MIA

I am still recovering from having no husband during the hunting/football season, but I decided it was way past time that I give my blog a facelift. It took me forever to do, and after I finished I was checking out some of my friends blogs and I could not believe it.....I had picked the same background as Kera. I changed it, but I will apologize in advance if anyone has the same one as I do now. (I am not changing again for a while). While I was here I decided I better post a little about what I have been up to, so here goes.......


1) I actually did some canning this year. Cody's mom gave me some canning stuff for Christmas, and since my kids absolutely love peaches and pears, I gave it a try. It went pretty well. Thanks to my mom for taking a day off work to come and show me the secrets to canning. It was a lot of fun and all together I did about 65 bottles of peaches and 40 bottles of pears...Yum I think we are set. Also, I planted a vegetable garden this year and surprisingly grew something other than weeds. I was surprised because I had never done a garden before, so last minute I tilled up a spot, made some furrows, and put down a few seeds and plants. I got a lot of tomatoes (which I canned)...go me, a lot of squash--which we ate and got sick of, zucchini which I made bread with, jalepenos and green peppers which I used for fajitas and salsa, and a few green beans. Overall it was pretty good for my first attempt. I did learn a few things....A) You should follow the guideline of planting your squash the recommended feet apart. My squash plants were taking over my garden. B)plant the bigger items in back. My tomatoes did great because they got all the water, but when they got too big, the back of the garden could not get hit by the water---hence very few green beans. C)Know what you plant where. I had no idea what I planted or where I planted it since I threw it all down last minute. It did make it exciting because I never knew what I would find.





2)Rilee did a little mini G-Gettes camp (mini drill team). I thought she would do awesome because she is always dancing around the house, but the first 2 practice days she would not get off my lap. Finally, by the 3rd day she would dance and actually did very cute. On the performance day I was worried that she would not go out, so I asked a little neighbor girl that is older if she would help get her out. Allie, the neighbor was so nice and made sure she got out.....and then Rilee stood right behind her the entire time. I think she was dancing, but could not really see, so after words I made her pose for these pics. How cute is she!!!!!!






3)I have been dealing with a teething baby. He go his 2 bottom teeth the middle of September,and then at the end of September all 4 top front teeth started coming in at once. He finally found his way of coping with the pain. He would bite on the bottle nipple and pull it out fast. He felt better, but milk was everywhere. I can not believe he is 1 year old tommorrow. Time flies!




4) Busy with a kindergartner. Payton loves to do his reading and homework. He gets excited over the littlest things, and he absolutely loves "being a boy". I am not a bug/frog/spider person, bit I had to act excited because he really wanted me to take a picture of him holding his frog. Did I mention he loves being a boy.....10 minutes later him and a neighbor boy had squished the frog.......Yuck!!




5) Rilee started dance.... and she absolutely is loving it. She is so cute to watch. She could not get her feet to turn out for pliea' (or how ever you spell it), so she figured out she could sit down, turn out her feet to first position then stand up and she was ready. It did take a lot of time, and if/when she lost her balance she had to start all over. I think she is getting better now. She actually has a little performance this Saturday!!




6) Cody's sister Mandi got married on October 11th, and I made her wedding video. I had done a few videos before, but they were always just for myself. It was a lot more stressful when I knew other people would see it. It turned out well though, and I think Mandi was happy. Mandi married Chad Barton, they are such a cute couple. We are excited for them.

7) Other than these things, I have been going to football games (Cody is still coaching), being a patient wife while he hunts, cooking, cleaning, playing with kids and working at the hospital. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, my brother Dave is living with us for a while...hopefully while he gets ready for a mission. He has been a big help and my kids and all the neighbor kids just love him!!!!