{Preschool Halloween Fun}

We just finished our preschool Halloween party and we had SO much fun! The kids were all adorable....I just love them all. We were sad that Tylie was sick and couldn't come, it seems like every time we do something fun, we are missing someone. Mom and Carlie right before school started.

(You can't really see my make-up, but I was ROCKIN' the silver shadow)
Miss Monica's Preschool Class
Aren't they all adorable?

Carlie had the treat today, so we made Ding Dong Spiders. I forgot until the last minute that I was going to use licorice ropes for the legs.

We had a bean bag toss with our Halloween print bean bags!

We made Ghosts from styrofoam cups! These are so fun..... you really should try it. We practiced last night and my kids loved it (ok, I did too....it's kind of addicting). All you have to do is draw your face on, obviously the kids all wanted me to do theirs. Then put them on a cookie sheet in your oven preheated to 350. Watch them, ours only took 2-3 min. You can leave them as is, or mold them a bit while they are still warm. We also poked a hole in the top so they could be hung up.

And last but not least a fun little Frankenstein to wish you a Happy Halloween!

{My Karate Kid}

(Brock didn't want me to use this picture, because his thumb is out, and that isn't correct, but well, I liked it and didn't listen)

I had the opportunity this past week to attend an assembly at the Elementary school that Brock's Karate group participated in. Brock started Karate earlier this year, and it's been such a good thing for him. I've been so impressed with his teachers, Miss Camile and Miss Monica and the fact that these kids not only are learning Karate, but also discipline, kindness and are building self-esteem. Before Brock can pass off and advance a belt, he has to have one of his parents and also his teacher sign a form stating that he conducts himself both at home and school in an appropriate manner and that he is kind and courteous. He also must complete 5 random acts of kindness to receive a stripe on each belt.

Each week, as they end class they recite their creed. Each of the kids has it memorized and I hope they all have really listened and thought about what it means to them. I was so impressed, I had Brock repeat it for me, so I could share it with you.

**Karate Creed**

Discipline- the key ingredient for success in life is a discipline of mind and body. Setting goals and making sure they are accomplished builds discipline. Whatever goal I set for myself, I’ll first get a mental image in my mind, of exactly what it is I want to achieve. Then, I’ll be determined and persistent enough to overcome all obstacles that get in my way towards that goal. Finally, I’ll train and study accordingly, until that goal is accomplished.

I hope Brock knows how proud I am of him for working hard at this and sticking with it. I've seen so much growth in him since he began Karate, and I love it! Way to go buddy!

{Today I Am Thankfull For....}

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

~ Cicero

It's been too long since I've done a gratitude post, so without further ado, this week I'm thankful for.........

• My Friend~ Ann and her cute kids came down and spent the weekend with us while our men were on the mountain hunting. I can't even tell you how much I needed that girl time. We chatted, went to a yard sale and the craft fair, drove around and took pictures, had some late night talks, had a yummy lunch at Cluff's, made New Moon invitations....we just had girl time. I can't even begin to tell you what an impact Ann has had on my life. She's been an example to me, she's a great listener, she is one of the most generous people I know.....she's everything I could ever ask for in a friend and more, and for that I am truly thankful.

• Kaleb~ What a great kid he is! Sunday as Primary began, we realized that our prayer, scripture and both our talks were missing. Our Primary president asked for a volunteer for the prayer and scripture and after filling those spots, asked jokingly for a talk....Kaleb's hand shot right up. Without stopping to think about it, my little man stood up and bore the most sweet and sincere testimony full of hope and faith. Of course he made me cry (I do that a lot). I'm so thankful to be his mom, he has the most mischievous grin and sweet spirit, and well, he truly is a bright spot in my life!
  
• A Clean Room~ I hate to admit this, but I am probably as bad or worse than my kids at keeping my room clean. In fact while Ann was here she practically begged to clean and organize my room (she enjoys it). No way was that happening! But, she motivated me (she says guilted me) to clean, and clean I did! Not only did I clean, I made a new lamp shade for Derrick's lamp. I've hated the shade on it, for well, as long as I've had it, I'm thinking 12 years?!?! Why did I not do something about it sooner? I'm not sure, but it looks MUCH better. Now I'm thinking I should maybe paint the gold black, or another color. What do you think?
  
• Preschool~ Yep, I'm really enjoying it! I'm thankful for all of your encouragement.... I don't know if I would have done it otherwise. I may be biased, but I have the cutest class ever. They each have the funnest personalities. Last week we got to go on a field trip the Fire station, and had so much fun. I felt bad that our only little boy was sick and didn't get to come, because they were adorable!

• The Library~ I ♥ the Library and the Bookmobile too. I love to read, and I could never afford to buy enough books to keep up with my little habit. In addition, I've spent much more time there lately, picking up books to use for preschool. What a great blessing that building full of books is!

And last but certainly not least.

• My Dad~ It's his birthday today and I want him to know how much I love and respect him. He's not only a wonderful Dad, but a great Papa to my kids. He's kind and generous, a great example, and just an all around great guy!
  

{A week of C's}

It's been a week full of things that start with C around our house. A good week, a busy week, a fun week, and an uplifting and motivating week.

#1 C.....Canning

My kids love bottled peaches. I canned a bushel last year and we ran out. This year, I ordered 3 bushels or 74 pounds of peaches.... I'm not sure that was a smart thing to do. But whatever, I had peaches coming out my ears and that meant work to do. I spent most of Saturday listening to LDS general Conference, blanching peaches, pealing peaches, cutting peaches and finally canning peaches. I took a break on Sunday and started again Monday. Things were going great, until we noticed there was a big puddle of water by our meter? Derrick ended up digging up the line to see why and there was a leak, so off went the water. Canning was officially done for the day.... you just can't can without water! We finally got the water back on Tuesday afternoon, and back to canning I was.
I ended up with 37 quarts of peaches, 4 pints of peach pit jelly, and 14 pints of peach raspberry jam! That was a lot of work, but it sure looks pretty on my shelves.

#2 C..... Canyons

We took a drive Sunday afternoon up the canyon. I have the best memories of Sunday drives and fall leaves and hopefully my kids will too. I'm always sad to see fall go, it's one of my favorite times of the year!

#3 C.....Conference

Conference.....it always seems to come around right when I need it the most. It's funny, I used to dread it when I was younger, now I look forward to it. I love to be spiritually fed, uplifted and motivated. What wonderful leaders we have who live by example, and who serve, not only the Lord, but each of us. I didn't get a chance to hear all the talks that were given, but I've set a goal to not only read each one, but to study them.

#4 C.....Crafts

It's been quite awhile since I've had either the time, or a clean work space to craft in. Well, I got motivated, why? I'm not sure, but my craft room/office got a good cleaning an organizing session. So good in fact, I didn't go to bed until almost 3 a.m. Anyhow, now I had a clean space, I was ready to craft. I added Halloween pictures to the ladder, but it had to have something cute at the top.

SO, I whipped up a cute something to go at the top!
I just got the Textured Impressions Manhattan Flower from Stampin' Up! and had to play with it a bit. I thought this card turned out cute!

And last but not least, didn't my flower pin turn out super cute? I'm gonna whip up a few more of these for my sisters booth at the craft fair. Some will have pins and others hair clips. I can't wait to see what other colors and combinations I can come up with! The best part, the flower is a die cut that I used with SU!'s Big Shot.... I'm in love! Too, bad it's Lisa's and not mine....oh well, she's a good sharer.

{You Have to Try This}

A few weeks ago, my good friend Ann stopped in at my house with her family, right in time for Sunday dinner. I had made lasagna earlier in the week, and there was a lot leftover, so I heated it up and fed our company leftovers.....yep, I know, I excel at being a superb hostess! Anyhow, Ann was surprised that I actually made lasagna, and I'm surprised that most people don't. It's so easy....well the way I do it is, anyway. Grandma Ainge taught me to make it when I was young and I've always done it her way, like I said it's fast and easy.

***Lasagna***

Meat (I usually use sausage or ground beef or even a mix of the two).

Sauce (pick a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce).

Cottage Cheese

Sliced Olives

Cheese, shredded (I usually use a mix of cheddar and mozzarella)

Lasagna Noodles, uncooked

Pour some sauce in the bottom of your 9 x 13 pan, just a bit to cover the bottom. Put a layer of uncooked noodles, break them up if you need to, and piece them in. Spread some cottage cheese on, add more sauce, some meat, olives and a handful of cheese. Add another layer of noodles, and all the other stuff again. Keep layering, the deeper your pan the more layers, finish with a layer of cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for about an hour. Let stand for 5-10 min. before cutting.....Enjoy! Try it and let me know if you like it.

Did anyone notice the shirt Miss Carlie wore on her birthday? Yea, I found this cool re-purposing tutorial here on Make It and Love It, the night before her birthday....hmmm, I have nothing better to do (yea, right) why don't I just sew something up?

So here is what we started with.... two shirts. One Carlie's that still fit, but was a bit short. One mine, that I have always loved the print of, but sadly it's too small (the dryer shrunk it...wink, wink).

A little cutting, a bit of sewing, a bit of un-picking (cause I'm new at this, and I sewed the new sleeve on inside out) and TA-DA!

A perfect for the colder temperatures and long enough to cover Carlie's cute belly shirt!

Next, speaking of Carlie's Birthday, remember I said I made Ice Cream Desert for the grown ups? You HAVE to try this....it's a family favorite!

*** Ice Cream Dessert***

3 cups Rice Krispies
1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cups coconut

1 1/2 cups nuts, chopped

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream

Melt margarine and brown sugar together until blended. Add other ingredients, Rice Krispies first. Place half the mixture on bottom of 9 x 13 pan. Open ice cream box and cut into fourths (about 1/2 inch thick), place on crumbs. (I take a spoon and run it under hot water then smooth out the lines, but it's not necessary.) Top with remainder of crumbs, pressing them in a bit. Freeze overnight.

Sometimes we add danish desert and strawberries on top, or chocolate syrup drizzels and raspberries, most of the time we just eat it plain......the possibilities are endless and YUMMY!

And last but not least, I've been sewing again and these skirts are adorable and super easy to make!

I cut some fabric strips over a year ago to make Carlie and Tylie skirts.....well, it never happened. The girls grew and the fabric was just sitting around. When I saw this cute tutorial, I knew I could make the strips work and they did! I went to the fabric store yesterday for elastic and all I could see was the many fabric combinations to make some adorable skirts! I'm in love!

{Still Busy}

I was really hoping once we got back to school and into the swing of things, life would slow down a bit. Well, guess what? It hasn't, actually I think it's been busier? Between homework and everything else we have going, it's been crazy round here.

I spent one day last week canning V8 juice. We don't drink it, but I use it in two or three recipes and everything I did last year is gone. I got 6 quarts and 9 pints and I really should do more.

Flag football season started for Brock a few weeks ago. That means two practices and a game each week. He is also taking tumbling, Karate and we have to fit scouts into the schedule too!

Carlie started tumbling a few weeks ago too, in fact all 3 kids go, but this is her first year. We had her signed up for the summer class, but she ended up with a broken arm the day she was supposed to start, so she had to wait. It's so cute to watch her, and she is LOVING it!

Our 15 year class reunion! Yea, that's one thing I'm glad to have over! I thought it turned out really well. It's always fun to visit with old friends and see what everyone is up to. Derrick has a group of his guys friends that he's stayed in touch with and we get together every now and then, so it's fun know their wives, and get to visit with them. Also, my brother-in-law graduated with us too, so my sister gets to come to my reunion. I hope everyone else had a good time!

It was pajama day in Mrs. Monroes class! Kaleb's class got enough points for good behavior to earn pajama day, and let me tell you he was one excited boy! He decided to take his stuffed puppy for show and tell to go along with the theme. He told me he wanted to wear the jammies Grandma Jeannie made him, but they didn't have sleeves and weren't allowed, darn it.... so he settled for his transformer ones, and looked pretty adorable, I thought!

We've been so busy, we haven't had time to play, but finally we found time to spend an afternoon at the lake this weekend. The kids had a blast exploring the rocks, caves and catching some pretty big lizards with dad, while mom enjoyed relaxing on the boat with a book.

Brock, Carlie and Derrick even swam a bit. Kaleb and I decided the water was a bit too cold, and were smart and stayed on the boat!

On top of all that, I've got preschool (which is still going well), I'm tending my niece, Tylie, 4 days a week and training to be our little towns planning and zoning secretary (a job which will only be a few hours a month), oh and trying to get ready for our Primary program.

I have a feeling life isn't going to really ever slow down, but that's ok!

{Flashback Friday}

15 Years?

Where have they gone?

This weekend the Millard High graduating class of 1994 is having our 15 year reunion! That definately called for a Flashback Friday. Derrick and I were both part of that spectacualr graduating class, (and no, we were not a couple when we graduated), but unfortunately I don't think we have a copy of Derrick's Senior picture. I really can't believe it's been 15 years.....where did they go? So many changes, and yet in someways I still feel like that 17 year old girl? I have to honest and say I'm a bit nervous. I do have a bit of an uperhand though. See, I've been helping plan this little get together, and I know who's comming and who is not. I was in charge of tracking everyone down (some were easy and some were not), along with the invitations and the RSVP's. At least we had a small class, and when I say small, well, I mean 94 people small....yep, 94 graduates in the class of 94! I've spent a big chunk of today putting together a CD of "back in the day" music.....wow, that brought back some memories. It was fun, and hopefully the reunion is too!

I just had to add our Junior Prom class picture. Can you find me?