These Are The Days

We had a birthday…

2012-02-06T16:28:00.001-06:00

The Birthday Boy was Jake!

He turned 9 in the middle of January. I can’t believe how late I am with this post! I am going to get some catching up done this week on the blog.

His birthday was on a Sunday. Which made our breakfast in bed tradition a little tricky considering we have church at 9:00 a.m. The kids had the next day (Monday) off from school so I told him we could do breakfast in bed then. I tried to get him all excited about it by saying we could do Cold Stone on Saturday, birthday dinner, cake and presents on Sunday and then breakfast in bed on Monday. Doesn’t that sound like so much fun to celebrate a little each day?

He didn’t think so.

There was no way he was going to let me get away with serving him breakfast in bed on a different day. Well, ok then. :) It’s nice to know that the birthday traditions we have created mean something. That is the whole point!

So it was a quick breakfast of Egg McMuffins and OJ. His request.

Later that night we had a little family birthday party for him. We do a family party each year and it always consists of a birthday dinner (his choice) presents, cake and then just spending time together. Usually playing with whatever it is he got that year. Every other year we have a friend party also, always on a different weekend. They like to celebrate with friends too and I understand that. I have to admit that it was nice this time to have it be an off year. I didn’t have to worry about planning a different party and spending the extra money.

So we partied at home as a family.

Here is a confession – I care about lighting for parties. Gasp! I know I’m not the only one. :) I kind of plan the party around the light. It makes the pictures more fun and easier to take. Well that didn’t work out for me this time. There was something called a football game (or 2) going on and I couldn’t get my boys away from the T.V. Since it was his birthday and all I let it slide. I know, that is so thoughtful of me! :) It kind of set a theme for our party that I wasn’t aware of. Instead of eating in the dining room we should have been eating at the bar in the kitchen or taken it to an actual sports bar or something. All manners were thrown out the window this night. I am giggling right now thinking about it.

Before I get into the details here was his tablescape. I kept it super simple and grabbed some things from Jake’s room that represent him right now.

About Jake:

He is very handsome if I do say so myself. I love that picture of him.

He just turned 9.

He absolutely LOVES football.

He still plays a lot with his Hot Wheels and Legos.

He is currently spending A LOT of time reading and I mean A LOT! He will read late into the night (with out me knowing about it) and then tell me he has a headache the next morning. Now I know why! He LOVES the Harry Potter series and is currently on #4.

On the dinner menu:

wings

cheese fries

blue cheese and ranch to dip

lots of Coke.

Are you seeing a theme here? So far we have football and your typical sports watching food. The food btw, was gone before I even had the chance to take pictures. I guess you can tell how much they loved it!

They were eaten to the bone! This is where things got a little crazy and our manners were long gone. There was a lot of finger licking that included the slobbery smacking sound, even though we had napkins. (yuck!) There was an intense burping contest and lots of laughing. Definitely not my proudest mom moment but it is always fun to hang out with the family and have some laid back fun.

After dinner was done, Jake moved on to his presents. I love how Ady has to be involved. You can tell in the first picture he is trying to be patient. He is such a good brother and of course let her be a part of it.

Then candles and cake.

Did you notice in the series of pictures that Drew snuck up on Jake and “helped” him blow out the candles? Typical little brother. Jake wasn’t too happy about that.

When I asked Jake what kind of cake he wanted he said his very own little one. That was easy enough. I just bought one from the store. The rest of us had to have something too so I made these Homemade Oreo Cupcakes.

They are delish! You MUST try them!

One of the things Jake got for his birthday was boxing gloves. Drew got a pair for his birthday and Jake has been wanting some ever since. Of course they had to try them out. Which raps up our little sporting theme party that I had no idea was going to be a sporting themed party. Hahaha…

We used our dinner bell to start the boxing round. How convenient, right? They put on the appropriate attire which consisted of boxing gloves and stripping off their shirts. A little lesson from dad (which they didn’t need) and the boxing began. Casey got some of it on video which we all got a good long laugh about. It is one we will keep forever!

It was the perfect way to end our night and Jake’s birthday. I think he got to do exactly what he wanted to.

Happy 9th Birthday Jake! We love everything about you!

P.S. This would actually make a fun themed friend party. Plan your child's party around a game they are looking forward to. Invite friends over to watch the game and serve sporting related food. You could set the kitchen up like a “Sports Bar”. (I hate using that phrase for children, but you know what I mean) Finish it up by playing whatever sport they were watching out side. They can have a game of their own. Doesn’t that sound like fun? I know my boys would love it. I am going to save this one for sure!

Valentine’s for School {the Pinterest version}

2012-02-01T22:50:00.001-06:00

I have Valentine’s on the brain. I haven’t decorated my house and I’m not sure I will be getting to that this year, but I have been thinking ahead and planning my kids Valentine’s for school. Actually, Confession - I have given my brain a rest and let Pinterest plan my kids Valentine’s. Hahaha! I love what a resource Pinterest can be! My kids aren’t allowed to pass out candy with their school Valentines. School rules, not mine! This makes it a little interesting since the LOVE day seems to be all about candy. Monday night before Family Home Evening while we were all gathered together and I had listening ears, I clicked on my Valentine Board and showed the kids their options for school Valentine’s. I was actually surprised at how many pins I had that didn’t involve candy. I think they were a little overwhelmed!

Here were their choices:

{Source}

Aren’t they so cute? They loved all of them. It was a really hard decision. I was kind of starting to regret the fact that I even asked them. Why didn’t I just decide on my own? Sheesh! I had to simplify things and tell them we could only choose ONE. They finally pulled it together and worked like a team. It was really funny hearing them talk it through with each other. Hahaha! The way kids think crack me up. :) This is what it came down to:

“Boys have cooties!”

“There is no way I am going to give a Valentine that says the word HEART or LOVE on it!”

“I do NOT want anybody to think I LIKE them!”

“But mom, you can’t give that one to a boy and a girl!”

All of those comments came from Jake and Kaylee. Drew could care less. Girls are still his friends and do not have cooties in his eyes and he loves everybody. At least for now. Kindergartners are so sweet that way.

The winner was…

This one was perfect for everyone. Plus we will have fun making the friendship bracelets together. I am so glad that is solved!

Did I mention how much I love Pinterest???

Sure it can be a waste of time (time that I love wasting) and my head can start spinning with all of the possibilities out there that I may not have even thought of and things keep getting added to my project and organization list, but it is well worth it!

Today Ady had this for lunch.

{Source}

No, that is not Ady or my idea. I pinned this the other night on my Food For Children Board. She was struggling today with lunch and then I remembered seeing this. I put lunch meat (rolled up and then cut to fit in the little spaces) string cheese (also cut up) grapes, Fishies and Teddy Grahams in our little ice cube tray. She ate all of it and thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Thanks Pinterest and all of you lovely pinners out there! It’s so nice that we can share the things we find with each other.

Potty Training Part 2

2012-01-26T01:17:00.001-06:00

Click here for Potty Training Part 1Hi! I am back to share how I have potty trained all 4 of my children. I was lucky enough to have a neighbor and good friend in Utah share this method with me just before I started potty training Kaylee. That was over 8 years ago. I will be forever grateful to her for that. As a new mother who didn’t have a clue where to start and really hadn’t given it much thought; she gave me the tools I needed to be successful. I was sold when she told me her own mother potty trained all of her children this way. She happened to have10 children. She also potty trained her own (4 at the time) children the same way her mother did. Double sold. I thought it was definitely worth a try. Maybe this will help you too. Because of that, I share this info. with everyone.

Potty Training in one day

Supplies to get

-A lot of candy, snacks, kool aid, juice, sweet and salty things

-Underwear (heavy ones for first couple of days and normal ones)

-Plastic cover pants to go over the underwear for naps and night

-An apron for you to wear with pockets to put treats in (instant rewards for going in potty)

-Potty seat for toilet, stool and portable potty chair (so they can decide which to use)

-Poster board (you need to make a calling chart. Something where they can see to choose who to call when they go potty, photos helpful) * I have used scrapbook pages before just to save on prep time. Confession - I didn’t do that this time. I did not have time. Instead I made a list for myself of who to call and then Ady decided by the names I said. If she wasn’t my fourth one, I would have gone all out. That’s my excuse anyway. :)

-Baby wet doll – *I had a hard time finding one of these. I had one with the first two, but with Drew and Ady I just used one of the dolls we had around the house. The point is to have the doll go pee pee in the potty to get your child excited. I just sneaked a medicine dropper full of water behind the doll and pretended she peed. It worked fine. It’s up to you.

-Something to clean the “oopsies” with. * There is probably a better way, but I use an ammonia and water mixture in a squirt bottle and Febreeze when it is on my rugs (that can’t be washed) or carpet. Or you could just hang out on the tile for the majority of the day. That is a safe place! You will need something to clean up the carpet anyway. It’s bound to happen.

-Don’t forget about treats for you. This is important. You are going to NEED them! Coke, chocolate and potato chips are always on my list.

Very IMPORTANT rules not to break

-It should be just you and the child you are potty training ALL day - no interruptions *I understand when you have multiple children it can sometimes be hard to find a place for them go, especially when they are not school age. See if a family member or good friend can take them. Maybe your husband can take the day off work or plan it for when he has the day off. I have done all of those. I can not tell you enough how important it is to have it be JUST the two of you all day. And when I say all day, I mean until dinner time or later. Plan on pizza for dinner! (My friend Sara brought us dinner. I was very lucky). Not only is it easier to teach your child when you are one on one with out interruptions, but they feel so important when they have you all to themselves. Especially on a day like this. Ok, I’m off my soap box. Moving on.

-Do not answer the phone or the door. This is not the day to chat on the phone or text. I always tell the people I communicate with regularly that I will be unreachable. There will be moments of boredom, but I promise you, the second you get into a conversation or get lost in texting you will have a pee or poop mess to clean up for sure. It’s all about staying focused and not being interrupted.

How it Works

Start your day like normal. Feed him/her a good breakfast since it will pretty much be junk the rest of the day. (I will explain why in a bit) After breakfast, as soon as everyone is out of the house (and maybe after you have at least showered. You will be glad you did because once you start there will be no time for you.) start by playing with the baby wet doll. Say “Look! She has big girl (big boy) underwear on! You can wear big boy underwear too! Let’s go put yours on! When he puts his on, have him wear just his underwear and a shirt all day. No shorts or pants. It’s just easier that way and one less thing for you to wash. Then go back to playing with the doll again. All of the sudden the doll goes pee pee on the potty! “Oh my gosh! Did you hear that!? We are so proud of her! She gets to have a special treat!” Make sure that you have your apron on with “special” treats. Ones that are only for when he goes in the potty. Not for snack time. Give the doll a treat and say, “You can have a special treat if you go pee pee in the potty too.” Have him sit on the potty and try right then. If he goes potty then get SO EXCITED!! He gets a special treat and then gets to choose someone’s picture from the calling chart to call and tell about going potty on the big boy potty.

This is pretty much what your day consists of:

1. Go to the kitchen, start pumping him/her full of snacks (sweet and salty) and juice and water. Lots of liquid and food to keep him/her drinking. This step is very important. You want them to be drinking constantly, at first anyway. The sweet and salty snacks will make them want to drink, which is going to make them have to pee and that is what you want. Then you will have plenty of opportunities to teach them to use the potty. Remember this is potty training in ONE day, so it’s a good thing to be running to the bathroom every 15 min.

My friend Tami, who has the same love for Coke as I do, dropped me by my daily drink. It never tasted so good! I usually don’t ever share my drink. It’s MY thing. Hands off kiddos…or you just might die. ;) Today was a little different. Ady just happens to love Coke too. Hmmm…I wonder why? I happily shared with her on this particular day. I knew she would guzzle it down. I also knew it would come out the other end in no time!

2. Set the timer for 15 minutes. In that first 15 minutes, start to play with the doll again and this time make the doll have an accident. When she has an accident run with her from the spot of the accident to the potty saying “No pee pee on the floor pee pee on the potty!”, really fast 10 times back and forth. Each time saying that and pulling her underwear down and setting her on the potty. Do that same thing with your child when they have an accident. They might start to laugh and think it’s a joke, but don’t give up. Before you know it they’ll be saying it too. Make sure and do that every time there is an accident, even if you really don’t feel like it anymore. It’s a very important step in the teaching process.

3. When he/she isn’t eating, or running back and forth to the potty, stick to reading books or playing cars, Legos or some other toy or game. No T.V. or movies. They get too involved in that and lose interest in the day. Stick to activities that can be easily interrupted. Don’t let him/her go outside. They’ll lose all interest!

We stuck to Legos most of the day. I think she stuck to one thing because she loved that I was doing it with her.

4. Eat a normal lunch and put your child down for a nap at a normal time.

*As far as your day goes, the main things are eating lots of things to make them drink. Going potty every 15 minutes. (Don’t forget to set the timer). Reward them instantly when they are successful.

Ady loved pulling treats out of my apron.

She also loved talking on the phone.

*Don’t forget to run back and forth 10 times when there is an accident. I really think this is a vital part of the learning process. I have seen the lightbulb go on during this step with every single one of my children.

Tips and Suggestions

-Stay overly excited!

-Try not to get frustrated… you can do anything for a day and it’s completely worth it!

-As far as the timer goes, sometimes it seems like they have an accident a couple of minutes before the timer goes off. It is the worst when you miss it like that! It makes me want to pull my hair out. If that happens adjust your time and remember to follow your instincts! If the timer goes off after 15 min and they still don’t need to go potty (even after they tried sitting on the potty) then it is pretty safe to say that if you set the timer for another 15 min. they are going to pee on the floor. Instead, set the timer for 5 min. intervals until you catch them being successful on the potty. Then start it over at 15 min. again.

-I find that we end up sitting on the potty for awhile waiting for something to happen. If it’s been 15 min. I want them to sit on the potty and wait. I can’t stand missing it and then having to deal with an accident because we weren’t patient enough. I will sit in front of them and sing songs or play some kind of hand game to keep them entertained. (like itsy bitsy spider, this little piggy, pat a cake, pat a cake or whatever else you can think of).

-It seems like after lunch or nap time they lose interest a little. Save some tricks for when that happens. Make up a potty game or song. Instead of a timer on a microwave use one that rings or sounds different. If he/she gets tired of the real potty put out the portable one. Brainstorm about some things like that.

-This is pretty much common sense, but when your child has an accident make sure and say “EWWW! Pee pee is so stinky! We don’t like to clean up accidents!” not “You stink!, Your pee smells so bad! Or Your Gross!”

-Make sure and have some kind of plastic cover over the mattress under the bottom sheet in case there is an accident at night. You could buy a water proof mattress cover.

-Don’t go back to diapers. Not even pull- ups at night. Once you start just keep going. No matter how hard it is! They’ll get the hang of it. They need to know that he/she is a big boy/girl and they don’t use diapers anymore. This is up to you and all children are a little different when it comes to night time. I personally feel like they have to learn some time and I am all about diving in and not looking back. Plus Pull-Ups pull the moisture away from them so they aren’t as aware of an accident.

-Consistency, consistency, consistency!!!! There is really nothing else that needs to be said about that one.

*So you train in a day and then you have to reinforce for about a week. I’m not going to sugar coat it and tell you that after ONE day they are fully potty trained. There will still be accidents here and there. They are going to get distracted or lazy. It happens. Don’t expect them to all of a sudden go potty all by themselves every single time. You are still going to have to do some reminding. Did I already mention being consistent? I will assure you that the majority of the teaching happens on the first day. You will see it click sometime during that day. However, do not expect to go back to your normal routine the next day. The second day was worse for us then the first day. I always forget that until I am experiencing the second day, but it has been that way for us each time. It’s not quite as exciting for them on the second day and you are ready to have a “normal” day. The third day is better. It clicks for them again and you are back on track. You probably won’t want to leave the house for the first week, unless it’s a very quick errand and you take a change of clothes. (Keep the change of clothes with you for longer than that) Always have them go potty right before you leave the house. You will probably have to ask every 30 minutes or so for the next couple of days if they need to go potty. If the answer is no, you might need to be a little persistent and just get them to “try” every so often. It’s a busy, tiring week (you might even wish for diapers again), but it’s all worth it when you can tell it has finally clicked! Don’t forget to have them stop drinking at least an hour before bed and don’t let them go to bed with a sippy cup until there are no more accidents at night. We always wake our kids up to try before we go to bed.

That’s a rap for the big potty training post. Phew! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!! You can do it!

Our latest news…{Potty Training Part 1}

2012-01-24T23:44:00.001-06:00

It is about time I put a new post on this blog of mine! I have been MIA…again. I am starting to make a bad habit of that. I have a lot of catching up to do for the month of January and I intend on doing so, but today I want to blog about life right now. It is much more fun that way. I want to brag about my little girl for a minute and tell you how proud I am of her. She is growing up so much and is officially a big girl. Yesterday we threw the diapers away and pulled out the big girl panties. Overall, Ady rocked potty training! Our morning got off to a rocky start. She had me sweating, biting my finger nails and crying (fake crying, it seemed to do the trick for her) and wondering what the heck I was thinking. I will share all of the details soon because you know on a day like this there are A LOT of details. I will also share my method for potty training in ONE DAY, so stay tuned! You don’t want to miss it. For now, here is what our day looked like.

We stayed close to the toilet for a good majority of the day. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

There was a lot of cheering and high fiving from me.

Of course there was a lot of hand washing. I think this was one of her favorite parts. She had so much fun playing in the water that she decided to bring her mermaids down and give them a bath. I wish I would have taken a picture of that.

I couldn’t get enough of this cute panty wearing bum. It is a dream come true! Especially knowing that THIS IS IT.

No, I am not sad about that.

She made a lot of phone calls to share the good news.

We ended the day celebrating outside. She was one happy little girl. So was her mommy.

Phew! What a day!

I will share the rest tomorrow.

Be back soon!

{Potty Training Part 2}

Christmas Wrap Up {2011}

2012-01-01T20:30:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!! We have company in town and are having quite the party at our house. I have been working on sorting through all of my Christmas photos a little here and there. We had such a fun Christmas with so many fun pictures! I decided to throw them all into one post again. So be prepared for a very looooooong post full of Christmas photos.

I’ll start with our traditions. We have so many Christmas traditions. Christmas Eve is the day we wrap them all up. These mean everything to my kids. We make sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. I don’t think Ady was a part of this last year because I don’t have one single picture of her. We probably planned it around her nap time. This year she was the star. One of her favorite things to do is play playdo, so she knew exactly what to do (or so she thought).

She loved all of the flour and of course the cookie dough.

She stayed put even after the other kids were long gone.

We open our Christmas jammies when it’s time to get ready for bed.

Each of the kids have their own manger scene. A couple of days before Christmas we bring out all of the pieces and read a part of the story each night.

When we have finished reading each night, they take a piece of the manger to their room and display it. On Christmas Eve we finish the story with baby Jesus.

Then it’s time to put the cookies and milk out for Santa. We can’t ever forget about the carrots for Santa’s reindeer.

It was fun this year to see and listen to Ady. She caught on to the magic of Christmas. She would go around the house singing “Santa Clause is coming to town.” So cute!

We have a rule in our house. The kids are not allowed to come downstairs until we say it is ok. No peeking allowed! I’m surprised they sat still for me to snap this photo. They were so excited!

It is always fun to see them tear into their packages.

The look of excitement on their face makes all of the hard work and effort worth it.

The boys said their favorite Christmas gifts were their Texans memorabilia and under armor shirts along with their rip sticks Santa brought.

Kaylee’s favorite gift by far was her ipod touch from Santa. We hardly saw her eyes for a couple of days. She is much better now. :)

Ady has lived in her princess dress ups every day since Christmas. Little girls this age are so much fun!

The money tree from Grandma was a fun, unexpected gift to open.

This year Casey and I decided not to exchange gifts from each other. We have some bigger things in mind we want to save up for. We had a great big pile of homemade gifts from our kids that we looked forward to opening. I forgot to snap a picture. I salvaged this wrapping after the fact. I love seeing their handwriting.

More than anything, it is fun to spend time together and celebrate this time of year. It is such a crazy busy month but somehow it brings everyone closer together.

Another tradition we have is a yummy Christmas breakfast. Everyone anticipates it.

There is something cozy and comforting about being in a pretty room with the table set nicely and our family gathered together in our jammies for a yummy meal. These are really fun memories that my kids talk about every Christmas. Traditions mean so much.

On the menu was a breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, strawberries and homemade hot chocolate.

It was enjoyed by all!

My husband did give me one very amazing gift that day. He finished the preparations with dinner, set the table, served it and cleaned up so I could enjoy reading blogs that I hadn’t read in a month. He’s pretty awesome!

I hope you all enjoyed celebrating the New Year this weekend. I will be back soon to share about ours!

Merry Christmas {2011}

2011-12-24T23:52:00.001-06:00

Just wanted you all to know I was thinking of you. I hope your Christmas is all you want it to be and more!

Our House for the Holidays

2011-12-24T00:31:00.001-06:00

I thought I would share some quick photos of my favorite holiday decor in our house. I am all out of words from catching up on these posts, so please enjoy browsing the photos. :)

Dining Room

Office

Entry Table

Kitchen

Fireplace Mantle

Our new stockings (the only thing I bought this year)

More of the mantle

Good night! :)

*Keep scrolling to see what we have been up to in the month of December and about our Thanksgiving trip.

December Happenings

2011-12-23T17:50:00.001-06:00

This is another post with a lot of photos, but for times sake I am squeezing them all into one post.

When we pull out the Christmas boxes and start decorating, one of the first things to come out are our Christmas books. These bring back so many memories for the kids each year. For me too, since we have some from my childhood. I love watching the big kids read to the little ones.

Each year on the kids first night of Christmas break they have a sleepover downstairs by the Christmas tree. We watch Christmas movies and get all snuggled up by the lights. This year we were short on time and Casey had to run some errands. He took the two younger kids with him and left Kaylee and Jake behind with me. This was one of our most fun nights (for me anyway). The three of us made white chocolate popcorn with cranberries mixed in for our movie night. It was such a simple thing, but spending time with just the older two was so much fun. They are so grown up and helpful in the kitchen when they have the opportunity. When the rest of the family got home we were all ready for our movie night.

They woke up the next morning to a surprise.

We had an elf visit us. We were instructed to give him a name, which was a huge debate but we finally settled on Tommy Tex.

We are all so glad to have him be our special visitor this Christmas and every Christmas after this. He has brought a new magical feeling into our house. Each night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa and then flies back to our house before the kids wake up. The first thing the kids do each morning is find Tommy. Here are a few of the places Tommy has been.

On the stove hood.

In the tree and in the garland on the stairs. They could not find Tommy on the stairs to save their life. They woke me up at 6:45 one morning in a panic to help them find him. Of course mom pulled through.

The silliest place Tommy has been was in our fridge. He even turned our milk green.

One Saturday afternoon we made gingerbread houses.

The boys made one…

and the girls made one.

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

I just noticed after looking at these pictures that Kaylee and I match! Did you notice that? No, I did not plan it. We do that a lot. Like today we are both wearing green sweaters. Funny!

I spent one afternoon in the kitchen baking this week. Usually I bake a little here and there, but I decided to make a day of it this year. We made enough to share with friends and then delivered little plates of goodies. We had Christmas mints, caramel, fudge and White – Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies.

In our down time we have watched most of our favorite Christmas movies: Home Alone 1 and 2 (not a fan of 3) Polar Express, Elf and Frosty the Snowman. I have even sat on the couch and watched with them. I think I love Christmas movies more than I love Christmas music. It’s a toss up.

The kids are so excited for this weekend! We still have so many things to look forward to: caroling tonight with friends, sugar cookies for Santa, Christmas Eve dinner at the Dickamore’s, Christmas jammies, driving around to see lights on Christmas Eve and then the big day is here! I hope you all are enjoying it too. :)

*Keep scrolling to read about our Thanksgiving trip.

Catching up {Our Thanksgiving Trip}

2011-12-22T22:54:00.001-06:00

First of all, I am sorry for abandoning the blogging world for over a month. I can’t believe it has been that long! Not only have I not posted, but I haven’t read one single blog. I have a lot of catching up to do! Second of all, I am sorry that I am posting about our Thanksgiving trip when it really is time for me to be posting about Christmas. Sheesh! What am I thinking!? Well…it has been a crazy Christmas blur around here (as usual in December). Blogging had to go for me. I am ready to get back in the game now that my to-do’s are all done and I am feeling organized and put together, finally. :) This post is for me. I can’t move forward on my blog until I record Thanksgiving. Otherwise the pictures will sit here on my computer until I scrapbook them. Which will happen in…ohhhhh…3 years. Maybe. That’s the rate I’m going. :)

Anyway, we took about 11 days off and went to Arizona over Thanksgiving to visit my side of the family. We stayed with my brothers family. They were awesome for hosting us for 9 days. We are lucky they love us so much! I have a lot of pictures to share, so I will get to the point. Our trip started out with Ady and Beck getting to know one another…again. They change so quickly that every time we get together they have to start over.

They had to decide who the boss was. They decided to take turns. Most of the time. :)

My brother in law (Nick) had a birthday. We all got together at my parents house where we “surprised” him with a little party.

The kids enjoyed playing with the bubble machine.

And Jake enjoyed teaching the little boys a thing or two about football.

He is such a good big cousin. He is so patient with his little cousins and just loves hanging out with them. It is really sweet.

I think the entire family would agree that our favorite thing was cooking dinner and roasting marshmallows by the fire. Brandon and Beth’s house is set up perfectly for entertaining outside. In Arizona this is the perfect time of year to take advantage of that, so we did. Twice actually. The kids had so much fun the first time, they begged us to do it again. They didn’t have to twist our arm. We loved sitting by the campfire too.

We cooked Cuban sandwiches and then roasted marshmallows.

Thanksgiving day came and the only picture we have of that day is the family photo Beth and I took for my parents. My mom has been wanting a new family photo for awhile now, so we finally gave in and made it happen. Neither one of us are big fans of doing extended family photos. Not even for our own family! It turned out cute though and my mom loves it. This is my family.

The day after Thanksgiving we started our Christmas by going to see the Zoo Lights. The local zoo lights up the entire zoo. Besides how busy and crowded it was, we had a lot of fun. There were so many lights and the kids loved it.

On our way out we let them ride the carousel.

During our trip we had two mishaps. We can’t take a vacation and not have something happen! It must have been the second or third day we were there when Kaylee tripped on a piece of hardwood floor in the kitchen that they were repairing. She hurt her toe so bad. The poor girl was in a lot of pain and down for a little while. It isn’t hurting anymore, but her toenail is still black. We are waiting for it to fall off. Sick! Ady, who looks like a monkey in this picture, sat by her sissy and kept her company.

The other awful, huge and expensive mishap was this.

You can’t tell in this picture very much, but the window Jake is looking at is completely shattered. Uggghhh…my boys broke their window! Who would have thought that the little Arizona pebbles they put in landscaping would have shattered a window. Not that the pebbles should have been thrown at the window after they were told not to throw them. That was an expensive lesson to be learned. Especially during the holidays. Like I said earlier…we are glad they love us so much!

The boys would go to sleep together…

and wake up together.

I love these sleepy morning faces. Luckily the big cousins would take care of the little ones in the morning. Beth and I would stay up until 3:00 in the morning chatting and playing around on the computer. We had to get our girl time in somehow. We tried to sleep in a little bit. I don’t know how we kept those hours with all of these kids. Those nights are fun memories though.

Other things we did: shopping, movies; Breaking Dawn, Muppets and Hugo. Visiting my uncle and his family, going to lunch with my Grandma and Beth taking my family photos. I will share those soon.

(Some pictures in this post taken by Beth).

Bathroom Printables

2011-11-22T16:24:00.001-06:00

Hello again! I mentioned the other day that this week there would be some printables available for you. I posted about these sometime back (click on the link and scroll to the bottom) and have received many e-mails since then. Almost a year ago when Andrea was visiting, she helped me add the finishing touches to my children’s bathroom. She whipped these babies right up for me and I have loved them ever since. It adds so much character and the phrases are perfect.

Soooooo…Andrea took the time to share her creativity and made some free printables for YOU to enjoy. If you are interested in the printables I used in my bathroom…

or the printables Andrea used in hers…

then click here, scroll to the bottom of her post (after you have checked out her cute bathroom) and enjoy a little freebie that could spruce up your very own children’s bathroom.

Questions answered… 72 Hour kits and my Dinner Bell

2011-11-20T12:30:00.001-06:00

I have had several emails lately with a few questions to answer. This will be a super quick and to the point post.

First off..

72 Hour Kits – Did you notice the M&M’ s in our pack? Well, they weren't on the lists I shared, but I remember years ago being advised to add some sort of treat or candy to our 72 hour kits. Something for the sweet tooth, like hard candy you can suck on (Jolly Ranchers) or in our case M&M’s. We love chocolate, which probably isn’t the smartest thing since it can melt, but we took a chance with it. They are in their own individually wrapped packages so if it melts, oh well. We tried! That was the only extra treat we added. Also, we added some pens and paper and a couple packs of cards. Something to keep the kids entertained with that didn’t take up a lot of room. I am so glad one of my readers asked me a question about this. I feel like these two additions are actually important to the 72 hour kits and something worth mentioning. It will make your family a little happier and be more comforting to use the kits if you have personalized them how you see fit.

Dinner Bell – I have received a few questions about this one as well. I actually meant to link you back to a few sites for my dinner bell, but I published that particular post while stopping for dinner one night as we were driving to Arizona and the internet was so slow it was killing me! There just wasn’t time. But now there is… Here is the link for the dinner bell I purchased and here is the link to several other dinners bells I pinned while shopping the internet to find just the right one for me. It is on my decorating board, so you might have to scroll down just a bit to get to them. I hope this helps! Some of the work is done for you now if you are shopping for a dinner bell.

To come…

Do you remember my bathroom printables I posted a while ago? I have had several questions regarding these and you will be happy to know that next week they will be available to print for yourself.

So please check back soon. :)

Our newest addition…

2011-11-18T18:22:00.001-06:00

to the kitchen that is. Sheesh, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. I had to write a catchy title to get your attention! J/K No big news here. Just wanted to pop in and share a little something new we added to the kitchen. I took these pictures along time ago and had plans to post them a long time ago, but photography got the best of me. I should have warned you that I would be disappearing for a bit. I had four photo shoots over the last two weekends. You can check two of them out here. I’m working on the other two and hopefully will share them soon.

On to my kitchen. I was inspired when I went to Arizona in October. My brother and sil moved into a new house a little while ago and have been working hard to fix it up. There are so many things I love about it, including the floor plan. But when I got home from my trip, there was one thing I could not get out of my mind. A dinner bell. Now, why did that not ever cross my mind? She randomly found it at TJ Maxx for $15.00 one day. I came home determined to find one too. I knew I most likely wouldn’t find one at our TJ’s or Marshall’s since that is such a fluke thing to find. I found one online. Here is the one I got.

I thought it would be such a fun and memorable item to have in my kitchen. Useful too, to say the least. This baby is LOOOOUUUDD!! I hung it up high. While I want to use it to round up the kiddos, I don’t want them walking by ringing it all the time…because you know they would. I also hung it by the back door in my kitchen. That way it can be heard inside and outside. I just open the back door and they come running. Much better than me YELLING to get their attention. They think it’s cool.

I had Drew be my bell demonstrator one day. He thought HE was cool.

It has proved to be a great purchase for my family.

On a side note, I think it’s rather ironic that I am blogging about my sil while we are in the car on a road trip to stay with her and the rest of my family for Thanksgiving. We are starting our Thanksgiving break early this year and we are SOOOOO excited. Between vacation, photography and holiday to-do's I might be hit and miss here on the blog for awhile, but I have a lot to share and I am going to try to take time to do just that.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving if you don’t hear from me before then! :)

Our Weekend {in Instagram photos}

2011-11-08T20:54:00.001-06:00

It has been raining all day today. It’s been kind of fun. It’s a good excuse to lounge around and enjoy each other. My kids are watching a movie right now and I am sitting with them when I should be making dinner. My excuse is the man of the house isn’t going to be eating with us tonight. Homemade Mac and Cheese it is then.

This weekend we did something a little different than we usually do. We stayed somewhere besides our house. I am in the middle of editing a bazillion photos for others right now. The thought of editing my own makes me want to turn my camera off. So I did just that. You get our weekend getaway in Instagram photos. Right now it’s the memories that matter to me. Not a perfect photo.

There is a new Marriott that opened by us. Through Casey’s job he has received several hotel vouchers, all of which need to be used by the end of the year. Casey has taken the kids before and I have had the privilege to stay home by myself, which is always nice in it’s own way. This time we thought it would be fun for all of us to go. We thought it would be even MORE fun to invite our fabulous friends the Dickamore’s. We always have so much fun with them and this time was no exception!

It went a little something like this:

Pillow fight with Tony. He is famous for this.

Chuck e Cheese, where the kids had so much fun! It is one of those things they don’t get to do very often and one that I honestly can’t stand. It’s a daddy and kid outing in our family for sure. Kaylee and Taeya had fun playing in a photo booth (they are holding up their photo booth photos below).

Eating dinner at Chic fil A and then back to the hotel where the kids played Legos, colored and watched movies, while we had a football game going on in the next room (and I had my laptop).

The next morning we woke up to a continental breakfast, which is always fun. Fun to have a yummy breakfast and not worry about cooking or the mess.

After that we had plenty of time to just hang out in our hotel room and truly relax.

Then we hit the pool. Yes, we are still swimming outdoors in these parts…a little bit. The kids would go back and forth between the hot tub and the pool.

One of the funniest parts at the pool were the dads. Tony was throwing all the kids in the pool. They were loving this and kept coming back for more. Then Casey snuck up on Tony and “threw” him in the pool. This is a guy who used to play football for the Utes. Casey looks teeny next to Tony. Needless to say, they both ended up in the pool. I was laughing so hard and pushed the wrong button on my phone and missed the whole thing. Oh well. I have that one stored in my head.

The picture of Ady above is after the pool. She was exhausted from the night before and going crazy at the pool. She fell asleep while coloring. Casey and I watched the whole thing and instead of being good parents and laying her down on the bed to fall asleep we watched her doze off and then jump and pick up her crayon to keep coloring and then doze off again. She finally gave up and fell asleep laying her head on the edge of the couch.

Thanks for coming with us Dickamore family. We love you guys!

Halloween {2011}

2011-11-04T00:24:00.001-05:00

Well, I have gotten absolutely nothing done this whole week. I feel like sleeping until the rest of the week (and weekend) is over and starting fresh next week. But I would want to wake up to everything I didn’t get done magically done for me. That’s my fairytale. Am I the only one who had a week like this? I have decided that if I have an unproductive Monday (unproductive meaning: not my normal routine) then I might as well kiss the rest of my week goodbye.

At least I can blame it all on Halloween! I guess it was worth it. :)

I took the kids out on Sunday night for some unrushed costume photos. This helped to make Halloween not quite as crazy. I could relax knowing I got some decent pictures already and whatever else I snapped was just a bonus.

Kaylee was a nerd. A very cute nerd, I might add.

It was funny that her glasses matched the ones on her shirt exactly. Not planned at all!

Next we have Mr. Jake. The serious and mean looking mafia gangster.

Then the fighter Drew. Accompanied with a bloody nose and black eye.

And lastly, our sweet (hahaha) Strawberry Shortcake, Ady.

Who couldn’t stop thinking about the candy left in her bag from trunk or treating.

Here are some snapshots from Halloween night.

We were getting ready to go trick or treating with the Dickamore’s.

Ady was still thinking about that candy.

My BOO shirt was as festive as I got that night.

I think photos of the kids trick or treating are so much fun! There is such a whimsical feeling when you look at them. I had plans, but failed miserably. This is the only one I got. Next year people.

Casey stayed at home to pass out candy while we went out for a little while. When we got home from the Dickamore’s he took the kids and I stayed home to pass out the candy. He loves taking them trick or treating.

I swear, the second they made it to the family room their bags got dumped. Time to sort!

As a child, sorting was always one of my favorite things after trick or treating. It falls under the organizing category…no wonder.

Jake enjoyed telling jokes as he ate his Laffy Taffy’s.

This apple looked a little out of place among all of the other ~~crap~~ candy. At one of the houses they had the choice to pick a piece of fruit or candy.

Do you notice anything about the picture below?

Jake barricaded his candy area. This had me laughing so hard. Silly boy. NO ONE was going to mess with his stash. We guard things with our life around this house!

Our Weekend

2011-10-31T23:24:00.001-05:00

Before I get to our Halloween post, I want to post about our weekend. I hope everyone had a great Halloween though! We did. It was as crazy as ever, but the kids said they had an awesome time, so it was a success. :)

This weekend was relaxing and slower paced than what we are used to, which was a pleasant change for all. The trunk or treat was a perfect way to start our weekend. It was fun to spend time with friends and let the kids run crazy. Saturday, on our way home from the boys football games, we scouted out a couple of new parks. While we were at one of them, Jake found this Monarch Butterfly. He was in awe that it just came right up onto his hand and didn’t try to leave. When we got back into the van, he still had the butterfly with him. I guess we found a new pet, so it came home with us.

It entertained the kids all. day. long.

Seriously. They were serious about this new pet.

They made it it’s very own habitat. They even gave her a name. Stella.

This is Drew’s habitat that he made with great care.

Yes, half of poor Stella’s wing is missing. She was like that before, which is why she never tried to leave Jake’s hand. She is still beautiful.

The kids spent the day working together and taking turns “caring” for Stella.

They did a lot of butterfly watching and talked amongst themselves about what she needed to drink and eat.

It was fun to see them being kids. Spending the day outside enjoying nature and using their imagination. Exactly what they should be doing! Which will happen a lot more if we, as a family, can remember to slow down, which I think we are doing much better at. I am giving myself a pat on the back for that. It has been hard to learn how important that really is.

Later that night we had a family night. We stayed home and had a Halloween movie party.

Before we started the movie we dipped pretzel rods in white chocolate and made ghosts.

They loved this! They had free reign to make the most imperfect ghosts their little hearts desired. I was just there to take pictures of them having fun. I will admit that at first I had a different idea. I explained to them how to do it and that the chocolate chips were for the ghosts eyes, so only two chocolate chips on each pretzel. Well, I don’t know what I was thinking, but they had their own agenda so I gave up and let them do what they wanted. I put the idea of pretty little ghosts clear in the back of my mind. :)

Their plan had a lot of dipping and then licking involved.

Go figure.

Sick, I know, but it is such a kid thing! Just so you know…we did NOT share these with anybody. These were just for us. When we share our food we use our manners. PROMISE!

Eventually they finished them.

They were part of our movie treat. Along with a mix of whatever was in the pantry.

I love seeing my kids all bundled up for a movie. I remember how fun these nights were as a child. They slept downstairs just like this.

Their faces crack me up. So serious. We were watching Hocus Pocus. It was a fun Halloween flick!

Even Ady got into it. She, however, did not sleep downstairs. Only because we actually wanted to get some sleep. This girl can paartaay with the best of them!

It was a great weekend. :)

Our Fall Favorites

2011-10-28T15:37:00.001-05:00

Are you ready for Halloween? I always have to psyche myself up for all of the craziness that comes with it. The candy, the parties, the overly excited kids (because of the candy and parties) and the Halloween mess that comes no matter how prepared I am. It’s like a whirlwind of a weekend, no matter what. Ready or not…here it comes! I am ready though. :)

Actually today is feeling pretty fallish. It’s really cool outside, almost cold. There has been some rain here and there and Ady has been dancing around in her swim suit today, of all days! Tonight we have our annual trunk or treat for church. This includes a chili cook-off which is always fun to try new recipes. I thought today would be a great day to share a couple of our fall favorite recipes. And since we are having chili tonight, here are our two favorite chili recipes.

White Chili (this is what I am bringing tonight. This recipe came from one of our friends from Providence. Thanks for sharing it with us Erica!)

1 – 1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts cut into small chunks (I boil and shred mine and usually use 3 large chicken breasts)

1 onion diced

1 cup chicken broth

1 - 4oz. can green chilies

2 tsp. cumin

3 – 15 oz. cans of Great Northern Beans (or any white bean)

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup sour cream

1 cup Monterey Jack cheese

In a large pot fry chicken and onion in cooking oil until well browned. (This is where I just boil my chicken breasts separately. I add the diced onion to the soup mix). Simmer the rest of the ingredients, except the sour cream and cheese, on low heat for 30-35 min. stirring occasionally. After that I add my shredded chicken, sour cream and cheese and simmer until heated through and cheese is melted. Serve and enjoy!

Sweet Chili (this is a great one when you have company for dinner or you need to take someone a meal. It is so yummy and serves a lot. You can freeze the leftovers too, or just enjoy them for days to come).

2 lbs. ground beef

1 onion – diced

2 cloves garlic – minced

2 tsp. chili powder

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 can 28 oz. diced tomatoes

1 can 28 oz. tomato sauce

1 can 16 oz. kidney beans – drained and rinsed

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 lb. cooked elbow macaroni

Brown beef, onion and garlic until beef is cooked through. Drain, then add chili powder, salt, cumin, pepper and oregano. Cook for 2 min. until fragrant. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and 1 can of water. Add beans and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered for 30-35 min. Let stand for 10 min. Add cooked macaroni. Top with cheese and sour cream. Serve and enjoy.

In our house it is not officially fall until we have made Pumpkin Bars. Casey grew up with these. They are his favorite and is now a family favorite. I made these last week.

Pumpkin Bars

Blend:

4 eggs

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Add:

1 can 16 oz. pumpkin

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

Pour into a greased 9x13 in. pan and cook at 350 for 45-50 min. Let cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

3 oz (or 1/2 a brick of cream cheese)

1/4 cup of butter

1 tsp. vanilla

After mixing, add 2 cups powder sugar. Frost Pumpkin Bars and enjoy!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The last of the Halloween Decor.

2011-10-25T23:37:00.001-05:00

It is time for me to go to bed and I am exhausted. Ady had a cold when I got home from my trip and she has passed it on to me. Yesterday and today have been the worst of my sick days, but I can tell it is getting better. I spent the majority of my day running errands, which is my least favorite thing to do anyway, but doing that while not feeling well is really no fun. Why do mom’s get sick? And why does life have to keep going when we are sick? It should be against the rules!!

Posting always makes me feel better, so this is the last thing I am doing before going to bed. Here is the Halloween decor I told you I found the other night. In the rush of Ady’s birthday and going out of town, I guess I forgot to post this. Which is funny because this is my favorite room. You might be COMPLETLEY sick of my dining room by now, but I still love it! It is my favorite room in the whole house. Here it is ready for Halloween.

These are the bats I mentioned in this post.

It is the perfect simple touch to my white plates. I am glad I added glitter.

My chandelier with Spanish moss, of course. My new favorite thing.

And lots of spooky (gross) spiders.

All of the white pumpkins I have this year, I painted. I really like the look of white pumpkins, but I do not like paying for them.

More dollar store crows. I could not get enough of those and spanish moss this year.

To paint my pumpkins, I taped off the stem. I have seen them where the stem is painted the same as the pumpkin, but I wanted the stem to stay the same. After a couple coats of spray paint and the pumpkins were completely dry, I took my block sander and sanded the edges of each pumpkin a little bit. I wanted a textured, imperfect look, especially since anything handmade is never perfect. It made me feel better about any imperfections. :) I really love how they turned out and it was so easy to do. I can’t imagine anything but white pumpkins in this room. Clean, fresh and simple.

Catching up and some recipes

2011-10-21T00:37:00.000-05:00

Happy weekend!

That’s what I said to my kids when they walked through the door from school today. Friday is a fun day. The best day of the week. It was always my favorite day as a child and I can feel my own children’s excitement about it when they get home from school each Friday. Weekends are a little crazy with everyone being home. There is always so much going on, but it is nice to switch things up around here and be together.

I can’t believe it has been a week since I posted last! What a slacker I am. I have a pretty good excuse, I guess. I went out of town. Last Friday evening I was hanging out with my family in the sunny state of Arizona, eating chili at my parents house while my little family was home in the big state of Texas with out me.

Yep. My husband stayed home for 4 days playing Mr. Mom while I took a trip sans kids to visit my family. It’s a good thing for both of us that he is so good at this role. I can really get away with out worrying what is going down on the home front and he can enjoy the kids and make up his own rules. We all know that when mom is away it’s play, play, play. I’m ok with that. He loves it, the kids love it, I love it. We are all happy. BUT it is always nice to be home again! I missed my family so much!!! More than I thought I would. Sometimes I feel like going away on a trip is all about coming home with perspective and new energy. I feel like I am lacking in the energy department. I have spent the week trying to catch up, but I definitely am re-energized to take care of my family again.

My sister had a baby a couple of months ago. This was his blessing weekend AND her birthday. It was the first time I met Greyson. He was blessed on Lindsey’s birthday which made it even more of a special day. If you can believe it…I did NOT take one single picture the entire time I was there. I am so sad about that now. I packed my camera bag with great care and had every intention of using it all weekend long, but I didn’t pull it out once. Maybe subconsciously I needed a break? I don’t know. I think I was just enjoying being in the moment that I didn’t want to bother with it. Now I am reminded that using a camera is never a bother. It’s always worth it.

Anyway, I was able to go visit and just be an aunt all weekend. I got to be Auntie Krysta to my 3 cute nephews. Who are not just cute but absolutely adorable! I am not biased either. They really are adorable. See for yourself. Here is my brothers family (blogged by my fabulous sil Beth) and here is my sisters family (blogged by my one and only sister Lindsey). We are going back for Thanksgiving and I can not wait to have my whole family together for the holiday. I am especially excited to see the cousins play together. The weeks are not going to go by fast enough! I will have pictures to share of that for sure.

Last weekend was themed a “Sisters Weekend”. Two of Beth’s sisters flew in to stay with her and I stayed with my sister. Not planned at all, it just kind of happened that way. I didn’t get to see Beth very much :( but Lindsey and I had fun doing all of our girly things togther. We went shopping and I found exactly what I was looking for. My mission was boots and clothes for church. I got those as well as a couple pairs of jeans and new tops. I love shopping with my sister! It was fun to hang out and watch our T.V. shows together while I painted my toes. I still have to multi-task! Honestly, one of my favorite things from the weekend was being with my sister and watching her be a mom. When I have my kids with me I am so preoccupied that I don’t notice what else is going on around me. It was fun to hear her and Nick’s conversations and listen to them take care of their babies. It all sounded so familiar, but so different at the same time being outside of the conversation. Being a parent really is a sweet thing and you can tell that they love their little family. It was nice to see that.

Soooooo…this week for me has been all about trying to get my house running again. Which has a lot to do with food. Food has been on my mind this week. I planned my meals and got the grocery shopping done for the next two weeks. I love when that is finished and I don’t have to worry about it again for a while, besides running to the store for milk, bread and fruit. Since I have been thinking about food, I thought I would share a couple of our families all time favorites. One is a dessert and one is a meal. Let’s break the rules and do dessert first.

This is one of our favorites because not only are they so yummy, but it makes a ton. It makes so much that we eat them fresh out of the oven, freeze some and share some with friends.

I like to roll the dough into balls like this and then freeze them in big zip lock bags. We may or may not eat the cookie dough as a snack.

Here is the recipe.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter flavored shortening

1 cup real butter

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

3 eggs

3 tsp. vanilla

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 1/3 cups sugar

Beat above ingredients for 2 min. I mix it in my Botch. Then add 5-6 cups of flour. 5 cups first. Feel the dough, if sticky add 1/4 cup flour at a time until good consistency.

Add one bag white chocolate chips, one bag milk chocolate chips and one bag semi- sweet chocolate chips.

Bake @ 350 for 11-13 min. depending on how big they are. I use an ice cream scoop for mine. My time is usually 12-13 min. I like gooey cookies.

Our next favorite is Alfredo Pizza. I know I have never blogged this recipe, but I have given it away so many times over the years. To some of you it may be an old recipe. This one goes back to our early married days and it is still a favorite. I do not have a picture of this one, but trust me…it is worth a try.

Alfredo Pizza

1 loaf of French Bread

1 jar of Alfredo sauce

1 lb. Jimmy Dean sausage (I am picky about this. It has to be Jimmy Dean. No generic for this one)

4 fresh mushrooms (more of less)

Mozzarella cheese as desired

Brown sausage and slice the mushrooms. Cut fresh bread in half length wise. Spread a good amount of alfredo sauce on each half generously (we usually use about 1/2 to 3/4 of the jar. Sprinkle the sausage on top, then the fresh mushrooms and then the cheese as desired. Broil on a lower temperature so the center gets warm while the top gets crispy.

That’s all there is to it! It’s an easy one.

Enjoy!

And just incase you are wondering (since I know you are…wink, wink) Here is our menu for this weekend and through next week.

Next week maybe I will share some of our fall favorites. I have one more Halloween post to share too. I just found it tonight. C – ya next week.

Happy Birthday Ady!

2011-10-14T17:32:00.001-05:00

This little girl had a birthday yesterday. I can hardly believe she is two years old!

Where did my baby go? She is still my baby even though she is growing up. That is the role of the last child. She has that one covered!

This girl has so much personality. She has since the day she was born. I remember feeling overwhelmed by how much personality she had that first year. Who am I kidding? I am still overwhelmed at times, but I love and appreciate her for her spunkiness. I feel like her little body is just growing into her personality.

Ady’s favorite thing in the world right now is Strawberry Shortcake.

I think we made her pretty happy with a Strawberry Shortcake celebration.

She would have been happy no matter what, but it was fun putting this together for her.

This was the easiest cake I have EVER made and yummy too. My kids asked why we haven’t had this before. I told them they will be seeing this cake a lot more. It is perfect for a cool summer treat. I took the easy way out and bought an angel food cake from the bakery and cut it into 3 halves. Then whipped up some homemade whipping cream and layered the angel food cake and the whipped cream. I made sure to use a lot of whipped cream. The more the better, right? Then just topped it with fresh strawberries.

The whole thing was perfect for Ady. I really enjoy making each of my children feel special on their birthday. It is their very own special day and I want them to know how much their parents and siblings love them. It is a little extra effort, but I hope that we are creating memories that will make them smile when they are all grown up and not at home anymore.

Ady was so funny when Casey was lighting the candles. She didn’t know what to think. Her facial expressions say it all! I laugh every time I look at them.

She needs a little prodding to blow out those candles.

I just love her!

She did not need prodding to open her presents. I love her mischievous face in this photo. It says so much about her.

If you are lucky enough to really now Ady, then you know exactly just how much it says! :)

We found her a girl set of Lego’s. Of course my boys were all over this one.

Grandma sent her a couple of new Strawberry Shortcake videos, which she has already watched over and over.

She also got two Strawberry Shortcake dolls. One to carry in her purse and a bigger one to play with.

A birthday isn’t a birthday with out balloons. We carried on the tradition of waking up to birthday balloons. She thought this was pretty awesome!

Happy Birthday Ady! We love you so much and can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for you.

Halloween/Fall Decor. {Part 4}

2011-10-13T00:41:00.001-05:00

Today you get a two for one! How’s that for generous? Two fire place mantles in one post. I am a lucky girl who gets to decorate two mantles for the holidays. That can either be a huge headache or lots of fun. When it comes together it’s lots of fun. One is a faux fireplace, but many people think it’s real at first glance. I guess that is the whole point of a faux fireplace. :) Back in the day, when Casey and I were living in our first home years ago I was distraught over not having anywhere to hang our stockings for Christmas. I survived our first Christmas by hanging them from a bookshelf in our family room. It was fine. One weekend I went out of town to visit my family, leaving my husband behind for a couple of days. When I got home, there was a surprise waiting for me. Any guesses on what it was?

Yep. It was a mantle. He had made me my very own fireplace mantle. Somewhere to hang our stockings. How sweet! He made our home feel so cozy and had one happy wife. This mantle has been moved around in different houses over the years. It has been in our family room, then in our bedroom and now it is in the office/study. I still love it. This was the first of many woodworking projects Casey has done for us.

Here it is ready for Halloween.

It is ready for fall too.

All I plan on doing is taking the cat and mason jar of skeletons down after Halloween. That will leave me with pumpkins and pinecones. Perfect.

This is the mantle in our family room.

This room has recently gotten a face lift. This was one of our summer projects. I haven’t shared any of yet because it is still in the works. This room is never ending! Anyway, the alcove that the clock is sitting in used to be a terracotta red. I can not believe it has taken me this long to paint over it. It is so much better!!

Back to the mantle.

The trick or treat banner was from last year. It was still a keeper. I added LOTS of spanish moss here to make a fall garland.

When I picked the twigs for my entry table, I used the extra for my mantle. I added the twigs first and then put spanish moss over the top. I love the texture it adds.

This is another one of my painted pumpkins.

I printed the owl from the Graphics Fairy and made the BOO frame a couple of years ago. I just printed BOO on newspaper. It doesn’t get much easier than that. Those are my favorite kind of projects.

Happy fall! It is raining as I type this. :)

Halloween/Fall Decor. {Part 3}

2011-10-11T09:00:00.001-05:00

Ok. I am moving forward with my Halloween theme this week. Lots to share! However, we did start celebrating Ady’s birthday yesterday. It is her birthday WEEK. It is a lot more fun to have a birthday week than a birthday. More to come about Ady’s birthday soon.

For now, here is my kitchen halloween table scape.

Candy corns and pumpkins. It doesn’t get much better (or easier) than that!

Skeletons, crows and spiders too. With more spanish moss. By the way…I purchased my spanish moss at Dollar Tree. I used 2 and a half bags and I have it everywhere. It goes pretty far.

I was lazy this year and didn’t do a table runner. I have some black and white fabric I was going to do something with, but when it came down to it…I just didn’t feel like it!

Pumpkins are my favorite. I can’t get enough of them. Layering them in bowls on my table helped to add different heights and texture. I painted the white pumpkin. I love white pumpkins, but didn’t want to pay the price. I did last year and said I was NOT going to do that this year. I spray painted a lot of pumpkins this year. More to come about that soon. :)

Since I shared about our kitchen in this post, here are two small treats to go along with it. We will be making these sometime this month.

Monster Hot Chocolate. How easy is this??? Whenever it really decides to cool down a bit, my kids will be getting their first mug of hot chocolate for they year monster style.

Source

Cute pretzel ghosts.

Source

We dip pretzels in white chocolate every year. Usually it’s the pretzel twists. This year we will try pretzel sticks instead and make ghosts.

Next up…my fireplace mantles.

Halloween/Fall Decor. {Part Two}

2011-10-09T22:40:00.001-05:00

We have had a fun and productive weekend. Those are the best kind! Saturday morning we spent at the football field with the boys. Football has started for them and they are loving it. It seems to be Jake’s thing more than baseball, which kind of breaks my heart because I have a soft spot for baseball and baseball players. I married one. It’s only our second weekend with football so it’s a little early to tell, but his body language is much more focused and confident on the football field. I’m just glad they both are having so much fun. Later in the day we ran lots of errands. We finalized Halloween costumes. Here is the line up:

Kaylee – a nerd with one of her bff’s. They are making all of the costume arrangements. Should be interesting.

Jake – a mafia gangster

Drew – a boxer/fighter

Ady – Strawberry Shortcake

What I like the most is that we have everything for the costumes. I told the kids this year we weren’t buying costumes. They had to have the majority of the costume in the house. We bought Jake a machine gun to finish his costume. Kaylee needed some glasses. We are making Ady’s costume and Drew already had his boxing gloves. We are ready to go!

Ady’s birthday is this week. She is going to be the big 2. We are going with a Strawberry Shortcake theme, presents and all. That girl eats, drinks and sleeps Strawberry. “Watch Strawberry Shortcake” is the first phrase she says every morning, besides telling me it’s time for lunch (which means breakfast).

I made these super yummy Oreo cupcakes Friday night while Kaylee was having a dance party with a friend in our family room. It brought back LOTS of childhood memories. I remember so many fun times like that and it is only the beginning for her.

We have been lucky to enjoy a little fall weather here. We even had a late night on the trampoline last night as a family. It was fun. It felt like we were camping laying on the trampoline watching the moon and talking. We need to do that more often. The kids even talked about it today. It has been gloomy and rainy all day today. Which is great because we need the rain even though I am personally NOT a fan of the rain. I don’t like dark days. It does make it feel a little halloweenish though. I took these pictures of our entry table the other day before it got dark and gloomy. I thought I would share them today and celebrate this weather. Here is our entry table:

I had so much fun decorating for halloween this year. I learned a new trick out in blogland. It is called spanish moss. Of course the idea of spanish moss isn’t new to me, but using it to take the place of spooky cobwebs was new to me. Super fun! Although it is extremely messy…just warning you!

I made this candy corn banner last year. I still love it and was excited to use it again.

I made this little pom pom last year too. It is the perfect size to hang from my lamp. It’s made out of orange cupcake liners all scrunched up together and hot glued onto a styrofoam ball.

The crow is from last year too. I went back to Dollar Tree this year and got a lot more. They are all over my house.

I found the orange spider juice bottle at Michaels one day, on sale for $2.99. It was a fun addition.

The skull was at Michaels too for $1.49. I bought two of them. I found the little glass whatever it’s called that the skull is in, at Marshall’s one day for $6.99. And to think that I wasn’t going to get it. What was I thinking? It is so versatile and can be used for anything. Definitely a fun buy.

I printed out the 31 onto scrapbook paper I already had. Such an easy addition. I was searching for a fun Halloween printable, but I couldn’t find anything that worked quite right so this was my easy fix. The bat finishes it for me. Andrea inspired me with her bats, so I had to give them a try. I added glitter to ours for a little blingage. We have them flying around our dinning room too.

More to come soon! I am loving Halloween this year.

Fall Decor. {Part 1}

2011-10-06T17:16:00.001-05:00

I have lost track of my days this week. It’s all been one big blur. I pulled out my Fall and Halloween decorations earlier this week. A week later than I had planned. Oh well. It has been spread all over the house since then. I am finally getting it all wrapped up today. Yesterday was the first day I was able to dedicate to the house, mostly. There are always other things to do. :) I spent a lot of my free time outside in the front. I am finishing the inside today. And then the cleaning starts! Ugghhh. Cleaning after pulling out holiday decorations is such a to-do. Why does it always have to make such a mess? Maybe I am just a messy decorator.

Anyway, I thought I would dedicate the rest of this week and most of next week to Fall/Halloween decor. I will share a space each day. That is the plan…but we all know that plans usually change. SO, I will post and share when I can.

Here is my front entry.

I started out by re-purposing my previous fall wreath.

Here is the wreath I’ve had for a couple of years.

And this is the same wreath this year.

Such an easy and inexpensive fix. I wanted to switch it up a bit, but still keep the same general idea. When I saw this wreath on Pinterest, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

The only thing I bought were the feathers, which is what inspired me when I saw the wreath on Pinterest. I used my Micheal’s 40% off coupon, so this new wreath cost me $2.00. I had everything else.

While I had it all pulled apart I spray painted they yellow gourds cream. It freshened it up so much. After that was done, I rearranged it all and stuck the picks back in the grapevine wreath. I added spanish moss, one of my Dollar Tree crows, our monogram and some burlap.

I cleaned out my planters and added fall color to them.

I made a glittery 31. That is my contribution to Halloween on the porch. My kids would love to carve pumpkins, but I don’t let them. Mean of me. I like to save my pumpkins and have them out through Thanksgiving.

Now I feel ready for the fall!

Caramel Apples

2011-09-30T15:40:00.001-05:00

Last Thursday I was in charge of a caramel apple demonstration at church for Relief Society. I have never made a caramel apple before in my life! Shocking, right? I’m sure a bazillion of you have made caramel apples before, but I have not. I have eaten plenty, but never made any. This wasn’t just about teaching the women how to dip apples in caramel, it was a gourmet caramel class. When I was asked to take this assignment, I made sure they all knew that I had never done this before. They told me it was easy. OK.

So now I am here to tell you (those of you that were like me and had never done this before) that it is EASY and so fun! For years during the fall I have thought about doing caramel apples, but never have for lots of reasons.

I didn’t know how.

I thought it was hard.

I thought I had to have a perfect caramel recipe.

It seemed way too messy.

It is not hard at all! It may be a little bit messy, but nothing bad at all. That should say a lot coming from someone who seriously hates messes. After doing some research about the process of gourmet caramel apples I was ready to go. I had a practice day at home first.

I learned a lot from this site. My pictures are hit and miss, but I will show you what I learned and how I did it.

1. You first start with 8-10 small to medium sized apples. Granny Smith or Fuji are the best. I prefer Granny Smith. Smaller apples are better. They are easier to work with and it makes the caramel go further.

2. You have to wash them very well to get the wax off store bought apples. This helps the caramel stick better to the apple. There are a couple of ways you can do this. Dip them for a second in boiling water. Lightly sand them, or give them a baking soda bath, which is what I did. I filled up my sink with HOT water and poured some baking soda in. Then I scrubbed them with the rough side of my kitchen sponge and rinsed them in hot water.

3. I dried them with paper towels and then set them out to finish drying. They have to be completely dry. Which is why this should be your first step. They can dry while you prepare everything else.

4. Next, I got all of my supplies out and toppings prepared.

Supplies: apples, caramel (not pictured) sticks, toppings and wax paper. You can buy the sticks at any craft store, possibly any grocery store. I purchased mine at Walmart while I was there getting everything else. They were in the cake decorating isle. There are short, medium and long sticks to choose from. I bought the medium ones. I will get to the caramel in a minute.

As for the toppings…I went with chopped peanuts, M & M’s, Heath Bar bits (these were all ready in a bag by the chocolate chips) crushed Oreo’s, chopped pecans and miniature marshmallows. View the same site I mentioned earlier for other topping ideas.

5. Then it is time to put the sticks in the apples. You want to remove the apple stem first. Putting the stick in was a little bit tricky. Sometimes they were really difficult to push in and the stick would bend, but you can bend it back easily. The palm of my hand was starting to hurt from pushing the stick so hard. I got about half way through with the sticks when I realized that it didn’t have to hurt me like that. Sometimes it takes awhile for things to click! I used the rubber thingy that I use to open glass jars with to cushion my palm.

This helped a lot.

I’m sure a kitchen towel would work too.

Here they are.

The apples are ready, the toppings are prepared so now it is time to do the caramel.

6. You can melt the caramel in the microwave or on the stove. There are several different caramel recipes. Once again, I used this site to figure out which recipe I wanted. I opted not to go for homemade, but to go for easy. I bought the packages of Kraft Caramels.

Using the Kraft Caramels, you need to individually unwrap 2 24 oz. packages of caramels. Melt them on the stove at a medium heat with 4 Tbsp of milk. It says whole milk, but I used 2%. Just like it says to use a double broiler, but I didn’t. They worked fine. If you melt them in the microwave, follow the same instructions only stopping to stir every 30 seconds until melted.

7. Then it is time to dip the apples in the caramel. Dip them straight in to get as much apple covered as you can and then turn sideways to get the top edges better.

I put the caramel in this bowl to dip, but it would actually be much easier to dip them in the pot you use to melt the caramel on the stove with. The pot has a handle so you can rotate the caramel better and get better coverage plus you can put it back on the stove to keep warm in between apples. If you melt in the microwave use a big measuring glass or bowl that has a handle and you will be able to rotate the caramel better also. When you are done dipping the apple, pull it straight up and let the extra caramel drip off.

8. As soon as you are done dipping one apple, roll it in your topping right away. The caramel sets quickly.

I learned to have my wax paper on a plate ready to go in the fridge. You want to allow to set up in the fridge as soon as you are done topping it. If you top your apple with something heavy or big, like M & M’s or marshmallows and leave it on the counter to set up it will drip to the bottom and not stick. That was my experience. So they all went straight into the fridge.

9. After each apple was rolled in a topping and chilled in the fridge I drizzled them with milk chocolate or white chocolate. I melted the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave and then scooped them into their own zip lock bag and snipped a tiny corner off to drizzle with. This was the finishing touch.

Aren’t these so fun?

I was really happy with how they turned out.

They were so yummy and delicious too.

My kids were so excited when they got home from school that day and saw such an unexpected treat. I had all of my practice apples cut up on a plate ready to go.

They thought I was pretty awesome that day.

Some other things I learned was to chop up my M & M’s. I chopped them with my Pamper Chef Chopper. The M & M’s whole were too heavy. Also, read the tip on that site for dipping in chocolate after dipping in caramel. It sounds yummy! If you are going to do any of this with kids, I would DEFINITELY have it all prepared before you invite the kids to help. I am talking caramel done and everything. I don’t think it would be as enjoyable to have the kids in the kitchen for the whole thing. It actually sounds like a big fat headache to me!

I think this would be such a fun thing to do with or with out kids. I loved my day in the kitchen playing and learning something new. Having said that, I am going to give this a try with the kiddos this weekend. It’s time for us to start celebrating the holidays and I think this is a great start. Hopefully it doesn’t turn into a disaster. It will be interesting!

Linking up to:

Tatortots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up

Photography is a never ending journey.

2011-09-29T00:50:00.001-05:00

Shortly after moving here I desperately needed a new camera. Mine wasn’t doing the job anymore and it was time to be replaced. I had new goals and ideas in mind as far as photography and candid snap shots went. Except I didn’t have a clue how to go about it or where to start. I ended up spending lots and lots and lots of time researching cameras and e-mailing questions to friends. I would visit my local camera store and play the 20 question game with them while experimenting with their equipment. Only I still didn’t know what I was doing. After all of my research I did know that I wanted a DSLR. I didn’t understand what a DSLR really meant and how it could produce such great images, but I knew that was what I was looking for. Casey knew and understood how much I loved photography and was willing to support and encourage this new investment. In fact, months later after all of the research and debate, we were at the camera shop ready to purchase my new baby and I chickened out.

Yes. I chickened out.

I had anxiety about spending so much money and it was making me sick. Casey was out of the store for a second tending the kids when he walked back in and saw me getting ready to purchase a different camera, one that was not a DSLR. He was really confused and asked me what I was doing. I explained it all to him and he took the camera out of my hands and told the sales person exactly what it was we were going to purchase.

Can I just tell you how much I really love my husband? He is so good to me and is always sacrificing for ME. He knows and understand me so well, even when I am not thinking straight. He knew how important photography was and is to me and that I would have been miserable with another camera. I think he also realized that there was so much more to this camera. Although I don’t think either one of us realized what we had gotten ourselves into.

That was only the beginning. The beginning of what really? I didn’t know. I just knew how excited I was to learn more about photography and to have this camera that could do SO many things.

We bought the Nikon D40 with a kit lens. Although this is a great camera, I out grew it 6 months later and sold it to my sister. After purchasing the D40, my hobby turned into reading my owners manual and photography tips and tutorials on the internet. We are talking HOURS and HOURS.

I took a class on line that taught me how to shoot manual mode. That right there alone is world changing in photography and is how I out grew my D40. I was beyond excited to upgrade to the Nikon D90. I had to sit on this decision for awhile too. The money once again was killing me, but I knew it would be totally worth it. So we bought it. I was set for awhile with my D90 and my 50mm 1.8 lens. Almost a year later I felt like I was being held back again and I couldn’t do all that I wanted to with my camera. Casey and I researched and researched and talked and talked about a new lens. Finally we decided that for my birthday, Christmas, Valentines and our anniversary one year (you get the point) I would get the 24-70mm 2.8 lens. World changing!

And that is where I am today. My wish list for cameras and lenses could go on and on and on. I am happy where I am right now. Although I would love to get a new prime lens, my next step at this point would be a new camera body before a new lens. I am not even going to think about it though because I still have not out grown my D90 and there is an incredible amount still to learn. Photography is never ending really. It’s funny to remember how much I was freaking out about purchasing the D40, not realizing at all that it would be a small purchase compared to everything else. Who knew how much I would love and learn and grow… and still are. Just like the insane amount of camera bodies and lenses out there, there is also an insane amount of photography information to be read and practiced. HOURS and HOURS.

My whole point with this post was to share with you a goal I had. My goal and the majority of the reason I wanted a DSLR was so that I could be my OWN children’s photographer. For my 3 little kids (at the time). I think that great everyday snapshots are just as important as the professional ones you take every year. Since moving to a new state and not knowing any photographers (and after spending over $300.00 at a place in the mall for 3 11x14’s, 1 8x10’s and a couple of 5x7’s with out the cd of proofs and not really loving the photos) I decided that I was ready to learn how to be the photographer for my family.

I did not even think about going into photography for anyone else. The first couple of times I was approached about taking photos for others, I was shocked with the idea. I still hadn’t even thought about it. After graciously declining, my next thought was how incredibly nervous and incompetent the idea made me feel. I had no intentions at all of heading in that direction. Until about a year later when it literally hit me one morning. I realized that I felt ready and excited about the idea of being someone else’s photographer.

And that is where I am today.

About a year into this new journey.

Learning, loving and growing.

Although I am very much a part time photographer and a full time mommy to 4, I am enjoying stretching my talent to the max and learning to balance all things. Moderation in everything is probably the biggest lesson I have learned lately. A little here and a little there of each thing goes a long way and is working for me. And lots of patience from myself, my clients and my family helps.

I thought I would share a few of the kids back to school photos. Since moving here I have not purchased back to school photos from the elementary school. I decided to wing it and do it on my own.

Here is a little history of photos.

Third Grade

First Grade

I love this picture of the two of them together.

Fourth Grade Second Grade Preschool

These are from this year. 2011-2012

It was fun to go back through pictures and see how much the kids have grown as well as how different the photography is. The biggest difference (I think) is the the first set of Kaylee and Jake, 2nd and Kindergarten. The rest, as far as photography goes, are pretty close. One of the things that stands out the most to me is photo editing. I feel like now I really focus on techniques to get it right in the camera and use editing to enhance the photo just how it is. The last set of photos are a little bit softer and more natural. I don’t know…what do you think?

Develop your talents, even if it is scary. Whatever they are. We are given them for a reason and you never know where they will take you, although someone else bigger than you does and that is why HE gave them to you in the first place. It doesn’t matter if you use them just for your little family or share it with others, but do all that you can to develop them. And then keep at it. We each have different talents. That is for a reason too. Wouldn’t it be so boring if we were all the same. How would we learn from each other? I can not even begin to tell you how much I have learned about life from others around me. Timing is everything though and there is a season for everything. Whatever your talents are and however you want to use them, when the time is right, go for it!

72 Hour Kits

2011-09-26T22:40:00.001-05:00

Early on in our marriage we heard advise to update our 72 hour kits every 6 months around the time of General Conference, which would be in the spring and in the fall. Twice a year would allow for us to make sure we really had what we need in them and around Conference time would just be a good reminder. We have tried to stick to that guideline, although there has been years that have gone by with out us even touching them. This year we were on the ball and got them done before General Conference. We had a little bit of time to tackle them together before school started so that’s what we did. I don’t think we had opened any of them since Ady was been born. She still had formula and baby food in hers along with a size 2 diaper. Those items would not be helpful now if we had to evacuate quickly.

We store our 72 hour kits in the hall closet upstairs. There was room in that closet and they should be easy enough to get to. Here was our process of spreading things all over the floor and replacing the old food with the new food.

Those are all of the pictures I have. We were doing it so fast and it was a little crazy tackling a project like this with all of the kids home, but it is DONE (for the next 6 months) and we are very happy about that. It can be so overwhelming sometimes wondering where to start and what exactly to put in your kits, so I thought I would share what we did and the resources we used to help us.

The first one is a list we got from church.

SAMPLE 72-HOUR FOOD KIT

6 (8 oz.) boxes juice
3 (8 oz.) boxes milk
2 granola bars
1/3 lb. graham crackers
5 (1.4 oz.) pkg. sandwich crackers
6 (.5 oz.) fruit roll-ups
4 (2 oz.) pkg. trail mix
5 (1.5 oz.) pkg. raisins
6 to 7-1/2 oz. peanut butter

3 ounce can tuna
7 beef jerky
1 package gum
fork
spoon
knife
18 wet wipes

Pack in an air and moisture-proof container or bag.

Then it tells you how to use the food. I thought that was helpful. We made copies of these and put them in each kit.

EMERGENCY MENU

DAY 1
1 milk
2 juice
1 granola bar
2 fruit roll-ups
1 pkg. trail mix
2 pkgs. raisins
3 oz. peanut butter
2 pkgs. sandwich crackers
3 jerky

DAY 2
1 milk
2 juice
1 granola bar
2 fruit roll-ups
2 pkgs. trail mix
1 pkg. raisins
3 oz. peanut butter
2 pkgs. sandwich crackers
3 jerky

DAY 3
1 milk
2 juice
2 fruit roll-ups
1 pkg. trail mix
2 pkgs. raisins
1/3 lb. graham crackers
1-1/2 oz. peanut butter
1 pkg. sandwich crackers
3 oz. can tuna
1 jerky

Emergency Supplies
Prepare these items for each family member and make sure each has an I.D. tag. You may not be at home when an emergency strikes so keep some additional supplies in your car and at work, considering what you would need for your immediate safety.

Flashlight
Radio – battery operated
Batteries
Whistle
Dust mask
Pocket knife
Emergency cash in small denominations and quarters for phone calls
Sturdy shoes, a change of clothes, and a warm hat
Local map
Some water and food
Permanent marker, paper and tape
Photos of family members and pets for re-identification purposes
List of emergency point-of -contact phone numbers
List of allergies to any drug (especially antibiotics) or food
Copy of health insurance and identification cards
Extra prescription eye glasses, hearing aid or other vital personal items
Prescription medications and first aid supplies
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Extra keys to your house and vehicle
Any special-needs items for children,seniors or people with disabilities. Don’t forget to add items for your pets.

Those two lists were very helpful to us. We also referred to How Does She post about the subject. She focuses on 72 hour kits for kids. We really liked her idea of putting everything in different zip lock bags. It would make it much easier to rotate things and find what you need if you have to use your kits. Definitely a great reference. The closest we have ever come to using ours was during Hurricane Ike. Although we DID NOT have to use them (thankfully) it was nice to feel prepared.

I read back through my Hurricane Ike posts. It was kind of fun to read them again and I am so glad I recorded all of that.

Here is my post on being prepared.

Here is my post on the devastation after Ike.

Crockpot Meals

2011-09-25T21:59:00.001-05:00

In hopes to make all things much simpler this year, I have taken full advantage of my crockpot when it comes to meal time. I have always loved using my crockpot, but recently I feel like it is my secret weapon to having a warm, yummy meal on my table with out feeling inconvenienced. I am probably using my crockpot 3 times a week. I have tried several new crockpot meals lately. I thought I would share a few that my entire family really likes. They passed the test.

Slow Cooker Sweet and Tangy Meatballs – my kids LOVED this one. They really liked all of them, but this one was their favorite.

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches – I added 1 package of Lipton Onion dry soup mix. So easy and so good. It makes a ton too. Great for leftovers or a meal you can share.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup – in addition to topping this with tortilla chips, sour cream and cheese, I like to add sliced avocado and cilantro. I also added Cumin (it is my favorite seasoning) and a can of green chilies to the mix in the crockpot. Super good!

Tonight we had Pork Chops in the crockpot. This is a recipe I have been using since my kids were little.

Mushroom Sauce Pork Chops

4 Pork Chops (or however many you need)

1 Tbsp. cooking oil

1 small onion - sliced

2 Tbsp. quick cooking tapioca

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup apple juice

1 small can sliced mushrooms – drained

2 tsp. worcestershire sauce

3/4 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Serve with rice, mashed potatoes or pasta

In a skillet, brown chops in oil on both sides. In crockpot, place onion, add chops. Grind tapioca with a mortar and pestle (or just leave this ingredient out. They will still be delicious.) Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over chops. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or high for 4.

Enjoy!

In other news:

The Texas A & M football game on Saturday was so much fun! We went with 3 other couples and left the kids with a babysitter all day long. Literally. We have never left our kids with a babysitter for nearly 10 hours before. We are so lucky to have a babysitter who ROCKS and that we feel comfortable leaving our kids with for so long. We love her family too. That always helps. Anyway, it was the biggest and loudest stadium I have ever been too with the most school spirit. It was fun to be a part of that and spend the day with friends…with out our kids. Between all of us, we would have had 15 kids.

And, I got a new calling at church today. I am now the second counselor in Young Womens. That means I am with the Beehives. I am excited! I have been in Activity Days for 2 years now and a lot of my girls have grown up and moved into the Young Women program, but now I get them back. That is going to keep me busy for sure.

Around Here {Kaylee’s Room}

2011-09-23T18:38:00.001-05:00

This week has been a busy one. A good one, but a busy one. Lots of errands and misc. things to do. I had to take my brand new Toyota Sienna in to get fixed, for the second time. We have only had it for 3 months and it has been in two minor accidents. I have NEVER been in a car accident where I have been behind the wheel and then we get a brand new van that we have been waiting to buy forever and I rear end someone after having it for only a month. Ugghh…the thought still makes me sick. It was minor, no one got hurt and my bumper got replaced shortly after that. I swear, I probably only had it back for maybe another month, when someone came inside Kid to Kid one day while I was shopping to ask if I was the owner of the Grayish Toyota Sienna outside. Ummmm….I didn’t want to answer and my heart sank, but I said yes, knowing what she was going to tell me. Sure enough, she had backed out of the parking spot next to me and hit the side of my van. However nervous I was to call my husband and tell him about this, I was just as grateful that she came in to tell me. That would have been awful to go outside and find that for myself!. I can’t even imagine.

So this week started out with me spending an entire morning taking my van in to get fixed and battling the insurance guy for a rental car. Fun. I have felt lost with a tiny rental car and being with out my van all week. My husband is actually on his way to pick it up while I type this. Woo-hoo! The rest of the week was a Dr. appointment and lunch with Kaylee, visiting teaching 3 of the women in my ward another morning, taking my kids back to school photos one evening, having Activity Days at my house with the young girls from church one night, scheduling and preparing things for holiday photo shoots and preparing for a caramel apple demonstration I taught last night at Relief Society. It was so fun and they turned out so cute! I will have to share about that next week. BTW, have you seen the free monthly printouts for visiting teaching on Pinterest? I loved that! So easy and cute. Also, I made a Photography/Wardrobe inspiration board for my clients to view on Pinterest. Can you tell I love Pinterest? I do. So many of them ask me what they should wear, so I thought I would gather up several ideas and help give them a head start. Tomorrow we are going to an A&M football game. It is an all day event and it will be my first A&M game. The boys go all the time and love it. I’m excited to see what the hype is all about.

Alrighty, on to the post. I thought it was time for another “Around Here” post. This time I thought I would share Kaylee’s room. We re-did her room for Christmas last year. The whole idea of it has been finished since then, but I just barely added the finishing touches, like printing and framing photos. To see what her room was like before go here.

Here it is now.

We both agreed that we wanted it to be a little bit more streamlined and grown up. She loves. I love it. We are happy.

The bedding is the Shabby Chic line from Target. I think I even got the zebra throw there too. The sheets are also from Target.

As are the pillows. I love Target!

I took down the quilt that was hanging on my shabby board and tied some picture frames around the rod with tulle. The lamp is from Hob Lob.

The two black frames I already had. We just spray painted them black. The pink frame was a find at Marshall’s Home Goods, but it was in the room before.

We replaced her old knobs on her dresser with glass ones from Hob Lob. The lamp is also from there as well as the frames.

So far, maybe you can tell my favorite decor stores are Target, Hobby Lobby and Marshall’s. Love them all!

I printed a photo of Kaylee on this old car in a 20 x 24. I love the texture the car brings to the room. I bought a canvas in the same size and spray painted it black. Then used craft spray adhesive to glue it on. If you haven’t done this before I would advise you to have someone help you. It is a two person job, for me anyway. I took the vinyl “Dream” off the wall and placed it on the photo. I was happy it worked so well for me to re-use.

We took this bookshelf from Ady’s room and gave her Kaylee’s dollhouse bookshelf. Ady’s room is different now too. I will have to share that soon. This bookshelf is perfect in Kaylee’s room. Casey made this for the boys years ago. It has been painted several times.

My sweet girl.

Her desk area got a minor makeover. The mirror and chair were painted. My aunt gave Kaylee a new creating memories organizer. She loves it.

I love her grouping of K’s. Here is a tip: If you have a couple of similar, small things like this, it makes more of a statement if you put them all together.

And that is that! I hope everyone has a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Linking up to:

Life’s Journey {what has helped me}

2011-09-19T15:55:00.001-05:00

I mentioned a while back that I was having a hard time with life. There are two things that changed everything for me. I know that there were many little daily things that needed to change and things I needed to view differently, but two distinct things changed my view on day to day life dramatically. I will share those two things in just a sec.

I believe that technology can be a blessing in our lives just as much as it can be an invader and time stealer from ourselves and those around us. A couple of weeks ago I learned what a huge blessing it can be if I use technology and my time the right way. Because I was doing this, I was blessed by stumbling across two articles that I needed to read. I know that I didn’t actually “stumble” across them at all. They were there for me to find at that particular time.

The first one is from Brooke Snow. She writes an amazing blog about Photography and life in general. I always learn something from her. Every week she posts about things she has found on the internet that have helped her or she has found uplifting or interesting. I look forward to these posts from her. She titles it “Best of…my weekly discoveries.” Don’t click on these links yet, but this particular Best of led me to this amazing article about our to-do lists and time-management.

I want to get the background set up for you. This article changes the focus of our to - do lists from the list itself to the actual how and why we do things. Something that I really needed to learn. The part that made me stop and really contemplate this perspective was when he said we are creating our Legacy with our daily to-do’s. Now go back up and click.

Wow!

Legacy has always seemed like such a big word. It is full of so much meaning! To use it in a day to day context really made me think. What he says is so true. What do you think?

The second one is from a new blog I found. Cajun Joie de Vivre. Amy Bayliss is a Christian blogger who writes about so many different topics, including recipes and organizing and crafty projects, which is how I happened to “stumble” across her. I was organizing a few things on my Pinterest boards. I was sorting through my For the Blog board, printing some free printables, one of which was from her. One thing led me to the next on her blog and I found myself hooked reading so many wonderful things that I needed to read. This is the article that was meant for me. She sorted out everything that was all jumbled up in my head and put it into words. She made sense of everything for me. The concept she writes about are things I already have been taught and know to be true, but I needed to read her words. I’m not even going to try to explain what she says because she does so perfectly. Her article is lengthy, but it really was life changing for me so if you feel like you don’t know what you are doing anymore, your days aren’t making any sense and you are pedaling your wheels and getting no where, read her post.

Just thought I would pass some very good reads your way and a little bit of my own life lessons. Maybe it will help you like it helped me.

Wrapping up Summer – 2011

2011-09-16T15:34:00.001-05:00

I have been cleaning out pictures on my computer a little here and there. I came across so many fun summer pictures that I hadn’t done anything with yet. I thought I would do one last post about our summer in picture form. Here ya go…

These two photos SCREAM summer! Nothing like a hot day and water from the tap outside. Yuck if you ask me, but such a summer kid thing.

Our summer started out with a visit from the Swenson’s. Amongst all the other fun things the kids did, we went berry picking. Definitely one of the highlights of our visit.

Shortly after they came to visit us, we took a trip to Arkansas to visit them. On the list was a trip down town to the Peabody Hotel to see the March of the Ducks. We explored a lot of other fun things while we were downtown. A visit to the sno-cone shack and lots of free time at home to let the kids get creative while Andrea and I chilled.

One of our favorite outings at home was a trip to Galveston with the Dickamore’s and the Stingham’s. A trip to the beach each year is mandatory.

We had lots of these kind of days.

I wish we had more of these kind of days.

Fun times and great memories! We are so blessed to have such awesome friends to do fun things with!

Around Here { Entry Way, Heritage Banner }

2011-09-13T01:46:00.001-05:00

Complete picture overload, just so you know. :) I’m surprised my computer didn’t crash with this post. I am running out of room on my computer so badly. It gets worse every day. For every 50 photos I delete, I upload 300. Not good at all! My disk space is always in the red.

This post was intended to be about my entry TABLE, not my entire entryway. hahaha…but while I was taking photos I realized how much has changed since we moved here and I haven’t really ever documented or blogged this space before, so I thought I would take you on a virtual tour. Here is my interpretation of a virtual tour.

Welcome to my home. This is the view you would see from the front door.

If you turn towards your right you would see the dining room. You can go here to see before and after photos of this room.

I really like my coat tree in the entry way. I think it feels cozy. When I first put it here, I didn’t have anything hanging on it. Awhile later I added our monogram frame. Just recently I added these keys. They were hanging on a different wall in the entry, but I like them here. Even though I have accessories hanging on our coat tree, we still use it for normal things. Backpacks and coats are here when we are waiting for car pools and when friends come over after school.

I used to have a shelf with some other decor on the wall below. I decided it was time for me to frame some family photos that had been hanging out on my computer for far too long.

(The bathroom I shared recently with my gallery wall is behind that door.)

This summer when I went stir crazy in my house re-doing everything, I found this frame at a local antique store. I love old frames, remember?

Also, here is a fave printing tip. I print all of my photos at mpix.com. I can’t say enough good things about them. I REALLY like the metallic finish they offer. I don’t print everything in that finish, but I always love how it turns out when I do. This photo is printed in that finish.

If your back was towards the dining room, you would be back to the center of the entryway.

Across from the dining room is the office/study. This is the view standing in the dinning room. Don’t look to closely at my husbands desk. It gets a lot of use and I don’t touch his papers.

The sconces are a recent addition. Hobby Lobby – 50% off.

This is the view from inside the office.

I have had this clock since my days in Providence, UT. and I still love it.

Here are a few details of the entry table. I changed everything pretty much but it is similar in style to how it was before. I wish I had a before, but I don’t. I’m not always the best at remembering that. I get to eager to pull it all apart.

I sanded the top of the table and re-stained it. I absolutely love this! It is such a simple thing, but it is one of my favorite re-do’s from the summer. It used to be a light pine, glossy colored top. It had to go. I still liked the style of table and the neutral color. The new stain fixed everything for me. I added the glass knob too. You know me and hardware. I found the matching lamps at the same antique store I found the frame. This was my splurge! I even had to go home and sleep on it for a night or two before I bought them. I couldn’t get them out of my mind and we all know what that means. They had my name written on them. I have not regretted this purchase once. They are nice heavy duty lamps that I will not get sick of.

I decided to keep it simple on the table top and reuse what I already had.

I ripped the covers off a few of my old books. I had to think twice about that. I really like the look, but once you do that it’s a done deal. Old books are hard to come by sometimes and they aren’t cheap anymore. It was so worth it. I am TEMPTED to do this to all of them. Tempted. I ripped pages out of these same books and rolled them up inside the glass jar. Tied it with some vintage ribbon and it was complete.

I printed a new photo for this frame. I like the pop of turquoise. I LOVE that boy.

This was what I really wanted to share. It was the inspiration for this post. My Heritage Banner.

I have inherited so many old family photos. My family on my side as well as Casey’s side, knows how much I really do appreciate photos. I have collected these through out my married years. I used to have them framed through out my home, but when I re-did things recently I decided to make a statement with them all in one place. I usually have some type of banner or holiday accessory on this mirror. I really don’t like it when it is empty. Probably because I am so used to seeing something on it. This was the perfect place to display something like this. Everyone walks through here and everyone will see it. It also goes well with the vinyl words above the mirror.

I used some of my vintage ribbon I stocked up on during my last trip to McKinney. I hot glued each end to the mirror and then used small clothes pins I bought at Hob-Lob to clip the photos in place.

I added this photo of the Salt Lake Temple that Andrea took a long time ago. Casey and I were married here. That is where our family started. Temples represent Eternal Families. Even though not all of our ancestors are members of the church, temple work is what will bring us all back together again. This photo completes my Heritage Banner. (If you have any questions about Temples please ask).

And this view completes my virtual tour of our entryway.

The End.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

A recipe but not for something edible.

2011-09-08T00:25:00.000-05:00

This week we have gotten on a much better routine. We are enjoying school and everything that comes with it as well as the amazing fall weather. It is about time for us! Although we have had no rain and LOTS of fires (not close by, but close enough) the fall weather is here and it is making me so happy. So happy that I felt like tackling a project for Ady that should have happened a long time ago. I had been meaning to do this with her all summer, but it just didn’t happen.

What is this “thing”?

Playdough!

It is such a simple thing really, but it wasn’t “simple” for me until this week. This girl needs to be entertained with something that holds her attention for a very long time. She gets bored easily and wants to move on to the next thing quickly. She loves playing with my jewelry, taking each piece on and off over and over again and the boys Legos. Yes. Their itty-bitty, teeny-tiny Lego pieces will entertain her forever. Why don’t they make girl Lego sets? Do they and I just don’t know about it?

Anyway, playdough had the same effect on her.

I knew she would love it.

Drew was home sick Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I don’t think he minded being home.

In fact, I actually really miss him when he’s gone. He is truly my buddy. Oh…and he helps entertain Ady. :) That’s a bonus.

Look at Ady’s cute little hands. My girlfriend Sara did glitter toes and fingernails when she had her one day. They bonded. Ady has shown every. single. person her fingers for the last week.

I put placemats down on the table to help with the mess. I had to tape them down because Drew was complaining they were moving when he was using the rolling pin.

I’m really not a fan of playdough. At least not the kind you buy at the store. It dries up and crumbles way to easy and ends up all over the floor. Yuck! I have used a homemade recipe for the last couple of years and it has changed everything! I wish I knew about this when Kaylee and Jake were little. I just put up with the other kind because I thought I had to.

I learned a new trick at the Children’s Museum a couple of weeks ago. They put glitter in it. Who would have thought? Well, maybe you might have, but that thought did not cross my mind. It is so fun! You can kind of see it in the picture below, but it doesn’t do it justice.

Did you look really hard?

I had the small Martha Stewart flakes on hand and I think the chunkier flakes would have made a huge difference. You could still tell though. When the big kids got home from school they flocked right to the playdough and commented on how “sparkly” it was.

There well definitely be more afternoons like this.

Playdough

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1 Tbsp. Oil

1/4 cup salt

Food coloring

2 Tbsp. cream of tartar

Mix flour, salt and cream of tartar. Set aside. In saucepan over medium heat, combine water, food coloring and oil. Cook to a boil. Add dry ingredients to mixture and cook on low until dough starts to pull away from sides of pan.

Knead until cool. It will be warm at first. Store in plastic bag and place it in a container that can be sealed. It does not need to be refrigerated and it will last about a month.

If you need a Playdough recipe give this one a try. It is SUPER easy. Your kids will think you’re awesome and you will have a peaceful afternoon.

My Summer Fave’s

2011-09-07T23:13:00.001-05:00

Still catching up on a little bit of summer journaling. This one goes way back to the beginning of our summer. Casey took Ady on a plane ride with him. He went to Utah over Fathers Day weekend to visit his family, namely his FATHER. Ady was still free to fly and everyone always wants to see her so he packed her up for the trip and hauled her away. He really is super dad incase you’re wondering…and he’s all mine.

I would be having a panic attack right about now, anticipating Ady’s behavior on a plane ride where her freedom is completely taken away, she has to behave and there are people around who would like to enjoy their quiet in a confined space. My girl is as free spirited as they come. They even flew first class! All went well and hopefully all goes well for me in October when I do the same thing to visit my family.

This just happened to be one of my favorite weekends. I was able to do something that I don’t get to do very often. I thoroughly enjoyed my grown up kids and took them on grown up outings.

We went to our favorite pizza joint. Grimaldi’s. They have the best, REAL pizza ever. This isn’t an all the time event so they knew they were loved when I agreed to take them. Way better than Chic-fil-A or McDonald’s.

They bring out pizza dough for the kids to play with. It is their favorite.

Doesn’t this make you hungry?

I think this is going to have to be our next date night.

We ate a ton and still had some leftover. I planned that btw…ordered more so we could have lunch the next day. :)

And of course soda to go with our pizza. I think it’s funny that Kaylee and Jake order Diet Coke when we go out. Casey drinks Diet and I drink regular. I always wonder what the waiter thinks when my kids order Diet and their mom gets the real deal.

After that we went to see a movie. I don’t even remember what we saw. I think it might have been Kung Fu Panda. I just remember how much fun I had with these 3. I could listen to everything they were saying with out getting interrupted, or thinking of something else, or preparing myself mentally for what Ady was going to do next. Which btw, I think sometimes I might make Ady seem like a total terror, hahaha…which she is, BUT only because she is seriously so FULL of it! She is hilarious and so incredibly busy and curious and FAST. She is the definition of spunk. Everyone who is with her for even a day knows exactly what I’m talking about. I love her to pieces and there is no other child like her. I am laughing right now just thinking about her. But let’s face it…she rules the roost around here and a lot of times the other kids have to fend for themselves out of necessity. Which is fine because they learn so much that way, but they also get lost in the shuffle. It was really fun to have a long weekend to hang out with Kaylee. Jake. and Drew. I felt like I got to know them as my individual children all over again instead of the oldest, the middle and the almost baby. I love them each so much and I am so grateful for all of the different elements they bring to our family.

One of my other favorite things I want to remember from the summer is reading. I think it would be safe to say it was the kids’ favorite too. We took outings to the library every other week. They never could go through all of the books they checked out in one week, so every other week was good. They loved this, especially Ady. At the beginning of the summer I always choose a chapter book for us to read together at night. This year we chose the Boxcar Children. This was the BIGGEST hit! I have even enjoyed it. They were so cute and would get so excited about it every evening. We always read in the boys room. They have a special reading chair and light. Each night they would get it all set up for me. And each night they would beg me to read just ONE more chapter! Sometimes I would give in. :) There are so many books in the Boxcar Children Series. They have convinced me to keep reading throughout the school year. I think they are going to make sure we finish them. Fun times!

Around Here {Gallery Walls}

2011-09-06T09:47:00.001-05:00

First of all, thank you for all of your thoughtful comments and encouragement on my last post. It’s always nice to be reminded that we aren’t alone and everyone has similar struggles. I am feeling much better. Sometimes it just helps to get thoughts out of my mind and on “paper”. It is therapy all on its own. We had a great Labor Day Weekend. I hope you all did! Ours included Kaylee having a bestie sleep over, an afternoon of errand running, a lemonade stand, and tackling our 72 hour kits. There was also a nice big bonus for me.

My husband spoiled me a little bit…ok, A LOT. He had a voucher to try this new hotel in town. It was equipped with a pool (of course) a splash pad and a breakfast buffet. So he took the kids Sunday after church and stayed until mid afternoon on Monday…and left me home alone. That is some HUGE therapy! I enjoyed lots and lots of quiet. I didn’t turn the T.V. or the radio on once. I didn’t even think about it. I read a lot, organized a lot and finished up some random little projects…and I did not clean once! He understands how much time alone is soothing to me and can fix so many things. It gave me time to miss my kids and appreciate my family all over again. I am so, so blessed!

Onto my post…

This post is a two for one. Two gallery walls to share in one post. One of my favorite boards on Pinterest is my Gallery Walls. I love how creative they can be and the rule is: anything goes! There are so many different types of gallery walls out there. You can choose a theme; empty frames, quotes, prints, family photos, clocks, mirrors,or a mix of all of them and whatever randomness you can think of. There are also so many ways to display them; it can take up the space of one entire wall, it can be a small collage, they can go from the floor up to the ceiling, it can include all the same size frames or it can have all different sized frames. It can be in a random mix-match placement or in a very streamlined and organized placement. Once again: anything goes! It is one of my favorite ways to decorate my walls. I have a love for frames and photos anyway, but this helps to mix it up and put a spin on things.

I thought I would share two walls in my home that I have been meaning to share for a really long time. This is the wall you see when you open the door to the half bath downstairs.

I had the large rectangle frame already in this bathroom. On my list for awhile was to add frames to this and make a new gallery wall. This summer when I went to Arkansas to visit Andrea I knew I had to take advantage of the antiquing. They have the very best! I am always guaranteed to find what I am looking for. It is one of my favorite things! One afternoon Jonathan was kind enough to keep the big kids for us so we could get our “thrill” in. We both love to dig for treasures. I came home with everything I needed to finish my wall.

I added the mirror and silhouette for my little bit of random. The silhouette was 4.99 and the mirror was on sale for 18.00 A little pricier than I would have liked to spend, but it is a really heavy, nice old mirror and definitely worth the price. I found all of the other frames there as well. All at the same store. I love when that happens. I also love when I can hang it all up in 10 min. because it all just worked together.

The next one is my kids bathroom upstairs. I guess the theme of my gallery wall post today is bathrooms? Not very glamorous. Who wants to look at a toilet? Sick. I will try to not show one very often.

This is the Jack and Jill bathroom that connects the boys room with Kaylee’s. This bathroom has always been a struggle for me because you see it from both of their rooms. Well, Kaylee’s room has very different colors than the boys room, so how do you make that work?

WHITE!

That is the answer. They have an all white bathroom and I absolutely love it. Well, it’s all white with pops of two different shades of green. The green is what ties it to Kaylee’s room and the white is what keeps it neutral enough for the view from the boys room.

Here is what I’m talking about. (Please ignore how awful the green looks on Kaylee’s walls. I had the lighting focused on the bathroom wall and it made her paint color look a bit CrAzY.)

This is the view from Kaylee’s room.

This is the view from the boys’ room.

White solved all of my problems!

Back to the gallery wall. This wall was inspired by one of Andrea’s posts. In fact, when she came to visit last January we whipped this room right up. It is still one of my fave’s.

This wall has a theme of phrases; bathroom and children related.

It has all different sizes and types of frames. Most of which I had. I bought 3 wooden frames in the craft section at Walmart and painted them white.

The phrases are:

Comb your hair

I love you. No, I love you. I love you more. No, I love you more.

Dare to be Different

Brush your teeth

You are my Sunshine

Wash your hands

Love is spoken here

Just a few ideas. Have fun with a gallery wall in your home. Get creative and make up your own rules. I love how they turn out and how many options there are. I also love an all white room. I was so nervous about it at first, but I have enjoyed it every day since then. Take a risk!

Back to School – 2011 (and a little rambling from me)

2011-09-02T16:30:00.001-05:00

I have been quiet on this blog lately. I don’t even know where to begin. So much has been swarming around in my mind for the last couple of months. I am trying to figure things out as a mama and all of the different roles I play right now. It’s really never ending. Once I get it figured out I have to figure it out all over again. WHY does it have to be like that??? I have been working on finding a good schedule and routine that really works for my busy family. I have to be honest and say that I have been struggling A LOT lately. Life is so hard and so, so busy. Too busy. It is such a challenge to spread myself so thin all over the place and juggle it all while trying to do my very best at each thing and be there for everybody. I can’t do it all anymore and I am not going to try. I am going to prioritize. I have been doing lots of list making and goal setting and priority changing. I have been cleaning and organizing EVERYTHING under the moon in hopes to simplify our life…in our home as well as the activities that we are each involved in. I have so many loves in life and hobbies that I can’t imagine giving up, but I honestly don’t have time for it all. I feel like life is one big circle with different tasks changing all the time and when I focus on a certain area, other things that are also important, get neglected. Even though I don’t like that fact, it’s ok, because that’s life. I am just trying to wrap my head around it and weed out unnecessary things so I can use my time where it matters most. Each day where I put my time might be different than it was the day before…and something else will get neglected, but that is ok.

My kids love extra curricular activities and they are successful at them, but this year we needed to switch it up a bit. Kaylee was in year round swim last year and she had practice every day. While we didn’t go everyday, it was still a huge commitment and a huge chunk of time. We re-evaluated and decided to take the fall off. We will see how things look in January and maybe she will start then. Last year the boys were both playing fall baseball (while Kaylee was swimming). We had 2 games a week and 2 practices each (at least). This year the boys decided they wanted to give football a try. So we found a league where they have practice for one hour on Saturday mornings and the game is right after that. Now we only have a small commitment on Saturdays. I am hoping that this will leave us more time for family dinners (or dinner at all) and more patient parenting from us rather than barking orders here and there as we are rushing to the next thing.

That is just a small part of what has kept life so busy, but we I am trying to simplify ALL areas and keep my family home a little more often. I know that soon my kids are going to grow up and plan their own schedules and activities and that is ok too, but right now and for this school year, I feel like it is important for us to teach them to slow down a little bit. I want them to know that we value our time together as a family and that the heart of our family is at HOME. I feel like now more than ever that is something we have to fight for…for our families and for togetherness. I also know that I am going to have to be mindful of that every day and that every day I am going to have to make the best decisions on how our time is spent. We just can’t do it all and it is ok to say no.

Which leads the topic to me. I have my hands involved in so many things; managing my family and our home (which is HUGE), church callings, blogging, photography, projects, staying connected with friends and family, being involved at school and the list goes on. We all do. They are all SUCH good things but when I’m not eating, or sleeping or exercising because I am trying to do ALL of them at the same time, that is a red flag. Something needs to change.

BUT, I am not going to give them up. They are each a part of who I am. I am, however, going to take the pressure off myself and do those extra things when it works. Journaling has always been important to me and it is something I want to make more time for, but I can’t do it when my family is hungry and I need to go to the grocery store and my kids are complaining that they have no clean clothes to wear and my house is a disaster and Ady is screaming that she wants to go swimming and she has mascara painted all over her face and I am exhausted and blah, blah, blah. Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks to catch up from that!!! Which has been the case for me. I thought for sure once school was back in session life would be smooth. I would have so much time to do all of these extra things, but that has not been the case. It has taken me this long just to recover from summer and get organized again.

This post really wasn’t supposed to be about me at all. I felt like I needed to keep it real though. This is my journal and I think down the road my kids need to know that I had a hard time keeping it all together and that being a mom is really hard. That it is the hardest thing I will probably ever do.

It is rewarding everyday moments and milestones like this (a new school year) that I want to document for my family. I want them to know that they are worth the time it took for me to record a memory and some photos…even when my journaling might be sporadic.

The kids were so excited for the first day of school. I can’t believe how grown up they look in this picture. I also can’t believe that I have a fifth grader, third grader and kindergartner!

It has been really fun to have all 3 of them at the same school. This is the only year I am going to be able to enjoy that. Next year Kaylee will be in intermediate school and probably too old for me to even snap photos like these. She was so ready to get to her class by the time we had dropped Jake and Drew off. I was lucky to get these photos. You can tell in the last one that she is so wishing I wasn’t there. hahaha…

I just love her. I was more sad to see her go to 5th grade than I was to see Drew go to Kindergarten. That was unexpected for me. Kindergarten is such a milestone and I was prepared for tears to come for Drew, but I was not for Kaylee. When I came home I was most sad about leaving her behind.

Jake cracked me up because he was so eager to get to his class and get started. He knew exactly where his desk was, sat down and started working. Jake is such a good student and REALLY loves learning.

He has the same 3rd grade teacher as Kaylee did. That has been the story each year for him. We are really excited about that. Mrs. Juneau received the teacher of the year award in our school district when Kaylee was her student. She is awesome and so much fun!

Oh Drew! My sweet little Kindergartner. He was excited about his big day, but definitely more nervous and not sure what to expect. I can tell by look on his face. He looks a little more reserved, which is so unlike him.

He decided at the last minute to ride the bus home with the big kids instead of having me pick him up. After I dropped Kaylee and Jake off I had to go to the office to get him a wrist band for the bus. I was glad because I was able to come back and spend a little more time in his class room. I snapped a few more photos and watched him say the Pledge of Allegiance. It brings back so many memories!

I hope my kids have a fun and memorable year at school. I know they will. I also hope that I can manage our home and schedules better this year and not lose my mind. A girl can dream…

P.S. To read about my latest photography adventure go here.

Monday is a big day…

2011-08-22T01:13:00.001-05:00

It is way too late right now on Sunday night. I am feeling a little bit delirious actually. Too many late nights in a row, which isn’t the best way to prepare for my kids first day of school. I have been up printing cute lunch box notes that I’ve found on Pinterest and working on laundry, since my kids need things for tomorrow and I have waited until the very last minute. Of course.

Before I go to bed though, I wanted to take a quick minute to journal about Drew. It is his first day of Kindergarten tomorrow! I am so excited for him, even though he is so nervous. He worries about friends and not being able to tie his shoes perfectly and being gone from home for so long. All normal kid things. I worry about him being gone for so long too. Here, Kindergarten is all day. It is such a long day for those little ones! I am preparing myself for meltdowns before dinner, but I know he will adjust quickly. I am sad he is growing up. He has always been my baby. Even though I have Ady, Drew is still my baby. He is the one who likes to cuddle and needs lots of extra loves. I have always enjoyed that about him.

He did a lot of growing up this summer, which makes me feel confident that he is ready for this next step.

He lost two teeth. One of them was loose for a couple of weeks. He wouldn’t let anyone touch it, even though we told him it would come right out and then he would be so glad it was gone. He wouldn’t even twist it around and loosen it up on his own. Finally one day Jake and Drew were playing ball and the ball flew at Drew’s face, hitting his mouth and out came his tooth! He was pleasantly surprised and we were all so glad that ordeal was over. He got his tooth and a letter all set up for the tooth fairy that night. Well, the tooth fairy never came…gasp!!! It is true. (Yes, we completely forgot.) The tooth fairy was so busy and Drew had another tooth that was loose and ready to come out at any second, so the tooth fairy decided to be efficient and come one time. We told Drew that if you have more than one loose tooth the tooth fairy won’t come until she can collect them all at once. It did the trick and that very same night Drew had two teeth to put under his pillow. This time the tooth fairy delivered. :)

He has this blanket that he absolutely loves. He has been attached to it since he was only a couple months old. So attached that even at that age he could not sleep with out it. He actually would suck on it like a binkie. He would have this whole routine he would do to snuggle up with it and go to sleep or watch a movie. I can picture it in my head. I think I will always remember it. Anyway, his blankie has gotten so old and so worn out. I would wash it several times a week and still just by looking at it you would barely want to touch it.

It used to have fringies around the edges but he cut them off. It is covered with holes by being loved on so much. It has been time to get rid of it for quite awhile. About a year ago when his grandma came to visit, we decided to try and persuade him to replace this one for another one. We took him to the fabric store and let him pick out whatever fleece print he wanted. We came home and made him another blanket. He still didn’t want anything to do with it. It has sat in his drawer pretty much untouched.

Until recently. I was cleaning his room a couple of weeks ago and found his old blanket in the garbage and his new one on his bed. It took my breath away and I was so confused. A little heartbroken too actually. I thought for sure someone was playing a trick on him by throwing his blanket away because there was no way HE would ever do that! I told him that I found his blanket in the garbage and he said, “I know. I don’t want it anymore.”

Me: “Oh. So you decided to throw it away?”

Drew: “Yep.”

And that was that. I took it out of the garbage and washed it. I saved it in the back of his closet in case he freaked out once he realized what he had done. But it’s a done deal. He doesn’t need his blankie anymore. He has moved on to bigger and better things. My heart is a little bit broken. :( More than anything though, I am so excited to see what this year has in store for him and what he thinks about it. He is so good at communicating and explaining how he feels. He says the cutest things and speaks from the heart. I love that about him and hope that quality will only grow with him.

Alphabet Summer {Letter W}

2011-08-18T09:47:00.001-05:00

We had a water day! My girlfriend Tami and I took our kids to a new splash pad down the street from us.

It turned into a bowling party.

We brought water bottles for the kids to drink and they started using them as any sort of toy they could think of. They would put the empty ones on top of the water fountains and watch them shoot into the air. Fun times and great free entertainment.

I usually enjoy being HOME with my kids during the summer, but this year some of our best memories have been our weekly outings. It’s been so much fun and a great change of pace to meet friends at the pool, the Children’s Museum, McDonald’s when it’s raining, a trip to the beach, family outings to Splash Town and to the library.

You would think it would be harder to go places with 4 kids, but actually it is much easier to keep up with Ady when we are NOT home. When we are out, she is entertained with the one thing she is supposed to be entertained with…our outing. Not every obnoxious household item she seems to be constantly entertained with at home. It definitely takes a village to raise this child! Ughhhh…that is an entirely different post! Anyway, I have come to realize that routines change every summer. Some things work from previous summers and others don’t. It all depends on where each of us are in life and what my children’s interests are. But no matter what, there are always memories to be cherished.

A Birthday Party for Kaylee

2011-08-13T12:58:00.001-05:00

You should be forewarned that this is a really long post. There are so many details to share.

In July we celebrated Kaylee’s 10th birthday. She had a kitchen themed party. She helped me plan the whole thing.

We started out in the pizza station. One of Kaylee’s favorite meals are her daddy’s homemade calzones.

Each place setting had a silver cake tray along with their plate and napkins. They used the silver tray to roll out their dough. That way it wouldn’t stick to the table cloth.

I had glass containers out for all of the pizza toppings.

And of course her fave…Dr. Pepper.

We used the frozen package of Rhodes Bread. It was easy prep. Each loaf was cut into thirds.

It was the perfect size for them to handle on their own and plenty big for one serving.

The toppings were loaded up, the top of the bread was folded over, pinched shut and put in the oven to bake.

Casey was a huge help with this, plus Kaylee loved that her dad was helping with her party.

While the calzones were baking, it was time to move to the baking center.

The girls each had an apron tied to their chair. I had the moms RSVP with their daughters favorite color. We just did simple white aprons and then embellished them with the chosen color. This was one of their party favors.

This one is Kaylee’s tied to her birthday chair. (As a side note: this chair was free. A couple of days before her party my neighbor had this chair and another one sitting out for the garbage man to get. I snatched them up. It was already painted green and perfect. I have painted the other one a fire engine red. Now we have a girl and boy birthday chair and two new photography props.)

Each place setting also had a chefs hat (their other party favor) a silver tray (with a lip on it so the sprinkles wouldn’t roll all over the floor) and their paper goods.

I baked sugar cookies ahead of time in 3 different size of circles. They made their own birthday cake cookie by decorating and stacking them.

The party girls worked hard.

Here are some details of the table decor and what the girls used to decorate their cookies.

They had lots of fun and got so creative!

After they ate their calzones it was time to open presents…

and blow out the candles.

Each of the girls got one of Kaylee’s candles and made wishes together.

Here are a couple more party decorations. While Kaylee and I were preparing for her party she kept asking me over and over what decoration was my favorite. I never could decide but she always chose the cupcake garland.

Her other favorites were the fresh Gerber Daisies on the shelf and the centerpiece of the table.

This was such a fun way to celebrate Kaylee’s birthday. She and her friends are old enough to know their way around the kitchen and do things on their own while still enjoying a creative outlet. My favorite part of the whole thing was spending time with Kaylee planning it. We gathered ideas from my Birthday Party board on Pinterest together and shopped late into the night and spent a couple of days putting it all together. She has an eye for detail and appreciates pretty things. We speak the same language. :)

Linking up to:

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Alphabet Summer {Letter I}

2011-08-09T16:26:00.001-05:00

Alphabet Summer would not be the same with out our usual Indoor Campout. Letter I is always the same. It’s a summer tradition.

This is a must for the kids and it stays up for days. They pull one of the laptops under the table and watch movies. They play board games, read books and eat lots of snacks. It’s fun times for them. I think this will be one of their treasured summer memories as a child. I hope so anyway.

After this one finally got cleaned up. They moved the party upstairs to the game room and made a fort out of the ENTIRE room. No photo of that, but lets just say I am glad it was upstairs and not downstairs. They have pretty much ruled this household all summer. Which is why I think I have dove into my own projects the past couple of weeks. I have to feel in control of something! They are having fun making a mess and so am I…mostly because I know some sort of calmness will return in the next couple of weeks. Until then…my kids are busy making memories!

4th of July {postscript}

2011-08-03T18:21:00.001-05:00

Yes. I am posting about the 4th of July in August. I am long overdue with this post. I always feel bad when I want to post something and it’s way past the fact. Usually I just don’t post, but that is when I need to remember the timing of a post really doesn’t matter. If I’m late that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t post about it. Especially since I’m always late. :)

This is what I am thinking:

1. I want to take the time to remember the good things. It distracts me from the things in life that aren’t so good. :) This is the whole reason I started blogging in the first place.

2. Let’s be real. It is taking the place of scrapbooking for me. I would love to scrapbook, I really would, but I can’t seem to find the time. So this is where I record and document our family happenings so that when I actually do get around to scrapbooking (and I will) I will remember what happened and how I felt about it.

3. It would be really unpatriotic of me not to show pride for our country and share our 4th of July celebrations.

4. I want to remember so many things, big and small about members of our family, activities, decorating and all things I love, so instead of questioning myself and worrying about the timing and wondering if people will really care to know this fact or that about us I am going to post it if it is important to me. That is the one rule for my blog. I just decided. If it is important to me and I want to remember it, then I am posting it.

5. So… that means I am going to be back tracking a lot. I am going to try to stay current with things, but when I get the chance I am going to go back and share some of our summer memories. This summer has flown by and we have been so incredibly busy that I haven’t had time to record it.

Alright. Enough about that. On to the 4th of July. :)

I actually decorated for the 4th. I think this was the first time ever. We are never home for the holiday. We are usually vacationing in Utah. The one time we were here I was pregnant with Ady and Kaylee was getting baptized so it was the last thing on my mind. Anyway, it was fun!

My friends Sara and Christian were in town house hunting. We spent lots of time with them. We started the day off with a Parade down Market Street.

I think we were CrAzY! I think everyone else there had lost their minds too. It was SO dang hot and it was only 9:00 in the morning. I seriously was sweating like I never had before. Too much information, I know, but let me just tell you it did not feel good. And we were not in a shady spot either. We tried our best to stay slightly shaded and hydrated. When I think about the parade, the heat is the one thing that comes to my mind. Which is why I am thankful I have photos because it really was fun and patriotic…but I’m hoping we won’t be here next year (wink, wink).

The boys loved this truck of course.

There was a stream of colorful Volkswagen Bugs that went by. Old and new.

This cute one said “Our American dream is Peace.”

That is what Kaylee’s tattoo said also.

They threw out sunglasses and beads, dum dums and popsicles.

Not even halfway through the parade, Ady spilt my entire Coke all over Sara! Can you imagine being super hot and sweaty and then having a sticky drink spilt all over you? Gross! Of course Sara was so sweet about it and we ended up laughing after the shock of it, but I felt awful. I’m hoping Ady was saying sorry in this photo even though it was after the fact. It’s a good thing she is so stinkin’ cute! It has saved her life several times.

She was obsessed with her sunglasses.

It was no Murray Parade where they throw out TONS of candy and the weather is perfect, for the most part. But it was fun.

We made our own memories. I love the black and white photo of Drew. His expressions (or lack of) make me laugh.

The rest of the day was spent birthday shopping for Kaylee and Drew. I had just gotten home from Arkansas a couple of days ago and didn’t have time to get that done or even think about it. Kaylee’s birthday being the day after the 4th with Drew’s following a couple days later is always a little tricky. We knocked that out and then came home to throw a BBQ together. It was pretty much a crazy and hot day. That evening we went to the pool to unwind where I ended up falling asleep on the lounge chair! Lots of fun I was. They banned fireworks this year. It had been so hot with no rain. I have to say that it was kind of weird to not end the day with a big boom. A little untraditional, but what do you do!?

You make memories with your family anyway. :)

The Big Reveal…the dining room

2011-07-29T14:36:00.001-05:00

Are you ready??? I know it has taken me FOREVER to get these photos posted. I got sucked in and just kept going. I’m on a roll around here. Since my last post I have switched things around in the office and the entry way and now I am in the middle of the family room, which has involved paint. I will have to share photos of it all soon. I don’t know why I am nesting like this. I told my sister the other day that I was nesting for her. She is having a baby in the next week and I haven’t gotten to see her pregnant once during this whole pregnancy! That’s what happens when we live far away.

Anyway, I am ripping my house apart. I am purging, organizing, decorating and deep cleaning every room, one room at a time. I have to say that it feels so good. I haven’t played like this in my house in a really long time. I have started plenty of projects, but haven’t finished them and now is the time!

Ok. Now for the real reason of this post. Here is the dining room before:

Red, red and more red.

Here is the after:

I am in love.

I try to find any reason at all to come to the front of the house just so I can get a glimpse of it.

I am not a blue person at all so I took a risk with the color. Taking risks is scary but it pays off. I was ready to switch up my pallet a bit. Actually these photos make the color look really blue but in real life it doesn’t look quite this brilliant.

When you are in the room the color looks more like the next few photos. Which is what I was going for.

Grey with a blue undertone. The color is Homberg Gray by Sherwin Williams.

I really didn’t have to buy much for this room. I had the white plates already. I love the clean and simple look of this wall.

I love the simple centerpiece of white flowers. I already had the vase but purchased the flowers at Hobby Lobby.

The curtains were in this room before. I still love them and did not want to replace them. Curtains are my nemeses. I hate shopping for them and I hate making them. I wanted them to be a part of my neutral color scheme.

The chandelier was a MUST! It totally makes the room for me. Actually every single thing makes the room for me, but it would not be the same with out this piece. I looked all over and I had a price range for myself which of course makes it tricky with chandeliers, but I found this one at Lowes. It is perfect.

I had all of these frames as well. I took the large one down from above my fireplace, since it is getting a makeover of its own. Then I hunted the house for some other frames. I had antique family photos in most of them. I took them out and did something different them, which I will have to share soon because I love the idea of it. Anyway, I had the silver platter in this room before. I like the silver and gold together. I have a lot of warm tones through out my house and I am trying to mix some cool tones in with them. Lets not forget about the trim that Casey put up for me. We should have had this in the room a long time ago!

I think it worked perfectly in here! My favorite part is how simple and timeless it is.

If you want to see my inspiration photos, scroll down to the next post. Pinterest is awesome…seriously!

Right Now…

2011-07-25T00:48:00.001-05:00

We are in a huge mess over here. You could call us the Weekend Warriors. Our dining room is getting a makeover. I couldn’t handle it another day.

Let’s just say I am sick of red. Or at least this much red.

Casey put trim around the bottom half of the room. He is just starting to paint the top in this photo.

This mess isn’t even driving me crazy because I know it will be so worth it. Everytime I have walked by this room for the last year at least I feel antsy. Like I am ready to rip it apart and start over, but I had no motivation to dive into a project and no inspiration that made me giddy. This week I finally decided I just needed to do it already! I searched for inspiration and thought long and hard about what I wanted.

Here are my inspiration photos. (Not the one on the left, the one on the right.)

and this one.

I am in love. These rooms make me feel so happy and peaceful. It is the timeless look I had in mind.

Now you have to wait and see the after. It’s not done yet. I can’t wait to finish it!

Alphabet Summer {Letter M}

2011-07-24T11:02:00.001-05:00

Thursday last week was letter M for our Alphabet Summer. We went to the Mall and rode the Merry Go Round.

The Merry Go Round is really such a small and simple thing that the kids usually get told “No” to every time we go. So they thought this was extra nice of me.

Also while at the mall (not pictured) we visited the pet store, played on the playground, walked through some of the kids favorite stores where the boys bought new matching flip flops and Kaylee bought herself a new back pack. The trip to the mall was inspired because Kaylee got a gift certificate for some feathers to be put in her hair for her birthday. She invited her friend to share in the day and they had tons of fun. They went to their “own” favorite stores while I was close by in other stores. They thought they were so grown up and talked about how much fun it will be to go to the mall by themselves and shop. I remember those days. They are some of my favorite memories. Sadly, that time isn’t far away for her. It is such a bitter-sweet thing for a mom!

Anyway, we ended the mall with some lunch (and a HUGE meltdown by little Miss Ady) and came home to finish our letter M. The kids wrote letters and put them in the Mail.

Some peeps are going to be surprised!

I think I will share letter I next. That was a fun day. :)

Incase you are wondering…these photos were taken with my iPhone and edited with the instagram app. I think I am going to do this more often for little things. It was so nice not to carry my big camera with me and only spend one minute editing 6 photos. Nice!!

Drew’s Day

2011-07-18T12:24:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday was Drew’s Birthday. He turned 6 years old. All day I kept thinking and saying he was 4! I asked everyone if we had 4 candles for Drew’s cake. They all thought I lost my mind…and maybe I did! I still think of him as my little 4 year old though. I think I am in denial that he is going to Kindergarten this year. Ahhhhh….

He had a special day. It went something like this:

Good Morning Drew.

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Time for Breakfast.

He requested Skinny Pancakes. I think the milk mustache is proof that he loved it.

He got dressed and ready and then it was time to open presents.

Mom and Dad knew what the gifts were, so we planned on opening them early in the day. It was going to be our entertainment all day.

I love Drew’s look of excitement when he sees what it is, followed by Jake’s excitement.

The two Lego sets he had been asking for. That was the theme of our day. Legos. They played all day long.

Kaylee and I were busy in the kitchen. (She is quite the helper and party planner. More to come about that.)

We made and decorated a Lego cake and lined the table runner with things they had made that day.

The boys didn’t think the cake was decorated enough.

They switched things up and added more until it looked like this.

It was quite the masterpiece.

Time blow out the candles.

Drew’s dinner request was Shells and Tree’s, Ham and Cheese. It’s one of his favorites. I’ll have to share the recipe sometime.

At his request, we ended the day with a trip to the snow cone shack.

The End.

Happy 6th Birthday Drew!

Alphabet Letter { L }

2011-07-15T00:11:00.001-05:00

We are going strong with our letters for Alphabet Summer. Yesterday we did the letter L. Our dining room has had Legos all over the place for the entire week, but yesterday was officially Lego day. The kids are trying to get featured in the Lego magazine. They have worked hard, but they still have lots more to do. I have a feeling that this is taking the place of puzzles from previous summers.

The kids took a break from Legos long enough to meet dad for Lunch at our family favorite, Freebirds.

After lunch I bribed the kids to stay outside for some play time with big Lollipops.

It has been so hot that the only time they even go outside is to go to the pool. It worked like a charm, even if it was only for a little bit. It was nice to be outside for awhile.

We have also done the letters, A, B, G,H,I, N and V. I will share more soon. :)

Double Digits

2011-07-12T17:32:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Kaylee’s birthday last week. She turned the big TEN. It’s crazy for me to think that I have a daughter in the double digits! That’s serious stuff. It means that whether I realize it or not, I am in the thick of raising my family. It means that I need to have a game plan and be prepared for these teenage years that are going to come much to quickly. It also means that I need to enjoy her every day and treat her like the sweet princess she is. That really isn’t very hard to do because she makes life pretty sweet (most of the time).

Happy Birthday Kaylee!

We have a tradition of breakfast in bed on your birthday. The kids love this, so do I. The night before her birthday, Casey blew up some balloons and I snuck into her room and scattered them all over while she was sleeping. I thought it would be a fun surprise. This should tell her how much I really love her because I HATE balloons. It drives me batty how the kids act around them, but it was worth it. A couple days later we had a balloon popping party.

Her breakfast request was chocolate chip muffins with a crumb topping, milk and I added the fruit, (cause that’s what good moms do, right?)

And little sisters are supposed to be obnoxious and get into your business.

I think we have the big sister, lil sister roles covered perfectly!

Then it was off to Cold Stone for lunch.

Yes. You read that right. We had Cold Stone for lunch. And that was it. Partially because I was trying to indulge everyone on a special day but also because I really didn’t want to make lunch when we got home.

The menu that night was her choice. She choose Cream Cheese Chicken in the crockpot with rice. The green beans were added by dad (‘cause that’s what good dad’s do, right?)

Then it was time for presents.

This year she got new shoes, a swim suit and cover up, a new shirt, head band, crazy socks, The game of Life, Just Dance 2 for the wii and birthday $.

We ended her day with cake and birthday wishes.

I think she had a pretty good day. :) Now we are in the middle of planning her birthday party that is this weekend. I really should be far past the planning stage and well into the doing stage, but I’m not. It’s going to be fun though. She’s super excited! I’ll keep you posted.

Catching up…a list

2011-07-10T00:33:00.001-05:00

Where have I been?

You may have been asking that question. But then again…maybe not! :) It has been a month since this poor blog and blogging world has heard from me. I can hardly believe I let myself get so far behind! Busy, busy, busy is about all I can say. So busy I can hardly catch my breath, but we have been having lots of fun. That is the important thing…although I am SOOOOOOOO ready to get into a routine, even if it is a summer routine! Here are some of the things we have been up to…incase you wondering.

In list format (that’s the way my brain thinks):

A couple of days after our summer break began Andrea and her family came to visit for a week. Berry picking, family photos, a massage, baseball game and shopping, LOTS of kids play time, outings to the pool, just to name a few things.

Ady went on a trip to Utah with her daddy for 4 days. It was over Fathers Day weekend but it really was more like a Mothers Day present to me! Awesome dad/husband, huh?

We wrapped up swim season. We now have 2 extra hours in the morning and Saturdays free.

We took a trip to Arkansas to visit Andrea and her family. It was just me and the kids. I drove myself there and back. Pretty proud of that. So glad I did too, because the trip was exactly what I needed, even if we did just see each other a week and half ago.

When we came home from Arkansas we had some very special visitors here. My friend Sara and her husband Christian were here house hunting for 10 days. We grew up together and were pretty much joined at the hip!! The kind of friendship where our parents seriously considered each of us the other daughter. We are so excited that they are moving here. Not only to Houston, but into the neighborhood and our ward!

Then we celebrated the 4th of July.

And then it was Kaylee’s birthday.

And today is Drew’s birthday!

So as you can see…I have been a tiny bit busy enjoying friendships and family celebrations.

But wait! There’s more…

I have been VERY busy dealing with the household craziness that comes with having 4 kids home for summer break. Ughhhh… is how I have been feeling most of the time. But I know that is about to change now that we have more free time and a summer routine to look forward to. We have so many fun things planned and I really can’t wait to get to it!

I have had 4 photo shoots this past month. Which might not sound like that much, but to me it is A LOT. I am loving it though. It is so rewarding. I’m just working on balancing all things which really is a never ending story. You can view two of my recent photo shoots here. I’m working on editing the other two. Check back soon.

Besides all of that I have been working on my photography portfolio. I have my photography page up and running on Facebook and I am so glad I did that. What a wonderful way to advertise.

Since I am on the topic of photography…I made the BIG change to CS5 and WOW! It is amazing. The best change ever!

AND…I am in the process of organizing and purging 1000+ photos I just took off my memory card. HUGE headache!

I also have been pinning…A LOT! What is not to love about Pinterest? It is easy, fun, addicting and creative. If you haven’t tried it yet you really should!!! You can find me here.

I had a fun surprise a couple of weeks ago when my friend Michelle e-mailed me and told me I had been featured on Tip Junkie! OK…what??? That was my thought. She sent me the link. I checked it out and sure enough there was a photo of Ady’s 1st Birthday. Second one from the top. So fun to see that!

So there is one month for me in a nutshell! I have so many things to catch up on. Since a post (for me anyways) isn’t complete without a picture, here is one of Drew. Since it is his birthday today and all. :)

I plan on getting caught up on this and so much more very, very soon!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Our Newest Swimmer

2011-06-09T13:59:00.001-05:00

Its that time of year again here in Texas. Swim Season. We are a family of swimmers and we love it. Kaylee swims year round, but at the end of spring, early summer swim team starts and it takes over our life. It’s a good thing it is such a family friendly activity and we all enjoy it because it is a huge commitment. Between the 3 big kids, we are at the pool for practices 2 hours each day and then meets every Saturday for half of the day. They do awesome and usually ribbon each meet so that is a bonus for them.

This year Drew joined the team. He is so stinkin’ cute I just want to smother him with kisses! He was so nervous at his first meet. The tent mom who is in charge of his age group taught him to clench his fists really tight and then let all the jitters go. He was so excited that it worked! He got over his nervousness and did great. We are so proud of him!

See? Don’t you just want to eat him up?!

The numbers on his arm are the events that he is swimming. He is in the freestyle relay and then he swims the backstroke and the freestyle individually. Did I tell you that we have over 300 kids on our swim team? It is HUGE, but we have an AMAZING, competitive team because of it.

Here he is getting ready to get in the water for his backstroke. He looks so teeny-tiny to get all the way across the pool.

He did it though with out getting disqualified and he even improved on his times.

I was timing and he just happened to be in my lane.

High five from mom.

I just love this boy!

The 6 and under kids get a ribbon at the end of every race with their time on it. They love this!

Great job Drew. You ROCK!

Our Summer To - Do List

2011-06-04T00:38:00.001-05:00

I did it! Our Summer List is framed and hanging on our laundry room door for all to see.

I took the idea from here and made it work for us (see post below for other links). The only thing I had to buy was the frame. I purchased mine from Target. I gathered up my scrapbook paper and chose about 6 different patterns that I liked together. They were 12x12 sheets of paper and the frame was 12 inches in width, so I cut the paper into 1 inch squares to fit across the frame. I used the paper that came with the frame as a template to glue all of my strips onto. I used my kids lined paper for the background of the header. I made my title in Photoshop and printed it on a scrap of one of the papers I used. I was planning on using some of my old scrapbooking embellishments, but my supply has ran out since I switched to digital. If you have some, this would be a fun place to use them. I also don’t have colored ink right now so I went with a black title, but I am happy with how it turned out. This was one project that I was not picky with and just enjoyed putting it together. Once I had all of my paper pieces glued on and inside my frame, I wrote out our list. I wrote on the glass because I want the kids to be able to check off the things we do. The only problem is, it isn’t glass, it is Plexiglas, so the ink doesn’t come off. It should come off with Windex if you are using real glass. I had to be very careful while writing because of this! I really don’t like my handwriting, but I’m over it. :)

I think it is such a fun summer addition! The kids love it and can’t wait to start marking things off.

As for the things on our list, I wrote all or our Alphabet Summer Activities (see post below for more details), some projects we (me) needs (wants) to finish and other summery things. Like:

Water balloon fights, sleeping in, family movie nights, tissue paper craft, making treats and dinners with mom, sleep- overs, pool trips, library trips, re-doing the game room, late nights, pick berries, scrapbook, go to the temple, celebrate Fathers Day, celebrate birthdays, read a chapter book together, play in sprinklers, exercise regularly, explore Old Town Spring, Children’s Museum, make birthday party gifts for next year, back to school shopping, organize food storage closet, go to Arkansas, Waterway Square, do a puzzle, 4th of July, have a picnic under the trampoline, print my 365 book, and have a bike wash.

We are ready to go!

We have survived our first day and a half of Summer. We have been to a 4th grade pool party, had a sleep over, taken Ady to the dr. because I thought she broke her wrist. She is fine but… is now in a big girl bed. Made a trip to the pool, eaten at Chic-fil-A, been to another pool party, went on a photo shoot, watched movies and still have had time to bicker, nag and tattle tale! Welcome Summer!!!! :)

Alphabet Summer

2011-06-01T15:15:00.001-05:00

So, the question is… Are you ready for Summer?

I am getting there.

I got all organized: cupboards cleaned out, lists made and arts and craft shopping done this past weekend, so I’m feeling less panicked. Now I just need to get to a stopping point with all of these other projects going on around me and then I will feel much better! I only have a day and a half left. Ahhhhhh! Who am I kidding…it’s not going to happen. Oh well. That’s the life of a mom. :)

Last year we did Alphabet Summer for the first time. The kids loved it so much and REQUESTED that we do it again, so we sat down this weekend and made up our list. Here it is:

A – Animal day – Read about your favorite animal, share some facts and then act them out.

B – Baking day with the letter ‘B’.

C – Craft – Make Cards – we are going to make birthday cards and thank you cards for the whole year. I’m trying to get prepared for birthday parties next year. Sometimes they can be a little overwhelming.

D – Dinosaur Museum

E – Eat anything for lunch. (we did this last year and they HAD to do it again this year. )

F – Ferry ride and Fossils – There is a ferry ride in Kima that we have never done and they want to make homemade fossils.

G – Game day

H – Hide ‘n’ Go Seek

I – Indoor Smores and Table Tent (another one we did last year that definitely made it to the list this year).

J – Jammie day

K – Kickball

L – Lunch with dad

M – Mail a letter

N – National Holiday – the 4th of July

O – Obstacle Course

P – Homemade Playdo and Popsicles

Q – Quantity Graph - (maybe with buttons and colors or something, haven’t decided yet).

R – Rock skipping contest/Rock out to Wii Sing It.

S – Snow Cones

T – Treasure Hunt

U – Uniform day – dress up and act it out.

V – Vacation

W – Wings for dinner and a trip to Hook airport to look at the “wings”.

X – Be eXtra nice this day (should be interesting).

Y – Yellow plate lunch - lunch on our special yellow plate and all things yellow. (also done last year).

Z – Zoo Pal picnic – make our own zoo pals

And there you have it! I am going to be totally flexible with this. We will probably do 2 letters a week in no particular order. Last year each of the kids had an Alphabet notebook. They would write the letter big and draw pictures around it that started with that letter and on the next page they would write a story about that letter. This year they will still write the letter and draw pictures, but instead of the story we are going to work on spelling. They will write as many words as they can think of, trying to spell them out all on their own. The ones they miss I will have them write 5 times. Kaylee has insisted that I reward them with stickers and a stamp on each page.

Deal.

Now I’m off to make this:

That is the one from last summer. Here is the one from this year. They have a free download.

I’ll let you know how it goes. :)

Around Here {Bathroom Decor.}

2011-05-29T23:28:00.001-05:00

This post is loooong overdue. I mentioned awhile back when my sil was here visiting, that we went shopping for one of the bathrooms upstairs. This is Ady’s bathroom but it is also a guest bathroom when friends and family come stay with us. My mil gave me birthday money to spend with this bathroom in mind. I have promised her photos forever and now I am keeping that promise. :)

Do you know how hard it is taking photos in a small bathroom without a window? TRICKY! Anyway, here is the bathroom tour. I should have taken before photos, but I was too excited to rip it all down that I forgot. It’s TOTALLY different though…just so ya know.

I love these vintage glass bottles. I had them in here before, just changed the ribbon.

I put scrapbook paper in picture frames.

This is the wall across from the shelf area. I have had this piece sitting in my closet for probably two years now waiting for the perfect place. I love it in here! The mirror was in my closet too, just waiting for some spray paint.

Here is a close up of the shower curtain. I love how calm and simple it is. My sil talked me into splurging on a little bling with the shower curtain rings and I am so glad I did. It’s the little details that finish something. ( Shower curtain and rings were purchased at Target.)

A few more details.

The End.

I hope you all are having a fabulous LONG holiday weekend!

Guest Posting…

2011-05-24T14:15:00.001-05:00

I am guest posting at Home by Heidi today!

So exciting! She asked me to share Jake’s Movie Themed birthday party. You long time readers have probably already seen this post, but for those of you new readers, go check it out! ALL of you…go check out Heidi’s blog. You will love it. Be prepared to be inspired!!!

P.S. Keep scrolling to see an ice cream centerpiece and to read about Casey’s Triathlon. :)

An Ice Cream Idea

2011-05-23T19:01:00.001-05:00

This is just an idea I thought I would share because it could be so versatile, especially during this time of year.

Last Tuesday for Activity Days we had an Ice Cream Sundae Party with the girls and their Mothers. We were celebrating Mother’s Day a week late. I was in charge of the centerpieces. I had 5 round tables from the church with white tablecloths. I took these photos at home, after the fact, since there was no time to take them there.

Aren’t they fun? I was really happy with the way they turned out. I bought the glass jars at Walmart for $3.00 each. I also bought tissue paper, brown and white polka-dotted ribbon and sugar cones. I made 3 pom poms from different colored tissue paper for each container(you can find tutorials on how to make these online anywhere. Just Google “tissue paper pom-poms”.) I made the red cherry for the top by rolling up tissue paper into a little ball.

I stacked the pom-poms on top of the cone to represent scoops of ice cream with a cherry on top. A tip: the pom-pom’s are a little wobbly, so I would dab a bit of hot glue to help stabilize them.

Since we were highlighting their Mothers at the party I made a tag in Photoshop that says “Moms Make Life Sweet.”

I liked the way it helped tie the whole party together.

I think I am going to save these and use them for Kaylee’s birthday party this summer. All I have to do is change the tag and make a new one to go with the theme of the party. There are so many different types of parties you could use this for, whether it’s a birthday party, an end of the school year party or just a summer party. Summer is the time for ice cream, right? If you need an Activity Day idea, you could always throw the girls a welcome to summer Ice Cream Party.

And just to highlight the rest of the party…

here is a real life photo of the girls in action.

They were in Heaven!

I had no time to take photos to highlight anything, but I did want to tell you an easy idea to label the toppings. One of the other leaders was in charge of the dessert. You can’t really see in the photo above, but she made labels for the toppings by cutting out the wrappers and sticking them onto cardstalk. I thought that was such an easy and inexpensive thing to do!

Summer is just around the corner!! Lots and lots of ice cream is coming our way!

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