Where is Kaelen?

In Kaelen and Jacob's room they used to have the baby change table in their closet to put stuff in it. It was used for the baskets on the shelves. They had clothes and diapers in the baskets. Well Kaelen recently started to climb up on it and hide on the top with the shirts hanging over it. It was funny because the first time he did it I had no idea where to look for him. I finally found him when I saw his head poke out. I had to get pictures of him hiding in it especially since I knew it wouldn't be long before the baby took it for her room. I love that Kaelen is becoming more adventurous. It is really fun.

Rachel and Hallie

Rachel and her cousin Hallie are 5 years apart but that has not stopped them from hanging out. This last Christmas Angie and her kids were in Idaho Falls for a month. Every time Hallie and Rachel got together they has so much fun. Hallie and Rachel were always wanting to play together. They would call each other and get together to play. When ever we would go to Grandpa and Grandma Heileson's house they would run off and we wouldn't see them all night. It was so fun. It was fun too because it isn't always going to be that way. Rachel will get older and not want her cousin around. I hope it doesn't happen but I am sure when Rachel is 16 she won't want her 11 year old cousin hanging around. I hope though that their friendship will help them that when they get older they will have a good relationship and want to spend time together.

When Hallie was heading home Rachel and Hallie were so sad. They ran off and hid because they didn't want to say goodbye. It was hard for them to leave each other. These pictures were taken that night. I love them. I love how happy they look together and how the 5 years between each other does not effect their friendship right now.

Making Our Gingerbread House

Every year we will go and look at Christmas lights as a family. We always will go and look at the dancing house lights they have in Iona. There are 2 houses that are pretty amazing. Kaelen absolutely loved it. He would scream and get excited and yell "Dancing Lights." It was so fun to watch him.

Every year when we get home from watching the lights we will find a gift wrapped on our table, left by our house elf that we have. For the last few years it has been a gingerbread house making kit. The kids look forward to it. It has been a fantastic tradition that we've started.

The kids love putting the gingerbread house together. We will spend an hour or two sitting around the table all helping to put it together. This year it was not as quiet as it has been. The kids all wanted to do the same part and so we had some arguing and after it was said and done the roof started to fall off and the kids were freaking out. It was an adventure. Over all had fun and it was fun to not have a perfect house once it was all said and done.

Weeks later after this was all done anytime we would drive by a house with Christmas lights Kaelen would yell "Dancing Lights". It is just the cutest thing.

Kaelen Sleeping

Kaelen has not been the best at taking naps this last year. If he does take one it is because I lay down with him and fall asleep or he falls asleep on the couch watching TV. It is funny to come in and see how he has fallen asleep when he does. He has fallen asleep many times in ways I am not sure how he can even sleep that way or how is neck is not killing him. This was one of those times where he looked so cute asleep.

Trick or Treating

After trunk or treating we went back to our house and neighborhood to go trick or treating. The joys of living in a mostly LDS population is Halloween is never on Sunday. It is always done on Saturday when Halloween falls on a Sunday. We love it.

Kaelen didn't want to go at all when we got home from trunk or treating so he stayed at home and watched a movie while I handed out Halloween candy to the kids that came to the house. Enoch was wonderful and took Rachel and Jacob out. Rachel's friend from behind us Meriell came with them. They went trick or treating around 6 PM and came home at 8 PM. Rachel wanted to go out with her friend so Enoch made her stay with Jacob till 7 PM and then she was able to go on her own and Enoch took Jacob everywhere. Enoch is such a good Dad to do that. I can handle walking around for maybe 20 minutes and then I am so sore. It was nice of Enoch to do that and he seemed to enjoy himself as well.

Once the kids got home we had to get pictures of them all out in front of the house together and with their pumpkins. It was light when they started so we waited till after. Rachel, Jacob and Kaelen were good sports about it and cooperated during pictures. Kaelen was even happy to get his costume back on for the pictures.

We had a bunch of kids this year like we always do but I didn't recognize half of them. Most people from other neighborhoods come to ours to get candy. In total between the trunk or treating and trick or treating we handed out over 350 pieces of candy. Wow that was a lot.

After we were done with our candy we blew out our pumpkins, turned off the lights, gave the kids baths and showers and went downstairs to watch How to Train your Dragon for the first time. Yes I will admit we had never seen it even though Jacob was Hiccup from the movie. Kaelen went to bed and didn't watch the movie but the rest of us did. Wow did I love that movie. It was so good. It is one that I would eventually love to own. It is funny with great characters.

We had a really great day. We loved being at Grandpa and Grandma's house as well as the trunk and trick or treating.

Happy Halloween to everybody.

Trunk or Treating

After being at Grandpa and Grandma Heileson's house we went to their ward for trunk or treating. They do it every year and the kids enjoy it. I also like how it's an easy way to get candy. Our ward never does it because our ward is pretty much the neighborhood and they figure that we would all end up buying twice the amount of candy to give to the same kids. So since our ward doesn't do it we always go to Grandpa and Grandma Heileson's. It lasts about an hour and the kids enjoy it.

Kaelen this year didn't really like it. He doesn't like big crowds and so he was not sure what to think of all the people that he didn't know around. He also doesn't like people in all of their costumes. Kaelen is so different from our other kids. He is social around us and talks all the time but when he is around people he doesn't know he is very quiet and to himself. heck it has taken us now over a year for him to finally go to nursery without us in there with him. He loves being around family but that is about it.

We had to drag Kaelen around to all the cars. A few cars he went to himself but after 3 or so cars he decided he was all done. We had to pick him up and carry him around everywhere or hold his hand.

Rachel and Jacob enjoyed themselves. It didn't take long for them to be done but once they were done the ward was doing homemade scones and hot chocolate. Rachel and Jacob really enjoyed that. It was fun for them to get candy with all their cousins. The weather outside as well was perfect. It was supposed to be cold and rainy but we didn't get any of that. It was a little cool but nothing to complain about. It was perfect weather for trunk or treating and trick or treating later in the evening.

Halloween at Grandpa and Grandma Heilesons

The Saturday (October 30th) before Halloween we went over to Grandpa and Grandma Heilesons for lunch and then pictures of all the kids. It was a nice afternoon and the kids really enjoyed playing with their cousins. We went and got the kids together after lunch (different soups) and tried to get their pictures taken. I say tried too because getting 8 kids to all sit together for a picture is not the easiest thing. The kids all looked awesome. Rachel was a 80's Diva, Jacob was Hiccup from How to Train your Dragon, Kaelen was a dragon which went with Jacob's costume. Evie was a witch, Carter was Darth Vader, Collin was Batman and Lucy was a little fairy. Spiderman in the pictures was Gavin Evie's very good friend (actually Madeline's best friends little boy).

Kaelen was not very excited to get his costume on so we took him out and showed him Gregories new kitten and then he was happy. Rachel did a really good job with getting Kaelen to smile and play in the leaves too. I was really happy with how the pictures of the two of them turned out. Jacob was not very happy so he didn't get into any picture till after all his cousins came and sat down. I was hoping to get pictures of our kids together but it didn't happen till later in the evening.

After picture the kids went and decorated cupcakes. They loved that. Rachel went a little overboard with the frosting and sprinkles and Kaelen didn't want anything on his. He was just happy with the cupcake. If I ever tried to get him to put frosting on he would get mad. Jacob was my in between and didn't put too much of frosting or sprinkle on.

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins Friday evening the 29th. We started a little later than I would have liked but I figured it would take 2 hours tops to do it. Well it took us a lot longer than that. The kids did have a lot of fun but they took a long time deciding how to carve 2 pumpkins each. Jacob would take a half hour cleaning out his pumpkin and then you would look inside and see that he still had half his seeds and pumpkin pulp inside of it. He was taking so long. He also drew on his pumpkin about 30 times trying to figure out what to do.

Kaelen wasn't around for carving this year. He had been sick for a few days and then Friday he started throwing up and had a fever of 104 degrees. He spent most of his day laying on the couch watching TV and then in the evening he was asleep when we carved pumpkins. Enoch ended up carving Kaelen's pumpkins for him. He did 2 things though that we knew Kaelen would absolutely love. He carve a puppy on one of his pumpkins and a balloon and moon on the other.

Rachel's pumpkins she did a ghost face and then her name and peace and hearts on it. She did a great job carving herself. She scares me still carving when she has really sharp knives and is digging into the pumpkins. We only had 1 carving kit and so we had to share. I am going this week when everything is on clearance and am going to buy 3 more kits. We need a kit for each of us.



Jacob in the end didn't finish till midnight (yah I know it was late and I am a nice mom for letting him stay up to finish them). He carved a bunch of his but then was having a hard time so I finished them for him. Enoch had gone to bed with Kaelen who was just coughing and crying and needed somebody to sleep with him and so I finished with the kids and then cleaned up the very large pumpkin mess.



I had a really big mess too because my favorite thing in the whole wide world is saving all the pumpkin seeds and then baking and seasoning them. Jacob and I love to eat them. This year as well we got well over 8 cups of pumpkin seeds. It was so awesome. So I had to clean up my mess from those as well when cleaning. I didn't get to bed till 1 AM.



Carving pumpkins did take way longer than planned but it was really fun and I am glad that the kids were able to design their own pumpkins and have tons of fun doing it.

Directions on baking pumpkin Seeds:

Clean and rinse pumpkin seeds in colander with cold water.

Place seeds on paper towels to dry as best you can. (I never get them very dry, but just a little more than when they were just rinsed)

Place in bowl with 2 T olive oil and your favorite seasoning. I will do some with season salt, salt and both. I use anywhere from 2tsp to 1 T.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven. (I have read over the years about cooking them at 200 degrees but they take so long.) I like mine crunchy so I will cook it about 15 minutes then stir the seeds real well and then put them in for another 15 to 2o minutes. Once the seeds don't look oily and wet anymore then I know they are done.

Let the seeds cool and then enjoy eating them. I will store mine in an airtight container till we eat them. They will last quite a while but ours never does because it is one of our favorite things to eat.

School Update

Jacob and Rachel are doing so good in school. We have been in school now 2 months and it has been awesome to see what they have been learning and doing.

Rachel has stopped complaining about math and finally gotten into the groove of everything. She never has homework because everyday they get to have study hall at the end of the day and she does her homework then. The 6th graders at school get to participate in the newberry challenge. They are challenged to read 20 newberry books by the end of the year and pass tests on them and then they receive an award at the end of the year assembly. Rachel has read 17 of the 20 books so far. She reads about 2-4 books a week. She is always reading. I am so impressed with her. We sometimes have to ground her from reading at night and man she gets mad. She would stay up till midnight each night reading if we let her. She is doing fantastic in all of her subjects and really enjoying school. She is involved in student government, drama and robotics. She is taking robotics from a man in our ward who used to teach robotics at the high school and made it to state with his team. They asked Rachel to participate in it. She does that twice a week and then on top of all that she still does piano. She is busy but really enjoying school and everything else this year.

Jacob is absolutely loving his school. They have learned things that I didn't know 2nd graders learned yet. They have learned about habitats, soil, rocks, plants. He has also learned and done a test on all the continents and oceans and he got 100% on that test. His spelling words are words like ocean, desert, Atlantic. He is learning so much. He also loves the nonfiction reading. He came home the other day with a cookbook from his library and was so excited to cook from it. He is learning so much about the world around him and doing great with learning it. His teacher says that he is so happy and loves everyday at school but that he is so smart and is doing fantastic. I know that I love to brag about my kids but last week I received a letter from the school indicating that he had been invited to be in a program called the Discovery program designed for kids who are advanced readers for their grade and age. He will spend 45 minutes a week in this program learning things and doing things to help challenge him. I was so excited. We have needed this for Jacob for years now and he is finally getting the help he needs in school. Jacob comes home from school so happy and goes to school happy. It is so nice. I am so happy to see him finally love school and love learning.

I am proud of both my kids. They are both so smart and work hard at what they do. I couldn't be a happier and prouder mom of her kids.

Picking Pumpkins

This year we didn't get any pumpkins in our garden. We usually get tons of pumpkins so this year since we didn't get any we decided to go to a pumpkin patch to pick some. We went to Boyd's Aunt and Uncles place in Rigby. We went last year there to get our family pictures taken. When we went it was pretty windy and cold outside and towards the end of picking it started to sprinkle a little.

The kids were so excited to go. Once we got there though Kaelen decided pretty early on that it was cold and he wanted to sit in the car. It was pretty funny though because he would say "Mom I'm cold, sit in the car" but then he would run off and start telling us to look at more pumpkins. We really should have brought more clothes for the kids to wear.



We found some awesome pumpkins. The kids had the hardest time deciding on which ones to pick. Heck even Enoch had a hard time. He spent a long time walking up each area looking at pumpkins and then he would grab one that he liked and would put it in a pile. He at the end had about 6 pumpkins he was deciding between.



In the end Rachel picked 1 large pumpkin (over 14lbs) and 2 small ones, Jacob picked a medium sized one and a small one, Kaelen had a medium sized one and Enoch and I each picked pumpkins over 19lbs. Kaelen was the only one that never picked out his pumpkin. He would point to one he liked and then when we asked him if he wanted it he'd tell us NO and then move on to another one. He never wanted to hold the pumpkins too. Soon after we got to the pumpkin patch he got cold and pulled one of his arms into his sweater so he only had one arm out and walked around like that most of the time. He did at one point hold a pumpkin when we asked him to hold it but quickly set it down.



We really loved picking pumpkins this year and it was fun to do this together. The kids got what they wanted for carving this next week and we had fun together getting the pumpkins.

Enoch turns 30 plus 7

Enoch on Thursday turned 37. Wow I can't believe it. We won't mention how he feels about it. He has been dreading getting older for months now. Every time I asked what he wanted for his birthday he would say it didn't matter because his birthday was months away even if it was a few weeks. Notice the title of the blog. Well we have decided that from now on he is turning 30 each year. He will eventually be the oldest looking 30 year old.

This year for his birthday we just did everything at home. I had a funeral during the day. I am the compassionate service person in our ward and was in charge of the funeral luncheon. If anybody knows anything about this calling when you do a funeral it is literally all day. Since I had this funeral I had to be ready for most everything the day before. I made the cake on Wednesday (cupcakes) and a lot of the sauces for dinner. The morning of I started dinner in the crockpot before I left for the funeral and so when I got home I could easily finish stuff. We just had us for dinner because I didn't want the stress of feeding everybody after being on my feet all day. Being 6 months pregnant I get tired all the time and when I am on my feet all day I get really sore. It worked out good because I actually ended up coming home after the funeral and falling asleep on the couch for an hour. I woke up just before Enoch got home from work.

For dinner I made homemade Cafe Rio. It is one of our favorite meals. Enoch especially loves it. The kids loves it as well so it is really nice. We enjoyed our dinner a lot. I decided earlier in the day that it would be fun if everybody came over in the family after dinner for cake and ice cream. Aunt Pam and Grandma Severe were visiting so they came over for his birthday. It was so nice to have them come and hang out for a couple of hours.

When Pam, Grandma and Gloria got to the house they were wearing really big glasses that they brought to make celebrating more fun. They also brought nasty teeth for the kids to wear. It was fun to see everybody wearing their glasses and ugly teeth.

We opened presents first. The kids got Enoch a new MP3 player. His broke while running the Ragnar in June and so Enoch has been without one all this time. He was really excited. It worked out great because Enoch bought some really nice ear buds a few weeks ago.

From Grandma and Pam they got him this gourmet candy apple. It was so good when we cut into it and ate it. Gloria and Chuck got him a 3 stair step ladder. Enoch as wanted one for a while now and the one they got him is extremely sturdy. It is so nice. It will be nice now to take that out instead of the big ladder.

His last gift was from me. I have been planning on getting him this for so long. I actually bought it over a month ago and was so anxious and excited to give it to him. I bought him a camera to have for scout camps and for what ever else he wants. It is really small and compact (it will fit in his pocket). When he came home from scout camp this last year he mentioned that it would have been nice to of had a camera so he could take pictures himself instead of replying on everybody else to take pictures. They always make a video of scout camp after it for all the boys and he would like to have more say in it because he took all the pictures. Well now he can. He also goes camping once a month and so it will be nice for him to have picture but also for me to see things that he talks about but that I never get to see. His camera actually takes better pictures than my camera does. It has way less features but every picture he has taken has come out clear and with perfect coloring. I want it for myself. Enoch was so shocked to get the camera. He did not expect that at all. He said that he has wanted one but never brought it up or thought he would get one. It is always so nice to surprise Enoch.

This year instead of a cake I did cupcakes. I couldn't think of what kind of cake to make and I was using a gluten free cake mix and it is not the best for making a cake you want to really decorate so I did the easiest and did cupcakes. I did make them look like food barbecuing on a grill. I made hot dogs, kabobs, and pork chops grilling on the grill. They turned out amazing. I loved them. It was nice too because when we all ate the cupcakes you just took the one you wanted and then ate it. We also had ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce that is of course to die for. Everybody always loves it.

Enoch really loved his birthday. He said even the next day how much he loved his presents and birthday. I was glad the despite being so busy I was able to make his birthday a special one even if it meant Enoch becoming a year older.

Boys All Golfing

While Dad was visiting at the beginning of October he had the chance to go golfing with Enoch and the boys. They had a lot of fun. They went to a small kids par 3 course at our local golf course. Kaelen loves golfing so much. I guess though he decided after about 3 holes the he was done and started heading back to the car. Enoch spent most of the time chasing him around the golf course. The golf course has this small golf court that Jacob gets to use when he golfs and he loves it. Enoch and Kaelen also enjoy riding it. I guess while Jacob was driving it this time he turned it to fast and it flipped on top of him. Enoch forsure thought that his legs were broken but when it landed there was a space between him and the cart where his legs were. I was glad to hear that Jacob didn't get hurt. The last thing we needed was for Jacob to break his legs.

When the boys came back from Golfing Dad said that he had a lot of fun. I was so glad that Dad was able to go and spend that time together with my boys.