Odd findings...

Do you ever walk through your house and think, 'how did that get there?'

Of course you rarely have to think very long before you realize that one of the children placed it there.

Over the last few days, here are a few of the strange finding I came across.

A sippy cup of apple juice on the floor in the bathroom, tucked almost behind the toilet...of course that seems infinitely better than a toothbrush in the same place which I found a few weeks ago.

A used bandaid stuck to the arm of the couch, almost (but not quite) hidden by the cushion.

A pair of tinkerbell pajamas on the desk in the office. Now mind you that the office is nowhere near either the laundry room or the bedroom of the princess who currently wears those tinkerbell jammies.

A pair of little pink panties on the stairs, and a few more on the floor in the toy room, because another of my little princesses need to have matching panties for everything she wears, including dress up clothes....so needless to say those panties are 1 of maybe 4 that we go through in a day.

3 small pieces of CHEESE in the bath tub. Apparently someone needed to take their snack into the bath with them, then got side tracked, and there under the cover of the bubble-bath marinated 3 small pieces of cheese, until the water was drained, and they crusted themselves to the bottom of the tub, patiently waiting for yours truly to scrape them off...

A stash of all the toys that are yellow, behind the chair in the living room, carefully left by my color co-ordinated child who only likes to play with toys that are the same color.

And just today, I found a measuring cup on the floor of the office, next to the recliner, and there is currently a toothbrush under the piano bench...

Is it any wonder that we could run ourselves in circles as mothers, day after day after day, just trying to have a tidy home? Though I have to tell you, I have chuckled to myself with each odd finding, and I suppose if we can learn to see the humor in all of this, life with be less about the cleaning up an more about the making. :)

The end of an era...

I walked into Logan's room this morning to find this.....

I always dread the transitioning to a bed. It is always a little unnerving when you know they can get up whenever they want to...but alas, I knew it wouldn't last forever...and I suppose it would be better now, before the baby comes and all. :)

Uncle David's visit

We were lucky enough to have a visit from my little brother David, who is currently stationed at the air force base in Biloxi Mississippi, come for a quick visit. We are proud of him and miss him a lot, so it was wonderful to get to see him. Olivia was especially happy to see him, she hardly left his side the whole time he was at our house.

This is Grandpa Redding, Olivia and Uncle Davie.

Apple Harvest Times

I always love this time of year, when the last of the fruit comes off the trees and the leaves start to fall. For the last 3 or 4 years, we have had the blessing of getting to spend a Saturday with our good neighbors and pressing apples into fresh juice. It is the most amazing juice, and we enjoy it all year through thanks to a REALLY big freezer :)

It occurred to me this year that I have never taken pictures of the process, and that with as much as my kids love it, it really should be documented, so here are a few shots of our apple

juicing day.

This year we turned about 15 bushels of apples into 41 gallons of fresh apple cider.

Craig and Logan (in his jammies) picking apples in the crisp early morning air.

The girls think that the best part of juicing apples is eating the apple foam that accumulates as you grind and press the apples. They were all sticky from ear to ear. :)

Here is a shot of our good neighbor and his wonderful apple press. And Logan, patiently waiting for more juice....

If you were wondering about this amazing machine, here is a website you can check it out at:

Happy Valley Cider Presses

Today's Pregnant moment

Well, I am sure that each of you could think of some silly thing that you did while you brain was on temporary vacation while being pregnant....but, I dare you to top this one!

Today I drove to Provo, to go to a chiropractor appointment. When I pulled into the parking lot, (just off of 500 West in Provo for those of you who live locally, for those of you who don't, it is a very busy street in a somewhat not-great part of Provo. (I know, I used to live around the corner from there years ago)). Anyhow, I unbuckled the kids, got them out, and started walking up the sidewalk. As I was walking away, I thought to myself, the van is making more noise than it should be while shut off....I wonder if it is over-heating a little...I will have to have Craig take a look at it when he gets home. Then, off to get my adjustment...

20 minutes later, I head out the doors, and reach into my purse to find my keys. But where are they? I am digging and digging and I just can't seem to find them. I am about to turn around and go back in, when I hear something. I can hear a car running....and guess who's it is? MINE. I had left the keys in my car....WITH IT RUNNING....while I was in the chiropractors office. I have to tell you, I said a little prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father, that it was indeed still there and not stolen in those 20 minutes! Thank goodness He looks out for us dingy pregnant ladies and the ridiculously silly things we do.

ranch dip and fajita mix recipes

I recently ran out of both Ranch Dip mix and Fajita seasoning, and since it was Sunday, I had to be creative. I looked online at some recipes, combined a few, and made some changes that I thought would be good, and here is what I came up with. Try them if you like, I think they are every bit as good as any mix you can buy.

Ranch Dip Mix:

16 oz. Sour Cream

1 T. Dried Parsley

1/2 tsp. Dill Weed

1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp. Onion Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

Mix all together and serve with veggies of your choice.

(I make all my measurements heaping, because I like lots of flavor. :)

Fajita Seasoning:

3 T. Cornstarch

2 T. Chili Powder

1 T. Salt

1 T. Paprika

1 T. Sugar

1 T. Chicken Bouillon

2 tsp. Garlic Powder

2 tsp. Onion Powder

2 tsp. Cumin

Mix all together and store in air tight container. Makes the equivellant to 3 store bought mix packets.

( I have tried another recipe that I found online also, and while it was okay, this one is FAR better. The cornstarch thickens the sauce, and holds the flavor to the meat and veggies. I REALLY liked this one.)

Happy cooking! Let me know what you think if you try it!

Winter comes early.

Believe it or not, this is our backyard, just 5 days ago, Friday, October 7th.

They fore-casted rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. No one expected that we would get 6 inches of snow, and apparently, Mapleton was the only one to even get an accumulation of snow. (3 miles away in Springville, when I drove to the store, my van was the only vehicle with snow on it.)

I had to dig out all the winter clothes in a hurry because everyone wanted to play outside in the new snow.

Logan shoveling with daddy....isn't he cute!

Ally and Livy building a snowman together. I always like to post pictures of them where they are liking each other, seeing as how that isn't always the case.... :) They had TONS of fun together in the snow. It was fun to listen to them play and giggle together.

What you don't see in these pictures is all the tree branches in the neighborhood snapping off. It was kind of eerie to be out in the the still quiet of the snow and all you could hear was snap, snap crash! With all the leaves still on the trees (and still GREEN) the weight of the snow was too great. Our yard was full of fallen branches. A few of them bent the fence, and thanks to a great neighbor, those same branches didn't take out our power! It was quite the storm.

Prayer time

I giggle every time we pray, and finally decided to take a picture of Logan, folding his arms.

I am not sure where he got the idea, but when we say, time for prayer, fold your arms, this is what he does. Sometimes, he kinda closes his eyes, but mostly he just puts his hands on his head and looks at everyone else. It is especially cute when we have family prayer and we all kneel down. He has learned how to kneel down, but still, even though everyone else is folding their arms or hands, he still puts his hands on his face, or head, squints his eyes, and looks around.

He is so CUTE, and always makes us smile.

Waiting for the bath...

The bathtub wasn't holding water very well, it was half-way gone by the end of the kids bath, and then, the drain broke completely, and no water was going down at all. I forgot and told the kids that it was bath time. They all ran to the bathroom and stripped, and then I remembered that the drain was broken. The kids were needless to say a little upset, so I asked Craig to look at it, and he decided he could fix it fast. The kids were so anxious that they were crawling all over him while he was fixing it. I tried to get a shot of Logan laying on daddy's back watching him work from over his shoulder, but this was the best I could get.

There is actually another set of cutie-patootie buns hiding behind the door, but I figured that 6 year old naked buns might be cute, but she would likely not look back on that fondly when she got older. :)

Summer picnic with Grandma and Grandpa Laing

We spent a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Laings this summer. We took a picnic one day to a place called Big Rocks and as you can see, it is called big rocks for a good reason....

It started raining within minutes of our arrival, and rained for quite a while, so we built a fire and roasted hot dogs in the rain. The kids hid out in the rocks to stay dry.

Here is a rare shot of Craig and I together. Not the best picture of me, with my chubby pregnant face, but nevertheless, a picture of the 2 of us together needs to be posted. I love my hubby!

This is Ally with her cousin Shalyn.

This is Logan hiding out with daddy... Don't you love his cowboy boots and shorts. He won't go anywhere without them, or the binky for that matter.

When the rain stopped, Craig took the girls for a ride on Uncle Scott's 4 wheeler. Do you think Olivia liked it?

Here is Olivia, posing, and hiding from the rain.

Even with the rain, we had a fabulous time at the picnic and at grandma and grandpas house.

Ally update

Over the summer, all the kids learned to do more chores than we have previously done. I have learned that just because they are young, doesn't mean that they can't have chores, and learn how to do a really good job. Ally was my biggest helper, and my best cleaner this summer. She even learned how to clean the bathroom, all by her self, and once again, she does a pretty darn good job. :)

Allison had her 6th birthday in September. It was a fun day and she was thrilled with everything. She is such a sweetheart, and we love her dearly. Here is a picture with her sister Olivia after opening her birthday gift...bubble bath!

Ally blowing out her candles. I am not much of a cake baker, but cream filled cupcakes are a specialty of mine, so cupcakes it was....and they were super delicious. :)

(What a cute girl!)

Ally wanted to help dad mow the lawn, and here she is, in her dress and flip-flops, mowing the lawn, and doing a very good job I might add for a 6 year old. She turned the corners like an old pro.

Another first for Ally, she started 1st grade this year. Seeing as how she missed the deadline last fall to start kindergarten by just a few weeks, we decided to have her tested, and ultimately put right into 1st grade. She is a super smart kid, and is doing very well in school. She consistently gets 100% on her spelling test, she loves to read, and is reading at a very high level, and most of all, she loves being with friends and being social all day. School has been wonderful for her! We are so proud of her.