Pumpkin Carving

For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago Zanna and I made cupcakes...

Zanna got drunk off cream cheese frosting... I can't say I blame her. It is DELISH!

(She still loves her birthday toys... just throwing that out there)

We went to Chase and Heathers for a yummy dinner Alaska style... Moose hot dogs! And they were pretty tasty! No pic, sorry.

Zanna and Kaden helped their daddy's with the carving of the pumpkins.

Chase smelling Jathan's pumpkin lid....

Jathan smelling Chase's pumpkin lid... Hmmm why were they smelling the lids? I don't know! I think Jathan thought his stunk or something... makes for some funny photos!

Troop and Hailey enjoyed their sippies.

This photo is not the best. But I needed a picture of my kids next to the pumpkins!

And the finished product! How amazing did Jathans nightmare before Christmas pumpkin turn out? He free handed that. I am impressed!! And Zanna LOVES her dragon pumpkin... I did not free hand that. I LOVE HALLOWEEN and I love all the fun festive things that go with it!

THE END

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

And here is a little Halloween photo shop fun!

Jathan keeps telling me that he should have been Jacob (Twilight) and I keep telling him Jacob was not the Vampire he was the Ware Wolf. So maybe here he is one of the Indian Werewolves turned Vampire. :)
Every time Zanna sees this photo she calls it her Vampire Daddy. Pretty funny!

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And here he is a scary Vampire Ogre!

Happiness is...

This Photo!

These two were killing me yesterday. I had just gotten them ready for church and they were simply-ridiculously cute!

Zanna sat quietly reading one of her favorite little books as Jathan and I got ready for church. Amazing! Why can't she do this every Sunday morning?

Funny Boy

Troop is my funny little boy. Always making me smile and giggle. He is a very busy little man. Always into something.

He LOVES playing on-near-around the dishwasher while I am doing dishes. It takes me 20 minutes longer to get the dishes done because I am constantly taking him off of it or grabbing dishes out of his hands to put back into the dishwasher. And I think his brain is special programed to hear it... because two seconds after I have opened the dishwasher he is there to help!

These are the two faces you see most from Troop. He is either scowling (like 75% of the day) Or he is giggling. He loves standing on top of this little car. Well he loves standing on top of anything. The other day I walked into the dining area... and there he was... standing on top of the table. Crazy kid. He is like a spider monkey.

Here is Zanna at about the same age. This was also her favorite little toy and she was always standing on it as well. It is fun to compare pics of them at the same age doing the same thing!

More mischief. I can't keep him out of the kitchen drawers. He is either in them or taking everything out of them and scattering the contents about my whole house. I think I clean his little drawer mess up 3 times a day! You know a little boy has a very busy, challenging day. Always thinking of things to get into.

While I was bathing Zanna, rinsing the conditioner our of her hair, Troop fell into the tub. The side of our bathtub is very short and this is the second time he has done this. Thankfully I am always right there when it happens but both times it happened all my focus was on Zanna so I did not get him before going over the edge. Anyway... I grab him out of the tub and set him aside so I could get her out of the tum. He was so ticked off that he was sopping wet. It was pretty funny!

Oh heavens we need to get this kid more boy toys. One of his favorite toys right now is Zannas tiara. He loves to wear it. But usually he puts it on upside down. I think I need to find him a masculine crown to wear.... so funny!!!
He really likes to wear anything on his head. He always tries to put Zanna's headbands on his head and loves wearing hats. We have a little turtle visor he loves to wear as well.

The RIDE of my life!

I had the opportunity to go on THE RIDE OF MY LIFE while at our cabin in West Yellowstone this summer. My parents and some of my family members have been going on this ride for the past 5 or 6 years. But I have been either gone, pregnant or breast feeding and have never been able to go until this summer!

THE BUFFALO RIDE

We rode through hundreds of buffalo. ahhh.

It was truly amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you mother for watching my children so I could go! The only thing that could have made this ride better is if you were there to share the experience with!

We had quite the crew with us. I was so thankful Ray, Tessie and Kotah were able to come (Jathans dad sister and brother). It was great to experience this with them.

Here is a list of our crew. My dad, Hannah, Joshua, Brad, Ray, Kotah, Tessie, Claudia, Randy, Jathan and Me.

These creatures are amazing. They are just so big and awesome. This was a burly guy!

Joshua watering the Lillie's... just had to throw that one in there :)

My RAM. (Rugged Alaska Man)

Tessie and Ray

This guy was beautiful. I can't believe I hunted one of these. It is so surreal.

Brad, Jathan, Ray and Randy

This creek going through Hayden Valley was beautiful.

Jathan crossing the Creek.

Joshua coming up on some buffalo.

Claudia and Ray. Ray was awesome. He rode a green broke horse through all of these horses. He showed us he's got some real cowboy skillzzz.

Isn't this amazing? The buffalo were in the Rut (mating season). And they were making the craziest, scariest noises. They sounded like growling alligators. It was CRAZY. I would be lying if I told you I wasn't pretty scared every time we had to ride through them... which was often.

My dad always seemed to take the path that went straight through the middle of a crowed of them. I was constantly saying "Dad you are crazy. Let's go around them. I am freaking out!"

I love this photo of Joshua on his horse. Wendy. Wendy Moyra Angela Darling to be exact. Isn't he cute?

Jathan found this buffalo skull. The Indian in him wanted to smuggle it out. But he didn't. Good boy!

We took a little break near these hot pots to explore them. It was really cool. And look at the buffalo behind us. Can you see there are two?

Me and the Bull

Along the trail we ran into this big bachelor bull. That gave my heart a little jump start. It was truly amazing to be this close to them.

Riding along the shore of Marys lake we saw this Grizzly print. Can you see it?

We ate lunch here at Marys lake. It was so magnificent and peaceful and the water was a beautiful blue-green.

We left one of the saddle bags at the truck on accident and of course it was the one with most of our food :( But we all shared and filled our little bellies.

Brad and Joshua got tricky on their saddles. Brad also got charged by a buffalo. We got in on video. I will have to see if I can upload it. It was INTENSE!

This is a pretty sweet shot.

Look at this Montana Sky!! It is breath taking. This is just one of the many reasons I love this place so much. You can see why they call it "Big Sky" country.

The ride was 20 some odd miles. It was a long, wonderful day. Thank you so much dad for always taking us to do these grand things. You are fabulous and I love you!!

THE END

Dresser Redo

I redid this dresser we had in our bedroom right before the weather got cold a few weeks ago. I must say I LOVE the new look. Initially I thought a warmish grey would be nice but then I got a fab idea to go silver. Well the way it looked in my head was fab anyway... but everyone I talked to about it probably thought I was a little loony...

$12 redo (for spray paint)

So here is the Before.

( It is missing a drawer because I thought about doing the before pic after I already painted one drawer.)

And here is the after!

(it is missing a knob because one of the children took off with it. It has since showed up and still needs to be painted... oops!)

I spray painted this bad boy with a a brushed nickel spray paint. Then did a subtle darker glaze over it. While it was still outside and the knobs weren't on it I HATED it. I was thinking... what on earth did I do? But then I put the knobs on it and I LOVED it!

I was going to buy new hardware but there are twenty knobs on this puppy... the knobs I liked were $2.50 and I was not about to spend $50. So I painted the knobs I already had and was pleased with the outcome.

I moved the dresser from our bedroom to the entryway because I desperately needed the storage. Living in an apartment there is a definite shortage. Now it houses things like... all of our paper an office supplies, cords, cords and more cords, camera, video camera, portable DVD player, all Zannas craft stuff (glue, crayons, scissors, etc) Flashlights, lighters, matches, light bulbs, candles... the list goes on! Now each of these things has a home instead of being shoved in any nook and cranny I could find.

Now our clothes are all in baskets on the shelves in our closet.

Who knew I could ramble on so about a dresser?

Thunder bird Falls

A few weeks ago we went on a fun little hike to Thunder bird Falls. It was beautiful fall weather, which has since come and gone. The way the sun hit the golden leaves made them illuminate above us. It was just gorgeous! This hike is only a few miles from where we live and this is the first time we had done it. We should have been doing this weekly.

Zanna was having the time of her life frolicking about in the leaves.

Isn't this scenery just beautiful. I love this picture of the kids with their daddy.

The trees here do not turn red and orange, only yellow. But lost of the shrubs turn red. The ground was so vibrant and colorful.

My happy little hiker! Zanna learned what tree roots were on this hike. She also like howling like a wolf and pretending Jathan was a monster and running away from him. Maybe this was just his ploy to get her to keep moving.

When we got to the falls Troop rested his head on Jathans and laid it there relaxing for a few minutes. It was really sweet!

The Falls were just beautiful. There was another trail we could take to go down to the river. But we thought it a good idea not to go down there with the little ones.

I love all the golden leaves at the top of the photo. They were glowing.

Having a little snack and glaring at Jathan. I am not sure why... he was probably making a face at me. Always egging me on :)

Troop was really excited to get out of the carrier and walk his restless legs.

Zanna did a really good hiking all by herself. On the way back she was running as fast as she could. She liked getting really far ahead of us. As she ran up the hill and around the corner out of sight I got a little panicky... thinking... hello this is bear country. So I took off in a dead sprint after her :)