Tribute to G-ma

Sydney and my mom share the same birthday. Pretty sweet, I know. Last year when my mom was visiting, she and Sydney spent some quality time together coloring huge Tinkerbell pages she had gotten for her birthday. She was so impressed w/ her grandmother's coloring abilities. Syd loves to hang pictures and drawings all over her room, and they can change quite often...and sometimes I don't even notice... Last week, I saw these pictures above her bed. The one on the left is Sydney's work, and the one on the right is my mom's. "How sweet," I thought. Then I looked a little closer and started to chuckle... Sydney's has her first and last name and a number 6 for her age...Meanwhile, G-ma's name is spelled like a 6-year-old would spell it, but that's not what made me laugh. It also has Grandma's age, or what Sydney guessed as her age...89!!! My mom might not be 20-something anymore, but she's a far cry from 89...have I mentioned how much I love my little girl?!?!? Makes me laugh every day...

Pumpkin crafts

So even w/ reading so much in October, I still found a little time to do a few fall/Halloween-ish crafts. One of my new obsessions is blog-hopping different crafty blogs, and I had to try out a few ideas. My absolute favorites are the glittered pumpkins on my kitchen table. I saw them on Martha Stewart several years ago, and always wanted to do them, but you had to special order her super-fine glitter and it was pretty pricey. Fast-forward a few years...now they sell her glitter at Michael's, and it was 30% off a few weeks ago, so I splurged. I pretty much want to glitter everything in my house now, and I'm already wracking my brain for what Christmas-ey things I can glitter...so many possibilities! And super-fast and easy! Love them! I also copied a few other ideas and made some scrapbook paper pumpkins and fabric pumpkins. They turned out pretty cute. And I love that they will be able to be stored and re-used year after year. And that they're a little different... I also love that they're not Jack-O-Lanterns, so I can keep them out through Thanksgiving. Cause I hate having to change things out...too lazy.

I did it!

So I finished the Book of Mormon this afternoon. All in one month. I still almost can't believe I did it! My mother probably can't believe it, either. If there's one thing I don't like doing, it's reading. But I did it! Wait, did I say that already? Who cares, I'm pretty proud of myself! And more importantly than proving to myself that I could do it, or not having to be ashamed on this little blog that I gave up...more important than that--I really enjoyed it most of the time and was reminded of what I already know. It's true. The whole thing. And it made so much more sense since I read it all so quickly and didn't have time to forget who was who, etc.

I hope that now reading for 15 minutes a day will seem much easier now and my scripture reading habits in general will have improved. I learned a few things in case you ever want to do this yourself.

1. Missing a day is really hard to make up!!!
2. Pick a month with 31 days to give yourself the best chances!
3. You CAN do it!

It was a great experience, but I am glad it's over and I can have a little more time to blog and craft now. Almost any extra time this month went to reading...so unlike me... So Mom, hopefully you can look forward to many more posts in November than I was able to fit into October. :)

Karate kids pictures

As promised, here are some pictures of Ryan and Sydney in their karate uniforms. What's cuter than Syd in that uniform??? And after lesson number 2, they both seem to like it even more--especially Syd. They haven't really learned much yet, but they sure like to pose as if they have. :)

October Rush

Wow, check me out--3 posts in one afternoon!

In July, the Young Women in our ward did what they called a "July Rush" and all read the Book of Mormon in its entirety in that month. They all talked about how wonderful it was and I thought, "Wow, I should really do that." But it was summer and life was crazy, and I just knew it was not a good time for me to try and tackle that. So it's been on my mind that I still wanted to do it, and October is my month! It comes out to about 20 pages a day, a little less, actually, which took me maybe 45 minutes today to read. I found a little chart online that shows what you need to do. I'm excited to read it much more quickly than usual and really see all the stories come together like never before.

Halloween Sneak-Peek

Can you guess what Little Miss Sassy-Pants is going to be for Halloween?? We saw these shoes at Wal-Mart and she was coveting them, and I suggested she could be Dorothy for Halloween, then we just might have to buy them for her costume. She's no dummy! She realized that she'd end up with some sweet shoes out of the whole deal...so I bought the fabric today and am excited to sew up a cute little dress. She's already talking about how she needs to carry a little basket with one of her stuffed doggies inside. Well, duh!

Sage Valley Football

This year, Brandon is finally able to play for his school football team, instead of in Optimist. For those of you unfamiliar with Optimist, it allows younger kids to play flag and tackle football, which is great, but they practice 4 nights a week for 2 hours and have games every Saturday--rough! Now that he plays for the 7th grade team, he just stays after school and practices and is home by dinner. And games are on Tuseday afternoons! It's been a fantastic change! We actually have dinner around the table most nights now. :) BTW, he is #33 in the navy jersey and while pants.

That's him with his hands up in the air, just before a tackle, haha!

Going in for a sac--watch out, Mr. Quarterback!

Here he is starting to take a guy down. He still really loves to tackle. This year he has been playing mostly defensive end, but then last week he started at fullback and even got to carry the ball a couple times. It's always so fun for me to watch him and cheer him on. At the particular game, he had a nice run at fullback, a great sac, and was in on several tackles. Go D-backs!