My mom's headstone.....

It seems so final now: She's gone. I think Mom would have liked her headstone, though. Dad was quite emotional both when it was picked out, and once he saw it installed. He wanted to make sure that it was something that would honor her.

When we first went to visit the grave with the headstone, Sarah went around picking up loose flowers around the cemetary from other people's graves. She was so proud to do that for Grandma Connie. I know it would have made my mom smile. :-)

(I've whited out their last name for privacy reasons)

Indian girl and little rock star!

Last night was our ward trunk or treat. Honestly, I don't much care for them, but what can I do? So, we attended anyway and the kids get their fill of fun and treats. :-)

Here are my Indian girl and little rock star! (Maegan didn't feel like dressing up last night...I guess she'd had enough after the costume party last week!)



(I didn't get these pics taken til we were back home of Emily! She ran off at the trunk or treat with all the carnival booths and I didn't see much of her after that!)


Sarah, on the other hand, had to come show me her face painting!

A Murder Mystery Halloween Party!

The Commonwealth has such FUN activities for the students! For the Halloween activity, the student council planned a "murder mystery" dinner party. I'm not sure how exactly the game went, but the students were all assigned a character (real or fiction). They had to play out their parts as they played the game. Maegan was assigned Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. I think she did a good job coming up with her costume (the dress was one I got at the D.I. for myself for another party earlier in the year...ya gotta love $10 deals at the D.I.!) Then she put her little bolero jacket with it and we had a tiny tiara that belonged to one of her sisters. Its not exactly 18th century French, but it did very well. The kids had so much fun together. I'm so grateful for these awesome social activities for our homeschooled youth!

I couldn't have hand picked a better bunch of kids for my children to associate with!

(By the way, we had Maegan dressed and ready to go within about an hour of her brownie explosion! It was a crazy afternoon)



Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis!


What a totally awesome bunch of kids!

Apparently we need some baking classes here!

I have to share this story. Its surely going to be one that our family laughs about for years to come!

Yesterday, Maegan was making brownies so that she'd have a dessert to take to the Commonwealth Halloween party. This is not something new to her, she's made brownies many times before on her own. I had to leave the house to take the other two girls down to the church for the Primary program practice and didn't think there would be a problem.

By the time the practice was done, Maegan called me on my cell phone in a complete panic.

"Mom! There is something wrong with the brownies. The recipe you gave me is evil!" (she was making them from scratch, not a pre-made mix)

I asked what happened. Apparently when the timer went off and she went to check them for being done, she discovered that the brownies had bubbled up over the top of the pan, down the racks on and onto the bottom of the oven. She swore up and down at that moment that she had followed the recipe exactly. Obviously, SOMETHING went haywire.

I suspected baking powder.

By the time I got back home, she discovered her little mistake. Rather than adding just 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, she'd added 1/2 CUP!!!! Thus, the bubbling brownies. I have to admit...the recipe I printed out was in tiny print, and the baking powder was listed right under the flour, which called for measurement in cups. Her eyes must have jumbled up the lines or something, I don't know.

I thought I'd die laughing!!! She saw some humor in it, but I think was mostly embarrassed. I bet she'll check (and double check) her measurements from now on. And she knows the power of baking powder.

Needless to say, that batch of brownies went in the garbage (they were VERY bitter!) and she had such fun this morning cleaning up the mess. But, it was a good learning experience for her.

This is the result:
(she asked me to crop her out of the picture)



We got WalMart donuts as the treat since we didn't have time to re-make the brownies. The kids enjoyed them nonetheless!

How to live to 114 (in theory)

Jason came across this article today, and I thought it worthy of posting here! Short of wine drinking and being nobel prize winners we are doing pretty much everything it listed. YAY!

"People who are happy, having an active sex life, and who avoid debts, outlive the miserable, abstainers and the poor, as do chocolate eaters, churchgoers and vegetarians. New research shows exactly how many years longer people can live by adopting healthy behaviours – from stopping smoking and losing weight to eating less meat and being positive."

The rest of the article is here.

Oh, it's time for some campaignin'!

Enjoy this totally awesome campaign video spoof on our current presidential election!

Video link

Who thinks up these things? Have a good laugh on us!

Wanna see our "freedom" prints that are finally hung up?

A couple months ago, I attended a yard sale of a local LDS private school that was shutting down. They were selling off most of their things, and I was able to pick up these gorgeous prints of the Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution. I've always wanted something like this in our home, and now they're here, and HUNG!

I'm pretty excited about them, especially considering the awesome deal I got on them. Both for only $40!!

The easiest pumpkin chocolate chip cookies ever!

Its Fall, right? So a must have these days is stuff with pumpkin in it!!

My sister gave me this recipe last year, and so far this season, we've made them twice! (last time we gave most of them away for visiting teaching and new neighbors!)

Perhaps you already know how yummy and easy they are. But if you don't, you've got to try them! They may not be the healthiest thing on the planet, but considering 1/3 of the ingredients is pure pumpkin, I can justify 'em! :-D

Today Emily (my 9 yr old) made them all by herself, from start to finish. She's getting to be quite the little kitchen helper.



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 box of Spice Cake mix
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree
1 cup chocolate chips (heck, I add the whole 10 oz. bag of Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips!! You can NEVER have too much chocolate, right?)

Mix well until combined. Drop by spoonful onto baking sheet (greased does make a difference), and bake at 350 for approximately 15 minutes. I tried less time, but they didn't seem "done".

ENJOY!!!

A dream cabin...I can hope, can't I?

When we were driving around up in Brian Head and trying to find our friends' lot so we could gather/cut firewood, I had Jason come to a halt on the dirt road. We happened to pass a cabin that I could actually see myself living in. Someday we hope to have a cabin up in Spring City. It wouldn't quite be the same setting or elevation as this cabin is (high mountain vs rural farm land), but I just LOVE the overall "look" of this cabin. Jason has been wanting a totally different style than this (massive huge logs and a bit too rustic for my taste), but something like this I could definitely go for.

So long as there aren't a bunch of antlers and Elk heads hanging around! (I could handle one or two, in appropriate rooms!)

I wish I could have seen inside. Isn't it gorgeous???

A gorgeous Fall day for gathering herbs!

This has got to be the best time of the year! It has still been quite warm here (in the 90's!), up until yesterday, so it hasn't "felt" like Fall temperature wise. Now its in the 70's, but supposed to warm up again this week. But there is something suttle in the air, saying that the seasons are changing. We've had the air conditioning off for the past few days and have had the windows open.

This is last weekend (the last of September) we went up to Brian Head on Cedar Mountain. The main purpose was to gather herbs with our herbal teachers and a few classmates. (Jason and I have been taking an herb class since July) In the afternoon, we went cutting firewood.

Cedar Mountain definitely shows the signs of Fall....leaves in all colors...reds...yellows...oranges...browns...against the gorgeous deep green backdrop of the pines. The air also had that "crisp" feel to it. A wind kicked up and leaves were blowing everywhere in the sky above us. Ooooh, it was SO nice! I wish it would feel like that here. I know it will eventually, but probably not for a while.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures from our day at Brian Head!


All the girls! Sarah is holding a bag of the Oregon Grape Root they had gathered.

Emily digging Oregon Grape Root. Oregon Grape Root is good as a blood purifier. Cathy (our herb teacher) is going to put me on some soon, after I'm done with the Candida stuff I'm already on.

Maegan posing with her shovel! The girls did so much work, it was awesome!
Sarah, just being cute on a log!

This is Osha Root, the main herb we were digging. Osha root is very good for colds and flu. We've actually already made a tincture of it at one of our beginning herb classes. It smells like a really strong celery and isn't too bad to chew on by itself.


Jason and I.....what can I say about this picture???? He worked pretty darn hard with that pick ax, to dig out the roots. The key was to make the earth look like we'd never been there once the roots were dug up. We also sprinkled new seeds and gave an "offering" after we took the roots. Our teacher was trained by the Native Americans and that is how she was taught, to always be thankful and give something back to the Earth.


These last two are just some gorgeous shots of the Fall leaves in Brian Head. What a beautiful, productive day we had. After the herb gathering we got an entire truckload of firewood from a friend's lot on the mountain. Hopefully it will be a good stock to warm us up this winter.