Oh, well!

This season has been hard to keep the Christmas spirit. Between kids who don't quite understand the true meaning of Christmas and the commercialization of it all it can get a little depressing. More than once I have threatened to give away their presents to someone who will appreciate it more. However, every once in awhile I am reminded not too stress over it.

Our family has been on the receiving end this year. The kids now think that every time the doorbell rings there will be goodies or gifts on the porch. We don't know who they are from but that's ok. We are greatful just the same. Being so far away from family this season is hard but it has made it easier knowing we have such a loving circle of friends right here.

A good friend and I had a conversation on the subject of remembering what Christmas was all about. She related a story to me that I would like to share with you.

   The other day her youngest son was walking through the house singing at the top of his lungs what he thought were the words to "The First Noel" however, when she listened a little closer this was what he was saying: Oh Well, oh well, oh well, oh well.......

She and I were laughing so hard at her sons choice of words for this classic Christmas tune, but I think they are fitting words for this season. I think we all need to take a step back and look at the real meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate and say "Oh well!" To all the worldly stresses that take away from the true Spirit of Christmas.

May we all remember the reason we celebrate and give thanks for our Savior and His willingness to come to this earth so that we might return to Him again.

Merry CHRISTmas to all!

December 1st 7 mile bike ride!

It's been along time since the last post. For this outing we decided to ride our bikes to the Skate park about 3.5 miles from our house! Morgan and Derek rode their bikes and Ava and Franklin rode in the bike trailer.  There are a lot of things I think we normally would not have seen had the kids not been with us. Lots of bugs and animals out there! I took these pictures on the way home. 

This is a giant hollow log that the kids had fun jumping off of.

Sort of standing still long enough to get a picture.

Morgan

Derek

Ava

Franklin

The Crazies!

Franklin

Ava

Derek

Morgan

Dress shirt Apron tutorial!

I saw this on pinterest and decided to try and duplicate it. Here are the results! Enjoy!

I took this picture and then decided that it would work better if I turn the shirt inside out. So unbutton the shirt, turn it inside out and make sure the collar is turned up so you can don't accidentally cut it.

I snipped an inch below the arm pit and then I snipped an inch away from the bottom of the collar at the shoulder. Then I eye balled a curved cut between the two snipped sections. Then put the two front pieces right sides together so that you can cut the other side exactly the same.

When you are finishe cutting you need to take the seams on the side apart so that the back piece is no longer attached. I used a seam ripper so seams would be even.

I chose to use a bias tape in a contrasting color for the edging. I sewed about a 1/4 of an inch starting with the under arm edge.

Then I folded over and ironed the bias tap and sewed it down.

Using the back piece from the shirt I cut two 2 1/2" strips the width of the shirt for the apron ties. Make sure they are atleast 26" long. Sew each strip together with 1/4" seam. Then sew them onto the apron.
These pictures are horrible!!! Oh, well. You get the idea!

Let me know what you think!

Free

I have decided in light of recent happenings that I and my family will be gradually going gluten and dairy free. It will definately be a challenge but I do have some support here at home as well as plenty of blogs to stalk and get ideas from. For our first meal I have made Gluten and Dairy free chili with rice. It tastes pretty good. I'm dreading breakfast though. That is where we eat mostly Gluten and Dairy. I have a friend here that has been doing this for a few years and she has given me plenty of ideas. There are also lots of stores around here that carry the things I need to get started. I'm cautiously opptimistic about it and I hope I can stick to it for the sake of our health and sanity. I will post periodically on our progress.

New House!

This past March we decided to start looking at houses. We never really thought we would find THE house. We just figured we would look at them to figure out what we wanted and didn't want. Well, out of all the houses we looked at we found one that was just about perfect.

It's a ranch style open floor plan with a full finished basement!!! Fenced backyard with a partial wrap around porch. Hard wood floors except in the bedrooms and basement. Wood burning fireplace upstairs and a gas fireplace downstairs. Plenty of closet space and a two car garage! The pictures and link to the house was taken off the internet shortly after we put an offer on the house so this will just have to be teaser post until we move in!!!

We are so excited to be able to have more room for our family and look forward to being able to do whatever we want to it!!

Baby Shower Week!

Gina over at Dang Gina Gives is having two spectacular events over the next two weeks! The first, going on right now, is in celebration of her soon to arrive baby boy! The Baby Shower Reviews and Giveaways will last through April 18th. The second is a Mothers Day Week, full of awesome reviews and giveaways as well! Get on over there and enter to win!

Visit from Aunt Jill!

My sister-in-law Jill came out to visit us for almost a week! The kids were so excited they all ended up sleeping with her on the blow up mattress the first night she was here! We took here to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs! We rode the Sky Ride, a ski lift that takes you above the entire zoo! It was extremely scary but cool. Afterwards Jill wanted to go eat at Cici's Pizza (there isn't one in Utah).

We went inside the aviary and the birds were all loose! Obviously this bird left a little present for Phil went it flew away!


There were several giraffe statues at the beginning of the zoo. The kids thought it was so cool to be able to walk underneath them. We did not get pictures of feeding the real giraffes. As soon as I can put up video of it I will. Their tongues are so long!


Just before we took Jill to the airport we tried to get some good pics of her with the kids. This was the best one! We love Jill!

Derek asks every morning..."Where's Aunt Jill?" I tell him she went home and he just screams "NOOOO!"

We miss Jill!

Resolution!

The old resolution of health and losing weight has never worked for me. When food is there I have little or no self control (unless I'm sick)! I have decided on a different path to the same result as the afore mentioned resolution. I have decided to do my best to avoid fast food restaurants. Now, I did decide that it might be impossible to avoid unless I have some compromises with myself. So I can eat at a fast food restaurant if it is a special occasion such as a trip, date or girls night. Those of you who are also fast food junkies know how hard this will be! Good luck with your own resolutions in the next year!

Happy New Year!!!

Decor for the New Year!

I've been thinking about some fun and easy decor I could make for my completely white apartment. I saw on TipJunkie a cool tutorial for a felt garland and then I had an idea for a kissing ball. Here are the pics and materials list.

Garland:

9 colors of felt cut into whatever shapes you like. Mine are slightly ovally.
Clear thread, I found mine at Walmart.
Needle or sewing machine. I used my sewing machine. Much faster

Sew down the middle of each shape. Attach the next shape just before you get to the end of the previous shape. I hope that makes sense. Enjoy!

Kissing Ball:

4" styrofoam ball
4-5 bags of Glitter pompoms (walmart)
Glue Gun

Long piece of yarn.

Tie the yarn around the ball securely. Proceed to randomly glue the pompoms all over the place.

Key craft and Christmas Pics

I have lost my keys several times over the past few months. The longest was a week. Not my fault because the kids like the noise they make. Of course when we do find them Morgan always says he knew exactly where they were! After this last time I decided to make something cute to hold them for me, away from small hands. This is the result!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning:

Derek loves the blocks that he got!

Phil wanted to get Morgan an Electronics snap kit! They have made an AM radio, light flashing thing and a bunch of other cool things! Morgan oves it!

I knew Phil would never wear one of those awesome sweaters that Andy wore so I got him a T-shirt with a sweater right on it!

Franklins favorite thing was the paper!