Baby Shower for Bethany

This week I got to co-host a baby shower at my house.  I basically just needed to provide the space, decorate and bake some cupcakes.

Easy enough.

Unless you have six kids and two part time jobs.

 Even one hour before the party started my house still looked like a bomb went off. 

The dust pan was full, even after round two of sweeping. (I usually have to sweep like two or three times a day).

Crayons all over the kitchen floor.

Dishes in the sink.

Duplo Mega Blocks and Plastic Food all over the living room.

I might have found six or seven socks thrown about the downstairs.

Library books all over the couches and rug.

I don't believe I've ever worked so fast in all my life.  

I was mopping at turbo speed. 

Thankfully it all came together and thankfully Wesley saved the day by rushing home and herding the kids outside to eat dinner and then took them straight to swim lessons so I could clean like a mad woman.  

Here are the cute guests and Bethany the guest of honor.

Now for the decorations.

 I saw this on pinterest and totally wanted to try it.

It was so easy!

I just cut raindrops with my Silhouette.

Hot glued them to thread that I pinned to my wall and later tied to the umbrella.

Easy, easy, easy.

The food table turned out cute too.

Sara made all the food and it was amazing!

I found this on Pinterest also.  It's so cute!

It's the guest list.

I found the almost exact same elephant online but it had the bunny on his trunk so I just edited it out.

Then amazingly I had a stamp pad in the old preschool supply box!

I love when I don't have to run to the store for things!

 I used some burlap scraps I had left over from some pillows I made and cut triangles out.  I used my silhouette to cut out the letters and heart.  Then I just traced them on the burlap and filled them in with permanent marker/blue paint.  I then hot glued them to blue ribbon.

I loved having the excuse to craft a bit. 

 It reminded me how much I like it.

Congratulations to Bethany and Thomas!

Novalee's New Bed

Adding Hyrum to the family means adding a bed.  

So we bought one off of a local facebook page from friends. This is actually their picture of it.

We were really excited about it having a built in bookcase because Novalee is a collector.  Really it doesn't matter what, she likes it and she likes to keep it...FOREVER. :)  

She especially loves her journals/diaries.  And she recently started reading books on her own so this was perfect.

Novalee was a little disappointed because it didn't really fit her sense of flair.  I promised her it would be awesome if she would just give it a chance.  She agreed and was actually pretty excited.  

So we got it and it sat in our garage for about a month.  I'm awesome like that.  :)

Then I finally primed it and spray painted it purple to match the bunk beds.  And added scrapbook paper Mod Podged to the back of the shelves.  

Here it is all done, sitting once again in the garage.  

 And finally in her room!

 Do you think she has enough stuffed animals? 

 I've been wanting to try out putting a different color on the back of a shelf for a long time.  I'm glad I finally got the chance.  

Getting Ready for Halloween

I loved summer this year! But for whatever reason as soon as it rained this last week I was ready for fall.

We went to Goodwill (I know, I roll high class) and picked out costumes for the kids.  We bought lights for our front porch and I started searching Pinterest for ideas on DIY halloween craft ideas.

I found a door wreath I liked right away and set out to copy it.

Here is the actual one on pinterest: http://lemontreecreations.blogspot.com/2010/10/wreath-bewitched.html

Here's mine:

 Perhaps not as cute as the one on Pinterest, but I like it.  :)

I tried to use things I already had.  I didn't have a foam wreath to I used the rim of a recently emptied Red Vines Tub.  It seems to have worked just fine.

I did buy the tulle and green fabric and the sign.

I didn't think it would be super simple to paint a plaque with our name on it so I cheated and bought this "Happy Halloween" sign at the Dollar Store today and cut it down to size.  Maybe someday I will paint our name on a sign...but probably not.

Happy Halloween...in 1 and 1/2 months.  :)

3T Shorts From 6x Shorts

Sadie has two pairs of shorts for summer. 

 Two. 

 

I'm not even sure how that is possible since practically all her clothes are hand-me downs from Novalee. 

 

Did Novalee never wear shorts when she was that size? 

 

They are probably in a box somewhere...

 

Anyways, I'm trying to clear some space in my closet, which beyond clothes, basically consists of craft and sewing stuff. 

 

Best way to clear it (in my book) is to use it.

 

So I decided to make Sadie some shorts with fabric I had in the closet. 

 

But I didn't have a pattern. 

So I tried what I did once before, where I take shorts already made and use that pattern. 

 

But I didn't have a pattern I liked in Sadie's size so I used a pair of Novalee's and then adjusted the pattern to fit Sadie.

 Novalee's Shorts

 

Here is the pattern I made. 

Totally basic. 

I probably didn't even do it right but it works.

The pair I made for Sadie!

 

Instead of using a button, I found a leftover flower from when my mom made my prom dress.  Holy moly!  Why do I still have these?  Can you say hoarder?

But I'm glad I do because it's pretty cute on the shorts.

Backside

 She is so cute AND I like the shorts too! :)

 Not bad for winging it!

Three Yellow Dresses

I had a wonderful Mother's day!  I hope you did too.  I kept telling Wes over and over again for probably at least a couple of weeks ahead of time that I was SO excited for it! 

 

Why?

 

Well, in our family there is a rule that the celebrated person (birthdays included) doesn't have to do any work on their special day...unless they want to.

 

 

SOOOOO NICE!

 

 

Yesterday I woke up to my family bringing me breakfast in bed AND lovely gifts.  One in particular I've wanted for a very long time, thank you Wesley.  And then I spent the rest of the day doing very little.  Wesley that night told me he appreciated all that I do.  Double Bonus!

 

Plus to add to all that loveliness I finally finished making matching(ish) dresses for the girls on Saturday, so on Sunday they got to wear them for me. :)

 

Plus it took yards and yards of fabric out of my closet that have been sitting in there, for well, a year. :)

 

 

Kinsley's

 Sadie's

 Novalee's

 

My cute girls!

 

It was so fun having them all matching at Church! 

 

I loved it!

Two Little Birdies

I just finished a project I've had planned since we painted Kinsley's room. 

They were super easy to make.  I just found images online (yes, they were robbed) that I liked. I traced them on white paper straight from the monitor.  Then I cut them out and traced the cutout onto black paper.  Finally I glued the black birds onto scrapbook paper and framed them.

So easy!

So cute! 

My mother showed me this and I thought I should share.
For you entertainment: Portlandia: Put a Bird on It

Christmas Stocking Countdown

I saw this cute idea for a Christmas countdown from Deseretbook.com  and really, REALLY wanted one.

But the colors were muted traditional Christmas colors and I'm not sure what the price was but I'm sure any price would have been beyond my budget.  So I decided to make something similar using bright traditional reds and whites to match our style a little better.  (I think it's kind of cool that some of the stockings are made from the fabric I used to make our tree skirt so they match).  :)

It's not exactly the same style as the Zion Mercantile ones but it works and the kids loved

 getting to pick candy out of the stockings each day.

 (We might need to get some new Christmas decorations for the mantle...)

Next year I want to add little metal numbers to them...we will see if it ever happens. :)

Lunch In a Paper Bag

During the summer Jared told me to get rid of his lunch bag because he was too old for it.  And I agreed for some reason.

But then school started and I still hadn't purchased a new one and so I started drawing on his paper bags to make them more fun.

My hope was that they would be a little better than me just writing on a napkin that I love him.  I was hoping that he would see the drawing at lunch and know that I love him and that I am thinking of him.

Well I think it works because his teacher relayed to me a conversation she overheard him having with another student in his class.  Basically the other kid was trying to get Jared to throw away his lunch bag and Jared replied, "No, I won't.  My mother drew this picture for me and it is special to me."

So sweet.

Anyways, I kind of also really enjoy it, it's fun to be creative, even if it is just doodling.  I've been taking pictures of them for fun, so here they are.

 

Novalee even got into it and made this Spiderman and glued it on a lunch bag.  Hers is way cool!

I should also just say that I'm not a very creative person when it comes to thinking up on my own something to draw or to draw from memory.  I had to cheat and look at something to draw these.  :)  But they are fun and Jared likes them.  :)

New Dress for Sadie

With it being so warm, I thought I would make Sadie another pajama dress with some fabric I've had for far too long.  So I just made a pattern using a dress she is currently wearing.  But when I finished the pajama dress I thought it was too cute to wear as just pajamas.  So I just added yellow ribbon and turned it into a play dress.

 I realize this is a goofy picture of Sadie but I just couldn't wait to have her try on her dress AFTER her nap, so I woke her up.  :)

 Sometimes when I'm making something by just winging it and I can see it's actually starting to come together I get so excited. I know, I'm a nerd.

 Sadie on her way to church in her new butterfly dress!