Mom's Visit

The weekend before Halloween we were blessed to have my mom come visit for a few days. She teaches high school business classes so she doesn't get to come whenever she wants (which would probably be more like once a month instead of twice a year). :) We love it when she comes! It is just great to spend time with her since we don't get to be together very often with her living in Utah so we count ourselves very lucky when she can get a weekend away! We are like that with all of our family since we all live in different states.

Our weekend started out Saturday morning at Brandon's soccer tournament. The kids had fun taking walks with Grandma around the soccer field. Brandon's team won their first game, but lost the second. Mom treated us to lunch in between games. Here are some pictures from the day!

Mom, Carli, and Megan.

Daddy and Carli going for a little walk.Here's Brandon going for the ball.Kate really needs some teeth for Christmas. Got any Santa?Carli loved being with Grandma.Sunday we attended church and the kids were rehearsing for the Primary program so my mom was able to sit in and see it since she wasn't able to be here the weekend they performed it. I was glad she got to see the kids all say their parts and hear Kate sing her solo. Mom thought it was pretty great that she could see it! After church we make sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins and ghosts. The kids had a blast, of course. Carli especially like eating the dough.

Here she is eating it out of the bowl.

She even ate what was stuck to the rolling pin!

Brandon liked "throwing" the dough, like with pizza dough.

Megan covered in flour enjoying her cookie.

I'm so grateful for such a wonderful mom who loves to come and spend time with us and know her grandkids. They all adore her!

Recipe of the week

I posted one of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes for this week on the sidebar. I did not care much for yams or sweet potatoes until I tried this recipe that my Grandma Johnson makes. I hope you try it sometime and love it!

Little Update and Primary Program

I left Thursday afternoon with a good friend and drove down to Austin. Kirsten's hubby had surprised her with a trip down to see me and all our friends in Austin. She and her family moved not long after we did from Austin. They have settled for a little while in Dayton, OH, so it was really exciting to get to see her for a few days! I forgot my camera--me? forget my camera?--YES, i did! :( Kirsten was kind enough to take lots of pictures of our adventures down there and will upload them for me when she gets home so I will post all about our trip when I get the pictures. Warning: there are lots of adorable little babies!

I came back from Austin Saturday night so I could be here for our ward Primary program. I'm so glad I didn't miss it! It was a wonderful day. The entire primary did so well. They sang all the songs and sounded awesome. Kate had a solo on the 2nd verse of I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus and it was so perfect. I could barely hold it together I was so proud of her! Her voice was clear and on pitch and just so beautiful! She didn't even miss a word. As her mom I was just beaming. She is such a talented little girl! I have a whole other post I'm going to do about her.

Megan got up there and said her part perfectly, too. Every time she practiced it at home she would sing the words instead of just say them so when she got up there I was fully expecting her to sing, but thankfully, she just said them the way she was supposed to. It would have been too funny. She has a beautiful voice, too, though! I can't wait to hear my girls singing duets together.

Brandon is who we were most nervous about. Last year it was a nightmare and I had to take him off the stand because of his acting out. He did really great yesterday! Up until the last 5 minutes when he started to get very fidgety he was pretty well behaved. He is one who will not get up to give a talk in Primary and he actually walked up there and said his part with no problem! So all in all it was a very successful program for us!

Recipe of the week

My good friend, Laura, started posting a recipe on her blog and I thought I would copy her because I thought it was a very good idea! I'm not very original so I "borrow" ideas a lot. ;) Thanks La! Hope you don't mind.

Every week I will post one of my favorite recipes on the sidebar there on the left. This week I put a recipe that I found a few years ago in a Tast of Home magazine. I just love it! Try it and let me know what you think. I made it yesterday when we had the missionaries over and they loved it.

Chocolate!

I'm just happy to say that my daughter takes after me and loves chocolate...

This is what I found one day last week when I heard her calling for me from upstairs. She found a little bowl full of chocolate chips her big brother hid up in the game room and she devoured them. Little stinker!

Halloween Fun!

It was quite the eventful day! We had a fun little Halloween party to go to in the morning. The kids played a fun Halloween Bingo game and then made ghost lollipops and decorated a pumpkin sugar cookie. The moms all brought a dish to share so we had some yummy food and lots of chatting going on. Then after I picked up all the kids from school I took them to Hobby Lobby and we picked up some canvas bags and fabric pens so they could decorate their own trick-or-treat bags. They had a blast doing that and were all so proud of their creations! Then it was off to the church for Trunk or Treat. It was the perfect weather for the event and everyone had a great time. Carli got especially excited when she learned the bag was for putting candy in and everyone was just giving it to her! She was so cute in her little witch costume. Brandon was Spiderman again, Kate was Belle, and Megan was Sleeping Beauty. The girls love getting to wear mom's make-up and putting on sparkly powder.

Carli as our little witch. This is my favorite picture.

Megan as our beautiful Sleeping Beauty. Ready to go to the party!Megan and Sydney playing Halloween bingo.Carli sees an airplane while I'm taking pics! She's fascinated by them right now.All the kiddos ready to go trick-or-treating! Brandon playing with a little ball. He could not leave Carli's hat alone. She finally gave up and left it with him.Kate and her good friend at the Trunk or Treat!Carli is ready to fill up her bag!Ben and the girls handing out the last of the candy. The night is a success!
Me and Carli with a mouth full of candy.

Well...

Today is the day...the big 30.

That's all I have to say about that.

I am so behind on blogging this last week. It's been busy!