Pumpkin Guts

We finally cut into our pumpkin tonight for Family Home Evening. The smell of fresh pumpkin guts bring back so many wonderful memories I had as a kid. Carving pumpkins as a family was one of my favorite traditions. I love how smells can take you back in time.
Ammon enjoyed the pumpkin carving but the one who really gets into it is Jody. He decided that when the kids get old enough to carve their own pumpkins we will still have to get one for him. I'm just glad I don't have to do it.

Last weekend Ammon went to a cowboy themed party. He got to ride a real pony. I had to post a picture from it. To hear a funny story go to my mom's blog.

Help Me!

When should you stop letting your kids see you naked? It seems like Jody has been on my case about this ever since I gave birth to Ammon. Ammon never says anything about us having different body parts and doesn't even notice when I am dressed or not. I wasn't planning on stopping this anytime soon until today. I was getting dressed and Ammon said,"Mommy my bum is not big like yours. My bum is little. Why is your bum bigger?" I just had to laugh! Now I realize that I didn't even answer him. If I am going to start getting these questions from him on a regular basis I will definitely be changing behind closed doors!

Recently my cousin Kadi posted on her blog about being bored. I have to second everything she said. Lately I just don't know what to do with myself. Yes my kids keep me busy with cleaning, bathing, changing and cooking. But they are both at the ages where they can start entertaining themselves. Cohen still takes two good naps everyday and goes to bed by 7:30. Ammon is the easiest kid and goes to preschool 4 days a week for close to 3 hours. So after I feed them breakfast, bath and dress them, and put Cohen down for his nap I have about two hours of free time. I usually clean for the first hour and the second hour I am reading blogs, talking on the phone, reading magazines or doing some other random thing. When Ammon goes to preschool I am once again putting Cohen down for a nap and have another two hours of free time. I know most of you are saying how do you have free time with two kids? What are you complaining about? But I just need something to do! I can't stand to stay home all day and I don't have money to be out shopping all day. If I had my own home I could spend the day decorating. Because of the recent boredom I have made attempts to clean out closets and reorganize things. I also have been going through cooking magazines and pulling out recipes I want to try. My next plan is to go through all of our clothes and put them on ebay. I could scrapbook, which I enjoy doing, but it is so hard to get everything out. Any ideas? I would love to take a photography or pottery class but I live in an area that doesn't have much to offer. I never thought that I would be counting down the days to go to Enrichment Night, story time with friends, Halloween parties at the church, birthday parties, and the list goes on and on! I long for having things to be at or go to. Don't get me wrong I love my life and being able to stay home with my kids but sometimes I just need something to break up the monotonous routines.

This crazy picture was taken when Alex left for college. I am suppose to be sad but I really just look insane. Ammon took the picture above.

Fall Fun

I love fall. This time of year makes me miss living in Provo. I loved Provo in the fall. Driving through the canyon and seeing the beautiful colors on the trees was one of my favorite Sunday activities. I just love to think about all of the fun holidays coming up. Especially anticipating the arrival of family and being all together again during the Christmas holidays. One of the funnest things is seeing all of our kids play together for hours and hours.

So last week ended up being beautiful. On Wednesday we drove out to the pumpkin patch in Blue Lake. We met some of our friends there and rode the tractor to the field where Ammon grabbed the first pumpkin he saw. His friends took a little more time in finding the perfect one. It must have been about 80 degrees out there but I really couldn't complain.

Thursday we went on a walk to Kmart where I let Ammon look at all of the Halloween decor for about 20 minutes. I ended up having to promise that I would get him some of the "cool" stuff he found, for his birthday. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten him out of the store. We continued our walk to Round Table Pizza where we got lunch to go and took it to the park to eat it. That night I went to a Service Auction at the church where I won some pretty cool services. I won three hours of free babysitting, a dinner and a batch of homemade rolls. It was a fun night and a great activity. We spent this weekend hanging out with friends and relaxing.

Sunshine!

Over the summer I complained, complained and complained some more about the weather in Humboldt County. I guess mother nature heard my cries because this fall has been warm and beautiful. Two weeks ago we had 5 days of warm beautiful weather and I assumed that would be the last of it, until next year, but low and behold it is back for another week. Today the temp was 71 degrees and tomorrow it is suppose to reach 75. To most of you this probably sounds unexciting but for us it is simply unheard of! I have already tried to plan a few activities outside before we lose it again. Number one on my list is heading to the pumpkin patch.



Last weekend Jody and I drove to the Medford Temple for a youth temple trip. We drove up with four 12-13 year old boys. I have to admit I was a little disappointed because I wanted to have girls and hear about all the boys they like. Suprisingly the boys came through for me! We were about halfway into our drive when they finally turned off their ipods and started sharing all the gossip in the ward with us. It was hilarious, I had no idea young boys even cared about girls enough to talk about them for a full hour and a half. They had the future planned of who was going to marry who and who would be inlaws with who, even down to my kids!

Later that night I was able to get the gossip from the girls because I stayed with three of them in a hotel room. They too were hilarious! We stayed in a hotel that has a water slide. After a lot of work Jody coaxed Ammon into riding it. After Ammon went down the slide he was so excited. He came over to me and said, " Mommy I did it. I went on the slide with daddy!" Then Jody said, "Do you want to do it again?" Ammon said,"No!" and ran back into the hot tub. It was pretty cute. His friend Brayden was there and they enjoyed sitting on the chairs and watching the people come down the slide.

The only unfortunate part of the trip was that we all seemed to catch a cold while we were on it. As a result I have a squeaky raspy voice. Yesterday Ammon said, "Mom talk like a girl, you sound like a boy."

Deep thoughts by Ammon Joseph (SNL)

1. I was just waking up (thanks to Ammon) and Jody was in the bathroom. Ammon wanted to go downstairs but I wanted to lay in bed a few more minutes and I told Ammon to ask his dad to take him downstairs. Jody didn't want to so Ammon said, "It's okay mom he will because I'm the boss!"

2. Later that morning Jody was heading out to work and was saying goodbye to us and Ammon said, "You be a good boy at school today dad."

3. We were just sitting down to dinner and he looked at Jody and said, "SO, how was school today?"

4. We were at my parents house and Ammon said to my mom, "We brought you some jelly suckers." My mom and I did not understand what he was saying. Some kind of jelly suckers? He kept saying it over and over until I suddenly got it and burst out laughing. We had made strawberry jelly and brought some over to my parents. He was literally telling her that we had brought her some jelly and was then calling her a sucker! (If anyone knows my grandpa, he calls everyone a sucker, including Ammon!)

5. This one is for his grandparents. Yesterday we were driving in the car and he randomly said, "I miss my Grandpa Chuck, my Grandad Larry and my Grandmom Cindy." He knows how to say just the right things to make your heart melt. Later he started listing all of our family members that were here for Labor Day weekend and how much he missed them.

6. We went to a ward luau last night. When the were done doing a fire dance Ammon asked, "Are we going to open presents now?" I guess he thought it was a party. Later at home he said, "I had so much fun." I asked him where he had so much fun at and he said, "at the wedding."

These may not seem funny to some of you but he is only three and half of the humor comes from the expressions on his face.

Update

It's been a while because I am going through another dry spell! This week I spent my time cleaning and reorganizing my dinky little apartment. I seriously don't think I can bare living in it much longer and the main reason for my temporary insanity has to do with laundry! We do not have a washer and dryer in our apartment, nor to we have hookups. So my mother has graciously allowed us to use her laundry room as a laundromat for the last 3 years. It has saved us time and money but I long for the day I get to drive to Sears to purchase my very own washer and dryer. The hardest part about living in a small space is that things get messy very quickly. I can spend all morning cleaning and by dinner time you would think I laid on the couch all day and watched soaps. Enough of my ranting and raving, at least I have a clean, dry roof over my head, right?

Last night we took the boys to Dow's Prairie School's annual carnival. Ammon had a great time (mainly because his best friends, Jake and Lex, were there). My siblings and I all attended Dow's Prairie Elementary and it was fun to be on campus again and even run into some of my old teachers and friends.

Ammon sharing his "treats" with Cohen. They are learning how to play and fight with each other.

It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's ..........

Superman at the beach! I think Saturday was officially the first day of fall and it just happened to be the hottest day we've had all year! 85 degrees!!! It was amazing. We have continued to have good weather since then but about 7 degrees cooler. I am just loving this weather. My mom and I took Ammon to the beach after church on Sunday for a quick walk before choir practice (no we don't consider ourselves good singers, we just wanted to support them). Ammon ran all over the place while my mom and I talked about how we couldn't believe how nice of a day it was over and over again.

Ammon went home and took a nap with my mom after church. While he was there he told her he was going to live by Kaden someday. She asked him, "aren't you going to be sad if you don't live by your Grandma?" He replied, "We don't have enough money to live here." Today he was riding home from preschool with his friend Brayden. He told Brayden, "I won't see you anymore." I thought he meant because we were going to drop Brayden off and I told him that he would see him tomorrow. Ammon said, "No mom, I meant I won't see Brayden anymore because I'm moving." I didn't think we talked about moving very much but apparently we do! I am starting to realize that I need to watch what I say around him because he listens and understands more than we think he does.















Ammon impersonating Chicken Little.



















If you could see up close you would see a single
tear running down his cheek. He didn't want to leave the beach.

Old Town

My mom has this great new schedule at work (she is a nurse). She splits her contract with another lady and they each are working one week on and then one week off. So she works for 5 days and is off for 9. It's great because I have someone to hang out with. Yesterday we went to Old Town Eureka. Old Town is a fun place to go because they have a lot of little random shops and a few good restaurants. One shop a few of you may have heard of is called Restoration Hardware. Every time I go into this little shop I am bewildered by the fact that it started in little Humboldt County and is now a huge company like Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. After we checked out RH, and dreamed about someday owning some of their furniture, we bought some fresh produce at the farmer's market and continued on to Hurricane Kate's. A fun restaurant that my mom had been wanting to take me to. It was nice to get out and do something different.

Ammon being crazy, again!

Addicted!

Last week Jody and I were watching survivor and in between commercials we would flip over to Grey's Anatomy. When Survivor ended a second hour of Grey's started so we watched it. After an hour of watching we were hooked! Friday night I rented the first season of Grey's and continued to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights watching it. We truly are addicted. I love the show and watching it with no commercials one after another is so much fun. Last night we stayed up until 1:30 in the morning and would have watched more but we ran out of episodes. It is the perfect show! It has romance, drama, suspense and humor. I also love the characters. It is nice to have a sitcom again because I am such a reality t.v. junky! I am also going to have to check out Studio 60, it looks like it could be another hit. Once I get caught up on Grey's I may have to also give Prison Break a try. How sad that I only have channels 1-13 but still find PLENTY of time to watch television.







































On Saturday I bought Cohen a Halloween costume at Old Navy. Ammon was disappointed that I didn't buy him one. Suprise, he had already decided to be Superman (I got him a wig at Target and he already has 3 costumes). Yesterday Ammon found Cohen's chicken costume and wore it all night. The costume is way to small for him but he loves it because it is so soft. He is the weirdest kid!

My Sweet Boys

Today I finally got my boys pictures taken professionally. I hadn't done it since last Christmas! Ammon was a little angel the whole time. He sat and waited for his turn and then when it was his turn he turned on the charm. Cohen lasted about five minutes and then I had to fight with him to take a few more shots. It got worse from there. I had to sit and pick out which pictures I wanted to order and he seriously screamed in my arms and on the floor for twenty minutes. I seriously think he could be Bi-polar. He can be the sweetest little boy and two seconds later will turn into a little devil! If you would like to check out the session click on the link!

What went wrong people?

Okay so many of you who thought you knew me were a little upset by the test (especially Jody). He called me a liar and said that I don't know myself! I didn't want to make the test too easy. Those of you who REALLY listen to me did pretty well and those who don't obviously didn't do as well. A lot of you said you had trouble picking between two answers. Clothes or Home Decor? Well I buy clothes even though I don't have a lot of money, I just find bargains. But if I had a lot of money I would probably by more. But I would love to buy furniture and things to decorate with. Another issue was between Parents and People. I love both magazines but if any of you paid attention to a previous post I did about an article in Parents you would have remembered how I went on and on about Parents. So sorry if I frustrated some of you but it was fun.

So life is back to normal again. Everyone is gone and the nasty fog has decided to unfortunately take hold on beautiful Humboldt County, making me want to move today! I decided that there are some wonderful, scary/weird, and not so good things about living here.

Wonderful:
* You can leave your home and know exactly how long it will take to get anywhere in town (no traffic) .
* You can get to the beach in 5 minutes. (though I rarely go!)
*It really is beautiful.
*I have a lot of friends from church and many who have kids my kids ages.
*My parents are 5 minutes away.
*Luzmila's Mexican Restaurant.

Scary/Weird:
*The hippies you see all over Arcata.
*PWT I see everywhere in Eureka (Poor White Trash).
*Pan Handlers that are creeping their way into McKinleyville.
*Tree Huggers (literally) !
* The price of homes especially compared to their quality.

Not So Good:
*Difficult to fly in and out of.
*FOG/DARK GLOOMY DAYS
*Weird people
*Not very good shopping or eating
*Not much of a job market

So there you have it folks, reasons while I will miss this place but will be so glad to move on. Let's just hope I will get that chance!

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Bowling to the Eighties

Friday night we took the fam to bowl at the very high class E&O Bowling alley and lounge. Just walking into the place made me feel blessed for the things I have in life. The guys duked it out to see who could win the title for the night while averaging scores just over 100. (Looks like our family won't be joining any bowling leagues.) Dad finally beat Alan in the last frame, who I must say is a pretty good bowler. So it was a great accomplishment. Lindsey and I spent our time taking pictures for the blogs. It's funny how we have become consumed with taking pictures for the blog lately. The picture I got of her bowling actually messed her up and sent her ball into the gutter (calculated move by me). We enjoyed being silly and crazy while singing and dancing to the sounds of Billy Idol and Van Halen.


We've had a great time with Lindsey, Al and Iz. I hate to see them go. While they were here we also played a few games of volleyball at the church. Lindsey and Alan against dad and I. They beat us two out of three. Then Lindsey and I played against the boys and beat them. I always enjoy playing volleyball when they come. We also went to Eureka a few times to hit up the mall, Costco and Target. Both of my sisters wanted to go to the mall when they came. I don't quite get it because they both have way better shopping than we do. I love it when people come to visit because I have something to do and people to hang out with everyday. But it's sad to see them go because it makes me realize how much I love and miss them. Someday I hope we can all live by each other.

The Infamous Shark Suit

If you notice in this first picture Ammon is wearing a swimming suit we like to call "the shark suit." It has life jacket material inside of it so it's a little puffy. Ammon would live in this suit if he could. I wasn't sure how good it's buoyancy capabilities were so I made Ammon wear a life jacket on top of it. Pretty uncomfortable if you ask me, but Ammon would do anything to be able to keep it on. When we got back to the cabin from the lake I got Ammon some clothes to change into but he ridicuously wanted to keep the stupid thing on. He would have slept in it if I would have let him. When he woke up in the morning the first thing he did was strip and put it back on. The funniest thing about Ammon is that he loves to wear these crazy things and he is SO serious about it. When we were leaving Trinity I told my dad to make sure it stayed in the boat. Some how my mom accidentally took it home and within a day of being back Ammon found it in the garage and would not take it off. A few mornings later he had the suit on and couldn't get it off quick enough to go to the bathroom and peed in it. So for now he isn't wearing it. Thank goodness! The picture above is also capturing Ammon acting like grandpa. Jody, me and my mom had gone to another cabin to try to catch the last few minutes of Big Brother. Ammon and Alexa went over with us. Ammon picked up my dad's glasses and walked over to Alexa, pointed his finger at her and said, "No, no, no. I'm grandpa. You listen to me. I am going to tickle you now." He did it over and over. It was hilarious.

This is a picture of Ammon saving his grandpa from the shark's. Jody was trying to get him to jump off the back of the boat into the water but was a little scared so instead he was "saving" his grandpa.

Lindsey and I looking all too sexy (Isobel joining it!).

Labor Day Weekend

Simply Adorable. Reminds me of pictures I had with my cousins.

Just the eight of us!

Notice where Cohen's hand is, he's just like his daddy.

I look sickly because I was.


We had a great time at the lake with everyone. We did things a little differently this time and stayed in cabins at Cedar Stock. The cabins were a nice change. They came with beds, a hot tub, and satellite television. So we didn't have to miss our show Big Brother. It was great to see everyone and fun to see all the cousins playing from sun up to sun down. I know they had a wonderful time together. My mom and dad had them stay in a smaller cabin with them each night, which was a nice break for the parents. They are pretty tight together and it will be fun to see them grow up. I had a good time relaxing in the sun, throwing out my back, and vomiting. Seriously I did have a good time but I didn't have the best of luck when it came to my health. It's nice to be back home and feeling good again. Luckily we have Lindsey, Alan and Isobel for another week before life gets boring again!

Sisters Unite!