dressin' up for the candy!

Here is our pumpkin that we painted for the truck-0r-treat contest at church.
We took second. But it was rigged because the lady handing out the prizes switched first and second place because she didn't like how the judges did it. I don't think she realized that was my pumpkin when she was telling me this. Oh well, at least the judges thought I should have taken 1st place. I didn't say anything because it was no big deal! The pumpkin that she "decided" would take 1st was really cute and creative so I didn't mind.

These pics are from my friend Kendra, That is why they are small. I copied them off my email and I don't know anything about re-sizing! Kendra and Doug came out to Dugway and went trick-or-treating with their daughter Kaitlyn.

Allie was Tinkerbell on Halloween. Alice in wonderland on School night and a Bumble Bee on Trunk-or-treat. I didn't have my camera that night. Boo Hoo!

Jarom was Spiderman on Trunk-or-treat and school night and a blue monster on Halloween!

Carter was a walking dead guy all three nights. he is real enthused isn' t he?

Emma was Dorothy for school night, we couldn't find a stuffed dog so she used a bear. An Angel on trunk-0r treat, and we were so tired of dressing her up she just wore some cute orange and black for Halloween!

FALL PARTY

The McEntire October Party at the Allred's house.

We did hair...

This is Loni's hair. I cut about 3 inches off and took it to a sharp A line!

I colored it with a warm brown.

We need to have everyone come over more often so I can be their consistent hair -dresser, now that we all live in the same state!

I did 4 other cuts and another style which unfortunately did not get photographed by me.

We ate...

Jan in the Kitchen, cooking Thanksgiving Dinner! Yum!

More of the kitchen crew! Mom made her famous Rolls!

Me and my Daddy. Isn't he handsome?! He is an amazing inventor!

Me Mommy

Me and my Mommy,

She is so wonderful!

She should be a chef!

I tried to get a picture with everyone and me but I had to get back to work in the kitchen!

So here is me and Rick, Loni's husband

Me and Loni, the amazing organizer and Funny woman!

Me and Janette, My brothers wife.

a.k.a. Wonder Woman.

Mom to 2 sets of twins and one other.

That makes 5 y'all!

Me and Vera
She is my oldest and very wise Sister.

She is good at Everything and such a great mother!

Vera brought the yummy cake and cupcakes!

We celebrated my 33rd birthday, Jarom and Allie's 2nd birthday, and Briea's 7th birthday for October.

We also celebrated the September birthdays. Ben, Jordyn, And Janette.
I am sad that I didn't get more pictures.

We had a great time with all 25 of us in our house!

It was a perfect fall weekend, But it went by way too fast!

So fun!!

Two! Two! and Two!

Here is Jarom.

Today is Jarom's Second Birthday!

Here is Alice a.k.a. Allie

Today is also her second birthday!

Allie and Jer are playing outside on the curb.

Their attention span is about 6 seconds.

So too bad this didn't last very long because it was so cute!

Two years ago, I was very large with 14 pounds 4 ounces of baby inside.

Thank goodness we took pictures because I don't remember it very well anymore.

However, I do remember being very uncomfortable!!

The delivery happened really quick!

I wasn't even in the right room that I was supposed to deliver in.

But Jarom decided to come flying out!

The doctor ran in and caught him bare handed!

So from there is what Mayhem!

Things flying across the room.....

Nurse after nurse coming in bringing stuff that was necessary for the birth,

like the cribs with the heater above and blankets and sterile items...and so on.

Too bad we didn't get it on video. Florida law does not let you video anything...not even the ultrasound. =(

Sorry this picture is kind of blurry

The first six months of their life were amazing. Yes, I had to get up every hour of the night, but they were so lovable and sweet and I loved to just nuzzle their necks.

When they turned 6 months old is when I decided it was a hard job having twins.

From then on...they have been on the move!!



When I look at this picture, I just know they are thinking....

"just wait until we can crawl, then Mom will be in for it."

They are a joy and we love them so much!

Happy second birthday Jarom and Allie!

I have a wonderful slide show that my friend Gabby put together of their second day of life but it wont upload onto blogger...boo hoo!

Emma and her two lost teeth..

Emma had two loose teeth for 3 days before they fell out

They are already growing in.

I dont remember it happening so fast!

This is the difference between boys and girls.....whenever Carter lost a tooth, it was no big deal.

He lost it and that was all that we ever heard from him.

When Emma lost her teeth, she talked about it all day long and showed everyone she saw, even strangers. She keeps saying, "I cant wait to show aunt Loni and aunt Vera my lost teeth, they will be so surprised. Are grandma and Grandpa coming to the party so I can show them my lost teeth? They will be so excited!"

How do you explain to a cute little 5 year old who is so excited about her lost teeth that the man walking by us at walmart doesn't really care about her lost teeth.

Ahhww, I love her!

guess what?...you'll never guess....

I finally won at Bingo!!

This is what I won..

This is what was inside the package... cute huh?!
This was behind it.

Then Carter won... he was my date.

Technically you have to be 18 to play but the lady who was in charge is a funny lady that I visit teach so she made an exception.

So this is what we got when he won.

He wanted to win the blackout prize which was an ipod and docking station.

He was only one number away dang it... it was fun anyways.

It feels good to win!

a little update....

We have been working so hard, countless hours, on getting the house in order. I think I have gone 1 day in the past 3 weeks without working....last Sunday.

But the good news is....we are almost done.

We are having a weekend party here next Friday thru Sunday and it has been my motivation to get crap done.

I am so looking forward to spending the weekend with my family. It will be a great birthday present. We are celebrating the September and October birthdays.

We have a lot.

Janette, Bentley, Jordyn, Me, Allie and Jarom and last but not least....Briea. Her birthday is on Halloween!!

I talked to the company who hired the horrible driver that screwed everything up and they finally authorized us to get new beds for the twins and buy new pieces that are missing for the other kids. Yahoo! It is a relief. We still have a huge list of other things to get fixed but all in due time......

tagged

My friend katherine tagged me a while ago,

but I have been so busy......thought I would take a break.

So, I was supposed to go into my 4th Album and pick the fourth picture and post it.

So here is the picture.

It is of Emma in December 2007.

This is Emma's gingerbread house....with a little help from Mom!

I can't believe how little she looks in this picture.

A year changes a child a lot!!!

I am tagging 4 peeps.

Loni

Jan

Vera

Emily

What the holy scrud?!!!

Wow, I haven't posted in a while.

Good excuse.....we got our delivery a week and two days ago.

A semi truck loaded in SLC (where our stuff sat for 2 months) and delivered by some very nice Mormon Tongans.

Oh.... and a few others.

Without hesitation I will say that this last week has taken a toll on me.

Mentally Physically and Emotionally.

I have cried and obsessed and cursed several times. {pardon my french}

It is unbelievable to me how someone can have a job packing and moving someones belongings when they are so careless and stupid.

The people here in Salt Lake only made one big mistake.

While taking my dresser down onto the ramp from the truck, Russell and I watched it bust right before our eyes.

The kid loaded the dresser on the dolly the wrong way.

We both cried "WHOA!" at the same time.

The kids response......"It looks fine to me!" ARGH!

The guy who was in charge of packing us in Florida, lets call him Steve, or better yet....

Sleepy Steve!

Steve failed to write down and inventory 100 items!

100 items!

Can you even imagine what was going on?

This was Steve,......while he was talking to you, his eyes would literally roll to the back of his head and he would start to doze off.

The same goes for when he was writing things down.....obviously!

No wonder he messed up our shipment.

Wait,....it gets better.

We call his supervisor and he denies that there is a problem.

For over and hour we explained to no avail what the problem was.

He could not get it!

This was all after the whole house had been packed AND loaded on the semi truck!

We finally wrote out a statement that there were over 100 items not inventoried and made him sign it.

Okay so back to our delivery here in Utah.

Things are going pretty smooth.

We are surprised that so many items made it, that we weren't paying too close attention to items that were not there.

We figured out a few things that were missing and had already written down some items that were broken.

No big deal we were shocked that it turned out so well see'n as how Sleepy Steve had made a mess of it all.

Well, after the driver leaves, Russell starts to realize that specific items are missing.....

like Emma's mattress.

Carter's mattress.

One of the crib mattresses.

Pieces to all the beds but ours.

And the list goes on and on.

So we get on the horn and find out that some of our stuff is in Washington State!

Now this is where we say....what the holy scrud?

What are we going to do for beds?

We only have one more night in the hotel, which we are paying for out of our pocket.

SO we call them back and they say, "Go buy new mattresses so your kids have somewhere to sleep."

Thank You management people!!

In the mean time we are still without the missing items.

Ironing board and Card Table included.

And as of now they cannot come to a conclusion on how or when they are going to get our stuff to us.

Double ARGH!!

So we sit and we wait.....we should be good at this right?

It seems like we have had to do a lot of that lately.

Oh, my nightstand is missing too.

So,...... bad right?

Well, here is a little snippet of how these lovely gentlemen went about packing our belongings.

I opened a box the other day that said 'master bedroom shoes,' inside I find a karaoke machine, books and two 3 lb weights thrown on top of the karaoke machine.

The scratches are there to prove it.

I took a picture for evidence.

Another....the outside of the box said 'towels' I open it to find two plaster pillars completely demolished.

It is almost like we are in the twilight zone.

Did that box really say towels on the outside?

Triple take....

And even a picture so when I wake up the next day with fresh eyes, I can see that it is true that these people don't know the difference between a towel and a very fragile plaster pillar.

HELLO PEOPLE!!

My sister and I opened a box where we witnessed just the most amazing display of what not to do while packing.

They had tossed drawers full of tools into a huge wardrobe box...just scattered all over.

Tools.

I didn't say towels....Tools, like screws and nails and hammers and such.

Everyday I open a box I am greeted with a disaster!

I am so glad that we were so lucky to get such professionals taking care and handling our belongings.

We have a grand daddy list of things to be replaced or fixed.

I am sure it is not the end of our misery!

But, at least the weather out side is not miserable.

We are enjoying every minute of my favorite season.

And I hope you are too!

I will post some pictures of our disaster soon.

It is very hard for me to live in chaos. But...when it is all done,

I will be a happy camper!

"the" expo

Scrapbook USA expo~~ Sept 20th 2008

My Minds Eye was our favorite booth.

They had such great deals and give~aways.

Isn't she lovely?
Okay, so this was the most brilliant idea!

We were thinking and thinking about what we were going to take to carry all of our stuff. Then, Loni had this crazy idea to take a shopping cart from her husbands store. I cannot tell you how many people were asking us where we got the cart and telling us what a great idea this was! We felt so bad for all those ladies carrying all their stuff in their arms.

This is a picture of our second load. We had already delivered one to the car.

We weren't mommies, we weren't wives....we were just sisters, being together! We are only a year and a half apart and we grew up so close together and we got the chance to be like that again.

Thanks to our wonderful husbands for giving us the chance to have a fabulous time together all day!!

My audition

My sis and I were walking out of the expo to go to lunch and I asked her to take a picture of me by "the girls" when the ever so nice people that worked for channel 4 asked if I wanted to audition to be guest host! I said "HECK YA!"

So here I am going impromptu! I had seriously 2 minutes to be nervous.



My first audition of....anything. It was so much fun!!
I have always wanted to be a guest host on my favorite show!

He said..."As we say in show business, we'll call you!"

Thanks to my sister who was taking all these fun pictures of me and who was giving me cue-s behind the camera!

Check this out!

Visit my sisters blog. You will see what it is like to get tons of free stuff just from clipping coupons! She is so awesome and so organized! She seriously has a store in her basement. I just go in there and stare. And yes, I am temped to buy stuff from her. Do I get a sisters discount?

We get to have some one on one time tomorrow.

We are going to the Scrapbook Expo.

I am totally excited to go out with her. We haven't done anything together for so long.

Wait till you see her scrapbook room you'll die! I will beg her to put pictures on her blog.

I am definitely having her come help me organize my stuff when we move in!!

Here is her link:http://www.ourlittleponypuddles.blogspot.com/

What would you do.....

What would you do if you heard this......

"Chemical Release!

Stay inside buildings and close windows and doors unless advised by authorities to evacuate area."

Pee in your pants? Is that what you said?

Well the first time we heard it, luckily we knew it was a test or that is what would have happened. They must have done another test today, but they don't tell you that it is a test before hand so I kind of thought about peeing in my britches! The twins absolutely go crazy and start screaming and running towards me when they hear it.

I imagine it is like the voice of the Lord that Adam and Eve heard in the Garden of Eden.

A loud echoing deep voice.

I think it would be hilarious to play a joke on someone and have the loud voice say...."Rena, you should have not eaten that extra brownie!"

Boon Docks!

Here is a picture of the temporary house we are staying in. It is a 3 bedroom. It is part of the hotel here. Our permanent house will look like this but twice as long and yellow. Not too pretty but very functional!

This is a picture out the front window of the van while driving through the canyon to Dugway. It is pretty curvy through that 9 mile canyon. We are all learning how to deal with a little car sickness. It gets easier every time.
This is right outside the canyon on the way to the Base. The end of the road is the base. So you can't go anywhere else but there from this point. If you look really close off in the distance you can see a little bit of the base.
These guys are what we have to watch out for while driving. Especially at night. We have tons of antelope around too. I literally stopped in the road and rolled down the window and said " Say Cheese!" They were looking at me so funny. I was talking to them and I am not so sure they have ever heard a woman's voice before. I wonder what they were thinking.

There used to be a plethora of deer but they gathered them all up and shipped them away to a better place in the mountains. I heard they were eating every bodies flowers and gardens. Yesterday we saw 3 coyotes just hanging out by the road eating bugs out of the grass.

This is no joke. They are very strict. Yesterday we were going back into the gate from church (the LDS church is right off base) and I didn't have my I.D. because I didn't need my purse at church. Russell had his I.D. and he was driving, but because I didn't have mine....they made us go home and get it and bring it back.

Lesson learned. Don't leave the gate without I.D!
This is the view looking back at the mountain that we just drove through.

Here is a picture of our new truck! Russell is so happy! We can't live in Utah and not have a truck! It has come in handy already and we have only had it for 2 1/2 weeks. It fits our whole family just perfect! The only bad thing is...is that it is Diesel. I hate the sound and smell of Diesel. Oh well, whatever! I don't have to drive it....that much =)

It takes me 10 minutes to upload a picture.

This is VERY frustrating!!

Does anyone know what could be causing this? I tried the help center and I feel overwhelmed by my inability to know what the heck they are talking about. I am a little computer illiterate!

Any suggestions would be very appreciated!

Thanks

A Novel

The first big rain storm came on Labor Day.
As I was driving to Salt Lake City, I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.
The air outside seemed to fill my senses with great memories of fall.
The smell of the rain and the crisp clean cold air caused my grin.
I was so happy to be here and so happy to be experiencing the first cold air of whats to come.
When I left Utah 5 years ago...I was tired....tired of the cold, tired of the long dreary winters.
After spending so long in a place where there is no winter..or fall, I am in love!
I am in love with the idea of the outside of my home being cold.
With the idea of wearing shoes that require socks!
And layers of clothing.
Comfy sweaters and fitted jackets.
I will be wearing socks to bed.... and pajamas!
I grew up in a home without a furnace so I know how to sleep warm!
I am not afraid of wearing layers upon layers of clothes and scarves to bed!
I think it is time to purchase some of these!
In case you were wondering...I am sure we will have heat in our house.
But why not get all cozy and comfy in soft wonderful things?!
Happy September!