Fall is Here???

Really, I love Fall, usually it is because that means my birthday and the boys birthdays are here, but for me it also means it is time to get out the decorations. I love spiffing up my house for each holiday, but the ones this time of year are my favorite. Don't even get me started about Christmas, I love love love going everything ready, and I wait for the time to come, so to placate me I have my Halloween Spookery all up. These are some of my favorites.  I have constrained myself to only buying a few new pieces each year, mostly since storage space is limited, and because I love where everything fits now and can only put so much out each time.

{In the kitchen}

 

   

{These were this year's addition, glitter bugs}

{The Foyer-complete with Fall Leaves, yes some are glittered}

{Berk loves this spider and runs around scaring everyone with it}

{Last year's project-glitter skulls & bones}

{I even have to mix up the kitchen magnets}

Are you sensing a theme here?  I love to put the purple, green, orange and black throughout the downstairs and outside. And I love glittering things, in case you couldn't tell. The bones & bugs were from last year's Martha Stewart show- gotta love her. Oh, and since I have a ton of glitter left, in cool autumn colors, I am going to glitter baby pumpkins- this is the easiest activity for kids, messy but easy and fun. Pictures later.

Another Little Princess!!!

***Update! New photos!!!***

My sister Rhonda, her hubby Mubeen and new big sister Yazzie welcomed

Talia

Today at 5:27pm

7 pounds 9 ounces

20 inches long

She is the most adorable thing and has a head full of dark hair just like her sister did. Rhonda is recovering from her c-section well and will be home in  few days.  More photos to come on her blog in the next few days! Congrats guys, we love you and she is a doll!!!

I Couldn't help Myself...

I did it. I opened it.  I succumbed to the pressure of having that dang box stare at me from all over my house.  It was like it had eyes following me.  I would walk out of my room and it would call at me from the windows by the front door, I would walk from the kitchen to the office and it would beg me to take it out of the heat.  I resisted for two weeks, TWO! Poor box, poor mis marked, delivered to the wrong house box.  It was feeling neglected.

I want it to be known that I have tried and tried to get FedEx to pick up the dang heavy, big, calling my name box, THREE TIMES actually.  And they even called me once about it.  Each time I was promised that the driver of my route was coming by to get it that day.  Uh huh.  And short of taking it to the FedEx store and paying to ship it back to Amazon myself (since the address is wrong, duh, that's how we got in this situation in the first place) or flagging down the dang driver who passes by my house every morning (is he just too lazy to stop???) I am giving up.  I even mapquested to see if I could find the address and it just doesn't exist.  FedEx can come to me, but I am no longer going to them.  I have given it a valiant effort.  

Funnily enough, I had to mail something to my sister in Utah so I headed to the UPS store by my house.  Now, I mail quite a few teeny tiny packages (of my jewelry) so the guy that owns the place remembers me--(I wonder if it was from my Christmas Eve mad dash into his store to overnight something???)-- anyways, I get to asking him, who's in the 'biz', what I should do. He told me that if it was dropped at my door, it is mine.  He also told me he doubted they would ever come get it since, more than likely, the person who ordered it had already filed a complaint about not getting it and had a new package sent.  As I am leaving, laughing, and remembering just one more reason I love UPS so much more than FedEx or even DHL, he says, "Just open it, if you don't like it sell it on Ebay."  Geez, I like that guy.

Truth be told, I feel weird getting something dropped at my door and thinking it's mine when my name isn't on it. So, I will be contacting FedEx one more time, and then I am waiting till it has been a month or more and then I will deem it my property.  And don't try to be funny and say  'Oh, it's my package', because remember, I know the name on the box.  And I won't be selling it on Ebay.  'Cause I am keeping what was in the box, all three of 'em... 

At least until we figure out which family member to give each of them to.  I don't need one, anyways, I got one for my birthday.  The Amazon Deities are smiling at me. 

Changes headed my way...

My 'Grils'-as Braden calls them

Yesterday I was released from my calling in the Young Women's Presidency as the secretary.  I served in that position for nearly a year and a half and I was beyond sad to be released. Before YW, I taught the 11-12 year old Primary Girl's class for over 4 years as well as leading the 10-11 year old Activity Day Girls program.  It was so much fun.  Most of the girls I started teaching in my Sunday school class are now the almost laurels.  It seemed crazy that I got to follow them through so much of their journey in the Gospel.  I got to see them go from awkward little ten year-olds to confident high schooler's. 

 I love them all so much.  I have funny funny memories of teaching them at an activity at my house once, when Braden was about 2 and running around my house like a crazy person.  I had a tendency, still do, to call him 'Kid' when he is irritating me.   I guess it happened a lot on activity days because I overheard one visiting girl ask another girl what the-tornado-that-is-my-son's name was.  To which she replied, "I'm not sure, she just calls him Kid."  I laughed about that for weeks.

Since I was not over any class in particular, I wasn't required to go to Mutual but I was always welcomed when I did.  We sure know who to have a good time on Wednesdays, I'll tell you that.  My favorite part of attending mutual was when I got to drive a group of girl's home and listen to what they gabbed about.  They made me laugh and they keep me young, for sure.  Best yet, they more often than not were examples to me.  I most definitely would not want to be a teenager in this day and age.  But from asking me to change the station, because a song that had come on wasn't appropriate (crud, I remembered thinking, I owned that CD)  or always showing up to church in the most stylish, and modest clothes out there.  They will be great leaders in the church one day.

They taught me that you can be an example to your friends and bring people who didn't follow our beliefs. And, not only that, you could bring them over and over again.  I still don't think I have ever invited someone to church, except my Australian Exchange student in HS.

But, by far the best part about my calling was the other  awesome leaders I served with.  I learned so much from them and love knowing those girls have them as shining examples for a while longer.  I loved our entire board of ladies. We had the rowdiest bunch of ladies and we knew how to laugh.  Our presidency meeting often lasted hours and hours, and none of us complained. 

Yesterday, after they announced my release from the pulpit I was asked 'Why?' several times.  The truth is, sometimes Heavenly Father knows us better than we think or better yet, he surrounds us with people who genuinely care about us.  The fact that our YW President is one of my dearest friends, who served right along side me through primary and activity days and when she called me to be her Secretary I knew it was the right fit.  And, because she is such a great friend, she knew that even though I loved my calling, my life was so crazy that I needed a break.  It's kinda like my plate was so full and yet I kept taking more and more and more, until I needed another plate.  I would never have asked to be released, (considering the calling itself is made for me and my personality-you know OCD???) and so Kelee was prompted (several times) to ask it for me.  I know it was a super hard decision for her, and the other presidency members, but in the end, whether we all liked it or not, it was what I needed.  My new calling will let me be in Relief Society (where I haven't been in about 6 years) and learn from the awesome teachers in there.  I hope I make it back into YW again because that calling is the where I feel I 'fit'.

So, after two weeks I decided enough tears already! Crying doesn't change the fact that you can't beg, cry, buy or pray your way back into a great calling, so I will just have to see where this season of my life is taking me.

 Kel, Mendy & Katy, you three are the best, from the bottom of my heart-Loves.

The slide show is from a YM/YW fundraiser for camp we did earlier in the year and up top is  the photo from this year's New Beginnings, our theme was Mission Possible. And the last photo is the little thing we gave each girl for her birthday.  The idea came from this great blog. We did a version with the large bars for the leaders too.  

(If you didn't get some of my vocab in this post, click here to see what the heck I was talking about.)

Temptation...

I am way curious person.  So are my kids.  It's no wonder why Braden's favorite cartoon is Curious George or that Berkley is becoming quite a fan too.  Part of it is just being boys, kids and my off spring.  It's like not knowing what gift I was getting for my birthday, which is pretty rare (since I usually provide a list and all) or waiting for Christmas morning to open all the presents.  So things like this practically KILL ME!

Sure, you're thinking, "Oh, a nice large box from Amazon on your doorstep. What could the problem be with that, since you are a self admitted Amazonaholic?"  The problem is that it isn't for me!  Dang Fed Ex dropped it off on my birthday, no less, and it is a completely wrong delivery.  Wrong street, city, zip -everything.  I have been not so patiently waiting for Fed Ex to come pick it up and get it to its rightful owner for 5 days!  5!  Yes, they know it was delivered wrong, and they swore someone would come get it, on Monday. And, since that didn't happen I assume they meant eventually. Oh, and I have counted not 1 but 4 Fed Ex trucks on my street since then, by the way.

But I wanna know, how long until that whole 'possession is 90% of ownership' thing.  Seriously.  I am not a bad person, I return mail, flowers and other packages to my neighbors when they are mistakenly delivered to me.  In fact, I have received my next door stranger-neighbor's Mother's Day and Birthday flowers several years in a row and always watched for her car to take them over.  

But come on,  I am dying to know what is inside... It's like when you return something to lost and found and eventually the store/hotel/school calls and says, "It's been a week/month/year and no one has claimed it, come get your Sapphire & Diamond ring, earrings and necklace." (True story, happened to my sister...).  How long before I can peek inside at least?  It's killing me... 

Maybe I will email Martha Stewart and ask her the etiquette on something like this. And maybe, now that I have put it out there, Fed Ex will finally come get it and remove the temptation.  

Veinte Nueve

Oh no. I turned the big 29 on Friday. Crap, only one more year till 30! I had a great birthday week starting with a Labor Day BBQ with a few friends and family. We had a great time swimming and watching the kids stuff themselves with chips and capri sun. I even got a little sunburn, so hopefully I can prolong my summer tan.

Wednesday night we had a special YW activity where I got to meet Bette Sue from the last season of Biggest Loser. Her daughter Ali was the first female to win the competition. She was the best speaker. She had us laughing one minute and crying the next. She is great. She even said I could tour with her since I knew how to use PowerPoint... hmmm that could be fun. Needless to say I went to the gym three times this week.
After an emotional Thursday I was ready to party the day away for my birthday. I woke up to boys who had already had their breakfast and sitting on the table were beautiful red roses. I had to wait till after Rusty got home from work to open my gifts. Braden had been telling me for more than a week that they got me a pillow and blanket. I think Rusty finally learned that Braden has loose lips about gifts. We went to dinner as a family at Pei Wei and then came home to open my gifts and have some friends and family over.
Sometimes it is nice to be the princess of the house, and sometimes it's nice when your 5 year old wants his DS back and suggests his own idea for a present...
Wahoo-I got a DS of my own to play my favorite game on and I got WiiFit. We have been using WiiFit at the Beck's for a few weeks and we love it. I am looking forward to setting new records on my favorite events, hula hoop and ski jumping. I also got the last three Charles Martin books so I am set on reading for a while.
Then the crazy began, my sweet sis in law Jill spent the day baking my favorite cookies ('Alison cookies' and 'Ooey Gooey Butter Cookies'). We also had a chocolate cake, yum, and the best caramel crunchy topping for ice cream (Steph is holding the recipe hostage till she has her baby).

Our family all came, which is hoards of people and then you throw in the friends we invited and suddenly there were probably 50 people, half under 6 running around. It was loud, sticky and so much fun! Thanks to the Burkinshaws, Allens, Farnsworths, Solomons, Rasmussens, Becks, MacMasters, my sister (whew I missed someone I think) for coming to celebrate with me. How do we always end up doing huge parties year after year? It is definitly Rusty's turn for a big party next.

And finally Saturday. I got to sleep in (the best gift of all, right?), we went shopping, played WiiFit, I took another nap (yeah!) and then we went to Carrabba's and to see a movie with the Tryon's. It was so much fun, and we love having such great friends around us.

Thank you Rusty for making my birthday amazing and for NOT getting me a pillow and a blanket.