Too Much Excitement For Me!

By 7pm Saturday night, I couldn't tell if I was shaking from the cold or from nerves! Greg, Gavin and I were at the BYU-Utah football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium. It was intense - horribly intense. I don't like close games. I want blow-outs. I knew this game wouldn't be a blow-out, but I really didn't want overtime!
What a Holy War! It wasn't a great game to watch - too many penalties, bad calls, dropped or overthrown passes, and it seemed to last forever. But, at the end, we pulled it out. Barely. Hooray for our players. I love beating Utah (apparently so does Max Hall. Check out his comments after the game. Oops - let's get a check on those emotions, Max!).
This game has taken on a life of it's own. It is so big, so intense, so emotional for both sides. I'm glad we have bragging rights for another year, but it is almost too much for me to handle every November!

No Moms Allowed!

Enoch is hilarious (his new favorite word). A few weeks ago, he developed a new fear; not monsters, aliens, robbers - he was afraid of spies. Not sure where that came from, but it didn't last long. Now he is telling me he wants to be a spy and he plays spy all the time. We are going to have to play more hide and seek with this kid. He is the giggliest hider!
Anyway, while going through his spy phobia, he drew a sign and taped it to his bedroom door. He drew a picture of him and then a picture of a spy and then put a 'X' through the spy, because we all know that will keep spies out of Enoch's room. This kept him pretty happy for a few days. However one day, after getting mad at me, I got put on the sign too, with a 'X' through me. Kate was added with a 'X' through her only hours later. Now, spies, Mom and Kate are not allowed in Enoch's room. Dad still is.
Enoch was pretty darn proud of himself until I told him that he would be cleaning his room by himself since I wasn't allowed in there. He solved that problem by taking down the sign during job time and then taping it back up when his room was clean.
Thinking like that will come in handy when he is a spy.

Up on my Thanksgiving Soapbox

Apparently, Greg and I missed a great Sunday School lesson last Sunday (we were in Nursery). My friend, Ariana, summarized it on her blog. The teacher pointed out that the day is called ThanksGIVING, not ThanksFEELING. I like that; it makes me think. It is wonderful to be thankful for our blessings, but is it enough? How can I show that I am thankful?
Our family has decided to donate some of our Christmas money to the Utah Food Bank. I believe that it is a great organization, which needs extra help this year. If you would like to donate as well, visit their website.

On a lighter note (I'm now climbing down from my soapbox!), we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I spent the morning baking (rolls and sweet potatoes), Greg put up Christmas lights and the kids did their thing (licking the bowls, climbing the ladder with Dad, teasing each other and watching TV).
We ate a fantastic Thanksgiving meal with the Fowlers. This year was a bit smallish, only us, Grandpa and Grandma and the Palmers. But, we had a great time and the food was incredible. We spent the afternoon playing games with the Palmers and watching old family movies. It was so fun to see Greg as a baby and little boy. We counted the years off by watching Christmas, snowmobiling trip, Round-Up parade then Lake Powell trip; a few birthdays were thrown in occasionally. It was a very fun afternoon.
We came home, watched a movie (Monsters Vs. Aliens) and went to bed. What a great day!

Enoch's pictures

I love these pictures Enoch brought home from preschool. He is such a cutie! All week long he has been telling me that he is thankful for me. Wow! I really needed to hear that right now. I'm so thankful for Enoch too! PS - I think he did a great job cutting out his food.

How to Cook a Thanksgiving Turkey
By: Enoch Fowler

Get a turkey at the store. Put it in the refrigerator until Thanksgiving. Then take it out and boil some water to put the turkey in. Cook it for 40 minutes. Take is out and put it on a plate and eat it.

Not too bad for a four-year-old. He told me a few days ago that he wanted to be a 'cooker' when he grew up. Maybe he will.

Isn't she pretty?

Kate loves lip gloss - whatever color, kind, flavor - she loves it. I have to now hide mine since she can open doors. If I can't find her, she is in my bathroom applying makeup. She usually gets everything in the right place (eyeliner, blush, eye shadow, gloss), but she is still perfecting her technique.

Favorite Snack

Enoch's & Kate's new favorite snack: Nutella and Pretzels!

Greg's Job

It is now 10 pm and Greg is home from work. He actually got home at around 7:30 tonight - Hallelujah! He worked another 70+ hour week last week, so we are so happy to have him home. Work has definitely consumed our lives lately. The kids miss Greg, I miss Greg and we are happy and grateful when he is home. The other day, I found Kate laying on our bed, snuggled up with Greg's pillow and saying, "Dad, Dad, Dad". It just about broke my heart.
We are praying that all this hard work will pay off. So, either things will take off soon, or we will be looking for another job soon. We are really keeping our fingers crossed.
Greg is working for a start-up company, Kemesa. It is short for Keep Me Safe. Before doing any online shopping this holiday season, check out their website, www.shopshield.net. The company provides a one time use credit card number when you order something online so your credit card number is never given out. Each time you order something, a different credit card number is created for you. It's a great idea!
Greg is working very hard to ensure that Cyber Monday runs smoothly for the company. Once we get through the holiday season, we are hoping that things will calm down and we will have Greg back.

Smiley Kate

Kate is naturally such a shy personality. She is very quiet and withdrawn in large groups of people. I understand that this could be an age thing, but I also feel like her personality is just a little quiet. Of course, at home with her brothers, she is a different person. She loves to play, dog-pile, be chased and tickled and snuggle with them. She is a happy girl with lots of smiles for Mom, Dad, Gavin and Enoch. Some people have asked me if she smiles. Of course she does, you nit wits! I love Kate's smile; it's quick, big and bright. It makes my heart happy when she smiles at me!

Geez, Gavin!

Every year for Christmas, my cousins and I put together a calendar of the great-grandkids for my Grandma Halverson. I sifted through my pictures and found some cute ones of Enoch and Kate. Gavin, not so much. Almost all of my pictures of Gavin look like this. Honestly! He is always making a goofy face or a tween angstsy face. My favorites are the pictures he takes of himself. They completely make my laugh, but I can't use these out-of-focus nostrils for Grandma Halverson's calendar. Geez, Gavin! What am I going to do with you?

Preschool Snacks

I know this is a silly thing to post about, but it made me laugh.
Twice a year, Enoch brings the Friday snacks for preschool. The tricky things is, the snacks have to start with the letter of the week. I decided to just get our turns out of the way, so we had last week and this week.
Last week the letter was 'J'. Enoch took his favorite lunch - jam sandwiches. I packed plenty thinking that some would come home. Nope - some kids were licking the raspberry jam off of the Tupperware! Apparently, not many kids get homemade bread with homemade raspberry jam for lunch.
This week was a bit tricky. The letter was 'K'. Enoch really wanted to bring ketchup. I thought maybe we could pair that with french fries and Hershey Kisses cookies. I was all set until I realized the theme for this week was nutrition. I couldn't bring myself to serve french fries and cookies when the kids had been learning about fruits and veggies all week. So, we came up with Kabobs. I cut my apple and cheese chunks and was all really to go.
That's when it got interesting. I couldn't get the apples and cheese onto the skewers without the food splitting in half! There must be some sort of trick I don't know. After a few minutes of frustration for me, Enoch started helping. Thirty seconds later Enoch was bleeding with a gash in his finger from the skewer. Fatally wounded, he had to lay on the couch with his pillow and blanket to recover.
I gave up on the kabobs and made Kettle corn. Healthy, I know. I should have just gone with fries and cookies. Oh well, the kids like the kettle corn and we are done with snacks!

Temples & Tombs

Gavin's 6th grade class has been studying Egypt this last month. They have been working hard! Some of their projects included:

*Group Reports - Gavin's group reported on the pyramids.
*Fish Mummification - No joke! His class mummified six fish. Gavin said it was pretty gross, but interesting, too. He also built a wood sarcophagus to bury their fish in out in the school yard.
*Egpytian Life Report - Gavin did his report in a storybook format. He wrote a great story about the royal hunter chasing lions and rhinos. Every time he mentioned an animal (lion, rhino, cat or dog), he glued a picture of that animal we cut from our Cricut machine.
*Death Masks - Gavin didn't like being plastered, but enjoyed painting his mask when it was dry. He also wrote a very clever obituary about his Egyptian self dying.


All of this in addition to his normal schoolwork load. I'm so tired! I though I was done with sixth grade!

Our family was able to attend his performance of Temples & Tombs. The kids all dressed up as Egyptians and sang and danced for us. They did a great job!

Gavin and his best friend, Mummy Cayden. Notice the eye make-up on Gavin. He was a great sport about wearing it, even though his eyes almost watered it all off while I was applying it!Gavin was one of the slaves who carried the Pharaoh (Principal Tucker) to the front of the gym. He is one of the strongest boys out of the entire sixth grade (freaky Fowler strength!).

Gavin has really enjoyed learning about Egypt, but is a bit relieved that he is done.

Fall Leaves

I feel like we missed the leaves a bit down in the valley this year. We drove through the canyon a few time to see the mountain leaves, but we only raked together one leaf pile. Okay, Gavin raked together a leaf pile and Enoch and Kate reaped the benefits.
This morning, Enoch came running inside and yelled, "Mom, there is the biggest pile of leaves on the side of the house. Come and see!" I'm surprised it took him a few days to find it. Enoch and Kate were running through the leaf pile in their bare feet (even though there was snow on the ground a few feet away. Oh well). They had so much fun, but didn't last long because it was pretty cold outside that morning. I grabbed my camera and got a few good shots.