Reasons I love Arco, Idaho!

We spent the weekend up in Arco last week, it was a quick trip, I had to be back for General Relief Society Meeting, but it was still a fun trip.  I just love to go up to Arco and hang out there.  It sounds funny because we spend most of our time making fun of Arco, but really we have had great times there.  One of the things I love the most is the location of the house to the cellar.  I sit on the couch and see Ryan right out my window. 

This is an actual shot from my favorite spot (on the couch I mean)  Who doesn't love to watch their husband work all day? It doesn't get any better than that!

The other thing I really love is we get to go there and just be us, no school, no friends, neighbors, anyone or anything.  I get lots of time to just be a mom and my kids get lots of time to play and become best friends, it is great!

 

We cant wait to go back this weekend!

Claire Turns 3 years old!

We celebrated Claire's birthday farm style again this year!  We went to Arco to be with Ryan for the weekend and so we hauled cake, presents, balloons, and birthday girl all there!  It was really fun! 

I think this is about the 6th Dora cake we have had in our family!

 

Getting some help from Emma opening a present.

She got a Dora music player and her own Leaptop (laptop).  She was excited!

A little Telford Family Tradition, heavy, heavy hangover!

The Big three year old, Justin blew her candles out, she didn't mind though she got one out herself!  Happy Birthday Claire Bear, we LOVE you!

Claire Bear and Her Cake

 

While I was packing up the car I came to find Claire Bear in her cake.  She got one good handful from the side.

She was in trouble:

But it was totally worth it!

More Canning

The pears are done now too!  I am so excited to have this all behind me!  Thankfully I have a good sister in law who knows how to do this kind of stuff to help me along!  Plus it is always more fun to do with somebody!  They turned out yummy, BEAUTIFUL!  These would deserve blue ribbons at the fair!

Emma took the day off from school, she thought she might be sick, she wasn't, but I think she just needed a break, so did I so I was happy to have an excuse to stay home too!

This is what I look like after a long day of canning:  

Not a pretty sight, but a happy one!

Ashley’s Activity Day

Ashley has some fun Activity Day leaders again this year.  Yesterday they had  a lesson on how to build a fire and then they roasted hot dogs and had smores.  It was a hit! 

{Ashley is in white with a pony tail at the right of the picture}

Emma’s Soccer Game

I remembered to take a picture of Emma at her game and I got the rope going through her head, just lovely! 

The games were fun this week.  They split the kids differently so this week Emma only played with 8 kids and Ashley's group played with 16 or more.  Emma got a lot more chances and Ashley got a lot less.  They still had a great time.  Hopefully they will split it so there can be 8 at each game instead, it is so much more fun to watch and to play!  We will see.  They have two more weeks of games, should be fun!

A Card From Grandma

Claire was so excited to get a letter in the mail from Grandma Nielson. 

She loved the purple octopus card and carried her piggy bank all around after she put her “dollar” in it! 

Claire’s New Glasses!

Emma brought home some funny glasses from Hunters birthday party, we all laughed and laughed at Claire in them, she is a silly one!

Justin cant be left out either!

Millions of Peaches!

DONE!  Yeah what a good feeling!  The sad part is I have done all of this work and taken a whole day to get it done and I only ended up with 28 quarts.  I thought I was doing SO many, I did so many, I just always expect it to fill the whole pantry and it never comes close.  Well at least I am getting closer, next on the agenda is pears, that should be  fun day!

Thankfully Sara came to help me, I haven't canned peaches in a couple of years, and have never by myself.  I was glad she knew what she was doing!  And it gave my kids someone to beat up on!  Poor Tayson and Jaci took their beatings well today, I just LOVE my obedient children!  This is what they looked like all day, Claire didn't make it out of her PJ’s:

And Justin vegged all day, he is KING of the remote!

 

I am glad we got it done for another year!  Or for a couple of days anyway…..

A Week of Claire!

This week (Friday) is Claire Bears birthday.  I thought it would be fun to post a picture or two of her every day so we can remember what she was like as a little 2 year old!  I made some cookies and she chose to eat her beater laying on the kitchen floor while she spun in circles:

What a mess!  You have to just LOVE the outfit!  Dora jammies from her friend Kallee, a polka dot skirt and water boots!  I have a fashion diva on my hands!

Mormon Helping Hands

Ryan was in charge of the Helping Hands project for our Stake.  It was organized kind of in celebration of September 11th, the Church has done lots of projects in their yellow t-shirts all over the world!  Most of the Magic Valley did their projects on September 11th, but we had to wait a week for the potatoes to be harvested first.  We had about 200 people come and we gleaned a couple of our potato fields for those in need in the area.  I couldn't believe how many good potatoes we could find we filled 250 sacks, or more.  Here is the group gathered bright and early at the church: 

Groups of people strung out over the field:

Part of “my” group:

The kids were so excited to find little treasures all over the field, you could hear them all morning so excited to find potatoes!

The Neweys:

This group worked hard and filled ALOT of sacks:

President Kelsey eating a raw potato and digging at the same time!

Claire bear with her pockets full of “babies”

Working really hard!

The Fuchs Family:

A load of kids potatoes!

The Sister missionaries:

We served a baked potato bar afterwards, everyone was hungry, I think it went well!  We had LOTS of good help!

The event turned out great, I have a pickup load of potatoes to be delivered to the Bishops Storehouse on Tuesday.  Ryan did a good job!  He was glad to be done with it too!

Ashley and The Kitties

When we were down at the cellar the other night Ashley heard a kitty crying and crying.  We found it in the back of the cellar, its mother was probably going to come back, but she just knew it was left for dead! 

She brought it out and it was not really nice but by the time we left it was following all of the kids around.  She tried to lock it back in where it was, but it wouldn't stay.  Ryan called me about 10 o'clock that night and said this cat is here following everyone around, what do I do with it, I could hear it crying in the background!  The dogs were trying to eat it too.  I told him to put it in a box and bring it home.  We only have 14(hundred) other kittens, surely it could fit in someone's batch.  We left it out for the night and I watched the mother cats come running too it thinking it was theirs.  One wouldn't have anything to do with it but the other mamma took it right in.  It is the same color as she is and it is the same size as the other kittens!  I was so glad she would take it.  It is happy as can be, and so is Ashley she tends and babies them every chance she gets!  And now we have ANOTHER new kitten she named it Cellar!  

This Boy!

This kid is my sidekick! He has gotten to be so fun, when he isn't beating everyone up that is!  He had Ash and Emma pinned down on top of each other just beating them up last night! He usually doesn't get the last laugh though, if he makes them mad they will let him have it!  He and I play all day long!  We do have a good time together.  He insisted on staying home alone while I ran to the school.  He would NOT come out to the car and finally he locked the door on me so I couldn't get him out, (not all of the doors, I was just to lazy to walk around).  So I left him!  He was so cool, I called him when I got in the car and told him not to cook anything, or answer the door, just play with your toys!  He said I KNOW mom.  We were gone only twenty minutes, I got home and went and found him in his bed, crying.  Turns out he isn't such a tough guy after all!  He said he wouldn't stay home alone anymore!  I felt terrible, but I did warn him, I guess that is why we have “trial runs” like this!   I love my little/BIG boy!

Fall Soccer

Ashley has BEGGED to play soccer every year since she played in Kindergarten, I always say next year we will play.  Well this time she made me follow through!  She just loves soccer she plays, usually by herself during recess and tries to score as many goals as she can before the bell rings.  Funny girl!  At the last minute I panicked that she would be the only girl and so I made Emma play too, which she was happy to do.  The first practice was all girls in Ashley's age group, it was perfect!  I was so relieved.  Emma's was all boys though, except one other girl which she was BFF’s with 3o seconds into practice, Emma is our socializer!

Ash is in the front of the line here:

 

Here she is doing a drill

Here she is trying to keep her shaggy hair out of her face, how she plays most of the time!

 

I neglected to take any of Emma and she let me know it!  I will next time.  Justin and Claire kept themselves entertained playing soccer themselves.

 

I was being the goalie here, I am glad it was a soft ball!

They had their first game Wednesday night.  It was just 3 against three for Ashley's age group until a couple of little boys came and they let them play, they weren't registered so hopefully they wont come next time???  The girls didn't get to have much time ever seeing the ball after they came,  BUT Ashley did score a goal!!!  She was so excited, I sorta missed it, I was so ticked!  I saw it go in but didn't realize she was the one who kicked it until I saw that HUGE smile on her face, then she gave me the thumbs up! It was awesome!  I am so glad to see her be successful at something she really loves!  Yeah Ash!

Emma's group just ran all over after the ball, it was like a herd of elephants chasing that ball down, she said she kicked it once, she didn't mind though, she liked being goalie cause she could just sit down and rest.  Crazy Emma!