Pumpkin Carvin' 2009

My 3 little girlies were so excited to carve their home grown pumpkins this year. They had so much fun watching THEIR pumpkin grow all summer long.
Cleaning out the guts is sooo messy!

Oooey Goooey!
Brinley even got pumpkin guts on her head. She was trying to look inside her pumpkin and went a little too far in.
Rylee loved it. This is the only time she can make a big mess and get away with it.

The top green pumpkin is Baylee's she painted at school and named Frankin' Poo. The next one down is Brinley's. She wanted the whole family on her pumpkin. We only cut out one person and she drew the rest on. That one person took a while to cut out. The bottom pumpkin is Baylee's also. She cut out a Tiger and it was her own design. She wouldn't let any one help her or see what she was doing.
The big U was Dan's this year. I usually do the U but let him do it this time. Our neighbors give us a bad time because we like the Utah Utes so much. My pumpkin is a bat. I never go into this much detail for pumpkin carving but thought it would be fun to do this time. It took way too long (thus the reason Brinley only got one person cut out of her pumpkin!). It took forever and made it hard to help the girls. It was fun though. I think I'll stick with the U next year.

Rylee wanted Polka dots. Her idea. It turned out crazy though. I bought a LCD light to put in a different pumpkin this year and it had colored flashing lights (I didn't notice that when I bought it) so we put it in her pumpkin and it was like a disco ball. She loved it!!
I love Halloween and carving pumpkins!!

Pumpkin Pickin'

We have really enjoyed having our backyard finished this year. Dan and my Dad worked very hard putting our yard in and I have to say they did a great job. We love having grass to run around on, the girls love their new swing set, Dan loves the water fountain he made and my favorite is having a garden.

I love the fresh veggies you get from having a garden. We decided to grow our own pumpkins this year and they took over the garden. The vines were growing half way down our patio. We also had tons of tomatoes and zucchini. We tried watermelon, green peppers, and squash too but didn't have a big success with them.
At the beginning of October we had cold weather and most of our plants in the garden froze, so it was time to clean it out and pick the pumpkins. Rylee was Dan's little helper. She was bossing him around telling him to pick the pumpkins faster.

We ended up with 12 pumpkins. We thought we only had 10 but as we were cleaning up the garden we found 2 more hidden in the mass of vines. Most of them were still green, but they quickly turned orange as the weather warmed up again.

Dan gave Rylee the job of picking tomatoes. She loved it. Our tomatoes were mouth watering. I would eat one almost every night with a little salt and pepper--yummy!!

Rylee found that the zucchini was quite entertaining. She kept "calling" us. She was on the other end of the patio and kept yelling, "hello, hello are you there". She would call Grandma, her friend Hudson, Grandpa, and then Daddy...

To her surprise, Daddy answered and they had a great conversation over the zucchini. It was fun entertainment!

Our zucchini was a huge success. I made zucchini bread for 2 months and just kept giving it away and freezing some. My good friend Jami gave me a great recipe that freezes well. We just pull out a loaf when we want some more. We'll get to enjoy it all winter long.

It's seemed like the vines never ended. They just kept going, and going, and going...

It was fun to say that we grew our own pumpkins this year. Although I do love the pictures you get at the pumpkin patch. O-well, sometimes it's good to mix things up a bit. I think our pumpkins looked great in our yard!

Homemade Suckers

One of my favorite things helping my Mom make as a little kid was her homemade suckers. They were my favorite and so fun to watch her make. Well I still love making them and so do my little girls. We have a little sucker business as Baylee likes to call it. During the warmer months we make suckers and sell them to the kids in the neighborhood. Our neighbors love them and ask all the time when we're making more.

My job is to make the candy. Call me crazy but I just don't like the girls around the hot syrup. Baylee and Brinley's job is to get all the sucker molds set up. Rylee likes to help too but usually she is off in the corner with a sucker she in not suppose to be eating.
We have scouted the valley out for all different kinds of flavors and coloring. Banana Creme is my favorite, but the girls love Cotton Candy and Bubble gum.
It usually takes us about 5 hours to make 155 suckers (the syrup takes awhile to boil). I have two batches going at the same time. What takes the most time is the clean up. I have to scrape sucker syrup off my stove top.

We then head outside to start selling. We are usually sold out in an hour. The girls make about $45.00 each time we sell them. They have been putting all the money in their savings. They have to pay me first for the ingredients but that is usually only about $5.00.

It's been a fun little business for us. We even have people come by for custom orders. Some people even ask us if this is job security. They say there is something wrong with the dentist's wife and kids selling suckers. I just smile at them and tell them to eat up and then hand them a business card!

Only kidding about the business card. I just have fun making them!!

More Camping Fun

We had to sneak in one more time camping for the year before the campgrounds close for the season and the snow arrives. We headed back to one of our favorite places--The Uintah Mountains.We went back to Mirror Lake. We had so much fun last time that we decided to go have some more fun! Grandma Debbie had some fun crafts for the girls. They enjoyed the paints and painting on each other.
The rest of us enjoyed a little nap in the fresh mountain air...

We headed to the lake to fish. Baylee put a "curse" on Grandma Debbie and she was pouting because she wasn't catching any fish. Poor Grandma!!
But then Baylee lifted the "curse" and soon she got a fish and a big one at that!! Now she's happy.
My second set of parents, Gary and Rozana Wilkey, went with us this time. They have been a big part of my life. It was fun to be around them again and enjoy their company. Their oldest son Tyran and his family came up too. Gary or who I like to call Nerd got a baseball game going, right in the middle of the trees. It was crazy fun!

The weather was cold and it even snowed a little on us. We sat around the campfire and tried to stay warm.

We just couldn't get enough fishing though. It was great catching tons of fish.

Baylee is our official worm refiller. Every time we needed a new worm on our hook, we would just go to her for one. She loves it and I think it's gross!!

Brinley sat in her special spot waiting for her fish to bite. She was looking for bugs she said.

It was a nice time of year to go. We went over Labor Day weekend (I'm a little late posting this). The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery around us. It was nice and relaxing.

It had to come to an end though. Winter is coming soon, whether or not we want it here. We left the fishing and headed back to pack up camp. We were the last group to leave the campground for the season. The Park Ranger was there waiting for us to leave so he could lock up the gate for the winter. We can't wait! We'll be back!

*Labor Day Weekend 2009*

Where's My Chopsticks?

So last weekend we went out with the girls in the family. Dan went to the Utah football game (they won by-the-way) with his dad and brother, so I drug my 3 little girlies with me to dinner. Crazy I know! We went to a new restaurant called Blue Fish-Japanese Grill and Sushi Bar. It's a small very nice restaurant and not many (if any) other kids there. Well I'm eating my soup and talking to my Aunt and Grandma when I hear Brinley calling me. I turned to her only to find her chopsticks sticking out of her nose. Krista was doing it too...

I look at Baylee and sure enough she has her chopsticks in her nose too! That would be my chopstick that she borrowed right under her nose. Gross!

The best part is seeing Mallory (she's new to the family, marrying my cousin Ryan in November) doing it too. We were all laughing and causing the other people at the tables to look at us.
Oh what a pretty site! Needless to say, we had to ask for more chopsticks. Something about the other ones being in noses just didn't work with my dinner!
If you like sushi you'll really like this place! I don't like sushi but still liked the food I had.

School Time

School days, school days oh how excited we are for school days! With summer coming to an end and fall quickly coming, we all know what that means...School Time!

Baylee entered the 3rd grade this year! She is so excited. We switched year round tracks this year, so she's a little nervous because all her close friends are on the other track. I'm not worried though, she's a sweet girl and finds friends easily.
**Baylee's first day August 17, 2009**


Brinley is set for kindergarten! This girl has been counting down the days. Baylee started school a week earlier than Brinley and that was torture for her (and me). All I heard was, "is it school day today Mom?" for a week. Finally the big day came and she couldn't be more excited!! Baylee was excited to have her little sister join her at school. She told us that she was going to keep an eye out for Brin!
They ride their scooters to school.
And they're off...

Brinley has all her best buddies in her class. I feel sorry for her teacher!! She doesn't know what she's in for. Maddie, Brinley, Jane and Easton...they're all so excited waiting outside for their new teacher to come out to get them.

Brinley joked that she was in jail. Really she's just in the kindergarten drop off. I thought it was a cute picture of the

"jail bird".

Having fun before school starts...

At the very last minute, Easton decided that he didn't want to go to school and took off running. He made it off the school grounds and was headed home!! Bobbi had to chase him down (with the help of another mom) and carry him back to the school. He even took his shoes off so he could run faster. I'm pretty sure that Bobbi didn't think it was funny (at the time) but the rest of us did! I felt bad though, Bobbi had to go to school with Easton. It was the only way he would not cry and cooperate with the teacher. It made for a very memorable first day of kindergarten for all of us!!

I took Bobbi's other little boy home with me while she had to attend school with Easton. It was Hudson's birthday that day. He didn't mind though, he had fun playing with Rylee. By-the-way, Easton didn't have a problem going to school the next day or the next. He's doing fine! He just wanted to have a good story for his first day of kindergarten. It will make for a good story when it's time to put his wedding video together.

Brinley loved her first day. They celebrated her birthday and everything. Who could ask for a better day. She's the youngest one in her class and that worries me a little, but so far she's doing just fine! I think we have another "smarty farty" in the family. Just like her older sister Baylee.

**Brinley's first day August 25, 2009**