Sometimes......

Sometimes my daughter turns 16 (the age we told her, years ago, she could start dating) and thinks she needs to date.....

Sometimes I'm not sure what I think about that.

Sometimes the Christmas dance is girls choice and she thinks she needs to ask someone to go to the dance with her......

Sometimes I'm not sure what I think about that.

And then

I decide its better to 

get over it

and 

get with it

and

have some fun with my girl.

So that's what I did!

What we did!

Really, who could say no to that face?

So we bought all of the grape candy and soda we could find

We designed and printed the label (see picture up at the top of the post) and put it on the 2 L. grape soda bottle

and tied it all together with some cellophane and purple curly ribbon.

It was pretty cute (If I do say so myself).

Then she had her adorable little brother and sister deliver it to his house.

They went to the door with the treats and rang the door bell.

It was supposed to go like this.

" Hi, is (young man) here?"

give treat to young man

"This is from my sister."

"Have a good night."

It went like this.

"Hi, can I see (young man)?"

His little sister, "No. He's not here"

"Oh"

Young man's dad, "Who's at the door?"

Little sister, "I don't know. Someone with treats....for (young man)."

Dad comes to the door.

"Hi, can I see (young man)?"

Dad, "No, I'm sorry, he's not here."

"Oh, I was supposed to give this to him."

Dad smiles and laughs, "Oh really? I can make sure he gets it. He'll be home soon. Who's it from."

"Ummm.....my sister."

Dad laughing and smiling really big, "Oh wow, that's great! Really? Ok."

Then we walk away.

As I'm letting the kids in the car and My Girl is setting in the front seat (in the dark because I had the forethought to turn the dome light off, it was a smart moment for me (doesn't happen very often)).

The young man comes running right past me and up to the front door.

I guess he'd gone for a run.

I said "Hi"

he said "Hi?"

and he ran into the house.

While my girl sat in the front seat giggling because he never saw her and he had no idea who I was.

Then I got in the car and my girl and I giggled together.

Sometimes it's nice to let your daughter grow up.

Sometimes.....

Yee-Haw, Happy Halloween and Say Boo to the Flu

Wow! Can't believe Halloween has come and gone already!

What an adventure!

The costume season started for our family on Saturday October 27th with a costume birthday party for Sweet Cheeks to attend and a church chili cook-off for the whole family.

I had the privilege of being a judge for the chili-cook-off.

It was interesting but I'm not sure it's something I'd like to do again.

Costumes this year were fun for me and I think they turned out pretty cute.....if I do say so myself.

Like I said before,

After many ideas of what she'd like to be this cute girl finally settled on 

Jessie from Disney's Toy Story.

Honestly, I think her choice was PERFECT!

She is Jessie personified.

She's the rootin'est, tootin'es,t sure shootin'est cowgirl ever!

Doodle chose to be Tintin

Just in case you don't know Tintin you can click here to read more about him

or

just read this from Wikipedia.

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic albums created by Belgian artist Georges Remi (1907–1983), who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in more than 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.^[1]

The first Tintin comic was published in 1929 and a 3D motion capture computer animated film was released in 2011.

When he was telling me what he wanted to be for Halloween I asked him if he thought people would know who he was or if he wanted to wear a name tag.

He told me the people his age would know but older people wouldn't.

Turns out he was right.....

Check out the Tintin hair!

Mr. Man chose to be Davy Crockett this year.

Is he his father's son or what?

Turns out most people thought he was Daniel Boone but don't worry my boy corrected every.single.person. who was wrong.

We told him they were both considered mountain men/explorers and that kind of kept him from being offended.

This picture is Davy preparing to attack a bear.

And

It was really nice to have Davy Crockett around when we were trick-or-treating.

He kept us safe from Cougars and other varmints.

We really couldn't have asked for better trick-or-treating weather.

The kids didn't even need a jacket.

Seriously, the nicest/warmest Halloween I've ever seen.

In years past we've had over 200 trick-or-treat-ers 

and with the weather being so nice I thought we'd have even more.

But we didn't...

I think we had under 100, kind of weird.

We call this version of her costume

Contagious Outlaw Jessie

When she got home from school on Tues. she had a fever.

During the night it spiked to 105 so I took her into the Dr. in the morning.

Turns out she has the true flu.

Luckily we got her in soon enough to take the medicine but she's out of school until Monday.

She had to miss her first class party......Oh the tears were so huge and heartbreaking.

We told her she could still go trick-or-treating but she had to wear a mask and she wasn't allowed to touch ANYTHING. That included doorknobs, doorbells and candy.

When people would say you can choose a candy she'd say, "I'm not allowed to touch any candy."

We got a few strange looks.

Her brother was kind enough to ask her which one she wanted and then he'd grab it and put it in her bag.

Thank goodness for brothers!

The older kids stuck around and passed out candy for us so that MDH and I could take Davy and Jessie trick-or-treating.

Isn't that great!

We had fun with the pumpkins this year.

MDH did a Scooby Doo theme.

I think next year our whole family should dress-up as the Scooby Doo Gang.

Here's Sweet Cheeks Classic Jack

I even tried carving one this year.

S.C. helped me choose Minnie to carve.

Hope you had a fun and safe and healthy Halloween.

 And now we're starting into the month of gratitude.

My favorite month by the way.

Halloween Costumes.... Yee-Haw!

Halloween snuck up on me again this year.
Hard to believe I know exactly when it's going to be yet somehow I still get surprised with how quickly it comes around again.
Luckily, I did manage to get the costumes done before the big day.
However, I was still down to the wire for the parties we had on Saturday......
Oh Well...

Today I'm sharing youngest's Toy Story Jesse costume.
You don't know my girl but believe me when I say this costume totally fits her "Go -n- Get'm" personality!
She's loved Jesse almost her whole life so it was a natural choice for her this year.

And, by the way, the poses in the pictures were all completely her saying, "Take another one with my foot up and another with me looking off into the distance."
Oh man she makes me smile!

The costume wasn't too hard just a little time consuming.

I found the cow print cotton at Hobby Lobby and traced the pant leg to get the shape.

Sewing the cow print fabric onto the front of the jeans was the tricky part.....going slow was the key.

For her shirt I used one of her brother's old white church shirts and added yellow cotton and red piping detail.

The hat was a dollar store find that I added yarn detail stitching to the edge. I also added loops to the inside so I could bobby pin it into her hair.

And her belt was a $.50 thrift store find. I was going to make a faux belt buckle for it but I got lazy and decided she didn't need it.

Honestly, what makes the work totally worth it is how much she loves it.  After wearing it to a party Saturday night she asked me if she could wear it to church on Sunday.  She understood when I explained it wouldn't be appropriate but she did tell me she couldn't wait for Wednesday so she could wear it again.
Yep.....that's how you make me happy!

So I have a couple more costumes to share soon. I promise I've been busy.

He's Creative!

This cute kid of mine had a birthday this week. 

I got to go to his class and "spotlight" him.

On the wall were "superstar" papers on each of the children in the class. So of course I read the one about my boy.

There were lots of fun facts he filled out about himself but the ones that caught my eye were;

The thing people like best about me is, "I'm creative"

The thing I like best about me is, "I'm creative"

Seriously, how awesome is that? It made my heart smile.

I truly feel that we all have the desire to create deep inside us and creation or being creative can bring great happiness and fulfilment.

You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us.  The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter. -Dieter F. Uchtdorf-

To many, being creative only means something in the cultural, performing or visual arts. I think there is so much more to it than that. We can be creative every day and it's as simple as finding a new way of looking at a problem.

So, yes, I am proud of my boy for recognizing and feeling proud that he's creative and I hope he never forgets it!

Hi Again!

It's been a while, wow, has it been a while!
Sorry!
Life....Summer....really happened hard. And so as life got busy I dropped the blog. But I think I can pick it up again. I have craftyness and sewing running around my brain that I need to get out.
What was I up to while I was away?
Lets see....

• Costumes for a local production of The Music Man
• Summer camp for the girls in my church ages 12 & 13
• Ragnar
• Summer music camp for 3 of my kids
• Costumes for music camp
• Drivers Ed......driving with the drivers ed student that lives at my house
• Tennis Lessons
• Piano Lessons
• Voice Lessons
• House sitting and pet sitting
• Swimming
• Lots of family visiting
• Family parties
• My brother to help move
• trips to the lake
• hiking
• Camping @ Great Basin National Park
• 30lbs. lost
• Back to school shopping.
• School starting
• Canning peaches, raspberry jam, tomatoes, salsa, green beans and whatever else I can get my hands on.
• A 50  year anniversary to plan for and celebrate
• A trip to Jackson Hole and Grande Teton National Park

It's been a full time job being a mom around here!

But here we are and I'm happy.

Last week we got to spend some time in Jackson Hole Wyoming with my husband's family celebrating his parent's 50th wedding anniversary. Fifty years is quite an accomplishment and I'm so glad we got to share it with them.


On our way home from Jackson we stopped at the Lunch Counter Lookout on the Snake River and we took the opportunity to have our picture taken.

I haven't wanted any pictures of me taken for a long time.

But when you loose a few pounds it tends to make you feel better about yourself so here I am with my love in a couple of pictures that my B.I.L. snapped with his phone.

Trying to climb on that fence was the hardest part. The first log was so high, I felt like a little kid trying to climb on a horse. Then I started laughing and I laughed so hard I couldn't climb. My BIL snapped a few shots of me trying to climb and laughing but he hasn't sent those to me. They better not end up on facebook is all I have to say.
Eventually I made it on the fence, but only after going under the fence and coming at it from up the hill. I guess I'm not as young as I used to be.

So thanks for sticking with me and here's three cheers for kicking the crafty/sewing-ness back in gear!

Do I look like a........., and Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a great day. I love Mother's day.
The kids helped their dad make crepes for breakfast with fresh strawberries and cream and they all went out of their way to be kind to each other and me. It doesn't get much better than that.
I had to laugh at Mr. Man's excitement over his Mother's day gift to me.
When I opened it there was an antique looking picture of my boy in a frame (see above picture). I thought it was just so sweet and I started to tell him how much I liked it when he blurted out,
"Do I look Canadian? I think I look Canadian. That's what I wanted to look like.....Canadian."
So I told him, with a smile on my face, "Oh yes, you look very Canadian."
And he was happy.
Not sure where that came from but I think I'm going to label this picture on the back, S- the Canadian, and then someday he'll look at the picture and say, "S- the Canadian, what?" And I'll get to tell him this story which I think is very cute.

While I'm writing I just have to express my love for the two moms in my life.
I feel so blessed to have my mom who has managed to live her life with love, kindness and intelligence and gracefully teach me the the nuances of this sacred role of motherhood. She held me in her arms and then by the hand and now she stands with her arm around me all the while being my biggest cheerleader and I'm grateful for her sacrifices and love. I love you mom.
But my blessings don't stop there.
My Mother-In-Law is a remarkable woman as well. Somehow she survived my husbands accident-prone childhood with her sanity and sense of humor intact. She taught her boy to never give up, to work hard and play hard, to love and to dance and to clean a toilet and I thank her for all of those things. Now she supports and loves me as a daughter and as a mother to her grandchildren. I love you mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

Quite A Week

Have you ever run down a steep hill and felt your top half get slightly off balance and out in front of your bottom half and you know you need to figure something out and get back in balance  because if you don't you're going to crash and burn face first and it just won't be pretty?

That's how I feel or felt.......only I did... crash and burn.

Even still with all of the crashing and burning it's hard to slow down. 

I should slow down more often and enjoy the scenes like this one out my back window.

My daughter took this picture she's turning out to be a pretty good photographer.

Anyway, back to the crashing and burning, my foot crashed into the door frame of my bathroom and I think I broke my toe. I didn't have any x-rays taken but I'm pretty sure it was broken. But telling people you broke your toe stubbing it on the door coming out of the bathroom just isn't exciting enough for me.  So after polling friends and family we've come up with two acceptable and more interesting stories.

• While climbing Annapurna in Nepal I lost my footing on a sheer rock face and started to plummet to a certain painful death. Fortunately my fearless baby toe saved me by throwing its self at a sharp, jutting-out cluster of rocks and becoming wedged in a crack and thus saving my life. You saw the story on the news, no doubt.
• We were walking through the African Savanna when a wild and ferocious wart-hog attacked my child. But my fearless and heroic baby toe fought it off with superhuman strength saving both  the life of my child and my life. Sadly my toe did suffer some injuries but they are not life threatening and it is believed my toe will make a full recovery.

Feel free to share either of the above stories if anyone asks you what happened to my toe.

But to tell you the truth I'm not sure they will ask you because it seems my toe has been recovering incredibly fast and I know it is a blessing.

So, I have these two incredible in-laws. 

They are hoping to adopt sooner rather than later and they asked me to take a few pictures of them. I am not a professional photographer by any means and I was flattered they'd ask because I do enjoy pretending to be a professional.  We had a great time and we even got some pretty decent shots.

If you'd like to learn more about them go HERE or HERE.

Later in the week the burning part of the crashing and burning came when I picked up my youngest's cold and I was burning up with a fever. I also lost my voice which is always fun when you're the ring leader, zoo keeper, wrangler, mother of five. Luckily for me they are really good kids and helped out as much as they could but I really didn't have time to stay down which is probably why I'm still fighting this silly cold.

It turns out the prospect of a solar eclipse is terrifying to my youngest. 

Our family was discussing the solar eclipse that's coming up at the end of this month and Utah is the perfect spot to view the eclipse. However, the idea of the moon passing in front of the sun sent my 5 year old into a fit of terror with shaking and crying. I'm not sure what she thinks is going to happen. Fire-benders won't have any fire bending powers during the eclipse but she's not a fire bender (silly avatar the last air bender reference) so that shouldn't bother her. She also hasn't cast any spells turning people into hawks and wolves that can be broken during an eclipse (LadyHawk) so I'm just not sure what she's worried about.

But in all seriousness I think it's just the unknown and the strangeness of it that's bothering her.

We tried to explain to her exactly what was going to happen and listen to her fears.

We then told her there are much stranger and scarier things in this world than an eclipse like this picture of her brother that her older sister took and messed with.

She laughed and agreed.

So here's to a new week and to not letting my head get in front of my feet.