WHAT !!!

Okay, so winter is coming, and the weather is starting to get a little cold in the mornings. Stone informed me that he only had shorts to wear. Money is tight, but I knew he needed pants, so I bought him several pairs of new pants. He comes home from school all excited, and can't wait to show me what he did today! "Look!", he says, face beaming. He actually thought that I would be as thrilled as he was at what he did to his pants. He gave a sharpie to all his friends and had them sign his pants. I was a little less than thrilled. Mostly, I just laughed and asked him," Did you really think that I would be happy about this?" After we talked he confirmed that," I was not thrilled with what he did, but I was not angry either, right?" I know where he got the idea. There is a real cool 17 year old kid in his Shakespeare acting class who lets everyone sign his old cut-off jean shorts. Stone just wanted to be cool like Kyle. Oh well, you are only young once.

Our Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

Every year we lay a huge tarp on our garage floor and invite our friends and neighbors to our house. They bring a pumpkin, carving tools, and a treat to share. Here are my kids, the missionaries, and our neighbor Max at the entrance to the fun.


This is our neighbor, and Max's mother, Sherry Lewinger. She is just beginning the long, and laborious process of carving an intricate pumpkin.


We always invite the missionaries to our pumpkin parties. There are lots of non- members present, so that gives them the permission they need to have fun at a party.


Here is Claire working hard. She chose a large pumpkin, and proceeded to carve out her father's trademark "Have a Nice Day" with cross bones on her pumpkin. She loves her daddy!


Lindsey helped Claire draw her design on her pumpkin. Lindsey didn't need to carve a pumpkin, she was one.!


Here is a photo of some of the crowd in the garage.


Aunt Jackie claims that this was the first time she has ever carved a pumpkin. Although Dad informs me that he and Jackie carved pumpkins almost every year while growing up. I guess she just doesn't remember doing it. She was a little grossed out by the pumpkin guts on her hands. But she enjoyed the experience.


This was Aunt Jackie's final product. She wanted to make a girl pumpkin. I think she achieved her objective.


Stone and Claire carving away while Aiden sits by and partakes of the cornucopia of Halloween treats that people brought.

OUCH !

Claire, Claire, Claire. What are we going to do with Claire. Our family went to the Meadow Vista Park for a little exercise last Saturday. Lindsey and I were walking the track, while Stone and Claire went roller blading around the school. When it was time to leave, Lindsey went to get the kids. What she found was Claire on the ground bleeding, and Stone Laughing.

Claire had fallen and injured her knee and elbow. See photo above. But Claire has a problem with fainting at the sight of her own blood. She sat down on a bench, and then passed out hitting the ground face first.

She managed to do worse damage to herself by splitting her chin open. I took one look at it and knew it needed stitches.


So here are the stitches of which I speak. The original fall from her roller blades was not that severe. It was the fall from passing out that caused the most damage. She has done this before at school. She fell on the playground and was brought into the office. Her initial injury wasn't too bad. But when she passed out and bonked her head on the office desk, things got worse.


Here is the final product. She went to church and school like this. We call it her Santa Claus imitation.

My How Things Change

This family photo was taken 1 week before Richard went into the MTC to leave on his mission. It is interesting to see how much some of us have changed. Big Richard and I have changed very little. Perhaps Little Richard has not changed very much. It is humorous to refer to my 6'4" son as "Little Richard". He is the biggest one in the bunch. But the rest of the kids have changed quite a bit. Aiden who is several inches shorter than me, and slightly chubby in the picture, is now several inches taller than me. And very skinny. Stone came up to my chin when this picture was taken. Now he is the same height as I am, and a little thinner. Claire seems so tiny here. Just last month someone at church asked if Claire was 12 years old. No. She is only 10 years old, but she has grown quite a bit. Lindsey has a much shorter, and dark brown hair-do, but otherwise she looks the same. We will take another family photo in 7 weeks when Little Richard comes home ( can you believe he comes home in 7 weeks! I can't wait!!!), and post that one for you. It will be fun to see the differences.

I Am So Old!

UGH! It was my 44th birthday last week on September 13th. I tried very hard to just let it slip by hopefully unnoticed. But my kids wouldn't hear of it. So they went out of their way to make sure that I had a wonderful day. It began with Stone and Claire making me breakfast in bed. Richard took some pictures, but I am not about to post photos of me first thing in the morning. So just use your imagination.

Lindsey did the dishes for me to beautify our kitchen. I should have taken a picture of the empty sink instead, but you can just use your imagination again.


Claire and Lindsey then baked me a wonderful chocolate cake. And decorated it as well.


Here is Lindsey presenting me with the cake as everyone sang Happy Birthday!

Me blowing out the candles. You might notice the two bottles of Magic shell in the foreground. That was special for the occasion. For my birthday Richard, Mom and Dad, Tam and Terry, and Lindsey all chipped in to help me purchase new kitchen chairs. The photos of said chairs will be available when they arrive.

Homemade Apple Pie

The older Godfrey's brought a bushel full of apples from their tree to church last week. Someone mentioned that these apples were perfect for apple pies. I decided I would like to try making an apple pie. I have not had much success with pie making in the past. But I was willing to try again. And this time include my girls. They were excited about the project. Here is a photo of the finished pie. But now let us take a look at the process.

To begin with we had to break out the "Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer". My kids were very excited about that. Besides the fun of spinning the apples, they like to eat the stringy apple skins.

Next, we realized that we were in way over our heads, and decided to call in the expert to help us. Other wise known as GRANDMA !

Here Grandma is showing Lindsey and Claire the fine art of shaking the apple slices in a zip-lok bag with cinnamon and sugar.


And VOILA! The final product. We did it. We made our apple pie! The photo at the top of the page shows most of the crust having been picked off. I wouldn't let anyone eat it until it had cooled. So they just picked off the crust instead. But we love Grandma's crusts!

Does It Look Like Me?

My Husband was recreating on his computer again yesterday, and found this website that allowed you to insert a photo of yourself. It would scan your face, and then tell you which celebrity you most closely resembled. I am not sure that I think I look like any of the celebrities shown here. But I did have an experience where I was actually mistaken for "Courtney Thorne Smith" at a restaurant in Lake Tahoe. Ironically, she was not chosen as a celebrity look- a-like. Richard put in a different photo of me, and then Courtney showed up. So it does matter which picture you use. We put in a picture of Claire, and it came up with all male celebrities. She was not thrilled.

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Lineage - Free family history