Halloween is one of my favorite times of year. The snow hasn't started to fall yet, its cool but not cold, and the leaves of the trees make it so pretty outside.  Lately at our house it has been really foggy at night and in the morning which gives the neighborhood this cool, scary horror film feel.  Ryan and I finally got to spend some time together this weekend. it was great. The list of projects that have to be finished on the house is getting smaller and that is a very good thing. On Saturday we just did the "have to do" things like cleaning and grocery shopping. and we made a homemade salsa for a family birthday thing on sunday.  We went to the Roloff farms pumpkin patch to pick us out the PERFECT pumpkin. The Roloff family is from the TLC show "Little people BIG World".  We took the senic tour of the property which basically takes you around the outside of the property where you can see all the things the family does, all the barns and cars. the boys paintball tree huts, and the Cowboy Town, which is kind of like pioneer village in lagoon if ya ask me. Just a bunch of small buildings set up to look like a town. they do have this giant tree house that is 3 levels, that is not screwed or bolted to the tree so every few years they have a guy come make adjustments because the tree keeps growing.

Ryan was pretty happy about this picture. This is Matt's rally VW Bug which he takes to the Portland Internation Raceway every now and then and races.

This big window used to be the front door to the house until the Roloff family had it totally redone

The back of the house.

They have a pirate ship, and a castle that took them 4 years to build.   We also got to see the soccer filed and the house.  They are filming a movie with one of the sons so there was tons of security and people everywhere.  most of the family was at the farm, but there were so many people I couldn't really get a good picture of any of them without standing in huges line.

This is the Pirate ship behind the big tree house.

And here is Amy's Castle, complete with draw bridge and Queen and King quarters inside.

This picture shows 2 of the 3 barns and a part of the soccer field.  The front ground of the picture is the actual pumpkin patch where they grow all the pumpkins.

They had these 2 huges pumpkins that had to be brough in by truck for the movie they are filming. They were to big not to take a picture.

 Ryan and i were just not that interested. So we picked out our favortie pumpkin and home we went.

On Sunday Stacey, Ryan's sister, had a birthday party for baby Nixon, who turns 1 on Oct 21.  It was a Halloween party and the kids came in costume.  Sad news was big brother Dawson had come down with some sickness and had to spend the day at Nanna and Pappa DeClercks house so he missed the party.  We had excellent mexican food, which is why Ryan and I made the yummy salsa.  I totally recomend making the salsa at least once just to try it. Its a sweeter kind than most and it was full of yummy healthy veggies. I think I'll post the recipe at the bottom just in case.

Nixon got his own cupcake which he promptly smashed all over himself while managing to eat almost all of it.

Trying to convince him that the magnets in his hand are not nearly as cool as the cupcake and candle.

Big hand full of cupcake...

Super Cute Nixon

Tired of the cake, he needed to rest a second... Ha ha so funny

Sharing cake with everyone who got close enough for him to reach

Happy Birthday Nixon, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Ally Love you very MUCH!

A little frosting in the hair and ears never really hurt anyone. And he was so stinking adorable.  Cutest little kid ever.  After making a mess and the amazing sugar rush crash he was to tired to do presents so that will happen with family on his real birthday.   So happy to have some family so close and that Ry and I were able to be there for his party. 

Stacey's birthday is this week as well, so Happy Birthday to Stacey on Friday!

Sweet Bean Salsa Recipe

1 can white corn (shoe peg) -drained
1 can Black eyed peas- drained
1 red onion (chopped)
1 Green pepper (chopped)
1 Avacado (chopped)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinager
1/2 cup Canola Oil (do not sub other oils)
1 Tablespoon Tiger Sauce ( found by the A1 and Hot sauces in the store)

Mix all ingredients and chill. Best to make the night before (without avacado) and let marinate overnight. ENJOY!

Busy Fall weekend

Its getting cold outside and before the famous or infamous Oregon Rain starts we wanted to finish up as much as possible outside before we can't get it done.  The deck needed a little attention. like lots of attention. after cleaning off the deck we power washed it all clean. taking years of outside dirt and rain off. then of course we have to wait for it to dry, then pick out a color and stain the deck. the cool thing about it is that we have all these benches that are on the edges of the deck that kind of make it look like a railing. but they move. so we have a lot of surface to cover with the stain. and because the outside of the house has just been painted we didn't want to get anything on it. what a difficult task that turned out to be.

This is the before pictures. poor sad deck.  until it gets a bath!

We choose a carmel brown color for the deck. its a neutral color that still lets the little imperfections of the deck show through and in my opinion it looks so much better than the old weathered wood. Im very happy with the way it turned out.  Thanks Ry and Don! your hard work is sure paying off! 

On Thrusday night Bushwhackers had a concert set up with a surprise special guest. The concert sold out a few days before so we were ready for a rockin night.  The doors were supposed to open at 6 and the concert start at 7, but there was a little tiny problem with people showing up on time (cough cough) celebrities i tell ya.  anyways the line outside the bar of people waiting to get in was crazy!

This is the line after it went in front of the bar and down the left side, then back up into the parking lot that you see here!

over 400 people waiting patiently in line to come in and see the concert

Once everyone got inside and found a seat, the concert started just a little after 7, with the special guest TRAILOR CHOIR! they sing the "rockin the beer gut" song. Big Vinny is seriously the funniest guy i have ever seen in concert. He wanted to Bust a move in the middle of dance floor. 

Big Vinney is in the Green hat, Crystal is the blonde, and i can't remeber the other guys name on the right. and our lovely Tara in the middle makin sure the band gets everything they need before the big show. 

as with all concerts that Bushwhackers has we have the band or singers sign the wall and we put up their pictures for all to see.  so of course we had to take pictures of the art work

And then on to the main event, Chris Young. He sings the song Take me Home. He has a great voice and put on an amazing show. he played for almost 2 hours and stayed after for a meet and great. then, after all his obligations were taken care of he still hung around and just enjoyed the evening at the bar with all the people that had shown up to support him. he was a great night.

So thats pretty much what our busy weekend was like. It started raining today so its time to bring the remodle inside! yeah

the RM and other family things

Ryan and I flew home to Utah over the weekend. May i recomend not flying in bad weather? Cause the rain and wind make for a really really bumpy flight.  We arrived Wednesday night and my mom and Matt came to the airport to get us. We spent Thursday getting ready for Kevin to come home from his mission. hanging banners and painting the windows.

Ryan and I went with Janiel and her family to pick Kevin up at the airport. Janiel was shaking like a leaf, the poor thing was so nervous and excited she could barely control herself. Elder Coleman served in the South Dakota, Rapid City Mission although he spent a good amout of time in Whyoming and Nebraska.

I swear he has grown a few inches and his voice has changed a bit as well. We are so proud of you KEVIN! Lots of hugging and tears at the air port, because Kevin brought 7 other RM's home with him.

 Lots of people were standing around. Its a Utah only thing to see so many familys waiting at the airport with signs and ballons and things. But the love of family is great. We took Kevin straight to the Presidents office to be released then home to tell the waiting family and friends his stories of the mission field.

On Friday we had our family pictures taken. Its the first time since June of 2007 that all the family has been together. Grandkids and spouses and all. It was great. We had our pictures taken at the waterfall out front of Parsons construction company. strange i know. But the rocks and waterfall's were really cool. the pictures went well once the sprinklers were turned off.  anyways, after the family pictures my mom's little family rented movies and had homemade soup and spent the night home together. 

On Saturday Matt had his last "mighty mite" football game up in Coalville. it was so COLD! the wind was awful. But we stuck it out and matt's team won the game 20 to 0! way to go South Weber Knights! you rock!

Me, Mallory, and Ryan watching to game.

Matt standing on the Sidelines waiting to play

The cute boys in the cute little football pads.

On Saturday night after the game we had a big family dinner at a resturant, 16 people don't fit very well at anyone's house.  After dinner me and Ryan and my Uncle Robert and Kevin went to the Halloween Havoc demoliton derby at Golden Spike arena. It was hands down the best derby I have ever seen. 5 hours and 85 cars. Trucks and SUV's. It was great. The boys of course were in total heaven watching the cars become hunks of metal with or without wheels.

There were 2 people carried out on stretchers for "saftey",and 2 roll over accidents were the car that hit first ended up on top of the other car. Both of those guys crawled out and walked away! it was insane.

Thats a red truck on top of an upside down white truck. the driver of the white truck walked away.

After they truned it right side up.

On Sunday we watched conference in our pjs and waited for the turkey to cook. The family came over at noon and we had an early Thanks giving type dinner. Yummy turkey and stuffing and yam's and potatoes. It was really good. We watched part of the second session and then had to leave for the airport.

I miss home in Utah and all my family and friends there. I love being able to come home and i am very grateful to my wonderful husband that will come with me. We had a great trip and can't wait to get back again soon!