I Love Halloween

Our family has been enjoying the holiday preparations - Bryan bought the girls new Halloween shirts, which they seem to enjoy :)

We have also been "ghosting it forward" by giving treats to our neighbors. You also give them a ghost and a poem that tells them to make more ghosts and poems to leave with the goodies - then you knock and run - or "ding dong ditch." Notice Dad and Tori in their black hats? They were the runners and Laeni and I were in the getaway car. Tori had TONS of fun (until the 2nd night she lost her hat and started screaming to go back and Bry was trying to cover her mouth so the family, who was now on their front porch, couldn't figure out who they were :) We had to do a drive-by later to pick up the evidence.

Bry really wanted to help decorate, so reluctantly, I gave him charge over the eyeball cookies. He did a very good job....I might make a pastry chef assistant out of him yet! Tori was also helping on the eyeball cookies.

We made Frankenstein, eyeballs, Jack-O-Lanterns, and a skeleton face. SOOOOO FUN!

After our work, this is how we play - eat some of our wares! Tori chose the Frankenstein so she could eat his Pez candy :)

Laeni did so well in the getaway car that she was also rewarded with some loot - her very first cookie...not sure how much she actually ate since she was COVERED with crumbs - even stuffed into her belly button. hehehehehe - gross. Getting ready for Halloween is so fun.

Today we are actually staying inside, or at least close to home all day as I try to get Tori potty trained. Training began at 8am with "baby" learning how to potty on the toilet, then it was Tori's turn. Until about 1:30 pm we had 1 accident and 1 kind of good shot. I think #2 was suck on her bottom cheeks and fell into the toilet, so we counted that as going potty in the toilet (her frog toilet). We had a big celebration. Now she's taking a nap with a pull up...we'll see if she can go again...I am finding it difficult to pump the liquids through her so she'll have to go. She refuses to drink...hmmm.


Over General Conference weekend, we went to the cabin in Island Park to close it up. Bryan's parents were already there, so we spent some time with them and then they left for home. We went into Yellowstone for a day and then did a little hike one of the days.

Driving through the park, I kept hoping to see a bear or a moose, preferably both...but taking a back road, we caught a GREAT look at a bear. This is my shot before I edited my photo. We were this close-ish.

The Mighty Shirleys taking a break mid-hike. Gotta love these days!

Hey Diddle Diddle...

...Kristen and her fiddle (full of paint)...she painted the cow over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such sport as she painted in a very dark room. (The power went out as She painted the tree...but with flashlight, she prevailed and finished!) Our playroom is so awesome - here are a few shots of Kristen's artwork...needless to say, we owe her BIG! It's great to have talented family members :)

The photos you see are as you walk in to the playroom from the family room (left to right). Kristen said she was going to come back with her vinal lettering and put some words up and the numbers on the clock - but I'm too excited to wait to show everyone (including Bryan - I told him he'd have to wait until he came back from hunting, but I'm a sucker!)

I'll be honest, the pictures don't do justice to the art, especially since I couldn't stand back far enough to get each wall as a whole....but enjoy anyway!


That dish and spoon are running as fast as their legs can go!


Baa Baa Black Sheep does have 3 bags full of wool. (Curly wool if you can see it - ol' Humpty doesn't seem too mad since he doesn't get any for his shiny head!)

2 Little Dicky Birds keeping Humpty company - and the itsy bitsy spider is trying to climb up the water spout - he began he journey after the photo was taken.

The clock may strike one, but it will also keep real time if you watch real close (it's a real clock time piece coming through the wall). I tried to sneak a peek, but the mouse running down is really good, cause I haven't caught him once.

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!"