Dixon Leavitt Art

I just wanted to pass this on to all of you Christmas shoppers out there. My cousin, Dixon Leavitt, is a very talented artist. Some of you may remember seeing the beautiful Stripling Warriors painting in our home. Dixon's art studio is having a huge clearance sale on everything that they have in stock. Please visit www.dixonleavittart.blogspot.com to see what is available. Quantities are limited, so check it out today! And please tell all of your friends. For any questions, email Linda at dixonleavittart@gmail.com.

Mr. Leaf

Meet Mr. Leaf:



Meet my very happy guy swinging next to Mr. Leaf:



What could be better on a crisp Fall afternoon?

8 Things Tag

Thanks, Jeri! Here it is...finally!

8 TV shows I love to watch:
1. Dancing with the Stars
2. Rachael Ray
3. 24
4. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
5. Knight Rider
6. CMA Awards
7. FIT TV Workouts
8. Man vs. Wild

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Swaggath (Indian)
2. Costa Vida (Mexican)
3. Cheesecake Factory (A book for a menu. Everything under the sun!)
4. Baja Fresh (Mexican)
5. Olive Garden (Italian)
6. P.F. Chang's (Chinese)
7. New Seasons Market Grill (The best grilled chicken sandwich on earth!)
8. Daphne's (Greek)

Yum! I'm hungry...it's Sunday...let's change the subject.

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Woke up at 6:35 a.m. to Tyler climbing in bed with us and Justin watching Saturday morning cartoons. Tyler says he likes to watch "The Care Bears" and both boys love to watch "Tom & Jerry".
2. Piled everybody in the van so Travis could drop me off at the church at 8 a.m. to help set up for Super Saturday. I'm the new Assistant Enrichment Leader in our ward. I see many crafts in my near future! :)
3. Sliced my finger royally while trying to shine the glass in my picture frame. Did you know there is an emergency first aid kit in the janitor's closet and in the church library? Here are some pictures of the projects I signed up for:





4. Took Justin and Tyler to a neighbor brother and sister's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. We had never been there. (Except for when I had my birthday party as a kid!) I have one word to describe it: crazy!
5. Picked up our Christmas cards at Costco (I love that place!). It feels so good to be on the ball this year. Now to write a clever letter to go with them...
6. Weeded the yard. I mean pulled out my precious wild flowers from the summer that look just like WEEDS. I had to tell everyone they really were going to be flowers. Silly plants!
7. Finished my Snapfish photo book, caught up on blogs and brainstormed for Christmas presents for everyone on our list.
8. Ate my designated "midnight" snack of pumpkin granola from Costco with cut-up banana and went to bed at midnight.

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Thursday @ midnight! (Jeri, funny that this is my number one thing, too. But for me it means the midnight showing of "Twilight"!)
2. Getting my visiting teaching done early this month.
3. Thanksgiving with the Guptills. We're hosting this year!
4. Christmas decorations.
5. Mailing our Christmas cards.
6. Christmas music on XM radio.
7. Christmas books and Christmas parties.
8. Christmas vacation. Two weeks in Utah!

8 Things on my wish list (just in time for Christmas!):
1. A new guitar.
2. A nap.
3. A piano.
4. The new Rachael Ray Big Orange Book.
5. Organized closets.
6. Already planted flower bulbs in my yard for pretty spring flowers!
7. A fun girls' night out!
8. More time to go on fun family outings.

I am now supposed to tag 8 people. I tag you.

Free Photo Book from Snapfish

*I think this offer has been extended through Saturday the 22nd at midnight. So still try to take advantage of this cool book!*

I just found out from my cousin's blog that you can get a free photo book from Snapfish. Just click on this link by midnight tonight (Friday) and use by midnight Sunday. It's for real and I'm working on my book right now! Have fun!

http://www.snapfish.com/info18

* This offer is only good for one standard 20-page 8" x 11" custom-cover photo book per household. Coupon dispersal ends at 11:59 p.m. PST Friday, November 14, 2008. Free photo book must be redeemed by 11:59 p.m. PST Sunday, November 16, 2008. Offer does not include customary shipping and handling charges or additional pages. Offer applies only to mail-order delivery to U.S. customers. Offer cannot be combined with other coupon codes. Coupon cannot be resold or otherwise transferred and is void on the earlier of redemption or the offer end date.

Crafts and Stuff

We have been just boppin' along this week and I don't have much to blog about. Maybe that's a good thing. Well, it has been too long. So, here's my random post:

I have Thanksgiving and Christmas on my mind. O.K., it's on Travis' mind, too, and he is making big old lists to keep us organized. When we were dating those lists drove me nuts, because I don't like seeing all those things I still HAVEN'T done written out so clearly. But we have made peace after 8 years and now we know I don't make lists and Travis does. I really have learned to appreciate his lists during the holidays. He has lists for all different categories of things we need to buy and accomplish before those two big days coming up. Sometimes I'll make a list (Hey, calendars count, right? Don't tell Travis, it will blow my cover!), but usually it is just all in my mind. When my mind wanders and I forget all that I have to do, I am so glad that I can just ask Travis and he will pull up that LIST! I tell him that's why I married him...among other things! :)

My cousin, Kristen, just posted about a fabulous blog site checker-blocked full of fun, crafty ideas to do with your kids. Click here to check it out. It's awesome and I'm excited to try out some of the Thanksgiving ideas. Nothing brightens up a rainy day like CRAFTS!

Did I mention we LOVE to shop at Trader Joe's? Going there tonight...

I was just at the police station twice in the last 24 hours. I hope to never return. Those holding cells look awful! I took the boys with me on a Cub Scout field trip to the station yesterday afternoon since I am now one of the Bear Den leaders. I'm excited to learn lots of new things with these fun boys! When the police officer took us into the staging area (a huge garage) to look at police cars and the huge LOUD garage door opened, Tyler about lost it. He was so worried the loud police sirens would suddenly go off. But a dog saved the day! We were so happy when a big police dog named Malloy came out of a police car to meet them. This morning when we drove over to the station again for Tyler's preschool tour, Ty was a little pro. When we stood outside looking at a police car, Tyler told the officer, "I'll just stand over here and watch for fire trucks." The second time was a charm and he wasn't scared during the tour...so I could enjoy it, too.

Speaking of preschool, it was my turn to teach this week and we had so much fun! Tyler's little preschool friends are so cute and they get so excited to learn new things. I'm so happy we found a little co-op group to join this year. We are having a blast!

Did you know "24" starts up again on November 23rd? I can't wait!

Now I need to go figure out what in the world we are going to eat for dinner...

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween week complete with a visit from my sister Tawnya! She came to Oregon for a business trip and stayed for a few extra days to TRICK or TREAT and SHOP! The boys just ate her up and had so much fun wrestling and laughing and running around with Tawnya! Travis came home from work on Halloween to the boys jumping from the kitchen counter to the couch! Oh boy! She is such a fun aunt! You are welcome to visit ANYTIME!

Trunk or Treat at our ward Halloween party.

Make a silly pumpkin face!

Trick or Treating with Dad.

Tyler told Tawnya, "I'll miss you!" when he left with Dad and Justin to go trick or treating.

Tawnya dressed Tyler up as a triceratops.



Come back soon, Tawnya!

Tyler Guy

Here are some pictures from our pumpkin patch preschool field trip today:






And a little interview with Ty that I love:

1) How old are you? I'm tree! (Three)

2) What do you want to be when you grow up? what? a police officer. yea.

3) What is your favorite toy? ummm...sprayers on Great Wolf Lodge.

4) What is your favorite dessert? cloudberries (in his Winnie the Pooh book)

5) What color is your hair? black

6) How old is Mommy? tree? what old you are?

7) What is your favorite animal? elephant Why? because! because I LIKE elephants!

8) Who is your best friend? Colton in nursery.

9) What is your favorite drink? milk

10) What color do you like the best? yellow

11) What is fun to do? when mom goes to a meeting and dad goes us in bed.

12) What is your favorite song? mickey mouse clubhouse

13) How old is Daddy? tree (three)

14) Where does Jesus live? with his mommy.

15) What makes you happy? kisses

16) What color is Mommy's hair? um...black.

17) What is the best book? a Halloween book. (we don't have one)

18) What is the best part of Halloween? construction worker or trick or treating.

19) What do you like to wear? underwear. (good boy!) What else? every regular clothes.

20) Where do we live? in our house. Where is our house? right here, cookoo Mama!

21) What color is Daddy's hair? blue

22) How much do I love you? Huggies and kissies love you.

8 years of FUN

Here we are in Montana this past summer after a hike to see the waterfalls.

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. It is amazing to me that we have really been married that long because the time has flown by. You know what they say: Time flies when you're having fun! Travis and I are so great together and I love him more every single day. I can't imagine life without him and I don't want to. He is an amazing husband, father and friend. I learn so much from him and he always motivates me to be a better person. I love having a happy day to celebrate! Happy Anniversary!

Great Wolf Lodge

We went on a fun vacation this week to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Washington. We took advantage on Justin's days off of school to go with eleven other families (mostly from our softball league) to the fun indoor water park. We got a screaming deal on a group rate. This place was amazing! We had so much fun!

There was something for everyone! Tyler had a blast in the pools. There was a fun splash pool for toddlers. In this picture you can see me with Ty on the jet ski spraying Rob H. and Ethan on the other jet skis. Around every corner, there was another fun water feature to spray or splash or dump water EVERYWHERE!

I think this picture is so funny. Travis is playing basketball with Justin just out of reach of Tyler who is balancing for dear life on that floating acorn. He stayed frozen there for about five minutes until Travis finally turned around to save him.
Yes, Mr. Beaver was a favorite and the lily pads behind them were hilarious! The kids hold onto some netting above to jump their way across the pool. Travis decided to try it and really put on a show. I wish I had that one on video. Needless to say, Justin was the winner!
Justin was so brave! He ran from water slide to water slide and from the wave pool to the tree house. There were 7 friends there his age and they all had so much fun running around together. Travis talked Justin into riding on the Howling Tornado water slide. It was the tallest water slide and the scariest. He went on it twice and I was amazed! I screamed my head off when I went down it for the first time. Think of being flushed down the toilet...yep, but better. After the first time, we couldn't get enough of it. I loved that we had so many friends there so we could trade off watching kids as the adults went down the bigger slides. So fun!

Tyler said the wave pool was his favorite part. He floated for hours on those ocean waves. It was so nice to have them both in life jackets so we could just let them bob around and have fun.

Here the boys are finishing up a puzzle after they listed to story time and went on a Dr. Seuss trick or treating hunt with riddles and a map. Besides the indoor water park, the lodge has fun cabin-themed rooms, 6 restaurants to eat,several shops, an arcade, spa, gaming/internet room, kids cub club craft room, an animatronic clock tower story time each night and board games in the lobby to play. It was fun to have a one-stop vacation. We loved it! We did drive down the street to eat a couple of meals, but other than that we just stayed and played until we were exhausted!

I love this picture of Justin catching the waves. The time just flew by and before we knew it, it was time to go. We stayed for one night and played for two days. None of us wanted to leave and the boys asked if they could stay there forever. I said, "Well, maybe not forever, but we'll definitely come back someday!" I sure hope so. Does anyone else want to come with us?

It's the Great Pumpkin

Travis took the day off today since Justin is out of school for a few days because of parent-teacher conferences. We went to visit the pumpkin patch at Lakeview Farms in North Plains, OR. We had a fantastic time! This has been our October tradition for the past few years. We rode a little train out to the pumpkin patch and then rode on a boat back to the barn. Monsters come up out of the water as we ride. Tyler was terrified and cried the whole time. Justin LOVED it. The weather was great and we practically had the whole place to ourselves. Here are some pumpkin pictures: