Lots

I have a lot to write about.

I better get started.

On November 14 we had the girl's cross country team from Central Point, Oregon (where we used to live) spend the night at our house along with a few boys and two parents.It was quite a crowd of energetic, noisy teenagers- but loads of fun! It was fun to see some of the kids we knew in Oregon. One of the boys had been my piano student. They had come to participate in a multi-state race in Boise.

They were freezing here in Idaho so Rob made them all some hot chocolate.

The following Wednesday Russell and I flew to Philadelphia to visit my twin sister Wendy in New Jersey.

Here is Russell in the airport.

When I arrived I noticed that Wendy and I were wearing the same color shirt! The night I arrived Wendy's ward had an Enrichment activity. She is in the presidency, and they do not have a coordinator or committee, so she needed to be there. So her husband picked me up and took me straight to the church. When I poked my head in the Relief Society Room everyone gasped, looked over at Wendy, and then back at me and then "twin...twin...twin..." was whispered around the room. What fun!

I went to see Wendy that particular week because their stake was putting on an Interfaith Choral performance and the Stake Music Chairman asked Wendy if she could just double herself so that she could both play the organ and sing. When Wendy smiled and said that she did have a twin who had been wanting to visit, the lady didn't believe her at first. So I received a formal invitation to visit both from Wendy and her stake music chairman. I couldn't refuse!

As a result- when I was there we HAD to go to the church and practice. I admit I was nervous. My mom had been talking up my organ skills to Wendy since I recently played a solo in my ward. I am sure she expected me to be better than I was.

Here I am after practicing the organ for a while. Wendy had been asked to perform a piano solo so I was watching the babies while she practiced. Wendy has three kids: Kenneth, 5, Shannon, 3, and Vanessa, almost 1.

I loved being in New Jersey with all of the trees!!! Wnedy kept laughing at me because I kept saying how beautiful it was. The trees had just recently lost their leaves so Wendy thought it was funny that I liked them so much. She kept saying- "You should have seen them two weeks ago...". I got to help her rake leaves which was very fun.

Here is Russ doing his little "shifty eye" thing. He would hold his head still but move his eyeballs back and forth. He liked the reaction he got from people- especially on the plane.

Russ, Kenneth and I.

Little Vanessa is only happy when her mommy is around. Whenever Wendy would walk into another room she would cry and cry. Every time. Shannon was like that too at her age, but Shannon would let me hold her. Not Vanessa. She wasn't fooled by the twin thing. Here she is one time when Wendy left the room for a second:

Vanessa did get fooled one time. Sunday, Wendy and I both had on black skirts and a solid top for the concert attire. We were both in the kitchen but then I stepped down the stairs to the family room. Vanessa started crying just as she would for Wendy. We both walked over to her and tried to tell her that her mommy was still there. She just looked back and forth between us for several seconds before finally deciding that Wendy was her mom after all!

Wendy and I had fun whipping together an organ/piano duet to play in her ward on Sunday. Wendy had a book of duets from our Grandma. Some of the arrangements were quite entertaining with their flowery, schmoltzy passages more popular a generation or two ago.

Russ and Vanessa were mostly indifferent towards each other, but here they are having a little fun together.

A happy girl when her mommy is near!

The concert was so neat. I am so glad I was able to attend. They had invited choirs from other churches. There was a Jewish choir, a Filipino choir, a University choir, and a Muslim reading from the Koran as well as their stake choir. At the end all the choirs combined to sing The Lord Bless You and Keep You by John Rutter. Wendy's husband Mike led the choir. She would have loved to do it as well, but he was asked and he did a great job. I was so impressed with the missionary minded approach. There was talk of doing it again next year at one of the other churches. I had such a fun time seeing Wendy and her beautiful home and wonderful family.

On my way home I had a four hour layover in Salt Lake City. So I called my sister Sarah and she came and got me and took me to lunch. Russ was able to sleep at her house for a good nap which he desperately needed. It was fun seeing her little guy Eli.

We couldn't get both of them looking at the camera at the same time!

The day after I got home, my parents, sister Heidi, and sister Sarah and her husband Jeremy and baby Eli came to my house for Thanksgiving. Rob was so sweet and had cleaned the house with the kids while I was gone so that really helped out.

Here are Russ and Eli, now at my house.

Wednesday Sarah and Heidi and I made six pies!! Yummm! Brenna and Grant wanted to help.

I put my mom in charge of the rolls for Thurday. She was fantastic! I put my dad in charge of the turkey complete with stuffing and gravy. ( he is really good at that!) Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of his masterpiece. I bought a 28 pound turkey and it was delicious!

Sarah, Jeremy and Eli.

Eli and Russ on the couch.

Hands in the mouth- I love it!

At one point we took several pictures of everyone. Then Grant started crying and crying. I went to see what was wrong and he had just wanted someone to take a picture of him. So, I obliged.

We borrowed Rob's sister Kristy's high chair. They look like twins!

The feast! We put our two small table together to make a large square table. It worked.

The food was so good I had to take a picture of everything. On the left we have Spinach Gratin, then the turkey, raspberry and apricot jams, and the most delicious sweet potatoes ever.

Yummy- green beans, green salad, mashed potatoes, and fruit salad, also homemade cranberry sauce.

My dad taking a deserved rest after dinner.

Rob feeling that turkey!

Pie time! Grant had been asking me for two days if he could have some pie. So around bedtime, even though I still felt so full, I brought the pies out so he could have some. Of course, he didn't even like them.

We have from the left: blackberry, raspberry cream, pumpkin, apple crumb, pecan and another pumpkin.

My dad with Seth and Grant.

Sunday my parents flew out before church, but Sarah and Heidi were not leaving until after Sacrament meeting. I had asked them to sing with me in church. Heidi was not feeling well, however, so she decided to accompany Sarah and I. It was so fun to sing with her. We sang O Divine Redeemer. Here we are practicing and holding the babies. Heidi di a great job at the piano despite not feeling well.

Monday night we finally got our Christmas tree!! We are ready for the Christmas season! I have been excited to decorate this year in our new house! Last year we moved in the middle of December. That combined with a new baby meant no real decorating last year. I tried to rein myself in and not spend too much. I put some tinsel on the stairs. I used some of the tree boughs that Rob cut from the bottom of the tree to put on the mantle with some lights. Then I just hung the stockings from the branches with ornament hooks- it worked really well and I love how it looks! Now I just need to get busy and Make Russell's stocking!

I should have cleaned around the tree before taking this picture- oops. Do you see the ribbon on the floor? Russ pulled that off the tree. Luckily it was a separate piece than the rest of the ribbon on the tree. Maybe I should just leave it off of the bottom :)


This morning Seth and Brenna played together for the first time one of the piano duets I am having them learn for Christmas. They did a great job. I was so excited! I gave Brenna a hug and told her that I have been waiting for her to grow up and be able to play a duet with Seth.
I know I always enjoyed playing duets with my sister. Aren't they cute?

That is it for this post. I have an adorable video of Russ walking but I will post it another day. I figure that if you are still reading this long post, you need a break.

Thanks for reading!

First Birthday

Hello friends and family. It was my first birthday on Friday. It is hard to believe that I have gone from this:

to this in just one year.
I wasn't feeling very good on my birthday. I was very tired and just wanted to go to bed when my mom gave me this cake.
In fact, I poked my finger in it a couple times but that is about it. My aunt Kristy tried to put some bites in my mouth but I did not want anything to do with it. I am feeling much better now, though, so I bet if you tried it again I would devour it! Please, mom, will you give me some more cake?
I was really interested in my presents. (I am interested in everything.)
I didn't get too much opportunity to play with them, though, because my siblings and cousins rushed in and took over.

My brother Grant, after some prodding, did send the moveable truck toy back towards me.
But it moved really fast and I was scared of it and started crying.
I am glad everyone had fun at my birthday party because to me it was noisy and stressful and I just wanted to go to bed. I am feeling much better now, though.

Halloween

What fun! I am sure no one wants to think about Halloween (I mean, it was sooo last week). But, I am slow to blog, so here we go. First off, a picture with our friends from Oregon. They called one Sunday and said they were nearby for a baby blessing and they wanted to stop in. It was so fun seeing them again! They had a new addition I had not known about! Three boys and a girl- we seem to know a lot of people with that ratio of kids. Thanks for visiting us, Johnsons! It seemed to me our Halloween festivities lasted a week. First off we planned on going to the pumpkin patch for Family Night on Monday. As soon as we got out of the car -coats and hats on and baby in the stroller- a huge rainstorm hit with extreme wind. Wind combined with dirt and straw is not too fun, so we quickly piled right back in the car and went home. Good thing we grew our own pumpkins this year.

Friday the kids did not have school so we had a Halloween party for Seth and Brenna and their friends. Between friends from last year, friends from this school, friends from church and cousins we ended up with quite the crowd. We all had a good time, though. Here is a peek at the partiers. We had lots of activities during the party. One of them was dancing/moving to some of the songs from the WEE Sing for Halloween CD. (That is a great CD!)
Grant was a bit overwhelmed throughout the party and wouldn't participate in the games. He just stood there looking like this:
Another game was the mummy wrap...

The cutest cowbaby ever (Russ sporting one of the kid's hats) A finished mummy! Seth is on the left, then his friends Tyson and Julianna.
Brenna wasn't too happy about being the mummy for her group, but she got over it. From the left there is Brenna's cousin Emma, Brenna, friends Ainsley and Avery.
Another game was pumpkin bowling. This was a hit. Brenna is reacting after bowling a spike. (What will we do when we get furniture in that room?)
We also decorated cupcakes and cookies. That night after the party we carved pumpkins with Kristy and her kids. Rob was the hero and hollowed out most of the pumpkins.
Seth requested the biggest pumpkin we grew for his jack-o-lantern.
Grant became very attached to his.
Brenna carved hearts and butterflies on the side of hers. (I don't think they are visible in the photo.)
From the left: Andrew, Seth, Mathew, Jonah, Kamryn, Grant
Brenna, Emma and Kamryn.
I decorated these leftover party cookies for the Halloween recital at our house the next morning. Besides Seth and Brenna I now have two other students. Kristy and I both had our students participate in the recital at my house Saturday morning. A larger crowd than we expected showed up so unfortunately some people had to stand. I felt bad, but at least it wasn't too long. This was Brenna's first recital and she did great!

Trick-or-treat! Halloween night we decided to go to our old neighborhood for trick-or-treating.

Russ was a cute Tiger. Brenna was a cat.

Seth was a pirate and Grant Buzz Lightyear.



I thought this was so cute. Brenna was outside waiting to go and Russ was peering at her through the window. He was giggling and squealing with delight.

Russ turns one on Friday!!! He is starting to walk a little. He really enjoys walking from Rob to me and back. He does not attempt walking other than that. He was doing really well Sunday until we got out the camera. Then he just wanted to crawl because he wanted to get it and that is his fastest mode of travel. I finally got him to take a few steps on camera. So here is a short video of the Russ-man taking his first few steps.

I hope you all had a great Halloween.

Our ward did a costume exchange for Halloween. For people like me that don't sew costumes, this was a blessing! I borrowed this darling Buzz Lightyear costume for Grant. He likes it!
Rob has (almost) finished the bunk beds. Remember that post a year ago about them? Well, they are now sanded, stained, and moved in to the house. (Rob just had to take them apart a little.) They are very fun and the boys love them! They look great- good job Rob!

I think I may have included this picture on the last post, but it is the latest I could find of Russ with his hair. Rob finally cut his hair (it is very difficult to cut a baby's hair- they don't hold still) and I didn't get a "before" photo- this will have to do. At first I wasn't sure I liked his hair cut- he looked so different!

He is still pretty cute, though. His hair was starting to look like a shaggy teenage boy's. Now it is nice and trim.

Last Thursday we went to see my cousin's volleyball game. She plays for Utah State and they were playing Boise State. I brought the camera and got pictures of us during the game, but unfortunately forgot to get a picture of Katie. She is such a sweet girl. It was great seeing her and taking her out for ice cream.

I have been really bad at taking pictures lately. I bring my camera and then I don't take any pictures. For instance, last weekend my mom came to visit and I didn't take one picture. I am lame. Of course, I was quite sick so I guess I sort of have an excuse. We had so much fun with my mom and she waited on me all day long. Thanks for coming mom!

Redneck Baseball

What's that? You don't know how to play?

Well, let me explain, since we are now experts.

Redneck baseball is played in the fall, after harvest is over, and you need to clean up your garden. You get your whole family out pulling up the now-dead plants. Your husband even grabs a shovel because, honestly, those tomato vines can be stubborn. As you work, you come across hidden squash that did not get picked because they were unseen in the jungle of weeds or they just didn't get picked because no one wanted to eat them. Your husband (because he is a boy, after all) realizes that he is holding a long stick-like thing (the shovel) and decides that it should really connect with the old squash (I mean, come on, it's the only manly thing to do) and commences to swing the shovel like a baseball bat and connects with the squash. You can imagine what comes next.

Splatter.

The squash is squashed.

Uncontrollable giggling from all bystanders.

Repeat.

Eventually he finds a stake that is much lighter to swing than a shovel, and I start "pitching". Squash, tomatoes, you name it. Then he insists that I take a turn because he figures that if he can get ME to participate, then it is not so rediculous. What the heck, I take a turn.

And that is how redneck baseball was played at our house this week.

Leave it to my hubby to turn a chore into a game.

You know what? I have a feeling we will be playing it again next year.

I apologize to any cars that were driving on the road behind our fence that got tomato juice sprayed on their car. Sorry about that.

Rob and Russ relaxing after a long days work.


Saturday Rob taught Brenna how to ride her bike without training wheels. Actually, she didn't need much help. She pretty much did it fine the first time. She did need a lot of encouragement, though. I guess I forgot to take still photos, I just took video. So here is a video (1:10) of Brenna riding her bike and it gives a nice little tour of our street as well. Sorry if it is a little choppy- I had to keep up with her. I also don't know if we say anything embarassing because our speakers aren't working, so let me know, all right?

'Till later...

Catching Up

Sooooo,

My camera was lost and then it was out of batteries and then I was out of town sooooo

Here is some catching up...

I actually don't remember taking these pictures- but they are cute!

The kids and I did the Harvest Classic Run. It is 1 mile. Rob and Seth did it last year, but this year Rob worked that Saturday.I was planning on pushing Grant and Russ in our bike stroller so I could run it, but I ended up not arriving in time to put it together, so I had to walk behind the other kids with Grant.

Isn't that an awesome porta-potty?

Brenna and Seth are playing soccer this year. At first we thought we should not have put Brenna in because she seemed to have no interest in it. But, as the season has gone on she has improved greatly.

Seth has also improved a lot. He is on a great team with a great coach. He is not afraid to go after the ball.

Seth and Rob-Rob is assistant coach for Seth's team and head coach for Brenna's. Sorry about the poor quality pictures- it is hard to take pictures when two munchkins are wiggling around on my lap, and the target of the pictures keep moving :)

Last week we went to Idaho Falls for Rob's dad's 60th birthday party. It was a surprise and a successful one at that. I don't have any pictures because while I packed the camera and the batteries, I forgot to bring both in to the party. But Rob took some on his phone, which is the same as not having any because I never get them off of his phone. Rob- maybe you can post some pictures okay??

I hope this fall season finds all of you well and happy!

Hard Work

That's what's been going on around here lately.

Rob's parents visited for part of the weekend. Rob's dad offered to help Rob put in our backyard sprinkler system. That is an offer you can't refuse, so we took him up on it. Rob and Dave worked all day Friday and Saturday on it (they stopped in time to watch the BYU game- go Cougs!!) They just about got it done. We are so thankful for them!

We also had some help from our bishop's 14 year old son Braden. He was a good worker.


Grant had a blast out digging in the dirt with his dad.

We all had dinner together Friday night. Kristy made these scrumptious fresh peach pies.

The wonderful chef herself...

Our garden has been producing like crazy. I spent all day Saturday just picking it and then dealing with the produce. Everything has grown like weeds. Our carrots are giant, and delicious.

I picked a refrigerator drawer plus some full of green beans on Friday. Luckily, my mother-in-law was in town and pressure cooked them for me. How nice!! I got 14 quarts.

We had so many tomatoes that I made salsa again on Monday. The whole family pitched in to help.

My new haircut! My mother-in-law watched Grant and Russ for me while I got my haircut and when I came home Grant said to her "Oh, there's Heidi." (my sister who has hair sort of like that)

I am having so much fun home each day with my two little boys. Grant is such a sweetheart and stays right by me all day and asks me questions. Russ is getting in to everything. Grant is very good at picking things off the floor that Russ shouldn't get (like piano books.)

Here are some cute pictures of Russ. He was standing under his high chair eating crumbs today.

Russ can often be found trying to reach the keyboard of the computer. He is also often seen in the same pose reaching up to play the piano keys.


My cute little Grant.


I hope everyone else is having a wonderful fall.