my kids eat off the floor

Mom guilt

2012-01-30T19:42:00.003-07:00

Who has it?

Me!

It's just one of the many wonderful things I inherited from my mom!

And in this day and age of blogs and Pinterest, it's really easy to feel like everyone is the best at everything--except you.

Well, this is just to say, I am very far from the best, so there's that!

There is so much I feel like I fall short on as a mother: hair and general upkeep of my children, projects, arts and crafts, meaningful FHE lessons, nutritious and creative meals, and most of all, having fun and making quality time for my children. I want my kids to remember me as a fun mom--for their childhoods to be filled with laughter, silly games, and playtime.

Unfortunately, I am kinda sorta uptight. I used to be really good about saying yes to anything, as long as it didn't hurt or destroy anything. I don't know when that changed, but lately I feel like I spend all my time nagging the girls to clean up or following them around picking up clutter and never just enjoying my children. I have to constantly remind myself that toys can be picked up, clutter can be put away, and children grow so fast.

Today I made a sincere effort to play with my kids and not freak out about messes. We had an indoor picnic, complete with an indoor duck pond; we read books in the girls bunk bed fort; we played pirates (more on that later this week); we colored pictures of our "dream couches" (Tempe's idea, she has heard me talking about decorating too much lately). It wasn't perfect--Tempe may or may not have been put in time out several times--but I'm getting there. I hope that every day I can remind myself to relax and enjoy motherhood.

How do you do it? How do you enjoy your children?

Bedroom hell(p) part II

2012-01-20T15:34:00.002-07:00

Thanks for all the comments/ideas/input on my last blog post!

Unfortunately, I am still having some trouble finding my vision. I just don't know what the heck to do with this room.

1)That giant ugly mirror alcove over our bed? Yeah, that's going to be completely covered by a reclaimed wood headboard (umm, that's a hipster way of saying a section of my next door neighbor's ratty old wood fence that I got for FREE). The fence section is weathered wood and I really don't want to paint it or do anything to it, but I also DO NOT want a shabby chic bedroom. So I'm hoping once I get it mounted on the wall, it doesn't look too country/shabby chic because if it does, I will just cry. If you follow me on Pinterest, check out my master bedroom board and you'll see a couple inspiration photos.

2) Ugly wall sconces. Ugly, ugly, ugly. '80s. Builder grade. Yuck. I have two semi-ok light fixtures that I got at DI a while ago, but they are very blah and unextraordinary. Not really what I want, but better than nothing. They are kind of fake oil-rubbed bronze, so I'm trying to decide what color to spray paint them: white? gold? white with a gold patina? white but glazed?

3) Speaking of the wall sconces, they are currently on the wall with our brown dresser. Brown as in painted brown because it was so ugly, not nice stained wood brown. Do I paint it white? Coral like the bedside tables? Do I just get rid of it all together? We can fit all our clothes in our closet, so we really don't need it. But if I do that, what do I put there? I would love a pair of awesome chairs, but our budget for new furniture is $the cost of the furniture from DI + $the cost of the spraypaint to refinish it = not realistic.

4) Curtains. The window is so tall that I don't know where to find CHEAP curtains that will still give me a nice puddle. I just want sheer white curtains!!

5) The windowseat. It has a super nice cushion with a really nice velvet cover on it--but it's forest green. Ugh. It would cost about $25 to recover, I think, which is not too bad, but what fabric do I choose???? I'm seriously considering taking the cushion off and stenciling the windowseat instead of a wall. We NEVER sit on it. Ever.

6) I just want some nice white bedding with colored sheets and fun throw pillows. We already have a down comforter but I can't find a duvet cover I like in my price range. I know I could just sew one together from 2 sheets, but do I really have to? Since the down comforter is white and I want a white bedspread, can't we just use that?

#startingtoreallyregretjumpingrightinwithoutaplan

Bedroom hell(p)

2012-01-16T14:20:00.003-07:00

So, whose master bedroom is the junk room?

*raises hand*

Nobody ever sees it, so it just makes sense for it to be the last room to be furnished/decorated and the first room to heap junk in, right?

Well, this year that is changing at our house!

We are finally going to do something about our master bedroom!

This is what our master bedroom looks like currently. One wall painted navy blue and the rest are still builder beige.

I've got some ideas, but I need your help. We are going to be painting the rest of the room the same color (navy blue) and I am dying trying to find an accent color that Jason and I both like. He has vetoed mustard yellow (my favorite combo) because it is too hipster (when is he going to accept that he is married to a hipster??) and I'm drawing a blank. I have two funky bedside tables that need a coat of spraypaint and probably some glaze, too, but I have to pick a color first!

So.... go!

{Inspired}

2012-01-10T13:11:00.001-07:00

Last week I got an email from a reader with such an inspiring story. Heather shared her story with me in hopes that my blog could help her reach out to others that might be in her situation. If you or someone you know has Mesothelioma, please follow her inspiring story!

Hi! I’m Heather. I am a mesothelioma cancer survivor (one of the 2%). I guest blog on the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance Blog. When my daughter Lily was just 3 ½ months old, I was diagnosed with mesothelioma. As any mother would, I knew I needed to fight to be part of the 2% of people who survive this disease. I did everything it took, including having the most extensive treatments, and even having to miss the 6th month of Lily’s life while I was in Boston for surgery. The reason I blog about my experience is to help other moms who may be going through a similar situation to my own. I want my blog to serve as a means of inspiration and hope to those who need it. In this way, I hope to help as many people as possible! I hope that if you ever need some inspiration, you will check out my blog!
Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance

Popcorn roundup!

2012-01-09T06:34:00.003-07:00

We're big fans of popcorn at our house. It's easy to make, it's cheap, and my girls love it. Nothing is more exciting to them than having "family movie night" and sharing a big ol' bowl of popcorn.

But sometimes the occasion calls for more than just a bag of popcorn popped in the microwave. In that case, you should try a popcorn popper or popcorn machine for something a little different. I love air popped popcorn and it's so fun to watch. And how fun would a movie theater stye popcorn machine be in a home theater room??

Or maybe try a special recipe... your taste buds will thank you!

Cinnamon sugar popcorn: melt butter and pour over popcorn, and then toss in cinnamon sugar. This is ooey-gooey and messy, so beware :)

Peanut butter popcorn: melt PB and butter (I just eyeball it) and toss over popped popcorn. This is even ooey-gooier and messier, but soooo good!

Cinnamon bear popcorn: Cinnamon bears. Mini marshmallows. Sugary sweet syrup holding it all together. Mmmmmm....

Cinnamon bun popcorn: Basically, a really great caramel corn drizzed with white chocolate. It doesn't sound so fantastic, but it is. It is.

Loaded baked kettle corn: The perfect combo of salty and sweet.

Maple bacon kettle corn: Ok, Jason and I really like bacon in our sweet stuff (like bacon chocolate chip cookies) but I know not everyone does. But come on, doesn't this look amazing??
I'm always on the lookout for new popcorn recipes to try, so if you have a good one, you know what to do!
I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog for popcorn poppersand was compensated. However, the views and opinions are my own.

Homemade gel clings

2012-01-07T17:58:00.004-07:00

You know that money pit at Target... the dollar spot? Yeah. I hate that spot.

It sucks you in because "It's only a dollar!!" and before you know it, you're leaving Target $50 poorer.

Well, it's a love/hate relationship, because I do find really great stuff there. Last week I got a bunch of huge fabric bins for the shelves in our closets (New Year's resolution #4) for $2.50 each! I've also started buying all of the Family Fun cookbooks and holiday books that they've been stocking lately. I actually get a subscription to Family Fun and they also have everything on their website, but it's nice to have everything organized by season and holiday and put together. And I love how my girls can look through the book and every single craft and recipe is age-appropriate, easy, and cheap!

I was really excited when I saw the homemade gel clings in our winter book. We made snowflakes this time, but you can customize them for any holiday or season! I'm looking forward to some hearts and lips for Valentine's Day in a few weeks.

1) Draw a template on wax paper. Small, compact designs work best.

2) Use dimensional fabric paint to trace over the template and let dry completely (3-4 hours, but overnight is best).

3) Carefully peel the design from the wax paper and stick it to glass. They're repositionable, too!

My kids aren't old enough to trace the template yet, but they liked arranging them on the glass :)

Wedding re-do

2012-01-05T19:18:00.003-07:00

Do you ever wish you could re-do some (or all) of your wedding? Excluding the groom, of course ;)

I got married before the days of viral craft blogs and Pinterest, so I was completely on my own when I was planning our wedding reception. It was pretty nice, but there are a few things I definitely wish I had done differently: my biggest regrets are that I didn't wear hot pink shoes and we didn't dance to "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes. We thought the line "I'm glad I didn't die before I met you" was too morbid, but boy, I wish we had just danced to it!

But if I could go back and really re-do everything, I would do a really elaborate themed wedding. I think they are so fun. And (maybe some of you don't know this about me yet) since I collect vintage globes, I just fell in love with this vintage travel wedding. Something like that--super kitschy, all DIY and thrifted--would have been soooo fun! My globe collection would have fit in perfectly, and so would these cute vintage travel-stye postcard Save the Date cards (another thing I didn't do).

If vintage travel isn't your thing, there are tons of great wedding stamps and save the date cards found here to inspire you.

What would you re-do?

I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog for wedding stamps and save the date cards and was compensated. However, the views and opinions are my own.

{My Resolutions}

2012-01-01T21:38:00.004-07:00

So, it's that time of year again.

The time of year when everyone makes long lists of the things they want to change about themselves--so basically, a long list of all the things they feel they fall short on.

Wow, that is so depressing.

Well, here's my list for 2012:

1) Do better at doing my girls' hair. I am really, really bad at it. They both have very thin, flyaway hair and Tempe has weird waves on one side of her hair but not the other, and I just don't know how to do it. But I'm tired of them looking like ragamuffins.

2) Run a 5k.

3) Healthy and creative breakfasts, snacks, lunches, and dinners.

4) Organize, declutter, and clean our WHOLE house, starting with the master bedroom and then the garage. After three years in our little house, we've started to accumulate quite a bit of clutter and junk.

5) Finally, be an involved, caring mother. I've really struggled a lot since Juno was born--I used to do so many fun projects and activities with my girls, and we rarely do anything anymore. Juno is 13 months old now, so I really am out of excuses.

What do you want to accomplish this year?

New Year's Eve Fondue

2011-12-30T13:58:00.003-07:00

So, a few years ago I posted about how we have Chinese food on New Year's Eve. But this year I am starting a new New Year's tradition.... fondue!

I'm not very adventurous when I make fondue. I always make the same recipe: cheese and mustard fondue. It's soooo good, there's really no reason to try anything else! I adapted this recipe from the chicken cordon bleu bread bowls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe (which is a great recipe, by the way!)

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup minced onion

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup apple juice (don't leave it out!!)

1 1/4 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons stone ground mustard

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 cup mozzarella cheese

1. In a 10-inch skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the onions and garlic, stirring often until softened and fragrant. Sprinkle in the flour and stir to incorporate.

2. Gradually add the chicken broth and apple juice, whisking to avoid clumps. Stir in the cream, mozzarella cheese, mustard, and thyme. Simmer for 5-6 minutes or until the mixture is thickened. Sometimes I add a tablespoon or two of flour to help it thicken.

3. Once the fondue is thick, you can transfer it to whatever you want to serve it in: a fondue pot or a toasted bread bowl. For dippers, I serve cooked red potatoes, carrots, sugar snap peas, bread cubes, steamed broccoli, grilled chicken, chunks of summer sausage, apple chunks (believe me on this, it is soooo good). I think the apples are my favorites.

For dessert, we're doing a basic chocolate fondue. I keep it simple: equal parts semi-sweet chocolate chips and whipping cream melted together. I don't even bother putting it in a fondue pot--it goes straight to a bowl. We dip marshmallows, rice krispie treats, strawberries, bananas, pound cake, grapes, etc. If you don't finish it all, you can stick it in a tupperware container and put it in the fridge to save for later. Just reheat it when you're ready for more yumminess!

Happy Christmas

2011-12-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas to all of you! Now that it's been almost a week, I feel like the holiday is finally ending and we're getting our lives back to normal. Our decorations are coming down tomorrow and the piles of presents have finally made their way upstairs.

We spent Christmas Eve with Jason's dad's family. We got home around 9 and let the girls open their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas, then we all got Santa's treat ready, spread the reindeer food on the front steps, and watched a video of the Nativity. The girls went right to sleep and didn't wake up until 8! We had church at 11, so we just looked at our Santa presents/ stockings before breakfast and then had overnight french toast, bacon, and orange julius. Our church service was lovely and it was nice to spend the majority of the morning focused on our Savior, not our new junk.

After church, we changed into comfy clothes and then dove into presents.

We were totally spoiled this year. I am blessed with a husband who loves giving, plus two sets of parents (mine and his) that are the same way. Santa brought all three of our girls Pillow Pets (a moose for Tempe, a unicorn for Helena, and a pig for Juno) and was very excited because he found a great deal on knock-offs for $6 that look exactly like the real thing! They also got new clothes, movies, books, library bags, candy, puzzles, and a Littlest Pet Shop for Tempe and a Spiderman bobble head for Helena. Grandma Jan gave them a kids' digital camera (V-Tech) to share which is probably the most played with gift of all. Tempe is my little shutterbug now and I have to clear the memory card (which holds 500 pictures!) multiple times a day!

Jason got me a Kitchenaid (apple green), which I am totally excited about. I made my favorite roll recipe yesterday and it was sooooo much better made in the Kitchenaid. I'm not as good at gift-giving as he is, but he did get slippers, both seasons of Flight of the Concords, some white shirts for work/church (boring), and a couple of movies.

Our present from my family is a pretty big one and we get to enjoy the anticipation for a few more months: we're going to Disneyland in May!!!

Christmas tree family history

2011-12-23T15:08:00.004-07:00

Every year when we decorate our Christmas tree, I have such a fun time reminiscing over each and every ornament. Jason's family has a tradition of giving each child an ornament every year that is meaningful in some way, and we've continued this tradition. There are so many happy memories, triumphs, and achievements on our Christmas tree--it's like a little window into our family history.

Instead of a star or an angel at the top of our tree, we have a Christmas mouse. He is special not because of where he came from (I can't even remember) but what he represents: that the love of Christ our Savior extends even to the most humble of all creation.
Living in Wyoming for three years was such a growing experience for our family. We moved there just four months after getting married and it was culture shock for both of us. Not only did we have to adjust to the law school lifestyle, but there was also isolation and loneliness--not to mention the weather. Oh, the weather... it was a hard first year, but something that our little family really benefited from. I have dear memories from our three years in Laramie.

Our first Christmas as a family of three was just magical.

Jason and I got this Mickey and Minnie ornament at Disneyland in 2009 when we took our very first family vacation. That trip was by the far the best trip we have ever had--and maybe ever will have.

We found out that the bank accepted our offer on my dream house just a week or two before Christmas in 2008, closed a few weeks after.

My mom gave us this little silver house the first Christmas we were married. You can't see, but it's engraved with "Kate and Jason, 2005".

There are so many other ornaments that are special to us--the girls' first Christmas ornaments, the little Jason and Kate snowmen we bought the year we were engaged, the set of Christmas symbol ornaments that my mother-in-law gave us when we got married, ornaments from the years we graduated... I look forward to adding to our Christmas tree family history every year!

Christmas cocoa

2011-12-22T21:44:00.003-07:00

I had a few requests for my crock pot hot cocoa recipe--sorry I didn't post it earlier!

10 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups hot water
Pour milk into Crockpot and turn on high heat. Mix together sugar, cocoa, salt, and hot water in a heavy saucepan. Boil 3 minutes, stirring often. Pour into milk and stir. Cover and cook on high heat 2-2 1/2 hours. Stir before serving. Makes 12 servings.

Sometimes after the initial 2 hours on high, I turn it down to low and leave it all day. It stays the perfect temperature and is so nice to come home to!

You should totally make it on Christmas morning.

Homemade gift giving: Library bags

2011-12-21T14:24:00.003-07:00

I try to make at least a few of my kids' presents for Christmas every year (in 2009 I made almost everything).

Tempe and Helena love checking out books by themself. Love, love, love. Every week when we go to the library, they beg me to let them use my card by themselves while I stay in the children's section with Juno. They are very polite, and since we go to the library almost every single Wednesday, the librarians all know them and think they are the cutest girls ever.

So this year one of their Christmas presents is personalized library bags and their very own library cards.

{Tempe's is the purple moose and Helena's is the blue Disneyland castle.}

I bought the canvas bags at Walmart (3 for $6) and did freezer paper stencils on them. I used the new Martha Stewart line of paint at Michaels in the glittery finish. The paint is so awesome. It is pure glitter and sparkle and you can use it on any surface!

Now, some of you might be thinking I am crazy for giving my 3 year old and 5 year old their own library cards. We have some strict library card usage rules in this house.

1) The card is tied to the library bag. It remains tied to the bag at all times so that it doesn't get lost.

2) The cards each have a limit of only 10 books, and only books from the children's section. I can adjust the settings as they grow.

3) Even though there is a 10 book limit, my personal rule is we only check out books that can fit in the library bag. If the bag is full, then that's it: no more books this week.

4) At home, we keep library books in the library bag and the library bag on the bottom shelf of our gigantic bookshelves. That we way always know where books are. I estimate this has saved me approximately $10000000000 in library fines over the years.
What are you making for Christmas gifts this year?

a Christmas story

2011-12-18T18:42:00.004-07:00

I want to tell you a story.

This story starts just over a year ago, the day after Juno was born. The pediatrician on call had just done her newborn examination and came to me with concerns about Juno's left hip. She said that it felt too loose and "clicked" when she flexed it, which could be an indication of a disorder called hip dysplasia. She urged me to call Primary Children's Medical Center and make an appointment for Juno to be seen by a pediatric radiologist and orthopedist.

I mostly shrugged it off. The doctor at the hospital wasn't our normal pediatrician, so I told myself that if our (admittedly crazy) pediatrican still felt it was an issue when he saw Juno a week later, I would call and make the appointment.

At Juno's one week checkup, our crazy doctor said he felt like Juno's hip was normal, but he trusted the pediatrician on call enough to agree that Juno should be seen by a specialist. He even set up the appointment for me, on Juno's one month birthday--they couldn't get us in before that.

Fast forward one month. I had pretty much pushed any worries of HD out of my mind. Juno seemed so normal that I couldn't imagine anything was wrong. I was sure that we would go to the hospital, do the ultrasound, and be reassured that we had a healthy, normal baby girl.

The day of the ultrasound arrived. I dropped Tempe and Helena off at my mother-in-law's house and drove to the hospital. As soon as I walked in, I knew in my heart that we wouldn't get any reassurance. I just knew that she had hip dysplasia.

I was calm as the radiologist did the ultrasound and showed me exactly what was wrong in Juno's hip. He seemed surprised when he showed me a picture of a Pavlik harness and I didn't bat an eye. It wasn't until I was driving home that it hit me. We were entering a realm of complete unknown (for us, at least) and it was scary. Adjusting to a third child was hard enough and now this?

I picked my big girls up and when I got home, there was an envelope taped to our front door. Between Juno and the diaper bag and Tempe and Helena clawing at me, I barely managed to make it inside and I just dropped the envelope on the couch and forgot about it. It wasn't until several hours later that I opened it. Inside was an unsigned Christmas card and a $100 bill.

I can't say how much that meant to me. Nobody knew that I was taking Juno to get her hip checked out that day. Nobody knew there was even a possibility of anything being wrong. I know that one of our wonderful friends and neighbors was looking for someone to serve that day and was led to us. I hope that I can always listen to the Spirit and be led to those who need a boost.

Merry Christmas.

Couch to 5k

2011-12-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

Anyone who knew me in high school is probably going to laugh hysterically when they read this post.

I have a new goal--I'm going to run a 5k in the spring!

I realize that a 5k is a pathetically short distance, but for someone who has never actually run an entire mile all at once, it's a lofty goal. I am the biggest non-runner out there. Unfortunately, baby weight doesn't just melt off after the third baby! Totally unfair, I know.

I have a few friends who have done the Couch-to-5k program and really liked it. This program is designed to get non-runners (couch potatoes) ready to run a 5k in nine weeks. You start out literally running for 60 seconds and then walking for 90 seconds.

I have a sweet friend and neighbor whose daughters have volunteered to babysit my girls twice a week so I can go running. This makes me so happy for several reasons! First, now I don't have to drag my unwilling children along with me. I do have a jogging stroller (that fits all three children!) but I just can't imagine them sitting nicely for half an hour while I run. Ugh. It makes me shudder just thinking about it. Second, having a standing babysitting appointment will keep my accountable. I won't be able to decide it's too cold/I'm too tired/whatever other excuse and just not go.

I started the program this week and so far, I really like it! I'm going to post about my progress every Saturday, so stay tuned.

Storybook Baby Shower

2011-12-13T05:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There's no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

My sister-in-law Rachel is pregnant with her fourth girl in less than six years!
I am of the opinion that all babies deserve a baby shower, but when you have four in a row of the same gender, you need a baby shower! Everything is trashed after three kids!!

When I was planning Rachel's shower, I kept thinking about how snug and cozy it is to sit by the fire with a stack of books and a mug of hot cocoa around Christmas. I wanted to incorporate that sense of comfort and coziness into Rachel's shower and have a great "girls' night in" enjoying yummy treats and good company.

A storybook shower was the perfect theme!

Along with incorporating different storybook/fairy tale elements throughout the shower, I decided to serve cookies and cocoa--because can you think of a better girls' night in during the holidays than a cookies and cocoa party??
I set the treat table with "storybook" things that I gathered from around the house: a stuffed dragon, wooden sword, and shield; Little Red Riding Hood's basket; and a few copies of Grimm's Fairy Tales and an old storybook from DI. All the cookies that I served were in cookie jars. I found the mushroom one and the pumpkin one at DI and my mother-in-law let me borrow her gingerbread man and old-woman-who-lived-in-a-shoe cookie jars.

We had "Three Bears Porridge Cookies" (oatmeal craisin) and "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater Cookies" (pumpkin)...
... along with "Rumplestiltskin's Golden Haystacks" (butterscotch and chow mein noodles) and Gingerbread Men.

Along with cookies, I had a hot cocoa bar. I made my famous crockpot hot cocoa and set out three different kinds of marshmallows (gingerbread, chocolate, and normal), whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate syrup, and caramel syrup, and let people go crazy.

As a party favor, I made "Milk Mustaches". I just bought a mustache mold at Michael's and used vanilla bark. They're on sticks so you can hold them up to your face--pretty cute! I also used more storybook elements to decorate the hot cocoa bar--Rapunzel's braid, the frog prince and the princess's golden ball, a stack of Mother Goose books, and one of the three bears.

And there are the milk mustaches!
We just played one short party game. I had Rachel pick a slip of paper out of a basket that had a storybook or fairy tale character written on it and then she answered yes or no questions for us to guess who she was. Simple and fun!

We had a great shower and we are so excited to welcome Rachel's baby in a few weeks!

Remember to check out Duncan Hines' website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

{comfort and joy}

2011-12-12T20:01:00.006-07:00

This post is sponsored by Tempur-Pedic, the brand millions of owners trust to deliver their best night’s sleep every night. Enjoy our Buy 2, get 1 free pillow offer now and give the gift of custom comfort to someone you love.

Ahhh... "child me" never would have believed this, but I love winter. I really do. I grew up in North Carolina where winter is basically nonexistent, and back then, I was definitely a summer girl. But after we lived in Wyoming for three years (and it was winter most of those three years. No, seriously, it was.), I grew to really love winter.

I love...

Cuddling by a roaring fire, reading "'The Night Before Christmas" and listening to my little girls wonder what Santa will put in their stockings...

Getting out those special books and movies that we only have out for a month every year...

Yummy holiday treats and smells, like cranberries, peppermint, and cinnamon.
There is nothing like the holiday season!

Comfort is the perfect gift for everyone on your holiday gift list, so be sure to take advantage of Tempur-Pedic's Buy 2, get 1 free pillow offer! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective

Free gift cards!!!

2011-12-12T03:02:00.001-07:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Gift Card Weekend for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ok, with Christmas coming up, I just had to pass this along.

Have you ever heard of Gift Card Weekend? Gift Card Weekend only happens once a year--it's a great event where select retailers like Applebees, JCPenney, Regal Cinema, Subway, Sephora, Bass Pro Shops, Adidas, Buca di Beppo, Lowe's, Spa Finder, Marriot, and GIant Eagle give featured offers and discounts when you redeem your holiday gift cards! That means that any gift card you give (or get) this holiday season can be worth even more if used during Gift Card Weekend.

The best part is YOU have the opportunity to win a free gift card from all the cool places every day on Facebook!!! How great would that be??

All you have to do is like Gift Card Weekend on Facebook. And if you share this opportunity with your friends, you get additional chances to win for every "like" you influence!

Gift Card Weekend is giving away gift cards from cool places all month--next week (12/10-18) a $25 Applebees gift card will be given away every day, so check it out!

Oh, and if you are giving away gift cards as gifts this year, be sure to tell the recipients about Gift Card Weekend so they can get more bang for their buck!

magical

2011-12-08T15:42:00.003-07:00

After Helena and Juno and I picked Tempe up from preschool today, we came home to delicious crock pot hot cocoa and gingerbread rice krispie treats. When we were done with our snack, I put Juno down for a nap, and now Tempe and Helena are sitting by the fire, painting wooden animals for Juno's Christmas present, and watching The Royal Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker" from the 60s. They are both utterly enchanted.

It is the most magical afternoon we have ever had.

Lemons from lemonade

2011-12-04T21:17:00.003-07:00

So we spent most of this weekend cleaning up from our massive wind storm on Thursday. We were even dismissed early from church to finish picking up debris because another storm was forecast for tonight (which hasn't arrived yet)

Now my garage is filled with debris. Good debris, the bad debris was taken to one of the many debris drop points. So far several city park parking lots are completely filled with trees.

I have a section of the wooden fence that used to divide my backyard from my neighbor's. I have the beginnings of a project idea for our master bedroom that kills two birds with one stone: gives us our first headboard and also blocks the weird cutout thing/mirror wall over our bed.

I also have a two foot section of the trunk from our sweet pussywillow tree that fell ;( ;( I think part of it will become bookends and the other part will be another treehouse toadstool.

I also have a disc cut from the pussywill tree that wants to be a clock.

Finally, a neighbor brought us a slide. We already have a slide for our treehouse, but I was thinking just a few days ago that I wish I had another slide so I could attach it to the gaping hole that drops down into our crawlspace. Our crawlspace is like an unfinished basement, only 4 feet high. I would love to quasi-finish it for a playroom for our kids, so now I am on the lookout for old rugs/carpets for the floor. Then I am going to fix the trapdoor so we can suspend it open. Then I am going to build a ladder. Then I am going to mount the slide next to the ladder so my kids can slide down, play, and then climb back up.

It's going to be SWEEEET.

why I blog

2011-12-01T21:38:00.003-07:00

Lately I have been having an identity crisis.

I think it's very common for a stay-at-home mom to feel that way. I love being a wife and mother; I love staying home with my three beautiful daughters. But sometimes I wish I had something else, some other way to define myself.

I started this blog just as a fun way to share stories about my kids and the different crafts, recipes, and activities I do. It used to be pure fun. I used to not care about comments or followers or stats.

But for the past few months, I have been feeling completely inadequate--about my blog. I know how ridiculous that sounds.

I let myself think that my identity was all wrapped up in my blog. That if a post didn't get a lot comments, it wasn't worth doing. I started obsessing over how everyone else has better ideas than I do, or more followers than I do, or more sponsors than I do. I started obsessing over how I could bring in more money with my blog. Everything became a blog post for me--if I didn't think it would make a good blog post, I didn't do it.

I lost sight of why I started to blog--because it is a fun, creative outlet for my life.

I am not saying this to guilt anyone into commenting, but last week I was feeling badly that my DI lamp makeover post didn't get any comments--I really like that project but when no one commented, I started second-guessing it and thinking maybe it wasn't as great as I thought. But then Tempe turned the lamp on and said "Oh Mom, I love to see the keys shining through--it is so beautiful!"

All of a sudden I remembered why I made the lamp. Because I like it. Not because I need to be validated by my blog readers!

So I will never have a crazy famous craft blog. So what? This blog is not my identity.

To my faithful followers who have stuck with me over the last turbulent year with Juno's hips and my identity crisis, thank you. I am sorry that I lost focus. Thanks for sticking with me, anyway.

And I'm sorry this post is so rambling and seems to be contradictory at some points. It was cathartic to get it all out :)

a blustery day

2011-12-01T17:38:00.004-07:00

After living in Wyoming for three years, we got used to a lot of wind. One of the best things about living in Utah is that it's not windy all the time!

Not all the time--but Utah can get some very strong east winds, as we learned last night.

Last night in our little corner of Utah, there were sustained gusts of wind from 70-80 mph for over 10 hours. In fact, gusts were even measured at 102 mph right by our house! That's a category 2 hurricane.

Jason and I were up all night long. The wind used to wake us up occasionally in Wyoming, but that was nothing compared to this. It sounded like our roof was about to be ripped off! In the morning, we were surpised to look out the window and see basically the aftermath of a hurricane.

I was so sad when Jason told me we lost our little tree. I loved that little tree right in the middle of our yard! We will definitely plant a new one next summer.
This tree was pressed up against the outside of our fence, and when it went over, it took two sections of fence with it! Our lot is next to a city owned lot and we're not sure exactly where the property line is. We're hoping that the tree was on their side of the line so they have to take care of it!

I was happy to see that the treehouse I built with my own two hands survived the storm. The slide fell off, but wasn't damaged. We didn't lose any of the trees in our backyard, but as you can see, our yard is littered with branches and limbs.

Our poor next door neighbors lost almost their entire fence. I think these sections are all that made it through!

Overall, we got off very easy. Many of our neighbors lost roof shingles and siding, huge mature trees, entire fences. There are even a few houses that were facing into the wind with garage doors that just crumpled up! Our power has been out since about 5 am and the temperature in our house was down to 57 around noon when we came over to Jason's parent's house. They are apparently the only street in their town that still has power. We've heard rumors that power won't be restored for up to 48 hours!

Quiet time baskets: Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T17:07:00.003-07:00

I should have posted this basket last week, before Thanksgiving--in case any of you needed some ideas to keep the kiddos occupied while the Thanksgiving cookfest was going on!Our Thanksgiving quiet time basket was simple, but fun. In fact, I'm going to keep it out for another week or so, because the girls really like it. I included a book by Tomie dePaola that I got at Seagull Book for $1. Then I raided my girls' play kitchen for Thanksgiving-esque food. I ended up with two green plates and a wooden Melissa and Doug crate with a turkey leg, corn on the cob, a baked potato, a roll, and a piece of cherry pie. I also included an old kitchen timer and two empty spice containers that I added dry beans to (mostly for Juno's benefit, but the older girls liked shaking it, too)

Need ideas on how to play with this?

We turned the basket on its side and used it as our pretend oven. We shook the "seasonings" all over the food, put them in the pretend oven, and then set the pretend timer. While our food was "cooking", we read the Thanksgiving book and pointed out what foods in the book we ate at our own Thanksgiving feast. This is also a great opportunity to talk about table manners or food groups!

Want more ideas? Check out the rest of my quiet time baskets!

gobble gobble

2011-11-25T19:23:00.003-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've always gone to my lovely mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving, but this year I decided to tackle the feast on my own.

I was pretty nervous about the turkey, but I'm happy to report that everything turned out great! I used a meat thermometer and an oven bag and rubbed it with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, onion salt, and pepper, and the turkey was juicy, crispy and perfect.

Here I am with my first turkey! (and my trashed kitchen)

Don't I have the cutest husband?

Jason's big job was carving the turkey.
Along with the bird, I made mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, the world's best dinner rolls, spinach salad, carmelized green beans, pasta salad and the most delicious cranberry sauce ever. We also had spinach and artichoke dip in bread bowls with fresh veggies, cream cheese and raspberry walnut chutney with crackers, sweet potato fries and cranberry mustard, and sugared cranberries. Yeah, that's a lot of food. We have soooooo much left over!! I made everything (but the gravy) from scratch and spread it out over most of the week. I like cooking, but that's a lot to do all in one day!
My two brothers and my sister have been spending the holidays with us and it's been fun. I'm so happy they live nearby--we have so much fun together! Not to brag, but we are a very witty, clever, funny family.
And here's a short list of what I'm grateful for: Jason. Tempe. Helena. Juno. my parents. Jason's parents. All of our siblings. the rest of our family. our house. Jason's job. America. food. the internet. a warm house. the Gospel of Jesus Christ. freedom. enough money for our needs and almost all of wants. good friends. a great neighborhood and neighbors. Disneyland. changing seasons. my education.

DI lamp makeover

2011-11-22T11:46:00.006-07:00

So now that we have 8 1/2 foot by 12 foot bookcases in our living room, I needed to find enough things to fill them up. Honestly, we could have lined each shelf with books and filled every one (we have a lot of books), but I wanted to break it up just a little bit. The living room also needed major help with the lighting situation. Our house has really weird electrical--like two lights controlled by two different switches in the very, very small hall bath, but only two small recessed lights in the large, vaulted ceiling living room.

I've been hanging on to this lamp from DI for a while. It fits so nicely on the photo-album-shelf, right next to the couch. I really like the shape and the color, but it's really nothing special.

I decided to do something so cheap and so simple to make this lamp a little bit more exciting!

Hi!

I bought skeleton keys from the $1 section at Michael's and hot glued them to the inside of the shade. When the lamp is off, it just looks like a plain white shade. But when it's on...

Isn't that more fun??? I just love that it's a little surprise every time I turn it on.

Also going on in this room: vintage globe collection. manual typewriter. still looking for new throw pillow/windowseat/curtain fabric.
I wish I had more keys (there are actually 4, spaced equally around the shade), but I got all the keys my Michael's had and they haven't made a reappearance :(

Quiet Time Baskets: Nature and Halloween

2011-11-19T21:57:00.004-07:00

It's been a while since I posted any quiet time baskets, and that's because I haven't changed them out in a while. But I got some fun stuff for a Thanksgiving basket and a snow basket, so I had to make room.

Nature basket

I painted the cupholders of a fast food drink caddy red, orange, yellow, green, and brown and the girls were supposed to take it outside and fill each container with things of that color.

Assorted pinecones and rocks

A magnifying glass, a small flashlight, and a makeup brush for examining rocks

A birdhouse

Four flipbooks of insect, bug, and bird trivia with magnifying glasses to look at the slides

Halloween basket

Halloween playdough (lime green, purple

Rolling pin and cookie cutters

Glow in the dark skeleton (it's the same size as Helena)

A test tube of glop from the dollar section at Target and a Halloween segmented plate to play with it on (ONLY ON THE PLATE!!!!)

A science experiment workbook

A picture book about pumpkins

A picture book about a haunted house

Geeky glasses to go with the mad scientist stuff

Be sure to click on the quiet time baskets link to see more ideas!

Juno is ONE!!

2011-11-18T13:13:00.002-07:00

I can't believe it has been a whole year (yesterday) since this little darling joined our family.

Juno Kate turned one yesterday. Am I a bad mom because I didn't take a picture of her on her actual birthday? She had a cute outfit--jeans (I finally found a pair that fit her!!), a "Birthday Girl" shirt that all three of my kids have worn on their first two birthdays, a ruffly cardigan, a double breasted pea coat, and a brown beanie. Jason said "Wow, our baby is a hipster!" when he came home from work. Hahaha.

Juno weighs about 12 1/2 pounds. So far she is the smallest of my three girls. Tempe was 14 pounds on her first birthday, Helena 15 pounds. But don't let her small size fool you! She is just as active and into things as any other one year old. She can crawl really fast when she wants something (usually something her sisters have). She can pull all the DVDs off the shelf. She can pull herself to a stand and is starting to cruise along furniture. She's even starting to experiment with letting go of whatever she pulled up on! She can climb stairs. She can climb out of her bumbo seat.

Proof:

This is how she insists on eating dinner. No matter how many times I sit her back down, she immediately climbs back up and sits on the edge--and continues to eat from her tray. And yes, she has fallen out (just onto the counter). I don't leave her alone in it, but she is fast! I guess I have to get out our real high chair... the bumbo is so much easier because I can just put the whole thing in the sink to wash off after mealtime, plus it sits on the counter so I don't have to sweep the floor.
She is a happy girl. Sometimes not, but usually. She sits on the edge of her crib like this, just waiting patiently for me to come get her after her nap. And boy, is she happy when someone comes in!! Some days she takes two naps, others just one, but she is mostly sleeping through the night now. Every once in a while she needs someone to come find her pacifier or fill up her cup of water.

She's not talking yet (not even close), but she does wave, clap, and hold up one finger to say "I'm one!" Oh, she also blows on her hot food and this morning she put a whistle in her mouth (backwards) and started blowing. Last week I was trying to get us all out the door for a doctor's appointment and I was clapping my hands kind of angrily, saying "Let's go, let's go!!!" Then I looked down and Juno was clapping her hands with the biggest smile on her face.

As for her hips, she had a follow-up on Halloween, where they did an x-ray and examined her hips. Her hip socket is still too shallow, but her hip is in the socket and her doctor doesn't think it will dislocate again. Now that she is putting more weight on it by standing and crawling (and soon, walking!), the socket should deepen. She's completely through with her nighttime hip brace and doesn't go back until May!

Juno's party: {the party favor}

2011-11-16T16:05:00.003-07:00

What's the most important part of a kid's birthday party?

Birthday cake!

I wanted to send Juno's guests home with a little taste of the joy and innocence of a child's birthday, so I decided to make cake batter bark. Mmmmmm!

Jason's mom gave us this adorable suitcase when we got married. It was filled with all of Jason's kindergarten and elementary school papers and projects. The girls love looking through Daddy's artwork! This suitcase was perfect set by the front door with the party favors.

Doesn't that look scrumptious? (Ask my butt, it will tell you that it is scrumptious)
If you've ever made any kind of bark, you will know how simple it is.
1. Prepare a cookie sheet by covering it with wax paper or freezer paper.
2. Melt one bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips over medium heat until smooth and glossy. I know that most people say you should use high quality chocolate for melting--I have found that store brand chocolate chips work just fine! The secret is you have to buy semi-sweet. Milk chocolate just doesn't work. When the chocolate is smooth and glossy, use a rubber spatula to spread it across the cookie sheet. Stick the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 20 minutes to let the chocolate set.
3. After the chocolate has set, melt one package of vanilla bark over medium heat until smooth and glossy. Stir in dry cake mix--yep, just straight out of the box! I used about 1/3 of a cup because I really wanted to taste the cake flavor. Carefully spread the vanilla bark over the chocolate layer and sprinkle colorful jimmies all over.
4. Put the bark back in the freezer until set, and then break it up into pieces. Perfect for gift-giving!

PS: Jason's awesome aunt Margaret took all these party pictures for me. Thanks, Margaret!

Juno's party: {the activities}

2011-11-16T15:45:00.005-07:00

Since we were having such a huge age range at this party (a bunch of little kids, some teens and tweens, and adults), I just put together a few little activities people could do (or not do) as they mingled and ate.

One of the traditions I am trying to start is a service project at each child's birthday party. Juno's service project was a no-brainer: we made cards for patients at Primary Children's Medical Center, where she had surgery earlier in the year. My kitchen counter was dedicated to this activity, with blank cards, a box of crayons, and tons of stickers to inspire our guests. I have a neighbor who is a child life specialist at PCMC, so the day after our party I rounded up all the decorated cards and dropped them off at her house for her to distribute to her patients.

I also used the counter to display some Juno-memorabilia: her hip abduction brace and scrapbook...

... and one of my favorite pictures of her and her body cast.

The other activity I had at the party was a photobooth. Yes, very trendy, but also fun. I provided this basket full of props (funny glasses, masks, headbands, a heart wreath, an empty picture frame, a clown nose...), a backdrop, and a camera, and everyone took pictures. I think everyone participated! I can't wait until Juno is old enough to appreciate the funny pictures her relatives took at her party.

I made the backdrop by painting a chevron pattern in party colors on a cheap plastic tablecloth from Wal-Mart. Cheveron is not fun to paint and I wanted to give up, but my friend Danielle gave me some advice and she has a great tutorial on her blog--so I made it through.

Juno's party: {the food}

2011-11-16T15:33:00.003-07:00

I served carnival inspired finger foods, cupcakes, and lime water. Simple, easy, and delicious.

Pigs in a blanket: canned crescent roll dough wrapped around cocktail sausages

Homemade soft pretzel bites: I used this pretzel dough recipe, sans hot dogs, and just rolled them into balls instead of twisting into pretzels. Served with honey mustard dipping sauce.

Caramel apple slices: Instead of serving apple slices with caramel dip, I made several caramel apples and used my apple corer/slicer to slice them.

Chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels: I covered PB Ritz Bits in melted chocolate and let them set up. Mmmmm....

The green serving thing is from DI. It didn't come with the plates/dishes that go in it, so I bought some old tin pie plates and glued them in place.

I carnivalized my glass cake stand with a scrapbook paper pennant banner. The cupcakes are Funfetti with Funfetti frosting--best frosting ever. I made the cupcake toppers by printing out a black and white picture of Juno and cutting carefully around her face. Then I glued a scrapbook paper triangle on her head, added a tissue paper pompom at the top and some trim along the bottom, and then glued everything onto popsicle sticks. The other cupcake toppers are simple pennants made from the same paper as the banner and the hats.

Still can't believe she's one!!!

Juno's party: {Hip Hip Hooray!}

2011-11-16T12:52:00.014-07:00

I think I have a serious problem.

I started planning Juno's birthday party in April. Yes, seven months before her first birthday, I had already picked a theme and started hashing out details.
In my defense, April is when Juno had surgery and went into her body cast, and thinking about her birthday party was an escape for me and a reminder that our situation would come to an end.
Maybe the best thing that has come from Juno's journey with HD was this awesome party: Hip Hip Hooray! Get it? Hip Hip Hooray? Because she has hip dysplasia!! After all we've been through this year, I wanted her first birthday party to be a celebration of her triumph over crummy hips.

I had a basic idea of the color scheme I wanted to use, and when I found this adorable dress, that cemented it: chocolate brown, sunshine yellow, cherry red, sky blue, and grass green. The dress came with some awesome striped tights in the same color scheme and then I added the hat just because it was cute.

I re-used the pennant banner design from our sidewalk chalk party earlier this year.

I wanted this party to be a cross between a carnival inspired party and the quintessential children's birthday party: paper lanterns and pompoms, sprinkles and birthday cake, clowns, balloons, and vintage toys. I actually had quite a few things on my to-do list that just didn't happen, like this balloon wreath, but I think I still managed to capture the essence of childhood.

I got that GIGANTIC green lantern for $8 from Urban Revivals in St. George. Why oh why is that store so far away?? The yellow and blue lanterns were bought for $1 each at Joann's and I made the red and brown pompoms and hung everything with fishing line over Juno's high chair and the food table.

Don't you just love that awesome high chair?? I searched in vain for a wooden high chair at thrift stores, so I borrowed this one from my friend Leah. And it was already the perfect color!
I still have several posts about Juno's party, so I hope you haven't already lost interest!
*Linked up at House of Hepworths!

{sneak peek}

2011-11-13T21:43:00.004-07:00

Juno's first birthday party was tonight!

We had a great time celebrating her first year with our family.

Here's just a sneak peek of her Hip Hip Hooray! party. I'll be posting about her party all week!

adventures in thrifting

2011-11-12T21:38:00.003-07:00

It's no secret that I love going to D.I. I find a lot of great stuff there--like my most favorite piece of furniture ever. I know that whenever I'm looking for something specific for my house or a party, all I have to do is go to D.I. often enough and I am bound to find it!

So my latest "thing" is globes. I have this vision of filling the top shelves of our new gigantic bookshelves with globes. Globes of all different sizes, conditions, and eras. So far I have two and I'm hoping to find seven more.

I know I have seen globes at my local D.I. Lots of globes, all the time! But now that I am looking for so many, they have all disappeared. Have you ever noticed how that happens???

Today I got a feeling. That "Get to the D.I. quick, it's there!!" feeling. So Helena and I rushed over. As soon as I walked to the back of the store, to the books and collectibles section, I saw it. A perfect, beat-up, completely outdated globe.

In someone else's shopping cart.

But I am pretty bold when it comes to thrifting, so I asked the elderly man near by if that was his cart.

"Yes, why?"

"Oh, I've just been looking for a globe for months..."

"Take it! I like the older ones better, anyway."

I was ecstatic. Thanks, old man! You really made my day.

Then at the checkstand, the cashier noticed there was no price tag. She called her manager over, who said it was $5.

I jokingly said "That sounds about right--I'm here a lot and I have a pretty good feel for your prices."

Her response?

"You do come here a lot. I recognized you and your daughter."

The funniest thing my kids have ever said

2011-11-11T21:35:00.003-07:00

Mom: Did Grandpa K {my dad} bring you anything?
Helena: No. Well, he brought us dinner. A dead chicken with it's dead head cut off so we couldn't see it's dead face.
Tempe: Yeah, it was like an unheaded mommy. {she meant mummy}

I still snort a little bit when I think of this conversation. Apparently, Tempe and Helena were very interested in the rotisserie chicken my dad brought for dinner when he was here a few weeks ago. They wanted to know what part of the chicken it was, and when he said it was the whole thing, they were confused because there was no head. It reminded me of the scene at the end of "A Christmas Story" when they are at a Chinese restaurant and the duck is "smiling" at them.

Tempe and Helena have quite a collection of Littlest Pet Shop animals from our next door neighbor. They all have names and some of them are so funny! Today I had her tell me all their names and wrote them down. Here are the best:

Ter-duh-ter-duh Turtle

Queen Mallory

Hadley, nickname "Hadlish"

Newslady... yes, Newslady.

Silver Mist

Also, Tempe recently was trying to soothe Juno, who was squawking in the car: "Oh, it's ok, you don't need to blast into sadness!"

Modest dresses: a friend to moms everywhere

2011-11-10T16:21:00.004-07:00

I just got "into" dresses a few years ago. Until then, I always wore a skirt with a blouse to church. Every week. And I never wore skirts or dresses during the week! I could never find anything comfortable enough and also modest enough for a busy mom with young kids.
Enter Downeast Basics.

By far, my favorite clothing store. I can always find so many cute things there for every season--including modest dresses! That makes me so happy because I love wearing dresses, even if I am just hanging around the house. It makes me feel like June Cleaver.

The best thing about Downeast Basics dresses is that they are almost all truly one-piece outfits. Isn't that what dresses are supposed to be?? When I try to buy dresses other places, I almost always have to add a cami under it or a sweater over it--or sometimes both! Not only is that incredibly uncomfortable in the summer, but it also makes trying to nurse... interesting (although I have been able to manage it in almost every dress I own). I love that my Downeast Basics dresses are so easy for me to wear without having to worry about making the neckline high enough or the sleeves long enough. I can just pull it on in the morning and that's it! No bulging undershirts or hot sweaters, no worrying about whether it will ride up too high while I am chasing a child at the park or cleaning the kitchen.

Plus--they are cute!

I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog and was compensated. However, the views and opinions are my own.

So long, Cap'n Crunch

2011-11-09T13:38:00.002-07:00

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you might remember a few weeks ago I posted about how we are cutting out breakfast cereal. Instead, I have been making baked oatmeal, waffles, pancakes, toast, scrambled eggs, and mini frittatas for breakfast. I make big batches a few times a week and freeze them, so our freezer is always full of yummy, filling breakfast items.

You might be wondering why I am replacing breakfast cereal with things like waffles and pancakes. Well, I have a couple of reasons. The biggest one was cost. I was so sick of spending $20 a month just on cereal--and that was shopping sales and using coupons! I also was tired of giving my kids breakfast and hearing "Mom, I'm hunnnngry!" 20 minutes later. Try as I might to convince them to eat something more filling for breakfast, all they ever wanted was a bowl of cold cereal with milk. Now they eat a big, hearty breakfast and stay full until lunchtime.

Here are some of our favorite breakfasts:

Baked oatmeal

Oatmeal banana waffles (just add a mashed banana to this recipe!)

Pumpkin pancakes and apple syrup

Bacon, eggs, and toast cups

Mini frittatas

We made mini frittatas this morning. This is a great recipe for kids to help with--have any of you noticed that the more your kids help with preparing food, the more excited they are to eat?? My kids love helping! To make these, mix 1 cup half and half into 8 eggs and add 1 t salt. Whisk until well combined. Divide the egg mixture into a well-greased muffin tin. Then the fun begins!! Sprinkle your favorite ingredients into the egg mixture. This morning, we had crumbled bacon, orange and green diced bell peppers, halved cherry tomatoes, and cheddar cheese. Tempe and Helena were really excited to be in charge of making sure every cup got some toppings sprinkled on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until puffy and the edges are brown. Serve with buttered toast and orange juice. Mmmm!!

GIGANTIC bookshelves

2011-11-07T16:53:00.005-07:00

Sometimes I have a really hard time coming up with a post title... so I decided to just go with something descriptive today :)

You may remember the bane of my existence, the gigantic mirror wall in our living room. I've tried several things to improve it--this empty frame collage and painting the walls in the room. Both of those things helped, but it was a still a huge mirror with a crumbling corners and a crack at the top.

Well, a few months ago I was at my lovely friend Tanya's house (who is, by the way, a fabulous decorator and an amazing thrifter). She has a set of Ikea Lack bookshelves in her living room--they're the kind that have an open back. All of a sudden inspiration struck.

Ikea discontinued the Lack shelves, but that was ok, because I found plans to build them on Ana White's website. And since my mirror is a monster (8 1/2 ft by 12 ft), I decided to modify the plans to make the bookshelves the same dimensions.

Luckily I waited until my dad was out here on a business trip. He did 90% of the work, but I learned a lot! Dad helped me assemble them and put them up and then I finished all the patching, sanding, priming, and painting, which was a huge job in and of itself.

Jason and I spent the weekend categorizing books and arranging (and rearranging) them on the shelves. We also did a little furniture rearranging--I think the room feels so much more open and inviting now!

Jason and I always said (from the time we were just dating!) that our dream house would have floor to ceiling bookshelves with a bookshelf ladder. Well, they aren't floor to ceiling because the ceiling is vaulted, but if it weren't vaulted, they would be! I want to get the bookshelf ladder from Ikea to put at the end unit.

My poor photography skills are really not showcasing this project properly. You really have to see it in person to appreciate it's awesomeness! The shelves are directly against the mirror (and don't worry, they are anchored firmly in place) and so the back of the bookshelf is the mirror. It looks really neat!

This room still has so many things I want to change about it, but we will just have to get there one step at a time. In the meantime, at least I have an awesome shelving unit with tons of storage space and character!

{Nature Walk} Party

2011-11-05T21:43:00.003-06:00

This year Tempe had a Mermaid party to celebrate her 5th birthday... but for about three months, we were planning on having a nature walk party. It was pretty much all planned (luckily I hadn't started buying or making things yet) when Tempe changed her mind, but since I have all the plans... here ya go!

Tempe's favorite color is purple, so I decided to go with a plum and grass green color scheme, but this party would be great with cherry red and cream, too.
Activities
This party would be fine at a park or in the backyard, but I wanted to do something different. For weeks we looked for the perfect location and finally found it about 10 minutes away from our house. I was going to have all the kids meet at the trailhead of a local (paved) trail, where we would start off on a nature walk to the party location. Further down the trail was a picnic table in a lovely little clearing. I was going to go early and set everything up on the tables and then leave my sister there to guard them while I went to meet the kids.

While walking to the party location, the kids can look for the items on a nature hunt sheet and use stickers to check off the ones they find. I also planned on making some nature hunt sheets using pictures instead of words for the non-reading party guests.
After a leisurely nature walk, we would arrive at the party location. There were two picnic tables in the clearing I was planning on using, so I was going to have one table set up with all the food and the other set up with the craft. Wooden birdhouses are cheap and easy for kids of all ages to paint, plus they make a great party favor! In addition to painting birdhouses, I planned on suspending an empty frame from a tree branch with fishing line and having a basket with homemade gnome beards and hats for a photo booth. I also wanted to make this adorable acorn pinata and fill it with Tempe's favorite trail mix.
Food
I had so much fun coming up with a nature themed lunch! First of all, instead of using plates I was going to buy these berry baskets from Shop Sweet Lulu to nestle the food in. And what the heck, this is my fantasy party, so I might as well buy some glass milk bottles and stripey straws to serve lemonade!
Here is our menu:
"Snail" sandwiches (PB&J spread on tortillas, rolled up and sliced)
Ants on a log and ladybugs on a log (the ladybugs are cream cheese and craisins)
Pretzel "Sticks"
Tomato toadstools ( a chunk of string cheese with halved cherry tomato stuck to the top with cream cheese)
Acorn cookies (Nilla wafer and chocolate kiss stuck together with PB)
Angel food cake with fresh whipped cream and fresh forest berries
Decorations
It's really easy to find decorations that fit this party theme, because things like gnomes and toadstools are really trendy right now. I had a brown velvet tablecloth that was perfect for this party (in fact, I did end up using it at Tempe's Mermaid party). One of my enchanted treehouse toadstools was going to be the cake stand, and rocks from Tempe's collection and moss balls from Michael's and owl knickknacks that I've been collecting were going to be scattered along the table to set the mood. I have a big stick wreath--do you know what I mean by that?--that I wanted to hang from a tree branch and pin pictures of Tempe all over it. FInally, we have this cute wooden deer (well, really it's a reindeer) that we get out at Christmas time that I was going to use to put the presents in until it was time to open them. Just imagine it full of wrapped packages instead of a naked child.

Tempe is such a "nature kid" that this party would have been perfect for her--but I know there are more nature kids out there! I would love to see your nature walk party!

go PLAY!

2011-11-04T02:02:00.001-06:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Family Insurance for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

So how many of you remember what it was like to spend your entire existence playing?

When I was a kid, I spent my time three ways: at school, asleep, or playing in the woods behind my house. I built myself a treehouse out there and had all kinds of games to play out there. As soon as I got home from school, I would drop my stuff in my room, grab a snack, and go out and play until it started getting dark or I heard my mom calling that dinner was on the table (at least this is how I remember it--maybe my mom would say differently!)

I love the "Street Lights" and "Still Free" videos by Bill Bellamy on American Family Insurance's Stand Up For Family website because they remind me of what it was like when I was a kid. Things are different now--I don't let my kids go off and play without knowing exactly where they are, what they're doing, and who they are with and I don't see that changing any time soon, even as they get older. It's just not safe anymore (if it ever was safe in the first place) and that's too bad. I think kids now are losing the skill to just play--by themselves, with no fancy toys or bikes, with no adult guidance. I try to get my girls to go play in our fully fenced backyard in their treehouse, but they just don't know what to do out there without me coming up with a game. I hope that they learn how to play without guidance as they get older and as I tell them more stories about when I was a little girl--I want them to have the same fun-filled childhood that I did!

Plus, can I just say that I think it is so cool that AmFam did these family-friendly stand up videos. There is nothing like laughing hysterically with your family, but sometimes it can be hard to find stand up that is appropriate for all ages, so this is a great find!

Boo! It's Halloween!!

2011-10-31T21:28:00.003-06:00

Happy Halloween!

We had a lovely evening trick-or-treating. The weather was perfect here--65 degrees and sunny all day, and still 60 degrees when we were out. It was a vast improvement over last year, where it was pouring buckets of rain and freezing. We hit most of the houses in our neighborhood, including the cotton candy house AND the Kool-Aid house AND the glow sticks house, and then drove over to Jason's parent's house to trick-or-treat to them (they give out full size candy bars!)

This year, Tempe and Helena wanted to be unicorns--I used Family Fun's idea to make yarn manes and tails and a fabric horn and safety pinned everything onto hooded sweatshirts. Jason was a grunge fan from the '90s (basically himself 15 years ago), and Juno had a pick your own adventure costume--she could have been Little Bo Peep, Pollyanna, Scarlett O'Hara, or a porcelain doll, whichever you think is cutest. For her costume, I found the flounciest, ruffliest dress ever at DI and a straw hat with a bunch of flowers and long ribbons trailing from it. Then I got a real porcelain doll (also from DI) and cut the ringlets off, sewed them to a strip of felt, and glued the felt to the underside of her hat. She was way cute!!

So for my costume, I decided to be a character from a scary story I read to the girls earlier this week. Who remembers the folk tale about the girl that wore a ribbon around her neck all the time, her entire life, and when she was old and dying, her husband untied it and her head fell off?
Yeah, that's who I was. I just tied a ribbon around my neck. It sounds dumb, but Tempe is completely and utterly intrigued with that story, so she thought it was awesome!
I thought it was funny how we all decided to do different things with our pumpkins this year. Juno did nothing, Tempe wanted to carve hers, Jason etched the words 'And so it goes' into his, I used an antiquing glaze on mine (pretty much the most boring thing you could ever do to a white pumpkin) and Helena painted hers green. She just used acrylic craft paint, but on the pumpkin surface it turned into almost chalkboard paint. We spent all week writing on her pumpkin with chalk and drawing different faces on it--fun!
And now Halloween is over, and November is nearly here. Next up--Juno's first birthday party!

Halloween countdown!

2011-10-30T16:23:00.007-06:00

I can't believe that tomorrow is Halloween!! I made this fun magnetic Halloween countdown a few years ago and every October it's so fun to watch it fill up with magnets. Tempe and Helena have especially loved it this year! Every day as we put a new magnet on, they would count the remaining spaces to see how many more days until Halloween. The black cat 31 is permanently glued on, so when we put the monster eye 30 on today, our calendar was complete!

I have the calendar hanging in our blackboard frame right inside our front door, with some spooky spiderwebs and a chalk "Boo!"

This was such a fun calendar to make. I used an old cookie sheet (make sure it's magnetic!) and painted it metallic purple. Then I decoupaged fun Halloween scrapbook paper over the paint and used a sharpie to draw a grid. The magnets are all things from my junk drawer/crafting stash--clothespin, clear marbles, leaves, funny chipboard shapes, etc. Most of the numbers are sparkly green stickers but some are written on in sharpie. I have a Christmas calendar, too, but the Halloween one is definitely more fun!

R-rated Bridal Shower/Bachelorette Party

2011-10-25T20:28:00.007-06:00

***Warning, this post is probably R-rated.***

I love planning parties. That's probably obvious if you've read my blog for any amount of time. The only problem is that I run out of both occasions and also money. So I thought I would do the next best thing: start sharing the plans for parties that might never happen with you, my lovely readers!

First up is a super fun, slightly scandalous bridal shower or bachelorette party. I wish I had a close friend getting married soon so I could throw this shower.

Invitation

I just love this gray, pink, and blue color scheme + chevron. Chevron rocks. I think it's the perfect backdrop for a fun, girly, sexy shower. I called it an R-rated shower instead of a lingerie shower because I know some people aren't comfortable buying lingerie for their friends/family members. This way they can feel free to bring other things, like fun bath stuff (to be used as a couple, of course!), these awesome pillowcases (or the kind that say "Tonight" on one side and "Not tonight" on the other), or even my Newlywed Sunshine Notes.

Food

Better Than Sex cake

Makin' Whoopie Pies (I would do red velvet)

Lingerie sugar cookies

Chocolate fountain and fruit

Double Chocolate and Chile cake mix cookies (just make cake mix cookies using a Devil's Food cake mix and add chocolate chips and some chili powder)

If you're feeling super naughty, you could make this candlestick salad. How did this end up in the Friend magazine? How??

Decorations

I never get sick of hanging paper lanterns. They always look nice at girly parties. Framed prints of vintage housewives in lingerie or larger prints from my Newlywed collection would be fun.

Activities

I don't love playing games at showers at all (and especially at this kind of party, because it could get really raunchy), but here's one that is fun and doesn't take away too much from socializing. As the guest of honor is opening gifts, have someone quietly write down things she hears people say in reaction to the gifts. Then read them out as things that might be heard on the wedding night. It's hilarious how things said in complete innocence can sound down right dirty when you're thinking about them in a different context!

Well, perhaps someday I can actually throw this shower, but in the meantime, enjoy my plans! And if you throw an R-rated shower, please share with me!

Spica Tips

2011-10-24T09:00:00.001-06:00

Today I was grocery shopping with Helena and Juno while Tempe was at preschool. Helena was in the car part of the shopping cart and Juno was sitting in the baby seat, both eating cookies and happy as a clam. Grocery shopping can be so easy sometimes! But then I started thinking about grocery shopping when Juno was in her cast and how not fun that was. In case you forgot, this is what her cast looked like:

Yeah. Her cast went up to her armpits and down to her ankles. She couldn't bend at all. Her legs were spread about as wide as they could go and there was a bar at her ankles. I figured things out, but it took a while, so I thought I should share in case anyone out there is looking for tips!

Shopping

I did my "big" fill-up-the-cart grocery shopping when Jason could stay home with Juno, but no matter how well I planned, there were plenty of times that we were out of milk, or dishwasher detergent, or diapers, or something else that just couldn't wait. So when I did have to take Juno to the store, I took our Boppy pillow and put it in the bed of the shopping cart and nestled Juno on it. When she was in her second cast (it was just on her legs, so she could bend at the waist, but there was still a bar holding her legs apart), one of our grocery stores had carts with a baby seat that was wide enough to accommodate her cast, so that was nice.

Feeding

When it was time to eat big girl food, I put Juno in a bouncy seat with a rolled up towel behind her to support her back (remember, she couldn't bend, and bouncy seats are sort of bent in the middle). Unfortunately, she really hated the bouncy seat. It was not comfortable for her, but with that stupid bar, she couldn't sit in any kind of "chair".

Playtime

Again, the Boppy pillow was great. She could either lay propped up on her back or on her belly relatively comfortably to play. And tummytime is a very important component of skincare in the cast, because it lets air circulate into the back of the cast, so you really need to find a way to help your baby be comfortable on their tummy.

Traveling

Our hospital provided us with a medical carseat--a Hippo. She used it with both her casts. It was such a blessing that our hospital had a loaner program. We were able to use the carseat free of charge as long as we needed it, which was great because it is crazy expensive. I've heard, but I'm not sure if this is true, that if your hospital does not have a loaner program, you can contact a car seat advocacy group and they can help you get an affordable one.

I posted about the stroller I used while Juno was in her cast here. She could also sit in an umbrella stroller when she was in her second cast.

Skincare

My biggest concern while Juno was in her cast was her skin. I had nightmares of her cast coming off and finding big sores and flaking skin all over her body. Luckily, her skin was absolutely fine when her cast came off! Not sure if my skincare regimen had anything to do with it, but maybe. I made sure to always keep her diaper area dry. That meant changing her pretty frequently--here is my Spica cast diaper tutorial. A blow drier is your friend!! I also tried cleaning her skin every once in while by using a wipe to reach down inside her cast as far as I could and then using the blow drier to make sure she was dry. Every morning when we got her dressed, Tempe and Helena helped rub lotion all over her feet and ankles and we would make sure the cast wasn't rubbing her anywhere. I found a few rough spots along her ankles and inside the cast and I covered them with extra moleskin.

Well, there you have it, all of my Spica cast tips! Can you believe it has been almost 3 MONTHS since Juno got her cast off? Wow!

Homemade Insectarium

2011-10-22T16:29:00.000-06:00

If you're new to my blog, you need to know something about my oldest daughter, Tempe.

She loves bugs. And dirt. And playing with bugs and dirt.

So when she found a praying mantis on our fall nature walk a few days ago, she just had to bring him home with us. I had an empty plastic sandwich bag, so I poked a few holes in it and we carefully carried him home with us.

After dinner, I got to work on a more permanent home for him: a homemade insectarium.

Our house has no screens in the windows. Instead, they are all in our shed. Waiting to be patched. With the window screen patching kit my dad bought for us when we moved in. Three years ago.

But Dad, if I actually fix my window screens, how will I make a homemade insectarium??

I cut a piece of worn screen large enough to wrap around the top of a shoebox and then duct-taped it into place. Then I cut three sides of a square in the top for a door to the insectarium. I lined the edges with more duct tape to stop them from fraying. Finally, I punched holes along the top of the door and used twist-ties to secure it shut so that "Prayee" can't get out and go roamin' at night.

As for Prayee, he's doing ok. So far he's eaten a dragonfly and a grasshopper which we caught in our yard (per the internet's advice) but he seems listless. I don't think he's going to make it much longer. We're hoping we can keep him alive until Tuesday so Tempe can take him to show-and-tell!

{Gray and white striped wall}

2011-10-20T21:53:00.000-06:00

What happens when you troll around Pinterest too often?

You end up with stripes--gray and white stripes!

Last Thursday night I decided I wanted to do something to our house--anything. So I got Jason to agree to stripes on the wall in our upstairs hallway.

On Friday I went to Home Depot to look at paint samples. While I was there, I checked the Oops paint and found the perfect gray. Now, gray is a hard color to pick. I know because I tried to pick a gray for our living room and failed miserably. Everything I picked was either too blue or too brown. But there I was, in the Oops paint section "just to look", and someone had picked the perfect gray for me! It was meant to be. So of course I bought it--$2 for a quart of perfect gray paint. Then I picked a white--I ended up with Creamy White by Behr, which turns out to be the perfect white.

Friday night I painted the whole hallway white. I never before understood how anyone could bear to have plain white walls until I saw this white. It is the most creamy, delicious vanilla white you have ever seen! It's gorgeous and just plain white walls were a great improvement over the builder beige that was in the hallway.

On Saturday while Jason and the big girls were cleaning the church and Juno was taking a nap, I taped my stripes and painted them gray.

On Saturday night I peeled off the tape and swooned.

On Monday I painted some old frames in our garage mustard yellow, also a $2 quart from the Oops section at Home Depot. On Monday afternoon I hung them on the wall. Jason thinks it looks better plain--I might agree with him, I haven't decided yet. What do you think? Plain striped wall or striped wall with empty frame collage?

Our front door opens into the living room and the stairs are right there on the landing, so this is the view from the front door. I love it. This room has been my least favorite room in the house until the last few months when we (I mean my dad) painted it. The color on the walls in the living room is Stone Fence by Behr. It's very blue when it's sunny, very gray when it's overcast.

Even with the recent paint improvements, I still have quite a few projects to do in this room before I am totally happy... and this picture doesn't even show the ugly '80s builder grade tile on the landing!
But I have a BIG project to work on next week that hopefully will take care of one of the things in this picture--stay tuned! And by big I mean BIG.

{sweet tooth}

2011-10-20T21:39:00.004-06:00

Thanks to Plum Organics for sponsoring my post about tips for baby feeding magic. What if you let baby choose what's for dinner? Check out their cute "Quest for Yum!" video and see what happens!

Look at that cute face! Now that my little Juno is growing up, she doesn't let me feed her anymore. She wants to do it ALL BY HERSELF, of course! And along with wanting to actually put the spoon in her own mouth, she also wants to pick her own food. With parents like me and Jason, our kids are all bound to have a sweet tooth--yes, that includes my 11-month-old. I know she shouldn't eat sweets yet, but she does. Whoops. But she also eats good food, really. Juno DOES NOT like carrots (ew, I don't blame her!) unless they are mixed with something sweet, like applesauce, but then she gobbles them down! In fact, she likes pretty much any fruit. I guess I'm lucky that fruit is naturally sweet, because my kids will always choose it over vegetables! Not to mention fresh foods--I'm sad the farmer's market season is ending, because I will miss buying fresh fruits and vegetables for our family every week! If it were up to my kids, they would definitely choose fresh peaches, tomatoes, corn, zucchini, strawberries, and apples for all their meals. What would your baby choose for dinner?

I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about Plum Organics, visit their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PlumOrganics/.

Juno is 11(?!?!) months old!!!!

2011-10-18T11:15:00.003-06:00

Wow.

11 months. That's old. Old enough that I can write it in numbers instead of writing out the whole word and still fall within APA guidelines. Crazy!

Juno weighs nearly 12 pounds now! That's still CRAZY LOW for a baby her age, but she did gain some weight last month, so that's a good sign. She's still a great eater and she's *sniff sniff* pretty much weaned. I nurse her very occasionally, but I think within the next week, even that will become a thing of the past. She's just not interested anymore.

She is "for real" crawling now, up on her hands and knees. She can go all the way across the room! She has started getting into things just in the last week. It is such a triumph to see her crawling around like any other baby her age!! Now I need to actually be careful. She also learned to wiggle herself out of her Bumbo seat, even with the tray on :( Boo. I usually make her sit there for like an hour every day while I make dinner, clean the kitchen, do the dishes, etc. Now she will just have to crawl around and get underfoot and eat crumbs off the floor.

She's still happy, happy, happy. Her sisters, especially Helena, make her laugh hysterically. Yesterday they got in her crib with her and were bouncing up and down. She was flat on her belly laughing so hard! It was pretty cute. She also actually likes taking baths now! She's never liked bathtime, but now that she is big and can sit up and play with toys and take baths with her sisters, she's decided it's ok after all.

She also has a cute Halloween costume to wear this year. Stay tuned for that!!

Fall FUN + a yummy snack!

2011-10-17T13:47:00.001-06:00

Ahhh, I love October. It is by far my favorite month of the year! I love the cool weather, playing in leaves with my kids, apple cider, pumpkins everywhere, spooky decorations, and watching the leaves change colors. Most years in Utah, almost all the leaves turn yellow, which is pretty but just not the same as fall back East where everything is red and orange and yellow. But for some reason, this year there is a lot more color on the trees! It makes me want to pick up and move to New England. Jason says maybe we can visit.

We've been having fun watching "Hocus Pocus" and "Nightmare Before Christmas" and enjoying the nice weather. I took the girls to a local garden center to see the giant pumpkins last week. They were excited to get to sit on such a big pumpkin!

Today we went to the zoo. It was the perfect day for a trip to the zoo! They all wore their spooky Hallowen outfits, so we were excited to take a spooky picture on this giant spider :)

Target has been teasing me with big containers of Pumpkin Spice almonds for the past few weeks. I finally caved and bought some and it was a good choice. They are SO GOOD. It's a pretty subtle pumpkin flavor. They're good by themselves or....

...you could make a delicious trail mix like I did. Pumpkin spice almonds, dry roasted peanuts, mini marshmallows, dark chocolate chips, and craisins. It is sooo good and fun to snack on! The pumpkin flavor from the almonds gets distributed to all the other ingredients and it tastes like Autumn. Yum, yum!

What are you doing to enjoy October?

Halloween sensory bin

2011-10-16T15:23:00.005-06:00

We haven't had a sensory bin for a while, but I found a bunch of plastic bugs in day-glo colors in our Halloween decorations, so I decided to put this bin together.

In it is black and white beans, skeletons, spiders, snakes, and bugs in bright orange, green, purple, and black, glitter pom poms in the same colors, googly eyes, a pair of tongs, and three Halloween silicone molds. I got all three molds at the dollar store--there's an orange pumpkin one, a purple skull one, and a black bones one.

Tempe and Helena love using the tongs to sort the pom poms into the molds and then "feed" them black and white beans. Juno loves trying to stuff handfuls of beans in her mouth. She's not quite old enough to play with this, but we try!

The best one ever

2011-10-12T18:41:00.003-06:00

I haven't even seen all of our family pictures yet, and they're not up on Margaret's blog yet, but I just had to share this one with everyone.

I think our photo shoot this week may very well be the best one we have ever done!!!!

So, so happy with how everything turned out :)

Clark Planetarium

2011-10-10T21:01:00.006-06:00

A few weeks ago, I took Tempe, Helena, and Juno to Clark Planetarium at the Gateway. We don't really do Play School lessons any more, but I'm always on the lookout for fun activities that go along with the things we are learning about with our Quiet Time baskets. This field trip was in conjunction with our outer space basket.

Whoa! The planetarium has scale models of all the planets. The room isn't big enough for a scale model of the sun, but they have the walls painted yellow to give you a bit of an idea of how big it really is. I couldn't fathom it. It is so, so big! The girls really liked seeing how much bigger Jupiter and Saturn are than Earth.

Here are my three little astronauts on the Moon-scape...

... and on the Mars-scape!

The planetarium was really fun. There's an IMAX theater there, too, but we just looked at the free exhibits. Tempe and Helena really liked the cloud machine and playing on the Moon and Mars. It was a fun place to spend the morning!

Felt and burlap fall trees

2011-10-09T20:53:00.004-06:00

We had our first few days of cold weather last week--cold and RAINY. I don't mind cold at all (I did live in Laramie, Wyoming for 3 years!) but I'm not a fan of rain. Kids can play outside when it's cold and dry, but it's not so fun when it's cold and wet.

At first the rain was nice. We had fun cuddling in front of the fire and reading "On the Banks of Plum Creek" (Tempe and Helena are so into the Little House books right now!), baking cookies, and drinking hot chocolate at every meal. But then my kids started. going. crazy.

So we went up to my room where we keep miscellaneous craft supplies and I pulled this idea out of thin air. Tempe and Helena "helped" me make it and then it kept them occupied for quite a while!

I covered a small painting canvas in burlap by wrapping the burlap tightly over the edges and gluing it on the back. It's a little lumpy, but whatever. Then I cut the shape of a "haunted" tree out of brown felt. It's basically a skinny hand with creepy, long, skinny, knobbly fingers and a tapered wrist. It's pretty gross, but don't worry, you'll cover it with some lovely fall foliage!

You could cut leaf shapes out of felt if you are so inclined, but since hearts are so easy to cut, I just cut a bunch of heart out of yellow and red and a few out of brown. I think this tree with it's heart shaped leaves is sooooo cute!

The felt sticks to the burlap, so kids can position the tree and leaves however they like without them getting scattered. My kids have had so much fun playing with this! I plan on cutting snowflakes out of white felt, flowers out of pink felt (for cherry blossoms), and more hearts out of green so we can play with this tree in every season!

{rise and shout}

2011-10-09T15:37:00.005-06:00

So we went to the BYU football game last night.

It was awesome.

I haven't been to a football game in 3 years, and not to a game at night in 7 years!!! Augh! That's a long time! It was perfect football weather--clear skies and about 50 degrees. We bundled up, bought hot chocolate, and cuddled under a BYU sweatshirt blanket and watched the Cougs beat the Spartans! In fact, I think we sang the fight song more last night than we have all season (which isn't saying much, it hasn't been a great season).

Tempe and Helena also love BYU. A lot.
Juno did great--she actually fell asleep during the football game. We left at halftime because it was such a late game (it started at 8:15!!) which was just the perfect amount of football for our little family.

Oh, sweet innocence

2011-10-07T20:25:00.003-06:00

Tempe and Helena love saying prayers, and it's so sweet to hear. I am so happy that they will go to their Heavenly Father in prayer about anything--and I mean anything!

Here are some prayers that I have overheard recently.

Tempe: "Heavenly Father, please help me not be scared to jump off the third stair."

Helena: "And thank you that we can eat dinner on the blanket watching the mom and dad show." (which meant the Thursday night comedy block)

Tempe: "Thank you for our cozy house and our measuring stick. And please, please make my bead smell like lotion again."

Also, Helena likes to sing "I am a Child of God", punk rock version: stomping around and screaming the words at the top of her lungs.

Where I've been

2011-10-04T21:44:00.003-06:00

Ok people.... you might have noticed I haven't been posting as much lately. There's a very good reason for that...

I've been working on my Etsy shop!

That's right, my kids eat off the floor now has an Etsy shop!!
(Way more work than I counted on)

Stop by, browse, and tell all your friends!!!!!

ETA: The link is now working, sorry about that!

Quiet time basket: America

2011-10-04T18:50:00.002-06:00

We've had this Quiet Time basket around for a while--I put it together in late July.

Included is a United States workbook from the $1 Spot at Target (seriously, my kids love those books), a United States puzzle from DI, a United States learning wheel that had fun facts about each state (also from DI), some postcards about great American monuments that I cut out of a box of cereal, an old schoolbook about Pennsylvania, and a really neat book about America from Seagull Book. It's one of those "suitcase in my attic" books that has tons of flip out pages and replicas of old flags, ticket stubs, etc.

Juno is 10 months old!!

2011-09-23T21:54:00.002-06:00

Juno turned 10 months old last Saturday--the day of the BYU-Utah game. If you aren't a fan of either school, you probably have absolutely no idea what kind of rivalry we are talking about. It's a whole 'nother level of college rivalry. It's scary sometimes (especially being a Cougar in a U-fan dense county)

So I thought it would be cute to take Juno's 10 month shot in her BYU onesie. This was her reaction to the game :( :( :( BOO.

Anyway, she is amazing. She can sit herself up from lying down and get on her hands and knees and rock. She sometimes tries to crawl but ends up face-planting. She can pull herself forward on her tummy and scoot herself backwards. She can pretty much get to whichever of her sisters' toys she wants! She's also bearing weight for long periods of time now. Yeah! That is really good for her hips. The more pressure she puts on her hip (now that it's in the right position), the better.

Her favorite thing to say is "Yeahyeahyeah", so we've started calling her Yeahyeah. She loves repeating sounds and blowing raspberries. Her sisters make her laugh hysterically. She is smiley and happy almost all the time.

She's lost some weight--down to about 11 pounds. We're trying to beef her up, but she doesn't have a big appetite, especially for fattening foods. She has a weight check on Monday, so we'll see if her doctor has any new tips for us. Since she's still meeting milestones and thriving, I'm not too concerned. The biggest problem with her weight is that I only have two pairs of pants that fit her. Everything else either fits in the waist but only comes to mid-calf, or is pants length and is about 6 inches too big in the waist. I think I'm going to have to resort to making her pants this winter!

We love Juno.

Be a Scout

2011-09-21T20:00:00.001-06:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Boy Scouts of America for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I may not have any sons (yet?), but that doesn't mean I have no experience with Boy Scouts of America. Growing up, my three brothers and my parents were always involved in scouting, from Cub Scouts to Eagle Scouts. My mom took her turn as Cub Scout Den Leader and my dad is currently the scout leader for his local troop.

When I was a kids in North Carolina, the Pinewood Derby was an annual event for our family, second only to Christmas for my brothers. Every year, they painstakingly designed their cars--the shape, where they would put the weights. And yes, every year there were tears if they did not win! As a girl, I didn't attend many scouting events, but I always went to the Pinewood Derby. I loved the festival atmosphere and seeing all the different cars! It was something my family looked forward to every year.

The great thing about Scouting is the confidence it inspires in the boys that participate. They are given so many different opportunities and experiences! I know you've all heard the old anecdote that if an employer was trying to choose between two equally qualified employees, the one who was an Eagle Scout would be offered the position. Hey, all anecdotes have roots in truth! The truth is, Scouting really does make a person well-rounded, confident, and capable.

So, if you have a son, encourage and support him to Be A Scout. It's a great program!

Quiet time basket: Space

2011-09-18T20:24:00.002-06:00

By far, our best quiet time basket yet.

This basket included a book about the solar system and a space workbook from the Target dollar section (they have a whole bunch on lots of different subjects! My girls love doing "homework"), glowsticks, a bouncy ball full of gold glitter that swirled around when you roll it (we lost it, so sad), a rubbery ball that lights up, astronaut bubbles (also from the Target dollar section), and "galaxy dust"--aka the most awesome playdough ever.

This picture absolutely does not do justice to the galaxy dust. It was sooo cool! I could barely keep my hands off of it. I used my favorite playdough recipe (found at the bottom of this post) and added an entire bottle of blue food coloring, an entire tube of neon purple gel food coloring and a TON of purple glitter. It was so deep and rich and glittery.

I found this divided tray at Wal-Mart. It actually has robots on them, but some of them look like aliens, so I thought it was perfect for the playdough tray. To go along with the playdough, I provided googly eyes, pipe cleaners, fuzz balls, and glow-in-the-dark stars. We had a blast making aliens!

The Best Playdough

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 T cooking oil

1 T cream of tarter

1 cup salt

Scented oils or extracts

Mix liquids in a large pot over medium heat. Add dry ingredients. Stir until dough gathers, thickens, and gets a sheen to it. Let it cool slightly, and then knead it to the right consistency. When I add glitter, I knead it into the dough.

Tempe's Mermaid Nature Party

2011-09-10T22:07:00.000-06:00

My sweet oldest daughter turned 5 today!

To celebrate, we invited 7 of her friends (and her best friend and sister, Helena, of course!) to a Mermaid Nature party.

The birthday girl in mid-blow!

For the cake, I just made a white two layer cake with swirly white frosting and sprinkled the top liberally with edible golden glitter. Don't you love those tall curvy candles??

Gorgeous "treasure" box is from D.I.

I made mermaid dolls for all the little girls to take home--my wonderful mother-in-law embroidered the faces for me. They weren't the most fun thing I've ever made, but they turned out cute, and they were a hit when I handed them out!

I know treat tables are soooo cute and trendy, but as a mother, I just can't bring myself to serve a whole array of treats at a party. So instead we had lunch:

Sandy shells and pearls: seashell pasta with peas and toasted breadcrumbs

Mermaid fruit kabobs

Blue Jell-O with Swedish Fish

Crescent rolls (Tempe';s favorite food in the whole world)

Mermaid juice (Strawberry Kiwi)

My sisters-in-law Katelyn and Corinne came over to help with the activities. Katelyn was on Mermaid Manicure duty, complete with shimmery lotion and "Mermaid Mist" (scented glitter spray).

Corinne helped out at the ocean sensory bin, which was the nature component of the party. I filled a large, shallow plastic bin with water, blue glitter, seashells, driftwood, and pearls. I also provided a table with a conch shell, magnifying glasses, tongs, and a brush to dust off the glitter. The girls examined the seashells and then picked pearls out of the "ocean" to make their own mermaid bracelets. It was a hit! The table was always crowded with little girls looking at shells through magnifying glasses or feeling around in the glittery water for pearls.

I also had a small bubble machine that I got at Wal-Mart for $6 going while the girls ate lunch. It sprays out hundreds of bubbles every minute, so it was like being surrounded by bubbles in the ocean. The girls loved playing in the bubbles!

As always, I tried to get the maximum amount of cuteness for the minimum amount of money when I was planning this party. I estimate that I spent $35-$40 on this party, a big chunk of that going towards the dolls. Luckily, I already had a lot of the decorative items and I was able to find some more at D.I. Things like the bubble machine and nail polish will be used many, many more times at our house, so I don't count them in my party budget.

{happy birthday} to my BIG GIRL!

2011-09-10T21:37:00.003-06:00

Five years ago today (at almost exactly this time--9:42 pm), I became a mother for the first time. It has been the greatest blessing of my life!

Tempe is smart, creative, kind, thoughtful, obedient, helpful, sensitive, energetic, imaginative, resourceful, and a great daughter and big sister. She is learning to go to her Heavenly Father in prayer when she needs help or comfort. She is always considerate of others, making sure that her friends are all having fun and feeling included. She is free with her compliments--she often tells perfect strangers that she loves their dress, or hair, or eyes. She sees beauty in everyone and everything. She is so polite (for a 5-year-old girl). She is becoming more and more independent--she likes to walk (most of the way) to preschool by herself.

We love her.

We had a very busy, very exhausting, very fun day celebrating her birthday today. Nine of her friends came over for a Mermaid/Nature party in the morning and then we watched the BYU football game (bummer) at Jason's parent's house and had more birthday celebration over there. Pictures from the mermaid party on the party blog!

Tempe's first day of school

2011-09-07T13:23:00.004-06:00

For most of the kids in my school district, the first day of school was several weeks ago... for Tempe, it was yesterday!

Tempe's birthday is September 10th, so she missed the kindergarten deadline this year. Instead, she is going to my friend Kellie's preschool on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

We've both been looking forward to this for at least a year!!!

Oh, she's so grown up... It makes my heart hurt to think of her going off to school next year!
I've been back and forth on how I feel about Tempe's borderline birthday ever since she was born. September birthdays are tricky, they complicate a lot of things, school being just one of them! Some days I groan and think "I still have another year with all three of them at home?!" but most of the time I am so glad that I get my little girl home with me for an extra year! I know that once you start sending kids off to school, life is never the same.

sha la la la la la

2011-09-05T20:40:00.003-06:00

Happy Labor Day! We had a great long weekend with my mom and Jason's family.

My mom flew out from Tennessee to take me and the girls and my sister Kelsey (who is at BYU) to The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn in St. George. We had such an fun time! I've never been to Tuacahn before and it sure is amazing. The show was great. It was a very fun girls' weekend--the first of many, I am sure!

My mom made this sweet mermaid costumes for Tempe and Helena. They got a lot of nice compliments at the show!

After our little getaway to St. George, we headed back to Utah and spent the rest of the weekend with Jason's family at the cabin. Boy, was it beautiful! I loved the little nip in the air. Fall is on it's way!

do you have a dream?

2011-09-01T16:00:00.001-06:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of UPromise for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

As parents, we all want things for our children. We want them to be happy, successful, kind, considerate of others, and thoughtful. We dream of our children having a bright future. My dream for my children is for them to gain a sincere desire to learn. I want them to go to college, but not as a means to an end--because they have developed a thirst for knowledge. I chose to finish my education, even though I don't "use" my degree in a traditional sense, because I knew that everything I learn gives me experience and helps me to become a better mother and example. I hope that my girls will see me continuing to learn and grow and be inspired to learn for themselves.

Do you want a chance to win $10,000 to help with your dreams?

www.upromisetodream.com is celebrating their 10th anniversary by compiling parents' dreams for their children on their dream wall. The dream that gets the most "Likes" has a chance to win $10,000!

Everyone has a dream for their children--what's yours? I'd love to hear about it here and see it on the official dream wall! You can find the dream wall official rules here.

So what's in Ohio?

2011-09-01T08:01:00.001-06:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Kalahari® Resorts for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Someday when we have a million dollars, Jason and I hope to travel. A lot. We would love to go to Europe someday (sans kids, probably), but we also think that we should take advantage of the beautiful country we live in. America is so diverse and there is so much to see! I think that I could choose the cheapest flight on Southwest's website to wherever and find at least a weekend's worth of stuff to see--anywhere in the country!

With that said, I wish I had known about the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky before my friend Amanda moved away from Ohio :( We could have visited her and an AWESOME water park on the same trip!

The Kalahari Resort in Sandusky boasts over 500,000 gallons of water, a lazy river, big slides, small slides, and something called the Zimbabwe Zipper that goes up to 40 mph! Hmmm... I bet all you stuck in traffic wish you were going 40 mph right now! ;) There's also an outdoor adventure park with a zip line (that's what I want to try someday!) and a ropes course (that sounds fun, too!)

Not that you need it with all the awesome deals the resort offers, but right now Kalahari Resorts is having a contest where you could win a stay at the Sandusky resort! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and then tweet about it! And while you're at it, check out Kalahari Resorts on Twitter and Facebook.

Good luck! Maybe we'll see you there ;)

Applesauce play-doh = a mistake

2011-08-29T12:46:00.010-06:00

So remember how I was trying to come up with a baby-friendly edible play-doh? I thought if I mixed enough powdered sugar and powdered milk into applesauce, that would do the trick. So I mixed about 3 cups of powdered milk and a whole pound of powdered sugar into HALF A CAN of applesauce.

I also killed the motor on my failing hand mixer (maybe a stand mixer is in my future?!?!)

Just so you know...

Applesauce does not work.

Ok, it's a little gloppy, but it might be ok, right??

Juno was excited to smush it up...
And so were Tempe and Helena...
The problem came a few minutes later. This "play-doh" really had the consistency more of say, radioactive slime, and after a few minutes of very very very messy play, it started hardening on their hands.
They all started to freak out.
So I spent half an hour scraping it off their skin and then chiseling it off the counter, bowl, high chair tray, and trashcan.
Fail.

Frozen pipes are fun to have (not)

2011-08-26T13:00:00.003-06:00

So when we bought our house, it had been sitting empty for about 15 months. It was winterized, meaning the gas wasn't on and there (supposedly) wasn't any water in the pipes.

Well, the day that we closed, we went over to the house and turned on the heat. We let it warm up for a little bit, and then took Jason's parents over to see it. And that's where we got our big "Welcome to homeownership!": frozen pipes.

When we went into the family room, we discovered water pouring out of a bubble in the ceiling in the middle of the room. Can you imagine our horror??? We popped the bubble and squeezed as much water as we could into a trashcan and then called a plumber.

The plumber came out, but by then the water had stopped. He fiddled around for a while, but finally came to the conclusion that when the house had been winterized, a tiny amount of water remained in the pipes in the family room ceiling. That water froze and then thawed rapidly when we began heating the house. He said he couldn't do anything without opening up the ceiling to look at it, so he suggested that we just call him if it started leaking again.

And 2 1/2 years later, it still hasn't happened again. Weird?!

This post sponsered by Bucks2Blog on behalf of RotoRooter. I was compensated, but all opinions are 100% mine.

Quiet time basket: Counting

2011-08-25T13:35:00.002-06:00

This basket was one of the first four that I put together and for some reason was Tempe's favorite (I think it was pretty boring).

1 is One by Tasha Tudor: gorgeous illustrations and fun rhyme.

Two child-made abacuses. They made these in Bible School out of dowels, beads, styrofoam, and duct tape!

A calculator.

Number flash cards from 1-20 on a ring with 20 beads.

A jar of pennnies and a piggy bank. I didn't actually do this, but I was going to trace the pennies on a piece of cardboard and number each circle, so the girls could lay the pennies out in the circles and count them. I chose pennies because they are worth 1, as opposed to nickels or dimes. But I never got around to that, so I just added the piggy bank and they had fun filling it up, dumping it out, filling it up, dumping it out, over and over and over...

{real estate} and what it means for your family

2011-08-24T13:21:00.000-06:00

Do you ever look online to see what kind of house you could have gotten for the same price, but in a different part of the country?

I do. Even though we are perfectly happy in our house, I can't help but wonder what else is out there. I found this gorgeous gem on a Kansas City real estate website.

Wow! I guess there is something to be said for the midwest.

That said, I really do love our house and it's well suited to our family. The best advice I can give for someone looking to buy their first home is to hold out for something you love. We looked at many, many houses, and a lot of them were bigger and cheaper than the one we ended up in. However, none of them felt like home. I couldn't picture making dinner in kitchen, going for walks in the neighborhood, playing in the backyard, or really raising a family in any of them. When we walked into our house for the first time, I felt like I was home. So despite the fact that we could have gotten more bang for our buck elsewhere, I am so glad that we ended up in our sweet little house.

This post sponsored by Bucks2Blog on behalf of a Kansas City real estate company. I am being compensated, but all opinions are 100% mine.

Quiet time basket: Alphabet

2011-08-22T09:27:00.002-06:00

One of the first quiet time baskets I put together was this very basic alphabet basket.

Books

AlphaOops! The Day Z Went First by Alethea Kontiss

A, You're Adorable by Martha Alexander, Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise, and Sidney Lippman

Tempe's personalized alphabet book

Activities
Alphabet sorting game: the alphabet cardstock cards are from a craft store and the container is a bead sorting container.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activity: I swear I thought of this on my own, over a month ago, but I just saw it on someone's linky. BOO! I hate when that happens. Anyway, it's an old cookie sheet with a tree painted on it and a set of alphabet magnets. We had fun playing with this! I would cover the whole tree with letters and then ask the girls to pick me a letter A, or a letter H, and they would find it for me. You could teach vowels and consonants with this, too.

Peanut butter playdough

2011-08-20T19:22:00.008-06:00

We're trying to cut back on tv here (we even canceled Dish!) That mean a bit more creativity on my part than letting Tempe and Helena watch Curious George/Arthur every single day while I make dinner.

Last week we made a batch of peanut butter playdough to go with the adorable woodland creatures cookie cutters that I got at Ikea. When it's time to work in the kitchen, I give them each a ball of peanut butter playdough (equal parts powdered sugar and creamy peanut butter), a handful of raisins and cheerios, cookie cutters and a rolling pin. Tempe and Helena love making "cookies" while I make dinner. Double points: this is a sensory activity and a fine motor exercise. Plus, it's pretty tasty!

Maybe you don't know this about Tempe--she loves moose (I always want to add an "s" to the end of that word). They are her favorite animal!

Juno hasn't been able to participate in this activity, because she's not 1 yet. I'm contemplating what other ingredient I could combine with powdered sugar to make edible playdough for babies. Mashed bananas? Applesauce? Any ideas?

Juno is 9 months old!

2011-08-17T14:11:00.004-06:00

Can you believe this little cutie has been out of my belly just as long as she was in it??

Juno's been out of her cast for 3 weeks, and in that time she has learned that she can roll across the room to get to something she wants. She can turn herself in a circle when she's on her tummy, and she pushes herself up so high that I think crawling is right around the corner. She is getting better at sitting, but still needs a lot of support. When I hold her upright in a standing position, she bears weight on her legs for a few seconds at a time, but not constantly. That's normal for HD babies--I'm actually surprised she's bearing any weight at all! She does wear her hip abduction brace at night to stabilize her hip and probably will for a few more months.

Here's a list of things Juno can do now that she's out of her cast:

Sit in her bumbo seat

Swing in the baby swing outside

Ride in a normal carseat

Wear pants, leggings, tights, legwarmers, etc

Suck on her toes

Go swimming (although she hates it)

Sit in an umbrella stroller

Roll both directions (back to front and front to back)

Sit up

Ride in the baby basket of a shopping cart

Sleep on her tummy (which she prefers)

Take a bath!

Juno finally started babbling. I've been starting to worry because she has never babbled "bababa" or "dadada" or anything similar. But this week she started saying "mamama"! Yay! I know she's not talking about me, but I still like that her first consonant sounds were mama.It's crazy how many things the cast affected. You wouldn't think being in a body cast would have an effect on fine motor skills, but it did! Since she couldn't sit in any kind of chair with a tray, she didn't practice using the pincer grip very much. Now that she can sit in a bumbo seat and eat finger foods, her fine motor skills are improving. She's also just learning that flapping only one arm is "waving".
Not sure how much she weighs, but I'm guessing around 12 pounds. She is down to two feedings at night, one before I go to bed, so I only have to wake up with her once. Easy peasy. I've also started gradually weaning her--I alternate nursing and bottles of milk throughout the day.Finally, plans for her birthday party are coming right along. It's going to be absolutely adorable, so stay tuned!

after the cast

2011-08-06T22:26:00.002-06:00

It's been over two weeks since Juno's Spica cast came off, so I thought I should give an update on her.

But first, I wanted to write a little about the first few days after the cast.

It was hard!

I wasn't expecting that. I was so excited and I guess in my head I thought Juno would automatically be happier and be moving all over the house. I was envisioning her doing all the things that other babies her age have been doing for months, like her HD never happened at all.

You know what happens when you have expectations. They are usually not met.

Juno was very fussy for several days. Nobody warned me that she would be stiff and sore and not want to move her legs (although it makes sense after thinking about the position her legs were in for 3 months!) Just like getting her Spica on was an adjustment, getting used to life without it was another adjustment.

I always want to be honest on this blog, especially for those who are dealing with HD in their own lives. I cried the day after her cast came off. I was disappointed. I really saw for the first time since she was diagnosed how "behind" she is and how much muscle tone she lacks.

I also realized just how long we will have to watch her hips. She'll go back to the ortho every three months for a year and then every year until she is 14 years old. We still have a long road and it's a bit overwhelming sometimes. I'm already nervous about her next appointment in October.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this. I thought if we could just get through three months in the Spica, we would feel so relieved and it would be over. And in reality, it won't be over for a long time. It's kind of anticlimactic.

Now for the update.

She is rolling all over the place, and when she's on her tummy, she moves her legs like she wants to crawl. I think she knows how to crawl, she just can't physically do it yet. She can sit up pretty well on grass or something squishy like a bed, but has a hard time on flat surfaces like the floor. She is happy and loves playing on the floor with her sisters! Tempe has been my big helper--she goes around the house and looks for stuff that Juno could get now that she is more mobile.

where children sleep

2011-08-05T14:19:00.002-06:00

I love our house.

The first time I saw it, I thought it was too good to be true and there was no way we would get to live in such a wonderful home. I was overjoyed when we actually got it!

But after 2 1/2 years, the novelty has worn off and I have a whole list of things I'm not happy with in our house.

This was a really eye-opening piece that made me, once again, so grateful for what we have.

Our lawn is full of weeds and dying, but my children have a safe, fun place to play.

The bathroom fixtures are outdated, but we have access to clean, hot water.

The girls' bedrooms are small, but they have a room full of toys and a warm bed.

And thinking we are goint to outgrow this house in a few years is silly--larger families live in smaller homes all over the world.

the keystone state

2011-08-01T11:19:00.004-06:00

When I was 16, my family moved from North Carolina (where we had lived since I was a baby) to Pennsylvania. It was hard. There are five kids in my family--I'm the oldest--and we all struggled a lot the first few months. We blame my mom because a few years earlier, she felt like our family needed something to bind us together more strongly so she started praying for trials. Then my dad left his job and was out of work for 18 months, we got in a car accident and my mom lost her spleen, and we moved from the house my parents had completely remodeled into a 3-bedroom apartment. My dad finally found a new job, albeit a temporary one, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and we moved about a month before I started my junior year of high school.

So, it was really hard at first. That first day of school, all five of us came home in tears. But my mom got her wish: we became so much closer as a family.

This month marks ten years since we moved. Ten years! My dad got promoted to corporate headquarters in Tennessee when I was a freshman at college, so my family only lived in PA for about 2 1/2 years. I think it was just enough time for what we needed.

I ended up absolutely loving PA. I made the best friends ever there and had some wonderful experiences. To celebrate my family's ten-year-PA anniversary, here are my ten favorite memories.

1) When President Hinckley came to Philadelphia, we all rode the train into the city to listen. And by "we all", I mean basically my whole stake. It was so fun!

2) One night when there was going to be a meteor shower, me and all my friends from church got up at 3 in the morning, drove to the church, and watched the meteor shower together in the field next to the parking lot. Then we slept until seminary began at 6:15.

3) For my friend's birthday one year, a bunch of us rented canoes and canoed down the river. The lady that rented them to us told us she'd be at the pickup spot in 3 hours. But we had so much fun swimming, splashing, and exploring that I think we didn't get there for like 6 hours. Sorry, lady.

4) We used to go sledding on the VA hill behind school and then go to my house for hot chocolate.

5) The Strawberry Festival was always on my birthday!

6) Going to the Jersey shore for the day every summer.

7) Halloween. It was so much more fun in PA than it ever was in NC!
8) Fall will always, always, always remind me of PA. I guess because we moved at the beginning of the most beautiful golden, blue skied fall I have ever seen.

9) Getting water ice from Rita's during gym class (our lazy teachers let us count walking to and from as exercise)

10) Finally, going to church in a haunted mental hospital was pretty crazy.

spraypaint makes everything new

2011-07-25T09:03:00.005-06:00

So a few months ago I got this pair of barstools at DI for $8 each. They're super nice construction, solid wood, and I love the curvy legs. They were a little banged up, but they looked ok. Then I got another bar stool (also from DI) that is similar but a different finish. I thought it would match my table and chairs, but it didn't quite match that either.

I left them like that for a while, but recently I got sick of having 3 different wood finishes in the same small area.

So of course, I went to the spraypaint aisle at Wal-Mart. I was reaching for my favorite (Krylon Cherry Red) but I decided I should branch out and try something new. I went with Krylon Global Blue instead.

Here's the chair after a coat of paint. It was way too bright blue. It was like a fluorescent marker.

But I still had some glaze leftover from this project, so I decided to glaze the chairs. I didn't take after pictures of the curvy bar stools, but here is the other one. I love how they turned out!

Since these chairs don't have a lot nooks and crannies for the glaze, I glazed them a little differently. I brushed the glaze on really thick and then carefully wiped it off with a dry rag. I went over the same area 3-4 times to get it how I wanted it. The great thing about glaze is it's very forgiving--if you don't like it, you can wipe it off with a wet rag before it dries, and if you want more, you can add more.

my baby has {legs}

2011-07-22T13:28:00.003-06:00

Well, yesterday was Juno's big day! After an open hip reduction, 6 weeks in a Spica cast, and 6 weeks in a broomstick cast, she is finally free.

This is Dr. Stevens. He's Juno's pediatric orthopedist. He works at Primary Chidren's Medical Center, but he also volunteers his time and talents all over the world. He's been treating disorders like HD, club feet, and bowed legs for over 30 years!
Juno did not like the saw at all. I don't blame her! It was so loud that I couldn't even hear her screaming. It must have been scary!

And here's my little frog!

After 3 months with her knees bent and her legs spread apart, she is incredibly flexible! She's also still pretty sore while her muscles adjust and change position. We're looking forward to seeing her discover all the things her legs can do in the next few weeks!

my kids want a Tracfone

2011-07-22T08:02:00.001-06:00

This post brought to you by TracFone. All opinions are 100% mine.

I was talking to a friend today about what a different world our kids are growing up in. When we were kids, we spent all day during the summer playing with friends in the mountains or the woods, building forts, swimming, looking for wild berries to pick. Now I can't imagine letting my kids be gone all day without any way of contacting them!

Of course, my kids are still really young, but in this day of cell phones and instant communication, it's really hard to imagine sending them anywhere without a phone. When my kids are old enough, I think a Tracfone might be the perfect solution. With Tracfone's affordable phones and no-contract, pay-as-you-go plans, it's the perfect phone for a busy family with multiple children. There are inexpensive monthly plans for every budget and Tracfone even offers double minutes for the life of your phone one some models!

real TracFone customers

Plus, Tracfone is super reliable, which is so important to me in case of emergency.

real TracFone customers

Can you imagine not being able to contact your family after an emergency?!

We all know that most cell phone plans offer free long distance. Tracfone is the only wireless service that offers international calling for the same price as any other call! So if Jason and I ever take that European vacation, we'll still be able to call the girls and tell them goodnight at bedtime :)

You probably think that all pay-as-you-go wireless services only offer dorky, outdated phones. Tracfone actually has brand name phones from leading manufacturers to fit every need--from simple to smart! So you can get an affordable phone and still have all the features you want, like full keyboards, web access, camera/video, and mp3 player.

Tempe and Helena might only be 4 and 3, but Helena's already asking for her own phone. She'll still have to wait a few years, but it's nice to know there are options!

Juno is 8 months old!

2011-07-19T15:49:00.002-06:00

Juno's 8 month birthday was Sunday!

Look at that big girl! She just discovered she has hair, so she always has one hand on her bar and one hand on her head. I actually found her asleep like this the other night--with her legs up and holding onto her bar. It looks uncomfortable, but whatever.

This month, Juno learned how to roll over. I think that's quite a feat, considering she has to lift her legs before she flips herself. The only problem is she can't roll from her tummy to her back, so once she flips onto her tummy, she's stuck. I have to go save her every once in a while.

And if I don't get to her in time..... ohhh, she's sad!
Now that Juno is eating big girl food, she's sleeping much better at night. She usually only wakes up once at night. She loves to eat--especially carrots. If she's sitting on my lap and I'm eating but not sharing with her, she rocks her legs back and forth and moans until I give her something. I find myself feeding her all kinds of things that I would never have given Tempe or Helena at this age--cheesecake, cupcakes, ice cream, cookies. Yeah. I know it's bad.
Still no teeth!
And the best news is... drumroll: the cast comes off on Thursday!!!

Parunzel

2011-07-13T19:37:00.002-06:00

Tempe and Helena (and I) loooooove the movie Tangled.

They haven't quite got the proper pronounciation of her name down yet, but they love to pretend they are locked in the tower with super long blond hair.

"And we have a mean mom... but the mom isn't you, Mom!!"
Thanks for the reassurance.

Anyway, I decided they could use some Rapunzel hair, so I picked up some yellow yarn and made this long braid for them to play with. I won't lie, it was tedious to make, because the stupid yarn kept tangling as I laid it all out. But it turned out pretty cute and they are smitten.

{Please excuse the blurry child--she won't hold still long enough to take a decent picture}

Quiet time baskets: Pioneers

2011-07-10T19:08:00.004-06:00

The worst thing that could ever happen to a SAHM happened to me the week Juno was born.

Helena gave up her nap.

Tempe gave up her nap years ago, but was still perfectly happy to play quietly in her room while Helena slept so I could have a break. But Helena refused to play by herself in her room, and if she was downstairs, of course Tempe wanted to be downstairs, too. I tried everything, but I finally had to accept that my kids were done napping. I suffered through it for a few months but I soon realized that for my sanity, I need a break after lunch--to nap, to read, to recharge. So I started letting the girls watch a movie every day after lunch.

I hate doing that. I hate setting my kids in front of the TV, but I realized that it's better for them to watch a bunch of TV and have a happy mom than for me to scream at them all the time.

Anyway, I still let them watch a movie every day, but before we do that, we spend half an hour with our Quiet Time baskets. I put the four baskets out on the rug and set the timer for 10 minutes. The girls can choose to play with one of the baskets, look at library books, or do an art project. After the timer goes off, they can stay where they are or choose something new.

My Quiet Time baskets are inspired by these Montessori-style baskets. Currently we have an alphabet basket, a counting basket, a getting dressed basket, and in honor of Utah's upcoming holiday, this pioneer basket.

There's a Little House picture book, a book called Pioneer Tales (I wanted I Walked to Zion but it's out of print!!), a pioneer bonnet, a teeny log cabin we got at DI, a dollhouse cast iron stove, and two of the dolls from my childhood dollhouse.

I'm excited to rotate activities and themes through these baskets! The girls still don't understand the point, but I hope soon they enjoy playing quietly for a few minutes each afternoon.

4th of July book reviews

2011-07-05T21:00:00.005-06:00

I've been taking my kids to the library for storytime since Tempe was about 10 months old. We haven't missed very many weeks in 4 years! The librarians at our little branch have watched my kids--and my family!--grow over the last few years and by now they all know us by name. Can I just say how much I love that??

So since we go to the library every week, we check out a lot of kids' books every year. I've been meaning to do this for a while--start sharing some of our favorites with all of yours. Here are a few patriotic books that were fun to read during this time of year!

"This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie and Kathy Jakobsen

This book's gorgeous panel illustrations are illustrations of places and experiences from Woody's life that go hand-in-hand with his song lyrics. I felt like we were traveling the country, by foot and by rail, along with Woody as we read this book. This book is a wonderful tribute to American culture (folk music) and the diversity of our landscapes and cities. Helena has been singing "This land is your land.... this land is my land... from California... to the New York Island...." ever since we checked it out! It would be perfect for a unit on travel.

"The Scrambled States of America" by Laurie Keller

Kansas is bored (probably because he is so boring). He finally convinces Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and the rest of the states to mix things up and switch places. Hilarity ensues. This was a funny way to learn the locations and little tidbits about each state. Some of the illustrations even alluded to time zones! It was interesting to read about each state as an individual, especially the states that I don't know much about. Like the Woody Guthrie book, it emphasized our diversity as a country and how each state has so much to offer.

"How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A." by Marjorie Priceman
If you want to make a cherry pie, you'll need a pie tin, a rolling pin, measuring cups, and other supplies. If you don't have them, you could run out to a "bake shop"--or you could travel the country, gathering the raw materials and processing them yourself (coal from West Virginia to make iron for the pie tin, etc) This book takes you around the country by different modes of transportation showing you which resources can be found in different states. Great for geography!

It's a grand old flag...

2011-07-05T15:27:00.000-06:00

{happy 4th of July!}

Our family normally goes to Idaho to celebrate Independence Day with extended family, but this year we are headed up for a wedding a week later. We didn't want to make two trips, so we decided to stay home for the 4th. It was strange celebrating here! I invited my husband's two brothers and their families over for dinner and sparklers. I really, really tried to limit myself to just making dinner, but you know I can't pass up a chance to have a party!

For dinner, I made Carolina pulled pork sandwiches, Memphis-style coleslaw, Boston baked beans, Nebraska corn on the cob, New York cheesecake, fruit kabobs, and cherry pie. Our party theme was supposed to be "A Tour of the States" or something like that. I also printed off an unlabeled map of the United States and the adults had to fill them in. It took me three tries to find Michigan... I was also going to have a matching game with fun/interesting facts about each state and make really cute invitations using an outline of the country, but like I said, I was trying to limit myself!

This table was a perfect example of how easy it is to find serving pieces and decorations at a thrift store. Everything on this table (except the red and blue bowls with the coleslaw and baked beans) are from my local thrift store. The sandwiches (already assembled) are in a big blue roasting pan (which I can reuse, score!)

This ugly little house display shelf is currently my proudest D.I. find! It was perfect as a mini cheesecake display for our "homespun" 4th of July table.

I took a red berry wreath that I got at D.I. a year or two ago and put it around the cherry pie dish. Super easy way to dress up any pie! Can I say how much I love how it looks? Wreaths are so easy to find at thrift stores (at least in Utah) or to make for any occasion. I also got that cute little red dish at D.I. Oh, how I wish there had been more of them!

Uncle Sean lighting super sparklers from his fairly recent wedding for cousins Maddy and Libby and Helena and Tempe.

Helena was so scared of the very loud illegal firework that Sean shot off. She insisted on sitting behind Dad and covering her ears before he lit the second one--then she was sad that there weren't any more!

beatin' the heat

2011-07-04T14:21:00.004-06:00

We currently are without air conditioning--we're looking into getting it fixed, but we might have to suck it up until next summer.

It's 84 degrees downstairs and 90+ upstairs.

I've had to get creative to beat the heat!

Today I let the girls play with this ice sensory bin that I have been making all week! It kept us all cool for an hour or so.

It took me so long to make because I wanted layers of colors. So I froze a red layer, then an orange on top of it, then yellow, and so on. I put two little rubbery frogs in each layer (from the party section at Target, 12 for $2). The girls had to "excavate" the frogs using things from around the house--a toy hammer, a rock, a bowl of water, a bowl of salt.

It was fun experimenting with the different tools and seeing what melted the ice best! We found that salt made a huge impact in a short amount of time.

Look at those rainbow layers! Food coloring makes a huge mess, so they played with it on an old towel on the grass and ended up with blue fingers :)

ETA: I just wanted to add that this was not an original idea. I came across it on a blog a while back but when I went looking for the post, I couldn't find it. Otherwise I would have linked to the original post. It was either on www.notimeforflashcards.com or www.notjustcute.com. Those are both fabulous blogs with great ideas for fun and learning!

the most delicious food I make

2011-07-02T14:41:00.003-06:00

At the beginning of the year, I started getting the magazine Cooking Light in the mail. I had no idea where it came from, but it was addressed to me, so it wasn't being delivered to the wrong person.

At first I wasn't interested because I thought any recipe found in Cooking Light would be bland and gross. Boy, was I wrong! I am so glad I started trying the recipes. Now almost everything I make comes from it.

And now I want to share my adaptation of the most delicious food I make... Blackened Tilapia Fish Tacos.

{image from Cooking Light}

1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream

2 T chopped fresh cilantro

2 T fresh lime juice

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 cup thinly sliced yellow onion

1 ripe chopped avocado

2 t brown sugar

1 t dried oregano

3/4 t garlic powder

1/2 t salt

1/2 t ground cumin

1/4 t ground red pepper

4 tilapia fillets (I buy a big bag of frozen fillets at Wal-Mart)

1 T canola oil

8 whole wheat tortillas (or corn or flour, whatever you prefer)

4 lime wedges

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth.

2. Saute onion in butter until crisp-tender. Combine onion, avocado, and jalapeno sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Combine brown sugar and next 5 ingredients. Gently rub onto both sides of fish. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until it flakes easily with a fork. Break into chunks.

4. Warm tortillas according to package instructions. Divide fish and onion mixture evenly among tortillas. Serve with lime wedges and ENJOY!

I serve this with lime cilantro rice (we usually just stick it right in the tortilla with the fish). Seriously, this is the best meal I make. It's so good.

Oh yeah, still wondering where the magazine subscription came from? My mom got it for me but forgot to tell me until April when I started telling her how many delicious recipes I was getting from it! Thanks, Mom!

Juno is 7 months old!

2011-06-24T13:12:00.006-06:00

Our sweet little Juno turned 7 months old about a week ago!

This was a big month for her. She spent almost all of it in her Spica cast, which was not as bad as we thought it would be. Juno put up with it--she wasn't very happy during her time in the cast, but she wasn't miserable. One week before she turned 7 months, the doctor changed her cast to a broomstick cast, which is much more comfortable and allows her to bend at the waist.

We successfully weaned her off of prescription painkillers, which is an accomplishment because she got physically addicted to Lortab after her surgery. But she's clean now!

She started eating "big girl" food--rice cereal, carrots, applesauce, bananas, and crackers and drinking water from her sippy cup. She loves eating anything she can hold in her hand, but isn't interested in being fed by a spoon.

Part of the reason we started her on solid food is because she lost about a pound while in her Spica cast. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you only weigh 12 pounds, it certainly is. Her pediatrician is concerned, but I'm not (yet). All my babies are itty-bitty and all her muscles atrophied over the last few months, so it makes sense that she lost a little weight. I won't worry until she is cast free and not gaining.
Her sleep suffered while she was in her Spica, but she's getting back on track now and most nights she sleeps 3 hour stretches. That sounds awful for a 7-month-old, but after getting up every hour with her for 6 weeks, it is heaven.
Juno hasn't quite figured out the pincer grip (she still clutches things in her fist), but she can transfer things from hand to hand and put them in her mouth.
Juno has no trunk control or upper body strength to speak of, but she can sit up if she leans against the upper bar on her cast.

She may not have upper body strength, but she has some killer abs. She can lift her heavy legs all the way up and hold her toes while she is lying on her back!Overall, Juno is happy, healthy, and thriving. We are so grateful for her sweet, patient spirit! She is such a blessing to our family.

shake it up, baby!

2011-06-21T21:50:00.002-06:00

Happy summer!

I'm always surprised on June 21st when I realize that it's the first official day of summer. Growing up in North Carolina, summer seemed to start much, much earlier--I guess since our pool was always open by mid-May. My birthday is the end of May and I always considered myself to have a summer birthday. Now that I live in Utah, I have realized that I most definitely do not have a summer birthday. My kids actually wore sweaters on Sunday--and that was June 19th!!

Anyway, since it is the first official day of summer, I thought we should start doing stuff on our summer bucket list. We decided to make ice cream--in a baggie! Super easy and super fun.

1. Mix 1 T sugar, 1 T vanilla extract or chocolate syrup, and 1/2 cup half and half in a sandwich ziplock bag. Seal the bag tightly.

2. Fill a pint sized bag halfway with ice and pour 1/4 cup coarse salt over the ice.

3. Put the sandwich bag in the pint bag (on top of the ice), seal, and shake!

We shook for about 5 minutes and then I put the bags in the girls' bumpiest push-bikes and had them ride up and down the driveway for a few minutes. That finished it off perfectly!

Mmmm, it was good!

Cleanup is great too--just toss everything!

an enchanted treehouse

2011-06-15T14:37:00.003-06:00

We built a treehouse!!!!

I've had this plan floating around in my head for at least a year and I finally acted on it last week after I found a cheap used slide.

It's not very big--in fact, it's more like a platform with a slide coming down. Still, it's perfect for two little girls to climb all over.

There's a slide coming from the platform and a swing hanging from a branch over to the side.

It's the perfect little leafy getaway for eating lunch or reading!

I have a vision of turning this corner of the yard into an enchanted hideaway for the girls, filled with fairies and gnomes and butterflies to keep them company, and old stumps, rocks, and toadstools to sit on and entertain their guests. I was inspired in part by this darling fairy garden. And someday we might need an outdoor mud pie kitchen like this one.

And to start us off is this little toadstool, inspired by these. I made it out of a stump that we had to cut down when we built the treehouse and an old wooden salad bowl from DI that I spraypainted. I looooooove it. Isn't it darling?

guess I'll eat some worms....

2011-06-12T20:42:00.002-06:00

This is an old picture of Tempe (from the summer of 2009), but it's what she looks like 90% of the time. This kid loves to play in the dirt. Nothing makes her happier than collecting dirt, rocks, sticks, leaves, grass, flowers, worms, bugs, and snails in a big tupperware bin in the backyard.

A few weeks ago Tempe was playing on the deck with a bucket full of dirt. She came in the house and said "Dad, did you know if you stretch a worm out too far, it breaks?"

And sure enough, there were several "broken" worms on the deck.

pink and purple striped girl

2011-06-10T15:46:00.003-06:00

Can you believe 6 weeks has gone by since Juno's open reduction and Spica cast???

I can't!

But the calendar doesn't lie, and today Juno's Spica was removed and a new cast was put on. Her hips looked good enough for her to go into a different kind of cast--a broomstick cast. It's really two casts, one on each leg from thigh to ankle, held apart by a bar (or two, in her case!) Since it's only on her legs, she can wear normal diapers and bend at the waist! Woohoo! It's the little things that make me happy :)

Here's one last picture of her in her Spica cast. Jason convinced me that we should keep it, so I asked the doctor to save it for me. It actually doesn't smell bad at all--she doesn't sweat yet and we didn't have any blowouts during the 6 weeks she was in it. Right now it's in two pieces, but I'm going to tape it back together.

I was going to mark on her ankle at the bottom of her cast so that we could see how much she grew, but I forgot to. But I can tell you that she grew a lot.

And her she is in her broomstick cast! She's wearing a onesie so you can't see that it's only on her legs. It is so strange holding her without her big bulky cast. She's almost seven months old but she has no trunk control at all. It's like trying to hold a 3-week-old upright! I hope she gets stronger quickly and will learn to sit up soon. I think she will be much happier if she can sit and play with toys instead of laying on her back all the time.

So we've got 6 more weeks in this cast and then hopefully, that will be it!

hello, summer!

2011-06-08T15:23:00.001-06:00

Tempe and Helena helped me put together a really fun get together for the neighborhood kids--a sidewalk chalk party! Check it out on my party blog.

{And I'd love some comments over there, too!}

Sidewalk chalk festival

2011-06-07T14:17:00.000-06:00

Today we kicked off the summer with a fun party for the neighborhood kids.

It was actually 4 1/2 year old Tempe's idea. We went to a local chalk festival a few weeks ago and she has been asking me when we can have one of our own ever since. I thought the first week of summer vacation was the perfect occasion!

I kept it simple with store-bought popsicles (Scribblers--they are shaped like sidewalk chalk!), lemonade, and baskets of sidewalk chalk scattered around the driveway. The moms sat in the shade and chatted while the kids went crazy with the sidewalk chalk--and I was amazed by their creativity!

I made the invitation on Picnik and printed it on cardstock. I loooooove how it turned out!

We invited about 25 kids, ranging in age from 18 months to 11 years. This is the perfect party for a big range of ages. Toddlers to tweens love sidewalk chalk--actually, some of the moms were getting into it, too! We had a great time and I think it might become an annual tradition :)

{Juno's blessing dress}

2011-05-29T19:47:00.002-06:00

You may remember a few months ago when Juno was blessed, I didn't have any nice pictures of her in her blessing dress. Jason's oh-so-talented aunt Margaret did some pictures of Juno in her dress before she went into her Spica cast, and here they are!

Juno was not super cooperative. My mom made the dress and it has two bows with long white ribbons on the bodice. It's an adorable dress and the bows are great toys for Juno. We couldn't get her to let go of them or keep them out of her mouth!

I love this picture of me and the June!

These are the sweet booties that my good friend J'Nette made for Juno's blessing. Alas, she could not wear them because she was in a Pavlik harness that covered her feet. So I had to have some shots of them peeking out from under her dress in our break between Pavlik and Spica!

She has her Grandpa Canyon's smile :)

a parenting triumph

2011-05-25T19:34:00.004-06:00

Introducing...

Ruby Violet Blueberry Tempe Blue.

Can you guess who named our new Betta fish?

Tempe has been working so hard to earn this fish--her very first pet!--and she finally got him on Monday!

Back in March, the primary president in our ward talked to me about Tempe's behavior in primary. She was goofing off, getting out of her chair and running around, and collapsing in tears every week. I was mortified. Nobody wants their kid to be "that kid". We immediately started talking to her about it at home and trying to find a way to help her change her behavior.

We started a simple reward system at home.

We switched her sacrament meeting snack from honey nut cheerios to cashews and string cheese.

We promised her she could get a fish after 2 months of consistent good behavior in primary, and Jason drew a fish on her hand every week to remind her.

But what really made the difference for her was walking to church.

I really think it was inspiration. We had been praying to know how we could help her, and one day when I wasn't even thinking about it, the idea of walking her to church popped into my head out of nowhere.

Walking to church gets some of her energy out, gives her some time alone with Mom or Dad, and stimulates her just enough that she is ready to learn when she gets to primary.

I don't want to jinx myself, so I'll stop talking now, but it's amazing what a difference walking has made!

ROAR!

2011-05-23T19:46:00.002-06:00

Today was Jason's day off, so we went to the zoo. We have a membership and we definitely get our money's worth!

Right now the Hogle Zoo has an awesome dinosaur display. There are a dozen animatronic dinosaurs scattered throughout the park that move and roar! They are so neat and we had a great time seeing them--and getting sprayed by them! Remember that part on Jurassic Park where the fat guy from Seinfeld gets sprayed by the poison dinosaurs? Yeah.

Tempe went as close as she could get to the first one we saw (a mommy and baby Stegosaurus) but Helena was nervous. She stayed back about 15 feet screaming "Don't go too close, Tempe!!"

There's even a T-rex that you can ride on! Helena wouldn't go near this one, either. Heck, she's terrified of the elephant statue that sprays water.

She did, however, agree to pose with Dad in this picture. This was the best dinosaur there--it's eyes moved and it roared. It was scary!

Looks like I got there just in time!!
These dinosaurs look really lame in the pictures, but they were cool. If you don't believe me, go check them out--they'll be there until August!

{S'more Goodbye Party}

2011-05-18T21:03:00.000-06:00

A good friend and her family are moving to Ohio in a few weeks, so a few friends and I planned a surprise goodbye party. The plan was to have a table set up outside with all the fixings, paper lanterns strung in the trees, and a few firepits going so everyone could mingle and make s'mores at their leisure.

Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and only about 50 degrees on party day, so we had to move everything inside. We yelled "Surprise!" when the family of honor came in, made s'mores in the oven, and enjoyed a fun evening reminiscing over the last two years.

I think this is the cutest invitation I have ever made. My witty husband came up with the s'mores saying--isn't he funny?

Our last-minute indoor s'mores setup.
We had regular, strawberry, and toasted coconut marsmallows. Our toppings were regular, dark, and caramel filled chocolate bars, peanut butter, strawberry slices, and banana slices. We also had ice cream and indoor s'mores cookies: Golden Grahams marshmallow-chocolate squares.

The top frame says "There is no distance too far between friends; for friendship gives wings to the heart." I gave it to my friend for a souvenier of the party. I was going to print out our neighborhood map and have everyone sign next to their house as a souvenier, but I just didn't get a chance to print it. Now I wish I had found time because I think it would have been a great gift for them!

The bottom frame says "Go ahead--have S'more!" and has a long list of different flavor combinations to try. My personal favorite was the Elvis: a regular marshmallow with dark chocolate, peanut butter, and banana slices. Yum!

Don't all those marshmallows just make you smile?

This was such a fun, easy party to throw. Besides opening packages, there is absolutely no preparation involved in making s'mores and it's even easier to do in the oven than it is over a fire! We pre-heated the oven to 350, filled a cookie sheet with s'mores, and baked them for about 5 minutes.

We'll miss the Zimmermans, but we are excited for them to move on to new things!

Juno is 6 months old!

2011-05-17T11:50:00.003-06:00

I can't believe that six months have gone by since Junebug joined our family! I have grown so much in that time. Juno has been such a blessing for our family and we are all so grateful for her.

Juno weighs about 14 pounds, but that includes her cast, which adds 2-3 pounds. I have absolutely no idea how long she is. In fact, she hasn't been measured since she was 2 months old because she's been in some contraption or another since then! She was sleeping really well at night, but the cast has set us back and she has been waking up every 2 hours or so all night. I think she is having muscle spasms or just can't get comfortable. I'm considering going back to co-sleeping to see if that helps.

Juno is still a pretty happy girl, but she doesn't like to be put down. I'm sure a big part of that is that she is so sick of being propped up or flat on her back. She is ready to sit, roll, scoot, and crawl. In fact, when I lay her on her tummy to put her diaper on, it's obvious that she is trying so hard to scoot herself forward because her little bum moves up and down inside the cast. It's pretty darn cute!

She also wants badly to eat big girl food, but I'm still holding her off until her cast change next month--her second cast will be legs only so the diaper situation will be much less precarious. She reaches for forks and plates and her eyes never leave your fork when she's sitting on your lap at the table.

The funniest thing about our little June is this:

Can you tell what she is doing? Probably not. Take a closer look.

Yes, she is chewing on the top of her cast. It's a great built-in chew toy for a baby who constantly gums anything she can get her hands on!

3 kids in a bike trailer

2011-05-16T20:53:00.007-06:00

So one of the things that I was most worried about when Juno first went into her Spica was the stroller situation. Luckily, the bike trailer that my wonderful in-laws gave me for my birthday 3 years ago has been a lifesaver! Helena was just a little baby when I got it, but I remembered seeing someone in Laramie with some kind of infant sling in their bike trailer at a park. So I logged onto the Laramie FreeCycle page and asked if anyone knew what they were called or where I could get one. Much to my surprise, I received one in the mail just a few weeks later--for free! Isn't that amazing that someone would send a total stranger something so expensive that they could have resold?

Anyway, it is perfect for Juno's cast. I originally had it in a side position, but her legs stuck out too wide and bumped into the side of the trailer, so I moved her to the middle. And even better, Tempe and Helena fit in the trailer with her! Going for walks hasn't been this pleasant in such a long time. I can actually walk at a normal pace instead of taking three steps and then turning around and saying "Come on! Keep walking!!" over and over.