10 Year Anniversary

It was a busy week as usual around here. On Monday I just worked the whole day cleaning, and doing yard work, and laundry. On Tuesday I was finally able to go in a volunteer in Corbin and Gabby's classrooms. With Corbin's class I was just out in the hall cutting things out. I would have rather been interacting with the kids. Oh well. I am happy to go in and help the teacher where I can. I mostly just want to get on her good side. Ha. Gabby was sooooo excited that I was there to volunteer in her classroom it was adorable. On Wednesday I ended up painting for a friend most of the day. I'm friends with a 50 something lady in the ward and she bought a huge amazing house in Eagle and is redoing most of it. My friend Jess watched my kids so I could go help Cheryl paint for the day. It was fun to get out and paint with her. On the way home she bought me a burger at a cafe in Eagle. It was good.

Thursday was our 10 year Anniversary. I can't believe it! It's gone pretty fast I have to say. We already celebrated our anniversary in Utah last week but I want to at least do something on the day of. I was able to find a sitter for a couple hours which is pretty good for a school night. We went to a dive cafe and got scones. I've been hearing about the scones at Merritts for years and I've always wanted to try them so I figured a 10 year anniversary is a good time to check something off the bucket list.

Scott worked all weekend at a home show in Nampa. Friday night the kids had popcorn and movie night and slept on the hide away bed in the front room. On Saturday I went with a group of my friends out to breakfast to celebrate one of their birthdays last week. Scott was working so I didn't think I could go but my friend Jen just told me to bring my kids over to her house so I did. We went to Moe Joes and it was really good. It ended up being spendy for me between paying a tip and splitting the birthday girl's ticket, plus I had to get hot chocolate. Oh well, it was really good and fun. Afterwards Jen wanted to go shopping for her trip to Mexico coming up so we went shopping for a couple of hours. Bless the Holyoaks for watching my kids for 4 hours. When we got back the house was not destroyed and everyone seemed happy so I think it went well. I made them cookies today to thank them.

I bought this table and lamp from my friend. The table was scratched up and the legs were chewed up. The lamp has birds on it if you can see that.

I redid the whole thing. Now I need to find a few more things to put on that table.

Crafty, artsy Gabby. She laid out all of the papers and taped them together. She then had me trace her body and then she drew herself. Ha. This girl is going to kill a rain forest by herself. So many projects. 

Daddy reading to the kids.

We spent a few hours on Saturday and Sunday making our Halloween village.

I am so challenged when it comes to these kinds of projects. I cannot build those things. I helped Gabby with the double stacked building and could not figure out how to do it so I ended up hot gluing the dang thing haphazardly together. Corbin wanted help building his project to the furthest left but I couldn't do it. He ended up figuring out how to build it himself. Good job! I struggle with that stuff!

Here's some of Nana's pictures from our Utah trip the previous weekend. 

Scott is such a dork!

All the Cannon grand kids minus Hannah.

Picking Papa's pumpkins. 

ATV rides in Colie and Rustin's awesome backyard.

 Just because it's been 10 years!

Halloween costumes.

We're Lobsters! Haha.

Edward and Bella from Twilight

50's housewife and the milkman. Oops!

Stay tuned for this year's couples costume. I just got everything at DI last week. Get excited!

Utah in October

On Monday this week while I was doing the yard work a kitten came around and continued to hang around and play with my kids for an hour. After I was finished with the yard work I shut the cat out and went in the house. Well with it being a cat and all it climbed over the fence into our backyard. My kids couldn't help but love it and want to keep it. I resolved that we would feed it and keep it outside and see how long she hung around. The kids played with her all day. She is a very patient cat. All of the kids were carrying her around like a sack of potatoes and she didn't lash out at them. That night as part of FHE the kids voted and named her Lily. She hung around until we left town for a few days. When we came home tonight of course she was gone. We will leave some food out tomorrow and see if she comes back. She is a pretty cute cat I will admit but mostly because she is still little, and she's nice to my kids, and because she's OUTSIDE!

My parents were in town Monday to Wednesday because my dad had some county commisioner meetings. On Tuesday my mom ended up coming over and hanging out for the afternoon. Anna and Lexi met us for lunch. After that we just hung around and chatted at my house for a few hours while my dad was at meetings. It was fun to spend some time with my mom that day.

The kids didn't have school this Thursday and Friday so we headed down to Utah. We got up early and drove down. We met the Cannons at Hires. Scott and I left our kids with Nana and Papa and we went to stay at the Anniversary Inn to celebrate our anniversary next week. We stayed in the Twilight room again just like last year. It's so cheesy, but seriously it's my favorite room. Scott and I had a nice time together without our kids. The bad part was my head started hurting on Thursday afternoon and it progressively got worse to the point that I ended up throwing up and going to bed even more sick. That was not awesome! Luckily when I woke up I was feeling much better and all was not lost.

When we came back to the house we got ready and we all went to Lagoon Frightmares. I love Lagoon and I love Lagoon in October. It's so much better when it's not hot. Gabby was a total chicken last year and she wouldn't go on one ride. This year she was super brave and wanted to go on all the rides. Piper loves the rides too and of course Corbin. Ryan wasn't too happy any time we tried to put him on a ride. After a few hours of fun Nana and Papa ended up taking our kids and Carole's kids home so we could stay and go on adult rides for a few hours. Corbin stayed with the big kids and went on the rides with us. He is brave. We went on the new ride Cannibal and loved it. With my old age it totally makes me sick now to go on rides, it makes me super sad because I love rides. I had to quit near the end because I was not feeling well. I think next year I am going to try to take Dramamine and see if that helps.

On Saturday after the morning session of conference we went down to Thanksgiving point because Janet had bought tickets for us to go to Corn Belly's. The kids enjoyed that and Janet, Carole, and I escaped to Gymboree so Janet could redeem some Gym Bucks. At check out there was some confusion and miscommunication about coupons and we were standing at check out for about 45 minutes. There was only two check outs so the line behind us was giant. That was pretty stressful for everyone! Whatever, we finally figured it out. It was dumb! Oh well. After dinner and the priesthood session we played a game. Scott and Jeff set up the projector so Scott and I could watch a movie outside because I love that.

This morning we got all packed up and after the morning session of conference we headed up to the canyon for a picnic. Janet has a tradition of making a turkey dinner and eating it in the canyon in between conference sessions. It was cold up there but the food was good. Afterwards we headed home. We were able to listen to the afternoon session on the drive home. The drive seemed to take FOREVER. That drive is pretty terrible. Ryan didn't sleep a wink and kind of screamed off and on the whole way home so that was awesome. Go to sleep baby!

The weather rained off and on but we still managed to do everything outdoors we wanted to do, which was great. It was a great trip and went too fast. We love the Cannons and Utah in the fall. It's the best!

Gabby made her doll a paper wedding dress with a long train.

Corbin outside holding the cat before school.

Playing with the cat. Gabby made paper cat ears, tail, and whiskers. She even wore her cat ears to school the next day.

Ryan carrying the kitty to the table.

Lagoon

This ride terrified poor little buddy.

Tea cup ride.

Scott, Corbin, and me as lab experiments. 

Little Dancers

I found a lady for the girls to take dance lessons from. They LOVED it so much. They are adorable. We all can't wait until the next dance lesson. We are going to be out of town for the next lesson so it's going to seem like forever. I had to hide the girls' dance outfits because they want to wear them all day everyday. They are the cutest little dancers. 

On Tuesday night I went over to my friends house and helped her paint her front room and hallway. She has had the supplies and different colors of paint streaks on her walls for 6 months and she hasn't been able to get it done. She's just in a little rut. So I went over on Tuesday and kind of kicked her butt to get it done. She actually did most of the painting. I just taped and wiped and kept her company. But we got it done and it looks so much better. We painted until 1:00 in the morning.

We had the primary program today. That is always the best Sunday. My kids all said their parts great which makes me relieved since I was always too scared and never participated once as a child.

I love when my kids play and create.

Cutest little dancers.

Before

After.
Here is the dresser I painted a few weeks ago. I decided that although I can't decorate a girl only bedroom I can have a girl only dresser. Love it!

Update

I went ahead and forced myself to get the kitchen done. I started on Monday and didn't finish until the next day. I ended up going to bed with everything out of all of the cupboards everywhere. With doing all of these organizing projects its hard because getting organized is a process where it will get worse before it gets better. But now it is so much better. It's not perfect and my sister in law Anna would probably have it way more organized and in a better way BUT it's way better than before and I'm just fine with that.

Other than that things were pretty normal this week, no huge projects or much going on. I took the two little ones to story time and craft. We had a few play dates and that's basically all there.

On Saturday my friend Jen called to see if we were doing anything because she wanted to play games with us. She came to us because she has older kids and doesn't need to find a last minute babysitter. She thanked us for letting her invite herself over. She knows that I am ALWAYS down for a party, especially one involving games. The Hunters came over as well and we played Tripoly, Donut, and Spoons. It was fun! Tonight our family is going over to the Hunters for dinner and games. It should be fun. Scott's not as excited because he likes to do less social things than me and I pretty much want to do social things everyday. Ha. It's fine, he's a good sport. We found a magnet at a store that said, "I hate when I have to go places and do things." Scott related to that saying very much!

Piper and Ryan are my errand buddies. While we were out Piper complained about the sun being in her eyes and she said, "the sun is always on me, it thinks I'm it's family." Ha. Kids say and do funny things.

This would have been a cute picture when Ryan was all cute and sitting next to me and he instantly moved as soon as we tried to snap a picture. Oh well I have a shortage of pictures this week so whatever.

Cute Boys. Ryan is always trying to do whatever his siblings are doing. It's so cute. Love it!

Book club, Pipes Birthday, Visitors for Labor Day Weekend

I missed posting last week I know my mom was sure disappointed, right mom? So 2 weeks ago I was busy getting my house ready to host book club by doing things like washing all of my windows inside and out. Ha. Sometimes it takes some kind of obscure excuse to push me to do crazy annoying things I wouldn't do otherwise but I want to do. So I cleaned and organized my house because you know we would be in the backyard and not in my closet. Makes sense right? Point is it helped me with my cleaning goals. My new book club friends came to my house and it was fun. The next day was Piper's birthday. We had a special breakfast and met Lexi at Carl's Junior for lunch. Another friend came over to play in the afternoon. We ended up going out to dinner as a family for her birthday which we rarely do. We came home and I attempted to quickly make a barbie cake which was marginally successful. The Piper potato got the most appropriate gift for her birthday: a phone. We took one of Scott's old phones from the closet and Nicole loaded it up with some movies and now she is set.

For labor day weekend we had visitors. Scott's parents and Nicole and Rustin came to Boise for the weekend. His Aunt Anita and Uncle Bob also drove up to Boise to visit with us Friday night since they were driving up to Yellowstone anyway. You know it was only a few hours out of their way...like maybe 9! They're retired, why not? We went to the same Mexican restaurant that we went to for Piper's birthday. I thought maybe it was just our particular waitress that wasn't good on Piper's birthday but it turns out that the different waitress wasn't good either. The service was not good and the wait was long but I do think the food at that restaurant is good. After dinner we came back to our house and sang to Piper again and had cupcakes and she opened some more presents.

On Saturday we went swimming at the hotel in the morning and then we had Five Guys and Sub zero ice cream for lunch and dessert. We came home and rested for awhile. Janet took me shopping to pick out some kid clothes at Carters while I had Scott cook my homemade rolls for me. That was a bit of a disaster. He put all three pans of rolls in at the same time! Anyway the things that you don't think you need to explain you really do need to explain. They were kind of a mess but ended up being edible enough for dinner the next day. That night we went to the Spirit of Boise celebration where they light up the hot air balloons. I was under the impression that they flew the hot air balloons but at night but they only light them up. There were a million people there and we had to walk about a mile to get to the park and when it's dark they randomly light the balloons. It's pretty cool but I don't think it really justifies the crowd and all the hub bub. Sunday was Sunday and on Monday we went swimming again and played at Pojos and had lunch. It was a great time. Gabby was even brave enough to do the bumper cars and she loved it! Poor Pipes was just barely too short and that made her very sad. The Cannons left after that. It was great having them for a visit. We love it when they come!

This last week I was busy trying to finish organizing my house. I organized my huge walk in closet that has been a MESS for 7 years and now it looks so good! I also organized the bathroom cabinets. I also canned pears and peaches all last week and upcycled an old dresser I bought from a facebook friend. It is now sitting in the garage for the next two weeks so the paint can cure. I can't wait to move it into the kids room and have more storage. I need it bad! I will post pictures in a of couple of weeks.

Friday night we went out with one of Scott's bosses. He really gets along with him great as they are both super nerds. He and his wife took us out to dinner and brought their 14 year old over to babysit. It was great! It was a really good time with them. The restaurant we went to had the most amazing bread pudding for dessert. Bread pudding is not something I would ever order on my own but they ordered it and it was amazing! But seriously anything hot with ice cream and caramel on top is going to be good.

Yesterday I escaped to do some shopping. I found some great stuff at several second hand stores. I found a pair of brand new shoes I've been wanting for $4 at the DI. I love that!

I just have my kitchen left to organize and I have totally kicked butt on cleaning and organizing my house. I may need someone to come visit me to keep me motivated to finish up the job though. Any takers? Come visit me, I really need to clean under my oven.

Cute Pipes pic.

Happy 4th Birthday Piper!

Nana brought cool bubble guns.

Ahh...Ha.

Ryan commandeered the puppy from someone at the park.

Catch the bubble.

Corbin and his Rapunzel hair.

Part of my preps for my book club hosting was buying some patio furniture as I had none. I found this bench at a thrift store for $50 and then recovered some old pillows. I ended up finishing my last stitch 1 minute before the first guest arrived. Phew!

"Spirit of Boise" night glow.

Oh so serious

Gabby and Uncle Rustin. So cute!

Birthday girl at PoJos.

Ryan attacking his ice cream.

Mac nerds!

Cute!

We bought new couches two weeks ago and the big couch has a hideaway bed. The first thing Corbin said to the babysitter was, "we have a hideaway bed and we sleep on it every Friday night." Ha. So cute!