I just wanted to let you all know why I've been neglecting my blog. First, Facebook. I think that's all I need to say about that. Second, some of you may know this, but I recently was put in as Relief Society President. So I will be spending a lot less time on Facebook too. So, if I don't post for a while, now you know why. :)
Oh yeah. Just "Relief Society". I get to be in charge of our activity tomorrow. So we decided to make toys for the Humanitarian Center. I looked on their website and found the pattern for these puppets. I made a couple examples and my kids have had a lot of fun with them. They were so cute I had to share.
I just love how short kids' attention spans are. Five seconds later and notice where the puppets are:
Nate brought home the flu and a cold from school. George and I got the cold and Andy got the flu. Nate had both and missed about a week of school including the Halloween parade. I think I was more sad than he was. Anyway, we're all better now. We tried to make the best of Halloween and took the boys to the trunk or treat at the church. The boys weren't that into the walking around to the strangers to collect candy so they stayed in the truck where George and I handed out our bowl of candy (which took not more than 30 minutes) and then we came home.
Here are the pumpkins that we finally carved. The boys had a great time!
Here's Andy the duck:
Nate was spiderman.
And I was a fly caught in a web. (George did dress up as a mechanic, but we didn't get any pictures of him.)
Maybe next year will be a little better and the kids can have the full Halloween experience.
I decided to give my house a more "seasonal" look. So here are a few pictures so you can enjoy my hard work! The first two pictures are some of the projects Nate has brought home from school. 
These others are ideas I got from some of my friends. Thanks Nicole for the paper pumpkin idea. 
And thanks to Jennifer for the pattern for the eyeballs for my monster piano... 
...and my cyclops fridge.
We got to pick out a couple pumpkins from Great Grandpa's garden. So for FHE we painted them. Nate wanted to cut them, but it's not close enough to Halloween yet and I didn't want them to spoil before then. So we will probably carve them in a couple weeks. Anyway, here are a few pictures:
Nate got really into it giving up on the paintbrush.
Andy didn't use a brush to begin with. He had a little help from Dad though. (thank goodness for "painting shirts")
The finished product! George put the face on Andy's (left) and then let him touch it up. So Nate wanted to put a face on his too. He's gotten pretty good at the smiley faces!
I have been totally slacking. It's been so good having George home that I haven't really thought about updating the blog. So now we are settled into a routine with him and Nate going to school and Andy and me staying home. So here are some pictures of what we've been doing for the last month or so:
Drove George back from San Diego for the last time!! The kids were great. I'm sure it helped that we swiped my mom's portable DVD player on the way down too. ;) Thanks mom!
Horsey rides to bed...
Fishing with Dad...
A "new" (new to us anyway) truck for Dad...
Helping Dad with his homework...We went up to Layton for a 1K kids run. You can tell how thrilled Andy is to be there!
George has also started to pay people back for all the service they did for us while he was gone. Most recently he helped my brother in law Dan get a stump out of his back yard.
Before:
During:
(some help from the Young Women and their leaders in my ward)
(and my sister-in-law Carolyn in the black t-shirt)
(and my siblings Anna, AJ, and Matt)
Almost done!
After:
The quote on the wall I got for my birthday from my sister-in-law Tina. It says, "Real love stories never have endings." Just in case you can't quite make it out.
I had to get a hair cut too. My bangs were driving me crazy! It's a little shorter than I'm used to, but fun to have a different style!
And the biggest change is yet to come!! Stay tuned for George's return!! (I won't be posting that until after Labor Day. Because that's when we'll all be here together!!!)
