Utah Week

I got home last night from spending a week in Utah. I stayed with Ashley and the kids. I took care of the kids while she was at work. Since Alison lives there close, I also got to spend time with her and Micah and Dallin. My only little casualty was that I had to stay home from church today with a sinus and ear infection. (My ears just do not like flying. I had trouble going to CA and back last month too. I'm just glad I didn't get sick until I got home) Anyway...I got to experience life there in Utah for the girls. We did alittle shopping, some eating out, lots of hanging around playing with the kids. Mostly just taking care of normal daily activities. Everyone there kept telling me it was a warm, mild winter, but I was still freezing most of the time :) One morning while Hailey, and Jaden, and I were walking to his school bus stop, it was snowing. On Friday afternoon, it was nice enough to take the kids to a park/play ground. But when the sun started going down it got chilly quick. Here are some of the smiling faces from Utah.

"Dal pal" is an especially happy kid and would always smile for the camera and he loved to see his cousins. He is definitely a "life is (very) good" kid.

My Life this Week

Since Monday afternoon, I have been working very hard to get my house and my store in order. At home I made sure that there is bread in the breadbox, juice and milk in the refrig, cheerios in the pantry, ice cream in the freezer, and snacks on the counter. I also made sure that the laundry is all done- Ron's shirts are hanging up and underwear folded :) I put together some Valentine boxes and took care of my responsibilities for the ladies meeting at church tonight. (I made cookies, chocolate pretzels, and small recipe books.) 

At my store I tried to tie up a bazzillon (I'm sure that is a real number :) loose ends. We are just getting started into "bonker season"...did I say "bonker"?

I meant "Prom" season :) Any way, it's busy there. Today will be one of those 10-10 days. I have to load up 17 dresses to go to a fashion show this evening. I will be at the store from 10-4 then I will go to the show from 4-10.

Anyway... the reason I have been getting things in order, is because on Monday afternoon I decided I wanted to fly to Utah tomorrow. Did I mention, that I am married to an amazing  man? When I told him I wanted to go for a week, he didn't even flinch, but just said "okay". When he found out I would be leaving from one airport and returning to another one, he just said, that's okay, he would take me and pick me up whatever my schedule was. I found cheap flights (he was glad about that :) I did have to draw the line on the return flight though. The cheapest flight on next Friday, went from SLC to LA and then on to Houston. That is just not right!! When I am trying to fly east, I just couldn't go west first. So...the cheapest flight next Saturday, at least goes through New Mexico then on to Houston. So Ron will stay home and go to work every day to earn money for me to spend, while I go play with Jaden, Hailey, and Dallin for a week.

(Don't worry, I'll cook some heart shaped bacon for Ron when I get back :)

Since I'm on a tight schedule today, I need to stop blogging and go throw some things into a suitcase. Why I would want to go from a place with 75 degree weather to a place with 35 degree weather is a mystery to me. It must be one of those Grandma things :) 

My Texas-thin-blood is going to freeze.

Valentines Day is Coming

Happy February- here are a few Valentine ideas...


Fish crackers.



Glow sticks.



Heart cake from 1 square cake and 1 round cake.




Easy way to make heart cupcakes- cupcake papers and marbles.




Pancakes and strawberries.




Pixie Stix flowers and heart candy jar filler.




Valentine pencils.




Keep the chocolate candy- this is what Ron would like for Valentines Day :)
Bacon.



Photo Boxes

These photo boxes are always available at craft stores, like Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and JoAnns. On Monday I had one of those "light bulb" moments. (That means I had one of my brilliant ideas :)hehe Those boxes, especially the blue and pink ones are a perfect box to put a baby shower gift in. (Remember I make small taggy blankets- these are the perfect size for that and a small toy) I paid regular price for this one, but if I watch and stock up when they are on sale, it is an even more brilliant idea :) They are a cute box for a gift- no wrapping paper needed and then later they can actually be a photo box or any other kind of storage box. (There is always a need for boxes to hold various "baby stuff"- diapers, toys, wipes, wash clothes, small books, etc.) If you wanted to add a bow or ribbon, I would suggest just tying it around the box rather than using tape (or the sticky tab of a bow). That way, the paper coating of the box won't get torn by pulling the tape or bow off.

Can you tell that I am invited to a baby "boy" shower?

See...sometimes I can come up with my own ideas, without pinterest :)

Cute Ideas for the Girls

A Cute Idea ...

for an art project for the kids. Blue painted fish bowl, white button bubbles,

assorted bean rocks, handprint fish with googly eyes.

for a room full of balloons for a birthday. (Ashley and Daniel did this for Jaden's birthday.) Fill the room with balloons, while the child is sleeping.

for a book and pencil/pen holder.

for a snowman, made out of a cereal box. Cover the box with white paper, add other paper for the face or draw with markers or crayons, ear muffs=colored paper and paper cups.

for lego cake (especially for Annie). Get complete directions for this cake and other cute kid cakes at http://www.bettycrocker.com/

(The little "knobs" are marshmallows, cut in half and frosted.)

3 Choices

On my day off, today, I had 3 choices to work on for half a day. (I have other things I need to do this afternoon). 1- continue working on cleaning out my attic. 2- start cleaning out the garage. 3- clean up my "toy room". Since choices 1 and 2 require more than half a day, I decided to do number 3. My toy room is our back porch, that is also the hot tub room (the hot tub also needed some attention), the exercise room, Ron's drafting office (he recently put up my drafting table there). Okay...so there is alot of stuff, stuffed there :) Even though I am organized enough to have lots of plastic tubs for the toys, small children have no concept of keeping them in the correct tub. So... my first task was to find all of the tubs, line them up and then hunt through all of the mixed up toys and put them in the correct place. Since I had all of those tubs, up off the floor, I decided that I should sweep the baseboards and then vacuum. After I swept the baseboards, I decided I should get the bug spray out and spray all of the baseboards and corners. Since I had the bug spray out, I might as well spray my front porch too. Off course, since I had the vacuum out I might as well do the living room, kitchen, and den. In order to vacuum the living room, I needed to move my boxed up Christmas decorations- but that also meant I could get to my other toy cabinet that sits behind the sofa. (My reasoning there-- I still needed to find some missing pieces to the toys on the porch). Once I got all of the toys reorganized and put away, I decided to clean the glass picnic table (did I forget to mention we have a picnic table in there too? :) with the Windex. Since I had the Windex and the paper towels out, I might as well clean the downstairs bathroom. Since one thing led to another here- I actually have the downstairs clean enough now, to get out my Valentine decor. It was a productive morning. Now, it's noon- I'm off to take care of other things. (We won't talk about what my attic and garage look like and how many toy pieces are still waiting to be found elsewhere and where I stashed the Christmas decorations that can't go back in the attic yet. hehe)

Santa Barbara Weekend

We flew to LA and then on to Santa Barbara, CA, last Friday. We flew back to Houston on Monday afternoon. We packed alot into a weekend!

We went with Annie and Alex to look at a house that was for sale. We picked up Jared and Nathan from school. Papa and I stayed with  the boys on Friday evening while Annie and Alex went to a movie. We helped with a birthday party for Nathan on Saturday morning. Nathan's baptism was on Saturday afternoon. We had dinner at Chili's, Saturday evening. Sunday morning was church. Sunday afternoon and evening was "just relax at the house". Monday morning was a trip to the butterfly park and lunch at the "Hamburger Habit". Then back to the airport. It was a fun weekend with "the boys"!!! Here are a few pictures. I thought maybe I was going to get back to the blogging before Annie- but she got there first today :) 

Although, she is playing catch up. 

Jared, in his classroom at school.

Nathan, standing by the door to his classroom.

Nathan's birthday party was a "flag football theme". There were about 10 other boys there to play football with- open presents- and eat cake and snacks. It was a great idea to have all of these activities at a park.

Annie sacrificed sleep to make this cake on Friday night :)

Ron and Alex had the assignment to organize "the game".

Weston= Mr. Life is Good!

Owen, loves to smile for the camera.

At Nathan's baptism.

At a cliff, near the ocean, near the butterfly park.

As usual, the weather in California was perfect. Alex claims it is only nice there...

360 days of the year!!