Darth Vader and Beautiful Butterfly

Sam was Vader this year for Halloween. Maren was a lovely butterfly. Tyler painted Maren's face and she loved it. We went trick or treating with Misty's kids. It was great weather and the kids got more candy this year than they ever have. I really do love Halloween.

Hallelujah!

I just finished a one year supply for four people of all the basic foods. It is so great to have this done! It is not exactly what we wanted to drop a few thousand dollars doing, but it is great peace of mind to have it done. Just in case you are trying to count, it is EIGHTY boxes with 6 #10 cans in each box. Add that up...
I am not going to worry about food storage for thirty years now. Isn't that great. I love it. I am so excited. Yeah!

SNOW!! (just 2 feet of it)

We have about 2 feet of snow on the ground right now. It is so beautiful. The schools have been closed for three days and Tyler has stayed home from work for three days. It has been great! Tyler has caught up on some much needed sleep. Maren lost her front tooth. Sam and Maren helped make some witch hat cupcakes. And I have just bummed around the house enjoying every second with the kids and Tyler home. What a great week. Monday is going to come too soon. But, good things must always come to an end.

Don't you just LOVE Halloween!

The kids are out of school for fall break. They wanted to decorate pumpkins this week. Of course we couldn't just carve them, right? These pumpkins took most of the day on Monday. What a great day it was. Maren and I had so much fun. Sam mostly followed us around playing with his legos. But Maren really got into it with me.
The orange pumpkins have vinyl stickers on them. The white pumpkin is painted and the "bat-o-lantern" is also painted. We added bat wings, ears and crazy eyes.

Scaredy Cats!

Sam and Maren are totally afraid of going anywhere in the house by themselves. They must have someone on the same level as they are, even if it is daytime. I just figured out why. Maren told us tonight, she is "afraid of the BOOGER MAN"! Well, I would be afraid of the booger man as well. It all makes sense now!

Barn Dance

We went to a barn dance the other night. It was really fun. The kids played in the hay, had a tractor ride and ran around until they were exhausted. Their matching red shirts were all by accident. How lucky am I they matched for the pictures!

New Fireplace!

We finally tore out the bad, bad hunter green marble on the fireplace and replaced it with brick. Tyler did a great job. It is almost finished. But here is what we have done so far.

How I Decorated with the Halloween Topiary

So I finally got the Halloween decorations out. Here is what I did with the topiary I showed a while back.

Crazy Heart Quilt

I have always wanted to make a real quilt, but didn't know how. A lovely friend of mine offered to help a group of us (thanks Carol) and after only a year and a half, this is what I made. I love it, but I now know, I will never make a quilt again. It is just not my thing. I backed it with corduroy and tied it with random buttons.

We Got a New House!

Ok, so we didn't get a new house, but it sure does look like a new house. The painters finished painting today. I am so excited. We were sick of beige and darker beige, so we went bold! I love it! Our new roof looks pretty good too.

We had a huge hail storm in June and all my flowers were ruined. But with a little sunshine and a lot of water, they came back. Who knew zinnias grew as big as a bush? Finally after three years in this house, a flower garden to be proud of.

(FYI, the beige house is the BEFORE. The dark brown house is the AFTER)

We got new lights, house numbers and door handles too.

Where were you?

Do you remember where you were on this day eight years ago? We lived in New York eight years ago. Sam was 7 weeks old. I woke up early to feed him and turned on the TV. I started my day like any other day. Then I watched LIVE the first airplane hit, then the second, then the third. Then the towers fell. Then the fourth airplane somehow crashed into a field. We now know how that happened. It was so surreal. I couldn't believe it was happening. I looked in Sam's baby book to see what I wrote. It was originally thought that 10 thousand people were going to die. 2,985 died.

I was so scared that something was going to happen to Tyler. He was working at the capital and I could not get a hold of him. I finally was able to talk to him and remember screaming in the phone for him to just come home! I was scared he would die and I would have this little baby, and be all alone.

We went to our church the next day and participated in the national day of worship. Do you remember how you felt? I do. That is really when my passion for politics and this country took off. I love this country. I cry every time I see the Statue of Liberty. I am so glad I live here. I love the Constitution. If you have not read it lately, you should. It is a beautiful piece of history.

Fly your flag today. Fly it for the men and women that have died for our freedoms and the men and women who will die in the future to keep you and I safe. Pray to your God today and thank Him for the privilege of living in the greatest country on the earth. God Bless America!

Click on the picture to enlarge it. I took this picture in early 2001.

Maren the model

I wanted to try out our new camera and Maren was willing to model. This is up in the mountains, camping. She has slept on her hair for two days, and has barely put a brush through it. Don't you wish you had her hair?
Her cute friend, Mary, came camping with us.

Camping for Labor Day

So we went camping for Labor Day this weekend. I know most of you are thinking, "Stace, went camping?" I do hate camping, it is true. But when you consider all the terrible experiences I have had camping, you know why. Girls camp when I was a teenager sucked. There was never enough food, it was always sooo hot, and the other girls always whined.
Fast forward a few years.... Tyler and I had been married for about six weeks. Our old singles ward asked us to chaperon a white water rafting trip in Jackson Hole. The girls on the raft did not know how to steer the raft so they plowed my brand new husband into a huge rock. I thought his head had been taken clean off! ( and we didn't have life insurance on him yet)
Fast forward again.... Now we live in Houston, TX. Just in case you are not aware, Houston is the hottest place on earth. The humidity will strangle you if you let it. We would go camping in the summer in Houston. Seriously, Doone, what in the 'h' were we thinking??? We were in grad school and had no money, I guess.

So now I am a mom of two adorable kids who want to go camping. How can I tell them no? They love it. So it makes the 8 hours of prep time and the 3 hour drive up to the mountains worth it.
These pictures were on a 4.5 mile hike. This mountain is so beautiful.

Sam's a Bobcat now

Sam just joined the Boy Scouts this summer. He got his bobcat last week. Good job Son!

Master Bedroom

I spent the morning doing this. The pictures on the wall are from our trip to London, Belgium, and France. I still need a set of 5 keys to hang in the empty spot. Any suggestions?

Halloween Topiary

So I spent the afternoon making this Halloween Topiary. I saw this idea, but didn't love the one for sale. So I decided to improvise by making it myself. Tyler thinks it is too busy... I like it. What do you think? any suggestions on improving it?

The Triathlon

I did a sprint triathlon yesterday. It is a half-mile swim (or 36 lengths in a pool), a 12 mile bike, followed by a 3 mile run (that turned into a 3.6 mile run). I have been training for the last several weeks for this day. My sister, Misty, did it with me. She and I have talked about our training, obsessed about our strategy, and who we thought we could beat for the last month. It was so fun. A group of 15 women from our church participated.

So I knew if I wanted to beat Mist, I had to beat her on both the swim and the bike. She is such a good runner, that if it came down to the run, she would smoke me. I know I used to run cross-country back in the day, but that day was 20 years ago! Mist rocked the run. She passed four people on the run alone. I had a three minute lead on her after the swim, and another 3 minute lead on her after the bike. She made up 5 minutes of that lead on the run. I only beat her by 58 seconds! She was breathing down my neck. Good job Mist! You are my hero.

In case you wanted to know... I burned 1074 calories during the 1 hour and 40 minutes it took me to finish.

We are going to do it again next August, so come join us. And by the way, the lake water is a balmy 60 degrees, so train in the most frigid water you have ever been in.

Here are some pictures of the day. Mist is in the purple top, and the silver swim cap. I am in the hot pink top with the black stripes down the side.