Its begining to look a lot like Christmas

Deck the Halls

Witches night out

Our new neighborhood has a traditional "Ghouls Night Out" the Thursday before Halloween. We all met at a designated house and then 30 Witches car pooled to Johnny Carino's for a fun evening. Rachel came too. I wanted to go as Glinda, the Good Witch, but I couldn't figure out how to do a bubble! Maybe next year. Cooper, how do you like Grandma GoGo as the Spider Witch?

Happy Happy Birthday to Claudia

Today, Oct 12, is Claudia's birthday. We wish you a wonderful day and want you to know we consider ourselves blessed that you are a member of our family.
You are such a perfect match for Adam. He is lucky to have you.
Hope that the day brings lots of fun and surprises and especially a piece of cake!
Best to you....Bryant and Glenda

My TOP TEN TAGGERS

I have given this a lot of thought...hope I have hit on truly the top 10
1. I love my five children (and as time has passed, my 3 in-laws and 3 grandbabies.) They are what defines me. My most joyful moments have come as I have watched them become the great people they are. I am still continually surprised, yet delighted, that they are all incredibly beautiful or handsome (who would have thought), intelligent and articulate, musical (who would have guessed) and funny! I had a real "aha" moment when Andrew was the star of a basketball game played in the Idaho Falls gym that I had spent so much time in as a teen.

2. I had always thought I would become a great writer or poetess. I was not well disciplined. Yet, I smile when I see what great writers many of my children are. Maybe, now, in my empty nest stage, I will practice the craft and see if I can't turn out some good stuff, if just for my own enjoyment.

3. I always wanted to be a ballerina...hilarious, isn't it. I have said that in the resurrection my reward is that I will either be a great ballerina or a very talented singer. Doesn't it say somewhere in the scriptures that your weaknesses will become your strengths.

4. I love to travel...no actually I love studying about the place that I will visit and making up an itinerary that I would love to do if I were making all the choices. And then I just enjoy travelling there. I have enjoyed our recent trips to New York and Illinois and Missouri. I look forward to our upcoming trip to Portland in November. And I hope to fill my life with lots and lots of trips.

5. I love furniture...so much so, that often when I visit a city I scout out the furniture stores and tour them as if they were museums (this is if I am alone.) Good furniture is a work of art and should be treated as such. I wish I had more confidence in my interior design capabilities and it would be the passion of my life.

6. A few years ago as we were lying in bed Bryant asked me what I would like to be (career wise) if I could doing anything and I responded, "I would like to be a curator of a museum." He said questioningly, "You want to be a character in a wax museum?" So much for that dream!

7. I want to be thin...but as Trent says, "Pretty much in life we get what we want the most." And I guess I don't want it bad enough, because I certainly am not thin. I think I grew up in a family that prized "thinness" more than most things. ENOUGH SAID!

8. I hate it when people "go over" their allotted time in talks or prayers in church. It is pathetic...you would think I was in control of the meeting or something. In fact, I have been known to get up and leave a church meeting if a person is talking way past their time, because emotionally I can't stand it!

9. I love really good fruit....melons, peaches, pears, grapes, berries, etc. etc. It is sort of ironic that I am allergic to some of these things (mango, avocado) that I love so much. It makes me sad that I have passed on these allergies to some of my children..and it has affected their life so much. Word of advice...don't ever eat anything you might be allergic to in a foreign country...I almost suffered the ills of that in Mexico and Mark did in Europe!

10. When I was a young girl, maybe 12 of 13, I told my mother that I wanted my husband to be the first boy I would kiss....she laughed at me and said that was silly and wouldn't happen. She was wrong...I did marry the first boy I ever kissed (of course, I went on to kiss a few in the interim.) So to Bryant...I am glad that you were the first boy I ever kissed and I was the first girl you ever kissed.

Now, for tagging. If you read this and you haven't been tagged, I challenge you. Specifically, Grandma and Grandpa Nelson are tagged.

It has been a while in the making but we finally have "yard". We need to have the back forty hydro seeded but for the more part we are surrounded by grass. We really like the way the dark bark brought out the color of the stucco and brick in the front of the house. The dirt in this area washes out quickly so we felt that the only way to go with the steep sections of the lawn was to use sod from the sod farm. David Belnap helps run a sod farm and was the supplier of about 10,000 sq ft of sod.



It may not look like much but that's a lot of grass. It took about 5 hours to lay. We ended up with a wonderful crew. Devin, Rachel, Crew, Andrew, Bryant, Glenda, Kaleb, Belinda, Justin Maxfield, Josh Fullmer, and Oseen from next door.

Left overs from Julia's summer trip. Mason thought this squeeze toy was the worst thing in the world. At first he'd pull an awful face and scream in fright, if we even came close to him with the green monster.
Mason was a first class in mate at the stair prison.
Cooper in hog heaven. By the way Cooper Grandpa B has grass now. In about 2-3 weeks the lawn will need your professional assistance on the lawn mower.

Grandma Go Go wore out Coop. You can see he has no go go left.

In preparation for the night's big event our young wizard prepares for a magical evening at the newest Harry Potter Movie release. I particularly like the position of the wrist and elbow. As you can tell it enables good alignment with the nose and gaze thus improving the accuracy of spell casting.

I notice that the bewitching spell is being cast off from the highly bewitching Brinn, who appeared magically delicious for the evenings premiere.
At Andrews party he seemed to have lost the wizardly ways in favor of a party cap.

Here are pictures of the Black Hawk Estates/Comora Loma fire. The fire did not burn any structures but it did burn right up to the property line and into the landscape on this house.
This picture does not show the entire burn area but you can definitely see how far back the burn goes. Everything in the foreground of the picture and the darkened hillside in the background is all burn area. Mucho lots of acres.
We had to take this picture. You can see the burn in the front of the house. Then you can see the white structure that's lying on the ground. It is a vinyl fence that melted to the ground in the heat of the close fire. In the extreme right of the picture you can see where it was drooping down. So much for vinyl fences. But it was still nice and white.

Saturday was a special day for the Hill family. Here is a picture at the temple after their sweet Maylin was sealed to the family by their Grandpa Nelson. Earlier in the day Jay gave her a father's blessing. Families can be together forever thanks to these marvelous ordinances available in the temple.

Oh, Devin here are some more pictures for you and your friends in St. George.

Cooper was trying to get in touch with the family tree/totem. Unfortunately Great grandma Nelson was not there with her paint kit to supervise the painting of the Ferre leaf onto the tree. We need to have Cooper and Mason do that the next visit to the park with the help of mom and dad of course.
Andrew and Grandpa Belnap used his tractor and cultivator to prepare the ground for grass and sprinklers. I think Andrew really enjoyed running around in the dirt with the tractor. It would have been a to die for time for Super Cooper.
Devin your mother said you wanted to have pictures of the house on the blog to show your people in St. George. Here they are.

Idaho adventure

I just want all to know that the Belnaps did catch at least one fish. This is Andrew's first fish caught on a fly that he tied, a black leach. As you can tell the weather was truly frightful on this cold day, not! Steve and Belnap Brothers wish you were here.
Cooper really enjoyed the Nelson's cabin with Grandpa and Grammy Belnap. Here he is getting in touch with the family totem pole. Way too much fun. What little boy needs more than forest and dirt and indian lore to be happy.
I think Mason and Cooper thought that grandpa should mow the carpet.

Ferre's on the good ship Lolly Pop, Grandpop that is.

Great room
We wanted tall ceilings so that our kids didn't feel like they were having to duck their heads. We also wanted it wide enough so that the kids could relax on sofas and not feel like they were bumping into each other. Do you think we got it?
Master bedroom - We are looking forward to having a closet and a bathroom. Funny what living without those things will make you appreciate. The tub and faucets are not in yet. Master bath - Dad was the major designer for the master bath. He did the configuration on graph paper and made a paper model, long before we started. He also picked the tile for the shower.

Master shower Bryant in his toy store with a bay and a half to spare.
Laundry room sink with lady in pink.

House up date. The hardwood floor guy's son broke and arm and needed surgery. So we sit in a house with 3 days work for a certificate of ocupancy but can't move in yet. Sometimes life just doesn't work out according to plans. But someday over the rainbow we'll be there I promise.
Downstairs bath for rec room
Kitchen complete with maid.
Big front door or tiny women one or the other.
Stairs to basement and fun room.