Carving Pumpkins

Man, this seems like SO long ago, and it was only 4 weeks.
Our pumpkins started going bad so we had to hurry up and carve them before they were completely terrible.
We actually let Matthew do his all by himself and he did a great job.


Allison got a little assistance from daddy.

 

 

 

 

WOW, look at this. She is doing it all by herself!!!
Notice that she is holding it like it is a pencil? Too funny:)
You can tell she doesn't hold or use knifes, much...or ever.

Look at this concentration...

His mouth is even concentrating:)

The finished product.

 

She wanted her jack-o-lanterns to be princesses but we weren't going to carve a princess so she put crowns on them and then they were her princess jack-o-lanterns. I am glad it was an easy fix:)

 

Having Fun:)

I found this pictures on our electronic device and some were cute so I had to add them.
(It drives me crazy when the kids put the two fingers up behind somebody....grrr)
 

I actually think these next ones were done in the car.
I just laughed when I found them since I didn't know they were on there.

 

 

 

 

Stake Temple Day

We had a Stake Temple Day and there was a bus that was rented so that we could go up. Our ward and the ward in our building split the bus. Somebody in our ward actually paid for our ward to ride the bus for free which was very generous. I got to go up but Chris had to stay home and not only take care of the kids but he also had YM work to do as well. There were doing yard work at a family's house and so he just took the kids with him and they helped. He is so good to just take them along and help them learn about serving others.
It was a cloudy/sprinkly kind of day but it was SO nice not having to worry about directions, or traffic or driving at all. It was fun to be going up with some ward members.
When I stepped on the bus I just had to chuckle thinking about a bus full of Mormons:) Then I felt like was on a tour bus. I also had a few thoughts about when I was in High School in sports and we took the Charter bus to go somewhere. It was fun to just ride up and I got to sleep most of the way up.
The Washington DC Temple is so HUGE. It is just breathtaking every time I see it. Did you know that it has seven floors?
1st Floor - Has the Baptistry on it and some vending machines
2nd Floor - is where you want in and there are many offices
3rd Floor - Is the clothing rental and bridal room and dressing rooms
4th Floor - Endowment Rooms (6 of them) and the Celestial room is in the middle of that floor
5th Floor - In the middle is the upper part of the Celestial room but it is mainly a mechanical floor 
6th Floor - Has the sealing rooms
7th Floor - Priesthood room (This is where the prophet and apostles meet when they come. It is also where stakes meet together when they have a stake Temple day. I was told they do this Stake meeting once a year) It was SO awesome to see this huge white room and the people that are there are the ones in your stake. I wished that I knew more people but it was still very cool to be there with those from my ward that I knew. We got to listen to the Temple President, his wife, our Stake President and his wife speak. After that we went and did an endowment session with just people in our stake.
Many others had gone to a session before our stake meeting or did other things but it was cool to be altogether as a stake.
As I came out of the Temple I wanted to get some pictures. I didn't bring my camera but I had my tablet with me. These guys asked me to take a picture with their phone. I found out that they were from my stake. They are from the Richmond branch. That is like the inter-city Richmond area. They were so fun and then asked if I would take a picture of them with my tablet and just email it to them.
 

I had never seen a line out the door of the Temple waiting to get in but it was pretty awesome to see that:)
I was able to get some things done and then sleep on the way home. It was so nice not having to worry about traffic or spending our gas. I had to leave at 7:45 and didn't get home until 6pm but it was a nice time.

The Motivation Needed?

Today has not been a great day. I have been depressed. I am hoping that this is finally the motivation I needed. I have been gaining weight all year long. At the beginning of the year it was good because I was pregnant but after I lost the baby the weight has just kept staying on and must be having a grand time because it has called its friends to come join the party also. I have gained 45 pounds this year and have just never had the motivation to do what I need to do to get it off. Part of it is because I keep thinking that I don't want to put in ALL of the hard work and effort to lose the weight and then get pregnant and gain it all back. I should quit thinking that we might possibly get pregnant because it doesn't seem to be in the plan for us.

When I decided to lose weight last time it was because I was fed up enough to do whatever I had to do. At night the idea of exercising the next day ALWAYS seems like such a good plan until that day comes, then it doesn't happen. Well, yesterday I finally started exercising again. I hope this motivation stays but today I tried to put on my one pair of jeans that I thought I could at least squeeze into and today I couldn't even squeeze into them and this was AFTER I had worked out this morning. I cried and cried. I was suppose to go to Lunch Bunch but I am just too depressed to go be social. Instead I crawled in my bed and went to sleep to make the day go by faster.

It got pretty cold today and Chris even said it snowed at his work but it didn't stick. I just want to curl up with food, hot chocolate and a blanket and watch a movie but that won't help my situation.

I have been wanting the motivation hadn't found it but sending out Christmas cards that just have the kids on it is great because I don't have to be in them but it is so sad that I feel that terrible about myself that I don't want people to see me. I think I finally got the motivation I needed to kick this extra weight and all of its groupies off of this body. It needs to find a different home because I am sick of it camping out on me. I know it is right before the holidays, and I will slip but I hope to get back on and keep fighting so I can wear my clothes again and feel better about myself.

Here's to being so sick of my weight that I have the motivation to do something about it:)

Fall Colors

We have just LOVED seeing all of the different colors of leaves this fall. It has been over 12 years since I have been in MT and seen real fall leaves. I can't remember ever seeing this many colors all around, though it is probably just because I took it for granted back then because I saw it ever year.
I loved being able to drive around and just see all of the trees. I wished so many times that I could just video tape me driving around and what I saw. One of Heavenly Father's many creations to show us how much he loves us, for the beauty of the Earth...
One tree at church was my absolute favorite tree because it had some green leaves still but it also had red, orange and yellow as well. I loved seeing this tree when we went to church.
Finally one day I decided I was going to take a picture and sadly I didn't have my camera with me, but I had my tablet which has a camera in it so this was the best that I got.
I am glad I did it because the next week, most the leaves were off of this tree.

(click on collage to view it bigger)

After church, Allison wanted to take some more pictures, so even though her hair is a mess now, I took it anyways and some of the beautiful tree!!

 

 

Chamberlayne Elementary Fall Festival

The Friday before Halloween the kids' school had a Fall Festival and it was actually pretty fun. They had a costume parade, trunk-or-treat, dinner, games, and dancing.
It was getting pretty cold towards the end but we had lots of fun and I hope the school made some money.
Here is Allison with her teacher, Mrs. Snider. She loves her and I am glad that I have this cute picture.


Allison dancing with another Ariel.

Ariel and Ninja dancing together:)

 

This cute costume was absolutely adorable so I had to take a picture. This was made on his stroller. His uniform really is a UPS uniform.

 

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Even though it was just a small pumpkin patch they still had a lot of fun.


Allison was acting like Mrs. Snider in this picture telling the kids to be quiet.

Her and her little hand on hip pose:)

They found this rooster and had fun watching and playing with it a bit.

 

My sweet boy:)

 

 

I got more good shots of him then of Allison but that is ok because it seems like it is always the other way around.

The loved the hay maze they had and went through it probably 6 times and wanted to do in more and more but it was getting rainy so we wanted to go.

Pumpkin Patch - Wheelbarrow

Thank you for the feedback that I get, it keeps me going. I am thankful for the technology that you can see what goes on in our lives, whether it be good or bad.
These are some cute kids that I like to take pictures of so here are more pictures.
I used to ride in a wheelbarrow growing up and it was fun so after these pictures I wheeled all four of these "pumpkins" to the stand to buy them, thankfully we only had to buy two of them because they other two were priceless:)
Allison doesn't really like to get dirty so you can see she doesn't really want to touch this dirty pumpkin:)
(If you click on the picture it should get bigger for you to see)
 

Pumpkin Patch

Our stake was suppose to go apple picking in October and I heard about it in April. I was SO excited for that event to come but it never did:( For one reason or another they had to cancel it a few days before. I was so bummed but we decided to go to a pumpkin patch as a family and we got these full pictures of the kids.
(If you click on the picture it should get bigger)

Snoopy Jackets

These jackets are homemade from Chris' nanna on his mom's side. She made them for Chris' older two brothers and then they have gotten passed down. I didn't get a picture of the back this time, since I already have pictures of it but it has Snoopy on the back. These are cute little sweaters that they get to wear.
I LOVE that they get to have a matching jacket.
Thank you Nanna for making such great jackets many many years ago.