Happy Birthday, Sucker

So it was my birthday this week (you know how we girls like to stretch out the fun). Anyway, I also know a bunch of other people who have birthdays coming up, (not to mention my twin who shares my b-day) so I made a little gift to give them. I've posted the tags here so you can do this too, if you'd like. The suckers I buy locally for only $0.60 each, so it's a nice inexpensive way to show someone you remembered them on their birthday. I'm sorry if the tags don't print out, I'm not really sure how to do this...If it doesn't work and you know how to help me, let me know and I'll try again ;) You could easily make your own cute tags, too.Here are some other details on how I did it, although there could be some fun variations on this gift to make it just as cute or cuter**To wrap the suckers, I just cut the ziplock part off of a regular sandwich baggie. Then I cut the two pieces apart so I had two squares. I wrapped the sucker with one of them and tied it with a ribbon. Before tying on the ribbon, however, I threaded the tag onto it. Doesn't cute ribbon just make anything so much more fun?

P.S. Hilary, I hope you like root beer flavored suckers! (It's so hard to guess if someone is more of a cinnamon or a sweet flavor...)

**I think a cuter option to the baggie could be a printed cellophane bag.

Berry Harvest

Okay so it's not a lot of raspberries, but we were excited about it. Jeremy planted a huge berry patch with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and gooseberries for my anniversary present this spring. Although it's a little weedy now and the birds (or something) keep eating my strawberries, these little fuscia colored gems made my night. They tasted scrumptious, too.

You've got to get to the State Fair

What's better than overpriced fair food, crowds of people to watch, and the smell of livestock? I love the fair! Miranda loved it this year, too, and Brad was a great sport. We even saw the side show-like Kachunga Brothers wrestling an alligator for our little Miranda who's obsessed with 'gators' lately. (She got a little scared--it was a lot different than the crocodile at the zoo who never moves a muscle in the murky water.)

We're already looking forward to next year!

Aprons in Summer

We had the most refreshing morning walk this morning and I happened to take my camera with me, so I wanted to post a photo of the sunset as we saw it. Our family hiked Mt. Timpanogas for Labor Day with some friends, and I have been so sore all week from that steep hike and carrying a baby on my back the whole way! Needless, to say, I haven't been walking as briskly this week, but we have been enjoying the views. Next week we'll work on burning calories :)

Yesterday I just finished sewing an apron that I'm giving as a gift to my cousin for her birthday. I'm on a tight budget this year for gifts, so a LOT of gifts are getting creative and handmade. Aprons is the theme I decided on for all the females in my life who receive birthday presents. So, this is my cousin's--her birthday is in November! I love it when I don't procrastinate. On the other hand, my twin sister's needs to be done in about a week, and I have yet to even go fabric shopping... I gave this one to my aunt a couple weeks ago. She seemed happy with it. I love the little eyelet lace details that give it a vintage feel. And this is a set I made for my mother-in-law, Merilynn. She loves to cook with Miranda, so I wanted her to have a matching grandma/grand-daughter set. She was really excited about it and even hung them up in her kitchen on a cabinet wall. Miranda loves the detail on her little pocket and could hardly stop touching the beads long enough for me to take the picture. (It says "apple pie".)

Dinner Trade Group

I don't have to cook for a whole week! (except on the weekend) Our family is doing a "dinner trade group" with four other neighbors and I LOVE it! What we do is this: each family cooks one night a week, Monday through Thursday, and then has dinner brought to them the other three nights of the week. We each have small families about the same size and we just provide the main course and one side dish.

I could go on and on about this, but if you want to know more, Heather, one of my group members, set up a website to let people know about this great idea. Check it out at dinnertrade.com I'd be more than happy to tell you more about it, too, if you think you'd be interested in trying it with your neighbors. Here's the best part: we have five families in our group and only wanted meals Mon - Thurs (not on the weekends), so once a month I don't have to cook at all that week!

This week was my week off, so I've been enjoying it thoroughly. Jeremy and I have been enjoying cooking more on the weekends and nights since we haven't been doing dinners. Here's some delicious pics for you to sample:

For Merilynn's birthday on Sunday, she wanted chicken noodle soup, so he made it from scratch--even the noodles! I LOVE Jeremy's homemade noodles. And did you see that yummy treat peeking out from behind the pot? That's Jeremy's homemade apple pie and oh, that crust is to die for! And then my fun for the week was the plum jam I made last night. I haven't made plum before, but my fried Gwen, (from the dinner group), gave us all a bunch of plums and I wanted to do something fun with them. The recipe wasn't on the Sure-Jell website, so I had to find one online. It turned out fine, but next time I'll look for one that doesn't call for pureed fruit and uses less sugar. (This is on a slice of Merilynn's homemade honey wheat bread.)
Okay, I'm hungry now...Is it time for dinner yet? We have Chicken Alfredo coming tonight and a Salad Bar tomorrow night.

Jeremy's New Hobby

Check this out: Jeremy has always wanted to try re-upholstering furniture and this summer he's been hard at work practicing his new skill. We sold one of our couches on KSL.com and the people who bought it live in a studio apartment downtown. They were using this futon that was 'breaking' and needed to get rid of it, so Jeremy offered to take it from them. When he offered to take it, I knew why. He wanted to fix it up! Luckily, it was something easy to fix (if you're a talented guy like my Jeremy), and so with a little fixing and some color changes, woila! Trendy new futon that we got for free and sold on KSL for some nice cash :)

Here is Jeremy's second project. I saw these cute little kids recliners on KSL.com. There were two of them for $5 each. These were well loved, for sure--sorry the picture is fuzzy--but a total steal. I have always wanted to get Miranda a big comfy chair like these from Pottery Barn but couldn't justify paying close to $100. So this was the perfect opportunity.
Here is the after shot. My initial thought was to get some fun pink fabric or something, but then I decided I wanted it to be versatile and be able to be in her bedroom, the family room, the basement, wherever, and still jive with the decor of the house. So this tan fabric my mother-in-law happened to have was perfect! I love it without the buttons on the back, too. Oh, yeah, and Miranda loves, loves, loves it. It is so cute to see her hop in it and put her little feet up to watch Super Why or Sesame Street. By the way, Brad's recliner is still sitting in the garage. We have discovered the re-upholstery is tons of work and time and now know why it costs so much to have professionals do it. Brad's recliner will hopefully get done sometime this winter.
Don't you love seeing before and after photos of things people redo? I found this Flickr Group called "furniture redo" that was full of inspiring pieces. I think I'm going to ask Jeremy to do some work on my China hutch next...

GNO

Thank you, Aunt Bonnie Jean for having a birthday so we could enjoy a fun girl's night to celebrate!

This was fun night was the gift Holli (my twin) gave to my Aunt Bonnie-what a fun idea! Holli and Brian decorated their backyard so fun--I'm so jealous of all their huge trees and big deck. We enjoyed pina coladas, chocolate fondue, pedicures, and lots of girl talk.
That's my cute Aunt Bonnie in the pink stripes, friend Janice, and cousin Corie. Then here's my other sister, Kristi, mom Ranee, and Holli with her cute prego belly. Even my neice, Abby, got her little toes painted--what a sweetheart!

Splish Splash!

Meet Huey

I would like to introduce you to Huey. He's a baby pygmie goat my in-laws are raising. He's so cute. I know this picture is terrible. It has an explanation, though--(if you don't care about the explanation, skip to the next paragraph):

Huey AND his mama are being adopted by my in-laws, but Huey needed to be weaned from his mother's milk, so Huey came alone until her milk dries up. The first day or so he cried and wouldn't eat and was as lonely as a little goat could be. So, the neighbors (who have Huey's mama) brought him a friend to stay for a couple weeks. It totally worked and now Huey is happy and eats his goat food. However, this goat friend named Ivory, is a grown male. Ivory has had his horns removed, but he still likes to butt, and sideswipe, and ram people. Jeremy loved wrestling with him--Jeremy laughing the whole time, and Ivory wagging his tail happily, too. But we all know it's not fun for a little girl to get rammed by a goat (trust me, it happened to me at Hogle Zoo when I was a little girl and I still am wary around goats because of it), so we had to always be keeping an eye on Ivory while we were visiting Huey. Thus we didn't get a great picture of Huey yet.

But check out Miranda's cute boots she gets to wear when she feeds the chickens and goats and dogs. She calls them her "frogs". We'll get a good picture of Huey and maybe his mama, too, soon. I also need to post pictures of the chickes--they're getting all fat and should start laying eggs soon enough!

Park Portraits

Miranda has gotten more brave over the summer, she is going down the slides all by herself now! She also tries to climb ladders and other things that are a little too advanced for her, so I have to stay close in case she loses her balance.
Brad likes being outdoors almost anytime, so even he has enjoyed all our trips to the park this summer.

He mostly just gets held or set on a blanket on the grass to play with toys or watch all the kids running around. Sometimes when it's not too busy, I put him in the baby swing. I love this picture of his tiny bare feet hanging over the footprints of the 'big kids' who swung before him.

Never, Sometimes, and Always

I Never:
Drink milk
Get to sleep in past 7:00 am
Play the piano, paint/draw, or speak Spanish anymore
Want naptime to end

I Sometimes:
Watch Oprah
Floss
Don't even care if my house is messy or dirty
Wish I had gotten a different Bachelor's Degree

I Always:
Check the obituaries online
Love when Jeremy comes home early
Pre-wash dishes before putting them in the dishwasher
Wish we had trained our dog so I could take him on a walk without my shoulder getting dislocated

Let's Go On Vacation

This hotel suite is in Costa Rica, called Hotel Costa Verde.

"Oregon Trail" and Other Goodies

I love my iPhone. I can't believe how useless my old cell phone was before compared to the iPhone. Let me just tell you about some of the features (since you were wondering, right?)

The GPS. Great for finding addresses when you're lost in Daybreak or where the nearest Little Caesar's is and how to get there.

Toddler Games. This is crazy cool for Miranda when I give her my phone and let her go for it. There are tons of things like flash cards and recognizing shapes and matching animal sounds to their picture.

Facebook. I can now be a star facebooker with the easy app. I don't know that I will be, but I can be...

Lose It! It's like a food journal that I enter all my food I ate during the day and how much exercise I did and it tells me how many calories I have left to eat in order to reach my weight loss goal. I lost one pound last week :)

Oregon Trail. Where my Ridgecrest peeps at? You know how we LOVED this game during 'computer time' in elementary school? Yeah. It's on my iPhone! I just got to shoot little squirrels and chose whether to ford across the river or take a ferry. Then little Martha got dysentery. Next time we'll shell out the cash to take the ferry.

And the best thing about all these favorite apps is they were all free ones. Even Oregon Trail. Although...Oregon Trail is the Free Version, which is just like a little teaser that only takes about five minutes to play so that you will buy the Full Version. I may have to shell out the five bucks to get the Full Version. But then again, how much time can one really justify wasting on Blogger, e-mail, Facebook, and iPhone apps to boot?

Destined for Entomophobia

"Entomophobia: a common fear of or aversion to insects and similar arthropods, and even other "bugs", such as worms. This condition causes a slight to severe emotional reaction, a form of anxiety or a panic attack."*

Yup. She's going to catch on to me. All this time I've been pretending I like bugs, but really, how long can you fool a toddler? Ants, potato bugs, lady bugs, even a daddy long legs here and there, okay. I'm fine with that. Kind of. Miranda--two years old and wonderful--loves bugs. She calls them "cute" and scouts them out all over the yard. She likes to hold them and she wants me to hold them and share in her joy of their bug-ness.

Don't get me wrong. I love that she loves them. I want her to grow up with as little phobic crutches as possible. What mother wouldn't want her daughter to be strong and brave?

But I'm afraid I'm already starting to ruin her. Example: She wants to hold ants. I'm not scared of ants, I just don't like them crawling all over me and I don't want to pick them up in case I squish them between my fingers. (Squished bug is almost as gross as live bug.) So, I get a paper, scoop up the ant with it, and drop it from the paper into her lovingly cupped hands. I even watch it wiggle around on her arm and call it "cute". So the other day, she sees a potato bug and wants to hold it. Without even asking me to get it for her, she starts running into the house to "get a paper".

Second example: Last night our family was sitting out on the porch enjoying the warm summer night. I look up above me, and there is a katydid on the house. I point it out to the family and back up to the door. Miranda and Jeremy are enthralled with it's faux leaf splendor. I am trying to protect myself and the baby, deciding whether to go off the porch or into the house. I know, I know. Katydids are the geeky-ist creatures ever. Mostly harmless, but let's be realistic--they do have WINGS. Later, I told Jeremy I was ashamed I was freaked out by it. I asked him if he thought Miranda noticed I was fleeing it's presence or not. He said she was totally picking up on my phobic cues.

What am I going to do?!? Is she destined to be scared of bugs because I TAUGHT her to ignore her NATURAL love of all creatures, including bugs?

*Excerpt from Wikipedia

Owl-phabet

Happy Birthday Abby! You are such a sweet little niece and I know since you are only barely two and can already sing the whole "ABC Song" that you will really enjoy these owls. They have all the letters of the alphabet on their tummies, plus an extra 'letter B' so you can spell out your name! Have fun spelling, sorting, and make believing. We love you!



I got this idea and pattern here. My sister and I loved the idea, but I had no idea how much time it would take. I think it was worth it, though. I love that they are tiny and I could use scraps of fabric and Fiberfill I already had--the only expense was a couple bags of random buttons I got from Wal-Mart for about $1.50 each. I still want to make a set for Miranda, I think, but maybe she won't get them until she turns three. He he.

Also, I wanted to note that the pattern calls for cutting out cardboard circles and then fabric circles to glue on to the cardboard, which you would then sew onto the bottoms. However, about the time I was finished sewing up all 27 of these (including the extra B) I wanted to hide my sewing box and not look at handstiching another thing for at least a month. I was just going to leave them with nothing on the bottom, but then they wouldn't stand up. My mother-in-law had the great idea of attaching buttons, which saved tons of time and sanity, and--in my opinion--goes really well with them. Bonus: now they make a little clicking noise on the table that Miranda loved as she hopped them around. Here's some more pictures of them on Flickr if you want to get up the motivation to make a set for your toddler. Here's a post-embroidered, pre-stuffed photo. I used a mini muffin tin to sort buttons, thread, and owls. Too bad the muffin tin only holds 24--it's the perfect size and maximizes the button 'click click' noise on the bottom!

Busy Baby

This is how I roll.
I find stuff (and people) to drool on.

Sometimes this is only way Mom gets away with not holding me.
It's all in a day's work.
And it's about to get worse because I'm getting closer to crawling.

Happy Half B-day

My sweet baby is six months old already!