Fun with Sculpey

Ashlee asked for Sculpey for Christmas after having a lot of fun making little animals out of Sculpey at a friend's house. Her cousin, Jacob, got her some for Christmas and we bought some more at the store last week and now she is making lots of little animals this week to sell at her class store, Ashlee's Wonders. Here are some that she has made already...

She is making various types of animals and will also be taking custom orders so the kids in her class can order a specific animal they choose. She is starting to add such cute details...a bow and collar on the husky, a white spot on the tail of the chocolate lab (specifically for her friend whose chocolate lab has a white spot on its tail), the mouse holding a piece of cheese, the cute monkey with a visor and holding a box of movie popcorn. The picture hardly does these cute little animals justice. They are so much cuter when you can look at them from all angles. She loves it and I love that she is so creative!

Another "Spring" Cleaning...

Those who have been long time readers of the blog may remember my other "Spring" cleaning incident, which you can read about here and here. Well, today we had another one...

This morning Brynlee came running into our room, freaking out that there was a mouse scratching at the storage room door. My first thought is...well, I don't think it would be scratching at the door since there is a big enough space under the door for it to get out. It is probably in the walls.

About a half an hour later she comes upstairs again saying she heard the scratching noise again. Rob got a mouse trap and set it in the storage room. He said when he first opened the door, he saw something so it kinda confirmed that, yes, there was a mouse in there...or so we thought...

He checked the trap a little while later and it had gone off but no little mousie was in it. I was in the downstairs bathroom and could hear little scratching and pitter patter scampering around in the ceiling...yeah, so not cool! The strange thing is that it sounded alot bigger than a mouse! I heard it go from the bathroom down the hall (again all of this in the ceiling of the basement) and back into the storage room. I called for Rob to come check it out. He peeked in the storage room and said, um, that's no mouse. That's a squirrel!

I called Animal Control, not really knowing if it was something they'd even deal with. By this point, the squirrel was scratching and gnawing at the carpet under the door, trying to get out. We put up a board so it couldn't escape and then a police officer arrived. He said that Animal Control was out for the week at a training conference and different police officers were covering for them. This one happened to normally work at the jail in Brigham City. He said, "I'll admit I never do this kind of stuff so I'll need your help." He brought in a box trap, slowly opened the door with the trap in the doorway...nothing. It had been about 5 minutes and we hadn't heard it so I wondered if it had found it's way into another part of the house.

Rob went in the storage room (which is also where the furnace is) to see if he could tell how the squirrel got in and noticed a ventilation pipe that goes straight up to the roof. The end cap had been knocked part way off. Our guess is that the squirrel must have fallen down the pipe from the roof and knocked the cap off and fell into the room. Here's a view up the vent, looking out through the roof and the end cap that had been knocked off...
Rob and the officer started taking stuff out of the room to see if it was hiding amongst all the boxes. The family room was beginning to fill up with all the stuff from the room and I thought for sure it wasn't still in there. Just last week I was in the storage room and thought to myself that I really need to organize all the stuff since alot of the seasonal stuff has just been piling up in the middle of the room instead of being put away in boxes on the shelves.

Almost everything was out and then the officer moved a big Christmas Rubbermaid tote and the squirrel jumped out of its hiding spot. The officer jumped back and I was laughing hysterically! Especially because he had just said that he keeps picturing the "When Animals Attack" show, thinking the squirrel is going to come flying out and latch onto him! Then he pulls out his flashlight, points it in the corner where parts of an extra bed are and says "I have a visual" in the most serious voice. I couldn't tell if he was really being serious (because of his training) or what but I had to control myself from not busting out laughing. Soon after jabs and swats with the broom and cornering the poor thing, it went into the trap.

A call went into dispatch....I have one squirrel in custody.

Ward Ski Night

Last night was the annual Ward Ski Night at Beaver Mountain. This was the first year we made the trip up for it. It was the first time skiing for the kids and they loved it. We didn't get skis for Landon because he was happy sledding (with and without a sled) or just playing in the snow....until about 20 minutes before closing time and he decided he wanted to ski. We put Brynlee's skis on him and I packed up the car and returned Ashlee's skis while Rob took Landon down the mini hill a couple of times. He loved it and said it was so fun, especially when he was going so fast that daddy couldn't catch up to him!

Landon was in heaven when he found this huge snow pile. "Look, mom! I'm as tall as the ROOF!"

Sisters!

Brynlee, Ashlee, Emily and Mariah (two of Ashlee's friends)

Brynlee and her friend, Audrey, going up "The Magic Carpet"

Birthday Weekend Recap

To tell the truth, Ashlee had a bummer 9th birthday. On Friday morning she told me her front tooth was hurting. I thought it was her tooth that she broke 2 years ago (the lower half is fake)since sometimes it is sensitive. I decided to see how it was when she got home from school. She didn't mention anything after school and went to Activity Days. When she got home, we headed to Pier 49 to meet some friends for dinner. Ashlee was pretty quiet at dinner and wouldn't eat any pizza. I thought it was because she had treats at Activity Days and wasn't hungry.

On Saturday morning I was looking at Ashlee and she didn't look right. Half of her face looked swollen and when she talked or smiled, half of her face looked paralyzed. I immediately called the dentist and he said it sounded like an infection/abcessed tooth so he prescribed some antibiotics. He referred us to an endodontist for a possible root canal. Our plan of taking her out for her birthday dinner date that night was put off since she still wasn't in the mood for eating.

Sunday was her birthday. She got chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast {which was supposed to be "in bed" but she came upstairs while I was making them and didn't want to go back to bed :)} She was still a little swollen but then pain wasn't as bad. I looked a little closer at her teeth and realized there was an abcess on her gum above the tooth next to her front tooth so it looked like it wasn't her front tooth afterall.

After church we had Grandpa and Grandma Barton over for dinner. When it came time for presents and cake and ice cream, I realized the camera battery was dead. Rob grabbed my iPod and was able to get some video so we at least have some proof of her 9th birthday celebration. She wanted the Giant Cupcake with marble cake and chocolate frosting...your wish is my command!

This morning we saw the endodontist. He said the tooth looks healthy so he doesn't really know why there is so much infection around the root, plus the infection isn't in a normal place (it was around the middle of the root and not at the apex). He said looking at the xray that there is probably a 50/50 chance of saving the tooth. The root isn't fully formed yet so he didn't want to do a root canal. He drilled into the back side, cleaned out the infection, put some medicine into the tooth, and put a temporary filling in (which those are the beginning steps of a root canal). He said we will know in a month or two whether the infection completely goes away and if we can save the tooth. Depending on the development of the root at that point and if the infection goes away and if her tooth isn't still loose, he will finish the complete root canal.

So she's had a pretty bad birthday weekend but when the pain and swelling go down, she'll get to finish her birthday festivities with a dinner date with mom and dad.