Pumpkin Blow 2010

The first Saturday after Halloween, the Nash family of Weston, ID always does the Pumpkin Blow. People come from EVERYWHERE to watch the pumpkin blow. They bring their pumpkins and then Papa Nash puts a ton of dynamite in with them (88 sticks this year). Then Miles shot the dynamite from afar as we all stood on top of the hill...

Where there were once pumpkins....

Now there's a crater! KABOOM! Sorry, I was covering Benjamin's ears so I didn't take a picture of the explosion!

Fun picture...beautiful view!

Benjamin HAD to go and see the dog a gazillion times. He LOVES dogs! Too bad we won't be getting any time soon. Actually, I'm okay with that.

LAST Relay-o-Posting

I know, right? I'm actually doing two in one on this one. The new house AND Halloween. They mesh, right? I guess when you see the NUCLEAR green color on our house you'll get freaked out. Don't worry, they've changed that color. It's not so ghooly looking anymore. :-)

I know, I know...it looks like some disgusting form of diarrhea on our house. So glad it's fixed.

Our kitchen! That big hole is where our fridge will go. We have to get that one. Don't worry, we picked one out months ago! I'm very excited about it too! I did my homework. :-)

From the kitchen looking into the living room. This actually kind of makes our living room seem small, but it's a good size. I can't complain!

Master bedroom. It's so huge...this picture does NO justice to it!

Our red door! It's a deep red, but it's so beautiful. I LOVE it!

Changing scenes. HELLOOOOO skunk! Don't worry, that's a black hoodie and sweat pants with white DUCK TAPE! I just cut it so there were rounded corners on the front and then made it look skunkish in the back. Cutest skunk EVER! His ears are flopped over in this picture. SO hard to get a good pic of the costume in its entirety.

Oh yeah, the tail is a feather boa (thank you Trish!). I put two pieces of duck tape together (so they wouldn't stick to the boa) and then just safety pinned it all to his pants. PERFECT costume for our stinker! If you didn't know...he had been constipated...BAD. Well that weekend he went to the other extreme. Yeah, he was stinkin' it up, to say the least.

THE END of this post...now go read the other three - or at least look at the pics!

Relay-o-Posting #3

PUMPKIN WALK 2010

Benjamin and I went on a date one afternoon to the pumpkin walk. It was pretty chilly, but we bundled up. We actually ended up walking around it THREE times. Twice with Benjamin in the stroller and then once with him walking, mostly running, around. We did have to stop for the Toy Story one, the Polar Express one (there was a train...CHOOOO), the Monster's Inc one (Mike Wazowski!), and the UP one. We got home and had soup. It was a fun and FREE date. Have we mentioned how much we LOVE Cache Valley?

All bundled up and ready to GO!

UP! I forgot to mention that there had been some HUGE rain storms a couple of nights prior, hence the reason why some of the "balloons" from the house are missing. I was amazed at how well the faces on most of the pumpkins held up...and sad to see how some just washed right off. Very talented people. There were SO many scenes there!

MIKE WAZOWSKI. Seriously, Benjamin stopped and chatted with these pumpkins for a good minute.

I wish I could have gotten the whole Polar Express in one shot...they did an incredible job!

Benjamin's ALL TIME favorite!

Here he is chatting it up here with Buzz and Woody. We were there for a good 5 minutes...I kid you not!

So glad we got to go to the Pumpkin Walk this year. I think we'll make it a tradition. SO much fun!

End Post #3

Relay-o-Posting #2

What's next? FAMILY PICTURES!

So, seriously, Belinda Olsen is one of THE most patient photographers that I've EVER met. PLEASE use her for your family/wedding/baby/senior/engagement/whatevertheheckyouwant pictures. She really is SO amazing. Here are some of our pictures...Benjamin was a GRRRRRRUMP for most of our family pictures. It's a miracle that Belinda got anything good. But, she's just. that. good! Go figure, she got a ton of Benjamin running and playing when he wasn't pinned down by mom and dad. Ah well.

Relay-o-Posting #1

Benjamin's Birthday - yes, it's true, I STILL haven't posted about his birthday which was 09/30. Sad, but true...POOR UNFORTUNATE SOUL. I hope you get that, it was certainly funny in my head. (hint: Little Mermaid)

We celebrated Benjamin's 2nd birthday the Friday of Conference weekend. We had it at Brett and Sari's home. My mom and dad were able to make it along with Trevor, Jen, and their family. We had so much fun!

Back up a couple of days. On Benjamin's actual birthday, we gave him his train table. He was so excited about it...here he is "choo, chooing"! What a cutie!

Here's the cake! This was my idea, but I was not the sole creator. I made the cake and cut it up, but I have to give props to my sista' who did the decorating. I did, however, almost chop her fingers off when she left Benjamin's name as Ben at first as a joke...I have a say in what he goes by at this point in his life....and it's Benjamin. I don't hate the name Ben, just prefer Benjamin for my cute 2 year old. Wow, glad that's off my chest. :-)

Benjamin opening presents while dad supervises!

The more I look at this picture it looks like Benjamin is doing a cheesy pointing pose that you'd get from a 10 year old...but this is just how the picture turned out. To be honest with you, I think he was in mid sentence and telling me something intense because he's pointing. I know everyone was exciting about the cake...especially my 38 year old brother!

 The End...of post #1

I love it when....

...Benjamin laughs!

Yesterday after I got home from work Benjamin and I had so much fun. We went to the store, then we prepared dinner and put it in the crockpot so it would be ready when we got out of the cold. We braved the first snowfall and went to the Pumpkin walk (pictures to follow). We LOVED the pumpkin walk! After that we went home and got warm. Benjamin wanted to bounce on mommy and daddy's bed. So he got up there and we were wrestling and I was tickling him. He was laughing so hard he was screaming. It was hilarious! We both were laughing pretty hard. Later that night, he even let me cut his finger nails without any complaints!

It was a GREAT day. At times it's hard having a child - not only is it waring on your nerves, but sometimes it's hard to see all the time and money other people have that we don't. But every day I'm reminded of how grateful I am for our son. Today was one of those days where my JOY was full - I wouldn't have known this kind of joy if I didn't have my Benjamin!

Sometimes I feel like...

...I'm going a hundred miles a minute and when I stop just to look at what I've done, I have no idea what I've been doing. Definitely not blogging, that's for sure. Then I look at other people's blogs and they are always on top of it. They are also the ones with the clean homes and the well groomed and well fed families. At least that's what I see...or what they portray to me. I just look at my house and I look at myself and I think UCK...can't I just be on top of things for once in my life? I'm picking up after Benjamin, I'm picking up after dinner, I'm picking up after everything. I'm frustrated because I'm too tired at night to get it all done, frustrated because I've spent too much time blogging or too much time on facebook, frustrated because I hardly see Josh, frustrated because I'm always too tired to spend time with Josh.

After I think all this(for the tenth time), I am quickly reminded where those thoughts come from. The tender mercies of the Lord remind of the amazing talk given by Elder Ballard, "O That Cunning Plan of the Evil One." My favorite quote is this, "Like the fly fisherman who knows that trout are driven by hunger, Lucifer knows our “hunger,” or weaknesses, and tempts us with counterfeit lures which, if taken, can cause us to be yanked from the stream of life into his unmerciful influence. And unlike a fly fisherman who catches and releases the fish unharmed back into the water, Lucifer will not voluntarily let go. His goal is to make his victims as miserable as he is."

At times my weakness is my lack of esteem. I beat myself up over what I'm not and what I'm not doing. Satan knows this and he just pushes and pushes and pushes. He doesn't care that I'm miserable in my selfish woes. He just cares that I'm not happy.

I know that there are many people out there who feel the same way. You are not alone. Satan also knows us and our weaknesses, but he has no power over us as we keep our focus on the Savior. If you are not happy, let go of the lure that Satan has on you. As we follow the Savior, we will find happiness and joy. Though our life will not be void of trials, we can find hope and peace as we endure and conquer our trials.