Someone's got to put it to good use.

Today, I woke up, rolled out of bed, walked in the kids room and saw this...
From getting everything out and set up, to finding my "FIRM" DVD, putting it in the DVD player and getting it started, rolling out the Yoga mat...Alexis did this all by herself. Apparently, she felt the need to get up and work out! I was dying laughing to say the least! After 10 minutes, she turned the TV off and said, "I'm done. That's hard." TELL ME ABOUT IT!

(Don't mind the the pile of clothes I found stuffed everywhere but where they belong and had pulled them all out yesterday. Mom, like I said...Alexis is nothing like me! I feel like I cloned me!)

Carving Pumpkin's & Scarecrow Cookies

We've lived here for 3 1/2 years now. And have been Home Taught...about twice. Sad, I know. I love when Home teachers come. It just sends such a great message to my kids. Why my rambling about Home Teacher's on a carving pumpkins post? We just got assigned new home teachers that moved into the ward recently. They came right away and with a message. I seriously can't express what that meant to me. When we got invited to a "Pumpkin Carving Contest" they threw I felt like they went above and beyond to get to know us. And when you really know your home teacher's your more likely to call them in the middle of the night if you need them.

There have been at least 10 new young couples that have moved into our ward over the last few months and I know none of them. I've really wanted to get to know them but just haven't had much opportunity. Remember, I'm in my own corner in primary. I was so excited to attend and get to know all these girls. The party was so much fun. And the pumpkins...well, see for yourself:

Pretty cool, huh?
Zooming in. How cool is the ET one. That was Tom & Kristy Haight's (the host's) pumpkin. Can you guess which one is ours? Here's a hint: Alexis picked it out.
I will gracefully give all the credit to my husband since he did all the carving. It turned out awesome despite my comments at her little head on a big dress when he shaved in her profile to far. Plus, he free handed her facial features because he had to improvise. Good job Chad. Just know that I would have still given you credit had you made her look really deformed. Carter liked sawing chunks of pumpkin off the lid. Alexis and Carter loved the swing and the attention from Emily. I made these fun cookies for the party. They are from Family Fun Magazine. Completely edible. Earlier in the week, I had plans to have my kids make these cookies for all the kids around their age in the apartment complex. But on whim, I had Alexis and Carter invite them all over to make their own. It was short but the kids liked it.

Caught!...cleaning a car?

One of the nice things about living in these apartments is that Alexis has best friends within 10 yards! They play all the time. Three's a crowd with these girls because Alexis and Sophie like to take charge. Hattie's up for whatever. So you can imagine how that turns out. Poor Hattie gets pulled between the two of them. They do have good times intermixed in the "Mom, she said..." and "Nuh UH" and "It's my turn" comments. I mean whines. But they really are getting better. I wish it was because Kristin and I try different things like sitting the three girls down to repeat rules after us but when their eyes wonder off like we are koo koo mother's I think they might just be outgrowing it! Anyhow, I caught them do this last Tuesday.


"Don't tell my Mom. It's a surprise. Her car is soooo dirty and she does not like to pay money to clean it. So we're doing it for her" says Sophie.

Star Part Puff Braids

I love doing my daughter's hair and this year I have been blog stalking this amazingly talented mom at She Does Hair. Holy cow. Her creations are amazing. Now that Alexis hair is getting longer I can finally start doing more things with it. So I'm going to start sharing pictures with you so I can get a collection of things I do to Alexis' hair on my blog.

I really like this. I actually did it before church, despite my husbands, "Amber, don't do something that takes forever..we'll be late!" groan. (We weren't late, hah!) This picture was taken Monday night before we went to the pumpkin patch. Just a few touch ups with hair spray. You can see what it looked like from the front in those pictures. It stayed in for 3 days! That's why taking the time to do their hair is so much fun. Take the time and you only have to do it every other day...or even every 3rd day! Click Here to see how to do this.
PS: Her newest posts give step by step tutorials on how to do every princess hair style in the book: Belle, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Jasmine...all of them. And they look so much like the real thing!

Pumpkin Patch

Every year we have gone to Pa's Pumpkin Patch in Long Beach.

Pony Rides: Always the first stop and FAVORITE!


What is it with kids and their obsession with riding in a flying elephant. Dumbo is always one of the longest rides at Disneyland and the kids are always begging to go on it. We just avoid walking right next to it when we know we are not in the mood for long lines.

The kids love seeing their pictures after they pose behind all the scenes!


Do I have to even say anything about this picture. MY FAVORITE! Alexis decided to give Carter a piggy back ride...and of course, I made them stop for a picture.


Doing a little dance on the hay stack! Seriously, they LOVE dancing. Even if there's no music.

A flare for the dramatic...

Alexis is nothing like me. HA! She's dramatic & likes attention. Just like Chad, right? Just, in case you needed proof...




We love her and all her drama. The last picture was a little fit involving kicking some hay because she was out of tickets and we decided not to buy our pumpkin there!

Mud Run

Yesterday, was the big day.Natalie, I told you I should have worn my hot pink underwear and black sports bra! Look how much better the girls behind me in the picture look! :) There's always next time!
The few days prior...there were a lot of changes. Thursday night, Amber's husband, decided not to do it since lots of family were going to be in town. So my friend, Natalie, said she wanted to do it. Then she got sick Friday night. So my wonderful husband took the extra ticket last minute so I wouldn't have to do it alone. (Big thanks to Natalie and Chad's parents for watching our kids and to Amber B. for the ticket.) For those of you who are out of state or unfamiliar with this event...I'll give you the play by play.


4000 people bottle neck in the beginning...so SPRINT. Luckily we started in the front so we didn't get trampled!


Hosed down by fire trucks with FREEZING cold water.

Run through river. Shoes are heavy!


Run through soft sand. (1/2 mile)

Run HILLS. Lots of them. TWO MILES worth of nasty steep dirt hills. Breathe in huge amounts of dusty dirt that gets kicked up. But wait...there's a drink station! Gatorade + dust in throat= flem! Note to self: water from now on!


Obstacles start. I smile! Marines yell at me for smiling! "You smiling...you shouldn't have energy to smile...work harder!"
Climb over 2 walls that dump you into 3 pig smelling mud pits. It smells...but it's so much fun sloshing in the nasty mud.

Swim or run in shoulder high freezing reservoir (200 yards). I enjoyed it making me numb so I couldn't feel the pain from the hills. It was my favorite part...I could run fast in the water and passed a lot of people. Giddy!


Crawl through tunnels. Run 3 more hills. Climb 2 more walls. 3 more mud pits. Run up the "suicide hill." A steep hill with water running down. SLIPPERY! Run another hill.


Crawl under ropes through final mud pit. Another favorite. Everyone was crawling. But I just let my feet float and basically walked with my hands. It was faster.


All the obstacles, started and ended with slippery mud mounds like this one. I did not ease over these. I ran over them and flew in the pits. That's probably why I'm in so much pain. Sprint final leg. I finished in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Which isn't too bad since the fastest girls finished around 1 hour. Chad did awesome, too. I'm so proud of him!

I hated the first 3 miles. I kept telling myself, "I'd rather do 3 sprint triathlons! In a row!" But...the last 3 miles were so incredibly fun. I am in so much pain now. My knees, quads & feet kill. But I am so doing it again. I just have to prepare for the hills a bit better! I'll probably wait till I have another kid to do it again. But when I do buy the tickets, I'll let you all know so you can join in on the fun!

"Mom, I know what I want to be when I grow up..."

(This is on the way home from church about 2 months ago)

"Oh yeah. What do you want to be when you grow up?" (thinking it must be something she learned in class)

"A ROCK STAR."

"Really? What does a rock star do?"

"Well, they sing like this...(pulling her fist up to her mouth like a microphone) and they go like this (shimmies her shoulders!)

That's Great! We haven't discussed much of it since that day.

Now onto YESTERDAY...Alexis had her neighbor friend, Hattie, over. They asked if I could move the curtains that are on a tension rod out from the window so they can have what looks more like a stage on the window seat. They have their microphones all ready. We only own two. That's when I notice Alexis has retrieved Chad's x-box live head set. (with earphones and a microphone that wraps in front to her mouth. She looks very professional. So as I'm moving the curtains the girls beg me to have a seat and watch their show.

I said, "I'll tell you what. You guys practice and I'll run out to the car and get my camera to video tape you."

I don't video tape them much so I decided this was as good of time as any...and boy was I right!

WATCH THIS! I promise this 30 second video is so worth your time! (mostly the last 15 seconds) You may need to turn up your volume.



So who do you think should break the news to her of rethinking the rock star future...me or Chad? Maybe this video is enough for her to make her own conclusion.

I only turned the camera off because I was about to pee my pants I was laughing so hard. This might even be funnier to me because I have a very similar home video of my sister's and I doing a show for my dad on our trampoline when we were little. It's still so entertaining to me.

Whoops!

I can't believe it. Every year Amber Baltzer and I have said..."Let's sign up for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run." And every year we miss the date to sign up because it sells out so fast. But this year, we remembered and bought tickets to the Fall Mud Run. After I bought the tickets I told Amber that I shouldn't have since I thought I would probably be pregnant by that time. No worries. I'd sell my ticket to someone to do it with her. Since March...I haven't even thought once about it.

Last night...I remembered when I was out with a friend. "Shoot. I signed up for the Mud Run and it's in a month and I haven't ran a mile since June. I'm dead." But really, I can easily work up to 3 miles in one month. I'm not pregnant like I thought I'd be. The one problem that neither of us saw coming. My friend has been trying to get pregnant for like 8 years. She's adopted two darling boys: Saxon (1 1/2) and Micah (almost 2 months)...but the craziest news of all was that she found out she was pregnant. After all these years and after everything she's been through to try and get pregnant. Obviously, things are done the Lord's way and Saxon and Micah were meant to be in her family. But now she can't run in the Mud Run. So her husbands going to run it instead. He will leave me in the dust on the first 100 yards.

It's okay. I can do this. I look up the exact time to see how much time I have to train...drum roll please...OCTOBER 18! Not one month away...TWO WEEKS away. And all my thanks to Amber who gave me the biggest shocker of all 5 minutes ago. It's a 10K, not a 5K. I am really dead. I seriously have to start running like twice a day. That pizza I just ate at Costco this afternoon is starting to make me want to puke! Literally, the thought of it all makes me want to puke!

Good Luck to me, eh? All the mind tricks I've tried to play on myself these past few weeks trying to tell myself it's time to start eating healthy and exercising...are now not on an "I'll do my best" status. Because we all know that doesn't work. Now it's changed to "URGENT: no excuses or you die in two weeks."