Happy Birthday Carrie!!

Happy Birthday Carrie!
Carrie is wonderful because she is hilarious, smart, beautiful and a great baker!
She always finds a reason to laugh and makes those around her happy.

I had to put a picture of her offspring on the blog.. just to show what cute babies she makes! :)

Why do you love Carrie?

Hotel Del Coronado, Go Giants, and Hans Solo

A beautiful hotel built in 1888 on Coronado Island in San Diego.

Maybe a future girl's trip?

Go Giants!

Travis as Hans Solo. He did NOT take the gun to the party!

Travis' pumpkin he carved.

We need to see some pictures of grandkids!

Animal Farm

Since our house is small, and our family is growing, we're exploring all our options here. This is the girls' recommendation:

Our Animal Farm!!

This is called a golden-laced wyandotte. Isn't she pretty? I have 2 of them.


This is a silver-laced Wyandotte. I have two of these, too. One of them is the boss of everyone else, though I'm not sure which one.

One thing I'm loving about chickens is that they are essentially garbage disposals. When I prune a plant, I just throw it back there, and it's devoured. Veggie scraps, uneaten lunches, cleaning-out-the-fridge-produce-I-find-at-the-bottom-of-the-crisper scraps...it all goes to them and they love it. I haven't been able to add anything to my compost bin in awhile because these ladies are so good at using our scraps!

This is one of my Silkie Bantams. I have 5 altogether, 3 brown like this one, one black and one white. This one is Rory. Rory has kinda a sad story. We only had him a day or two when Lizzie comes to me and says, "Mom, the chick isn't moving his head." After more inquires, more details follow....she had had the chick in her bed, under the covers and kinda smooshed him all over. He couldn't walk straight, or even keep his head up! I thought for sure he'd die in a day or two....but he didn't! He recovered somewhat, though seems to still be a little wobbly sometimes. So that's Rory!

Rory's Side Shot

Aren't they funny looking?

Our bunny has a funny relationship with the chickens. She seems to really enjoy their company, she always goes back to where they are (she can get in, but they can't get out of the dog run). She seems to charge them occasionally, but I've seen her get charged by one of the silver-laced bosses (she's even been pecked near her eye, drawing blood!). Yet she continues to keep their company! I don't get it. At night she'll go right in the coop with the chickens. If the chickens get let out into the yard, she won't leave the yard- I can't tell if she territorial or what, she just seems to feel the need to chaperone them or something.

We love our animal farm!

Whittle update

I have been without my computer for almost a month, so sorry if it seems I'm MIA. I should be getting it back next week. Troy brought his work one home for the weekend, so I thought I'd post some pics of our recent happenings. The first of October we went down to the sandbar, which is just a big sandy penisula in the Columbia River. Cool thing about it is that I can see it from my kitchen window, and it's a 2 minute drive. It's like our own private beach! Kite boarders also use it too. I remember last year I posted a picuture of the first of Oct. in Big Valley and it was snowy and cold. Much better this year! It's super shallow for quite a ways, so its fun to just let the kids run around and go crazy. Speaking of crazy, we found this nasty salmon on the beach...I'd hate to meet one of these in the water. I guess this certain breed has sharp teeth. They boys were in heaven. I had to put my foot down when Cam wanted to bring it home.

Look what I inherited, for free! I'd been wanting a KitchenAid mixer for a long time, and I am loving it! A lady in my ward (whom I hadn't met yet) called my friend in the ward and asked her if she wanted a mixer (apparently she had 2 of them). Since my friend already had one, she mentioned me (somehow the topic of KitchenAid mixers came up in one of my conversations, with her, and I'm glad it did!) and VIOLA, me and my new BFF. As if I needed any more encouragment to make cookies.

Mom, here's a few pics of our RS meeting. This one with the cute old ladies is the only one from that night, you can't really see the food table decorations, but we had vines, flowers, apples and acorns in vases. Pretty much everything came from the sister in the black shirts' garden.

These were the centerpieces, styrofoam cups spraypainted and filled with dirt, branches with small pears, and painted acorns. I think we tucked a little greenery in them too to add more color.

Audrey lost her first tooth! She was super excited and wanted to Skype Caitlin and Lizzy right away...but alas, no computer :( I told her she could call them, and I keep forgetting. Whenever Audrey reminds me it's always too late, or too early or just something!

Devon has been enjoying band a lot. I know Troy is pleased that he chose to play trumpet. I have no idea how Troy's mom tolerated all the noise. Let me paint a scenario: trying to make dinner in a hot kitchen. Audrey and Alex fighting at my feet, which involves lots of crying and whining. Cameron bouncing a basketball on the floor around the house and Devon walking around BLARING his trumpet and wanting me to listen to a song he's been working on. If he doesn't get it perfect he starts over, if he sees me glance away he starts over....oh my hairs are standing the back of my neck just writing this. I remember always complaining to mom and dad whenever I'd have to go to one of Carrie's 'dumb' band concerts. It's payback time I guess.

And just for fun, someone gave Troy this HUGE apple at work. Serioulsy, the picture doesn't do it justice. It is massive!

Hope everyone is good and enjoying Fall!

Remember These?

Remember these little treasures? Carrie, I don't know why I have yours, but I do. I take it to work. If you want it back I understand. I love that we used to take these to school everyday. Just think of the love that went into hand puff-painting these. Mom, you are SO great! You were so ahead of the times with going green.

Our Chicken Coop!

The nesting box is blocked off for now, when the chickens are old enough to lay, we'll finish that part (and by 'we' I mean Rod...)

All the metal was leftovers from Rod's work..the roof, the window screen stuff, and the square wire at the bottom. The wood used for the walls is wood they use to pack the metal in that gets shipped to Noorda. So it was cheap!! (or "cheep" as the chickens would say....okay, let's all groan together on that one, sorry, I couldn't resist!)

We're CAMPING!

We went to Bothe Napa State Park
Friday night. Travis keeps asking when
are we going camping again - so we just
did it. He was SO happy! We did s'mores
and went hiking to an old wheat grist mill
preserved from the 1850's. We had a tour
and it gives a whole new meaning to the
"Little Red Hen" Audrey would have loved
it. The weather was really nice. Dad even
got poison oak!