"Hat"

Cassie is obsessed with hats. It started when I was organizing Dylan's clothes and she found a Utah State baseball cap (thanks to one Jennifer B.). She immediately put it on and wore it around 24/7. I wish I had a picture of her in it because she looked so cute, in such a big cap. I then found this cute pink "touque", that my grandma made her. This stays on her head easier so she won't get frustrated, and it is more girly. If, at any given time, she can't find her hat, she runs around the house yelling "Hat!, Hat!, Hat!". It is very funny. Not so funny when this happens in the middle of the night. Yes, if she wakes up in the night and her hat has fallen off, she gets angry and yells, "Hat!" until I come and place it back on her head.

This phase is slowly fading, where she will forget about the hat, but if she ever sees any type of hat sitting around, she has to have it on her head.

*The nice thing about this, is that I don't have to do her hair as much!

Super Saturday

Here are the things I made at Super Saturday a couple of weeks ago:

• An FHE chart, without finished tags. Although they are finished now, just no picture.
• A cute apron.
• An "Eye Spy" bag that is supposed to keep the kids occupied during sacrament meeting, which worked for about 2 minutes yesterday.
• An ice-melt bucket and scoop. I was actually in charge of this project. Pretty cute eh? (In case you are wondering what ice-melt is, it is the stuff you sprinkle on your side walk in the winter to melt the ice)
  

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

• My kids. I love them so much and I am really enjoying the stages they are at right now. I love babies and all, but I sure do love when they become a little more independent and can communicate a little.
• Being able to stay at home with my kids everyday. I know that everyone can't do this, but I am so thankful that I can. Sure, times can get tough and days can be looong and repetitive, but this is what I am supposed to be doing. And I enjoy it...most of the time.
• Our little home. We bought it without even looking inside it. We have done what we can to make it our home, and we love spending as much time as we can together in it. (Now if we could just get our basement finished...)
• My husband. He has worked very hard through all of his schooling and sacrificed so much for our little family. We have a lot of fun together and I feel so blessed in my marriage with him.
• My friends and ward members here in Michigan. Great support team. Don't know what I would do without them. They are my family here.
• And of course, my real family that are scattered everywhere right now. Someday we will live closer and that will be nice. I miss them. I also really miss my Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and ALL my cousins, on each side of the family. We have so much fun when we are all together. They are pretty much the only people that I can REALLY be my true self around, and get away with it. I love them all so much and I wish I could be more involved in each of their lives.

Okay, so now you have seen the softer side of me. I tend to hide it, but it is always there.

Pumpkin time

We carved pumpkins last night for FHE and the kids had a great time. It is nice to have this fun farmers market really close to us.

We visit it frequently and the kids love watching all the animals that wander around. Dylan gets a little too excited and chases them around a lot. On the weekends in October they also have pony rides. I really thought the kids would love riding them so I took them on Saturday and they were very excited to see the ponies. However, they weren't nearly as excited to ride them as I thought they would be. I bought one ticket thinking one of them at least would make it on the pony, but nope. I almost took the ride myself, but decided to return the ticket instead. Maybe next year. Anyway, enjoy these pictures.

I was surprised that Cassie didn't fall off this wagon. She loved riding it!

Kissing pumkins...for some odd reason.

Cassie was very determined to get that wagon passed all the pumpkins. She did pretty good.
The pumpkin carving crew, minus myself.

Nice purple shirt Nate!

Mine and Cassie's pumpkin.

(side note - the small pumpkins grew in our garden. We couldn't get them any bigger without them going rotten).

Dylan and Nate's pumpkin. Maybe you are smarter then myself, but I didn't know what this was until we were finally going to bed that night and I had to ask Nate. I guess I was concentrating too hard on my pumpkin to notice.

Tornado warnings

People have been asking about the tornadoes here in Michigan and yes, it was crazy. All day Thursday there were terrible winds and a lot of tornado warnings. We didn't even realize there were tornado warnings until I was about to tuck Dylan into bed and heard a loud siren go off outside. I had never heard this go off but apparently it was the city tornado warning siren. It went off for about 10-15 minutes and scared Dylan pretty bad (and me, a little). We didn't think it was too serious, we were just annoyed that we couldn't watch "The Office" because the local news kept interrupting the program telling people to go to their basements. We ignored it. Come to find out the next morning, most of our friends had woken up their kids and hid out in their basements until the warnings were over. Apparently streets that are within walking distance from us were targets for touchdowns, but luckily, the tornado didn't touch down. I guess it was pretty serious. 3 people were killed in nearby counties and some pretty amazing stories have been told. I think this one is really neat and I am so thankful that we didn't get hit by one. Next time we will take the siren a little more serious.

This was on a local news channel:

As the storms approached the Millington, Joe Soyring and Nichole Opperman prepared to take their kids to safety.

Before they could gather their family, Soyring and Opperman fell into the basement of the house.

"Next thing you know, the house started shaking. Both of us thought it was an earthquake. And the next thing you know, I got sucked down into the basement and I watched the tornado go that way," Soyring recalled.

When they crawled out of the wreckage, Soyring and Opperman found 3-year-old Makayla, but couldn't find their 15-month-old son Blake, who had been sleeping in a crib when the storm hit.
Neighbor Jeff Hawks came running when he heard the screams for help.

"We're looking all over for the baby. I mean, we scoured the whole 3 acres over here, the whole 3 acres on my side, and we couldn't find the baby," Hawks said.

"All of a sudden, I heard this little whimper and I told everybody to be quiet so we could hear it. And the baby was under this huge pile of debris, probably about this deep (motioning about 5 feet high) -- floor rafters, you know, everything."

They pulled apart the pile to find the baby very much alive.

"The crib had flipped over and the mattress was the only thing that saved the baby. The mattress was on top of the baby, but I mean there was thousands of pounds of stuff wrapped over this baby. I don't know how he made it."

The crib and the baby were about 25 feet from the house. He suffered minor cuts and bruises, but is otherwise fine.

Amazing eh? Someones prayers were sure being heard!!!!

Thankful Thursday

I haven't done a thankful Thursday in a while, so here goes.


Here are a few products that I have started using in the past year (that I am very thankful for) and they make my life move a little smoother:

1. My double jogger/bike trailer. This has been part of our family since my
   
   last birthday and has been very welcome here all spring, summer, and still, fall. This is so nice and convenient to put the kids in and go for a walk, run, or on a bike ride. They used to cry (fight) a lot at first, but they are pretty used to it now. The down side... I have had no excuses for not running this year, which has helped me to get out the door and to get moving!
   




2. Root booster. All of my life, no one ever told me about this. I have suffered for a very long time with lifeless, flat hair. Until a few months ago. My hairdresser introduced me to this wonderful product that will remain a part of my everyday life now. Root booster, by Catwalk. Amazing. Wonderful. Perfect. I love it.
   



3. Mr. Clean's Magic Erase Marker. It really is magic. I have seen these out there for a while, but until I actually used one at a friends house, I didn't believe in magic. Now I do. It has done miracles in our home. The white kitchen sink, the shower, the fridge, the floor the doors, the walls, etc. Everything looks better now because of this little miracle worker. So easy and convenient. Try it.
   
   
4. And last, but not least. I am now a better cook because of my kitchen digital thermometer. This has helped mostly in the chicken department. I have never known exactly how long to cook chicken, so I would usually cook it long. Too long. When I received this wonderful gift in my stocking last Christmas, from a very handsome Santa, I didn't realize from then on out that my cooking time would be cut in almost half. Yes, that is right, half. I used to cook my chicken way too long. We are now fully reaping the benefits from this and enjoying juicy, tender, yummy chicken.

Um, the tornado warning siren just went off in town. Gotta go.

A blast from the past

Thought this was fun. Had some good laughs remembering these times!

What I was doing 10 years ago: October 1997 - Grade 12 in high school. It was such a busy and fun time in life. I was playing volleyball at the time and really having a great time doing that. We had such a good time as a team. We were all best of friends and created so many memories on our over night trips in hotels. We had many "what if" parties with the boys volleyball team, which I had totally forgotten about until I was reading back in my journal. Good times.

5 years ago: October 2002 - Been married for only 1-1/2 months. Living in Salt Lake since Nate just started medical school. I was taking a couple of classes at the UofU and a few online from Utah State. I did what I could to finish my degree, and I am so glad. I also just started working for a dentist as the office manager and that lasted 1 or 2 months. Not a great job. I also remember getting up early every morning with Nate and going running at our apartment fitness center. I was trying to get in shape for alumni coming up. Don't know if it really helped, but it was nice to do that together. Also, if some of you remember, we were trying to fight off a very bad case of mice infestation. If only our scanner worked right now!

1 year ago: October 2006 - Struggling with a hyper (and out of control) 2 year old and a teething baby. It was a hard time, the hardest I have had as a mother. Let's just say, things are 10 times better now, thanks to kids getting older and many many prayers being answered. I (along with a few friends here) were introducing the gospel to one of our good friends, which turned out positively. I had many testimony strengthening moments during that time. Still fairly new to the area, but felt so welcome and I loved all the support I had from many friends in the same position as me. Time has flown by ever since. Can't believe it!

yesterday: We went down to the temple in Detroit with some friends. We watched their kids while they did a session and then we were able to do some sealings. It was nice. Then we went for a drive and enjoyed some beautiful scenery here in Michigan. We checked out the area that Nate will be competing in next weekend for medWARS (an outdoor race involving medical scenarios etc.). It was so beautiful. It was nice to be with the family all day. The kids did very well, despite the many hours in the van.

Well, hope you had fun reading that. I tag all of you who have a blog to do this! Don't be shy.

Stuff

So I have neglected my blog a little. Nate is on a good rotation right now and has been home a lot, and when he is home (and not doing his readings/studying), I don't blog. It has been quite nice. We have been able to spend a lot of time together and working together around the house and stuff. Some things we have been doing:

• Painting our basement. We did that while watching conference on Saturday and I must admit, conference has never gone by so fast before. On Sunday, it was reverse. I think we were sprawled out on the couch almost 6 hours straight. Conference didn't go by quite so fast, but a few naps were had by all. I better download those talks that I "accidentally" missed.
• We are getting so close to finishing our basement. Nate has spent a lot of time working down there, and after he finishes the floor boards, we only need the ceiling and the carpet! I can't wait for the kids to be able to play down there! Our goal is to have it finished by Halloween so we can have a party here.
• More painting. We decided we better paint the bedrooms and the bathrooms so that our house looks more appealing when we try to sell it in 1 1/2 years. After painting the whole bathroom (it took forever because of all the little nooks and crannies), we decided the color was awful. We wanted a light yellow and it turned out way to bright and gaggy looking. Yes, gaggy. I say that, because every time I look at it it hurts my head and I want to throw up. Ugly ugly yellow color. We will try a much lighter and softer looking color tomorrow. By the way, does anyone have any tips on painting behind the toilet without actually getting paint on the toilet?
• The weekend here was HOT HOT HOT HOT and more HOT. It was record breaking around here for this time of year at 92ish. Crazy because I think at home (Canada) it was snowing. Too bad for them since it was Thanksgiving. Now it is freezing. One day we had to break down and turn on the AC, which I try to never do, and within a couple days I had to break down again and turn on the heat, which I try not to do as well.
• I have been playing in a women's volleyball league and it is really fun and competitive. A lot more fun then the co-ed team I played on last year.
• Dylan is enjoying preschool. We take turns doing it 2 days a week at each of our homes and this week was my turn. I learned quickly that their little attention spans dwindle quickly. It was fun and Dylan did a lot better then I thought he would.
• I also help coach grades 2-5 girls basketball. Wow, that is a job in and of itself.
• We rented the movie "We Are Marshall" the other night and it was really good. I don't think I have cried so much in a movie since Titanic. Oh. That was a joke. But it really was a teary-eyed movie.

So that is about it. Next week Nate will be gone a lot so I am sure I will be posting more.

Apple Barn

Nate's parents came out for a few days last week and we had a fun time. We always love it when family comes for a visit. We took them to one of the many apple orchards here. We cheated though, and didn't pick any apples, just bought them. Such a fun place for families!

Dylan driving the pumpkin truck, with a pumpkin Cassie.

Checking out the apple presser thingy. It had lots of bees around it, so we didn't stick around for too long.


Cassie's pumpkin that she would NOT let go of.


This picture was taken for Grandpa Folsom.


Dylan's favorite part of the day.

This was probably Cassie's favorite part of the day. It was so funny to watch them go through the orchards in this little train. The driver took them on a pretty long ride, we couldn't see them for a while because they had gone so far out and we were a little worried that Cassie had maybe tried crawling out of it. Nope, she was still there when it came back. She even screamed when she had to get out.


Munching down some donuts and cider. I am not a donut fan, but seriously, these were the best donuts ever. They were so moist and wonderfully delicious. I think they were apple donuts. Yum yum. The cider was delicious as well.




Getting ready for the hayride through the orchards.



I couldn't believe how many apples grew on one tree. I just never knew. Should have taken a picture I guess.


Making apple pie with all the apples we brought home. Yes, Dylan is wearing his Halloween costume. It pretty much goes wherever he goes. He even sleeps with it.


Okay, so this picture is only for proof that I helped make the pies. Something, I normally don't do, but will try more often now.


Look at that beautiful pie! It tasted pretty good too.

Dylan and Cassie loved having grandma and grandpa here for a few days. They both cried as we pulled away from the airport. Cassie keeps calling for "bumpa". Dylan rides his bike, while Cassie follows close behind on her little car and they pretend they are going to the airport to bring them back. Sadness. We sure loved having them here though.