Christmas Lists!!!

For anyone racking your brain on what to get us this year....here are a few options:


Alyssa's List-

• Spiral Bound Hymn and Primary Books
• Piano Music- anything semi-easy, or any of my favorite artists; Regina Spektor, The Fray
• I Pod Adaptor for Car
• Church Clothes- dresses and skirts
• Church Shoes
• Nativity
• Curling Iron- I think 2"
• Scrapbook Stuff- I love the big books of paper vs. just sheets of paper, ABC stickers
• Canvas'- As in painting canvas. Pretty much any size is good.
• Shirts

Jake's List-

• Air Compressor
• Nail Gun
• Shop Heater
• Herb Grower
• Jumper Cables
• TV for bedroom
• Tool Set- wrenches, screw drivers, ratchets (Alyssa would prefer some with a tracking device so he can't lose them.)
• A Remote control car....not the battery kind, the real kind, as in uses gas and you have to put it together and stuff.

OUR List-

• Kitchen Timer
• Cooling Racks
• Board Games
• Anything for our food storage
• A China Set -min. of 8 people. We like simple designs and silver is good-no gold.

The Pantry

Yep, just showing off my amazing husbands handy work again. This last week we did a complete over-haul on our pantry. I didn't take any before pictures so for those of you who don't remember or never saw what it looked like let me just describe it a little bit. You open the door and it was about a 16 in. step down onto a cement floor. There were shelves on two of the walls- if you can call them that. They were basically scraps of wood all put together at random to make what looked like shelves. We have recently decided that we really need to be more gung-ho about food storage and that seemed really hard to do when that is what we had for a food storage room. So we tore out all the shelves and painted the walls with some left over paint we found. Then we built a floor so that it is even with the rest of the house and Jake put a trap door so that we can store luggage and other things under the floor to utilize that space as well. Then we bought some new shelves and set them up and now it is just beautiful! I love LOVE love it now! It is so clean and organized and I can't wait to fill up all our shelves with food storage. (If any one has suggestions on how to do a great food storage let me know). I would just like to thank my very talented husband for all his hard work. This was a pretty frustrating project because as we have found in old houses nothing is straight. Not to mention that the shelves we bought were pretty stupidly designed and he had quite a time putting them together. Thank you Thank you Thank you Jake!!!

The now even floor, so you don't kill yourself when you walk into the pantry. (We love stick on tiles-so easy and they look great!!)

You can't even see the trap door, just the String to pull it open.

The trap door.

And my mostly empty (at the moment) shelves!

Halloween Party

The Monday before Halloween we had a Halloween party at our house with Bobby and Emily and Landon and Mike and Meagan. It was a ton of fun. We had a pizza, a pumpkin carving contest, Disney Scene It, and pumpkin cake and hot apple cider. We all dressed up and it was so much fun.

Our pumpkins: From left to right--Jake & Alyssa, a skeleton, Mike & Meagan, a cat on a broom in front of the moon, Bobby & Emily, a witch on a broom stick in front of the moon. Bobby & Emily won first place followed by Jake & Alyssa followed by Mike and Meagan. We had our neighbor judge the pumpkins and although we didn't all agree with his decision that was the out come and I am just glad we all had so much fun doing it!

I dressed up as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and Nala was Todo (or Toda because Todo is a boy).

She didn't like the basket very much, but I don't really blame her.

Landon and Uncle Jake having fun during the party. I hope we can keep this tradition going, it is soo much fun!

Nala

This is the story I wrote about my puppy. (Inspiration from Allyson-thanks!) It is intended to be a children's book with pictures so just use your imagination!

This is Nala. She is my dog. Sometimes I wonder if she is really more than that.

Sometimes she pounces on things just like a cat does. Maybe she is related to a lion!

Nala can run really fast, just like a cheetah does! And when she starts to slow down she hops like a bunny rabbit.

She always has her tongue flicking in and out like a snake. She just loves to give kisses and lick everything she sees!

Nala must think she is an elephant. When she gets a drink of water she tries to drink it through her nose. Doesn't she know she doesn't have a trunk?

When I'm watching TV Nala sits on the top of the couch with her paws on my shoulder. If I were a pirate she could be my parrot!

If Nala gets scared I pick her up and hold her like my baby. She holds on tight- just like a monkey!

Nala must have the memory of a fish. She gets so excited to play that she forgets where the ball is!

Nala thinks the grass is a tasty treat. She eats it just like a cow does!

I love when Nala gets really excited. She tries to wrinkle her nose and she snorts like a pig!

My silly puppy can't decide what she is!

Dog, Lion, Cheetah, Rabbit, Snake, Elephant, Parrot, Monkey, Fish, Cow, Pig.
Whatever anmial she chooses to be is fine with me because she will always be my Little Princess!