The Hughes News

Zander's Birthday Party

2012-02-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

We decided to let Zander have a birthday party with three of his friends from his class at school--Travis, Kelly, and Tyler. I made these cute little invites for him to give to his friends. The background is one of the napkins from the set we bought to decorate with. That way the invites match the party decor. Plus it went really well with the cute stickers I had in my stash. :) A few scraps of ribbon and a couple of staples later, and voila! Birthday invites! :)

We played a game as the boys arrived. They had to use straws to blow a ping pong ball into their goal. Then, we played on a life-size gameboard. The kids were their pieces. They had to do different things when they landed on a square like, sing happy birthday until your next turn, move ahead 2 spaces, jump up and down until your next turn, say the abc's as fast as you can, count to 50 before your next turn, move back 1 space, etc. The kids enjoyed it, and Zander won! He was excited. Then we did presents, cake and ice cream. Kelly gave Zander a remote control car that has cool flames on it.

Travis gave Zander some collectable coins. His mom told us they were to save and then maybe they would be worth something when he got into college he could sell them and help with tuition or something. I thought that was a cute idea! :) Tyler gave him some money he could use now. Very thoughtful friends! :) Thank you!

After cupcakes and ice cream cones I gave each of the boys a bag of mini marshmallows and a cup shooter and they were set to go! They all LOVED this activity. They got pretty creative with those little cups.

After seeing how high and far they would go,

They started playing baseball (If you look closely you can see a marshmallow that has just been shot at Zander who is holding a stick to try and hit it.)...

Ian tried shooting water, and also found that if you squish the marshmallow and condense it, it would fly farther...

The boys also decided to shoot them into their mouths so they could eat them!

Someone got the idea to take the confetti off the table and shoot it. That looked pretty cool! Would be a fun idea for new years, but a mess to clean up!

It was a fun party! Everyone left happy. :) Glad you had a good time Zander-bug. Happy Birthday, buddy!

Happy Birthday Zander!

2012-02-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Zander's 7th Birthday. He wanted a blue guitar cake for his birthday. This cake was so easy to make and it was perfect for him! He is our child that has a sweet tooth, so the kit kat's that made up the neck of the guitar were right up his alley!

Grandma Millett called Zander before we opened presents. She asked him what he was doing and he told her, literally, "I'm just wandering around and talking to you!" lol Silly boy. (He really was wandering around between the living room, family room, and computer room while he talked!) Grandma called after we had eaten dinner--Mac and Cheese with Bacon wrapped little smokies--and before we had opened presents. He told her he'd open theirs first, and he did!

He was so excited to see a battery operated Nerf gun. It shoots 10 rounds at a time!

Grandma and Grandpa Millett also gave him a sketch book, some pencils, and an iTunes gift card to go with our gift to him.

He was pretty excited to get his own tin of Life Savers--sweet tooth, remember?

He got Lady and the Tramp on Blu Ray. He guessed it was a movie while it was all wrapped up and kept trying to get me to confirm that guess. :) I made him sweat it out.

He was pretty excited about our gift to him. He got an MP3 player for Christmas from Santa and the next day he accidentally dropped it in the toilet. :( He was pretty bummed that the old put it in a bowl of rice trick didn't work that time. We decided to let him try that one again, and told him that there wouldn't be another one if he didn't take care of it. Hopefully it will last longer than a day.

He also got a new camoflauge sweatshirt. He loves how fuzzy it is on the inside.

Great Grandma Millett got him with the confetti. He wasn't careful enough! lol

John found this little Sole Skate on sale around Christmas time, so we decided to get it for him. Hopefully he'll learn how to ride it without too much trouble.

Zander with all his loot! (He also got Nerf Dart Tag, and Phinneas and Ferb pajamas that I didn't mention before.)

"Happy birthday to you....happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Zander, happy birthday to you!"

Hope it was a good one little buddy! We love you Zander-mander.

Any day with cake is a good day. :)

Grandma's Shirts

2012-02-16T21:51:00.000-08:00

It is time to change Lindey's clothes from 6-9 months to 12 months. I wanted to be sure and take some pictures of her in the little shirts that her Great Grandma Willard made before she no longer fit in them. This is the grandma that Lindey is named after. I think of you often--sure do miss you Grandma! :)

Valentine

2012-02-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

Our wall decor in our bedroom has been missing something. I needed something in the bottom right corner to balance out the clock in the upper left hand corner. I couldn't decide what to put there, so it has stayed blank for far too long. I was trying to decide what to make for John for Valentine's day, and saw an idea on Pinterest (love that site!) to make a message board out of a frame. I thought that would be fun to have in our bedroom, and discovered I had this panoramic frame that I knew would be perfect for this spot! I went to work, and this is what I came up with:

I think it turned out cute, and I got to use some new chipboard letters I had and my two new Tim Holtz die cuts that I found at Robert's when they closed their retail stores. (I was very excited to find them 1/2 off!)

Happy Valentine's day sweetheart! I think our little sweet nothings board will be kind of fun! :)

Tired girl

2012-02-15T20:07:00.000-08:00

We had a busy Valentine's Day. My Dad stopped by to visit on his way to some meetings in Moab, and we helped John with the 6th grade Valentine's day party. Lindey was woken up from her nap early by the boys, and after school we had lessons. John was teaching a voice lesson and she crashed while they were singing. :) Kind of a late for a nap, but it couldn't be helped.

Ian won first place with his Valentine Solar System box by the way. :)

Valentine Boxes 2012 Edition

2012-02-12T21:53:00.000-08:00

We spent this evening making the annual Valentine boxes for the older children. Zander didn't have to do one--they will make theirs in class. Morgan wanted to make a Paper Jamz Microphone and Amp like she got for her birthday. She didn't require much help and was content to be creative all on her own. :)

Ian, on the other hand, comes up with these crazy ideas and has to have me hold his hand the entire way through the process. :) I don't really mind. It gives us quality time together, right? Trying to figure out how we're going to pull off what he has in his head is the tricky part. This year he decided to do the solar system.

Since we didn't have any styrofoam balls laying around the house, Ian remembered making christmas ornaments from strips of paper a couple years ago, so that is how we made the planets. Ian wanted them to hang--of course he did.:) So we devised this little set up with a shoe box, wrapping paper tube and a cardboard circle. He even made the Death Star (in between Jupiter and Saturn) since John's theme in the classroom this year is Star Wars. Lol--creative! :) We added a couple of fun touches like the red heart for Jupitor's red eye, and some green paint on Earth for the continents, and Ian drew stars with a white crayon on the black background, a rocketship and a man falling through space. lol It turned out really good!

My, what creative kids we have!

Hunter's Safety

2012-02-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a little shout out to our amazing son! Ian spent this week attending a Hunter's Safety course, Monday through Friday from 7-10pm. He took his written test Friday night and passed. Yea!! He was pretty nervous for his shooting test on Saturday morning. He asked his dad to give him a blessing. :) Ian had to shoot 15 of 30 targets to pass.

John had called me before the final shooting round and said that Ian had to get more than half the shots left to pass his test. Kind of scary! A little bit later, Ian called me after he had finished his shooting test and said, "Hi mom..." He sounded pretty dejected on the phone which made my heart sink. I said, "You don't sound too excited--are you okay?" The he yelled, "I got 17 out of 30!!! I passed!!" Little stinker totally syched me out! LOL

Ian, we are so proud of you and all the effort you put into doing so well! Congratulations! :)

Also,a HUGE thanks needs to go out to Grandpa Hughes for taking Ian out to practice shooting several times this week and helping him put together a survival kit. We so apprecitate it!

As I was taking Ian's picture with his hunter's safety certificate, Eli came and stood by Ian with his paper he was drawing on. :) Apparantly he felt like he needed in on the action. What a cute little kid!

Fancy Friday

2012-02-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

Friday, January 20th was Fancy Friday for the first and sixth grades. First grade practices all week using fancy words and learning how to be fancy. It is based on the Fancy Nancy books (which are so cute!). On Friday they get to dress in their fanciest clothes and do fancy activites with their sixth grade reading buddies. Zander is in first grade and Ian is in sixth grade this year so they both got to participate. (As well as John as he is the 6th grade teacher.) All the kids really enjoy this week. We had some fancy pinkies sticking up during dinner at home this week! Ooh La La! :)

Bye Bye!

2012-02-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

This morning Lindey did her first real wave as John and the kids were leaving for school. Every morning we stand on the porch and wave to them as they drive away. This morning as they were loading up, Lindey waved at them. John told her goodbye, waved at her, and she waved back! She kept doing it if I would wave at her, so I snapped this picture during breakfast with my iPod. She was waving with her left hand, so I'm wondering if she'll be left handed like Ian. I tried to get her to use her right hand, but she kept doing it with her left. Time will tell, I guess!

I also captured this video...

Another interesting Lindey development was this evening Lindey found one of her binkis and started sucking on it. She hasn't used a binki for anything but a teething toy for probally two months! It was kind of funny to see her with it. :)

She went through two or three different binkis and sucked on them for a couple of hours. She even went to bed tonight with one in her mouth! It will be interesting to see if she continues this, or if it was just for tonight. What a silly girl!

Stick Man

2012-02-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

Today Ian was helping get dinner ready by setting the table. I heard, "Hey Mom! Look at the wall, it's a stick man!" The sunshine was coming in through the skylight and hit one of the glass plates. It was pretty cool. Ian had to have a picture of it and told me I had to put it on the blog. :) How could I resist?

Picnic at the Geyser

2012-02-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, January 28th, we decided we didn't want to sit at home all day. So, we decided to go out to the geyser and have a picnic with John's parents. We spent about three hours playing and enjoying the beautiful weather. Here are some of my favorite photos of our day!

Eli pushing Lindey

Ian

Micah and Eli

Zander and Micah

Micah and Eli throwing dirt clods in the river

Morgan and Talynn--see, they are joined at the hip!

The kids wanted to show me their fort in the tamarac. I was not expecting it to be so open in there--it was pretty cool!

Eli and all his "feet"

Daddy and Lindey

Eli, Dad, and Lindey

Exploring

Zander climbed quite high on the cliffs. Grandma said she wasn't going to watch. He was having a blast!

It was a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday Morgan!!

2012-02-05T20:24:00.000-08:00

Morgan turned 9 on January 27th! (Also, Happy birthday to my dad who Morgan shares her special day with!) This year she knew exactly what she wanted her cake to be--a Penguin! I just adapted Ian's Owl cake from his last birthday to be a penguin. I think it turned out mighty cute! She loved it. I am sad to say that I forgot to freeze the cake pieces before I started decorating, so it started leaning. I noticed it and quickly put it in the fridge to try and prevent any further damage--it didn't work. When I began dinner I opened the fridge to find that the bottom layer had crumbled under the weight of the cake and the penguin had tipped over backwards. :( We were sad, but when it came time for cake and ice cream, I tipped it back up, we sang and did candles and it was delicious just the same. :)

John's parents took Morgan to Price and let her choose out a new bike! This is one happy girl!

Her bike has a cute curvy frame, streamers in the handle bars, fenders and a pouch to put things in--which was one of her favorite parts!

Morgan wanted to try the pizza rolls in my Best Bites cookbook for her birthday dinner. They were delicious. Best Bites did not disappoint! Morgan invited two of her friends over for the festivities--Talynn and Jocelyn.

When we opened presents, the kids had a little assembly line going to get the presents to Morgan.

Morgan got Hello Kitty pajamas, two new barbies...

New levis, a couple of shirts-Hello Kitty and Perry the Platypus...

She also recieved a Paper Jams Microphone, and Grandma and Grandpa Millett got her a set of looms. She was thrilled with these two gifts!

Morgan has wanted a poncho for a while now, and she recieved a pattern to make one for Christmas. I made her a turquoise poncho with hot pink as she requested--she did not know I was doing this. The squeal we got when she opened the box said it all! She was all grins!

See, you can't even tell her cake had a trauma--just don't look at the back! Lol

Happy 9th Birthday our sweet girl! You are such a good helper and remind me of myself when I was your age. :) We love you so much!!

Nine Months

2012-02-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

Lindey turned 9 months on the 25th of January. She weighes 18.0 lbs. and is 27 1/4 inches long.

She is getting more mobil all the time. She was sitting on the floor in the piano room with John, I was making dinner and Ian was on the computer. He asked John to come and look at something he was working on, so John got up and went around the corner. A couple of minutes later, John turned around and Lindey was playing with Eli's toys in the computer room. He asked me if I had moved her, which I hadn't. She is getting pretty good at getting to what she wants even though she isn't full out crawling yet. She gets up on her hands and knees whenever she is on her belly, so I know it won't be long now. Lindey is beginning to wave. She loves to play peek-a-boo. Her musical toys are (and probably always will be) her favorites. She is still doing her funny little octopus arm/hand thing when she is anxious, upset, or excited. The more excited she gets, the faster her hands twist and turn. :) Love that. We love having Lindey Lu in our home! What a blessing she is!

Picture Wall Finished

2012-01-23T21:46:00.000-08:00

Our new family picture wall now has pictures of OUR family on it. (Not John's African American brother-in-law or our long lost cousins! LOL) Sorry about the glare on some of the pictures--you'll have to come see it in person. It's much more impressive that way. We love, love, love how it turned out! Thanks again, Cassy, for helping me get it put up! :)

Cheer Camp 2012

2012-01-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

Morgan participated in Cheer Camp again this year. She was so excited aobut it, that I think she wore an old cheer camp shirt every day this week to school! (And the fact that most of them still fit her is impressive!) I didn't realize she had so many hiding in her drawer. LOL

Morgan was the lift girl this year during their cheer. She did a good job! Way to go, Morgan!

Here is a video of her performance. Enjoy! (She is the second girl from the front on the left hand side.)

First Pigtail

2012-01-18T23:10:00.000-08:00

This morning, January 18th, I decided to try Lindey's hair in a pigtail on top. He hair is getting quite long, although it is blond and pretty thin, it doesn't look like it is. I was easily able to put in the rubber band and little hair bow. She looked so cute!! :)

It's not perfect, but she is 8 months old and very wiggly. She was wondering what I was doing up on top of her head. Lol. :)

Love you baby girl!

6th Grade Dance Festival

2012-01-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

On January 12th I was able to travel on the bus with Ian's class (and John's) over to the 6th Grade Dance Festival held at Emery High School in Castle Dale.

They danced to Party Anthem (from the Rio Soundtrack), Cotten Eye Joe, and Up by Shania Twain.

Lined up and ready to go! The kids were so nervous. It was fun to watch their expressions go from fear to confidence and enjoyment as the other 6th grades started clapping along to their music. They started getting into it! That was so fun to watch.

They all had a great time and said they wanted to do it again!

We went first, and then the kids were able to enjoy watching the other 6 schools perform. Ian was excited to watch his cousin, Samantha, dance. She's the cute girl in the bright pink shirt in the middle.

Great job 6th grades! I enjoyed going watching you dance! :)

I love my sister!

2012-01-18T22:51:00.000-08:00

My sister, Cassy wanted to come for a visit. She originally was going to come help me move around my craft room (I got a couple of new filing cabinets that needed a home). But, John and I did that over Christmas break. So, she called and said that she was coming and bringing all the supplies to do my shelves. As she put it--"You've wanted to do them forever, so we're giong to get them done!" We talked about when, and decided that she would come January 5th and 6th. Her kids are in year-round school, and were still off for another couple weeks. She brought everything we needed--saw, chalk line, drill, screws, paint, and boards. Everything. (All packed around her 4 kids.) :) I don't think it was a half hour after she got here that we were out back painting boards. The next morning we started putting up the brackets.

We got the boards measured and cut--even the tricky angle over the door.

I'm so excited to finish cleaning up my craft room (I was still in the middle of the filing cabinet/closet mess when she came) and put stuff on the shelves. I will have to post pictures of them all decked out.
Also while Cassy was here, I knew this other project would be right up her alley. I got a new temple picture from my sister-in-law for Christmas (Thanks Ashley, I love it!), and John gave me a couple of sets of frames. We recently took the top off our entertainment center and the wall in our living room looked rather bare. I knew that these frames needed to find a home there. Cassy helped me trace all the frames onto paper and mark where the hangers were. Then we got to play with placement as we taped them on the wall. It took us quite a while to get it looking just right. We thought we were done at one point and then realized that the left side looked rather boxy compared to the right side that was tapered, so we played a little longer until it looked perfect!

We started nailing our frames up (which was really easy since we marked where they hangers were on the paper). I loved how it was turning out! It was fun to see it come to life. Now all the frames are up, the pictures are ordered, so the frames will be filled soon. Micah keeps asking who all those people are!

Cassy, thank you so much for coming and doing projects with me! It was a lot of fun! Love you!! :)

Uh-oh!

2012-01-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

She's crawling! I think having Brooklyn here (her very mobile cousin) for a day may have influenced her--either that or the kids actually left her alone on the floor longer than a few seconds! (Video taken 1-6-12.)

New Year's Eve

2012-01-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

We began our New Year's Eve festivities around 5:00pm. Melinda came over to join in the fun. We had a buffet of munchies to snack on--the island was covered. After everyone had their fill of goodies, we began playing games. We played Feed the Kitty, Left Right Center, What's in Ned's Head, and Nerts. We watched Kung Fu Panda 2, hoping that some of the smaller children would fall asleep, a couple of them did, but not the ones we were hoping for. Lol--we lost Zander and Micah. Eli and Lindey were up for a while longer.

Melinda and I with our party hats on. Getting ready to bring in the new year!

John and I--awww-so cute! This is actually a pretty good picture of us!

We always let off a Whistling Pete each year. I hate these--they are just loud and obnoxious. Exactly what you want to bring in the new year with. :)

Another tradition we started doing a few years ago was to take the sleeping kids pictures with a party hat on. They should get to ring in the new year too!

Zander...

Micah

Eli...

And Lindey.

Another tradition--toast the new year with sparkling cider!

And that was 2011 my friends! (And my blog is finally caught up! It only took me 8 months! Yeah!)

Happy 2012!!!

Lindey at 8 months

2012-01-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

Lindey turned 8 months on Christmas Day! She weighs 17.1 lbs. and is 27 1/2 inches long. She can now sit up on her own and is starting to get up on all fours. It won't be long before she is crawling! She has learned to make a few new noises with her mouth--mainly spitting everywhere. She's pretty proud of herself! Lindey is becoming attached to Mom's side. I can't even leave the room without her freaking out. She will go to someone if they put their hands out to her and then cry once they take her even if I'm standing right next to her. :) She still loves music and has started bouncing when she hears it. She is very interested in her feet and loves to stand up. She can take a few steps with help. She can hold her own bottle and is really enjoying baby food, although she won't eat her rice cereal anymore without a fruit or vegetable mixed into it.

She is such a joy to have in our home. We love you Lindey Lu! :)

Enjoying Outside

2012-01-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

We spent part of Friday, December 30th outside enjoying some of our Christmas presents. They boys got a flag football set, so they spent some time playing catch with their new football.

John and I got new bikes for Christmas. After I took mine for its maiden voyage, Ian asked if he could ride it. Can't wait until we get a bike trailer for the youngest two and can go on a bike ride as a whole family.

Micah got a new scooter like the big kids. He was so excited about it!

Everyone had a great time. John and Micah kept pretending they were going to run into each other. Micah was laughing so hard!

I love that we are having these mild winter days!

Visiting Vernal

2012-01-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

We went to visit my family in Vernal over Christmas break, December 26-28. Shortly after we arrived, we went to see the Dinosaur Quarry. It has been closed for a few years to update the buildings, so we were excited to go see the changes. We grew up going here as my dad manages the book store/gift shop that is in the visitor's center. These pictures are of the exposed rockface. Morgan wanted to make sure I took lots of pictures so she could show her school class.

My dad gave us the tour. He is very knowledgeable and it was fun to hear the little side stories that you might not get with another tour guide. :) He was asking questions and had all the grandchildren quite interested!

This is a petrified tree (the dark horizontal part). They use it for carbon dating to see how old the bones are.

This one is a baby stegosaurus. My dad said they don't find many baby dinosaur bones because they are much more brittle than the older dinosaurs.

My dad with all the grandkids (minus a couple babies)

Grandma joined in the fun. :) What a cute bunch!

My sister Nichole came with her 3 kids all the way from Pennsylvania for Christmas! I was so excited to see her--we talk on the phone nearly every day! Wish her husband could have come with, but I'm so glad she braved the flight alone so we could see her. Her little baby, Silas, is so cute and has such a head of hair! Her little girls are getting so big! Glad they didn't forget me. :)

Our family in front of the intact skeleton. (I think I remember what type of dinosaur this is, but until I know for sure I'm not going to chance making it up, and then getting a phone call from my dad correcting me. lol)
I think my dad said the real skeleton is in the Carnegie Museum in Pennsylvania even though it was found here. (Again, I may be getting a phone call.) :)

This is the skeleton of a baby crocodile. They've been around a long time! My dad said one of the guys that worked at the quarry had his kids out there with him and they wanted him to use some dynomite to blow something up. He didn't want to do it and his kids kept begging him. His kids finally convinced him, so he got a big rock, and blew it up with the dynomite. This little guy came out of that rock.

Morgan asked me to take this picture. She said, "Mom! You need to take my picture by this--it's my favorite kind of dinosaur--it's a long neck!"

Here we are by the Allosaurus skeleton. The panoramic mural behind shows the dinosaur with it's skin on. :) Pretty cool.

One part of the rock face allows you to get right up next to it and you can touch the dinosaur bones. The kids always think this is so cool!

Lindey with Grandma Millett. Mom's right here--Grandma's not going anywhere with you. lol She stopped crying as soon as I took her back. Little stinker!

My baby brother, Jordan, with his cute girlfriend Kayla.

Morgan holding up a dinosaur bone.

An Allosaurus skull. Hopefully you'll be able to read the plaque in the second picture that tells all about it.

This part of the mural wraps around the corner right before you leave the quarry to go outside. Ian thought it was pretty cool and said I had to take a picture of it. lol He must be an 11 year old boy. He was pointing out how awesome it was to all the cousins. :)

Back down the road a bit is the visitor's center and my dad's bookstore. My brother Garrett got his arm bit by one of the skulls (the donation box in the corner--you put money in it's mouth). My brother-in-law, John, tried to fit my nephew Gunner's head in it. Mouth wasn't quite open wide enough.

For all the grandkid's Christmas presents, my mom and dad let them pick a stuffed animal from the bookstore. They loved this! Ian decided to get a really cool Dinosaur poster instead. Morgan picked out a Lynx, Zander got an Owl, Micah got the Dinosaur, Eli got an Owl, and Lindey got an Elk.

We did family pictures on Tuesday. The only one we were missing was Nichole's husband, Justin. I think with everyone together there were 35 of us. I'm excited to see how the pictures turn out. When we got back home we decided to do another photo shoot of the five babies that were born this year. With Brooklyn crawling it didn't work out as well as before. Lindey was pretty grabby as well. One time I looked up and she had a hold of Silas' hair! (Sorry buddy!) Hopefully we got a good one again. I was sitting on the end and wasn't in a very good position to take pictures. My sister's will have to share (hint, hint). :)

So glad we came to visit! It was fun and I'm already looking forward to the reunion in July when we all get together again. Love you guys!

Christmas Morning

2012-01-01T19:28:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

This was the first year that we didn't have to wake the children up. Ian and Morgan got up at 3:30am! We told them they couldn't touch anything until we got up, but they could look. They finally coaxed us out of bed at 6:30am. Everyone was all smiles as they saw what Santa had brought them.

Lindey got a Fisher Price Animal Train. It has such cute animals and it stays stationary or moves so as she begins crawling she can follow it. She loves the music on it and sits and pushes the button over and over again to hear it.

Ian didn't get his drum set, but much to our thankfulness, Santa opted for a drum pad and sticks. Much quieter and takes up far less space. He was happy with it regardless.

Zander didn't get his cell phone, but got an MP3 player that plays music, can take pictures and video. It's what he wanted without the option of calling. He was a happy camper!

Micah got his Innotab! It's like an iPad for kids. He absolutely loves it. He's our little technology junkie so it is right up his alley.

Morgan got her Easy Bake Oven and immediately whipped us up a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

They were pretty tastey!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

As is tradition, we started our Christmas Eve festivities with everyone making their own pizza in a pie tin for dinner. Then we finished up our Advent Calendars (we do three every year--Nativity, Christmas Story, and Lego Advent) and then the kids opened up their Christmas jammies. After everyone had changed, we snapped a few pictures in front of the Christmas tree.

Then, we went and drove around and looked at the lights.

When we got home from doing that, we let the kids open up their sibling presents. We like doing this because they don't get lost in the fray of Christmas morning and it means a little more to them.

Ian had Eli this year. He got a couple of soft squishy balls and some trucks.

Eli had Ian this year. When I asked Eli what he wanted to get Ian he said, "A car!" So we found him a remote control hummer and Eli wanted the blue one. He also got Ian a lego mini figure--which of all the ones there were that he could have gotten, he ended up with the cave woman (you don't get to see which one is in the package-lol)

Morgan had Micah this year and picked out a Disney Cars Launcher. It came with Lightning McQueen and Morgan bought him a Mater to go with it.

Micah had Lindey. He had the hardest time deciding what to get her. He couldn't find anything he liked in the toy isle, so we went back to the baby section and he easily found a couple of toys he knew she'd love. (And she does!) The little pig plays music and the little bird vibrates when pulled on.

Lindey had Zander and just knew he'd love a guitar! :) John had a little hand in helping her decide what to get him.

Zander had Morgan and picked her out a new Littlest Pet Shop Babysitter. She only had one and he decided that she needed a friend. Morgan loved it.

The rest of the evening was spent playing with their new toys, writing a note to Santa, putting out cookies, picking a spot for their stockings, and tracking Santa on Norad. When he got to a nearby state, it was time for bed!

Santa

2012-01-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

Santa visited the firehouse again this Christmas Eve. The kids were all excited to tell him what they wanted in person. Zander was first in line. He told Santa he wanted a cell phone to listen to music and take pictures. Santa told him it would be nice to have so he could call his parents. :)

Ian was next. He told Santa he wanted a drum set.

Micah loved talking to Santa. He told him he wanted an Innotab. (Not sure if Santa knew what that was-lol)

Eli wouldn't talk to Santa much, but he was able to coax a hug out of him. He did tell Santa he wanted Legos.

Morgan told Santa she wanted an Easy Bake Oven. Santa told her she better bake him some cookies!

Morgan wanted a picture of her and Lindey together with Santa.

Lindey is getting to the phase where she wants no one to hold her but mom. She wasn't too fond of Santa. :)

Merry Christmas!

Student Council Pajama Day

2012-01-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

The last day of school before Christmas break was a half day, Wednesday, December 21st. The student council declared it pajama day and set up activities for the entire school to participate in. I was asked to run one of the stations with my amazing piano skills and do Name That Tune. I also played a few songs for the school to carol to. One of the activities they did was wrap your teacher like a snowman. The kids were given a bag of goodies to use which included a carrot which the teacher held in their mouth, two sticks for arms, a scarf and three rolls of toilet paper. John's class worked together to make him into a snowman.

The student council worked together to make Miss Durrant (Melinda), the principal, into a snow woman.

I think this activity was the most fu for the younger classes. They put the teachers on chairs so the kids could reach their heads. Zander's class was so funny to watch.

John with his class of 6th graders.

Miss Durrant and the student council.

Mrs. Hunt and Zander's first grade class.

Mrs. Nelson and Morgan's 3rd grade class.

The 3rd graders really got into this and a couple of the girls (Morgan included) took out their hairbows to use on their teacher. They wanted to make sure everyone knew she was a snow woman! LOL

First Grade Christmas Party

2012-01-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

December 20th, after the afternoon performance of the school program, it was time for class Christmas parties. I helped with Zander's first grade class. We played Christmas Bingo first.

Then we had a relay race to see who could unwrap the 8 layers of wrapping paper on their box to get to the treat inside first. They had to wear oven mitts to make it more fun!

After the games we did a chocolate fountain, which the kids totally loved, and had a drink of raspberry sherbet and sprite. It was a fun party!!

School Winter Program

2012-01-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

December 20th was the Elementary School's Winter Program. I played the piano for John's 6th grade class this year. They sang Stars that Twinkle and Shine. It's two parts--boys and girls--and even has harmony at the end. I had to sing with the girls to keep them on track and John sang with the boys. It was a lot of fun to work with them. :)

Zander's first grade class sang All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth. At the end of the song they turned the teeth over. The backside of their tooth props said Merry Christmas (one letter on each child's) with Zander's tooth having a Christmas Tree on it. It was very cute.

Morgan's 3rd grade class sang I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas. They personalized the song to their class. Morgan's part was' "I made Robbie eat a bug!" She had a liitle plastic bug and tried to get Robbie (the boy behind her) to eat it. They loved doing this song. Morgan would laugh every time she talked about it.

The kids did a great job! I really enjoyed watching and participating. :)

Forgotten Carols

2012-01-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

On December 17th we escaped the children to go on a date. :) We have been wanting to see the Forgotten Carols for several years, but the dates it was showing and our calendar never quite coordinated. Melinda asked if we wanted to go this year with her so we jumped at the chance. We also invited Mr. Z (Jason) to come with us as well.

Melinda and I waiting in our seats for the show to start.

Mr. Z and Melinda--smile! (Can you tell that both of them prefer to be behind the camera lens?)

John and I at intermission. The show is AWESOME!

John got a picture of the stage to show that we really were there! We really enjoyed seeing the Forgotten Carols live. It was even better than the movie! :) Thanks for inviting us, Melinda!

Piano Recital

2011-12-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

It was time once again for our bi-annual Paino/Voice Student Recital. We held it December 19th at the Elementary school. I was a little disappointed that all my students who were suppose to play duets with me kind of didn't want to, or didn't practice enough to make it possible, or didn't even show up. At least my own kids worked hard and we were able to play a couple at the recital. Ian and I played Silent Night for the final number and it was awesome! Ian also played Good King Wencelas.

Morgan played Away in a Manger.

And Zander was one of three that played Jolly Old St. Nicholas. (I have several new students) He was the only one that wanted to play the duet with me. This was his first recital and he is so excited to be playing!

This is all of our students (minus the one who made the decision not to show up). We had several quit this year, and gained several new beginners. I am really enjoying teaching them as they are so eager to learn!

Christmas Nativity

2011-12-30T23:49:00.000-08:00

Our ward did a Bethlehem night for the second year in a row as our ward party before Christmas. The primary puts on a program about the nativity. This year Morgan played Mary. She was so excited to get this part! Kollin, one of my piano students and son of my good friend, played Joseph.

Ian got the part of King Herod. We had to hurridly throw on his costume (we weren't aware they were doing the program before dinner), so, he wasn't covered on his backside very well--oops! Zander was a wise man. He wanted a headress on under his crown. He's so cute!

Micah was a shepherd this year again. He was excited he got to carry his staff, but got a little bored sitting during the telling of the story between songs. :) Glad he didn't take anyone out with it! lol

Thanks Jenni for sending me these pictures! We were a little too far in the back for John's i-Pod to get much detail. :)

A New Front Door

2011-12-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

We applied for a Weatherization grant, and were able to get it. The weatherization program came and assessed our home for ways they could make it more efficient. We were able to get the windows resealed, more smoke/carbon monoxide detecters put in, energy efficient light bulbs throughout the house, weather stripping on the two back doors, a tune-up on our furnace/central air, and a new front door! We were/are so excited!! :) :) :) They called the morning they wanted to come and showed up around 11am.to begin working. They got to work taking out the door, and ran into some industrial-strength glue that gave them a few problems. They also couldn't plastic off the entryway because our house is so open that there wasn't anywhere to attach it that it would keep the cold air out and still give them room to work. So, it got kind of chilly in the house. I had to laugh that weatherization was there to make our home more efficient, but we had no front door and the cold air was pouring in while the furnace ran non-stop for several hours. Not the most efficient day in our home. Lol It took longer than they were expecting and so they boarded up the front of the house and said they'd be back the next morning to finish the installation. We had planned to run around our neighbor gifts for Family Home Evening that night, and the neighbors were teasing us and asking if we were going to put a keep out sign on there as well! It was pretty funny!

The workers brought the new door inside before they left and propped it up where it was suppose to go. They told me it was so it looked like I had a front door. Lol They left us a few space heaters and went on their way.

The next morning they were back and installed the new front door. They took out the little window next to the door and the new door doesn't have a window in it. They aren't allowed to do anything decorative like that. I didn't care. All the window did was let in the heat in in the summer and the cold in during the winter. The frame was broken around it, and the front door has been known to blow open as we sit on the couch if the wind blew hard enough. The door frame was broken and you could see light all the way around it. If it rained, water would come in under the door. It was not good. I was not at all sad to see it go!

This is what it looks like in and the new sheet rock up! They did a fantastic job! We can already tell a difference in the warmth of our home. We have our thermostat set at 68 degrees, and for the first time since we've lived here we get too hot in our house in the wintertime. We contemplated turning down the thermostat even further!

Here is how it looks on the outside without the window. It used to be behind where Eli is sitting. I was very impressed with how well they were able to match it to the rest of the house. It still needs to be painted, but doesn't look half bad as it is.

They came back the next week to tune-up the furnace. I was in and out all day long with practice for the school program and class parties before the break, etc. When I came home the worker met me outside and said they had a little problem with the furnace. He had spent all morning cleaning the furnace up--it looked really nice--and when he went to hook it back up and get it working, he said he touched two wires together that were suppose to be insulated and weren't and he fried the motherboard. There was no fixing the furnace. He said they could order a new motherboard but that it would take four or five days to get it in, and he couldn't leave us without heat for that long this time of year. So, he said someone was coming from Price with some space heaters for us, and they'd be back in the morning to replace it! So, we got a new furnace as well. We feel so blessed that these programs are in place to help us--and that we were able to qualify! Thank you Weatherization--we can already feel a huge difference!

Light Parade

2011-12-30T23:10:00.000-08:00

Green River started doing a light parade a couple of years ago. We weren't able to go last year, so we decided to go this year. It wasn't too terribly cold, so it made for a pleasant evening. Ms. Durrant even joined us for the event.

The kids were so excited that the parade was finally coming! It started a bit late, and I thought it was a little weird that they didn't close the road for the parade. This is why...

We had our world's largest melon float lit up...

the firetruck was lit up....

and there were three other floats. Yep, five floats. We had to laugh a little, but were glad we could support those who participated! Hopefully they can get a few more entries next year! :)

Little Drummer Kids

2011-12-30T23:04:00.000-08:00

I was in charge of preschool one of the weeks in December. I picked the letter "D" to work on with our kids. The first day we did "deer" and made cute little reindeer with their hand and footprints. I also knew what I wanted to do for the second day of the week and asked the kids what their favorite color was. The next day we did drums. I had their drums ready to go. We decorated their names which I had written on their favorite color of paper, and which later became their cover for their drums. We watched the little drummer boy movie, and then made their drums. I already had their drumsticks made--I painted dowels and put rubber stoppers on the ends of them. Once the drums were made, we listened to the little drummer boy song and played our drums to the rum-pa-pum pums. We also played them to the alphabet song, days of the week song (to the tune of the Adams Family), we counted as we played them, and the list goes on. The kids absolutely loved it! We didn't have time for playtime, and almost ran out of time to color our picture and have a snack! Lol

We have five kids in preschool, six, when it's my week and Eli joins in, and they all loved this! I hope I didn't drive all the parents too crazy when they brought their drums home. I guess they can take comfort in the fact that I had two drums at my house! :)

Bunko Oscars

2011-12-30T22:47:00.000-08:00

Every December our little Bunko group gets together for couples Bunko. We invite our husbands and everyone brings an appetizer to share and gifts to exchange. It is always a lot of fun. This year, Pam decided to take our gathering up a notch and put together the first annual Bunko Oscars. We all got our "tickets" and invitations. We all wore fancy clothes and got to walk the "red carpet" that started outside as we came into the elelmentary school where Bunko was held on December 2nd. She even had her 5th grade son be the bouncer outside that took our tickets and held the door open for us. We had our pictures taken by the "papparazzi", and once we made it in the door, her four year old met us with an appetizer platter. :) She did a fantastic job! It was so fun!

Pam put together slides with the name of the award and the pictures of the nominees. She has been collecting all our score sheets throughout the year so she could put these together. She also put together a bunch of "stats" from the last four years that we've been playing Bunko together--I think my favorite stat was that there have been 10 babies born since we started playing. (I think that is the right number--correct me if I'm wrong ladies!)

Pam even made Bunko Oscar Awards for us with fancy feather skirts on. LOL I won the award for Most Rounds Played in One Night. (We played four rounds when Bunko was held at my house rather than our usual three.) We also each got to read and announce a category.

We were all waiting for eveyone to assemble to get our picture taken and Danielle tried to steal my award! Rude! LOL (Not really, but it was funny.)

There were only 7 of the 12 of us in attendance. We missed our other friends (Kristi, Jenni, Taffee, Julie, and Melissa)! We had a wonderfully fancy evening that was so very fun. I'm already looking forward to the 2nd Annual Bunko Oscars next December!

Pam, Kristen, Danielle, Me, Lacey, Jessica, and Annie

Family Pictures

2011-12-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

It's family picture time again! (Okay, so we had these done back on October 20th, but I forgot to post them. Oops!) My friend, Jenni, took them for us again this year. We took pictures at the city park and then went to the River Terrace to finish up. She is so patient with our six little ones while we try to get them just to look at the camera at the same time! Lol

I think this is such a fun idea for a family picture. I love Micah's face in this one. It's so him, and shows his personality perfectly!

Our handsome young man: Ian. What a great picture of him!

Morgan. Always posing for the camera. Picture perfect. :)

Zander found a love for climbing our tree out front this year. (He takes after his Grandma Hughes in that regard.) He was so excited when we told the kids to pick a spot to have their individual picture taken. He went right to the trees and started climbing.

Micah wanted his picture taken on the hill. He is such a cutie!

I don't know what it is with Eli and smiling for pictures, but he sure is cute anyways.

Little Lindey Lu. :) What a sweetheart.

Our family.

Just the boys.

And the girls.

Jenni took some phenomenal shots of the kids. There are so many good ones it's hard to choose which one is my favorite!

Okay, maybe this one..or the one above it...I just can't decide!

Or this one is so cute too!

Everyone is looking, AND smiling! I think a miracle just happened. :)

Second year for a shoe picture. Still love it! (Especially Lindey's little Jellies)

Boys framing the girls. Zander wasn't real cooperative on this one.

Just a random shot that Jenni snapped while we were raking some fall leaves into a pile for the pictures. I love it! So cute.

Thanks so much for taking our family pictures again, Jenni! We owe you big time!

Not Fun

2011-12-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

We have had quite the time with the medical field this year...

We went in for our regular dental cleanings on September 1st. Just like we've done every six months since we've lived here. Our dentist told me that everyone's teeth looked great. No cavities. He said he could tell I helped the little ones brush because they open their mouths so wide for him, etc. I didn't think anything of it. It was a regular dentist visit. Four of the kids needed to have sealants put on their teeth, and I had one cavity, so we scheduled a follow up appointment to go back and have the work done. Because the dentist comes from elsewhere to our clinic, they couldn't get us in until the 20th of October. The dentist did the required work, and so we thought we were good until our next appointment in 6 months. A week later, Micah started complaining that his tooth hurt. I looked in his mouth and it looked like his tooth was broken in half. We called the clinic, and they said they couldn't get him in until January. Really?? He's four. How do you explain to a four year old that his mouth will just have to hurt for two months +? We told them that wasn't going to work for us, and they said the only thing they could do was put us on a waiting list that if someone cancelled they would call us and see if we could go in then. That didn't work for us either, but there wasn't anything else they would do for us. The next week we were in SLC for John's UPPAC meeting and Micah started complaining about his tooth again. We decided to give our old dentist a call in American Fork and see if they could get him in. They told us to bring him right in and they would look at him. When they looked at Micah's mouth, they said that no, the tooth wasn't broken like we thought it was. It was dead and decayed so badly it was down to the nerve. That's why his tooth was hurting. How did our dentist miss that when he sealed it the week before??? I can't figure that one out. (He has no cavities, his teeth look great! I can tell you help him brush...Filling me full of bull is more like it.) Not only did he have the problem with that tooth, but he also had 6, SIX, other cavities that he could see. They tried to fix Micah's teeth right then. Got him numb and everything. Micah was fine until they started drilling. That kind of freaked him out. John and the hygenist were trying to hold him down so the dentist could work, but he just said it wasn't worth it. He didn't want Micah to be afraid of coming to the dentist. We had to go another route. Micah had to have dental surgery. We talked to the clinic in Green River about what the dentist had missed, and basically all we got was, "It's not his fault. All dentists are different. We have people coming from Denver just to see the dentist here. He is wonderful! We don't have the right equipment for x-raying on pediatric patients." (Then why are you seeing them??) I'm still pretty mad about the whole thing, and no, we will not be back to see him again. I don't want to talk to him and listen to his excuses of why he missed so many things in my child's mouth. I have nothing to say to him--nothing nice anyway. It won't change anything. Even if they just got in the right pediatric x-ray equipment so they can better serve those of us with small children. Doesn't help us now! We have a dentist bill for the surgery of more than $1,300.00--after insurance! Thanks to my problems ealier this year our medical savings account didn't even have a hundred dollars left in it. So very frustrating!

The surgery was set up for December 2nd. We went to the Riverwood Surgical Center. Micah was a little nervous, but very brave. :) He was glad to get his teeth fixed so they wouldn't hurt anymore.

Just before the surgery. They brought in a wagon to take him into the OR. He was excited to get to ride in it, but nervous to leave John behind. :)

Waiting for Micah in the recovery room. The surgery lasted about an hour, so it wasn't too bad.

The dentist ended up having to do 2 root canals, and fixing 7 cavities. More work than we were expecting to be done. He said once he got in there, the one cavity was so bad that he had to do a root canal on that tooth also. Glad that he was able to get everything fixed. Now we hope the other children's teeth aren't as bad. We'll find out in March when we go to our dentist in AF for our 6 month cleanings. (Can't go before then because our insurance reset on Sept. 1st--the day of our last dental appointments--grrrr! and they won't pay for more than 2 cleanings a year.)

They brought Micah to us just as he was beginning to wake up.

Micah told John--while they were waiting to go into surgery--after they put on his medical bracelt that it looked like a present! He was pretty excited about that.

Micah was pretty groggy and was kicking and screaming as he woke up. I was glad John was there to hold him. It looked like John was having a tough time keeping him in his arms and on his lap. I don't know that I could have held him with my abdomen not healed all the way yet.

Once Micah was alert, he watched cartoons and sipped on some sprite and ate a popcicle. He had to do so before they would let us leave with him.

Micah looked in the mirror and was so excited to see two silver teeth! Lol

Thanks for being so brave buddy! We're sorry you had to go through this. We'll be better about brushing and taking you to a dentist who knows what they are doing. Love you!

Decorating our Tree

2011-12-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

We always decorate our home for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day. This year was no exception. We didnt get around to actually decorating the tree for a few days. We set it up in the family room this year, instead of the piano room. We decided to put it in front of our big windows. This required moving the furniture around into a new set-up. Something that hasn't been done sine we've lived in this house. It took some getting used to, but we quite like it now. John took some pictures of the kids putting the last few decorations on the tree. We love that we can see at it all the time, even if we are doing nothing more than watching TV. :) It's much more central to where our family spends most of our time.

Merry Christmas!

7 Months Old

2011-12-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Lindey is already 7 months old! So much has happened the last 7 months. Lindey weighs 16.2 lbs and is 26 1/2 inches long. Right now, Lindey has 2 teeth. She has recently discovered baby food and is eating really well! She doesn't even get any on her bib most meals. She is just beginning to get the hang of sitting up on her own. She can roll, if the other kids leave her alone on the floor long enough. They love her so much! Lindey can win any staring contest--and doesn't even blink! LOL She is a happy baby and smiles a lot. I know she is really happy if she crinkles her nose when she smiles. She loves to be in her stroller and go for walks. She is very curious and is discovering that her hands can do things, like move at her command, and pick up cheerios to eat. She almost has a wave down. She can make two different spittng noises with her mouth. She is always watching the kids and what is going on around her. Lindey absolutely loves music. She loves sitting in on piano lessons and hearing my students play. She loves any of her stuffed animals that play music, and loves to be sang to. Sometimes she even joins in! You are such a sweetheart Lindey Lu. We love you baby girl!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-13T09:46:00.000-08:00

I cooked most of Thanksgiving Dinner again this year. It was delicious! We had a small crew at our house. Our family, Paula and Jay, and Mom and Dad Hughes. We had both Ham and Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, Mom's jello fluff salad, Squash, Carmelized Green Beans, a relish tray, rolls and pies.

We enjoyed visiting with the family we had around us! Wish I would have gotten a few pictures of everyone eating--especially Lindey, being her first Thanksgiving, but I'll just be thankful I remembered pictures of the food this year. :) I usually don't even remember to do that! :)

Crazy Hair Day

2011-12-13T09:41:00.000-08:00

We had to do some extra preparation for Crazy Hair Day this year. Ian decided he wanted his hair curled, so I put sponge curlers in his hair the night before. (Never thought I 'd be doing that to one of my boys!)

Ian didn't realize his dad was taking pictures, and was not too excited about it! LOL

Here is his final product the next morning. He had a pretty cool afro going on!

Morgan went for wire in her braids, and her pink hair pony from Aunt Paula.

Zander did little ponies around the top of his head and we curled everything on top with a curling iron.

I think their hair fit the bill for Crazy Hair Day! :)

Crazy Kids. :)

Ninja Turkey

2011-12-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

Zander had to disguise his turkey and write a story so it wouldn't be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. We turned his into a Ninja!

Here is the story he came up with to go with it:
Once upon a time Tom Turkey was strutting around the wood. All of a sudden he heard a gunshot whiz past his head. He looked back and saw two hunters. They shot again. Then there were 2 more hunters. He was surrounded! He jumped up into a tree and quickly changed into his ninja suit. (Good thing he was close to his clubhouse!) He jumped back down, did some ninja moves with his swords and the hunters screamed, "Aaahh! A ninja! Where'd that turkey go?" The hunters turned and ran away. Tom thought, "Well, that's the last time they hunt me!"

Pilgrims

2011-12-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

These are my newest creations from the Wood Connection. I think I want to try making them smaller for my Melon Days booth next year. I'm trying to find things that won't be so labor and time intensive. I think these fall under that category. :) I got them finished just in time for Thanksgiving! :)

Turkey

Boy Pilgrim

Girl Pilgrim

Indian

At the Beach

2011-12-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

We took Mr. Z to the beach the last time he was here. We needed to get out of the house for a while, and he'd never been, so it was a fun trip. The kids quite enjoyed it too. We had fun taking some pictures.

The kids loved walking on this ginormous tree that had fallen over.

Lindey and her Mama. Aren't we cute?

Love you too, hon. :)

Morgan drawing designs in the sand.

Our shadows. Kind of a fun idea!

Lots of fun trees to climb on, and great for taking pictures with!

Micah said he was an old man with a cane. John got this picture of him walking with his short little stick.

Lindey fell asleep on the way home--it was a good outing!

Halloween

2011-12-09T23:41:00.000-08:00

Ian couldn't decide what to be for Halloween this year. Nothing in our costume box fit him. We decided to look online for an easy costume we could put together. We found this "I love my Mummy" costume and Ian decided it was the one. It took us a couple of hours to put together on Sunday night. Luckily we had enough materials around our house to make it work. He was happy. It was worth it. :)

Morgan's costume was a Secretary. It was so easy to pull together. She had the skirt and white shirt. I grabbed a blazer out of the boy's closet, and the glasses out of the costume box. We added a clipboard, notebook and pen and she was set. I was going to put a pencil in her hair, but forgot. It turned out cute anyhow.

Zander was the good ninja. It's not everyday you see a white ninja. We went to the Carnival put on by the fire department. He won the costume parade for his age group, and they thought he was a mummy. They announced, "The Mummy wins!" "Thanks, but I'm a ninja" was his reply as he was handed his prize. :)

Micah was The Hulk. The mask fit his little personality so well. I was kind of sad that he didn't wear it most of the night. He was just excited to have so many muscles and be strong!

Eli was our little Bumble Bee this year. Always love this costume. :)

Lindey was a cute little skeleton. Easy costume. We didn't need to buy it. We have plenty of infant costumes in the tub. But we did. And she was cute.

Our little herd all together. Ian, Morgan and Zander went trick-or-treating with their friends, so I was left taking the little 3 trick-or-treating. Melinda came with me to help get them in and out of the car quicker. It was fun. Once everyone was all back together, we had pizza and watched White Christmas. (It's a tradition.) Happy Halloween!

3rd Grade Halloween Party

2011-12-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

I was in charge of the juice boxes. I saw these on Blue Cricket Design's blog, and couldn't resist. :) he he

Yes, they were a hit! :)

Ian's Cell Model

2011-12-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

In 6th grade they learn all about cells and have to make a cell model. They can make it out of anything they want to. Ian wanted to make it out of something that had never been used before. He decided to make his out of cold cereal. Pretty ingenious. I, as his mother, helped him bring it to life. A couple disposable aluminum pans and a few sticks of hot glue later, and we had a cell. His Dad (and teacher) thought it was a pretty cool idea. Good job buddy!

Creative

2011-12-09T22:56:00.000-08:00

Morgan is one creative little girl. The kids got out some playdough and went to town making little creations. Morgan made this one of a family and it sat in my windowsill above the sink for several weeks. She leaves little creations like this all over the house for us. I love that she got some of that talent. :)

Hotel Stay

2011-12-09T22:27:00.000-08:00

With John on the UPPAC Comission, it comes with the perk of a hotel stay. Our kids love this! Micah gets so excited! John's meeting this month was the morning of November 8th, so we went up the night before. John took a couple pictures of the kids to prove that we were there. :)

We stay at the Red Lion in Salt Lake City. They have little walk-out balconies that Eli loves. He was scared to death the first time we stayed here and wouldn't do much more than poke his head out the sliding glass door. By the end of that stay he was taking all our shoes and other items outside and lining them up on the balcony. This month he was eating an Oreo cookie, and was licking the frosting off one side and had the other in his hand. He accidentally dropped it off the balcony and was so sad that his cookie fell. We were on the 11th floor, and could hardley make it out way down there. He wanted us to go get it. Lol
See, I was there too!

Our view from the balcony. :)

Looking forward to many more hotel stays with you boys! :)

Lindey 6 months Old

2011-12-09T22:04:00.000-08:00

Lindey at 6 months is 14.6 lbs and 26 1/4 inches long. She is such a cutie. My friend Jenni took our family pictures again this year just a few days before Lindey turned 6 months. She did such a good job capturing our cute little girl. Lindey has gained a tooth. She loves to eat cheerios and is getting better at eating baby food. She can roll over, but isn't real good at it--no one leaves her on the floor long enough to practice! :) She keeps us smiling with her happy little personality. Love you, Baby Girl!

Sunday Drive

2011-12-09T21:53:00.000-08:00

We took another Sunday drive up to the Monument. We were there just as the sun was getting ready to set. That made for some great pictures!

Leaves

2011-12-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

I walked out the front door one day and this sight just struck me. I loved the fall leaves against the dark grey storm clouds. It was beautiful to me. The leaves were so brilliantly yellow. The pcitures do not do the scene in my head justice, but they will help me remember. Heavenly Father is a great artist. :)

Last of the warm weather BBQ

2011-12-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

We decided we wanted to have one more barbeque before the weather got too cold to do anything. We then decided to make an event of it and watch a movie in our backyard one last time. We invited 6 households to our little shindig. While John and Mr. Z were getting tables set up in the backyard, Micah came running inside and said, "Mom! I need your shoe. Mr. Z is doing a magic trick for me!" He took my shoe and ran out the back door. I went out with the camera to see what was happening. Mr. Z would have Micah hold his hands out in front of him and then Jason would tap Micah's hands with my shoe and count to three. On three, he would throw my shoe to John, who would hide it. Micah would laugh and laugh. Then they'd make it reappear. John would give it back to Jason and he would pull it out of Micah's ear. Micah was laughing so hard, it was funny. He thought that was awesome!

We told everyone to bring their lawn chairs with them, their own meat and a salad to share.

The kids had a lot of fun playing on the swing set and with our tetherball pole we put in this spring.

With the Simmons, the Parsons, the Robertsons, the Pettits, Mr. Z, Melinda, and our family, I think there were 29 people that came. We had a lot of fun visiting, and once it was dark, we watched the fourth Shrek movie on the back of the house. We did this several times this summer, and want to make it a fun tradition with our friends. Thanks for coming everyone!

Found these beauties on my camera...

2011-12-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

John took the kids out to eat at Burger King while I was gone with my friends thrift store marathoning. I saw the Kid's Meal toys when I got home, but didn't realize that pictures were taken. :) How cute are these! LOL

Looks like they had fun! Made me smile. :)

Thrift Store Marathon

2011-12-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

My friend Heather has such great and fun ideas. She is my friend who I am in charge of Bountiful Baskets with. Anyways, she had the idea to do a Thrift Store Marathon. The idea was to drive up North, and hit as many thrift stores/yard sales as we could on the way home. She called and asked if I was interested. Ummm....yes!! Heather decided we needed matching T-shirts, so we got together one day and made them up. They had a purse, shopping cart, and flip flops with "Thrift Store Marathon 2011". We were all pretty excited. We planned to go on Saturday, October 15th. We left bright and early--6:00am. After picking everyone up, we drove to Orem. We had a great time visiting in the car, and arrived just before Savers was going to open. Heather told us of our game plan. She had an itinerary all planned out, and told us we only had a half hour in the store. While we were waiting for Savers to open, we took a few snapshots.

Me, Heather, Taffee, and Jenni

This is such a cool idea! They took coffee/end tables, cut them in half and then stacked them up (and I'm sure hooked them to the wall) to make an interesting shelf system. This was one whole wall in the store. I love this idea!

In one of the Thrift/Consignment stores we went to I found these hairbows made out of Soda Cans! So cool, and the edges aren't even sharp like you'd think they'd be. I totally want to try making these sometime. And yes, the red Coca-Cola flower came home with me. Morgan loves it!

We had several people asking what our shirts were all about. It was fun to tell them what we were up to! We counted on the way home, and I think the total was 15 Thrift/Consignment/Outlet stores and Yard Sales and that doesn't count lunch at Panda Express, or that we made it to Target and Wal-Mart before coming home. A very productive day!

I should have taken a picture of all my treasures. I found some things to repurpose, some things to organize with, some much needed clothes for the girls, and even a sweater for myself. We had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go again!

John's Birthday

2011-12-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

John's birthday this year was pretty low-key. His parents were out of town, so it was just us celebrating. We invited Ms. Durrant over and had Philly Cheese Steak Sandwhiches, one of John's favorites. Then we opened gifts and had cheescake. :) Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

John wanted a Roku for his birthday. It allows you to stream video to the TV using a Wi-Fi connection. So if you have NetFlix Digital Streaming, or Amazon Prime Membership, it will work with this. There are also tons of other channels that it comes with for you to stream. Pretty ingenious little invention. Now we can watch all the downloaded digital copies of our movies on our TV instead of the computer. It's much more comfortable this way. :)

John tired to be so careful opening Grandma's card this year, but try as he might, Great Grandma Millett still got him with confetti.

Ms. Durrant gave him a cool card that sings and lights up. The kids loved it!

John opted for cheesecake this year. He likes German Chocolate Cake--the only kind of cake he likes--but didn't feel like it this year. It sure was yummy!

Hope you had a wonderful day! We love you! :)

In her Stroller

2011-12-08T08:39:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure when these were taken. I found them on John's I-pod. I'm guessing from what she's wearing she probally four or five months old. Too cute!

Cute Cousins

2011-12-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

Since all of us with babies were at the baby blessing, after the luncheon we decided to get a few shots of the four new cousins. We dressed them in white onesies so they would all match. We took hundreds of photos, but these are a few of the best and/or my favorites. My sister, Cassy took some of these with her nice camera and photoshopped them--I think you can tell which ones they are, but I wanted to include my shots as well.

These two little girls were born 10 days apart. Our poor mom had just gotten home from helping Cassy with Brooklyn two days before I went into labor (two weeks early) with Lindey. She quickly packed her bags and came to help me with my kiddos. (Thanks Mom! I appreciate you more than you'll ever know!)

Harley and Keyan are just a couple of weeks apart as well. My mom was busy! She went and stayed with Jennie when she had Harley, and Adrienne lives in Vernal, so Mom was able to help Adrienne as much as she needed, but still sleep in her own bed. :)

My sweet girl. She was so happy while we were doing this. The other babies needed to be held, or nursed, or given a binki, but Lindey was smiling, and talking most of the time.

This shot makes me laugh. It was kind of chaotic to get Harley and Keyan not to cry as they were just a few weeks old, and Brooklyn and Lindey not to pull on those two, or bug each other as they were a little older and more aware of what was going on. Provided us with little laughter. :)

While the others took a short break to nurse, I kept snapping pictures of Lindey because she was being so good. I just love these that we got of Lindey by herself.

Thanks for the photoshoot girls! Can't wait to try it again at Christmas when Nichole is here with Silas (SOOOO excited to see them!), and Brooklyn and Lindey are more mobile! Ought to be oodles of fun! LOL

Baby Blessings

2011-12-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

We went to Ogden on Oct. 8th & 9th so we could support two of my sisters, Jennie and Adrienne, blessing their babies. Harley and Keyan were born just a couple of weeks apart, and rather than making everyone travel twice, they were nice and did them in Jennie's ward the same day.

My Grandma Millett was there, and I couldn't remember the last time I had a picture of her with all my kids. (Well, never because I haven't seen her with all of them since having Lindey. LOL, but you know what I meant.) Morgan was so excited that she got to hold Great Grandma's cane so Grandma could hold Lindey.

Everyone in my immediate family who attended. I think we were only missing Ashley and Nichole's families. My two brothers brought their girlfriends, but they were taking the pics for us.

Here are the four of us who have had our babies this year. Three girls and a boy. Lindey is the second oldest of this bunch. Nichole was still pregnant at this time.

It was sure fun to visit and stay at Jennie's house! Thanks for letting us come share in your special day!

Arrow of Light

2011-12-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

Ian was able to earn his Arrow of Light for Boy Scouts. I didn't think he was going to get it. The old scout leaders that were in when Ian went into Scouts kind of pooped out the last year or so they were in, so Ian missed out on a lot of badges. I know, I should have been better about doing stuff with him as his Mom, but without the regular reminder of scouts each week, it just didn't happen. The new scout leaders that were put in are AWESOME! They helped catch the boys up that had moved on so they could get all their past awards, and were quickly working on current awards with the boys so they could meet all the requirements for their Arrow of Light awards before moving on to 11 year old scouts. I still didn't think Ian would have enough of the required badges to recieve his Arrow of Light with me spending time in the hospital and not feeling well enough to do the extra stuff at home to finish badges. The Scoutmaster came over just after Ian's birthday to look over his stuff and see what he actually had done. (I had told her I didn't think he was going to earn his Arrow of Light, and she wasn't having that! Thanks Jackie!) He only needed one badge to finish up, which we worked on and did before Pack Meeting on September 28th.

I love the tongue sticking out in concentration so as not to poke me! :)

Congratulations, Ian! We love you!

Down in the Pumpkin Patch

2011-12-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

Once again this year, John's parents took us to the pumpkin patch. The kids love picking out a pumpkin of their very own. The only rule is you have to pack your pumpkin back to the car. Thanks for taking us Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy fall!

Eating Cereal

2011-12-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

At Lindey's four month appointment I was told that I could start her on Rice Cereal. I didn't do so until a month or so later. I didn't feel the need as she was sleeping through the night and was not acting interested yet. After we put most of the kids to bed I decided to feed her some cereal. She did rather well, and seemed to enjoy it!

She found her toes

2011-12-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

September 29th, I noticed Lindey had disccovered her toes. She was chewing on them, and I decided to snap a few pictures. Once she saw I had the camera, she stopped chewing on her toes, but was in a very good mood, so it turned into an impromtu photo shoot. I had to inconspicuously take pictures because every time Lindey noticed the camera, she'd stop smiling. Little stinker.

I love how excited she is in this one. :) Makes me smile.

What a cute girl, if I do say so myself. :)

Out on the Range

2011-12-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

The Gun Range, that is! :)

This was a fun family home evening we did with John's parents on September 26th. John and his dad had never shot their handguns they bought after taking their concealed weapons permits class. It's been a long while (over a year ago), so John's parents called us up and away we went. The kids brought a few pop cans along for targets and helped grandma get everything stood up and ready.

We made all the kids stay in the truck while the shooting was going on. Kids can be unpredictable, and we wanted to make sure we knew where they were. :)

John let all the kids and myself take a turn shooting his handgun. It was fun, and nothing I've ever shot before. I think I've only gone shooting one other time in my life, and that was a couple of years ago at my family reunion.

Grandma getting her Lindey fix. :)

Morgan made good use of her time and made little vases out of the old shot gun shells. What a creative little girl she is.

The kids were enamored with this bug (some a little freaked out).

Now there's a Micah face for you. :)

Bright-eyed baby girl.

John's dad also brought his shotgun along and he let a couple of the kids try it out as well.

I love being spontaneous and spending time with these little cuties!

Lindey-5 months

2011-12-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

My sweet friend Jenni took these pictures of Lindey one afternoon when she watched the 3 younger kids so I could go to physical therapy. Lindey was just a day or two away from turning 5 months old, so I decided to use these as her pictures for the month-milestone. Thanks for the cute shots, Jenni!

At five months Lindey weighs 13.8 lbs. and is 25 1/4 inches long. We started trying to feed her rice cereal. She likes it okay, but still prefers her bottle. She is such a sweet girl and we love her so much! :)

Waterfall

2011-12-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

Ian has wanted to stop and take pictures of the waterfall in the canyon for quite a few months, but we never felt we had the time to do it as we always had to get where we were going for doctor appointments or something going on at home, etc. Ian tried several times, with no luck, to get a picture as we drove by it in the car. We didn't have anything pressing to get back for, so we stopped on our way home from Mr. Z's. I stayed at the car with the two sleeping babies, while John walked the older four children to the waterfall so Ian could get his pictures.

They said it was pretty cool, and was a lot bigger than it looks from the road as you drive by. Happy campers! :)

Trafalga

2011-12-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

We were heading to Provo on September 24th for a friend's birthday party (Mr. Z's Christmas in September) and I told John that we ought to do something fun with the kids since we didn't need to be in Provo until about 6:00pm. We might as well make a day of it, right? We talked about it and decided to take the kids miniature golfing at Trafalga. After looking online at their rates, we decided it would be fun if the kids were able to do more than one thing. With the arcade and such there, we knew they would want to do more. We paid for a family pass that got each of us a slice of pizza, a soda, three activities, arcade tokens, and dip'n dots ice cream.

Since it was about lunch time when we arrived, we started our adventure with our pizza and drinks.

Then it was off to miniaturre golf. The kids chose the windmill course. It was fun to watch them play. We had to remind Ian that he wasn't on the Green River Golf Course with Grandpa Hughes. Some of his swings were pretty amazing! :)

Micah was so excited every time he hit the ball. He was our only child to make a hole in one!

After golfing we were all pretty warm, so we decided to cool off with dip'n dots. The kids were so excited to get them. They want them every Melon Days and we always tell them they are too expensive. Glad they finally got their wish.

The kids then went on an animated roller coaster ride. Lindey wasn't big enough to sit on her own seat, so I sat it out with her. :) All the kids thought it was pretty cool.

Ian wanted to use his last activity and ride the go-carts. Because I didn't go on the virtual roller coaster, I had an extra activity to use up, so I decided to race with him.

We had a lot of fun racing around the track. I passed Ian, but because of a slowpoke scaredy-cat girl that I got stuck behind, Ian passed me back up. He thought that was pretty cool. It was fun!

The rest of the activities were used up getting extra arcade tokens. The kids loved getting tickets and picking prizes from the counter. Everyone got two or three items, so all were happy!

Ms. Durrant met up with us as we were finishing, and we headed to Mr. Z's Christmas/Birthday party. (Which was also a lot of fun for us adults.) A little something for everyone this day! :)

Because my camera battery died before leaving Trafalga, we only got this one picture of Zander with John's I-Pod at Mr. Z's Christmas in September Party. Pretty fitting for a pretty perfect day. Makes me excited for Christmas!

Too Quiet

2011-11-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

Do you ever get that sinking feeling when you know where your older child is, but the other, younger, two year old child is no where to be seen and it's just too quiet? I had that feeling this day. I was wondering what mess I would be cleaning up and went to investigate. I was happy to find this--even though I felt bad about Eli falling asleep on the hard kitchen floor.

Melon Days 2011

2011-11-27T12:10:00.000-08:00

This year for Melon Days my booth was lacking in the wood department. I only got the 3 halloween sets finished, so the other 17 sets are still unfinished in my craft room. I was able to get these cute little clipboards made up. They are made from the laminate samples you can get at Home Depot or Lowe's. They turned out pretty cute!

On Friday, my booth was relatively slow, so John said he would man it so I could take the little boys to the blow up slides. I got some classic faces from both Micah and Eli. It was so fun to watch them. :)

Saturday was kind of crazy. We shut down our Bountiful Baskets site for the week because with both Heather and I doing booths we didn't want to deal with it. Unfortunately before the ladies in charge of Bountiful Baskets realized that our site needed to be shut down for the week, we had one person place an order. Instead of refunding his money, they decided to send his basket anyway. It was my week to be in charge, so it fell on my shoulders to make all the arrangements. It was kind of a mess because the deisel got there right as the parade was starting and couldn't get to our regular site (neither could I) so we met out at a truck stop. John's dad had to take me in the Ranger so we could make it through all the road blocks--thanks Dad! We made it out to the truck and by the time we made it back to my booth, the parade was ending. Thanks to Ms. Durrant who selflessly took our children to the parade for us. (John was helping our friend on his float with the candy cannon.) Melinda took some great pictures for me!

One thing our town is famous for is the world's largest watermelon slice. It got a touch up of paint this year and was looking great!

Here is John helping to shoot off the candy cannon. He said it was a lot of fun!

Here is my booth this year, well, part of it.

Eli hanging out (and probably a little bored) on the camp chairs outside our booth. We wouldn't let him go play by himself on the slides without a responsible party accompanying him. :)

Lindey's first Melon Days. She was a happy camper, as always. :)

My booth did all right considering we got rained out Friday night around 5pm, and consequently there were less people on the soggy park Saturday. Add to that the lack of product I had in my booth. But, all in all it was a fun weekend. Happy Melon Days!

Candy Cannon

2011-11-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

One of our friends, Troy Pettit, built a candy cannon to use in the Melon Days parade. Of course, he had to give it a test run beforehand, so he invited our family to go and try it out with thier family. We went out to the airport where he works, and set up.

The kids waiting anxiously to have the candy launched their way.

We dumped all the candy into this huge barrel to mix it up. I think Troy had 250 lbs. of candy to launch. It was a lot!

Then he rolled the barrel around to mix the candy together.

A few capfuls of candy into the barrel of the cannon, and it was ready to launch!

The kids had a great time gathering up the candy, bringing it back to be launched again, and then they got to keep whatever they picked up. They thought it was great! :) Thanks for the invite, Pettit family!

Lindey at 4 months

2011-11-19T11:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some snapshots I took of Lindey at 4 months. She now weighs 12.2 lbs. and is 24 1/2 inches long. She is such a sweeetheart, and always has a smile for us. Love you sweet girl!

First Day of School

2011-11-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Our three oldest started school on August 24th. They were pretty excited--especially Ian. His Dad is his teacher this year! Ian is in 6th grade (and growing up way too fast!).

Morgan started third grade this year. Her teacher is Mrs. Nelson. She was excited to get back to learning and playing with her friends.

Zander started first grade this year. His teacher is Mrs. Hunt. He was also very excited because Mrs. Hunt does reading buddies with Dad's 6th grade class. He is learning a lot and is becoming quite a good reader!

Emery County Fair

2011-11-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten about this. This summer there were a couple of nice ladies from the other side of the county that came to Green River to do a 4-H club. They met at the city park once a week, I think. Morgan, Ian and Zander participated in the club. They asked if anyone wanted to enter their things into the county fair, and Morgan decided she did. This is her rock necklace that they made. They wired them together and painted them. Morgan was sure excited to get her necklace back with a ribbon! :)

Chore Charts

2011-11-16T11:59:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting a new system for the kids to help them remember to do their chores without being asked a hundred and one times. Plus, I had this empty weird little wall in our kitchen that I've been wanting to do something with for a while now. I saw an idea for using the small clipboards (Half the size of a regular 81/2x11 one) for chore charts on another blog somewhere, and had been looking for clipboards ever since with no luck. When my mom showed me how to make mini clipboards at our family reunion this summer, I had a brilliant idea! I made these little clipboards for each of the kids (I let them pick the paper/color they wanted), then put a transparancy over the top. Once I printed out their chores on the computer, I slipped it under the transparancy. Each day the kids mark off their chores with white board markers and I can just wipe them clean the next morning, ready to do all over again. It has worked quite well so far. Even Micah and Eli enjoy marking their charts by themselves. I realize that I need to be better about follow through, and I'm also realizing other things that need to be added to their lists. Next time I print them I am going to leave a blank line or two so I can add chores as the day needs (Ian doesn't need to take out the trash every day, but it is one of his chores). Anyways, I thought it was great that because our walls have the rounded corners, the magnet on the white board markers sticks to the corner of the wall. That worked out rather well! lol

I love these new little additions in the kitchen, and my weird wall now has a purpose! :)

Cupcake Picks

2011-11-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

I saw a picture online of some cute cupcake picks, but never made them up. I printed out the picture, and I'm sad to say I don't remember where they came from so I can give due credit. If these are yours, sorry! They were too cute not to share.

These first two are made from some Halloween stickers I had in my stash. I simply stuck them to cardstock, cut them out, and attached a toothpick. So simple, right? If you were doing a lot for a party, this might be the way to go. Stickers are a great alternative if you don't have a lot of time, and all the cute work is done for you!

Sorry the bat is so hard to see--should have used a lighter background.

This candy corn is so easy to re-create. You could easily use a die cut, but I drew up this pattern. A triangle with rounded corners (pattern included). Cut two of the triangles, one for the base, and cut one apart to use as a pattern for the yellow and orange pieces. Layer and glue, add black pen lines, and add a toothpick to the back.

This little guy is my favorite! I'm including a pattern for his arm. The eyes are four circle punches of varying sizes. The smallest of mine was a regular hole punch. A few pink squggley lines, and some glue to hook the circles together, and you have crazy eyeballs! They are attached right to the cupcake liner. I outlined each piece with a fine-tipped black pen to make them stand out. The monster arm is stuck right into the cake. My kids thought this was the best cupcake and were fighting over who got to eat the monster. Lol Happy baking and crafting!

The Monster and Candy corn patterns are areon Heather's blog. Here's the link!

http://smallfryandco.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-cupcake-picks.html

Monster Boxes

2011-11-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

I saw some little monsters like these on the front of Cricut Magazine this month and thought I would try my hand at them.

I started with a bunch of die-cut gift bags in assorted colors. I die-cut mine at the school where my husband teaches, but you could also find a pattern online, or use Cricut's Tags, Bags Boxes and More Cartridge, and I've also seen some plain white ones at the Dollar Store in their Party Favor/Wedding Favor section. Any die-cut gift bag will work.

To attach wings or horns, I used my self-healing mat and exacto knife and cut slits along the front edges of the box just long enough to slide my cut pieces in.

This is what the wings look like attached from the inside of the box.

These are horns and wings.

I'm including patterns for my horns, wings (2 types), bellies, teeth, and mouths. I used a variety of carstock pattern paper, textured paper, and cardstock to cut these pieces with. Just remember when cutting wings/horns that the stiffer carstock-type paper works best/ I used googly eyes of different sizes. I found a bag at the dollar store that had 3 sizes in it of about 100 eyes. Really the sky's the limit when creating these little monsters. Alternate the pieces to create different looking monsters!

Cyclops

Fuzzy paper and scalloped scissor circle (You could also use a flower punch)

Add a ribbon bow and eyelashes to create a girl monster. I also turned the horns upside down.

Velvet paper

Textured paper

Mulberry paper

These would be great for a kid's school class party filled with treats. I'm going to use mine for my Halloween Piano Group treat! (They loved them, by the way.) Happy Crafting, and get creative!

The patterns for wings, teeth, bellies, etc. are on Heather's blog. Click the link below to get to them!
http://smallfryandco.blogspot.com/2011/10/little-monster-bags.html

Halloween Silhouettes

2011-11-02T12:08:00.001-07:00

Silhouettes are an in thing right now, and Halloween Silhouettes are so easy to create! I just googled Halloween Silhouettes and a whole plethera of images came up. This is where I got the witch from. I couldn't find a good Frankenstein, so I googled it. I couldn't find a sihlouette, so I improvised and just used a picture of one. I knew I wanted this one straight on so the bolts in his neck would show. I printed my images on black cardstock. Keep in mind that you will be using the back side so the printer ink will not show. Your image will be reversed.

Once I had my images printed, I cut them out with a pair of sharp scissors.

Flip them over so the printer ink does not show.

I then hooked them to my colored carstock using pop-up squares or dots. This will make your images stand up off the paper just slightly so it adds dimension. (I could have just printed my witch sihlouette onto my colored cardstock framed it and called it good, but I wanted the extra dimension the pop-ups give it.

Frame them and display as aa Halloween decoration in your home! This project is so easy and seriously took me about an hour from googling the images to being put in the frames. Happy crafting!

Witch Boot

2011-11-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

I saw this cute idea for a witch boot made out of a high heel shoe pattern on Good Things Utah and had to try it. My sister, Cassy, was able to locate a pattern for me from the lady that was on the show.

I cut out two of the pattern so that the inside of my shoe had a design. Remember to turn one of them over so you can glue wrong sides together. This is not necessary if you want just a solid black shoe.

I used some spray adhesive to glue my two pieces together, then scored all the lines and folded them.

Glue the shoe together.

My sister made these up and used a roll of lifesavers to look like the witch's leg. In order for it to stand up, you need to cut out a 1 in. sqare piece in the heel of the shoe. leaving the tabs in place. Add a buckle and some ribbon to the toe of the shoe.

Cover your lifesavers with a piece of striped pattern paper and insert into the heel of your shoe.

Fill with candy for a cute party favor or gift!

If you want the pattern, Heather uploaded it on her blog. Click on the link to get it.

http://smallfryandco.blogspot.com/2011/09/paper-witch-boot.html

Halloween Tags

2011-11-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

I helped my friend Heather out on her blog again with some Halloween craft tutorials. I'm going to post them here, even though it's past Halloween by a couple days. :) Sorry, still trying to get my blog all caught up--I'm getting there! As a result of posting them on Heather's blog, this post of my Halloween Tags got linked to a couple of other sites. Kind of fun! Here are the links for those:

http://www.tipjunkie.com/halloween-paper-craft/

and

http://funfamilycrafts.com/halloween-tags/

Enjoy! :)

I came up with the idea for these cute Halloween tags when I was teaching scrapbook classes at Paper Daisy in Orem. They are a great way to use up all those little scraps of cardstock you are holding on to! To start, you will need 5 tags in these colors--two peach, one black, one green, and one orange. My tags are 3 in. x 1 1/2 in., but you could easily use any die cut tag you have.

Here is what you will need for all the tags. I did one picture instead of lots of pictures of tiny pieces. I'll tell what you need for each tag as I give instructions.

Here are the finished tags! So cute, and super easy to do!

Frankenstien:

Supplies: 1 green tag, one black tag, zig zag or grass craft scissors, one black eyelet, two mini black brads, one gray strip 1/4 in. x 2 in., some pink chalk, and glue.

Take the black tag and cut with the craft scissors just above half of the black tag. This piece becomes frank's hair. Adhere hair to the green tag, then add the eyelet to the hole. (The eyelet isn't absolutely necessary, but adds a more finished look.) Put your brads through the tag, creating eyes. Adhere the gray strip to the back of the tag, creating the bolts in his neck. Add some pink chalk to his cheeks and he is done!

Pumpkin:

Supplies: 1 orange tag, one orange eyelet, two mini black brads, 1 leaf punch, green cardstock, orange chalk

Take the Orange tag and add the eyelet. Chalk ridges into your pumpkin using a slightly darker chalk than the tag color. Punch a leaf out of the green cardstock and adhere to tag. Add mini brads for eyes.

Mummy:

Supplies: 1 peach tag, 2- 6 in. strips of gauze cut in half the long way (you should have 4 skinny pieces total), 1 white eyelet, 2 black mini brads, pink chalk

Take the peach tag and begin wrapping it with the gauze. I only used 3 of the four strips so it wasn't too bulky and some of the peach tag could show through the gauze. Make sure your tag is fully covered on the front side. Add your white eyelet. Add the mini brad eyes. Chalk his cheeks.

Witch:

Supplies: 1 peach tag, 1 black eyelet, 2 mini black brads, black cardstock, orange cardstock strip1/4 in. x 1 1/2 in., black cardstock strip 1/4 in. x 2 in., 6-2 in. pieces black baby ric rac

Take the peach tag and trace the top of the tag onto black cardstock making it come to a point. This will be your hat. Cut it out and adhere to peach tag. Add the eyelet to the top of her hat. Adhere the orange strip to create the band of the hat. Glue the ric rac to the edge of hat, then add the black strip to create the brim of the hat. Add the mini brads for her eyes. Chalk her cheeks.

Black Cat:

Supplies: 1 black tag, black eyelet, 2 mini black brads, purple cardstock cut into a small triangle, 3 strands of black DMC floss cut to 3 in. in length, mini hole punch or needle, white gel pen

Take the black tag and add the eyelet. Add the mini brads for eyes and glue purple triangle underneath for the nose. Draw a line down from the nose for a mouth using the gel pen. Using a mini hole punch or a needle, punch 3 holes on each side of the nose for whiskers. Thread the DMC floss through one side of the cheek, and out the other. Glue on the back to hold in place. Repeat for other 2 strands of floss.

I used my tags as an embellishment on this halloween scrapbook page, but if you wanted to use them as gift tags, simply cut another tag out of the same background color and glue to the back of your halloween tag. This will finish it off, hiding the backs of your brads, glue, etc., and give you someplace to write! Add a ribbon through the eyelet at the top and you have a cute tag to add to a halloween treat!

Bunko Baby

2011-11-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

Had to post this picture of Lindey in her Bunko Baby outfit. My Bunko friends did a baby shower for me and one of our other bunko friends instead of prizes for everyone the month of April. Danielle and I were due around the same time and had our babies two weeks apart. Jenni made these little outfits for our baby girls since they would be coming to Bunko for the first while. :) Lindey only got to wear hers once since I missed a time or two. But, isn't that a fun idea? Love it! :)

I just read my friend's blog...

2011-10-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

I just read my friend, Heather's blog. She made me cry. I am still so overwhelmed at the thoughtfulness of this wonderful woman. I'm glad she was blessed for helping me. She so deserved this! I'm adding her post to my blog so I have a record of her side of the story. If you want to see her family photos, (I did not include any) please go to her blog post here.

In Heather's words:

If you just have to see the pictures then scroll down check them out and then come back and read this. I wanted to give a little background about how these photos came to be.

This summer after my friend and neighbor Allisha had her 6th baby by c-section she become very ill-like in the hospital, multiple surgery's, infection throughout her body ill. It was extremely scary to say the least. I can't imagine how her husband or children felt but I know for myself I begged Heavenly Father to not take her from her family or from all the people that loved her. She spent a long time in the hospital leaving her 5 kids at home to be watched by family and friends. I kept wanting to do something to help but so did everyone else in town. Seems like every time I had an idea of something to do for the Hughes family someone else had already thought of it. Meals were covered daily, kids were scheduled to go here and there regularly and I felt like I wasn't being of any help at all. Right from the start of the ordeal I did have a sick feeling in my stomach about the rising cost of bills as Allisha had to stay in the hospital longer and longer. I felt right from the start that as a community and as friends we ought to do something to help with the costs. Fast forward a little bit to a day when Gaylene Erwin wrote me a message on Facebook saying she had saw that I had asked John if we could plant him a garden and she wondered if she could help. I wrote back that the garden was already planted but I still wanted to do something to help. I mentioned to her an idea I had about doing a fundraiser-a community fundraiser for the family with a dinner, auctions, games etc. She said she would love to help and maybe she could even donate a photo shoot and a free picture as a prize to auction off. I told her I thought that would be an awesome idea and that I wanted to win it if she did it. And thus was born the Hughes Family Benefit idea (well sort of). So I posted on Facebook wondering if anyone else would be interested in helping put together a fundraiser and of course there were other friends who said they would be interested, so we planned a meeting. In the meantime it became so clear to me exactly what the fundraiser should be. I couldn't hardly sleep because I had ideas and visions in my mind. I felt it so strongly that it almost brought me to tears on a regular basis thinking about what we needed to do. I had heard that other friends had a few other ideas (bake sales, car washes, yard sales etc) and I knew those were good ideas but I knew without a doubt what we needed to do for Allisha's family. Before I went to the meeting I just prayed that the others would want to jump on board with this huge idea. I knew that we had to do something that provided as many people as possible with as many opportunities to donate money in one evening. We discussed and brainstormed and formulated a plan to put on a Benefit Event. The crazy thing is that all these fabulous women just kept listening to my ideas, accepting assignments and treating me as if I had a clue about what I was doing (which I had none-thank you very much). I kept thinking, "I think they think I know how to do this-I can't believe they are listening to me and trusting me with such a responsibility." And after weeks of planning, and generous donations from so many local businesses (which I was so overwhelmed by) the day came for the Hughes Family Benefit Event. Miraculously and I know very humbly, Allisha and John and kids all came to the event (though they did not seek, request or ask for any of it to be done) and let us all serve them and show our love in a variety of ways. The weather held out until the last dollar bill was counted and then it down poured. I thought it would be wonderful if we could make $500.00 for the family but we made well over that-leaving the planning committee in near tears as we packed up and went home. As part of the event we had several items that we raffled off (though raffles are not legal in Utah so we called them "donations or prize drawings"-same difference right!). One of those prizes was a photo shoot with Gaylene. I told Greg that we were buying $40.00 worth of tickets and putting them all in that bucket to win the photo shoot. I was in charge of reading off all the winners of the prizes. The photo shoot was the last one. The bucket had way more tickets than I wanted to see (only for my own selfish reasons) in it but when the ticket was given to me I was shocked to read my own name. I wanted to cry. I wanted to win so bad; I wanted the whole evening to be a success so badly; this was just the icing on the cake. Maybe it was Heavenly Father's way of saying, "thank you for listening to my voice," or maybe it was just the luck of the draw. Either way we were thrilled to have the chance to finally have professional family pictures taken.

Isn't she amazing? I am so blessed to call her my friend! :) Thank you Heather.

Ian's 11th Birthday!

2011-10-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we have an 11 year old! Our little boy isn't so little anymore. Ian is such a fun kid to talk to and interact with. We love him very much. He had the coolest birthday party this year--according to the boys that came. :) Our theme was flight. He made paper airplanes for the invitations and then I wrote the information on them for him. We went low-key for my sake--I still wasn't up to doing a whole lot. We had a bar-b-que and played some games. The boys had to make a paper airplane and fly it--farthest one wins. We made bouncy balls out of balloons and had to bounce them into buckets with point values--most points wins. I know there was another game, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is--oh well! After the games we opened presents, then once it got dark, we watched a movie on the back of the house. The boys were asked to bring a lawn chair. We watched Rio--if you haven't seen it, you need to. It is very cute! We had quite the crowd between our kids, Ian's friends and cousins, and others who wandered into the back yard. :) I don't have any fun pics of his party (Stupid camera card). I have two pictures of his birthday cake, because he took them with the camera he got for his birthday. :) (He's becoming quite the photographer and has taken some cool shots in different modes on his camera.) Ian is into owls at the moment. Don't ask--I don't know where that came from--he just thinks they are cool. So, when I found this cake online, I had to give it a try. It turned out so cute! :) He thought it was pretty awesome. (Cool mom point value just went up a few--lol)

This will have to do for Ian's birthday picture this year, lol. It's the only one I have of him on his birthday! I guess you could call it a "self portrait"!

Happy Birthday to a pretty cool kid!