Blog hacking on Alys' birthday!

This is Dale, hacking in to Alys' blog to make sure that everyone knows it's her birthday! I had a super awesome vacation planned where we were going to go to stay in the Disneyland Grand Hotel while we played at the Magic Kingdom for 3 days, then fly to Bora Bora for a week. But strangely enough something came up so I had to postpone. Maybe next year. In the meantime I was hoping that a suitable substitute would be for me to publicly acknowledge that I DO NOT deserve my wife because of how seriously top-notch she is. I'm not sure how I tricked her into marrying me, but it worked somehow. I really do plan to take her on awesome vacations someday. But for now I hope she'll settle for my undying love and adoration. I love you, sweet Alys! Plus, you're super hot.

My Christmas Tree

I have my Christmas Tree up and ready to go. Actually, I'm embarrassed to admit how long it's been up. Let's just say it went up about as early as my Halloween stuff did. Dale did not like that I didn't wait very long after Halloween to put my Christmas stuff up. He says I'm trampling over Thanksgiving. I understand Thanksgiving is a perfectly respectable holiday that deserves decorating but to my credit, I took out all my fall stuff and didn't like it very much. So instead of going out and buying stuff I did like, I just got out all the Christmas stuff.

Besides, I was excited to see if my new tree would work. This is our first Christmas in our new place and I quickly determined that the tree we usually put up would be way to stinkin' huge for this house. It's not super tall but really wide. If I set it up in our tiny downstairs, there would be no way to walk around it. And who wants to set up a tree upstairs? So I knew I had to get a new smaller one but wasn't about to pay what the stores were asking. I was shocked at what most places will charge for a small fake tree. Until I saw Walmart's trees. El-Cheapo!!! They look pretty el-cheapo too but once you get all your stuff on it, not so bad. I got a 6.5 foot, narrow pre-lit tree for only $35.

And it's white! I wanted to mix it up a bit this year and I think the white looks great! Since this tree is way smaller than my other, it was difficult getting all the decorations to fit on it. I seriously can't fit one more thing on there. But I like how it looks completely covered in stuff. And now you can't see how cheap the tree looks.
I love how the black ornaments are looking on it!
Hobby Lobby had all their Christmas floral stuff %50 off so I got a bunch of fun stuff for the topper. Poor kids, they stood there bored out of their minds in the store while I agonized over what ribbon to choose.
Some favorite ornaments:
Some night shots:
I made Ella Rose swear up and down not to touch the tree. And she's done a great job so far. To date, only one ornament has been broken and it was by me. Dang, it was a pretty one too. All my kids teased me because I had just got done threatening their very lives if they so much as bump the tree. And then I drop one. Smooth. I do have one very favorite ornament that I love so much I won't hang it because I'm so terrified it will break. My mom got it for me out of the country so there's no replacing it.

Anyhow, I'll post pics of the rest of my decos later.

Jersey's First Birthday

This past Saturday, my friend Heidi asked me to help decorate for a very special birthday party for her daughter Jersey who is an angel in heaven. She was born last November and lived only a short time on this earth but touched more lives than most people do in a normal lifetime. It was a happy event and I was honored to help celebrate Jersey Girl's first birthday.

It was a beautiful day and I took tons of pics. Hope you don't mind me sharing.

Next to the front door:
The front entrance with the guest favors:
A very special book about Jersey's amazing life. The white box has the Jersey Beads in them:
Is this not the most amazing cake? It was made by Mandi Rohner. Gorgeous!
Jersey was in the hospital over Christmas time and this tree was set up in her room. So precious.
A delicious spread. So many yummy things were brought in!
Heidi's mom set up an angel making station. Each kid got to make and take home a sweet little angel.
This is Jersey's big sis, Tatum. She wears her angel wings to be like Jersey.
They served cotton candy and my girls got covered in it.
One of the best things about the party was that the guests were asked to bring donations to help create "survival kits" for the parents at St. Joe's. A Giant Mountain of Toothpaste!!! Everyone was so generous.
Thanks for let me be a part of this most special day, Heidi!

If you want, you can read more about Jersey's story here.

Mad Sleep Skillz

For his large beefy size, Gunner is surprisingly flexible. Kinda like Chris Farley. He fell asleep on the couch the other night in this position:
I don't think I could even do that when I was awake! He stayed like that for quite sometime before he finally let go.

Best Parade Ever!

It was a great day today! Not only did we get to honor our brave veterans, this little lady got to march in her very first parade:
She goes to a dance class taught by my sis in law Tracy and this morning they all performed in a Veteran's Day parade. It was such a fun thing to watch and I was a proud mama.
Tabby has lots of cousins going to the same dance place who marched in the parade too. Here is little cousin Ameliah.
There were lots of different types of entries in the parade. Most of them military. Here is some of my family waiting in the staging area. Notice the guy behind them waiting for us to get out of the way so he can park his tank.
Here we all are on the parade route waiting for our darling dancers to come by.
Papa took good care of baby Gunner while we watched. It's not an easy task, holding him. He weighs nearly 19 pounds!
Luckily, Papa found a seat so he could rest his aching arms:
It wouldn't be a picture of Ella if she didn't have dirt smeared all over her face:
A cop came by and gave Rex a flag, a badge, a pin, and a key chain. Rex clung to this stuff the rest of the parade because he thought it made him a real cop.
We saw some great stuff while we were waiting. There were real military planes flying over us. Dale could tell you what kind they were but I certainly can't.
I think he said one of these was a Mustang. I thought those were cars.
A moving banner:
I smiled at this little tank rolling along. It looked like a loud and bumpy ride. I bet their teeth rattled the rest of the day. I love that grandma is the machine gunner.
Thank you for your service, sir.
A real Chopper from Nam:
It's not a parade without horses. Especially ones with painted glittery hooves. I always wanted to be a rodeo queen. I bet I would have been awesome at barrel racing.
Yay! The girls are finally coming!
The littles sat in the trailer and waived their poms at us. Here is Miranda, Tracy's girl:
Ameliah was so excited when she saw us!
The dancers behind the trailer are grooving to the beat. Tabby was totally on the OTHER SIDE. Guess I could have planned that a little better!
Got some good ones of her marching away:
Good girl. Look for Mama's camera:
It was an awesome parade and had a great time seeing the veterans who so bravely went overseas and fought for us. It was fun to shout "thank you" to them and clap as they went by. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the brave men and women who have fought and are currently fighting for our liberty so I can freely teach my children what I know to be true. And a special thank you to my Grandpas and Dale's Grandpas who all went to war and battled for our families and our freedom.
"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." -Elmer Davis

Halloween 2009

Sigh, my favorite holiday is over... I've already started to take down the decos. At least I have the pics to remember it by. We had a really great Halloween this year. We did a fun Halloweenie roast with the neighbors, we went to school parties, we had family parties, and of course trick or treating.

This year was a lot of work because I decided to make the girls' costumes rather than spend lots of money on nice costumes. It took a lot of time but it was worth it and I had lots of fun doing it (thanks for the help Magi.)

Tabby wanted to be a Sugar Plum Fairy. It's a strange request, I know. She saw a Sugar Plum Fairy costume that she liked in a catalog and I didn't want to pay $50.00 for it so I did my best to make one. It turned out better, I think. And the one in the magazine didn't come with sugar plums I might add.
Rex wanted to be nothing other than Optimus Prime. He wouldn't budge on the subject. I wasn't a big fan of the costume but I have to say he rocked it. Nobody has ever loved a costume more than he loved his Optimus costume. He's slept in it every night since.
Doing some sweet moves:
He's trying to transform:
Ella Rose decided she wanted to be a rock star. I'd say that choice suited her perfectly. Because she is one.
Gunner was an ASU football player. I was kind of embarrassed for him to wear this costume as our team had a disgusting loss earlier in the day. But he didn't seem to mind it.
My sis Magi made her entire family mummy costumes. Mark even wore one but I don't have a pic of it. It happened, I swear.
Here's Mads:
And Max:
She's so dang creative. Check out these leggings and shoes she made for Mads:
Here we all are at my parent's Halloween party:
Seems like we have a pinata at every party we have:
Look at the yummy bat cake Magi made:
Here we all are ready to get our trick or treat on:
My sis in law Shannon does a fun haunted alley in front of her house every year so we always go to her neighborhood. Her street gives out the best candy ever. Not a Bit-O-Honey in sight.
Sweet cousin Miranda:
Little Kinley was the best Dorothy ever. She even said "There's no place like home" and clicked her heels when she got candy.
Kam:
Amelia striking a way rad pose in her kitty costume:
Cannon and Todd:
This is how Gunner rolls:
Papa and Gunner resting after a long night of Trick or Treating:
I take back what I said about getting the best candy ever. Look what I found in one of my kid's bucket when we got home:
I know, right?

It gets worse, It was TAPED SHUT!!!
So ghetto!!! Julie had one in her kiddo's candy bucket too. What, you can't go out and spend $10.00 for some dang candy? Why even bother? I would rather you lock the door and not answer than receive your eight month old shady looking candy!

I know you want to hear all about my daughter's ordeal at the dentist!

Poor little Tabby had quite the adventure at the dentist's office on Wednesday.

It all started about a month ago when I took Tabby in for a check up and was told that Tabby would need two root canals and crowns due to some molars that were badly decayed. After the dentist was done looking at her, the front desk lady gave me the wonderful news that this procedure would cost me over $800.00! And yes, that's with our dental insurance (which is a total joke, BTW.) I kindly told the lady that there was no way that we could afford that and I guess I'll just have to let her teeth rot out of her mouth because there was nothing I could do if it was going to cost that much. I didn't win any of her sympathy with that so I left feeling trapped and ticked off that we pay lots of money for dental insurance every month that won't even come close to covering this crap. SO ANGRY!!! GRRRR! The dentist had even told Tabby during the exam that he was going to fix her "princess teeth" and when she learned that we couldn't do it, she started to cry that her "princess teeth" would turn ugly. Super awesome.

Well some great people (they read this blog, do they want me to say who they are? I'm not sure) heard of my problem and offered to chip in a great deal money to help get this done. Hallelujah! Fixed princess teeth after all!

I called and made the appointment and took her in this past Wednesday. To start things off, they gave her this gnarly "juice" to drink that made her really loopy and sleepy. It was really funny to see that even though she was totally out of it, she still wouldn't stop talking.

Anyway, they took her back and started working on her and a few minutes into it, the dentist called me back and said that the new x ray that he took showed the molars never had very deep roots and that they were very weak teeth and that's why they decayed so badly. I have to say that at this point I felt a bit of relief. I had been feeling like a terrible mom for not taking care of my kiddo's teeth like I thought I was. Turns out, the teeth were doomed from the start. The dentist even told me they would have decayed no matter what. Bad news is the x ray showed that a lot of her teeth were like that so dang it, we might have to do this again.

He says that he can't save the molars and they have to go so she ended up getting them yanked and she'll have to get spacers put in next week.

Needless to say, when she came to, she was shocked to find two of her teeth gone. She said "you mean I'm not getting crowns on my teeth?" I still wonder what her idea of crowns on her teeth was. Did she picture little tiny princess tiaras sitting on top of her teeth? =)

Still in the procedure chair, the assistant said she could take all of the gauze out of her mouth. In all her numbness she grabbed her tongue and started to try to pull it out of her mouth thinking it was the gauze. Funny stuff.

Anyhow, I got her home and laid her on the couch to sleep the meds off. I stepped out of the room for a second and when I came back, this is what I saw:
My little princess clutching her highly prized wand that she earned from the dentist's treasure box. A medal of honor you might say. She woke up long enough to ask me why the couch was rocking and then fell back asleep.

Once again I feel like a terrible mom though because of all the nights to have the tooth fairy come and leave money, she forgot! Poor Tabby woke up so dismayed. I don't blame her, she went through so much! On the way home from the dentist, she told me she thought the tooth fairy should leave her $100 because of how brave she was. Needless to say she was very excited to get to sleep that night. So she wakes up, and nothing! Dale tried to make it better by saying that the tooth fairy had been to a little girl in Germany and couldn't make it back in time but she will for sure come tonight. And she will. I'm going to make it up to her too. Normally the tooth fairy leaves a quarter but tonight, she will leave a $5 bill and a stuffed animal!

She went to school today so excited to show everyone her two new "teeth holes."

Funny little girl.

Naughtiness to the Nth Degree

Here's all the wonderful high jinks my daughter Ella perpetrated while I was working in my office today:

1.) Peed on the bathroom floor. Creative. She's never done that before.
2.) Dumped dirt all over the dog.
3.) Squeezed all of Tabby's glitter lotion onto her bed.
4.) Colored in some tile grout with a permanent marker (anyone know how to get that out?)
5.) Climbed onto the counter and ate all the cookies I was saving for the kids as an after lunch treat. I must have told her 80 trillion times not to touch them. Tabby was way ticked that her cookie was eaten.
6.) Pushed the couch in the loft across the room. What? Why? I think she evokes super human strength when I'm not looking.

As naughty as this all sounds, I know she's not a bad girl because she's pretty well behaved when I'm not working. And she's not a mean little girl at all. She's just looking for a little attention. I just wish she sought it in different ways like maybe vacuuming, taking out the trash, or cleaning the bathrooms. I would for sure lavish the attention on her if she did those things!

So to my darling little Ella Rose, we love you dearly, you are a princess. But please turn the misbehavior down a few notches. Your mom thanks you kindly.

Spooky Tree

I've had the inside of my house decorated for Halloween for almost a month now. I didn't want to do the outside until now because I didn't want people I live by to know that I am crazy. They all probably think that already...

So anyway about the outside.

In this new place that we are in I have something that I've never had before, a porch! Well, if you can call it that. It's more like a tiny slab of cement that barely fits a couple chairs. I was excited to think of a decoration to go on it nonetheless. Being strapped for cash, I tried to come up with something that could cost next to nothing. Here's what ended up on my porch:
Now I kinda cheated as far as saying this is cheap to make because I already had a lot of this stuff on hand. Like a tree. I had a tree in my front yard that needed pruning. My mom had a flower pot she didn't need anymore and I had some leftover spider webbing from last year, and lots of black spray paint in the garage. I had originally bought the paint to refinish my coffee table but that can wait, I guess.
So all in all this cost me $6.00 and a trip to the dollar store. They didn't have black ornaments but they did have a pack of red ones for Christmas which I spray painted black. They also had a ghost sign and some black birds that were in questionable condition. I figured they would go outside and get beat up anyway so I bought them.I removed the leaves from the branches (Rex helped me by whacking them with his dollar store sword) spray painted them black, along with the ornaments and also the flower pot. I filled the pot with dirt and stuck the branches in. Then had the buff hubby carry the pot to the porch where I finished it off with the decos. I thought about buying lights to put on it but decided it looked cute enough with out them and I'd rather save my $$$. I'll have more fun next year thinking of whatever else I can add to it but for now, I dig it.

Gunner's 3 Month Pictures

Our big baby boy turned 3 months on Monday. Man, I swear I just had him! And he's 17 and a half pounds already! I wouldn't change anything about my Chubby McChubberton but I feel like I kinda got gypped out of the little itty bitty baby stage. At this rate, he'll be wearing Men's XL by the time he turns one!

Dang we love this boy. The innocence and preciousness of an infant just amazes me. I look at him and I just feel pure joy.

Speaking of joy:
He's doing all the fun baby things like giggling, cooing and smiling. Now he can kick at his toys that dangle over him, he can reach out and grab something that's hanging over head and puts it right in his mouth. All his hair fell out about 2 months ago and now he's got this cute little fuzzy all over his giant noggin. He loves it when you rub his fuzzy hair, too. This boy loves his sleep too. If I lay him on my chest when he's tired, he'll go right to sleep. None of my other babies ever did that, that I can remember anyway.
I love his fat little feet!
This is what he does when he's hungry:
The traditional brother picture:
These guys are like two peas in a pod. When I was prego with Gunner, I knew Rex would love his little bro but they already share such a special bond. Gunner smiles every time Rex is near and Rex just can't get enough of him. He has already shown him how to play with Transformers, how to throw a ball, and how to play cars. I can't wait till Gunner gets older. They are going to make an awesome team!

Love you Baby Guns!

More Halloween Decorations

A little update to my Halloween decorations. I swore to myself that this is the last round of decorations I would make. After all, I need time to actually enjoy the season, right? Well, we'll see...

Anyway, for our card club (we make crafts too) we made these awesome witch hats. It was Shenise's idea so I totally can't take credit. But we did all go out and buy our own "flair" which was fun because it made each hat individual and darling in their own ways. I wish I had pics of everyone else's hats, they were all so amazing. Here's mine:
I got the purple hat at Wal-Mart. It already had the tulle, mesh and silky purple flowers on it. No specific instructions on how to make it. Just buy a bunch of stuff you like and glue gun the crap out of it.

I made this sign buy stamping my Halloween stamps on to fabric. Paper would work fine too.
I had trouble figuring out how to make my ledge look right. I think I finally did it. I got the tall fake candles from Hobby Lobby. The Halloween decor wasn't on sale at the time but the check out girl did me a solid and rang them up under metal decor which happened to be 50% off. The apothecary jar was also 50% off. If something you want at Hobby Lobby isn't on sale, wait five minutes and it will be.

Made this sign by painting a wood plaque black and applying scrapbook paper to the front. Then, I stamped a witch on to black card stock, embossed it white, and cut it out. I glued it to the plaque and stuck black rhinestones all around the edges. I had some orange trim that made a great hanger for it. The broom was $5.00 from JoAnn's. On sale, of course.

I have to laugh about this tassel. Dale bought it for me. I know that's weird but my husband is very smart. He knows my love language is special gifts, you see. And it's kind of obvious how I feel about Halloween decorations. I was down in the dumps the other night and I had sent him to get baby formula and not only did he come home with the formula, he came home with this tassel. He seriously went to Michael's and picked it out. Love that guy. I like how it looks with my wreath.

The chandelier was cheap to do. Orange tulle for $1.00 at HL and paper mache stars and a spider cut out from there as well. I spray painted the stars and glitterfied the spider. I added a black string of beads that I already had. This cost me less than $10.00, I believe.
There you have it!

Check out Tip Junkie to see how other crafty people are decorating for fall.

Bummer

So I was on my way to card club last night...
There was a really fast stop at a stoplight and got DRILLED from behind. I got hit so hard that I was pushed in to the truck in front of me. You can see right where their hitch went on my front bumper:
Two miracles: Nobody was seriously hurt, and all the drivers were moms and none of us had our kids with us.

The girl who hit me was acting squirrly and tried to tell the officers (who didn't believe her) that it was my fault too. She tried to make it sound like I hit the truck first and then she hit me. But if you look at the front end damage compared to the back end, you can tell I didn't hit the truck on my own. The damage would have been way worse in the front if I had. And I remember thinking "Phew, I'm glad I was able to stop in time." And then BAM! I saw her coming in my rear view mirror too. It was totally one of those slo-mo situations where it felt like it was 10 seconds before she hit me. I remember bracing for the impact. I'm pretty stiff and sore in my neck and back today. I think I smashed my foot in to something because 3 of my toes seem to be jammed. And for some reason, my nose hurts! I have no idea what I hit it on. My air bag didn't go off so it wouldn't be that. What's really funny was that I was wearing a head band and I tried to find it to put it back on and I couldn't locate it. I found it in the way back of the van this morning!

All in all, I am feeling blessed that nobody was hurt badly. I am worried for the lady I was pushed into. She was prego. Hope her baby is okay. And I hope no body's insurance tries to act a fool.

My Baby Has Something To Say!

Halloween Door Hanger

I made this over the weekend and thought I should share. Heidi and Chris came over to watch the ASU game. The boys watched the game and Heidi and I found better things to do with our time such as making this craft.
I'll explain how we did it just in case you want to make it too.

Here's the supply list and where I got everything:
Star was from JoAnn's for 40% off
The 4.5 inch wood squares are from Hobby Lobby. The come in packs of 2 for $1.50
The polka dot paper came from Michael's. It was on sale, can't remember how much but you only need one sheet of it.
The ribbon was also from Michael's, also on sale
The chipboard letters were the most expensive thing. They came from Hobby Lobby and were $6.99 for a pack. I used my 40% off coupon. I can't do math, you figure it out. And yes they do come with the rhinestones on them. Darling.
The dangly thing at the bottom was from the Christmas ornament section at Hobby Lobby. It was $1.99
And I got a sheet of black felt to glue to the back so my door doesn't get scratched. It was less than $0.25 at Hobby Lobby.
Other items I used that I already had were black Martha Stewart glitter from Michael's, black card stock, white card stock, white spray paint (you can also use white acrylic paint but it will take lots of coats), black acrylic paint, Modge Podge, glue gun, and sticky back rhinestones.

If you want to make it really inexpensive, don't get the star, just tie a bow at the top with the ribbon and hang it from the bow.

Paint your squares white. Then paint the edges of the front black. Cut out the polka dot paper to measure 2 x 2.5 inches and paint the edges of that black too. Apply Mod Podge to the back of the paper, then adhere to the center of your wood squares, and glue the letters on top of the paper.

For the glitter stripes, I cut strips of black card stock 4.5 inches x .75 inches, covered them with Mod Podge and then with glitter. I spaced them out evenly on the square and then glued them down.
For the polka dots, I cut 1 inch squares and positioned where I wanted them on the square. Then, I made marks and cut them so they didn't go over the edge of the square or on to the paper. I then covered them with Mod Podge and glitter and glued them on.
For the bat, I found an image of a bat silhoutte on the Internet, changed the size of it to 5 inches wide and then printed 3 of them on white card stock. I cut them out and then covered them with Mod Podge and glitter. After they dried, I stuck the sticky back rhinestones on for eyes.
Decide how far apart you want your squares to be and cut your ribbon accordingly. Glue ribbon endsto the back of your squares with a glue gun. Make sure you spend the time to make them spaced perfectly or you just may end up with a slightly crooked sign (look at the first picture again.) Whoops.

Then glue the ornament to the bottom square. Finally cut 3 squares of felt and glue them to the back of your wood squares and ta-da! A fun Halloween door hanger.

Halloween Decorations

This time last year I declared that I couldn't wait anymore and I put up my Halloween decorations. Of course, they went up early again this year. There's lots of stuff I hope I have time/money to make but I will show you what I have up for now.

This hangs on the inside of my front door.
Pretty easy to do, just cut out square paper and then make a star with card stock cover it with glitter and glue a glitter covered letter on top. Then glue marabou around the square and hang it with ribbon to one of your husband's old hangers that you will find in his closet. Then add some poofy tulle.
Crabby tree from Walmart Halloween Crap 2008:
The entryway table:
My mom gave me this candle from Ikea. Perfect! It might be my fave thing.
Plain old styro pumpkin from Walmart. Dressed it up with some ribbon and of course, tulle. It's a recurring theme in our house.
This might be my most favorite decoration I have ever made:
Buffet table:
I sewed these pumpkins last year. You can find the instructions here.
This pumpkin was plain brown. I bought it last year and couldn't decide what to do with it. It took me a whole year to figure it out, I guess.
Table centerpiece which doesn't really sit on the table. My kids would destroy it in about 2 seconds.
This arrangement hung from my chandelier last year but it wouldn't work in our new house due to the ceilings being so much lower. So, I found an alternate place for it:
I love this sign. I leave it up year round but it works really well for Halloween:
The top of the media cabinet:
Last year, I bought plain black candles from Walmart for around $0.50 and then put sticky back rhinestones on them. Looks pretty nice, I think.
The mirror in the kitchen. I need to change out that sign for something Halloweenish.
This witch frame is one of the first Halloween decorations I ever made. I used an old photograph that my grandma gave me. It was actually from a stack of sample cards that were from an old photography studio. I have no idea who that woman is. Hope she's cool with being made in to a witch.
That's it for now.

Check out Tip Junkie to see how other crafty people are decorating for fall.