Our Rental/Christmas Decorating

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted, I have been caught up in reading the Twilight series. I know I'm behind the times, but I wanted to go see the movie when it came out and decided it was time to read it first. Great reading!! We have been so busy here, but loving it in Wyoming. This last Friday we were able to meet at the Logan temple with my whole family and some other relatives. Mom has done a lot of family history work and we have been slowly doing the endowments for them. We were finally able to do the sealings for them. A couple of the highlights: We sealed my grandma to her parents, and my dad was sealed to his parents. A very neat experience. Thank you mom for all your hard work on family history.
This week for FHE, we talked about the symbols of the tree and the decorations. The kids made some popcorn strings for their tree which we will put up this weekend downstairs. The big tree upstairs is MINE!!! Actually, many of you would be surprised, Shane is the decorator in our home. He has a good eye on how things should look. I love it because I hate untangling the lights and putting together the fake tree. I do enjoy the finishing touches.

Parker waiting to eat the popcorn for the popcorn strings. This was a fun activity because my two older kids are able to use a needle and thread (with only a few pokes and blood! Yeah, we won't be eating the popcorn on the strings!) Making a popcorn string
Cheese!

Brennen trying out the finished product on the big tree.

Taylor loves her activity day leaders. They do some of the funnest things and are so organized! I love it because they are teaching her life skills that she will definately use. She used a real sewing machine to make the snowman hat. Way to go Tay!

THE RENTAL

It's a cute little house. There's four bedrooms, and an extra room that we call the toy room. The neighborhood is a lot of fun. We really like all of our neighbors. We love our new ward.

The backyard

Kitchen and dining -not very much cupboard space, but we managed to cram everything!

Our Tree (with popcorn decor)

Believe it or not, this is a norm every day. We have deer in our neighbor's backyard. I didn't have the camara when the big four point came through, but this is a two point that came last week when it snowed. The town of Afton is at the base of the mountains. The deer are becoming a nuisance to many people here. They eat their gardens and trees and are not real scared of people. My kids love watching them eat!!! My neighbors don't share our enthusiasm for the deer in their yard.

A couple of rooms in our rental

The Family Room. We spend a lot of time here! You can't see it in the picture, but there is a whole counter on the right with a sink. A bar! The kids think that they should be able to eat down here, but they still spill way too much for my comfort!

We are enjoying it here and are still hoping and praying for our home to sell so that we can buy one of our own here to live in, but for now, this is great!

I just had a LOT OF HELP updating my playlist for the blog hence all the High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, and Chipmunk songs. Enjoy!!!

HALLOWEEN/PUMPKIN PATCH CREATIONS/TRUNK OR TREATING (First of seven new posts-I had major catching up to do!!!

Happy Halloween!!! Here are our little spooks, or should I say cutes? We went to a trunk or treat at a ball field called the box H. The kids loaded up on candy and then we went to Rob and Rachael's for pizza hut pizza and Shane's Homemade rootbeer. We played a few games and the kids watched the movie Cars at Parker's request! It was a really fun night. Parker the lion. Roar!!! He wouldn't let me get near him with makeup for a cute nose. I guess that's a good thing! Parker caught on really fast that when you say trick or treat that people give you candy. When we got in the car after we were done, he saw the bowl of left over candy in my lap. He started saying trick or treat mommy! Over and Over. He was so cute, I couldn't resist! He got a piece of candy in his bag every time!!!
Taylor as Shar Pei from High School Musical
Brennen as Darth Vader
Our Halloween goodies that we ding dong ditched with. O.K., so we only ding dong ditched Rachael and the boys. Tay and Bren still think that they don't know who it was!!! It's impossible to pull in and out without being seen. (What they don't know won't hurt them!) Thanks to Rachael for keeping the boys away from the windows so the deed could be done! Thanks also to Rachael and Robin for the mummy idea!!!

Brennen's Pumpkin Patch "Frankenstein" pumpkin (with a little help of course!!) I don't know if you can see it on the picture, but there are some black play screws on the sides of the pumpkin.At Taylor's school, they didn't dress up for Halloween day, but instead, it was CRAZY HAIR DAY! Here she is with her crazy hair and her pumpkin patch "witch" pumpkin. (Thanks to Shane for some color techniques.)

More posts to come! We love it here. I will be taking pictures of where we live, and Shane's school that he teaches at. We definitely miss our family and friends in St. Anthony and hope to see some of you at Thanksgiving. If not, Christmas. Love you all and keep praying for our house to sell.

Pumpkins!!

For Family Home Evening, we invited Rob and Racheal Heuseveldt and the boys to come and paint pumpkins. We were trying to give the guys a night off of having to carve pumpkins. They still ended up having to carve pumpkins later on! The paint we used fell off the next morning. That's what we get for using washable paints!!! It was still fun for the kids to decorate them. Even Parker painted his pumpkin. Hyrum and Tommy Heuseveldt
I don't see any resemblance Tay!

THE NEXT WEEK: We found out that the kids have a pumpkin patch at their school. If the kids would bring a decorated pumpkin, they would get a prize! Each kid was issued a free pumpkin certificate to the grocery store, so of course, we had to go and get another pumpkin-it's free!! We brainstormed and came up with some cool ideas for their pumpkins. Brennen did Frankenstein, and Tay did a witch. They will be in the next post.

Taylor's First Pie-Grandma Jolley would be proud!

For activity days this week, Taylor got to make her very own cherry pie. She brought it home and we baked it for our FHE treat. Super job Tay! It was yummy!! I think she will be our pie maker from now on!!! Yahoo!

Cave Falls

We came back home the next weekend after we left because Shane's relatives from St. George were coming to visit. His Aunt Debra, and his cousins, Sean,Teresa and new baby Ryker, Shannon and her girls Maycee and Kallee, Ryan, and Jeremy. We only get to see these guys once a year if that. It worked out great. Our renters decided not to move in until November 1st so we camped in our empty house. We needed to get a few things finished on it too so it worked out great. While we were back in town, we all took a drive to Cave Falls. What a beautiful drive, especially this time of year. We went to a park in Ashton and had a picnic and then went back to Mom Harris's house while the men went fishing (Brennen caught a fish!!!) Brennen, Taylor, Maycee, and Kallee holding up the inside of the cave!

Brennen in the cave

Parker loved throwing rocks into the water.

Fun trip. Thanks to the Moons for suggesting a trip to Cave Falls!

We're Here!!! An Airplane Ride???

After the moving truck left on the 11th, the kids and I stayed behind and stayed at Mom Harris's house. I wanted the kids to have one last day of school in St. Anthony where we were just coming off of Spud Harvest. The kids went to school in St. Anthony on Monday the 13th. I picked them up at around noon and we headed for our new town in Afton Wyoming. Our rental wasn't quite ready so when Shane got here with the moving truck, everything had to be stacked in the garage so that the carpets could be cleaned. We stayed at Rob and Rachael's house for most of that week. The kids went to their new schools on Tuesday, October 14th. Taylor is at Osmond Elementary for 4-6 grades. Brennen is at Afton Elementary for grades k-3. We ended up living in the upper valley so Taylor isn't able to go down to lower valley to Shane's school, but she's ok with that. They are breaking ground for a new elementary school this year for Afton Elementary. Parker should be able to use it when he goes to school.
The day we moved into our house, the scout leader was on our doorstep needing me to sign a permission slip for scouts. An airplane ride I asked???? Yes, an airplane ride!!! The next day, Wednesday, October 15th, Brennen was able to go on his first airplane ride with the wolf cub scouts from three wards. There were ten boys all together and only two could go at a time. Each ride took about thirty minutes start to finish. I was able to go and help drive the boys to the airport and take some pictures and video too! Brennen was able to be on the first trip into the air.
This is Brennen and Dawson a kid from his troop getting ready to climb in.

Each kid had a head set so they could talk to the pilot and hear eachother scream!! Brennen said he didn't scream at all. (I need to check with the leader about that!)
This is Brennen taking off. The boys all cheered and waved at them. The pilot tipped the wings from side to side to wave at us on the ground.

Back on the ground again! Taxiing in.

"That was awesome!"

What a fun experience for Brennen. Our whole experience has been like this since we got here. Taylor has had some awesome activity days too. The kids had a part in the primary program. We have eaten at four different peoples homes, had pie at one, and have had a ton of cookies, rolls, jellies and jams delivered to us. We have felt so welcome here. There are good people here. We like it.