What's Been Cooking, Good Looking?!

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The Mother invited Marcie and I to a Saturday day date to the Christmas Idea House! This was my very first experience with the Idea House so I was excited to go.

We charted the Greyhound bus (full of the Red Hat Society gals) that drove us to the Las Sendas house chosen for this years boutique. Funny thing was that Casey had been pouring concrete right next door the whole week before. He said it better be good because they have been hauling in a ton of stuff for days. I was happy with my purchase...homemade cinnamon rolls made on site.

I told Marcie the Desert Club is going to beg me to use my home for next year;)

 
For FHE we took the boys to see the lights at the Temple. First we went to dinner at LJ's. Rusty boy has unfortunately learned what the good stuff is. I only say that because he is now MESSY when he eats. He has a deafening scream if you don't offer up what's on your plate. He can straight up eat a whole ice cream cone. He polished off a whole drumstick at my parents the other week. No joke... the thighs don't lie!

I recently received a new church calling after serving in the primary for 4 years. I am now in the Relief Society presidency. NOT president, 2nd counselor. This past week was a little bit of a doozy. I managed to make it through my first lesson on Sunday then be in charge of our Christmas progressive dinner on Tuesday night. I had a blast doing it but the combination of doing both at the same time were not good for my nerves! Wednesday morning I'm pretty sure I layed in the La-Z boy chair half asleep with the boys running a muck until about 11 in the morning.

I am so excited about this new change for me and to get to know the sisters in my ward a little better. I put together these  ornaments for them to take home for their Christmas tree.

The weather has been A-MAZING. We like to play in the backyard and eat our CUTIE oranges. (aren't those things heaven to peel)!

Who's got a beard that's long and white? Santa has a beard that's long and white! Who's got a laugh that says HO HO HO? Santa has a laugh that says  HO HO HO! Must be Santa, Santa Clause!

Bass Pro Shop has free Santa pictures.

 However, if you go on a busy weekend say at 6pm, you may get in line and start waiting your turn. A worker might start to announce that you now need passes to see Santa. You may say, ok give me a pass but they might say, well I don't have any more. Come back at 8 when we close and you may get to see Santa.

You might start to say, I looked online at your website before hand to see all rules and regs about this whole free Santa business and nothing on there stated you need to get a pass. Friendly worker may reply, well we don't have it advertised because we don't know what days we will do passes, sorry. You may say sorry my rear and start walking over to customer service because you may have a kid now crying because he can't see Santa due to no pass rule.

You might explain so called situation to 3 different employees (who are very nice, and so yourself:) until they apologize repeatedly and move you to first in line to see Santa! Moral of the story, CALL BEFORE GOING!

Rusty Boy is 1!

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Wednesday was a bittersweet day for me. My little baby turned one.
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As I was driving to the gym Tuesday night I passed Banner Gateway. I had mixed emotions as I drove by. Part of me wished I was back at the hospital with a tiny newborn in my arms. The other part was happy I wasn't driving there at midnight in labor and walking the halls till 4 in the morning like last year!
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We celebrated low key. Like really low key. Poor daddy had to work late plus Thanksgiving was the next day so we kept it mellow by visiting Grandparents with an offering of cupcakes:) Rusty enjoyed all his wonderful presents and the cake he got to eat. The candle was the best part. Once it got lit his face got very serious trying to figure out what the heck that thing was.
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This last picture is my favorite. I was taking the cake away because I was done with pictures and boy did he not like that!
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If I knew I was going to have kids that turn out like Rusteeze I would have 10 hands down. Ok, maybe not 10 but I wouldn't hesitate to have a lot.
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He is the most social, easy going kid ever! He will cruise around the cultural hall at church until somebody picks him up. He will chill with that family for a bit then get down and roam until the next family adopts him for another 10 minutes. He could care less who is holding him. I could drop him off at a total random strangers house and he wouldn't mind a bit.
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He has an unconditional love for flip flops. If you have them, he will find them. He loves to pop up and suck on the round plastic thing that holds the straps together on the bottom. It's really gross. We had to make a rule for Lane that he can't leave is sandals on the floor because Rusty will go to town on them.
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The little man is officially a walker! It is stinkin cute. He has a bad waddle with the biggest bow legs and raises both hands in the air. I don't know how he's doing it? He can say the usual momma, dadadada, hot, ouch and yuck (my favorite).
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Rusty, you put a smile on my face every day! We just love you to pieces. Happy Birthday!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Laners!

Our big boy turned 4 yesterday! Birthdays are so exciting for Lane. Whenever he hears of anybody having a birthday he makes sure that they have a birthday cake and candles to blow out. Needless to say  he was counting down the hours until his big day. Actually he would constantly ask "mom, is my birthday today"? Hallelujah I could finally say yes!

His day started by going to pre-school in the morning. He came home in an extra good mood and wearing a birthday crown with the number 4 all over it.

Later in the afternoon he chose to go goofy golfing with his 3 favorite pals Randon, Kennedy and Val! We also had a pizza party that night with the rest of our families.

Lane...oh that boy. We sure love him but sometimes we wonder where that kid came from! It's a good thing that when he is sweet he puts it on thick. Even if he can put a damper on your day we know we would be miserable without him!

Happy Birthday sweet boy. We love you!

Girls Night Out!

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Stephanie had the great idea of going to the Mindy Gledhill concert last night. I am all for a kid-less adventure! We were excited to have Valerie come with us and my mom ended up meeting us there too! Mindy put on a great show. Her voice and songs are refreshing to listen to compared to the usual radio artists.

The highlight of the night was meeting Stephanie Nielson! This picture almost didn't happen. After the concert, we went up to the front where the rest of the masses were trying to get a picture with NieNie. We decided to go around to the side of the stage were it was less crowded. As we were walking up she had a lady body guard person trying to escort her away to a backstage room. Right as she was approaching the stairs to leave our Stephanie squeezed between the "body guard" and asked NieNie if we could take a picture with her! She said of course! After my mom took the picture she said it was nice to meet you then walked away back stage. It was awesome.

We must have been on a high or something because we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory afterwards. We attacked the menu and ordered roadside hamburger sliders, reese's peanut butter cheesecake, brownie sundae and a hot fudge sundae...no joke! We walked in at 9:30 and were the very last to leave after closing which was 11pm. Seriously half the lights were already shut off as we were walking out!

It was such a fun night doing girly stuff with some of my favorite people!



Mixer

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One of Rusty's favorite pastimes is to unload all the water bottles from the pantry onto the floor. About twice a day I find myself restocking them back on the shelf. Yes I could easily move them up higher but it entertains him and it allows me to get things done... or sit and watch tv in peace:) It's funny because Lane would do the same thing. Can you tell who is who?

You can usually find Rusty crawling around with this toy broccoli in his mouth. He is getting close to full on walking. Oh my!


I have been enjoying a few Goodwill projects. I found both these dressers for a whole dolla! The brown one I kept as a night stand next to our bed and the ivory dresser I just sold at our garage sale. I forgot to take a before picture of the ivory dresser. Imagine your great grandma's living room, the Brady Bunch or the old Matta's on Main Street waiting area and that's what it originally looked like.

I have been wanting to do a garage sale for FOREVER! Easy money in my mind. I had the goal last year but it got too hot and it never happened. Well Casey was sick of squeezing the car between 2 massive piles of junk so we put it on the calendar for the 10th time and guess what, IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! It was a huge success. Not only did we have the typical garage sale stuff, we made breakfast burritos and had soda for purchase as well. I thought we were pretty fancy.

So my friend (name will remain anonymous) gave me 3 garbage bags full of "treasures" after cleaning out her house. As I was digging stuff out of them getting things arranged on tables, I came across 3 bra's that were inside. I almost didn't put them out thinking nobody would buy them. Well I am proud to announce that the very first 3 items sold were...the three bra's! It was hilarious. Gotta love good ol' garage sale hoppers or buen viejo tolvas de venta de garaje:)

The Squeakquel of the Lawn Ornament

Cheers to a fun filled week of Happy Halloween festivities!

Lanes preschool had a parade and carnival. He wasn't digging the fact that he couldn't roam and do as he pleased without staying with the class. Half of the time was filled with tears because he WANTED TO GO BOWLING! We were both being tried of our patients that morning. It did end up being enjoyable once he got what he wanted (darn kid.)

We went to the State Fair. Love, love the State Fair! Especially happy hour, half price entrance plus $1 rides, food and games!

Sporting his spooky Walmart wear

Saturday was trick or treating day. Lane was ALVIN from Alvin and the chipmunks, not a baseball player like grandpa thought. Rusty was a GARDEN GNOME, not Santa Clause like Lane thought:) Lane had his costume picked out many months ago. I saw Rusty's little number at the store and laughed my head off then threw it in my cart. The beard and hat lasted a whole 10 seconds but he was still so so cute!

The only bummer was the lack of Butterfingers this year. Not a single one!

Amazing Trip To The Buff

The only good thing about having siblings live in other states (or countries) is that you have an excuse to go on a vacation to visit them. This past week Casey and I trekked across the U.S. to Buffalo NY to see Stephanie, Travis, Collin and little Duff who is due to be born in February.

We flew in Wednesday at midnight. It was pouring rain and freezing cold. Stephanie picked us up and drove us to her very cute house and even had dinner waiting for us even after we told her not to! We ate and talked until 1:30 in the morning then figured we better get to bed because we had a full day ahead of us.

Our first day was spent in Palmyra. Two of her friends offered to watch Collin which meant we were able to squeeze in a temple session. Travis had school so he wasn't able to do anything until Saturday.
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We left her house and drove about an hour to Palmyra. I was kind of bummed because it was supposed to rain all day and be super cold. It rained on us the whole drive there but once we got closer to the temple it had stopped. During our session Stephanie and I figured out that this was the first session we had done together so that made it a little more special! Once we walked out of the temple the weather had totally cleared up and the rest of the afternoon was still cold but absolutely breathe taking.

Stephanie packed us a picnic lunch for us to eat. It was too cold so we ate in the car. We went to change clothes in the restrooms where Stephanie and I made a new friend whom we like to call the poo lady:)

We started with the Smith family log and frame home tours. We had a great sister missionary tour guide who shared stories about these pieces of church history. This is the log home where Joseph Smith was visited by Angel Moroni telling him about the Golden Plates.

The Smith family frame home. This home was built a few feet away from the log home. Joseph had many hiding places for the Golden Plates in this home.


The path leading into the Sacred Grove. I don't think we could have visited at a better time of year. The trees were unbelievable.


Next we drove up the road to the Hill Cumorah. Below us you can see where they would set up the pageant stage.

Our last stop was the E.B. Grandin building where the first 5,000 copies of the Book Of Mormon were published. Our tour guide was an Elder couple missionary, and boy did he like to talk! Haha, I think we got on extra 30 minutes of stories added to our tour. Casey was the lucky one who got to fold a page of the Book Of Mormon just like they use to.


As we were leaving our last historic stop it started to rain again. We really got lucky with great weather that day!
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Across the street from the Grandin building is Mark's Pizza that is a favorite with the locals. Casey and I have a motto while on vacation which is, eat big or go home. With that said we ordered the biggest size called "the sheet." It was gooooood.



Friday we went to Niagara Falls. Can I say BRRRR! We went the 2nd to last day before it closed for their winter season. As we were walking to the falls you could see the half frozen mist in the air and poor Collin would start to cry every time the bitter cold wind would blow. They stayed behind while Casey and I did the Maid Of the Mist.

After the Falls we picked up sub sandwiches from Wegmans (a grocery store we are not fortunate enough to have on the West coast) and ate lunch over at Travis' school. He gave us a tour of his classes and operatory where they have patients come in to have dental work done.

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We went back home so Collin could take a nap. Stephanie insisted that we take her car and see a movie. We obliged and ended up seeing Life As We Know It. It's a good movie, even Casey liked it!

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For dinner we went to the ever popular DUFF's for chicken wings. I saw this restaurant years ago on the Food Network channel way before they moved to Buffalo. I was super excited to finally go. Hence unborn babies nickname:)

Saturday we drove to Kirtland OH. We visited the Newel K Whitney store. There was a lot of history in this store that I did not know about. Upstairs is where Joseph received Revelation for the Word of Wisdom in the Revelation room and also where the School of the Prophets was held. We also walked to the Saw Mill and Ashery buildings.

I feel in love with this tree. If it stood a chance in AZ I would so have to have one!

All the different stories you hear about the Kirtland temple makes sense to me now. It was a huge building and I could see and feel the sacrifices and how much faith those saints had while building this temple. During the tour I was keeping Collin distracted with stickers to get him through the end.

We ended with the Isaac Morley Farm. This is where Emma birthed the twins that died then was able to adopt twins from the Murdock family when the wife died after giving birth. Joseph also received 13 revelations on this farm that are now in the Doctrine and Covenants.

We were itching for Mexican food before driving home so while we were looking around Collin fell asleep. They didn't want to wake him up so instead they hauled his whole car seat into the restaurant. He ended up joining us for dinner after all. I think he could smell the chips and salsa.

Our flight home was at 4pm Sunday which meant we got to go to church with them. Stephanie just received a new calling as gospel doctrine teacher so we lucked out that she was teaching that day. The room was packed with no extra chairs so people had to stand in the hallway. This in not a normal occurrence which shows what a great teacher she is. It was a wonderful lesson, she did a great job. We also got to meet all of there wonderful friends we hear so much about.

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After church we had enough time to eat dinner. She made a super yummy dish called Kung Pao Spaghetti. She got the recipe from her friend Tiffany who got it from the CPK cook book. We will be making it at home.

Before the airport we went to see her friend Rachel's house down the street then off to the airport.

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I hate goodbyes. It was hard to leave. We really had a great trip. It was nice that we were able to leave the boys with my mom knowing that they would be well taken care of so we could experience the amazing things we were able to do on this trip.

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My testimony was strengthened in many ways. I realized how much I love my sister and that I miss all of them too much. How wonderful it is to be apart of such an amazing church. To know that the places we visited are sacred and were a vital role so the church could be what it is today. To have walked the exact same places the prophet Joseph Smith walked many years ago. It was truly remarkable.

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Thank you again Stephanie, Travis, Collin and Duff. We enjoyed every moment!

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