Week #47: We are Thankful

^{This week we...}

^{...celebrated Thanksgiving in Mattawa. We went out Wednesday afternoon and stayed the night. It's always so fun to gather together with family. The four older kids got to go stay the night at their cousin's house after a wonderful showing of Brave. Lainey and I got up with Grandpa Zirker to go help him feed the cows. I thought she would be more excited to help feed, but she was rather frightened instead. Silly girl.}

 

...gave Lainey a clip crown. I was putting a clip in her hair and she just kept handing me more. 

...bugged Paul about getting his front tooth out of there. Even though he's lost three teeth already this year, he is still freaked out. Just look how that front tooth is hanging down so far. IT IS READY. He's not.

Week #46: Crafts Complete

This week we...

^{...got closer to having some organization in the laundry room. Jason is making this for me to use for storing the kids' clothes and fold clothes. It will attach to the wall over my dirty clothes baskets. My laundry room is small and I'm so excited to consolidate to use the area more effectively. Each kid will have their own cubby for their clothes. I can't wait to get it painted and installed.}

^{...participated in the second annual one-stop shopping event at my sister-in-law's home in Mattawa. Sharee had a lot  of vendors which made for good browsing and chatting. The craft monster did consume us for a bit beforehand, but it was nice to just go, relax, and socialize that day. Here's a sampling of what I made.}

Week #45:Back to Routine

This week we...

 ...hung the bikes out of the way - a little upside down organization. We got tired of tripping over, scooting around, and tipping over the bikes. Jason went to work and in no time at all we had bike hooks for a quarter of the cost, free space on the floor, and one happy mom and dad.

...filled out our menu board. Paul decided to help me be more organized and filled it out himself. I loved it because of his spelling - it was like menu meal surprise - and because he was helping me come up with things he will actually eat!

 

In case you're wondering what's for dinner...That's Sloppy Joes, Tacos, Spaghetti, Hawaiian Haystacks, Turkey (he thought it was Thanksgiving), Pizza (I helped with that one),  and Cheese Sandwiches.

...got back into project mania. I'm getting ready for my sister-in-law's home craft show. We're really trying to keep the projects contained and not let the craft monster take over our lives. I don't know how well we succeeded. Ha ha!

...played in the leaves. (We also did this last week. Me and my forgetful brain - sheesh!) We went over to Grandma and Grandpa Erickson's for cousin Warren and Quin's birthdays. The kids had a grand time raking the leaves, jumping in, and doing it all over again.

...hiked Badger Mountain with the Young Women. I forgot to put this on last week (we actually did this on the 3rd). This was our virtue hike, a reminder to keep high standards to lead us to the Temple and back to our Father in Heaven. We made virtue flags and unfurled them at the top. I loved the signs along the way - please stay on the trail, this area closed, ground under repair. Sometimes we leave the safety of the trail even though there are signs posted along the road of life. We do not head the warnings and we find ourselves desolate, surrounded by brush, or stranded on inclines that we do not have the ability to traverse. But if we stay on the trail we will have a safe journey to the top. It does not mean that the way will be less arduous, by all means. It will still be very taxing and require effort to keep going, but we will know the boundaries of the safest way there. I also liked the sign, Hikers Only. That is what life is all about. We are up against a terrible foe who is unleashing ever more of his poison and lies into society/the world. We have to be determined to be hikers; that we will take on the challenges of remaining strong and pure in the times we live. I'm reminded of Elder Eyring's words from April 2012 Conference when he quotes Spencer W. Kimball, "There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, give me this mountain,’ give me these challenges.”

Week #44: Airborne for Arizona

This week we...

...partied in A-ri-zona! We left on Friday of last week, but I decided to put our adventure all together here on this week. It was so much fun! We stepped off the plane in Arizona to clear skies and a warm breeze. Goodbye overcast, rainy Washington!

Landscape: We were intrigued by the desert landscape and foliage. It was so crazy seeing cactus, palm trees and desert plants. No sagebrush and tumbleweeds. They use a lot of rock in their landscaping. At some of the overpasses they had rock art of rattlesnakes, cactus, and the deadly gila monster. I was a little intrigued by these guys, mostly because the word monster is in their name and because they can kill you. 

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We were so intrigued by the cactus that grew everywhere. As I said, it's one thing to hear about cactus in the desert, it's another thing to see it. The holes in the Saguaro cactus below are from birds nesting inside. Seeing palm trees was also different. (Notice the police car in the shot of the palm trees - no matter where we go, we're thinking cop.) I had to laugh a little inside at all the cactus we saw propped up with 2x4s on either side. We do that with trees here; they're saving the cactus down there.

Food: I had In-N-Out for the first time and LOVED it!  We ate there twice. We went to Cave Creek, a town built to look like the old west, for lunch at Harold's Corral - ribs, brisket, and baked potatoes. We met up with Katie Potts Taylor and her family, a sister missionary from our mission, for dinner at Five Guys- home of digital soft drinks and all the way toppings. Raleigh and Jordan introduced us to World Market where we ate Hi Chews, a fruit chew from Japan. They taste a little like star burst only they don't get stuck in your teeth. We also went to Trader Joe's where I purchased Pumpkin Pancake Mix, Corn Salsa, Speculoos Cookie Butter and we ate Strawberry ice cream Mochis - They were surprising to bite into, but very tasty. Yum! Yum!

Activities: We had so much fun hanging out with Raleigh and Jordan, and to be in Arizona on top of that was amazing. We stayed up way too late talking when we got there Friday night, and every night. We ate German chocolate cake at 11:20 at night for my birthday, yum. Saturday we went to Kellen's soccer game and watched him tear things up. We also went to the Haunted Zoo. I'm not a big fan of spook alley type Halloween fun, but I went for Jason's sake. Jason and Raleigh kept trying to get us to go to the 13th Floor - the scariest haunted house in the US. No thanks! We were able to see Jason's twin, Todd, and his little family. Many of you have wondered what Jason's twin looks like, or if we are even telling the truth about a twin...well, here's proof. :)

We were able to go to the Mesa, AZ temple and I was so glad. We were intrigued by the grapefruit trees on the temple grounds and watched the Joseph Smith movie in one of their theaters. Just before we left, I discovered that they in fact had a Christus, which I've been thinking about a lot lately as I remember my mission days. (I served my mission at the Washington DC Visitor's Center.) I couldn't help but cry as I saw the statue, heard the words play, and thought about my mission.  As a missionary, I loved to invite people to sit around the Christus and listen to the words play. It was amazing to hear those words every day and testify of the Savior as people came in. Oh, it was wonderful (in DC and AZ)! I've missed it lately and it was so comforting to hear again.

Thank you Raleigh and Jordan! We had so much fun!

...went trick-or-treating! The kids had a blast this year. It wasn't a cold night like last year so it was much more enjoyable going around to the houses. Lainey was really into trick-or-treating this year. She ran from house to house with the older kids, trailing behind them and yelling, "Wait! Wait me!"

...found a ghostly milk message. In case you haven't noticed, we have a lot of spilled milk around here and that has made for a lot of cool messages. :)

...have fall leaves in our back yard. One thing I miss about older neighborhoods is all the trees/foliage that change color in the fall. Well this year we do have a few autumn leaves falling off our trees in the backyard. They're not large in number, but they belong to us.