Mr. Fix It

It seems in the last few months we've had a ton of home repairs!  Poor Karl has hopped from one project to another.  It all started when Parker went to take a shower in our master bathroom and the door came right off the hinges!  We told him that he had an Incredible Hulk moment, and to lighten up with the crossfit..:)
Karl bought a new part and replaced the rusted hinge.

Next our kitchen faucet was leaking, drip..drip...drip...he took it all apart and it's as good as new!

He built an awning for our chicken coop, so the chickens would stop flying up and over, and they'd get a little shade in the summer...it's beautiful!

Our printer needed help, he fixed that.

Finally we noticed a musty, moldy smell in our craft/storage room and upon digging further, found there has been a leak from our master bathroom toilet, trickling down to the basement, creating BLACK MOLD!  AAagh!  It is a NIGHTMARE!  Karl has ripped out part of the basement wall, the insulation and we're spraying it with tons of Borax.  The upstairs toilet area is torn up and the tile, bead board, subfloor etc. will all need to be cleaned up and put back.  It's a monster project, but the amazing thing, is that Karl is so great at everything, I know it will get done, and look beautiful again.

I love how he make things nice, even for a chicken coop!

Rainy Hike

Today I went hiking with my mom!  

So much fun!  

A little drizzle of rain, but we had our jackets and hoods on and didn't care one bit.  There was about a foot of snow up in the canyon, which made me VERY HAPPY!  Can't wait to get my kids up there to go snow shoeing and sledding!  I love the fall best of all, so it's nice to still see some colored leaves in the valley, but I'm getting excited for the snow and the holiday season!

Yeah for winter!

The Boys...then The Girls!!!!

This past weekend was a PARTY weekend!  On Friday I invited all the kids from my Sunday School class to come to my home for a waffle party.  I taught 10 boys and 1 girl.  Brinley and I are tight!! :)   Almost all of them came and ate up a storm, then watched a video afterwards.  They are awesome boys!  (not so well behaved in the classroom...) but great kids!  I was just released, and called to serve with the Mia Maids in the Young Women Program.

Yay!

Some of the boys opted out of the picture, but basically they came, ate tons of waffles, with yummy toppings and tons of whip cream...which went straight into their mouth...you know, the pressurized canister..they just couldn't resist!  

They all call me "MOM!"

The next morning, I hosted a breakfast welcoming in Brinley to Mia Maids. The girls got up early, went to Brinley's house, woke her up and kidnapped her!  She was such a good sport.  

It was a little snowy outside which made for a fun morning.

Much more civilized!  :)  

The girls are absolutely amazing!  

  We each asked questions to Brinley to get to know her better, and she in turn got to ask each of us one question. The girls are top notch in every way, and so good to each other!

I am so blessed to be able to work with them!

I made homemade Kneaders french toast, with a homemade Kneaders caramel sauce, fresh slices strawberries, whip cream, and bacon.  The girls said it was BETTER than the restaurant! 

 I don't know about that but it was delicious!

  

Taylor's 9th Birthday!

It's hard to believe that only 1 year ago, we were planning Taylor's baptism!  He has grown so much in the last year...literally!    The kid is outgrowing all of his pants..time to get some new ones!
Here are the highlights:

We first took all of the boys to a trampoline/foam pit place.  Basically it's a way for the boys to be Tarzan and be fairly safe at the same time. 

 They had a blast!

Of course I forgot my camera!!  :(

We came back to our home and unwrapped presents...

We have a WINNER!

I made Taylor's favorite bundt cake...everyone loved it.

Love my Taylor boy!

Yoshiaki

This year we had the privilege once again of hosting a Japanese student for a week.  Oh, how fast our week has gone!  We have done so many fun things with him, and he has been a light in our home.  Yoshiaki is very friendly and happy, we loved every minute with him!  

Here are some of the highlights of our time together:

We attended the BYU Women's soccer game on Friday night.  

We won!!

Parker taught Yoshiaki how to play chess, he was a quick learner.

My brother in law, Ryan, has a  family ranch out by Payson.  We went out there on Saturday and rode horses...so fun!  Yoshiaki said this was his favorite activity that we did together.

Ashlyn was obsessed with this cat!  He would get away and she would run after it and bring it back exclaiming, "I found it again!"

Connor was in heaven driving this dune buggy...his dream machine!

We had the opportunity to work with some new colts.  They have to be taught to be led by people and to allow us to touch them, so that they can be ridden.  

This was Yoshiaki's first time on a horse, so Karl started by leading his horse around in the corral.  

The gang!  

Pretty soon he was riding like a pro!

The rest of the weekend the kids played soccer, played the wii, visited Cabella's and on Sunday, we went to church.

On Monday night, the students held a thank you party for all of the host families.  We ate dinner and enjoyed a fun program.  The boys all sang and danced for us...Yoshiaki was in the High School Musical dance, he was awesome!

After the party, we wanted to fit in one more activity, so we headed over to Macey's and bought all of the kids a KONG CONE! 

Yoshiaki was amazed at all of the ice cream, he just kept laughing.  He said everything in America is BIG!    

We will miss him!

Halloween

Another Halloween has come...and gone...

as usual, the kids had a great time, and loaded up on the candy!

 (except for the house that handed out apples..:)  

Here is a quick peak at our night:

Taylor carved this all by himself!  

Ashlyn and Eva...Ash was super girl.

Connor, Parker and their friends.  We have a Japanese boy staying with us for the week, so we dressed him up as Dracula..he was a good sport, and couldn't get over all of the American candy he raked in!!

Parker is the Phantom...and was asked to sing at several houses, which he did beautifully!

On the right is Connor's friend Aaron.  He has a superman costume underneath, and his shirt is velcroed together so he can just "rip" it open when duty calls...he looked fantastic!

This happens to be Connor's 2nd costume of the day.  At school he was a Newsies boy, but they got their student council t-shirts today and he wanted to wear it.  He was just going to a party anyway, so he printed off baby chicks and taped them to his shirt and pants...

A CHICK MAGNET! 

Yeah, we already know that.

Can you guess which one Taylor is?  The kid kills me!  Every year he wants to be something gory, or scary!   Soooo NOT ME! 

Yoshiaki and Parker

We had some marshmallow eyeballs left over from our Halloween YW activity.  Karl answered the door looking like this...He's awesome!  

The kids all loved it!

Ok, so the Twix on the RIGHT is what we gave out...the TWIX on the left is what our neighbors gave out...we're losers...:)

Now for the candy exchange.  The boys all spent an hour trading their candy with each other.