i'm blue for you.

max insisted on wearing her pink flair.

she had me pin it in just the right spot.

brennan dragged his white byu hat along the floor in costco.

it is now partially black on the back.

i watched two carloads of ute fans get pulled over for hanging out of their sunroofs and off of the truck beds.

don't they know red gets pulled over more often???

;)

let's go COUGS!

this is the only day of the year where red isn't my favorite color.

BEST THOSE UTES!!!

{so sean will sleep a happier man. things are getting dicey up in here!}

rivalry week & september

"it's rivalry week. we sleep in our gear."

-sean gibson

{the big byu/utah game is tomorrow. GO COUGS!!!}
{our flag is already flying}

....

walking down the stairs yesterday morning brennan says to sean,

"mom's been freakin' me out lately."

what the?!?

funny kid.

i wish it could be september all summer long.

the days are warm.

some even hot enough for sunscreen.

but usually i'm just too lazy to put it on all of us by now.

the nights cool by 6 o'clock.

i love leaving my windows open in the afternoon while i make dinner. 

to let the breeze fill my home.
with the smell of trees and roses.

the flies and bees buzz around my kitchen.

they annoy me.

the cool air at night lets me cover myself in every ounce of my down comforter.

it makes me not want to get out of bed in the mornings:)

we watch the birds eat the sunflower seeds out back.

our man made bird feeder.

so proud:)

i pick the tomatoes less and less.

the sunflowers are so big, 

i am sure the birds think they are sitting on the branches of a tree.

we love to watch them pick out the seeds from our dinner table with the back door open.

the big and fat blue feathered ones are my favorite.

their long elegant tales are beautiful.

the days are shorter.
the mornings are longer.
or darker at first.
whichever.

i'm starting to cook soups, chilis, and bake things in my oven more.

i have no desire to water our lawn or turn on our air conditioner anymore.

i can hear the kids chattering and running to the bus stop in the mornings. 

i never knew i had a love obsession with september.

until now:)

toy story

"mom, we're making faces."

-brennan

last saturday i realized i am an adult.

i was driving home from costco, 

and a teenage girl was struggling to merge onto the freeway.

in the process she almost hit the side of my van.

{having a van in itself classifies me as an adult i guess...}

and instead of raising my fist and cursing,

i slowed down and waited for her to move over.

simply b/c that's somebody's baby.

and i thought about how her mother would have surely wanted to help her.

so i should too.

being a mother and all.

weird.

to not feel like a kid with kids anymore.

but

a mother

with kids.

letters to Emily {grocery shopping & Paris}

Dear Emily,

Did you know Peach Salsa happens to be on my top 10 favorite food list? THANK YOU EMILY!!! I love that you labeled my name on one of your jars....made me chuckle and smile. Okay the biscuit story had me in tears! Brennon really throwing up!? Pillsbury make good biscuits, but if you want a quick way to make biscuits then I would go with Bisquick brand. You usually mix it with just water, and they end up tasting pretty good. But if you are crazy, which I know you are, then home make them, because I LIKE CRAZY when it comes to the kitchen. By the way made homemade ricotta cheese....I will never go back to buying it ever again!! It is so easy and cost efficient. Around here anyway. You HAVE to try it. click HERE.

I am so excited to see you! I bet little Max isn't so little anymore. Where did you get the delicious chicken pot pie recipe from? I would love love to try it! I will tell you a funny story about going to the grocery store. I ride my bike to the grocery store and bring my children's bike trailer attached to my bike, so when I buy groceries I can just bring them back in the trailer, it's great. Anyway, I decided to bring Bear with me. Bad idea. I went to DM first, (which is a toiletries store) to get diapers paper towels, wipes, and toilet paper. Holding Bear on my hip I load the stuff in the back of the trailer thinking, "Okay, I haven't got food yet but I think Bear and the food will fit." Go to Aldi (grocery store) and get a load of food. Go to load it in the trailer. First put Bear in. Fits. Then the first bag of groceries, fits (barely), I have four more huge bags left. Oh no. Barely fit the next one, Bear's head is now slightly visible. I have two big bags of groceries left. What do I do? Well, I wear one of the bags on my back (wearing it like a backpack), and I take out the toilet paper, which comes with a handle, and slide it onto my handle bar. Well, this works. Then as I just start peddling away HUGE, I mean HUGE hail starts to come down, lightning, and everyone on the streets scatter to awnings. So I had to bike under a bank awning, with some lady smoking and laughing at my appearance. I had to agree with her. I looked pathetic. Bear was enjoying the groceries smashing him, he was playing with the bag of lettuce. And just waiting for the hail to stop. Stop it did. But the rain came. Fat rain. Still just waiting and then Bear gets mad. So I breast fed him under the awning with rain pouring like crazy. So fun. Well, It stopped, and I got home looking like a hot mess! What adventures we have as moms. I must say the weather is great, and I went to Paris!! It was nostalgic and beautiful. I had one of the best dishes I have ever had in my life, if not THE best dish I have ever had. It had clams and oysters, over hand made noodles with a white wine butter sauce and shaved parmesan. Wowzers. A-MAZE-ing. My sister is getting married so I will be flying out on the 13th of November. I am so excited. These are things I am looking forward to coming back to the USA. Mexican food. Family. Friends. Mexican food. Did I already say mexican food? Really, I am missing it. Here are some pictures from the Paris trip and some recent ones of my fam and Heidelberg! Love you!

Beth

oh, remember, remember.

my neighborhood is lined with flags on every street.

a beautiful heartbreak

were the only words that came to mind.

b/c every year it's beautiful.

in a mournful kind of way.

letters to beth {when life gives you peaches...}

dear beth,
i had a second batch of peaches leftover from last week, and when life gives you peaches, you make peach salsa. it's simply the tastiest snack you'll ever eat. i have a bottle with your name on it for when you come in november. what are the dates you are staying with us? i also made homemade peanut butter cups. i must admit, i spent most of the afternoon eating the peanut butter filling. every bite made my heart skip a beat. marv-VE-LESS {i know that's not how you spell that, but it's how i say it, so yeah}. my failure of the day was my homemade chicken pot pie. i've been wanting to make something fall weather-ish, and i found this great chicken pot pie recipe online. it was topped with homemade biscuits. the biscuits were the main reason i was making the recipe. i really planned on eating mainly biscuits. well, my friend, i am sure you are aware of this, but i certainly was not: shortening CAN go bad. sean spent half an hour chopping all of my carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, and shredding chicken. i made a homemade chicken broth and soaked the chicken and veggies in it. 2-DIE-4. i mixed flour and evaporated milk in a rue and mixed it all in so it was creamy and thick. my mouth was watering. the smells were AMAZING. then i mixed my biscuits. the shortening smelled a little funky, but i figured it must just cook out that smell. i don't ever use it, so i'm not experienced in the proper smells and cooking of shortening. i have no idea how long i have had mine. maybe 4 years? i cut out the little round biscuits, and they looked so beautiful! i topped my Delicious pot pie stuffing with them, and into the oven they went. sean and the kids were playing out back. the nights are just perfect right now. brennan is obsessed with his new mini-byu football he got at the byu game last week. the anticipation of the big byu/utah game this week is building around here. lots of red and blue flags flying all over the state! i sure hope the cougs win. it's always better around these parts when they do. and by "these parts" i mean "my house." so everyone was outside, and i decided i was going to sneak a little biscuit off of the side of the pan right when it came out. i almost threw up in my mouth. so sour and disgusting. ALL WRONG! all of that work, and i knew it just wasn't going to be what i wanted. i just kept thinking i should have bought Pillsbury. flaky, fluffy Pillsbury! i could have cried. anyway, i told everyone to not eat them {shawn ray just moved to utah, he was over too}, but brennan took a bite, i made the gagging sound, he made the gagging sound, and then he puked. ALL OVER. down the shirt, down the legs, on the chair, on the carpet {the stupid carpet under my kitchen table}, and so forth. i am embarrassed to say i even took a picture before i went to soothe him. bahahahaha. pitiful. i know. memories! then we put him in the bath, sean cleaned up the puke, and i swore i would never make that homemade pot pie ever again. at least not with biscuits with shortening that had gone bad.

what are you cooking lately?
are the leaves changing there?
they are changing in the mountains and in the valley here.

love,
emily

p.s.
i HATE flies. what is their purpose other than to buzz and bother me and eat manure? SWAT!
also, i decided to NOT show you the puke picture. you're welcome.