Khan Academy

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We had to turn the heat on this morning. It was quite cool in the house. I slept part of the night with my hoodie on! I'm so thankful for a heating and cooling system the we can use to regulate our comfort at the touch of a button. Think about how awesome that is!

Cody is wrapped up in a flannel blanket completely enthralled in Modern Marvels: Locomotives that we're watching on the History Channel. He's had several 'AH-HA' moments where something clicked and made sense, or something occurred to him that he never thought of before. I wonder if we could set up a field trip to the local switch yard.

Cody and I will continue reading Cornelia Funke's Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost.

Britney is still asleep. She went to the Music with a Mission concert last night with one of her best friends. She got in around midnight and was absolutely buzzing! She was pumped! Music makes her so happy and I love when she's able to pursue her passions. Thank you Amos family:)

Bobby's safely home after a night at work from a job we are so very thankful for.

I have coffee. I'm going to make french toast for my kiddos. I have a delicious, healthy dinner planned. It's beautiful outside. I am happy and content.

Taco Soup

What a beautiful 1st day of October! It's cool and there's not a cloud in the sky. It's perfect taco soup weather! There's a big pot on the stove that I'm taking to our Life Group this evening. Yummo!

1 1/2 lbs ground chuck
1 large onion, chopped
2 envelopes taco seasoning
2 envelopes ranch dressing mix
2 cans whole kernel corn
1 can tomatoes with green chilies
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can tomatoes
2 cups water

Brown the ground chuck with the onion. Drain well. In a large pot, combine the ground chuck and onion with the taco and ranch seasoning mix. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Serve with cheese, sour cream.
This also works great in the crock pot.

Spiced Tea

Fall is definitely in the air!
Around this time of year, I make up a batch or two of Spiced Tea.
It's naughty...not healthy in the slightest, but it's nice to indulge in once in a while.

2 Cups Tang
2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Instant Tea
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves

Mix that all together in a large bowl and then store in an air tight container.
Add...I don't know, maybe three tablespoons of mix to your cup and fill up with hot water. Use more or less mix depending on your taste.

Enjoy:)

Baptism Sunday @ EPIC

Britney, Bobby and Cody were baptized yesterday!

Epic has Baptism Sunday once every three months and I'm telling you, it's a full out party! Put it this way. When you walk in, they hand out various noise makers. Mom grabbed something, looked at me and said, "This is the first church I've ever been where they handed me a cowbell!" Hahaha!!

Britney had decided to get baptized last week so she signed herself up and was PUMPED!

Bobby and Cody have both been thinking about getting baptized. In fact, Cody told us he wanted to go ahead and do it, but I didn't want him to feel pressured into it at all. I thought maybe he thought this was his only opportunity or something. You know...I word things wrong sometimes so I told him he could wait if he wanted to and make the decision another time. He said he would wait. Once service started, Bobby literally couldn't stay in his seat. He just had to get up there! I looked over and Cody was standing up and telling Bobby he wanted to get baptized now too.
They did it together. How cool is that?!

This was such a special day for our family and I really appreciate everyone who was there to love and support us. Lauren, thank you so much for watching online! I don't even know how you knew to watch, but it's so awesome that you did :)

In total, 111 people were baptized during the course of their five services!

There are videos of them getting dunked on FaceBook if you'd like to watch:)

Awesome day for my family!
WOOHOO!

Wilson Dam

There was a field trip scheduled through NACHO to tour Wilson Dam on Friday. I really wanted to go, but I have that pesky problem of being afraid of heights. I could have talked myself out of going, but Britney REALLY wanted to go too, and I'm not about to let my fear of something keep my kids from new experiences.

This was the first tour given since 9-11-2001!

We picked Karen and Keilee up and headed to Florence. We were the first ones there and I didn't know if I had the right entrance. It was gated with this huge stop sign attached. I swear it wasn't two minutes and a police officer pulled onto the road behind me. He pulled over into the grass bit and then a second police officer pulled in next to him. I imagine they then chatted about the weather and ate sandwiches.

Well, I had the right entrance and soon cars lined in behind us, we parked and walked over to see this 100 feet down. Did I mention my aversion to heights? I did okay. Plus the longer I was there, the better I felt.

We watched the barges enter the lock. The tug had to unhook and move in next to the barges in order to fit.

Then these massive gates close and the lock fills with water...50 million gallons of it in about 20 minutes!

Once the lock is full, this walkway lowers to allow the barges to move on through.

Once the barge was through, they raised it back up and let us walk across.

I hijacked the above picture from Karen's blog.

We really enjoyed this field trip! They had several workers dispersed throughout the crowd who answered questions and gave information. One of the workers popped out of the control room and asked us what school we were with. He had such a puzzled look on his face. When we told him we homeschool, he was like "Oh, that makes sense! There's such a diversity of age groups, I couldn't figure it out."

I love homeschooling:)

Day at Heathers!

I have the best friends.

I mean, I just do.
I'm such an incredibly blessed person.

I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday then with a house full of my favorite people.

All of the kiddos...including Suzette!

My besties!

I sure do love this man:)

My Birthday at Dad's

It's become a tradition with Dad to make a prime rib dinner with many delicious sides to celebrate birthdays. We decided to go to his place, since there's lots more room than at our house. We drove down Monday evening, spent the night and came home Tuesday evening.

On our way there, we saw a house fire. There were people there, including firefighters, but they were just watching it burn. When we drove home the next day, there was just smoldering rubble...not a thing left standing.

As soon as we got to Dad's, we snuggled the puppies! They're getting so big!

The newest chick in town.

We had a bite to eat and chatted, then we watched the new episode of Castle and headed off to bed. Then we acted like six year olds! Upstairs, there are two bedrooms with a bathroom in between. Bobby and Cody slept in Max's old room and Britney and I in my old room. It's kind of neat to sleep in the same room I did as a child, and for my own children to be there. Anyway, we giggled and laughed, talked and sang to each other from room to room. We were SO loud! We're such goofballs!

The next morning, we had a great breakfast and played with the puppies some more. We can't wait to get Kat home:)
I got the prime rib in the oven and Max got there with his new friend, Gracie.

I've heard a lot about her and was SO anxious to meet her.

Isn't she precious?!

A friend of his found her when she was still young enough that her eyes weren't open. Max is getting his Wildlife Rehabilitation license so he can keep her. Racoons can be released when they weigh 30 pounds, so he still has months with her.

Nikki and babies.
Kat is on the far left of this picture.

Dad and Rosie got a puppy/baby fence, so Rosie set it up and brought the whole crew inside.

Gracie checking out the puppies.

This is Coco's room...she was unsure off all of these new creatures.

More Gracie pictures...

The BEST turtle cake...EVER!
Happy birthday to me!

The whole crew - minus my half brother Jeff who didn't want his picture taken.

Dad and Rosie and the puppy they're keeping, Harmony.

Another reason to celebrate, September 22 was the 8th anniversary of the day I quit smoking!

Go me!