Happenings

Saturday Jake had his second basketball game (he played with a hurt ankle even). They won by 4 points, it was close.
Kaden had his last football game, they lost but rallied in the end so they didn't get blasted. Kaden almost caught a touch down pass, but it turns out that the boy on the other team stepped on his shoe and grabbed his shirt so he couldn't jump up and catch it. Funny! No pictures. I had the treats for the game so I was all worried about that. Next year Kaden will play tackle football....I will take pictures then. And I will take pictures of Jake at his game on Saturday.

Halloween decorations

Happy Halloween!
The entry way.

The porch!

The stairs.

Well I blogged about my Halloween decorations a few blogs ago and then we had computer problems so it won't let me add my pictures to that post. So I am adding them here!

Congrats Jake

Your season wasn't the best, but you played your best and we are proud of you!

Decorating and the end of football

Tuesday was Jakebs last game of the season against dreaded O'Leary. We thought we were going to get a beat down. But we rallied and the final score was 30 to 14. That is really good. Jakeb made a couple of great tackles that kept them from scoring so we were happy. The worst part was that we FROZE our butts off because it was so cold.

We then went to Gerties to celebrate and eat pizza. BIG mistake because they were having a huge football party so the pizza and service was sparse. What can ya do. Then we found out Jake has a real football party at Gerties on Tuesday night. Funny.

On the way home from Gerties I needed gas and Britt decided she needed some more Halloween Candy sticks (that apparently you can only buy at Walmart in Jerome). On our way to get gas the lady on the radio said she puts Halloween lights on her banister. So Britt and I got excited to give it a try. I decided to try and take a picture it turned out kind of fuzzy.

Perfect date!

Friday night was date night. Brad and I got to do a session at the Twin Falls Idaho Temple and then afterwards went to Applebees and had Hot Molten Lava Chocolate Cake and then came home and watched the BSU/Hawaii game -that Jake and Jordan recorded for us- with no commercials or breaks. They kicked Hawaii's behinds. It was the perfect date!

Saturday morning Jake had his first rec basketball game. They kicked butt! Jake did awesome and they won by like 20 points. His last football game is Tuesday against the unbeaten O'Leary Cubs. Heaven help us!

Sealings and engagements....oh my!

Well we had some family fun this weekend!
First Brittany took some family pictures of Brian and Cori (they turned out soooo cute) and Ryan and Autumn (also so cute).
Saturday evening Samara and Eddy got sealed in the Twin Falls temple. They were so cute. Sam's little baby bump is adorable. They are going to have a boy in March.
And since they got sealed their whole family was up (they live in Meridian and we don't get to see them often enough). The boys loved getting together - they always have the best time.

Samara and Eddie

AND Jenna and Nick announced their engagement!! We are happy for them both!

Jordan Rocks!

Jordan is taking a college credit course this year...Psychology 101. She got AWESOME grades on her first two tests. It just now occurred to me that maybe she is taking physchology to help me with all my issues. Jordan how sweet of you! I love you bunches!

What a hoot!

I found these pictures Britt took of herself on her computer. We all know she loves taking pictures of herself with her own camera -as well as having other people take pictures of her with her/their camera- but this made me laugh because she took them in the garage....while talking on her phone.....who does that? Britt...and that is why we love her!

Visitors

I know I am posting out of order. Sometimes life is just like that. A little out of order. What matters most is that it gets done, not gets done perfectly!
Autumn, Ryan and the kids came to visit us on SUNDAY and brought us yummy banana pie and zuchini bread. It was so yummy we ate every last crumb! Then Jenna and Nick came for a visit so we broke out the scrabble and the mexican train dominoes!!

Britt and Taylor making snickerdoodles

Games.....(this picture was taken by a 5-year-old!) -no I wasn't drinking-

Another picture taken by a 5 -year-old, they are pretty good. I am pretty sure in this one I am thinking, Jenna, if you don't go already you cannot come back and play dominoes ever again....LOL

Good Times

We LOVE visitors!! Hint, Hint Folks!

P.S. We really LOVE pie too. Toni McBride makes the best pie I have ever eaten in my life!!

Family time....

Monday night we had a fun F.H.E. We went to dinner at 9 Beans (chicken taco-yum). Then we all went to the movie The Express. The true story of Ernie Davis. The first African American football player to be awarded Heisman Trophy. Jake had made the comment before the movie that on ESPN they said that Jim Brown who played at the same college prior to Ernie Davis should have won the Heisman Trophy because he was "better". I explained to Jake that it wasn't so much the player that had changed/became better, but more how the world had changed/became better. It was just a great movie. We laughed, we cried, we even to cheered out loud - well me and Britt did anyways.

Funny

This morning I was working typing up bankruptcies and I came across a lady who, although apparently is having a tough time financially, sure has an awesome last name:

Pamela Louise Cullen

I LOVE Christmas!

I do. I love everything about Christmas. The music, the decorating, the family togetherness and the time of year to focus soley on our Savior Jesus Christ. I love that hearts get softened and people do things for others.

At our house we have traditions. My kids love these traditions. I am so grateful to have such a great extended family. Raising our kids around family has been priceless. Birthdays, Fourth of July, News Years. We always get together with family.

I love when we decorate for Christmas. We all go and pick out a real tree. We come home dig out all of the decorations and Britt makes Snickerdoodle cookies and we listen to Christmas music. These are some of the most cherished memories I have. I am so grateful to my Savior and a Loving Heavenly Father that has blessed me with my family. I love them all to peices.

Anyway, what brings me to this is that I bought some more Christmas decorations today and I just had to put them all out and admire them. Yes, I know, I am still decorating for Halloween and though I LOVE Halloween, Christmas time tugs on my heart strings. I soooo can't wait until we get our tree.....

Kaden

Kaden was disappointed that I did not post these pictures that he wanted taken of him during our family photo shoot. So here you go Kaden, you handsome devil you .....

Random

I am a little behind in posting some things so I am going to do a general items post.

First for family home evening Jake, Kaden, Brad and I played flag football. Of course Jake and I won. He was amazed that I could throw a perfect spiral football! It was fun.

Sunday was Ethan and Aaron's 5th birthday! So we all went over for a little cake and ice cream. Their Grandma Barb spoiled them and got them a Wii.

Friday night Brads brother Mike and his wife Kelly and their kids came for a visit. We all enjoy it when they come although their trip was way too fast. They are coming again for Halloween!

Bailey and Will.

Still learning...

Brittany never told me that some of the music you may pick may not be good....so until I get it fixed some of the songs are not working right or sound like someone had a tape recorder in their pocket at the concert. Michael Buble and Together Forever are real good though.

Crafty me....

Okay, so tonight I went to homemaking (aka home family personal enrichment). Yes, I know that is shocking enough in itself since I haven't gone for six months -my new ward doesn't have it in the summer so it's not all my fault. Anyway, they said vinyl lettering and I was like "sign me up!"

Well I took Kaden because after I picked him up from scouts it was only an hour until football practice so we went to Subway/Wendy's then to football then it was only 25 minutes until homemaking so he went along and helped me paint and sand my board. He is a crafter! It was so cute I had to take a picture of it and put it on my blog. AND Britt showed me how to add music to my blog so I found some of my favorite Christmas music (minus my current favorite song by Leona Lewis). And since my craft was Christmasy it all works......so .......ta da.....

This is how bad I suck at blogging. I accidentally downloaded a picture of Jake's football game from tonight where they lost to East Minico. But it takes me so long to even download the stinkin picture so I am so leaving it there. I did not go to the game, but it sure looks like it was at a park or something. Anyway enough with the suspense already....lets try this again......

It says Silent Night in cream and then Holy Night over that with black letters. I only made one because they were $8, but I should have made more.

Here is another angle.

This is definitely better, you can't see the gum wrapper and pen that was on the desk as good!

Here is another vinly lettering project I made a month or so ago. Brad brought home some of the granite that had to be taken out of the temple so I just added a vinyl lettering I already had to it and it turned out pretty cute.

Alright .... I am done bragging! It's just that I am so not crafty so when something turns out I get so excited. And I can't wait to decorate for Christmas. I still have to finish Halloween and will post pictures when I am done with that.

Who has gone to Tai Pan? Oh my! It is like decorating Heaven. I could easily drop thousands there just on Christmas decorations. Unfortunately I only got to spend $80 and I had to share that with Halloween. But it was still fun.

Fun Family Time and Bargains

Today Britt, Jake and I spent some good ol' family time with my mom and brother. It was so much fun. Every year we go to the big Community School Yard Sale in Ketchum. It is held in a barn (like a rich persons barn, it is the size of small mansion). And they always have name brand clothes and home decor and just about anything you want. My brother even bought a t.v. and a punching bag. Then we go to lunch. Today we added an extra adventure by getting lost, but we didn't even care because it was such a beautfil day and the scenery was insanely gorgeous. Here a few pics. (We didn't have any time to take pictures at the yard sale, we may have missed a bargain)

We found two pairs of True Religion Jeans, on the internet they sell for $200 and I got Twilight so I have the whole 4-book set. Autumn, I will get you to read these books!

My mother enjoying the ride!

Jake and my brother determining that we really were in fact lost! Galena Summit anyone??

And this is why we didn't care that we were lost........