Here Kitty Kitty

Since it has finally stopped raining every. single. day. we have been able to enjoy the outdoors more.

My flowerbeds in the front yard have been sadly neglected longer than it has been raining non stop.

So the kids and I have been spending more time out front.  We have been having some serious cabin fever over here.

The only one suffering from us hanging outside more is our cat 'tilda.  She is the definition of a scaredy cat.  She is afraid of everything.  Loud noises, baby cries, cat toys...you name it.  Wish we had known that before we adopted her from the humane society four years ago into our family of crazy.

Here she is getting lovins from Hite. 

 I would say this is a step up from when Caleb decides she needs food and water NOW and dumps it on her head when she is hiding in our foundation vents.  

The little sisters love her too.

 I feel like she took up the opossum motto to just "play dead" in hopes they would leave her alone. 

Disneyland 2017

It's been almost two months since we went to Disneyland and like pregnancy amnesia, I'm pretty sure I'm having what I'd call "Disneyland Amnesia."  Looking at all the photos just now made me exclaim out loud, "Disneyland was fun!"  

But seriously, I don't know if it really was that fun. It was hot.  My kids complained about being hungry, hot or bored most of the time.  We, me lost Hite for the scariest 30 seconds of my life while I played through all the horrible possibilities of what my life would be like without him, only to find him like 40 feet from me with a lady asking him where his parents were. Thank goodness!

And to top it off, my kids begged to go back to the hotel pool to swim after just a few hours there and then continued their pleading the remainder of our trip...AND if you were to ask them now what their favorite part was, they would say the pool.  So, yeah.  We could have bought a fairly decent pool for our backyard for the price we paid to go to Disneyland.

But in all fairness, I just look at the pictures and think Disneyland really was fun and I'd probably go back...if conditions were right.

Here are some highlights of the trip. Okay really it's more than some.

Here Kinsley is, already tired of walking, heading into Disneyland on our first day. She came up with some very clever ways of not having to walk during the trip. Including throwing so many tantrums that we bought a second stroller at the nearest store after the first day.

Teacups. Gag.

Okay, I promise to be more positive from here on.  

Let's say I like the idea of the teacups.  

It's a small world with most of the Crockett Family.

I do so seriously love this ride.
I could just ride it over and over again.
 PLUS it gets you out of the sun!

All the cousins had coordinating outfits on the first day.  

They were so cute!  

 Don't worry the boys didn't wear Minnie Shirts.

This is where it got real people!

  A storm trooper! 

BEST. DAY. EVER!

The carousal was really the only ride the little kids cared to go on.  

NO LINES!

See the pure joy on this kid's face! 

I just want to squeeze him. 

And this girl!

She's so happy!

The Toy Story Ride, I think. 

 Forgive me if I get the ride names wrong.  

I can't claim to be a Disney expert.

 I have been trying to beat my brother in law at something for years.  He's the punk with his thumb up.  It's kind of annoying that he always wins.  He's sort of super smug about how awesome he thinks he is, which only makes it more annoying when he wins at everything.  So I was super excited to see that I beat him at this ride.  (You get points for shooting things).  I shouted out that I beat him at the end, ready to shove my victory in his face, only to see I had my place values wrong and was off by like 100,000 points.  No big deal, just another awesome chance to look like a fool.  

Oh brothers!  They melt my heart!

 This is a very important moment in Hite's life. 

When all his childhood hopes and dreams came true!

This kid was spellbound. 

McQueen even joked that Hite had bugs in his grill too because he just watched Hite pick up a piece of his Popsicle that fell to the ground and eat it. Haha!

  

You know Captain Hook isn't the nicest pirate when he won't even stop to take a picture.

On the last day, Jared got the thing he wanted most at Disneyland.  A Nightmare Before Christmast snow hat.  Afterwards he proudly looked very out of place dressed in a dark sweatshirt and snow hat in high 70 degree weather.  

Oh well, he was happy, even if he looked a bit gloomy.

 Goofy's Kitchen.  

I didn't even know there were places like this at Disneyland.  

They had PB&J pizza!  

Hite was very bashful when Minnie came around.  

The last day we hit the jackpot of all Character photo ops! 

Three Winnie the Pooh characters!

Okay, really I was more excited than all the kids were.  

But let's be honest here.  They do look super cuddly.  

I love this picture.

  Our kids are so lucky to have so many people in their lives that love them and that they can look up to.  This definitely includes Grandpa and Grandma Crockett. 

 They are so loving and thoughtful.  

It's always hard to say goodbye.  

I'm not a 100% what to say about Disneyland but I loved LOVED the people we were with.  And I really did love having less things to do and just getting to spend time with my kids.  They are growing up too fast.

Baby Hite's Room

I finally finished Hyrum's room.

Before he was born I was planning to do an ocean/whale theme.

But then my friend was getting rid of some old plug covers and light fixtures from her new house that I'm convinced belonged to a lonely old sportsman.  Just about everything had plaid, wood, or some sort of hunting or fishing thing on it.  

These were the plug covers and the light fixture she gifted to me.  

And then a theme was born!

The Boy-Cave!

And this is how it turned out.

Don't worry.  I did eventually put pictures into the frames.  

Like 15 minutes ago.

He's cute.

Here are a few other things I made for the room and if you really feel like reading explanations on how I made them, read on.  

The Pillow.

 "To go to sleep I count antlers, not sheep." 

I just typed this up on my paint program because I don't have any cool programs.  Then I added an image I liked from the internet.  I spray glued some freezer paper (glossy side up) on a regular piece of paper (to add firmness) and then I copied the mirror image of what I wanted onto the glossy side of the freezer paper.  Then I ironed it onto the very lightly damp fabric and then rubbed it with the rounded side of a spoon to make sure it truly transferred.  Easy.

The bear.

I really wanted something to fill up this wall and I found the coolest picture of a bear at Fred Meyers but it was priced expensive.

Then while searching the internet for another more affordable picture I came across plans you can buy to make a bear cut out of plywood.   

But being the birds favorite song, "cheap, cheap,"  I decided to skip the plans and just draw my own.

So I found a bear I liked on the internet and drew it onto a piece of wood we had. 

Then I used my new jigsaw I got for my birthday to cut around what I drew.  

 A Little Love.

This is printed onto burlap.  I just cut the burlap to the size of letter paper.  I ironed it onto freezer paper.  Then sent it through my printer.  The end. 

The shelf

This was a fun and terrifying project.  I've never attempted something so big and also so risky.  If it failed, which since I had no idea what I was doing the odds were against me, I would have a lot of patch work and painting to do.  

I got the 2x4s from the neighbor and friend from church that was left over from making our garden gate.  I created E frames times 3, to span the length of the room.  It was pretty flimsy at this point and I was doubting whether it would hold anything.  But after nailing everything together it was actually surprisingly sturdy.  

The sign.

This was left over wood from the shelf that I stained.  I typed and printed up what I wanted on the wood on a piece of paper.  Then I used a pen to trace around the image.  Kind of like how when you write hard enough on paper, it leaves an imprint on the backside of the paper.  Same thing but the imprint leaves a mark on the wood.  Which is great because not only are you able to see where you want to paint but also the paint pools into the valleys created by the imprint so you are able to get a pretty clean image.  

That is all.  

Hyrum's room is officially my favorite room in the house.