Happy Halloween!

Lion and Tin Man had to try on the costumes to make sure that they fit just right for the big ward party tomorrow. They also got to wear them to preschool Wednesday for a Halloween party. I cannot get Kimball to go anywhere without wearing his Tin Man boots.

There are only 3 pumpkins here because I was so busy helping Hazel with her pumpkin that I only got the inside of my pumpkin cleaned out. It still sits by the rest of the pumpkin family as a faceless member. I will try to finish it up tonight so that our pumpkin crew can be out on the steps all day tomorrow.

Kimball of course was great at cleaning all the seeds out of his pumpkin. We gave him a big spoon and put him to work on the kitchen floor. Although, he had such a hard time with the fact that he was not allowed to use the sharp knife to carve the pumpkin himself.

Hazel had to draw her face on her pumpkin, but there was no way to cut out what she had drawn.

Hazel had a hard time with getting all of the pumpkin insides on her hands. She doesn't like her hands messy, but she was not about to miss all the fun either.

A pregnant pumpkin! You've got to see this to believe it.

When we cut the top off of Hazel's pumpkin this little green leaf curled out. It is a pumpkin seed that sprouted within the pumpkin. It even had roots already on it. I wonder if it would have been left long enough if another pumpkin would have grown inside of it. HAHAHA

Here is a picture that Andrew took of the kids while they were cleaning up the leaves. They had leaves everywhere.

Warren Miller's Children of Winter

Friday night Andrew and I went on a date with some of his co-residents to the premiere of the new Warren Miller movie. I have skiied a number of times in my life, but I am by no means a snowboarder or skier. This movie however made me wish that I was a ski bum. For those of you who may not be familiar with Warren Miller movies they are kind of like a documentary for the hard core extreme skiers and snowboarders.

Thanks to Andrew's sister, Janine, for watching the kids we were able to have a fun night. One of those nights that makes you feel like you are young and don't have the responsibilities of parents. The kids stayed over night with their cousins and had a great time at the Syracuse pumpkin walk. We went to dinner at Litza's Pizza and then to Abravanel Hall in down town Salt Lake City for the show. (It is just kitty corner from Temple Square.) We didn't even get out of the movie until after midnight. We enjoyed getting to know some of Andrew's fellow residents and their wives. Because we went to the premiere we also get free passes to ski at the Canyons, maybe we will be able to go on another outing this winter for a day of skiing. You can check out the preview for the movie on the side bar of the blog, it is the top YouTube video.

Grandpa Anderson

Last Thursday, October 16, my Grandpa Anderson passed away. He was 82 years old.

While outside working on Wednesday morning he had a tragic fall which led to a hemorrhage in his brain. He was kept on life support until all his children could make it to the hospital. On Thursday evening he was taken off of the machines and quietly passed from this life. My Grandma, Parents, and Aunts and Uncles where able to be by his side during his tender last moments here on Earth.

Having grown up in the same town as both sets of Grandparents I have been fortunate enough to have a relationship with all four of them. Having grown up and just down the road from my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson I have had the opportunity to see them on a very regular basis. I also count it was quite the blessing that my kids have also had the chance to know their Great-Grandparents. They were both so worried about Grandpa Great on Wednesday night. Hazel kept walking over to the fridge were there is a family picture hanging up. She would point up and say, "Grandpa Great fall down." Kimball was very up set and shed many tears as he asked, "Why can't the doctors fix Grandpa Great?"

My Grandpa has always been very active, and even though age and health had slowed him down in more recent years he was still able to get around and continued to work outside everyday. Grandpa loved nature and enjoyed being anywhere outdoors. He is a talented artist and has painted thousands of paintings. I have a few of his paintings hanging in my house and will cherish them always.

I have millions of memories of my Grandpa. As I would drive down the road to our house Grandpa was always working in the yard or on one of his rental houses just about every time I went past. I love how his face would light up with joy as I would honk and wave. I knew he loved me.

It was a Sabbath day ritual at my house to play cards with Grandpa. There were countless Sunday evenings that our family spent around the card table in the living room as we played a hand of cards with Grandpa. Even as a teenager this was something that I looked forward to. We had discussions about politics, nature, the problems in the world, and religion. I would dare say that we even had some pretty important testimony building experience with a handful of face cards around that table with Grandpa.

Then there were the cookouts around the fire ring. Sometimes the fire was at Grandpa's "pool hall" and other times it was in our yard. Oh how those cookouts are be burned into my memory forever, and they just wouldn't be complete without my Grandpa there with a smile on his face. Again there were many discussions about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness, but more importantly I recall the faith building discussions as we gazed at the stars and talked about our existence in this great universe.

Grandpa, I love you and thank you for the foundation of faith that you helped to build.

I will miss you!!!

(Grandpa's response, "I love you dear. Bye-Dee-Bye.")

A Post for the Men

Everyone knows that I will only post on the blog if it is important. Well, this is important. Ladies, go get your husbands and tell them this is something to blog about! I had nearly given up on the elk hunt years ago just after my mission because it became much harder to draw a big bull elk tag. I went a long for the company and time spent with family for several years after that on the general spike hunt with my brothers, brother-in-law, and dad but due to a lack of time and a more devoted fly-fishing hobby, the hunt took a back seat. I am proud to say that this year, I got my spike! And though at one point in my life I would have rather slayed a huge bull, we are actually pretty happy with the good meat that this will provide through the winter.

I am supposed to add, for my dad's sake, that I killed it late saturday night, and Sunday--with the ox in the mire--we had to retrieve it almost as close to the top of the world you can get.....200 yards from the Idaho/Montana border/continental divide at 9000 feet above sea level. Thanks to my dad and 2 trusty steeds, we got it off the mountain just as it got dark Sunday night. Also, credit has to go to my brother for helping me clean the thing out as I haven't done it since I was 17 or 18. So with me, my brother Randy, my brother-in-law Jared, and my dad successfully harvesting elk, we had quite the meat processing party butchering and freezing 4 elk.



When we got home late Tuesday night from Idaho, we had to run to Sears and buy a chest freezer to accomodate our winter food supply!

When life hands you grapes...

This summer while out on walks, we would frequently pass our neighbors house who has beautiful grape vines climbing his fence. The other day, while my parents were visiting we rang the doorbell and asked if we could pick some grapes. He told us to have as many as we wanted and that every year most of them go to waste. So, I decided when life gives you grapes, make grape juice. Andrew was giving me a hard time that it was going to cost more in materials to by jars, lids, hot water bath, etc. to make the juice than it would be to just buy it off the shelf. After a quick trip to D.I. and a couple of calls around the ward I had a $5 hot water bath and 36+ quart jars for free. So Kimball, Hazel and I went down the street and started picking until our hands were blue!

Kimball helped quite a bit, but as you can see, Hazel sampled a few more than she ended up putting in the box!

After batch one of 28 quarts, a great result and more than half of a fence line of grapes to pick, I'm on round two today! Andrew had the day off so he helped me pick some more. We've already taken some of the juice to the neighbors. I have to do a lot of the work while the kids are napping or during quiet time because the kitchen is already nearly painted in grape purple and that is without 2 little ones smooshing grapes all over the place.

Before and After Shot

Post within a Post: Praying Mantis

While we were sorting grapes today, Hazel reached into the box to grab a handful to eat, suddenly jumped back and said "I sced." I said of what? She said and pointed to a big praying mantis down inside the box "Of that!" So when Kimball came home from preschool, he reached right inside and pulled it out all the meanwhile saying, "This is so cool." We played around with it in the kitchen for a while and then told Kimball we needed to turn it loose. He broke down sobbing, "but I want to keep him as a pet!" We finally talked him into turning it loose in the garden. After that, Andrew found a web page on the internet that Praying Mantids (as we came to found is the plural) make great pets! So, we went back out to the garden where Kimball had turned him loose-- found him, caught him, and now we have a pet praying mantis in the house! This place is turning into a zoo!!! We already fed him a hornet a little while ago. Charlotte is still living in a jar on the computer desk, but she isn't eating like she used to, so we think we are going to turn her loose a long ways from our house! One pet insect is enough!!!

Pictures of the event:

The kids kept trying to feed it grapes, but obviously it was a little angry about that!

Obituary

Stewart Themouse gave up the ghost late Wednesday night in the home of the Black Family in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died doing what he loved best, eating food from a trap. You see, Stewart had licked a total of SIX TRAPS CLEAN before meeting his fateful doom. For several nights, traps with peunut butter and oats were placed near his comfortable little home in the wall, and each night he would sneak out, lick the peanut butter and oats right up and retreat without nery even setting any of the varioius traps off. Some of his hobbies included chewing up the corner piece of carpet in the hall closet, chewing dry plaster to aid in construction on the entry of his home, and running across the foot of a paranoid lady. Stewart is survived in life by Charlotte the spider who currently sits in a jar on the desk right next to the computer that this is being typed on. He was preceded in death by the multiple insects including flies, hornets, other spiders and firebugs that we have fed to Charlotte to keep ourselves entertained around here.

Stewart's remains are currently being held in a large receptacle outside the back door until Wednesday morning when they will be transported to the Salt Lake City landfill, which will serve as his final burial place. And for all of you Lebowski fans out there....."good night sweet prince." and in Becky's words......HOORRRRAYYYY!!!!!

Acknowlegdments: Credit goes to Becky's Dad who David-rigged the trap to hair-pin sensitivity.

Tunes

FYI: To the readers of our fine blog. It took some convincing, but I finally talked becky into blogging...and now I have created a monster. Now I have to come forth with something. Being the overbearing domineering husband that you all know me to be, I had to set a ground rule down for this blogging thing. Becky can post whatever embarassing thing she wants about our family and send it out to the world, but the one thing that I have to put my foot down on is the background music. My family's blog will not have some cheesy Martina McBride or Kenny Chestnut music playing in the background. So, If you have a problem with this, turn your volume down....otherwise sit back, relax and enjoy the tunes!
sincerely,
APB
PS: More good music to come!

Happy Birthday Hazel Nut!

Hazel just turned 2 years old. She has grown up so much, it is amazing to think that just two years ago this little princess joined our family. She is my little doll, the apple of her Daddy's eye, and the number one fan of her older brother. Not to mention that she has both of her Gwampas wrapped around her finger. Hazel is a very affectionate little girl. She is willing to give hugs and kisses to anyone. She is also quite the little talker. She has such a large vocabulary it is almost astounding to hear some of the words that come out of her mouth. She has just about learned all of her colors now and gets really upset when I give her the wrong color of straw or bowl. "No no no no. . . I want the pink bowl." She is quite the little artist and loves to color and draw all the time. Every time she sees a pen or piece of paper she quickly lays down on the floor on her tummy to draw. We are so blessed to have Hazel in our family. Here is how we celebrated her birthday.

As soon as she woke up we put on her Happy Birthday hat. She didn't take any encouragement to open present. She jumped right in and started ripping paper off. When she finished with one present she would put it aside and jump to her next one. After all the presents were opened she came right over to me, put her face right next to mine and said, "Want more presents Mommy."

Here she is with all of her birthday loot.

While Daddy went to the Priesthood session of conference we got a pizza and ate it in the basement while we watched The Wizard of Oz.

Andrew started a tradition last year when she turned one. He said that he thought he should be the first person to ever give her flowers. So he decided that every year on her birthday he was going to give her roses for the age that she is. So here he is when he came home from the meeting with two roses for her second birthday.

Since Andrew is allergic to milk and eggs it makes birthday cakes kind of tricky. So here Hazel's rice crispy treat castle birthday cake. I know it is not all that cute, but hey Daddy could actually enjoy it with us.

Last weekend when we went to Rexburg we did a little bit of a celebration with all the family up there. Hazel had requested a "monkey cake" for her birthday. I made her a birthday cake while we where there to share with the rest of the family.

Charlotte & Stewart

Alright so here is the the pits of renting an old house.

The other day just as Kimball and I were headed to his bedroom to get PJs on for bed he spotted a spider under the door of one of the closets. This was not any old spider, it was HUGE!!! We do get some nasty spiders in the basement, but sticky spider traps generally do the trick, or I get a Kleenex or sock or whatever is close to quickly smash the thing. Well lets just say I wouldn't have dared to go after this one with a Kleenex. We yelled for Andrew and he quickly ran down to check out what the fuss was about. I ran quickly to get something to kill it with and a jar just in case we could bottle it up to be identified. Well after a few quick moves and a near attack we were able to get the thing into a jar. The butt (I think it is actually called the cephalothorax) was gigantic. After we got the kids in bed we spent the hour on the internet trying to identify the thing. It looked a lot like a Hobo, but we get Hobos in the basement and this looked somewhat different.

We thought it looked a lot like a Funnel Weaver spider, except it's backside was so much bigger than the pictures on the internet. But Funnel Weaver spiders aren't really much of a threat to humans which is a small comfort. Anyway so we have had this spider, Charlotte as I have come to think about her as now on the desk for the past few days. Yes notice I said "SHE". Well one morning when I sat down at the desk I noticed that her backside had subsided in size and she had an egg sack wrapped up in the jar. GROSS!!!! Andrew had mentioned when we caught it that it was probably a female full of eggs that is why it was so large. Well yes he was correct. We are just grateful that we caught her before we had a whole bunch of extra little spiders running around.

Now for Stewart I can barely even type this without shuddering. This morning I was walking up the stairs with Hazel in my arms when I thought I saw something dark move quickly around the closet door at the top of the stairs. I put Hazel on the bed and did a quick investigation. I opened the closet and peeked in. I moved things around and just didn't know what to think. So I closed the door and walked away for just a second. I remembered that I had to again open the closet to get out Hazel's hair bows to do her hair. Just as I started to open the door a mouse ran across my foot and into the bathroom. I screamed and said a few choice words that my children should not have heard me say. I ran for a sticky trap that we had in the basement for the spiders. I know I was not really thinking very logically at this point, but it was the first thing that came to mind. I put it in the bathroom right by the wall. I then proceeded to scare the little sh** in hopes that it would get stuck on the sticky trap. Well my lame attempt to catch the thing only scared it out of the bathroom and who knows where now. I am so angry that I didn't close the bathroom door and seal the opening underneath until we had actual mouse traps and Andrew to take care of the whole thing. When I called to tell him about Stewart Little's visit to our house he couldn't believe that I let the thing get out of the bathroom either. Well now Andrew is home we are going to attempt to identify where Stewart could possibly be hiding and set a few traps for him. Although I am so disgusted with my encounter with him I don't even want to put my feet back on the floor. Wish me luck!

To be continued. . . . . .

D is for Dinosaur

For preschool on Wednesday we took the kids to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. They were focusing on letter D for the week, so it was a perfect activity for such a beautiful day. Plus, Kimball has been asking about going to a museum to see dinosaurs like Curious George does in one of the episodes.

Here we are inside the building with the actual dinosaur fossils. There was a window that we could look into a seperate room where a group of scientists where cleaning up some of the fossils. It was interesting to see all the tools that they were using, and boy what a time consuming job to put a bunch of fossilized bones back together like a puzzle.


Here the kids are at the T-Rex. You cannot see it in the picture but on the ground right behind the kids is another dinosaur that was killed by T-Rex. It had a huge chunk right out of it's side. We had to explain that this was an ornery dinosaur. Then every time Hazel would see a dinosaur that was attacking another one she would say, "ornery one", or "mean dinosaur".



After desperately trying to get Kimball to get in this picture with Hazel and I he ran off, so here is a picture of us at the dinosaur park minus Kimball. This is at the playground area where all the kids were playing after our picnic lunch. I guess I cannot blame him for not wanting to sit around for a picture where there were so many fun things to do with his friends.

Here are the kids digging for dinosaur bones in the sand with brushes. When I asked Kimball what his favorite part of the dinosaur park was he told me that digging for bones in the dirt was the very best.

I took my camera along in my purse to the park, and when I pulled it out to take the first picture I noticed that the memory card was not in it. I left if in the computer. I was very disappointed, but thanks to my good friend Christi I have pictures here to share with you. Thanks Christi!