...and coming up next, the post I promised was next last time!

10-28-09

I LOVE fall time!
Crunchy leaves
Beautiful colors all around
Crisp clean air

With Aspen screaming us on from her bouncer on the porch, the girls and I raked a big pile of leaves in the front for jumping into and throwing high up in the air.



Daddy helped the girls clean out all 5 of our pumpkins...



and then he earned the metal of "patient carving" while creating this beauty.
Brinley exclaimed "You have made me so, so proud of you dad" upon completion.



After remembering once again how painfully slow carving pumpkins can be with small children
(I forget each year), I pulled out our Mr. Potato head pieces and the girls made these.




New Halloween tradition in at the Young home=
Home made sucker ghosts flying from our tree.
This is a fun project for little kids and they feel so successful creating home
decor for the holiday.

I highly recommend making a fresh apple tart. 'Tis the season.
I served mine with french vanilla ice cream and drizzled caramel topping.

Up next post: A picture of us with one of our Hero's.

Fall Family Pictures

(Courtesy of Kara Hagberg Photography)

And you will just have to wait to see our #1 family pic. when our family
Christmas card comes your way!

Roller Skating Babies

Observe as Avery watches THIS clip. (note: this is pre-hair cut head)
It's her fave (so is THIS one) and every time I'm on the computer she pleads to watch it.

She pleads because she knows that often times I say "not today."

Why?

Because it's good for kids to frequently be reminded that the world does not revolve around their wants and desires.

It's good for kids to learn to deal with disappointment in appropriate ways.
Avery often times chooses to display inappropriate behavior when reacting to adverse situations...and therefore she has the opportunity to throw mighty tantrums in the confines of her own crib in her own room with the door shut so that the rest of the household is not bothered. There she can scream and yell and be as angry as her little heart desires 'till the cows come home and when she is finished we happily welcome her back into our company.

Tonight Doctor Young and I will be heading off to a LONG AWAITED lecture given by our #1 parenting expert/idol/hero/my mom even lived by his counsel when raising us
John Rosemond!

When did I become the kind of person who is so thrilled to go to a lecture about
parenting anyways?

Happy 1st Birthday Darling

(Photo courtesy of Kara Hagberg)
On October 19th, 2008 our Lovely Little Aspen came into the world.
Life has never been more hectic or more wonderful than it is with her in it!
We love you darling Daughter.

Extreme Makeover - Hair Edition

Check our post-sleeping beauty out!

Above = BEFORE

After a little playgroup pumpkin picking fun and some

fresh doughnut delights, I decided it was time...

for a change, so I got my sheers out and snip snip snipped.

Below = AFTER




Note = This is 100% natural curl!
Avery's baby hair was straight, that was the part I cut off.

To see how beautiful Utah is right now go HERE.
To see the card I made for Mary's stamp club last week go HERE.

My Cup is Full

This weekend we gathered as a family in our living room to be uplifted as we listened
to General Conference.

What a wonderful opportunity this is every 6-months. During the 4 two hour sessions the girls occupied themselves with a variety of games in the conference packets that Aunt Jill sent. Thanks Jill! They also listened carefully to the talks and when they heard key words, which we had previously specified, they got to eat one skittle, m&m or chocolate chip out of the conference treat bowl!

Aspen entertained herself by mouthing this big bouncy ball and then spitting it out. In and out in and out...and of course by attempting to steer clear of you know who.

My HOPE is renewed and FAITH strengthened.

Daddy did Saturday conference with the girls and recorded if for me because I was in Kentucky at the FIRST ANNUAL Instructor Innovative Weekend

for Urban Active Instructors.

I was able to take 6 classes back to back including:

*Turbo Kick
*Perfect Prompts Yoga
*Urban Warrior
*Triple Fit Factory
*Urban Iron Essential Cueuing
*Radical Recess

I attended similar weekends when working for 24 Hour Fitness and Gold's back when and had to pay per class. Urban Active sponsored this weekend and made it FREE!
Over 100 instructors attended.
I always LOVE being in a class packed with instructors. The energy is over the top!

Our Bellevue, KY club walls are mostly glass and the Group X room made me a bit envious...ok, a lot envious. It had a panoramic 2ND level view of the Ohio river, skyscrapers downtown and big bridge.

Last week I started teaching a new 45min. Urban Rebounding Box and Bounce style class on mini tramps after my Power Playt class on Thursday mornings. We now have 30 of these puppies stacked in the back of our Group X room. It's actually a TON of fun and a great workout for the core and heart!

And now GO HERE and make sure to watch Stephanie's story on TV tomorrow!

Why Whole?

To find out why we switched to whole milk and many, many more extremely important facts about food today you HAVE GOT to read...

THIS book! I listened to it on CD while driving to and from Chicago, it was fantastic!

I think of it as more of an "Owners Manual," which oddly enough we seem to need nowadays because most of the "food" littering our grocery shelves is in fact not real food at all.

Right now my dear husband is finishing it during his commute and I LOVE him for that!

It was in the top 10 books of 2008. I suggest you find out why for your own sake.

And up next, drum roll... my SOLUTION.

Problem = I don't seem to make enough time to read books, and because there is an abundance of wisdom silently awaiting for me within the pages of good books,

I want to read them.

Solution = Download books onto my I-Pod to listen to while I am running. Hello, I've waisted so much time already. When I realized that I have about 1.5 to 2 hours of running time a week, which time I could be using to enrich my life through listening to good books, I was beyond excited...like 2234568723496792376 that excited!

HERE is my first treadmill completed book. Just as In Defense of Food is a users guide to the chaotic food crisis, The PEACEGIVER is a users guide to Christ's atonement.

It is a very, very good book and came highly recommended to me by my Uncle Scott who happens to be a wonderful uncle and only the most amazing Family and Marriage therapist ever!