Tape

This is an Amyism.  Amy is my younger sister whom I love to spend time with.  Although she is quite eloquent we all have a little slip of the tongue now and then.
We got some new shopping outlets near us so my sister Amy my Mom and I went to check them out.  Amy brought our sweet little Lizzy along. As we were getting in and out of the car, I lifted Lizzy in her car seat then her mom said "Here Liz, lets tape you in."
Now if you know my family's love of duct tape you can appreciate how funny this little slip was.  I started laughing so hard.  Really Amy you tape your kids in their car seat's?  We were all rolling thinking of all the times we taped each other up in a chair practicing our escape skills.  I guess Amy is just starting her kids off young for this survival skill.


disclaimer; No. Amy does not really tape up her kids it was just a silly slip of the tongue that kept us in stitches.

Thanksgiving

the famous meat and cheese tray

This year my birthday fell on Thanksgiving again.  Not really the best day to have a birthday, sometimes I feel like Happy Birthday Jane, now do all this work.  Thanksgiving is not really my favorite holiday not even in the top five.  That being said the plus side to having your birthday on Thanksgiving is that everyone gets together for your birthday.  (funny side note I share my birthday with my sister-in-law Sarah Jane who married my brother Scott) Let's just say the lady at the bakery was very confused when my mom asked her to write happy birthday Sarah Jane and Jane on the cake.
My brother-in-law Matt came up with a great idea to have all the men cook all the food this year.  Great concept although I will admit I helped a lot with our assignments.  When Matt annouced this new tradition Scott asked "wait, what?  who's idea was this?"  Matt told him it was Scott's idea.  Scott was very confused.  "When did I come up with this idea?"  He asked.  Matt said, "when we came to visit you guys in California you did the cooking and then when you hosted it last year you did the cooking. So it's all you pal."  
Scott (my Scott) had a good idea this year to make Thanksgiving a little more special.  He asked me if I would make a movie of all the things we are thankful for this year with pictures of everyone in the family and what they are thankful for.  Great idea, it's a lot of work but a great idea so I set about my new task. Luckily I take a lot of pictures and I have some of nearly everyone, I did ask that everyone email me some pics so that helped. It also helped that we all do A LOT of things together.  It's always a crowd but we have fun in any situation.  I am so grateful that my family all get along so well that we love spending time together.  I was pretty happy with how the movie turned out but I was even more happy watching my family enjoy it.
All the kids loved seeing themselves on TV and remembering the things we did that year. It made all the hours I spent on the movie worth it.  It was so cute to see them get excited and praise each other on each new slide.
Thanksgiving was a success.  We all fit in my parents house and the food was delicious, and the company even better. My very creative mother came up with a clue hunt for the big kids and a treasure ball for the little ones.  The big kids had a hard time following directions but on the plus side it kept them busy for a long time.

 

good buddies just hanging out

look at these pretty girls

treasure ball

  I am so thankful for so many things in my life it would take a few pages to write them all down but this year marking a full year back here in Utah I am most thankful for family.  I am thankful that we all get along, and thankful that we all live close.  I am slowly learning that not all families are like mine.  I am extra blessed.  If everyone could have a family like mine the world would be a much better place.

bed bench

I felt the creative juices over flowing after making a movie for Thanksgiving so I finally got down to business and made my bed bench I have been wanting to do for some time now.  I saw a picture on pinterest and fell in love with idea.  Of course I thought "I could do that."  so began another project.
First I had to keep and eye out for a head and foot board.  I found a few on my many trips to DI but I am so dang cheap that I never bought one until  I found this little beauty.  It was pretty close to the shape that I wanted and for $10 I caved.  I tried to talk the guy down to $5 but you win some you loose some.  So I had  this bed in my garage for a few weeks just nagging me to do something with it.  I had a couple hours on Wednesday so I went for it.

First step was to sand down the whole bed.  I smoothed it out with my little palm sander with a medium grit sand paper.

Step 2. measure twice or three times if your me.  I measured the exact middle of the foot board and cut it in half.  Try to make the cut as straight as possible.  I used my skill saw so that part was simple.

Step 3.  glue and screw half of the foot board onto the head board.  Make sure you are on a level surface.  I
also used a square to make it a perfect 90 degree angle. It is just as important to glue as it is to screw.  A lesson my carpenter father taught me. I screwed through the back of the headboard and straight through the new sides.  Pre-drilling is very helpful here.

Step 4. Glue and screw the other half onto the opposite side of the headboard.

Step 5. I laid my wood for the seat across the arm sides and marked and measured each board to fit perfectly.  I just laid the wood and marked with a pencil underneath then cut on my lines.
My home depot has wood that people have had cut and don't want so they sell them for super cheap.  I got each board for 50 cents a piece.

Step 6. I used little L braces under the seat so that I could use this as an actual bench and not just decoration.  This step is not necessary but I felt better giving it that extra support.  If you don't use the L brackets you have to screw through the top of the seat.  The brackets are inexpensive (.40-.60 cents) so I say go for it.

the underside of the bench and its laying on its back

Step 7. give one final sand to everything then wipe down and paint.

My favorite spray paint to use is Rustoleum x2.  It has more paint in it than any other can and it covers really well.  For this project I really wanted it "number 2 pencil" yellow, but I couldn't find it in a spray and I didn't want to use the other kind.  So I tried 2 different paints not the color I really wanted but still cute.  Too bad you can't mix spray paint like you can regular paint. (actually you can but its costly and you all know how cheap I am) I left some of the dark showing around the finials to give it a more rustic look.

So the whole project from start to finish took me 3 hours.  I could have done it in 2 but I had my trusty helpers so that makes everything take longer.

 Total cost of my cute bench. $18.

  It could have been cheaper if I didn't experiment with paint colors.
I put it on my front porch, now I just need some cute blue pillows to go with it. Oh well that's another project for another day

Tran Siberian Orchestra

 I am another year older but I don't really feel it.  However I did notice that I called a college coed a boy so maybe I'am getting a little older.  I had to ask my sister how old she was so I could figure out how old I was.   My mom never fretted about getting older, she has always been young and spry so I feel the same way.  What difference does it make how old I am as long as I am happy and doing well.
This year to celebrate my birthday Scott and I went to Tran Siberian Orchestra.  It was an amazing light show.  I was a tiny bit disappointed that they didn't play some of my favorite songs but the whole thing was pretty cool. Its kind of like a rock concert meets a light show meets Christmas.  The story was very Hallmark-esk.  I happen to love those cheesy Hallmark movies so that was all fine with me.  The lights were amazing and the singers could have been better.  I guess I was just hoping that when they sang the Christmas cannon a children's choir would come out and sing.  That didn't happen they just used their lead ladies.  The pianists were over the top.  In a good way. I couldn't believe some of the numbers they did.  Their fingers had to be sore at the end of the night.  And we could tell that it was all live. No prerecorded music or singers.  So I was impressed with the musicians.

 There were a few people in the crowd that were a little extra interesting.  Some random drunk guy behind us kept shouting odd phrases during the quiet parts.  But nothing vulgar so that was okay just a little weird. 

During one song they made it snow in the venue but with the lights it looked like glitter, a really awesome effect in person.  It was a fun night.  Thank you sweetie, I always have a good time with you.

birthmark

A few weeks ago Brennen was noticing a birthmark he has on his leg.  As he was studying it he looked at me with a very concerned look.  Then he asked, "Mom, what's this thing on my leg?"  To which I stated matter-of-factly, "oh, that's a birthmark."  He gave me a quizzical look then with dawning on his face he said "Oh that's the mark that Jesus put on me to know who I am"
I thought his answer was very appropriate.  Why shouldn't that be the reason for a birthmark other than a benign irregularity on the skin.

Tonight as Brennen was in the bath he noticed his birthmark again and told me in a sweet and serious tone,   "Heavenly Father knew I was special so he marked me right, so he would know who was Brennen."  From the mouths of babes.  I am so blessed to be the mother of these wonderful children that know who they are and how special they are. Yes Brennen, I am sure Heavenly Father marked you because you are special!  I love you buddy.

to Zermatt with love

For our 13th anniversary this year Scott booked us a weekend at the Zermatt resort in Midway. Knowing how much I love Swiss Days and all it entails this was a win win. As I thought on it this was only the 2nd time  that I have ever left the kids overnight with someone other than Scott.  I asked my generous sister Stephanie if she would be willing to take in my brood and she was more than happy to, completely eliminating my worries or guilt about pawning off my children.  I thank you for that Steph and Matt.  With all my little ducks left in capable hands I was free to fully relax and enjoy the weekend.  And relax and enjoy we did.  As we pulled up to the resort we were instantly transported to another place.  The resort itself so true to character from where its influence came from.  There was even yodeling playing in the speakers near the entrance.  All the service people were in traditional Swiss garb giving it that little something extra.  I loved the architecture and colors against the mountainous backdrop.

We first explored the resort finding a carousel and quaint little pond that we could imagine ice skating on when it froze. We headed to dinner at Z Chop Haus.  Can I just say everything was to die for.  We started off with a Gruyere fondue that  was incredibly sinful.  Wow  I couldn't get enough.  The whole experience was top notch.  There was even a live pianist who happen to play everything that I would love.  I almost asked Scott if he sent her my piano playlist but I knew better.  Lets just say, that pianist and I had the exact same taste in music and how it should be played.  I was in love.. . .Scott was amazing too. We took our dessert back to our room for later and when we finally got to tasting them I was so happy we got 2 because I didn't want to share, it was that good.

indoor pool

 After we digested a little we headed over the the pool.  What a neat effect.  The lighting made it look like you were swimming under the Aurora Borialis.  

The next day we headed over to the Cowboy festival in Heber.  Ready for some good ol' fashioned cowboy poetry.  I have never laughed so hard as when listening to cowboy poetry.  Walking through all the booths I felt the longing for days gone by when I used to go riding with my dad and best friend Kortnee before I developed my allergies to these amazing animals.  My dad and I had a standing date every weekend to go horse back riding just the two of us.  I loved this time with my dad.  Kortnee and I would take the horses out to explore and race up the mountain.  I had such good times riding that once in a while I want to hop back on a take off up the mountain reaching places I wouldn't normally reach on my own 2 feet totally ignoring the watery itchy eyes and hives that pop up on any exposed skin. The cowgirl in me was coming to the surface faster than I could control her.

 It was a wonderful weekend.  So here's to my sweet heart and best friend. I love that I can still spend all day with him and not get tired of him.  We have so much fun playing together and just hanging out.  Even if he is turning me into more of a nerd.   I love you sweetie thanks for 13 great years I am looking forward to many more!!!!

rambling Jack

can you guess which one is not a statue?

sourdough slim

Halloween a bust

10 times better with face paint right.

Halloween this year was a bust.  I was so disappointed because it is normally one of my favorite holidays.  I love to come up with costume and party ideas but his year it just seemed like one more thing I have to do. I didn't even have time to do a party. To start off my kids all wanted to be characters from the cartoon Avatar the Last Airbender. I searched high and low at DI for articles that I could alter to make the costumes as true to life as possible.  Once I found just the right pieces I began altering and sewing to make the 3 main characters.  However when it came time to actually wear a costume anywhere my kids had a change of heart.  I was so frustrated.  Why do we put forth so much effort only for it to be cast aside.  I learned my lesson this year.  Next year they will have to search in the costume closet.  First up was the church Halloween party.  Now I realize that our ward is new to Halloween parties but considering what we came from (The most amazing Halloween party throwing ward ever!!!) its kind of a let down.  After arriving my kids asked if we could go back to the California ward.  Santa Clarita knows how to do Halloween.  Then we had the school costume parade. My boys just had to wear dragon costumes from the dress up box, but they refused to let me paint their faces so to me the costumes looked kind of lame. As for trick-or-treating our neighborhood is a joke.  Peter and Will finally let me paint their faces for this one don't they look cute?   Anyway  half the people are not home and only 1/4 of the ones that are home celebrate.  My kids got excited when we came upon this house totally decked out in Halloween decor. However when we knocked on the door they opened it and told us that they weren't doing Halloween this year and rudely told us to go away.  Seriously?  I couldn't believe it.  Why all the lawn decor and then WHY open your door.  Turn off your porch light if you don't want trick-or-treater's people.  

my dad

my mom

my super hero's

I would have to say the only upside to this years Halloween was my brother and his spook alley.  This year they set up a spook alley in their back yard that was just scary enough.
 I guess there's always next year.

the cutest spiderman ever