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Photos are all follows...
1 and 2 Apples, apples apples. the kids picked up literally thousands of apples in October. Apples are my favorite but truthfully I am all appled out. I made lots of applesauce and sad to say we have not even had any yet. Guess we better get a fattened pigs for some pork chops, heaven forbid I should just go buy some at the store, right anyway we need something to go with all this applesauce.
3 Abby's one and only bottle, I managed to go 7 months only using 1 bottle and finally the tip ripped so instead of going and getting a new one we just stopped using the bottle, it was time anyway.
4 just had to throw this one in there. Grace sure loves her brother and I know he loves her but you couldn't tell from his expression but I know he's loving it;)

Anyway here is some more from the calm before the storm post, to bad they don't post in the order I want but I have more important things to worry about.

the calm before the storm....

December is a bit hectic for us with birthdays galor and Christmas. I'm actually really trying to simplify things so I can enjoy this magical time of year. I truly love Christmas and all the joy it brings into our home. But this post isn't about all that it is about some of the things that have been going on that I haven't posted about. A bit random so just remember I'm a mom of five kiddos and right now the two at home are wrestling around making quite a commotion. 1st photo is of a old shed that we knocked down here I liked it but it was only about 20 feet from the house so a bit of an eye sore. 2nd picture is Ammon in his cross country race he is smack in the middle of the pack and this is after he ran Graces' whole race with her encouraging her the whole way, what a good big brother. 3rd photo, Graces' race. 4th, Utah, at BYU, thank you to the passer byer. 5th, found Bradford in the tub like this one day, funny kid, never a dull moment, and this is the calm before the storm.

Grace lost her first tooth......

My children have issues with teeth. They just don't come out very easy. We are so happy Grace lost her tooth, of course the other one was already growing in behind it, but we were glad we didn't have to pay to get it pulled. Ian did the old dental floss to the door trick and it worked like a charm. Here is her big cheeky grin. The thing I will remember the most is how she kept saying, "I can't wait to tell Jenna." (her #1 buddy at school)

Halloween 2009

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We just made our costumes or went with stuff we had which I really liked even though it made a bit more work it turned out fun. Ivan was Jack from Jack in the Box, Ammon was Wolverine for the church party but decided to be a Ninja on Halloween, Grace was a beautiful Pumpkin Fairy, Bradford was Mickey Mouse at the church party but a Blue Power Ranger on Halloween(I liked the Mickey Mouse costume better) and Abby was Raggedy Ann. We actually didn't get that much candy which is really nice. In fact I think most of it is gone. I'm not the kind of mom who just gives them one a day, I figure I'd rather get it over with so for a couple of days they go nuts and we try to make sure we brush teeth and then it's over. We also did something this year that I'm sure will become a tradition. We made caramel apples. I volunteered to do it for the boys classes, I have never made them before with making my own caramel, but how hard could it be right? Let's just say I ruined two batches and ended up making over 120 apples which by the way I hand picked from the apple tree here the night before. I was up until 3am which was nuts but I think I can make a pretty decent caramel apple now. I don't think I will volunteer to do it for the kids classes again, probably just some family and friends for Halloween. Growing up our neighbors (the Parades) were bakers and we loved that he gave out doughnuts on halloween night. Sometimes they were still warm and the morning after we always got any leftovers. It is my favorite halloween memory, so I think caramel apples will hopefully become my kids.

What a week.....

This week started with Sunday Stitches for Grace. About a month ago we, okay mostly I, decided that we should stay in our Sunday church clothes all day to help us keep the sabbath day holy. It has been pretty good. I have had some major mud splatters to get out of white shirts but for the most part I thought it was helping. But this Sunday as the kids were outside I all of a sudden heard all kinds of yelling and screaming, which really isn't that unusual but as I went outside there was Grace with blood all over face going down onto her dress. The boys decided to play baseball and Grace walked right into Ammon swinging the bat. So that was our Sunday Stitched, which I'm sure led to a week of everyone having the Flu. All 5 kids got it but are doing much better now. I feel like I'm a week behind and with Halloween coming I have to get really busy. FULL SPEED AHEAD!!!

One day at a time....

I need to catch up on this so I am just going to take it one day at a time, one step in front of the other. This is a picture of Bradford feeding the baby calf that lost it's mother. The kids have named him Yoshi, (from the Dragonball Z movie). They really love going to feed the calf and I must admit it is one of my favorite chores too.

As per request....

I was telling Grandma Pietz about Abby and her love affair with Dixie. Whenever Abby is out side and walking around Dixie is right with her and will lie down to let Abby climb on her back. Dixie just follows Abby around and vice versa. Abby is even saying "Dede" whenever we are out. I have never trusted any animals but Dixie is really a good dog. So, as per request here is a picture of Abby on Dixie for grandma.