Opening Day

This last weekend, as some of you may know, was the opening weekend of the deer hunt. I don't know how it happened, but over the last few years it seems that the hunt has become a bit of a family tradition for the two of us. I always wanted to go with my dad when I was a little girl and hated being left behind when he would take off with my brother. Of course, I completely understand my dad's reasoning and don't blame him one bit for not wanting to take his daughter, who would have cried the entire time about how wet and cold she was. Now that I'm all grown up, and can keep my complaints to myself, I've somehow been able to convince Chad to let me tag along. Luckily, he's been a good sport about having his wife interrupt his "guy time" and I've had no problems with being accepted by the group. I've really loved getting out to hike the hills in search for the wildlife. Unfortunately, I haven't been around when someone has actually gotten a deer, but I've certainly enjoyed the effort it takes in trying to find one. The last few times I've gone the weather has been pretty bad, with nearly whiteout conditions. This year proved to be the exact opposite; warm and toasty, which made for a slow day. Warmer weather means the deer are usually higher up and scattered, making them harder to find. I guess that just means that Chad gets to go out for another weekend of hunting.

This year was pretty fun. Chad's grandparents and a couple of his relatives came out and joined us for the weekend. They all brought their families and trailers and camped out on the lake with us. The hunt starts Saturday morning, so with the warmer weather we spent all day Friday riding and shooting. It was nice to get some riding in before winter arrives. Saturday was a get up at 5:30, drive up the mountain, hike to our hunting location and hike until dusk type of day. In other words, fun and very tiring. We got back into camp that night around 6:30, loaded up, headed home and crashed into bed. I think we both had a good time and are looking forward to the next weekend of the hunt.

Keeping a Record

This week for our enrichment activity we had Ann Cannon, the daughter of Levell Edwards, come and speak to us about keeping a record. She's written several children's books and currently writes for the Desseret News. (I think I got all of that right.) Anyway- she shared several ideas on ways to keep records and journals. I've never been big into keeping a journal of my everyday happenings. It always felt too time consuming and became too tedious, so it was refreshing to realize that there are several easy ways to keep a record of my life, without spending hours writing it all down. In fact, blogging was one of those ways.....yeah!!!! She really stressed the fact that a journal should be personal and reflect who you are and what is important to you. So, here are some of her ideas:

1. Keep a list journal -write down things you want to do some day in your life. Write down 10 things you love about a friend, family member, or co-worker. Write down things you would rather being doing with your day. Write down things you want to do during the summer vacation, etc.
2. Keep a grateful journal-everyday write down something you are grateful for.
3. Keep a Christmas yearbook-every year she buys a new children's Christmas book and has her family member write down something they enjoyed about the holiday season on the title page. They write down their comments and then sign it like a yearbook. She also staples her kids Santa letters to the front page.
4. Scrapbook
5. Blogg
6. Keep a diary- this would be your day to day, or week to week activities.
7. Keep a letters book-copy your emails, or letters and put them in plastic covers that you can keep in a three ringed binder. A lot of times are letters have important dates or information in them. I thought it would be a great idea to do this with all the letters I sent home from my mission.

After she was done speaking we went into the gym and started making our own little journals. My friend Shauna is the most creative person I know and she's the one that came up with these adorable journals.

Aren't they super cute. They bought them at Michaels for a dollar and all we did was spice them up with some ribbon and tags. They had a wide variety of tags and ideas of what you could do with them. Some of the tags said: Thoughts, Quotes, 52 Reasons Why I Love You, Scripture Journal, My Book of Funny Quotes, Bedtime Stories, etc. I thought it was a great idea to have different journals for different things. These were super easy and tons of fun to make. In fact, I bought a couple of extra to give away as Christmas gifts. Anyway- just thought I'd pass along the helpful ideas.

Winter Wonderland

This is what I woke up to Sunday morning. A winter wonderland.

Isn't it gorgeous. We've been having some colder weather, but I wasn't expecting to wake up to this much snow so early in the year. I was pleasantly surprised. I love the way everything looks when it's been wrapped in a fresh blanket of snow. So, I ran to my closet, threw on a coat and my snow boots, and ran outside to take a couple of shots of the first snowfall.

(The one above is of our neighbors barn)
Our poor little trees in the back yard weren't quite ready to bear the burden of this much snow. They still have their leaves, so they hung a little heavy almost touching the ground. I had to go shake them of to help relive them of their burden. I'm actually surprised we didn't loose a few branches, although now they do look a bit droopy, even without the snow.
Across the street from our house is a small, undeveloped, field that our neighbors have kept for their horses, sheep, and cow. That's where I got the picture of the barn and the horse. It's nice to still have a little bit of the small town feel in our suburban neighborhood.

Saying Goodbye

Well, she's gone. We said goodbye to Little Red this evening and she sold in record time! We posted an ad on ksl.com and within 3 hrs we had four calls and two offers. We were amazed at how fast she went. We thought that with the economy the way it is that it would have taken longer than 4 hrs to sell her. Who knew??? We were also amazed at how sad it was to watch her drive off. I know it's just a truck, but it's sad. It was such a great truck and we've done so many fun things with her. So, in memory of Little Red and in honor of our first truck of 9 years, we're posting this tribute.




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Conference Goodies

My awesome visiting teacher is due to have a baby this month and wasn't sure if she would be able to make it over for a visit. So instead, she gave me this little package of goodies to enjoy during conference. Isn't she the sweetest thing! She covered a composition book with this gorgeous scrapbook paper and tied everything together with the brown polk-a-dot ribbon. Of, course I couldn't bring myself to throw the ribbon away, so I glued it to the side. Thanks Becky-you are the dearest friend and visiting teacher I could ever ask for. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, friendship and all that you do to make my days a little brighter.


One of the girls I work with came up with this idea and I thought I'd pass it along. She thought it would be great to make German pancakes for Sunday conference. I don't know how many of you know what German pancakes are so I went ahead and made it the other night. It is really good and tons of fun for your kids to watch, because it grows as it cooks.

Ingredients: 1 cup flour/1 cup milk/6 eggs/6 tbls. butter/pinch of salt

Optional: 1 tsp. vanilla/cinnamon

Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put butter into a 9x13 pan, and put the pan in the oven until hot. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients together. Once the butter is melted, pour the batter into the pan. Then, watch it grow! (Bake for 20-25 min)
Serve with: syrup/powdered sugar/jam/peanut butter/fruit and whip cream/or anything your little heart desires.


ENJOY CONFERENCE EVERYONE!!!!

Fall, my favorite time of the year!

I love autumn! It is by far the best time of the year. I actually enjoy every season, and look forward to the changes that each one brings, however none of them compare to fall. I love the cool crispness in the air and the crunch of the leaves that have fallen from the trees. I love the sense of excitment with the start of the football season and the anticipation of spending time with family during Halloween and Thanksgiving. I love going on hayrides, picking pumkins, and eating homemade chillie around a campfire, but most of all, I love the colors!! They are simply breathtaking. I could spend all day hiking up the canyons admiring the beauties of the changing leaves. Here are some shots I took during our ride up the canyon this past weekend.