My calendar has suddenly opened up a bit

About four years ago on a Saturday morning Derek and I were attempting to sleep in. We woke up to the sound of the microwave buttons being pushed. We heard:

Beep

Beep

Beep Beep Beep

Beep

Beep Beep

Beep

Beep Beep

Beep


It went on and on, and then we heard the microwave turn on. I quickly ran into the kitchen knowing that my children didn't know how to safely use the microwave. Upon reaching the kitchen I saw sparks and a small flame inside the microwave. I quickly opened the door and blew out the flame.

Ethan had watched while Julia decided to get her own breakfast. She had put some chicken nuggets in the microwave and tried to turn it on to heat them up. The problem was that the chicken nuggets were in a plastic bag closed with a wire twisty tie. They quickly learned the importance of not putting metal in the microwave!

This Saturday I was not awakened by the beep of the microwave, but rather the annoying buzz of my alarm clock. These days it has been even more difficult to sleep in since we have had soccer games that start at 8am on Saturday mornings. This means that we have to be up by 7:15 so we can leave at 7:45. But this Saturday was the last soccer game of the season! Maybe we'll get to sleep in a couple of times before the spring soccer starts up...

Julia riding a bike

This video is from the beginning of the summer. Julia was so close to knowing how to ride her bike. She would only do it on the grass (which is so much harder!) because she wouldn't get hurt if she fell.
She had a little audience this day at the park and they were all clapping and cheering her on.
But then we all became busy and didn't work on it much for most of the summer.



Yesterday she decided that she wanted to ride her bike. So she pulled her bike out while Derek and I were busy doing other things and off she went!

Tagged!

I was tagged by my friend Debi who I haven't seen in forever. I recently found her blog and it has been so fun seeing what she and her cute family have been up to.

A-Attached or Single? Attached
B-Bestfriend? Derek
C-Cake or Pie? Cake with my mom's yummy chocolate frosting, I can never make it taste as good as hers
D-Day of Choice? Saturday-- I get to spend all day with my hubby and kids
E-Essential Item? My purse, it has all of my essentials wherever I go
F-Favorite Color? Green and Blue
G-Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms? Gummy Bears, but chocolate covered cinnamon bears are even better
H-Hometown? Orem, UT
I-Indulgences? Sweets, and spending time on the computer reading and writing blogs-- I'm on here way too much
J-January or July? July, after Christmas winter just lasts way too long
K-Kids 2 funny, crazy, awesome ones
L-Life is incomplete without? My family
M-Marriage Date? March 8, 1996 (yes I was only 19)
N-Number of Siblings? 5 sisters and 2 brothers
O-Oranges or Apples? Apples, but I like them both.
P-Phobias or Fears? Spiders, and losing my husband or kids, I couldn't imagine going through that
Q-Quotes? Learn from yesterday, live for today
R-Reason to Smile? My two sweet kiddos when they're getting along (today they said to me "We're still best buddies!" This means that they're not fighting, which can change in about 2 seconds.
S-Season? Summer and fall
T-Tag 5 People? Consider yourselves all tagged, I don't want to pick. But I won't have my feelings hurt if you don't want to.
U-Unknown Fact? Hmmm, I'll have to think about this one
V-Very Favorite Store? I love shopping wherever, but I will say that I love Target
W-Worst habit? I am impatient, and a procrastinator
X-X-Ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound
Y-Your Favorite Food? Sweets (candy, cake, cookies, you name it)
Z-Zodiac Sign? Gemini

Trying to get a head start on the holidays?

Suzy from Jack and Jill Photography is offering FREE digital Christmas card designs that you can have printed anywhere! You can find more details HERE. There are also some great deals on photo sessions for those of you who live in Utah. It's one less thing to worry about with Christmas fast approaching...

General Conference activity packets

This first packet is one specifically for October 2008.

These packets are so great! I didn't find the one in April until the very last session of conference so I'm excited to have this one early this year. They totally help my kids to behave during conference.
You can find the first one here.

Thanks to Heather for posting it!

And there's another one here.

Enjoy!

The Office starts tonight!

I'm so excited that The Office starts tonight!! With the writer strike last year and then the summer hiatus it seems like we really didn't get our fair share of new episodes. Who else can't wait to start the new season? Yay!

Here's some "best moments" to get you psyched up for tonight:




Oh, I just found this one and had to add it too. Office pranks:

Silhouettes

I just love the silhouettes that Stephanie made and decorated with on the NieNie dialogues. They're so classic!
So I went searching for instructions on how to make them. Here's what I ended up doing.

Take a digital picture of your subject's profile, basically make sure you can see their ear. Print out the photos, and cut them out with small scissors (I started with large scissors and it was much harder to cut out all of the detailed parts).

At this point you can either trace your new stencil onto black paper and cut that out, or paint the original black. I couldn't find any black paper so I opted to paint. And I decided to flip the pictures over, I just like them facing the other way better.

Paint them black.

Let them dry.

And now you have a lovely piece of art ready to frame and hang on the wall.

As my kids say-- easy peasy lemon squeezy!

The skating rink

When I was 8 years old my school had a skating night at Classic skating. I had learned to skate going up and down the sidewalk in front of our house with the roller skates I had received for Christmas, so I wasn't worried about having any trouble at the skating rink. My mom dropped me off and I was so excited. The glitter from the disco ball and the flashing lights filled my whole being with excitement. That night I enjoyed skating with my friends, and I loved the atmosphere of the skating rink with so many schoolmates there. Close to the time when the activity was supposed to come to an end I was knocked over by one of the older boys in attendance. I crashed to the floor hitting my arm on the hard floor. The boy who had knocked me over continued on until hitting my arm and then he tripped and fell as well. That night after going home my arm ached and ached. It was so hard to sleep because of the pain. After school the next day my mom took me to see the doctor where we found out that I had broken my arm.


Last night my own children had a school skating night, at Classic skating. As I walked through the doors nostalgia washed over me, the skating rink looks exactly the same as it did on that night so many years ago. We have attended school skating nights in the past, but I hadn't before thought much about that night. The last time I took my kids to the skating rink they both wore a rented pair of skates and each of them hung on one of my arms the entire time, I was ready to go much earlier than they were. Last night we didn't bother with skates, instead they rode their skooters around and around the rink, and thankfully we didn't have any broken bones to worry about.

Watch this little clip and see if it takes you back in time...

Another sewing project from Friday

When my kids were babies I used a nursing bib from Safety 1st, and it was OK. When we travelled by plane I made Derek hold the side down because the kids would usually kick it off. And it wasn't cute, but it got the job done. But look at these cute nursing ponchos I discovered! I bought one a few years ago to use as a gift and just looking at it I knew it would be simple to make.

It was basically a rectangle of fabric folded in half, sewn together, with a hole for your neck. I've made a few of these the past few years, and now you can make one too! I recommend using a stretchy fabric, I made one that wasn't stretchy and I couldn't move-- I felt like I was in a straightjacket! The first one is a bit bigger, it's great for all of you who are average height. I'm only 5'2" so this one is a bit big on me.

It's similar to the one from here. Start with a rectangle of fabric about 68 inches by 28 inches and fold in half.
The second one is a bit smaller, and would certainly be too small for any considered tall at all.
You can find it here. Start with a rectangle of fabric about 59 inches by 22 inches and fold in half.




When I made one this past spring I went kind of in the middle of these two sizes and was happy with that.

Stretchy fabric is so hard to work with though, I hope it looks OK!

Dusting off the sewing machine

For the last several weeks I've been trying to get around to making a couple of slings for a double baby shower that's coming up for two of my cousins, Ashley and Amy.

Ashley had her baby early so I decided I needed to hurry up and get hers finished right away. So this is what I did most of the day on Friday:




I love doing a ribbon accent on the slings I make, I think it makes them look a lot more interesting and a little like an expensive Oopa. This one is also made to mimic a sakura bloom though-- it is a linen blend and has the same shoulder style (a gathered shoulder). I haven't made one in quite a while but luckily they're not too hard. For the shoulder style I used you can find instructions here.

Old Navy sale

Enter BFF at checkout for free shipping and 20% off your purchase. The website is incredibly slow right now, but if you can wait it out you can get some good deals. Happy shopping! :)

That's my dad

Derek coached Julia's soccer game today. Her teammates were very impressed with his ability to catch the soccer ball backwards.

They said: That's awesome.

Julia said: He's funny too. He's my funny awesome dad.

Yes indeed!

Dinner? Done!

When we received this crockpot for our wedding I thought I would never use it. My mom really didn't use hers and I thought I wouldn't either.

Now I can't live without it. Know what I love about my crockpot? I can put some chicken in at 2:30 before I pick up the kids from school. When they're home we can do homework, take Ethan to Scouts at 4:15, go to Julia's soccer game at 4:45, leave Julia's soccer game at 6:00, pick up Ethan at 6:10, get back at 6:15 and...

DINNER'S DONE!

Tonight was BBQ chicken, SUPER easy!

Throw 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs in the crockpot, salt and pepper, and add KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce (this is my favorite brand anyway) between the layers of chicken. Cook for 3 hours on high or 5 hours on low (our crockpot runs hot).

Serve with instant mashed potatoes and a salad. Yum!

ABC cookies anyone?

Would any of you like some ABC cookies for Christmas this year?

These are great! :)

Oh what do you do in the summertime

(Photo taken in July)

Oh what do you do in the summertime

When all the world is green

Do you sell popsicles

To all the kind souls

Who stop instead of driving on by...

Is that what you do?

So do I.

Julia, reporting to you live from Orem, Utah

Julia is on a big journal writing kick. The other night in Target she kept wanting to stop so she could write another thing she had done in her journal. Being the impatient person that I am I didn't stop nearly as much as she wanted.
Last night she interviewed each of us and then wrote the results in her journal. She asked each of us what we were scared of. It looked something like this:
Scared of
Mom- spiders
Dad- heights
Ethan- robbers
Julia- robbers

I love that she likes writing!
If I can find her journal maybe I can scan it and add it later, stay tuned. :)
Update-- she has hidden her journal from me (she says she knows where it is but won't tell me) so I guess there will be no scanning of the journal for now.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my wonderful Mom's birthday. When I was a kid I always took my mom for granted. It wasn't until I became a mother myself that I began to realize all that she did and still does for me! When I was growing up she was at every recital, play, concert, etc, supporting me. She always made sure that I got my homework done, that I practiced (piano or violin depending on how old I was), worked on my personal progress for church, and got everything done that I was supposed to get done. I never would have earned my Young Womanhood medallion if it wasn't for my mom. I always felt like I was a top priority in her life. Thanks mom, for everything !!!


Oh, and Devin I really didn't forget your birthday, I just don't have any birthday pictures of you to post since you guys live in Africa. But I hope you had a great birthday a couple of weeks ago too. And you too Emily this Saturday!

Sunday's harvest

The corn was perfect, the watermelon not quite ripe, and we somehow grew giant broccoli...

Extra secure

I guess Ethan was concerned about getting home from Stake Conference safely on Sunday. (Excuse the large wad of gum in his mouth!)

National news coverage on NieNie

There was a story on the Today Show today, you can watch the clip here.

And the story was also in the New York Times, read it here.

It's that time of year

This is my calendar.

Would you like to know how many times the word "soccer" is on my calendar this month? Well I'll tell you anyway..... 26 times. (And there are people with more kids in soccer than us, how do they do it?) For the next six weeks our lives will revolve around soccer practices, soccer games, and soccer treats.

My favorite part of last season was during one of Julia's games. Both teams were crowded around the ball and suddenly we heard from somewhere in the middle "Get out of the way, I'm trying to kick the ball!" Everyone burst out laughing.

The rules of childrens' soccer are very simple, basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn’t move, kick it until it does.

Bleach art???

Since the weather has gotten a little cooler I've started thinking about Halloween. It will be here before we know it! The kids have put a little bit of thought into which costumes they would like, I think we'll have to make both of their costumes.

I have also thought about the kind of fun Halloween shirt I'd like to wear for Halloween. I don't usually dress up but I do like to wear a Halloween themed shirt. I pictured in my mind exactly what it should look like, and then I started doing an internet search for it.

I was thinking of something pretty close to this:

(Which can be found here.) This cool shirt was done with bleach art!!

Of course I googled bleach art to find out more about it. I loved all the different pictures on this site. Lots of great ideas!

I had also recently heard about using freezer paper to make a stencil, and then painting a shirt with fabric paint. (Freezer paper will adhere to fabric when it is ironed, just cut it into your desired shapes, iron, and paint with fabric paint--it will peel right off when you're done.)

I think I will try to make a shirt similar to this one with freezer paper and bleach. Stay tuned for the results. (It may take a few days, I'm pretty busy with necklace orders right now and my house is a mess too.)

There's a new baby in our neighborhood

My cousin Ashley moved into our ward around a year ago. It has been lots of fun having her here! And today I got to go visit her and Nate and their sweet new baby girl. She wasn't supposed to be born for another month but she is doing just fine. Baby Kayley is 6 lbs 4 oz, and 19 inches long. She has lots of hair and is so cute!! Best wishes to Ashley and Nate!

Giveaway

I'm doing a necklace giveaway on my shop blog this week. For a chance to win go comment on the "Giveaway" post there.

These are the 2 most popular necklaces: