The Season of Giving Thanks...

I realize I'm a bit early on this, but I was updating my birthday list and changing the blog from Halloween to November/harvest colors/theme and began thinking about what I am thankful for. I've also decided instead of doing a "weekly thought" to have a monthly thought or theme. I love quotes and thoughts from others that touch me and make me ponder.

Neal A. Maxwell is one of my most beloved Apostles of the Church. I miss his grace, his intelligence, his spirit. But I am blessed to have a quote book of his that I have not studied or even read as much as I used to. But I've decided to use it more often and reflect on a quote or two a month...forgive my own indulgence.

He has so many great thoughts on gratitude that I decided to post one on the sidebar and two here. Following I would like to give my gratitude for 5 things (I may be doing this throughout the month.)


"There will be times when we applaud and no one notices our pair of happy hands, and no one even hears our added decibels-except us and the Lord."

"Mortal mathematics...is forever mistaking who and what counts. Even so, we should be more quick to express genuine appreciation to others. The arithmetic of appreciation is far less practiced and known than the multiplication tables."

I am so grateful for my wonderful, loving, talented, funny husband Chris.

I am so grateful for my funny, adorable, silly, happy son Richard.

I am so grateful for my sweet, angelic, cute, funny daughter Hannah.

I am so grateful for the blessings of the gospel in my life and to be sealed to my wonderful family.

I am so grateful for this great country, for my freedoms and choices, and for those who fight for us to retain these privileges.

I enjoy Halloween, always have. And now that my kids are old enough to enjoy it, too, I have a lot of fun all October. Well, my honey feels a little differently about it so I thought I'd post photos of our ideas of a good/fun Halloween...




Jaime's idea: games, costumes, candy corn, chocolate, pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, trunk-or-treating, hot chocolate, cool crisp autumn air, haunted houses, decorations, activities, the works!

Chris's idea: no trick-or-treaters, fencing along the porch, and a "No Trespassing" sign, a peaceful night at home.

He cracks me up. :) I'm grateful for our differences, our likensesses, and that we love each other just the same.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND "BOO"ST WISHES TO ALL!!! {SAVE ME SOME CANDY CORNS :)}

lego indiana jones

This is hilarious! Richard watched it over and over.

The beautiful girl and Indiana Jones...

Richard has been fascinated by Indiana Jones since we watched all 4 movies last weekend while Chris was hunting. Well, he kept saying, "I want an Indiana Jones hat, and an Indiana Jones whip, and an Indiana Jones jacket."

Well, last night Chris finally got creative. He let Richard wear his old hat and made a whip from rope with electrical tape on it. It looks great and has kept Richard entertained last night and so far for over an hour this morning.

Fun at the park...

We had some fun at the park today. As the days get shorter and the nights chillier I realize we aren't going to have too many more day like today to enjoy. So we took advantage of it. We got everyone dressed, fed, and ready and walked to the park. Richard loved walking through the fallen leaves.


Hannah was quite a daredevil. She climbed the playground by herself and went down the slide all alone. It was a lot of fun. (Sorry for the dark photos, my batteries died on me as soon as we got there.) But I do like the silhouette of Richard in the tube slide.

The kids love to go around the house singing, "We are the marchin' barch" over and over as they march around with Hannah's blanket. I finally got them on video! And I have no idea where Richard came up with this.

Yesterday was the last day of the rifle hunt for deer. Chris asked us to go with him. We really needed to get out of the house yesterday so I agreed. It was colder than I thought. Richard slept most of the time and Hannah drove around (not really) for a long while. The kids and I mostly stayed in the Xterra because they are too noise for sneaking up on deer. :)

Sorry for the tree in his face, I was trying to stay out of Chris's view of the mountain side.

Richard thought that he was really going to be able to shoot a deer and kept asking for a bullet for his gun. He was bummed that he can't shoot one until he is 12. I'm OK with that, though.

Syracuse City Pumpkin Walk

Boo Barnyard @ Thanksgiving Point

Pumpkin decorating...

I was looking on-line for pumpkin carving template, as I did last year, but thought it would be much easier to draw on them. So I did one, pulled out a wig and Richard loved it. He proceeded to make a pirate, a devil, a spider infested pumpkin, a double decker man. The kids had a lot of fun and Hannah even ate a marker, luckily they are erasable. :) Then we finalized the setting with a bat and a frog. It was fun, less messy and easier than carving the pumpkins, and a whole lot quicker.

CRAZY 8's

8 Fav TV shows

1. Fringe 2. Grey's Anatomy 3. Survivor 4. America's Next Top Model 5. Raising the Bar 6. Private Practice 7. The Big Bang Theory 8. The Ex List

8 Fav Restaurants

1. Applebee's 2. Maple Garden 3. Chili's 4. Melina's 5. Cafe Rio 6. The Garden 7. Spencer's 8. Olive Garden

8 Things I did Yesterday

1. Went for a walk 2. Did laundry 3. Dishes 4. Went to work 5. Fixed my vacuum 6. Played catch with the kids 7. Went to bed by 11 (that's a miracle as of late!) 8. Took a nice long, hot bath

8 Things I Love About Fall

1. Halloween 2. Smell of the leaves 3. Colors of autumn 4. Relief from blistering heat 5. Harvesting 6. Hot chocolate!!! 7. Fall line-up (tv) 8. It is one step closer to my b-day and Christmas :)

8 Things on My Wish List

1. Get totally out of debt! 2. Newer, larger home 3. Nice vacations 4. (like Lisa) a Cleaning lady 5. No more allergies! 6. Continue to lose weight and get in shape 7. New computer 8. Not to have to work (spend more time with my kids)

8 People I tag

Whoever wants to participate :)

Hill Aerospace Museum...

It was UEA this week so Richard didn't have pre-school today. We have been learning his ABCs and the last two days I have focused on Aa with him. I surprised him by going to look at "a"irplanes today. He thought they were pretty cool but kept wanting to fly them.

There is an education center that lets the kids dress like pilots, play with flight simulators, and do other fun science experiments. Both the kids LOVED it! They both fussed when we had to leave, they were closing for lunch time.

And I'm totally bummed that I couldn't get better photos: the lights in the education center were terrible and no matter what setting I used I couldn't get clear, crisp photos I'm used to. So I'm sorry for the quality, but the kids are so freakin' cute in their pilot gear!

Underoos!!!

I had Wonder Woman Underoos as a kid and I haven't seen them since. Chris has no idea what they were but I found these on clearance the other day and had to get them for Richard. He thinks Transformers are the coolest anyway, so I had to get them. I think he looks darling, but I had a hard time trying to get him to understand that even the shirt goes under his clothes, but I think he has figured it out. :)

Spittin' girl...

Hannah has been doing everything Chris, Richard and I do. Well, she got on Richard's stool to brush her teeth and now she spits like him. I think it is hilarious!

Hiccup remedy...

Richard has a movie that Donald Duck has hiccups and his friends try to help him get rid of the hiccups. The first thing Goofy says is to wear pineapple underpants. That doesn't work so they try a bunch of different things. Well, finally, Mickey looks up pineapple in the hiccup dictionary and it says you are supposed to eat a pineapple. Donald eats the pineapple and his hiccups are gone.
A few days ago I had the hiccups. Richard turned to me and matter-of-factly said, "Mom, you need to eat a pineapple." I laughed so hard. Oh! It was the funniest thing! I love my witty, sensible, young boy!

The first snow of the season...

This morning I told Richard to look out the window. He immediately ran into his room yelling, "Mom where are my snow boots?!" I helped him get dressed and off he went.

And look how happy he is!

I'm in heaven!
I'm not quite sure what they are both looking at here, maybe their own footprints.
Hannah loved the snow from inside, but was unsure about it up close. I'm sure she doesn't remember the snow from earlier in the year so this is a fun new discovery for her.
Richard is trying to get Hannah acclimated to the snow. What a good brother!

Richard loves to do his snow angels.
It took her a few minutes, but Hannah started playing in the snow too.
Uh oh! Got snow in the mitten.

The kids loved the snow. The first fall is always the best! I'm sure they will want to go out again, but Richard's snow clothes are too small, we can't find his snow gloves, and Hannah's are too small...she wore Richard's rain boots. So I guess we'll be doing some shopping this fall.