Chili Fall Festival

Our ward opted not doing a Halloween party this year (which I am still sad about) However, they went above and beyond putting on a fall festival last Saturday. It was our first official gathering since the split and was tons of fun. We started off with massive amounts of chili which ranged in variety from very hot, to mild to wild game. Add that with corn on the cob, cornbread and any type of pie you could eat--I was stuffed.

Slow steady line feeding approximately 200 people.

Taylor, Mikayla and Luke
Enjoying the grub

"Official Judges"
The Bishopric
Tomlinson, Brown and Barney

If you volunteered to bring chili it was automatically placed into a category and judged by these men. The lucky recipients left with the aprons they were wearing. (click to enlarge)

Nicolina, Tiffany and Monika
Monika won the chili contest with her mean green chili verde

Miss Julie brought her mini farm for the kids to have a petting zoo.
This included a Shetland pony, a goose, some baby goats and a rabbit.

Hanging out in the petting zoo. Look how cute those baby goats are!
All the littles loved it.

The Youth keeping warm by the bonfire
(yes, it was a little chilly)

A scarecrow contest
The Hawaiian was my favorite

The Live Music
By: Jinx

A little Cotton-eyed Joe

Tisha, baby Chloe and Amber
Masterminds behind the party--aka Activity Committee

Stephanie and Carrie (mastermind number 3)

Proof I was there. It was such a blast, my favorite watching Doug learn to two step. Priceless.

94 More Days Till Christmas

I gasped as I walked around Costco Friday evening and saw a sign posted with the number of days until Christmas. Obviously that is still a while away, but it seems much closer when you put it into a "number" of days until......Of course this was accompanied by toys, ribbon, lights, etc. It takes me a while to get into Christmas especially since we haven't even hit Halloween yet! Our Costco outing had a purpose (I normally try to avoid for fear of spending too much money) we gathered last minute food items, drinks, and paper products for our Ward Back to School Bash. I wish I could say that was the entire focus of Saturday, but unfortunately it was just the icing on the cake. It went something like this........

7:00am: wake-up and even though an hour later than normal--not enough!
7:15am: get kids up for breakfast, clean up house
8:15am: take Jared over to friends to take him to his game
9:00am: took Taylor and Mackenzi over to the stake center for talent show try-outs.
9:45am: take Taylor to her basketball camp.
10:00am: arrive at Jared's game--hurray it started on time!
11:10am: leave to pick up Taylor from basketball
11:30am: luckily Doug was able to pick up Jared from his game on the way home from clinic.
12:00pm: transport Weston to bed (very sleepy and grumpy)
1:00pm: go running with Doug (extremely hot and the longest 3 miles ever!)

Clean Bones (which never lasts long enough)

1:30pm: wash the dog (they get stinky fast)
2:00pm: take Jared to a batman birthday party. He had a blast.


2:15pm: get the mail and find my pink Christmas envelope. So delightful!

Pink Christmas Goods
Thanks Kristi!

2:30pm: eat yummy left over burrito/shower
3:00pm: veg for about 45 minutes on my bed (I wish it was longer)
4:00pm: start gathering stuff for ward party.

Taylor's shoes that fit
Crazy.

4:30pm: had some shoe issues, but discovered Taylor's shoes fit me, I couldn't believe it. (she wasn't so thrilled :)
5:00pm: set up get things organized anticipating the arrival of several people.

Activity Chairmen
Will this EVER be the last party?

6:00-8pm: run around make sure everything is stocked with food, run the bike rodeo, etc.

All the kids were so excited about riding their bikes

8:15pm: clean up, FINALLY drive back home. (my kids were not happy about the departure they fought me tooth and nail.)
8:30pm: quickly bathe boys, unload party stuff and put them to bed
9:00pm: pick up Sara and Ellice for a girls night out in the FJ. (we missed Angie due to her black tie affair maybe she'll post about it)

Ellice, Sara, and Jenny

9:45pm: at Mimi's Cafe poor Ellice gets the stomach flu and our night ends a little early.:(
10:00pm: Drop off the Sara and Ellice show me their darling works of art.I think they need to market them.
11:00pm: drive home and crawl into the cozy to watch t.v. with Doug. I don't think I was ever to happy to have Saturday done with.


good deed: set up/cleaned up ward party
good deed: Sunday wrote a birthday card