Jack-o-lanterns galore!

Last night we carved our pumpkins. It was a lot of fun... for some of us. Austin said he was PMSing so he wasn't in the greatest mood and it didn't help that Tevin wanted to carve the pumpkin - but didn't want to touch it. I think overall our pumpkins turned out great! Tevin drew his own face on his (the left one). We had bought a pie pumpkin for Zoya to do, and it was a "baby" so that made it all the better. Mommy just wanted to have fun with her pumpkin (it's singing in case you didn't know).


Zoya was very proud of her pumpkin and it was very cute when she gave it a hug. Also, the funiest thing to me was that when we put a tealight candle in hers, it glowed REALLY bright!!!

Tevin of course was exstatic! He loved his pumpkin and was so happy that Daddy had beat Mommy in the race to finish the pumpkins. He would turn to me and say, "I'm going to beat you!" and then turn to Austin who was carving Tevin's pumpkin and say, "Dad! Hurry Up!"
We had a very good time in our family home evening. Especially Zoya's outrageously bright pumpkin.
Afterwards, we talked about service. Our branch is trying to fulfill the goal that every family have a missionary work plan set and wanted each auxilary to come up with something that can connect the families to the branch plan. Well, I am the Primary President so I thought really hard, but then when I read an old issue of the Ensign, I was reminded of President Monson's birthday gift of warm fuzzies! Perfect! I decided that we would do a warm fuzzies jar and each time they did service to someone, they would be able to put a fuzzy in the jar. If it was a gospel related service, then they got to put a Sparkly Fuzzy in! I decided that this was good and would start one at home! So, we talked about it and we talked about services we had done that day and it was ok. It will take a bit for them to understand what service is.

We then played with the camera's timed option. It was fun and we got a couple good family shots in. We are a happy family.

Rainy Days and Gray Days Always Get Me Down...

Instead of Rainy Days and Mondays, it's Rainy Days and Gray Days. It's Gray here... almost 95% of the time. We only see blue skies once in a while. Here, for instance are some pictures of a typical day here in the U.P.

This is a shot from a grocery store called Econo....cool...

Zoya and I waiting for Tevin's bus!
Waiting for Tevin's Bus....and hoping it won't rain. (but it does)

Anyways, it's been ok. I noticed my sleep cycle has gotten crazy so I will have to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier and do a little light therapy to keep me on track! Lol We've been cleaning our house lately and it is amazing how much you can get done when your kids actually help! haha Afterwards we had some fun... see?

We love to play. I think it is hilarious when I clean because I like to listen to music and today Tevin got really annoyed and yelled, "No! Not music!" I told him I liked it on because it made me happy and he said, "Well watching TV makes me and Zoya happy." haha I still kept the music on and it was good because they had to find something else to do. Heaven forbid they not watch TV.

Daddy was excited today. He got his speakers in for his car. After returning the first set because they were too big, the stereo place ordered these for him and then he found out that they were a little too tall, but he fixed it so everything is good. All he has to do now is find out which wire is bad in the car and both of them will work! ; ) haha


Tevin has been learning about Safety this last week. He got to go to the Fire Station and everything! His teacher sent home this paper about having a fire plan and such for our family and asked that we make up one and send them a copy so they can put it in this book they are making. We had already make our emergency plan because Mom is a freak, so we took a picture of Tevie standing by our poster we have by the door and taped it to the paper. He's happy in the picture, but he wasn't a second before! lol

I was going through pictures today and realized my babies were getting so big! Here's a recap.Tevin at age 5!

Tevin at age 1!

Zoya at age 2 1/2!


Zoya at age 1!!

Wow. I am definitely feeling that "tug on my uterus" (for those of you who don't know, that line is from a movie called The Women.)

Absolutely Ridiculous!!!

I can't believe how long we have gone without updating this blog. Of course I am the only one who does it, but I did read a friend's blog and I really enjoyed it. They seem to use it like a journal - which I guess (duh) is what you should use it for?? Anyways, I have decided I will be more diligent and if anyone ever reads it, then they will know our family. Yeah.

So, it's dang cold now. Last week it actually snowed. Tevin was SOOOO excited. He ran to the window and exclaimed, "This is so awesome! Now I can wear my new boots!" Yes, I should have been good and been happy, but I wasn't. I was not looking forward to another seven months of snow. Austin tried to cheer me up, and by the end of the day it worked. We then realized that we had no boots for Zoya, so we had to go to the store. Another yeah. But.... before I go on, I better backtrack a month to fill in this outrageous gap.

I guess I will do this in pictures, as it is easier than trying to remember all of te details of a whole month.In Primary we ended up making sugar cube temples and I took this picture of Tevin. It was so dang funny I just couldn't help myself.We went berry picking with some of our friends and we ended up waiting a bit for us all to meet up and I took this picture of the kids. This is a scenic overlook that looks out Houghton - the town we live in.

Tevin started school and absolutely loves it. I volunteer in his class on Fridays but I'm only allowed if "he can ride the bus home." Ahh. It's started.Tevin did Soccer this year and e did really well. is best game was of course,the last game, but he was happy and said he really enjoyed it. We only had one bad day and that's a record for us! YEAH! He has really done well. We are very proud of him.Zoya gets bored at Tevin's soccer games, so she entertains herself - and us at the same time. She is getting so big. I am having a hard time dealing with it. She is very opinionated and knows what she wants, but will almost always say "NO" regardless. HahaAustin and I had to put our brains together to put on a barbeque for 150 people in our apartment complex. It went well and no one had any problems. Here Tevin and I are posing with Blizzard the Michigan Tech mascot - he's a husky! Tevin's worried - as you can tell. I have been the council president up until recently. I didn't get along with the person who was my supervisor. He didn't like my religion and I didn't like his behavior, so when head came to head, I left. I am a much happier person now. lolThis picture, I have to say I am proud of. After taking some time off for unknown reasons to me (haha) I am back on my low-carb diet. My ultimate goal - 150lbs. Right now? Sitting at 225lbs. It's all good though. I have already lost 25lbs so the rest will be a challenge, but good. Anyways, I am so in love with the fourties and fifties - even 1920's and thirties music and dress and everything. I think if it was easier, Iwould wear those way cute dresses!! I love the aprons and I like the lifestyle. Way fun.... hmm someday. But anyways, I was bored so I curled my hair and tried to recreate a look. Did I do good? I liked it.

Life... the final frontier!

Well, it's only getting better isn't it? We've been busy getting ready for school to start and all. We got to go in and meet Tevin's kindergarten teacher. She's an older woman and nice. Her name is Mrs. Johnson so that's easy enough. We took pictures outside the room and Tev wasn't that thrilled.

We've also been working on our garden. We have a piece of land that this guy offered to our apartments to use and this year we seem to be the only ones. It's been super cold this summer - I guess the coldest since 1914. Yeah.... : (

Tevin and Daddy found skates at Goodwill so they decided to try them out. Fun stuff!

Also, we had a bat in our laundry room, so we took a picture! It was a weird place for it to be sleeping, but we ended up going to the park and I opened the door so it can fly away.... and it did! lol It was gone when we came back! It looked so fuzzy. : ) Here's a video to show you what a ham Zoya is. Enjoy!

Summer's almost over.... here anyways.

Well, it's getting colder... yeah I know it's hard to believe. Anyways, we just got back... sort of... from visiting and going to see Kautri and Matt get married... yeah! Austin's now back at work and the kids have been holding all of the rotten behavior in for two weeks at grandma's and are now releasing it on me. YEAH! So here's a pic of Austin and I waiting for pictures at the Boise Temple.

Here's a pic of Kautri and Matt! Woo-hoo!

We loved being there and got some funny pictures of other people. See?
So for the kids to understand where everyone in our family lives, we got an awesome laminated map - it's big - from the DOLLAR STORE! (I KNOW!) and put pictures of everyone so Tevin and Zoya can see where everyone is. We like it. So, Tevin starts kindergarten the 8th of September and we are excited. YEAH! It'll be good for everyone. But hopefully we will have more to blog about soon.

Wow.... talk about Update!

Well, I was looking for pictures of our family, because we bought this great big map of the US and so I am putting people on the places they live.... anyways, I noticed that we had not updated for FOUR MONTHS! ha ha. Well. I guess it will take a few posts, but here goes nothing!

Four months ago was.... March... roughly.

So... we didn't do too much.. Tevin was in the newspaper at his preschool because they were advertising for a carnival they were having.

April, was Zoya and My birthday. As you can see, she had a lot of fun! She got the My Little Pony movie, a baby, a crib, a giant Pinkie Pie stuffed animal (My Little Pony) and more!
She's so happy to have babies to put to sleep!

She did such a good job at blowing out the candles too! In case you are wondering, here is a picture of the cake. It's a pony with oreo fangs - for mommy's obsession with vampirism.


So, then in May, there wasn't much either for us. While Austin was gone visiting in Idaho, we went to a parade! May 15th. What's it like in your town in May? Here's a short video to show OUR town in May.


Yeah, we love it! lol We have dreams of Hawaii. Anyways, Now... in June, we got to go fishing up at a member's house. We had so much fun! The greatest thing was, that Tevin was catching huge fish and Austin was catcing the smallest fish ever! They had to have been two times smaller than Tevin's, Here are some fun pics to see.
Tevin was not happy holding his fish because it "wiggled." Zoya just thought it was cool... as long as she didn't have to touch it.
Daddy and is BIG catch. But, I do have to say, after about five fish, he did reel in a good one.


Here he is with his trophy...
As you can see, he loves it : )

Well, oter than that, Austin has been working and we have been doing our thing. I have been doing a low carb diet now for two months and I have lost 26 lbs. YEAH!!! Here's a pic of me and the kids messing around today, and hopefully we will update more often!