How do you get your husband to spend a whole day at Ikea?

Well if your husband loves food like mine - you promise him a trip to Inn and out burger and he starts the car and loads the kids in for you :) To say Chance is obsessed with inn and out is an understatement if I ever heard one - him and his friends are beyond obsessed with this place. I personally don't get it - but hey who am I to judge!!





Sam made us the cutest New Years Eve package when she stopped by - it was the cutest idea ever and I am so jealous I didn't think of it first!! It had these cute hats and a bunch of candy and some little kid friendly fireworks - totally fun!!



How cute are these matching pj's - parker and Kenna have a pair that my mom made!! Yes my mom made lol- she is not much for sewing the glue gun is her best friend so this is very impressive!! Elley loves hers and freaks out when I have to wash them.

My silly princess- if you look back on every single one of her pictures this is the face she always pulls. Her eyes disappear and you can hear her teeth grinding because she is smiling so hard!! I love that she is so silly and unique - she has her own little personality and I hope it stays that way forever!!

A little bit of back in the day!!

I love me some Sam!! I am so excited that she decided to start a blog! I hate that we don't get to see each other more.. so here are some old pictures.. I mean old... pictures of us back in the day just to show my support for her choice to join the blog world. Man this makes me miss those days ... we had so much fun together!!

I just couldn't wait!!!

I love Valentines Day!! Well I love hearts - I have been obsessed with hearts since I was little - I love love love hearts!!! So Valentines Day just gives me an excuse to put them everywhere!!!
I made a few Valentines things - I am going to make a few more to give to my mom and mother in law and a few of our neighbors.
I saw something like this at one of my favorite stores - From our Home to Yours. It was so cute , mine didn't turn out quite like there's but I am happy with it - for now:) I am giving my snow men away - I keep looking at them and deciding I don't like them as much as I should. But my awesome husband came home with a scroll saw - he got some money to spend for Christmas and how sweet that he brought this home for me. I never thought I would be so excited about a power tool but I love this thing. I can't wait to learn how to use it!!




I made this earlier this year and then the weather got yucky so I sorta forgot I even had it - it was so easy .. and it's really fun to make a new block for the middle every month. I went to quilted bear and saw some just like this one and they were selling the square wreath for 20.00 - I made mine for less then 5 dollars- all you need is the wood: I think it was a 1X4 but you could really use any size, and some craft wire. And just paint and stain.

My goals for the new Year

It is probably silly that I am posting this but I am hoping if I write it down somewhere that I see often then I might actually follow through with some of these things. Feel free to help me and remind me if I stray :)

Ok I will begin with learning how to resolve conflict better instead of assuming the worst and throwing a fit, 9 times out of ten it turns out to be something small and not worth the time I take to worry about it. So bad at this one !!

I want to help make my home more peaceful... I am a very impatient person by default and I hate that the most about myself. So I will try to be more patient and help my children be more patient as well.

I want to take a family trip somewhere (other then Lake Powell) and teach our children something new about the world. It doesn't have to be somewhere fancy, just spend time focusing on what is important.

I need to learn how to be a better cook... I have no want for this- NONE!! I am envious of people who enjoy doing this because I know how important it is. I am hoping that maybe if I learned more about easy meals and healthy eating then I could learn to like it :)

I want to work more on saving money ... I want to build a house so bad, seriously it is all I think about . We are in the bad habit of just buying things we don't really need and not looking for the best deals on the things we buy.. so I am going to work really hard on this one !!! And SAVE,SAVE,SAVE!!!

and I want to TRY and stick to a work out routine... not doing so great at this one right now.

We had a really good year and I am hoping to make 2010 even better!!

A little bit of Christmas...

I wish I would have done a better job and took more pictures this year. Every time I went to grab my camera I could not find it?! So here are a few of the good ones I got!!
This year was so much fun - Elley was old enough to open all her own presents. She was a blast!! And Parker is so funny every present he gets makes him so excited - he screams and jumps up and down - even if he is just opening batteries for his new toys lol he makes you feel good about everything you give him :) We did several activities before Christmas that involved giving to others so I felt like they definetly deserved every present they got. Elley got her best friend Elmo - this kid is obsessed. And Parker got a million Transformers - he is in heaven!!

Birthdays,FieldTrips, and Silly Babies

This kid always keeps me laughing!! He is a 5 year old inside a 15 year olds body -I can only imagine what I am in for when he becomes a teenager!! But I can wait - I love him so much and it breaks my heart that he is getting to big and too cool to slow dance with his Grandma:)


This little thing is the definition of stubborn - she refused to fall asleep in her bed because she didn't want to - she kept saying "no elley wont mom " so in protest she fell asleep in the chair :)


For my brothers birthday we went to Chilli's - our families favorite!!
This picture is so sweet - they love kissing each other!!



The Birthday Boy!! This is so cheesy - but I still remember when he was little and he would carry my moms purse around everywhere - he would dump everything out and put all his cars in it!! And I remember him stealing my eggs out of my basket on Easter and when I caught him he would smile and say Sorry Windsee, but when I set them down he was at it again! I remember sneaking into his room at night and sleeping on his floor when I was scared because I knew he would protect me!! And staying up until 3 in the morning listening to Enter Sandman by Metallica over and over and pretending to like the song because I loved spending time with him! And I love him very much!!!

Easy Christmas Craft

What you need :
2X3 cut to desired length - 2.00 at home depot or lowes
1X4 cut three at varying lengths - 5.00 at lowes or home depot
A wooden base - I used old wood I had in the garage(free :))
$1 store decorations- bulbs, garland, lights,bells ..everything looks cute on this thing!!

I painted the 2X3 and base black and sanded, then painted the 1X4 pieces white and hand painted the letters- you can use vinyl too , we made some more tonight and they were so much easier with vinyl!!
Stained everything .. and had the husband nail them all in place!! The star came from the wood connection in Sandy but the $1 store also has some super cute stars we used one tonight and it looked really cute!! Then just attach all your fun Christmas stuff -you really can't mess it up!!! It was so easy and so fun- and we all had a blast making them!!