A trip, a bedroom, and two birthdays!

We were able to spend a few weeks in Utah with my family and had a marvelous time! We bounced around all over the state, starting off with a great family reunion in St. George with hub's family! We went swimming, played games, painted t-shirts, hiked in Zion National Park, went to the St. George temple...all-in-all, a great gathering of folks and fun!

Zion National Park, with cousins!

 Painting t-shirts!

Next we headed up to Provo to spend time with my family. The kids enjoyed picking cherries in the backyard with their Papa and while youngest was napping, we made a couple cherry pies.

We enjoyed a fun-filled 4th: parade, barbecue, water fight, fireworks, lots of good food, and good company!

We were able to visit Cascade Springs-one of my favorite places on earth!  The weather obliged for a short time. We also went up to my parent's cabin and the kids had a blast!

 We also spent a few days in Moab, but all the pics of that ended up on hub's phone. It was roasting, but the kids still had a ball playing with all the cousins and running back-and-forth between homes.

 I have been working on the girls' room lately. I think is coming together nicely. 

I will show more next post.

 The two boys celebrated their birthdays a week ago. Favorite gift was a Thomas the Train set and they have almost run out the batteries letting it go all over the house. Littlest bro is obsessed with trains, planes, and helicopters (which he calls a "cock-a-ter"). Big bro is growing so fast. He already out-weighs his bigger sister and loves numbers and trying to read words.  

Summer is going by way too quickly! Not ready to let the girls go back to school in a few weeks. :(

A Birthday (a few months ago) and some projects

 Our oldest turned 8 back in February! It was an exciting time for her. Some of our usual birthday traditions include breakfast in bed and a party with family. But since this is a big year for her we decided to give her a fancy party with friends. She wanted a "tea party" type celebration.  This is where my mother-in-law played a vital roll. She had all the fancy dishes, napkins, napkin rings, table cloths, dishes, etc. we could possibly need. We got to use real teacups and saucers and the girls were in heaven.  She was there to help at the party and it turned out great!

 There were 11 girls there, including our two, so we borrowed a few tables from hub's parents and a bunch of chairs to make one long seating area. The roses all came from one big Costco bouquet. Not pictured were a bunch of streamers all hanging from the ceiling and balloons inside and outside.  

 If you notice in the first picture, there were also cupcakes. We served those to the girls while they were playing a "Cake Walk" game, and saved this cake for the family party on Sunday night. Hubs saved the day on this cake as I must have followed the directions wrong because when I went to put the doll in, the dress came up to her thighs instead of her waist.  So hubs suggested using one of our old barbies that had removable legs and I saved the new one I had planned to use and gave it to her later.  So this barbie is actually sitting with legs off on top of a toilet paper tube wrapped in plastic wrap. :)

 Baptism day was very special. My dad and step-mom flew out for the occasion which made it even better!  Someone obviously didn't want to join in the picture-taking fun. ;)

 I made this sign to fill the big wall space in our entry way, so anyone visiting our home wouldn't have to question whether we are religious people or not. ;) The font ended up looking bigger than I had wanted, but there is no way I am making another one, so oh well.

 There was a little bit of extra space at the bottom, so I added some scroll work.  You probably can't see it in the pic above, but the edges of the wood are painted a turquoise-blue, for a little bit of color.

 These boys of mine love to pose for the pictures.

This table sits in our entryway and was a garage sale find for 3 dollars. I didn't take a before picture, but the wood was cracked on top and had a nice orange colored wood finish on it. So I fixed it up a bit, and it looks much nicer.  The entryway will be receiving a board-and-batten treatment in the future, along with some cute oil-rubbed bronze hooks. But not until we finish the dang kitchen, which I will show pictures of soon.

:)

A Craft Closet and a Cast

This closet belongs to the bedroom downstairs.  It has looked like this and was piling higher with stuff, to the point of scariness, as time went on, since we moved in to this house last summer.  All along I have intended it to be my craft closet after my sister-in-law Kailie gave me the idea (I don't get to have a whole room devoted to my supplies, unlike my older sister. #envy :)).  I wanted to make it an extra special space and so I started out by giving it a fresh coat of paint.

 I wanted to add a little interest, so using the same color that is on the walls in that room, I added stripes. Not my favorite process, and don't think I would do it again. But for a small space such as this, it wasn't too painful. ;)

 My original plan for my sewing machine didn't end up working out, so for now I stole a bedside table to put it on. The space underneath ended up working out really well to house all my sewing supplies. The small drawer holds the sewing machine manual and some of the larger pieces that belong to the machine. Down below in the basket I have all of my other sewing supplies and an extension cord, since the closet obviously doesn't have an outlet. Next to it in the canning jars I stored all of my thread.  My mother-in-law suggested I put caster wheels on the bottom of the table so I can slide it out when sewing to give me a little more elbow room. I used it the other night and it actually wasn't too bad, but for working on quilts, it would be helpful to have a little more space.  The little shelf above holds buttons in the jars and most of the jars are still empty, so I am excited to start filling them.

 Baskets hold current projects, and quilting supplies/fabric for the quilt I am making (or hope to finish someday).  I really love the bird on the left with the little nest my sister made for me.

                                    All of my decorating/inspiration books. :) And more empty jars to fill.

 I found this tiered stand at Home Goods and the containers at the dollar store. They work perfectly to hold drawing pencils, colored pencils, colored markers, crayons, paint brushes, scissors and ruler, and extra sharpies, pens and pencils. Both of the shelves on the wall were found at yard sales.

 Up above, I have fabric in the big white box, silk flowers that I use for making flower clips for the girls' hair, and the three clear boxes hold all my scrapbook paper= I had way more than I thought.

 This desk was handed over for free from my parents-in-law. It is great for holding all my extra craft/scrapbooking supplies. I will be giving it and the night stand/bedside table a makeover down the road, but there is other furniture ahead on the priority list, so they will have to wait.  The only awkward thing about this space is the closet doors.  Hubby kindly suggested that we take them off and add a curtain (something I was hoping he would say, but didn't want to ask :)).

 Here is a shot of part of this bedroom, so you can reference where the closet is.  This room will eventually have our old queen bed in it for guests, when we get a new bed (Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). So all-in-all this room will be hub's office/my craft space/guest room/library. An suggestions for dealing with the mess of cords under the desk?

 The bookcases above are from Ikea and I have never loved furniture so much! They are real wood and really sturdy. They also have adjustable knobs on the feet so we could make them stand straight on our very slanted floor. Awesome! They fit perfectly on either side of the window. This is the first time in our almost ten years of marriage that I have been able to take all my books out of storage.  The kids books are in the family room.  This desk was another yard sale find for ten buckaroos that I made over.

In other exciting news, littlest man fell off the couch last night while goofing around with brother and fractured his forearm.  He was not a happy camper about getting the cast on and dropped his lollipop on the floor, once he finally calmed down halfway through the process, he kept saying, "Pop, pop". That poor lollipop wasn't forgotten. So they were nice and gave him a new one. He was so tuckered out by the whole ordeal that he fell asleep eating it on the way home and was out cold with little bits of red sucker stuck all over his chin. So cute. :)

I forgot to call it "Project Time"...

See below. ;)

Growth Chart

I have always thought the idea of recording your childrens' height as they grow was a fun idea. I have seen a lot of people do it on a wall somewhere in their home, but when I saw this growth chart over at Cozycottagecute, (http://www.cozycottagecute.com/2012/04/diy-growth-chart-tutorial.html), I loved it. I can also take it with me, if/when we move on to another home. I made mine a little different, but I basically followed her tutorial. I don't have a fancy camera and so my pictures are really lousy, but you get the idea.  It is really tall. I made it six feet, so that I can measure the boys even when they enter teenage years. :)

I haven't figured out where I am going to hang it yet, but I will show you when I do.

And just for cuteness...

Update and an idea

One of my mini-goals this year is to update the blog more often than 4 times a year, even if it is once or twice a month, that would be better than my current record.
Over the last few months we have had the pleasure of going to Las Vegas and Utah to spend the holidays with family.
I was so grateful for all the snow we received while in Utah, as I do miss having a white Christmas, as much as I love CA.  We were able to take the children sledding, build a snowman, have a snowball fight with my dad, make snow angels, have a lovely dinner with good friends and visit Temple Square, have a play date at my sisters' homes, read books with Papa and Grandma, and visit hub's family in Moab for a couple days.
We received some really great gifts this year, and some very creative and thoughtful ones. I got a tiny    little vacuum from my in-laws, that is perfect for a home with all hardwood, and my larger one finally gave out a few months ago, so I was pretty thrilled. The boys love to take their turn vacuuming the rugs. My bro- and sister-in-law made me these kitchen towels with hand prints and drawings from the kids embroidered on them, that they had them do while we were together for Thanksgiving. I love them so much! The girls also received handmade dolls from the same sister-in-law that look like they came right out of "Little House on the Prairie", complete with period clothes and bonnet, yarn hair and a family ancestor name embroidered on their stomachs. She also gave us a family tree for each doll to see who each doll was named after in my hub's father's family! Why can't I have ideas like these?
Hubs also surprised me with a quick get-a-way to Anniversary Inn to celebrate our 9th year of marriage.
In other news, we have been keeping busy with school for the girls, teaching Joy school for older son, piano lessons, and fixing up the house. We are anticipating oldest daughter's baptism and birthday party with friends this next month. She wanted to have a fancy "tea party" birthday party, so my mother-in-law is graciously letting me borrow her mother's china, as well as napkins, napkin rings, table cloths, serving dishes and pitchers. She loves to have a pretty table for meals and so is well-stocked with everything I needed. Thank you!!

I had an idea for the blog I think I might try. I always love myself a project, so I thought I would do a post once a week (or every other), called "Project Time" (or something cheesy like that), in order to help me blog more often and to keep interested family members updated, since I am the Lone Ranger in my side of the family, away from Utah.  I will try to do my first later this week. One of my favorite aspects of the blogging world is seeing what other people create, and I really enjoy the good ol' before-and-after posts. Sine we are doing major work on the house, it will be fun to show some of the transformations.

Well, I have rambled long enough, so good-bye.

Starving

We were driving home from Las Vegas the other night, where we spent the Thanksgiving holiday at hub's brother's home (it was an awesome vacation!) and decided that we would take a break to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat.  The girls were keeping an eye out for a good restaurant and this is the conversation that followed:

Younger daughter: "That looks like a good restaurant over there (pointing out the van window)".
Older daughter: "That is a restaurant for grown-ups."
Older son: "I'm a grown-up."
The girls laugh.
Younger daughter: "No, you're not a grown-up, you're a sibling."
Parents laugh.
We explain what a sibling is and explain to the kids that they are "children".
Older son: "Oh, yea. We are not grown-ups because we are starving."
That makes sense. :)