Going Private...

We have decided that we are going to make our blog private and that means that only readers with an invitation can read our blog. It will not be available to everyone. If you would like to continue to have access to our blog, please send us your e-mail address as a comment on this post. We will then send you an invitation through your e-mail.

Call me paranoid or whatever you want but I was pretty nervous about blogs after watching an episode of Oprah the other day. This girl was on Oprah and her ex-boyfriend had gotten so mad over their breakup that he copied a picture off of her blog and posted an adult services ad on Craig's List about her giving her name, address, and other information about her. Later, as a result of this ad, she was brutally raped and almost killed. I was pretty shocked over the whole thing and Oprah explained something that I had never thought of, once you put something on the Internet it is not yours anymore, anyone can get it. Scary really if you think about it!

I really enjoy blogging and it has been a great way to journal all of our adventures as well as kind of scrapbook all of our pictures. For that reason I am going to continue to blog for posterity's sake but I am doing it with what I hope is a little more protection.

I would love all of you to continue to follow our blog and I really enjoy the comments you all make on our posts so if you would like, please send us your e-mail address. Thanks!

Bloomington Stake Picnic

Every year the Bloomington Stake has a huge picnic for the entire stake and neighborhood. It is always fun to go and enjoy our neighbors and the entertainment not to mention the free food.

We had Emily's favorite food, hot dogs and WATERMELON! She loves watermelon and ate three slices! After eating, we had fun playing on the train and the bouncy houses.

Emily loved bouncing in the bounce houses. She is finally big enough to go by herself with a little help from dad and the neighbor girls.

We especially loved going down the huge slides. The neighbor girls, the Simpson's, had a good time helping Emily on the bouncy obstacle course and the smaller slide, and I really liked going down the big slide with Emily.

The picnic was really fun and a great blessing too. Russell used our truck and four-wheeler trailer to help set up the chairs and tables as well as take them back to the church afterward. While they were setting down everything the stake presidency announced that they had a lot of leftover uncooked hot dogs and buns so if anyone wanted some they could have them. We are having hot dogs for Emily's birthday next week so we decided to get some of the leftovers. We received 30 hot dogs and buns as well as ketchup, mustard, relish, and carrots! This will be enough to feed every one at Emily's party and saved us a lot of money, we were so blessed. Definitely another blessing of paying tithing and service.

Dixie Round Up Rodeo

September 16 - 18 was the annual Dixie Round Up Rodeo in St. George. Whenever we go on trips, Emily loves finding the "yeehaws" and "moos" (horses and cows). So we thought she would love seeing the animals at the Rodeo.

We took Emily to the Sunbowl to see the horses and bulls before the rodeo and she loved it. She would run from pen to pen looking at the animals, pointing at them and calling to them.

Later, on Thursday, we went to the Rodeo. It was fun and Emily loved seeing the animals and the pretty Queens and Princesses. The Rodeo Queens and Princesses handed out autographed pictures to all of the kids and let the kids pet their horses. This was Emily's favorite part of the Rodeo.

During the opening ceremony of the Rodeo, we honored the heroes of our community including the firemen, police officers, paramedics, and of course the military. The National Guard brought in this tank as well as flew an Apache helicopter over the Sunbowl and then landed it nearby. It was pretty awesome!

We enjoyed the Rodeo but it was a little long for Emily. She was starting to get really tired about half way through it, and I think we sat too far away for her to see anything so she was getting bored. Russell and I enjoyed watching the calf roping, steer wrestling, bull riding and other events. My favorite event was the Barrel Racing. The riders in this event on Thursday night were all 15 and younger. One girl was only 5!

The next night my mom called and asked us if we wanted to go to the Rodeo with her and my sister Lacie and my Uncle Dick. Russell had to work so Emily and I went back to the rodeo for the second time.

We had a lot of fun at the Rodeo on Friday night. Emily had more fun this night too because she was with all of her cousins. All of the girl cousins had fun getting autographs from all of the Rodeo Queens and Princesses. Some of them even let us get a picture with them. That was really cool because the girls will remember that forever.

Along with the rodeo, the Dixie Roundup equals fun parades. I love watching parades especially the marching bands. Emily loved being with cousins and gathering candy!

Our niece, Cassie, marched in the Snow Canyon Middle School band during the parade on Saturday. I stink at taking pictures so you can barely see her playing her flute on the second row. She said it was really hot while marching and she had to constantly watch out for horse droppings! Aw the joys of marching band!

After the parade on Saturday, we went to my grandma's birthday party at my Aunt Janet's house. My grandma is turning 92 years old and still in great health! Happy Birthday Grandma!

While we were there, all of the kids had a great time kicking and splashing in the pool. We forgot to bring our swimming suits so I would only let Emily put her feet in the water. By the end of the night, she might as well have jumped in because she was soaked but all of the cousins had fun!

We had a lot of fun this weekend.

Felt Mr. Potato Head

Shh... Don't tell, this is for Emily's birthday.

I found this cute pattern for Mr. Potato Head at a blog called Make It Love It at the beginning of the year but I wasn't around a printer at the time so I didn't print it out. Later, when I went back to print it (about a couple months ago) it was GONE!! I guess Hasbro or whoever makes Mr. Potato Head contacted the blogger of that site and told her she couldn't post this because it was too close to the actual Mr. Potato Head and there were copyright laws so the blogger had to delete her post. Can you believe that?! Anyway I was really bummed because I really wanted to make one for Emily. I called my friend, Trista to see if she still had her pattern from the one she made off of Make It Love It and she told me she didn't print it out either she just followed the directions off of the computer. Bummer again! Later she called me and said she had found another site where the blogger had followed the instructions off of Make It Love It and then made her own pattern and posted it on her blog. I was so excited! So if any of you want the pattern, Trista and I have taken the search out of it for you. Just go to this site at Sew Dang Cute and download the pattern.

While we were camping for a week at Fish Lake over the 24th of July, my sisters and I cut out all of the felt pieces we needed for our Potato Heads. We even cut out our own accessories including shoes, cowboy hats, purses, glasses, and earrings. It was really fun and easy. When I came home from camping, I just kind of put my Potato Head aside and forgot about it until a few days ago. I realized I better get him finished if I am going to give him to Emily for her birthday in a couple weeks. I took all my pieces and sewed, glued, and stuffed them all and put together this way cute Mr. Potato Head. I made enough pieces to have a Mr. and a Mrs. Potato Head. I might make another body later so Emily can had both but for now the Potato's gender is mixed.

I attached a little pocket to the back of my Potato to hold all of the extra pieces but once I stuffed the body I realized the pocket was a little too small. Besides that, the Velcro on all of the pieces sticks to the inside of the pocket and to the other pieces making it hard to put pieces in it so I am going to just make a little drawstring bag to put everything in.

Emily already loves it (she was there when I made it). She asked me, "That Emily's smile face?" I couldn't lie so I just said maybe.

16-week belly

16 weeks down, 23 weeks to go...

The baby bump has began and I have gained a total of 5 pounds so far. Emily wanted to show off her belly too. She is so funny when we do something she wants to do she says "Emily do it too?" When we ask Emily what she wants to name her baby brother/sister (that's what she calls it "brother/sister") she says "Baby Apple." I think it is a cute name but Russell objects.

At the doctor's appointment we were able to hear the baby's heart beat. It was so cool. Last month, the doctor was kind of searching around to find the heartbeat but he kept just hearing mine. Then, I think the baby was hiding because the doctor put the microphone thing down near the bottom and there it was, this tiny little whoosh-whoosh sound, the heartbeat. It was cool to hear the difference between my loud heartbeat and then the baby's mini heartbeat. This appointment the doctor found the heartbeat right off and it was louder this time. My doctor said it was good and strong which is great news!

I have been feeling a lot better lately and the sick feelings have gone. I think I am allergic to the prenatal vitamins I am taking because within a half hour of taking them, I puke. I asked my doctor for a different prescription and he gladly gave me one. I hope these will be better.

Applesauce

After getting home from Idaho at 1:30 am, we had to wake up early in order to get our Bountiful Basket and Russell had to go to a Trauma Conference for CME hours. This week in the basket we ordered two cases of Gala apples. The apples are so good. Emily and I spent all day Saturday at my mom's making applesauce and apple butter.

The applesauce turned out really good and it tastes great! As you can see, Emily loved the applesauce and even asked for seconds.

While my mom and I were processing the apples, we used her apple peeler. We thought it was great that we didn't have to peel the apples by hand. I peeled while my mom cut and cored. Then while I was waiting, I looked at the apple peeler box and realized that the peeler would core and cut too when you put on a certain attachment! We tried it and it worked great. We wondered why we had not done this on the first batch. The second batch of apples went a lot quicker! The apples were cut, cored, and peeled all in one swipe it was awesome.

We cooked the apples with Red Hots making them have a cinnamon flavor and then we sweetened them with sugar, nutmeg, and cloves. So good! We also made apple butter but we didn't cook it down long enough so it actually turned out to be apple cinnamon jam. Also very good. In all we made 21 quart jars of applesauce and 20 pint jars of apple butter. It was so nice to spend time with my mom and learn a little more about canning and provident living!

Nampa, ID

On August 10 Russell had a paramedic job interview in Nampa, ID so we headed up there on Thursday. Nampa is about an hour outside of Boise, ID and about 10.5 hours from St. George. Originally, Russell was just going to go alone because tax return extensions are due on Sept 15 so it is busy at work, but Thursday morning I decided I could miss one day of work to go with him and I'm glad I did. We left at 12:30 and drove for what seemed like FOREVER!! We did make one pit stop in Orem, UT to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts! This is our tradition. Every time we go up north, we stop at Krispy Kreme's for our doughnuts.

Once we passed the Utah border into Idaho, this is what we saw for 300 miles...nothing but fields! It was definitely a long drive.

We got to our hotel in Nampa at about 11:00 pm. We were glad to get to our room and go to sleep. The next morning, Emily and I took Russell to his interview at 7:30 am and then we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. While we waited for Russell to be done, Emily and I went swimming. When we got to the pool, however, the pool was closed but the hot tub was open. We couldn't go in the hot tub because of the heat so we just put our legs in it and kicked and splashed. This was okay because that is what Emily likes to do anyway and I didn't really want to get completely wet. Afterward, we got cleaned up, packed our stuff in the car and went to get Russell.

Russell said that his interview went well. He had to take a written and practical test in addition to the interview. He said he felt good about everything but the job was not actually what we thought it was. We thought the job was for the ambulance service in Nampa city which has a very large call volume and would offer a lot of experience, but the job was actually for Wieser, ID which is a little town just outside of Nampa. Wieser only has about 6,000 people so the call volume for that ambulance service is only about 1-3 a day. Russell doesn't think he will get very much experience here so we don't know if we will take this job. Russell works for Ivins Fire and Rescue and they have a similar call volume so we think it would be better to stay with Ivins than move close to 700 miles away.

Our trip was not a total waste though, before heading home, we stopped at the Burlington Coat Factory in Nampa because I had never been to a BCF and I had heard they have good deals on clothes. I was so excited to find out that they sold maternity clothes! This is the first store I have been to that had maternity clothes. When I was pregnant with Emily I had to order all of my clothes through catalogs or the Internet or find used clothes at the DI. I tried on so many clothes and got a few new outfits. I was great. As we left the store, we heard this really loud crash. Russell said that was a car wreck and ran to the intersection. When he saw that one car was rolled on its side, he yelled to me to grab his medic bag and hurry. It was so scary. I didn't see what happened but it looked like the car turning left had tried to shoot the gap and was hit on the passenger side by the oncoming car. The car that was hit was on its side and the the other car's whole front end was smashed in and you could see tire marks on the hood. Neither of the drivers had seat belts on but luckily no one was hurt too bad. There were people standing all around trying to help but when Russell said he was a Paramedic, everyone stepped back and let him take charge. He was even able to make the call in to the dispatch and give report to the medics who had just interviewed him for a job!

We headed home at about 1:00 pm. Another 300 miles of nothing but fields... One nice thing about the drive though was that we got to cross over the beautiful Snake River a few times.

Emily had to take a potty break so we just happened to stop off in Twin Falls. This was a good place to stop because it was right by a look out point for the Snake River. I had no idea how big the river was but it is huge and very pretty. One of these day, I am going to go up there and go fishing for the massive sturgeon fish. These fish are as big as boats! Anyway, we stopped at this visitor center and parachuters were getting ready to jump off this bridge. I wish we could have stayed to see them jump but we still had a long trip ahead of us.

When we saw this sign on this truck, we had to take a picture of it. If only it said "Long Road" instead of "Long Load" it would have described our trip perfectly!

We finally got out of Idaho and back into Utah and the trip went a little quicker until we got to Nephi... My sister Lacie called us and asked if we were going to stop by her house in Fillmore. I felt bad but said no because it was already 8:30 pm and we were only in Nephi and still had about 3 hours of driving to go. Cursing us, she jokingly said "Well don't call us if you break down." Well we stopped to get dinner at Subway and when we got back to the car, we realized Russell had locked the keys in the car when he set them down to get Emily out of her car seat. A perfect cherry on top huh! We tried everything to get the door unlocked but nothing was working mostly because we didn't know what we were doing with the hanger. We walked to the nearest gas station to see if we could use their phone book to find a locksmith. Unfortunately, no one would answer their phone so Russell went back out to see if he could get the hanger to work again while Emily and I stayed in the gas station so Emily could eat dinner. Meanwhile, Russell called Lacie and thanked her for cursing us. While he was on the phone, a police car pulled up and he flagged them down. Like an answer to our prayers, the police were able to use some tool to unlock our door. We were so relieved!

Finally, we were back on the road at 10 pm. By the time we got to Beaver we were exhausted. We pulled off in a rest stop just outside of Parawon and took a little nap. We slept for about 15 minutes when Emily woke up crying. I think she was mad to still be in the CAR! So we got back on the road and FINALLY made it home at 1:30 am. We had never been so happy to see our house! Even though the trip was long, we had a fun adventure and were glad to spend time together.

Pine Valley

We spent our Labor Day weekend at home this year. Russell had to work on Saturday and I had to go to church on Sunday to help my primary kids review all of their Primary Program songs. Our program is in 6 weeks and I hope we will be ready! So on Monday, we headed up to Pine Valley to beat the heat and have picnic.

The trip was really fun and relaxing. We cooked hot dogs and I made potato salad (which was really good if I do say so myself!) I was really surprised that Emily loved hot dogs! She is not really a meat eater but she downed her hot dog. After lunch we went walking along the river. We wanted to put our feet in the water but it was freezing. Emily spent much of her time finding pine cones or sticks to throw in the water.

This is one big stick Emily found. She tried to push it over so she could throw it in the water but what she didn't realize was it was a little tree in the ground. It was so funny.

Below, Emily and I are playing "Pooh Sticks." We throw our sticks in the river on one side of the bridge and then go to the other side to see who's stick comes out first.

I think Emily's stick won mine!

Afterward, we drove to the lake so Russell could to fishing. It was just nice to relax in the shade and read a book while he fished and Emily through sticks in the lake. I took Emily for a walk to look for sticks and we found what Emily called a "big 'tick" it was actually a small log! I helped her pick it up and together we chucked it in the lake. It was awesome. After Russell realized he was getting skunked and not catching anything, we packed up and headed home. We had a great day and Pine Valley is so beautiful and nice this time of year. We are thinking we want to have Emily's birthday party up there this year.