I Have a Really Cute Little Sister! :)

My little sister has become quite the social butterfly since my family relocated about a year ago. This year she has stayed busy with multiple school and church activities including cross country and marching band. I decided to go home to visit the fam so I could see her in action during the schools homecoming weekend. The high school that I grew up in didn't have either sport, so I wanted to see her. It was so fun! The whole town comes together for a parade the afternoon of the big football game. It was a pretty good parade, and I have to say that I was VERY impressed that there was not even one political float.

Papa and Parker - waiting for the parade to start.

Ooh! There she is!

I think this picture of Caitlyn is so 'stinkin cute!

This was during the halftime performance. Can you see Caitlyn? She is the girl in the blue pants and silly hat... :D

Parker and Grandpa at the football game. I personally think that October is too late in the year for outdoor night games. It was pretty chilly!

Parker was less than impressed to be at Auntie's cross country meet the next day in Park City. But look how cute those gloves are! He absolutely hated them.... Poor guy!

Caitlyn getting close to the home stretch!

It was also the weekend of General Conference. I had to throw in the picture of GG playing with Parker. He loved it. Also, notice that Rory is sleeping through GC! Jeez! It really is no wonder he is single. Haha! Kidding.

It was a very fun weekend to spend with the family. I wish they lived closer so we could do it more often. Good thing Christmas is just around the corner so we can all be together again.

Uncle Ror and Parker. :) I really worry about the things he plans on teaching my Little Man...

I better lay down the ground rules.

Project: Front Yard!

Once upon a time Matthew and I went on a vacation to SanFran and Lake Tahoe. When we arrived home all our landscaping rocks in the front yard were gone and our front yard was covered in tractor ruts! Matt's father volunteered them to a co-worker, and unbeknownst to me, Matt agreed to give them away. Our front yard was now the ugliest yard in the neighborhood! Unfortunately, it stayed that way for quite sometime. This project began with the rock removal in July, and ended when the last piece of sod was layed in the first week of October. I must say that it turned out quite nice. I LOVE my new front yard... Especially my new flower bed. Hopefully I will take better care of it than in years past. I plan to plant and weed it this coming year. I am so excited!

This was day one of the actual work. I had to run out and snap a few pics before too much digging began... Good thing I did. 10 minutes later the trees were gone, and my barely visible Tiger Lilies (by the white pillar) were in a Rubbermaid box.

Notice my trees in the back of the truck. I really think Matthew starts these projects just so he can rent equipment to destroy things. :)

Do you think it is too late to turn back at this point? Amazingly, to my knowledge, the mailbox was never disturbed!


Now it's taking shape!

Oh yay! That is my new front yard! Oh, how I love it. Oh, how I hope the sod takes and grows in lush and beautiful next year. Oh, how I am excited for Matthew to set up the electric fence around the flower bed so Copper will stop digging... Haha! I will have to post some more pictures of it next summer to show how it's doing, and HOPEFULLY my beautiful flowers!

P.S. My Tiger Lilies dried up and died from sitting in the hot sun for 3 months. :( However... I went to throw them away and noticed there were new starts growing!!! We planted them along the back of the flower bed and (fingers crossed) they will be back next spring.

Papa & Co. were in charge of the CFR 2k9 this year. (That basically meant my mom and us girls.) We had a great reunion. It was so fun. We were all put in charge of different things, but it all pulled together and ran smoothly. One of the best events was Rikki's 'The Price is Right' game. She did an awesome job, and everyone had a blast! I would say the biggest train wreck of the reunion was dinner... Literally! Papa decided we were going to have a smoked pig. With all of you in mind I left out the gruesome pics. Haha! If you really want to see them check out my Facebook page. Just imagine a dead cooked pig wearing a hula skirt, Hawaiian lia, a hat and sunglasses... All on a bright pink sled. Like I said... Gruesome! He was pretty proud of it though, so we all pretended to be impressed. :D Here are a few of my favorite pics from the 'Same time, Same Place!' If my computer wasn't so slow I would have included more.

Parker LOVED his good morning cookies so much that he needed one for each hand. :)

Grandma and Papa... Getting 'Sconed!'

Parker at the sawdust dig. I don't know where this tradition started, but we've held the dig every year for as long as I can remember. He wasn't so impressed with getting his hands dirty.

I know you have all been DYING to see a current picture of the twins, so here is Chief and Copper. And no, they were not tied up the entire time. Matt let the run free quite a bit.

I love my mom. :)

Leslie, Matt and Tucker.

These are my favorite two boys in the whole world!

Parker snuggling with Cheify.

Okay, so I know that Rikki hates this pic, but I had to post it. This was the first year of our annual Carpenter Half Marathon. (I wanted it to be named the Dam Half... It was up by Minks (Meeks? I dunno) Cabin Dam.) I was not planning on running this, so the most training I did was a six mile run... six weeks before the grand event. I was sucked into it due to peep pressure the night before. With no training I set out on the grand adventure... and I FINISHED!!! It was by no means an amazing time, but I told myself I would walk for one minute at each mile marker and that is what I did. We took this picture at the finish line on our way home from the reunion. I am proud to say that Rikki, my mom, myself and Leslie represented for the Jackson clan in the half, and Caitlyn dominated the 5k! Way to go team. (As a side note... Leslie won first place in the half. Beating my by ONLY 43 minutes. HAHA!)

Grandma Nora, Matt's grandma, turned 95 this summer. It was quite the Maughn Family Reunion. Grandma Nora had a great time watching all the kids play games both in and out of the water. Here's to you GN! :)

Grandma Nora observing all the festivities.

Parker helping Papa play baseball. (With a water ballon.) I'm pretty sure that someday he will kill me for putting him in this swim diaper so much. Haha! I loved it! :D

All the kids with their mom. What a great legacy she has raised. All of her kids have wonderful spouses with beautiful children and grandchildren. This family is truely amazing.

We had such a fun summer with Parker. In fact... Summer and Fall were so much fun that I neglected my blog. :) The thing is... I can't figure out Picasa or MW. Will someone please come coach me along? I would like to use MW because the fonts are fun, but I can't figure out how to compress the pictures in it. (Lame, I know.) Here are a few pics from our Summer Fun.

Parker discovered how much he LOVES water!

One of his favorite activities was to help Papa water the flowers. Grammie was sitting on the front steps and Parker decided to water her. Good thing she moves quickly!

One of our favorite things about summer was our new cousin, Tucker. :) Auntie loves this picture because Parker isn't screaming his eyes out at the sight of her. Haha! Only kidding. You know he loves you, Bug.

I had to add this one because it is impossible to not love this little man. I just want to give him kisses all the time.



I don't know what he was doing here... He kept bending over and waving to me through his legs. It was cracking me up!

I stole this background...

... from Krystal. She is the owner of Blushe Photography. She is so talented. Check her out @ blushephotography.blogspot.com. :) Thanks Krystal!

Just testing this…

So I am trying to learn how to blog better, and I noticed Microsoft has a blog option. The thing is, that I hate, HATE Microsoft word, so I am foreseeing this ending in a fight between me and my computer… we will just see how this goes. I dunno. The destructions mentioned something about me needing flickr or something like that. Yeah. I don't have a clue what that means. And actually I don't know how to post this either. Like I said. Just testing this. If it posts, than it will be by accident. (I think.)