Leaves!

As I was walking home from the Central Building, I saw this spot and couldn't resist the beautiful weather(it was 60 today!), the sun, or the leaves. So I ran inside, got Ryan & Evan and had a photo shoot with the cutest little boys ever...even if they don't always cooperate. I believe it was a 30 minute break well spent away from work. Besides, by the time I was done with my meetings afterward, I would have had absolutely no light to work with.

Here are my cute boys: Undirected hugging and its crazy that the grass is still green...

This is the best laughing grin from Evan.

Here's the best smile from Ryan
Genuine laughter--What fun leaves can be!

And a warm fall day can be so thought provoking...

Crazy 8s

Last, but not least, the tag of 8s.
RULES
1. Post rules on your Blog
2. Answer the six "8" items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 FAVORITE SHOWS
1. Ugly Betty
2. America's Next Top Model
3. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
4. Mythbusters
5. Studio 5
6. Rick Steve's Europe
7. The Cosby Show
8. The Rachael Ray Show

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
1. Watched White Christmas
2. Delivered Rice Krispy Treats
3. Went to Community Standards...thrice
4. Took a long bath
5. Made cookie bars
6. Took out the trash
7. Talked to my parents
8. Took a nap

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO
1. Being with everyone for Thanksgiving
2. ROAD TRIP! (A little less exciting with two children, but still good)
3. Being in Illinios
4. Creating some Thanksgiving crafts--A thankful tree and maybe some others
5. A relaxing vacation
6. Getting organized
7. Christmas shopping
8. Oliver finishing school

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
1. Los Hermanos
2. Chili's
3. La Gondola
4. La Buona Vita(the long lost Italian place)
5. La Dolce Vita
6. Steak'N'Shake
7. Giardino's
8. Panda Express

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST
1. SLR Digital camera
2. Couch(a full length one)
3. New clothes
4. Understanding of Angelman Syndrome & how to live with it
5. To be a better mom/wife/sister/daughter/ & friend
6. An organized mind
7. Cute haircut
8. Financial prowess

8 PEOPLE TO TAG
1. Anna
2. CJ
3. Emily in AZ
4. Emily in UT
5. Holly
6. Kristen
7. Laura
8. Sherie

Lucky 7 Tag

7 Things I Can Do:
1. Sing, not well, but I can do it.
2. Spell--most of the time
3. Spend forever looking at art(paintings, sculptures, architecture, photography)
4. Get really engrossed in a book and have to finish it in a few days
5. Watch Christmas movies!!(Oliver said I could)
6. Swim
7. Dream about a clean house

7 Things I Cannot Do:
1. Get up in the morning and work out(despite my great goals a few months ago)
2. Stand waiting in long lines
3. Plan meals--luckily, I don't always have to
4. Remember to put Evan's boots on him every day
5. Play the left hand on the piano
6. Watch a basketball game on TV
7. Remember all the dances I learned in my country western swing class

7 Things That Attracted Me to Oliver:
1. His smile
2. His blue eyes
3. His laid back attitude
4. His love for kids(he taught primary in our ward when I met him & I still have a little fish that he had made as a visual aid in one of his classes)
5. His friendship
6. His humor
7. He has a good sense of direction...I don't even think he knows that was one of his endearing qualities.

7 Things I Say Most Often:
1. "I don't know"
2. "Evan! NO!"(It's sad but true)
3. "Just go to sleep"(another sad reality)
4. "Ollie, can you hold him?"
5. "We need to clean the house"(And in that case, I only half mean you)
6. "I love you"
7. "He's so CUTE!!"

7 Celebrity Admirations:
1. Tom Hanks.
2. Johnny Depp
3. Robin Williams(That guy can act in any role!)
4. Bill Cosby
5. America Ferrera
6. Big Bird
7. Bob Villa...

7 Favorite Foods:
1. Ice cream...anything with chocolate
2. Gnocchi ai funghi(gnocchi with mushrooms & a tomato/alfredo mushroom sauce that is no longer attainable because the restaurant is now gone)
3. Torpedoes! from La Gondola
4. Green bean casserole
5. Mashed potatoes
6. The Cannon Center's chocolate chip cookies
7. Oriental Chicken salad--a new favorite

7 People to Tag:
1. Anna-Lisa
2. Kendra
3. Shayla
4. Deanna
5. Lori
6. Vicky
7. Nola

Tags Galore!

I decided I was going to finally catch up on some tags. And apparently they all have to do with numbers. Here's the first: Find the 4th folder in your pictures folder and the 4th photo within that folder. Post the photo and talk about it. Sounds easy enough. Here goes:

This is Charlie & Chelsea. They are cute. I took their engagement photos and they used this one (or one like it) as their wedding announcement. (The wedding info was "written" on the wall.) I love the colors. I'm supposed to tag people with all of these, but that's going to add up and I don't know if I have enough different people. So the three I'll choose are Christina, Crystal, & Susie. Have fun!

Blessing of Renewal

Have you ever had the experience of feeling your spirit, your soul, your mind, renewed by one thing or another? And every time it happens, it feels like the first time, and you wish that you had been reminded of this so much sooner and that you could have felt this great yesterday but you are so grateful to feel it now? I attribute that feeling to several things today. One being that I was actually in the chapel(or at least the gym) for most of sacrament meeting and able to sing the hymns. While I spent Sunday School in nursery with Evan, I was able to go to the entire hour of Relief Society today and its been a very loing time since I was last able to do that. Again, I was able to sing the hymns and actually focus on the lesson given and hear the whole of it. And through spending that hour in Relief Society, I was able to realize some things and set some new goals and that is always a blessing. It's amazing how such small things can make such a large difference. And for those who have the Joseph Smith Manual and haven't yet read the chpater about the Prophet's letters to his family, I would encourage you to do it and then to write a letter to someone you love. That's one of my projects for this afternoon...and I'm not going to care if Evan helps me..I'll just tape the paper back together before sending it off. Yay for music, sacred music, and for being renewed so that I can continue on in a positive way.

Halloween Priorities

Sometimes I think that I want to be this amazingly crafty mom who is not only on top of life, but can make the holidays an awesome experience. From this post about Halloween, you'll see that I shouldn't try to fool myself because I'm much more into the holiday stuff that we did in the previous post.

I did try. I had plans. Some of them happened. Most of them didn't. Doesn't this sound awesome: At 10am, take the boys to the grocery store where they were holding a trick or treating through the departments. Evan would be a farmer with a "John Deere" stroller, Ryan would be a bumblebee in our front carrier and I would be his flower. (Aaaww...) Then at 5 we'd go around to the apartments in Heritage Halls to do some trick or treating and basically just show off my adorable children because we don't really need the candy. Maybe if we had time, we'd finally carve the pumpkin that we picked at the pumpkin patch last week and let Evan play with the gooey insides. Great plan right?

Here's how it really went down...at 10am, bee & flower costume not even in existence, "John Deere Green" chorus running through my head as I stare at the posterboard being eaten by Evan. At 11, Farmer Evan in John Deere stroller and I in Oliver's cowboy hat head to the Central Building where I have to gather some things for work. We get back and I continue to work on my plan for the disaster scenario the hall advisors will have to go through at 2pm. At least the John Deere logo looks as cool as I had hoped it would. Come 5 o'clock, I realize that I haven't had time to make dinner and that food is much more important than showing off my adorable children, so we go to the cafeteria to eat. Afterwards, as I started to clear the table off, I realized that last Friday's pumpkin was already rotting and was leaving a little mark on the table. So that went directly to the dumpster. That was Halloween for my family. For me, it wasn't quite over yet because at 8 I was responsible for spending 3 hours at the area dance where we had the job of making sure the dress and grooming standards were being abided and that nothing bad happened.

So Halloween, I'm not exactly sure if I'm a big fan of you. It is fun to get dressed up and to see all of the little ones dressed up as little animals and little people, but you're just an excuse to have a party or have a dance and get together with other people and look funny. And yes, sometimes you're a really good excuse to eat candy. Thankfully, we successfully avoided that problem. I do feel bad about little Ryan not having a cute first Halloween picture, but you know...they won't care. In a few years when he starts to think about it and wonder why, he'll know I loved him...right?

I do want to say thanks to Emily for giving Oliver and I an excuse to get dressed up. While this is a costume, its also a dream we have...to go on vacation...relax somewhere exotic...

Doesn't Oliver look like he's ready to go right now?

And little Ryan, I do love you. This picture isn't a good one of you, but its proof that you were at least wearing black which would have been perfect for your little bee costume. Don't tease me about it too much when you're older...