Fall Leaves!

This seems to be my childrens favorite time of year, again we have some pretty funny photos. Skylar wasn't so happy about raking and having kids jump into or run through the leaves, he even had 3 of his friends helping. He gave up after a while, deciding to try another day when the two youngest siblings are in the house.





Alas, we have a couple of inches of snow covering the ground and the leaves. Skylar didn't get the chance to finish them.

Yummy Pumpkin Butter Recipe!

Okay so I've neglected posting a few posts. Actually I forgot to finish them and just realized they were there. This was in October.

Friday while helping Dalton's teacher at school I had the pleasure of tasting Pumpkin Butter on bread. I had never tasted Pumpkin Butter until that day, talk about delicious. It's so good you could eat it by the spoonful. I decided to post the recipe, it's very festive.

At first Dalton protested that he didn't like butter, but his teacher has a one taste no thank you bite. They have to at least try one bite. He bit into it and ate the whole slice of bread with pumpkin butter. Only one child out of twenty-three didn't finish their slice. Pretty amazing odds if you ask me.

Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Spread

4 oz. cream cheese spread (softened)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or if you don't have pumpkin pie spice add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a small bowl, beat softened cream cheese, sugar, and syrup till creamy.
2. Add pumpkin, spices and vanilla and beat till smooth.
3. Refrigerate at least one hour and enjoy!

Last week was Dalton's birthday we celebrated by going to McDonald's with three of his friends, then having cake and ice cream at the house besides opening presents and playing with them of course. It was a lot of fun minus the fact that his cake didn't turn out as well as I would have liked but I tried something different.


My husband doesn't like rolled fondont so I tried it with butter cream frosting and melted chocolate. It turned out rather weird I'm still learning what works and what doesn't. This has definately proven the fact that I would enjoy taking classes and learning some more.

Starting school

Dalton started school a week ago, he was so excited on his first day that he kept asking me if it was time to go the minute he woke up. The sad part was he had to wait till noon. It was a long morning for both of us.

When I dropped him off today he told me he is really happy that he gets to go to school and be around other kids. He enjoys writing, painting, coloring and just having other kids his own age to do it with. I'm glad he enjoys it.

The Baker Family Reunion

Every year in August Jim's mom's family has their reunion. This year was a little bit different, with more of the family passing away I think things are changing. We did the auction after lunch, which we usually do. We ended up buying a bunch of stuff from the auction just to raise some money. There were a lot of things that we were the only bidders. Now I understand why Jim's mom bought as much as she did, when she was alive. Someone has to help make it so they have enough money to do the reunion. They also had a kid raffle, they asked the families to bring an item for each child that was going to participate. This year there just weren't that many items, at least not enough that every kid could participate and possibly get something. After that no one wanted to play games. They let the kids dig in the sawdust for candy and money, that was okay.

Then they did the candy cannon, this was a big hit.

Ready, stand back and away it goes, candy flying through the air.

The kids had a lot of fun, they even tried shooting water balloons out of the candy cannon. The balloons kept splashing down just beyond where the kids were standing They even shot some of the water balloons out with the candy, but that was extremely messy.

Skylar waiting for the candy to fly

How many guys does it take to load and fire a candy cannon? They all wanted to fire it off.

Brennan whistling and watching.

Caitlin wanting some candy too! Please share!

Dalton looking for Mom and waiting for the candy to start flying.

Then a water balloon fight ensued, to finish using all of the water balloons that were filled. It was over as quickly as it had begun.

Brown Family Reunion

We have a Brown family reunion every year but this is the first year in a long time that I went with my family. I have only been one other time since my mom passed away and that was when I was almost 8 years old. Do you know how hard it is when the only people you know are the ones that have passed away or have gotten older and you don't recognize them? It's very hard. My son Brennan walked over to the pavillion and came back to tell me he didn't think this was the right place. He didn't recognize anyone. I walked over and it was the right place. I don't think my kids have ever met any of my mom's family, except for Aunt Bessie and Aunt Bernice.

It was a lot of fun I didn't remember any of the cousins, I barely remembered any of my aunts and uncles (of the ones that were there and most of them I had to be reintroduced to) All except Aunt Bessie, she knew who I was and I knew her.

Left to right: Ralph and Roxann Groff, Aunt Bessie, Nikki, Brennan, In front Caitlin and Dalton and in the back Uncle Bob.

Apparently most of my family doesn't go. Out of all of the family Deb and her children, Ernie and His wife and daughter , Ellie and her two kids and Jeanie, Roxann and Ralph, me and three of my four children came. It'll be fun to go next year and get to know and remember everyone. Aunt Sarah and Aunt Bessie said they'll keep coming until they can't anymore.

Deb and Jeanie

My son Dalton

Ernie, Shaylee, Colby and

Tenley

Reunions are so much more than just get togethers. Since my mom passed away it is the only connection I have with any of my moms family. You never know what you've lost until it isn't there anymore. Unfortunetly some of my aunts and uncles passed away before I got to know them. Family is so important and unfortunately my family isn't that close. It just kind of gets put on the back burner.

Left to right: Aunt Delores, Aunt Bessie, Uncle Bob, and Aunt Sarah

I understand that they have a hard time keeping up with us. They actually sent my invitation to my old address and got it back. They don't know where to send it. It's sad that I didn't do my part to let them know where I was at. Of course, I didn't know who to tell. My sister Deb knew where I was, so if they had asked her she could have told them. Oh well, were on the right track now. Even though I did tell them we probably won't be at the same address for the next one, but they can still get ahold of me through e-mail.


It's hard to live in one spot for very long. This next move will probably be our last. I can hope can't I. Some days more than others. You never know, in the world the way it is today, exactly where you'll end up.

Demolition Derby Flix!

I'm trying something new. I tried on my last blog to put a video clip of the Demolition Derby. I tried moving it and then it wouldn't work so here goes my second attempt.

Demolition Derby Fun!

Family Friends and Demolition Derbies what more could you ask for.

Saturday we went the local demolition derby. Things seemed normal to start with, however, they added a new class that involves trucks. I don't think it was quit as good as the cars however. Just because it didn't last as long as the cars.

First they did their regular heats. Top three cars from each heat went on.

Second they did a heat for those who had gotten stuck because of another car.

Third was the truck demolition while everyone got their cars fixed.

Fourth was the top three cars from the first three heats going for the #1 slot.
Last but not least was the bash for the last, which is anyone who could get their cars going from all heats. All in all very entertaining.

Fourth of July Celebration

For the 4th of July we spent it getting our stuff ready to take back home and going through boxes and boxes of papers and saved cards. Why do we save things that our kids are going to just throw out? I actually went through cards and saved some of the front covers and some of the poems for scrapbooking. We are trying to get my in-laws house ready for sale.

We took a break that night to to go watch the fireworks. As Dalton said it was boring. They weren't as good as Logan's fireworks show, but you take what you get. We didn't want to pay for Stadium of Fire tickets so we watched the ones at Thanksgiving Point.

Skylar didn't miss much except for the fear factor that Gabe and Jim induced backing down a road that was just wide enough for the trucks to go down. Of course, there was a drop off on either side.Brennan screamed at Jim to stop, he was afraid of the truck rolling down either side. It really wasn't that steep, but you know how fear works to make it seem worse than it is. We tried to comfort him that his dad was a better driver than that, but his fears outweighed any sort of reasoning. It was pretty funny.Gabe stopped a little way back from us only after Tiffany screamed at him to stop. It was good humor. I just wish I had taken my video camera, that would have been a good funniest home video.

Summer fun!

There is no such thing as I'm bored at our house. We have many activities to keep us hopping during the summer along with going to the school for lunch. They attended scout camp for three days. Brennan got sick and wanted to come home and Skylar ended up coming home because he didn't want to be there without Brennan. There's a friend of mine that my kids are friends with of all of her kids, so we do a lot of things together, this year her kids got long boards for their birthdays, thus everywhere we go they ride their long boards. Of course, they give my kids rides on them. My boys have almost all decided they want long boards for their birthdays. They'll probably change their minds by then but that's okay. We'll deal with that when it rolls around. Probably just a passing fancy, just because their friends have them.

Memorial Day Travels!

Caitlin making the van a fun place to be she played peek-a-boo most of the way to and from Coalville to put flowers on graves.



Skylar climbing on the play center. Playing with Caitlin, Dalton Brennan, Jaden, Kayonna and Gavin.
Caitlin sitting at a park in American Fork taking a break before Mom and Dad left the kids with Jim's neice while we ran to the cemetary to put flowers on the grave.


Tree climbing at Grandpa Hansen's couldn't have been better. Brennan enjoying reading in the tree out front.

Climbing trees is Dalton's new favoritee thing to do. He just figured out how to get into Grandpa Hansen's tree. It's the first year the tree has been big enough for the kids to climb in.Finally done putting flowers on the graves all of them look great.