Late Fall or Early Winter?

I'm having a hard time deciding if it's winter or still fall.  The snow is almost all melted, so that's something, but the weather still feels pretty chilly to me.  We also have turkey's in the windows...so maybe it is fall still.

Ben's hand above, Isaac's hand below.

These boys sure had a riot playing in all the snow.  They tried clearing off the back porch with their sand shovels and sand buckets.  At least until they pulled their gloves off.  Then it wasn't so fun anymore.  It was pretty cold after all.

I saw online people making candied cranberries.  I do love cranberries.  So I figured I'd give them a try.  The boys loved helping and coating the cranberries in sugar.  

The candied cranberries were beautiful.  Such a fun deep red with sparkling sugar crystals.  They were pretty good too.  I don't know if I'd make them again, but they were interesting.

The other day I let the boys build with marshmallows and toothpicks.  They thought that was awesome.  Isaac made a rather clever hot air balloon.

Ben mostly just at a bunch of marshmallows.  I guess he also built a little bit.

We recently bought a new freezer.  The boys also recently got a new house.  It has been well loved.  I've played with Ben in there.  He drove me to costco for grapes and boots (neither of which we've ever actually bought at costco.  But I'm glad he knows we love costco.), to the Temple, and to the park.  Over and over and over.  It was adorable.

We also tried to have a movie night the other day.  Isaac still doesn't do well with movies.  He gets too scared at any conflict or suspense.  The sharks in finding Nemo proved to be too much.  Jacob and I had even talked to him about the movie and assured him it all turns out okay in the end but he just can't watch.  We turned it off about 30 minutes into it.  Poor boy.  He really wants to watch them and tries so hard to be brave.  It was a fun night just the same.  We ate candy and popped popcorn.  The boys loved it.

Released and Called

I was released today from my calling as a counselor in the Relief Society presidency.  I'm a little sad. I have loved serving with Carol (the President), Jeni (the other counselor) and Linda (secretary).  Carol's husband was called into the bishopric three weeks ago so we knew our release would be coming soon, and I was okay with it.  We've been serving almost 3 years and were getting into a good groove so I'm sure it was time to be moving on anyway.  Isn't that how it goes, just as you get the hang of something it's on to some new challenge?  And I really am glad to be released but I just can't help feeling a little sadness at not being in close association with those good women any more.  They have helped me to be better in so many ways.  Hopefully I can carry those lessons with me as I move on to primary.

I was called to teach in primary.  I'm a little sad about that right now too.  I don't want to be done in Relief Society all together.  But I'm also sure I'll grow to love primary.  It's all new to me.  I think I'm much more at home serving in Relief Society.  It will be a stretch for me.  And I'm really sad I won't see the new Presidency working together.  The new presidency is full of really good women.  Women I have admired and I know I will miss learning from them in our Sunday meetings.

So, there you go.  Just needed to vent it all somewhere for a minute.

Winter Has Arrived!

We welcomed winter this week.  It was a pretty sudden and drastic temperature drop.  Sunday's high was in the upper 60s.  Monday's afternoon temps were in the 30s.  And it's getting colder.  

So basically we've gone from spending some afternoon time riding bikes and enjoying jacket weather to bundling up in all our winter gear for about 5 minutes of freezing play outside.

Isaac looks good on his new bike, right?

We celebrated the first real snow of the year with "snow on the mountain" cookies.  That's what Jacob's family calls them.  They are the chocolate cookies rolled in powdered sugar.  A yummy way to welcome winter.

And at the first flurries on Monday the boys got all bundled up and spent some time in the "snow."

Then they spent more time in teh actual accumulation Tuesday.  I love the snow and so do these boys.

This is Halloween...

We had a really fun Halloween this year.  The whole family dressed up.  We've never done that.  But when I asked Isaac what he wanted to be this year and he said "R2D2" the vision was born.  

We had the cutes little Yoda anyone ever saw.

And a pretty rockin' R2D2.

We also decorated some pumpkins.  Ben painted his.  He kept eating the paint.  What is that all about?  He hasn't died yet so he must not have ingested too much.  :)

This was Isaac's face when we told him we wanted him to pull the guts out of the pumpkin.  He was not terribly thrilled with that idea.

Look at that face!  He came around to it.  He did a pretty good job cleaning it out but I did have to help some.

He and Jacob both stick their tongues out while intently working on something.  Funny.

Also funny, Jacob saw online using beaters in a drill to clean out your pumpkin.  He said it worked okay.  I opted for the old fashioned way on my pumpkin.

And here we are in all our Star Wars glory.  Pretty good, eh?  My mom helped with all the costumes so I owe her a big thanks.  She helped me figure out the Leia dress and altering the shirt for Han Solo.

On Halloween Isaac and I made green slime, thanks to Birthday kits from Aunt Sarah.

And these pictures are primarily for Shannon.  I told he what I was making for dinner and she said I should take some pictures so I did.  I made string cheese fingers, apple monster mouths.

Spider and mummy cookies.

And 7 layer spider web dip.

And of course there was trick or treating.  Man did these boys love that.  I kept asking if they thought they had enough candy.  At one point Isaac said "Yes, I have enough candy but I'm not ready to be done."  We went with some friends in the ward and they weren't done either.  So we took Ben home and did a little bit more.

Jacob stayed home and lit up our pumpkin tree and passed out candy.  I do love me some Halloween!  Now we are just eating way too much candy at this house...we bought way too much!

Shout Hooray!

Isaac had a birthday, shout hooray!  He is totally pleased to be 4.  He keeps saying "I'm a big 4-year old."  And he is.  I think (though I've said it before) we have really turned the corner on potty training.  He can ride a bike without training wheels.  He is starting to read and write.  He is still as curious about all things as ever and asks a million questions a day.  He also seems to retain a lot of knowledge.  He loves primary and our little home "preschool."  He wants to be able to climb trees and do monkey bars and tries his darnedest at both things.  He is mostly kind with Ben and I love watching him include him in his imaginative play.  They had a tea party (but with pretend hot cocoa because "we don't drink tea") this morning and a sleep over in the living room.  He is funny and loves to tell jokes.  Isaac really is a ball of energy and we sure love him!

A few days before his birthday we took a few photos.

He can't sit still for pictures these days.  He always has something in his mouth or he's dancing.

Even standing he's still reaching for a ball behind him.  Silly boy!

And then on his actual birthday we had the traditional "birthday snake."  He loved all the little trinkets he gathered throughout the day.

He asked for a cake that had trains and cars and airplanes and sugar things like Matt's.  He remembered me decorating a cake while his cousin Matt was visiting and has wanted his to be just like that ever since.  I convinced him that we should only aim for one vehicle and then we could do the sugar candies too.  He settled on a plane.  I think this cake is so ugly...but he loved it.  I tried writing the words on top while the airplane hardened in the freezer.  I thought I had the size of the plane accurate in my mind...guess not.  Oh well.  It was still a hit.

He opened gifts and cards from family.

He loved the remote control car from his Carter grandparents and the sleeping bag from his Brunson grandparents.  He also loves the bigger bike we bought for him.  Somehow the pictures I took of the bike didn't get uploaded...oh well. 

A little singing and a little cake and ice cream and that made for a pretty perfect day for this "big 4 year old boy!"