Child Labor

You've met Aggie,

our adorable and 1/3 of the time naughty dog.

She has become quite lucrative for our neighbor kids. Ali and twins Jake & Isaac approached us with their new business  - WE DO DOO-DOO. They clean up dog poop. Only charging 3 cents a poop (and seeing as we're their only clients), we couldn't pass up the opportunity.

The bill and accompanying receipt.

Call us what you want for taking advantage of little children - slave drivers, selfish, heartless *insert your word choice here* - but I believe it was a win-win situation.

*no children were harmed in this. also, we tipped well.

lawn mowing machine

My man mows a mean lawn.

(and looks good doing it)

And So It Begins...

Backyard

Front Yard

 We woke up at 7:30 am to kids screaming. The neighbor kids had realized it snowed over 4 inches. Needless to say, Aggie joined in the action. It was her first time with snow, and she went crazy!

Aggie Loves Her Some Snow - noticed her covered face?

Fall=Leaves=Trees

Our little home is looking more and more like just that - a home. Our grass is now lush and it was time to up the ante. Some friends have a tree farm and helped us get some foliage for our yard. Garret is such a hard worker and with the help of our friend Tyler, five trees were dug up and planted in our yard. It has completely changed the look of our house.In all we planted four maple trees and one oak. Garrett said he got the oak tree so that when he becomes the prophet he can make his pulpit out of it. Good luck with that Garr.

All five trees.

First tree planted. Don't dog the tree planting clothes I have on.

Hard Working Hunk

Garrett, his dad (Dean), and Tyler - the tree man.

Maple

A leaf from our oak.

I can't wait to start raking up leaves!

Crafting of Sorts

This past weekend was a blast! My mom and sisters came up to the Minidoka Craft Fair. How big could a craft fair be in Rupert, ID? It is actually one of the biggest in all of Idaho. I think my family was surprised at how big the craft fair was. I loved walking around all the booths, getting ideas of things I could make (it's true, I'm too cheap to buy things, unless I can't recreate it). After moving from a basement apartment to our house, I realized seasonal decorations were sparse. Slowly I've been making some things to decorate our home, especially for fall.
Here is a taste of what I've been up to.

My friend Jen Pinther and I made these box shelves back in July. I absolutely love them. Beadboard makes everything better. Each season I will change out the ribbon and
what goes inside.

I wish I had come up with this idea, but I got it from dejavucraft.blogspot.com. It is a Halloween topiary. You take cupcake liners and glue them to a foam ball. Jen Pinther and I had a great time making them while we ate Doc's cheese sticks...THEY ARE TO DIE FOR!

This is a simple way to get a seasonal craft. I bought this frame at the DI, painted it Metallic Gold, added some ribbon and vinyl letters.

Vinyl letters take two. I spray painted some old plates, added some vinyl letters and put them on my plate rack.

Starting this month, my friend Tenille Claridge and I started a craft club with some gals from our ward. We meet once a month and do a craft for $15 or less. Tenille was in charge this month and did a phenom job.

Here's the finished product of what us craft club ladies did. I found some sparkle pumpkins that matched perfect.

Ok, I didn't make these block letters. My sweet mother-in-law bought them for me. Aren't the adorable? Each side of the block has a different number on it, so you can count down to special events. Only 6 days until Halloween.

Aren't these pumpkins the cutest thing you've seen? Garrett and I came up with the idea of painting some stumps orange, adding some stems and creating pumpkins for our porch. I absolutely love having these out on display.

A fall/halloween post wouldn't be compelte without a picture of the pumpkin we carved. Our friends, the Wheeler's, invited us over and we carved Stanley, our pumpkin.

What have you created this holiday season? Any ideas for winter?