I Miss Him When He's Gone

Jeremy had a shorter trip recently. He was gone for only a few days and was only a state away.

I still miss him when he's gone but I'm happy when he comes home. I love him so much.

While he was at this fair convention, he built a one man band out of balloons. It was based on a real entertainer, Eric Haines. Eric's website is funmanband.com 

He wasn't at the convention but so many people were sending him pictures of the balloon sculpture before Jeremy could even send him one. Jeremy had talked to him in advance about basing a balloon sculpture on him. This is one of the pictures Eric sent to Jeremy to use as a reference picture.

 

Isn't that so cool? Eric really liked the balloon sculpture. 

Along with the one man band, Jeremy built a few animals following him. I can't get over how much I love the cow. 

The chicken is dancing- it turns on a turn table.

I do love seeing what my husband creates. That's Balloon Guy Entertainment. He is so awesome. 

We're Thankful For... Jet

"When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way From your first bassinet to your last dying day."

 

As often happens, Jeremy was out of town on Jet's birthday this year.

Hey, at least he skipped out on his out of town convention the year Jet was born.

Jet didn't complain because he got two birthday celebrations again... sort of.

He had the same dinner both times but only did cake and ice cream with blowing out birthday candles the first time. It just didn't work out the second time. He opened cards on his actual birthday and when Dad came home from his trip, Jet opened presents. Then he was so happy with his presents, there wasn't a lot of thought for more cake and ice cream and singing happy birthday and blowing out candles.

He "read" his own cards.

"Dear Jet. I hope you have good luck.

Awww."

I just love that he responded to what he was making up. 

He got a remote controlled gecko which can crawl on the wall but Jet is more interested in it crawling on the floor (which it can also do).

"Its name is Megogecko."

He loves that thing. He's had us do races with it and try to "catch" it. When Jr. Jr. brought home a mousetrap car he made at school, Jet insisted they race "Mouse Car and Megogecko!" 

Jet got to bring balloon animals to school for his birthday for the first time. It's tradition. Since Jeremy was out of town, Lucky and I made the balloons for him to take (with a little "help" from Jet). 

He got a birthday hat at school and loved it so much, he wore it for the rest of the day. Such a cutie.

Jet, you are so much fun. We are so thankful you are a part of our family.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

He Came Back... Again!

I'm thankful for my husband's incredible talent with balloon sculpting. I miss him when he is on trips but I love to see what he is building and I'm very thankful when he comes home.

Jeremy got back this last weekend from the fair convention he does every year (this year it was in Montana). He was able to use those lights he and Jet were playing with the night of the Star Party and it added a fun element. It's hard to see from the pictures but he used different light up objects in different parts of the balloon display. It's fun to see him experimenting. The globe on the pedestal also rotated. Cool.

He's Back

We got Jeremy back!

After 2 1/2 weeks away, Jeremy got back from his South Carolina fair on October 22, National Color Day.

Look how cute we are with the different colors we're wearing.

Speaking of colors, I got out that morning for a walk with some colors. 

I also finally wore a bright red shirt I got a while back that says "Bake the World a Better Place." You know I love baking but I'm usually wearing an apron while baking. I finally wore this shirt (and an apron) while baking bread and got my picture with the shirt and the bread.

Jet brought home a cute little "Monster Spring" (that's what he named it) from school so I showed him how it pops and he loved it.

We got multiple colors in our dinner. Creamy Beef Enchiladas from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4, by Jordan Page. Because these books are all about this, I saved some of our French Dip meat from when we had French Dip sandwiches while Jeremy was gone (also from that book) to use in the enchiladas. Oh and we substituted a pork roast for a beef roast (substitutions are encouraged). We had a spinach salad side dish. 

 

Nice celebrating Color Day and the best part of course was getting Jeremy home. I missed him.

Foods Without Jeremy

While Jeremy was gone to South Carolina, I let the kids request foods they wanted to eat since normally I care more about fixing food Jeremy likes (I do take into consideration my kids, don't get me wrong, but if I think Jeremy will like it, I'm more likely to fix it when he's around).

Nichole loves chicken drumsticks so I made sure to make some for her. 

We had Copycat Crunchwrap Supreme (I had been wanting to make it for weeks but hadn't gotten around to it) from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page.

Lucky loves Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps so we had some, of course, along with woo-woo for FHE treat.

Jr. Jr. helped me with menu planning for October (including using A Season of Family Meal Plans) and one of the things we planned and made was French Dip Sandwiches. Mmmm. I made this last year and liked it and I liked it again this year. 

 

Late night baking. I had some bananas that needed to be used so I made Calico Bread from The Fablehaven Cookbook. The neighbors upstairs texted that it smelled good. The next morning I brought some up to them.  

Also from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4, I made apple cider muffins. It did not take long for them to get gobbled up.

Fall Break 2025

When Jeremy is on trips (quite a few this year), he misses a lot (including us and we miss him, too). One thing we've made sure to do as a family, though, is when Jeremy is traveling, he calls in the morning and night for family prayer over the phone. Sometimes he joins in for family scripture study as well. It's important to keep that gospel foundation strong for our family even when we're separated.

 

Since Jeremy was gone so long on this last trip to South Carolina, he also missed Fall Break.

 

Slumber Party!

When our older children were little we had a tradition of having a slumber party the night before Fall Break or Spring Break. We'd watch movies or play video games then all sleep out in the living room together. Over time, we had less people sleep in the living room after our "party" and eventually the tradition kind of fizzled out.

After many years we brought it back this Fall Break with watching a movie and playing MarioKart while eating muffins. Only a few opted to sleep out in the living room but we did have good bonding time while we were up.

October 15 was National Mushroom Day so I wore my pajamas that have mushrooms on them and Jr. Jr. commented: That's why Jet didn't want me to have mush room on the couch. 

P.S. For dinner earlier we made shawarma for Shawarma Day.

 

The next day, we had leftovers for dinner for World Food Day on October 16.

We got some snuggles in before Nichole and I went to a Relief Society activity to paint pumpkins. 

Normally I'm hands on involved in the activities (remember the sourdough?) but this time I was content to just sit and socialize. I also was able to praise Nichole's pumpkin painting. 

 

I got Kiki's Delivery Service vibes from it and not necessarily the movie. Isn't it so cute?

 

Fall Break Fun!

I hiked up Big Springs area with the kiddos. We'd been wanting to for a while and finally got the chance. We even had sun that day. 

A couple times, Jet and I took pictures of each other. This is how they turned out. 

Jr. Jr. pointed out to me how in Jet's picture the first time, Jr. Jr. was standing by me. In the other picture that I took, Jr. Jr. was standing by Jet. Ha Ha. Clever noticing. 

When we got home we had pasta to celebrate... National Pasta Day.

The mountains were gorgeous at sunset.

I love nature and I love living here and I especially love my children. 

 

The two oldest and I had some bonding time watching a movie one evening. While we watched, Jet watched Kiki's Delivery Service in a different room. I think he heard our conversation about Nichole's pumpkin.

 

Jet requested going to the library during Fall Break so on October 20, he and I went together. He was so well behaved. He followed directions. He stayed with me. We did a children's activity in the children's wing with pumpkin emotions. He got to play in the children's area and when it was time to move on to gather books on my list, he didn't put up a stink about it. He was quiet in the quiet areas, even when we had to get a book from the quietest area in the library. He was very good at whispering. We watched construction on the new courtyard/greenhouse area. He helped me check out our books and did a good job. I am so proud of him.

He did not yell, "Tractor!" in the middle of the library. Once we got out to the van, he was able to. "Tractor! Burninating the countryside..." For those that get the reference, he yells, "Trogdor!" but thinks it's "Tractor!" If you listen to Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, it does kind of sound like "Tractor."

Since October 20 was International Sloth Day, Jet requested a book about koalas. Why not?

I love bonding time with my children. And I love how this Fall Break went.