Things are getting done

Halloween is soooo close! I am excited, but I have lots of things I want to get done this week. Costumes are almost 100% complete...like 98%. Here is a little peak at Charlee's Cousin Itt costume. This is the first stage of her costume (minus the pink sleeves.) After this I attached a bunch of craft sting and began unraveling it all for less of a dreadlocks look and more of an hair look.

This is her headpiece: She needed to be able to see, so I attached the "hair" to the top and the bottom of the glasses. This made for an extremely itching problem...after some thought I solved this by adding some extra fleece to soften it up. She was so happy to feel the difference. It is pretty comfy now.

Can't wait to get the whole family done up tomorrow for the Trunk-or-Treat!

One of our before Halloween musts is to make some caramel apples.

I wanted to share something I made at our last Relief Society activity. We did a bunch of Christmas crafts and I signed up to make this advent calendar. It is really hard to see in these pics, but I think they are super cute.

It is just a mini muffin pan with decorated magnets over the holes. We used lots of scrapbook paper, stickers, and cutouts.

1 year down

There was an amazing sunset last week. I noticed it in my rear view mirror as I was driving to mutual. I wished I had my camera, but I called Justin to take a picture. This is what he got...doesn't do it justice, but it is still beautiful. The best thing about this sunset is that this isn't even half of it...it was the farthest stretching sunset I've seen in a long time.

This past year has gone by so fast (marking it from Oct 14, 2009.) It seems crazy to think that Justin has been home for a year now. Wow, that year flew compared to the year before it. Time is such a funny thing...some things seem like forever ago, and at the same time just yesterday.

We had a great weekend starting with an 8 am soccer game for Sydnee. After that game, Justin and I headed to Laramie with Renae to go to the WY game. We caught a movie afterwards and laughed a lot. It is always a good time with Renae and her shenanigans. Between her and Justin, I am surprised I don't die of embarrassment.

The Primary program was on Sun. and Syd and Chuck did their parts wonderfully. Chuck had her part memorized and clearly said, "Jesus Christ is the son of God." Sydnee did another girl's part who was absent and then she gave a talk about her baptism. It was funny to hear her take a deep breath and let it out before she began. She wrote some great things in her journal right after her baptism and most of her talk came straight from that. She seemed so grown up up there.

I also wanted to mention that a family in our Ward is going through a rough time right now...their son has been diagnosed with cancer. There have been a couple websites started in his behalf. One in particular to raise money for the family. It is an auction where you can bid on various things and the money goes to Kevin. http://auction4kevind.blogspot.com/ There aren't a ton of items on there just yet, but there will be more coming. By going to this blog, you can be directed to Kevin's personal blog where you can read more about his situation.

Pumpkin Hunting

It is not fun getting up early on a Sat. (any day for that matter.) I am a stay up late and sleep in kind of girl. Hours earlier than 9 are early for me, but I have to get up and get girls' ready for their day by 8, so I really look forward to Sat. and sleeping in. This last Sat. Justin and I got up and got the girls ready to be out the door by 7:30 (pretty much unheard of in this house) to go to Sydnee's soccer game. Justin checked the schedule to see what color Syd was supposed to be and saw that her game wasn't until 12:30; her game the following Sat. is at 8am (so yay, we get to do it all over again next Sat.)
After Sydnee's game, we decided to go pick out pumpkins and have some fun.

Justee insisted that Justin stand in front of the sun, or she would not even look at me.

The place we went had lots of fun stuff for the girls to do. They went through a straw maze, rode a couple rides, and enjoyed a petting zoo.

After we left this place, we stopped at a really big straw maze. We let the girls choose the way and try to lead us out. It took us about 45 mins to get all the way through the first time. We thought they would be too tired and ready to go home, but they wanted to go through again. Sydnee, Justee, and Justin decided to race Charlee and I through the maze once we hit an intersection that we disagreed on the correct way to go. Charlee and I won. This was one time my horrible sense of direction didn't lead me the wrong way.

October!

October begins and Halloween is just around the corner. I love Halloween! I am especially excited about this year's costumes. Our family will be dressing up as the Addams family...Justin and I as Gomez and Morticia, Sydnee will be Wednesday, Charlee Cousin Itt, and Justee will be Uncle Fester (she is very excited about wearing a bald cap.hehe) The girls are all very excited and have been watching old shows of the Addams Family online and saying, "That's me! There I am!"
I made some great finds for costumes at a thrift store and I am making Charlee's costume...talk about time consuming, but I think it will definitely be worth it in the end.
I have all the decorations out, and am just waiting for Sydnee and Charlee to get home from school so they can help. They had their field day today and we all ate lunch together outside at the school. They have had a very exciting day so far, and I think they will be even happier to see all the decor out when they get home.
Happy October!

For everything there is a season

Wow, Fall is here. I've said it once and I'll say it again...I love Autumn. I love the smells, the weather, the tv shows, the prelude to the holiday season, and just the feeling it puts off.
I have my Fall scents filling the house. I've started to cook (especially with my beloved crock pot) and bake more, and I am excited about getting to wear hoodies and sweaters and other comfy clothes. We are welcoming the season with open arms. (Justin especially because of football.)
Things have picked up around our household with Sydnee in soccer and Charlee and Justee in gymnastics. It is nice staying busy though and having a schedule. Hopefully things continue to go smoothly.

Middle Child

As we were getting ready for school the other day Charlee explained, "I really don't want to be late for school today...today is picture day and it is a VERY important day."
Can't argue with that.

When she got home she was super excited to tell us that the photographer called her "spiky."

Our Weekend...

This is the view out of one of our windows...a fire burning in the foothills...feels a little close. We celebrated Justin's birthday with the girls before we headed to Austin for the UW/UT game.

The girls always get so excited for birthdays. They love to pick out presents for their Daddy, and they especially love it when they can find something Broncos to get him. hehe

I must have been feeling a little inspired by Cupcake Wars...I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling and peanut butter frosting, and mint filling with chocolate frosting. (and a small cake because there would have been too many cupcakes.)

Justin also got this jersey for Dozer from the Burtons....way too funny.

Justin and I had a blast in Austin (even if the Pokes lost...I don't think Justin was too torn up, but at least he ended up wearing Cowboy colors, not Texas.) I was just glad it was a night game because it was too dang hot there. It felt so nice to step off the plane in Denver and feel the crisp, cool Fall air.

Fun Run

I stole the meat of this post from Vicki as well...

After Teri and Justin said they would be running in the Byron fun run, we asked Tasha if she wanted to too. She said yes, and then Trey and Tamsyn both said they wanted to run too. Luckily there was a one mile run as well as a 5k. Jake ran the 5k with Natasha, Justin ran with Sydnee, Teri ran with Charlee who was running her first 5k, Mark ran the mile with Tamsyn, and my mom ran the mile with the two three year olds -- Trey and Justee. A few of Ashlee's kids decided the night before to run as well. Kyle and Allie ran the mile and Karlee ran the 5k. I think our family made up about a third of the race's participants.


Getting ready to start

And they are off

The grandma and three year olds bringing up the rear.


Kyle was the first miler in our family to finish.

Here come Tamsyn and Allie toward the finish line. Mark was encouraging T all the way.

It was fun seeing her little legs go.

Finished - Her time was 9:29. There was no one else in Mark's age group, so he won the 20-29 group with his smoking time of 9:28. I think he was a little bit embarrassed when they called him up to get a medal, but we are sure glad he was willing to run with Tamsyn.

Here come the final mile runners.
These two 3 year olds (and their gma;) sure were cute. (I wish I could have watched Justee finish her first mile race, but at least there are pictures.) Their time was 14:51.

Here comes Sydnee and Justin finishing the 5k. Sydnee did such a great job! She ran a 5k last summer and ran it in 29:01. We were hoping for improvement, and were very proud of her and her time of 27:16. She won her age group (and beat lots of people older than her.) She is a tough girl and complains very little (Justin said she was getting pretty tired when there was just over a half mile left, but she could see the finish and kicked it in.) She has quite a little kick at the end.

Here come Jake and Natasha to the finish.

Charlee and I about to finish. Char was the youngest to run the 5k (she is only 5). I was super proud of her for running the whole time (we stopped once to quickly tie her shoe, but that doesn't really count. :) The last mile of the race was pretty hard on Chuck and she kept complaining that it was too hot and she wanted to run in the shade. Plus, her shoes were slightly too small, so her toes started hurting. She finished strong with a time of 37:47. Definitely the longest 5k ever, but for a 5 year old a great accomplishment....and...she wasn't the last to finish the race. :)

Right at the end, Char kept trying to hide behind me because she didn't want her picture taken, and she was a little shy to have so many people cheering her on. It was pretty funny watching her try to hide.

Before the awards, there was a drawing for prizes. Natasha's name was drawn and she got a camp chair. Mark and Syd both won water bottles. The last prize was this grey beach bag... and Trey's name was drawn. He was pretty pumped about it.

They gave all the youngest runners medals, and Syd Mark, and my mom won one.

Plagiarism

I stole this post from my sister...I slacked all summer and didn't post some of the great things we did this summer...luckily, my sister is on the ball and did all the work for me. :) Thanks Vicki!

It is not often that we get to be at one of the cousin's baptisms, so we were happy to be there for Sydnee's special day. With Mark's homecoming it was perfect timing and everyone in the family was able to be there.

Charlee was so tired out from the 5k and busy day, that it was nearly impossible to wake her up. I think Teri got her to open her eyes briefly for the actual baptism, but she quickly fell right back to sleep.
Grandma Putnam with Sydnee
4 generations
And holy cow... I have never thought that Teri and mom looked so much alike before!



Congratulations Syd! So glad we could share the day with you. After the baptism we all went home and changed and then headed to Byron to see Hailee clog, and then stayed for the Byron Days Fireworks -- (remember this is the same day we ran in the race in the morning and had the Home Run derby in the afternoon). Talk about a busy day.