Carlson Family Photos

FHE with the Moores

2012-01-31T22:16:00.002-06:00

Today was a great day all around. Working out, shopping with my Mom and Sister at Bridgestreet, lunch at Connors, a whirlwind clean up of the house and putting dinner in the crockpot, Karate and finally, a fantastic dinner/FHE with the Moore family. I have been wanting to get to know this family better for a long time, but now that I am old, time moves so quickly and "sometime" turns in to years later. (Plus, I always thought that Sarah was way too cool for me!) Anyway, on sunday they accepted our invitation and we had a blast tonight. Dinner went well, and all the kids even ate my curry. Then we had a short FHE lesson and 9 year old H taught us a game that she had made up. It was super cute. We ended up with a fantastic dessert idea from Sarah, Microwave s'mores! I had a great time, I hope that we can hang out with them again sometime soon.

Busy busy monday

2012-01-30T18:35:00.003-06:00

Seems like every monday is a busy one around here and today was no exception. I did laundry, worked out at the gym, picked up a toy from a friend, dropped off Gymnastic fliers, went to Sams and had lunch with my buddy and shopped, dropped some groceries off at Mom's house, went to Krogers and then came home and folded laundry and made dinner. When Jon came home I delivered the gymnastics fliers to the other gym and then had dinner with my family, I also snuck in a few min of playtime in the back yard with the kids, it was such a nice day today! I am such a lucky mom to get to do so much with and for my family!

I also got a fantastic surprise in the mail box. My Christmas gift from my sister arrived today, a homemade harry potter pillow case!

Sunday

2012-01-29T20:08:00.002-06:00

Had a great Sunday. Church first, where I got to teach my fabulous class of 12 year olds. Then home for lunch and a movie with the kids before heading to Nana and Grandpas for dinner. Had some AWESOME lettuce wraps. Such a nice quite day! Tomorrow is busy busy busy though, so better get to bed so I have enough energy to get it all done.

Saturday with the fam

2012-01-28T19:05:00.002-06:00

Today we decided to keep things low key. We lounged around the house all morning and just had fun being together. At lunch time we took the kids to Chick-fil-a to run off some energy and have some lunch. The kids had a great time playing together and Jon and I had a great time talking. After lunch we went down to the dollar theater to meet mom and dad and Kerri for a Movie. We took the kids to see Happy Feet 2. the kids liked it well enough, but I thought it was kind of lame and a little boring! After the movie the kids played quietly by themselves while jon and I watched some netflix together. All-in-all it was a nice quiet relaxing Saturday. Now to plan for my lesson tomorrow.

Lunch with Kerri

2012-01-27T19:26:00.002-06:00

Earlier this week Ella asked Kerri if she would come and have lunch with her at school this week. We had plans the other days, but today was open so I took Kerri and Wesley down to the school to have lunch with Ella. Since the kinder gardeners have lunch horribly early (10:35), Kerri and I just talked with Ella and she and her classmates (and wes) ate. It was so cute to see how excited she was to have her auntie there to eat with her. Ella sure does love her Aunt Kerri!

Story time on thursday

2012-01-27T07:06:00.001-06:00

Wes is loving story time, so we made sure to catch one on thursday. We sang songs, read books about dragons and made a "dragon's breath" tube that blows "fire". It was a lot of fun!

Strawberry Pretzel salad

2012-01-25T20:19:00.002-06:00

After Telling Shrek, Donkey and Fiona about Strawberry pretzel salad, Mom and Kerri mentioned that they had never hear of or had that. I had it the first time at Main Street Cafe in Downtown madison and I told kerri that we could go there when we got home and she could taste some. Today was the day I took her. After doing some photog work at home, volunteering at Ella's school and working out at the Gym we headed over to the resteraunt to have some delicious "Salad" We were both impressed with the confection and we brought Mom home a slice as well. It was super rich, and we probably should have shared a slice instead of getting one each, but it was totally worth it!

I am a pillow Man!

2012-01-24T21:33:00.001-06:00

'Nuff Said.

Displaying my Wand

2012-01-23T20:18:00.003-06:00

Today was our day to get back into routine. I accidently set my alarm for 6:30PM instead of 6:30am, so we got off to a late start, but I got Ella off to school on time. After drop off I got things done around the house until it was time for Working out with Mom and Kerri. After the Gym we headed out to do some shopping. We managed to get home shortly before Ella was to get home and I started on a project that I have been planning since my Ollivanders experience.

I wanted to have a way to display my wand, something as special as my experience was, so I created a plaque with the ollivanders logo and the details of my wand. I love the way it turned out! I found the Ollivanders logo on line and printed it out in the size I wanted. Then I used an old pen to trace around the words on a piece of wood I got at Hobby Lobby. Then I traced over the dents I made in the wood with a marker. I printed out the details of my wand on another sheet of paper and did the same to transfer it. Then I used my Dads Dremmel to carve out the design. I sanded down the edges, filled the carved part with black paint and then did a white-wash type finish over that. I finished by screwing on two hooks at the bottom to hold the wand. Now I can hang it on my wall and remove it any time I like to play with it!

I may have to go back around the letters with a paint pen or sharpie to get a cleaner line on the letters, but for now I like it as is.

So glad to see daddy!

2012-01-22T15:11:00.001-06:00

The kids are so glad to have their Daddy back after our 8 day vacation. We sure love that guy!

Wet n' wild and Driving home

2012-01-22T08:19:00.002-06:00

Saturday was our last day in orlando. We got up early and packed up the house since we had to be out by 10am. Once we got everything in the car, we got our swimsuits on and headed to Wet n Wild one last time. We were greatly dissapointed to find that the lazy river was closed for maintenance. It was the ride we were all most looking forwards to. The wave pool was open but really cold, so Kerri and Ella went in while we watched. Then Kerri, Ella and I went on a few water slides, then since I was already wet, I went in the wave pool for a while too. Mom, Dad and Wes stayed dry on the sidlines. We didn't stay too long, maybe and hour and a half or so and then we decided to call it quits and head home. We changed into clothes, had lunch at the golden corral, (which was fab!) and started driving. The kids were great, and we had a nice quite drive home. We got home at 12am and went straight to bed. I had a great vacation, but I sure am glad to be home!

Last day

2012-01-20T19:09:00.002-06:00

Today was our last day at Universal. Mom and the kids were tired and needed a rest day so they stayed home while Dad, Kerri and I went out to ride every coaster in the parks. We started off in HP world since it seems to be the most crowded part of the parks. We rode both dragon coasters, went to the owl post for some post cards and stamps, checked out Honeydukes again where Dad got us Treakle fudge and a rock cake. Walked around the other shops and such and then grabbed butter beers before heading to the next ride. We rode the spiderman ride, and the hulk coaster and a few other things before leaving Islands of Adventure. Dad took us out to lunch at the BubbaGump Co. resteraunt for lunch. I had the pingpong penne pasta, it was delish! After lunch we went to Universal and rode the rockin coaster, the mummy coaster, watched the fear factor show and rode the Men in black ride. We managed to ride every "big kid" ride in both parks! We ended our day with some shopping. We ended up having to walk all the way back to the Jurrassic park area to get Kerri's T-shirt she wanted. Since we were up there anyway we grabbed one more butter beer each! then finally around 6:30 we left the park for the final time. Tomorrow we have to be out of the house by 10 and then we are going to hit wet'n wild for a few hours before starteing the very long ride home. I have had such a wonderful vacation!! i am too tired to deal with pictures today, but i will get them added later.

thursday in orlando

2012-01-19T20:17:00.002-06:00

Today we had a slower day. We went back to universal and walked around there. We went to the twister show, a really cool simulated twister showing how they made the movie. We went to the disaster ride. The cast a few audience members as extras in a disaster movie (mom was the gardening granny) and then we went to the sound stage and filmed their parts. I got "cast" as the screaming lady. Once the parts were filmed we all got onto a subway car to film the group scene. Then we got to be in a simulated earth quake where the train bucked on the track, the cealing caved in, a rush of water came at us and such. It was really neat. We also took the kids on the woody woodpecker kiddie roller coaster, everyone but wes and mom went on the dark indoors mummy roller coaster. We went on the simpsons ride and to the beatlejuice grave yard review. We ate lunch at a irish pub themed resteraunt. I had a fantastic shepheards pie. It was a fantastic day.

The rest of Wednesday

2012-01-19T07:18:00.002-06:00

After our trip to Olivandars,Kerri and I rode on the deuling dragons ride in HP world while Dad and mom took the kids back to the Dr. Suess area. Once we had ridden both roller coasters, we headed out of the Islands of Adventures and over to the regualar universal theme park. We went to a lot of shows. We saw the horror makeup show, a little magic show, the Shrek "4d" show the Terminator 2 3D show, and the Animal actors show. We also rode on the ET ride, and the Men in black ride. the MiB ride was cool, you got to shoot the aliens as you rode through and it kept score for you. WE also let the kids play in Fiefels playland for a while. WE had another nice day.

oh yea,
After the Shrek show we went to see the character meet and greet. When we got up there, they asked the kids where we were from. Ella said "america". lol! I told them Alabama and then Donkey asked me what a dish from AL was. i couldn't think of anything special until I remembered Strawberry pretzel salad. I don't know if that is really from Al, but it is the only place I have ever heard of it! Fiona asked what was in it, and Donkey started talking about how he didn't like salad. When I discribed the dish Donkey was all "There ain't nothin' in that that sounds like a salad" I told him it was called an "Congieled salad" He retorted that Congieled wasn't a very nice sounding word for a salad. It was funny to me anyways. i imagine that teh actor playing Fiona is looking up Strawberry pretzel salad after work!

Olivanders: Makers of Fine Wands

2012-01-18T19:48:00.005-06:00

Today was the day we had decided to go to Olivanders in Harry Potter World to buy our wands. This is the one souvineer that I had to have and I have been looking forward to this for months. I was not dissapointed with the experience! We got to the park just as it opened and went straight to the back to HP world. The line had already formed for the Olivanders show and even though we had gone straight there we still had to wait about 20 min. Once in the show, olivander introduced himself and talked about wands and such then he invited one of the audience members to come up to select a wand. The first wand O had him try didn't work right (instead of accio-ing the ladder, the drawers went crazy) the second wand was also not right, as instead of levitating the wand box it made the shelves fall down. After repairing the shelves O give the volunteer one more wand which, when he held it the lights glowed and the wand had chosen the wizard.

After that we were ushered out of the room and into the main shop. I talked to one of the shop wizards and looked at several wands. Mom picked out one wand, and she also let Ella pick out one, they bought theirs and left. Kerri stayed behind to help me pick out a wand. I was so anxious and just couldn't pick a wand. I was standing near the shelf where the wands were held when O himslef appeared in front of me and said " Are you a Ravenclaw? (I TOTALLY AM!!) and i was like, yes... Then he asked if the wand I was holding was the one I was drawn to. I told him that I just didn't know and couldn't decide. He asked me to hold out my hand and he looked at my hand and flicked it and said, " you have the healers touch" then he looked at the wand and said, "Vine, wonderful for healing spells, will go great with your healers touch" Then he took out his measuring tape and measured my head and said.. "Very intelegent!" He measured my arm and such and asked if my birthday was in September, I said no, March and he said that went perfectly with the Ash handle, and matched with the celtic calendar. He said that the wand would also be great with nature spells. He picked up the wand and told me that the core was a dragon's heartstring and that would go well with my firey determination. He ended by telling me that he thought I had chosen a wonderful wand. I was so stoked!
I thanked O and then went to buy the wand. THe clerks were all big eyed and opened mouth, they told me adn Kerri that that almost never happened outside of the show, and it was very rare for O to do it in the shop. They told me a bunch of times how lucky I was. They also mentioned that they don't know what the cores are (the boxes are only labeled with the type of wood) and only the wandmakers know and can tell you. They told me how lucky I was to know what type of core I had, especially since I learned it outside of the show. it was better than I ever coudl have expected for my wand buying experience! i felt super special, it was a truely magical experience! Kerri had the camera, and forgot that it took video as well as pictures, but she did manage to take quite a few pictures of me and O talking. It is the very best part of the whole vacation so far!

Wet'n'Wild!

2012-01-17T17:09:00.003-06:00

Today was supposed to be the warmest day of our vacation so we decided to take advantage of that and head over to Wet 'n Wild. We lazed around in the morning and then headed out after lunch. When we got there it was practically empty. Unfortunately the wave pool and the kiddie area was closed and the heater to the lazy river was broken. But after we got used to the fridged water in the lazy river we all enjoyed floating around and around and around. AFter a while we decided to try a water slid or two. Everyone but mom walked up to a group raft ride but once we got to the top, Wes chickened out so Dad took him back down the steps while the rest of us rode the slide. Then we walked over to another calmer slide and when we got to the Wes chickened out again, but I forced him onto the raft and away we went. He cried the whole time, yelling (I don't like this ride, I don't like this ride!!!} at the bottom, he told me that he didn't want to go on that big slide again. After that we went back to get Mom. Dad and Mom went to ride that slide again while kerri and I took the kids back on the lazy river. Once they got back from the ride, we all got out and dried off. We went to go look at teh picture of Mom on the slide, and it was super funny. We found out that you could get a CD of up to 25 pictures for $30. Since we only had 3 pictures the attendent told us that he would take some more of us out in front if we liked. We did like so he took about 15ish more pictures and we got the CD. AFter we left the water park, we stopped by at the world's largest McDonalds. It had a fancy Bistro menue with all kinds of non- mD type foods, they also had regular foods and we all had apple pies and sundaes. They also have an arcade and giant play room. After more family fun, we headed back to the condo. WE had a nice quiet dinner. Tomorrow we are planning a full day at the parks, and if we are lucky, we will get to visit olivanders wand shop and buy our wands.!!

monday at universal

2012-01-16T18:42:00.005-06:00

Today we all got ufp and ready to go by 8:30 so we could be there right when the park opened. We made it a little later than we hoped but were still the pretty early. Mom had decided to rent a motor cart so that she could get around better. It worked out great for her and she was able to keep up with us without killing heraelf. We had decided to head straight for harry pottr world and the big ride there. "Harry Potter and the forbidden journey". It was a good move on our part as the wait was less than a half hour. Ella was tall enough to ride (thanks in part to some platform sandals we bought her at target on our way there). Wes had to sit out, so dad and mom waited in the child swap area while Kerri ella and i went on the ride. It waa great. You sat on a seat controlled by a hydrolic arm it moved around through a combo of video and animatronic sceanes. It was way cool. Kerri and i rode it a second time with dad. After that we grabbed a ride on the hippogryph roller coaster. Wes was big enough for this ride but was super scared and told us as we got off, " i dont like that ride!". Then we headed away from HP world towards jurassic park. We stopped to catch a bit of the durmstrang and beauxbetans demo and a glass of butter beer, then using the child swap, we all road the jurassic park river ride again. Then kerri and i took the kids on a "litle kids only" ride. You had to be under 52 " to ride or be with someone who was. Wes wa sstoked to ride the "flying" coaster. But was terrified once we started. He also told me he didnt like that ride either. Since the poor kid hadnt gotten to do any thing yet we went back to de seuss land and he got to ride the carosel 2 times and the fish ride once. After our breaks mom and dad took the kids to a play area while kerri and i went on the spiderman 3d adventure. We ended our day with a walk throught toon town
And the super hero area. Dad kerri and the kids went on the teacups type ride and then kerri and i went on the incredible hulk roller coaster(which was awesome). By then it was almost 6 pm and time for the park to close. We walked to the car and headed home. We had cici pizza for dinner on the way. Now time to relax my aching feet befor doing it all again tomprrow!!!

sunday in florida

2012-01-16T07:17:00.001-06:00

Sunday was a nice relaxing day after our mad drive down here. We went to the local ward for church and then spent the rest of the day at the condo. The kids took a swim, watched a movie and played games. I talked to my sister, watched the kids and read my book. Now we are all relaxed and ready for another busy dayat universal!

harry potter world!!

2012-01-15T07:41:00.003-06:00

I tried to post this last night but i had trouble gerting blogger to work with my nook. I figured it out this morning, so i will just have to be a day late.
Friday, after a lovely birthday evening with my honey i headed over to mom and dads house around midnight. We finished packing up the car, strapped in the kids and headed out onour way. We left around 12:40. I offered to take thefirst shift of driving so mom anddad tried to sleep in the middle row and kerri sat up front with me to keep me awake. We had a great time chatting and driving. Finally after about 4 hours of driving i gave out just south of Atlanta. Dad took over and kerri and i got our turn to sleep in the back. We gotabout 2ish hours befor the kids woke up and needed attention. We stopped for breakfast along the way and finally arrived in orlando around 1 local time. Since we couldnt check into the condo until 4, we decided to go straIght to universal studios. We decided to go islands of adventure first, since we hadnever beenthere befor. We had a great day! We started inthe dr. Seuss area and rode all the rides there, then we saw a neat stunt show, ella talked to a magic fountain and finally we reached HARRY PoTTER world!!!!!!!!! We werent able to go onanyof the ride because the lines were too long, but we did get to wlk down the streets of diagon alley/hogsmede. Wehad butter beers, pumpkin juice,and ella and i bought some candy at honeydukes! We saw the talking boars head in the boars head tavern,and walked right past hogwarts. Itwas amazing!!!!!!! After leaving harry potter world behind for another day, we went to jurassic park and rode the awesome river ride twice. By then we were all exhausted so we headed home to the condofor bed. I had a fantastic day!!

***
I loaded the pictures onto Mom's laptop, so I thought I would add some here!!

Ella and the talking fountain.

Happy Birthday Jon!

2012-01-13T08:24:00.003-06:00

Today is Jon's birthday. He took the day off to spend with us! Weeeee! I let him sleep in while I took Ella to school. When we got home, he was up so we let him open his presents. (Laura, he loved the scripture case!) I am excited to have the day with my honey.

She is HOME!

2012-01-12T23:34:00.003-06:00

Today was a great day because my little sister Kerri is home for a month from New Zealand!! I am so excited to have her home again! We went out to dinner at the 88 buffet and then spent the evening watching some old old old home movies of her and me. We were such awesome kids! I took a few pictures today of Wes, but am too tired to post them. I am also really excited to celebrate Jon's 31st birthday with him tomorrow. He has the whole day off and I am glad.

love

2012-01-11T18:43:00.000-06:00

I love how much they love each other!

Storytime at the Library

2012-01-10T20:31:00.002-06:00

today was a busy day for us. We started out having our visiting teacher over for a visit, Wes really enjoyed playing with her Son (who is just a few weeks older than Wes) and her daughter. I enjoyed talking to a real grown-up type person! After they left we got ready and went to catch the second story time at the library. Wes got really into it and sang all the songs and participated in the books. It was so nice to see him really enjoying story time! There was a reporter from the Madison newspaper there today taking pictures, so you might just see us in the paper! After the library, we went grocery shopping and then to the Y for my workout. Then finally home, until Karate later in the afternoon. We had a nice day playing together, I am so lucky to be able to stay at home with my kids!

Monday is FUn-day!

2012-01-09T20:14:00.002-06:00

Today was nice, Mom had visiting teaching so we had to go to the gym by ourselves. After the gym we met up with my Mommies group at Chuck-e-cheese. Wes had a BLAST! We even stayed for lunch and I got him a small pizza. He loved playing all the games. I loved playing with him and also getting to talk to my friends. The whole facility has just been remodeled, much bigger, cleaner, and aweseomer! I am glad that we decided to go. After visiting the big mouse we stopped at Aldi's for some groceries before going home. At home, we cleaned up together and played trains until Ella got home. This evening I got to watch two of my favorite shows with my #1 honey. (Merlin and Once upon a time).

all in all, a very nice day!

Relaxin

2012-01-08T19:18:00.001-06:00

Love nice quiet Sunday evenings at Nana's house!

New Faces

2012-01-07T21:21:00.002-06:00

Today three of us made changes to our faces. Ella was super excited to get rid of another tooth! She is now missing both of the bottom center teeth.

She is such a cutie!

I have been wanted to try "threading" for a long time now. Over a year for sure, since I first heard of it. They have had a few different kiosks and such in the mall for it, but I always had the kids with me and it was never a good time. Today was the day, I had Jon watch the kids play on the mall playground and I went and had it done. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would, but it definitely hurt! I love the results, my eyebrows look fantastic!

Finally, this is the biggest, most permanent change. Jon got glasses today. I took him in Monday for an eye exam and sure enough, the headaches and eye pain was from eye strain. He needed a mild prescription in one eye and a moderate one on the other. I ordered a pair off of Zenni optical that night... but they just aren't coming fast enough so since we found out Jon's work will reimburse for a portion of the cost, we went to a 1 hour shop and he picked out his very first pair of eyeglasses. Jon is not very happy about this adjustment, it will take him a while to get used to wearing them, but on the bright side, now he can see!

I think he looks cute.

Photoshoot with the neighbors

2012-01-06T18:18:00.002-06:00

Today after school, some of my very favorite neighbors, Ashlee, 11 and Jackie, 10 came over and did a fun impromptu photoshoot with me and the kids. We had a ton of fun! The girls are so beautiful, I loved photographing them.

Story time!

2012-01-05T07:40:00.001-06:00

The kids love it when Daddy reads to them! (And so do I!) Jon has been trying to spend more time with the kids lately, and I love that he wants to be with them. They are just lapping it up, more daddy more daddy more!

Goodbye Brook!

2012-01-05T07:36:00.003-06:00

Brook and her family moved in next door the beginning of summer 2010. Ella was so super excited to have a friend next door so close in age (brook is just under a year older) . They spent a LOT of time together, sleepovers, secret hideouts under the trees and just plain having fun. This december we found out that they were going to have to move and Ella was devastated. She wants us to move with her! I feel bad for Ella, but this is part of life and part of growing up. We are going to miss having such a wonderful neighbor though.

Bye-bye Brookie!

Ward Christmas Party

2012-01-05T07:26:00.002-06:00

Our ward had a nice Christmas Party this year. We had 3 HUGE dessert tables, a musical program and the kids got to make tiny little gingerbread houses. Jon and I took 3 of our neighbor girls with us, and that only added to the fun (and stress! keeping track of 5 is WAY harder than 2!!). I think everyone had a great time.

Near the end of the party it became evident that the youth (and my primary kids) were having a little too much fun in the ginger bread making room. Somehow I don't' think this is what the activity planners had in mind...

Reindeer!

2012-01-04T08:15:00.002-06:00

On Christmas Eve, Ella made reindeer noses for her and Wesley. She was Rudolf, Wes was just another reindeer. She glued the noses to their faces!

Bowling

2012-01-04T08:10:00.002-06:00

It is no secret to most of you that my kids LOVE bowling. This love has been cultivated by their Nana, who also loves bowling and is in a league on Post. She takes the kids pretty often. I love watching them have so much fun! And it is extra cool, because I love bowling too.

Missing teeth, Angry Birds and Living rooms.

2012-01-04T07:52:00.002-06:00

Back in November I posted about Ella's very first loose tooth. A few days later, that tooth came out! I took a picture, but I never got around to posting it. Ella was very proud of her missing tooth and told EVERYONE about it. I got her a special little box to put it in. She was super stoked when the Tooth Fairy brought her a dollar!

Shortly after Halloween, I realized that I had forgotten to get pictures of our Costumes! I had taken pictures of the kids in their costumes, but we had no pictures of me and Jon, so I snapped a few before storing the costumes away.

Don't we look awesome?

Last, this year we finally re-did the living room. I have wanted to paint this room since we moved in 5 years ago, but we just never got around to it, it was too hard to move the furniture , or there was too much stuff, or whatever (we are good procrastinators) Mostly, I just hate painting. Anyway, since Jon's mom was on the way, and my parents just got new couches (and gave us theirs) we figures since we would be moving everything anyway to fit the new couches we might as well paint. I love the way the new color looks (it used to be a dirty greenish white) and I LOVE the new layout we did. The room looks a lot bigger now.

Ella's School party

2012-01-04T07:45:00.002-06:00

In Ella's school they are allowed to have one "big" party per year. Ella's classroom had a Christmas party. Since it was Laura's last day with us, I took her over so she could see Ella's school and classroom. The party went really well, Wesley got to participate in all the activities and we all had fun watching the kids play. After the party, we went and had lunch, then Wes and I drove Laura to the Airport. We had such a wonderful visit with Grandma!

First Christmas

2012-01-03T08:22:00.003-06:00

Just like the Hobbits have First and Second breakfast, we had a first Christmas with Laura. We let the kids, (and grownups!) open the Gifts on Grandma's last full day here. Both kids were thrilled with their presents. Jon and I also loved our gifts, (thanks Laura!)

Santa's Village and other Christmassy stuff

2012-01-03T08:10:00.003-06:00

We took Jon's mom to the Galaxy of lights, but I didn't take any pictures. I think she liked the light show, I KNOW The kids did. Every time we have driven past the rocket since then Wes has asked to see the "wites" again. Grandpa did take him a second time right before Christmas, so he was super happy about that.

Another Christmassy thing we took Laura too was our church's Stake Christmas Festival. It is a wonderful event the Stake puts on each year for the members and the community. The Highlight for me is the Christmas Concert, a orchestra a choir and even hand bells! It was beautiful. I also love the live nativity, which Wesley also loved, I think I took him through like, 5 times! I didn't take pictures there either,

But I DID take pictures at Santa's Village, the kids had fun, I think I am "over" the village though. It is exactly the same each year with nothing new to do or see. But I really wanted to show Laura this Huntsville tradition.

Cathedral Caverns

2012-01-03T07:59:00.003-06:00

In the second week of December, Jon's Mom flew in from Utah to spend a week with us. She has come out almost every year since we moved here, but it has always been in the spring (Ella's b-day). We wanted to show here what Christmas in Alabama was all about. So Jon made a whole list of things he wanted to show his Mom. The first thing we did, was Cathedral Cavers, which isn't christmassy at all, but Jon has been fascinated by it since Dad took him and the kids there last summer. We were all very impressed with the cave. It has the largest opening in the world. The formations were AMAZING! especially the Cathedral room and Goliath, a huge "pillar". It was so cool to see so many different kinds of formations. The only downside is, I didn't think to bring my real camera, so i only had my pocket camera and didn't get any good pictures.

Dollywood and the Under ground sea.

2012-01-02T18:42:00.002-06:00

After our drive through the mountains we made it to Dollywood. It was Uber crowded! We expected it to be kind of crowded since it was black Friday, but I have never, ever seen it so crowded. We only got to go on two rides because the lines were so long. But Wes got to go on the "big cars" which is his favorite ride and Ella got to go on the Mountain climbing "ride" which is her favorite. We also managed to catch the light show, the Christmas parade and the new ice skating show. We had a good time, but not as good as we expected since it was amazingly over full. After Dollywood closed, we headed back to the car to drive another hour or so to the hotel. The one thing that the crowds didn't ruin, was the amazing lights. all the trees and buildings were lit up and so very beautiful. There was one tree with flickering multi-colored lights that was especially beautiful.

The next day it was time to head towards home. We didn't go straight there though, we stopped near Chattanooga TN and went to the "Lost Sea" the worlds largest underground lake. They had a long steep walk to the bottom, there were a few formations, including cave flowers, which apparently only grow in a few caves in the whole world. At the bottom of the hike there is a HUGE underground lake, they have boats that you get to take a little ride in the water on. There are fish in the lake, but they are not native. They were originally put in as an experiment to see if the water went anywhere, the fish never left, and so they know that the water doesn't have an outlet. The water is very deep (75ft?) and Crystal clear. The kids really liked the boat ride and I did too. After we reached the top we rested for a bit then we drove over to a HUGE flea market. We walked around a while and bought a few things then finally we had to go home. I had a fantastic mini-vacation!

thanksgiving

2012-01-01T14:40:00.002-06:00

For Thanksgiving weekend, my Mom and Dad took us on an AWESOME vacation. We started out here in HSV with an early lunch at the 88 buffet. Then we headed out to Atlanta. We got to our hotel and got settled in then we drove to our dinner destination, Medieval Times!!! I love this type of dinner show and was so excited to go with my family. The kids had a blast exploring the castle as we waited. During the show, Wes fell asleep (way past his bedtime) but Ella really enjoyed herself. She was given a flower from "our" knight, and when it got to the joust, she was chosen by our knight to be his banner holder He gave her a sash that said, "The Queen of Love and Beauty" she was VERY pleased with herself and we made sure to go after and get her picture with him. I loved the show and watching all the knightly tournament-y things. The food was also AWESOME! After the show, we decided to do one of their picture things so we all got to dress up in some cool medieval clothes and have our pictures taken. Mom has the copies of the pictures, so I can't post them today, but I did take an extra one of Dad and Jon in their kingly attire. A super thanks giving day.

After the show we went back to the hotel to sleep. The next day we headed over to Tennessee. We took the scenic route and enjoyed the mountain views. We stopped at a beautiful little river and climbed around on the rocks and took pictures. I don't have the Dollywood pictures uploaded yet, so I will stop here, but I will add the rest of our vacation in a later post.

My poor abandoned blog!

2012-01-01T14:33:00.003-06:00

I have slacked off totally in 2011, I started out strong, but as you can see, by December not a single post! I just got behind and was overwhelmed and then more behind and more overwhelmed and well, you get the pictures. I am really sad though, that I was such a slacker, because this is the only journal I keep, and now I have no record of my amazing kids!

In 2010 I did an experiment, I started a 365 project, I blogged every day for the whole year. It was a resounding success and i really enjoyed it. I was super burned out by the end, which is why I didn't continue it in 2011. Now that I have taken an unplanned leave of absence from blogging, I have decided to one-up my self from 2010. Instead of doing a 365 blog I am going to do one better, this year I am going to do a 366 blog and blog every day this year. I am going to start by catching up a bit from 2011. I have the pictures from our fabulous Thanksgiving trip that still need to be uploaded, so that seems like as good of a place to start as any.

A loose tooth!!!

2011-11-23T08:35:00.002-06:00

Ella came running up to me at breakfast today yelling that she had broken a tooth and couldn't eat her breakfast!!!! I looked in her mouth and asked her to show me, she began wiggling her tooth, I explained about loose teeth and how they fall out and she gets to leave it for the tooth fairy, she was so excited!! She called her 6 year old cousin right away to tell her the "fantastic news". Happily, her cousin was satisfactorily excited for her. Ella had me take a video and insisted I share it with "the WHOLE FAMILY" so here it is, Ella's first loose tooth.

roller skateing!

2011-11-22T13:25:00.003-06:00

On Saturday we went roller skating with Mom and Dad, the kids had a blast! When we first started, both the kids were too scared to try, but after a while they got the hang of it and Ella was having a blast. She fell a lot, but kept on trying. Wes never got steady enough to skate on the wood floor, but managed to do very well on the carpet while holding my hand.

Christmas tree lighting

2011-11-22T13:17:00.002-06:00

This year Ella and I went to Bridgestreet to see them light up their big Christmas tree. Ella had a blast playing in the "snow" dancing to the live music and meeting Santa Claus. We also got some free hot coco and s'mores bread pudding from a restaurant and bought some brownies from the brownies. We finished out night by window shopping and Ella bought herself a little toy at one of the stores. I had such a nice time with my little girly!

Doppelganger

2011-11-22T13:15:00.000-06:00

On Halloween, at the Parkway place mall, Jon found someone who looked very familiar...

Family pictures

2011-11-12T15:10:00.002-06:00

Today was the day I finally decided to do our family pictures. I really wanted to do them at Bridgestreet to get that clean, crisp feeling I get there. The kids were moderately well behaved. Ella was a stellar model, Wesley was, well, there. I did get some great shots of both of them and some good ones of the family too. Now I get to get started on the Christmas cards!
The whole family

Kids and Grown ups.

Ella

Wesley

I finally finished!

2011-11-09T15:47:00.002-06:00

A few months ago I posted many many pictures of the squares I was making for a Harry Potter Quilt. Once I got the top done, I set it aside and pretty much forgot about it. Today, I had a tiny bit of free time, so I decided that today was the day to finish. I got the filling and back sewed on and now my quilt is officially finished! I LOVE the way it turned out. I ended up with 60 appliqued squares and 12 embroidered spells. I also embroidered the Hogwarts school song around the edging. It came out perfect and I am so very proud of it!

the finished quilt

Closeups of some of the squares and the edging.

October in Review

2011-11-06T07:35:00.002-06:00

As you may have noticed, I have not posted much this month. I have been super busy with kids, school and work but not to busy to take pictures, just to busy to post them. So now, I am going to post a TON of pictures (over 70 I think) and give you an idea of the fun October we had. Oddly enough, I don't have any Halloween pictures, I forgot to take them on Halloween so we are going to have to dress up again so that we can get some pictures, we looked awesome!

We started off out Oct with the Madison Street Festival! Parade, pony rides and lots of walking and looking.

During Fall break, I took the kids swimming at the YMCA. We had a blast! After we got tired of the big pool, we played in the splash pool for a long time. Wes decided that the buoy's were trains and had a lot of fun "driving" them back and forth on the rope.

WE fed the fish at Bridgestreet

We went to the grand opening of the new Toys R Us/Babies R Us store and saw a bunch of characters.

Jon and Ella attended Chick-fil-a's "Daddy-Daughter Date Night" and had a BLAST. Jon really enjoyed talking to Ella and Ella loved getting dressed and and being with her Daddy.

I taught my crazy Primary Class and L-O-V-E-D every second!

Jon's car broke down (new fuel pump $730!!) so we had a nice picnic in the park since he was home.

We went to Mom and Dad's Ward Trunk or Treat. Dad and I made an AWESOME Angry Birds "Trunk" to go with our costumes and we WON the trunk decorating contest!

Wesley and I joined Ella and her class on their Very first school Field trip! They went to Tate Farms (A pumpkin patch) on Halloween and had so much fun! I am so glad that I came along with them. WE went on a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch and picked our pumpkins, played on the playground in the corn cribs, petted the animals and had lunch.

And lastly, after we got home from Tate Farms, we Carved Ella and Wesley's pumpkins into Jacko'lanterns since it was Halloween after all!

Whew! that was a lot of work. Perhaps I shouldn't procrastinate quite so much and then it wouldn't be so hard to post. I hope to post more frequently this month so I don't have to go through this again!

Testing, testing 123!

2011-10-17T17:41:00.002-06:00

I am gearing up for our annual family pictures. I finally think I have the outfits that I want, so today we went out and did some test shots. I wanted to make sure that the outfits went well together and that they photographed well. What do you think?

I also ordered Ella a Tutu in the mail from a neat little online store I found. It came today right after we got home so I snapped a few before she got changed. They aren't great because it was so dark outside, but she looks cute to me anyway.

christmas pictures and funny hair

2011-09-29T15:52:00.002-06:00

I am trying to get outfits together for my own families annual family pictures. I didn't know what I wanted for our outfits but since I am the hardest one out of all of us to dress I decided to start with me. I found a fabulous top at dirt cheap for just $5, it looks awesome on me and is black and white, so easy to match. So this is my outfit for the pictures (thanks ella for taking the picture)

I then started to look for Wes and Ella. I found a great white skirt at Dirt Cheap for $1 and a nice black top but the top didn't fit. I didn't find anything for Wes though. Today after MOPS Wes and I went to Khols to look for more clothes. I found the perfect black and white stripped top for ella and a nice grey top for wes. Now I just have to get jon somthing and we will be ready for our closeups!

I don't have a picture of Wes, but here is Ella

today was "Funny Hair Day" at school, this is what ella and I came up with.

Angry Birds

2011-09-28T13:53:00.001-06:00

Today Mom and I stole an hour or so away to work on the Halloween Costumes. WE managed to get the faces for Ella's black bird costume done, the face for my White bird costume done and most of the face for Wesley's Piggie done (he didn't want to be a bird, he wanted to be a piggie)

HALLOWEEN!!

2011-09-26T13:40:00.002-06:00

I LOVE Halloween! It is my very favorite holiday. This year my family is going to be dressing up as the birds from "Angry Birds". Mom is helping me with the costumes. This year Mom and Dad are going to dress up with us, they are going to be the evil piggies. Today while mom made a pattern for the bird costumes I made piggie shirts for them to wear. I think they turned out great! Since dad wasn't there, I modeled his shirt for the picture.

family portrait

2011-09-25T10:29:00.001-06:00

by Ella

Marble Castle!

2011-09-25T08:41:00.002-06:00

I seem to often forget that you can't take video in "portrait" mode. So this video is sideways, but it is still cool

Yesterday Jon and Wesley were playing in the kids room. I came in to see what they were up to and Wes jumped up and said, this is my marble castle, Daddy built it for me! I love their Marble castle.

Maverick MIle!

2011-09-23T14:19:00.002-06:00

Today was the big fundraiser for Ella's school, the Maverick mile. Each kid was supposed to find sponsors who pay them per lap to raise money for the school, the Goal was $50,000 and last I heard they were less than $7500 from that goal! Today was the run, so Wes and I went to cheer on Ella, who completed all 30 laps for the school.

Ella was hilarious, she mugged for the camera every time she passed by, it was so cute! Wes was no into the whole thing and kept complaining about the loud music. He sat in the stroller and played leapster the whole time.

I love Bowling!

2011-09-23T14:06:00.002-06:00

Soaking in the last of summer

2011-09-23T13:55:00.002-06:00

The weather is starting to head towards fall. The temps are down in the 80's and the rain has come in. We are so glad to have nicer weather to play outside in. The kids had great fun in our local puddle the other day.

Father Daughter Campout

2011-09-10T11:38:00.003-06:00

This spring Ella was watching a new show called "Bubble Guppies" and the episode was about camping. She fell in love with the idea of going on a campout, sleeping out under the stars and eating s'mores, cuz really, what is camping without s'mores! I am not a huge fan of camping, so I kept telling her to ask her daddy to take her camping, and he told her that someday he would, so all summer she bugged him about camping and all summer he said later, but finally, a few weeks ago the stake announced a Stake Father-daughter campout and I decided that this was the time, Jon had the time to take her, Dad and mom had the camping gear, and it wasn't too hot OR too cold. Ella was THRILLED!!! They just got back from their campout and Ella was so excited to tell me that she got to sleep under the stars and see the stars in her sleeping bag, she even told me that she saw a shooting star. She was also thrilled that Daddy let her have some s'mores for breakfast! I don't know what all they did, but from the pictures it looks like they definitely had a great time. Jon is already talking about taking the whole family up there soon, so he must have also had fun. Ella chose to wear one of her favorite shirts for the campout, and i think that they slogan on it says it all " My Dad rocks!"

Horseback Riding!

2011-09-09T12:15:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday I took Jon horseback riding. I had gotten a living social deal back in the spring and we hadn't had time to use it yet. So, since it was to expire on the 4th, i arrainged for us to go on the 3rd. I had a blast. I love horses and I have always wanted to learn how to ride. I never had a chance, so I have tried to live the dream by going on a trail ride once a decade or so. i wish I could learn how to really ride though! Anyway, we got there and singed the release forms then we got our horses assigned to us, I got to ride Rose. Jon and I didn't get to actually ride together, because Rose wanted to be first and Jon's horse just wanted to be alone and away from the other horses. It was a nice little ride through the woods and across a field. I had such a nice time. My legs KILLED the next day though!

Siblings

2011-08-31T14:43:00.001-06:00

Today the kids are having a blast playing together in the backyard. I think Ella and Wes have been missing each other with Ella's new school schedule. Today Ella is drawing train tracks on the back patio in chalk for Wes to drive his trains on. They are talking and laughing and having a grand time. I love my kids, and I love that they love each other!

.

Green Belt and stuff

2011-08-30T18:05:00.002-06:00

Ella got her green belt this week, she is doing so awesome in Karate!!! I am so very proud of her! She loves her teachers, and is so proud of her accomplishments.

Also, Wes and I have been having a nice time together will Ella away at school

but we miss her so today we joined her for lunch at school, it was fun to meet her little friends!

First Day of School!!!

2011-08-09T07:52:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was Ella's very first first day of school. She was SO EXCITED! She got all dressed in her special first day of school outfit that Nana made for her, packed her lunch and then we dropped Wes off at Nana's house so that I could walk her to her classroom. After we got to her room, she found her desk and then sat with the other kids on the reading carpet. She looked so grown up and excited! I just can't believe that she is big enough to go to kindergarten. It seems that she is still my baby girl! I was so proud of her, she had a great first day of school, she made some crafts, played in the gym, read stories and had a grand time. The only bad part of her day was that I picked her up in the car instead of letting her ride the bus. Not to worry though, I will let her ride the bus next time!

What a big beautiful girl!

As I waited in the car line to pick up Ella a big storm rolled in with thunder and lightning. It really cooled things off, but was scary at the same time. I took a picture it was so cool looking. Ella managed to get in the car just as the first drops were falling so we got lucky.

Art Camp

2011-08-05T05:41:00.002-06:00

Nana sent Ella and Brenna to Art Camp at Spirited art this first week of August. The girls had a BLAST creating 4 paintings each.

Day one:

Day 2

Day 3

And day 4

Also, a cute picture of Brenna, Ella and her friend Thomas.

Catching up on July

2011-08-05T05:29:00.002-06:00

We had a fun and busy end of July.
While Ella was away visiting Brenna in Wisconsin Jon and I took Wes out on a date, Pizza at Tommy's a ride on the Carousel and chocolate at the chocolate crocodile.

I also took him to Sams for his favorite pizza, in the first pic, he had jut taken a bit of HOT pizza, I thought he made a very funny face.

I helped Jon and the 11 year old scouts with their first aid stuff by stage-makeuping a very unlucky hiker.
Puncture wound and sprained ankle

Snake bite and 2nd degree burn

Frost bite

blisters and snake bite

not pictured are the sunburn, bloody nose, scraped knee and bugbites.

Once Ella and Nana got home from WI with Brenna in tow Dad took me and the kids to Alabama Adventure!

On the 30th, I participated in a bazaar for my Mops group. Dad and Jon took the kids to CAthedreal Caverns but didn't take any pictures.

We're so Glad when Ella comes home!

2011-07-26T14:22:00.002-06:00

Ella has been gone for a week with my Mom up to Wisconsin visiting my Sister and her family. We have all missed her very much. She got home this afternoon and Wesley is so very glad to see her.... Leapster :)

He has been pining its absence all week. I think he is glad to see his sister too, but he won't look up from the game long enough for me to find out.

Ella is glad to be home but even gladder to have her cousin here.

All together now!

2011-07-25T09:33:00.002-06:00

So after sewing 60 applique blocks and 12 embroidered spells in 7 days I finished putting the quilt top together today. Each block is outlined in a blue fabric with "HP" all over it. Next step is to cut the white boarder strips and embroider the Hogwarts school song on that, then sew it onto the quilt top and then into the home stretch with putting on the back and quilting it.

One of the spell squares and a good view of my HP fabric.

and the quilt top in full, ignore all the toys, I kicked Wes out of the living room to take these shots.

I am incredibly proud of myself!

Thanks for the suggestions

2011-07-23T11:31:00.002-06:00

I got 5 more squares done this morning thanks to your suggestions.
Luna's radish earrings (the most commonly suggested block!)

Pumpkin juice

A chocolate frog

A dragon

and Wormtail, Moony, Padfoot and Prongs

Running out of ideas.

2011-07-22T19:41:00.002-06:00

I finished 8 more squares this afternoon/evening. Now I am running out of ideas. I have a few more things on my list, but most of them I either CAN"T do, or haven't figured out how to do yet. I now have 55 squares. I sorted them into books today and found out that I have only 2 squares from " The order of the phoenix" I would love some idea's for more squares from my Harry Potter friends, especially things that make you think of book 5. I cannot do faces/people (they look terrible!) i am not too good with 3d things like buildings and such and I am only so-so with animals. With those limitations, care to share and suggestions?

Here are today's squares.

#4 Privit drive.

Hagrid's umbrella

Platform 9 3/4

Harry's Glasses

The invisibility cloak

The black sock that freed Dobby

The fat lady in her pink dress

And a kitten plate from Professor Umbridge

Getting there

2011-07-22T08:24:00.002-06:00

Last night I set out my 40+ squares on my bed to see how much progress I had made. I think I am doing pretty good! I think between the edging and the spell squares I am planning on making I don't need too many more applique squares to finish. After putting wes to bed, I made 5 more squares and this morning I sewed them plus the leftover one from earlier that day together.

All layed out

Sword of gryffendor.

The Pensive

The resurrection stone/horrocrux

The Durmstrang ship

Crookshanks and Scabbers

The love-potion chocolates from Romilda Vane

Busy during naptime

2011-07-21T16:00:00.002-06:00

I managed to cut 8 more squares during naptime today, but only sew 7. My 8th square will have to wait until after Wes goes to bed.

Hermione's beaded bag

Harry's Patronis

Ginny's Pygmy Puff.

And a shield for each house.

Still hard at work

2011-07-21T08:16:00.002-06:00

I cut some more squares while watching So You Think You Can Dance last night and edged them this morning, I am now up to 34 squares, only 56 left to do !

My sad attempt at the Hogwarts Express

the Hedge maze from the triwizard tournament

A mandrake

The forbidden Forrest with Hagrids hut.

Harry's hand with "I must not tell lies" (ran out of red thread will have to finish later)

Harry and Voldy's wands with colliding spells from the graveyard scene in book 4

5 more squares

2011-07-20T18:01:00.002-06:00

The Monster Book of Monsters

Tom Riddle's diary

Dobby's gravestone

S.P.E.W badge

Weasley is our King Badge

More HP squares

2011-07-19T18:13:00.002-06:00

I have been having great fun working hard on my quilt. I am up to 24 completed squares.

The Goblet of Fire (with 4 name papers, I will be embroidering the 4 champion's names on the slips)

A Floo fire!

The Night Bus

Slythern's locket

Harry's scar and the green represents the spell that gave it to him

The Basilisk

Liquid luck

Hedwig

The mail owl bringing Harry his Hogwarts letter. Harry's address will be embroidered on later.

More squares

2011-07-17T10:53:00.002-06:00

I had a bit of time this morning to make a couple more squares. I should have plenty to sew once I get some thread!

Dementor!

Fawkes

The time-turner

The Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter

2011-07-17T08:53:00.003-06:00

I have loved Harry Potter since I was introduced to him sometime in the late 90's. I have read and re-read the books over and over again. I saw every single movie in the theater and own all of them too. I love the magic of the story. I love the adventure.

I am so sad that it is over. This past Wednesday Mom and I went to the local theater and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one, and followed that by going to the midnight showing of part 2. It was AMAZING! but I felt a little let down after the show. I went again with Jon the next day at a more reasonable hour, and was lucky enough to go again Saturday with our babysitter, instead of paying her for watching the kids on Friday, I took her to see the movie on Saturday. It was even better the second and third times. I can't believe that the adventure is over. Sure, I can still read the books and watch the movies, but there will be no more anticipation, no more counting the weeks, days and hours until the next book or movie. I was feeling sad about the end, so I decided that I would finally start on a quilt for myself. Last year I made Jon, Wes and Ella all quilts but never got around to mine. I couldn't figure out what fabrics or style I wanted. Now I know, I have decided to make a Harry Potter quilt for myself. That way I can keep Harry around a bit longer. I looked around online and found a couple of AMAZING patterns for "paper pieced" quilts. I read up on it and decided that paper piecing was a little much for me. I could tell right away that I wasn't going to have the patience to do that intricate work. I still wanted to do a quilt so I decided I would go the applique route, I know how to applique and it is not to time consuming so I started planning, got some fabric last night after the kids went to bed and then started cutting. I got 10 squares cut and ironed onto the squares and called it a night at about 11. This morning I wanted to get them sewed on so I worked on that and got 8 done before I ran out of thread. Ooops!
I am so very excited about this quilt. I am going to make it king sized if I can, and I have several Harry potter fabrics I am going to use as borders around the squares and the edging. This is going to be the best quilt ever!

First up, Quiddich!
Snitch:

Bludgers

and of course the quaffel

Can't play quidditch without the broom!

Ink pot and quill

Trelawny's crystal ball (I will be adding a teacup to this one once I get the fabric)

A little polyjuice potion is never a bad idea.

Must have a wand!

The two I have ironed but not sewn are the sorting hat

and the whomping willow

They aren't perfect (I cut them all free hand) but I love them anyway. I can't wait to see the finished thing!

I know when I am baptised, my wrongs are washed away.

2011-07-12T12:13:00.002-06:00

Saturday I had the wonderful honor of speaking at one of my Primary Kid's baptism. AJ is 11 years old and made the decision to be baptised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His Mother has been a member his whole life (I think) but his Dad recently decided to get baptized and AJ was so very proud of him. AJ was so excited to be baptized by his dad. AJ is one of my very favorite primary students, he is sweet, obedient, kind and funny. When he asked me to speak about the Holy Ghost at his baptism I was so very flattered and honored. I get really nervous speaking in front of Adults, so I just blocked them out and concentrated on AJ and his little sister Brooklyn who was also getting baptized. It was so amazing to see them get baptized by their Dad! I think my talk went well, and I had a lot of fun too. I am so proud of this faithful young man!

Pirates Ahoy!

2011-07-12T11:33:00.003-06:00

My Dad is an awesome dad, he is also an Awesome Grandpa. He has created an amazing backyard play land for the kids at his house, playhouse, trampoline, swing-set, merry-go-round, fort, spaceship playhouse, zip-line, and balance beam to name a few. He had the week of the 4th of July off and he spent 2.5 of those days building them a pirate ship. It turned out AMAZING! It has a sail, rigging, ships wheel on the poop-deck and bowsprit, anchor, compass and treasure chest. It is so very awesome! He may be adding a crows nest to the top of the mast and we will be painting the name on the back soon, (It will be christened the Pirate ship "Revenge" in honor of one of our favorite films "the Princess bride"). The kids ADORE it. Ella has already figured out how to climb the rigging to get to the top of the mast and is eagerly awaiting the crows nest. My kids really do have the greatest Grandpa ever!

Cow Appreciation day!

2011-07-12T07:46:00.003-06:00

Friday was Cow Appreciation day. This is our 3rd (or 4th?) time participating. Jon didn't feel like dressing up or like chicken, so he stayed home and had Ramen. The kids and I got all Cow'd up and enjoyed our free meal. Wesley LOVED being a cow. He kept saying " I a cow... MOO!" When we got to the front of the line, he walked up to the counter and said to the lady "I a COW!" She told him that he sure was and that he was the cutest cow she had seen all day. I agree! Wes loved seeing all the other cows too, he spent more time pointing them out than eating. I love Cow Appreciation day, it is so much fun!

You look pretty, Grandpa?

2011-07-12T07:43:00.002-06:00

Wesley loves to play with our old Marti gras beads. He brings them to people and puts them on you and tells you that you are pretty, it is cute. On Sunday, July 3rd, he wanted to make Grandpa pretty, and Grandpa made him pretty. He told Grandpa that one necklace wasn't enough, Grandpa needed ALL of them! They looked great when done and they had a great time.

Grandpa also let Ella do sparklers that evening!

Decatur Splash Pad

2011-07-12T07:40:00.002-06:00

Our MOPS group is out for the summer, but we have a couple of summer activities to keep us all in touch. The first one was a visit to the splash pad in Decatur. It is a nice little area that is totally fenced in with fountains for the kids to play in. Personally I don't think it is any better than the one at Bridgestreet or Early Works, plus it is much farther away, but I am in the minority so to Decatur we went. We had a ton of fun with our MOPS friends and getting wet. We finished with a picknick lunch before heading home.

A blue star

2011-07-12T07:21:00.002-06:00

In Ella's karate school they get stars for various things like perfect attendance, doing their black belt worksheet, doing chores at home, reading books and such. One of the stars is the blue star. It is given out to Students who show special black belt excellence during class. I had never seen one given out during Ella's classes but this day Ella got one! There was a new girl in class and Mr. Daniel Asked Ella to show her what to do and help her out. Ella tried really hard and was a great example during the whole class. She tried her very best and at the end of class, Mr Daniel gave her a blue star. Ella was SO excited! She also got a post card in the mail from Mr. Daniel, which was also very exciting.

Family Fun Zone!

2011-07-12T07:15:00.002-06:00

Bridgstreet had a "Family Fun Zone" on the last weekend of June. It also happened to be the weekend that Cars2 came out, so we decided to go out and make a day of it. We had tickets to see the 11:40 show of CARS 2 so we went out early to the fun zone to make sure we had plenty of time for FUN! The kids enjoyed spinning the wheel at the Chick-fil-a booth and winning prizes, playing on the bouncy houses and slides, playing the free games and winning lots of lolly pops and getting their faces painted. After we had had quite enough fun, we stopped at the food court for some lunch before watching our movie. We had a great time!

Why we should't procrastinate posting

2011-07-12T07:14:00.001-06:00

I have been successfully procrastinating posting on here for like, 12ish days. This was a bad idea, now I have over 50 photos of our exploits to share! I am trying to decide if it is better to post one HUGE post, or break it up into the different activities. I think I will do the latter, JUST in case someone out there still has dial-up.

Before and After

2011-07-02T19:02:00.002-06:00

Well, the kitchen is now 99.9% done so I thought it was the right time to post some before and after pictures. Today I grouted the remaining 1/4 of the back splash, I also grouted the rest of the granite and fixed some spots that needed it on the rest of the counter. I also finally picked a color for the walls (thanks Lauren!) and painted the walls. Jon scraped the ceiling and painted it. Now all we have left to do is put up the trim around the top of the cabinets and hang the corner shelves by the sink I can't believe we are pretty much done!! Tonight after finishing all the stuff for today I cleaned up and took my "after" pictures. My before pictures arn't very good, seeing as I forgot to take them untill AFTER we had already knocked a hole in the wall AND I didn't clean up first, AND I forgot some angles because while they are great angles in the new kitchen, they were not important in the old kitchen. I had to use some in progress pictures as my befores for the new sink corner. I really enjoyed this whole process. From creating my graph paper layout of my dream kitchen to cooking in it today it has been quite an adventure. I have a hard time believing that it is the same kitchen!

After decided that I was definitely going to renovate the kitchen this year, I had to figure out how much it was goin to cost so I created a graph model of my kitchen inch by inch. Then I researched different cabinet options and what sizes were available. Then I took those dimensions, plus the dimensions of my appliances and started designing. That gave me the approximate cost of the cabinets, counter tops, back splash and flooring. I estimated that I would need about $3500 to create my masterpiece. I got 2 great contracts at the beginning of the year, and by the end of May I had enough money to get started. You guys know the rest of the story and I am happy to report that I came JUST slightly under my budget!

Sushi Night!

2011-06-29T14:19:00.002-06:00

Monday night we had our friends the "H" family over for Family Home Evening and a night of Sushi. We had a short FHE and then for the activity I taught them how to roll sushi. We had quite a spread, avacado, crab, green onions, sweet omelet, cream cheese, shrimp and fried shrimp and smoked salmon. We had a blast makeing our own sushi combinations. Each of the bigger kids made their own roll to eat and the grown ups make some for ourselves and the little kids. The kids were so proud of their creations, it was so cute. After dinner and a quick clean up I brought out dessert, "Candy Sushi"! I made rice crispie treats and rolled them up with twizzlers and gummy bears and covered them with fruit roll-ups. I also made candy Nigiri with swedish fish and sour strips. The candy was a huge hit with all the kids, and me too! It was a super fun night together. I had a great time.

Puddle Jumping.

2011-06-24T18:14:00.002-06:00

It has been pretty dreary and rainy the last couple of days. Today, after Wes's nap, it had cleared up a bit so I let the kids go puddle jumping. We have a fantastic huge puddle in our cul-de-sac that forms every time it rains. Every kid loves jumping in puddles, most moms don't' love the mess it makes. I decided to lessen the mess by putting on their swim suits. It worked out really well. The kids had a great time, and I enjoyed watching them and chatting with our friend Maggie. Oh, to be a kid again!

Mimi and Pop's house

2011-06-24T18:09:00.002-06:00

We went up to visit Mimi and Pop this week and we had a very nice time. We drove out Monday and Pop took us out to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant. Tuesday we spent at the house visiting with Uncle Mike, Uncle Tom, Cousin Julie and her son and Aunt Donna. The kids had fun watching tv, hanging on their great grandparents, riding their bikes and making a nuisance of themselves. Mom and I had a nice time just chatting with them. Mimi has grown a very impressive garden over the past few years so I spent some time video and photographing it. I am going to surprise mimi with a photo book of her beautiful flowers. We left around 11 on Wednesday to drive home. We had a very nice visit.

Wish's

2011-06-24T17:58:00.003-06:00

A block or two from my Mimi and Pops house, just around the corner really, is a little independant Drug Store named "Wish's" It has been there at least as long as I have been alive. When I was a kid, everytime we visited Mimi and Pop the various grandkids would walk over to Wish's and buy some 5c-10c-15c-or 25c candy. This was a true kids tradition for us. Sometimes an Uncle would give us each a dollar and send us off (probably to have some quiet in the house!) You could get a good sized bag of candy for a dollar or two. I have been going since I was too little to go by myself. The grownups would make the older cousins walk us there. Even as adults, my sisters and I have always walked (never driven!) to Wish's and got ourselves some candy. Now that I have kids I wanted to share that experience with them. Earlier this week Mom and I went up to Louisville with the kids to visit Mimi and Pop. During Wesley's naptime, Ella and I went out and walked to wishes and got some candy. Ella really enjoyed picking out her candy. She got 9! pieces of candy for $1.63. She was very proud of her haul. I got some candy for myself, and Wes too. I don't know how much longer we have with Mimi and Pop, or how many more times we will get up there to visit, but I am so very glad that I had a chance to share this special thing with Ella this week.

Happy Fathers day!

2011-06-19T20:21:00.002-06:00

For Jon's fathers day gift Ella chose one of Jon's favorite snacks, Cocoa roasted Almonds. I made him a Card, with a heart made out of nuts that said "We are NUTS about you dad!" I was trying to be clever and funny. I told Ella about our "Joke" and she thought it was great. Today Ella was so so so excited to give Jon his gift. She proudly walked into the room with the package, and said "Happy Father's day Dad, We think you are NUTS!" Jon and I could not keep a straight face. Ella was all like, "What? What does the card say again?" It was one of the best slip ups she has had.
So Jon, we love you and we think you are NUTS!

Ella is a big girl!

2011-06-18T19:37:00.002-06:00

Ella has asked several times over the last 6-8 months if she could get earings. We finally agreed to it in January while we were in Utah but she decided at the last min that she didn't want the "needle" in her ear after all. She mostly forgot about it for a few months but recently she has been asking again so today after going to see Rio in the $1 movies with Mom and Dad we went accross the parking lot at the mall and went to get her ears pierced. She chose some "diamond" earrings. (Cubic Zirconium) and was really brave. She cried for a few seconds after they did the piercing, but gave up when they offered her a lolly pop. She now is in LOVE with her "Princess ears" and is very excited to show them off to her friends. I also told her that she could pick out some fun new earrings after the 6 week healing process, so she is also looking forward to that. I think she looks adorable! And I am excited that she loves them. Now to get through the next 6 weeks with no infections.

I took a video of the piercing process, but Blogger isn't letting me upload it right now. I will try again later, for now, here are some before and after pictures.

More Summer F-U-N!

2011-06-18T19:30:00.002-06:00

In the last couple of weeks we have gone to the free summer movies with our neighbor, gone bowling with Nana and her friend Jutta, gone to a birthday party for friends, played in the fountains and much more that I didn't get pictures of! We are really enjoying our summer and cherishing the last few weeks with Ella home with us before she starts her new adventure of School.

I also got a new hairdo last Saturday, I got a perm! When I came home Ella was sitting on the couch, she told me "you look weird". Wesley's reaction was "Don't like your hair mommy, take it off!" and Jon's was, "It's Cute! You look like you walked out of the 80's!" Then later, "I like it. Your head looks really big" I think he should just stick to the first half of his thoughts about my hair! Today Jon looked at me and said " You look really cute, I think this is my favorite of all the haircuts you have had." Now that is the right kind of complement!
As for me, I like it well enough, It is cute, but I think it makes me look fatter than I did before.

Inching towards the finish line.

2011-06-14T14:14:00.002-06:00

Today I got some more mortar from Home Depot along with some paint samples. During Wes's nap, I hung the rest of the back splash. I grossly over estimated how much tile I would need so I also tiled behind the books on the book shelf and I still have 5+ sheets left over. Oh well, better to have too much than too little. I painted a couple of swatchs on the wall to see if I liked either paint color. I THINK I like the lighter color, but then I also like the darker. I have polled some friends on a message board and on Facebook and the opinions are kind of split. I don't know what do to with the paint. I may have to einy-meeny-miney-mo it!

Back splash

2011-06-13T14:51:00.002-06:00

Today my long-awaited back splash tile arrived. It looks fantastic. I wanted the back splash to be my pop of color in the kitchen so I picked a medium blue, light blue, ice blue mix mosaic tile. I think it looks great with the black and white cabinets! I got about 1/2 of the tiling done during nap time, then I ran out of mortar so I had to stop. I will pick some more up this evening after jon gets home so I can finish up.

more odds and ends.

2011-06-11T14:34:00.002-06:00

Today Jon and I got an early start on more kitchen stuff. Jon cut and placed the tile around the butcherblock and also did the rest of the trim around the counter. I painted the door under the sink, the trim around the dishwasher and the spice rack. Then I headed off to a birthday party for friends of Ella and Wesley. After the party, we finished up a few more details. Now we just have to paint the walls and ceiling, put up the backsplash and grout and seal the tiles. We are getting so so close! Also, I love my spice rack even more painted black and filled to the brim with spices.

Kitchen Again!

2011-06-11T06:33:00.002-06:00

Today I got a call from Mom around 10 till 9 asking if I was busy and telling me that Dad could come over and work on the kitchen today. I had plans, but canceled them because I REALLY want my kitchen done. So dad came over and we got to work. We took out the old light and replaced it with the new one I bought, made a door for the custom sink cabinet, installed under the cabinet lighting for the sink side of the kitchen, finished the trim for the dishwasher, and made a custom spice rack for over the dishwasher/butcher block. Everything turned out FANTASTIC! The spice rack is exactly what I wanted and everything else looks so so good. I need to paint the door to the sink cabinet and the trim and the spice rack, but we are getting so close. As far as I know all we have left is painting, putting up the back splash (wish is due to arrive Monday) ,sealing the countertops/backsplash and putting up the trim! I can't wait to see the whole thing finished. I hope that we can get a bunch done this weekend so that come Monday all that is left is the back splash.
After we were done with the work, i helped Dad pack up all the tools we didn't need anymore and then we sent them all home with Dad. Then Dad offered Ella $2 to "work really hard for 45 min" and help me clean up the mess of a dining room before Jon got home. She did a great job and really earned her $2.

Sum-sum-Summer time!

2011-06-07T11:47:00.002-06:00

We have been enjoying the summer so far, we try to get out in the mornings and evenings when it isn't too hot and stay in the air conditioning during the hottest part of the day. We have enjoyed playing with friends, playing in the baby pool/sprinkler in the back yard, the fountain at bridgestreet, a picknick lunch and lots and lots of bike riding. We also have gone to the free summer movies, but I didn't take any pictures of that!

Jon and I also had our anniversary date, today is our ACTUAL anniversary (8 years!) but we celebrated on Friday. We went to the waffle house for breakfast, then to bridgestreet for a movie (x-men first class) in the Prive seats! Then some window shopping and lunch at PF Changs. Then home be 3:30 so our baby sitter could get to the temple trip drop off point in time. It was a lovely day!

I made Ella mad one day and so she drew me this picture. I am on the right, under the storm clouds and lightning because I am bad and she is on the left under the sun because she is good. I guess this was supposed to make me feel bad for making her pick up the toys.

Also last week, Ella tested for her orange belt in Karate and passed! Last night was the graduation ceremony and I got to tie on her new belt. She looks very proud of her new rank! She also just loves her teachers Mr Daniel and Ms. Ashley.

toekick, grout and trim.

2011-06-03T20:21:00.002-06:00

Over the past few days I have installed the rubber toekick under the cabinets to cover the gaps inbetween the bases, painted the book shelf, put the first coat of paint on the lazy susan doors and touchups on the other doors, I also grouted the countertops. Jon has put up the granite part of the back splash and put the trim on the edges of the countertops, things are looking better and better every day! Also my butcher block for over the dishwasher arrived today, but I forgot to take a picture so that will come later.

We have functionality!

2011-05-31T17:16:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we completed everything that was left to do for me to have a functional kitchen. There are still a ton of little details left, but all the big stuff is done. I am so very excited! We started out by putting the granite tiles around the sink hole. This took several hours due to all the cutting needed, but it looks great now that it is done! Over the course of the day we worked on plumbing, getting the sink in, getting the water hooked up to the sink, fridge and dishwasher. We also got the door pulls/handles on the rest of the cabinets, the strip of wood that covers the gap between the old and new floors, we put the new microwave in and built the book shelf above it for my cook books. i also made three separate trips to the store for plumbing gear, and dad made one other. WE did finally get the plumbing done so all the trips were worth it i think. We probably did a bunch of other stuff too, but I can't remember now as I started working yesterday around 7:15am and finished around 11:45 pm and I am exhausted. The kitchen is looking awesome and I am so excited to be this far along. Now I just have to keep pushing to get all the little things done.

Guess what I am bloggin about today?

2011-05-29T11:29:00.002-06:00

Ok, I know this is getting repetitive, but this is more for me than you, so I am going to blog about my kitchen again. Yesterday was another FULL day of renovations. Jon and I started off bright and early around 7:30. After feeding the kids, we unloaded all the stuff from the van that I had bought yesterday with dad. Then we started the process of putting down the plywood for the countertops. First we had to put some supports in the walls, then we cut and screwed down the plywood. Once that was done, we started the arduous task of painting the cabinets. I started inside painting the cabinet frames black and Jon started outside painting the doors white. I had less to paint, so I finished first and went out to help by painting the drawer fronts and some of the doors, then back inside for a second coat of black on the frames. Dad came over around 11:30 to help and we really got going then.

After helping Jon cut the cement board for the counter, Dad started figuring out the plumbing situation while Jon and I began laying the granite tile in the new corner of the kitchen. It went down pretty fast and looks awesome already! We can't grout untill it has set for 24-36 hours so that will wait until Monday. Dad took a break from the plumbing to help us cut some of the granite. Once the tileing was done, I started helping dad with the plumbing and figuring out how to get it from the old spot, through the cabinets, to the new spot. Jon did a second, third and forth coat of paint on the cabinet doors while we were working on the base cabinets. We finally managed to get them all installed and braced properly and ready for the plywood. Jon and I did the plywood while Dad began building the custom cabinet for the sink in the corner. The cabinet I originally bought wasn't going to work so my nice Daddy offered to do a custom one. The one he built was pur-fect! The hardest thing was getting the hole just right for the sink to fit in. We finally got the plywood hole right, then we had to do the cement board too. Finally the sink fit right in! Now all we have to do is tile it and get the sink and plumbing in!

We took a quick break from construction to clean up in the front yard. We had some old hay bales that had rotted, and the trimming from our bushes that we brought out to the curb for the big trash pickup. The yard looks much better!

After we were done outside, we realized that we had to built a frame around the dishwasher too, so we made one of those real quick. Once it was done we found that there wasn't enough stable support under the counter to take the Granite tile, so with a quick thought, we decided to get a butcher block top for the dishwasher, it will look nice, and be functional too!

The last thing we did was get the stove back into its spot and get it plugged in. Now all I need is my sink and dishwasher to be hooked up and we have a fully functional kitchen! We finally decided to call it quits around 9pm, so we cleaned up the tools and loaded the ones we didn't need any more into the van to take back to Dad's house. We Unloaded the van and visited with mom for a bit then we took the kids home and got them back into bed. Jon and I decided to push for a little longer and we started getting the handles on the cabinets. It is gonna look so good when it is finished!

E-x-h-a-u-s--t-e-d!

2011-05-27T22:16:00.002-06:00

Today was a very long, but very productive day. I got up and got the kids fed and dressed, then I cleared out the kitchen and made room for work today and then started sanding the mud from last night. I got that all done shortly before Dad and Mom showed up around 9:30am. Mom took the kids home and Dad stayed to work with me. (what a nice dad to give me his day off and working so hard!) We had a long list of things to do, and we got most of them done.
We started out by tearing out the rest of the old cabinets. We had to figure out how to do that around the existing plumbing. It was a challenge, but we finally figured it out and got everything unplugged. We ended up having to cut the cabinet into two pieces before we could carry it out to the curb. Once it was out we discovered some mold on the wall, lucky for me, it came off with a little bleach water. Then it was clean up the floor time so we could put in the rest of the new floor. The kitchen cooperated nicely and we only had to make one cut for the whole room. (other than cutting some boards in half so that all the join lines didn't match up). This made for a VERY easy install and we had the rest of the floor in in less than 20 min. The floor made a HUGE difference in the look of the kitchen.

Once we had our floor in we were ready to hang cabinets. First we drew a level line with dad's nifty laser level and secured a 2x4 along that line to help us hold the cabinets nice and level. then we had to attach the boards on the wall that we were going to secure the cabinets onto. Once those two things were done, we were ready to start hanging! I know from the pictures, it looks like Dad did all the work while I photographed him, but really I helped with everything and only paused occasionally to snap a few for my little demo documentary. ANY-way, we hung the 4 cabinets on one side of the room, then we started all over again on the other side. The 2 we had hung last week were crooked, so we did the 2x4 trick on that side too to get them all nice and even. So we rehung 2 cabinets and hung 2 more. Now ALL the wall cabinets are up! Jon came home from work as we were hanging the very last wall cabinet, so now we had extra hands!

Once we finished that we didn't stop, no we moved on to the base cabinets. We had a 3 inch gap on that side, but since we were not connecting any cabinets to one side of the lazy Susan (the fridge goes on that side) we decided to modify it and pull it out further from the wall than necessary, now we have no gap to fill in the cabinets, and as a bonus, the cabinet lines up with the front of the fridge instead of being 3ish inches back. We screwed all the base cabinets for the "new" side of the kitchen together and then we made our shopping list for this evening.

It was around 5:20ish when we finally took a break and headed over to Nana's house for pizza. Once dinner was done, Jon took the kids home for bedtime and Dad and I headed once again to Home Depot to spend more money.
We spend a few hours in HD getting (cross your fingers) all the rest of the supplies we needed for this remodel. We got light fixtures, a sink, a faucet, plumbing things, granite tiles and the things we need to install it (cement board, plywood, mortar, grout, spacers, screws) and other misc things. My feet and wallet were hurting by this time so we checked out and got them to bring our last 2 cabinets out to us from will-call. Everything just BARELY fit in the minivan. Then off to home to unload tools from the car Jon drove home in, a little discussion on what needed to be done tomorrow before Dad came over to plumb and now order the backsplash tile and blogging before falling into bed and falling into a blissful sleep. I am so tired! I am really excited about the work we did today, and can't wait to see what we can accomplish tomorrow!

Thursday... almost there!

2011-05-26T19:39:00.002-06:00

So we are hoping to have just about the whole kitchen done by Monday, and things seem to be moving along quite nicely. Yesterday Jon was feeling awful with his allergies. He couldn't' breathe and felt general cruddy so he called in sick for today. I ended up going to Kroger's at 11pm to get him some medicine so he could try to sleep.

Today he felt a little bit better, but he decided that, sick or not, he was gonna help as much as he could. We started out researching sinks. The beautiful sink I had originally bought and paid for still hadn't arrived (2 weeks later) so I called the company and found out that it was back ordered until JUNE 27th! That would have been nice to know 2 weeks ago when I still had time to find and order a new sink! Needless to say that was a little long to be without a sink in my new kitchen so I canceled the order and began searching for a new sink. Jon and I finally decided that we would have to give up the idea of a specially made corner sink and go with something different. We ended up choosing a one basin sink that was nice and deep and would fit in the corner spot I had created in my kitchen plans. It ended up being $150 cheaper than my original sink, so that is nice on the budget. Although we also had to choose a new faucet for the new design of sink and the one we liked was $50 MORE than the first one, we still came out $100 less on the budget.

We headed over to Home Depot around 10am, We wanted to see the sinks before committing We also chose the second cabinet color and fixed some errors in the cabinet order. We managed to fit all the remaining wall cabinets in the van so we left Home Depot with a since of accomplishment and a full trunk.
After our trip to the store we headed over to Chick-fil-a. I had promised the kids that if they behaved at HD that I would let them go to an indoor playground (it was raining) so they choose C-f-a. We all had lunch then we headed home to put Wes to bed and get some work done.

Jon worked on covering the beam we exposed with drywall and filling in the gap in the wall by the fridge, also left when we pulled out the wall. I worked on emptying the kitchen. I had to pull everything out of the kitchen, food, dishes, small appliances, everything! That took a good long while but I still had time to start mudding Jon's new drywall before taking Ella to Karate. Once she was done, we stopped at home depot AGAIN! to get a drill bit that would work for the screws that were holding the old cabinets on the wall. While we were gone, Jon had scraped the rest of the popcorn off the ceiling and called to ask for some ceiling paint as well. Once home we pulled the cabinets off the wall, and then Jon painted the ceiling while I worked some more on the mudding and taping. At 6 we took a break to go eat dinner at Nana's house. THANKS MOM!

When we got back it was bed time for the kiddo's so we did that, then we needed to empty the van so I could pick up yet more stuff from Home Depot tomorrow. While I was carrying one of the wall cabinets, i tripped over something and fell hard... right on top of the cabinet. I skinned both my knees, both my elbows, the tops of several of my toes and since I fell on the cabinet, I also bruised my rib area when I hit the edge on my way down. Unfortunately the cabinet fared as badly as I did, one side popped partly off, two of the edges were damaged and of course, it fell doors down on to the concrete, so they got scratched as well. Jon thinks we can still use the cabinet, he hammered the side back in, the edges won't show, and he thinks we can sand out the scratches. Ugh, I knew things were going too well! Now I hurt!
I decided to work through the pain and I finished all the mudding of the drywall. Now I just have to sand and paint it once it dries. Tomorrow, Jon has to go to work but Dad is coming over and we are going to try to get a bunch done. I can't wait to see the final product!