Texas

Well, it's been a few weeks, so I had to check my calendar to see what we've been doing.  Of course, I have to do that even if it's only been one week.  ;)
Earlier in the month, Corey got to chaperone Isaac's 5th grade overnight trip.  They went to Sky Ranch and stayed two nights in cabins.  All 3 classes at school went from wed - fri.  They had SO much fun.  Corey loved seeing Isaac with all his classmates.  He came home a proud papa.
The next weekend he took the girls to the ward father/daughter campout at Tyler State Park.They had a ton of fun.  Corey said it's so much different than camping with boys.  They spent lots of time singing.  At one point they had people gathering from other campsites to join the girls in the ward who were starting to take requests;)  While they were gone, me and the boys and Hazel (not invited until next year;)  went grocery shopping, picked up a treat and some Wendy's food and had our own movie fest in the theatre room.  Triple feature, Pooh's Heffalump movie, Dora's Halloween Adventure, and Mickey Mouse Club House Halloween. (Isaac was a good sport;)
our ward music person asked our family to do some sort of musical number for sacrament meeting.  We've never done anything like that before, but we practiced a song, and the three oldest girls sang while I played the piano.  They sounded amazing.  When we practiced at the church a few weeks ago, there was some push and shove for the microphone going on, so we talked a lot about the purpose of a musical number in church.  So I was so grateful that almost everyone who complimented them said they could feel the spirit so strong.  I love this church.
Speaking of, our primary program was today and it was so neat.  Glad it's over, I get so nervous to play when people sing.
Last night was our trunk or treat at the church.  Isaac wanted to be a missionary.  Everyone loved his costume.  Especially our missionaries;)

 hazel was supposed to be Minnie mouse, then she wanted the butterfly costume, then the bumblebee (we already had them all in the costume box) She buzzed like a bee all night long.  WE also have a ghost who turned her costume into a toga halfway through the night, missionary, witch, spiderman and princess

                                                                     sky ranch

                                                           

 I'm doing a home preschool with one other little boy who is 4.  We just do it once a week, but it's so fun.  Ephraim is so ready to learn.  He's starting to put words together, and he's SUPER careful with his coloring and handwriting

                                        Enjoying Texas rain! Got drenched on their walk home from school!

 Found honeycrisp apples!  Yay!  Its not fall without the smell of cooking apples!

 So grateful for these two littles who are keeping me young.  I'm determined to take them to storytime every week, and they are loving it!  Makes me reminisce everytime I'm there and I can see each of my children at this age, sitting on the rug...soaking it all in.  Love being a mom

                               During piano lessons, we go to a nearby park to wait.

Punkin' Huntin'

We found a little Pumpkin Patch yesterday and let each of the boys pick out a pumpkin.  It was nothing like the super-fun Pumpkin Farms in California and Idaho, but everyone was excited- especially Ryder!  He loves the little pumpkin we got for him and cries every time we take it away!  We will be carving them for FHE tomorrow :)

 

While I was Visiting Teaching Friday night, I guess Max and Levi had a little fun playing dress up with some blue painter's tape.  They came in from the garage and Max said- "Look Dad, a blue ninja!"  Who needs a Halloween costume when you've got a roll of painter's tape! Haha!

We practiced our Primary Program for the first time today.  It went pretty well, but by the time the 2 hours were over, the kids were waaaaay past done with practicing.  I've got to find a way to kind of break it up a little next week.  Our program is on Nov. 10th and I'm hoping that gives Max enough time to warm up to the idea of speaking into the microphone in front of a bunch of people.  I'm afraid he is shy like his mama and isn't going to want to say his part... 

We are jealous of all the pictures of Fall everyone is posting.  This time of year, especially, makes us miss home and family a lot :(

oh stuff...

I can't believe it's already Sunday again! I am not ready for Dan to go back to work tomorrow! We had so much fun last sunday because Dan decided to skip work and take a trip to Yellowstone. We all loaded in mom's car after she got to our house and woke us up! :) (Dan's fault) But like mom said, we saw TONS of elk and buffalo!  Dan got in trouble by a ranger in Mammoth for getting too close to a bull elk. apparently that ranger has known that elk since it was a baby elk and it had aggressive tendencies. I'll have to post a picture of the elk once dan puts it on the computer. It has a broken nose from being in so many fights. But anywayyyy, we had a lot of fun, and were glad to at list see yellowstone once this year!

We spent every single day at the park this week! Our friends the Allreds came for a short visit, so Stori got to hang out with her friend Tracen! On tuesday Alicia, Alana, and myself went to dinner and did some shopping while the boys watched the kids. I bought a coat... don't judge me, you knew it would happen. On friday, we crashed the Christensens school Carnival. Stori loved getting to dress up and all the kids looked SO CUTE!!! 

It was so fun! Saturday we worked/played at mom's house until dan got done with our ward shooting activity. then we went to I.F. to take pictures and enjoy some dinner. After dinner we drove through several used car lots searching and searching. Nothing yet! 

Well, that's about all! We are headed on a walk right now! Hope everyone writes today! 

ps. sylvie is ticklish :)

Fall Colors

Oh how I love these beautiful fall days!  These hearty little beauties have survived freezing temps and fifty to sixty mph winds.....

Surprisingly, all of the willows are still pretty much green.  A few of the leaves are just getting a hint of yellow.

On Monday, I went to Yellowstone with Melanie Dan and family.  It was so nice of them to invite me!  :)  It was just the perfect fall day.  We saw more Bison than in recent years, and lots of Elk. ( I'm sure Mel will post pictures, and give a more detailed account   :) )

Friday night after work, I went to the viewing for Roger Sauer.  He had a really rough bout with kidney cancer.  I think he has been fighting it for about a year.  After the viewing I picked up lexi, Annie, Avary and Jack for a sleepover while their mom and dad were at a Halloween party.  I hope they post pictures .....they looked amazing!    Josh and Amanda joined the sleepover after the party....  :)

Burke, Donna and Sherlene came out for a visit yesterday afternoon.  It was so good to see them .  Burke and Donna came over for Roger's funeral.

Yesterday I got all of my patio furniture put away.  Melanie and Sylvie put the second coat of paint on my doors...they look sooo much better now that they are finally painted!  While they were doing the painting, Stori and I raked and hauled branches out to the burn pile.

Dan and Melanie finished up while I was getting ready to go with them to Idaho Falls.  Dan took family pictures for Josh and Amanda...... they look like they are going to be so good!  After the picture taking session was over, the Christensens invited all of us to  eat at Red Robin....... such a fun evening!

Love to all of you my dear family!  XOXOXO

Petersons update

I am running about a post behind. This is for T's birthday. I was going to get caught up during church, Tommy is sick so we came home after Sacrament meeting. Apparently I am a scary monster because that is what my voice sounds like! But I didn't even get this one done before the rest of the family showed up. We are headed out to Grandma Bettys today to pick some apples and have Navajo tacos right after I get done taking my friend Darcy's family pictures. Joel has an interview in Elko on Tuesday that sounds VERY promising! Keep us in your prayers if you would! We had LOTS of fun last weekend in Idaho but Bell forgot to get her fingernails painted like candy corn! Shoot! Anyway, I will try to get to the next post next week. Here is the recap of T's birthday!

My little T. This little guy is SO much fun! He is feisty, ruff, full of fire, and so boy! He is also a little sweetie pie who can't stand to see anyone sad. He rubs his head against yours and says "You're so cute!" when he wants to give you a love. He loves girls and has LOTS of girlfriends. He flirts with all of Maizy's and Millie's friends. He loves guy stuff and playing ruff with boys. He wanted "oogles" for his birthday (binoculars) to see deer with BIG horns like Caleb. He loves to ride his bike with Millie on the driveway and most of all with Daddy on the road! He loves everything boy: wee wheelers (4 wheelers), trucks, tractors, guns and cowboy boots. Joel took the boys to a demolition derby which was not a good idea! We were driving home from church and we stopped for a car and Tommy said "You gonna smash em Dad?" He is obsessed with traffic laws and asks Dad "why you stop Dad?" Every time he stops. He yells "STOP SIGN!" when he sees them if he thinks we aren't stopping fast enough. He has a black monster truck shirt that he loves and wants to wear every day!

I love this picture! I was just taking a picture with him and his monster truck cake when his happy birthday sign behind me fell.

He got lots of clothes (apparently Miles just didn't have 3T clothes because we had NOTHING for this size!), a monster truck, oggles (thanks to unca' Ken), a tow truck and Maizy sewed him a bag and filled it full of trucks and tractors she drew and made a little road for them to go on. It was cute. Millie remembered a week or so later that I had bought him cowboy boots so she ran and got them for him and he loves his new black cowboy boots! He wanted hamburgers for his birthday so we he had hamburgers and fries and Grandma and Grandpa Petersons and Grandma Betty came out. Mandy and her boyfriend Mason came and he has a jacked up pickup that Tommy calls a monster truck so taking that for a ride was definitely exciting!

we are almost kind of like adults...

Well this week for the Radfords will go down in the books. We decided to sell our Kia (while it is still a great car and low miles) so that we can buy a......VAN! haha we are actually so excited about it! I think we fell in love with the van that Corey's family rented last Christmas, and can't get that out of our minds! :) It was sooo roomy, so comfortable, tons of storage, lots of seating, etc. I know we just have 2 kids, but we really just want to sell our kia now before it is too old, and then buy a van that we can just keep forever and run to the ground. I plan on having 100 babies cause I just love them, so I know one day we will appreciate all that seating!

On Monday had our FHE at the Red Barn pumpkin patch. We went with a few families in our ward and had so much fun! Wagon rides, playing with the newborn kitties, picking our "HUGE and tiny tiny  punkins" We just got one big one for our family and secretly put Stori's tiny $4 one back---well the next morning she went out to see them and got so sad cause we had lost her tiny punkin! Luckily Winco had some for 75 cents so we made up for it! :) After the pumpkin patch we headed to our friends house for some yummy Stephens hot cocoa! It was a great monday!

my punkins with pumpkins

Other than that, we spent a lot of our time at the park. I am loving this 60 degree weather---really hope it lasts for a long time! I finally started real running this week. We will be running the first dam run again so I kind of need to get training. It feels really good. I have missed it!

I'm slowly making our halloween costumes and getting very excited to dress up (well, mainly Stori and me. Dan's just a good sport and sylvie doesn't know the difference! :) ).

We are headed to Yellowstone tomorrow because it has finally opened back up! Hopefully we see lots of wildlife! We shall see....
Well, that's all for now! Off on our Sunday walk! Love y'all!

Here is just an example of how much Stori loves Sylvie. It's very very very rare that I get a pictures of JUST sylvie! :)

Stori really wanted to "nap" with Sylvie. 

Finally Cooling Down!

Ryder and I are home from Church today.  Sad to say I think I'm getting a sinus infection- boo :(  So I decided to do our post while everyone else is gone and it's quiet.

Nothing too exciting this week- Primary was in charge of cleaning the Church yesterday morning so Tyler and I took all the kids to go help clean except Jon, who was at a birthday party.  I thought we were going to be the only ones there but a few other people showed up which was a welcome surprise.  It seems like it's the same few people who are there each time.  Afterwards we went to get donuts and chocolate milk- YUM!- but talk about a sugar rush! Then it was off to pick up Jon and go to his football game.  He's really enjoying playing this year and has a lot of fun.

It's finally cooling down a little here in Havasu so the kids have been able to play outside a lot and we've had the windows and doors open in the mornings and evenings to let the cool-ish air in.  Crazy as it sounds, the air outside must be too cool for some little critters because look what Tyler found scurrying across the floor the other night while watching Duck Dynasty!!

It's not a very clear picture because Tyler didn't want to get too close to it, but this is a SCORPION!!! INSIDE OUR HOUSE!!  We've lived here almost 2 1/2 years and haven't come across one- even outside!  So I was kind of freaked out and the next few days after this little guy visited! I was paranoid about finding more, especially with Ryder crawling all over the place- aahh!  I told Tyler we definitely need to get our house sprayed!

Ryder crawled up into the cubby at the bottom of the entertainment center the other day and then couldn't figure out how to get down!  He's growing and learning so fast!  He had his first taste of fruit this morning- pears- and loved them after a few bites and some sour faces :)

Well, I want to get a little nap in while Ryder's sleeping so I think that's it for now.  Hope everyone's doing well and had a good week :)

radford week

I would like to personally thank President Obama for ruining our weekend plans of going to Yellowstone. Luckily we had a fun back up plan and spent 2 nights out at mom's house playing, crafting, eating, and shopping.  Oh and Sylvie had her first pony tail haha.

 

Stori has been such a good sister to Sylvie! she won't let her do tummy time or bumbo time alone! :) My favorite quote of the week is "Woohoo Daddy! You're potty trained!!!" haha she was very excited he went potty. She is doing so well with the whole potty thing! She wore panties to church and did great! Any suggestions for not having her wear a diaper at night time??

Here is the craft for the week. Witches shoes. I am not in love with mine, but i think the others turned out soooo cute! I think i'll switch out my paper and like it a lot better

Amanda's on the left, mine the middle, and mom's on the right.

this week hasn't been too exciting other than our fun weekend, so that's about all I have to say! :)

Love y'all
P.S. had pictures taken... here's a preview! Thanks meg!

Our weekend in Yellowstone aka known as sleepover at grandmas house

So, we all know that the government shut down..... and that was the end of our annual trip to Yellowstone for this year.  We had to cancel our reservations and make other plans.  :(  I'm glad that Utah kindly opened Zions for the Durst men!
Megan and Joel got a load of wood ( thank you golden willow).  We made a yummy baked potato soup and delicious homemade (Rhodes :)  ) bread.  Josh went hunting.   The girls, along with Miles, Jack and Sylvie went on a mini shopping trip...... mainly to get paper for our fun craft, with a quick side trip to Mini Bazaar, Target and Winco.  Megan took family pictures of the Radfords. They turned out really good! Then we worked on the cute little witches shoes that Megan designed until after Midnight.
The earlier part of my week was just the same old boring stuff!

Hope everyone has a good week!  Love to all of you!  XOXOXO

Our life in a few pictures

Hi this is Molly, my mom is making me post because she has been sick. Here's some pictures of what's been happening lately.

Grace at Senior Night for X Country

Tate and Lucy bugging mom

Grace's senior pics (taken by molly ;))

This is our favorite 

Cole the football star

Molly, what more can I say

My mom showing Grace how to pose

Dad at the narrows (Yay! they opened just for him!)

Our Christmas card (not)

That's about it. Love, The Durst's

Scary, scary, scary!

Sad that no-one else has posted yet :(    We really enjoy reading about what everyone's up to and seeing pictures. It helps us feel a little more connected being so far away from everyone.

Well, our big news for this week was almost losing our little Ryder.  The details are on our family blog, but to make a long story short, he inhaled some water and stopped breathing for a couple minutes- a couple minutes that seemed to last hours!  I seriously thought he was gone.  It was soooo sad and scary!!!  Thankfully Tyler was able to get him breathing again and he is doing just fine now, but those few minutes of not knowing what was going to happen and not being able to help him were more awful than anything I've ever been through!!!  I hope none of you ever have to experience it with any of your little ones! I can't imagine what life would be like without this little guy!!  Makes me sad just writing about it!

Jon played in his first flag football game of the season yesterday.  He got to be quarterback for a few plays and did a great job!

Taylor made the honor roll and got his name in the paper...again :) 

Tyler has recently become a big fan of the show Duck Dynasty.  I like it too.  It's nice to be able to watch a show and not worry about profanity (even though producers put in fake bleeps in recent episodes! haha!) or questionable scenes for a change. Anyway- he downloaded this beard app and had fun putting fake beards on everyone's pictures.  This one of Maximo turned out the best!

I think that's all for now.  Hope everyone had a great week!

In other news...

I forgot to mention a few exciting things going on with the kids (trying to do too much right now...) :).
Emmy and Daphne are getting ready to go to FFA national convention in two weeks. They are pretty excited and we're pretty proud of Emmy who is getting her America degree and is up for a scholarship! Caleb is spending every free second spiffying up his "new" pick-up. That thing will be READY when that kid gets his license in December! :) Bronny is loving school and is currently making a stuffed pig set with three little stuffed babies for her facs (like home ec) class. Asher is in piano and loving it. He actually is pretty good, too. The 3 little guys are doing after-school drama club again this year and are pretty excited about their roles. They are doing Jungle Book and Asher got the part of Mowgli! He is so excited! Lily is excited that she gets to be a twin elephant with Maizy. Sam is excited about his role as a monkey--we all suspect some typecasting going on with that one! :)
And, we have baby pigs again. As little as I know about pigs I can still tell these are AWESOME genetics. The kids are pretty excited to have some good show pigs for some of the fairs this next year. I'm excited about possibly getting some pork in my poor empty freezer in the next year or so! Well, NOW I might be done updating... :)

a great week!

Well I would say the biggest news of the week concerns stori rose. She is potty trained! She finally was able to overcome her fear of going #2 on the potty...There was a princess crown on the line and she finally earned it. The true test was going shopping and to the park in just panties and she did great without any accidents. And the biggest one was today. No accident on our day-long trip through Palisades and up to Star Valley and back. She learned to pee out in nature haha! This should save us a lot of money! :)

the potty crown

Also, Sylvie has started sleeping through the night. We put her down at 9 and she gets up at 7:30. It's the best!

my happy baby with the best bed hair ever! LOVE HER!!!!

 Keeping with tradition, we took advantage of this beautiful Fall Conference Day and had our picnic in Palisades and then relaxed by Dad's grave in S.V. while listening to conference. Stori has so much fun with cousins and we all had fun together. I just love family!

placing the flowers for Papa

the finished product.

Jack and Stori did this for a good 10 minutes. He would point to the letter and she would say it. It was so cute. 

Cousin love

Stori's face is killing me! haha such a dork

we saw 2 moose and 3 bald eagles! It was perfect!

Fall Creek. Crick? haha

After Conference was over we decided to see if we could all do cartwheels. Turns out Dan never actually learned how to do one, but gave it his best shot.

But unfortunately he lost to the old man.

Amanda and I still gots it though! :)

We had such a fun day! We couldn't have asked for better weather or better fall colors! Happy sunday family! Love you all