Howdy Partner!

Here are my two little partners hamming it up for the camera.

We went trunk or treating at the stake center and at daddy's work. As usual both were super crazy but fun. At the stake center we ran into our peacock friend Olivia. She is just the cutest peacock I have ever seen! She and Rachel are only a few days short of a year apart. They are both just so petite!Anyone want to play cowboys and Indians?

Overall it was another fun year. Rachel loved going around and getting candy. Her favorite candy of the year: Suckers! She got 20 suckers in two days...that should last a while. When the person would hand her the candy she would say, "I like this one," even if she has never had it before. And she was kind enough to say thank you to everyone too. Now time to start thinking of costumes for next year...well maybe I'll take some time off first.

Pirates and Swing Buds

Here are my two cuties swinging out back.

Now about the video...every time Rachel's shirt is changed she calls herself a pirate. I'm not sure where she got it from, or why it reminds her of a pirate, but I'm sure she knows more than we do.

First Hair Cut

For a while now I have been curious to know what he would look like with shorter hair. So tonight I took the scissors and cut away. I was super nervous for a few reasons (not necessarily in this order). 1. Would it look dumb? 2. He is almost 4 months and he moved around a lot. 3. I had these sharp scissors in my hand and I didn't want to cut him. Besides moving around he was happy as a clam (with Rachel entertaining him) and I am proud to say that he didn't get cut and he doesn't look dumb...different but not dumb. In a way I kind of miss his crazy long locks.

My little boy is growing up

On Sunday I put on Benjamin's church pants and realized they were like an inch too short so I made a mental note to go to Kid to Kid to find a new pair of church pants. While I was looking for the pair of pants and some new Sunday shirts Rachel was off playing with the toys there, as usual. When I went to find her so we could go she was playing with this saucer. Now I've been looking for one that would be cheap but still have some really cool educational toys on it. Thanks to Rachel we finally found one! This one is like next to new and it was only $30, a price I was totally willing to pay. All of the toys on there are in perfect condition, there are no stains or funky smells and it still works. So we took it home, cleaned and sanitized it and put Benjamin in to see what he thought of it. After I put him in his eyes got huge and he tried so hard to get the toys. When he finally did he got so excited! So maybe he is still a little young for it but all he wants to do is stand up lately so I thought this would be good for him. He likes it but I think Rachel likes it a whole lot more...I have to keep reminding her that it's Benjamin's toy not hers. Also when we eat he wants to be up with us at the table. So I've been putting him on my lap while I eat, but now he loves to grab the place mat or my fork or plate. You get then idea. So I brought out the high chair. Now he can see us while we eat, play with his toys, not get hurt trying to get something he shouldn't and I can eat my food in a little more peace.

Presidential Election

Watch this video if you care at all who our next president will be. It makes me absolutely sick to think about Obama or anyone supporting this. If Obama is Okay with this what else will he be okay with if he is elected?

Here is the website if the link doesn't work for you.

http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?swf=http%3A//s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/cps-vfl60807.swf&video_id=VIdbYjmbFzo&rel=1&eurl=http%3A//www.gwinland.blogspot.com/&iurl=http%3A//i3.ytimg.com/vi/VIdbYjmbFzo/hqdefault.jpg&sk=WiLAFBxli4xfV5dMmOcN1kVv3ztIjoEbC&use_get_video_info=1&load_modules=1&hqt=1&color1=1169041806435&color2=1327263405

The fence and the Snake

Marc had yesterday morning off so we decided to tackle the fence...again. It went really fast and we were done before lunch. We even had time to pull up the garden. Two projects down, many more to go. We still have to stain the new boards, but it sure is nice to have that fence back up. While we were digging up the garden Rachel found a "cute, little green snake." It was really a piece from one of the plants in the garden but that didn't matter. She walked around all day calling it her "cute, little green snake" and at the end of the day it had to be brought in for the night. Too bad (not really for me) that it's all dried up, crushed and in the trash. But it was fun while it lasted.

Like Sister, Like Brother

So tonight after I gave the kiddos a bath I decided to have some fun with their hair. Check out Benjamin's mo-hawk. It totally looks like I took a curling iron to his hair, but I promise I didn't. Just look at that curl!! I love it! Why couldn't Rachel have curls like that?
Here is our attempt at Rachel's mo-hawk. She really wanted to do something fun like I did with Benjamin, but it didn't work so well. Her hair is so straight, fine and not to mention longer than his. I was actually holding her hair up in the picture. But I think it still looks pretty funny especially because of her face. What's with that?

Firsts and Un-wanted seconds

Firsts: Rachel had an awesome sleep over party with her cousins. After a super yummy treat of popcorn and cookies while watching...Blue's Clues, the kids zonked out. With a little encouragement from the daddy's of course. This was Rachel's first sleep over and she did great!! So great in fact that we will have to have more cousin sleep overs.

On the way home and to church it snowed. This is what Rachel had to say about it.

Un-wanted Seconds: I will let you take it in first...

We came home from church to this. A huge limb from our neighbors tree crashed down because of the snow, hitting our fence and knocking out their power. But instead of griping about it, like I really-really-really want to, I'm going to write a grateful and positive post.

1. I'm grateful that only one section of the fence was knocked down.

2. I'm grateful that it missed our new tree we just planted.

3. That we have power and heat.

4. It didn't take out our phone line too.

5. That our neighbors to the south who have been sooooo good to us, came over and cut down the rest of the tree that was still on fence for us while we were at church.

6. I'm grateful that we no longer have to worry about when that limb will come down.

7. We have the knowledge of how to put up a fence. So this patch job should go quick.

8. A husband who has this weekend off so we can fix it soon.

9. Okay so maybe I'll just say one negative thing about it....we really don't want to have to do this!! But we have no choice :)

The tree

We figured after removing 17 trees in our backyard that we should at least plant another one. I mean we do want some shade and we are NOT tree haters. We just like good trees if you know what I mean. So we cut out an area along the fence (where the grass died anyway from putting the fence in) and planted a Flowering Plum tree and also transplanted our Irises. The Flowering Plum will get pretty pink flowers in the spring and have purple leaves the rest of the year. We still have bark and some strawberry plants to put in, but I thought I would give you an idea of what we have been up to lately. We've also dug out another flower bed in the front and we are 'ripping' our strip (the grass between the road and sidewalk) so we can put in some rocks, boulders and water resistant plants. Things look so much better already, but I'll wait to show those finished projects.

Sweet little ones

Everyone enjoyed being with Benjamin, and Benjamin sure enjoyed all of the attention. Benjamin talked up a storm with Sariah and at one point I heard Zac talking to Benjamin about...can you guess? Baseball of course!
With everyone loving Benjamin I had a few moments to myself. Then I was joined by Rachel, Sariah and Ally on the floor. It was a lot of fun snuggling with my girls. At one point Ally said to me "your a really good Aunt Liz." How precious!

Sleeping or Pondering?

We went to Marc's parents this weekend to watch conference. This is what the boys were doing. Dad has taught them well. Okay so they were only able to snooze for a few min before they were woken up by one of us or the kids, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Is this 'Normal'?

Okay I know it's sideways but you get the general idea. So is it normal for a 2 year old to sing the alphabet on her own all most entirely perfect? If I'm right she only missed 2 letters. I'm not worried or anything just curious...should I be worried or just plain proud?