The Truck and Our Little Indian

At school Bailey made an Indian necklace, vest and hat-and I just love the caption on the back of the vest! Interesting thing about the necklace-they strung beads and potato chunks on it. After drying, the potatos shrivel, get hard and look like rocks. I never knew that they could do that....

And...as promised...a picture of our new truck! It's a little dirty, but luckily you can't really see that in the picture. Nice, huh?

Our new truck!

Well, pictures will follow, but we bought a truck this weekend! I haven't taken any pictures yet because we came home in the snow with it so it is dirty and Josh has it at work. But we are all very excited to finally be a 2 vehicle family! :) We've managed with one car for almost 8 years now, but Josh needs the car more at work and I need the car more with the girls-and we figured a truck would be good since we always have yard waste to haul to the dump! It is a Dodge Dakota: white; 2001 with 71K miles on it, and best of all it is the 4 door variety so we can all fit in it! The girls were super excited to go get it, of course! I'll post pictures soon!

A little funny from Erin: She was helping me with the laundry yesterday and she said: "Okay, everything is out of the dryer, let's empty the wetter." :) Makes perfect sense, the dryer dries the clothes and the wetter gets them wet. I love the way her brain works! So no longer do I have a washing maching, I have a wetter machine.

Happy Halloween!

Well, here is what the girls costumes looked like this year. Bailey's rainbow costume stumped me a bit, and I'm not quite sure she exactly looks like a rainbow but she loved it and that is what counts! :) How to make Erin's pig nose got me thinking, but it turned out really cute. And don't ya love the sign on her back? All the adults we saw got a big kick out of that. She obviously doesn't understand it, but loved that people laughed when they saw it so she called it her "joke sign".




As much as the girls loved going trick-or-treating, I think they have more fun handing out the candy when they come back! They sat on the porch singing and dancing. :) Erin yelled "Happy Halloween!" to everyone that ran by, which made me smile everytime. Sometimes the girls would see some kids coming and they would grab some candy and run to the middle of the yard to meet them there. They couldn't even wait for the kids to get to the porch! Such cute girls!

A Run in With Logan's Finest...

Oops.... Today I got pulled over by a motorcycle police officer (isn't it getting too cold for those??) Erin and I were driving down the road and what do ya know, flashing lights in the rearview mirror. DANG IT! I thought the speed limit was different than it really was so Yes I was speeding. Josh loves to point out my slight lead foot so I wasn't sure if he was going to be mad or just say "I told you so" if I got a ticket. So Erin and I were just chilling in the car waiting for the police to come back when up pulls another police officer in a car! Now my heart was really racing as to what was going to happen next. lol Well, thankfully he came back with my stuff and just wrote me up a warning! I was so grateful, obviously.

As we pulled back onto the road Erin said that next time I get pulled over I should give the policeman hug, tell him I'm sorry and then give him some money if he doesn't have any!!! Already trying to brib the authorities! :) Cute girl. Needless to say, I drove the speed limit EXACTLY for the rest of our excursion.

Fun with Grandpa

Today my dad came up to have lunch and spend the day with us. It has been a while since he has come up, so it was great to see him. The girls love it when he comes to visit because he loves to sit and plays games for hours with them. :) He played Go Fish, Life, Old Maid, did 2 puzzles, etc. with the girls. It was a nice day!

Traditions

Every year we do a gingerbread house for Halloween. I did it growing up and we have had a fun time continuing the tradition. I make the house from scratch so each year the house has its uniqueness in it's shape. (lol) this year part of the roof broke but the hole was easily fixed with a spider. :) One year I forgot windows and the door, but who says it has to be perfect? We usually tend to eat as much candy as we put on it, which is half the fun!

This is the side that Erin did...it is nice that now she can do it all herself!

Bailey did the back of the house (with the HUGE garden). And I did the side with the spider web.

And Josh did the front. :)

And we each picked our own pumpkins, and the girls decorated theirs. Josh and I are saving our until next week and we'll carve them. :) I think Erin picked the largest pumpkin she could find at the pumpkin stand.

Canning at its best!

Every year I can a lot of tomatoes-into spaghetti sauce or cut up tomatoes for soups, etc. And every year it takes me FOREVER to do it because you've got to blanch them, skin them, take out the seeds, squeeze out excess water, chop, and then actually make the sauce. Well, this year I decided to use my applesauce maker to see if it would be easier. And it was SO MUCH better! It took about 1/4 of the time and the girls even did a lot of the work because they love helping with the strainer. Bailey turned the crank while Erin pushed the tomatoes through and I washed and cut them in half-that's it! No skinning, chopping, etc.! It is a bit watery at the moment, but it is boiling down nicely on the stove and then I'll add the spices. I'll be doing it this way for now on-especially since the girls love to help me in the kitchen. :) I love free labor. lol

Plus I think it is great to get the girls learning how to work in the kitchen and can foods-such a great thing to know how to do!