Half Birthday

When your birthday is in the summer, you get to celebrate your "half" birthday in first grade!  Guess who's half birthday it is?  A BIG 6 1/2 today!

I brought in balloons and Little Debbie Valentines treats....mmmmmm!  Have a happy half birthday beautiful kids!

Night Games

On most nights, after we put the kids we hear incessant giggling and loud thuds.  After a sneak peak, this is what we found: 

It certainly makes a mother happy when she see's her kids playing together and playing nicely!

Happy Mom and Dad Bay.....

This cute muffin made me breakfast in bed.

How can your day go bad, when you are greeted by this...

Thanks for being great Carter!

Being Fancy...

Sometimes I get the "Mom, I just want to be fancy" from my girls.  Too bad they got me as a mom...cause I ain't fancy!

But I do know how to sew and have some really wonderful patterns and fabric.  Hopefully putting those two together can make "fancy"!  Last night, I decided to make some new shirts for my beauties!  I didn't finish the skirts, but I can get them done by Sunday so they can wear them to church.

Here is to my beautiful daughters (who love to pose and have fashion shows):

I love the missing teeth, "sucking thumb" teeth...Tim you will be spending a lot of money at the orthodontist on this one!

Carter couldn't stand the thought of not being in a picture...we were in a hurry to get to school, so we had to make it quick!

My beauties!

Finally...

I sometimes feel like as a parent I am constantly messing up.  Saying or doing the wrong thing, too many sweets, too much TV, or not enough whatever!

Tonight on the way home from the library (right before dinner), it dawned on me it was Monday night and I needed to prepare a Family Home Evening lesson. (Had I been a really good mom, I would have one already prepared).  FHE can sometimes be really effective and sometimes NOT (fighting, kicking, speaking out of turn).  Depends on the day!

I quickly remembered a story the kids were looking at in a kid's church magazine.  I cut the pictures from the magazine and told everyone to get their scriptures (we need to have them use their scriptures more regularly during FHE).

We talked about the story of Lehi's dream, the tree of life and the iron rod.  The kids loved looking at the cut out pictures and the ones in their scriptures.  We talked about how we as a family can stay on the straight and narrow path.  It was so so simple, but so effective!

Our treats tonight consisted of "mystery bag #1" and "mystery bag #2".  I told them it could be a real treat or an onion, pickles or something un-treat like.  They were so thrilled about this treat craziness! (It ended up being Oreo's and a Baby Ruth candy bar - really original!)

We ended the night by tying string around the yard, putting a blindfold on each kid and told them to hold onto the "rod" until they got to the tree in the front yard.

Finally...a fun effective night together as a family (no fighting or other craziness).  We need more of these!

The need for speed....

I got to attend my very first PINEWOOD DERBY! Yep, that is the advantage I get in life by being the Cub Scout Committee Chair.

Never having been to a Pinewood Derby before, I wasn't sure how to plan for the big event. I even got to make a car! Thankfully, there was lots of other leaders who knew what they were doing!

Thankfully, we DIDN'T race our car because it......stunk! I need to do some internet research on how to make them fly and zoom and be cool...cause ours wasn't. Next year for sure!


This past Monday, we headed to up to Mutual Dell for some hard core sledding with our good friends/neighbors. The weather was warmer and the snow was perfect. Everyone did great on the sleds, no crashes and no whining.

Perfect in my book!

Sewing, Sprucing Up and Stuff

So my kidlets are constantly asking me to put up various holiday decorations.

Pleading and begging.

I put up stuff for Halloween and Christmas and that is as far as my decoration stash goes.

But I'm trying to be better.

It could be fun pulling out boxes of stuff and creating a mess to decorate for holidays right?

Thanks to the "queen of homemaking", Martha Stewart, I swiped a few ideas off her website.


"Love Trees" (this isn't a Martha though..a Toby original)


Tissue Paper Pom Poms...lots of those!


One of my best gal pals just had a baby...well babies need quilts and I jumped at the chance (who doesn't like to make blankets for new babies).



I swiped another idea off a neighbor blog.....LOVE the Black Apple Dolls. I'm making lots more of these (family members...if you are reading this....close your eyes!!!). My big girls couldn't believe I knew how to make dolls. If they only knew how easy!

So my sewing room has been needing a spruce up remodel. Bad! So I decided to paint it the week before Christmas (I mean...why wait once you decide on a color)! Loved how the color turned out.
A few new curtains....I hope I have enough left over fabric to make a purse. Excuse the messy floor...this is a sewing room and I am sewing up a storm for Pink Fig Patterns. I'm in heaven! (Those pictures will be up when I finish her samples).