to tell you the honest truth

halloween '09

This year my kids really did look pretty cool, but some of my pictures totally stink.  I wanted them to all stand nicely together, but would they?  of course not.  My boys are the "fiercely independent" type and for surely not the "stand around and take cute pictures for mom" type.  They run their own race on Halloween....the bigger ones, not Austin YET.  Caleb, Taylor and Isaac were equipped with pillowcases, 2 pairs of rollerblades and a skateboard and they were off!  They unloaded once at home and then took off again for round two.  The end result was A LOT of candy! 

We also greatly enjoyed our company on Halloween!  Pete's sister, Katrina, (just moved up from Arizona) her husband, Miah and their darling little boy, Adin along with Pete's other sister, Maria and her husband, Sheldon, were all able to join us for some pizza, "spider cider" and trick-or-treating.  (I know that was a long sentence).  I invited my brother Jeff and his family also, but they had a grandparent visiting town and no car big enough to transport them all to my house!  :(  I talked to Julie and it sounded like they had some fun plans though. 

I have to say, I totally loved dressing up my little girlie for Halloween!  It's a different experience than dressing the boys.  Thankfully, she had a darling hand-me-down mermaid costume, from her cousins, that fit perfectly.  I bought some ribbons and made a big bow to match.  It was my first and it ended up a little big, but I think it was okay for Halloween.  She was adorable, if I do say so myself!  :)

 

Caleb happily posed with her, and I thought the ones of them turned out great.  Caleb absolutely adores Ava!  As you can see, Caleb was a "freak" for Halloween, and he LOVED his look.  Is that good or bad?

 

 

Taylor was Elvis again and my pictures are terrible, but really, he looked awesome.  Especially with his rollerblades on.  He has such a great sense of humor and somehow this costume just works for Taylor. 

 

 

Isaac was Prince Caspian.....and oh, a handsome Prince he was!!  He was DARLING and I am angry with myself that all I have of him is this: (a neighbor friend joined the picture too)

Austin was a red Power Ranger.  Hey, honestly, it was $10 and I just really didn't care that much.  He DOES NOT watch Power Rangers!  He just happens to know what they are because his friends have the action figures and therefore, we have purchased a Power Ranger action figure before.  (He does like his action figures!)  Anyway, after we sprayed his hair, we actually loved his little look!  Again, not a terrific picture.  :(

 

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

a collection started and FYI

I've started a collection of vintage pyrex in the prettiest of colors....AQUA!  I know of a couple secret places that have small stashes of this stuff, so I've been going every couple weeks to snatch up another dish. Time to go again!  It sure has made it a little extra fun to do some cooking and baking!  The other day I made a couple things:

Chocolate Chip Cookies!  YUM!

 

And a chicken salad recipe from Pioneer Woman!  mmmm.

There is a similar post on my NEW BLOG, so if you go there too, don't be surprised to be seeing double...sort of. 

Which leads me to the FYI part.  You know, For Your Information.

Basically, To Tell You The Honest Truth will be my personal, family style blog.  I'll probably update it every couple weeks or so.  You know, the Birthday Party, the Pumpkin Patch, etc, etc....stuff like that.  Anything that has to do with my crafting, sewing, etsy shop, collecting, baking, photography, etc., or anything that is cute or fun to look at, will be posted on my new blog, A Little Sweetness.  An occasional post of family will probably occur as well.  This blog will be regularly updated at least 2-3 times per week.

Pretty much what I'm saying is, I'll mostly be posting on my other blog, so if you want to see what I'm up to on a regular basis, especially in the crafting realm of my life, go there!  :)

Hopefully you'll all pop on over! 

Tasha

a little sweetness

Today I'll be directing you to my MY NEW BLOG so you can see what I've been up to lately!

 

"i have my cake! i'm 4 now!"

When we brought home a big cake from Costco for Austin, that's what he said...."i have my cake!, i'm 4 now!".  Even though his birthday wasn't until the next day.  It made us laugh.  He had been talking about his birthday for months and months.  Every toy or lego magazine that came through the house was repeatedly looked through as he pointed and explained to us the things he wanted for his birthday.  For literally months he did this.  No other child of ours has ever been so obsessed about a birthday.  Not like this.  Austin is hilarious.  He says very funny things all the time.  He also throws some pretty awesome tantrums that usually test our patience skillz to no end.  Nevertheless, we love him to pieces. So, we couldn't help but go a little "all out" for his birthday with how excited and eager he was to turn 4.   We didn't have a big party, it was more about the goods and the cake for him.  We had a few neighbor kids over and kept it simple with cake and ice-cream.  We had a couple tears from the birthday boy with so much excitement, but other than that...a great little party for our little man. 

The cake idea was inspired by my sister's awesome star wars cake she made for her son and Austin did want one JUST like it.  I had all the good intentions in the world to make him one just like it, but I copped out in the end and snagged a cake at Costco when we were there doing the shopping.  When I brought it home, Austin did say to me, "why didn't you get me a star wars cake?".  I felt like a terrible mother even though I did have plans to decorate it with star wars action figures like my sister had done.  I was so worried about it, but he seemed pretty happy with the result.  Austin LOVES clones and Darth Vader!  We found the cool Vader candle at Party City which I think was the perfect touch to the cake.  Anyway, enough of the cake saga!

Here's Trista's homemade Star Wars cake!  I love the glowing light sabers! 

Here's some close ups of Austin's

C-ya!  Me and Aussie are off to get some of that leftover cake!  mmmm!

discovery

ava was so cute yesterday playing in the grass and discovering the little yellow flower there.  basically she wanted to eat it and i did have to take it out of her mouth a few times between taking the pictures.

i love her little hair sprout she has....see, it's growing!  yay! 

Pete and Tasha love the 80's

For all of those that are living lost in the land of the 2000's. Poor Poor souls. Here is some real music that does NOT swear every other word. YEAH!!!!!

a-ha - New Music - More Music Videos

This is Pete, hahahahahahahaha. Hey Ninzel, this is for you also, my 80's lovin sista, lol. BOOOOOOYA

little tote

I'll be teaching a little sewing class for a mid-week activity at church.  It was suggested to me that a tote bag might be an item of interest.  I guess I'll find out!  The class isn't until October, but hopefully it won't be a total flop!  Either way, I love my new little tote!  If you do want to know about how to make the tote, it's just a tutorial I followed on The Purl Bee.  Totally easy.  I was excited to find that Pacific Fabrics is now carrying a selection of Japanese Import fabrics and had this cute Red Riding Hood one I have seen online before.  It was fun working with some new colors, not that I don't still love my pink, red and aqua friends. 

The tote is magazine sized.  The tutorial would be EASILY altered for bigger or smaller. 

 

ttfn!

sweet things

New Lollies for Ava's room!

Remember this:

 

Now, it's also an embroidery pattern!

 

Not exactly what this will turn in to, but I like it.  Pete said her shoes look like they are floating, so I probably need a better skin color thread next time. (I was using what I had on hand).  This is also my first attempt at doing a log cabin quilt block, and I like it too.  If you notice any un-even-ness, that is because it is suppose to be "wonky"....that's what the quilting world calls it....the wonky log cabin.  My wonky-ness is very slight compared to some.  I was able to use some fabrics I swapped for too, so that was a highlight for me.  Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately.

Have a great day!

6 months!

So Ava's 6 months old now and I couldn't be happier about it!  She's doing all the cute things now...smiling, laughing, playing with toys, making sounds and spitting, eating baby cereal, sitting up, trying to crawl and growing hair!!!  She has been a super sweet baby and is a little dream come true!

Here are some snapshots I took a few days ago while she played in her room and I cleaned....well after I took photos...notice the clothes still on the floor....or on the other hand, don't notice the clothes on the floor. 

This is her little "crink face" she always does.

We love you little miss ava!

for fabric junkies

I've been doing some totally fabulous fabric swapping on flickr lately.  It probably sounds strange to most, but the fabric loving people are really into this!  It works like this:  I upload photos to my flickr of the fabrics I want to swap, I list the amounts I have available to swap and I also can list a wish list of fabrics that i would hope to aquire through swapping.  Then I wait for the flickr mails to arrive!  I can decline or accept someone's offer or do some negotiating.  A couple swaps have come in the mail and a couple more are on their way.  I am super excited about the variety of cute fabrics I now have to work with.  I won't bore you with anymore details, but all I have to say is...........YAY for swapping!  :)

TTFN...tata for now! 

Lollipops and Lemons

Today as I was embroidering some lollipops, I was contemplating life a little bit.  I started to think how our personalities can be sweet, like a lollipop, but at other times....sour...perhaps like a lemon.  We all have different personalities with different strengths and weaknesses.  Our very own "Lollipops and Lemons".

 

As humans, none of us are perfect.  We all make mistakes.  We absolutely WILL make mistakes.  No doubt we will trip, no doubt we will stumble...

Every.
Single.
One of us. 
Not just me, not just you. 

All of us have the "sweet and the sour" and we all will need the tolerance and forgiveness of each other to make it through this life.  I think everyone can find something about everyone that is sour, if that is what we are looking for.  And on the contrary, we can all find something sweet about everyone, if that is what we are looking for.  I know it is very difficult for me to find the "sweet" in my 3 year old right now!  But it's there if I look.   

The challenge we all have?  To NOT focus on that sour in others.  We ALL have that challenge, not just me, not just you.  We all need to be looking for the sweet.  I feel it would be unwise for any person to think that they do not require the forgiveness and tolerance of others at many times throughout life.  We are all the same that way.

I know that at times, I have been guilty of finding the sour in others.  I plan to get better at focusing on the sweet that we all have. 

But don't expect me to perfect okay!?  ;) (wink)

P.S.
This post is meant to be sweet, not sour.  In case you were wondering.  :)