A Possum in the Garbage

I found a possum in our garbage can the other day. It was gross. Emily was fascinated and took pictures and named it and thought it was cute. So I can post about it thanks to her. It was garbage day and I hoped to say goodbye to Freddy Freeze when the truck came by, but it was not my fortunate day. The garbage man noticed the hermit vermin, knocked the can over, "kicked the bucket" and the marsupial scuttled to our side yard. Eventually he got in our backyard and, we think, his "home" under our backyard shed. Oh goody!

So there's our "Creature Feature" for this October!

Breakfast At Tiffany's

Yummy, yummy! We have been drinking breakfast at our home for over 1 1/2 years now and we love it and can't get enough! I thought the blender full of fruit looked almost like a work of art so I grabbed my camera and captured the breakfast process. We have a peach, 2 bananas, an apple, plum, strawberries, and a partridge in a pear tree- just kidding- a pear in here.

I added a little water, some ice and blended it up, then added about 4 handfuls of spinach and a tablespoon of coconut oil. The spinach tones down the sweetness and we get a salad for breakfast without even noticing! It only takes a couple of days to get used to the spinach flavor.

Here is our milk making process for the past 2 years: 1/2 c. raw almonds and 3 c. water.

Blend for a minute and you have frothy white almond milk! What to do about the almond meal?

Cut a piece of white muslin, stick it in a bowl and pour the milk in. Gather it up, twist and squeeze the milk out. I feel like I'm milking. :) I usually dump it back in the blender and add some ice and blend it up to make the milk cold.

It's so great! Very fresh. And sometimes I keep the almond meal and use it as a facial scrub in the shower. It's a great, but messy body scrub too.

BYU - Idaho!!!

Spencer was so excited to get to Rexburg, and when he got there he took it by storm. He got the hall, within his first hour, to root for Boise State in their football game against Virginia Tech and had them screaming by the end of the game. He also volunteered to be one of four resident representatives to gather the hall for hall prayer and coordinate hall activities. I took him out to Idaho and helped get him set up. I know he could have managed by himself, but I just wanted to be his mommy for a few more days! More for me than for him, I'm sure! Here are a few shots of his dorm room after we got it set up.

His closet and drawers!

His desk!

His bed!

Spencer and his roommate, Josh!

Spencer outside his hall.

Right before I said goodbye to my wonderful BYU-I son!

Spencer is an Elder

The Sunday before he left for BYU -I, Spencer was ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood. Some of our family came in to town for it and I realized right before our high councilor turned the floor over to Damon to ordain him how Damon's dad and all but one brother were there. I couldn't grab a camera, so I grabbed Damon's i-phone to snap the shot. Special day. Thank you to all who made the trip! Wish we lived close to every single family member to be able to share these great days with each of you!

Went to dinner with Spencer's friend and soon-to-be-roommate, Josh Davies, and his family. Thought we'd celebrate their upcoming adventure with some good food!

Texas Roadhouse! How sentimental!

Cinco Ranch Football Season Begins!

So my boys are not going to Cinco Ranch High School this year, but they have plenty of school spirit! They were counting down the days to the first game and decided to deck themselves and their comrads out with face paint and school colors for the event. I helped them mix the maroon paint and did some of the face painting, but then I had to grab my camera as the whole gang just had a face-painting fiesta! Enjoy!

Spencer making the Cinco Ranch sign

Dover painting Coulter's face

Dover painting Taylor's face.

Josh Davies

Spencer is NOT excited. I repeat, NOT excited.

Taylor found this wig at a game last year. So vogue!

Marcus was the terrorist, I mean bedouin in the group. He finally consented to get his eyelids painted.

A motley crew!

Our neighbor who is a sports photographer took their picture at the game. You can see the 2 he took by clicking this link: http://www.photosbymose.com/Football-Current-Season/2010-08-26-CRHS-V-vsKF/2010-08-26-CRHS-Vars-vs-KleinF/13523743_WD9Vm#985261842_GkHiG Silly boys!

Family Vacation to Fort Walton Beach, FL

Heather came to visit and a few days later on August 16th we headed to the east coast to a family favorite vacation spot: Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Three years ago we went there at the recommendation of our bishop and fell in love. So we decided to do it again. When we got there (a ten hour car ride), three other families from our ward were already vacationing at the same condos. So we jumped in the pool and enjoyed their company for the first few days. They left and we stayed. This is Spencer with one of our ward nursery members.

Inside the condo watching an I Love Lucy episode on tv. The couches were wet half the time. :) Almost every night we watched a Harry Potter movie, which turned out to be one of the funnest memories of the trip.

Two cool dudes.

There were good waves the first couple of days. There was a bunch of algae in the water which was gross.

Here's some of the four Katy 2nd Ward families in Florida.

Our condo is the one on the bottom with a surf board standing up on the porch.

We took family pictures, but you'll have to go to Heather's blog to see them.

Besides the pool and the beach, we went into Destin and played at a place that had go-karts and mini golf.

Beautiful art graced the playland, Heather had to take a picture.

We melted half way through the golf course and headed back to air conditioning and water!

The last two days of our trip, the water was completely clear of algae and there was smooth water, not one wave. The water was gorgeous!

Our last day in Florida we rented a pontoon boat for a few hours and zipped around.

Ahh, the life!

We motored over to Crab Island which is a submerged island about 3-6 feet under water. We rented some snorkels and fins and explored the water. It was very relaxing. Emily collected about 6 hermit crabs in a bucket. She let all but one go the next day.

What a great vacation! We highly recommend it for anyone! We went when school started for the Florida schools so that we paid off-season prices. A very reasonable vacation!