Grandma Bonnie is in town for Halloween

We had a huge windstorm here. Living on a hill at the bottom of a canyon, I felt like we were going to loose some trees or perhaps the roof.  All the prayers must have worked because the winds died down for about 30 min right when my Mom's flight was landing. As we were driving home from the airport the wind started back up and lasted the entire next day.  This photo was taken before the girls left for school. They probably could have ridden the wind to school, but they ended up needing to take the bus.

While my Mom was here she helped me bake three beehive cakes for the Relief Society board meeting at our house. It was great to have her help in the kitchen, because I had a lot of cleaning and leaf raking to do.

We did let Grandma have some fun. We had breakfast at Morning Glory in Ashland (her favorite stop when she comes) and went shopping in Jacksonville.

She also got to go to our church's fabulous trunk or treat party. Eric was a pirate and I was Amelia Earhart (wearing my Grandmothers Tutu's flight hat).

Cheyenne went as a groovy witch, her friend Mariah was a princess.

Ruby was a fashion witch.

Haley was a hippie... in honor of Grandma Bonnie who is always quoted as saying "I hated tye dye in the sixties and I still hate it today!".

Lucy went as a panda doctor. Right before we left she put on black lipstick and a diamond necklace. She said the other girls had make up on so she wanted some.

Grandma wore her Halloween sweater and scarf and was the candy lady that passed out all the candy to the kids.

After trick or treating the kids all had to pour out their loot and negotiate for trades. Lucy and Cheyenne scored since Haley has braces and Ruby has a space maintainer they can't eat a lot of the candy.

witchalina day 6

Grandma Bonnie was came to visit for Halloween, so she got to do Witchalina with us.

Of course those who are not reading are loving a dog.

Then the search for the treat...

Witchalina day 5

Today they found halloween candy rings and candy necklaces.
(I'm sorry I have been so bad about taking pictures this year.)

Witchalina day 4

Today they found a box of monster mash cereal and four packages of band-aids (sponge bob, barbie, little pet shop and hello kitty). Band aids are a hot commodity in our house.

Witchalina day 3

Today the girls found bubble gum eyeballs by the light bulbs in the laundry room.

Witchalina day 2

Todays treat was found "at the stinkiest place in the house" The girls found four one dollar bills and a light up spider (flashing lights) under the kitchen sink on top of the compost bin.

Speechless

I'm so excited, I can't type fast enough!!!!!
After the girls left for school I was cleaning up the kitchen when I heard a really loud bang on one of our big windows, it sounded like someone punched the glass with their fist. I looked out the window and could not see anything. So I walked closer and just stood there trying to figure out what happened. I noticed a small bird (the size of my fist) on the ground breathing really hard with messed up feathers. I knew it was hurt and should be put out of it's misery, but I couldn't do it. It soon stopped breathing so hard and was sure it was dead. I called Eric to tell him what happened and he said to just leave it for him but to fill the bird feeder to keep the birds away from the house. When I was walking past the dead bird.... it lifted it's head and turned it all the way around to look at me...





IT WAS A BABY OWL!!!! 

Oh my gosh!!!!!!!
I was so excited I could hardly breath.
I called Eric back and told him it was alive and an OWL!

Convinced I was going to rescue this hurt OWL, I quickly got a box ready in the garage with bird seed and a towel and got gloves to pick up the baby. As I was walking toward it... it stood up and flew up to a big tree!!! It had the wind knocked out of it for a while, but now it was fine and flew like there was never an accident!!!!!!

I tried to take a photo of it in the tree but on my phone you can't zoom quickly, so this is what I got before it flew far, far away. I'm sooo glad that it's ok.

I cant BELIEVE I got to see a baby OWL!!!!!!!!!!

I am pretty sure this means that our guard owl Oscar is a female and needs a new name. I'm sure she is a mama that has been guarding her babies.

******UPDATE**** I figured out it was a Northern pygmy owl. You can read about them HERE.

After reading about them It sounds like it was not a baby but an adult male. Since Oscar is like 10 times the size of this little owl (clearly not a pygmy), there is no way "he" was the hurt owl's mother.

So stinkin cool!

Whitchalina day 1

You can click on the paper below if you want to read what Witchalina left us today:

After the poem and the scriptures it said to find the treat by the light bulbs. They started checking all the lamps them Cheyenne remembered that we store a box of replacement light bulbs in the laundry room and whala!

Grandpa and Grandma were here!

Grandpa John and Grandma Hawley came up to visit us and see the beautiful fall leaves. They did get to see us, but unfortunately the peak of the leave colors came about 12 days after they left... I guess there is always next year :)

We went out and got pumpkins from Harry ad David.

Grandpa did art projects with Lucy

Grandpa helped me stack a full cord of firewood for the winter. Thank you! Eric was shocked it was all done when he got home.

I took Grandma on a wild and crazy tour of the property on a mule. Grandma also helped me with a genealogy project for Lucy's class.

They got to come to a garden dinner with us.

Who would have thought there would have been a drinking competition... there was. Cheyenne has been wanting to challenge Janet to water bottle competition. When we are working and it's hot, Janet can just inhale an entire bottle super fast. Cheyenne actually won!

We picked some of the pumpkins that were ready. We were really disappointed with the number of pumpkins we grew. After the birds and bad weather we had about a quarter of the pumpkins we had planned on (which explains why we bought our pumpkins at a store).

Carving pumpkins

For the record

Even though we play Othello with the girls all the time, Eric and I have not played for over a year to avoid marital problems.

Let the record state that last night at 9:37pm I WON Eric at a game of Othello... FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!

.....But I'm not going to brag :)

They did it!

The girls have requested countless times to sleep out on the trampoline. As long as it's not a school night we have said yes... but they never last outside for long. They usually come in about midnight for one reason or another. But last night Cheyenne, Haley and Ruby made it the entire night! Lucy was smart enough to stay inside and sleep in her own bed. She had such a great sleep she went out early and woke up the girls on the trampoline. They were all jumping and screaming by 6:30.

Move'n on up!

Ok, so I'm a little late on this one but on July 24th Haley and Anna moved up to a green one belt.

 

Yesterday Haley, Anna and Harrison moved up from green one to a purple belt!

They did a great job and testing. I kept thinking... anyone that messes with these kids is going to be so sorry. They were so focused and fierce!

Big business

The girls officially expanded their egg business yesterday selling 5 dozen eggs at the mailboxes as people came home from work.

They decorated all the boxes, but these two were my favorite. Ruby drew our coop, a chicken and our chicks rule roosters drool sign. Lucy drew flowers and a chicken.

Don't you wish your eggs cartons were this cute?

Not all eggs are created equal.

I think one of our chickens qualifies for the gifted and talented program. You can't even shut the lid on some of her eggs. Ouch!
(Fyi- we don't wash our eggs until we are ready to use them because the natural seal the chicken leaves on them makes them last longer, but it looks gross sometimes.)

Speaking of eggs... my girls have been selling our eggs to a couple of neighbors and saving the money to do something egg-citing. Ruby has become the manager of this operation and is a little obsessed. She gets mad when I use too many eggs reducing her sell-able dozens. If you are local and want organic free range eggs from the coolest chicks in town, give Ruby a call.

Oscar

Driving up to our house at dusk I noticed the outline of an owl on one of the fence posts. I thought to myself... "Why did Eric stick a plastic owl there?" Then I realized... Eric never buys anything plastic,  so I slowed way down and drove right up to it.

It was real!!! Ruby and Lucy were in the car and I told them to check out the owl right outside the car window. Lucy said "that's not real". Just then it turned it head all around and looked right at us. Both girls went "OHHHHHH!!!". It turned back toward the house and I took a photo with my phone. Then I pulled out my real camera (so I could zoom and have a flash), but as I rolled down the window it flew right in front of our windshield and up to a tree. All three of us said "Whooooa".  Since then we have seen him on the same post a few times at the same time of night. We think he is our guard owl and comes to check on us every night, so we named him Oscar.  

You know you are old when...

You are walking through an "Antique mall" and find an item that you gave to Goodwill 2 weeks prior. I had been saving that little black and white cat bank since I was a kid. I figured that my girls would like it, but they never used it and it was starting to get beat up so I gave it away. Here it was on sale for $12 with the gashed in ear from when Ruby dropped it and all. 

While at this "antique mall" I found this groovy frame. Cheyenne has requested a yellow princess room, because Belle is her favorite princess. It has not been easy to create a yellow princess room for a teenager, but I knew this mirror was a must have. 

I painted it gold and wha-la! I will show a photo of the room when it's all done. I am having a hard time finding cool gold bedding to go with all the yellow stuff. If you see something that would work please email me!

Speaking of Cheyenne....

 She passed her written test and now has a driving permit and can drive with an adult! Whoot, woot!
Way to go Cheyenne!