I found a new Blog...

I just came across this blog while reading one of the Bray Family's postings. (Gale is a contributor to the linked blog) It's called Mom's into Politics. I'm glad I found it, I thought some of you might like reading it!

http://momsintopolitics.blogspot.com/

Pumpkin Carving, at last!

Getting all the seeds out. We roasted and salted them, mmmmmm!!!

Carlie's Pumpkin!

Carving, I mean hammering out Carlie's horse.

Not too bad... I can really tell what it is! Alex's pumpkin in progress....
I had to get a picture og Carlie in this dress. It was Alex's dress when she was little. I LOVE this dress! I has a matching hat and booties. I can't find the brand anywhere - if you see it the brand is LeLe.

Sunday afternoon we decided it was time to do the pumpkins. Matt went to paint his parents new house, and said it was perfectly okay to go ahead without him! :o) Alex helped me clean them out and designed her pumpkin - then Carlie said she wanted a horse. (of course!) How am I going to do a horse? I googled a silhouette of a horse and traced it to paper. Then we cut it out and taped it to Carlie's pumpkin. Next we tapped the light up pegs into the pumpkin along the silhouette, and had to improvise a little because we ran out of pegs, but it looks amazingly like a horse! We roasted pumpkin seeds while we carved and hammered, they were really good! We had a great time!

Carlie & Maggie

Carlie loves to cuddle, with anyone! Here are a few shots of Carlie and Maggie in Maggie's dog bed.

Daddy Daughter Breakfast

Alex and Matt
The theme was international - they had stations for different countries- very cool!

Alex in her classroom

Alex and one of her friends - Teanna

Matt and Alex went to a Daddy Daughter breakfast for Alex's school last week, they have one every year, and we always go to them. It's very early in the morning, 6:30am! They had a great time though. The theme was an international one and they went from booth to booth learning about different countries. Pretty cool!

These boots were made for.......

Cowgirl Carlie
Mmmmm, that thar's good eatin!

Check em out!

Carlie has new boots! Carlie had a pair of pink cowboy boots she wore EVERYWHERE. She loves her boots! Well, they're finally too small, so I looked high and low for a new pair. Since she wears them so much I decided to get her a really good pair that will last a long time. I found these HH (double H) boots online, and on SALE! I love a good sale! They were 80% off, done deal! They only had one size left and it happened to be the size Carlie needed next. It turned out they run a bit big, so Carlie mainly shuffles around in them now, but at least I know they'll be good through the winter. She wore them to the Horse Halloween extravaganza with Matt two weekends ago. Horses galore in costume to boot. She was in heaven!

More from Carlie and other self portraits....

Carlie really does a good job with the camera!

Self portrait #2! (Margaret, notice the kitchen, still good!)
Goofing around!

Family pic's

Just a few pictures from Carlie's gymnastics today. It was a family affair today as Alex is out of school this week, and Matt was on his way to a Dentist appointment.

My new favorite dish

This is soooo good! I made it the other day and Alex asked for seconds and thirds. (Carlie won't taste it - she just looks at it and says yuck!) This is a picture of my first batch, sans tofu. Tofu DEFINITELY made it better, and added some good protein.

Recipe:

• about 2 or 3 cups cooked organic mahogany rice - or any dark wild rice. (I get mine at Whole Foods)
• Mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 pkg firm organic tofu - pat dry with paper towel
• lots of spinach! (I put about 1/2 BIG bag in)
• soy sauce
• olive oil

Cut tofu into bite sized pieces, put in bowl, drizzle soy sauce over tofu. Heat olive oil in saute pan. Saute tofu on med heat until browned, about 7 min. Remove tofu, set aside. Saute mushrooms in pan, add a little olive oil if needed. When done, add tofu and spinach, then dump rice on top. Turn with spatula until spinach is wilted. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Alex at Gymnastics

As promised here are some pictures of Alex in her gymnastics class. She's doing really well and seems to have a lot of fun!



Alex at the beginning of class.



The perfect headstand - notice the pointed toes!

Inverted arch stand, or backbend as they call it now. Great job!
Great handstand!
Alex after class with her "report card", they tested on all the skills to move to the next level. She's so close! Alex can do a pull up all by herself! (I'm working on mine...) A pullover on bars, back hip circle, and almost a front hip circle. Cartwheels and roundoffs on floor, and almost a backwalkover. They're working on backhandsprings too.

What a cutie!

Potato Painting

Yesterday carlie wanted something to do, so I suggested painting with potatoes. How much more fun can you have than that? We (yes, me too!) had lot of fun!

Can you tell I like my camera? (& love the kids!)

Carlie "cuddling" with Hans
What a great cat!

Alex with Matt after a long day at the Pumpkin Harvest

Cute Alex!
Carlie on top of the refrigerator. (you can't hear Matt panicking in the background, can you?)
Sisters

Conversation about God....

On the way home from gymnastics today Carlie started a conversation about God. It went something like this:
"Mom, where's God?"
reply: "I'm not sure honey, why?"
"I miss her"
reply: "you miss "her"?"
"yes. I've seen her"
reply: "where did you see "her"?"
"I've seen her. She's at Disneyworld, so we have to go there to visit her."
reply: "ok, sometime we'll go to Dieneyworld to see God"
Carlie: "And Sleeping Beauty too."
reply: "ok honey. I love you."

More pictures from the Harvest Day...

Kendall helping with Carlie- thank you!
Kids on the tractor ride
Old tractors! Really cool - they had to hand crank to turn them on.
Our tractor driver took this of us on the bridge - very nice man
Kids with helmets on before riding the donkeys. (notice the personalities again - Kendall has her pink pom pom's showing, Alex's helmet is on wrong, and barely hanging in there, Allie's got it right (with her sports logo shirt on, and her Bronco's hat!) They're so funny and so predictable!)

Our tractor operator. He donated his tractor, time and gas for the event. Very nice!

Luke on his donkey. (I wanted to give him Bob's phone #! He has mules and does pack trips too.)
Alex on her donkey
Carlie on her donkey - I mean her horse!

Alex after the corn mazeCarlie in the kids corn maze - we got lost. I hate those things! And, who taught her the "model" pose for all her pictures? Who?!! I say "say cheese!" and this is what I get!Alex's feet after the corn mazeHappy at last! The end!