When Mama's Happy, Everyone's Happy

So this week I have had a new ambition.....to turn off the darn T.V. and become a better wife, mother, and homemaker. Yes, much of my blame goes directly to that 56" enormous television that sits in my family room. I turn that thing on and it just sucks me in for the rest of the day. Good heavens, I don't know what I would do without my DVR!!! It's almost as bad as my addiction to PEPSI(which I am just not ready to give up yet). I really need to limit my recordings to General Hospital, Dr. Phil, Oprah, Dancing With the Stars, Biggest Loser.....STOP, STOP, STOP! That is only half of my recordings list! You can see that this has gotten out of hand. Now instead of going directly for the remote each morning I am going to turn on some good music-Micheal Buble is my current favorite-and get started doing something productive. I know this will make my life easier which will make my family's life easier. I cannot create the atmosphere I desire in my home if my attention is on things that really don't matter. It has been a couple of days since this new mindset set in and so far so good. I've been playing games with my kids, doing puzzles, reading, and my kitchen has stayed clean...which is a miracle!

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?

So, in my efforts to become a better housewife, I woke up this morning and made blueberry muffins.....right out of the box. Unfortunately, I should have allowed myself an extra 1/2 hour because we were racing out the door to make it in time for preschool. They must have been good because here is all that was left. My day didn't stop there, since I am also trying to be thrifty I decided to start a little craft project. Is it illegal to recreate crafts you see at, lets say, Quilted Bear? Well, I did this little project for $0 because I had all the supplies I needed at home. First I asked Robbie to cut three blocks of 2x4 to my desired lengths from a piece of scap wood.

Canyon was very helpful. He sanded the wood with me to make it smooth so we wouldn't get any slivers.

Then he helped me paint just the front of the blocks. I'm really not sure how his dad would feel about his involvement in making "crafts" but his interest stopped here so there is no need to worry.

Then I printed off the words I was to paint onto the blocks. I cut these letters out so I could trace them onto the blocks. That took some time......

.....but not as long as it took to hand paint the letters. After I painted on the words I sanded over the entire thing to rough it up.

I painted a little saltbox house on the small block and stack them like this. I thought they turned out perfect. Now I just need to find the perfect place to display them.

My next project is to do something with this old wash tin I found out in the field. Any suggestions?

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman

We all know Spiderman's true identity now.....ITS ROCKY!!! Today he had his preschool Halloween party and here are him and Maggie in their little parade they had for the mommy's and daddy's. I'm not sure why he's not wearing his mask, it's probably best.....he probably would have tripped trying to see! All of the costumes were adorable. Thank you to Miss LuAnn and Miss Hailey for being such wonderful teachers. There are twenty-five 3 year olds in the class, how they manage it is beyond me. But Rocky is loving every bit of it as long as Maggie is by his side.
After their little parade the children stood on the steps to sing a Halloween song they had been practicing. You can see Rocky and Maggie found a spot right by the front door to stand. They were holding hands...so cute. They are great cousins.

Fall Project #1

Here is my beloved OLD changing table I found at the DI for only $20. My original plans were to use it as a potting bench out in my yard. I decided to bring it in to protect it from the weather over the fall/winter and found that it fit perfectly in the little nook by the door to our garage. I wasn't a big fan of the wood finish so I decided to paint it red, my favorite color. I like things that look old and worn so I took some sand paper to the corners and edges. I don't really care for the hardware on it but I think it is probably original so I am going to leave it. After all was done I shined it up a bit, added a couple accessories and I think it looks GREAT!

I have a whole list of projects I'd like to accomplish this season including painting my interior doors chocolate brown instead of white. I'm not sure if it will work, what do you think?

Halloween 09

Yay! It's Halloween! For some reason I just love this holiday. Maybe it's not the holiday I love, maybe it's the season. Life just seems to move slower this time of year. Here is a little peek and my boys costumes this year. Sawyer is my little Charlie Brown. He's not bald, his hair is just so blond that I was able to draw a face on the back of his head.
Canyon wanted to be Indiana Jones this year and Rocky wanted to be Spiderman, AGAIN!

Grandpa Rules!

Up and ready for the big trip. Grandpa Dean is so nice to take the whole family to Disneyland, we wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise. All the grandkids had matching "My Grandpa Rules" shirts to wear in the airport.Waiting for our flight. I was nerous. Nervous to fly and nervous that my kids would be terrible on the plane. I didn't need to be for either, we made it safely and my kids were angels.
Rocky and Grandpa Dean.

The cutest bunch in the airport.

Disneyland

We were so excited to finally be at Disneyland and couldn't wait to enter that gate.Rocky, Maggie, Sawyer, and Canyon and Mr. Rabbits house.
Rocky loved the teacups.

But any ride that went inside he kept his eyes shut.

A Day With Canyon

The best idea we had was to take my mom along for the trip. She was so much help with the kids. Our second day of Disneyland she voluteered to stay in the hotel with Rocky and Sawyer for the first half of the day so we could spend some time with Canyon riding what he wanted to ride. His favorites were Indiana Jones and Star Tours, my two favorites too. Here are Robbie and Canyon in Tarzans Tree House.
The three of us in line for Indiana Jones.

We took Canyon over to California Adventures and rode the Tower of Terror. I have to say this is one of my favorite rides ever. So FuN! Canyon didn't like it too much though. Anything that gives him that tickly feeling in his stomach he doesn't like. We're too cheap to buy the picture so here is a picture of the picture. Canyon doesn't look too happy. The next day a mom was trying to convince her daughter to go on the ride and I told Canyon to tell her he went on it and instead he told her, "Don't listen to them, I hated it, don't do it, you won't like it."

Califonia Adventures

It was nice to get a break from Disneyland and walk across to California Adventures. It wasn't nearly as busy so we were able to ride much more rides. There faster they spin the better for these guys. And here we were able to find some rides that Rocky could actually enjoy.
They had the cutest parade and we had a front row seat.

Kami's back hurt so she rented a Jazzi. Robbie took this picture to be funny. I think I'll put it in black and white with the Jazzi in color.

Here are me, Sawyer, and Maggie riding the caterpillar.

The Beach

After our 3 day tour of Disneyland we headed south to San Diego. We made a quick stop at the beach on the way. Canyon really liked this and he and his dad found many sea shells which we brought home. I love the beach and if I could have been more prepared with an umbrella and some beach towels I could have spent the whole day. There were camp sites there and me and Robbie think maybe sometime we'll go back.

All Robbie needs is a tan to go with his smokin' body! He is so modest I just want to give him a hard time. lol

All the dirty, sandy kids. I think it was worth it.

Legoland

Our first day in San Diego we went to LegoLand and I'm so glad we did because I think it was the hit of the trip for my boys.Everything was constructed out of Legos there, the Las Vegas Strip, New York City, Mt. Rushmore, Washington D.C. ...... This was probably the favorite ride. I call it a mini Tower of Terror. Canyon actually liked this one. There were no lines at LegoLand and so the ride operator let us ride over and over without having to get off.

There were Lego tables everywhere where the kids could play and build too. They would have been happy and content to do this all day.

Final Day in San Diego

Let me tell you, by Saturday I was exhausted so I don't know how I got out of bed to do this peddle boat ride around our hotel. I guess if there is a chance to get a break from the kids you have to take it. Here is Rick and Randy ahead of us. They were cruisin'. It was beautiful outside with the fog coming off the water and the temperature was perfect. We even seen some wild life on our peddling trip. We peddled under a bridge where this bird was sitting and I caught a picture of him taking flight. The most exciting moment was when a sea lion surfaced in front of us catching a fish. This happened several times and it was pretty cool.

Here is the only picture I took at Sea World. Me and Canyon in a photo booth. In an effort to keep my camera dry I had it tucked away for safe keeping. And my boys had had it with the camera too. We had a blast at the Shamoo show and Sea Lion and Otter show. I am amazed at how smart those whales are.