NOVEMBER

Well, November has been completely neglected... all because I was intending on taking more pictures of my kids halloween costumes and never got around to it, so there is no more halloween fun to come. sorry
SO, onto November.
To Start the month, we had SPENCER's 1st BIRTHDAY!
Poor baby was sick on the day, and getting over it through the week. So we celebrated a few days later.
He got a present from Grandma and Grandpa NordquistAnd of course Timothy had to help him open it!
Nice cozy blanket! Thanks Grandma!
We also got a free cake from Macey's!
He actually didn't really like it. The frosting stuck to his hands and frustrated him... but he has learned to smile for the camera.
Timothy really liked it though.
So there is Spencer's birthday! I know it is TERRIBLE that I am finally documenting is over a month late... but such is life. Anyway, I love you SPENCER buddy and am so grateful to have you in my life!

Funny picture to explain... After I put up the birthday sign, I was taking pictures of the boys under it (it didn't end up working, the sign was too high) and Timothy would NOT stand still so I could take a picture, well, I snapped at him and told him to be still so I could get a picture ( he wanted his picture taken, really, he just wouldn't be still) so he gave me this look...
I think it puts "Puss in Boots" to shame!

So, life goes on as usual..
Daddy becomes a climbing gym, as well as their wrestling partner on a regular basis!
My boys LOVE ramen noodles and mac'n'cheese. It is a regular lunch at out house! Spencer can really shovel it in!
Timothy found a new place to fall asleep! (refer to this post to see more fun Timmy sleeping spots)
And I'm pretty sure that I picked up these books at least twice a day for the whole month of November... it is one of Spencer's favorite things to do.
It snowed a little bit a couple of days this month. So put on his cute snowsuit and we headed out to play.
Then, after months of looking forward to it, we went to Kentucky for Thanksgiving to visit Robby's family! While there, we ate, we worked, we played!Robby and his dad and brothers worked hard to get 5+ loads of wood for the wood burning furnace.Timothy really wanted to help. He asked the whole time Daddy was gone, if he could go with him. So he helped when they came back.
Grandma and Grandpa Evans farm had lots of fun stuff for Timothy. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me near often enough. but I'll tell you all the stuff we did and show the few pictures I have.
1. COWS! They have three cows. "Rosie cow, Marigold, and Blacky" Timothy loved the cows!
2. a pond. We went for a little boat ride. It was fun!
3. Tractor. Grandpa has a tractor that Timothy was obsessed with! After turkey dinner, we all went on a hayride and Timothy got to help grandpa drive the tractor... it was definitely a highlight of the trip!
5. Cats. Timothy had fun holding the cats! (sorry its dark)
6. Treehouse and swing. We spent lots of time playing in the treehouse and swinging on the swing!
7. Chickens! Timothy loved them! (I loved the idea of a food garbage for the chickens... made dinner clean up really easy!)
8. REALLY GOOD FOOD! Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixins and leftovers all week! Pie! mmm Timothy enjoyed it so much he even licked his tray! 9. We also did so many other fun things! like read, play piano, sing, play games, visit, etc. It was a GREAT vacation!

The last full day we were there, we helped set up the Christmas tree! Timothy was especially helpful with the lights! And redecorating the bottom half of the tree!Thank you mom and dad Evans for an AWESOME time!
Timothy also really loved flying on the airplane! And Thankfully both boys did really well!

So, that is the month of November in a large nut shell! now, ON to December and CHRISTMAS!

Devin

Devin is my cousin. Devin the the most outgoing and optimistic person I know. Devin has an AMAZING memory. Devin loves music. Devin has a heart of Gold. Devin also has cancer.

This is a video of Devin and his family.

Devin has two brothers, Derrick and Kyle. They are so great! Devin has a mom and dad, Karen and Denzil. They are inspiring. I love Devin. I LOVE Devin's family! They are beautiful. They are strong. I wish there were better words to say these things.
If you have a few extra seconds next time you say a prayer, please remember Devin and his family.

evil clown... or so darn CUTE!

More Halloween fun coming soon!
(we realized, after the fact, that painting on blue eyebrows in combination with his silly expressions make him look more evil clown than cuddly clown... but I still think he is so CUTE!)

Fried Green Tomoatoes

I do love this movie...
BUT, this is not a post about the movie, it is a post about
MY ADVENTURES with FRIED GREEN TOMATOES!

Yep, I made them! And they were really YUMMY!

We have been growing tomatoes this summer and have LOVED them it. A week or so ago, however, we had some really strong wind and rain... result, not yet ripe tomatoes (green) fallen off the vine. We put them in the window sill to ripen, but it wasn't really happening.
Occasionally when we have nothing else planned for dinner, we have a "grease your heart out" meal (very very bad, I know). We fry up potatoes as chips or fries and call it a meal. This was the case on Sunday, and since we would have the hot oil, I decided to make something I have always wondered about: Fried Green Tomatoes!

Here are my sliced tomatoes! I followed the recipe in my "Better Homes and Gardens" cook book! Gotta love that book!

First step was to salt and pepper the slices and let them sit. Timothy decided they looked good enough to eat... he ate a whole slice of green tomato.

After they sit for 15 minutes, dip them as follows: milk, flour, egg, cornmeal (or breadcrumbs), hot oil!

Fry them up for 4-6 minutes on each side, until a nice golden brown... remove, cool (enough to eat), ENJOY!

The finished product! I didn't take an eating them picture, but I thought they were delicious! Robby thought they were good, but needed some sort of sauce to compliment them (he thought tarter sauce might?) Ketchup and ranch just masked them. Timothy ate them pretty well, but after his first one, he mostly just dipped the fried"skin" in the ketchup and left the tomato, or fed it to mom.

I think this adventure in food was a success and I will probably make them again! Next time they will be even better! If you want to try them too, let me know and I'll invite you over next time I make them!

Lately

So life lately has been GREAT and AHHHH (pull my hair out). We have lots of fun and I love my boys to pieces! But then things will happens that just makes me want to scream... I guess that's called MOTHERHOOD!
Spencer is so Happy and Smiley most of the time!! He pulls himself up to everything! Right now though poor kid is teething. I can see that he is getting at least 4 teeth... top side teeth, a bottom molar (maybe more than one) and I think he might be getting the bottom side teeth too. This explains his TERRIBLE sleeping. He has been getting up twice a night lately and it is so hard.

Also a hazard of motherhood... POOP! I am usually good with messy diapers, Timothy has so many a day that I really need to get on the ball and Potty train him! Spencer's are smelly but not too bad, unless... it explodes! Yes, that is poop all down his leg. That is probably the messiest blowout ever. Don't worry, I washed EVERYTHING (including the floor!)And a couple days ago he had another blowout that was just all over him. Staight to the bath he went. Oh what fun!

Timothy loves his bear and blankets and is starting to show his imagination more and more all the time. He was so excited to sit bear in his Booster!

Spencer crawls all over and is FAST! I love it!
BEST Spencer face ever! This is is new expression that I realized he copied from me! I make this face at him when I'm excited. Apparently it was worth imitating!
Spencer, you are so cute! I love you!

GO BYU COUGARS! We are obviously BYU fans and love watching football games! Me and Timothy had fun making this BYU Victory cake (before) the USU game! I think that it turned out to be the best idea!(considering they had an AWESOME last minute win!!) And to add a little fun, and make the frosting more blue, I added kool-aid powder... it was fruity, YUM!

I made a goal to keep my table/kitchen clean! And believe it , or not, I have! I have kept my table looking like this for over a week! As soon as our meal is over, I clear off, wipe down, and dry our table, then replace the center piece. It is AMAZING the difference I feel with keeping it clean! and my kitchen has been almost as good. Loading and unloading the dishwasher daily really helps. So, that is my huge SUCCESS for the week!
Also, thanks to my friend for coming over for a play-date! Because you were coming over I got my whole house "Clean" and picked up! I love a clean house!

Timothy is such an adventurous boy! He runs from here to there all day long! He loves going outside (whether I'm ready to or not) and play with the neighbor dog. He falls and gets right back up. So many people comment about hos tough and brave he is! And HE really is, I am so grateful that when he falls, he stands up and just brushes it off. Only occasionally does he let it hurt him. Yesterday, he was running on our neighbors deck, tripped and fell face first off the deck and into the rocks, flipping on his was over. His face got scraped up (as you can see), and cried hard (for good reason), but then he as able to move on. We went for a bike ride and he forgot all about it.
Yesterday, after Family Home Evening, we went to the Library to return some books. We went to the kids section to let the boys play for a bit and, lucky us, they were doing "Make and Take" crafts! Timothy, not usually one to sit and do something like this, was really excited and started making his necklace! Out of nowhere he started calling it his "roller-coaster", so here he is wearing his roller-coaster! He loves it and even went to bed with it!
Oh Timothy, I love you! You are such fun!

That was pretty much updates on my kids... I guess I should share a bit about me and Robby!

Robby works hard everyday at UIS in Lindon! He is the best dad ever and a wonderful husband who helps me so much! I LOVE you Robby! He also keeps busy with is calling at church.

I keep busy with my kids and house and keep lazy with my tv and computer... I'm terrible, I know! I love my calling with the Bears in Cub Scouts! I live for our weekly playgroup and story time at the library, just so I can get out of the house and visit with adults!

We are looking at houses and hope to buy one! We have on offer in.. so we'll see how that goes!

Had a run in with the wall...

...nothing won.

The wall has a gouge,
my glasses are bent and scratched up,
half my eyebrow is missing,
and I have glue on my head.

Am I a Boy or a Girl? We're a little confused here at my house!

The other day Timothy came to me to show that he has put his sandals on all by himself! I was so proud and said, "wow Timothy, you are such a big boy."
T- "yeah, Timmy do it. Timmy big GIRL."
me- "no, Timmy is a BOY!"
T- "no, Timmy GIRL"
me- "Moms a girl, Timmys a BOY"
T- "NO, Timmys Timmy."
me- "Yes, you are Timmy!"

Later that week (after a few similar conversations)
T- "Timmy a Boy, Spencer a Boy."
me- "yes..."
T- "Yah, Daddy a Boy, Momma Boy"
Me- "moms a GIRL"
Robby- "I saw that coming!"

Yesterday,
T- "Momma, Timmy BOY! Spencer a Boy. Momma a GIRL!"
me- "thats RIGHT!"

I think he might be getting it!

Matchy, Matchy

I think it is really cute when moms dress their kids up in matching outfits! However, since I rarely buy clothes for my kids, it rarely happens! Here are those rare times!

Matching Christmas PJ's courtesy of my mom and dad! I love these pajamas... too bad they are too small now.

I was so excited to put this one together! I was going through a box of clothes my sister sent me and found a pair of black corduroy Sunday pants that fit Spencer and Timothy already had a pair of black corduroy Sunday pants, YAY! so... I immediately put them on both boys with their white shirts and was ready to take a picture when in walked Robby ready for church in his Black pants (not corduroy) and white shirt! So, Robby joined the group and I have my three HANDSOME boys all dressed in their Sunday best. Sadly I didn't take a picture after they all had their ties on... that would have been perfect!

A few weeks later I was getting the boys ready for Church again and pulled out their sweater vests! And as I was putting on Timothy's blue Sunday pants, I realized that Timothy had a tan sweater and blue pants, Spencer had a blue sweater... I went and found tan pants! Now they are super cute MIS-matchy, matchy!

I love my boys!

Garden Harvest!

We decided to try our hand at a garden this year (we finally had a spot to do it!) We were late starters as far as planting goes, so we just did tomatoes, cucumbers, and cantaloupe! A couple weeks ago, we got our first harvest!! YUMMY!

I love cucumbers! We waited for them to plump up really good, so they were a little yellow, but they taste GREAT!
This is how big they were... that's a 2-liter people!

Our First Tomato! I ate this one as a tomato sandwich... never want to do store bought tomatoes again.
look at its perfect shape!

No cantaloupe yet.

Living with a Two Year Old

The hazards

... uh hum...
BLESSINGS!

eeww toddler germs in my cereal
mmmm cocoa roos

broken baby carrier, possibility of tipping the stroller
jungle gym we don't have leave the house for

You are going to get soo dirty
"look what I found!" (hey he's happy)

You drew on his FACE?
Wow, free face painting

Broken toy bin
hmm, can I put you away up on the shelf?

toothpaste ALL OVER
MINTY FRESH FLOOR!

no hat for mom to wear
he can dress himself

"get it off mom"
hey, I always wondered what my girls would look like

broken infant toy
he's stuck, can't make a mess elsewhere

wet pants
who needs Mcdonalds, the bathtub makes a great ball pit

Applsauce everywhere
inventive and independent

"thats a clean table your drooling on"
He can sleep ANYWHERE (and he's out of the way)

more stuff in my filing cabinet to organize
a cool garage for his trucks

A big WET mess

less floor for mom to mop- What a Helper!

Regardless of what I have to deal with daily, I do love my two year old, TIMOTHY!