Grateful

The past couple of days I've been in a slump which is why I need to write this list to remind me that life is good:

1. healthy kids
2. my testimony
3. priesthood blessings
4. sweet husband
5. listening to Regan sing in church on Sunday
6. service
7. good friends
8. my good health
9. kids trying to be obedient
10. scripture study with our little family
11. school for my children
12. babies nap times
13. beautiful Fall weather
14. conference talks to remind me what's really important
15. temples, especially one so close to me
16. moments when the kids don't fight
17. Visiting teaching
18. hugs around the legs from the babies
19. good music
20. great examples all around me

Happy Birthday, Aunt Christie!

Today is my Aunt Christie's Birthday! As a kid I always felt special because my B-Day was one day before hers and I remember thinking that all of my Aunt's walked on water. They were definetly the most beautiful, smart, talented, and fun Aunt's anyone could have. I still think that and, trust me, if you saw the things they do, crafting, sewing, quilting, cooking, etc., you would see why I think that. I have fond memories of going to stay with each of them and I always loved when people would stop and tell me how much I looked like my Aunt Christie. Sunday afternoon, the girls were looking at all my old scrapbooks and we came across this picture of my Aunt Christie with my Uncle Scott and their son, Nate. Isn't she gorgeous??? My kids laughed at Uncle Scott's mustache & Aunt Christie's hair but said their faces haven't changed much. (and that was taken 20+ year ago and they have 3 more kids.) Pretty impressive! Anyway, I hope you have a great B-Day, Aunt Christie! I love you!

Halloween favorites

I took the kids to trick-or-treat my Grandma J. who lives here in Idaho Falls. She's one of the greatest women I know. Our kids love her so much! They got the biggest kick out of her when she opened the door like this...

Seriously, is there any cuter great grandma in the world???? I think not!

Everything Halloween!

I must admit, I've never been that excited for Halloween. In fact, in years past, I really kind of lothed the holiday. The thought of finding costumes for 6 children just made me tired and a bit irritated and I begrudgingly made the ghostly sugar cookies and bought Halloween candy muttering under my breath how expensive a few pieces of candy are. Okay, now that I've made myself look like a total grump, I'll try to redeem myself. I'm not sure what changed this year, but I was just plain excited for everything from the costumes, the candy, the fun Halloween meals, the trunk-or-treat, the sugar cookie making, pumpkin carving, etc. The girls came up with their costume ideas on their own and all looked hilarious, adorable, and, well, tough. (you'll see what I mean later) I even dressed up this year. My kids have begged me every year for too many years and I've always turned them down, but not this year. I borrowed my sisters Witch costume and the kids couldn't even wait for me to put it on. In fact, Morgan was in the bedroom with me helping me assemble the outfit. The eyelashes were the icing on the cake. The kids couldn't stop staring at me! It was just so much fun to see them be so excited!

Kaleb, the fireman. I kept trying to get him to sing a little George Strait, "They call me the fireman, that's my name" He didn't think I was very funny!

Regan, the mad scientist. She loved ratting her hair and filling it with baby powder and glitter. And, she loved destroying a pair of dollar store glasses and taping them up with bandaids and such.

Morgan came up with this idea on her own so we borrowed my friends kids uniform. It fit her perfect. She decided by the end of the night that carrying around all that equipment on her back wasn't all that fun. I guess we can't count on her being our football star. (j/k)

Jordyn and her neighbor friend were twin babies. How easy is that?? I was thrilled when she came up with the idea and she looked adorable!

Porter and Kamryn, Ketchup and mustard babies. I thought these would be adorable costumes but I don't sew a darn thing so a cute lady in my ward offered to sew them. They didn't seem to mind the costumes other than the hats, of course, the only part I did make. Oh well, I think they look so cute.

Next year maybe we'll get DJ to dress up. If I can get all the kids and DJ to go along, I think we'll all be nerds.

I took the kids to Malalueca to trick-or-treat again this year. It's an amazing production from the decorations to the candy, to the costumes. The kids had so much fun and came away with way too much candy.

Last Monday we had our annual pumpkin carving party. We invited 2 cute girls in our ward, their mother recently died of cancer, I posted about her about a month ago. Anyway, the kids had so much fun. Kaleb enjoyed stabbing his warty pumpkin over and over and put the finishing touches on with the candly sticking out the eye space.

Morgan chose a pretty intricate bat design, Regan chose a spooky pumpkin face with firey eyes, and Jordyn chose a cute and simple face and did it all herself. I'm finding the older the kids get, the more fun it is to do projects like this. I love that all of them could help in some way which always makes it more enjoyable. I love my family!

Each Holiday my mom puts together the cutest packages for the kids. She sent up the cutest Halloween package with hair stuff, window stickers, muffin mixes, disposable muffin cups and liners, and Halloween cups and napkins. The next morning we had a fun Halloween breakfast. Thanks mom! Earlier in the week, I made a Halloween dinner and borrowed my neighbor, Kara's cutest dinnerware and decorations. I have nothing cute and fancy like that so it was sweet of her to share. The kids thought the chicken nuggets looked like skeleton faces, the fries were the fingers, ketchup and red punch for the blood. It was a yummy dinner and kids were thrilled.
I'm kicking myself because I took a picture of the breakfast but it didn't turn out so I only have a picture of the dinner.

I love my husband

My hubby will die when he see's that I've posted these photos. He came in from evening church meetings just in time to help us can applesauce. I made him wear my cute apron so he was striking all kinds of poses for the kids just to prove his manliness depite the girly apron. He had

us laughing our heads off.

Jordyn's job was filling the pot with apples that DJ cut in half. Kamryn's job, taking a bite out of every apple to make sure there were no worms. Morgan's job, cutting apples in pieces, (not pictured here)

Regan's job, running the Victorio Strainers; Porter's job, to stay in his high chair and out of trouble, and to have a cute grin on his face.

I just have to say that I love my husband. He's swamped with responsiblities at his new position at the college, swamped with Bishop responsibilites yet somehow manages to help me do all of my projects. He frequently does the dinner dishes, and makes time to play board games with the kids. He works hard at everything he does and rarely takes time for himself. He loves the gospel and loves each member of our ward so much. He spends hours each week visiting members of our ward, especially the less active members. He has a strong desire to bring each one of these people back in to activity. I love him so much and I feel blessed to have spent the past 14 years with him and look forward to many more.

Okay, that was seriously off the subject but it needed to be said! I love you, DJ!

Baby update!

It's so hard to believe Kamryn and Porter are almost 17 months. They are such cute little stinkers, and are both just full energy! They love to play together, get in trouble together, and love to fight over toys. Porter usually ends up bawling and Kamryn just giggles. Today in the car I looked in my mirror and caught them holding hands. They continue to stay right around 2 lbs. apart. last we checked, Porter was 23 lbs. and Kamryn was 21 lbs. They are both starting to talk a bit, Porter says, "night-night, mom, dad, and shoes, and my favorite, "yah" and Kamryn says, "night-night, num-num, mom, dad, boo, dog ."
Kamryn loves DJ and when he's home at night, every chance she gets she goest up to him and pats his leg and then puts her head on his leg. She's a snuggly little thing and loves to be hugged and kissed. She has a wave that resembles a rodeo queen, you know, stiff and fast. It's adorable!
Porter makes us laugh with his funny facial expressions. He has all sorts of whiny faces and all you have to do is look at him and start laughing and he'll grin from ear to ear. Porter's favorite word is, "yeah!" We love to ask him questions because his response is usually, "yeah" with a little head bop and a big grin.
They both have a mouth full of teeth and generally cut 2 or 3 at a time which might explain their poor sleeping habits. Actually, Kami had been sleeping great for a few months but she got sick after her flu shot and has been struggling at nights. Porter just isn't a great sleeper! Hopefully he'll figure it out sometime soon.
Porter is what we like to call our, toilet fisherman. The kids get in huge trouble if they leave the lid up because he has a raidar and goes right to the toilet for some splashing fun or his personal favorite, throwing full rolls of toilet paper in to the water.
Kamryn loves the phone, particularly the one in my room because it's down low enough for her to reach. We can't leave that door open either or she usually ends up calling someone. Last week she called the temple.
They both love to pound on the piano and rip the girls piano notebooks to shreds. We caught Kami standing on the keys a couple of days ago, playing the piano with her feet. She's our climber!
Kami likes the toilet paper roll but generally breaks off a long piece to blow her nose with. She is seriously obsessed with blowing her nose and is better at it than some of my older kids. It'd pretty entertaining to watch.
Nobody could have possibly prepared me for life with twins. You just have to live it to understand. I'm thankful I get to.

We love to see the temple!

The kids beg to go to the Temple and Visitors Center all the time. We go as often as possible and since we're less then 10 minutes away, we really have no excuse. Plus, I really love the feeling of peace that is so evident when you are on Temple grounds so we try to visit if often. A couple of weeks ago we went again and watched a movie called, God's plan, I think. It was really neat and it sparked really great conversations with the kids, (well, the 4 oldest) Kamryn and Porter just enjoyed climbing all over the chairs and tried emptying the tissue boxes several times. Thank goodness no one else was in the theatre with us. Afterward, we walked around the temple and Regan, (my little photographer) snapped photos of us.

Jordyn and Kaleb love the statue of Christ. Kaleb kept touching the nail prints in Jesus' hands and feet and saying, "that's so sad, mom."

Morgan loves the big picture window with the temple in the background. I think Regan snapped some pretty neat pictures, including the one of herself. She's beautiful!

They were excited to touch the temple. This past year, I think it was April Conference, one of the Apostles said we should take our children to touch the temple so we've been talking about doing this for awhile. Only one more year and Regan will be able to do Baptisms for the Dead here. I look exhausted in the photo with Morgan, I really was happy to be there, I was just wasted.

We walked all the way around the temple to show Regan the entrance for Baptisms. The kids were a little loud and couldn't help but run at times, we'll have to work on reverance while on temple grounds, but, it was a great family activity.