Pretty Girls at the Pumpkin Patch!

We met Aaron for lunch at a little pumpkin patch down on the town square in Bentonville. They had such a fun time climbing over rows and rows of pumpkins looking for the perfect one. Just my luck, the owners were out for a lunch break so there was no one there to actually BUY the pumpkins from....so we left without taking one. It was kind of nice, actually...because the pumpkins were ridiculously over priced, so I got all the pictures I wanted, the girls had a great time, and now I can go pick one up at Walmart for 3 bucks instead of THIRTEEN like this place was charging. At this point, Reese doesn't know that you are supposed to take a pumpkin home with you...which is kind of like when my mom and dad used to tell me the ice cream truck was "the music truck" and that we were supposed to just wave when he drove by to thank him for his service. Anyway, Reese and Quincy just loved every minute of it. Enjoy the pics!

It's not as easy as you might think to get a picture of them both looking at you at the same time. I would say, "Reese! Look at me!" and Quincy would look at her...so then i would say, "Quincy! Look at me!" and Reese would look at Quincy to make sure she was looking at the camera. This was the result.

Like her mother, Quincy is content as long as she has something to eat. She decided to try out the hillbilly art of chewing on a piece of straw. I think it suits her well.

Wow, all that walking is exhausting! She just looks so tired, doesn't she? Good thing she got that little power rest in, so she would have enough energy later to do 10 laps around the house in only underwear and high heels in an attempt to escape nap time. Didn't work though...
Give up Reese, Mommy ALWAYS wins the nap time game.

Look at those cute little toofies!

Quin is just starting to cruise along the furniture at home ...so this was perfect for her to get all the climbing she could ask for!

I found a ladybug crawling around on this little gourd...which Reese thought was very cool...until it flew onto her shirt and freaked her out. Sissy.

This one seems more like your size, Daddy!

They loved the challenge of climbing through the obstacle course of pumpkins!

What's that all about? Reese must have been practicing some of her sweet dance
moves...or she was about to fall flat on her face.

Reese found a "baby pumpkin" for baby Quincy (who is starting to not look like a baby anymore! where has the time gone?!)

Glenda The Good Witch at Sams Club

I just LOVE having 2 little girls. I don't even think I would know what to do with a son. Do little boys wear Glenda-the-Good-Witch dresses to Sam's Club? Reese does, complete with green metallic high heels, 3 bead necklaces, a heart bracelet pink wings and glittered sunglasses. Her "purse" (a ziplock sandwich baggie) was stocked with a my little pony, a maribu trimmed Dora pen, a plasic farm animal set and 2 extra necklaces, you know...just in case) They are so much fun. I loved it when Reese dressed Quincy up too, and told her, "Ok Quin, you can be the baby. I'm the Mommy Pirate. Ahoy! Go to time out baby!"

There's just something about the Snow White outfit that makes her look a little bit more naughty, isn't there?

Luckily, Cinderella seems to have herself completely under control.

Reese loves having her very own giant baby doll to wrestle down and put a tutu on and boss around. Poor Q...she puts up with so much!

A day for "accidents"

Today I smacked into a piece of metal sticking out from my old oven in my garage and noe i have a HUGE ugly bruise on my leg! Then, Reese had an (on- purpose) "accident" and decided to poop in her underwear at the park. When we got home Quin fell while standing at her little toy piano and her face smacked into the wall splitting her lip and smearing blood down the wall, her shirt (white, of course) and all over the carpet. Poor baby, her lip is all swollen...she kind of looks like we gave her collagen injections. It was a traumatic day!

Fun When Grandparents Come!

We took my parents out on a pontoon boat on Saturday for dinner and had a nice time enjoying the scenery and doing some fishing. Here are some pics. enjoy!

Grandpa waits paitently for the "big one" to bite his line.

Reese has been really into giving "zerbets" (raspberry on the cheek) since grandpa Hal has come to visit. She decided to give me one and even though it is a terrible picture of me, i just had to post it because I thought it was sooo cute how puffed up her cheeks got.

Awww....

The girls enjoying their dinner

Dad wishes this picture were of him bringing in a Bass and not seaweed. Reese loved the lures, she thought they were toys. At one point she kept saying, "I'm fishing too, look at me look at me, just like you mommy, look at me" Finally i looked long enough to realize she was just throwing all the lures overboard into the lake, thinking somehow she could get them back. At least they weren't expensive.
Quincy's life jacket was made for a 30-50 lb kid! She is only 15lbs and Reese is only 24lbs, so they were swimming in their jackets. Quin's was so puffy she couldn't reach to hold her bottle.

Oven Saga II Meg's Dad to the Rescue!

My air compressor died. We were reattaching the drawer tracks and it started smoking and then it totally died. I think i am cursed. Dorothy (little old lady and previous resident of our home) probably did some voodoo curse on my kitchen because i stopped forwarding her junk mail. But seriously, it's been 2 years and we keep getting junk mail for her and her dead husband (Guy) and they must have donated funds to every stinking John Hopkins, Southern Saints with Soul, March Of Dimes, AARP, Cancer Lymphoma Society, Dollars For Democrats, Red Hat Ladies, Leukemia Foundation, Bella Vista Nature Club, Old-People-of-America -Give Us-Your-Retirement-Alleluias-Chorus-Society here. (ok, I made that last one up, but the others are real and we get mail from them for her daily!) I just got tired of writing "please forward" on at least 3 pieces of junk mail a day and after 2 years having it all come back to my house still...with my please forward written on it! So now my kitchen is cursed and this is why i am stressed.


Remember that beautiful tile? We found out that because it was the control panel in the oven that died, there was no real guarantee that our oven wouldn't die on us again...making the $350+ it would cost to fix it a total gamble. PLUS, the back row of tile would have to be torn up to get access to the part of my STUPID drop-in oven that needed to be fixed.


So we decided to replace the oven...not so simple! Apparently, the size for drop in ovens was only standardized in the last couple of years, meaning that a new oven would not fit in the hole cut for the drop in--EVEN AFTER RIPPING OUT the cabinet it was set in....we were still several inches short....so I couldn't even drop the $1200 and just get a new Drop In if i wanted to!

That's my dad, he's my hero.

Soooo....we (meaning my dad) took a Saws All to the inside of my cabinets and made the hole bigger. it is EXACTLY 30 inches now...as big as i could go without tearing up more tile. I actually cried when we tore out that back row because it took me HOURS to get those measurements right and make those cuts. BUT, now it's all ready for my new oven to go in. You should have seen us "cook" dinner this weekend without a stove or oven...everything was microwave-able!

By the way, have y'all tried the country crock mashed potatoes? Awesome! The cinnamon apples also soooo good!



Here it is almost finished nice and ready for a FREESTANDING oven, which start around 400 bucks for a glass top...after i took this picture we secured the floor, sanded the sides so it has a finished edge, and painted everything with the black cabinet paint. Everything will be covered up completely by the new oven, especially the tile edge...but at least it has a floor AND it looks nice for all the crumbs that will fall down there that I never intend to sweep up.


So there you have it. My dad is the coolest dad ever. He pretty much took over-which was great because it was unexpectedly very difficult emotionally for me to tear up part the kitchen I had spent so many months remodeling. So problem solved...but watch out for a major nervous break down if anything else dies in my house. Thanks dad! And thanks mom for watching my kids the WHOLE time we worked on it...we couldn't have done it without you, either! We had a great visit with you and will miss you when you go back home.

Circle to the Left....the old red wagon!

No we aren't missing! We took a road trip up to Missouri this weekend to show my parents some church history sites since we live so close by. Unfortunately we had to RENT a van, because ours is STILL in the shop (going on 9 days now) with little hope of being finished any time soon.

We stayed at a really cute B&B in Jamesport, Mo, which is a great little town with a population of 505 people, and happens to have the largest Amish community in Mo. It happened to be town festival day, which meant lots of singing, clogging, horse drawn buggies, antiques and GOOD FOOD! yay!

These people are for real.

So are these people!

The B&B was fabulous, and only $120 for the 3 room suite! It also came with a huge breakfast (mmmm, banana pancakes) and a welcome basket with sparkling cider, bottled waters, apples, grapes, cheese, crackers and chocolate...all free! (I LOVE free stuff!)

They also had a trunk full of toys upstairs for reese to play with, a selection of movies, popcorn, playing cards (I beat mom at a mean game of 500) and a nintendo 64. It was great!

Reese loved the buggy ride we took around town.

As usual, my dad takes advantage of the opportunity to cop a feel on my mom.

That sign says, "no hitching"...i just thought it was ironic.
My mom stayed outside of this house with her camera to "sneak" a picture of the little Amish kids that had brought the buggy into town. The girl turned her head away when she saw the camera. Mom you're going to burn for stealing that poor girls soul!

After Jamesport, we drove out to Adam-ondi-Ahman. It was beautiful, and this was our view along the way! It's hard to tell from the fuzzy picture because i took it while we were driving, but those are not mustard plants, they are sunflowers!




At Adam-ondi-Ahman, we visited Tower Hill and Spring Hill. Adam-ondi-Ahman was once the Garden of Eden, and it is the place where the Savior will to meet with prophets of every dispensation when He returns for the 2nd coming. It was beautiful. There was an incredible feeling of peace there, and we truly could feel that we were walking on hallowed ground.









aHere we are at Liberty Jail. The church has built a great visitors center here. Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wright, Alexander McRae, and Caleb Baldwin were unjustly charged with treason and imprisoned here from Dec 1838-April 1839. I can't believe the sacrifices they made to protect their families and their beliefs. The dungeon where they they were caged wasn't quite tall enough for them to stand up straight in.


After Liberty, we went to Independence to tour the church visitors center there. They had a play area that Reese just loved!




Reese and Quincy were SO well behaved. I was totally proud that they were MY kids! I guess I'm so used to having the really noisy and naughty kids when we go places...but they were totally perfect! It's amazing what a difference a grandma makes!

Comprehensive Coverage

Living in Bella Vista has really given me a new appreciation for nature. I've always appreciated the beautiful scenery our planet has to offer us, but I think that's mostly because I grew up in such a beautiful place. When I moved to Utah I learned to appreciate rivers, really really, green grass, and the mountains. And I discovered that I hate snow. I learned in Boise that I REALLY hate snow... and in Wisconsin, I learned that snow is punishment for people too stupid to not live in places like Green Bay. Most people who know me, know that when everyone else is giddy and blissful about the first snow of the year, I am at home cursing under my breath and putting on my pink sweatpants. But moving here has really helped me come to an agreement with the snow. I no longer LOATHE the "heaven sent, fluffy white, cotton blanket-like, candy-land, winter wonderland, sugar sprinkled (these are all euphemisms that snow-lovers use in their feeble attempts to change my opinion when they hear of my distaste for the weather) scenery the way I used to. Now that I live here, where it snows for 2 days, stays for 2 days, then disappears for 12 months, I can appreciate snow a little.

Unfortunately, this means I have had no place to direct all my anger for the last 8 months. I used to blame everything on snow...(well, snow and cub scouts, but I got released from cub scouts when I had Quincy) so now I REALLY don't have anything to complain about.

Until saturday night.
I have a new foe.

I used to like deer. They are meek and mild (just like the primary song about Jesus) They don't make obnoxious noise. They don't get close enough to stink up your yard. They make nice decor for my friend's nursery (yep, in arkansas it's socially acceptable to hang a deer head above the baby crib...right next to the gun cabinet...seriously.) I've eaten venison a few times at friends houses (usually disguised as taco salad or tater tot casserole) and it tastes like beef...so again, no complaints. You are probably all thinking the same thing...what problem could meg possibly have with deer? I mean, how cute are those little guys in the Christensen's yard?

I know your next thought too. BAMBI. How cute is that little fella? No one could possibly have a problem with Bambi, right?

WRONG!!!
LOOK AT MY CAR!!!

We were on our way home from the football game (and making pretty good time, too) when out trots Bambi onto the Cherokee Turnpike! Oh yeah, he froze LIKE A DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS...what a stupid line...(remember I hate deer now). So Aaron slams on the brakes and veers way over to the left to avoid hitting him, then here comes Bambi's twin brother! He ran right into us. We rammed right back into him going 50 miles an hour. To quote Lynda, we didn't hit the deer, the deer hit us!

The driver's side door no longer opens, the grill is trash, the hood is trash, the fender is trash, the bumper is trash, the headlight is lying somewhere on the 412, along with a lot of paint, car pieces and probably a DEAD DEER. We wouldn't know, we didn't even stop. Sadly, we could have brought him home...our neighbor probably would have cooked him up in his Fry Daddy, along with some deep fried squirrel, okra, and hush puppies for us on the side.


Anyway, the van will be in the shop for 5 or 6 business days getting fixed since, according to my insurance company, it is technically "undriveable" in it's current condition.

I hate deer. They are stupid...we counted a total of 20 deer right on the edge of the highway on the way home that night. Of course we were terrified we were going to hit another one so we drove pretty slow the rest of the drive and didn't get home until after 2 am.

Another reason to hate deer...they ate all the blackberries of the bushes in my backyard, and they ate the Hostas back there too. Stupid deer. Also, bambi was stupid too... he was friends with a skunk. NOBODY likes skunks.

FYI -in case you come into a situation in the future where you have the opportunity to swerve into a ditch, tree, or fence to avoid hitting a deer. JUST HIT THE DEER. Your insurance will only give you comprehensive coverage if you actually hit the deer. If you hit something else to avoid hitting the deer you will have to pay a higher deductible for collision. Sad for the deer, lucky for us... we will only have to pay 100 bucks to fix all the damage he did. stupid deer.
SO i guess my fight with snow is over, i have a new scapegoat for all the problems in the world.