Twilight

I, like so many of you I'm sure, am waiting patiently for the Twilight movie to come out. The first book was definitely my favorite of the series so it will be interesting to see how they make the transition to the screen. If you've read the books you gotta take this online quiz to see which Cullen you are most like. Only 21 more days!

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Obsessed?

Ok so I knew I always liked to have bows in Ellie's hair, but I didn't realize it was out of control! I started organizing Ellie's bows and could not believe how many she had! The grand total was 80. I had Kaden lay next to the ribbon to illustrate just how long it was. My mom has always made fun of me because Ellie "always has a bow in her hair", but I guess now I have to concede... I must be obsessed! When I showed Jess he laughed and then said "Each one of them is necessary. My Ellie is a princess." I wonder if he would feel the same way if he thought about how much I've spent on these necessary bows... Yikes!

We love you, Minnie!

Unfortunately, when we came home from our hunting trip this weekend we found our Minnie had passed away. It's been a little sad at our house this week. We miss our puppy, but are glad that she was with us for a year. She was the sweetest dog and never did anything out of anger. She always tried so hard to please us and was so gentle with the kids. She was always happy to see us and just wanted to be where we were. I'm sure she's in doggie heaven because she was such an angel. Thanks for all the smiles you gave us Minnie! We love you!

Minnie the day after we got her. She loved to sleep on you and would follow you around until you settled down so she could cuddle up.

Her skin was so baggy!

Minnie grew up fast but she was always our puppy.

Weekend Getaway

Well Jess decided to try his hand at hunting again. He hadn't been since before his mission. So we decided to make a weekend of it with our fabulous friends Nick and Tami. Tami's parents were out of town camping so we were able to stay at thier house. It was a nice weekend away. Jess and Nick went hunting early Saturday morning and hiked all over the mountains and weren't able to get anything. That evening they took off again... this time on the four-wheeler. They both shot a four-point buck. We were so proud! And they loved the fact that they shot them both from the four-wheeler after hiking around all morning! Tami and I held down the fort with the kids all day. I don't know who was more tired at the end of the day.... the boys or the girls!

Jess got Kaden this gun for the hunting trip. He didn't let go of it for two days! He loves to be like dad!

We found a caterpillar outside. Brayden was the only one who would touch it!
Four-wheeler rides! Thanks Nick!

Here's the trophy! Mom was a little grossed out that Jess let them touch the deer!

Bath time! Brayden, Jacie, Kaden and Ellie

Here's the beautiful view from the house!

Man in Black

I let Kaden pick out his first outfit at the store yesterday. He's picked out some shirts before but they were usually with my persuasion. But this time I let him have what he wanted and I didn't add my opinion at all. So this is what he wanted... black pants and a black shirt. He was so excited to wear them today! I had to add a picture of Ellie in her sweater that her Grandma Helen made for her so Grandma can see how cute it turned out!

"It doesn't look good!"

Ok so I know I just posted like an hour ago but we just had a classic Jesse moment at our house that I had to publicize! So I saw this girl with cute bangs at church today and for those of you who know me know that I am never satisfied with my hair. So I called my sister in law who does hair and asked for a few pointers and decided to cut my own bangs. I was in the bathroom trimming away and Jess comes upstairs and these are the EXACT words that came out of his mouth :
"I was on the computer and just deleted my contacts list....WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I told him I was cutting bangs and not to worry cuz I called Tera and I know what I'm doing. Here's the classic Jesse thing to say verbatim:
"Stop! Why are you doing that?! You aren't going to like it, you're going to complain! It doesn't look good!"
I just laughed at him and kept cutting away. That's always what a girl wants to hear when she's trying new things on her hair isn't it? "It doesn't look good!" But I am way past taking offense to what Jess says anymore. I was seriously laughing so hard that he was throwing his little fit about it. I love being married to that guy. He's so honest and loves me for who I am... bangs and all!

Oh ya and by the way... they didn't turn out at all like I wanted...but I'll fix them tomorrow when Jesse is at work!

Cousins!

I had the opportunity to watch my sisters kids this past week. I was pretty excited to have the girls over. There's two of them Jane who is 3 1/2 and Kate is 1 1/2. We weren't too adventurous we didn't go anywhere besides outside to play but it was fun to get to know Jane and Kate more and to have the kids play. This picture is pretty explanatory of our week. Kaden and Ellie are CRAZY and Jane is pretty shy and LOVES to wear dresses (even though it was snowing outside) and Kate... let's just say she likes her house better than mine. But we had fun and loved her anyway! She was most upset when I took her picture. It went by pretty much without incident except for some diaper contents that got stepped into the carpet (thank heavens for 409 Foam stain remover). We're excited for them to come see us again!

Quirky Tag

I was tagged by my lovely sister-in-law Rachel. I am supposed to name 6 things about myself that are "quirky". I'll have to keep in mind I am limited to six. Here it goes:

1. I do this weird thing with my fingers when I am thinking or talking to people (so pretty much all the time). I type out the words in my head as if my fingers were on a keyboard. I don't do it 100% of the time but more often than not I catch myself twitching away. Jesse's never said anything but I'll bet it drives him crazy when we are holding hands...I also do it with piano music while I sing the hymns.

2. I do NOT like mashed potatoes. Every time I tell someone this I am looked at like a two-headed troll. It's just one of those dishes that everybody loves...except me. Poor Jess loves them but I have made them a whole two times in our marriage because I am selfish and don't want to take the time to make something I don't want to eat. Thanksgiving is definitely my least favorite meal. I would probably be happier with grilled cheese. (But I will take the apple pie!)

3. I DO like Prego spaghetti sauce! I can and do eat it by the spoonful. My pizza is always dripping in sauce, my lasagna and spaghetti are runny because I use way too much. I love to just dip bread in it and munch away, even if the sauce is cold. But it has to be Prego. I've even converted Jesse.

4. I am addicted to running. This is a recent trend. I used to HATE to run. I started to doing it because walking just wasn't doing it for me anymore and now I am hooked. There's something about getting into that rhythm after about a mile where your lungs and legs don't burn anymore and you feel like you could run forever. Very relaxing and quite addicting. You should try it!

5. So enough about me, Jesse's weird too. He has this thing with the type of body soap he uses to shower. I laughed so hard when I figured it out when we were first married. I have to buy Dove bar soap with 1/4 moisturizer in it. If I don't then Jesse's skin "squeaks" when he is showering. We had to get a water softener to help with his addiction as well. When we go out of town and on vacation I have to bring a bar of soap for him to use so he doesn't get "squeaky clean" and throw off his whole day!

6. Jess is very protective of eyes. This one is slightly warranted by the fact that he does have a scar on his cornea from a mission-wrestling match gone wrong. He is extremely paranoid about the kids getting soap in their eyes in the bath tub and if anything comes near his or their eyes with the potential of touching them he is traumatized for about an hour. Let me illustrate: we had been married for about one week and I was washing dishes when Jess thought it would be funny to come up behind me and scare me (I know none of you are surprised). I happened to be washing a steak knife and when he scared me my hands flew up and the knife almost poked him in the eye. Jess proceded to go into the bedroom where he sat on the bed for 1/2 hour just staring at the floor pondering what had just happened. When I noticed he didn't come out I went in to see what was wrong and he wouldn't even speak to me and was borderline mad at me because it was such a close call. Even when I bring it up to this day he goes all quiet and has to take a time out. He keeps his eyes closed tight 98% of the time in his morning shower only opening them a peep so locate the soap which is very carefully not brought within a five inch radius of his most protected treasures. Now THAT is quirky!

There! I've spilled our beans. And now it is time for Heidi Wakley, Wendi Oyler and Syd Nelson to spill theirs! You're tagged!

Fruits of my labor

I finished my canning for the year. I got 30 quarts of peaches and 31 quarts of salsa. I could never find pears so we are out of luck this year. I like the peaches and Jess LOVES the salsa so we both win. (Hint: canned peaches on rice chex cereal is amazing.) I got Jesse's mom's salsa recipe which is way good. It took 13 hrs to do the salsa because Jess wanted a double batch. I did the salsa on Monday and my fingers still smell like onions and garlic and I still get a whiff on our clothes once in a while. While I was canning my friend said she could smell my house from the driveway. Yuck! I've been baking bread and making cinnamon waffles to get the smell out of the house!
Plenty of peaches and tapioca for me!

This is only half.

I finally the salsa finished at 9pm and that was with two canners going! Probably NOT doing a double batch next year!

Mom is mean

Ellie was so upset the other day because she didn't want to wear her dress to go to church. I thought she was so cute crying about it that I took a picture instead of consoling her. I'm so heartless!