It's Autumn-Time, It's Autumn-Time!!

One day in September, the season of fall introduced itself. I noticed it first on this tree:

And shortly after that, the natural reds, oranges, and yellows no longer presented themselves in this form:

Because the colorful hues had been transferred to a much larger scale of display:

And once the colors had manifested themselves, I was on the hunt for more. I wanted to discover the brightest and boldest, the most vivid and colorful trees around. And this is what I found:

Change is evident in the fall in all aspects: the days get shorter, the evenings feel colder, and the vibrant colors quickly fade. Each magnificent display of color must be appreciated right away, because the grandeur is short-lived: as soon as the beauty is displayed for the world to see and appreciate and enjoy and love, the leaves succumb to the surrounding environment, and become lost--falling to certain death.

Dearest Autumn, oh how I adore you! Each year, I fall in love with you all over again!!!

October's desires of the heart

I had a strange thought the other day. I was minding my own business, when suddenly this thought entered my head seemingly out of nowhere. The thought was:

"I wish I had a daughter born in October"

Since then, I've thought over and over about why something like that would just pop into my head. After all, Josh and I know we're done having children. And I feel content with our family of six. And I love each of our boys. And for the most part, I feel like our family is complete. I was really caught off-guard by the whole thought. Although it's a lovely thought, I couldn't understand where the beginnings of the thought would've come from.

BUT, I think that I've finally come to the conclusion that perhaps it had something to do with this photo I took:
A little background on the photo...Ammon's football team played in Anaconda, Montana a few weekends ago. I thought the trees' changing colors on the hillside were so beautiful. I had just taken a few photos of Ammon's football team huddling together at half-time with the pretty fall trees behind them. When I sat back down, I watched these two girls from our town coloring so peacefully on the bleachers. Of course, my boys were off running around and digging in a big sand pit they had discovered and chasing other kids--you know, BOY things. I couldn't believe how still these girls were, how happy they were just to sit and color. There was a light breeze blowing that afternoon, and their little blonde wisps blew across their faces, which didn't even distract their focus on coloring. I sat in awe at the beauty of it all put together-like a perfect composition: the beautiful colors of the trees on the mountain, the gentle breeze blowing the youthful blonde hairs, and the serenity of their peaceful coloring activity. I just had to take a picture.

And every time I look at this picture, I feel like I'm looking at a masterpiece. Created by God. Just for me. For a split second in time. Seeing this photo makes me smile. Seeing this photo makes me feel inner happiness. And, well, seeing this photo makes me long for something that I don't have.

Like a daughter. Born in October.

20,000

Leagues Under the Sea?

No, no--something even better:

My blog is going to reach that many hits today!!!

Are YOU my 20,000th visitor?!!

(Your visitor number is in a little box at the bottom of my right column!)

Unexpected

Winners of the local "Kick, Punt, Pass" football contest in their age division:Out of all 2 entries in the 6-7 year old boy category, Jonah came in 1st and Micah came in 2nd! Ironically, the only reason the twins did the contest was because Ammon entered the contest. But there were a lot more boys in Ammon's age category, and he had a lot harder competition. Ammon was really hoping to win, but didn't. The twins didn't enter the contest to win, but did!

For boys who don't really care for the sport very much, they were both elated with their prize of a new football and have both enjoyed playing with them! And they were also excited about their colored ribbons, and hung them up in their room to display as soon as we got home!

walking along the path of life

Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave,

and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.

--Alice Childress

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.

--Audrey Hepburn

Intriguing or Disturbing?

I consider myself to be a city girl.

This country life is so new to me, and I'm completely unaccustomed to it.

I'd never ridden a horse until I met Josh.

I'd never been on a ranch until I dated Josh.

I'd never milked a cow until after I got married.

I'd never lived on a dirt road until we moved to Salmon.

I'd never driven a tractor until a few years ago.

I'd never fed a pig until last year.

After each new country-life experience I have, I feel like I've accomplished some great task.

And because I'm such a curious person, sometimes I witness things now that I never would've thought I'd see growing up as a city girl. But, living on a ranch, I'm given the opportunity occasionally to see something new and I take advantage of it, just because I'm curious to see how it all works.

Like, for example, I've seen our female horse be mated. Intriguing, but I never want to purposefully watch that activity again.

I've witnessed cows giving birth. It's super interesting, but kind of gross, too.

And I've also watched our male horse be castrated. I took videos and pictures because I thought the whole process was so fascinating, as well as a little disgusting. But, I never want to see it again, or hear that c-rrr-unch sound again, either! {shudder}

And now I've got a new item to add to the list: last week, I looked on as the butcher cut-up our pigs that we'd been feeding and growing all summer long. Except, this time, I didn't purposefully intend to witness the procedure.

The night before it happened, Josh told me the butcher would be coming out to kill and cut-up the pigs the following day. He placed the pigs in a corral right next to the road to help make the job easier for the butcher. Knowing what was coming, I vowed to stay in the house all morning long until I knew for sure the task was done and the butcher was gone.

But much to my dismay, Josh called me late that morning and said he needed me to go give a message to the butcher regarding the pigs. So, I walked down to give the butcher the note, and saw that he had already started the job. He was cutting the skin away from the second dead pig's body. I was horrified, but could not force myself to walk away. Dang my curiousity! So I stayed, whipped out my cell phone, and took some photos instead (hence, the poor quality of these images). After he was all done skinning the second pig and removed its hooves, he attached a hook to the first pig, and pulled a cable from inside his truck until the pig was lifted completely off the ground. He finished removing its skin, cut its head off and split it open.

It was at this point that I started to become very nauseous and sick to my stomache. But, I couldn't just quit watching what I had started. I felt like I needed to see the job to its finish. My brain was saying "suck it up, tummy! we need to finish what we started!". So, I obeyed and I stayed.

After he cut the pig open, all of its inards came tumbling out--the stomache, the bowels, the liver, the heart. Everything. The intestines looked so weird: like one giant squirmy gray snake. I was too shocked at the image to even take a picture of that (luckily for you!). The butcher placed the guts, the head, the hooves, and the skin in the garbage can that he'd later take to the dump, and put the pig on the back hook in his truck and prepared to do it all over again on the second pig.

And it was at this point that I left. My stomache had finally overruled my mind, saying "I did it! Okay?! I watched it. Are you satisfied? Because I'm not, I'm upset. I hope you're happy". And my brain was saying "Yes, I'm very happy now, thank you". And my stomache was saying "Good, then let's go, otherwise you're gonna witness your insides being thrown up all over the ground too". So, I obeyed and I walked back to the house. And the whole way home I told myself over and over "dont throw up, dont throw up, dont throw up". Fortunately, I didn't throw up. Unfortunately, my stomache was sick the whole rest of the day.

When I picked up the boys from school that afternoon and told them what I'd seen, they were all sad that they didn't get to see it! They walked down and were excited just to see the remaining puddles of blood left behind as evidence. So, I suppose it's a good thing I DID take these photos! And I decided to post them, just in case there are any others in the world who find the whole thing intriguing but have never had the opportunity to see what I saw.

Most things that I've had the opportunity to witness on the ranch-life have been more intriguing than disturbing. But in this case, every single thing I thought was intriguing about it became completely overpowered by all of its disturbing factors. Seeing the pigs be cut-up was nothing but disgusting. And for those of you who find the whole thing just as disgusting as I did, and have NEVER wanted the opportunity to see what I saw, I'm sorry if you're sick right now after seeing the images.

But, to end on a positive note, the single good thing to come from all of this is the delicious ham and pork and bacon and sausage that the butcher is preparing for us! Because PORK is definitely my favorite food group!!! And home-grown pork is truly the BEST (despite the process it goes through to become so)!!!

a BEARy birthday party!

For the first time in their lives, Jonah and Micah had a friends party to celebrate their birthday! We chose a BEAR theme--because they collect teddy bears and I thought it would be easy and cheap and simply fun!

I made some Bear invitations out of some brown cardstock paper from my scrapbook supply. I cut an oval for each body, a large circle for the head, and smaller circles for the ears and arms and legs, and then I glued them all together. On the front, I wrote "you're invited to a BEARY Birthday Party!" and on the backside I wrote all the details of the party. The boys helped me by coloring faces on the bears, addressing the envelopes, and delivering them:
I told Jonah and Micah that they were allowed to invite 3 friends each. I didn't want children to have to bring two gifts for the boys, so I thought it would be easier for the guests that way--to bring just one gift for the twin that invited them. For Jonah, choosing what friends to invite was the hardest part of his whole birthday. He wanted to invite more like 10 kids rather than just 3. I kept the numbers low, because even when they each invited 3--that meant the total number of kids would be 8, and I didn't want to have a chaotic party. Finally, they both came up with their list of friends to invite:
The only real expense I had for the birthday party, other than cake and frosting and ice cream, was the goody sacks and the treats to fill them. I bought Teddy Grahams and Gummy Bears and bought some snack bags to divvy out the bulk treats for each child. And the boys chose dum-dum suckers, starburst gummy snack packs, hostess cupcakes, and bouncy balls as bag fillers. I also got Swirly Gummy Bears as prizes for the birthday party games.
We had the birthday party at our house, and the boys helped me decorate prior to the party with their collection of teddy bears. I started their collection of bears 7 years ago right after they were born. During their 3-week stay at Primary Childrens Hospital in SLC, they were given different kinds of teddy bears as gifts from several organizations. Over the years, their collection has grown and grown--they have lots of bears now! They put the smaller bears on all kinds of surfaces in the living room, the family room, and the kitchen, like this:
They were so happy all morning the day of their party! They could not contain their excitement, and were counting down the hours and minutes! They got dressed in some of their new outfits they'd received for their birthday, and since Kanyon had an outfit to match, he thought he was all ready for the party too!!!
For their birthday cake, I made bears out of round-cake pans and cupcakes and mini-cupcakes using rainbow chip birthday cake batter. Jonah wanted chocolate frosting, and Micah wanted cream cheese frosting. I'm no good at decorating birthday cakes, but I thought these turned out alright, and the boys were so happy with them (and that's all that matters, right?!):
Right before the party, Josh took Ammon to a friends' party in town and he took Kanyon golfing. We felt that it would be better for the twins to have a party just for them, without having the other brothers at home. While guests were arriving, I read to the kids some bear books that the boys had previously picked out. I read to the twins every night, and they love it! They like picking out books for me to read, so I wanted to incorporate that into their party.

Our first game was "Musical Bears". It's similar to Musical Chairs: The children walked around in a circle while I played some teddy bear music, and each time I paused the song, the children had to pick up a bear off the floor. Whoever didn't grab a bear was out for the round, until we finally had a winner. We played that game four times, and had four different winners.
Our second game was the "Teddy Bear Toss". I told each child to pick a small teddy bear from those that were decorating the house, and we took a bear blanket and all the bears outside. Each child grabbed part of the blanket, put their chosen bear in the center, and raised the blanket up and down and sent the bears flying through the air. Whoever's bear landed the furthest was the winner. We played that game four times, with four different winners. They had so much fun doing that!!

Our next activity was decorating the goody bags. I had just purchased some brown paper bags, and thought it would be fun if they made bear puppets with them. I had some cardstock on hand, and had previously drawn circles and an oval for them to color and cut out and glue onto the bags. It was so neat to see their individual craftiness! They all liked coloring and chatting while decorating their bear puppet bags!

They used markers and stickers and pom-poms to decorate their bear puppets, and I thought they all turned out so cute!
After their bear puppet/goody bags were done, we played "Goin' on a Bear Hunt". I'd hidden large bears all over the house and outside. Each bear had a clue attached that led them to the next location of a bear with a clue. This one was hidden in the entertainment center:
At the end of the bear hunt was a picnic basket full of the goody bag treats. They got their bear puppet bags and filled them up with the goodies that were inside the basket!

After the activities were done, we sang happy birthday to Jonah and Micah, they blew out their candles on their cakes, and the kids ate cake and ice cream and juice!

Then Jonah and Micah opened the gifts that their friends had brought, and I took all the children home. It was such a fun party! The boys loved celebrating with their friends and they were so happy that their birthday party turned out so great!!! And I felt relieved that it had, too!

Seven

Jonah and Micah celebrated their birthday on September 22nd. This year, they turned Lucky #7!!!

I took desserts to school to share with their class in honor of their special day. I let them choose whatever they wanted me to bring: Jonah picked brownies and Micah picked chocolate chip cookies:
For dinner, we ate their favorite meal. I let them choose what they wanted to eat: Jonah picked spaghetti and Micah picked corn on the cob. Thankfully, those two food items go together quite nicely:
For dessert, we ate their favorite desserts again as a family, and Grandma and Grandpa T. joined us! We sang happy birthday to Jonah and Micah and then we ate yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies and brownies with vanilla ice cream & chocolate syrup:
Jonah and Micah opened their presents from us and Grandma P. and Grandma T. They had been looking forward to opening their gifts for weeks, and were SO excited when they saw how many they had!
Opening the gifts was fast, furious, and fun! They went through those gifts so quickly; it looked like a tornado had ripped through the room by the time all the opening was done!
Jonah and Micah loved their gifts! They had asked for new camping chairs, new wii remotes, remote control trucks, and some Star Wars figurines. They were lucky boys--they got everything they wanted (except the Star Wars figures) and lots more!!! Thanks for the gifts, Grandma P. and Grandma T.!!
Kanyon thinks he's their twin, and he said it was his "boasday" and that he was turning "seben" too. I foresaw this happening, so I got him one small gift that he got to open as well:
Jonah and Micah think that Ammon gets more mail than them, and they had been anticipating their approaching birthday, because they were hoping that they would finally get some mail, too. And they did! A BIG thanks to our far-away family for sending them cards!! They were so happy each time they discovered they had received some mail!!
Seven great things about Jonah:
1. He is very caring and compassionate
2. He is conceptually super smart
3. He has many friends
4. He has a great laugh
5. He is silly
6. He's a good helper
7. He is so nice about sharing

Seven great things about Micah:
1. He is independent
2. He learns very quickly
3. He is competitive
4. He has a great smile
5. He is funny
6. He is a super reader
7. He's good at playing pretend

{I sure love you boys! I never imagined I would be a mother of identical twin boys, but now I can't imagine life without you! You make our family complete! Seven is my favorite number, and I think you're so lucky to be the age of seven this whole year! Happy Seventh Birthday, Jonah and Micah!}

Tee Time

A few afternoons during September, Kanyon and I got bored at home and decided to go to the golf course to see dad and play a round of golf. The golf course is one of Kanyon's favorite places to go; he's loved playing the game of golf since he was 18 months old! He's a left-handed player like Ammon, so he's now using Ammon's old left-handed clubs. If we stop by the golf course late in the afternoon, Josh will be finishing up his work for the day so he is able to go golfing with us. And usually, in the late afternoon, there's not as many golfers on the course, so it's nice to let Kanyon play without worrying that we are slowing somebody down or that he'll get hit by someone's ball while he's on the course.

Kanyon likes to put his golf ball right by Josh's and then he says "wait a me, dad" so he can hit his ball first. Kanyon's game is definitely improving! When he hits the ball, it can go as far as 50 feet now! It's so fun to watch him hit the ball and run after it to hit it again!!!He's so happy when he's playing golf with his dad! I truly enjoyed those few relaxing September afternoons that were spent golfing. I didn't actually participate in the sport once in September, instead I just watched my husband and youngest son play together. That was the best part, as it brought me much happiness in itself!!!

enjoying the ride

One late Friday afternoon in September, we spontaneously decided to go on a family 4-wheeler ride.

We drove up the road about 3 miles until we got to the canyon-head of the mountains, and that's where we stopped.

We got off the ATV's and the boys played in a creek for a while, and Josh and I just enjoyed watching them.

Then we got back on the 4-wheelers and rode home, just in time to make dinner and eat it with a friend.
The whole evening was pure bliss.