Happy Halloween (very very late)

This year since Halloween was on a Sunday the boys and I decided we would just go to the ward trunk or treat the week before Halloween. (which makes this post even later than late) I had gotten the older boys Halloween costumes the beginning of October and they had them pretty well broken in by the end of the month. Griffen on the other hand wasn't loving his toad hat, as I'm sure you can see from the picture. :)
I had no intention of dressing up this year, but Parker was insistent that I had to be Princess Peach. I probably would have resisted his pleas if he hadn't almost cried the day before the party! Thankfully I remembered an old prom dress I had at my parents house, and with a few quick additions it made the perfect princess costume.

And so here we are.... the Super Mario Brothers crew! Carsen as Luigi, Parker as Mario, Griffen as Toad, and of course I was the princess. :) ( Parker said Charles was Bowser, but he had to work)

Six Years

Six years ago today I became a mom when our sweet little Carsen was born. I knew our lives were going to change, but I could never have imagined how much! The second I saw his squishy little baby face I was completely in love, and have been ever since. What a blessing he is to our family!!

At six years old Carsen-

• Is LOVING his first year in elementary school. He says that his favorite parts are lunch time and riding the bus home. His teacher tells us that he is very well behaved, and that he asks her if he can read his books during rest time because he is too big to nap.
• Enjoys swimming, and is pretty good at it! He is disappointed that it is now too cold to swim in the pool.
• Looks forward to Saturday mornings when he gets to go and play soccer. Every time he scores a goal he gets this sweet shy smile on his face!
• Gets nervous around new people and in new places. He says, "Mom, I just get so anxious." :)
• Has been reading full books on his own for the past year. He can now keep up with me when I am reading them stories.
• Knows the words Charles and I are spelling out. Yesterday we were talking about going to the M-O-V-I-E-S, and he looks at us and says, "the movies?!" Guess we have to be a little more careful around him.
• Enjoys running! He participated in the Maverick Mile fundraiser at his school, and also the Autumn Chase Fun Run in Huntsville.
• Is still the smallest in his class ( and usually the class below him).
• Still likes to cuddle with his mom and dad.
• Has decided who he is going to marry. (I think it's a kindergartner thing?)
• LOVES Super Mario Brothers on his DS

He is such a smart, sweet little boy and we are so grateful he is ours!

The Great, The Good,and the UGLY

Over the summer I had BIG plans to accomplish about 500 (or what seemed like 500) projects. In reality I actually finished about 3, and am in the middle of about 10!

One of my favorite projects was framing my bathroom mirrors. Although I was able to cut the wood for all 4 mirrors I have only gotten around to installing the frame on 2 of them. I LOVE the results. While I don't have any before pictures you will have to take my word that it made a HUGE difference in the look of the bathrooms!

Here is our master bath mirror. I used a piece of thick moulding for this mirror to give it a clean and classic look. ( I wish I could say that the bathroom has stayed this clean, but sadly it doesn't look nearly this nice right now. :) )
Here is the mirror in the half bath. All of this mirror's frame is made of MDF with the exception of the piece of trim along the very top.

Here is another of my favorite little projects from the summer. I had seen pillows similar to this in several different places, but the do-it-yourselfer in me wouldn't let me buy any of them. Instead I made a cover out of white material for a pillow that I already had and then I screen printed the number 5 on the front. In all this project cost me about $1.50 since I found the fabric in the clearance section at the store.

Now.... on to the UGLY. Trust me when I say that they don't come much uglier than this!! I found a set (that's right I bought TWO of these beasts!!) of these chairs on Craigslist for only $40.00. I naively thought that I would just bring them home and do a quick re upholstery job and I would have two great new chairs for my family room.... I quickly learned that whatever people are paid to reupholster furniture isn't nearly enough!! It is now three months later and I still haven't finished the first chair! It is very close though, and I have to say it is looking pretty great. I would feel some relief except it's ugly twin is still sitting downstairs waiting for me.

Parker turns 4!

In June we celebrated Parker's 4th birthday! He was so excited and since his birthday he has been telling us that he is "almost 5".

We celebrated with a Batman cake and lots of swimming! Two of Parker's favorite things.

Parker LOVES Batman!! Not only does he love him, but he actually believes he IS Batman! One day I asked him to clean up and he told me that Batman didn't have to clean up, but I did because I was Alfred. :) I think it's time to start limiting his cartoon time.

This little guy is adventurous and full of energy and keeps us busy pretty much non stop. He is also one of the most caring and giving little boys I know. He is always giving his toy or piece of candy to Griffen when he sees that his brother is upset. He loves to tell knock knock jokes, even though the punch lines never quite make sense. :)

Parker has also started speech this past year and looks forward to going every week! We are also enjoying being able to understand most of what Parker has to tell us.

I am completely in love with this little guy and so grateful that he is part of our family... Even though I had to fish the roll of toilet paper out of the toilet this morning because he was trying to wrap himself up like a mummy while going potty.

I had my camera out the other morning, and of course the boys all had to have their pictures taken. I think that the pictures capture each of their little personalities. :)

Carsen- Quiet and reserved, and a little shy.

Parker- Are there even words to describe this child?! He is outgoing and CRAZY! In this picture he is pretending to be a bird. :)

Griffen- An extremely happy little guy. He loves to "cheese" every chance he gets.

Is it that time already?!

This school year has flown by, and the time for Teacher Appreciation week is here!! It seems like I was just doing this same thing last month... not last year! The end of this preschool year makes me a little sad, simply because my #1 baby will be heading off to kindergarten this fall. He is excited and ready to go... I'm not so sure I'm ready to let go.

This year I decided to bake a little something for the boys' teachers. I think my little banana bread loaves turned out great, and a bonus is that I ended up with two loaves for myself. :)

I also made a little something special for their teachers... They really have the BEST teachers!! My boys love to go to school and I know in part it is because they have fun and know they are loved while in the classroom.

These bags were so much fun to make! I have been playing around with screen printing for awhile now, and I think I am finally starting to get the hang of it. I did NOT crochet the cute little flowers! I have a box sitting here that my grandma left out here and I grabbed a few to dress up these bags... hope you don't mind Grandma! :)

Now with these projects completed I think I can rest... at least for a day or two. :)

Tax Day

We're ready! Are you?!

Easter 2010

The boys had a great Easter this year! Griffen's personality is really starting to come out, and he is becoming quite the "cheeser".

The Painted Baby

Our sweet little baby is slowly turning into a very curious toddler! He will get into EVERYTHING he possibly can when left alone for more than 10 seconds, paint being his destruction method of choice. The first picture was a result of walking out of the craft room for about three minutes. When I left he was happily watching Parker play the computer. I returned to find that our "sweet baby" had climbed onto my counter height work counter, carried a can of black paint to my freshly painted computer desk, pried the lid off, and dumped the remaining BLACK paint all over himself, my desk and the carpet!!! And what was Parker doing? NOTHING... I am positive that the child didn't even know what was happening. :) After a LOT of scrubbing our little boy was squeeky clean. I'm sorry that I can't say the same for the desk and carpet.

I don't have a picture of G after the second paint incident because thankfully I wasn't home.(can't blame me for this one!) :) This one happened while Charles was trying to get the older boys ready for school, he walked in and was greeted by a cute boy with persimmon hands and face. He cleaned the boy, but when I came home I was greeted by a colorful computer chair.

I am SO thankful that his obsession with paint seems to be over, or maybe it's just because I now have all of the paint in the house locked up. :)

An Oldie, but a Goodie!

As I was going through my pictures getting everything ready to put onto my external hard drive I came across these two gems! They made me smile then, and they make me smile now. This was back when Park was still being potty trained.... maybe I didn't remember the pictures because I am trying to block out the memory of that experience. :) Parker is a very private person as is evident in the pictures below.

I am pretty sure in this picture he is saying his famous words, "Give me some privacy!" And I LOVE the fact that I caught him wearing his pj's and the power ranger shoes that are about 3 sizes too big.