Just Right For Jumping

Beauty and The Beast brought their boys over tonight so they could play in the leaves. Our front yard is full of trees and the three big maples drop perfect leaves for jumping.

It is one of our favorite parts of fall.

Happy Halloween tomorrow. 

Be safe everyone.

Wordless Wednesday - Contemplating Nature

(OK, I know it's really Thursday, but I didn’t want to miss sharing this fun pic of Curly.)

News from Elder Sport

Sport has left the MTC. Such exciting times coming up for him! I got this text yesterday...

Elder Christensen has arrived safely to the great North Dakota Bismarck Mission!  We are so thrilled to have him. Thank you for sending him to us and for all you have done to help him prepare for this very sacred service. We love him, and we’re looking forward to serving with him in this the greatest cause!

President & Sister Camp

Halloween Maze 2021

I call it a maze, but it really isn't. This year, Dog Walker tried something different. He put up cornstalks all around the yard, and the blow-ups are all facing toward the center. Wait...let me just show you.

It really is fun and I think the little kids will like it much better. If they have something (like the ginormous spider) that they don't like, they can just stay away from it and still get their treats.

He did a great job!!

One last pic from Fall Break...

We dyed Scout's hair. I love the color! Perfect for this time of year.

More Fall Break Fun

We did so many other fun things I forgot to tell you about over Fall Break. The first thing we did was work on moving the kids around. Without Elder Sport, we had an extra bedroom upstairs and Baby Doll and Scout were so excited to finally have their own rooms. Unfortunately, we moved furniture and stuff, but neither girl is ready to share pics of her new room. 

Another thing we did was spend the afternoon at the zoo. It was a short trip since we had other plans for the evening, but we got some fun pics.

We had most of Bossy's family with us, even Gamer. That was a big surprise because he took Curly fly-fishing in the morning and I didn't think they would make it back.

He took some fantastic pics of Curly for us!

We live in such a beautiful place...

But I digress. Back at the zoo, we all rode the carousel.

This pic of Bossy and Gamer is my favorite.

Or maybe this one.

I hope your Fall Break was amazing too.

Review: Smile Brilliant - Plaque Highlighters

Not long ago, Smile Brilliant asked for bloggers to help with a new promotion. If you remember, Drama Queen tried out their whitening system several years ago and she loved it so much that she convinced Crafty to buy and use the system as well. And my sweetie tried out their electric toothbrush too. It is still his product of choice.

So when they wanted someone to try out their Plaque Highlighters, we nominated Baby Doll to be our helper even though she didn't really want anyone looking that closely at her teeth (you know 11-year-olds, her smile has almost grown into her teeth).

She started by chewing and swishing the small tablet in her mouth for 30 seconds. "It tasted ok, but not great." 

Then she rinsed her mouth and spit out all the extra pinkish purple stuff. Ewww....

Then it was time to brush. I don't remember the last time I saw her brush her teeth that well! (Honestly, it might be worth buying more of these just so she will brush...)

Such a beautiful smile!!

Check out their website. They have some great products. You know I have a coupon for you courtesy of US Family Guide. Enjoy 25% off any supply of Dental Probiotics with code usfg25!

USFG Gift Code: usfg25

**We received a 30-count box of the Plaque Highlighters for our honest review.

Fall Break

Our Fall Break is nearly over, and what better way than to finish it up with a good old fashioned service project. We started the morning when Beauty dropped off Little Warrior and Little Squire. They were going with us to Grandm's house... great grandma to them.

Scout drove us down and my sweetie followed in the Mazda. My sweetie made arrangements to park it there for 2 years while Elder Sport is gone, if we agreed to clean the garage. 

It took us a good couple of hours, but it looked great! I thought my sweetie took pics and he thought I did... there aren't any.

But suffice to say, Elder Sport's car is in good hands until he gets back home.

And we have a little more room on the driveway.

Guest Blog: Mission Update by Elder Sport

Today I got some fun things from Elder Sport that I want to share with you. Mostly pics that I wish he would have described a little better, but maybe you can figure them out.

From Elder Sport: 

"2 weeks going on 2 years! The Provo MTC has been awesome! I've loved feeling the spirit so strong in lessons and while teaching. I also got a great district and companion which makes it way fun! I head out to the field on the 26th, Bismarck North Dakota here I come!"

We are so excited for you Elder Sport!

Wordless Wednesday - Sisters

...and best friends.💕

SNEAK PREVIEW - Warner Bros. New Movie - DUNE

A week or so ago, a friend reached out and offered us free tickets to see the sneak preview of Warner Bros. new movie, Dune. I had never heard of this movie before, but after a little research, I readily agreed to give it a review.

Taken from Frank Herbert's best-selling book, DUNE, the movie is a fast-paced sci-fi thriller with all the best elements, love, family, intrigue, murder, and of course a horrible villain... or maybe several horrible villains.

I was surprised when Grandpa wanted to join us, although he loves a good movie, and this one was at the IMAX, which made it even better. I was not familiar with the story and it took us a bit to figure out what was going on. I'm sure those who have read the book won't have that problem, but after we began to understand the plot, we were excited to see where the adventure would take us. 

My only complaint, and maybe it had to do with where we were sitting, was that sometimes we could hear the background music so loudly that we couldn't understand what some of the characters were saying. This was easily remedied moments later when something exciting would happen. It is longer than most movies at 155 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some disturbing images and suggestive material.

The movie opens officially on October 22, 2021 in 3D + IMAX.

Wait...

3D? We might have to go see it again...

Weekend Activities

On Saturday, Baby Doll's team won their volleyball game, but things weren't so great for Curly. New this year for the Ute Conference, Little League football teams had 3 weeks of playoff games. Their team was in first place and Alta was in 8th, so it should have been an easy win.

Strangely, when the Alta team showed up, several of the boys looked more like high school players. This could NOT have been an 8th place team. 

You can guess how things ended up. Our boys lost by one touchdown that was thrown nearly 40 yards into the end zone.  Our season is technically over, but since we secured a spot in the Mesquite tournament in mid-November, we will keep playing.

Hopefully, cheaters don't win...

Reflect on Reflections: Baby Doll's Dance 2015

Today I spent time helping Baby Doll upload her Dance Choreography video for Reflections and I got thinking about how far she has come. Please check out her very first one from 2015. (I will show you the new one when judging is over.)

Fun at Classic

Last night Scout had an FCCLA activity at Classic Fun Center and she begged us to come along. Beauty and The Beast had a viewing for a family member who had passed on, so we had the boys.

We thought it would be fun to take them with us.

They loved riding their scooters around the skating rink with Baby Doll.

And jumping on the trampolines with Scout...

...and Baby Doll. Last thing was a quick trip to the snack bar for a huge bag of cotton candy. 

Yum!!

Wordless Wednesday - So Ready to Go

...and then he was gone.💕

Randomness

Elder Sport goes to the Provo MTC tomorrow so I gave him his final haircut. We did lots of "finals" including volleyball, pizza, Sodalicious, Banbury Cross donuts... Dog Walker even took him to lunch for his last Chick-fil-A. (Although I'm pretty sure there is a Chick-fil-A in his mission.)

Curly and I went with Bossy's family to Burrito's choir concert. 

It was fun and folksy and nice to be doing normal things again.

Hanging out with the guys is always fun. Awesome job, Burrito!

October Birthday Party

We had the kids over today for our October Birthday Party. Duchess is turning 1 on Wednesday and she opened her gifts first.

I think her cousins and brothers were more excited than she was!

After she finished we all had dinner. 

Then it was time to pick pumpkins!!

Grandpa has been so excited to share his pumpkin patch with everyone.

He even arranged a wagon ride. 

Then it was time for cake. 

Baby Doll made the cake all by herself.

She and Duchess blew out the candles. We missed Twizzler. He also had a birthday last week and turned 2.

So much fun. Happy birthday, everyone!