A fridge worthy picture

This picture has been on my fridge for about a month and I decided today to share it with you. Over the summer we started rock climbing and as you all know Trevin loved it. He loved to watch, but most of all he loved when dad made him a harness and he got to climb himself. So one day I got him out some paper and pen to color and this is what he made. (FYI this is the first picture he has ever drawn that was more than just scribbles.)

When he finished he told me to look, so I did and I asked what he drew.

Trevin: "I made a rock climbing!"

Mom: "Wow!, that is rock climbing" Then I asked him what the lines down the middle were.

Trevin: "Those are a ropes for climbing."

Mom: "What about the big circles?"

Trevin: "That a huge rock!"

Mom: "What about the stuff at the bottom? Are those more rocks?"

Trevin: "No dose are my friends. Ats Dad, and Mom, and Bubba, and Alex, and Cheyenne."

Pretty good huh!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
This week we got to celebrate Gage's birthday. I love Gage's birthday, because I get to spoil him for the wonderful man that he is and he doesn't put up at fight. We all got up early and ate breakfast together, nothing fancy, just cereal. This was unusual because we are usually still asleep in bed when Dad leaves for work. Later that day we took Gage lunch at work, which Trevin and Chey always love to do. They think it is fun to see their dad in the middle of the day. We had yummy turkey sandwiches at Gage's request, and POP. When Gage got home from work we ate Chicken Cordon Bleu and mashed potatoes, It turned out yummy, even the kids ate it with out too much of a fuss. Next the part Trevin had been waiting for, "wishing candles and presents!" I make Gage a pie every year for his birthday (he LOVES pie). I try to make a different kind each year, I know I'll run out soon, but so far I've only had to make 4 so I can still surprise him. This year Banana Cream with a vanilla wafer crust. Yum.

Gage is now one year older, but still young... If you can count how many candles are on that pie then you'll know how old he is, but my lips are sealed. Trevin and Cheyenne were super excited about dad opening presents. They helped me wrap them, so they knew what was inside and did a good job keeping MOST of them a secret. This was the hit of the night... How to Train you Dragon!
Cheyenne saw it and yelled "Wow a Dragon!" and Trevin immediately went to setting up the DVD player so we could watch it... and we did!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAGE!!! We Love You!

Halloween Decorations

We love Halloween at our house. I enjoy the dressing up part and Gage enjoys the spider webs. Every year when October hits Gage asks "Can we get some of those white spider webs?" I'm pretty sure that if we didn't put them up in the house then it wouldn't really be Halloween in his eyes. This year they have taken over the railings in our house, the kids love them too. I decided to jump on the band wagon and embrace it. So after reading my SIL's blog and seeing all of their homemade Halloween decorations we decided to make some too. This is our little family of pipe cleaner spiders. From the Bottom left, is Dad, then Trevin, next is Cheyenne and up at the top is Mom. My kids will (yes both of them) will tell you who each of them are if you happen to come over. This is an idea stolen straight from Joni... Flying bats. I had a couple of Lindsay's girls over, and they had lots of fun helping. I cut all the bats out and Trevin and the girls helped me glue them together and hang them.
They thought it was lots of fun to watch them fly when a breeze hit. Now we feel festive enough for Halloween to come, the only thing that we missed out on this year was "Booing" our neighbors. I usually start one of these every year, but our neighborhood doesn't really get into it so I passed on doing it this year, but next year will be different!

POTTY TRAINED

Hip Hip... HOORAY!! Trevin is potty trained!After multiple failed attempt, mostly because of me giving up... Trevin is finally potty trained. We couldn't be more proud of our little man. He takes himself to the bathroom and doesn't need any reminders, it is awesome. We had lots of gimmicks that we tried... Here's what worked for Trevin. A potty chart to color after each time he went!

He got to use a dry erase marker and color ONE square if he pottied in the toilet and TWO squares if he pooped in the toilet. This was lots of fun and Trevin definately looked forward to this. (On the flip side an accident meant erasing a square or two.) Once he had the chart all the way colored in he got a reward, a matchbox car tractor! The tractor's sat on the back of the toilet to be his reminder/motivator.

He is so proud that we got to take down the chart, because Trevin is a big boy now!

He is even more proud of these... HIS BIG BOY UNDERWEAR!!! We tried to potty train in pull-ups and it didn't work, he wet them... I had no idea... no training happened. So when we decided it was finally time, he went straight to big boy pants (more work for me, but definitely more effective). He loves to pick out what underwear to wear each day.
I can't believe how independent he has gotten. He loves to get himself ready for bed and get dressed in the morning. He loves to make his bed and throw his dishes in the sink. Trevin has a couple of regular chores around the house, once a week he empties the bathroom garbages and wants to do it all himself. His newest chore... starting the dishwasher.

A couple weeks ago he told me "I started the dishwasher, Mom."

I told him, "Ok, but we need to put soap in it."

He said, "I did put soap in it."
I said, "What did you use can you show me?"

He took me to the cupboard under the sink and pulled out the soap, and told me "and I closed a little door."

Sure enough, he had gotten out the soap, opened it, poured it in the little compartment in the dishwasher, closed it's little door, shut the dishwasher and then started it! I was shocked, but now he gets to do this a lot.

Some other things Trevin does is put on his shoes, pump his legs on the swing, reenact cartoon episodes, set up the TV to watch a DVD, and his favorite thing right now is to do "tricks" on his bike! We love you Trevin!

Cheyenne's Hair

Fixing Cheyenne's hair is usually a challenge for me. I pull one way and she pulls the other! I have a sister with 4 girls, and she always has all her girls hair fixed perfect and is really creative. I've tried to step up my game lately... Cheyenne has even been a sport and doesn't put up a fight if I let her watch "Mitty mouse cubhouse."

On Monday, Lindsay and I made a bunch of fabric flowers to put in the girl's hair. So my challenge to myself this week has been to do fun hair do's and include accessories. I love Chey in this picture! She is definitely not my baby girl anymore... that is the face of a toddler! Close ups of her hair, this part is easy, Cheyenne loves having her picture taken. So if I tell her we will take pictures after her hair is done, then she is thrilled. This is what we did today... I think I started her hair about 4 different ways, but this is what we came up with. I need her hair to be just a little longer to make her "UP" do's easier. She loves "cippie" also known as hair clips and is excited when I let her pick which one she gets to wear. But more than clips, Chey LOVES shoes! This is probably an understatement... She steals shoes that get left by the front door(visitors shoes) and I am constantly picking up shoes that she has pulled out of our closest. She loves adult shoes the most because they are easy to put on by herself. I love to see how proud she is to walk around in her Dad's shoes.

FALL DECORATIONS

My sisters and I go to the crafts show at the Golden Spike Arena once or twice a year. When we go we look for things that we think are cute, but would never pay the asking price for. Then we go home and figure out how to make them. This year we saw some cute, easy to make pumpkins.

Gage cut the wood for us, and I shopped around for the couple of supplies that I didn't already have around the house.

Yesterday, Lindsay and Sierra came over to make them. We made our sets bigger than the ones we saw at the show, cause I knew mine would get placed on a high shelf. Brinlee and Raigen helped us paint, Cheyenne kept Taylor entertained, and surprisingly Trevin and Hallie played nice together! As you might guess it was very noisy at my house with 6 kids age four and under. But as usual we all had fun and got a lot done.
The finished product...
I was so pleased with the outcome, good thing Lindsay was around to tie all the bows for us!

The best part... each set came out costing $5.00 not the $28.00 they wanted at the show! Plus I got to hang out with my sisters :)

Homemade Bread

In May I decided I would try to make bread. I spent the afternoon working on it, following the instructions exactly. Needless to say, when it didn't turn out at all I was very disappointed. Gage told me that we needed to take pictures of my first attempt and I was so opposed, I though there is no way I'm ever showing off this failed attempt...why take pictures? But we did. And we ate most of it as hard and crumbly as it was. Gage even said it wasn't that bad, I agreed to disagree on that topic. So now that I can look back and laugh at it here is the picture that Gage took.After thinking about my failed attempt for the last few months I decided to ask Gage for a favor. I asked him to think of someone's bread that he has had in the past and give me a name. That way I could track down their recipe. (Yep I decided the first one wasn't my fault at all... I just had a faulty recipe! HA HA probably not, but it's a nice thought.) It took him about 5 seconds to make a decision, Alice's Bread. One of his best friends mom. Once I tracked it down I got to work. This time with much better results!
It was really yummy and soft. Maybe next time I'll be able to make the loaf a little prettier, but for now I'm thrilled.

Wouldn't it be nice!

I was checking out a couple of my favorite blogs today and ran into this awesome giveaway. I don't actually scrapbook all that much but I love making cards. What I hate about it all is the clutter and reorganizing paper after I've pulled it all out of the bin to find that certain color! I found the solution to all my problems... "THE PAPER TOWER"Wouldn't this be an awesome addition to anyone's scrapbooking room! Wouldn't it be even better to win it!

A Quote

"God, our Father, has entrusted precious little ones to our earthly care. To them may we teach prayer, inspire faith, live truth, and honor God. Then we shall have heavenly homes and forever families. For what higher gift could we wish? For what greater blessing could we pray? None!"

--Thomas S. Monson

MMM...Crabtree Soup

After getting off to a rough start, Crabtree soup and I are on very good terms! I love to have tomato soup especially on crisp fall days. So even though it takes quite some effort to supply my family for the year, it is totally worth it. Here's what you have to do...

Grow tomatoes... and wait patiently for them to turn red.

Next pick them...

Then wash them and cut them up...Juice the tomatoes...This step is most easily completed if you have a willing 2 year old that likes to get messy and a mother in law with an electric juicer that she is willing to let you borrow!
Trevin really loves to do this and is getting pretty good at it. He was so excited to "feed the vegable machine!"
Yum... yummy juice.
Next boil the juice...
Put into cans, add salt, and process...
Once you processed all the cans, step back and admire your work!
The rest of the year is easy. Pull out a can warm in the microwave, add cooked macaroni elbow noodles, & a little bit of cheddar cheese and ENJOY!

The 26 quarts I made last year, wasn't enough to feed the 4 of us. It required rationing when the summer hit. I think I'm pretty safe with the 42 quarts this year, but who knows with how my kids inhale food right now!