Mom's miracles

Hello...A lot has happened since the last post, we went on a family (bi-family) trip to Yellowstone (which I will post about later). But most recently, my mom was in town for a couple of weeks while Bry was in Bolivia. She not only watched the lil' girls during the day, she stayed up VERY late, or I should say until the very early morning hours sewing curtains. I picked the design and mom went to work. For those of you who don't know my mom - she is one of the most talented people I know. If she can see something, she can recreate it. I'm not sure what my girls are going to do when they ask me to do crafty stuff like make curtains - they'll be S.O.L!

Anyway, here are some photos of our new home :) Thanks MOM!!!

Curtain in the living room, with matching pillows that my mom covered.

Large kitchen window curtain. (The big photo didn't show the fabric as well.)

Small kitchen window covering. Please ignore the clean dishes drying in the sink.

The girl's room, actually, if you look close, you can see tori sleeping in her bed :)

Our bedroom. We thought it would be cool to get a branch for the curtain rod. My friend Mary happened to have one from her apple tree. Ask and ye shall receive. I scraped all the bark off (well, almost all of the bark) and then voila'. I should mention that I told my mom we could just use all of the scraps and make a little quilt looking valance - not really having a plan, I came home from work and my mom had sketched her own little plan which was to match the bed quilt. So, basically, the curtain is a quilt, just really long and little. A LOT of work, but sooooo awesome! Thanks again Mommacita.


Several posts back, I highlighted my shelf and mentioned that I would be making blocks...well, here they are! After this photo was taken, I also made some blocks of the girls photos and me and Bry on our wedding day. They turned out pretty cute, although I am re-doing the girls' photos since they are black and white and too dark for my taste.

(I'm too lazy to take and download another picture, so please just imagine it)

Let Freedom Ring...Again

Having the 4th of July on a Sunday in Utah means 3 days of celebration!

Saturday we watched the fireworks, Sunday we went to church to give thanks and Monday we went to the Freedom Festival Parade and had a family cook out up at Grandma and Grandpa Shirley's house with everyone but J and Jan's family...hopefully we will ALL be able to be together very soon!

Here are some more pics of the girls - Tori sitting with the big girls watching the parade. Laeni just chillin' on dad's lap. Such a cute little girl! Can't resist those cheeks!

Bry and the girls (every photo Bry took with me and the girls turned out like poo, so none of me - as the author of these posts, I can play favoritism!)

Shelby's creation - a delicious flag! GREAT job Shelby - you made a masterpiece!

Happy Independence Day and other Delights

The photo above was taken on the 4th of July - what dolls. The remaining photos are of other outings and random shots - of course of the girls! Grateful for my freedoms to have my daughters, to be able to go on outings, to take photos and to be able to share my family with you. Grateful for those that have fought for these (and thousands more) freedoms.

May God bless America - and may we allow it!

Enjoy the pics...

Gotta love this lil' family o' mine!

Happy Father's Day Daddy

Last year was the 1st annual Father's Day Video and this year we made another one for daddy. It turned out ok, but definately not as emotional as last year (maybe because I wasn't pregnant while making this year's edition :) Either way, I think this video turned out fun too.

Happy Father's Day Bryan and THANK you for all you do for our little family - all of your girls are sad when you're not here...We love you and want to thank you for all you do to make life easier on us. It's just wouldn't be the same without you ...you make everything a whole lot easier and fun! THANK YOU!

After 3 failed attempts, apparently the video isn't going to load...sorry.

Happy Mother's Day to me

For months I have been telling Bry that I was going to make or buy a shelf for the giant wall we have going downstairs. He told me to wait and he'd make one. We have been focusing all of our creative energy on finishing the downstairs and so the aesthetics of the main floor have been at a stand-still. I was going to work on my own shelf, but my lovely hubby made one for me for mother's day. The shelf idea was to hang the girl's pictures on and if you notice the larger fram at the end of the hall - that was part of the stair/wall fix up. Ideally, the picture will be of our family, but we didn't have a photo big enough landscape...we had this cute one of Laeni, so there you have it.

On top of the shelf will look nothing like you see in the photo, Bryan wanted to put something up there, so he gathered what he could find. I am in the process of making blocks that spell out Family. Photo to eventually come...

In addition, we painted an accent wall the same color as the shelf and so that meant I needed to white wash the mirror frame that was there. I'm happy about the "re-model" of the family room.

Here are my little cuties sleeping - the pride of my motherhood :) I LOVE these little dolls and feel so grateful that they are growing with us! Every night I want to get a picture of them sleeping cause they are so stinkin' cute, but here is just one of each of them. Tori as she's in bed for the night and Laeni taking a nap.

We went to the aquarium last week and got a few pics of the adventure. It was fun.

It's SO FUNNNNNNNN being a mom. Hard, yes, but mostly fun and silly and rewarding and happy and giggly and tickley and all the other good stuff in between. Only hard to correct bad behaviors that crop up.

Happy Mother's Day to me because it is "HAPPY-NESS!"

Tori's 2nd Shindig..and the basement

For those of you that couldn't come to Tori's birthday Elmo Party, I am giving you a play by play so you can feel like you were there :) When my mom asked me how the party way, I said, "It was AWESOME!!" Then she asked how Tori liked it :) I had been looking forward to it for some time...but I think Tori liked it too :)

The invitation was on red paper and had a photo of Elmo with presents on the front...on the inside it said:

It's a Party!!

Tori's turning 2 and she's inviting YOU!

What: An Elmo Party

When: Saturday

Time: 2:00-2:45-ish

Where: Tori's house (and address)

We hope you can come and hav some cake, come at 2:00 and don't be late!

Don't worry about gifts, your presence is best, come on Saturday for an Elmo-fest!

We started out coloring an Elmo coloring sheet (thanks to sesamestreet.org) and we were going to use that same sheet to pin the nose on Elmo after everyone was ready. Tori's new little table in the corner of the photo actually came in very handy...I'm just not sure if she realizes it was for her birthday too...
Pin the nose on Elmo. The older kids were blindfolded...the wee ones just tried to pin the nose in the right place! We did this downstairs in the playroom...the kids also were able to play in the playhouse.

Then it was back upstairs for Elmo cake, ice cream and Elmo juice. The cake didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined, but the photo looks alright...

Make a wish! Actually, it was more like...blow out the candles Tori...blow...like this....whhhhhh...Tori, blow out the candles...blow...blow...(I finally just blew them out)

YUM! Chocolate cake with fresh strawberries (Tori's fav) and whipped cream. And Elmo juice.

Then it was off to presents, although I mentioned not to worry about bringing anything, she received LOADS of fun stuff.

After presents, the kids decorated Elmo cupcakes, took an Elmo balloon (not pictured) and an Elmo coloring sheet and went home. It was a BLAST!

Tori in her new Elmo jammies...boy jammies yes, but none of us care since Elmo in on the front! :)


Photos of the downstairs...

This is the outside of the playhouse. The shutters turned out great thanks to Bryan! It was fun to have it finished by Tori's party cause the kids were able to play inside!

The view of the basement looking into the playroom...we're hoping Kristen will be willing to paint nursery rhymes on the wall). The rock wall and hearth were accomplished due to Bryan's hard work. I helped with the grout because of my super piping skills. The woodburning stove is still in the garage, but it will go in the open space :) I think a piece of fuzz is floating by the mantle! If you look close at the carpet in front of the wooden door, you'll notice the carpet changes color....apparently our carpet was the end of the roll and the color faded really good...too bad it wasn't under the archway...the carpet guys are coming again in a week or so to rip up this carpet and put the new stuff down (hopefully one color). As you look at the photos and wonder why we haven't decorated...mostly it's because of the upcoming removal, but also because since Friday, when it was installed, we haven't had a lot of time. We're just happy that it's finally done...well, almost.

A look at the top of Laeni's head and the windowsill. Bryan did a fabulous job on the pine piece above the 1/4 log sill. You'll have to come to our house to get a good look!

Here is a video at Tori's birthday party. This is mostly for Grandma Francis. I tried to get a video of Tori for Grandma Shirley, but Bryan took her tiger music maker away just as I was filming...sorry.

Spring Fun

What a cute girl with a sporty mohawk!

Dying Easter Eggs...Tori even sampled the vinegar.

Easter Egg hunt at Kim's house...each kidlet got 40 eggs!!!! (We are counting them to be sure we didn't go over our quota!)

Before the hunt...we had gone to one earlier in Payson, but the other kids' parents were OUT of control...swiping as many eggs as they could get their hands on. Let the kids have a lil fun! Kim's house was much more calm...plus this time we dressed Tori a LOT warmer (notice the snow pants - it was blizzard the following day!)

Trying to go potty...she likes to sit and try to push something out, but the best we've had was a toot.

Tori sporting her Easter dress, the week before Easter, when it was actually sunny!

Dad and the girls

Tori sampling daddy's salad "Cami's special salad"