The Basement is Done...

This is Mark. I was going to put a post on here about how our house is haunted but I guess I'll do that when we get closer to Halloween. Anyhow, we finally have our basement finished. When we bought the house there were a few things down there - one was this strange brick work against one wall that looked like a boarded up subway stop. I just assumed it was a portal to the netherworld and that boards are very effective at stopping the creatures who may be trying to come through (I was wrong though because our house is still haunted). There was also a room where someone had probably spent days stenciling leaves on the walls and ceiling. I know it sounds awesome but in reality, someone spent a whole lot of time making that room really ugly. Anyhow, when we decided to do the basement I tore everything down - and much to my dismay there was just a concrete wall behind the boards of the portal. Not a long dark tunnel like I was hoping for. All I did was the demo for the basement- I'm pretty good at wrecking things. Phil - our friendly neighborhood contractor finished it for us. Speaking of Phil, one day little Jakey was asking JanaRae why one of his friends moms name was Heidi. JanaRae told him it was because her parents named her Heidi, just like we named him Jake. Well, Jake thought for a moment and said "Mom, Phil named me Buddy."
Jake also imparted of his wisdom with me a few weeks ago when he said "Dad... when I eat the bug that makes me sick." I didn't want to know how he learned that. Back to the house. Here is the video of the basement tour.

I love conference weekend!

Well I have been so busy canning lately that I feel like I am losing my mind. I will be happy to do my last batch of pear jam on Monday and then I think I am done for the season. Unless for some reason all of my tomatoes get ripe and I can bottle those too.

I so enjoyed General Conference today. It was a nice break from the day to day things that I do. I am always amazed at how well the members of the twelve know and love each other. I have just recently noticed their tender comments about each other before they start their talk. They almost always bring tears to my eyes. I am so looking forward to another day of conference.

We have Guns!

Mark had his birthday on the 16th of this month. His parents sent him money. He told me he was going to buy a well needed pair of new jeans. I thought that was a great idea. Well Mark ended up spending all of his birthday money on Nerf guns at DI. We have a new favorite game of hide and seek with the guns. It gets pretty intense. I don't know if I will ever get tired of playing that game. We have a huge Tupperware bin of Nerf equipment. Mark says when its full he will be done buying. I thought both of these pictures were pretty cute so I had to post them.

Here is a video so you can experience what it is like hiding in my house. Although typically when we hide we also have a gun. Because I am recording I have nothing to fight back with. Enjoy. Anyone is welcome to come and play. I am sure we will be playing this every week for our Family Home Evening game for a long time. Bring your own gun and ammo.

Much to blog about

I realize I haven't blogged for a while so now I am playing catch up. Here are lots of pictures and descriptions. Enjoy!

I do a play group for my ward. Mostly because I love to play. It is every Tuesday. This week we went to Thanksgiving Point Farm country. Jake insisted on wearing this superman costume. He loves riding the horses.

Here is Ryan looking at the bunnies. It took me several tries to get a picture when he was actually looking at me. He loved the bunnies. I don't know why but I haven't every really like bunnies. I think it goes back to when I was kid and had one as a pet. He was so mean. He used to bite our dog on the cheek and hang on until Nephi (that was our dogs name, Thanks Spence) would shake him off. He was so cruel. We started calling the bunny Lemuel. Now I just think they are terrible pets.

Yesterday I found the park. Well Its not too hard to find I just stopped at it for the first time with my kids. It is across from the temple. My boys loved exploring in all the trees. There is also a huge amphitheater there. It was built during the depression. It is made all out of rocks. We had so much fun. Of course I didn't have my camera handy so these next few pictures are from my phone.

This is Ryan playing in the leaves. He got pretty dirty but I know it won't be the first time.

Here are Ethan and Jake climbing a tall pine tree. They loved doing this. I wish we had some good climbing trees in our yard. I told them they could only climb as high as they could get down from. The did pretty good and I didn't have to make and rescues.

Ethan and Jake found this tree and thought it was really cool. So they asked me to take another picture. ( I have no clue why this is underlined all of the sudden, obviously Mark isn't the one who does our blog)

Last but not least here is the apron I have been working on for the past three days. I just finished it yesterday and I was able to wear it last night while making dinner. I had Mark take these pictures for me. Yes my apron is reversible! I love it. I made one for my sister-in-law for her bridal shower they are so fun to sew.

Jake's First Day

I joined a joy school preschool group and we just started today. We are holding it once a week for 1 1/2 hours. It is so low key. I am really happy about it. Today was Jake's first day of school. He was so excited. We have been talking about it all week. I told him I needed to take his picture before he went. He was so happy and insisted that I took a picture of his back side. Then I insisted that I take a picture of his front side. So I feel the need to post both pictures because I think they are both so funny. What a goofy kid I have.

Yummy peach jam

Today I spent the day making and canning peach jam. I am amazed at what a sense of accomplishment I feel. This is my first time I have ever made jam. I have done a little canning with my mom, mostly pears and peaches, but never on my own. We got a basket of peaches from Mark's grandma and Lee Ann left me all of her canning things when she went on her mission. Thank you! Mark's Aunt Flora stayed at our house last night and so as I was reading and preparing for my canning day I asked A TON of questions. Thanks Aunt Flora for all your help. I feel I did pretty good. I only had to call my neighbor once for reassurance and I managed to only lose Jake once as well. Thank You Rain Jeppson for sending him home.

My grandparents brought me a box of pears from their tree on Saturday so I think I will be ready to move onto those tomorrow.

I always thought it was a little strange to hear people say, "what beautiful fruit" but now that I have my own jam I think its so pretty. I am excited to fill my pantry shelves with my bottled fruit. It will be nice to have such a good looking pantry. I hope I can let my family taste it and not just stare at the beautiful jars.

I just had to take a picture. My entire days work in seven little jars.

Ethan Rocks Our Faces Off

This is Mark by the way - this video is a little older but I thought I would put it up here.

So as an intro for it, in case anyone doesn't know, Ethan is deaf - but he has a cochlear implant so he can hear. One day I figured out how to plug an ipod into Ethan's implant and he LOVED it. Too bad we all can't plug ipods directly into our brain! Anyhow, turns out his favorite song was "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World. He made us put it on repeat and he listened to it for over an hour straight... soooo we (me and Ethan) made a music video using him and the song.

Oh and the fish tank you can see in the background of the video - we hated those fish but never had the heart to flush them down the toilet. So we gave them away for free (and actually I would have paid someone to take them) on KSL.com. The point of all of this is that it's fine that we got rid of them because they will live on forever in this video - and of course our hearts.