Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin carving

I love this picture. This is how Jackson has started posing for the camera lately. He puts both arms up and say "cheese".





On Saturday I took the kiddos to the little pumpkin patch in town. It is nothing spectacular by any means but they loved pushing around wheelbarrows and being pushed around in the wheelbarrows and pulled in the wagon, climbing on the haybales and climbing up over a small bridge there. They had lots of fun!
Then for FHE last night we carved pumpkins. Sydney especially loved to stick her hand inside and pull out a hand the handful of slimy seeds and tease her brothers with it. Layton wanted nothing to do with the slimy stuff,and Jackson would stick his hand in and poke at it with his finger but that is as close as it got. It was fun to see all their different reactions. But they all loved telling Dad what kind of eyes, nose, and mouth to carve and watch their pumpkin turn into a Jack'o'lantern. I just love Halloween!! I think there are just so many fun traditions that go on this time of year, and Halloween seems to just kick it all off!!

Flooded!!

Unfortunately this past week has been CRAZY!! WE woke up a week ago Thurdsay at 5 am with water running out from under our kitchen cabinet. The water covered our kitchen floor and half of the dining room floor,as well as soaked the carpet in the hallway and living room and part of the family room. Tyler grabbed our wet vac and started sucking up water and I ran to the store to rent a rug doctor to help. Tyler worked for a full hour and a half, then got ready to go to work. I used the rug doctor and sucked up water for the next 4-5 hours. Ty came home from work at lunch to help out and worked for a while longer until we couldn't get anything more up then we pulled up the carpet to get air under it hoping it would dry. Well it didn't. And our beautiful wood floor in our kitchen and dining room was destroyed. We realized this was too much for us and we would make a claim with our insurance co. and called the professional disaster clean up guys. By Friday evening our home was almost covered with 26 big industrial strenth fans and 4 dehumidifiers, blowing out 120 degree air. We realized there was no way the kiddos could sleep in the house. We then went and got a hotel, hoping it would only be for a couple of days. By Sunday we were still in a hotel and Tyler unfortunately had an air force optometry conference he was leaving for that afternoon and would not be back until Wednesday evening. Needless to say I was not thrilled to be dealing with this on my own, and all the hormones running through my system right now definatley did not help. On Monday morning I checked out of our hotel because they informed us when we checked in the had no rooms available on Monday or Tuesday. I hoped we would be able to stay in our home that night. However when they checked the moisture levels in the home they felt they would need to keep the equipment in the home for 3-5 more days!! I was devastated. Monday night after searching all over town we could not find vacancy in any hotel. By 7:30 after driving around for a while I realized we would just have to stay in our house. We pulled up to our house and I gathered all the kids in my bedroom since it was the only room with the door still on (they had to remove all the other doors to put fans and other equipment. So I though we could keep the door closed and try and keep the temperature a little lower since the thermometers in the rest of the house were reading 95 degrees. I opened the door that goes outside in my bedroom help cool it down for a while. By this time I was crying of course and Syd and Layton asked me what was wrong. I explained to them that it was hard with our dad, and I was worried about finding a place for us to sleep that night,and I was even more worried that all my worrying might not be good for the babies in my belly. Sydney looked at me with a smile and gigling said "That's a silly thing to worry about!" I love my kiddos!! That was exactly what I needed to hear and we all started to laugh! It helped me get a grip and realize how blessed we were. Tuesday we woke up after not greatest night of sleep,and did our best to get find breakfast in our torn up kitchen and make Sydney's lunch o take to school. Amazingly she made it to school on time. I had a Dr. appt that moring and was relieved to find everything okay,and surprised that my blood pressure had not sky rocketed under the stress. The doctor gave me an ultrasound and said we might be able to tell what the babies are. But I asked him not to tell me so I could wait and find out with Tyler. Tuesday night my wonderful, fabulous,lifeavor friend let us sleep in their house. It was so nice!!!! We all got great rest and enjoyed some deilcious muffins her hubby made for breakfast. Wednesday Tyler got home and they removed most of the equpiment from our home because it had dries faster than expected!! As the drama settled down I realized how blessed we really are. We have great friends who fed us great lunches and dinners and allowed us to come hang out in their homes while we were homeless. Thank you all so much!!

This last picture is that cause of all our drama. One of the canisters attached to our reverse osmosis water filter obviously got a huge crack in it. Water was continuously flowing out of it. The previous owner bought an extended 10 year warranty on the filter but when we asked about it they told us this was not covered under the warranty. Oh well!!!

Our weekend

On Saturday was the air show at our base. I guess this only comes every few years,so it was the thing to do in this litle town. All active duty military stationed here were required to work that day, and since Tyler was in the med group that included him. So he left 7am that morning and didn't get back until 6pm. Just in time to get ready to go to the Priesthood session of conference. We decided to go on base and check out some of the event Saturday morning and Tyler was able to be with us for a while of that. It was fun to see all the different planes. They had a B-2 there, it was guarded by guys holding machine guns. I guess there is still some of the mechanics inside are still top secret intelligence. Watching it fly around I can totally see where all these UFO sightings come from. It was fun for the kiddo to spend time with Dad. They all love being wiht Dad. That afternoon Sydney kept saying she wished it was Sunday so Dad could be home all day.




Then after Sunday conference we made homemade Taffy. I remember making it when I was a kid with my mom and thinking it was so much fun. I found a recipe for choclate Taffy online. It actually was pretty good. The kiddos called them tootsie rolls, they look and taste alot like them. It was fun they really like pulling the taffy for a while until their arms got tired, but I think they enjoyed eating some best!!




This last picture is not this past weekend but the Friday night before. Tyler had planned to take Sydney to a 'Princess Ball' a Daddy daughter date at the local childrens museum. Dad'sget to take their little "princesses" all dressed up for a night of dinner and dancing. How cute is that. However I did not realize I needed to buy the tickets in advance and it was sold out. So Sydney just put on a church dress and they just went out on the town together. I thought Sydney would be disappointed, but she was happy just to have a date with her Dad.

Poor Layton!!

SO I just had to post this, i thought it was so funny, and I was on the blog. I was upstairs on the computer and heard Layton crying in the bathroom so I went to check on him and he was on the toilet. I asked what was wrong and he said," I fell in the toilet."
I am such a nice mom,I'm laughing at his distress.