It worked!!

Happy Halloween from all of us! Halloween in weird-o Oklahoma was celbrated on October 30th, because aparently you can't trick or treat on a Sunday (don't get me started)...so I've got all of our Halloween pics to share up and ready!

We had a great family weekend! We carved pumpkins...

And for the first time ever, roasted the seeds. I want to share the recipe because it was EASY and sooooo YUMMY! Melt 1 T butter in a bowl and then add 1 T olive oil, 1/2 t garlic salt, 1/2 t seasoned salt and two shakes of worcheshire sauce. Mix and then add 1 c of cleaned pumpkin seeds. Pour out in one layer on a cookie sheet and roast at 300 degrees for 45 mins, stirring every 15 mins.

Trevor's pumpkin...

Emilee's pumpkin...

Carter's pumpkin...

A cowgirl, construction worker and fireman all ready to go...

Friends all dressed up...

Trick or treating our awesome neighbor's...

Our front door decorations...


And so for the explanation of my post's title. Carter, in true "Carter fashion" cracked us up house after house this year. Each time he came back to Joshua and I standing on the sidewalk after going to someone's door, he exclaimed "IT WORKED!!!!" He was aparently amazed that each and every time he went to a door and said "trick or treat" that someone gave him a piece of candy. It was hilarious and we are going to remember "it worked!" for a LONG time!!

Here we go again!

Fifteen years ago this month, Joshua left for truck driving school. Shiny new Class A Driver's License in hand, he and I hopped into his new big truck on Christmas Day and headed out to criss cross the United States together. It was amazing...we were newly wed and got to be together 24-7 and earn an income. While traveling, one of our very favorite parts of the country came to be the Snake River Gorge in Idaho.

Five years ago this month, we decided to escape the downward tailspinning economy of California, and move our family to the state we had fallen in love with so many years before. Joshua got a job with a great company in Idaho and we settled into our new life. We got pregnant with Carter and expected we were snuggled in for the long term there. Of course, most of you know the somewhat comical and oftentimes exhausting story of us then bouncing from Arizona to Texas and finally Oklahoma over the past few years.

Well, here we go again!! Because the bulk of the area that Joshua now manages for his company is in the Pacific Northwest and Oklahoma is definitely "central," we are moving back to our beloved Idaho so that Joshua lives in the middle of his territory. We are very dissappointed to be leaving the amazing friendships we've made here in Oklahoma, along with our cozy home and wonderful church. But if we have to leave, we are very excited to be headed back to Idaho. We are 100% an outdoors family, and the weather there will let us do all of the activities we've missed so much over the last couple of years. Skiing and camping and hiking and boating and just riding bikes and playing at the park during the summer await us!

So...forgive me as blogging gets even more sporadic than it has been lately...another season of chaos is beginning! If all goes as tentatively planned, we'll be moving the weekend of December 10th. We have our house on the market (read: crazy amounts of time spent keeping it looking in "model home" shape), I'm starting to pack for the move, we have a quick trip out to Boise in 10 days for a house-hunting trip...oh yeah...AND the holidays are right around the corner haha!!

quick coupons!

I haven't had time in forever to put up a coupon post...but today was sooo exciting that I had to snap a quick picture! Between CVS and my local "double coupon" grocery store, I came home with all of this for less than $7.00!!! Just two gallons of milk cost $7 nowadays...so I am a pretty darn happy coupon crazy person today!!

Late summer catch-up

Life has gotten away from me again...so here's a catchup post from the last two months. There will be an interesting update post coming soon too!!

We got a chance to get in another cute photo shoot in early September. This one was my favorite!


Emilee played her first season of volleyball and did soooo well! It's terribly hard to catch great shots of this sport though, as things move very fast. But here's two (albeit a bit blurry) of Em serving and of her diving to her knees to hit the ball over the net.



All five of us got the chance to go to our awesome children's museum a couple of weekends ago. The favorite section for all was the space section. Em and Trev, and then Joshua and Carter, got to climb into this Apollo replica and perform a mock space mission. (The lady seated outside acts as Mission Control, and then who ever is inside communicates with MC via the headphones, mics and cameras...look on the monitors and you'll see Em, Trev, Carter and Joshua.) Emilee and Trevor were very serious and carried out everything that MC asked...and Carter was adorable as he actually talked back and forth the with lady!




We also got to explore our city zoo recently as Joshua's company picnic was there this year. This was a must-have picture...this turtle was HUGE!

And we took the opportunity to snap a family shot with all of us in our matching orange shirts.


It's terribly hard to get a camping trip in here in Oklahoma. The summer is horribly humid, so humid for most of it that you can't be outside from about 8am to 8pm. Then, on days it might be a tad less humid, it's VERY windy (like blow a tent over windy). OR it might be severe weather with rain and tornadoes...

BUT we managed to find a window of nice weather over Labor Day weekend and we jumped at the chance to pack up the tents and fishing poles and hang out in mother nature!

Fishing is the activity of choice while we are camping and we have a wonderful lake about 30 minutes from the house that we like to head to. As soon as we got to the campground, Joshua and the kids hit the shore and put some poor little worms on hooks. This is Carter patiently waiting for his little bell to ring that signals something is on his line...

And look at the reward for his patience!

Emilee hooked several over the weekend...

And Trevor reeled in his fair share as well!

Carter usually catches twice as many as anyone else out there...and this weekend he also brought in BIGGEST! It was hilarious to watch him reel in this HUGE fish on his little tiny two foot pole!!

Our awesome friends, Brad, Jamie and Braeden came out for part of a day and hung out with us!

One final picture around the campfire...