Visiting Family

This past weekend we blessed Gideon at church. My family came from Sugar City for the long weekend, and my sister and her daughter, Lizzy, also flew down from North Idaho to spend a whole week with us. We had a great time with everyone, and I miss them already!
I tired to take a portrait of Gideon myself with my fancy camera, but he was really wiggly. I'm going to send a few pics to my sister to edit in photo shop for me so hopefully we can have a good one to put on the wall.

My vday present from my sweety. I have wanted a tall saucepan forever, and my wish was granted! Mashed potatoes here I come! I gave Brady the shirt he is wearing in the family picture down below. He is so hard to find shirts for because he needs a size tall. Those shirts don't come cheap, so when there is a sale, I make sure to grab one. We found some even cheaper ones at a store in the outlet mall. I love getting nice things for cheap :)

Treats I made for Ammon's class. They are smartie airplanes.

Cupid's loot

One month old! He's over 9 pounds and 20 inches already.

Awesome view from the bridge

Walking on the big bridge overlooking Hoover Dam

Gideon's first official family picture.

Gideon's blessing day. He's so cute! His great-grandmother made the blanket he is sitting in. It will definitely be a family heirloom to me. All the boys have used it at church on their blessing days.

Who woulda thunk the toybox was a toy itself?

Showing Lizzy how to feed the ducks and mooching pigeons.

Lizzy's first time playing at a park. She loved the slide. At least I think she did. She didn't smile or giggle or anything.

Ammon's very favorite slide in the whole world. It just happens to be at Mommy's unfavorite park in the city thanks to all the sand.

Meet Lizzy. She's one of my nieces, and she recently discovered zippers on her jammies. It was hilarious to watch her unzip and try to take off her clothes.

The "awesomest" track I have built so far. Too bad they decided to take it apart the next morning. I thought it was so good I almost wanted to play with it myself!

Chillin' with Mom

Tonight the boys begged to eat dinner in their underwear. When Brady isn't home I really don't have the energy to argue with them, so I let them eat in their undies. They thought it was great. I just wanted them to eat all their food.

Vday Ideas

Here's some great Valentines ideas for tight budgets like mine!

http://imamomnotaprofessional.blogspot.com/2011/01/valentine-for-him.html

http://sistersstuff.blogspot.com/2011/02/kids-classroom-valentine-ideas.html

And lastly, I don't remember where I saw it, but I found an idea for Ammon to make his own valentine's for his kindergarten class. We are making airplanes out of smarties, gum, and peach rings. I found a fun printable banner to tape onto the ends of the planes. I'll take a picture when we do them later today and then update this post.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Household chores

Yesterday Brady was off so we cleaned out our cars and got mine washed. That's only happened one other time since we bought it last May. Big deal. And I did some dishes, gave all the boys a haircut and bathed Gideon in the tub with the boys, and later finally folded three loads of laundry that I washed on Tuesday. The sad part is that there is still at least one more load of dishes to do that I didn't get too. It seems to pile up really fast no matter how often I do a load. I guess that happens when I cook and use lots of dishes instead of paper plates and such. Home cooked food is so much better, but eating out is so much easier.
My Mom with the boys.

Zenock was helping Mom make bread by making a huge mess and tasting the flour.

They were helping Brady put the new stroller together. They discovered muscle builders in the process.

I redid my ugly 10 year-old clock. Looks much more interesting now. I used scrapbook paper. I got the idea from my sister. Super easy, and really fun.

Made this tile for my Mom for Christmas. We have 3 boxes of unused tile in the garage that came with the house. They are 16 x 16, so bigger than most tiles for craft projects, but who can resist using free stuff?

Been busy...most of the time

While my mom was here visiting she tried to make bread for me because I have real trouble most of the time getting it to raise. Well it's not just me apparently. Mom said it was because my kitchen was too cold. But even with warming up all the liquid ingredients and warming the oven, it still didn't turn out very well. The first batch she made ended up being scones. The second batch was kind of a mess up on my part. I put the two loafs in the oven, but somehow managed to dump one of the pans out on the oven door. That loaf became rolls after I scraped it off the door. The other loaf that safely made it in the oven fell because I had the door open so long trying to clean up the mess I made. Another obstacle was having to grind more wheat - thinking I ran out when I really had 2 5 gallon buckets full - and then the grinder motor started smoking. I'm not sure if it was because I made it work too hard or what. Maybe I just can't grind very much at a time. Who knows!

She made me a skirt, and she helped me make 7 bibs for Gideon - out of supplies I bought 4 years ago to make some for Zenock but never did. I altered 2 more skirts - fixing a waistband on one and shortening another, and I put a more sturdy hem in another. One project I didn't get too while she was here was making some tee shirts, that I wear in the winter under my sweaters, into nursing ones so that I don't have to mess with 2 layers. I think I might tackle that either this weekend or next week sometime. I'm still thinking about the best way to do it though. I guess if I mess up it's okay since they will always be covered by another sweater anyway.

I loved spending time with my mom. I really wish we still lived close by, but I really appreciate spending time with my family since it is a rare opportunity now. I am really looking forward to my sister coming to visit from North Idaho in a few weeks, and the rest of my family too, for Gideon's baby blessing. We are doing it on President's Day weekend because it is easier for my family to travel when they have a day off of school. I think they are all looking forward to warmer weather for a few days too! When they are here I am having one of my sisters take a family picture so Gideon can be included. I hope the weather cooperates for that since I want to do it on the temple grounds.