We took advantage of the beautiful weather last weekend to do some yard work. Our neighbor was nice enough to go get us a big load of mulch in his truck. Then Darrell had the fun job of shoveling it into the wheelbarrow and I would dump the wheelbarrow and spread it. (And by the way, it was really, REALLY stinky stuff!)
Before and after
The kids were SO good and played in the backyard.
We also put the mulch in our garden areas. Here are my little helpers.
Tyler was such a big help. He took handfuls and dropped them where they should go.
All done...for now. Rest little garden and we'll see you in the spring.
I didn't take any pictures, but we also got rid of 3 diseased trees in our parking strip. Another neighbor brought over his electric saw and cut the trees off below the level of the grass. Then we just covered the stumps with dirt and grass.
It's so nice to go into the winter months with our yard work under our belts.
In October my mom, Kimberly, Tansy (sis-in-law), Tansy's mom and I went to Time Out For Women. It is a conference for women that takes place Friday night and most of the day on Saturday. It was jam-packed with wonderful speakers and musical guests. The speakers were Virginia H. Pearce (Pres. Hinckley's daughter), Sheri Dew (I've always loved her bold insights into being daughters of God, especially when I was single), Chris Williams (his pregnant wife and 2 of his children were all killed in a car accident and he has learned to "let it go" and move on with life), John Bytheway (always such a great speaker), Brad Wilcox (another great speaker, but I have a more personal connection to him because I taught his daughter Whitney in the 4th grade), Kate and Sarah (the gals from Our Best Bites who were HILARIOUS and so down-to-earth about the realities and challenges of life), and Emily Freeman (who I had never heard of before, but was just fabulous too.) The musical guests were Jenny Oaks Baker is such a talented violinist and Mercy River, a group of 3 women whose voices blend together so beautifully.
This is what it looks like when 5300 women all head to lunch.
Besides being spiritually and emotionally lifted, it was wonderful just to get away. Darrell watched the kids from Friday night until Sunday morning so I could be with my mom and sister. We had such a wonderful time--good food, good company and even the opportunity to see the musical "Oliver" together.
"We" carved our pumpkins on the night before Halloween. And by "we" I mean Darrell and I. (I just wasn't feeling up to having three little helpers that I would need to clean up after.) But the kids enjoyed watching. I carved the 2 smaller ones and Darrell did the bigger one. (Thanks Greg and Brooke for the pumpkins from your garden.)
Tyler requested a a pumpkin with a "brownie" face (frowning face.)
Tyler had a Halloween party, parade and program at preschool (that's a lot of "p" words!)
Tyler was James, one of the trains on Thomas and Friends. We also have a Thomas costume, but he insisted on being James. (And then he had to correct people who would say, "Oh look, Thomas!")
The girls were bumblebees this year. Here they are before we headed to Tyler's program. (Apparently we're "in" to bumblebees. See here and here.)
We went from Tyler's preschool program right over to Darrell's work so the kids could go trick-or-treating. They LOVED it.
We had cheesy bread and the jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner.
Getting ready to head out to trick-or-treat. The weather was so beautifully warm that the kids didn't even need jackets. Tyler didn't want to wear his conductor's hat.
The kids loved getting so much candy. Tyler kept wanting to run to the next house and was often knocking on the door way before Emily, Megan, Darrell and I got there. The girls did really well, but then they started to get tired carrying their heavy baskets. So Darrell and I ended up carrying them from house to house. Sometimes Tyler would say, "Happy Birthday!' instead of Happy Halloween. Silly kid!
We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and then I stayed home to hand out candy while Darrell took the kids around for a little bit longer. That night as the kids were getting ready for bed Tyler asked when they could go trick-or-treating again. He doesn't really understand, "Not for another 365 more days!"
