Oh, hey... I have a blog. I should probably post something.

Once upon a time
a girl started a blog.
It was a quiet little blog
with a very small following.
But she loved it.

Around three years ago she had some strange health concerns arise.
They made it difficult for her to think & concentrate
which in turn made it difficult to work on her blog posts.

Her regular posts began to dwindle,
but she kept her link party going
since it didn't require as much thought on her part.

Most of her symptoms began to improve
aside from the occasional flare-up,
but her anxiety continued to worsen.

Her schedule & her anxiety grew over the summer
as she prepared herself for her firstborn's segue to Kindergarten.

She could no longer maintain her blog.
Before she knew it her link party came to an end
& all was quiet.

She gave birth to her fourth child,
Little Snowflake,
at 5:30pm on 1/9/17,
exactly 100 years after the child's great-great-grandmother was born (in 1917).
Her sweet baby weighed 8 lbs 1 oz & was 20" long
which shocked everyone since her mother was induced three weeks early
due to symptoms of preeclampsia.

A few hours after delivery
they had to put the young mom on a 24 hour magnesium drip
because things weren't quite right.
Her reflexes were off,
her bleeding was heavy,
her platelets were low,
& they were still keeping close tabs on her blood pressure.
She ended up staying an extra couple nights
until the doctors felt comfortable sending her home.

She called her OB a week later
since she was still dealing with heavy bleeding
with no signs of slowing.
After a couple days of bed rest
they asked her to come back in to the office to do an ultrasound.
Her doctor looked at the findings
& scheduled for an emergency D&C
to be done right after her appt.

Apparently there was some leftover tissue left behind from the delivery
which was causing all the heavy bleeding.
After this surgery,
her platelet count improved & her bleeding stopped.

It was time for her to finally relax & enjoy her precious newborn.
Right???

Stay tuned for:
Colic & Reflux
One Big Thing

xoxo

Your ancestors live on - Activity Days

For Activity Days this month we are focusing on family history.

You see...
Your ancestors live on through you,

much like sourdough starter

aka mother dough.

Boudin Bakery still uses the same sourdough starter that was mixed over 150 years ago.

They save a little bit of the starter dough to mix with flour & water each day to keep the fermentation process going.

We are all descendants of Adam & Eve.
A little piece of them was passed on to their children
& so on and so forth
just like the mother dough at Boudin Bakery...
Our ancestors pass on their genes
as well as their stories
from generation to generation.

It's our job to trace our family lines as far back as possible.
To get to know each of them as individuals.
To learn of their joys & hardships.
To do their temple work.

Something special happens as you trace your lineage back to Adam & Eve.
You'll see familiar names along the way.
Names you've learned about in history class,
names you've read about in the scriptures,
& many names that you probably have never heard of.
As you begin to realize that they are your actual ancestors,
those names become actual people.
They become family.
You'll desire to learn more about them.

You'd be surprised what you can learn from your ancestors.
Chances are that you have more in common than just eye & hair color.
You may be named after one of them.
You may have similar personalities or interests.
You may have experienced similar trials.
Perhaps they have answers to questions you have.

Start small.
Get to know your closest ancestors first.
Then branch further & further out on each line.
See how far you can get & see how much you learn about your family (:

We discussed all of this during Activity Days yesterday.
We shared stories about our ancestors,
ate some sourdough bread,
& helped the girls fill out
My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together booklets
with information that they brought from home.
They are going to finish filling them out with the help of their families.

We also sent them home with this

7 generation family tree
to encourage them to go back a little further with their family history research.
Since the spots are so small we told them it would be okay to just color in the spots after they were entered in FamilySearch.

xoxo

FHE: I Am a Child of God

Opening Song: Family Night

Opening Prayer

Scripture: Psalms 82:6

Lesson:
The parable of Rapunzel
with excerpts from the Primary 1: I Am a Child of God Manual
We lived in heaven with our Heavenly Father before we came to earth.
We don't remember living with Him,
but we know we are His spirit children because we read about it in the scriptures.
{see Psalms 82:6}
Heavenly Father is the king of both heaven & earth.
Because we are His spirit children,
we are all princes & princesses.

Rapunzel lived with her parents in the castle when she was a baby,
but she was taken away from them when she was still little
so she doesn't remember that she is their daughter
& that she is actually a princess.

Rapunzel's parents, the king & queen, never gave up their search for her.
They sent out floating lanterns every year in hopes that she would follow them back home.
Our Heavenly Father wants us to choose the right so that we can return to live with Him someday
so He sent us the scriptures & a prophet to guide us back to Him.

Mother Gothel constantly lied to Rapunzel & tried to keep her locked up in the tower
because she wanted all of the hair's magical powers for herself.
She tells Rapunzel that "mother knows best" just to get her to stay.
She didn't want her to discover who she really was & find her way back home.
Satan is the same way.
He lies to us & tries to keep us locked up in his grasp
because he wants all the power & glory for himself.
He wants to take our agency away.
 He tries to trick us into thinking that his way is best.
Satan doesn't want us to find our way back to Heavenly Father.

Rapunzel wanted to see the floating lanterns
just like we should want to read the scriptures & listen to the prophet.
She discovered that she is a princess & she found her way back to her home,
just like we know that we are all children of God
& that we can live with our Heavenly Father again someday too.

photo credit: disneyscreencaps.com

Rapunzel stood in front of the mirror & put her tiara on.

She was the daughter of a King.

Story:
Seeing a Child of God
We can stand in front of a mirror & remember that we are children of God too.
Hold a mirror up in front of each person & tell them that they are a child of God.

Closing Song: I Am a Child of God

Closing Prayer

Activity: Color/decorate crowns while watching Tangled
Here's a link to Rapunzel's tiara

Treat: Paint brush rice krispie treats

xoxo

Little Sunshine - a birth story

In case you haven't noticed...
Things have been pretty quiet around the blog lately.
I've been enjoying the snuggles & cuddles of our new baby girl!
Meet Little Sunshine (:

I can't believe that she's already a month old!
She is absolutely adorable
& we love that she is part of our eternal family!

Little Dudeman & Little Princess are really great with her!
They love being my helpers (:

Today I'm going to read share with you her birth story...
Once upon a time
in a land known as central Indiana
lived a small,
but growing family.
It was the beginning of August
& the mama was having a tough third trimester.
She still had a couple weeks to go
but she felt larger & much more drained than her previous two pregnancies.
Maybe it was because of the stairs
or simply because she had two other children
that required so much of her energy.
Nobody truly knows.
She was torn between wanting the baby to come ASAP
so that she could be more comfortable & see the sweet little girl,
& enjoying the last couple weeks of baby kicks & only two kidlets while she still could.
Sleepless nights were inevitable either way.

The family went to church on Sunday, August 3rd
& the mommy noticed she was having some contractions on the drive home.
They got home & changed into comfy clothes
then she started timing them just in case.
They were 10-15 minutes apart
so nothing to get too excited about,
but they weren't stopping.
That evening they got as close as 8-10 minutes apart
with the occasional contraction only 5 minutes from the last one.
They continued all through the night
although they weren't so strong that they kept her up.
She had an appt the next day,
& was excited to see what the OB had to say about the progress.
Her contractions were roughly 5-8 minutes apart
& they seemed to be getting stronger.
The mom was slightly disappointed to find out that she was only dilated between a 1 & 2
& that the contractions were most likely just braxton hicks.
Weren't braxton hicks supposed to be painless & sporadic?
They kept up at that same pace the entire day
& all throughout that night,
but when she woke up on Tuesday
they were gone.
They would come back to tease her
from time to time every day
for the next two weeks
but they were definitely more sporadic at that point.

Her father,
whom her children refer to as Grampa,
came out to visit the weekend of her due date, the 16th,
just in case the baby decided to make her debut on or before then.
Alas, the child had other plans.
Grampa had to leave early that Monday morning to go to work
since he was also on a business trip a couple hours away.
He assured the family he would return on Thursday
with hopes to meet his newest granddaughter.

The expectant mother went into her appt that same Monday
to discover that she was dilated to a solid 3.
Her OBGYN stripped the membranes
& scheduled an induction for the next morning at 6 AM
just in case the baby didn't come on her own before then.
The mom took her kids to the park & they went on a couple walks throughout the day.
She even ate half of a fresh pineapple that evening to speed things up.

Really though.
It was quite delicious!

She & her husband stayed up late that night
instead of getting extra rest like they probably should have
because they were so excited to see their newest addition the next morning.
Also because they had started a Harry Potter marathon the week before
& simply HAD TO watch 'Deathly Hallows: Part 2' before the baby came.

No regrets.
Okay, maybe a little bit.
I was pretty drained the next day...

They woke up bright & early at 5 AM the next morning.
Let me rephrase that.
It was early, but definitely not bright outside.
She noticed that she was having regular contractions around 5:30
& they seemed to be getting closer together.
Was it the pineapple perhaps?
The contractions were roughly 5 minutes apart,
but they were fairly tolerable.

They dropped off their sleepy kidlets
Thanks so much for watching them Chelsea!
then headed to the hospital.
The nurse hooked up the contraction monitors
& sure enough the wife was in labor!
Things were progressing.
However, they were progressing very  s l o w l y...
So they broke her water around 7:30
to see if that would help speed things up a bit.
People didn't come in to check on her very often
since there were so many C-sections & deliveries going on that morning.
The next time she saw her OB was around 10 AM.
The doctor checked her & said she was dilated to a 5... 80% effaced.
Things were happening.
Just not very fast.
A pitocin drip was started around 10:10
& the woman was still doing alright with the pain.
The nurse kept upping the pitocin every so often
then came in a little before 12 to let her know that they would be helping with a C-section.
If she would like an epidural it would have to be right then or in an hour.
Even though she could still tolerate the pain just fine in that moment,
the contractions & pain were getting stronger so she decided to go ahead with it
rather than miss her window of opportunity if she ended up needing it while they were unavailable.
They gave her the epidural,
but then her blood pressure dropped so low that they had to give her epinephrine to bring it back up.
Her lack of sleep & super small way-too-early-in-the-morning breakfast weren't helping.
I was feeling queasy when I woke up... 
 Her blood pressure went back to normal,
but she was still tired, hungry, & slightly lightheaded.
The couple had watched 'Thor: The Dark World' earlier that morning while waiting
& decided to turn on 'White House Down' to kill some more time.
She couldn't feel her contractions at that point,
so she was able to actually enjoy the movie.
After a while, the woman started to notice more pressure
but of course her OB was in the middle of a C-section.
She continued to feel more & more pressure
& was extremely relieved when they finally came in to check her around 2 PM.
Sure enough, she was fully dilated & ready to push.
After 40 minutes of pushing
the couple finally got to meet their sweet little summer baby.
Little Sunshine (:

She was born at 2:42 PM, weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, & was 21 3/4" long!!!
Their other two kidlets were much smaller...
7 lbs 10 oz - 20"
& 7 lbs 3 oz - 19 1/2"

What's even more surprising is that I didn't tear.
At all.
Because I did with the other two.
Weird.

Anywho...
Everything was all fine & dandy until approx 46-47 hours later.

Stay tuned for the second chapter titled:
Postpartum Preeclampsia

xoxo

FHE: Helping Out Around the House

Opening Song: Family Night

Opening Prayer

Scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 88:119

Lesson:
Questions:
Is our house dirty or clean?
Are you happy when our house gets dirty?
Is the church building dirty or clean?
Are temples dirty or clean?
Temples are also called the House of the Lord.
Do you think Heavenly Father is happy when our house is dirty?
Would it be easy to clean the entire house all by yourself every day?

House puzzle:

Print & cut out the house puzzle.
Distribute puzzle pieces among family members
then have the family try to put the puzzle together.
Hold onto your puzzle pieces & don't help them at all.
When they realize that they can't complete the house puzzle without you,
explain that you all need to work together to make your house a home.

Story:
The Little Red Hen

When we work together,
the chores seem easier & things get done faster.
Cleaning together is more fun than cleaning alone anyway.
How else can we make cleaning more fun?

"Whistle While You Work" from Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs:
Just whistle while you work
<whistle>
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place
So hum a merry tune
<hum>
It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace
And as you sweep the room
Imagine that the broom
is someone that you love and soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune.

When hearts are high the time will fly so whistle while you work.

Things the kids can do to help around the house:
Pick up their toys & keep them in the playroom
Sweep up crumbs with the little broom
Put things where they belong
Sort & fold laundry
Help with dishes
Wipe counters
Make beds

Closing Song: When We're Helping

Closing Prayer

Activity: Make a family chore chart & watch Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs

Treat: We're making my Grandma's Apple Crisp,
but you could also make an apple pie like Snow White makes in the movie,
or do any sort of apple treat really...

xoxo

FHE: Honesty - Pinocchio

Since holding FHE (Family Home Evening) weekly is one of my resolutions this year

I decided to start posting about what we do.

Partially to share our FHE ideas with each of you,

but mostly to help myself remember how important it is

& to make sure it's happening each week.

I'm not gonna beat myself up if we miss a week here or there

but the goal is to do our best to make it happen every week.

Some weeks may be more thought out than others,

& some weeks we may just watch a movie

then ask questions about lessons learned from it.

Young kids have such short attention spans

that we are going to try to keep the lessons short & simple.

I noticed that LDS Living is doing Disney themes for FHE this month

& I absolutely adore that idea!

I want to try to have one Disney themed FHE each month,

but we'll see how that goes.

Without further ado,

here is tonight's Pinocchio FHE about Honesty...

Opening Song: Family Night

(This will almost always be our opening song, since that was our tradition growing up)

Opening Prayer

Scripture: Psalms 120:2

Lesson:

Story:

Read The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

If we lie over & over again,

people may not believe us when we are telling the truth.

Pinocchio's nose grows when he tells a lie,

but we have a conscience like Jiminy Cricket
(our conscience is not an actual cricket)

that helps us know right from wrong

& helps us do the right thing

even when it's hard.

Nose Grows game:

Say statements or actions that are true/honest & some that are lies/dishonest.

Have the kids fold their arms if it's something that is true or honest

& touch their nose if it's a lie or dishonest.

String of lies object lesson:

Read the story, "The Lie Monster".

Gently wrap yarn around a child's wrists (once for each lie in the story)

& explain that it's hard to break free from lies when they grow on each other.

The only way to break free from lies is to be honest

& to always tell the truth.

"I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio:

I've got no strings to hold me down

to make me fret, or make me frown

I had strings, but now I'm free

There are no strings on me.

When we are honest,

we don't have 'strings of lies' holding us down.

If we get tied up in a lie,

we can make things right & be free by telling the truth.

Closing Song: I Believe in Being Honest

Closing Prayer

Activity: Watch Pinocchio

Treat: 'Pinocchio's nose' pretzel rods & 'Pleasure Island' ice cream

xoxo

Platypus Day 2014

Whatcha doooin'?
Oh yeah, you're probably reading this post...
Did you remember to celebrate Playtpus Day this past Saturday?

We did (:

There was no way we would miss it!

We couldn't celebrate at Disneyland like we have in the past years,

but we still tried to make it the best day ever.

Okay, so maybe it didn't go anything like I had planned,

but it was still a fun day!

photo credit: glam.rastamonk.com

Here, let me tell you the back-story...

I promise it has nothing to do with lawn gnomes or doonkelberries.

I woke up on Saturday thinking,

"I know what we're gonna do today."

But then I remembered Hubby had to work all morning

because of all the crazy weather over the past few months.

'Tis the life of a busy auto damage adjuster.

<le sigh>

When he came home, he changed into his Perry shirt & we ate lunch.

My pregnant mind is having a hard time remembering what we ate,

but I know it was some sort of food.

Hubby & I were sporting Perry the Platypus shirts again,

but the kidlets had grown out of the shirts I made for them last year.

I didn't have the time to make new ones for them this year,

so they wore regular clothes.

So sad...

Anywhooo, we couldn't start our party right away

since we are STILL trying to pack & get our house ready to list.

We let the kids watch some Phineas and Ferb while we were packing,

but us adults easily got sucked in & stopped being productive,

so we had to turn on Pandora instead.

The sister missionaries from our church,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,

came by around 3 to help us clean & pack for a couple hours...

They're the best!

We ended up getting quite a bit done,

so we felt pretty good about starting our party shortly after they left.

We had a themed dinner which consisted of Phineas and Ferb mac & cheese, Phineas and Ferb shaped jello jigglers (A much smaller scale of the gelatin in Isabella's pool that was hit by the Turn-Everything-Evil-inator. Not nearly as large or evil & a different flavor, but just as jiggly...), mini corn dogs from Mr. Slushy Dawg, slushy gatorade & Icees (also from Mr. Slushy Dawg).

As you can see, it was kind of a lazy dinner...

(I even took pictures of the boxes instead of the actual food.)

But hey, Perry is a platypus.

They don't do much.

After dinner, we watched some Phineas and Ferb together as a family while our food settled.

We had plans for the biggest ice cream sundae ever made,

second only to the one that Doofenshmirtz ended up accidentally making,

but we all got sleepy so we nixed that idea...

I wish there were more hours in the day

so that we could have done everything I had imagined.
In my head I had pictured:
teal streamers,
teal, orange, & brown balloons (& Balloony)
decorating our living room.

I had pictured at least a half day of events including but not limited to:
pin the hat on Perry (to make him become Agent P),
a "Where's Perry" scavenger hunt,
a game of Skiddley Whiffers,
& of course watching Phineas and Ferb.

Although it wasn't how I had imagined,
It was pretty fun for just winging it when we had so much going on.

I'm thinking that next year we'll have 'The Candace Special' for dinner... grilled cheese!
That is of course if we can't make it to Disneyland.

xoxo

Happy 2014

Happy {belated} New Year!

I know I'm a couple weeks late,
but how did you ring in 2014?
My mom (Nani) was in town, so we got to enjoy our holiday traditions with her!
We stuck with our tradition of eating cheese fondue & chocolate fondue,
then playing/eating Candyland,
but things were a little different this year...
You see, we couldn't find our Candyland game.
It's still packed in a box somewhere.
I don't know why I thought I had already unpacked it,
because clearly I didn't.
We ended up playing the Dora the Explorer version online instead.
Little Dudeman didn't seem to mind one bit though.
It was a memorable end to one year,
a great beginning to a new one,
& we loved having Nani there celebrating with us!

Let's take a look at last years resolutions, shall we?

2013 Resolutions:
1. Read scriptures daily (Need to work on that daily part)

2. Kneel for daily personal prayers (I did okay, but need to work on kneeling every day)
3. Create a better budget & stick to it (YNAB has been amazing, but we need to be more disciplined)
4. Keep our home clutter-free (Fail.)
5. Have family home evening every week (Again, we did okay for a couple weeks then slacked off)
6. Exercise & play together as a family (That whole exercise thing? Yeah, it didn't happen.)
7. Have more park days (It helps having a "park" in the backyard)
8. Read at least two books ("The Host" & "A Memory Apart")
9. Invite people over (Need to work on that.)
10. Be a better me (wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, leader, etc...) (I'm not the best person to ask, because there's always room for improvement in my opinion, but I did my best.)

2014 Resolutions:
1. Read scriptures daily
2. Have family home evening every week
3. Get out & enjoy nature as a family
4. Use YNAB phone app often to stay on track with our budget
5. Get unpacked & keep our home clutter-free
6. Invite people over
7. Have date night once a month (at home dates are fine if we can't get out)
8. Write at least five blog posts each month
9. Read at least four books
10. Have more patience with the kidlets

Wish me luck!

xoxo

Halloween costume 2013 - Possibilities

Halloween really sneaked up on us this year.

I'm sure that's partly because we're still trying to get settled,

but mostly because Gram passed away a couple weeks ago.
I can't believe it's already been two weeks

We've had a lot going on with the funeral & everything...

Since Halloween is only one day away at this point,
instead of creating/finishing our Wreck it Ralph costumes last second

I think we'll be taking the easy route

& wearing repeat costumes this year.
That's okay, right?
I'm thinking yes.

Besides...

Nobody in our new area has seen us wear these costumes before!

We probably won't decide until tomorrow,
but here are some of our easy options...

Chances are that Hubby & Little Dudeman will be going as Calvin & Hobbes again.

Little Princess will either be rockin' the Perry the Platypus costume,

the butterfly fairy costume,

or she may go as a little witch from Hogwarts.

I'll be Isabella again if Little princess is Perry the Platypus.

I never finished making my caterpillar costume to go with her butterfly one,
but I can always throw on a muumuu & lei like last year
or just find something in our costumes bin.

OR
We may ALL go as witches & wizards.
Fresh from Hogwarts.

It will be a surprise.
Don't worry, I'll post pictures of what we actually end up wearing.

On a complete side note...
Keep your eyes out for my review of K5 Learning.
Coming soon.
K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students.  I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program.  If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their  open invitation to write an online learning review of their program. - See more at: http://www.k5learning.com/review-k5

xoxo

March Madness - Platypus Day, Pi Day, Party Planning

I haven't posted in a while.

What have we been up to this month?

Let's see...

Our S is for Snow unit for Mommy School has been 2 weeks long due to Little Dudeman not feeling so hot,

prep & planning for Little Princess' 1st birthday party,

& making sure we had everything we needed for all our fun meal traditions coming up!

We went to Disneyland for Platypus Day,
but since they don't make Perry shirts in 12m or 18m I had to make shirts for the kidlets.
Nothing fancy, just white tee shirts, baby Perry, doo-bee doo-bee doo bah.

We were actually slightly disappointed in how few platypuses we saw in comparison to the first 2 years.
I think we counted 32...
Last year was more like 120+
I wished people that had Perry paraphernalia a "Happy Platypus Day" if there were at least 2 Perrys in the group.
Most of them had this I-didn't-know-it-was-Platypus-Day look on their face.
Hubby started to wish that he wasn't wearing his Perry shirt since he wanted to act like he didn't know me...

Then I was busy planning the YM/YW combined activity - Easter Minute To Win It.

I think it turned out pretty fun & can't wait to share that with you!

Later that week we had a youth fireside & YW sleepover that I didn't want to miss.

I was busy working on party invites the rest of that weekend & was actually kind of excited about it since I got to use my new toy that Hubby got me for our anniversary last year...

My Silhouette Cameo (:

How on Earth did I ever make those Mickey invites without it!!!

Yes, I cut them out by hand...

I'm crazy.

I know.

We like to celebrate Pi day by eating circle foods, and of course, pie.

We had a slightly abnormal Pi day this year...

Breakfast was going to either be pancakes or quiche, but we had to leave our house around 7:45 to make it to the walk-in hours at the doctors office.

I'm no morning person, so there was no way I was making breakfast before we left.

I skipped breakfast & Lil Dudeman ate some dry fruit loops on the way.

Not the healthiest breakfast, but at least they were circles.

We waited there over an hour before we were seen since there were a few people ahead of us.

We were going to have circle sandwiches for lunch when we got home,

but we had to run a few errands while we were out & I was pretty hungry after not having breakfast,

so we stopped at Sonic & had lunch there... 

We had pizza for dinner & had dreams of a delicious Claim Jumper blackberry pie for dessert.

We had been looking all week but couldn't find one anywhere.

We would have settled for pecan, but couldn't find one at our last stop while running errands.

Bummer.

What's Pi day without pie?

I also wanted to do some of the fun Kindergarten Pi day ideas that I found at Helping Little Hands.

But alas, I am not superwoman & simply had too much going on.

Maybe next year...

So that's what has been going on around here...

But what do we have coming up?

Little Princess' 1st birthday party is tomorrow.

We have a St Patty's Day green dinner & muffin tin lunch coming up on Sunday.

Our family tradition of Oswald is coming up this Sunday.

What's Oswald you ask?

You'll just have to check back to find out (:

My sister will be coming to visit the last week of March,

and of course Easter will be here before we know it!

Yep, it's pretty crazy around here...

March Madness?

I think yes.

xoxo

Family Valentine's Night

Monday evening we finally had our family Valentine's Lady & the Tramp dinner...

We had wanted to do it last week, but we were swamped with something every single night!
We would have had Spaghetti & Meatballs like they do in the movie, but since Hubby isn't a fan of meatballs we ate Heart Shaped Chicken Parmesan & Spaghetti served with garlic bread, tropical fusion jello, & had Apple Pomegranate Martinelli's to drink.

It was delicious & we were so stuffed that we had no room for dessert!

Normally we use our red tablecloth & eat by candlelight, but I slacked off a bit this year...
Forgot the candles but at least we remembered the tablecloth!

After dinner we all cuddled up on the couch and watched Lady & the Tramp together to end the evening...

Tony's Town Square Restaurant at Disneyworld - April 2009

This year instead of exchanging cards, we made a family card... It was actually the craft at story time last week at the library, but we jazzed it up a bit after we got home by putting scrapbook stickers on it. The kids 'wrote' in it, then Hubby & I wrote things we love about our family inside! We each got a side, but covered it up when we were done writing so we didn't know what the other person had written & then we read it together...


Our family LOVE card
I'm thinking that we are gonna have to make it a tradition!

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!

Last night to ring in 2013 we ate way too much fondue & we played Candyland!

It's one of the many traditions I grew up with that we decided to carry on.

You see, we don't play Candyland the same way as most families...

We get to eat the candy as we pass it on the board as if we were actually in the game.

That means that we get these goodies when we pass the following spaces/areas on the boards:
Plumpy & the Gingerbread plum trees (sad - our version doesn't have Plumpy): Gingerbread cookies & plums (we used to get a spoonful of plum babyfood sometimes, but we can't seem to find it)
Rainbow Trail: Skittles
Mr Mint & the Peppermint Forest: Candy canes

Jolly & the Gumdrop Mountains/Gumdrop Pass: Gumdrops
Lord Licorice & the Licorice Castle: Licorice
Gramma Nutt & her Peanut Brittle House: Peanut brittle or some kind of nutty treat (this year we used Butterfingers)

Princess Lolly & the Lollipop Woods: Lollipops or suckers
Queen Frostine & the Ice Cream Sea (She's Princess Frostine in our version, but she's still a Queen to me): Ice cream
Gloppy & his Swamp (He used to be a molasses monster, but I guess now he's into chocolate): We used to eat a molasses cookie or a spoonful of molasses, but now that he's a chocolate monster we have chocolate of sorts. (Last night it was chocolate lava cakes, but next year I think we'll do Lindt truffles. You know, the kind that turn to pure liquid in your mouth...)
King Kandy & the Candy Castle: We don't typically do anything when we get there, but I'm thinking next year that we might have one King size candybar that we can all share as we get to it.
I think you get the idea...
It's a lot of fun (:

Here's the yummy cheese fondue that we ate for dinner.

You can find the Cheddar Cheese Fondue recipe here.
& don't forget the Milk Chocolate Fondue...

Scrumdiddlyumtious!

We were going to slice some granny smith apples to eat with both the cheese & the chocolate fondues but I completely spaced it! Oh well, I get to enjoy them with all our leftovers today (;

Well, I guess it's time to take a look a last years resolutions to see what I've accomplished & what I need to continue to work on...

2012 Resolutions:
1. Read scriptures daily (I did really good until our little Princess was born)
2. Have personal prayer daily (I do this, but I want to get back into the habit of praying on my knees)
3. Be a better & more loving wife (Hubby thinks I was silly to have this as a goal since he likes me the way I am, but I feel there's always room for improvement)
4. Read, sing, & play with the kids more (Again, there's always room for improvement, but I've made progress since last year)
5. Have more park days (No excuses... I need to get out more)
6. Keep our home clutter-free (Work in progress, right?)
7. Complete daily chores (Yes, that includes maintaining the dishes...)
8. Be a better visiting teacher (I'm at least making it out there now)
9. Try making a new meal once a month (Did great at first, but I started slacking)
10. Be more patient (I feel as if I may have actually sort of achieved this goal!)

2013 Resolutions:
1. Read scriptures daily

2. Kneel for daily personal prayers
3. Create a better budget & stick to it
4. Keep our home clutter-free
5. Have family home evening every week
6. Exercise & play together as a family
7. Have more park days
8. Read at least two books
9. Invite people over
10. Be a better me (wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, leader, etc...)

We'll see how I do...
Wish me luck!

Halloween costumes 2012

I know this is a couple weeks late but better late than never, right?

Sooo...

Happy {belated} Halloween!

 Our little princess was a butterfly fairy.

We already had the purple onesie, found the tutu at Deseret Industries, and my grandma gave her the wings.

Absolutely adorable!

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And now for the guys...

Little dudeman was Calvin and hubby was Hobbes.

The Calvin costume started out as a red t-shirt and black pants, and Hobbes was just an orange sweatshirt and orange sweatpants that I ordered on Amazon. Hobbes' belly was made from a pale yellow t-shirt from Deseret Industries. I basically created my own pattern by masking off where I wanted it on the sweatshirt,  then marking it on the t-shirt with chalk (accounting for seam allowance).

Then the cutting and sewing began...

I am definitely no professional when it comes to sewing, and I get REALLY nervous every time I do it. If I had a real pattern for this, I'm not sure I would be able to figure it out and I would probably get a headache trying to do so.

So please excuse me for my lack of correct sewing terminology.

I tend to do better eyeballing it which makes no sense, but it works for me. For now.

Next, I painted the stripes on the Calvin shirt and the Hobbes costume by using masking tape and slightly watered down black acrylic paint. Unfortunately, I think I watered down the paint a little too much a few times that I mixed it, which made the paint bleed underneath the taped off areas as you can see with the top of the Calvin costume. :(

I was able to fix the areas that bled too much on the Hobbes costume since they didn't need to be evenly spaced, but couldn't do anything for the Calvin shirt.

The tail is probably my favorite part of the costume... haha

I made the tail out of an orange t-shirt that I got at Deseret Industries that was a pretty close match to the color of the sweats. I cut out one long, wide strip (making sure to account for room for batting so it would be big enough all the way around). Then I used my sewing machine to sew it together on two sides & turned it inside out so that it was a long tube. I stuffed it with batting and scraps (since I didn't have enough batting on hand), then I taped and painted it. Once the paint was dry I sewed it onto the pants.

The ears were made out of black felt, the pale yellow t-shirt scraps, and pipe cleaners. I got the idea for the ears here, but since I didn't have any no-sew fabric glue I attempted sewing them. I sewed two pieces of felt together, turned them inside out and placed the pipe cleaner inside, then sewed the inner ear on, which held the pipe cleaner against the edge of the ears. I cut the slits into the hood of the sweatshirt and hand-stitched them on. They turned out a little bigger than I had intended, but not too bad for not knowing what I was doing.

In the end, nobody knew who they were. Everyone thought Hobbes was Tigger.

Oh well... I still think they turned out pretty awesome!

Here's a couple Calvin and Hobbes Halloween strips for you to enjoy:

I found this awesome comic strip here...

...and this funny was found here.

What about me? I threw on a muumuu and handed out candy. I didn't have time to make myself a costume. Maybe I'll have time next year...