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!

it's 2009!

I can't believe 2008 is over....it seemed to go so fast!  We are so excited for our 2009 though.  I hope everyone had fun celebrating the holidays! 

new year blocks (Got this cute message from flickr...i love the blocks.)

C-ya!

christmas '08

The boys were awake at 5:20, but I held them off until 6:00.  During this time, I helped Taylor finish his homemade heatpacks for his brothers.  He is such a thoughtful person.  The boys were so excited and hoped to get a new memory card for their game cube.  Instead, they were surprised to get a Wii!  Pete and I had no idea how cool this system is.  I am thinking of getting Wii Fitness after the baby is born!  The biggest surprise was the dirtbike though, something the boys and Pete have been talking about for about 5 years.  So far they are taking turns getting rides from Pete.  It will take some time and instruction for Caleb and Taylor to be able to ride on their own.  Isaac and Austin both got new scooters.  Austin also got his first bike and Isaac got some rollerskates.  He's been wanting some for awhile.  :)

Caleb and Taylor on the Honda XR 80. 

Taylor playing Wii Sports...I think he is boxing. 



Austin with his Spiderman Jet!



Isaac with his rollerskates on!



Pete also surprised me well, even though I told him not to because I am spending extra on the baby's room.  He's a very sweet hubby that way. 

Although we had so much fun with the presents this year, I think one of my favorite things about Christmas this year is that Austin keeps talking about the "new big star in the sky" that appeared when baby Jesus was born.  It is amazing what things they remember and what means the most.  With the older ones, it is nice to see their faith and testimony of the Savior increase as we talk about the true meaning of Christmas.  It is a magical time of year when the Spirit of Christmas is in our homes.  Pete explained to the boys that if you take off the "m-a-s",  you are left with the "Spirit of Christ". 

Here are some snow highlights:

Austin inspecting the snow on his mittens.


















Austin wasn't too happy after his super fast sled ride with Dad!




Taylor trimmed bushes out of the way for a sledding path!



My little stud.



Caleb is such a sweet older brother, helping Austin get ready to sled.



Having a blast!



Pete and Isaac crashed. 



Caleb and Austin.

  

I had such great intentions with treat making this year, however with my growing belly, some days are just not good.  I seemed to be able to have enough strength for standing for making one treat at a time and by the time I felt good for more treat making, my other ones would be being eaten and acquiring that "day old" taste.  I also kept forgetting an ingredient or the store would be out of something or the snow just kept us indoors.  Anyway, not too successful giving away treats even though I actually made things a few different times.  We managed to share a couple plates and I did take a picture of my dipped pretzels!

We also took NO PICTURES of our evening with Jeff and Julie and their kiddies the day after Christmas.  We feasted on Cheddar Potato Soup, Spinach Cranberry Salad, Cheese Fondue, Spinach dip and Chocolate Fondue for dessert!  This was so much fun!  The boys (big and little) all got crazy with the Nerf guns as Julie and I chatted while doing a little crafting.  We are good at tuning out noise.  :)  A fantabulous evening!!!

Here's also another craft I did this season:

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  (Sorry for the super long post!)

'twas the night before christmas....

This cute tag image was created by Tanya Whelan, a favorite fabric designer, of Grand Revival.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Paul and Kerri and wished we could have spent more time visiting.  Dinner was fabulous, the treats were plentiful, the kids decorated gingerbread cookies and we opened gifts.  If you want to see more, Kerri took lots of pictures.

Our tradition on Christmas Eve is to open new jammies and read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible.  This year it was slightly different because this month we have been following a scripture advent from The Friend Magazine, a children's spiritual magazine put out by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It began at Jesus' birth and has gone through his life, in chronological order, telling the stories of the miracles he performed, his death, his resurrection, his visit to the America's and even Joseph Smith's experience of witnessing God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.  Our family has enjoyed doing this so much, and the boys have been so interested and attentive learning more about Jesus.  The scripture passages were relatively short, not taking more than 5-10 minutes each.  Some nights we would miss reading, so we would have a little catching up to do, and it still didn't take more than 20 minutes.  We would just do as much as the youngest ones were cooperating for.  We noticed that as it became more of an expected routine, the more reverent even the little ones were during the readings.  We still have tonight's scripture to read.  A great thing to do at anytime of the year.

done!

I am loving my new Christmas quilt!  I took longer to get it done than I hoped, but mostly because of busy-ness, not procrastination.  (Usually it would be procrastination, but really...not this time!)  The quilting was pretty time consuming...probably took 6 hours (guessing).  The whole thing was about a 15 hour project.  Give or take a few.  (guessing again).  The backing is a super soft white striped minky, which I am so glad I used especially for this time of year when you really want to be cozy.  Size is approx.  45"x50".  Got the instructions here on Crazy Mom Quilts blog.  She is very inspiring and makes quilts like crazy!

Last weekend we also enjoyed having Pete's sister, Katrina, stay with us for a couple days.  She was in town from Arizona for Maria's wedding.  Little Adin is so cute and my boys absolutely adored him!  Although we stayed home, after all the "wedding rushing about", we had fun chatting, lounging around, making soaps, decorating gingerbread houses, more chatting, watching snow fall, and Katrina, being the cool Aunt that she is, made us all hot chocolate when I didn't feel like moving!   Pete worked  ALL weekend so I was extra happy to have the company.  

We miss you both already!  :)

are you keeping cozy?

INSIDE

OUTSIDE

Keep warm!

thanksgiving

This year we stayed home and hosted dinner at our house with some of Pete's side of the family as guests.  Paul and Kerri came with their six kids and then Pete's mom and his youngest brother, Ben, were able to come from California for the weekend.  Pete did an amazing job cooking the turkey, as usual.  I know it is terrible that I have never made a turkey, but the raw animal meat just gets to me and Pete is so willing.  He makes the best mashed potatoes and gravy too!  I think my family would starve without him.  He even made pumpkin pie this year, that Isaac pretty much claimed as his own and snarfed most of it down himself. 

Don't worry, I wasn't completely useless.  I always help Pete with prep work and am an excellent assistant. :)  I made a veggie tray and made our family favorite Beau Monde dip.   I also made some artichoke dip that is another favorite recipe ever since my friend, Rachael, made it for a church function, like what, 6 or 7 years ago?!  (Time flies!)  Of course, I also did my duty by getting the house ready and cleaned up for guests and had fun providing an activity for the kids.  We bought some inexpensive fabric for the kids to use for dressing up as Indians.  (No, I didn't sew, just cut things up!).  They earned feathers by telling me something about Thanksgiving and then telling me things they were thankful for.  I hope they had fun dressing up...I think they did. 

It was a busy day, but we enjoyed having Pete's family around.  We hadn't celebrated any holidays with his side for several years because of moves out of state, but now we have some who have moved back to Washington, so it's a lot of fun.  And of course, it is so fun for the kids to have relatives around more often.

Pete and Taylor playing Jenga!

Caleb and Uncle Ben playing Yahtzee!  (Caleb is a complete addict!)

We appreciate Ben so much because even though he is a senior in high school, he still hangs out with all our boys, playing games, playing the nintendo and jumping on the trampoline.  They think he is the coolest!  Thanks Ben.  :)

Here's Isaac chatting it up with Grandma Suzy!  I think he is telling her about someone at school who isn't very nice.  :)

Unfortunately, for the rest the weekend Pete had to work like a mad dog.  It isn't normal for a deadline to be the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, but this year that was the case, so he didn't get too much of a break.  Thankfully he works at home so it doesn't seem quite as bad.  However, he did get up early to play basketball at the church on Friday and he took Ben along.  When he got home, even though he had lots of work to do, he let me go shopping for a few hours by myself.  (Not that he minded vegging out on the Nintendo).  I only lasted for a few stores anyway before I was worn out, so it was plenty of time to hit Gymboree, Pacific Fabrics and JoAnne's...remember I have that Christmas quilt to finish up! 

The remainder of the weekend was pretty much spent watching some good Christmas rental movies and Kung Fu Panda and also playing more video games and board games.  Not to mention a few of us taking a turn with the flu villain. 

I also started the Christmas decorating so the house is now looking more like this:

What about yours?!  I hope to see how you decorate your house at Christmas time!  :) 

Happy Holidays!  

thrifty+crafty=extra cute

So, since Turkey Day is at my house, I had been thinking of making or buying a table runner or table cloth.  I thought about some ideas and looked at JoAnne's...nothing was striking me there, so I thought...well, i better just check out my friend, Target.

I found this table runner on clearance for like $6 and something cents.  I thought it was so-so, not necessarily crazy about it, but it was cheap so it was worth a try!  After bringing it home I got this fabulous idea to sew on a binding....wow!  I sometimes impress myself!  I really think it is much cuter with the brown polka dots.  Polka dots...image that.  :)  I will admit, it still is not the perfect solution, but it will do.

 

I HAVE to find a better centerpiece for my Thanksgiving table though.  Do you have any ideas?

quilt progress.

The Christmas quilt is coming along and I am ready to get to some sewing on it today.  There is a lot, so I'm sure it will take a few rounds of getting to the machine.  So, here's the sneak peek!  I think this one below is my favorite quilt block.

baking and making

BAKING

On a rare occasion I have the urge to make cinnamon rolls.  And by rare, I mean rare, like once every year or two.  It's more the dough making, sticky hands part I really don't care for, not the eating of the cinnamon rolls.  Although it pretty much consumed about 5 hours of my day, the results were fabulous!  I made some that were extra gooey, some that were less gooey and I also did a batch of plain rolls.  I also made some icing.  I left for a doctor's appointment right when my last batch came out of the oven.  When I came home, all the boys (including the very oldest and largest of them all) had made themselves sick from eating so many cinnamon rolls and rolls!  A whole plate of cinnamon rolls were gone!  At least we didn't have to come up with anything for dinner! :)  Pete thinks I should do this every few weeks, so I guess he was pretty happy.

This is what Austin did for quite awhile...no one really was into the helping, but that's ok.

MAKING

I am eager to get going on a new Christmas quilt!  A quilting blog called Crazy Mom Quilts (sorry...remember I hate doing links, but it's in my sidebar!) has got me wanting to test out a new pattern.  It should be pretty quick so the goal is to have it done by the time other Christmas decorations come out.  These are some new fabrics, mixed with some that I already had.  I kinda want another green and another red, but we'll see.  I think it will be cute either way.   I really have a polka dot obsession, but oh well.

Don't worry, I haven't completely slacked on my red and aqua quilt.  I have all the blocks done, but I figured it could be on hold for now! 

 
C-ya!