No Syrup!

None, I haven't had any of my own flavor in a while... since the fire looks like! Sorry, I just haven't pulled out the camera!

If you don't feel like reading any further I don't blame you.

In other news, we have been busy. Volleyball season is in full swing, I coach and play myself. The team I coach has a ton of talent but we just can't seem to get all the players there on time so we keep having to forfeit THEN the other girls show up. It is fun though to watch all the girls progress in their abilities. All of them are excellent servers and they aren't shy to go after the ball anymore. During practice on Tuesdays I serve allll day long, all over the court, so they learn to go for the ball. They have to call it or the hit doesn't count too... good practice I think.

Speaking of serving last night during MY game, I have to practice so much with my girls that I can serve to pretty much any whole I want. Not to bragg about it but I had at least 4 points each time I started serving simply because they kept moving to where they thought I would serve it and of course I would switch it up. Near the end I heard one gal on the other team say, "Ah not her, I think she serves like that on purpose" HA I do feel bad though, at one point we were behind by 3 and there were 2 gals on the other team that were clearly novices. I kept serving right to them so we could come from behind, once we were winning I served it to another area where more capable hands were... yeah I know I am competative but we just had to get ahead okay? We won all our matches. All though I will say that my reaction time is decrepit compared to what it used to be. I let a lot of balls drop that I could have dug up... It's really fun to play and work up a good sweat a different way then work out DVD's or running. Plus you get to have different sore muscles in the morning.  

Funny thing is after every game or practice my left arm is super sore... It doesn't help that I hold Ty on that side too.

Matt has been playing football on Saturday mornings with Preston's ward. Matt decided that he needs to take it upon himself to coordinate it in our ward so he made an announcement in Elders Quorum that he wanted to play and passed around a sign up sheet. He said it's NOT a church activity, just a bunch of guys going to play and have fun. Anyways he is hoping to get at least a month or two of good football going before the super cold weather sets in AND so he can be ready for a good Thanksgiving game.

Tender Mercies Tuesday: Little Lady

Last Tuesday I got a call from my sister, she was told she had to deliver that day even though she wasn't due for 3 more weeks! Luckily this little lady was born with no health complications and is your ideal baby really. She eats and sleeps like a champ! What a lucky girl she is, she has the best brother, sister, mom and dad anyone could ask to have. Of course, Suzanne and I couldn't help but go buy her some new clothes and make her a blanket (okay my mom made the blanket, we bought the stuff) We're so glad to have her here. She is so teeny tiny that's it's hard to get used to it. I don't think Ty realizes she is a person yet either, he just kind of looks at her and points :) Welcome baby Elena! We love you!  

Ty's Kisses

In church today, Ty decided to give me kisses. Usually his kisses are open mouthed and slobbery but this time he came at me with he tongue all the way out and he was saying looove you... looooove you... (you know more in Ty language but I knew what he was saying) he was trying so hard and I kept turning away from the slobbery tongue plus I was laughing pretty hard so the family in the row behind us started laughing. I finally had to pass him off to Matt because he was trying so hard to hug and kiss me covered in slobber. He gave Matt plenty of hugs, (which isn't uncommon, for some reason he likes to hug his dad WAY more then his mom, probably because I hug him so much and his Dad isn't home all the time) Anyways, the mom in the row behind us leaned forward and said "What are you teaching him!?" It was pretty hilarious.

Ty isn't a real cuddly kid so those moments are pretty few and far between. I should probably enjoy them rather then cover my mouth and laugh but I'm telling you by the way he was coming at me I would have had to go home to re-apply all my make up...  He's growing up so fast, every day he looks and acts older. No more baby, he's all toddler. 

Tender Mercies Tuesday: No Brainer

Hmm, what could I be SO thankful for this week? Could it be that my HOUSE IS STILL HERE? Not Scorched to bits of ash and rubble? Yup that's it!

(Photo used from Mere's blog... Thanks!) This is the burn area, See how close it got to SO MANY HOMES? See the Reservoir on the left? That's where we were sitting Sunday night... we live within walking distance to it.  

This fire was big, fast and very dangerous. Now I didn't ever feel like I was in immediate danger, nor did I REALLY think my house would burn down. But to see how fast and high those flames were, it made me a LITTLE nervous...

I did start to gather everything I thought was important to take from the house in case we had to evacuate.

I had everything ready by the door:

~our old photo albums and picture boxes

~ Our folder with our passports, S.S. Cards, Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Titles etc.

~ My Lap Top

~ Our PC

~Toiletries for spending the night somewhere

~ A Change of clothes

~ Randoms for Ty (Pack'n'play, diaper bag, Bumbo etc)

It would have taken about a minute to load up and move out. As we were watching our next store neighbors I really started to chuckle as they unmounted their (what looked like) 50" flat screen TV packed about 6 huge travel bags, dishes and flatware, Guns, Rugs... and whatever else they could jam in their car.

All that mattered to me was that Matt and Ty were in the car driving safely away with me. In the face of real danger thats all that matters, not any thing else. Just that my family is safe.

All though, I will say as a precaution I was about to walk around the house with my Camera and video/take pictures of the whole house opening cupboards and doors for insurance purposes... but isn't that what insurance if for? To help with things like that?

Anyways, makes you wonder though, what would YOU take with you if you had only a few minutes to evacuate from your home... Would you unmount your TV or would you pack up your wedding dress? What is important to you? Really clears things up doesn't it!

Hot time in the old town tonight...

There was/still is a HUGE fire in Herriman! Yesterday at about 4 pm Suzanne called and told us about it. We hadn't even noticed because it was pretty far behind the mountain. By about 5 it was getting big. At 7 pm we saw a few helicopters with buckets coming to dump water on the fire just behind the hill. We saw that they were going to our local reservoir to get water so we decided to go the mile up there and watch it happen. Ty LOVES airplanes and helicopters, he points at them all the time so we figured he would like seeing them up close and personal.

This picture was at about 7:30 pm

There were tons of people there and it was interesting to read everyone's emotions. Some were panicked others just watching in wonder, maybe they didn't live very close. Matt and I were just hanging out while Ty threw rocks in the water. He probably could have sat there all day.

Flames made it over at about 8 pm

We headed back home around 8. By 9 pm it was getting pretty crazy close and by 10 the cops were down the street recommending we evacuate. It was a "soft evacuation" though, where it's just a suggestion not a hard evacuation where it is mandatory. I hopped in the shower and got everything ready to go (all photo albums, our computers and stuff for Ty and clothes for us...funny what other people were packing) I was sure it would be a hard evac. soon. By 11:30 when no Cops had come to our sub-division we went to bed and tried to get a little sleep. I woke up about every hour to look out the window at the fire. It was moving slower at about 3-4 am and luckily the winds died down but they shifted to blow the fire our way.

This was taken at about 10 pm. It's hard to tell how close that really is from us, Matt and I guess the fire was about 3 miles away at this point. A friend of mine said from across the valley it looked like the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor off of Lord of the Rings. Pretty accurate considering the fire looked like lava oozing from the mountain.

It was estimated yesterday evening that 25-100 would lose their homes but AMAZINGLY only 4 were burned down. My heart goes out to those that did lose their homes but many were SO lucky! There are houses about a mile or so up that had their back yards burning about 20 ft away from the home but their home was saved.

Thank goodness for the United Fire Authority, the Unified Police Department and the National Guard to help with everything! My Brother in Idaho was trying to come down and help too with his Fire Crew. I am glad it didn't come to that but it's nice to know that we could have gotten more help!

I took this driving home from my Dentist Appointment. All the mountains and hills on the left are chard black.

The whole city is still on lock down, where ever you drive you have to stop off at check points and tell either a Police Officer or an Army guy where you live or where you are going. Some people still aren't allowed to go home because the fire is still burning near their area,  it's about 2 streets up. Right where we were sitting watching the fire last night at the Res., behind that is where it is currently burning. Hope it can be out soon, were thinking it's burning about 2 miles away right now!

Matt stayed home this morning for a little while just to make sure we still weren't needing to leave. (We only have one car so it would be hard for Ty and me to evacuate) But we think we're out of the woods so he headed off to work. His bosses house back the reservoir so we're hoping and praying his home wont be damaged! For now we here tons of plane and helicopters over head coming and going and Ty is excited.

Oh and thanks to Suzanne and Preston for being "on call"  if we had to be evacuated! Nice to know we have so much family around to take care of us if something did happen.

For more details click here 

Baller

Ty officially has his first Basketball hoop. I saw it at Smiths, it was originally $30.00 but it was on sale for $15.00 I thought about it for a minute and decided "Why not?" (Eh hemmm yeah see previous post) So I bought him an awesome toy for no reason... whatever. ANYWAYS, I brought it to the register and it rang up for $7.50 what a deal right?

I walked in the house with it Saturday morning when Matt saw it, I told him it was a moment of weakness and super cheap. Matt said that the day earlier he wanted to go get a basketball hoop for him and it was weird that I bought one the next day with out him even saying anything... NICE! Talk about being on the same page!

 Needless to say, Ty LOVES it. He tries to shoot all the time but doesn't quite understand the arc of his shots yet so they are bullets (just like his mom haha). If he gets close enough and reaches high enough he can tip it in. Of course now everything goes through the hoop, his trucks, golf balls, teddy, plush balls... It's fun to watch him play with his hoop, especially when Matt is playing with him too.

In other news, I stumbled upon one of Ty's FAVORITE movies.. yeah yeah bad mom letting my one year old watch movies but sometimes I just need to make dinner with out him holding on to my legs the whole time. I popped this movie in a few weeks ago and he was HOOKED. I swear he barely blinked! I think he likes trains, he is also starting to understand what is going on because there is a bit of a scary part with some creepy puppets and he cries a little during that part every time... Anyways I bet you can figure out what the movie is, it's not season appropriate but when you only own about 5 kid movies you do what you can with what you have :)

P.S. Matt figured out how to update our Blu-ray player so now we can watch all the new Blu-Ray releases, Yippee!

Tender Mercies Tuesday: My Parenting 101

For some reason parenting has yet again come to the forefront of my thoughts and gospel study... I guess one can never learn or think too much on the topic when trying to rear children uprightly before the Lord.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “The world we are in is a world of turmoil, of shifting values. Shrill voices call out for one thing or another in betrayal of time-tested standards of behavior.” In "The Family: A Proclamation to the World," Church leaders declared, "Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live."

I don't know about you all, but sometimes I wonder how one is capable of raising more than one child successfully when you think about all the things we are supposed to provide and teach to them. After one Sacrament meeting a few weeks ago I wondered, "Why do I EVEN bother bringing Ty to this meeting, he gets NOTHING out of it and in turn I get nothing out of it because it is a constant battle to keep him from running, talking and crying the entire hour. How does anyone have more then one child!? It takes both of our parenting juices combined to keep ONE child reverent let alone have more then one!"

Then I remember this scripture in Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Notice it doesn't say Train up a child the way he should go and he will always do exactly what you say.... I WISH it said that! No, No it just gives us parents the assurance that when they are old they will not depart from what we teach them. This COULD be a double edged sword however. Train up your child the WRONG way and they wont depart from it, let's hope Matt and I are doing it the right way. We hope that by consistently bringing Ty to all our church meetings over time he will see that we put value in it and so he will find value in it too. If we skipped the meeting every Sunday and just went to the other stuff that is easier for him to sit through then when do we begin bringing him to the other meetings? When he is old enough? That would just be putting off the battle... tweens and teens are even more feisty then one year olds I would think. May as well drive it home from the beginning. Yeah it's tough and when number 2 comes along it will be tougher... not to mention 3 or 4, Yikes! 

I was talking with my Visiting teacher about all this (which just so happens to be closely related to the lesson this month) and she brought up this scripture. D&C 130:20-21
 20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

So how can that be applied to parenting? The light went on, what better model to follow then the way our Father in Heaven does it! To me the rising generation has a "Gimme, Gimme! I DESERVE THIS! Everyone else has one, so I HAVE to have one! I don't have to do what you say!" attitude. Nothing drives me more crazy when I hear or see that attitude. I mean I can't QUITE apply this with how young Ty is, all though I am working on having him say please and thank you, it seems like a lost cause. I want it to stick sooner then later I guess we'll see. 

Anyways this can be implemented in our home eventually, our kids will have to EARN what they want. When we attend church as a family we are blessed as a family. This doesn't mean that I'll make my children's lives super HARD but at least they'll know that they have to work to get what they want. I mean we go to church to learn and be blessed, we pay our tithing for blessings, we attend the Temple to learn and be blessed, it is not the other way around. You don't get all the blessings of paying your tithing and because of that decide to start paying it. As with children, they shouldn't get all the toys and extravagances this world offers first, then because of that they decide to share with others or treat their things with respect or whatever it may be... they have to earn it themselves first.

So there was my light bulb moment from the week as a parent I need to earn what I want, teach and set a good consistent example for my children and they will turn out okay... Back to the basics, read my scriptures, say my prayers and attend ALL my church meetings and everything will be okay...        

Hopefully our Ty will grow to be like the men described in Alma 53:21 "Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him."

Keep it going...

It may just be me noticing but doesn't Ty get more and more handsome as the months roll by? Let's keep this trend going I say!

Yeah, I know it's a mom thing... but you gotta admit, he is one CUTE little man.

Requested Recipe

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
recipe by Jessica Crapo

Dough:
¼ c. Warm Water
2 ½ t. Yeast
1 t. Sugar
½ c. Milk
2 Eggs
1 c. Canned Pumpkin Puree
1/3 c. butter, melted
½ c. Sugar
½ t. Nutmeg
¼ t. Cloves
1 t. Salt
5-6 c. Flour

Filling:
2/3 c. Canned Pumpkin Puree
½ c. Butter, room temperature
1 c. Packed Brown Sugar
2 T. Cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 oz. Cream Cheese, room temperature
3 T. Butter, room temperature
½ t. Vanilla
2-2 ½ c. powdered sugar

Directions:
1.Combine warm water, yeast, and teaspoon of sugar in small bowl. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Let stand until froth bubbles.
2. In mixer fitted with bread dough hook, combine milk, eggs, pumpkin, butter, and half cup sugar, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Mix until smooth.
3. Add 4 cups of flour to mixing bowl. Pour frothed yeast mixture on top of flour. Knead about five minutes, adding the rest of the flour half cup at a time. Dough should be smooth and moist but not sticky.
4. Spray bowl with non-stick cooking spray. Place dough in bowl. Cover with wet towel or plastic wrap that is sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Allow to rise until doubled, about one hour.
5. While dough is rising, prepare filling. Place room temperature butter and pumpkin puree in small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until mixture is smooth. In another small bowl combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
6. Pour dough out on slightly floured surface. Roll into a rectangle 16x21 inches, dough should be about ¼ inch thick. Spread the pumpkin/butter mixture over rectangle. Next, evenly spread the cinnamon/sugar mixture on top, slightly pressing it into the dough.
7. Roll up long side of dough, forming a long tube. Cut tube with sharp knife about every two inches making 12 rolls. Place rolls in lightly greased 9x13 baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
9. Bake rolls in oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla to make frosting. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving. Optional: Sprinkle a little nutmeg on top as garnish.

I don’t make the dough by hand. I just put all the dough ingredients in my bread maker and set it on the dough cycle. Then I start with step 5. I also end up with more then 12 rolls so I usually put about 8 in a 9x13 and 6 in a smaller baking pan. I sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top and a tiny bit of nutmeg instead of only nutmeg. They end up HUGE and SO good. 

First Game Pictures

I only snapped 4, the game was pretty intense! We ended up winning thankfully but it was pretty close for a little while there. There were a few errors by Washington that we were able to capitalize on. It was a toasty day for football and we sit in the north end zone so the sun always hits the right side of our faces, hence Matt and Preston's sideways caps.

Jake Heaps is the Freshman quarterback. He didn't have any touch downs this game... hopefully against Air Force this Saturday. On a few of his drives a couple receivers just plain didn't catch a ball he threw to them. His passes are quick so you have to be ready! Riley had all of the touchdowns, he's a good scrambler. Looks like we will be sticking with the 2 QB system, which I don't like, but hey we won against Washington so I guess it kind of worked.
Jake is #9.

Go Cougars!

Tender Mercies Tuesday: Doesn't Matter

On the radio news this morning I heard about this story. A church in Gainsville Florida is setting up an "International Burn the Quran Day" on 9/11 because they think that Islam is of the devil. It chaps my hide just thinking about these people.  Not because I condone all the actions of Islam, or even read the Quran, but because of the ridiculous reactions of these people, claiming to be followers of Christ. Never should a book believed to be scripture by a group of people be burned by another. How is this helping our situation in the Middle East? Ugh!

It doesn't matter what race, creed, religion, sex or so called class you are from; I will NEVER condone singling that out and discriminating or disrespecting because of it.

Whenever I had to study about Nazi Germany concentration camps, or had to research any sort of genocide at all in school I got sick to my stomach. Whenever I read or see movies about how African Americans were treated in the South just over half a century ago in the U.S., it makes me sick. Whenever in movies or books someone is segregated or picked on because of any of the above mentioned things I have a hard time finishing it. It makes me SO upset! I don't understand how ANYONE could think they are better then another person because of their skin color, religious affiliation, sex etc... Doesn't it remind you of the story of the Sneetches by Dr. Suess?   

No I am no extremist, I'm not in the forefront of these fights, but what I CAN do is teach my children and those around me by example to not tolerate that kind of behavior and stick up for those being persecuted. This is a learned trait from the past that I believe needs to be eradicated. Doctrine and Covenants Section 18 :10 states "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" It doesn't matter what language you speak, where you live or what kind of car you drive, you are no better then the beggar on the corner. We are ALL Gods children trying to find our way back to the same place. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34–35)

Like I always say when someone else is being deliberately mean or rude to someone else, Why can't we all just be friends!

This doesn't mean that I am perfect and I never lose my temper, get upset with someone, or ignore someone. What I am saying is that I am trying to remember to view everyone as our Father in Heaven sees them, and follow the advice of  James 1:19, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath."

If everyone had this in the forefront of their minds how different would the world be? 

Taking Ty for a run

We start off by picking out the perfect leaf for him to hold. We found out a long time ago that he likes to hold things and watch them fly in the wind. I find him the biggest leaf with the longest stem and he holds on to it like a balloon.

 

He shows his leaf to every car passing by waving it wildly. Some people actually wave back to him. 

In the middle of my run there are some horses, I usually stop for a minute to let Ty look at them.

This horse always comes over and sticks his face through the fence to check Ty out... Ty was so excited. I wish I got video of it. The horse walked away after realizing we didn't have any treats.

At the end of my run I let Ty play at the playground for a little while.

His first order of business, as always, is to find the biggest piece of bark or stick he can and dig with it...

Then after he gets tired of that he walks around holding it while he tries to reach everything else.

He does this with his mouth all the time, makes a perfect little O shape then goes.... Ohh! Like in the horse video. He does it ALL the time.

He was pretty excited to find out today that his stick is good for making noise, not just digging. Check out that fuzzy hair, it always sticks up when we run because it flies in the wind and he also rubs the back on the stroller head rest.

Maneuvering the slight decline is always an adventure... he managed pretty well today.

So there is Ty on our morning run, he likes to be outside so much that I am sad winter is coming so soon.

Tonight the whole family is going to see Lion King on Broadway, which Matt and I are SO excited to see. Then tomorrow us ladies are hitting up Swiss Days in Midway for the morning then were headed back to L.E. Stadium to watch the Cougs that evening! Let's hope for a good game and a Cougar Victory! :) Have a good holiday weekend everyone.

Mornings with Ty

So every morning our routine is the same...

Ty wakes up at about 8, I bring him downstairs, he drinks his milk while I read the scriptures out loud. We pray over my breakfast and he shares that with me too.

Then we play, a ton... for about an hour then I exercise which means either a DVD or a run outside. I rotate every other day, Ty prefers the outside run so he can see all the dogs and horses on our route. Today was a DVD day though. Anyways, here are a few pictures of this mornings adventures.

Check out my globe beach ball mom!

You talkin' to me?

I'm a goin' this-a way! 

Hey Teddy, I've been looking for you!

Mom, Look! I found Teddy!

Okay, I think I am ready for my close up. Hey get out of the picture Mom, your hair is tickling my neck!

Hey let me see that thing, I want to take a picture... 

Heh heh, look what I can do, NO HANDS! (Then he takes it out of his wet mouth and in a flash hucks it at your face. Nothin' like a slobber ball to the noggin at 8 something in the morning...) 

Whelp, I am bored Mom! (It's only been 5 minutes Ty)

Oh and look, a boring bonus video!

...and that concludes our morning tour. Come back tomorrow I'll have morning run pictures, full of leaves, horses and playgrounds :)