Our pumpkin

Laun cleaned out the pumpkin & the kids collected the seeds.


Laun would throw pieces of the pumpkin goo at Marlee & she would laugh (she actually loves to be teased- maybe that's why Laun loves her so much). I think all the kids ended up with pumpkin on them, thanks to their dad.


Laun roasted the pumpkin seeds & they were really good.


I traced all of the kids hands on paper & then used that to make a face for our pumpkin. Marlee's 2 hands were the eyes, 1 of Porter's hands was the nose & Clayton's 2 hands were the mouth. I traced the boys hands with their fingers all close together but, Marlee's hands were spread out so, it looks like the pumpkin has eyelashes. It took me awhile to carve it all out.

I finally got a picture where all the kids were looking up at the same time.

Marlee cried & cried- I guess the pumpkin scared her.

The other pictures with the kids look more like this:

I like the way it turned out. It may look like Porter's hand is flipping the bird, since his ring finger is so much longer than his middle & index finger, but it's not:) I think this is my favorite jack-o-lantern that we have made. Now we will know how big our kiddos hands were this year.

a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet....

Marlee loves the primary song Popcorn Popping. She calls it the pop pop song. Not only does she love the song, but she also loves to eat popcorn (pop pop). So when we went trunk or treating & she got a popcorn ball, I knew she would be excited.

Three kids eating popcorn balls equals a big mess.

Trunk or Treat

Our ward had a trunk or treat tonight, which I always like because it is so much faster then trick or treating door to door-in a neighborhood.

Laun with our little elephant.

I love this elephant costume because both Clayton & Porter wore it when they were little.


This is what Marlee's face looked like the whole evening pretty much. She just stared & stared at everything around her. I think she was confused about what was going on & why everyone was dressed up.

The boys picking out a cupcake, an important decision in life.

Trunk or Treating

Every kid had green frosting on their face from the cupcakes...

Porter got an alien painted on his cheek.

Even Marlee had frosting everywhere, she snuck into one of the boys cupcakes.

Our dressed up kiddos:

Clayton the ninja-

Porter the cowboy-

Marlee the elephant-

Skate Country

A girl in Porter's class invited him to her b-day party at Skate Country. Porter was so excited to go even though we missed half the party. I spent the morning in the ER with Marlee to see if her finger was broken-it wasn't, thank goodness. I must like the ER because I've been there 3 times this month. Anyways, Porter was so cute with roller skates. He had never been skating before & he reminded me of Bambi first learning to stand. We eventually headed over to the beginners only section, sure wish I would have seen that when we first got there.


There was a lot of falling, frustration, & tears from my little guy.
But he still managed to have a good time & really wants to learn how to skate now.


I had a good time hanging out with Porter.
I really enjoy one-on-one time with my kids.

I definitely need to brush up on my skating skills:)
Maybe our whole family should go to the skating rink some night.

More animals- 8 fluffy fur balls to be exact

These six cute little fur balls were born on 10-10-10 to Salt:

Laun had to keep his hand there so that the black bunnies would stay in, so that I could get a picture of all 6 bunnies together, they love to go out into the other part of the cage.

I love the white ring around this bunnies neck^

These 2 bunnies^ tend to come out into the bigger part of the cage the most-it is so cute to see them drink water, they are so little.

Rexie had two bunnies the next day on 10-11-10:

This cute grayish/brown bunny^ & the black bunny below-it is amazing how much bigger they are than Salt's babies (since there were only 2 of them, compared to 6) even though they were only 1 day apart.

I am so happy that all of the bunnies have survived & are doing well. Clayton does a great job taking care of them. Clayton's job is to feed the rabbits & Porter's job is to feed the cat & dog. I think it has been good for our boys to learn responsibility & how to care for animals. Marlee usually goes out with the boys in the morning & likes to look at the animals. She sees our dog Sage & says, "nennel" (which means kennel), she sees the cat & says, "meow", she sees the bunnies & says hop hop.

Is it friday yet?

This week has started off crazy and busy and it is only Tuesday!

Sunday was the ward primary program and it is usually my favorite meeting all year long.
But now that I'm the primary president I was looking more forward for the meeting to get over with this year-horrible, I know. Even though my first counselor did all the hard work, I was still stressing. I had 3 nightmares about the upcoming primary program and was so worried about how it would all pan out. When Sunday rolled around everything went better than I could have asked for. The kids all did awesome and it was really neat because we had them write their own parts for the program, which made it much more personal. This experience made me realize how much hard work and planning is involved in a primary program.

Then on Monday the UMC ER doctor called me and told me that I needed to come back into the ER (I went in last Friday very early in the morning complaining of stabbing back pain and shortness of breath but, they told me it was muscle tension and sent me home). The doctor said that I was sent home without some testing done and that he noticed from the x-ray that my pulmonary artery was bigger than average. So I hurried back in (this time I was smart and brought my laptop and did homework) and the doctor met me at the front and apologized and let me know that he was worried about a blood clot . So shortly after that I was lying in a hospital bed with an iv and I had an EKG, blood work, cat scan, etc. They were monitoring my heart and a nurse told me that they were checking for a heart attack or blood clot. So I asked her if I should be freaking out because I felt pretty calm, and she agreed that I was unusually calm. So, to wrap up my long story, they found out from the cat scan that my pulmonary artery and my right atria of my heart are larger than average. So now I have to go and get an echo cardiogram to see if I have pulmonary artery hypertension. And they also found out that I have pneumonia and that is what was causing my stabbing back pain and shortness of breath. Maybe having pneumonia was a blessing in disguise because we ended up finding out this heart issue. I am curious to see what the heart results are but, then again I always knew that I had a BIG heart:)

Today I am tired from my lack of sleep. Laun was out of town on a trip with the boys this past weekend and I don't usually sleep well when he is gone anyways. And with two recent ER visits I am behind on sleep but, at least I had plenty of time to do my homework and I am now on an antibiotic for the pneumonia so, I should be feeling great soon.

Down on the Blue

I snagged this picture before the boys took off on their adventure with Laun. They left later in the evening so they had already fallen asleep for the night. It is a rare thing to start off on a trip with children who are already asleep. I love how Porter is resting his head on Clayton's shoulder.


Coming from Tucson, this was both beautiful and cold.

You have to love the 'Porter game face', even when he is eating snow.

This is more like "deep thoughts with jack handy"

Ryan and Jon both got deer. Jonny would not wait for me to get one, he had to get back to Darleen.

Speaking of deep thoughts, here is Ryan with an idea...

The above picture is actually Ryan pointing at the spot where he shot his bear. Below is part of the 7 mile blood trail that we followed with Clayton and Porter in tow. I don't know how they made it, but they tore that trail up. It was a nasty hike.

There is nothing like Unit 27 in the fall. This was a deep canyon that got little light.

The picture does not justify reality. The mountain was so steep that Porter would climb up 10' and slide down 20'. It was a hell of a climb, and it I was proud of both of the boys.

That night, the boys checked out. They were wasted. This was in Brady's cabin and I thought that Clayton's face told the tale best.

Here was a zip-line that the boys loved. Clayton would hit the ground at certain parts. This provided extra humor for Porter and I.

It is like Catherine says, every cloud has a silver lining.

The boys (along with Mason and Pierce) built this fort to protect them from the elements.

Brady shot this bear. This was a big ol' boy.

I had a great time with my boys. I took them knowing that it would reduce the chances of getting a deer. Catherine is the primary president and had a sacrament primary program that took place during the trip. She was so nice to let the boys go with me after some discussion.
I like hunting, but really like going to be with family. It is always fun to go with my brothers and in this case with Clayton and Porter. Jared did not have a tag but brought his boys and we had quite the time.
Jared has a double saddle that has two seats. It may be the strangest thing ever seen on the back of a horse. Porter and I doubled up on it and eventually figured it out. Porter would lean forward when we would go down steep mountains and almost grounded us a couple times. Much to Catherine's disappointment we did not get a picture (if she were there the would be many) of this monstrosity.
Clayton rode Little Bitty (Ryan's paint mare) and did quite well despite a little lead in the saddle. At one point his horse fell in mud that went up to the chest of the mare. The poor horse even buried her face in the mud. It got a little sticky and Clayton the bronc buster came out on top.
There are many things that I missed out on in life that I want my children to have. Boys, I love you and look forward to every moment with you. It is also so nice to come home to sweet Catty and crazy Marlee.