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I LOVE running!!!

I am not where I used to be as far as running goes.

But I am excited to get there.

I love to run.

It is such a great stress relief.

It makes me happy.

And when I am happy, everyone is happy....right???

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We LOVE to carve pumpkins!!!

Always a good time!

We usually try to carve our pumpkins for our F.H.E. night the Monday before Halloween.

The kids loved it, of course!

Elsie, focusing hard on getting all those seeds out!

Good handful, Cassi!!!

OOOH...scary!

Mmmm...YUCK!!!

Man, look at Madi's RIPPED arm!!!

Do you like how they turned out!???!

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We LOVE a family sick day!!!

Okay, so I don;t love that we are sick...

but it was a pretty fun day...

Stayed in jammies all day.

Unlimited Sprite...to help with the sore throats, and coughs!

Movie watching...

a little bit of competitive Wii.....

Nice warms baths....

And just hanging out together.

Madi, Porter, Brent and {kinda} me...are the only ones not feeling too good.

Cassi hasn't had a fever yet, she coughed a little Friday, but nothing since.

Elsie had a bit of a fever Friday and Saturday...but she has been good all day today.

Hopefully we are kicking this in the BUTT!!!!

Wish us well!

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We LOVE this CD!!!!

One day we were watching CMT.

They were talking about some upcoming singers...DUE WEST.

So we looked them up on youtube.

Turns out they, well two, are LDS.

We started looking at some of their songs.

Then we started watching other related songs.

Amazing songs.

Beautiful songs.

Then we found this song, which is written by Jason Deere, who is DUE WEST producer and honorary 4th band mate.

Okay...is that not the best???

Is that not so beautiful!?!

Well, of course we HAD to have the CD.

The girls listen to it every night...

Usually just "Somewhere there's a mountain", but they love them all.

Today while we were cleaning the girls rooms Elsie was singing along with the song.

Now, I know that Elsie has a bit of a language of her own, but I think even the everyday person can tell she is singing along.

This girl knows all the words.

And it is just adorable!

I think you need this CD.

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I LOVE chore charts made by Madi......

It says:

Chores for family

Madison-Drink for dog, make bed, clean room.

Cassidy- Food for dog, make bed, clean room.

Elsie- Pick up toys - don't cry.

Porter- Stay out of our way - stay asleep - don't have poopy diapers til we're done.

Mom- dishwasher, load and rinse. Laundry.

Dad- clean kitchen and table. Laundry.

Not too bad!

My favorites are Porters jobs!!!

So funny!

If only this was all it took to clean this place up!!!

The kids weren't too bad today.

It is hard when they are sick, cause they are ornery!!!

We've got coughs, sore throats and fever.

You might want to stay away.

By the way, our board is an old window given to me by Elsie's PT.

It is huge!

One section is magnet, one is cork (covered in fabric) and two places to write on.

It works out great!

Obviously Porter is doing NONE of his jobs!

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I LOVE being a Mom!!!

I was worried I wouldn't.

Love being a Mom, that is.

I did a lot of babysitting as a kid, and didn't really like it.

So I was worried.
But you know what????

I love it.

The toys everywhere.

The dirty dishes everywhere.

Endless dirty laundry.

Sick kids...I had to go get Madi from school today cause she has a fever.

Brownie covered fingerprints on the cracked hard-boiled eggs in the fridge...my Cassi loves to snack!

Sleepless nights...Elsie had a rough one last night.

Little boys who seem to pull EVERYTHING out of your cupboards in 1.2 seconds...I will give you one guess who that little boy is!

Diaper change after diaper change.

Scratches, and pen marks, on your leather furniture.

Homework fights.

And you know what?

All that stuff is pretty darn great.

I am definitely not the best Mom in the world.

I have a long ways to go.

I still need to grow up a bit, I think.

But if I can remind myself everyday that I get to be the one to do their hair every day.

I get to be the one to read to them at night.

I get to have the hugs and kisses, then more hugs and kisses, then more hugs and kisses before the bus comes!

I get to paint with them.

I get to rock them and cuddle them to sleep.

I get to cherish these moments.

And that's what I need to do, cherish the moments, cherish my kids.

So if you don't mind...I am gonna go love my kids tonight.....

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I LOVE Brent's innovative mind!

So Porter LOVES the stairs!

I don't love for Porter to be on the stairs.

Wooden stairs and baby's head, no matter how hard, don't go well together!

But we had one big problem!

We couldn't put a baby gate anywhere until the 7th step up...that's no good!

Until Brent came up with this great idea using one of my old suitcases, and our old baby gate!

Isn't it great!?!

Brent is good at that.

Coming up with ways to get around any problem you might have!

(Doesn't Port look cute in his skeleton sweatsuit!!!)

More pumpkin patch pictures!

Here are a few more shots from our family night out together.

Fun times!

Doesn't he look so excited????

(I actually think he was yelling!)

Elsie, a little nervous to stand all on her own on the uneven ground.

She's a trooper.

Cassi...found the one she loves.

Funny thing, this isn't the one she brought home.

While walking back she dropped it and busted it!

Woops!

Madi with her perfect pick.
My favorite boys in the whole wide world!!!

My ever-so-serious, mamas boy!

This is the best I got with the kids all together.

Not so great, but kinda funny.

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We LOVE the Pumpkin patch!!!

Tonight we took the fam to the Berry Ranch.

It was pretty darn fun.

We took a hay ride to find our pumpkins.

The kids had a hard time picking their pumpkins!

I have a lot more pictures....but I am thinking I should focus on my house right now....

But gosh, don't I have a cute family?????

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I LOVE family prayer!

Tonight as Madi said the prayer and said,

"Thank you for this beautiful, kinda windy, day."

All I could do was smile.

I love the simple things kids say in prayers, but that is the stuff we need to remember to be thankful for.

Our family prayers have become better and better lately.

Still hard with two little ones, who want nothing to do with holding still, but so worth it.

We hold hands during our family prayers.

I grew up folding arms.

This comes from Brent's side of the family, and I love it.

First of all, you have to get CLOSE enough to hold hands.

What's better than that when you are saying family prayer?

But I just love the feeling of holding those sweet little hands.

We are pretty lucky to have these sweet spirits in our lives.