Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday, while Landon was at school, Blake and I went to a pumpkin patch with some of our friends from the ward. Thanks Stephanie for inviting us! It was a lot of fun. Blake was not at all afraid of the farm animals, he loved the sheep especially.

Here are some pictures from our little outing.

Bean and Corn Salsa

One more shout out to Marji. Thank you for giving me the recipe for this salsa. Jeff and I love it so much. It is so yummy!

Also, if you have a Pampered Chef batter bowl, it is the perfect bowl to mix this in, (see picture).

Here's the recipe for those who don't have it:

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can corn (drained)

2 large tomatoes, peeled and diced or 1 can Ro-tel Original

1 bunch green onions, chopped

3 avocadoes

Dressing:

2 tsp olive oil

1-2 limes, squeezed

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Drain and rinse beans and corn. In a medium-sized bowl, mix corn, beans, tomatoes, onion, and avocadoes. Stir together the dressing ingredients in another bowl. Add the dressing to the veggies, and stir. Refridgerate until ready to serve.

Sophie Kinsella Books

Okay. So I have to give a shout out to Marji and Trish for recommending the Sophie Kinsella books to me. I have read every one of the books, and they are so much fun. My favorites are Can You Keep a Secret? and, of course, the Shopaholic books. They are so great. Trish and Marji were right, I did laugh out loud, ALOT, when I was reading them.

Anyway, thanks to my cousins for recommending them. And for anyone who's looking for something light to read, I recommend any of Sophie Kinsella's books.

I also tried a couple of her books under her real name, Madeline Wickham, (I guess Sophie Kinsella is her pen name). I didn't think the Madeline Wickham books were nearly as enjoyable.

Missionary Dinner

We had the missionaries over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Before they had to leave, they wanted to leave us with a message. The missionary was trying extra hard to gear his message toward the boys level. Blake was laying on the ottoman attempting to listen. A couple of minutes into the lesson, Blake starts to bounce laying down and shouts out to them..."Look...I am a Dolphin..." The missionaries tried...

Best Dinner Ever

Blake had the best dinner his mommy had ever made. He told his mom, "Mmm...this is the best dinner ever...yummy...we will HAVE to go to the store and get some more." He was having spagettios.

Famous Landon

I had been meaing to post this for a while...

Here is our Landon in the city of McKinney's parks and rec summer guide. This is from when he did swimming the first summer we were here in 2007. (If you haven't guessed - he is the little guy in the middle with the bright orange goggles on - so he doesn't get water in his eyes.)

S'mores

The boys love to make S'mores and roast marshmellows - especially Landon. He roasted a lot of marshmellows. Blake would just eat a couple of bites of one and them expect someone else to eat the rest.

Merry Go Round

After we saw the Star Wars guys, the mall had a merry go round. The boys wanted to ride on it and had a lot of fun.

Meeting Star Wars Characters

Our local Pottery Barn Kids had an event where some of the Star Wars characters came and you could meet them and get your picture taken with them. The boys were very excited to go. We had to wait in line for a little bit. We didn't know who was going to be there. The boys found out that Darth Vader and the Storm Trooper were going to be there - they were even more excited. Two of their favorite Star Wars people. And Princess Leia was there too. Or as Blake calls her - "Missy Miss". Blake really wanted to stand next to the Storm Trooper and Landon wanted to stand next to Darth Vader.

Class of 1982

I stumbled upon this site from someone else's blog.











Here is what I might have looked like if I graduated in the class of 1982.







http://www.yearbookyourself.com/








Or 1976...



































Or 1962...

Whataburger

One of the yummy things we love about Texas...

Blake's First Day of Preschool

Blake started his first day of preschool on Tuesday. He was VERY excited when he woke up in the morning to go to school and start learning. He was running laps around the couch - he was that excited. He went right in his classroom and waved goodbye. He goes every Tuesday/Thursday for 3 hours. Blake said that he had a lot of fun on his first day and he wanted to go every day. He also didn't think he was there long enough. (He like to tell us if we take too long to pick him up from somewhere like the gym playground. He has his own timer in his head as to how long we should be gone.)

Jeff's Birthday

 
 
 
 

Landon's First day of First Grade

Landon's first day at his new school and first grade was on Monday. I don't know who was more nervous - his mom or Landon. You could tell Landon was excited to go to school again, but was a little nervous at the same time. Even though he didn't go to Eddins last year, there were still a least one friend from church that goes to the school he played with during break. Landon loves to learn - his favorite subjects right now are Science (and learning how things work and why) and math.

The Very Hungry Catepillar - Read by Blake

Blakey Robot

The boys made their own robot costume. Doesn't Blake sound like a robot? They had a lot of fun Saturday.

Sewing

After making the curtains, Marcie was really excited to start making things for the home that were exactly the way she liked them. Today she made these pillows to match the curtains. They look custom made - she did a really good job.

New Formal Room

Here is the sofa, chair and a half and ottoman that arrived today for our formal living room. We got a really good deal on them at Bassett.

Curtains

Before:
After:

While we were in Utah my mom and Marcie made these great curtains to replace the ones that came with the house. They look so much better and give it a very designer professional look. Thanks for your help, Mom!

The Twilight Saga

Okay, those of you not interested in the Twilight Books won't care, but I'm finally done with all four of them. One week and over 2000 pages later!!!

Now, I can get back to taking care of my family. That story just consumed me...I could not concentrate on anything while I was reading it...I had completely slipped into the world of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. Any author that can do that to me, at my age, with my obligations, has to have a dang good story to tell! Seriously, I know not everyone loved everything about the story, but I think it is worth it at the end. I LOVED BREAKING DAWN. AHHH! But, I am so glad I'm done with it. Like I wrote before, I was just too immersed in the story; I was in a trance with everything else going on around me. Jeff is very glad I am finally done. I am not going to read any books (besides the scriptures, duh) for at least a month!!!

To Danielle, just keep reading them - they are so good.

New Moon

Okay, so I finished New Moon this morning about half past one. This book was just as satisfying, but it did take a while longer to get going. I would say the last quarter of the book is the best.

I'm not going to buy Eclipse yet...I am neglecting my family too much!

Twilight

So, I've heard so much about the Twilight series. But I'm not one for vampire stories, so I wasn't too interested. Well, I needed a new book to read, and I decided to give it a shot. Oh, my gosh! I started the 500 page book on Monday afternoon and finished it in less than 24 hours! (It was THAT GOOD.) I was at Target buying the next one in the series, New Moon, less than an hour after I finished Twilight! They are SO GOOD!!!!! I even convinced Jeff to read them, and he never reads books. We'll see what he thinks of Twilight!

New Pictures

While we were in Utah, we had someone who was in our old Lehi ward take pictures of the boys.




She did a great job - they look great

Magic Show

Landon and Blake came up with this magic show on thier own. They are both so creative. It is such a cute show.