beautiful morning

 Neighborhood field trip to the Ogden Dino Park

just a kid practicing their photography skills

have some whip cream with your pie

Always have a messy face pic in these random posts :)

Look close and you can see the kids. Love nights like this!

I was hosting a few events in Oct, so I bought a bunch of succulents to decorate.  They were 50% off and I love them!

 
a stop at Mrs. Cavanaugh's Candy shop

Young Women activity coloring alphabet books for the refugees.

I had been working all week to get my yard looking good (for this and those other Oct events) and it started off a beautiful night.  We watched the thunder storm roll in and then it POURED.  So...plan B.  Moving to my kitchen.  Which was a total and complete disaster.  George was at work so the kids were in the house by themselves for a while I finished cleaning the toys in the yard and setting up tables on the deck.  Well, there was junk everywhere. Chip trails on the floor, couches, etc.  Books spread all the way down the hall.  All the dishes spread over every space of counter top.  Clean laundry baskets dumped with their contents spread throughout the house.  (Remember, I'd been focusing on my yard for a few days.  Quite amazing how quickly things can get out of control).  Anyway, one of my Laurel girls put her arm and told me she liked me much better after seeing this.  When I laughed she said, "It's just nice to see that other people's houses get as messy as ours.  It's good to see you're real."  hahaha!  But I've thought about it a bit.  Of course, I'd rather have a clean house but letting people see our real selves can be endearing.  My backyard was looking quite lovely that week and the girls liked hanging out there, but it was the messy kitchen that actually brought us closer together.

September brought little bursts of corn canning.  I ordered a few bags from the Matthews farm (so sweet and delicious) a few times.  Doing tons at one time doesn't really work for me.  I get too stressed.  But 40-50 ears at a time is about perfect.  And the same goes for my laborers.  :)


 Clara LOVES corn!  She'd just walk around repeating "corn, corn, corn."  and could eat 2 or 3 ears in a sitting.  I'd also find a few nibbles in the raw corn pile.

Expelliarmus!

corn thief caught on film!

Erik loves to do anything with a knife.  :)

 Corn always reminds me of my grandma Marjie and grandpa Grant.  Their patch was huge!  And they always shared with the whole.  I have good memories sitting outside under the awning shucking corn with grandpa and Poppy, grandma Marjie's dad.  Poppy would chuckle as grandpa would tell stories and sing. I remember grandpa bringing more wheelbarrows full of corn and wondering if it would ever stop.  ha! Funny how certain foods bring back memories and pull at your heart strings, but I'm sure grateful for grandparents that worked hard and showed us it could be fun.  I guess that could be why I'm insistent on this canning stuff.  That and the fact that it tastes 100 times better.  :)

The week before General Conference, the Women have their own conference - just all women ages 8 and above.  Since Elise turned 8 at the end of May, this is her first one.  So we decided to go down to the Conference Center and watch it live.  We got a fantastic parking spot but it fooled us into thinking that we were early enough to beat the dinner rush.  Nope.  Women craziness.  We tried a bunch before we settled on fries and drinks with dinner afterwards.  Elise's feet were killing her.  She chose shoes that were fancy and darling and matched her outfit, but way too small.  *sigh*   What is it with us girls?  ;)  Lucky for her, I had Erik's flip flops in my purse (???).

 This conference was extra special because the Young Women I serve were singing in the choir!  Thirty of them.  What a special and unique experience!  The music was extra beautiful and it was a neat thing to hear about their experiences as they shared them the next day.


 Afterwards we ate at the Blue Lemon and ate our desert while we waited.  Yum!  Elise was especially impressed with her stacked grilled cheese.  Put food on a stick and it tastes so much better.  :) Love hanging out with these cuties.

Cole was my "running" buddy.  Erik started out with us too, but once he saw dad and Clara on the sidelines, he was out of there.  The older 3 took off with friends.

Austin was pretty sure he did not want to do this. But gave it a try anyway and loved throwing the color!

Lucy's hair stayed colored for about a week

cheerleader

"after"  pic  - minus Elise who was running with friends the whole time

There's Elise!

much better!  (at least in mom's opinion)

We explored some new places.

And went back to our old favorite spots.  Of course, the swings would have to be one of those.

brotherly love ... or chokes. ;) The kids spent a lot of time racing leaves, sticks, or whatever.  The boys thought this was especially cool.

just a peak of the fall colors coming on

 The most significant thing that happened was Lucy beat George in a foot race.  You heard it here first.  I think he was pretty shocked the first time.  And blamed it on his shoes or something. :)  So a re-match was called.  And she did it again (but may have had a little help with diversions from her sibs this time).  Yep, these parents are getting old.

Until next time, Beus pond

We also picked some apples that we were going to make into desert but ended up eating instead.  Just an all around, great afternoon.  My favorite kind.