It's been a while

I haven't bought gas with my Smiths card for a while. When I went to fill up my tank today I had a $1.30 off per gallon reward. It made my gas very, very cheap. When's the last time you've seen gas at this price? I say again, it's been a while.

Festival of trees

Every year around August I get a call or text from my sister Carina asking me if I want to help with a tree for festival of trees. Carina has been involved with the festival for a long time, but for the past couple of years my mom and sisters and I have decorated a tree and dedicated it to my mom. She is the strongest, most lovely, selfless, brave and wonderful woman I know. I am so proud to call her my mother and I like to call her Moner every once in a while. She fought a good fight and beat cancer. She is currently cancer free. My whole family is so grateful to have her in our lives. So, we take the opportunity to celebrate her life, and support her in her battle every year by dedicating a tree to her. 

This year Carina thought, and we all agreed, to try our hand at a wreath. After some research we decided that the next big thing in wreaths was to make them with tulle. So, we went with it and made a wreath with tulle and named it "just tulle-in' around". (My dad came up with the name...who needs college). Anyway, it was a great time creating this wreath. It sold for more than we thought, which is great for the Children's Hospital.
The best part of the whole experience was setting up the wreath. When we got there we had 2 planter boxes for our 2 small Christmas trees. We got put in a space with a tall, skinny door. Not nearly enough space for our wreath and planter boxes. So, Steph and I proceeded to move the doors next to us over so we could have more space. As we moved them the metal stands that the doors were stabilized on scraped on the floor and made a horrific screeching noise. It sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard times 100. Plus, it was amplified by the fact that we were in a huge echoing building. We figured first come first serve, right? We were laughing so hard we nearly wet ourselves. Maybe you had to be there.
Anyway, I love you mom. I look forward to creating many, many more trees/wreaths, and memories over the years with you.

 

An evening out

Last month Ben went out of town for a week and towards the end of the week I was spent so I took all the boys out to Chili's for dinner. I saw it as a fun night out to get away from the daily grind. No cooking. No clean up after dinner. The boys picked what they ate so no whining about what we were eating. I really enjoyed dinner.
I had 3 people comment on how brave I was to bring ALL of my boys out in public. I didn't feel brave. I felt relaxed, relieved, and happy. Funny how perspective can do that to people. What seems an insurmountable task to one is doable to another. It was a fun night out with my cutest ever boys!

Once in a lifetime

I am a lot behind in my blogging posts this year. Because my husband prints my blog in a book every Christmas for me I am going to ask him for an extension so it won't be printed until next year so I can catch up. My goal is to post a new entry followed by an old one. Hopefully, by the end of the year I am completely caught up and ready to tackle next year! Wish me luck!


As many of you may know when Ben and I were newly married he told me of a dream of his to run for and become the Governor of Utah. At first this was a silly dream to me as I am not much into politics. However, after looking more closly at the gig I realized if Ben is the Governor I get to live in the Governors mansion. I then latched onto that dream and made one of my own.

A few weeks ago Ben got an invitation in the mail to have dinner with the Governor, at the mansion. It was for everyone who helped out in his re-election efforts. Ben helped him out in the initial stages of his campaign until the convention then dropped out. Anyway, we...the Horsley's were going to eat dinner in the mansion with the Governor. It wasn't the same as living there, but it was beautiful none the less. Adam and Seth and I counted 5 Christmas trees, 3 kitchens, 2 studies, 3 stories (there may have been a basement, but we weren't allowed to go see), 1 beautiful staircase, and 1 ballroom. We only got to see about 1/3 of the house. As I walked around the mansion I was snooping into the kitchen and Governor Herbert came down a back staircase that was blocked off and caught me. We exchanged pleasantries and I apologized for intruding. Little does he know it will all be mine someday...(maniacal laugh!) It was a lovely evening and a once in a lifetime opportunity. Here's a picture of my cute family on the staircase. A nice man who couldn't figure out Ben's phone took the photo so sorry it's blurry, but documentation none the less.(Noah isn't with us. He chose to go to basketball practice instead of hanging at the mansion with us.) He's lame!

Fall spoils

This year I was lucky enough to be able to grow a garden. My neighbor let me plant in his plot. He also gave me access to his two peach trees and his grape vines. I tell ya, this fall has been busy but so much good stuff to eat!

Tooth fairy time again

Adam hasn't lost any teeth since kindergarten. He's had this loose tooth wiggling around for almost a month. Finally, last week he was watching a movie and started wiggling it with his finger and pulled it out! He was so excited! He put it under his pillow and got a couple bucks. It's amazing how long it took him to lose another tooth. Almost 2 years. Someone told me that kids lose their teeth in the same order and time frame they grow them as babies. I don't know if that's true, but he did take a while longer than Noah to get teeth. Here's a picture because I just love this picture! He's so gorgeous with or without teeth!