I should go to bed!

I took a really long nap today so I am not tired. I am also in need of a birthday present for my mother in law. So I put the two together and took the time to make this.

I got the idea from Noodle Head. I really like how it turned out except for the top corners where I messed up on the way the zipper lays and then I am not sure how I messed up but the inside of the zipper catches on the fabric. SO... I can't decide if I will keep this one and make another one for the MIL or just give her this one and wish her luck?

Happy Birthday Miss Belle!

She's 3! Can you believe it? I can't? And you know the thing that surprises me most is that there is no baby sibling to follow her. I know we are done but for some reason that is still just really weird to me that she is the last child I will celebrate a third birthday with. Strange I know. But we had a long, kindof boring day. It was too hot out to enjoy the park and no one wanted to play in the water, so there were lots of movies and a couple of short rides up mountain roads. All in all it was a uneventful day full of one happy birthday girl.

I took this pic at the park today, just to remember how cute the dress is that she is wearing. My Aunt Lorie gave it too her. I love it!

You can't see it but that is the blue moonstone scepter from Tinkerbell that she is holding. Look at how excited she is!

See her throwing that cape down? I was heart broken. But then she did it to the rest of the stuff in the bag. She just wanted to open presents and that was just a bunch of clothes. She loved them after the fact.

All Of the Above pictures are the dress ups she got for her birthday. I made the cape and mask, and bought the flapper girl and the Rosetta costumes. She is not really into toys so dress ups were perfect for her. She loves being a dancing princess.

They are singing the Tinkerbell song. If my computer would load video I would show you how well she knows the song. It's hilarious.

That lady bug is not a cake. It is ice cream. Yeah I was not in the mood to bake so I found this cute little ice cream bug. It was supposed to freeze over night but I didn't have time for that so it was only in the freezer for a couple of hours and was melting quickly. It was super yummy! And cute too.

Super C Cape.

Caitlin being my model.

Cora's Birthday is tomorrow and I just had to share one of the many dress ups that the girl is getting tomorrow. This is the only one that I personally made. And I about had a heart attack over it until the internet saved me. If you notice it is made out of a material I call liquid sequins. And FYI sewing machines don't like liquid sequins. Therefore my cape was not sewing together. I was up til midnight the first night trying to figure it out. A one hour cape ended up unfinished after 3 hours. So I asked a friend, whose mother has sewn on the stuff, she said to sew it by hand. Um thanks, but that's not going to happen. I was almost consigned to do it until I googled my problem, I LOVE GOOGLE. I quickly found a forum talking about liquid sequin material. #1 tip; Pin wax paper to the fabric and sew over the paper. Simple enough right? Well I tried it last night and I was so giddy it worked I was practically singing. Who'd a thunk that would have worked? What's the difference you ask, it's just paper? Well, the wax paper prevents your needle from picking up the glue from the sequins, therefore you can keep sewing. Yea!!! Anyway, super cute. I am going to make a mask to go with it, just to add a little flare!

Over the river and too the woods!

We went camping over the weekend and we literally had to drive through a creek to get to our spot this year! I being the pro mountain driver that I am had no problem getting through it. Yeah for me! We had a super great time and the only snag we ran into was the fact that we were just a little bit short on our dutch oven stew. Oh well everyone was fed and was still able to top off their bellies with dutch oven carrot cake. MmMm good! The best part was, it was so warm up there we didn't need extra blankets. We are always so cold in the mountains, but not this go around. The kiddo's had a great time with their cousins and an even better time playing in the creek I had to drive through. I took up my kiddo's rain boot so they got to

walk in the water without getting in trouble, unlike the rest of the cousin's. And my mom thought I was weird for wanting rain boots!

So here are a few pic's of our adventure!

Cait's first snagged fish. She caught three or four this trip. She had become a pro. Maybe next year we will get her a real pole.

Buddy's first snagged fish ever. He caught the first one of the day and was so excited! He went on and on about it for 20 minutes or more.

Here is the ghost tree. It's an aspen in the middle of a bunch of dead, burnt pines. Here is my beef about this fire up six mile. About 10 or 12 years ago, a dang pine bark beetle ended up in Twelve Mile Canyon. The bug killed many many trees. A logging company was given the go to to get the dead trees out, but environmentalist came in and put a stop to it because one bird was loosing it's home. Okay that makes sense? A whole bunch of animals lost their homes and now the forest is in constant threat of catching fire and even more animals will die! But now it is too late. The logging has stopped and even if they were given a go ahead to log some more, the trees are too dried out to be useful for anything but firewood, so we might as well leave them up the mountain to burn. There, there is my beef with environmentalists.

See this log was once a home to a little critter, but now it's not. GRRRRRR!

I gave Caitlin my old camera to take some pics while we were there. It is really fun to see what her little eye sees. She might just have a future in this photo takin' stuff.

Bathroom!

Okay, our bathroom needed a serious makeover. And I mean SERIOUS! I couldn't walk in there without hacking, it smelled so bad. As much as I cleaned it, it always smelled. It's been through three little boys in my house and three little boys from the previous owner. It was going to happen. I am sure my boy and nephews had more to do with it than the previous ones, but still it makes my point, it stunk! I didn't get a before picture of the gargantuan vanity that was in there before, but you can check out the pic of Dawson in the previous post with the sparkler and see how huge the thing was (it's right behind him). Way too big for such a small room. And the floor was actually kind of cute, Old is the new, new, right? but way past needing to be replaced. With great team work and some serious style on my behalf :) the bathroom turned out great! (Okay Dave did all the work, I watched, but every once and a while I would offer my advice. He did a super great job and was very careful and detailed. Thanks Love). Here are some before and after shots. OH and it doesn't smell anymore, YEA!

BEFORE

Look how gross! Ewe!

AFTER

Did you notice the blue tub? I have wanted to paint it for a long time (ya know you can do that with old cast iron right?). David wasn't sold until he saw it. Now it just adds a little flare! Love it!

Our Happy 4th..okay 3rd!

We had a truly great 4th celebration. We usually go to my home town for the Fourth, but we decided that our bathroom needed a make over, so we opted out of spending the money on gas and fixed the bathroom. The parade in town runs right in front of our house, very convenient if you ask me. We didn't have to find any where to park and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

We did decide to go to the park to see what the celebrations had to offer. Not a ton, but the kids played on the big blow up toys and we played a few rounds of bingo. I actually one a game too. To bad that it was poker chips and cards. What the heck am I supposed to do with that?

We also had a surprise visit by Grandma C! I think she was bored and my brothers weren't doing anything exciting, so she made the drive up here to have dinner with us. We had BBQ chicken, pasta salad, and my cute flag Jello. There was also some baseball and fireworks involved. My Cait is a real slugger, she broke the bat! Don't ask me how, but it cracked when she hit the ball.

Over all a great weekend! I just wish it hadn't come and gone so fast.

Yes I made my girls dresses. Aren't they cute? And their headbands. I know I am a crafty queen! (Enter the sarcasm here, I copy ideas really well).Sorry it's crooked. It wasn't supposed to be and I don't want to fix it.Little slugger! We roasted marshmallows before we started the fireworks. Yummy!

It's been Fun!

We had a great day today. David has the rest of the week off so we took advantage of a fresh pay check and willing kids! We first went to the Hansen Planetarium. You know you love the look of surprise on your kids face. The Planetarium was no exception.

To David and I it was the same ole same ole, but to the kids it was the coolest thing ever. We did see Under the Sea 3D movie which was really cool. Even I was sticking my hand out trying to catch everything that flew in my face.

We then went to the Old Spaghetti Factory. The kids had received free meal coupons during the school year for reading, so we took advantage of those. They were so grateful. Apparently the ravioli was really good. And as Caitlin put it, "This place is really cool". They loved Trolley Square and walking over the highway, and the freshly made taffy daddy bought. I even felt like it was a visit to some really cool place I'd never been before. It's amazing what the wonder of a child can do.

P.S. Sorry all the pics are from my cell phone, I haven't charged my camera battery yet!

P.S.S Go check out my family pics . Steph did an amazing job again