Morgan's Snowman and outfit

Here is my snow man. I named him Mark. the reson he has a rock nose is becuse Percy started eating his carrot nose.  I used Ethan's coat and scarf. His eyes kept falling out!  (I wouldn't want that to happen.)
Here is my brand new outfit my mom made me! (i'snt she a nice mom!?!) She made a twin outfit for Coral too! she bought it for 4$, the last type of fabric. That same day I made macaroni, for the first time all by my self! I even made an aprin for Coral.I hope I'm a cook someday.   Written by Morgan (we couldn't get me logged in).

Saturday Snow

Troy and I slept in today, who knew if we were left a lone and no alarm clocks went off we could sleep past 8:30 am.  It was nice, especially because we knew it was going to be a cold day.  In fact we looked out the window around 9 am and it was snowing.  First snow fall of the year (here on the benches).  It wasn't enough to stick to the ground, but it was on and on like that all day.  

Troy had some work to do at the office and what a treat, for everyone, took Morgan and Ethan with him.  

So Grant and I ran errands and did a little shopping.  For Halloween this year Ethan's first grade class is dressing up as character's from books and stories they are studying this year.  One character on the list that Ethan keeps going back to is an owl.  So we bought some fabric to make a cape so he can be an owl.  Very exciting.  Otherwise he wants to be a Jedi for Halloween, I'm hoping he fits in Grant's old costume this year.  Morgan wants to be Dracula so she can go around saying, "I vant to suck your blood".  We bought a rocker wig for Grant, he wants his friends to dress as rockers (rock band) and go trick-or-treating.  We'll have to see, since we have the Ukraine kids here that weekend.

My friend Suzie got her husband the Settler's game for his birthday this week, so we had them over for dinner tonight so we could teach them how to play.  It was a lot of fun.  We cooked little hamburgers that Troy calls Sliders.  We made a bunch of different types.  Like hamburgers with salsa in them, ones full of veggies, some teryaki burgers and some super hot jalapeno burgers.  And we had promised some chocolate moose, Troy's favorite dessert.  We took the picture of the kids with the dog, because their one son is terrified of dogs.  We're hopping if he sees Percy in the picture he'll slowly get used to him.  

After dessert the adults, including Chelsey, played some Settlers, while the kids watched a movie and played downstairs.  It was a good game, it took a little longer than I told them it would, but I think that is normal when players are learning the game.  It's good Troy was there to help rein me in.  I would go off explaining things and a couple times it was overload.  As we were playing it began snowing again, but it was cold enough for it to stick to the ground.  So at 9 pm we had a white yard.  It took all day, but it finally stuck.  The proof is on the playhouse.

Wanted to add that Sunday we got three more inches of snow.  Talk about a winter wonderland, you would have thought it was Christmas.  

Corn Maze

Thursday and Friday the kids had early out for parent teacher conferences.  We got all of our conferences done on Thursday and thought it would be fun to go with friends on Friday to a Corn Maze.  We got a late start as our garage door spring broke and we had to have it repaired, but we got it fixed and off we went to Thanksgiving Point in Utah County to get lost in some corn.  We went with our dear friends the Jensen's.  It's a good match, each child has a friend and Jennifer and I get a long so well.  I don't think we would have settled into the neighborhood without them!  

The girls wanted to go to the Thanksgiving Point corn maze because it was of David Archuleta.  Yes, they played the songs he sang on Idol through out the corn maze.  You never really felt lost, it was as if he was right there with you!  Ha ha ha.

We didn't find all the numbered signs through out the maze, but we made Morgan's wish come true by crossing all three bridges in the maze.  We were pleasantly surprised to find many other activities at the corn maze.  I think the kids had more fun playing on the slides and checking everything out than going through the corn maze itself.  The next picture is of the kids in Cinderella's coach in the princess play land.  There were dress ups and playhouses and a castle bounce house.

They called this a pillow jumper.  It was full of air and felt like a trampoline.  Ethan really enjoyed sliding off the sides face first into the sand.

We also got to see some pigs race.  Morgan (pink shirt on left) was picked to cheer a little pig on.  His name was Troy!  Boy was she excited.  Troy came in second, but we still love him.

They had these very hard to peddle go carts.  I thought I got a couple pictures of Grant, he could cruise on the big ones.  The littler kids would jump on the back of his go-cart and hitch a ride around the course.

This was the corn box.

This blow up toy was bazar.  He's this big blow up dog like monster and you walk into his mouth into the dark.  As you go around lights flash, air blows at you, strange noises go on and off.  There were four different chambers you walked through.  There was a huge blow up heart in the first area, then lungs and the others I couldn't figure out.  But the kids were hilarious.  At the first bend they all came to a stop and no one would walk into the next bend because the scary noises started.  After we found the heart the older boys ran on through, but the girls never left our sides.

Yipee! We rode the cow train.

They had lots of good smelling food and treats all around.  They had a place you could pay and shoot pumpkins and corn out of cannons and there was a musical puppet show every 30 minutes.  I'm sure there was more, but it was so windy and cold we decided to head out after 2 1/2 hours of pure fun.  

Pottery Class

This is where I play with clay on Mondays.  The wheel with the stool down is my usual seat, at least no one has tried to take it from the oldest student in class.  I took a couple classes at the Westminster Rec. Center in Colorado after Morgan was born.  But taking from John and his wife has been fascinating.  The first thing they taught us, after centering the clay, is to lift the clay.  I can see why all of the things I made in Colorado came out the way they did.  I still tend to leave too much clay on the bottom.  I did get an A on my cylinder project and was able to move on to making mugs last week.  Yeah!

 Here are the first four mugs that I've made.  Yesterday I trimmed them and put handles on them, very exciting and very messy.  Morgan has been so curious about my class and every week asks what I'm learning.  I'm sure the muddy clay all over me when I get home reminders her where I've been.  I keep meaning to get an apron, but I sort of enjoy the mess.  She remembered I had to pass the cylinder assignment before I could make mugs and she has been very excited for me.  She has even drawn pictures of different mugs she would like me to make for her.  Thus I took these pictures so she could get an idea of what I am doing.

Conference Weekend

This past weekend we had cute Grayce stay with us while her parents were on an exciting getaway to Boston (to eat cannoli).  We also were privileged to have Kim and two of his Priests come down for General Conference.  We missed having Klint and his boys come down this spring, but I will say two boys are nothing compared to 5-8.  I think Kim had it pretty easy.  Although, all the guys that have come have been great; helpful, polite and just good kids.  

Even though it rained all weekend and it was a little chilly outside the younger kids wanted to play in the playhouse.  So, we had a couple (fruit) tea parties in the playhouse with Morgan, Ethan and Grayce.  They thought that was a lot of fun.  Especially because we got the piggy plates and cups out for them to use.  Fine china for those under 10.  Or was it the cup of sugar cubes they got to add to their tea?

My children were also very spoiled, because they had cousins over I didn't make them watch one session of conference.  In fact I put a movie on during each session so that I could listen to conference in a quiet house.  Hmm, how accountable....

Everyone that came down with Kim were Settlers of Catan (board game) fans.  Kim was a willing ginny pig and learned how to play, even won a game.  I won one game too, but only thanks to Derek for not going for the longest road.  I'll still take the win.  We played day and night and even roped Troy into a game.  They were even able to squeeze in some conference in between games, kidding, it wasn't that bad.  Actually, Kim had tickets for them to go to the Conference Center for the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions.  I really enjoyed the Saturday morning session, but I've always enjoyed listening to Elder Oaks and Elder Uchtdorf. They gave great, great talks. 

Everyone hung out for the Saturday afternoon session and Brady and the girls came over for dinner after the second session on Saturday.  We were a little rude and played a game of Settlers while Brady and Troy fed the kids dinner.  Maybe it was that bad.  Brady headed out after dinner and since it was pouring rain Kim's crew decided not to stand in line to get tickets for the Priesthood session at the Conference Center and went to the stake center with Troy and Grant.
We were happy to hear that Preston was coming down with Kim.  He and Grant hung out the entire time.  I only saw them when they surfaced for food, good thing because I was trying to learn the correct rules to Settlers...  Tricia we need to talk (or play a game the real way).  

Good looking group wouldn't you say?  Thanks for trekking down here, we enjoyed having ya'll visit.  

Potty training advice?

My sister-in-law is giving a cute bag away in a contest for potty training advice, if anyone is interested or has some great advice check it out, here!

Friday's 4th Grade Field Trip

This is one of the few landmarks on earth that you can see from outer space!  The Kennecott Copper Mine.
Morgan was very impressed with the size of the tires on the machines that work in the copper mine.  Lots of tire pictures.

Pictures from the water treatment plant.

Morgan's friends.

Friday, Morgan's 4th grade class went on a field trip to a water treatment plant and then to the Kennecott Copper Mines (which I've always wanted to go to and still haven't done).  I couldn't go with their group so I sent her with a camera.  She took a total of 97 pictures on the field trip!  A handful were fuzzy, but most of them turned out great.  

Morgan telling about her field trip:

I loved seeing the big tire and how big it was, it was about the size of a house.  There were also a lot of cool displays.  One was a house and when you touched the buttons different rooms would light up.  One button you touched turned the TV on in the living room.  There were some cool statues and some cool artifacts, like the dinosaur bones they had found while digging.  

At the water treatment plant I was a little worried that I would drop Grant's camera in the water.  Luckily I didn't.  There were lots of different cool colored chemicals that they put in the water to make it clean, I liked watching that.  There were lots of big ponds that they pumped the water into outside.  I asked the guide if they ever found any ducks in the water and he said they found more than that.  They have seen deer, rabbits, foxes, raccoons, and ducks that would come drink from the ponds.  (Mom: I think I'm a little unsure about our drinking water... chemicals and animals, oh my!)