Thanksgiving crafts: thankful for crafty down time with kids

We made Thanksgiving napkin holders and placemats today! Glad there were so many of us working on them or it would have taken even longer than the several hours it did! Working together as a family is so much fun. The big kids made all the napkin holders and created an assembly line to get them done, Sage made the eyes and cut beaks, Charlotte assembled hats, Ethan helped cut and glue and make the gobbler thingy. It was great seeing them work together. When they were done I glued them around the napkins.

We all hate the cloth napkins that don't absorb anything so we bought these cheap fall colored wash cloths from Walmart. (That's what we normally use day to day but I felt a little weird giving guests wash cloths but with the napkin holder it dresses them up a bit!)

Place mats made by everyone, covered in clear contact paper

Everett eating grapes as we load tons of Thanksgiving groceries

Overnight Trips Away ~~ PACKING



Why do these people have so much stuff and only 1 kid, does this make any sense?

My friend told me I should be helping her big family of six kids pack for a weekend away because I should be good at it by now, as we go away on 2-3 night visits more often than she does. Here's what I told her to do :) (Number 7 cracks me up! It's so true!)

1. Wash all clothes, or at least enough to pack. Make sure 1 load is drying right before you leave and stand around waiting for it.


2. Line up kids clothes on the couch in sets with socks and underwear. Older kids bring their own to you and you tell them which ones you approve of and then explain for the 1000th time what play clothes vs nice clothes are.

3. Use 3 laundry baskets instead of suitcases and start packing kids clothes in them. Don't forget extra blankets if needed and a sling (usually only need this for babies), bring a zip lock baggy of  Motrin and other care items for kids. ~~If you have a baby or two pack up the cloth diapers! (Or wuss out and decide to buy throw away diapers on the way there which I have done lol!)

4. Start packing the grown up clothing stuff in one of the baskets, top it off with personal care items: make up bag, toiletry bag, hair dryer, curlers or whatever.

5. Intend on having this all loaded up and ready to go the night before you leave but fail at that thought, I always do. LOL!

6. Get that last load of laundry out of the dryer but forget what you really need out of it because the baskets are already packed. So just pack a couple more clothes just for good measure.

7. Forget to pack your own pajamas.

8. Leave 4 hours later than you thought you would and now every kid is starving to death. At least one kid can't find their shoes. But more likely it's two kids.

9. Have fun :D

My Knight In Shining Armor

The other day A CRAZY guy was driving up and down the parking lot rows at Walmart in a mini van, we didn't see why but a man loading groceries with his wife near where we parked told crazy guy to F-off. I thought to myself that I wouldn't do that because this guy looked crazy (like for real mentally ill kinda crazy). He was really big and heavy and he looked a lot like a crazy wild eyed Juggernaut from the X-men. 

I got worried when I saw the crazy guy stop his van in the middle of the road and get out. He tensed up and looked like he was metamorphosing into the Hulk. I had just gotten the baby out of the car when I headed for shelter in front of my truck. The guy who had said 'F-you' was in his 50's and I knew my husband wasn't going to stand around and let this older-ish guy get beat up by Juggernaut. I tried to coax my husband into hiding too, but he told me to wait a second. Luckily Juggernaut had some crazy conversation under his breath to himself (with clenched fists!) and then peeled out screeching and squealing his tires in the parking lot. The people there then asked us what that guys problem was, I felt like saying, I have no idea, we just got here and we aren't the ones that just told him to F-off! LOL! We finally started heading for the doors of Walmart and crazy man finally parked somewhere. My husband kept an eye on his van while we walked in the store. Just before we got inside my hubby spotted Juggernaut talking to himself as he was coming in a different door. I said, "Should we be here? What if he starts shooting up the place or something!?" My husband calmly just said, "Well then if that happens get behind me."

What else does a lady need to hear than that?

Me at Walmart:

Virtues of chivalry include such things as mercy, courage, valor, fairness, protection of the weak and the poor.

I've never kissed Batman

Sebastian told me something tonight and I really had no idea what he was saying. He was so cute and he was carefully explaining it. I nodded at him and smiled lovingly, he was being SO cute. His blue eyes were beaming back at me through a black, hard batman mask. He'd had the mask on for over an hour tonight. When he was done talking I told him he was so cute and to give me a kiss. He leaned in and I kissed him. I suddenly exclaimed, "I kissed Batman!" Without missing a beat he lifted his Batman mask up onto his head like you'd do with a pair of sunglasses, then in an excited and informative voice he said, "It's really 'bastian under here, see!" 

As if I didn't know. Hilarious. I adore his innocence, his playfulness, and the joy he brings me.

(He woke up tossing and turning in his sleep tonight talking about Batman :)

I love the fall ~ and early winter fun...

 Fall is the perfect backdrop for cute photos. This is such a great time of year to snuggle up with loved ones and enjoy the holidays. We were just talking about how we are ready for the season of coziness, delicious treats, seasonal foods and coffee creamers! We love warm sweaters, hot cocoa, pumpkin pie, rosette iron cookies. I love decorating early for both Halloween and Christmas to enjoy it for a while. We didn't build and decorate gingerbread houses last year, we will for sure make them this year (save uneaten Halloween candy for them)! Halloween is almost at a close and then two more months of fun before hibernating for the rest of the winter. We are like bears. This winters plans include learning piano and some Spanish, doing lots of crafts, crocheting and sewing. 

LOVE: mushy, kissy, make other people sick LOVEEEE...(our wedding anniversary!)

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I finally did my photo wall project for one of our bedroom walls. The theme is classic kisses. You can't see because of the flash glare but the bottom middle 5x7 photo is a picture from our wedding. (posted it below) It was taken in front of the stone steps by the creek at Indian S. Ricky is on one knee and holding my hands and I am leaning over to kiss him. I didn't intend to have it done right around our anniversary, but the timing was perfect.

The spacing of the frames wasn't totally ideal, but I had to work with plaster walls that crumble and needed to stick mostly with studs where I could for the larger pictures. It doesn't look so off in person.

I love this man

with every

ounce of my being.

(the best part is he loves me too!)

Our wedding anniversary was last Sunday and so I'm writing 10 things

I noticed that make our marriage great

1. Kissing (sure it's the same person over and over and over, but it's the person we are madly in love with. Kiss like it.)

2. Laughter (This is why we fell in love, really. We made each other laugh all the time and still do.)

3. Honesty

4. Trust

5. Saying sorry (Even when I don't think I'm in the wrong I say it. My husband actually invented this and taught it to me.)

6. Family values (Families stay together and kids deserve parents who aren't selfish or screw ups. Or both.)

7. Friendship (He is the only man that has ever told me I am his best friend.)

8. Loyalty

9. Being considerate (Avoiding fights, helping each other, the little things you do for each other add up to be huge)

10. There is no score (Dearest love of mine, I'll keep picking up your clothes and towels off the floor, you keep kissing me sweetly every single day. I'll keep cleaning up after your coffee cup in the living room, you keep being a fantastic dad. I'll keep cooking awesomely creative meals, you keep helping with the dogs and chickens every night. I'll keep rocking sick fussy kids in the wee hours of the night, you keep food on our table. You keep ignoring my PMS and giving me a hug instead of telling me I'm bitchy, I'll keep the laundry washed and folded. You keep ironing your shirts when you don't have one ironed, I'll keep making you lunch for work. You keep brushing kids' teeth at bedtime, I'll get them to sleep. You keep loving me and I'll keep loving you. You don't keep score and either will I, we are a team and we work together.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cleaning up after the hubby... something so many wives resent. Not me.

My husband leaves at least some part of his clothes or socks on the floor every single day. He leaves his bathroom towel in front of the closet door every single day. I used to think this was annoying. For two years I wondered why it was so hard to walk a towel back to the bathroom, or simply place it in a hamper. I used to complain about it. I rattled off to myself when he wasn't home and I was picking it up. 'Dang towel on the bleepity-bleep floor again, how come you can't pick it up, it's not freaking hard, dang it!'' After a little while I felt stupid complaining about him leaving a towel on the floor while he was gone off to college to earn a bachelors degree and then later a masters degree. A masters degree he had to earn by driving into the city (four hours round trip four days a week) while working part time, keeping a wife happy and able to stay home with the kids, all the while being a good loving, playful father. When I started thinking about this it paled in comparison to me just simply picking it up for him. I started pretending that each time I picked up his towel he was saying 'I love you' to me. He has always treated me like a princess and wanted me to be happy. He gives himself selflessly to his family. He would rather spend time with us than do anything else.

This morning I'm looking to the left of me and in front of the closet floor is his towel on the floor. I'd be disappointed if it wasn't there. It's in my morning routine...nurse baby, check email, pick up his towel and hang it in the bathroom, make our bed, make the children's co sleeping beds in our room, make breakfast, have some coffee. About 4 days a week I get a phone call from him at work sometime between 10am and noon. He says, "Hi, I was wondering how your day is going..." 

I love my life.

Happy Anniversary to us

The Barbie Cake Tradition

The Barbie cake tradition started with Charlotte. She wanted a Barbie cake for her 5th birthday. This was before they had the Barbie cake pans you could buy. So I bought a little metal round mixing bowl from the store and put some cake batter in it. I greased up the bowl, baked it until it was solid in the middle, and it worked. I'm still using that same bowl 15 years later! The first cake took me a crazy three or four hours to make and decorate. When Layla was going to turn five Ricky and I made it together and it took about two hours. Our last girl to turn five is our sweet little Penelope Juliet, and this mom's getting good because I baked the cake the night before and then the next morning it only took 30 minutes to complete. She loves it. We had a really fun birthday! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENELOPE!

Ok, see the right side at the bottom of the dress, where the frosting is blobby and a different color? THAT is where the dog licked frosting off the cake because Sage put the dog on the chair for some reason ("Mom, I didn't see the cake there!" lol) and all I had was that color to patch it with! hah.