Two delectable dishes to welcome fall!

Okay, maybe I am exaggerating with "delectable". How about super tasty, out of the ordinary, and pretty delicious? That is probably more accurate. The first is what you see here: Apple Pie Oatmeal. No, this is not an original. I found it in one of the cooking magazines my fabulous Mema signed me up for. It is apples cooked in with your oatmeal, and then brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla with nuts sprinkled on top. Wow! It is like a healthy bowl of apple pie. Recipe here.

Next delicious dish is a Tara original. Grilled Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Sandwiches. The name pretty much says it all. Slather your pan/griddle in butter, add a piece of bread with extra nutty peanut butter, sprinkle on some chocolate chips, add another slice of bread and grill. As much as I am loathe to admit there could be such a thing as too many chocolate chips, you could even back off from what is pictured here and still be fine. The result is a nutty, chocolately, melty, fall-y sandwich that your kids will beg for over and over again. Not to mention you getting up for a quick midnight sandwich!

Count Down to Candy!

While I was in Nevada visiting my sisters, they introduced me to all sorts of new things. One of them was a great blog How Does She? She had a really cute 4x4 project that I decided to try. We LOVE Halloween, so this Count Down to Candy was perfect!

Being as I have never learned a proper fear of power tools, I remembered that I had some kind of saw in my garage, so I went to Home Depot, bought a 4"x4"x8' and brought it home. I then discovered that the saw sitting in my garage was a Miter Saw. I looked up an online manual, read the instructions, measured and cut. After a little bit of sanding, some Modge Podge, and vinyl lettering that I cut at my sister Brya's, this is what I ended up with.

As soon as I get down my fall boxes, I will have to put that cute crow on top!

Hyrum is THREE!

I know, it seems like he is older, but no - he is only three. And, he wanted a pirate cake for his birthday. That was a ton of fun. See post below. And, now, the picture roll. Not much commentary, sorry. Hyrum got a bunch of new Signing Time DVDs. Did you know there is a second volume with 13 more DVDs? Hyrum loves Signing Time, and was still excited when he came to the fourth package.

Uncle Charlie and Aunt Janet came down, and we sure enjoyed having them.

John is such a great dad. He got key chain flashlights for each of the kids, and Hyrum got to open them and distribute them to all his siblings. They LOVED them.

However, the favorite gift of the night was Joy's. She got Hyrum a new baby brother. Yes, it is a doll. Hyrum is my biggest helper, and definitely a nurturing little soul. None of our other kids have ever had any interest in dolls, including Joy. However, Hyrum loves the dolls in nursery at church and begs for one every time we pass by the isle at Walmart. So, he now has a baby who he is referring to interchangeably as his "friend" or his "baby brother". And yes, he has named him. Scrabble. Hyrum original.

Don't worry, John is appropriately dubious.

Arr..It's a cake!

Yes folks, my best birthday cake ever! Hyrum wanted a pirate cake, so this is what he got. I found a great recipe for Marshmallow Fondant at allrecipes.com and it worked great! Much better than any of the other fondant recipes I have found. Woo Hoo! It was a lot of work, but oh so worth it!

Beesting and subliminal messages

After school the other day, I thought there was something funny looking about Brigham. I looked and looked, but I just couldn't figure out what it was. There were no obvious bang marks, no gashes, and no puncture wounds. I looked some more, and finally realized that his eyes just didn't look right. Yes, there was definite disfigurement between the eyes. He was swollen!

I asked him if anything had happened at school, but he was non-committal. When I showed it John, he thought we should take him to urgent care. When John asked him what happened, he said, "Oh, I got stung by a bee at school." You would think he would have remembered it when I asked him!

The same day, we got a big set of cookie cutters at Walmart - 101 including numbers and letters. Let's just say that Brigham's obsession with letters has found a new outlet. His newest fascination is making play dough letters and smashing them together to build words. After the kids were all gone to school and Hyrum down for his nap, I started cleaning up and this is what I found -

Do you think he is trying to tell me something?

Introducing...

My newest blog - A Place for Organization! I know, I know. You have all been waiting for the day when I would start a blog with all of my fabulous organization ideas and tips. Well, wait no longer, your prayers have been answered.

Okay, really, my home is in major need of re-organization, so I am doing one of the things I love. Yes, I admit it, I love to organize. And, to help keep me motivated, I am blogging my efforts. I am posting before and after pictures, as well as ideas and tips I find along the way. Just do me one favor. When you see the 'before' pictures, just pretend I took them at someone else's messy house. It doesn't really matter whose, just not mine!

Purooneemoochi

Brigham is reading now, and putting together a wide assortment of his own wods. This was today's creation. Another common one is "Banoochi". Don't ask me what it is, but he wants to be it for Halloween.

Vacation

Yes folks, for the first time in 3 years, the Duggar family took a vacation. It was FABULOUS! And hot, and full of kids. I don't remember the last time I have seen so many kids. (See bottom for proof.)

I am going to do pictures in reverse chronological order, because I always forget and load them that way. Here you go -

While visiting with my brother Matt and his family, Joy got daring on the monkey bars. She was hanging upside down, and tried to flip her legs off. Needless to say, she didn't stick the landing. Okay, her face stuck the landing, in the woodchips. She also accomplished a bloody nose. I was really impressed with the amount of not-crying I heard. But, this was the look she got to sport on the first day of school. Everyone loves a kid with scabs, right?

And, that is my entire picture history of Matt's. I think I was exhausted by the end of the trip.

On the way to Matt's, we stopped by the Reno temple. Hard to get a close up on faces and get the angel. Trust me, the faces are pretty tired.At Erin's, we met up with my Aunt Cherie, Uncle Don, and cousins Celia, Olivia, and their kids. We went by Lattin Farms, where Uncle Don works. Yum! Delicious cantaloupe, fresh watermelon, and u-pick veggies. Yes, I did pick. Yes, we had brushette later in the evening.They have this great little cow train they hook up to the back of a golf cart thing and haul the kids around. Uncle Don was our "in" and the kids rode free.

What you can't tell from the clip is the rapid rate at which the cow train goes when Uncle Don is driving. This was taken after a stop (Madison thought the dirt bouncing in the bottom of her car was a bug). Hyrum had to be removed because it was too "bumpy". This video shows the start up, and just at then end, you see how fast those cows can go!I know, knife safety. The kids had their back turned.And then there was the lake. Even though it was down about a million feet, give or take a few, we made the most of it. On a scorcher day, anything is good.We also found that the sand had clay in it, so we all clayed up and got muddy. Moms too. A few of us were more brazen than others. Of course, a few of us look cuter with paunches than others!There was also a great park at Erin's, and we took full advantage of that.Hyrum has become obsessed with making faces.For those of you who don't know all my family (especially the extended) in this picture you see (from left to right) my sister in law Janet, sister Erin, cousin Celia, and aunt Cherie. I am not sure who those strange kids in the background are.At Brya's, it just seemed like the house reverberated with kids. Since she had the biggest house, we spent most of our time there. There were usually 10 kids, and 3 to 4 adults. Wild!

Madison and Joy (with Dayton by an ear)Okay, I admit it, most of these pictures are just so you can see how many kids there were.The girls - Joy, Madison, Jenna and Emma

The boys - Dayton, Wyatt, Brigham, Hyrum, Austin, and PaulThis is not a great video, but it does demonstrate a bit how much movement we saw.

Yes, this is how we all felt when we were done. Thank you Wyatt and Brigham!