Our Disneyland Trip

A few weeks ago we took our two oldest children to Disneyland and had a blast.  My 7 year old rode a number of rides for the first time including the Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain.  My 10 year old also experienced a few rides for the first time.  It was his first time riding Indiana Jones and Screamin' in California Adventure.  We spotted a few characters along the way and let my daughter wait in line to see the princesses.  Here are a few pictures from the happiest place on earth.

We had so much fun and can hardly wait until our two youngest are old enough to take along.  I love seeing how excited the kids get, especially when they are experiencing everything for the very first time :)

Family Pictures

Last week we had my sister take some family pictures for us.  She did a fabulous job.  I love the way they turned out, they look great!  Thanks Ty! :)

Halloween Projects

My kids have loved helping me get ready for Halloween.  Here are a few of the projects we have been busy working on:  We started out painting some wooden blocks and of course Hailee and Jaxon wanted to help with the painting.

We turned the blocks into a mummy, Frankenstein, and a Jack-O-Lantern to go on our front table.

Here they are on our table:

We still thought the table needed a little something more, so we make a "SPOOKY" banner to drape across the front:

The last project, but not final project, I've been working on is a Smurfette Costume for my daughter.

Halloween is such a fun time of year.  It's always fun to see what the kids want to be for Halloween and see how excited they get for the holiday :)

Jewelry Rack

I didn't take any pictures along the way, but this one was pretty easy.  I had this board laying around so I primed it and spray painted it.  I thought it looked a bit plain though so I taped some off and spray painted a few stripes.  Once it was all dry I used spray glue to adhere a ribbon down the center.  The final step was to drill some holes (which I had my dad do for me) then screw in some knobs.  Now I have lots of places to hang up jewelry, belts, scarves etc.

FAMILY wooden blocks

I've got a table in my entry way that I love to decorate for different holidays, but I've come to realize that I needed something generic to display when there wasn't a major holiday close by.  This year I had my Easter decorations up until the 4th of July just because I had nothing else to put up, so this is what I've been working on:  Some wooden blocks that spell out FAMILY.

The blockes are 3" square.  First I sanded down all the blocks and painted the edges black.  Then I used mod podge to adhere different patterened black and white paper to each side.  Once that was all dry I attached the letters using mod podge as well.  The letters were just cut out of paper on a cricut machine which was lots cheaper that using vinyl and they turned out great.

Now I've got something to display on my table other than patriotic decor until Halloween comes around.

Being a Mom

Dear Lord, it’s such a hectic day

With little time to stop and pray

For life’s been anything but calm

Since you called on me to be a mom

Running errands, matching socks

Building dreams with building blocks

Cooking, cleaning, and finding shoes

And other stuff that children lose

Fitting lids on bottled bugs

Wiping tears and giving hugs

A stack of last weeks mail to read

So where’s the quiet time I need?

Yet when I steal a minute, Lord

Just at the sink or ironing board

To ask the blessings of Your grace

I see then, in my small one’s face

That you have blessed me

All the while

And I stop to kiss

That precious smile.

                                       -Author Unknown

Earring Holder

For months this earring holder has been on my list of projects to complete.  Last week I took my daughter to get her ears pierced, so today we finally got around to creating a place for her to keep track of her earrings.

I started out with a picture frame from IKEA and a sheet of plastic stuff with holes in it cut down to size (don't even know what it's called)

I assembled the frame and then used little round stickers to get a polka-dot look.  For the frame with just white polka-dots I put the stickers on, then spray painted it blue.  For the frame with brown and white polka-dots I put some stickers on, spray painted it brown, added more stickers, then spray painted it blue.  Once all the paint was dry I simply peeled off the stickers and dropped the plastic into the frame.

Now we have some cute earring holders for our earrings.  I love the way they turned out.

Kimball Arts Festival

Yesterday we took the kids up to Park City for the Kimball Arts Festival.  We saw some great Art, but the things the kids enjoyed the most were the face painting, news broadcast, and enjoying a good old ice-cream cone ;)

Looks like we'll be taking home 3 paintings after all.

Whitney's Birthday

Whitney thought she wouldn't be having a birthday party this year with her friends, but instead I planned a surprise party at the splash park.  She had no idea I had invited all her friends.  We had pizza, drinks and cupcakes, opened presents, then let the kids play in the water and on the playground.  They had lots of fun.

We also invited grandparents over to celebrate:

She was very excited when she got a hula-hoop and a DS.  Come to find out Whitney is great at multi-tasking.

BYOB-Bring Your Own Boat

Last year my family started a new annual Pioneer Day tradition.  We meet at the lake for a day of boating.  The only requirement is you bring your own homemade boat.  Last year we were restricted to cardboard boats only, so most of them didn't float very long, except my dad's.  Last year my dad built a cardboard canoe which was covered in plastic, duct tape and designed to hold about 300 lbs.  Being that he is an engineer, his boat stayed afloat for nearly 3 hours.  This year we took an "anything goes" approach.  My kids built their boat with a plastic bin and lots of 2 liter bottles.  My brother came with a pretty cool tug boat, my mom didn't quite finish hers an we also had a few inflatable boats.  We had tons of fun paddling around and enjoying a day in the sun :)