Making Pumpkin Donuts!

Fall Festivities have started in the Clove household.

We made pumpkin donuts a couple of weeks ago- lots of fun. The boys were good at mixing the dough, and cutting and tossing in cinnamon sugar. But as much as they wanted to we had to make the hot oil an adult only activity.

The recipe made a ton of donuts and so we got to bag up the left overs and brought them to friends and family. They were wonderful.

Car Show

Are you ready for a ton of pictures? We headed down to Aptos earlier this fall- to meet cousins and go to a car show. I had a great time at the car show with my camera. I could take pictures of cars all day long- if only my kids would leave me alone with my camera. But they want to eat and jump in the jump house and go look at the planes. Sadly the air show was less stellar. There was a ton of fog off and on so that was a little disappointing. So settle in for the long long show. I hope you enjoy them.

I really wanted to drive the Thunderbird- but apparently car seats wouldn't fit in it.

This is the little lady I did get to spend the day with. And I fell in love with here. She is a 1960 Buick Le Sabre. I just loved cruising around in her- it was like being on a cloud. So fun! I can't wait to take her out to a drive in. Can't you see me running to the grocery store in her? Do you think Ray would notice if she went missing next time we go for a visit? What is one car if you have more than 50?

This is Ray's baby- down to his plate DFRL- I would tell you what it means, but this is a family blog.

The kids sat forever in this plane- they wanted to buckle up and then they just stayed there in the jump seats- forever.

I think she told me that it isn't too long and this young lady will be old enough to drive!

Can you see my reflection in the mirror- I thought that was pretty cool.

Alma said this was the most valuable of the cars- I guess it is pretty rare- but it didn't do too much for me.

The Insanity That Surrounds Me

We have been having some sleep issues in this house. For MONTHS. This weekend I think we have hit an all time low. Last night after 1 a.m. Beckett was standing naked in the middle of the family room, eating out of a bag of bar-b-que chips- wide awake until 1:20 a.m. when he flat out fell to the ground sound asleep. This was the end of our 6 hour bed time ordeal. I just gave up around midnight and hoped he would go outside and find a opossum family to hang with. They at least like to be up this late. So no nap today- I was a mean mom and I was sure he would be down by 7:30. Well a few minutes ago he was still making a lot of noise- so I went to go check on him and found this:

Beckett what are you doing?

Making music.

So True

Thanks to My Fascinating Life for this sadly too true graphic.

Beckett- Ad Man

Beckett is our observant kid. He always surprises me with his little observations. But last night both Alma and I were shocked by his knowledge of commercials. This was especially shocking since we are a DVR family and rarely watch anything live with commercials- like maybe 10% of the time and I don't allow the boys to watch TV with commercials. The exception to this is when we watch the news while I get dinner on the table. And maybe that was enough for Beckett.

Last night when he was watching the news with Alma he sang a jingle to the Nationwide Insurance commercial. A few hours later I was taking out the garbage and said "Oh shut when I noticed the bag had leaked and Beckett said "Mom you need Force Flex." It took me a little while to figure out what he was saying- how sad is that. My little TV junkie. Alma said he watched Beckett all night last night after his little song and he only watched the TV during the commercial breaks- and then would go back to his playing when the news came back on. Maybe a future ad executive? Hmmmmm.

Football Season is Back

Football season is here again. This means Friday nights at the NU game. Where we eat a cowboy burger and I give Alma the stink eye for filling the boys up on soda and candy. Grandpa shows up and gives the boys more candy. The boys make friends with the unfriendly visitors crowds (yes we always sit on the visitors side). Uncle Wendell and his kids show up- more fun. We wave at friends who also like the visitors side. Alma's cousin and his wife show up- yeah some one for me to chat with! Saturday the TV is playing football all day- because every college game somehow affects BYU. We have an agreement that I can plan activities for the family so Alma spends time with the family- but if we are just puttering around the house he can have a game on. Which works out pretty good for us. And then on Sunday we discuss the BYU game in detail with nephews and brother-in-laws. Alma will moan and groan about the BYU team and see a dismal end to the season- and the others will try to show him how wrong he is. Yeah football. It has been fun seeing pictures of TJ at the games we watch on TV. Last week she had front row seats!

An Ideal Weekend

We had one of those wonderful weekends not too long ago. It started with dinner at Big A's- my favorite. It was pretty cute because when we were done one of Coen's new friends from school showed up and he about died of joy.

Then our neighbors were having their giant annual yard sale- and I tried to get Becky to buy this bed (no go) and there were a couple of old globes I should have bought but waited until after our walk and they were gone. Drat.

And then we walked to South Pine Cafe (my other favorite) and I had olllaberrie french toast- and it was amazing.

This hobbit went on the walk to down town with us.

On the way home we walked to the park and played there for a while. What more could you want on a sunny weekend day?

Nevada County Fair

We did the required end of summer trip to the Nevada County Fair. I had a great time with the boys- Job's Daughter's corn dogs- rides- animals- crafts- it was everything you could want. And here are some cute pictures from our day.

The pony ride was a highlight- not that you can tell from the pictures. Their friend Jordan was there at the same time and he and Coen spent the entire ride waving at each other and yelling "Hi Coen" "Hi Jordan".

This was Beckett's favorite thing- the MOO MOOS!

That boy loves his moo moos.

Coen was a little sad that he couldn't ride on all the rides. He didn't understand why not since he went on bigger rides last year in France- so that took a little explaining.

Coen chatted this poor kids ear off the whole ride- he is his mother's child.

Becky gave me a hard time about not posting on the blog- and she has a point the last several months have been a little slow. We have been super busy and lots of fun stuff to share- but I just haven't gotten around to it. I don't have a great excuse just lazy. The last couple of weeks have been especially difficult with my back. So any down time is spent in bed filled with drugs. but tonight I am filling a little more motivation. See my sad kitchen cupboard- these are the daily drugs.

And some more random pictures-

Coen loves to craft.

Beckett loves to pile things.

Beckett also loves to dress up. And he takes Yoda every where he goes. Yoda is actually a backpack from Aunt Laura- and he is almost as big as Beckett.

Love light sabers much?