Fall Advancing

I mowed the lawn (and our leaves) a week ago. Just 1 week. One would think that I would be able to keep up with my trees. Yet, once again they beat me. Below are some pictures of the Porters vs. the trees. Round three.

Here are our lovely trees. Yes, they still have a lot of leaves on them. I'm guessing that they are about half way done shedding their leaves.

This is the small progress being made on the yard. I could go down and back before the mower bag was full. I'm so glad Chad was there to help me dump the bag over and over.

Here are our leaves,

in soldier stance.

Nine bags in a row,

To mulch for next years plants.

Leaves aren't all that bad. The kids had a lot of fun playing and running in them. Check out how Ariana is almost buried.

Ariana would not stay on her blanket. I think she wanted to run through the leaves like her big sister. She did scoot through them pretty fast.

McKayla loved running through the leaves. She would put them in a pile and then ride her bike as fast as she could into the pile.

Teribble 2-3 4's....

When McKayla reached about 18 months I started to notice something. She was driving me nuts! She would run all over the house and pull things off of shelves and get into messes. I was exhausted and tired all of the time. But wait, she was only 18 months old. I should have gotten 6 more months of sanity. No.

Then she turned two and life became more crazy because she wanted to talk, but she just wasn't there yet. She would get so frustrated. I took her to a speech pathologist and she did have a speech delay. We worked and worked with her. At the time I could see was making some progress. Also, she wouldn't listen. At times I felt like we were playing the opposite game and no one told me.

Now she is three. Her speech has grown in leaps and bounds. I can understand almost everything she says. She is more complaint and does things to help out. She even has her own set of chores to do everyday. She is such a help with her little sister. Most of the time. Then there is the other part of the time. The time where she becomes passive aggressive and pretends she doesn't understand what I said, even though I know she does. And there is also the whining. She has that down to an art. I know what she wants and I will tell her no, then the constant whining begins. So, I put her in her room until she can clam down. The cycle starts over.

So, my question is this: Three is easier than two in a lot of ways. But, they are still just as devious. They are still making messes and still not listening. They are just smarter about it. They wait until you walk out of the room to get into the cookies. By the time you discover that they have cookies, they have eaten 5, at least. What comes at four? Please tell me so I can prepare. What little quirks and funny things do they start to do?

All hail Queen McKayla.

Christmas Card

So the time is upon me to do my Christmas cards. I have a love/hate relationship with my Christmas cards. I love creating them and then doing them. My biggest problem is the vision in my head rarely matches what my cards look like. I guess I will keep trying. The other really stressful thing is the pictures. I love looking at my pictures, but I hate getting them. The portrait place is crazy and never running on time. It becomes very frustrating.

We are doing a silver and gold theme this year. McKayla has a silver dress and Ariana has a gold dress. We are going to find Chad a silver tie and I will wear gold jewelry with a white shirt. I hope they turn out nice. I will have wait and see. So, here is my card idea. I want to have my family letter on the inside of the card, of course. Then the outside will have a golden paper on it with a square cut out. In the square will be silver paper with a snowflake eyelet in the middle. Then I want to put some silver ribbon on it. I think it will look good. I will post a picture as soon as I get them done. It will take me a while though. So I decided to post a cute idea from Robert's Craft web site.

SLC

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days. We were down in SLC visiting my older brother Jake and his wife Jen. It was a really fun experience. It was a well needed break for Chad and I always enjoy hanging out with my siblings. Plus, my kids love their aunts and uncles. It could be due to how much they get spoiled.

Anyway, we went to the children's museum in SLC. It is located in the Gateway Mall. (I think that was the name.) That place was amazing. There was so much for us to do. I will admit that the adults played as hard as the kids. We thought it was going to take maybe a couple of hours, but we could have stayed there all day. I wish Idaho Falls had something like that.

In my brother's neighborhood there is a heated pool. We swam in it both days. It felt so good. Both girls had so much fun splashing. McKayla has really come far in conquering her fear of water. I am wondering about swim lessons next summer. I really think she would like it. Ariana did just as much playing as McKayla. She kept trying to put her face in the water. I would love to have a heated pool in our neighborhood.

Jake also pulled out his old Nintendo. We played the original Mario brothers. I had a blast. It was interesting to play that game again. I remember Jake and I used to play the Nintendo all of the time. Jake usually let me play with him and I was always allowed to watch. He was always good at video games. I am not that good at them, but it is still fun.

Here are the pictures!

The balls would shoot through the tubes. It was fun.

Ariana in Moab.

McKayla didn't want to do the climbing wall.

Giddy up!

You crazy kids.

Splash.

1-2-3 Jump!

McKayla playing Duck Hunt.

Spider

I didn't want to do this post at all, but my husband wanted me to. He took the pictures and told me he was going to do it. He had to go to work today, so I got left with doing his post. First of all, I hate spiders! I used to be afraid of them until I found out there were one's in my house that can hurt me and my kids. Now I am terrified of them. I have panic attacks when I see them. I can't even squish them. I have to go and get the Home Defense and drowned them in chemicals. I'm not sure where such a fear came from. I have some suspicion that my older brothers had something to do with it. This horrid spider was found in our garage.

The spider really is upside down.

This is a squished spider. Just the way I like them.

Scrapbooking

I love to scrapbook. I really like doing pages of the girls. They are so cute. At times I can't believe how many books we have. We have 4 family books, McKayla has three books and Ariana has 1 book. I am not very creative when it comes to the pages. Really, I try to stick as many pictures on one page as possible. Then I throw on some embellishments. Honestly, it's all about the price. When you have to pay for the pictures, embellishments, papers, and time, well it kind of adds up. Of course I would have an expensive hobby. Oh yea, I forgot to mention to cost of the tools to make the cool embellishments. Now, you may wonder why I still do this. It is a journal of our life. One day my kids will look back and say, hey we really did that? Also it brings new friends to my life. Lots of people scrapbook. I find new people all the time who share my desire. Most of them do a much better job than I do, but they allow me to mingle with them just the same. My husband loves the scrapbooks. He really enjoys looking over the books. Now, I'm really sure he like to look at every embellishment that I put on the page, but he likes the overall view. Unfortunately, he is going to have to build be a bigger shelf to put all of my scrapbooks on.

My scrapbook place is always messy. Once in awhile I will clean it up, only to drag it all back out again. I'm glad Chad understands and never criticizes my mess.

Here are some of our books.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

Okay, I really didn't want to do the pictures, but yet I wanted to write a post about this, so here we go. Last Saturday I discovered that our church has an aerobics class for free. It is held Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I decided to try it out this week. It was really fun. On Tuesday they did mostly a dance routine. On Thursday they had stations set up and a timer going so you worked out at a station for a certain amount of time and then went to the next one. Today was mostly a dance routine with some abs and triceps at the end. I am sore. I don't think I've worked out this hard since I had McKayla. I seem to work out harder when others are watching me. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. On the off days I will try to lift weights at home, therefore creating a nice balanced routine.

Now, some of you may wonder why I am working out so much. Here is the reason: I love food. I love to cook food and then I love to eat it. I have tried to diet and all I do is become a very cranky person. On the other hand, I love to work out, so maybe I can combat the eating with lots of exercise. I am grateful to my wonderful husband for watching the baby, if he is home, so I can go and work out.

Below are some scary pictures of me after I got home from working out.

I'm tired!

Not the best picture, but at least I'm working on it.

It's the Great Pumpkin

Yesterday we went to a local pumpkin patch. We met up with Chad's sister and her family. There was a maze for little kids and lots of pumpkins. We didn't buy one because we felt they were too expensive and there were not that many good ones. Oh well. I guess we can go to the store and find our great pumpkin. Still, we had fun and made a memory.

The barn.

The pumpkins.

Ariana in the pumpkins.

McKayla in the maze.

Everyone.

Library Day

When we first moved to Idaho falls I would haul McKayla across town to the Idaho falls library for library day. Then my wise sister in law Sherri told me about the Iona library 3 miles from my house. Guess what? They have a library day too. So, we have been going to the Iona building ever since! Here is what we do:

Our building was once an old LDS church, but now it is a library. No, there are no knight's tombs underneath the library, you Indiana Jones Fans.

The girls go to story time with Chad while I pick out 4-5 book to read for the next week. Story time consists of reading books.

And singing songs.

Then the kids do a craft.

McKayla loves her crafts.

Ariana has fun too!

Play Group

Today was the first day that we did a play group at our house. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. I know McKayla did as well. We had the kids play for awhile. Then the kids made spider hats and ate some cookies. It was great fun getting to know the other moms as well. All in all I think we did pretty good for our first play group ever. Below are some pictures of the playgroup. McKayla kept moving out of the pictures. If any one has playgroup ideas send them along.

Wal-Mart: Why it makes me nuts!

You know how people get road rage? I get Wal-Mart rage. I can get the rage at other stores, but only after I have been shopping for more then 2 hours. I get the rage as soon as I walk into Wal-Mart. I really don't know why. The store is a nice store that has cheap things. What's not to love? Maybe it's because everyone is grumpy. Including me. I feel like shopping at Wal-Mart is like holiday shopping all year around. It is so busy. Another thing is the checkout lines. I can get in get my stuff and get to the checkout line in 30 minutes. Then, I wait in line for a very long time. Ever notice that kids get really cranky in the checkout line. At least mine do. It almost seems like they know the end is near, but it has been delayed. However, today I did have my trusty sidekick Chad along. He can make my laugh even during my Wal-mart rage. I came home and meditated by reading blogs and having my husband take pictures of the girls for my post. Isn't he a great guy!

The girls and the cat Dudle'.

I forgot to introduce a member of the family. This is Dudle'. He was found in the fall of 98'. He was starved to the point I wasn't sure he was going to make it. He did and has made up for his starvation multiple times over. He is a very loving cat. The kids love to play with him. He endures it well. Sometimes I can tell he wishes they would go away, but still he has to lay by them most of the time.

Beautiful Dress Day!

My daughter looks forward to this day all week. She loves getting to dress up. She loves getting wear her clip on earrings and pretty jewelry. She also gets to see her friends at church. Then, she gets to go over to her grandparents' house (Porters) for Sunday dinner and time with her cousins. She loves all of it. If we don't see family on Sunday her week isn't right. It makes me laugh to see how she loves this special day. She also loves seeing other family as well. If I tell her that see gets to see grammy and papa McAffee or her uncles, she gets so excited. She teaches me about the spirit of family. To her, family is everything. Get togethers are for playing silly games and having fun. How often do I forget why we get together as a family? It takes a three-year-old to remind me that families can be together for ever and that is really all that matters!

I couldn't find a picture of the family that I wanted to use. Instead I found a funny picture that Chad took of Ariana.

Super Saturday

Today was Super Saturday at our church. Once a year the Relief Society plans craft projects, quilting, and a lunch for the women of our church. This is the first year I have participated and it was awesome. I did a family night magnetic board and a card set. Let me tell, these crafts were easy and fun to do. The card set was amazing. The lady that taught it had already done everything for us. All we had to do was glue to together. That's my kind of craft. Here are some pictures I took.

Mckayla helped herself to a doughnut while I was doing cards.

This one is a little blurry. Ariana did pretty good considering she just got four shots on Thursday and she is teething.

Here is the family night magnetic board.

These are the cards I did.

Zucchini Bread

My family loves this recipe. We eat a lot of it. I can't really say that I mind. It has whole wheat flour and a vegetable. So start up the ovens and get ready for "Ni-ni bread", according to McKayla.

3 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 Cup oil
1/2 tsp soda
1 cups sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups of zucchini
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 cups of flour (I use 1/2 home ground and 1/2 store bought)



Beat eggs until foamy.



I usually grind my flour while the eggs are beating.


Add oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla. Mix well.


Add all dry ingredients including flour.
Mix well.


Bake in loaf pan for 1 hour at 325. (I made a double batch, so you should use 2 pans)


Enjoy! (Please ignore the dirty stove. It's well used!)