Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Nicholas turned 6 the day after Halloween. He is such a cute little runt and we love him dearly. It doesn't seem like 6 years since that Halloween night that I spent in labor saying over and over, please don't come tonight, please wait. He humored his mother and waited until the next morning, and it's been a great adventure ever since. I thought I would share 6 things (get it?) that I love about my little boy in honor of his birthday.

1- He is small for his age but WILL NOT let it slow him down, or let it leave him out of something. He is always right there in the middle, and loving every minute of it, even if he gets injured in the process.
2- He is so thoughtful. He will share anything, even if it's his favorite thing in the world. (see #3)
3- He has a HUGE sweet tooth! This also comes with superhuman powers. He can hear a candy wrapper being unwrapped from the farthest corner of the house. He can smell candy being eaten clear across the room. (Ask Uncle Brad about this one!) It seems fitting that he wanted to come on Halloween :)
4- He loves his music. He will go in his room and listen to his CD's and sing at the top of his lungs and dance too. It's FABULOUS!
5- He has the most beautiful blue eyes. I love how they sparkle when he is excited or being mischievous.
6- He is a big tease and loves to try to scare his mother or play jokes on her.

We Love You Tons Lil' Pete and are so glad that you are a part of our family. Happy 6th Birthday!

HALLOWEEN

I woke up at O'Dark thirty on Halloween to put the finishing touches on Conner's class party that I was in charge of. (lucky me) I was a little bummed to be up that early until I looked outside. The sunrise was AMAZING! Pictures never seem to do it any justice. I just stood at the window and watched the sun come up. It was a great start to a crazy, hectic, but fun day :)



Yes the boys were characters from Star Wars again. They love it though, and are such cute Clone troopers. (Even though they were mad at me for calling them cute! They are scary or ferocious or something like that, according to them!)



Troy dressed up like Luke or Obi Wan (or whoever) and hammed it up with the boys! He's such a good dad, I did not dress up, I was not in the Princess Leia mood :)



We went to Grandma Sorensen's of course. She was thrilled to see our 2 Clone trooper's.



Conner did most all of his pumpkin by himself. From the gutting to the carving. I was so excited for him. (Mostly because it meant that I didn't have to. I could watch him and enjoy!)



Troy enjoying the "cleaning o'the pumpkin"



Nicholas was concentrating so hard while he was putting his pattern onto his pumpkin. His brows were furrowed and everything. He is so cute!






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MILLETT GRANDKIDS GROUP SHOT

My 8 Favorite Things Tag

Joann (my sister from another mother) tagged me, so here goes!

8 T.V. shows I love to watch

If you've ever been to my house you know that I only get a couple of channels and they are fuzzy at that, so honestly I don't ever watch regular TV. So I will put down some of my favorites through the years; Bewitched, The Incredible Hulk, Simon and Simon, The Muppet Show, Designing Women, Seinfeld, That 70's Show, and Alias (Which I actually watched on DVD)

8 Favorite Restaurants

Johnny Carino's, Rumbi Island Grill, McGrath's Fish House, Wok-King Cafe, Chick-Fil-A (I'm addicted to their original chicken sandwich), Neil's (Fish Taco's baby!). Any new restaurant, I love to try new places. Oh and I'm under pressure from Nicholas to add the Moab Diner:)

8 Things I did yesterday

Got the kids off to school. I put my pressure cooker away for the year, yahoo! Went grocery shopping. Cleaned off the pile of papers on my counter. Went to work at Kidscare. Held down a screaming 2 year old during stitches, who kept saying stop, stop, stop! Came home from work and pretreated the chili stains on the kids' Halloween costumes. Watched 20 min of The Spy Who Loved Me to detox after work.

8 Things I am looking forward to

Aunt Angela's Halloween party on Thursday (always lots of fun), Getting Conner's class Halloween party over with, learning to make apple butter, Nicholas' 6th birthday (even though I don't want him to get older), going to lunch with my friend Cyndie, Thanksgiving, planting more bulbs, my 15 year anniversary trip to San Antonio!

8 Things I love about This fall

Sharing produce from our garden, salsa making parties, eating fresh veggies from the garden, kids' excitement about Halloween, planting new bulbs in my flower beds, the amazingly warm weather, Halloween parties, all the beautiful sight and smells.

8 Things on my wish list

Being more organized, getting the hall bathroom redone, getting all my painting projects done, becoming healthier, more time for just Troy and I, Obama the Antichrist to lose, getting a decent family picture, learn to make decent bread and rolls.

8 people I tag

Anyone who feels the need. No pressure ;)

Salsa Party!

To bring in the fall good and proper I had a salsa making party.(parties) It was so fun to be able to hang out with my friends and sisters and make some yummy salsa. I was kind of like the Jedi Master and they were my padawan's. (Sorry about the star wars reference it's what goes on a lot here at our house :) I'm glad that I could pass on my salsa making knowledge that I learned from Yoda (My awesome MOM!) I had so many peppers from my garden this year that 15 batches of salsa were made without having to buy any peppers at all! Very cool I thought! I hope all that came had fun and will now pass on their salsa making knowledge to others so that we can make the world a better place. (If not more yummy!) Thanks to Brianne, Wendi, Jo, Lisa and Cyndie for coming. I had a blast!




Brianne and I peeling tomatoes.



Wendi sporting her happy salsa making face.




Cyndie and Lisa working hard!
















My cute sister did a batch of freezer corn in the middle of all this also. She's such a domestic goddess!


















Filling up the jars with all that gorgeous salsa.



Lisa slaving over the hot stove!



Joann measuring out her tomatoes. Look how nice those tomatoes look!



Look at all Lisa's pretty salsa!


These are the fruits of our labor all spread out on my counter top! Look how productive we were!

Testosterone Fest!

I am living in a sea of testosterone, and labor day weekend proves it. I know I'm a little late posting this, however it was such an adventure that I had to share. We went to the mountain man rendezvous at Fort Bridger. Troy and the boys went nuts! All things manly were there, like furs, and of course weapons of all kinds. It is quite an experience. There are people who dress up like mountain men, Native Americans, women in period dress and even men in kilts! There were even those that were in nothing but loincloths. Oh yeah, nothing but loincloths. Troy wanted to go so badly, as he needed some closure for some wants for badger and coyote skins that were lingering from his childhood. Hallelujah, we were able to help him with this problem! We searched the whole place until he found just the right ones, and now we are fulfilled. (we hope!) The kids were excited to find just the right raccoon hats and even though it was a billion degrees they wore them the whole time. I thought Nicholas was going to melt, but he didn't want to take it off! Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen came along also and so did my nephew Dallas who also joined heartily in the manly event. It was pretty fun to watch them have such a good time and see them get so excited over the loot they found. We came home with furs, fur hats, hatchets, powder horns, turtle shells and Dallas took home a coyote skull. (I'm sure Sacha was thrilled!) Grandpa even bought us buffalo burgers for lunch. They were actually pretty good. LaDawn and I were able to find a booth that had handmade quilts and rugs so we were able to salvage a little estrogen amidst all the craziness. I did enjoy looking at all the people that were in character. My favorites were of course the men in kilts. They were playing the pipes also so I got my fill. The Native American dancers were neat and of course the dad with the full bear skin on and all his children. He was pushing a stroller with his daughter in it who was wearing pink crocs. I thought it was FABULOUS! It was all in all a good day. All the "boys" had a blast and that is what is important, however I will need some recuperation time with just the girls. (Lori understands this!) I'll keep you posted on what we decide to do with the furs if anything, because I know you are all dying to know!

Brett's Cookout Party

While the Sorensen's from Texas were here visiting, they worked on some scouting requirements. One of the things Brett needed to do was plan a party. So we were invited over for a cookout at Grandma's, but put on by Brett. He did a fabulous job! We roasted hot dogs and marshmellows and had smores of course. The Dimonds came up to and it was fun to see them again. Brett kept commenting on how hard it was to put on a party but he did a fabulous job! Thanks for a fun night Brett!



This is Brett our super scouter and party planner extraordinaire!




We roasted our hot dogs over Grandpa's fire barrel. Brett of course started the fire for his scouting requirements.





All of us enjoying our food!



Nicholas showing off his marshmellow roasting skills. Wow! they are "just right"!



Ryan loving his smore!



Conner enjoying his marshmellows!



Janet, Jill and Lori showing off their marshmellow roasting skills.


Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen with Troy.


Shane sewing Jared's scout bag. What a good dad!

Kindergarten Big Boy

My baby started Kindergarten today, August 5th. Although Nicholas is adamant that he is not a baby anymore! He tells me that he is practically a grown up! Well our big boy is so excited and could hardly wait. Conner started a week ago, and it has been pure torture (his words exactly) to wait a whole week to start Kindergarten. He is so thrilled to be going to "Conner's school" and really didn't want to wait another minute. You can tell by the picture above. Look at his hand and the way he is standing. He was saying "Mother, I want to go now! No more pictures!" I walked him to his door, and he didn't want to give me a hug but I did get a kiss "blown" to me. Sigh! I really am kind of sad, but I did not cry!



Conner with Nicholas on his first day. Both were convinced that the photo session was going to make them late.



Nicholas found a buddy (Bryant McMullin) from our ward walking to the Kindergarten area.


This is Mrs. Roe his teacher.



Waiting in line. I did get a kiss blown to me, but no hugs like the mom up the line!



Who's ready to start kindergarten?



After his first day. Still slightly annoyed with picture taking but he did indulge his mother again.

This is the Place Heritage Park

When Shane, Lori and their family were here for a visit in August we all went to the This is the Place State Park. We ended up staying the whole day until closing time. There were a lot of fun things for the boys to do, like hatchet throwing, horse rides, wagon rides, leather stamping, and train rides just to name a few. Then there were all the houses and shops to look through. We were able to go inside the Atkin home that is usually not open to the public and take pictures. This was neat because this was Troy's family ancestor's home. We heard some stories about his ancestor's from Darwin and we able to recreate a picture up on the upper deck from one we have of the original home. There was also a group heading out for youth conference pushing handcarts that were dressed like pioneer's and that was an experience for the kids to see. My favorite moment of the day was when Conner took Nicholas over to do some leather stamping. Nicholas was not able to negotiate the hammer and hold the stamp. Connner being the good brother that he is held the stamp and let Nicholas whack away at it. I thought this was extremely brave of Conner, but very sweet. Thankfully we did not have any smashed fingers! The kids thought doing wash on the washing board was loads of fun! (no pun intended) They kept at it for at least a half an hour and wanted to do more. I guess I need to do wash this way at home to get them to help. Nicholas also thought beating the rugs was a great activity. Who knew? Thank you to Troy's parents for the fabulous day!

4th Grade Here I Come

On Monday July 28th Conner started the 4th grade. I'm a little distressed by this event, I mean when did he become so old and so grown-up? He was distressed that he had to start the 4th grade with a puffy face. He got stung by a hornet right between the eyes on Saturday and both of his eyes are very swollen! I was nervous yesterday that they where actually going to turn black, but he actually looks a lot better this morning. He is also not very happy that I am documenting this with a picture, hence the strained smile. Sorry buddy, mom's need to take pictures! So he headed off to school a little nervous and upset that he had swollen eyes. He came home from school very excited and the swollen eyes seemed not to have played a very significant role on the whole experience. 4th grade here we come!

24th of July

Okay so this is one of those mom guilt moments. I had grandiose plans for the 24th of July. We usually are in Tropic for the 24th and enjoy all the festivities there. It's a great little town celebration and we were sad that we missed it this year. So in the past, (when not in Tropic) we make homemade ice cream and do some other fun events. I however was such a slacker and basically almost forgot that it was even the 24th! Imagine my shame when Conner came to me that afternoon and asked what we were going to do for Pioneer Day. Ugh! What a bad mother! So we quickly prepared a FHE lesson on the pioneers, and since I didn't have much enthusiasm for churning our own ice cream (my arm is still numb, okay?) we did the next best thing! Peach shakes at Artic Circle! Hooray for Artic Circle! Luckily the kids thought that this was a fabulous treat and not a bad substitute for making our own. Then we watched the fireworks that were going on in the whole valley. We have such an awesome view from our back porch, and it made me very grateful for this beautiful place that we live. The kids declared it a fun night and as you can see, Nicholas enjoyed his shake immensely. (Anything sweet is okay with him) So maybe some of the mom guilt has passed...........maybe.