November

Well November was a full and busy month for us. We had tons of family expected for Thanksgiving and while weightlifting one day out on our back patio that takes up the whole back of our house. It measures 12' x 70' approximately. I had some Divine inspiration. I was inspired that we could use our existing patio roof and concrete pad and have Will add on to our house 2 new rooms off the North end of our patio. Well Will took this idea and ran with it and in 2 weeks time we had a couple new much needed rooms added to our house. THANK YOU!!! to all the family members who put in time helping us accomplished this amazing goal. Now our little girl has a room of her own and the 4 boys at home have more room in the rooms they share. It also make our Thanksgiving much funner. With this additional space.

My Halloween Project

This was my huge project for Halloween this year. Little did I know that making these costumes would take so much time. All in all it was a really fun project though and it reminded me how much I love to sew. In fact I also made Ashton a grim reaper costume and Allyssa some cute pajama pants.

Halloween

Every year we have a tradition to carve pumpkins for Halloween. Over the years we have pushed it off to the Monday before. Here in Pahrump we have had to wait as long as possible because pumpkins just don't do well in this warm weather. It's interesting watching what happens. This year they were drying out and not really molding. We tossed them in the trash before the weeks end. Anyways here is a picture of them 2 days after carving, remember its dark but.....going from left to right is Ashtons (a bat) Allyssa's (a cat) Travis's (scary face) After the first day Travis's was starting to look like a old man, lol his face was shrinking in and we had some great laughs about it. This year Jordan and Justin decided to not do one. I guess they are to big to carve pumpkins.

A giving Heart

Allyssa has been blessed with an abundance of bikes. Three to be exact. About a month ago she was given her third bike and I felt she didn't need 3 bikes. So I suggested she give one of her bikes to Ellie. She was determined that all 3 bikes remain hers, so I just left it at that. Then this last Sunday my little girl determined that Ellie would love one of her bikes. As we were getting ready to go to the car Allyssa was wheeling one of her bikes to the car to give to her cousin. I was so happy to see that she came to that decision all on her own. I could have made her give one of her bikes away or I could have just given it away without her knowing. But enstead she came to that idea on her own and I am so pleased she did. For she was the one that got to see the big smile on her cousins face when she brought it in the house to give to her. Now that is priceless the lesson she learned. We all grow up sometime.

Fall is coming

I am so excited fall is coming. The weather here is cooling down. Fall is my most favorite season living here in Pahrump. It was Spring when I lived in Washington I loved the blooming of the Rhodies and the dogwoods and all those beautiful trees. You knew when it was Spring. Here I have no idea when its Spring except for the obvious months that it usually comes in. But Fall is a season here that you can experience, the tempature cools down below 100+ and you can go outside for walks, runs or bike rides. So here is to Fall! I hope you all are enjoying fall as much as I am.

Another Picture of my Talented son

its says Guaranteed to keep the girls away from your hotness!

The below picture....

For those of you that don't know....This picture of hands is mine and Wills taken by my most talented son Kevin, he also added the text to it. I do have bragging rights, right? He is the most talented kid with web design and photography. To see more of his work go to www.kevingent.com

I am adding the picture again so you can see the text which says Never Let Go Its not who is right... Its what is right.....

Allyssa on her first Day of School

Yes I know this is late but I am at least making the effort to post, lol.

Doesn't she look cute!!! Thank you Kathryn for sending me the pictures. =)

Life has been going and going and going.........

Okay so its been some time since I have updated my blog and a lot has happened……Will and I had a chance to go away overnight to see Brian Wilson in concert at Buffalo Bills Hotel and Casino in Prim, NV. Which is not to far from home but far enough. We enjoyed a Chinese buffet, checked into our room and then came the concert. Wow the volume was loud, I guess I am getting old because that was one of the first things I noticed going to our assigned seats. He is I think the lead singer for the beach boys. We got the benefit of hearing lots of the great Beach Boys songs and then we heard his latest album. It was a truly fun experience.

We had a great visit from Debbie Jay and their girls.......and as always they spoiled us with great food (Jay bought fish to share with me)

David Fatima and their girls honored us with a visit also this past week….. Their girls are growing up so fast and are such beauties. David performed his doctoring skill on our son Travis. He has had this terrible wart just under the tip of his nose and if you didn’t know that was what it was you would have felt he needed to wipe his nose. Needless to say we have been trying to get rid of it on our own with no luck. So when we found out that David was coming we asked for his aid. He did a wonderful job and after he was finished Travis Thanked David by looking him in the eyes and saying Thank you so much Uncle David! I know it has probably been a difficult thing to deal with. SO THANK YOU DAVID!

And Allyssa has been going to preschool starting at the beginning of this Month. She really enjoys all that she is learning and being a big girl going to school. Her Aunt Kathryn has been her teacher this month and her Aunt Ruth has been her helper so that has made going to school even more fun because her cousins are there.

I guess that is it til next time.................

School, Soccer and Crosscountry

Well the school year has started. To my utter delight! Its so funny I look forward to school ending because I want freedom from a routine. Then I look forward to having it begin again for the exact opposite, I need the routine LOL. The house is always chaotic for me during the summer, even with all the helpers in keeping it organized. When they are in school its organized and runs smoothly. You would think I would get it, "routines are great!" But I always need the break. When I say smoothly I don't mean not busy its the opposite now more then ever since I decided to have Allyssa, Travis and Ashton play soccer, but with a routine of course its smoother. The house is usually clean by 10 am and I have all this free time to do my most favorite past time World of Warcraft. Allyssa and I have the home to ourselves, Will works in his corner of the house and we hardly hear from him til feeding time. She quietly plays with her various activities (barbies, tea party, making art work, PBS) and I leave this world to another. In my other world I am a mighty Paladin saving the Alliance from all its various monsters. But enough of WOW. I could bore you with how fun it is.
Soccer: We had our first games of the season last night starting with Travis. His game was enjoyable to watch he was a little clumsy out there at first but as the game progressed I saw him get over his shyness of his role and get aggressive and actually kick the ball. His team didn't come away the victors but they came away more prepared for the next game (which happens to be tonight). Then Allyssa and Ashton had a double booking, and since I have seen Ashton play before, Will and I opted to watch Allyssa play her game for a bit and then I left to watch our son Ashton kick it up in the field. He has such exuberance he ran to me during his first break and said "Hi Mom, I am number 6". Me and the other parents laughed, as if I needed verification of which one he was out there on the field. Then he got assigned a spot close to my side of the field and he waved "Hi Mom I am number 6". I guess he was concerned that I would not know who he was out there in that uniform that matched all the others?
Allyssa was the cutest little ball kicker, she was so excited to have the ball and just kicked right past the goal going side to side on the field neither up or down. During practice I was not sure she was getting it, she was clumsy with drippling the ball on the field and seemed bored with her various practice routines. But I guess some of it stuck because she had no trouble performing in a real game.
Then to top it all off Justin is doing Cross country, this adds to my time in the car taking kids to various activities. Justin has had 3 meets so far and seems to be very content with his coach, which happens to be Ashtons coach also. And if he coaches Justin like he coaches Ashtons soccer team he has a very encouraging and positive coach.
This year Justin is in 9th grade and so he also started seminary. He was very excited to begin seminary too. Justin has really developed a love for the gospel and seems to hunger for more of it because during his free time here at home (he has very little of it) he finds talks on the Internet from various speakers he had at Education Week and listens to them. He and Will have long conversations over the various gospel topics he is learning. It pleases me as his mom to see him heading in that direction without me pushing him that way.
Jordan is bored with his chosen lack of school (High School Graduation behind him) and unemployed state. He has put his application out there, don't get me wrong but at this point he doesn't have a job. I hope he gets one soon, he really needs something to move him in the Adult world he so wanted to enter. This summer he had a eye opening experience with sales trying to sell security systems for a company of a friends in Kansas City, Missouri. He found that he really did not enjoy that type of work and really missed his family (this was at the age of 17 mind you) so he left early and came home and plans on taking some Internet courses on writing, he has wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember his when I grow up goal.
I guess that sums it up as to what is going on now in "my simple life".

Locks can be a serious distraction

Travis needed a lock for his bike so he could ride it to the bus. Never did I know what kind of genius I had (hes 10). After purchasing his lock his whole focus was on how to change the combination of the lock. So we figured it out after soccer and scouts for the day. I explained to Travis that he would need to remember any combination he set it to. That evening after we had all gotten into our beds Ashton comes running into my room announcing "Travis can't figure out his combination to his bike lock". After hearing this I knew that soon would come into my room a pretty upset Travis. As predicted I could hear a very sad young man coming towards my room to announce his predicament. I was a prepared mom though and gave him the best advice I could think of and that was "try all the number combos that were as close to the one you had it set to before you messed it up" and of course "Say a Prayer". The following morning the lock remained locked. So a very disappointed Travis went to the bus stop without his bike. The only thing I could say to him was that maybe he would be hit by a car today so Heavenly Father didn't answer his prayers to figure it out before leaving for the bus. Then amazing of all things Travis comes home and announces after school today "I found out the combination to my lock" I was impressed apparently he had a friend tell him that it would be a simple thing to figure out all he had to do was try all the possible combinations from 1-9999 and he could do that within a couple of hours. Travis told me "It only took me a bus ride and a couple of recesses". Little to say I was a very impressed mom. I guess all you need is a little determination!

Joining the ranks

I decided that if Aunt Linda had a blog maybe its not just for the young moms out there. So I am joining the ranks. From time to time I will try to think up something that is going on in my simple life. Thinking ??????????