More on Samuel's baptism

This is the vest and bow tie I made Samuel for his Baptism! What a handsome boy!!

Samuel and Aaron before the baptism.Aunt Erica and Uncle Trace

Eli, Marjorie and James (after the baptism)

Nathan, Leslie, Josiah, Jarom and Sadie

Dean and Dawnie. Dad had gone to see the dermatologist the day before and had his nose "whittled" on, so he had to have a bandaged nose for the baptism.

Jacque, Tia, Calista, Ellen, Sarah, and Samuel

Okay, for those of you who want to hear the story I left you hanging on, here it is. James was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. When he prayed to know what to talk on, the Spirit told him to talk about Josiah. Josiah was made a king at age 8 years old. His dad and grandpa were very wicked men, and the Lord wanted to destroy the people of Judea, but since Josiah was so good, the Lord told Josiah he wouldn't destroy the people in Josiah's day. Josiah went to the temple one day and had someone read the book of commandments to him. Then he rent his garments and covenanted with the Lord that he would keep the commandments. (At this point, James rent (tore off) his white shirt! And in front of everyone there!!) Luckily for us, James had on another white shirt underneath :) (more on that later). We then learned that Josiah had all of his people come to the temple and make the same covenant! After that, the talk was on how important it was to keep our covenants that we make. It was a wonderful talk, and I don't think anyone will forget it.

I wish James would've let me know what his plans were for his talk, because I had a hard time fully concentrating on his talk for the first part. You see, he didn't look quite right. For one thing, his tie wasn't up to par. James is usually dressed very nicely, and his tie is always perfect. However, this time, his tie wasn't real snug around his neck. I figured he must've had a cold and maybe his neck had swelled up. But as I was looking at his neck, it almost looked like he had two collars on. But then how could someone put on two white shirts and not notice? I kept looking back and forth from the two collars to his tie and finally decided I was going to have to talk to Aaron later and see if he noticed something odd. Then he ripped off his first shirt. He had on his white shirt and another tie underneath. That is why the top tie wasn't tied very neatly.

Supposedly I wasn't the only one who noticed. When James walked into the Relief Society room, Leslie told Nathan to go fix James' tie. As Nathan went up to help his father look presentable, James warded him off, telling him to mind his own business. Marjorie was busy playing the piano when James walked in, so a little later she happened to look back at James, and she tried to tell him to fix his collar. (I'm guess that James must've gotten dressed into the second shirt after arriving at the church). Again, James had to tell her that he had everything under control. Mom and dad had noticed something different too. When I talked to James later, he figured that all the ladies would notice, but not the men. When I did get a chance to talk to Aaron, he said he hadn't noticed anything!

I exercised with Shelby today, and she said she also won't forget singing Christmas songs with Marjorie as the pianist. She said it was so fun to sing the Christmas songs up to speed!

Baptism

Samuel had a big weekend with a birthday party/slumber party and a baptism. I don't have many pictures of the baptism yet, but they are coming. Thank you Uncle Trace and Aunt Erica for this picture. Mom was nice enough to take time to get a bunch of pictures. I'm excited to see them all.

Saturday was a special day. You know I thought people who had kids get baptized were really old. I guess I'm really old now!

The baptism was wonderful, except we were the late ones. Everyone was there except the Kerns'. Uncle Trace did a great job conducting. I got to lead the music and Grandma Kerns played the piano. Grandma and Grandpa Baxter gave wonderful prayers. Uncle Eli gave an awesome talk on baptism. While Samuel and Aaron were changing their clothes, Grandma Kerns played Christmas songs for all of us to sing. It was so nice to sing Christmas songs up to speed! After the baptism, Grandpa Kerns gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost/keeping covenants. For those of you who weren't able to make it to the baptism, you missed a very memorable talk. I don't think anyone that was there will ever forget that talk. I will quote from the Bishopric counselor who conducted our Sacrament meeting today, "For those of you who weren't there, you need to go talk to Samuel and ask him why his Grandpa ripped off his shirt in the middle of the talk, and what it had to do with baptism!" Are you interested yet??!! After the baptism, we had refreshments. Samuel asked for brownies and snickerdoodle cookies. I was worried that I hadn't made enough, but we walked out of the door with one cookie (which never did make it home) and I think 10 small brownies! It was just a perfect day.

Thank you to all that were able to come and make it a fun day. Especially thank you to Uncle Trace and Aunt Erica and Uncle Nathan and Aunt Leslie and their family for traveling so far!! It was fun to see you and it meant a lot to Samuel!

The BIG Number 8

Saturday was our family's first birthday PARTY!! We usually just have a family birthday party, but since Samuel turned 8 years old, we wanted to do something special. His birthday was actually on Monday, the 6th, but since it was a school day, we decided to wait until Friday for the celebration. We had a normal cake and ice cream on his birthday

and then we had a Dinosaur party on Friday. Samuel wanted an alien party, but we found some neat dinosaur hats, and little toy dinosaurs to decorate the cake with, so we'll have to save aliens for another day. Here's a picture of our cake. It was a lot of fun to make. Everyone wanted a piece of the volcano. It was made of Reece's peanut butter cups and those chocolate krispies, with orange frosting as the lava:

The kids got to keep the dinosaur that was in their piece of cake.

kids and dinosaur hats


Samuel invited four friends over to play games and have cake and ice cream. Two were boys and two were girls. They were all from his church class, which made it fun because I knew all the kids. We played pin the leg on the dinosaur

"a keen eye and a steady hand" (which is a game that Aaron and Samuel made out of electrical circuits.) The goal is to take the metal hoop (the red wire with copper hoop) from one end of the arch up(metal hanger) and around to the other, without the hoop touching the arch. If it touches, then a buzzer goes off. We counted how many times the buzzer went off. Ellen actually had the least number of buzzes. It only buzzed one time. However, the bigger kids didn't think that it counted because it was one continual buzz from one end to the other!

They also played dinosaur egg toss (we used little balls as our dinosaur eggs), volleyball with a balloon, and at the end Aaron got down on the floor and played alligator! Boy did that get rowdy. Aaron finally had to stop because he lost his voice. I think the kids all had a fun time. The two boys got to spend the night too! I didn't get any pictures of the kids doing the games. I totally forgot until after they were all done. Sorry!

Silent Monks Singing Halleluia

They had to have practiced for a long time. A lady in our ward wants to do something similar for our ward Christmas party. They thought I could be the tall one. Although, the tall one does a lot of bending over. I thought this was pretty cute though!

Who is that in the mirror?

Calista really likes mirrors. She broke a hand mirror a while back, and fixed it all by herself. I happened to see it lying on the floor after she fixed it. It had cracks in the mirror, but she had taped all the pieces together. Surprisingly it still works!

Well today, she came up to me with another hand mirror. She puts it up to my face and this is our conversation:

C: Can you see yourself in there?
M: How do you know its not Tonya?
C: Because of your long nose, mouth and neck!
M: Oh, yep I guess its me!

I'm glad I was having a good self esteem day. If someone were to hear that conversation, they might think she was describing a horse!!

All I want for Christmas

I thought this was a cute video. You might need to turn up your volume to hear this because it's pretty quiet.

A little bit ago I wrote a blog bragging about Samuel. Well now it's Jacque's turn. I don't know how I got blessed with such good kids. Jacque is so sweet to everyone. If the students in Jacque's class are good for the day, they get a green sticker on their take home folder. If they get four green stars in a week, then they get to go to the prize box on Thursday. Jacque of course is a really good student, so she's always getting to go to the prize box. But most of the time she's getting something for her siblings. For the first couple of months, Ellen and Calista were really excited for Thursday to come because then they'd get to see what Jacque brought them home. She still gets things for them, but she is starting to pick things out for herself, which I think she needs to do. But I've been very impressed at how loving and giving she is.

When I ask for help in the kitchen, Jacque is one of the first to volunteer. She's also my best help with the laundry. She'd really like to help more with Sarah, but I'm a little nervous to have her walking around with Sarah. Sarah's getting heavy and still does the uncontrolled wiggles. She does help me alot with bathing Sarah and getting her dressed though.

At school, Jacque doesn't get to go to music class. They had to cut it out of the budget. But I've been impressed with her teacher. She takes it upon herself to teach music in the class. Jacque is always coming home with new songs they've learned and she quickly teaches them to her sisters. On our car rides, it is fun to hear the girls singing songs that I haven't taught them.

Jacque has a new love. Jump roping! I used to walk around the track at school (for exercise) and it would always be around a recess. I think Jacque jump ropes every recess, all recess long. Although sometimes she tells me that if she sees someone waiting for a jump rope, she'll give her to that girl.

I love my kids very much, and it is always nice to see how well they are growing up!

CAUTION. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. MAY HAVE DISTURBING DETAILS. Okay, for you brave souls who want to go on, here's one more thing. Jacque is also very brave/tough. She will let Aaron pull her teeth. Samuel was always a little nervous, but Jacque will open up and let Aaron have a yank or two. He pulled her front tooth last night. His only mistake was doing in the same room where I was nursing Sarah. I can't stand loose teeth. The whole wiggle the tooth with your tongue thing just grosses me out. And then there's the sound as it is popped out of the mouth...oh I shudder as I write about it! Now don't say I didn't warn you. But I am very impressed with Jacque's strength. I think I was probably one who just let it dangle until it fell out. Either that, or I've turned into a bigger wimp as I've gotten older! (No comments needed on that last bit).

New computer

We got a new computer this last week, so Mom and Tonya you can go back to using the "cute" backgrounds on your blogs!! I am really excited about this computer. Hopefully it will last a long time and not give me too many problems!

Baptism changes

We have changed the time for Samuel's baptism. It will still be on Saturday, December 11th, but it will be at 1:00pm. We moved it early because we got to thinking about roads and people having to drive in the dark. This should allow for roads to thaw before people start driving, and it will still be light after the baptism, so most of the traveling can be done in the light again. Hope this doesn't create any problems. We love you all!

Card games

In the last year, the kids have become really interested in games. The most popular ones are Uno and Phase 10 (this one is mainly Samuel). We play multiple rounds almost daily. Even Ellen can play Uno. She knows her colors, so when her turn comes around we just tell her to "look for a yellow one." She'll find one and put it on the pile. In just the last couple of days, Ellen has taken it upon herself to straighten the pile when it falls over, and it has to be just so. It's cute to see her care so much.


When the kids play these games, they can't hold all the cards in their hands, so they lay them out in front of them. I'd like to say that I play fair games, but when Samuel can go out, on Phase 10, in just a few draws (every time), I tend to take advantage of being able to see his cards. He can't see mine. I hold them all in my hand. However, in the last three games we played, he beat me once, we tied another, and then I beat him by two phases. I think I have to cheat just to keep it a close game. I told Aaron that it's going to be weird to play a game against someone when I can't see what cards they need.


Calista absolutely loves Uno. I think she could play it all day long. I will usually play several hands with her each day. When I get tired, she plays her own games and she chooses if she's playing Sarah or me. She actually plays the games fair too. She will tell me who wins, sometimes it will be me/Sarah and other times she will win.

Luckily for Calista, Jacque likes it almost as much. They both love to go through the pile and get the "good" cards - draws, wilds, reverses, skips. Then they want to challenge each other and everyone else to a game. Calista is honest and will tell me that she actually took all the good cards and that we should probably shuffle the cards. Jacque just comes up with a huge smile and holding a stack of cards. Aaron and Samuel took Jacque up on her offer the other day. The game didn't go as well because Aaron and Samuel only had 7 cards in their hands while Jacque chose to have all of the good cards. Eventually her good cards got mixed into the "community" pile. I don't know if the game was ever going to end. Jacque could see Aaron and Samuel getting down to just a few cards and would play her draws to get them back up, but her hand wasn't moving too fast. She ended up calling it quits at one time because she only had one card left, but both Aaron and Samuel put draw four cards down.

It is so much fun having the kids at the ages where they can play the games without a lot of advising going on. I remember when we first got Uno. I felt like I was playing four hands of Uno all by myself. But now all I have to do is remind them when its their turn.

Cicklas or Calista

When we first decided to name Calista, I wondered how the kids would do pronouncing her name. But Samuel and Jacque seemed to do it easily, so I never worried again. I never wondered about how future siblings would do pronouncing such a big name. Ellen has solved the problem for herself. She refers to Calista as "kick-lus." Calista has never seemed to mind her new nickname until the other day. This is what I heard:

Ellen: Kicklus, can you...
Calista: NO! My name is is CA-LIS-TA, not kick-lus
Ellen: That's not what I said. I said, Kicklus!
Calista: NO!! That's not my name. I'm CA-LIS-TA.
Ellen: That's what I said, Kicklus!!!
Calista: NO!!! That's not my name. I'm CALISTA!!!
Ellen: That's what I said, CA-LIS-TA!!

So she can say the name right, but for some reason kicklus is what comes out first. She has to pause and really think before Calista comes out. I tried to tell Calista that it was a fun nickname that Ellen had given to her, and she hasn't seemed to mind it since then. We'll see who wins out in the future. Will she still be called kicklus when she's a teenager? What will Sarah start calling her?

Samuel's Baptism is Scheduled

For those wanting to attend Samuel's baptism, we just scheduled it for Saturday, December 11th at 4:00pm in the Pendleton Ward Building! Everyone is invited to come. We are so excited for Samuel!

Samuel

Samuel is growing up so fast, and is such a nice boy. Aaron took last week off to go hunting. The season didn't start until Wednesday, so on Monday and Tuesday he got to work around the house. Aaron hadn't met the kids' teachers yet, so he walked them to school. Before leaving Samuel's class, the teacher says, "And just so you know, I think Samuel is the most polite student I've ever had! Did you know that one day we celebrated a birthday in class, but there weren't enough cupcakes to go around and Samuel volunteered to let another child have his. And then another day he brought a dollar to school for a kid to be able to go to the pumpkin patch!" Samuel had asked me one morning if he could bring one of his dollars to school. I asked him why and he said that one of his friends from school kept forgetting to bring his dollar to go the pumpkin patch and he didn't want his friend to miss out on the field trip! I told him that was fine. He brought it to school, but his friend happened to remember that day so Samuel got to keep it. Then at church last Sunday, Samuel earned 4 dum dum suckers for memorizing his part in the program and memorizing a scripture for class. He ate one, but gave two of the suckers to a family who couldn't stay for the ward linger longer. He had one more sucker left and gave it to another little boy in the ward. He told me that he chose that little boy because he had to choose someone who didn't have other brothers and sisters since he only had one sucker! Another time was during trick-or-treat. The first trick-or-treater came at 4pm on Sunday. We weren't ready for them, so Samuel ran to his room, got his bucket and came and gave the kid some of his candy. This really impressed me because he probably only had 15-20 pieces of candy from his own trick-or-treating, so he didn't have much to give.

As for growing up really fast, one Sunday, while we were all getting ready for Church, I found this:

I guess since he saw Uncle Trace and Aaron shave, he figured it was time for him!

Math is Fun!!

I go walking with a friend in the mornings and we talk about lots of different things. Our kids are the same ages so we do a little problem solving too. I got talking about needing to help the kids in math more and she said that they use a website that has a bunch of fun ways to do math/problem solving. It is called http://mathisfun.com/. I've started exploring it and it looks like a lot of fun. They have worksheets for kindergarten levels and more advanced: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, time tables, decimals, fractions, percentages. You can create your own worksheets too. It also has fun games: connect four, puzzles, mazes and more. You can work on money, geometry, algebra and other topics. If you have a child that needs more practice, or wants more practice, this seems like a fun way to do math.

Speaking of learning...they say that stimulation is good. Do you think that you could actually overstimulate a child? What would you say to this?

Sarah is getting to where she likes to look at things. Sometimes I will put her on the blanket and set a book up for her to look at. The night this picture was taken, I put her on the blanket with one book on each side of her, so she could look at pictures either way she she looked. When I walked into the room again, I found that the girls had helped her even more. OBVIOUSLY two books was not enough! She is going to be SO smart!

Halloween 2010

I started thinking about making costumes this year about 2 weeks ago because I didn't want to buy costumes at Walmart. They are too expensive and aren't very durable. We don't have fabric at our Walmart and it is very expensive at our fabric store, so I thought about going to Walla Walla, WA to hit JoAnn's sales. I got out the patterns for Calista and Ellen to look at. They both decided what they wanted to be, so we got ready to go. While we were getting ready, I thought that I should wait until Jacque and Samuel get home from school. Before school, Jacque said she just wanted to be a fairy like last year, but I knew that if she saw me making things for the other kids then she would want something different. So then, I justified in going because I would just pick her up some pretty material and I could make a princess dress with that. We took off, and by the time we'd gone 5 miles, I kept getting the thought that I shouldn't go yet. I mentioned it to Calista, but she was excited to get her dress made, so I kept going. We turned off on a side road which would be more of a short cut to Walla Walla, and I kept thinking that I should wait. So, I asked Calista if she thought it would be okay if we waited until after school. She still didn't like it, but I explained that if we waited then Jacque could go with us and help pick out her own fabric. Calista agreed, so we went back home. By the time the kids got home from school, I was too tired to go to Walla Walla, and decided that I would go into the local Salvation Army and see if they had any old sheets to make costumes out of. When I got there, they had all of their halloween stuff out, so we decided to look there first. That's when I found out why I wasn't supposed to go all the way to Walla Walla! They had two racks full of halloween costumes and they were only $5 each!!! (Actually when I got the receipt back, it showed that all the costumes were 25% off!! I couldn't make them any cheaper, especially figuring that I would've had to spend money in gas to get to JoAnn's, and I didn't have to spend all the time making them. This is what we came up with:

Ellen the Alligator

Calista the Witch

Jacque the Witch or Halloween Princess. (Not quite sure which one.)

Samuel the Wind Ranger or Ninja Storm Ranger. We had to Google Power Rangers to see what he really was, and that's what we came up with.

Group photo.

I actually got an egg costume for Sarah, but she never got to get dressed up. I was waiting until we got to the church because it was a little too bulky to get buckled up in, and then she never did get out of the carseat. I think her costume was a dinosaur egg, but since Ellen was an alligator, we were calling it an alligator egg. We had a trunk-or-treat at the Pendleton church from 5:30pm-7pm with a carnival inside from 6pm-7pm. We ran a little late because we wanted to eat dinner before we went. We arrived at the church at 6:04pm and everyone had already closed their trunks. Supposedly the trunk-or-treat only went from 5:30pm-6pm, and we were late. So, we got to go home with all of our candy. Now I'm just wishing I had bought a better variety. I got a sack of Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers. We gave the kids all the twizzlers and then kept the Jolly Ranchers to be handed out at our door. We got rid of most if it yesterday, and I'm actually glad that we don't have a bunch of candy just laying around the house. I think the kids had fun at the carnival and had a good Halloween.

Yummy Apple Pie Bars

Mom let me have one of her Family Fun magazines the other day, and I found a very yummy recipe. I usually am not one for cooked apples, but for some reason I like this recipe. Maybe it was the icing on top. Anyway, while we were eating these, the thought came that they would make really good treats for lunches because they would freeze easily and they stay together well. We were able to just pick them up and eat them with our hands. Hope you like this recipe too:

(this is not my picture, but I think it looks a lot like the one I made)

Apple Pie Bars

Crust: (this recipe was fine, but I might try and use my own pie crust recipe next time. It was just hard transferring this crust to the pan. It tasted just fine.)
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 egg
Milk (about 2/3 cup)

For the Filling:
1 3/4 cups cornflakes ( I used rice crispies because that's what I had)
8 cups peeled and sliced cooking apples ( I used my fuji apples that I just bought)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

For the topping:
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Step 1. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour and salt. using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly. Separate the egg yolk and white, reserving both parts. Beat the yolk in a liquid measuring cup, then add enough milk to measure 2/3 cup an blend well. With a fork, stir together the yolk-milk mixture and flour mixture until the ingredients form a sticky dough. Halve the dough and flatten each half into a 3/4 inch thick disk. Cover the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate them until well chilled, at least 30 minutes.

Step 2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour corn flakes into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to lightly crush them.

Step 3. On a sheet of waxed paper, roll one portion of dough into a 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle. Transfer the dough to an ungreased 15 by 10 inch jelly roll pan. Sprinkle the crushed cereal over the dough, then layer on the apple slices.

Step 4. Roll out the remaining dough as in step 3. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg for the filling. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples, then lay the dough on top. Use the tines of a fork to seal the dough edges.

Step 5. In a small bowl, use a fork to beat the reserved egg white until foamy, then brush it over the dough. In another small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping and sprinkle it on the crust.

Step 6. Bake the pastry until lightly browned, about 50-55 minutes. Let it cool for an hour, then mix the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla extract to make a glaze and drizzle it over the top. When the dish has completely cooled, cut it into bars and serve.

Samuel's writing

Samuel has taken to writing notes/letters now. Just a year ago, it was like pulling teeth to get him to write in his school journal. He was too worried that he didn't know how to spell words correctly. One day he stuck little notes on bedroom doors, walls, and the desk telling Aaron and I that he loved us and appreciated what we do for him. He came up to me today with this:

I like to run. I run with Frloun, Fedy and jocdy (Froylon, Freddy and Jacoby are friends from Ontario). we are super fast in fact we are the fastes one in our class. no one can bete us. So don't even trie. Noone can bete us. reale. it is turu I'm faster then my Dad because ones I raced my Dad befor. and I won

I thought this was cute and wanted to share!

Ellen and "WE"

Ellen has her own unique way of talking. As we leave the house you might hear her say, "Bye WE house!" or as we are driving down the road and see a white van that looks like ours, she'll say, "Dare's WE car!" I will try to correct her and say, "There's OUR car?" and she'll say, "Yes, dare's WE car!" I think its kind of cute now, but probably not in another year, so I will have to keep working on that.

Another time, we were at a friend's house for dinner. Ellen wanted to say the prayer and the mom was helping her. The mom said, "Thank you for the food." and Ellen said, "That THEE for the food." I was happy to hear that. We work really hard on trying to use the proper pronouns, and she had learned them. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but there was a smile on my face as I listened to her say her little prayer.

I got checks!

A while ago, I noticed I was running low on checks, but it was a very busy time in my life. We were moving = packing and unpacking, getting address change, getting ready to have a baby, having the baby, and adjusting to having a baby. Anyway, the last check came and went and I didn't have any new ones ordered. I remembered getting an add in the mail from Designer Checks and they looked really neat, plus they were a lot cheaper than ordering checks through the bank. I have had just plain boring checks for 8 years, and I wanted to do something a little different. Well they took about 3 weeks to come. Aaron kept wondering why it was taking so long for them to get here. I finally broke it to him. We were not getting just any ordinary checks we were getting these:



Yes, we were getting Lightening McQueen checks!!! No more plain, ordinary, boring checks. I told him this over the phone, and there was a pause. I guess I took him by surprise (he wasn't home when I had to order them, so I couldn't have asked him his opinion. Besides if I had asked his opinion, I know he would've wanted the BORING type of checks.) His reply was, "Tia...that seems so out of character for you!" Looking back, yes I was in a hurry, and I probably shouldn't have gotten 4 BOXES of these. I still would've gotten something like the precious moments, or a pretty landscape. But oh well, it's done! Aaron's embarrassed to use them. I told him he hardly ever uses checks anyway. Its always me paying the bills. He said, "Yeah, but the one time I need them...you mean I'm going to be paying my tithing on Lightening McQueen!!!" I told him that I think the bank will give him a few free counter checks, and that seemed to make him feel a little better. Maybe I'll have to order a box of plain, ordinary checks for Christmas!! So tell me...was I wrong in getting these?

Halloween + Preschool = FUN

Calista loves preschool. Sometimes I ask myself, "Why should I do preschool with her. She already knows everything she needs to know for Kindergarten?" But Calista loves it. She is always asking when she can do her learning. At first I thought it was because she liked to play on the Internet site, starfall.com. But I only let her do that once or twice a week. On the other days when I just want to spend time having her read books to me, she pleads with me, "Come on mom, just print off the papers where I practice writing my letters!"

Well this week, I've found something fun to do. Jacque came home from school one day with a really cute scarecrow and frankenstein, so we decided to make our own halloween crafts. We used Jacque's scarecrow as a pattern and made our own yesterday. (I don't have pictures of Jacque's yet. I'm not sure where she put it.)


I cut out Ellen's pieces and she helped glue them together. Then she colored her scarecrow with crayons.

This is Calista's scarecrow. She did most of the cutting. I would draw the shapes on the construction paper, and then she'd cut it out. I was surprised how well she followed the lines.

The girls had a lot of fun yesterday, so we did our own today. Calista wanted a pumpkin:

Samuel has really liked drawing lately. Every week he's been bringing home a new "How to Draw" book. One week it was horses, then cats, and this week it was funny people. I used the book to make this Frankenstein.

Ellen wanted a witch: (I actually did all of this one. Ellen didn't want to help, she just wanted it when she was done. This witch got to watch a movie with Ellen, and she took it around the house, teaching it to walk!)

A picture of all of them together:

Sarah and Ellen

Sarah had her two month check up today. She is 13lbs and 24.5 inches long! She's growing so well. She is definitely my easiest baby. She sleeps all night long and still sleeps good during the day. She loves to get attention and just smiles so big when someone gets down to talk to her. She is also cooing a lot which is so fun to listen too!

We got to go to a friend's house for lunch and playtime today. It was a lot of fun. On the way home, Ellen almost tripped over a rock, but since she was holding my hand, she didn't actually fall all the way down. She got up and said that she didn't like rocks. I told her it was good that we had rocks and we like rocks. She wasn't convinced. She said, "No, I don't like rocks." I told her if we didn't have rocks, then we wouldn't have roads and we'd have to walk in the dirt and mud. She still replied, "No! I don't like rocks." I told her that we do like rocks because they are pretty and we get to put them in our pockets. That seemed to do the trick. She said that she wanted to pick up some rocks. So we stopped and she picked one up. She started looking for her pockets, but I told her she didn't have any pockets. She said, "Yes I do!" and tried putting the rock where her zipper goes! With her pants, there isn't really a zipper there, but it opens like a zipper would. I just laughed at her. She tried to get the rock to stay there a few times and finally gave up on it.

Scripture Cookies

The kids came home from church on Sunday all excited because we were going to make Scripture Cookies for Family Home Evening. It sounded like fun to me, but we had to wait until last night to make them. It was fun to look up the scriptures and actually find the name of the ingredient! I didn't use the recipe listed because I didn't have all the ingredients. I've included both recipes down below:

Scripture Cookies
1 cup of : ____________ (Jeremiah 6:20)
1/2 cup of: ___________ (Psalms 55:21)
1 of: _________________ (Isaiah 10:14)
1 1/4 cup: ____________ (1 Kings 4:22)
1 tsp: Baking Powder
1/4 tsp: ______________ (Amos 4:5)
1/2 scant tsp: ________ (D&C 101:39)
1 cup: ________________ (D&C 89:17)
1 cup: Rice Krispies
1/2 cup: Coconut
1/2 cup: ______________ (1 Samuel 30:12)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together Jeremiah 6:20 ______ Psalms 55:21 ______ and Isaiah 10:14 ______. Add remaining ingredients and bake cookies for 12-15 minutes.


Emily's Cookies (the recipe I used)

2 cup of : ____________ (Jeremiah 6:20)
2/3 cup of: ___________ (Psalms 55:21)
2/3 cup of: shortening
2 of: _________________ (Isaiah 10:14)
3 1/2 cup: ____________ (1 Kings 4:22)
1 tsp: vanilla
1 tsp: ______________ (Amos 4:5)
1 tsp: ________ (D&C 101:39)
2 cup: ________________ (D&C 89:17)
1 cup: ______________ (1 Samuel 30:12)

Mix all but last two. When mixed well, add D&C 89:17 ______ and 1 Samuel 30:12 _____. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.

After looking up the scriptures, you can check your answers at this blog:http://atkernsfam-puzzleanswers.blogspot.com/ But its more fun if you look up the scriptures first. Most of the answers are obvious. There was one that I might've messed up on (Amos 4:5). Have fun!

Fun times around the house!

Pictures from the outside. Aaron's been busy chopping trees down and taking loads to the dump. We didn't water this back part, because it was just a bunch of weeds, so the ground looks pretty dry. However, the other day, Aaron just watered for a few minutes and the next day there was a bunch of grass that had come up. We didn't know there was any grass seed back there. So now we are starting to water back there. It helps that water is cheaper here in Pilot Rock.
Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Looking at these before and after pictures, I feel like I'm doing a make up ad. You know how they have the person look their absolute worst in the before picture and then they change clothes, erase wrinkles and do whatever they need to in order to make the person look their absolute best. Well, these pictures are similar. In the original ones, the curtains are pulled, so it is darker than normal, which in turn make the after pictures look really bright. Taking out the paneling did lighten things up though. Leslie came and helped us tear it out, pick out paint, and paint the room. She thought we should choose a light green. Aaron and I weren't really sure. We felt better about browns. I went with Leslie to the store to get paint. We found a light brown called "spiced sugar." I wonder how they get these names anyway. We painted it and Samuel says, "Is this dark white?" I think his name was better. I really like the lighter walls. It seems to make the room bigger. And at nighttime, when our lamps and lights are on, the room almost looks like a light green. Aaron teased Leslie, "Hey, Leslie, I guess you got your green anyway!"

We have renamed the living room and family room since the original house posts. The kids would run from their bedrooms to the family room to play which was fine except their path went through the living room. So now the living room will be at the end of the house and the family room will be the room just down the hallway from the bedrooms.
Before:
After:

Before:

After:

Living Room closets Before:

After:

Family Room Before:

After:

These next two pictures are at different angles of the living room. I didn't have before pictures in these places.


Bathroom Before:

After (you probably can't tell much of a difference. I just painted the walls a baby boy blue instead of the greenish/blue it was.)

Samuel

Samuel mentioned the other day that at recess he was playing "horses" with the girls. They were his horses and he was the trainer. I kind of cringed inside, and asked what all the rest of the boys were playing. He said that they all play soccer or football. Then I asked why he didn't join them, because he would be really good at soccer since he likes to run and kick balls. He said he couldn't do that because he didn't know the rules, or where to kick the ball. That was on Monday. So on Tuesday, after work, Aaron came home and we all played soccer in our backyard. It was fun to see how quickly Samuel caught on to the game. Jacque, Samuel, Sarah and I were on one team, and Aaron and Calista were on another. It was a good match up. Jacque didn't quite get the hang of running to the ball, and not touching it with her hands was hard, but even she made a few goals! We kept telling Samuel that he was doing awesome and he should try playing at recess. Wednesday he came home from school all excited. He had played soccer all three recesses with the boys!! He did it again Thursday. I think we already missed the soccer season but maybe next year.

Then last night, Aaron was swinging the kids around in a circle, getting them dizzy. Ellen was the best. She loved going in circles, and did a great job doing the drunk walk/stagger when she was done. Samuel was pretty disappointing. He could turn in circles for several minutes, and not really even affect him. I on the other hand, just have to turn around twice and I'm dizzy (I did that during "Do as I'm Doing" in Nursery on Sunday. But just before scriptures last night, Samuel got to turning around, and then ran and sat on the couch next to me. I wasn't paying much attention, so I thought he did just fine. Aaron was watching and Samuel had missed his target. I was sitting on the far right cushion, and Samuel ran to sit by me. I guess he jumps, and barely makes the far left cushion. He kind of looks down with the expression "How did I get here" and then scoots over to sit by me. Calista came to sit next to him. Next thing I know, Samuel got up and ran full speed across the room and ran into the open closet door! One of the doors was open and the other was shut, so I figured he must've been heading for the closed door, to sit against it. However, when he stopped crying he told us that he was heading for the couch that Aaron was sitting on. That couch was only two steps away from where my couch was. They kind of form a V! He was obviously feeling the effects of dizziness! I'm not really sure how he got the door! You'll have to come visit to really understand this story. Maybe he will reenact it :) Poor Samuel!

Let 'er Buck!

This week is Pendleton's Round-Up, a time when the population of Pendleton triples or more. This year it is especially big because it is the Centennial! We went to a parade last week which gave out a whole bunch of candy to everyone but us. We were at the end of the parade and most of the people were out of candy, but I saw a bunch of people later who filled up bags of candy from the parade. This morning we went to the non-motorized parade. Here are some pictures from the parade today.

"Let 'er Buck" is the logo for the Pendleton Round-Up. I've also seen people wearing shirts with a cowboy who's just been bucked off. It reads "Bet 'er Luck!"

I think this was some sort of mounted government posse.

The Wild Horse Casino is everyone's favorite participant. They hand out full size candybars!

The sign on the wagon says, "This wagon was used in 1850"






Here are some pictures of some old equipment. Aaron really liked these, and even knew what they are for. But he isn't here to tell me what they are right now, so you can either speculate or wait until he tells me!




What would the Round-Up be without the Indians!!




I thought these ones looked fun! I think it was actually supposed to be some sort of whisky tank.



By the end of the parade, the kids could tell us the difference between a mule, donkey, horse and draft horse. The people around us liked to hear the kids say, "I like your donkey!" Only to be reminded by daddy that it wasn't a donkey, it was a mule or horse! Aaron had to explain the difference to some people around us.




Jaylyn this one is for you! These girls are the Canadian Rodeo Princesses. It was neat to see where all the princesses/queens were from. We had Oregon very well represented, but some were from Washington, Montana, and North Dakota.

I think my favorite part of the parade was the Mounted Marching Band! And I think they are the smarted band I've seen. They don't have to march all through the streets, they get to ride!! They also play really fun music like "When the Saints Go Marching In!"







Hopefully you felt like you were at the parade with us. They told us that there were about 300 entrants!