Lookin' For Fun and Feeling Crafty

Let me just preface this for my readers. I know that when many of you feel crafty you make entire quilts, beautiful dolls for your children, Halloween costumes that belong in museums.... (oh wait maybe that's all the same person) But when I feel crafty it's momentous.

When I found out my sister was having a little baby boy, I ran to the craft store and bought all the stuff to make him a taggie blanket. I was going to give it to her for a shower gift but never quite found the time, then it was going to be a hospital gift, then it was a blessing gift... Needless to say my nephew is 4 months old and I when I opened my closet yesterday I saw the JoAnn's sack still sitting there begging for some love from me.

But yesterday I finally got inspired! I dug out the old sewing machine and got to work.

I'm pretty proud of the end result. I know my sewing skills are a little rusty, but at least I finished something I started.

I had so much fun, I went ahead and whipped up another one! (which I will give to that certain super-crafty friend for her new little baby boy as part of this contest, if she promises not to scoff at my attempts and keeps in mind that it's the thought that counts)

The best part was that it was a total hit! Mr. Asher loved it! He didn't put it down once the whole day. He was absolutely fascinated with it.

Those of you who don't know, I like to claim Asher as my part-time baby. He spends a lot of time with our family and my girls completely adore him. We're lucky enough to get him while my sister goes to work every day. This is the perfect set-up for me since I get to smile and coo at a cute baby all day, and I can give him back to his mommy when he's tired and grouchy.

Snowflakes & Snowballs at Snowbird

We have these friends who literally spend every free minute they have doing the funnest things with their family. I am always so jealous of the things they do. I'm so glad we've become friends because we're lucky enough to get invited along sometimes!

This past Saturday Snowbird was offering a free tram ride with every can of food donated. We had so much fun! Thanks for the invitation guys!

Here we are in the tram on our trip up the mountain!

Man, I love this guy! It was so incredibly clear, we could see forever. Khursten was so cute. She just kept saying over and over how beautiful it was.

Nicole jumped right in and started a snowball fight. She was running around everywhere playing with all of her 'friends' she just met. She was making me so darn nervous because all around us were drop-offs, and Nicole isn't know for being overly cautious.

Audrey loves her daddy and she stuck close by him most of the time. Plus, having dad on your side in a snowball fight doesn't hurt.

Halloween Costumes

Halloween 2009 was yet another milestone in our lives. My two oldest girls are growing up. No more princesses and faries for them. Khursten & Nicole wanted to be scary. I think they acheived it!

Lucky for me I still have my Audrey who will let me dress her up as cute as can be.

But watch out for this thirsty little vampire!

And her sister the un-dead! (yes, this is what we turned the sweet little grandma costume into) Is it weird that I think she kinda looks gorgeous like this? Just look at those eyes! I can picture her in high school as the hot gothic chic that all the boys are talking about.

Halloween Cookies! Yum!

I spent all day Monday baking sugar cookies, and today we had some friends over to decorate them. It was so much fun. Our kids all get along so well, and they have a blast just running around like crazies. I'm so happy to have all you guys as friends!

There... I fixed it!

(If any of you know that website, I think it's hilarious.) Here's my own version. It may be a bit redundant to put a sweater on an Eskimo dog, but at least she's not so silly looking anymore!

Kids Can Be So Cruel

Khursten knew months ago what she wanted to be for Halloween this year. She wanted to be her Grandma Cindy. (don't worry Grandma Cindy. We know you don't really have gray hair and reading glasses... yet) We went from store to store picking out every piece of her costume. Last Friday she had an Activity Days Halloween Party and she got all dressed up.

You can see on her face just how excited she was to go, and how proud of herself she was. (I thought she looked absolutely darling) After being at the party for only about a half an hour, she walked in the door crying. She has such tender feelings, and when she's upset she's really hard to talk to. After about an hour she caved. I guess the girls at Activity Days had teased her about her costume. She was so humiliated and so darn sad.

It absolutely kills me to see her that way. She said she doesn't want to wear that costume on Halloween. My first instinct was to run out and buy her a new costume, but Ryan thought it was a good opportunity to teach her a valuable life lesson. He told her that we don't have enough money to buy her another costume, and that she shouldn't worry about what other people say and wear her grandma costume with pride. If she just couldn't bring herself to wear it, he said we'd try and find something around the house that she could wear. We're still working on coming up with something, but she told me she'd rather not go trick-or-treating than wear her grandma costume.

Why do kids have to be so mean?

It Seemed Like the Right Thing to Do

I usually wake up early so that I can squeeze in a shower in peace before the madness breaks out. This morning I didn't. This morning I was lazy and I slept in. I could hear things slowly escalating downstairs. At first there were just innocent giggles, but before long there were full-on shrieks of joy and crazy maniacal laughter.

That's when I knew it was time to finally drag my butt out of bed. I called the girls upstairs to see what progress they had made toward getting themselves ready for school. It's a typical conversation around here, "Have you eaten breakfast? Are you dressed? Have you brushed your teeth? Your hair?..."

Today I got so far as, "Have you guys eaten breakfast?" The answer I got stopped me dead in my tracks.

"We ate dogfood!!!"

"What?" This completely threw me. How do I even reply to that?

Nicole, with a big huge smile on her face, exclaims with joy, "I ate seven!!!"

"Why? Why would you guys do that?"

"We wondered what it tasted like."

"And so you ate it?"

Khursten shrugs and says, "Well... I don't know. It seemed like the right thing to do!"