A Boy and His Bike

Look who got a new bike!

There is still an awful lot of this going on. He has a long way to go if he is going to "ride it like Dad".

When Hubby is Away I Get to Play

William was out of town yesterday, just overnight. So of course I had to try a couple of little crafts.

I saw these fun bracelets on Abby's blog not to long ago. She used clasps but I wanted the stretchy cord. It was a little tricky, I tied three strands of elastic, threaded them, braided them and then knotted them again. Then I tied the six strands together and added a drop of superglue. Her tutorial is much better.

I wear pink a lot. I have had this skirt for Brittany in my head for awhile now. So glad I let it out. It was really easy too, now I want to make more.

Stitchin' Kids

In my last post I mentioned Matthew had been sick all week with strep throat. It was all week because even though I took him to the doctor Monday they didn't culture it and so it wasn't until Thursday when I took him back with huge swollen tonsils that it was diagnosed. It was a long week. I had to laugh though when my friend Circe left me a comment on that last post that she was sorry Matt was sick but she could hardly wait to see what crafts we had cooked up to keep him busy. Man, the girl knows me well! Granted it was about Thursday before he was even be interested but after that it has pretty much been a Harry Potter marathon with crafts thrown in.





First I found this great mosaic Discovery Toy at the thrift store. If you ever find one buy it, all three kids loved it.




Then I broke out the big guns. Embroidery. Yep, even for my boy. I was at Hobby Lobby one day and saw they had the old iron-on patterns I remember from when I was learning to stitch. I thought Brittany would love them.

This is her birdie lady she is still working on. And like her mother she has to have a second project going at the same time.

Matthew was with me that day and said he wanted the cars set. So I pulled it all out, we watched Harry and stitched. Really quite a lovely afternoon! Oh, and notice he couldn't wait for me to turn it into a pillow for him so he just thumb-tacked it to the pillow that goes on his bed. Now that is boy being resourceful!


I decided to try working on a project I have been wanting to try. I saw Amy's version on her blog. I loved the idea of doing little mini subjects in each 1 1/2" square. I wish I could have used the same sherbety, pink and green colors she did but then I wouldn't have any place to hang it in my house. I am really having fun with it. I forgot, stitching is very therapeutic. Now all I want to do is stitch and watch BBC shows. I decided to do every fun, pretty thing I could think of on it and maybe some different things to represent the members of my family. We will see how it turns out. The train is for Josh so far and the duck is for Brittany. The rest I just liked!

Happy Pioneer Day!

It is a big holiday here in Utah today to celebrate the entry of the the Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. This is what the kids and I might have looked like back then with some of their cousins and Tante Elizabeth. We had a great time that day visiting the pioneer homes and remembering our pioneer ancestors. Since our dad has to work today, unlike some lucky folks, and Matthew has Strep throat, this is probably the extent of the celebrating we will be participating in. Hope you have a great day!

Heritage Park With the Cousins

Last week part of the reason I was so absent from Blogland was that I was just too busy playing with the family that was in town. The last day they stayed with us they planned to go visit the This is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake. I was really behind on laundry and such so I thought we would sit this one out. Then Tante Elizabeth called and said it would be so much more fun for her kids if mine came too. How could I resist? Glad I didn't! I hadn't ever taken my kids there and it was a blast.

I would have missed a moment like this one! Joshua, Clarissa and Nicholas. The little boys loved this train so much they just wanted to ride it all day long.

Josh had to try every little house, and of course compete with his sister.

Matthew helped Nicholas ride the ponies.

We also squeezed in a trip to the Treehouse museum that week. Brittany can really get that stuffed pony to go!

Who wouldn't hang out with these cute girls than do laundry? Brittany waited a long time for Audrey to get her and add another girl to the number of girl cousins around here, they are pretty scarce.

Aren't these boys handsome all ready for church?

It was so great to have Joseph's family visit. Funny how sometimes I have to have someone visit to remember all the fun things there are to do around here.

Two Little Monsters

Finally, something crafty to post! It seems like with the kids home all day I just haven't had the chance to create anything. So it was fun to create some monsters the other day when my friend Circe had her baby. The orange one is now in the possession of Prince Ptolemy (I don't know why, that name just seems like it should have a Prince in front of it to me!).

Because it always seems like a wasted effort to make just one of something I made this little guy too. He is super soft and can be found in the Shop.

Glad I'm Not!

I went to this movie with my friend Circe last week before she had her baby. Interesting choice for two girls who have know each other since we were nine, went to high school together and married guys we went to high school with. Interesting too that the movie begins in 1989, Zac Effron's character's senior year. Also our senior year. Which we will be celebrating next month at our twenty year reunion. I have to say the movie was more enjoyable than I had expected. Really, I had only expected to be lightly entertained and amused by a cute Zac Effron. But I actually went home so grateful for the choices I made "back in the day". Unlike Zac's character who felt trapped by mistakes he had made back then I am perfectly happy with mine. It made me reminisce about the friends I had back then, many of whom I still have. I was looking around on the website they have made for our reunion and it really left me feeling like if I could recreate my teenage experience for my kids it would be a great gift. I would recommend the movie, especially if you feel like being a bit nostalgic. Also if you would like to be reminded that we are all ultimately responsible for our own choice and what we make of our lives. However, I would not recommend it for your High School Musical Fans at home, unless you want to have a conversation about teenage pregnancy.

Life at the Beach

I cannot believe how long it has been since I posted something here! It has been a busy couple of weeks. First we spent a few days in Idaho with William's parents and then headed up to Bear Lake to spend some time with my family. When we returned William's brother Joseph and his family stayed with us this week. It has just be a big ole funfest around here! But now I am back and am going to show you some of our time at the beach because I seem to have abandoned scrapbooking and this may be the only record we are left with!

Our Uncle Nathan came to the beach with his shovel prepared for serious sand castle building. Which turned into sand sculpture once Matthew discovered Uncle Nate's talents.

William helped make sand piles for the artists.

Matthew and Uncle Nate worked hard on this turtle.

Doesn't he look like Crush from Finding Nemo?

There was also a shark.

And an alligator.

One of the fun results of this sort of sand sculpture is you create a moat around whatever you are sculpting. Josh preferred that spot for his playing. I can't believe his buns weren't totally pickled by the end of the day!

Oh, and he used his flip-flops as boats until Grandma took pity on him and bought him some real ones.

Uncle Nate even created a mermaid tail for mermaids in training.

My cute niece Libby decided to cover herself in sand and become a witch. A sand-wich, get it? That would be my best beach humor!

Miss Brittany didn't need any help, she made her castle all by herself.

Okay, this little guy was a lesson in toughness. We were joking around about how he only had one leg. Then he flew away, and he really did only have one leg. One tough bird!

And this fabulous holiday was brought to us by this lovely, generous, wonderful Grandpa. That's right Grandpa, although he does look a lot like the Pied Piper in this picture followed by his devoted fans. Let's not forget Grandma too, the woman whose love of air-conditioning resulted in our plush accommodations. Thanks parents, it was wonderful. Sign me up for next year!

Card Sharks

I went away the other night an found Brittany busy creating this.

Another variation she worked on until bedtime, when we took its picture to immortalize it forever. Right before we cleaned it all up again!

Frozen Banana Treats

I had bananas that looked like this so I decided to attempt a healthy frozen snack.

I mixed about even amounts of vanilla yogurt and Cool Whip together.

Then peeled the bananas, cut them in half and fished them out with a wooden skewer. I put them on a plate covered in wax paper then threw them in the freezer. I came back later and pulled them off and put them in a Tupperware container. Not quite as good as ice cream but almost!

Working on my Bedroom

For some reason my own bedroom is usually the last one I work on. I am trying to be better about that. So last week I tore into it.

This is the before.

I have no idea why I thought it was such a good idea to put both those big cabinets on that wall. The room has been lopsided ever since.

So I moved them (with the help of my super-mom) to either side of the bed. I hung two of the pictures I had taken in San Francisco over the bed and I like it much better. I also stole the big pillow off of the couch we are not using right now to add more "punch" to the bed.

I like this little corner too. That is the chair William carved by hand. It only took him a couple of years. The framed poster above is the work of his woodworking idol, Sam Maloof. I was trying to remember it is his room too!

My next bedroom project will be a window treatment of some kind but I don't know what that will be yet. Suggestions?

Happy Fourth of July!

My dear friend Tif has a great talent for the pretty. This is a picture I took of the centerpiece at a party she has for here new daughter a few weeks ago. It was so pretty and patriotic I had to use it today. Hope you are all out doing something to celebrate our great country's birthday. Despite whatever problems we might have I am so grateful I am blessed to live here.

The Fourth of July is one of those special holidays that lives in my childhood memories perfectly intact. For so many years it meant going to my hometown parade a block away from my Gram's house and then the unbelievable treat of staying up late to go to the fireworks at the high school. It was so much fun my cousins used to come visit that week from Minnesota so they wouldn't miss out on our small town festivities. Then it turned into a social event, watching to see what friends would be in the parade, scoping out the crowd to see friends I hadn't seen since school got out, hoping to maybe see whatever cute boy I had a crush on at the time. Eventually it became a memory that I will have forever. William and I had our first date on the Fourth, and of course we went to the fireworks at the high school. That first date was twenty years ago today. I cannot believe it! I am sure it is a time warp of some kind, we can't possibly that old!

The other amazing thing to me is that my kids have never had that same experience that I had as a kid. I am a serious stickler about bedtime and they were always too young or we had a new baby, there was the year we moved to CA on the fourth. Now that was not my favorite memory. But this year I am hoping is the year the memories start for them. We are off to the parade this morning, going to barbecue with my parents tonight and rumor has it the little people are going to get to stay up late, lay on a blanket and let those big ole beauties explode over them. It is going to be a perfect day!

**Update:
The parade was lots of fun! I really missed this small town and those mountains!

**Update 2:
The fireworks were wonderful! Leaning on hubby with my kids piled on like puppies listening to Louis Armstrong sing What a Wonderful World while they exploded over us. It just doesn't get better than that! Hope your Fourth was wonderful too!

The Birthday Party

You know it is amazing how busy this summer can be. It seems like my blogging time is just gone. I have to show Miss Brittany's fun birthday party and my favorite thing she received.

First the cake. Brittany had definite ideas about what it should look like. It needed to be a flower garden and she wanted to do it herself. That is my creative daughter. So we made the flowers out of starburts and laffy taffy warmed and rolled flat. Then we could cut the petals and leaves. Of course there had to be oreo dirt and coconut grass. By the time I bought all of our ingredients I am pretty sure I could have just bought a fabulous cake but where would the memory be in that, right?

We decided her party would be sort of a greatest hits of our best party activities. Of course that included face painting. I love the girl with the pink butterfly face. She was mad I invited her sister too. They also had a treasure hunt, pinata and did a craft. Good times.

This is my new favorite creation. It started life at the thrift store and was that ugly old brown. Somewhere in blogland I had seen a mom do a similar thing for her kids pet shop collection so I got to work and painted it white (three cans worth!) and then papered the back with cute scrapbook papers and modge podge. I really love how it turned out.

Here is it with its new inhabitants. It sits on top of Brittany's desk in her room.