Happy Halloween!





I love the fall... the leaves falling, the pumpkins, the warm soups on a cold day.
Staying inside to watch a movie-cuddling on the couch (in your P.J.s).
Increasingly with my age my like of Halloween has grown distant.
I love the costumes and I love the fun that the kids have.
I don't like the ghouls and ghosts and all the dark things that seem to come with Halloween.
I love the cute clowns, the princess and all the sweet innocent and funny things that come.

BUT above all that I love to carve pumpkins.
With a family of 5 we have to carve 5. It is a lot of work. To me it is worth it.
We had Madi and Nori help clean them our.
YUCK! Is all Madi could say. Nori thought it was fun.

We carved them a little early because Brian had to go to Canada for work.
Brian left the week of Halloween and didn't come home until after all of the Halloween Festivities.
It is a lot of work to take a Running 5 year old out and a 2 year old who stops at every rock tree, and needs to look at the candy that she gets, but they had a blast.
We were glad to get Brian that night and my burden became a little lighter.
He has been going quite a bit.
We are adjusting to the traveling, it gets a little easier but we still
really miss Brian when he is gone.

But he loves his job so we cannot complain.

Contentment? Me?

These are the pictures of contentment and peace.


Have you ever felt content?
It seems sudden to me...I do.

I can't say I don't worry about my housework, or money, or my family.
And yes I still think about those last 10 okay 20 pounds of baby fat...
that are slowly sliding off. I hope.

I am okay if my laundry goes unfolded.
I am happy if I can save money on groceries (thanks Shauntell!)
I am taking each moment of my children's lives as they come.
They Just grow to fast.
As for that pesky baby fat...I will get rid of it...but I still need to have a piece of chocolate.
I am okay with that.

For what seems like a long time.
I am not wishing to be some where else.
Be someone else.
Have someone else's money or success.

I woke up happy to just be.
SO what if my favorite jeans will have to wait.
SO what if I don't get to shower until noon.
I have all I need right now.

I only feel motivated to improve this renewed sense of life to ENJOY IT.
I want to make it better, strengthen it make it last.
I want to read with Madi longer, Play with Eleanor more.
And hold my little Owen forever.
Hugging and loving my husband always...

The moments are fleeting, and I have been trying too hard over time to push them on, saying, I can't wait until... instead of catching them, loving them and laughing at them.

Maybe this is the until for me...now! If so I am so glad!
I only have this life to get ready for the next why have I been so caught up getting to the until...

I suppose it would be easy to say I am content so, I am done.
NO this is not that kind of contentment.
I find this to be the "I have it good, I want this to be real."
I want to read, pray, and study...I don't want to coast anymore waiting for life to happen.
It is happening.
I am in it....I must love it.

Heavenly father has blessed me with this feeling of loving my life.
Loving who I am, who my children are and who my husband is.
I have changed in a way I cannot describe.
I want more joy.
I want to keep it.
I am content, but reaching for more of the stuff that brings real happiness.

Lots of catch up

We had to cut Eleanor's Hair. I think we cut off about three inches.
This had to happen because an older sister thought it needed it.
She was so sneaky about the whole thing, she hid it well.
Nori's hair is so fine that I comb and do it while it is wet, that I didn't discover it for a long time.
When I finally saw it I couldn't really get after her.


Our Family visited the Hill Air Force Museum.
We wanted to show the girls where the big fighter jets come from in Ogden.
So we went. They liked the planes but really enjoyed going to the kids center.
There the got to dress up and pretend to fly in a plane.
They loved it.

Then another weekend we decided at the last minute to go to Antelope Island.
Which really stinks...I mean it smells bad.
It was around dinner time and we were able to have a picnic at the ranch.
During dinner we saw some deer and bison.
The deer got so close that Madi thought she would chase the baby.
It seemed that the fawn made a sport of it and seemed to run more slowly.
After that we headed out to the lake.
I took some photos of the sunset because it was so beautiful.
Little Owen is getting so big so fast.It is so fun to have a little boy in the house.

On August 15th-17th there was a Ogden Balloon Festival.
I have lived only an hour away from this event for 9 years and never even knew about it.
It was spectacular.
The pictures really do the sight no justice.
I have never seen anything so exciting.

We woke up at 5:oo am to get to Eden, Utah were it was held.
Only a 25 minute drive from Ogden.
The balloons take off twice a day.
Early morning and early evening, but it is a better chance they will not have bad winds in the morning.
We watched them set up the balloons fill them up and were able to capture a lot of beautiful pictures.

I felt like a little kid brimming with excitement, so much so that I began to cry.
I think if I were still under the age of twelve I would of squealed from excitement instead.
But this reaction is unfit for an adult. So instead my excitement came in the form of tears.
I had the same reaction 5 years ago when I saw dolphins for the first time. (Silly, huh?)
I had never seen either of these things in real life and I had always for some reason been intrigued by them.
I really with we could have gone up in one, that would be the ultimate thing for me.
$175 is a bit too steep.
Many years ago I wanted to go hang gliding but now I'd rather ride in a hot air balloon.
As funny as it sounds some day I'd like to swim with the dolphins.

Our girls were squealing and jumping around, they thought it was so fun.
I think it was wonderful. And it was free, we love free.
They did serve a pretty good all you can eat breakfast for a reasonable deal.
Although it was early in the morning and we are really feeling it, it was worth all the sleep that we lost that day.

I recommend it to all.











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We have had a lot happen in the last few weeks so much in fact I am very behind on my blog.
We had Owen's baby blessing.
It is always such a wonderful thing to gather as family and friends to celebrate.
I love to see my family surrounded with so many who are living righteously.

A PRAYER FOR MY CHILDREN

These are the faces of the souls that I love.
I pray that they learn and grow in the

Light of my Savior.
I want them to be happy,
and know where to find peace.

Looks good huh? UH... no.



I figured if we were going to have Green Eggs and Ham,
we would also have pink strawberry milk.
Why do we do these things?