To Grandma Frankie and Marie, oh and Grandpa's too.

Our little talker wanted to send a message to Grandma's and Grandpa's.

We all LOve you!

Salem, MA

What could be a better way to get into the Halloween spirit then heading to Salem, MA? Since it's only an hour and 15 minutes from us we headed down on Saturday(the Saturday before Halloween). Once we arrived in Salem, it took us 30 minutes to inch our way to the parking garage, only to find it was full. This became an issue-parking. It should have been our first clue that the day was not going to go according to plan. After going to several of the big attractions only to find them sold out until night time, we gave up and just enjoyed walking around the city and seeing the sights. There were so many people dressed up, it was great! I packed us some healthy snacks, which was a good thing because there were yummy treats on every corner. We did get some Hot Apple cider to eat our fat-free popcorn with.

All in all it turned out to be disappointing for the kids, but a good learning experience for Mike and I. We figured out we don't have to be tourist and go to these wonderful New England sights when everyone else is. We can go anytime and beat the crowds! Salem is beautiful and we are looking forward to our next visit so we can actually go INSIDE one of the museums.

Halloween Fun

Every year the Knight family in our ward, throws a Halloween Bash for all the kids in Primary. They are so generous to do this since they buy pizza, candy, toys, and game supplies for the party. We had a wonderful time and the kids got to get on their costumes. Miles is Darth Vader, Griff is Superman, and Caleigh is a Autumn Fairy. Elliot refused to put on any costume that came close to her so she is a...baby who refuses to get dressed-up.
I have to say my favorite part of Halloween is doing Caleigh's hair. She is usually very good about sitting down and letting my style her hair, but on Halloween I always seems to test the limit's. I love having my own real life 'Barbie head.'

More Pumpkins

K-Mart had this pumpkin face making kit for $3.99 and it did all three pumpkins. The kid's loved it. They also love switching around the faces.

Autumn in New England

Last Sunday we went for a walk and these are some pictures of our neighborhood and our view of the town. It is Amazing to see how many different colors these trees turn.

The church steeple is in our downtown. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

Happy 61st Birthday Grandpa Larry!

Happy Birthday to a Wonderful Man and Father. My dad is such a great man and I am lucky to have him in my life.

A few things I love about my Dad are:
-He is always willing to serve. He helped us so much when we moved out here.
-He is Mr. Fix-it. I don't think there is anything My Dad can't fix.
-He honors his priesthood. My Dad joined the church when he was an adult and has strived to live the best he can since then.
-My Dad is so good about telling recognizing good things in people and telling them. He would stop and tell me, "I love you" and I always knew he meant it.
-My Dad is a great Husband to my Mom. They work together so well. What a great example to me.

I LOVE YOU DAD!

Another Collage option

I figured out another collage option. Picassa 3 offers a collage options. It's what I'll use from now on. You can download the program for free at- http://picasa.google.com/ I really love the program.

Farmington Fire Safety Day.

Today was our last day of Soccer, Yeah! It was also "Fire Safety Day" for Farmington. So we headed down to the firehouse and had a great time. (Miles's didn't get to go, he was suffering the punishment for throwing rocks when your angry.) It was such a great time. They had all the old trucks out, and free pizza, juice and lots of other goodies. The kids had to turn in their fire safety plan to get a prize and they even got to go through the smoke house. Neither Grif or Caleigh looked like they enjoyed that. It was a great reminder to get a plan ready for the kids in case of emergency. On a side note, I need to get ladders for my kid's windows.

Alternative Jack O' Lanterns

The tie dye shirts were so fun we decided to do another "family fun" project. This time is was MOD Podge faces on our pumpkins. They look pretty cute!

Finally, more than just a Loveseat!

When we moved we left our couch and chair (with ottoman) behind. So we have been living with just a loveseat. It wasn't too bad since the kids all had their own chairs, but I really missed my ottoman. So we finally went and picked out a new set. I just loved the big ottoman. I could imagine us all being able to kneel around it for family prayer. How Morman am I that my furniture choice depends on if it has a "prayer ottoman." Anyway. We love it!

To Friends NOT forgotten

Tonight I was at soccer watching Miles play and chatting with a friend. I was telling her about one of my best friends from Boise. I do this a lot. Conversations usually go something like this, "oh, my friend from boise..." or "You remind me of my friend..." I'm sure all of New England feels the competition with these unnamed friends.
It got me thinking though, I don't keep in contact with my old friends enough. You might all think I have forgotten about you. So this is a reminder that I have NOT forgotten about any of my friends I left behind in Boise. Not a day has gone by that I have not talked or thought about one of you since arriving in New Hampshire. (warning: cheezy part coming) So Thank you, for being so much apart of my life. I love and miss you all. Sorry I don't email more, but you are in my thoughts. I am a better friend because of all of you.

Collage pages

So many of you have asked me how I do my collage photos. I would love to tell you I take hours creating these great photos, but I don't. I make them in my free program from walmart.
The Wal-mart digital photo manager version 1.2.
I looked on the web to see if I could give you a link to download it onto your computer, but all I could find was the newest version. Sadly it didn't seem to have the "photo album" feature(the one I use to make the collage photos.) So if you can get your hands on the 1.2 version it's so easy, you just drag and click. Sorry, I don't know if this is helpful, but this is how I do the collage photos. And I could be wrong about the new version.

A visit from Grandma Frankie and Aunt Tracy!

We were so excited to have Grandma Frankie and Aunt Tracy here this weekend. Of course they both brought gifts for the kids, and then continued to spoil them through out the weekend. Griffin is still sleeping in his new stocking cap.



We first made them endure Soccer on Saturday. They got to see the "Soccer Mom" in action. It was picture day and Aunt Tracy took that literally taking over a hundred photos of the soccer action. I was so grateful to have some documentation of my short time coaching soccer. It's hard to take photos and coach at the same time!


The next day we hit the beach, York, ME and Kittery outlet mall. We learned the beach is fun in October, as long as you have a new winter coat!
These are some shots of York, ME (my favorite place in New England, so far). The lighthouse is a wonderful photo-op and the town is charming.
We were so glad to share some of our favorite places with our family. We love you Grandma Frankie and Aunt Tracy, we hope you come again soon!

A Thank you

So I have to give a quick thank you to my "smarty-farty" husband who set up my link list to all of the blogs I follow. I like it so I can see who has a new post. This way I don't have to go check them all, which tend to make me carsick with all the quick clicking and such. I hope no one minds having their link displayed, if you do, let me know and I will take it off. I know privacy is a big issue on the net and I don't want to be the jumping off point for some weirdo. Thanks Mickey!

APPLE DAY

We recently ventured over to the New Hampshire Farm Museum. It was "Apple Day" when we went. It was wonderful! The kids got to make homemade apple cider, have an apple pie eating contest (If it weren't for a teenager named Peter, Miles would have won), and enjoy all the other things a farm has to offer! I have to say my favorite thing were the two PIGS; "Dorcas" and "Clara bell." They are old English pigs, that would be used as orchard pigs when the farm was a working farm. It took a lot of persuading to get them out of the barn and when they finally came out we all were laughing so hard. They were so Cute! I had to do another collage, there were just too many photo's to share. How could I not snap a ton of photos with barrels of apples and an amazing old farmhouse as my backdrops.
Okay, she is the cutest thing eating an apple.