The Finished product

This is the finished product on Christmas Day. I loved it and so did the kids. It looks great and the kids have not stopped playing on it.

Shaylyn testing out the slide



These are my pups..Sabrina my lab you all know and Murphy my Golden/Lab mix both still owned by Southeastern Guide dogs but Sabrina is a Breeder now and Murphy will go back sometime this summer.



Chace and Makai use the top play area as a Fort.





Thank you grandma and Grandpa for our awesome backyard edition. We love it.

The Making Of...

This is the project we were digging up our yard for. My Dad, my brother, and CR all got together on the weekend before Christmas to put together the big swingset. I thought about it for weeks with my mom trying to figure out how to put up this huge thing in my yard without the kids noticing. Well since the kids did not have school we decided to take a trip to
grandma's for three days until Christmas eve when we would come home after dark so they could not see it. These are the pictures of the project in progress.

Florida Oranges

THE FLORIDA ORANGE!

I have to say that although I still stand by wanting to move out west because I am a cowgirl at heart, nothing beats a florida orange. Juicy, sweet and just melts in your mouth. Shaylyn and I had the great chance to enjoy one of Florida's quilty pleasures today and frankly we don't feel guilty at all.So all you people out there who wish you were here..let us know and maybe, just maybe we may share=)

We will now instruct you in the proper way to enjoy a florida orange.

Step 1: Admire said orange.. the orangey color, the squishy feel and anticipate scarfing!



Step 2: waited paitienly for mom to peel orange and now get ready for the taste test.



Step3: Take small dainty and lady like bite.



Step 4: Who cares about lady like .......dig in before it runs off your plate.




Step 5: Savor the Flavor...and that is how you eat a florida orange.Any questions?

Destroying our yard, beware hot guy doing yard work!

So for christmas this year my parents are getting the kids a beautiful wooden playset. We decided that we needed to even out the backyard in order to put it in so we decided to go ahead and take it a step further and make it pretty. We decided to till the ground to even it out and then we are going to frame it in with wood and then lay mulch to make it look pretty. WOW! we started working today and it was not easy to grind up the grass. Not to mention the fact that it is a 25 by 25 foot area. It was supposed to be a 25 by 30 foot area but I decided that was too big and that it would take a lot longer. We rented a tiller and it had to be back at a certain time. It took us the entire 4 hour period to get it done and we barely finished. We did not have time to move on to the clean up and framing yet so essentially I just have a 25 by 25 foot dirt pile in my backyard. I am very excited to see it finished though. I really think it is going to look awesome and be a great place for the kids to go play and have friends over to play. The best part of all is we lied to the kids saying that we were making a HUGE garden. Ha-Ha, jokes on them...they actually helped clean up their own christmas present area! Talk about working for your gift! We did not lie completely though. We did also till a much smaller area in order to actually plant a garden. We are so excited to start growing our own veggies and spices. We will keep everyone updated on our endeavor as often as possible so maybe you might even take the leap and do the same.We really hope it goes well. We want so much to learn skills that will help us when it comes time to be using food storage and be on our own..Oh on a side note I actually learned how to make my own laundry soap and have already made my first batch. The breakdown cost is about a penny a load!!!If you want to learn how..( so, so fast and simple I promise) then leave a comment with your e mail and I will send you the recipe. Anyway enjoy the pictures of my destroyed yard and I will update when phase 2 is completed. If you happen to see or talk to my kids( not likely I know) remember that it is just a Huge Garden!He-He!


I told you... Hot guy doing yardwork.



LOVE THE FRO HONEY!!!







See A HUGE Garden!!!!I told you we dug up a very large portion of the yard, but there is still plenty of yard not dug up and I am so excited about the play area for the kids.



Like Father, Like Son! Makai loved working on his gardens. The one he is in now is the smaller area that will actually become the real garden. He is over raking up the tilled grass and making the dirt even. It was hard work but he was so enthusiastic and loved every minute of it.

Fall Fun

This is our first Fall in our new house and we are loving it. Here in Florida we hardly ever see good leaf bearing trees. We have tons of neighborhoods in which the developers decided trees were not necessary. I completely disagree but what can you do. Oh I know...buy a house from the 1960's when trees mattered. Our beautiful tree in our front yard does not shed as much as we like but it gave us our first humble pile of leaves and we enjoyed every minute of it. The day was a gorgeous 70 degrees..yes It is ok to be jealous, and we decided to spend some quality time with Shaylyn while the boys were at school. Shaylyn had such a great time jumping in the leaves and throwing them around. Cr tried to make a makeshift foot swing but he later decided it would not work and took it down, but not before having some fun with it. Anyway it was a great afternoon.

Murphy on a nice day.














I LOVE having a mailbox with our name on it. It reminds me that it is not a dream and it really is OUR house=)



Our Humble leaf pile before it was malled by Shaylyn.





Look at that smile, you know she is 7th heaven. This is seriously the first time she has experienced a leaf pile in the fall. We have never lived someplace that had a big tree before.

Out of the mouth of Babes

Ok, So I am sitting at my laptop working on some thing when Shaylyn walks over and a short discussion takes place as follows.

Shaylyn: Hey Mom, What you doing?

Me: Working!

Shaylyn: Mom it's a picture of us.( refering to my background picture on my computer)

Me: Yup it sure is. ( the picture is of the kids in the backyard)

Shaylyn: Mom it's a picture of us on Murphy's poopy grass.

Me: (trying not to laugh too hard) Yes it is.

Shaylyn: That's disgusting Mom!

Followed by gut renching histarics!!!Out of the mouth of babes!


This is the picture on my computer!

Girls Camp

ok so seriously this finally completes what I needed to catch up on from the summer.
GIRL'S CAMP!!!!!!!So it rocked. What more can I say. One look at the pictures and they say it all. We had an amazing time. The theme was steadfast and immovable. What an amazing theme to have. This time we live in is horrible and to have a theme that helps our girl's remember to be steadfast and immovable in their belief in Christ is incredible. Anyway Can you see we had a blast.I can't wait until next year. The best part of all was that I got to have my Mom come as my assistant Camp director . It brought back so many memories of my youth and the time I spent with my mom. I think it helped my mom find her inner youth too. She still cracks me up and can hang with the coolest of young crowds. The girls nicknamed her SWEET MAMA .Love ya mom...Camp would not have been the same without you.

The girl's and Brother Mason doing their service project



Saint Cloud Ward cabin kept rockin all night!!!!!!=)



Silly Girls!!


Our Bishop seriously Rocks!! The girls adore him=) Love ya Bishop Johnsten!





Testimony meeting..Tears, joy, Love...can't say much more about that.



Ok so someone had the bright idea of having a stuffing marshmallows in your mouth contest. I did not win but i sure tried!!





Saint Cloud Girls!



Stake leaders skit night



ARCHERY!!!



Bishop's Dinner the night of testimony meeting!



This is our Stake president President Pratt. He is also awesome and the girls love and look up to him also.



Playing the CUP game.



OUR THEME!!



The Girls