Welcome Hanzel and Gretel

For Family Home Evening last week we decorated the gingerbread house. The kids had lots of fun, and it turned out really cute. Santa on top of his sleigh is donning his night-vision goggles. Then we all enjoyed some Hot Chocolate when we were through and admired our work.

Baby Shower Gifts

I've been busy making baby gifts for some friends and wanted to share a few photos. I followed some great tutorials to make the Diaper Wipey Case, Diaper & wipe case holder, burp rags, and then made my own bows, flower clips, and crocheted hat. I just love makin' stuff.

Here's what my good friend recieved who just had her 3rd baby girl on Friday:

Crocheted hat with a flower clipped on (that she can wear separate from the hat later).

This bright pink bow clipped onto a headband.
A few other goodies, like these Amy Butler prints made into burp rags, wipe cases, and hair bows. Now I just have to hurry up and finish makin' stuff for our new baby, since I've only got about 3 weeks to go!

Its that time of year again...

We had a special visitor at our ward Christmas Party.

Mongo

These are for posted for posterity, and for anyone who wants to get a good laugh:-) Like most pregos, I tend to get camera shy when I'm very pregnant, and I realized I don't have any pics of me pregnant with the other 2 kids. So here I am with Baby #3 in the oven. About 7 months along. Those horizontal stripes are so flattering!*wink* Little L did a pretty good job as my photographer- I made her stand on a chair so I wouldn't look quite so huge from the bottom up!

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

I'm liking my Christmas Tree a little more this year than last year, it needed a little more "razzle dazzle." Last year we only had it up for 2 weeks so I chose not to get any new Christmas decor. This year however, I feel much more motivated. I still need more glittery-lime ribbon for garland and more sparkly gold stuff on top and throughout the tree, but this is a fairly decent improvement from last year. It seems like we must have broken a lot of ornaments last year too, as there isn't as many, and there are no ornaments on the back of the tree (but just don't look back there, ok?:-) I admit I'm still enjoy the traditional red/green/gold color scheme, mainly because I'm stickin with the "use what I've got" mentality. So here's a little tree comparison from last year.

2008:

(I had to put this pic in to remind me of what I used to look like before this giant Buddha belly. I will only be round and pregnant for a few more weeks:-)

2009: This is looking better with the bow and sparkly topper I made. I want to get more, but I think Micheal's may have run out. (Note to self-- buy more all at once next year!)

I put some of my ornaments in these acpocothey (sp??) jars, which look nice, but I can't decide if I want to put them back on the tree to fill it up.

Black Friday

Black Friday at our house was insane-NOT! We spent the day relaxing, getting the house back in order after our big Thanksgiving get together (that turned out great:-), and getting out the Christmas decorations. The kids went crazy over the Christmas tree, D-Roo couldn't stop talking about how "amazing" the Christmas tree looked. I suppose when you're less than 3 feet tall it does look pretty grand:-)

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

I threw together this arrangement for our Turkey Day Dinner: fresh flowers cut shorter from a Costco bouquet, some cinnamon scented pine cones, and some cool glittery greenery I cut up. Pretty simple and fall-ish:-) I also made little corn stalks for name cards that I found here.

I'm thankful for my turkey chef, and the wonderful Ronco! It just fit our 14lb bird and we watched it slowly roast for about 3 hours and it was delicious. I wish I would have taken more photos but we were too busy getting things ready. Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Mod Podge

So I've been reading a lot in blogland and found a fun crafty blog called Mod Podge Rocks. I decided to use the inspiration and finally use the leftover modge podge I've had sitting in my craft room for over 5 years. I found this old wash board at Good Will for $12, and decided to turn it into a place to hold keys, and sunglasses (I still have to put nails or ribbon over the fabric for the sunglasses).

Before:

After:

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our Witch and Spiderman.

Giveaway

Lila Tueller (fab fabric designer and pattern-er!) is having a giveaway on her blog for a jelly roll and layer cake. I love all her fabric and NEED more for my projects:-) How about you ignore that I mentioned this so I have a better chance of winning...

http://www.lilatuellerdesigns.blogspot.com/

Cupcake Anyone?

My in-laws got me this beautiful cupcake stand for my birthday, and we couldn't wait to try it out. With help from my little bakers, we whipped up these beauties. I almost don't want to eat them- they look so pretty (but I'm sure the kids won't go for that:-)).

Unpleasant Surprise

This is what sneaked up on me the other night in my bathroom...! (click on the photo to enlarge to actual size!) I thought I was safe on the 2nd floor from all things creepy and crawly (that's what the basement is for, right?). After it scurried across the floor I got my husbands handy shoe (use mine? I don't think so:-)) and after one miss and a squash, I got him. Man that little bugger is fast! I can only guess how he got in there, yikes! Hope I'm not sleeping with any spiders tonight!

Easy Apron for $1!!!!

I bought this $1 fat quarter of fabric at Wal-Mart, thinking of doing a church tie for D-Roo. But he informed me he wasn't interested in what I thought were "manly colored flowers." I guess I see his point:-) So, I had an old plastic ripped up kids apron I'd been saving in my sewing box, and it was the perfect size pattern for the fat quarter. I simply laid on the old one, cut around it leaving a 1/2" seam allowance, hemmed the edges, measure the neck straps to make sure it would fit over L's head, sewed up some waist ties and sewed on the pocket. Super easy. I think it maybe took me 45 min. And that includes all the time Little L and me spent discussing what fabric scrap she thought would be "cute" for the pocket.
Right after it was finished she informed me we had to go bake something. While mixing up our Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats, she enjoyed telling our cooking show audience (refrigerator) the important recipe instructions. I love having a little girl:-)
I'd probably put dark brown or coordinating trim around the hems and a ruffle bottom, and separate the pockets if I make another one, but hey, for $1, not bad!


Here's my FAVORITE recipe from my Grandma MC:

Peanut Butter Rice Krispies

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup karo syrup

mix and slowly bring to a boil

remove from heat and add

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

4 cups Rice Krispie Cereal


butter your hands and roll into balls while warm--YUM!

Wonder of Wonder!

....Miracle of Miracles!

My purple coneflower actually produced 1 bloom. I don't know what possessed the bunnies to leave it alone for the last month, but they did. Maybe it will come back next year (after I put mini fences around each of my plants!).

Here's a little photo of some of my patio pots, I want to do more next year (maybe that will motivate me to get back into the schedule of morning waterings). Mainly I did some purple coleus on the right and some lime/yellow coleus on the left with begonias. I got the Pink Peony from Costco no longer in bloom, and some pink geraniums. I got the petunias at Home depot, and brought them back from the dead after a vacation of missed waterings! I am going to plan my seedlings for potting next year, so they won't turn into a delicious salad for my furry woodland friends.

The Hooter Hider

I ordered more Amy Butler fabric and made myself this Hooter Hider/nursing cover, since I'm so tired of those darn blankets falling off, and I like my privacy! I figure I better do my sewing now because after I have a newborn, I don't imagine I'll be getting much done for who knows how long! I got this free pattern here, and it only took an hour and a half. It has corset boning in the neck to make it stiff. I also made a matching burp rag out of this old cloth diaper. My cute SIL Lindsay made some of these for her baby, and I found this great tutorial here, and it was soo stinkin easy, why would anyone use something that is not cute when they can have these? I used Amy Butlers fabric that came in fat quarters, they are the perfect size to make the front and back coverings for the burp rags. I had more fabric left over from L's skirt, so I made a few more.

Front and Back Views

Strip Skirt

There's nothing like giving up an old hobby to master a new one. Well, maybe not so much master as tinker around with one. After my bunny fiasco I have foregone gardening for the rest of the year (although I have pondered planting daffodil bulbs since they were the only thing that didn't get eaten) and turned on my sewing machine. I ordered some cute Amy Butler fabric on etsy, and got this Pink Fig girls stripwork skirt pattern and went to work. I wish I would have timed the project, but I'd probably say somewhere around 5 hours, since I had finished all the edges (so it wasn't "scratchy" and my daughter might actually wear it) and I'm a pretty slow, novice sewer. It actually turned out really cute (and she was happy to wear it to church- success!)

I've also gotten addicted to so many cute crafty blogs, and have been inspired. Hopefully I'll have more projects to post soon.

New Beginnings

What a fun summer we've had. Now its time we settle in for our routine for fall. Lil L started her first year of soccer, and Kindergarten! She really enjoys both, especially being on a team, and is a great sport. Also, while its a little tough to get up early for school, she informed me that half day "wasn't long enough". Well, just wait a few years and that will change:-) Anyhoo, I feel very blessed to live here and enjoy this beautiful weather (before winter hits), I actually love the humidity. I also look forward to wearing sweaters again- I love fall. The trees are so pretty in the metroparks, even driving past them on the freeway. I love looking at the woods in our backyard, I have to get another bird feeder, so I can check on all the little birdies while I'm doing the dishes. We've got all kinds of birds, including cardinals and some cute yellow ones that I'll have to look up. When we found out we were moving here about a year ago, who woulda thought this state would be so nice?

Lucky 7

Yesterday was our 7 year Anniversary. While I'm definitely not a mushy or PDA type person, I will say that marrying M was the best decision I ever made, thank goodness he finally asked me *wink*:-) It has been a great 7 years, and I'm glad we could spend them together. Here's to at least 7 more!

Time to upgrade the car!

I love my kids! They are pretty self sufficient at 5 and 3, but I won't be packing up the crib just yet. We are super excited to add another addition to our family! Our little brother or sister (we are going to be surprised!) will be arriving some time in mid-January. The only trouble is trying to come up with boy and girl names! Luckily I still have a while before I have to narrow down the favorites. Anyhoo, that's our big news- phew!

{FYI: I got this button from this Etsy site}

Going Private

I've been thinking about making my blog private for awhile. Mainly just because its a mad mad world out there and I'd like to know it's friends and family reading my blog and not any old "tom, dick and harry":-) So, please leave a comment, or you can email me your email that you log into blogger with, so I can add you as a viewer. Thanks for your cooperation, have a great day!

Wonder of the World

What an adventurous weekend we had. Last Saturday we spent the day at Niagara Falls. It was amazing. My parents came up from Colorado and we road tripped it to upstate New York. We took a great tour that started at the Cave of the Winds, where you can see us walking on the red decks that take you up to the base of the falls on the American side. The park service provided yellow ponchos and also rubbery sandals to wear. After a elevator ride to the bottom, we started on our way. The Hurricane Deck was crazy. M and L were brave and got right into the pouring water while D and I stood off to the side (still getting drenched of course) capturing pictures. We saw lots of rainbows in the falls, lots of water, seagulls and waves.

Mom and Skip

Then our tour guide took us over to a whirlpool, to see where the water goes out to the ocean.

Our poncho model.

Last but not least, was our fantastic ride on the Maid of the Mist. Decked out again, but in blue ponchos this time, we boarded the ship to take us right up next to the falls. First past the American side, than the Canadian side. Feeling the sheer power and spray of those falls was truly amazing. It was quite the experience.

After that we headed up to another look out spot, this is where we were standing out over the water. Definitely a fun and tiring day.