crafty

i really like to make things, i do i do! the other day a couple friends and i got together (with kids in tow:) at my house to do some crafting...(we missed you alacey)! we made this countdown, so cute...it was fun and just a little bit stressful to coordinate all those papers on the blocks for the numbers:)



i have used mod podge before but i have a new found love for it now. i want to mod podge lots of things now! so fun!

we also made these jar lanterns...i wanted to do this last Halloween but didn't have enough jars saved and it just never got done. since last year, i've been saving jars!!! so i had MANY jars to choose from so we all could do a few. it is a fun craft and quick, just have to wait for drying time. i have seen A LOT of these around the blog world too, green ones for Frankenstein, white ghosts, purple witches...all very cute! but i stuck with the pumpkins:) i have seen them done with tissue paper and for the life of me, i went to three or four different places and couldn't find orange tissue paper so we painted ours and they worked out just great! go here for templates for faces if you don't want to do your own...


i just printed out the faces and then mod podged them on, no fancy vinyl or anything, and it looks just great to me! the kids love them lit up:)

the baby got a haircut...

this is before..i don't have a great "after" shot...and he's resting right now but he looks great:)



he did a great job and didn't even cry! he had just gotten up from a nap so he was a little groggy:) my sweet SIL elise cut all the kid's hair that day and avery cried during hers way more than blake did:)

Reunion...

LOTS OF PICTURES!

the reunion was really great. we went to WA on wednesday and it rained and rained but i loved it! i miss all that rain to be honest! kendall, however, does not miss it, but i love it:) so we spent the days leading up to friday just getting ready and going to the fair that was going on in Puyallup. blake was a total trooper and really traveled well. he was fascinated with long sleeves and long pants, though! that was really funny to me...he kept plucking at his pajamas and pants, and couldn't figure out the socks! too cute:)

This was outside the restaurant Steamers...almost to Gig Harbor...AWESOME bread bowl clam chowder! loved it! (definitely NOT my best moment here in this picture..yikes!)

This was outside the Goodwill (where we found a sweet Hawaiian shirt for one of the funny awards we gave away) but the irony of the sign is that it was raining...shorts and tank tops 40% off??? awesome.

This is outside of our high school...love those rams!

kendall was lucky enough to be standing near this GINORMOUS pumpkin (weighed almost 800lbs) and was asked to help rotate and tip it up so the guy could carve it...awesome!


isn't it just beautiful? i think it is!

blake at the fair...he was just a bit grumpy that day, doesn't he look cute? those are some of my favorite pants that ethan wore...love them!


we made a nest for him on the other bed in our hotel room...a couple of days after we'd been there i could hear him waking up from his nap but i didn't go over, i just wanted to see what he would do and he didn't disappoint...he put his arm straight up in the air (he was still laying down in his "nest") and started waving. he did this twice before he rolled over and peeked out and that was this picture...

for the actual reunion we had it at a place called The Varsity Grill in Tacoma. Nice place, upstairs, lots of tables, we had a slide show, music, funny awards, good food, and great friends! it was so good to see those people again! there were quite a few that i wish had come but have moved farther away so maybe we can hook up with them later!


our good friend mandy, i just love that girl! she is so sweet and one of those people that you just pick right back up with after so long! she's wonderful!

a whole slew of wonderful people! we all look like grown up versions of our high school selves...pretty funny really:)

so all in all, a great trip! my parents were wonderful taking care of the kids, they had a blast! we had to detox avery though when we came back...apparently nana sharon (my mom)let her sneak some sips of diet coke...and probably ethan too...whew...but we've switched her to root beer and she's done well:)

they gave blaker a name tag...so cute. that sweet child slept through almost the entire reunion and we didn't go back to the hotel until 12:30 am and then he went to sleep at the hotel...bless him!

longest post EVER i know but this has to be said:


obviously the best thing i took away from high school was kendall and his family, now my family. (here pictured with our good friend, Joe) i met kendall the summer before 10th grade and we became good friends and then started dating in junior year. kendall has a wonderful sister, kate, that i think is awesome, a fabulous brother who is married to a wonderful girl elise (who cuts our hair! what will we do when you leave us for UT?) and amazing parents (happy birthday Kara!) not to mention equally fantastic grandparents...to sum up, the family i married into is great, but it all started in high school and i am grateful that i am with him every single day! thank you honey for being my love, then and now:)

When company comes to town...

I tend to look at things with a more critical eye you know? my mom and dad came to watch our kids last Tuesday so we could go to our high school reunion (10 years) in Washington State. That was super duper nice of them! I have such great parents! (and in laws, but that's another post:))

This is a project I'd wanted to do for a while but hadn't gotten around to...so I made it a priority knowing my parents were on their way!



I bought a body pillow when I was pregnant with...Blake, I think...it was huge and orange...not super pretty. In fact I never got much use out of it, it didn't really help me that much when sleeping, so it has been in ethan's closet for a while and he drags it out to play camping, or sleepover or whatever.

We recently changed the cover on our futon to a ticking stripe and it definitely needed pillows...enter body pillow makeover!



I cut the body pillow up and made the two longer pillows (sewing the cut edges of the orange pillow together to prevent any stuffing leaking out). What I had left after getting them the size I wanted was bits and strips and pieces...and I was out of time..so the "W" pillow is actually a pillow we previously used but don't any more...I think they turned out really nice. the floral is an old sheet and if anyone sees another one of these sheets at a thrift store or yard sale, please buy it for me and I will pay you back...I ADORE these flowers...for whatever reason they speak to me. I make some reusable shopping bags with the fabric and then wanted to use it here as well.


I finished the backs with an "envelope" style closure and thank heavens for binding because it was so much easier to just sew that on the raw edges than taking the time to finish it otherwise.


Close up of my favorite flowers...they just make me happy...it's a good thing!

pillowcases done...

the pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer through Craft Hope are done! i ended up with 10...they were just so fun to cut out and sew up! i even got my little cub scouts in on it! they each made one for one of our meetings...so fun!



here they are in all their glory! it was really fun to make these and i like knowing that they will hopefully help some kids feel happier:)



on a different note: the kids like to pretend they are squirrels and store away food for winter...this is what they came up with today....





very organized, they were even taking an inventory on pieces of paper (they drew shapes of the food and stuff they got out:)) so cute...we left it that way for as long as i could stand it (a couple hours) and then around lunch time it was time to clean up! luckily the squirrels are good cleaners too!


and here's a question for the ages...which tootsie roll is actually a "midgee"? we are on a tootsie roll kick around here...we all really like them...i bought a bag of "midgees" the other day and they were large. then i bought a bag of "midgees" today and they were the small kind...interesting thought...

WIPs

(works in progress...or work in progress if you only had one but i never have just one...)

**sling for friend who just had a baby

**reusable snack bags for my sister

**pillowcases for Craft Hope: Project 9 ConKerr Cancer

**cover for pillows for the futon

**hem kendall's pants

**new halloween treat bags for the kids

hmmm...that's all for now...

First Day...

ethan had his first day of Apple Blossom Preschool on Tuesday. he goes tues, wed, thurs and it is from noon until 2:30...definitely an adjustment for all of us! we just have to work the naps a bit during those days. and get a carpool going so i don't have to wake up baby and avery to go pick him up! here he is at his table at preschool...


i just realized that i didn't have any pictures of blake in the bath! that's criminal! but i just don't bring my camera upstairs and usually he's sharing a bath with a sibling and sharing or not...obviously not a good idea to leave baby in the bathtub alone but this day i remembered! i got lots but this one was the cutest "modest" one, if you get my drift...


after baths ethan was playing this game with blake to try to get the socks to stay on blake's head...pretty funny and of course they both loved it! it's so cute to watch how much they like each other...really we have been so blessed that all of our kids like each other at this point...we'll wait and see how they feel about one another when they are all teens together...

on a different note...i have my 10 year high school reunion coming up next week. kendall is in charge of it (being the president of the class for all three years...such an overachiever!) and i am "on the committee" so i get to help:) i am excited i think...my parents are coming to stay with the kiddos minus baby--we'll take him with us, so i'm excited for my parents to come but i just hope people will come to the reunion...so if you are from Rogers Class of '00 you should come!!!!!! cause i have to! come party down...

Mockingjay

i just finished Mockingjay...the third book in the Hunger Games series. i liked it a lot. it has been a while since i read Catching Fire so i had to struggle to remember a few things but i thought this book was well done. i might have liked a little more on the "love story" especially at the end (that doesn't give anything away right? we all know there's a love story:)) but i did really like it. have you read it? did you like it?