New Dress, 3 ways!

My amazing sister is doing something called self stitched September, where you where something that you have made each day of the month. I thought this was a neat idea but I have nowhere near enough clothing to make it through a whole month. Indeed, I would be naked most days of September if I were playing along with this game.

So, instead, I made a dress and decided to wear it 3 different ways. These are what I came up with. You'll have to tell me which one you like best.

My cute husband even took me on a date while I was wearing the bottom 2. We went to a play and then up the canyon for dinner. Darling, you spoil me so!

First day of school pictures!

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to post pictures of Mckinley's first day back at preschool. David thought that I was being a crazy mom and asked me if I was going to take a picture of our kids on their first day of high school too. I told him that of course that was my plan, and that it wouldn't stop there either. My kids better get full ride scholarships to far away schools if they don't want to have a snap shot taken on their first day of college. To prove it, I made David pose for a picture while walking into one of his classes. I was wearing pajamas, and David was very embarrassed, but we got the picture.

Cousins!

Do you remember playing with your cousins when you were younger. That was the life, huh? We have had some really fun visits from family members this past week. First we had Steph and Shan, Brandon and Jack, coming through on their way to Arizona. We love being here because we get to get visitors all to ourselves when they are traveling through. We love it when you stop by!

Then, yesterday, we got to see Josh and Alecia and their sweet girls. As you can see, Mckinley was in Heaven with these girls. She looks up to them so much and loves everything about them. Dolce was taking a little nap after being a little bit grumpy, so she isn't in the picture. (The adorable baby is Baby Brooke.) You better believe that when you get five little girls together, it is certain to be exciting. We continued our "Fall Film Festival" for family night, and it was so much fun to get all the girlies snuggled up in sleeping bags on the grass and watch a movie together. When the movie was over, Mckinley and Grace made us laugh so hard with their crazy dancing. What funny girls.

We can't wait to see everyone again. Come soon Please!

Big News!!!

This is what an overly proud Mom looks like.

Making Headlines today, Mckinley has just learned how to write her name! Oh my, I am actually bursting at the seams with proudness! She brought a magazine upstairs to show me something that she had been working on while watching a movie. It was a crossword puzzle where she had written some letters in the boxes. She was so proud, and I didn't actually believe that she had done it. I have tried to get her to practice letters so many times and she would never do it, so it really was quite a surprize to see that she knows so many.(And to see her interpretive doodles for some of the letters she doesn't know. )

Other news, Our little Dolce is growing so fast and is not only walking (as of the end of July) but is running everywhere she goes. She especially loves to run towards stairs which is a little frightening because she knows how to go up, but not down. She is extremely pigeon toed and bow legged if you can imagine such a thing.(Her walk has something of a "planet of the Apes," flavor to it.) She has absolutely no interest in stroller rides anymore and wants to be walking and exploring on her own. Whenever we put her down for a walk she claps her hands and laughs hysterically. We love it!

Both of these little ladies are so much fun! What a handful!

Our Fall Film Festival!

It was nothin but fun last weekend at our house when we had the first night of our "Fall Film Festival." We got an idea for a family night film festival from a book. It sounds like a much bigger deal than it actually is. If you want to do your own version of a fall film festival, here's some ideas to get you goin'. Our Book suggested that you pick 4 movies to watch. If you were to do your Film festival in October you might pick some of the old spooky ones like Dracula, and Frankenstein.(Look at the library to be extra savy!) Then pick four nights to watch your films. You could do them all in a row like a real festival, or you could get some pretty good mileage for family home evenings for a whole month! We are going to spread ours out over September and October with the last one being on Halloween night.(Because it happens to be on a Sunday night this year and we are planning to trick or treat on Saturday.)
Then, pick 4 treats or foods to serve. Our book gave reccomendations for 4 different types of Caramel Corn. But you could coordinate your treat to go along with your movie for the night if you wanted to.
Setting up for the party just involves using an extension cord to take your TV outside.(With our little girls, everything is much more fun outside.) Bring out blankets and stake your spot. Invite friends over and tell them to come in their jammies. We had so much fun on our first night! We watched Diary of a wimpy kid which was pretty funny. We are planning to do a couple of kid friendly scary ones next like Casper and Hocus Pocus. Share some of your ideas! I would love to know what you would do with your Fall Film Festival!

W is for Watermellon Carving!

If you have kids like ours, you might know how much kids love to carve things such as pumpkins, soap and....watermellons! We carved this watermellon into a

"Watermellon Fairy House" for family home evening. We even put it out on our front step lit with a candle for the evening. It got us very excited for upcoming pumkin carving and was a very fun activity. We also used some of the watermellon to make watermellon lemonade for our family night treat.

H is for Hobo Dinners!

H is for Hobo Dinners on the Mountain! A few weeks ago, we went up to our family property on the mountain and made a campfire and hobo dinners. We also took up things for S'mores and put ice cream on top. Mmmm! Afterwards we went on a long walk with the girls. We walked all the way to a spooky cabin called Stubbs Cabin. (We told Mckinley the ghost story on the way.) As soon as we got to the cabin David screamed really loud and started running away to scare Mckinley, but she was too smart. She didn't fall for any of his nonsense.

We also saw this old tree with my brothers name carved into it. The funny part about it is that the same tree also has Allen Brattons name carved into it. David worked for Allen Bratton Electric when we first moved here. Small world.

Cupcakes in a Jar

We made these cupcakes in a jar for some gifts and couldn't resist eating a few ourselves. You make cupcakes without the paper wrapper and when they are done you layer them inside a mason jar with your favorite frosting and sprinkles. Tie a plastic spoon around the lid and you have a party in a jar. MMMM!

Our cute little house

Yes, we moved! It was a little sad to leave our cute little cottage but we are now happy in a new place. I wanted to post some pictures of the house so that we would always remember. We have a lot of fun memories there. Bye little house!

A cool Thrift store Find!

I don't always find such cool thrift store treasures, but look at this cute candy striped dress I found! I love it when the thrift store gods smile. I wore this to church and got a bunch of compliments and proudly announced that I found it at the DI.(I made the announcement during the good news minute, no less!) This is cool but it still doesn't beat my favorite thrift store shopping experience at the Sugarhouse DI when Mellissa and I were looking specifically for an Eibelskiver pan and walked right up to one, cast iron and everything, for 2 bucks! That day was the all time best!

K is for Kitten Saving

My parents found this baby kitten after he had been abandoned by his mother. My dad actually took care of the kitty until it could eat out of a bowl without crawling into it. For a few weeks the kitty had to drink kitten milk from a tiny kitty bottle. Mckinley was in heaven mothering and caring for him. Then about 3 weeks later, Mckinley came running into the back yard with another baby kitten! They worked so hard with the second baby kitty too but it had been malnourished for so long that it didn't make it:( The surviving baby kitty is named OC which is short for "Orphan Cat."

Corsage Embellished tee!

This was so easy and fun to do! Great for all of us on a budget too! I got the idea from an online tutorial. At Downeast Basics they were having a clearance sale on t shirts so I bought 2 shirts in the same color. Then, out of one of the shirts I cut out 2 different sizes of flower shapes. Any flower shape would work and different sizes and shapes would make a unique finished product. I cut out probably 20 of each size. Then, taking two of the flowers of the same size, I folded them in half and then in half again and stitched the middle of the flower to the collar of the shirt. What do you think? Not bad for a final price of about 6 dollars.

R is for Reservoir

It's going to take forever for us to catch up on our blogging, but we will get there. Just five minutes away from our house is a new little reservoir that we went wading in. Mckinley had so much fun playing with some little friends there. She rode around in a little raft toted around by our neighbors. Dolce wasn't sure what to think about it all, but it cooled her off and she wanted to be sitting down playing in it. Ahhh, that was a fun day. Where did summer go?