so much to say...

first things first...
yesterday was my brother-in-law's birthday. of course, i was a little wrapped up in my own little self and forgot to call. so, happy belated birthday chris!!! let me just tell you a little about this fun guy. first of all, chris is just a couple of months older than i, and so we "get" a lot of the same things, because we're close in age and heard the same music, watched the same movies, etc. so, he's my biggest competition while playing scene it or any other useless knowledge type games. chris is apparently a great musician, but i've never heard him play. he's a lot of fun to hang out with. he's a great husband to my sister, and great dad who really loves his girls. that's about all i know about him, because he hasn't been a part of our family very long. so i'll be writing much more about him next birthday hopefully! hope you had a great day chris!

next, ella's pre-k class went to the great pumpkin farm this week. the parents got to accompany their sweethearts and we had a great time. we did the hayride, picked a pumpkin from the field, saw a ridiculous puppet show involving chicken puppets, fed the goats (ella threw the food at them), and played on the little playground. all in all, a successful field trip.
next, we had a little lunch for this cute girl. she's havin' a baby, so we thought she needed a party. we had lots of friends, delicious food, darling gifts, and a super fun time! we love heather!!!!
then, ry and i went to the sabres (buffalo hockey) game last night. we love going to the games. they are sooooo fun. action packed! last night was particularly fun because we witnessed some wicked-awesome fights! also, the sabres beat vancouver.
also, if you think i'm wearing a potato-sack for a sweater, i'm not. but it sure looks like it.
also, for your information...my husband and two darling little princesses are in the attic at this very moment. that certainly is unconventional, you may be thinking. i concur. although it doesn't really matter what i think, because they all ignore me and do whatever they want anyway. ryan's putting canned lights in aftie's room. yay for that, but boo-boo on my princesses in the attic.

holiday weekend

the girls have been off school since thursday. we've been playing almost everyday. here are the highlights.
first off, here's ella before we left for the children's museum. i wish i had gotten a better picture of her with her wheeled suitcase packed. she seriously looked like great aunt edna ready to depart for her winter in florida! the hat, the matching warm-up suit, the comfortable shoes, and don't forget the rolling suitcase... i tried so hard not to laugh.
on saturday we spent most of the day in the car waiting in traffic to get to the fall festival in ellicottville (wny ski country). we made our way out to the pumpkin farm with the rest of the city folk to expose our children to farm life. the girls both rode a horse, with the bike helmets safely buckled. i doubt anyone in real farm life wears a bike helmet to ride horses. seriously.
here's ella...(also, notice it's still shorts weather here!!!!!!!)
tonite, we carved our gigantic pumpkins. the girls wanted double-faced pumpkins. so, each pumpkin has a face on the front and one on the back. we're very creative.
we also did the following:
grown-up night out (friday night) to lazertron. we did go-karts, a crazy game involving slow-moving, hard to control bumper cars and a ball. then we ended the night in a sweaty game of lazer tag. it was seriously a fun night. this was my friend kari's surprise birthday party planned by her husband. (sounds like a boy's idea of a super-fun party, don't ya think?)

the girls and i shopped for new shoes. aftie ended up with black patents, and tall brown boots. ella scored a brown patent pair of mary janes. very cute.

the girls and i also hit the farmer's market this afternoon and picked up a gigantic bag of apples. ryan laughed and said, "what? are you making applesauce or something?". no, but i'm gonna make something...just you wait.

also, have you heard of scentsy candles/warmers,etc? my friend christi is going to be selling them. she's in arizona, but i have not even heard of them. they sound lovely though and wondered if any of you kids have them?

a big happy birthday to you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE 2ND LADY FROM THE LEFT!




















today is ryan's mom's birthday! we hope she has a wonderful day. she is one cute girl, don't you think? she has the best laugh and biggest smile! and did i mention her heart? she has the biggest heart!
ryan's mom is such a loving, kind, thoughtful, gentle, sensitive person. really, she shows such love to everyone, but especially her family. she is so accepting of all of us "new" children (in laws) and shows us that we are just as loved as the children we married.
she's an amazing grandmother and can sit and play with the kids for hours. she is so much fun and always gets the kids going on a project. i'll never forget the first time we left afton with her while ryan and i left town...when we returned i found that she had bought scissors for afton and had taught her to use them. i don't think afton was quite 2 years old. i must have looked a tiny bit shocked, because jan assured me afton had done a great job and had been very careful, etc. but she taught me a good lesson...let your kids try new things.
afton definitely has the hulse project gene, as you have seen shown on this blog many times! i think it all started with this crazy lady!
jan also loves to come up with all kinds of reasons for us to get together. she also bribes us with airline tickets to get us together. let's just say that we're easily bribed, because we almost always agree to meet up.
besides all of these great things, she is an amazing mother-in-law. she has shown me so much love and helped me so many times when i really needed it. she is wonderful and i love her.
we hope you have a great birthday!!!!!

photo download

when i downloaded the camera, these are the pictures i found. sometimes i'm surprised by the photos that have been taken. sometimes, i forget afton has used the camera!

the pink puppy is named "pink poodle".



next up... is "spots"

now, you see my amazingly delicious cinnamon rolls from conference weekend. this is my first successful attempt! there have been many other attempts, but most have ended in failure. i'm putting the recipe on my recipe blog. apparently they are low-fat cinnamon rolls.


last, but certainly not least is a picture of two hard-working little pre-school sweethearts. today these two have been working on a stamping project. i taught them to stamp an image and color it in with chalk. they thought it was a great project! they are sooooo darling and enjoy each other's company before, during and after pre-school. (mostly singing barbie songs, pretending to be characters from barbie movies, etc) also, please notice the hairstyles...they both have braids just like "leanna" from barbie and the diamond castle movie.

a tip for you

whenever i feel a sore throat or cold coming on, i drink lots of herbal tea with honey and i run. the last few times i've started to feel sick and i've followed this regimen, guess what? no sickness! try it, you'll see.

my girls

just a warning...this post is going to be all about how fantastic my daughters are, for future reference.

the other night, while listening to elder dieter f uchtdorf at the rs general women's broadcast, i was feeling very much like i should write a few things down. one thing he said was that we all have talents and gifts. it struck me that maybe i should have a family home evening to talk with my girls about this. i try really hard to emphasize how kind and loving and generous and so on, they are every day, but i really felt like i needed to sit down and tell them some of the gifts and talents that I see in them. so, i thought and wrote down a few for each girl and then i shared my thoughts with them in family home evening last night.

ella: fun, full of energy, sweet, gentle, good at writing her letters, a great friend.

afton: creative, kind (especially to animals), willing to share and be a good friend to her sister, funny, easily able to laugh.

i shared ella's first and afton had the sweetest smile on her face while listening and would add in a few items here and there. i think afton will remember this evening more than ella, but maybe that's the point. i don't know. all i know is that i felt like i needed to tell them, and anything positive you hear about yourself will only help you feel better about yourself and others.

when i was pregnant with afton, ryan said how important he thought it was to always use positive words to describe your children. if you say they are bratty, then they probably will be. but if you say they are sweet, then they probably will believe that about themselves. when afton was born, everyone would say how beautiful she was and i thought to myself...i want her to feel beautiful, but i also want her to know that she is smart, kind, loving, strong, etc. so i would tell her (and ella as well), "you are my sweet, smart, strong, gentle, (etc) girl" each day while i was dressing her. i still try to tell them these things when we have a quiet moment. i hope it helps them develop these characteristics as time goes on.

i love both of these beautiful girls and i hope that they will always remember that they are individuals with different gifts and personalities, but that they share one important common thread...that they are both daughters of Heavenly Father.

a few items of business

after a very inspiring coupon-clipping enrichment class, i found myself at the delta sonic (the least expensive gas station that also sells a salmon salad i'm dying to try, seriously) filling up the rodeo. i had a coupon for 3 cents off per gallon. so, i took my receipt and marched right inside that delta sonic and asked if i could use the coupon. the clerk said yes and took my receipt and promptly handed me my 0.39. i couldn't even buy a drink with my savings. (by the way, ryan has never laughed so hard.)

i just have to share how much i love my cute little nursery chickies, all 30+ of them. i am the newly called nursery leader. the kiddos are split into a jr and a sr nursery. today got a little crazy, but it's mostly pretty good. they are all so funny and such individuals! it's so much fun to see them out of the nursery setting. they usually light up, but get a little shy until i give them a hug and then we're good. i love love love my nursery co-workers! they are all so loving and reliable and wonderful. i'm naturally a teeny-tiny bit crazy/stressed/sweaty in chaotic situations, but they make me feel much less frantic. so hooray for amazing people.

also, in the news...ella is hysterically funny. she and her friend, kira, have all the words memorized (not so much the tune) to all of the barbie & the diamond castle songs. in case you aren't up to date on the barbie movies, this is the latest and greatest. they love this movie and especially the "i feel connected" song. apparently kira loves to annoy her brother by singing this over and over! they are very serious about all of it and even have 'magical heart' necklaces that we had to make last week. then they held hands and repeated in unison, "today, tomorrow and forever" (regarding their friendship, apparently), just like leanna and teresa do in the movie. it is difficult not to laugh out loud.

afton is doing great in 2nd grade! hooray for a new school year. she loves her teacher and is making new friends in her class. she is feeling pretty pleased with her newly acquired math skills taught to her by dr. hulse. he taught her a different way to add, and the very next day her teacher taught the same thing. afton said "ms. butenschoen had to teach everyone, but i already knew how to do it!" she was so excited because math is not her favorite subject. way to go aftie and dad.

ryan is off to a meeting tomorrow for the week. he is just thrilled to be going. (read with a sarcastic tone) he's had a few weeks of frustration, but that just makes us appreciate the good stuff even more. he's been golfing on saturday mornings with a few friends and having a great time. i am so glad he can go out and have some fun. sometimes those 5 work days can seem like they'll never end. sometimes saturday morning never looked so good.

i am just wishing for a million or so dollars because i finally feel like doing something with this place we call home. so, while ry's gone this week i just may do something crazy, like paint the door, or hang a picture or two. you just never know...