Busy days

With the addition of Joshua to our family, I've found I have less time to sit down at the computer these days. So, sorry for the lack of posts on this blog. I've been enjoying my children, though. This is a snack Sarah brought me, complete with heart-shaped bread!

Ben had a barking cough that irritated me and I figured it would be a bother for his classmates, too, so I kept him home one day. He and Sarah went "swimming". She asks me almost daily to go swimming. I keep telling her it's too cold. Yesterday she said she would wear a coat!




We bought a new car! Kannon's green metro finally bit the dust. The motor went out - again. And he's just had enough of it - didn't want to put more money into it. So we went out looking one Saturday. I'd planned on getting a car about $4000 max. We had $1500 to put down on one. Well, we ended up figuring that a newer car would be good for us and definitely wanted one that would last for awhile. With the miles Kannon puts on his cars we picked Toyota. We really liked this Corolla and after hours - literally - of haggling we finally got the deal we wanted. I wanted to only pay about $200 a month for no more than 4 years. They finally got us that deal and so we got our 2006 Toyota Corolla for $9800. We think we got ourselves a good deal!

Even better is that we asked them to send the info to our credit union to see if they could get us a better percentage rate. We just got the results! We have our loan the credit union at 4.2%! So, yay! We've already had to replace 2 tires, though. He was about to pass a car on I-80 when she swerved over. He had to slam on his brakes and it ruined the back 2 tires.
So, post-pregnancy, I am losing my hair like crazy! I got sick of having it in food, on my clothes, in the babies hands. Plus, it seemed to take forever to wash it! I finally decided to cut it. Here are before and after pictures.

I like it if I keep it straightened. Not too thrilled with it when I leave it curly.

We had a sad event a bit ago. One of the sisters in our ward, Sheri Faught, passed away. She was a young mother of 3 teenagers. She had cancer and it finally bested her. I was asked to sing at her funeral. I sang in a trio - a song about the stages of a woman's life. It was difficult to sing with the emotions running through me. I also volunteered to make food for the dinner and was asked to teach the Young Men how to make bread that night. It made for a pretty busy day and bread coming out our ears! I made 3 different batches of bread so that the boys could see all 3 stages. They weren't that interested. They went through the motions, but I don't think any of them will remember a thing I said! Oh well, I'm learning more and more the differences between boys and girls. And learning how to let some things go because they are boys (talking about my own little boy!)

I also got to go see New Moon with some girlfriends. It was a fun time, I felt like they did a much better job this time around. Still don't like some of the actors, but the story is still fun! Oh, and it was so nice to be out of the house for a while with just me and my girlfriends!

Fun stuff

Okay Fallonites, which picture makes you think Churchill County?

Sorry the numbers were hard to match up here!

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A few weeks ago we did a family activity that was really fun. It had been a crazy Sunday. For some reason they usually are. Everyone was kind of sick, Kannon especially. He brought in a pad of paper and a pencil and asked everybody to name their favorite color. After writing all of our answers he let been ask a question. We went around the room asking and answering until we felt finished with that activity. Here are some of our questions and answers.




What do you like to do in spare time?
dad - wii
mom - surf internet
Ben - eat
Sarah - love




Favorite ice cream
dad - brownie. bear claw
mom - cinnamon caramel cashew
Ben - rocky road
Sarah - strawberry




What do you want for Christmas?
dad - tool box
mom - clock
Ben- game boy
Sarah - ironing board




Favorite instrument
dad - drums
mom - piano
Ben - electric guitar
Sarah - whistle




Favorite game
dad - Last Word
mom - Ticket to Ride
Ben - Cranium
Sarah - Phase 10 dice




Favorite thing to do as a family
dad - camping
mom - camping
Ben - movie theater
Sarah - camping




Where do you want to go on next family vacation?
dad - Oregon coast
mom - ocean
Ben - ocean
Sarah - ocean




Favorite TV show
dad - Modern Marvels
mom - Designed to Sell
Ben - Phineas and Ferb/ How it's Made
Sarah - Phineas and Ferb

Halloween Festivities 2009

We started our weekend on Friday night with a ward Trick-or-Trunk, chili cook-off, Carnival! The kids picked out their costumes about a month in advance. I'd been tempted to buy $20 costumes, but the more we talked about it, we decided they could put something together for next to nothing. Sarah started out wanting to be a wicked witch, then switched to a ballerina. Hers was the cheapest costume since we already had the stuff. We'd bought this outfit for her to take lessons, then decided we couldn't afford it yet. She wears it quite often to play around the house. Ben saw a costume in a magazine and got the idea to be a magician. We were given the cape, I found the hat at Savers for $3, painted a dowel ($3) and the blue ribbon and bow were in my box of hair accessories!

Kannon borrowed this pirate costume from my parents stash. And the bunny costume I found at a thrift store - he was to be Benjamin's rabbit, but Ben said he could just be a bunny, not his bunny!

At the party, Sarah found her friend Kathryn.

We ate chili, cornbread, and even dessert! They had a cake-walk, fishing pond, face painting, etc. Then we headed outside for the trick-or-trunk.

(Okay, he's stinkin' handsome! He wore his suit coat yesterday to church

and Sarah said he looked very pretty!)

It was at this point that I started questioning the whole purpose behind Halloween. How stupid is it that we put on a costume and demand that people give us candy!? And what makes that fun, anyway? Especially when the mom's take most of the candy away from their kids? I don't know that we'll "quit" Halloween, but I might have to figure something out to ease my conscience.

So, I was Fancy Nancy. She's a great story character that I love. I would have been her as a child if I could have been, or been brave enough to be!

I liked my pink hair the best out of this costume.

On Saturday, we emptied out our storage unit. We get to use that $40 a month to sign me up at the gym! woo hoo!

We hauled a load of bricks from Grandma Youngs old chimney out to my mom's yard. My brother is building an outdoor bbq place for them.

Then we came in for a party. A church friend was a having a birthday party for her 1-year-old. They had a bounce house, music, strobe lights. The kids were in that bounce house forever!

Afternoon nap!

Sarah - I don't have any friends in there! Nobody will play with me.

Musical chairs. Sarah is still talking about how she and the girl in the spiderman dress got out. Ben was one of the last 3 players.

You have to have a pinata - but we could have done without the candy - again!

We had plenty to eat at the party, so we didn't have to worry about dinner. We headed out to the Maine Street Halloween. The stores were handing out candy. We went with our neighbor-friends, the Mortensen's. I don't think we'd go again if they do that again. It was too crowded and people were smoking everywhere, so that was kind of stinky!

Sarah was quite the trooper, there was a lot of walking and she only took a "ride" for a little while.

Robbie, Sarah, Lily, Ben, and Reed!

After the downtown stuff, we trick-or-treated around the neighborhood. There weren't as many people home as usual - I'm guessing because of the downtown stuff. I was ready to go home when the baby started to cry. No sooner did I get home, though, than Kannon called to have me come pick them up. He wanted to take the kids out to my aunt and uncles house and then to my parents. Sarah fell asleep right away and we had a really hard time getting her even half awake to see my mom all dressed up for them!

So, we ended up with a ton of candy! The kids were allowed to pick out 10 pieces and the rest went into a big bowl. But, I don't want it here. I keep eating it and the chocolate is starting to bug the baby. Plus, how can I lose weight if I'm eating all that! I don't know if I can physically throw it away! I think we'll bag up a bunch of it for the Bishop's candy jar. Maybe the Food Pantry would want some?

the Second half of October!

Ben's school had a Night of Books. He went dressed as a character from his favorite books - Shaggy. They got a bucket of treats, costume contest, and then we joined his teacher for a story. It was a cute one about a fat cat that ate everyone. Kids and adults dressed up as the characters. Ben got to be the woodcutter who saved the day! He got a kick out of wearing Brother Dalluge's boots.

We went with Ben's class to the pumpkin patch. It was complete with a hayride, pumpkin picking, stories and songs, petting rabbits and feeding goats, and a snack.

We spent an evening at my parents house. We took a drive to find pictures of "landscapes and landmarks of Churchill County" for the phone book photo contest. Sarah left the house with 2 right feet! She couldn't find both of her shoes so she grabbed a different one, they just both happened to be for the same foot. I didn't notice any of that until we were out there!

We celebrated Kannon's birthday! He "got" to have a few days off. He had that Friday off and again on Monday (his birthday) while they found another job for him to go to. He spent some time at the sauna. We went to Sonic for happy hour slushies, picked out some pants and a candy bar for his present, and had the Edwards family over to play Ticket to Ride and share cake (strawberry with chocolate frosting)and ice cream(Oh, my, blueberry pie!).

Baby Joshua is growing. He's really long, but doesn't weigh as much as my other 2 did at this age. He does talk now, it's so cute, lots of gurgles. He's often found with fingers and hands in his mouth. Therefore, lots of drooling!

We sported Halloween clothes! This is what she wore to Benjamin's class Nevada Day party. And I got to go to Reno with my mom (Sarah and Joshua tagging along!) We stopped at a few Savers and I found this adorable rocking chair! Sarah calls it the princess chair. Someday when I get to decorate a room for her, this will be involved.