Jam Packed Weekend

We did a lot of fun things this past weekend.  To start it all off, we went on the Heber Creeper through Provo's Haunted Canyon...ooohhh scarrrryyy.  Ok, not really, but I still had fun!  Damian and Jenelle were ever so kind as to stay at the house with Kylie while Austin and I and my best pal Marie and her husband Ryan went with us.  We sat in the open part of the train and snuggled under blankets and drank hot chocolate while being told ghost stories.  I screamed a couple of times - not because of the stories but because they would suddenly slam on the brakes and the train would rock your head off.  They also had actors come onto the train portraying the stories that were being told.  This one story was about a girl who fell into a well.  So at one point the girl came on the train and looked at me and asked if I would help her out of the well.  I told her no and she then proceeded to scream in my face about how mean I was.  That was a little over dramatic as well as ear splitting, but other than that it was really fun :)  Here are some pics from that night:

On Saturday, Austin's mom and dad invited us to go with them to Park City.  That was so much fun.  I forgot how much I love those outlet malls.  One store that I swear I better never go back alone in for fear of buying everything in it was Carters.  We got Kylie a bunch of outfits for Christmas as well as a cute snowsuit.  I'm telling ya, it's a good thing Austin was there with me or we wouldn't be able to buy groceries this week...

On Monday Austin took the day off of work and we headed up to the Hogle Zoo.  What a fun place to go - especially in October because there is hardly anyone there :)  Kylie had a blast and Austin and I had fun seeing all the animals.  It was such a beautiful day out too.  Here are a few (ok, I say a few, but really there's a lot) of pictures from the zoo:

 

After the zoo we headed to the SLC cemetery to visit President Hinckley's grave site.  There was such a peaceful feeling there.  We also found several of the past prophets who were buried there.  I had no idea that 11 of the 15 prophets were buried at that cemetery.  Anyway, it was a great experience.

So there you have it :)  I am so looking forward to Halloween.  I will be sure to post pics of Kylie in her lady bug outfit.  Until next time...

Usborne Book Party

So I know I already sent out an email to most of you about this, but for some reason some of you didn't get it. So I will just tell ya on here.  I am hosting an Usborne Book party on Thursday, November 6^th at 7:00 pm at my house (1791 W 470 S in Provo). These books are awesome you guys. I bought Kylie a few of them and they have become some of her favorite books to look at. I know some of you had a lady going around in our neighborhood where you had to buy the whole set of books AND buy one book a month – this is nothing like that. You buy whatever you want with no obligation to have to buy more later. They have books and activities for infants all the way through adulthood. You can go to www.ubah.com/HOS125109 to see my eshow. You can browse through the different categories of books and get a feel for what you might want to buy. For those of you who live out of state, or can’t come to the book party, you can order online and they will be shipped directly to your house. For those of you who can come, if you bring a friend, you BOTH get free shipping :)  I'll be sending out reminders when it gets closer to the date.  If anyone is interested, please let me know. 

Whoa Momma

So this past Saturday I decided that I was going to pick the rest of the tomatoes on my tomato plants and then throw away the plants.  I had been putting sheets over them every night for the past week in hopes that the frost wouldn't get to them and maybe a few more would ripen.  Anyway, after I got done picking them I counted them up....214!  And there were still probably 40 more really little ones that I threw away.  So they are in a cardboard box and hopefully most will turn red and I can either can them or make salsa.  Anyway, I just thought it was crazy how many I had left.

Oh, before I forget, I have a baking question.  So ever since I moved out West, I cannot get cookies to come out right.  I know it has to do with the elevation and needing to put more flour in, but for those of you who have lived out here all your life, is there a certain amount I'm suppose to put in?  Every time I make cookies it looks like I cut off the bottoms.  Anyway, just thought there might be some sort of trick to making them look decent.  Please let me know!

Family Home Evening

This past Monday, Austin and I carved pumpkins for Halloween. We got some really nice pumpkins from Macy's and Austin found some templates online. I chose the Grim Reaper and Austin had this scary face one. We bought apple cider and I toasted the pumpkin seeds. It was such a fun night. Austin's pumpkin turned out so awesome. He also carved a lady bug one for Kylie :) After we got done carving our pumpkins, Austin wanted to take some crazy photos with them. What can I say, the boy loves his camera. It was such a fun night. Thanks Austin!

Ramble

Well I have a lot to say, but it's not all related to each other, so I just thought I would just ramble about it all :) Well, first order of business is that a lot of my flowers died last night. Can I just say I want to curse this weather! I am sooo incredibly sad. But I knew it would come before long. Also, I still have around hundred tomatoes that are still green and I read that I can pick them off, layer them in a box and stick a banana in it to speed up the ripening process. Has anyone heard of this and if so, does it work?! I will be really bummed if all those tomatoes go to waste. I've been putting a sheet on top of them at night in hopes that will ward off frost getting to them. It's tragic...

So I've been working on my homemaking skills. I started making bows for Kylie last week. It's SOOO much cheaper then buying them and I get a sense of accomplishment when they are done and looking so cute in Kylie's hair. She will actually leave them in . It's quite amazing. Anyway, here are some pics of the bows.

Here are the two websites that I used to make them. I really like these because I am a visual learner and they give step by step instructions with pictures. It's awesome.

http://www.save-on-crafts.com/howtomakebows.html

http://bowdesigns.50webs.com/cover_alligator_clips.html

If anyone else knows of some websites like these, I would love to know!

Next item of business. I want to talk about good books. I just got done reading the Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. It was such a good book, and I am excited to read the next two in the series, Enna Burning and Princess Academy. My friend Liza told me about these books and they are really good :) So I was just wondering if anyone had some good recommendations on books they have read and found to be really good. My favorites so far have been (of course) all the Twilight books and the other book by Stephanie Myer called The Host. I enjoyed the Septimus Heap series, and the Fablehaven books. Anyway, I am soo open to ideas on what is good. So please let me know what books you have found to be good as well :)

Well my husbands glorious day arrived last week when he got his Vantage System. For those of you who don't know, Austin works for a company called Vantage and they do home lighting and automation. What does that mean you ask? Well, have you ever seen the movie Hitch? Well in that movie it shows Hitch's apt. and he has this control box thingy that controls all his lights and music and what not. Well that's what this company does. We don't have the hand held control panel, but we installed the face plates in the walls that when you push the button, the lights will go on, they can fade up slowly, etc. You can also control it from your computer. So say we are at his parents house and we left the furnace off. Well we can just get on the computer and turn the heat on! Pretty much we have this system that I would make fun of other rich people who had it because I would think to myself, "What the heck is wrong with a switch!" But I must say that I am getting more excited about it as the days go by. Anyway, here are a few pics of the light switches.

So there you have it :) It's pretty cool. Don't be jealous guys. JK.

Another item of business that I want to talk about it recipes. I will, at some point, be putting a link to all these recipe blogs that I have found. I've been making a new meal every night from these blogs, and the majority of them are pretty dang good. There were a few that I made that seriously I wanted to vomit, but everyone has their different tastes :( Since it is Halloween, I was wondering if anyone had some good pumpkin recipes. I already have a good one for pumpkin bars and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Just wondered if anyone had one that they really loved.

Well, most of you are probably all asleep or decided you didn't want to read this novel, so I guess I will go. Until next time when I decide to ramble...

Tagged

I was tagged by Shelly :)

8 favorite TV shows
1. Lost
2. Privileged
3. Home Improvement
4. What I like about you
5. Design Star
6. The Office
7. Bewitched
8. I love Lucy

8 Favorite Restraunts
1. Cafe Rio
2. Olive Garden
3. Brick Oven
4. Chillis
5. Applebees
6. Pizza Factory
7. Black Angus
8. Texas Roadhouse

8 things that happened yesterday
1. Got my Disney movies in the mail
2. Cleaned the carpets (I HATE light carpet)
3. Did laundry
4. Played with Kylie
5. Got an MRI on my back
6. Got Cafe Rio
7. Worked out
8. Saw my best pal Marie

8 things to look forward to
1. Christmas
2. Putting Kylie in nursery in January (Hallelujah)
3. Going home to see my family for Thanksgiving
4. My birthday in January
5. Trying for another baby
6. Spending time with my sweet husband and daughter
7. Halloween
8. Losing weight and then putting it all back on during Thanksgiving and Christmas....

8 things I love about fall
1. The leaves changing
2. Drinking hot chocolate
3. The cooler weather
4. Thanksgiving
5. Snuggling with a blanket
6. Wearing pants so I don't have to shave my legs as much :)
7. Im struggling with the last two....

8 things on my wishlist
1. Paint our office
2. Keep working out
3. Become more charitable
4. Be a better cook
5. Get out of debt
6. Remember to read the scriptures and pray (why is that soooo hard to do!!!)
7. Spend more time playing with Kylie then worrying about having my house spotless
8. Learn to sew

8 people I am tagging
1. Marie
2. Kali
3. Melissa
4. Nichole
5. Tiffini
6. Janie
7. Tamara
8. Jenelle

What a great weekend

I really looked forward to this weekend because it was General Conference.  It was so nice to have a couple of days to listen to the wonderful speakers and to become spiritually uplifted.  I took a lot of notes, but I never seem to remember to go back and read them :(  I need to work on that.  Nothing much new in the Mills family.  We did start digging out an area of our yard for our garden next year.  I can't tell you how excited I am for that!  I have started to try and be more domestic, so every night I cook something new for Austin.  Poor guy has to be my guinea pig :)  Everyone is doing great and I thought I would just share some pictures(ok, so it's never "some" pictures, its more like a bizillion pictures) of our trip through Alpine Loop yesterday.  I thought we got some cute family pictures.  Well, until next time...