Our refrigerator

I forgot to bring my camera to Utah this past weekend so I wasn't sure what to blog about this week. Then, this morning, Ethan said a funny thing and I knew I had my blogging moment. This is what our fridge looked like when we came home Sunday. Before we left I had tried to use as much food as possible because we would be gone several days and I didn't want anything to go bad. (We brought the milk with us from Salt Lake). The kids thought they were going to starve yesterday because we couldn't go to the store. This morning Ethan said "Our fridge looks like Tracie's."

My New Skill

A couple of weeks ago our ward had a Relief Society activity where we learned how to knit using knitting looms. There weren't very many people there so it was easy to learn with more one on one help. And it is actually very easy. I went home and finished the baby hat I started. Then Porters Craft Store had a big sale a few days later and I bought my own looms and a pattern for some other things besides hats. I made this Christmas stocking.

No More Wallpaper

Saturday morning there was an open house at our local craft store with great discounts. Kristi, Tracie, and I went to check it out. After we finished, Kristi had the great idea to take down the wallpaper in our kitchen. She had never taken wall paper down before and came ver prepared after researching it on the internet.

So here is the before look.















Kristi hard at work with a smile on her face.



















Me hard at work. (Jon took this picture)



















The mess we left behind. (Jon took this picture)



















There is no more wallpaper in our house.

More Mitchell kids pics

Here are a few more pictures on the last day the Mitchell's were with us:















Kaitlin reading a Pokemon book on the couch















Jake and Luke dancing to Dora















Heather, Jared, and Ethan digging for dinosaur bones.















Making cookies. Jared isn't really frosting his forehead.















The end result. And the floor looked just like the table. That's why these cookies are only made about twice a year.

Mitchells Days one and two

For the next five days, we are the parents of 7 children. Rose and Dave went on their annual business trip and their kids are at our house. Rose drove them up Friday afternoon and turned around almost immediatly and drove home. What a drive!


Here are the pictures last night of them trying to get to sleep. I don't think all of the kids were asleep until 11:30 or midnight. (and that's not from my lack of trying.)



















Luke and Jake trying to go to sleep. I put them in bed at 9pm and it took them at least an hour and a half to fall asleep. It was kind of cute, though. And this morning I woke up hearing them chattering to each other.















Jared with his cozy position on our great sleeping couch.



















Kevin in the other great couch spot.















Ethan, Heather and Kaitlin bedded down. Ethan didn't last long. He slept all night in his own bed.

This morning we made everyone go outside and help rake leaves. It was a good way for them to get out of the house and use up some of their energy. I gave the camera to Kevin and Kaitlin so most of these pictures were taken by them.
This is Kevin trying to drag a bag of leaves up the hill. (Kaitlin photo)














Luke was rolling down the hill so Jake decided he wanted to try. But he kept getting in Luke's way.















Heather rolling down the hill and Ethan and Jared in the background raking hard. (Kaitlin photo)
















Jared and his rake. When Kevin had the camera they were doing all sorts of poses for him. (Kevin photo)















Luke rolling down the hill (Kaitlin photo)














Everyone helping with the last pile of leaves. (Susan photo)















Darren cutting down all the dead plants. It looks so bare. Ethan raking. (I don't know who took this one.)

Jack-O-Lanterns

This is a common blog post at this time of year but it was part of our lives, too, this week so here are our pictures.

The first one is Kevin cleaning out his pumpkin. In years past I have always had to do it because the boys are too grossed out. But this year I told him he had to be a man and do it. He actually did his pumpkin almost all by himself. Darren helped him design it a little but he did most of it.


















Darren and Ethan working together on Ethan's pumpkin.















Our finished products. This picture was actually taken in the dark with the candles glowing but you can't tell because of the flash. This was Monday night and it was the only night we lighted them. We didn't even do it on Halloween because we forgot and by the time I remembered, we were out of Halloween candy. By that time we didn't want to draw attention to our house.