Mish Mash in a Flash

Ok, that title just means I'm going to cover a lot of territory in a short time.

Halloween dinner is starting to become a tradition, it happens sometime just before Halloween and it's something "gross".  This year we has Sheep eyes (turkey meatballs with olives) and worms (spaghetti that I used black dye on that turned the noodles purple) and we had blood (fruit punch)to drink, naturally.

 Jacob gets a spotlight in this post, just because he made me laugh.  If you want to see the rest of the kids costumes go to my facebook page.  Jacob and Ben got to dress up for Halloween at school for the first time EVER.  Jacob couldn't wear his Gorilla costume to school because it has a mask so he found a witch costume in our costume bin.  His friends at school didn't even know it was him.  Jacob is a pretty confident kid to wear a girl costume to school!

 I got all the stuff for this craft and cut and sanded the wood and invited my mom over for a craft day.  I love that my mom is retired now and that she's getting into crafting.  We plan on doing craft projects together regularly now.

 Micah's birthday has come on gone and now I have a deacon (church thing if you're wondering)!  I cannot get over the fact that I have a 12 year old 7th grade child, am I really old enough???  This year he requested cake balls, or cake pops.  I had made some with my friend Yolawnda a few weeks before his birthday and he loved them.  I also made a carrot cake in case the cake balls went to fast, we had lots of leftover cake balls and Micah was happy about that.

 I could not get him to just look at me and smile, but that's ok, I got about a dozen pictures similar to the one below, he just kept making all these different faces at me and moving his head.

 My sweet mom came over to babysit so we didn't have to worry at all about the kids.  Micah (Jacob) usually watches his siblings and everything goes well, but we wanted to be able to have a night to just focus on each other and not have to check in on kiddos.  My amazing and wonderful husband took me to dinner at PF Changs, we had gone there for our anniversary a few years back and I loved it but it was too pricey for regular dates, so we saved it for a more special occasion.  Then we rushed over to the William Saroyan theater to see Kristen Chinoweth!  We were in the VERY back row and could hardly see her but we could HEAR her and that was the important thing!  She was amazing and I like her even more now.  She has a great personality and is a Christian woman.  Great night with my best friend.

 Lastly, this has been the big thing in our lives lately.  Our little girl got her ears pierced!  She was so brave and didn't cry or hesitate at all.  Daddy had previously said that 12 would be the age she would be able to get her ears pierced and I thought that was RIDICULOUS, so we compromised and said she could get them pierced when she asked (but I couldn't prod her).  She has been asking for earrings since she was 2.  I would tell her that she couldn't wear them though because her ears weren't pierced and she would just say that when she was older she wanted to get them pierced.  Tyler somehow finally decided that he liked the idea and HE was the one to ask her if she wanted to get them pierced.  We were at Fashion Fair Mall and she wanted to go into Clair's and Daddy asked...she was ready and she picked out these cute little Rainbow Daisy earrings.  She even lets me do her hair now without a fuss so you can see her ears.  Just in time for Santa to bring her some earrings in her stocking!!!

A is for airplane!

About a month and a half ago Peyton and I embarked on a new adventure with a few other mom's and their kids. We have begun preschool! It is an awesome group of moms who I am delighted to have teaching my daughter. I get to teach my own little girl and her friends, but I also have 5 other moms to share the burden with. My friend Barbara already had a curriculum set up from doing preschool elsewhere and we decided to just jump in and follow it. This last week we started over at the beginning of the Alphabet with letter A and an airplane theme (we also have color, number and shape as well). Sandy Humann, one of the other moms, set up this amazing field trip to Chandler Airport. We got to look at her father in law's plane and see the parts of the plane that the kids had learned about the day before. We also got to ride in the airplane, a little four seater. It was so much fun! Peyton and I were in the group that went up first along with Connor Linford. They were so cute the whole time. Connor kept saying, "Roger that" and Peyton was just commenting here and there about the things she saw, her little voice so quiet I didn't catch what she was saying. They were both grinning from ear to ear though. What a great experience for such young children! When we were back on the ground watching the other kids get their turns Peyton told me that she wanted to go back up, I guess 20 minutes was just not enough for her.

The best cake ever...

because I let Miss P decorate it all by herself! She used half a bottle of red sugar sprinkles (literally) and some other sprinkles as well. She had requested a Strawberry Shortcake strawberry shortcake. Yes, I meant to put that twice. The cake was to be a strawberry shortcake decorated as Strawberry Shortcake. I did neither. It was a strawberry heart cake, close enough right? Well, I was not in the creative cake making mood and I didn't think it out very well, I used 2 boxes of cake mix in one square pan and 2 round. I didn't want to bake it in layers and thought this would be a simple solution. WRONG. The cake completely oozed over the edges of the pans, so I decided to self clean my oven afterward and made the house smell like nasty, burnt, something for her family party. NICE. Those who ate the cake said it was delicious, a few said the sprinkles were a bit much.

I was also short on frosting and didn't want to make more, notice the sides of the cake aren't covered? I am so glad my family isn't picky!

Birthday Girl

Wow, my baby is 4! She just started Primary, sunbeams, finally. The other day she fell and hit her head and immediately said, "It's ok, I'm ok, I'm in Primary now." That comes up a lot lately, "I'm in Primary." She is a big girl now. She loves to help me, especially in the kitchen. She loves Pink and Purple, Barbies and baby dolls. She REALLY doesn't like her hair done. She loves to have jammie days, most every day lately. She has her bath and everything and then goes right into another pair of jammies. She loves to watch Scooby Doo, have stories read to her at night, mommy to sing to her and then mommy to lay with her.

Here she is helping to knead our favorite, homemade naan (Indian Flatbread)
Here she is in her new dress from Nana Paula on her very first day of Primary.

This Summer...(3)

We did window art. I went yard sale hopping with my friend Deanne and found some window paint. They loved it.

This is the finished product.
Peyton got to go to a little gathering of girls at the Bogle's house. She loved it. She got to taste fresh coconut (which she didn't like), swim, and she came home with a ring pop...

We took all the kids to see Hello Dolly. 3 of our family members were in the play and it was done very well.
Jacob got to experiment with water and the freezer. He discovered a way to make a glass out of water, very cool.

This Summer...

I crafted! This was a copy craft from my sister in law Becca. She made one similar to this and gave me her leftover paper and I made my own. Thanks Becca.

Love these flowers. I also got to use my yard sale Cricut!
Peyton found the chapstick Daddy got in his stocking that he gave to me, you can see why he didn't like it below. Peyton was very proud of herself. (side note, love that girls bedhead!)
I was introduced to Pinterest and carried out a few ideas, here is one below.
Peyton got a few hand me downs from cousin Sophie and this skirt was my favorite, goes perfect with her handed down boots and shirt too. Many people at church said she looked like Hermione Granger. Love it. Thanks again Becca.
So, now that the kids are back in school and I only have 2 home during the day I am finding some computer time and I am going to get caught up on our summer happenings. So, look for my This Summer... posts.

Our Utah trip in the smallest nutshell I could fit it in!

This was our best trip yet to Utah. We love LeGrand and Becca and Bryan and Helga. They are our family, yes, but they are also some of the best and most fun people too. We also got to spend some time with their extended family, LeGrand and Bryan's in-laws, and they're awesome too! It was relaxing and fun.

We had our traditional waxing, somehow Tyler got away without participating this time. My nose is already hairy again so I think I'll need to invest in some hard wax!

They always have at least one fun new thing to try, this time it was catching whipped cream in your mouth. You squirt some on your hand, toss it into the air and then catch it in your mouth, or somewhere else on your face! It's a perfect after baptism activity to do while still in your nice church clothes (my niece Adelyn was baptised).
Sunday my new nephew Taysen was blessed and the next day was the 4th of July! We got to go to a parade in Provo, a LeGrand Laing family tradition. Tyler and LeGrand and a few other went early, really early, to get a spot. Becca and I crammed in with the kids and came along later. Gosh, no, of course we didn't really drive with 10 people in a 7 passenger van! This was a just for fun picture, we really took 2 cars.
This next picture may seem silly, but while walking to the parade we saw this, house? Micah stopped in front and said loudly, "I can't believe someone lives here, it looks like a broken down old shack!" There were windows open and a car in the driveway! I tried to rush him along and tell him we don't say things like that, it was someone's home. There was a couple and their child walking near us, and he said, "I was thinking the same thing." I said, "I think we all were, we just weren't shouting it at the top of our lungs!" I sometimes wonder at what age Micah's brutal honesty will take a backseat.
Becca's Aunt has a red hat tradition at the parade that we got to take part in, everyone wears the hat for a pictures and strikes a pose.
I got to sit by my guy.
After the parade we enjoyed another of Becca's traditions and went to her grandparents old house where her sister and new husband are now living. We had delicious food and a slip n slide competition. I felt like a kid again, a less daring kid, but still a kid. Ben got himself a nice huge slice of watermelon.
We went up to the Mount Timpanogos caves, one of my favorite activities this trip. It was a pretty good little hike up, especially carrying a 30 pound little girl!
I got so many amazing pictures I had to put a few in.
Helga's sister Heidi took a group picture for us, so she wasn't in it, but this was everyone else.
I like hiking.
I don't like carrying little kids that are perfectly capable of walking themselves, but I did anyway. I tried leaving her behind but she didn't care, she just stayed behind, so I carried her. Daddy was behind with the slower people in the group helping watch other kids and I'm not a slow hiker, apparently even when carrying an extra 30 pounds. Daddy did get his turn on the hike back though, don't think he bailed on me.
This rock is near the entrance to the caves, everyone touches it, and this is what happens when your oils get on the rocks, pretty cool, but you can't touch anything in the caves.
This is the heart of Mount Timpanogos, it is estimated to weigh about 2 tons and is 5.5 ft in length! I have dozens of pictures of other amazing formations too, but had to share this one.
Such an amazing view!
This is my nephew Taysen, he was so much easier to carry down than Miss P was to carry up!
Helga's sister Sonja has her own salon and gave Peyton her first haircut while we were there at Natalie's (another of Helga's sisters) house. I woke her up for the haircut and she was spazzing majorly. She later told Tyler that she "fussed a little bit at first" HA! I have video that proves otherwise. Sonja did a great job though and straightened her hair first and then cut off a few inches and layered it. So cute. She eventually calmed down and she liked her new hair.

While Tyler, LeGrand, Becca and I went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple (Provo was closed for cleaning), out to lunch at Zupas (yummy soup salad and sandwich), and to DI (my favorite thrift store ever) Tyler's Aunt Becca ( who has 12 kids herself) and some of her kids watched all of our kids. We also got to visit with Tyler's grandparents who live there now. Peyton even fell asleep on Moroni, and that is not like her at all. The kids LOVE the Burrows family and I'm so glad that got to spend some time there.
Movie time with Junior's Giants.
I ran into an old friend while getting new G's at the Distribution Center, it was Jan Budge! My old Bishop's wife. I am friends with her daughter in law who is in our ward! Small world huh?
On our last night there the boys went to Bryan and Helga's house and the girls and kids hung out at LeGrand and Becca's house. The kids had movie (Little Rascal's) and pizza (Litttle Ceasars) night while the girls (Me, Becca, Helga and Liz, Becca's sister) did crafts and ate Cafe Rio pork salads, I really hope they get one here someday, YUMMY! This is my very adorable and sweet niece Makyla. She is a lot like Peyton and she finally warmed up to me at the end. She even has the same cute little legs and feet that Peyton has, so they must come from the Laing side. I love my family and wish we were all close to each other geographically. Maybe someday we will be, but until then we will do our best to make trips to see them. LeGrand and Becca, thank you so much for housing us and feeding us and being the wonderful people you are, WE LOVE YOU!