (32 ") and weight (22 lbs). When Brooke was the same age, she was 6 pounds heavier and a few inches taller, so to us, Emily is small. But I have noticed lately she is growing because she's growing out of some clothes and she can reach things on the table and countertops that she used to not be able to reach. Emily is still our little garden thief. No sooner does she get outside, then she is raiding the garden of all our strawberries (green, white, or red--makes no difference to her) or rasberries. She is still pulling off my tomatoes (same thing, green or red) and calls them apples. It is really cute to watch, but at the same time, it would be nice to enjoy some of the stuff we've planted, too!

Back in April (or May?) I was called to be the Primary Chorister. I really enjoy this calling and I am always looking for fresh and new ideas, so if anyone has any ideas I can incorporate PLEASE let me know! Thanks.

Well, I think that is about it. Here are a few pictures from this past summer. Enjoy!

Pictures of the girls at the BYU-I gardens.

Family picture at the gardens.

Brooke and Emily enjoying the sun in their little pool. You can see our garden in the back ground. We put it in this year, so it isn't much to brag about this year.

These are some pictures of a wicked dust storm we had a couple of weeks ago. I took the pictures off of my back deck. You can barely make out some of the houses behind us.