Obsessed...maybe a little

** photo taken by Kate
This past weekend my mom made a spur of the moment visit to come see us. I was so excited to see her and even more excited when she brought me an unexpected gift....a Twilight board game. Yes, I am a nerd, I know, but I LOVE all things Twilight, especially Edward! I can hardly wait till next week to see the midnight showing of New Moon....only 7 more days!

so funny

My View

One of the things that I love most about my house is the view that we have in our backyard. From my bedroom and our living room we have an open field and a distant view of the lake. It is so peaceful and relaxing. I love waking up everyday opening my blinds and seeing this....

Fat Dog Brownies

Just in case you didn't get enough treats this past weekend, here is a very yummy brownie recipe. It was in our Relief Society newsletter last month so I don't know who to give credit for it, but it is sooooo good!

1 box German chocolate cake mix
3/4 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 c. chocolate chips
1 bag individually wrapped caramels ( about 50)
1/3 c. evaporated milk

Mix together cake mix, melted butter and 1/2 cup evaporated milk. Mix until well incorporated - it will be thick. Press half of batter into greased 9x13 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, melt caramels and 1/3 c. evaporated milk in saucepan (I just used the microwave) until creamy. When brownie is done, pour caramel on top. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of caramel. Dot remaining brownie mix on top of chips and caramel. Return to oven and bake for another 11 minutes. Let cool for an hour.

* I used a plain chocolate cake mix and less then half a cup of chocolate chips...and it was delicious!

Halloween 2009

This Halloween was fun as usual this year, but we missed Cary a lot because he is off on another trip to London. He missed out big time! The kids costumes were very easy to pull together this year. Braeden thought a lot about what he wanted to be and decided on Urkel, Joshua, with much convincing from me was a Mad Scientist, and Kate of course always has to be an animal of some kind. So, she decided to be a black cat. They were all super cute!!

Did I do that??

MUHAHAHAHA!!!!

My costume were these very hairy eyeglasses.

Kate and our good friend Molly, as Jesse the Cowgirl.

One of my girls as an Oompa-Loompa.....you looked great Darci!

Adria the witch with her little black cat, Kate.

This is my favorite picture of the night. Joshua and Josue are two peas in a pod. There is 3 years between them but they are so much alike. They are both such hams.

This is some random kid as a laundry basket. Loved his costume! He was nice enough to let me take his picture. Great idea, right?

Braeden, Laurel, and Gabby. I wish the girls would leave him alone.... I don't think this will be happening any time soon...even as Steve Urkel.

My kids hit the jackpot with their Trick or Treating...way to much Candy. I have no self -control. I will be hitting the treadmill even harder this week.

The Whole Gang + 2

This is my whole family....1 Mom, 1 Dad, 4 daughters, 4 son in-laws, 4 grandsons, 6 granddaughters + an aunt and an uncle

A crazy bird, some crazy clothes, and reflections

While I was in the kitchen at my parent's house putting together some wedding favors I kept hearing a tap, tap on the window. I went to the window to see what it was.....waited for a few minutes and found that this crazy bird was doing the tapping. He kept running into the widow over and over again. He would go from running into the window, to the rocking chair, to the dinner bell. He followed this same routine repeatedly. I was able to snap this picture of him on one of his many runs...or flights. I think he may have damaged his brain.
This week is Drug Awareness week at school. Each day the kids are to wear something special to show their support and promise to stay drug free. On Tuesday it was "Drugs are Ridiculous"...so this is what Kate and Josh came up with.
At school the PTA is involved with a Reflections program. This is a contest where kids can showcase a Visual arts talent such as photography, painting, drawing, etc. Kate went back and forth on entering and finally decided a few days before the deadline to submit this picture. The theme for the contest is "Beauty is..." They had to explain in one or two sentences how their art goes with the theme. She wrote, "I love dogs. They are beautiful to me."

Fall Leaves

Fall in Texas equals brown, crispy grass and ugly brown trees. Fall in Missouri equals bright red, yellow, and orange trees. It is so pretty!! I wanted to get family pictures done while in Missouri, but we were to busy with wedding preparations. This is the one and only picture I took of the kids in my Mom's front yard the morning we left to come home.

Ash and Clays Wedding

We had so much fun at Ashley and Clays wedding. I took tons of pictures but most did not turn out so great. Here are some that turned out decent..in no particular order.

Braeden got to dance with Ashley during the dollar dance. I had never seen this at a wedding before, but you give the bride or groom some money and you get to dance with them.. good idea!

Who knew Joshua loved to dance? He was all over the dance floor. He took me for a spin a couple of times.

Kate and her first dance with her Dad. She looked so beautiful.

Me and my 3 beautiful sisters.. notice how I am the idiot not looking at the camera...so typical.

The head table

The very handsome ushers..cousin Shane, Braeden, Joshua, and cousin Owen

Beautiful flower girls...cousin Sophia, cousin Heather, Journey (Clay's Niece). and Kate

The Reception Hall

The wedding cake...it was sooooo yummy!

Ashley's new last name is Norwood..that is the reason for all the N's. And the picture on the right is of Clay's dad who is no longer with us.

Baby Payton

Me and Ash

Mom, Dad, Clay and Ashley

Bishop Mawby and the newlyweds

The gorgeous bride

150

That is the number of cakepops that I have made over the last couple of days...my back hurts, my fingers are sore, and I don't want to see another cakepop for a while. But they were made out of love for my baby sister who is getting married this weekend. I am so excited for her and her fiance, Clay. I will post pictures when I get home. Can't wait!!

Braeden, some bees, and a briar patch

** written by Braeden
On Friday I went camping with some of my friends. The next day just before we were about to leave, we went exploring in the forest. A couple minutes later our scout leader called us to come out of the forest. Me and my friend Josue were trying to get out of the forest through some thorns, but in the progress we stepped in a nest of underground bees. As they flew up, Josue shouted, "BEES!!!" We both ran for our lives like little sissy girls! We both went in different directions . The majority of the swarm chased after me. I don't know which way Josue ran, but the path I took was blocked by some briars. I tried to get through them, but I fell into them. The bees kept stinging me while I was on the ground and in the briar patch. After a lot of scratches to my arms, face, hands, and ENTIRE bodyI finally got out of there and took off running. A bunch of scout leaders came running. One of them told me to take off my clothes. So I did. We finally got away from the few bees that were still flying around us and got to relax... for a few seconds. Then the First aid teacher came and counted our stings. Josue had two, but I had seven! He said I might have to go to the hospital! Now that got me worked up. I think I was more scared of the hospital then I was of the bee stings. They called my parents and they said unless I was swelling up I didn't need to go to the hosipital. So... that's my story. Now I'll probably be scared of bees for the rest of my life.

So Disgusting

I picked up Braeden from football last night and he was disgustingly filthy. He looked like he had been mud wrestling instead of practicing football. His coaches placed trash bags over the seats in my car so he wouldn't get every thing dirty....it didn't help. He left a trail of dirt, mud, and grass everywhere. He was covered from head to toe in mud and he was soaking wet. This morning I am on my second washing of his pants...they use to be white.... and I still need to figure out what to do with his nasty shoes. I am leaving his helmet, pads, and the car to him to clean when he gets home today. So gross!!

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London

* I wish Cary was writing this because he is the one that went to London...not me.

Cary went to London for work last week. I really wish I could have gone but in the end it was good that I did not. He didn't get to do any sightseeing. He spent his days in the office working and by the time he got out of work everything was pretty much closed.

This is the hotel he stayed in...nothing fancy, just a regular old hotel.

He had to have some fish and chips while he was there...but he said they weren't any good. He doesn't like vinegar and the the fish was fried in batter with the skin left on it. I like vinegar, but no skin for me....ewww!

He mostly took pictures while he was driving...sad, right?

A cute little British taxi...just like the one on Super Nanny.

This is how he spent his days in London....working. If you want to know what he does you will have to ask him. It's way to complicated for me to understand let alone explain it to someone else. I can say that he is SUPER smart and he loves his job.

Cary might have to go back in a few weeks. Maybe then he will actually be able to do some sightseeing...but probably not.

He loves us

This morning while I was bathing Kate we had this conversation:

Kate: Who is the Lord?
me: Heavenly Father
Kate: oh yeah, I forgot....(thinking)....Does everyone know Jesus?
me: Well, some people don't believe in Him.
Kate: Every night when I am in my bed I pray and tell Heavenly Father that I believe in Jesus.
me: That is really good. That makes me happy to hear.
Kate: I love Jesus and I know he loves me.
me: You're right, He does love you very much.
Kate: Jesus is our older brother.
me: Yep, and just like your Dad is your father here on Earth.....Heavenly Father is your Father in Heaven.

Kate then went right back to playing with her alligators.

I love these kinds of conversations with my children. They sometimes come at the most random times, but it makes me so happy to know that they are thinking about the things that we teach them and are building little testimonies of their own. This conversation I had with Kate this morning was just another confirmation to me of how much our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do indeed love each of us.