Mia's Birthday

Halloween

We came up with the idea to decorate our door, and will Mia's artistic abilities she was able to make it really cute.

We had to get pumpkins to carve. This was our first year carving together.

Our Friends Greg and Michelle Linton came over to carve with us. This was also our first time using our new table and chairs that we had just gotten earlier that day.

The boys had the job of gutting the pumpkins. 

This was way harder then it looks. 

After much exertion the top of the pumpkin came off. This by far was Colton's hardest pumpkin he has ever carved. We don't really know if we gotten pumpkin's or very large gourds. These had a very thick shell on the outside of it. 

So it was a thousand times easier to use a screwdriver to scratch a face into it. 

Our final product

Gourd basket that was arranged and grown by Lorain Potter.

All of these cool little guys came from her garden. 

T's  Endowment 

T and Donovan came up to Rexburg so T could take his endowments out. It was fun to have a little get together and we are all very proud of T. 

We had to put this photo on because of our cousin Jeff(far Right) 

Just a funny photo

Colton and Mia(new birthday dress). Someone let her have her present early. 

The Birthday Girl

We got up in the morning and Mia had to open presents before we went to school. 

Malea got a necklace from the Potters that conveniently matched what she was warring. 

She also got a cool container/box and some new nail polish. Apparently you can never have to many colors. 

This was our old shower head. It would spray water everywhere but your body. It would take Malea a hour just to get the soap out of her hair.

This is the repacement present. Water can come out of both or just one of the heads. I got this in an attempt to speed up and shorten Malea's shower time, but it feels so good that she still doesn't want to get out any sooner.

 P.S. It is also very convenient if you have two bodies to shower off. 

Party Preparations!!

Colton is making a cake. He split the badder into 8 different bowls and then used food coloring in each. Then put half of them in one pie pan and the other four in the other. We had to use pie pans because that was all that we had. 

The bottom half. We cut the top off this one to make a flat surface for the other one to sit on. It looked cool so we took a photo. 

Frosting the bottom.

Frosting both of them. Some how the frosting got on the face. Don't know how that happened.

We made some amazing fresh strawberry lemonade. It was a success.

Left to right, Michelle Linton, Greg Linton, Preston, Eric, Barbra, Mia

We had pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, and chips and dip

Now she is a year older and wiser too.

Taste the rainbow. Hmm I just thought of something. What if you did put skittles in the cake? I wonder how that would work. 

trying to spell things with the Happy Birthday candles.

Cool tree on campus that we walked by. 

Cute photo of Malea in the morning trying to get some last minute homework done before school starts because we partied to much over the weekend. 

Adventures with Mama K

I like to look for rainbows.

Th last rays of a beautiful day.

Freemont Indian Museum and Cove Fort

Mama K took the day off to take us on an adventure. We decided to vista the Freemont Indian Museum. When I was in 3rd grade, I went there on a field trip. They were filming a new introduction movie at the time. I made it into a lot of shots. They are still showing this video at the visitors' center. Colton thought it was pretty cute to see tiny me exploring all the cool Indian ruins and artifacts.

Me climbing out of the play dug-out house in the children's area.

Hundreds of ancient hieroglyphs  can be seen on the faces of the cliffs.

We even got to pulverize some corn on the grinding stone.

The front of Cove Fort.

Colton, Me, and Mama K out side the authentic cabin where you can watch the intro video.

Mama K and out nice sister missionary guide head across the farm yard.

They still maintain a very nice garden at Cove Fort. Behind that is a little black smith's shop and an old hay derrick.

This is the main kitchen at Cove Fort where travelers would have been fed.

Colton got to propose to me again with a "prairie diamond."

This one is for T!

Provo Temple Trip

Colton and I had our first opportunity to serve as the witness couple. It was neat!

Mama K took us to Provo Temple between her bus runs (one fine day...)

The sun was definitely shining brightly!

The Temple Grounds were in full bloom!

We stopped at Andrea's school on the way home and she permed my eyelashes!

Those white things are literally glued to my eyelids and lashes!

The pink stuff is suppose to make the eyelashes curl.

I had to wait for like 20 min. before they started to curl.

The blue stuff was to neutralize the perm. My eyelashes were considerably curlier after this. The perm lasts until your eyelashes fall out and grow back in straight.

Sheena

We are sad to say that good old Sheena passed away on Oct. 7th. She was roughly a year old when I got her at the end of my 5th grade year. From day one, we knew she was a character. She always wanted to be in on the action. She couldn't stand to be left out! She always wanted to be front and center in any pictures that were being taken. If you tried to leave her behind when you were going for a horse ride or somewhere in the truck, she would just chase after you (or rip up anything within her reach if you tried to leave her tied up, i.e. buckets, hoses, ply board, etc...). And, believe it or not, she used to be able to jump in and out of the truck without any trouble, play fetch/catch for hours, go for walks without getting too tired, and jump over the river on the front lawn.

When you were able to sneak out without her, she was always right out front watching and waiting for you to get home. She never failed to be there to greet you as you stepped off the bus after school. She also had a way of precariously placing herself on the edge of the driveway to wait for you to pull in to the garage. She would stand in such a way that you'd almost have to brush her with the car as you pulled in, but she wouldn't move. She'd just watch the car swing dangerously close and then pull in. Then Sheena would wait until you started the close the garage door and then she would come in to welcome you home, as the garage door went back up and the lights flashed their warning. She just couldn't resist being the first thing you saw as you got out of the car! 

 She also had a few brushes with death in her younger years--before she and Mama K got on better terms. She just couldn't help but be curious as to what Mama K was burying in the flowerbeds so she would often dig up the fragile little plants to see if it was anything good... Needless to say, she did grow out of her curiosity. 

There wasn't much that she was afraid of either. She protected the house fearlessly for years--chasing away trucks passing down Powell Road, thunder, and people picking up the missionaries for splits, only to return proud at having chased away the danger. She even waded in on the fight to save Abby (the dog) when all four of the cats cornered and attacked her. 

However, we all knew that her bark was way worse than her bite. She would growl when you'd pet her, but the growl was more like her way of purring or telling you she wanted more than actual aggression. She was a real softy at heart. Sheena always mothered the calves and show lambs--or I guess that's what you could call it when she licked either end or them to show affection. She also spent a long cold winter along side the pony when she was sick and we weren't sure if she was going to make it. Sheena would just lay there and keep her company even after she was better. She also laid by two Molly and Sadie when they passed away. She was as good a friend as any could as for! She knew when to run and play or to listen and lick your face with her purple tongue to tell you it would be okay. 

Sheena was loved by all of us! We'll sure miss this old dog!