Train Ride

I've only been on a train once and when Lloyd's uncle told us about scheduling a ride for us on a train in Lindon I was really excited! When Wednesday came I was getting all the kids stuff ready, making sure they all had hats, gloves, boots and handwarmers. I was imagining something close to what I had previously experienced. I knew it wasn't going to be a full scale train because it was privately owned and was on his property, kind of like this.

well with less trees... I mean we do live in a cold desert here. So I pick up the kids from school and head for Lindon. We arrive at the address given to me by my husband and I'm thinking... is this right?... no it must be correct, look at all the cars... where could the train possibly be?

It was there. You wanna see it?

Um, slightly smaller cars than I was expecting.

We rode around the neighborhood, owned mostly by the one family who ran the train. First up to the North Pole to see Santa.

Then through large poster scenes depicting Christ's life from begining to end. It was very touching as I sat holding my youngest child telling him briefly about each scene. Trying to imagine what it would feel like if it were my child in those scenes... thankful that it wasn't. And deeply touched at the sacrifice made by my Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son for me... for us all and even though it wasn't what I expected it was exactly what I wanted to think about this Christmas Season. The true meaning of Christmas.

Ornaments for Kasi

All right Kasi I'm adding pics of my ornaments at your request. I've made all of these using K&Co.'s Brenda Walton Peppermint Twist Ornaments Paper Crafting Pad, odds and ends from my stash, and Christmas picks from various stores. I'm adding them in at a small size and if you want to see the BIG detailed version just click on the picture. Enjoy!!

I've always wanted to be an elf.

Your Elf Name Is...

Pixie Candy Cane Lips

What's" Your Elf Name?

Feeling a lot more like Christmas

Finally got all of my decorating done. Yes I know it's the middle of the month... what can I say? I'm a procrastinator. My mom's visit was short notice so the few days before she came I was cleaning... a lot! I did have the majority of it up but the family tree was decorated by the kids, so it had ornaments only about 2/3 of the way up and all in the front. So yesterday I rearranged the family tree and finished the last of the decorating.

My new pretty garland from Costco. It's hanging out above my entertainment center.

The family tree, nicely rearranged.

My huge pointsetta from Costco.

Random Christmas stuff on my bookshelf.

And my new love. My very own Christmas tree! It's presently set up in the front room a.k.a. my scrap room. I found this tree at Walmart for under $30!! I bought the red lights and a couple of boxes of ornaments and odds and ends to add to it. So far I have made 14 ornaments from the K & Co. paper ornament stack with more in the works.

I hope you are all enjoying this Holiday Season and have a very Merry Christmas!

Have you ever held a tortoise?

Last week I had a blast. My mom came for a visit for the first time in three years. Usually we visit her but she had some time in her very busy life and came to see me and the family for a few days. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and on Friday we went to see a friend of hers that lives about 40 minutes away. My mom thought the little kids would have fun at Rachel's house. Rachel owns a 2 acre lot with tons of animals. the kids got to feed goats, chickens and turkeys. They got to hold cats, kittens, a rat and the family tortoise. His name escapes me but isn't he cute?!?

Now this tortoise is only 2 but can get as old as 100. Needless to say he'll be passing down to the next generation.

While my mom was here our oven went wacko. every time we would try to use the oven we would get error codes and after stressing over it for a day and a half thinking we would need a new oven Lloyd remembered about the home warranty... bless him. Goodness knows we didn't have the money to get a new one. I called and set up the appointment and Monday we got our oven back. Apparently our thermostat in the oven broke making the oven think it was on and hot all the time. Could you imagine that happening during Christmas dinner! Oh, I am so glad it happened when it did.

One month to go.

Yep it's nearly Christmas! I can't wait to start putting up all the decorations, getting the tree out, listening to Christmas music and making cookies. I'm hoping if the weather cooperates I'll get the lights out front in a few weeks. And maybe even starting to put gifts under the tree. Oh, and I can't forget visiting Temple Square to see the lights and I really would like to take my kids ice skating. Wow! December's going to be so fun and I love spending time with my family.

What's your favorite activity this time of year?

Happy Night before Thanksgiving!

'Twas the night of Thanksgiving, But I just couldn't sleep
I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned - The dark meat and white
But I fought the temptation with all of my might.

I lay tossing and turning with anticipation
The thought of a snack became infatuation.
So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door
And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
'Til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.

I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky
With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie.
But, I managed to yell as I soared past the trees....
Happy eating to all - Pass the cranberries, please.

May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes 'n gravy have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious, may your pies take the prize,
May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs.

May your Thanksgiving be Blessed!

Our Pumpkins

We also carved our the night before Halloween. I didn't want them getting all mushy and there had been a couple of pumpkin smashings a few blocks away. I didn't want all our hard work to be wrecked. Lloyd is the only one who didn't carve... maybe next year I can get him to help.

It was really nice to do it in shifts too. I had no one fighting over the battery operated carving knife or the scooper. Not that my kids really ever do their own scooping of the guts. That's a job for mom. :P

The pumpkins are in order, from youngest to oldest. All the designs were found on the net as freebies. The vomiting pumpkin and the cannibal pumpkin were found at extremepumpkins.com.

It's been a while...

and I feel so far behind here. It's the middle of November and I still haven't posted the kids Halloween pictures. So here they are for your viewing pleasure!


We had two babies, Superman, An evil fairy, and what I'm guessing to be a skater skeleton. All the kids had a lot of fun. Jesse I think got too cold and came home after a few streets, but the rest were out for a couple of hours.
The most interesting thing the kids did was go to a Haunted Barn. I took the three oldest and a few of their friends over there. I felt really bad for Ally when the came back to the car (I don't do scary). She was always at the back of the group when the people would jump out at them . She would run but was so scared that she said her legs would feel numb making it hard to run away. I hugged her and told her that they wouldn't do anything to hurt her. She knew that but it was still scary for them to chase her. Zac on the other hand, would play it off as no big deal. He said he walked up to some of them and even shook their hand.

Al in all I think everyone had a good time... even Ally.

What color are you?

you are lavender #E6E6FA

Your dominant hue is blue, making you a good friend who people love and trust. You're good in social situations and want to fit in. Just be careful not to compromise who you are to make them happy. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

I must say this is pretty accurate. I never thought of myself as lavendar though. Not my first choice in colors. I might just have to do a LO on this. Just for fun! Now all of you who stop by go and do this quick quiz and come back and tell me what you are, ok? And if you do a LO on your color leave me a link so I can see it! :)

Really I do Clean...

My mother can attest to the fact that I wasn't the cleanest of children. I would get the weekly announcement of my room looking like a tornado hit it. I have grown up a bit since then and figured out that my kids are for the most part taking after me. Yes mom, I did have kids just like me to show me how messy I was.

Today I got the cleaning bug. I wanted to tackle the kitchen floor. I just couldn't take the left out shoes and wrappers that always find their way to the floor instead of the garbage. I figured I might as well clean under the appliances while I had the broom out. The fridge was no problem I usually pull it out every couple of months and sweep. On to the oven! I popped off the bottom cover of my Jenn-air. Now this appliance gets less attention, mostly due to the fact that I hate getting down on my hands and knees to clean under there. So as I'm cleaning under the oven I find a head of garlic, used napkins, twist ties off numerous loaves of bread, a completely hair covered glove and this...

A grilled cheese sandwich complete with leftover lei flower and dog hair dust bunnies. I'm sure you are wondering how in the world this got under there. Well our oven has a 3 to 4 inch gap behind it. it was supposed to be a in the counter kind but the last owner had built the space for a stand alone kind of range, leaving a huge gap between the wall and our oven.

Now I wouldn't leave this just laying under there so I went to the experts... the kids. I asked them how on earth this got back there and why didn't they tell someone. I got this answer," oh, that's Emily's. She flipped it back there. She told dad, but he told her not to worry about it." Huh? not worry?? I'm thinking this was told in one of those moments where parents must be concentrating on something else. The something else being World of Warcraft. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to figure out how to get it out from behind there anyway.

Paint and a dead phone!

There are tons of things to change here... the carpet, the tile, the counter tops, replacing all the brass lighting... my list could go on forever! And after three weekends of Lloyd wearing his work pants we finally agreed on something to change and we really did it!

We painted the master bedroom! Not a huge change as you can see but the paint in the entire house reminds me of the pastel movement of the 90's. I call it.... dusty rose. And as much as I enjoyed the 90's I didn't want my home to be stuck there.

I took the edges and Lloyd had the roller. We knocked it out in about an hour. It still needs another coat but the change is great!

Only downside to this is that the fumes were a bit much for us so we ended up on the couch downstairs last night. It's nice to have a couch to fit both of us but it wasn't my bed so I tossed and turned all night resulting in oversleeping and not getting to church.

So Lloyd, being the nice guy that he is, did a load of laundry this morning. I didn't know what he was up to... just heard the washer going. When it was done I went to move it and look what I found at the bottom! Last night I was so tired I forgot to put my phone away and Lloyd didn't bother checking the pockets before washing the jeans.

I guess we're both at fault here. Sometimes I wonder if he does this on purpose, just to get out of doing the laundry. You know, screw up her phone and she'll make sure I don't do laundry for at least six months. This way I can play my game for sure after I get home from work. Yeah, men are sneaky like that! ;)

Nah, I can't complain he's a great guy and even though he makes mistakes sometimes, I love him to pieces. I'm glad he thinks the same of me too! I wonder what kind of phone I'll get next?

She's 14!!!

My how the time has flown! She's growing up faster than I want. Once we talked about her favorite toys. Now it's clothes, music, her friends, dances, and the hot cellist of her dreams.
Emily turned 14 on Tuesday. We had a quiet celebration at home that day. She got a purse from the boys, a jewelry box from the girls and a Zune from us. I'm glad we got it for her.... now I can have mine back! Thanks Mom and Dad for the cards. Did you notice Mom??? She's wearing the ear rings you sent!
She's probably gonna kill me for posting this picture but it's the best one I got that night.

Pumpkin Pickin'

Monday we went to the pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast walking the field in search of the perfect pumpkin. Zac's had to be the biggest, Emily's had to have no bugs, Ally and Kylie just wanted something they could carry and Jess' had to be dirt free. Jess was the last to pick. The girls would point out pumpkins every step but he kept telling them he wasn't going to pick one of those because the girls picked them. He wanted no help and ended up with a pumpkin thats skinny on the bottom and big on top. I'm still trying to think of how that one's going to be carved. I really loved going with the kids and Lloyd. I think next year we will get even more pumpkins!

Gettin' some work done

I've been trying to get some of my swaps done for A halloween swap that's due in... um, oh yeah! three days! Am I done? Nope! I feel bad but I just have been in a slump. I found my way out though, so I'm back at it and creating some fun items for this swap and a cute page with the AMM September kit.

It's been so quiet today here. there's been no TV on up here. Just music and games, reading and peace. Ahhhh... So nice. I hope you are all having a fabulous Sunday!

I'll try to add the pictures of these things as soon as I can... the site is being cranky at the moment.