What's fun about Halloween ????

Making a big scary dude to sit on your front porch!


Seeing everybody's fun costumes!!

Painting Pumpkins!!

Dressing up as a beautiful bride for school parties!

Having a fun Daddy that will take you trick or treating!

Trick or treating with your cousins!

Getting your pictures taken for the 100th time tonight :)

Happy Halloween!!

My Tasty Weekend

Happy Halloweeeeen!!! This is such a fun time of year, I love it! I love to decorate for Halloween almost more than I do for Christmas! Fall brings such beautiful colors and wonderful weather! I love to break out the crock pot for dinners, throw on my hoodie, and I especially love to bake! I'm no Betty Crocker, but maybe one day! Anyhow, Kyle took off for the deer hunt this weekend, something he looks forward to every year. I decided to kick it at home with the kids and play in the kitchen all weekend!


Kohen and I, sitting on the kitchen floor for a snack! I just love love love this little boy! He was mama's big helper in the kitchen this weekend, testing out all the yummy treats!


And here is my beautiful little Grace! She let me flat iron her hair before pre-school on Friday. So darn cute! She is just loving her 2nd year of pre-school, they do so many fun things! Today they hit up the pumpkin patch and got to bring home a little pumpkin.

Here are my lazy lazy poochie pies! Perfect weekend for snuggling up on the couch and napping all day with the rain.

Aren't they beautiful? I picked these Johnny's up from Farnsworth Farms. I have been doing a little canning this year and wanted to try making a little applesauce. My Mom canned when we were growing up and its something that I decided to try out this year. I really enjoy it! So far I have done salsa, peaches & pears. Next year I will have to try some other stuff as well!

I also picked up these Granny Smiths to make caramel apples. Results below :)

Here is a batch of tasty pumpkin muffins! I wanted to add chocolate chips, but the recipe did not call for them and I think I am going to do pumpkin chocolate chip cookies anyway, so I left them out. The recipe suggested a cream cheese frosting that you can add on top and that might be just what I'll have to do with them! One of the blogs that I follow posted a holiday challenge to bake and freeze 3 different breakfast type items. She is giving away a bunch of prizes and such, but I thought it sounded like fun and was a great idea! So many things freeze so well, and why not take a weekend and load of the freezer with goodies! So pumpkin muffins = item #1.

Item #2 = Banana bread! The recipe I had was not my favorite, so I got on allrecipes.com to find a new one. They smelt fantastic, but I actually did not try them, so who knows! I wrapped them up and threw them in the freezer for later when Kyle is home to help devour them! I love to add a little butter and strawberry jam to my banana bread, so yummy!

Little miss Chloe taking her turn to curl up on the couch! Seriously, how would it be!! Oh and did I mention, the dogs have their own couch?

MEAT! So this is something I have never done, but decided that I would give it a try! While things were baking in the oven, I neglected the dishes and made an even bigger mess! I cooked up 4 lbs of ground beef, and 2 lbs of sausage. I am going to freeze them of course, and this should make thing easier for making dinners! I can just pull out a beef and sausage and whip up some fast spaghetti or lasagna, maybe some enchaladas or chili with the beef? Or one of my favorite of all times, use the sausage for home-made pizza!!! mmmmm!! Well ok, I actually don't make my own crust, but I decided that its time to learn! I just need to get me a stone to cook on :)

MORE MEAT! I also decided to throw about 4 lbs of chicken breasts in the crock pot! At the end of the day I just shred it up and then once it was cool, put them in ziplocks and threw them in the freezer. Yay, you have no idea how excited I am to have this all done! Chicken broccoli casserole anyone?

Banana chocolate chip cookies! One of my favorites that my Mom made growing up! This is not my #3 breakfast item, I just had bananas that needed used up in the freezer. These cookies freeze very well, so after eating some for and appetizer BEFORE dinner, off to the freezer they went! And with all this cooking you'd think I made dinner. Ummmm NOPE, ordered chinese take-out with my neighbor Ashley :)

Curious George here, wanting to know what Mom was cooking now and could he have a bite please! If I didn't give him one, the little stinker helped himself to whatever I had thrown in the garbage!! Naughty naughty puppy!

And more chicken in the crock, day 2!! These are chicken thighs though. I got them for super cheap with a coupon and I have no idea what to do with thighs? Kyle loves the darker meat, so he was in heaven when I brought them home. I had about 3 lbs, so I just threw it on in and shredded it when done!

My cute little helper, sneeking one of the caramels!

Here are my Johnny apples, all cut up and ready for their boiling bath! These made the house smell sooooo good!

When the apples were soft, I just mashed them up and added a dash of sugar! Can you believe it all fits in this jar!? Now that I know how easy it was, I might have to go back for more apples!

The kids eating cornmeal pancakies for dinn dinn!

I made these for the kids and I for dinner Sunday night. I tripled the recipe so I could freeze a bunch for the 3rd item of my Holiday Challenge :) I got a tip to stack them in an empty bagel bag with wax paper inbetween each pancake. Hopefully they taste just as good when you heat them back up!

OK so this was my attempt to make caramel apples! Never would have thought that this would be the hardest thing I did all weekend! I followed the directions on the bag of caramels and it so did not go as planned! The caramel ended up boiling right on out of its bowl in the microwave, so I lost about 1/2 of it! The first two apples turned out ok, but I was not fast enough or something, because it went hard quick! And I was not very good at making them pretty with my crushed oreos and sprinkles. Heheee, guess I'll try again next year and probably use the stove to melt the caramel instead!

My neighbor Ashley and I took our girls to Salsaleedos for dinner Saturday night since both our hubbies were off deer hunting. The food was excellent (I got the chili verde and chili colorado enchiladas, mmmmm) and we even got to hang out with Frankenstein! We also ran into my sister Valerie and her kids while we were there. That was pretty crazy! Her hubbie was off hunting too :) Fall is finally in full swing and I am loving it!

Anybody want to come and clean the dishes I didn't get to Sunday night!?!? SO sick of washing dishes!! But, it was well worth the mess. My freezer is nice and full. I still want to make some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! MMMmmmmm

Summa Time

Summer has been a blast! I can't believe it is about to come to an end already! Fall is my favorite time though, so I start to get excited once the season changes! I have not been that great at taking pictures this summer, but here is a bit of what we have been up to. To start, a picture of my wonderful husband and 2 beautiful children who I have had so much fun playing with in the sunshine! We love to hang outside as a family, just doing whatever!


As you may know, I am a concert junkie! I went with a group of girls to see Luke Bryan at the Westerner and it was a great concert! We got to meet him and take a photo ... but man, what is up with my 8 chins!! yuck!!


Bonnie and I at the concert ... she goes to them all! And she is the one that always hooks us up with back stage and great seats! We always have a blast! By the way .... I am blonde now! I decided that while it was short, what the hell! I was going to try blonde for once in my life! I actually really like it, but I'm sure I'll go back one day. I'm always changing my hair, thank goodness for a fabulous sister that does hair! Love ya Valerie :)

OK this next photo is one of my best shopping trips to Smiths since I started this whole coupon thang! As you can see, I got oodles of stuff! Cereal, baby wipes, pop corn, yogurts, noodles, ketchup, paper towels, crackers, canned fruit, brownies, hand soap, pizza rolls, cookie mix, croutons, gum, whipping cream, bar soap, clorox bleach, fruit snacks, salt, soda ... I think I named it all! I have really learned how to save $money$ with my coupons, and I don't think I can ever shop again w/o them!!


This is my reciept from the shopping trip above! It is actually wrong because I got $5 cash back (I was charged wrong on my canned fruit). So for everything above, total was $156.84. I paid a total of $32.55 and saved $124.29!! How sweet is that!! I don't do this great on every shopping trip, only when Smiths has their big sale where they round up your coupons. BUT, I do save at least 50% on my groceries, EVERY TIME I go!! It's an awesome way to save money!! But I won't lie, it does take time to clip those coupons and a little longer to shop! It's worth it to me!

Kyle and I on our annual camping trip to Bear Lake over the 24th of July! We look forward to this every year! Its so fun to just play and relax on the beach, we love it! This time I finally got me a raspberry shake and it was yummy!! We went with Tracy & Nick, Sheena & Travis and their famililes. Thanks guys, it was a blast!

Kohen had fun playing with the mudd and any stick and rock he could find :) I tried to take him out in his tube, but he just wanted out so he could run on the beach and Mom could chase him! Cute little stink!!

And here is my beautiful little Grace!

We always stop to see Kyle's Grandma Biggs in Preston, Idaho ... and we have started to go up and visit Kyle's Dad up at his property as well each year. Its not too far from the lake so its nice to go up and visit with him. One of these years we need to take our trailer up and camp with his Dad!

This is something that Kyle has wanted to do for the kids and check - it - out!!! How cool is that! Kyle just busted out the hammer and nails and put this together one weekend! The kids love to play in it! All he needs to finish really is the shingles on the roof. There's carpet and all inside! I think he did a fantastic job, love you babe!

And last ... our garden!! This is only part of it :) Kyle has done an amazing job with it this year and we have been enjoying fresh veggies with our dinners! There is nothing better than fresh salsa or a garden salad, right from your own dirt!! Yumm!!! I am supposed to attempt canning salsa this year since we have ten thousand tomato plants!! Eeek!!! We will see how that goes :)

SpRiNg TiMe

OK I have been slacking on the blog, so this post is going to be huge!! Here is what spring time has brought us so far ... and the 1st few pictures are of little miss Grace who just finished her 1st year of pre-school! She has had so much fun and learned a ton!! I enjoy picking her up from school and hearing all about her day! The 1st picture is actually from when we were camping and Grace wrote her name in the dirt with a stick! I just had to take a picture, so cute!!


All dressed up and ready for her pre-school program!!


They all did such a good job, I was so proud!!


And another picture outside, what a beautiful girl she has become! We are excited for another year of pre-school, and then it will be off to big kid school. AHHHHHHH !!!!

We had a birthday party for Kohen at the pool by our house! It was so much fun, thank you to everyone who came! It was a huge success!!! We BBQ'd hot dogs, had lots of good food, swam and enjoyed the beautiful day! Happy Birthday to my baby boy :) I decided to make cup cakes since I bought a nice cake on his actual birthday. I love to bake, so it was fun for me :)

Me and Kohen in the pool! It really is such a nice little pool thanks to a bunch of our neighbors who have ran it over the years! We really don't come too much, but I think we will start now that the kids are not babies and I am not prego!

Mom, Addi and Hopee! So many people showed up to the party, thanks again everyone!

Kade, Brookie, Ayla, Grace & Marissa, enjoying some birthday cupcakes!

Violet and Teyah. Love your hat V!!!

My beautiful sis'n'law Andrea, enjoying the sunshine!

My cutie pie Gracie, loving the pool! I really need to get her into some swim lessons this year, she loves the water!

Me and my hunnie, enjoying the pool party!

Grandma 'Ne and Mark chillin under the shade!

My long time BFF Heather and her hubby Steve dropped by Kohen's party, thanks guys!! (look Heather, you made the blog!!) Love you Heather, I don't know what I'd do without you in my life!

My little man is now 1 years old!!! I can't even believe it! Thinking back to 1 year ago when he was born, its just the most amazing experience you could ever have in your life! I love my kids soooo much, they have been a major blessing in my life!

Yummmmy ... birthday cake!!!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Kohen, Happy Birthday to you!!!

One of his favorite toys ... a ball :) And then he got some toy trucks of course and a new swim suit for his party!

Grandma Sherrie and Grandpa Dennis came over for dinner on Kohen's birthday. Sherrie's birthday is a few days before Kohen, so we had them over to celebrate :)

Here are a bunch of pictures from our Memorial Day camping trip with the Hartleys! It was beautiful weather and such a nice camping spot! We had a blast! So as for the picture below, do you love how Valerie holds her gun?? tee hee !!

Aren't these just the cutest little girls ever!!! They had so much fun running around together :)

I really needed something for Kohen while camping and this was perfect! He loved to be pulled around with all the kids and play!

And here is the oldest of all the cousins, Breanne the sharp shooter!!

Kyle and his bb gun ... looking for something fun to shoot!

Me and my baby boy, relaxin under the shade :)

Gotta play some horse shoes while camping! Tatum and Breanne!

Such a big boy in his chair!! hee hee I love this pic :)

Hope and Scott ... they came up for the day with their kids since we were camping pretty much in their back yard .. LOL. My little family stayed at the Hyatts the night before we came camping. It was fun to visit and let the kids play!

Me and my man ... coffee and a gun, what could be better than that?

My always looking beautiful sis Valerie! Mwahhhh! Can't wait till our next camping adventure!

Mmm mmm mmmm ... strawberry jam!! I never knew just how easy it was to make! I made 4 good size jars from 3 small boxes of strawberries. I actually bought 5 things of strawberries and 5 things of cool whip. Why you ask? Well here we go ... I have become a coupon FREAK! It is so much fun, you have no idea!! I went to a coupon conference and have now become addicted to coupons and killer deals!! I bought my strawberries on sale 3/$5, and then they had a peelie coupon on the strawberries to get $1 off when you bought cool whip too. WELL, cool whip was on sale for 99 cents, so it was like it was FREE. AND you got back a $3 catalina coupon for your next shopping trip. SO 5 strawberries/5 cool whips for $5.35 (or $0.53 each)! ummm WOW :) But anyway, we are still plugging along with our Dave Ramsey plan and I wanted to find another way to save money. Coupons was the answer! It is amazing what you can save when you buy stuff when its on sale and then add a coupon! Plus I get 3 Sunday papers each week (yes 3!) and so when something is a killer deal, I stock up and get 3 of them! For instance, I just got a $2 off Pampers wipes coupon (3 of them). Well the price at Target was $1.97 for wipes, sooo what did I get ... 3 things of Pampers wipes FREE!!! Great way to stock up your shelves with food for emergencies! There are so many bloggers out there that do the homework for you and you can seriously save so much money on your groceries! I now save 50% or more on my groceries every time I shop, and I get tons and tons of stuff for FREE! Love it!!

Lazy bones Rocky!! The dogs own my couch ... I seriously can't wait to get some new ones that are for humans only!!! :)

Kyle's favorite weekly chore, mowing the lawn!! This is our back yard, another things the dogs rule! But we do have a good garden growing up along the fence now, all thanks to Kyle! And our front yard looks amazing. Kyle loves to be outside and digging dirt ... I like to sit and watch :)

One thing we really enjoy in the spring and summer time is our fire pit! So nice to kick back in a chair and watch a beautiful fire! Love it! We BBQ a few nights per week when its warm outside, so we use our patio quite a bit.

My 2 beautiful girls, Grace and her BFF Chloe. Kyle recently started letting Chloe sleep at the foot of Gracies bed. They both are happy sleepers because of it!

Kohen LOVES to be outside! He loves to explore and find rocks and sticks ... and of course eat a little dirt!

AND ... Look who is walking!!!! My baby boy is growing up so fast!! He zips up and down the stairs and gets in to absolutely everything! Such a naughty little stinker, I just love him!! He is so much fun! Welll until next time, ta ta!!!