Some Thoughts that I Probably Shouldn't Share

• Sometimes I feel like I'm on display at the zoo because my bathroom door doesn't lock and all the kids end up coming in to see me in my glass shower. Lovely.
• Today I did a preschool lesson on teeth. I had yellow teeth cutouts and I told the kids to paint their teeth white to get them all clean. Oops! One kid put the paintbrush in his mouth so fast I didn't have time to stop him. I think next time I might reword that one.
• Penny is into EVERYTHING! Right now my bedroom plant is currently living in my tub because Penny pulls the soil out every chance she gets. I think it's time for cupboard locks in the bathroom too because my bathroom is in total disarray. Everything from the drawers is up on the counter and I find something new in the bathroom every day that I did not put there. We have one of those sliding doors without a lock. I'm thinking we might have to fix that. She also climbs a lot and the other night I let her play on the table while I fixed dinner. I know it's a horrible idea but she was so happy. Please don't call the authorities.
• Lately I've been finding myself saying ridiculous things that shouldn't need to be said, such as, "Brianna, if she's crying, that means she doesn't like it." and "Bri, please don't lick your finger and then wipe your nose." She seems to think saliva is the answer to everything.

Anyway, this is my life right now. A little chaotic, but good. Maybe I'll get around to posting some pics in another 5 or 6 months :). Til next time, Stace.

Bear Lake

A couple of weeks ago, I and some of my friendsies from high school headed to Bear Lake for a girlfriend getaway. We had so much fun! We stayed up way too late chatting and catching up. We went to a rodeo and spent some time enjoying the lake shore. We also enjoyed a craft fair and the famous raspberry shakes Bear Lake is famous for. Oh- and our weekend wouldn't have been complete without creating beautiful BFF t-shirts. All in all, it was tons of fun and so much fun to laugh again with these girls that I love! P.S. We missed you Anna and Sharee!

The Last Month and a Half

Since summer started, we've been going like crazy! Kaylee graduated from kindergarten. Bri turned 4. We moved into a bigger house. I decided to teach preschool. I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar. Chris and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. And you mustn't forget family reunion time. So here are some pics for your viewing pleasure. I can't get blogger to work right. It keeps deleting my pics so these aren't in order, but this one is Bri after she won a sailboat race.

This is me passing a boy on my last leg of Ragnar which was four miles over a mountain pass. Few things bring me greater pleasure in life than passing boys. :)

Can't get enough of this girl! She's 9 months old now and just started crawling.The picture below is of Kaylee and me doing a 2 mile fun run at a reunion. That girl is going to be an amazing runner. It was so much fun to run with her!

Art for my Girls
I'm loving all of the subway art and typography that's so popular in the world of blogging right now. So I had this idea to make some art for my girls' room that showcased their names and special things about them. I originally created the art in my word processor, but then had troubles when I tried to convert it to a jpeg by copying it to my paint program. Then I came across this tutorial on how to use picnik, a free website to create printables. It took some time, but I finally came up with these:Anyway, I'm pretty excited about them and just got them ordered using these free credits I got by opening a free account on http://www.artscow.com/. I hope they turn out well!

Sequel to Last Post (read "In case you were wondering" first)
So believe it or not, Kaylee's tooth literally just fell right out of her mouth as her ride to dance pulled up. Then at dinner tonight, Kaylee was asking Chris what the worst thing that has happened in his whole life is. Chris said he had had a pretty cushy life and couldn't think of anything too horrible. Kaylee then proceeded to tell us that the worst thing that has ever happened in her whole life is when I "attacked" her today trying to get her tooth out. Wow. The counseling needed and the aftermath caused by the traumatic events of today might cost a pretty penny. All I can say is I may not be getting a Mother's Day gift from Kaylee this year. You be the judge.

In Case You Were Wondering...
I have no patience for this type of behavior. Do you see that tooth. It is barely, and I mean barely hanging on and my child will not let me pull it out. It wouldn't even take a pull; all it needs is the tiniest little nudge and it will be out. But she will not, under any circumstances allow it. Trust me. I learned that the hard way. I tried everything. At one point I found myself wrestling with her on the floor and she was screaming bloody murderer. That's when it occured to me, that maybe I should stop. I guess this tooth will fall out on it's own timetable. It shouldn't take long. I just hope it happens before dance today, because quite frankly, she looks utterly ridiculous.

Kaylee's Dance
Kaylee entered the creative challenge at the elementary school and made up this dance. She got 2nd place and received a beautiful trophy this week that she is extremely proud of (don't tell her that there were only two entries in her category :)). Anyway, I thought it was adorable and wanted to share.

My Favorite Places to Visit Online
So I have found some very fun websites as of late. Yeah. You can waste a whole lot of time online, but I've found some sites worth seeing. Here are my faves:
Our Best Bites: http://www.ourbestbites.com/ Holy scrumptiousness! I love every recipe I've tried so far off of this site. Try out the beef and the chicken taquitos for starters. Yumminess!
ArtsCow: http://www.artscow.com/ Check out their prices on photo canvases- best prices I've seen anywhere! And they have very unique photo gifts.
Ana-White: http://ana-white.com/ Check out Ana's amazing and free plans to build your own furniture. When you go to the website you can browse through the plan catalog and find furniture listed by price, room, or skill level. This makes me want to build something! Chris is certain that I will cut off a finger the minute I try. Glad he has so much faith in me. :)
Vintage Revivals: http://www.vintagerevivals.blogspot.com/ I love Mandi's furniture redos and her knock-off anthropologie lamp is amazing! She is so creative and the style of her house is extremely fun!
1+1+1=1: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/TotBooksTotPacksALL.html I still don't understand the addition here, but this site has some really fun and educational printables for pre-schoolers and for older kids. One idea I've seen and like is printing off alphabet tracable pages and putting them in sheet protectors. Then you can use dry erase markers and use the pages over and over. I'm going to make Bri a binder of printables of this website that I can work on with her.
Anyway, hope you enjoy browsing these sites. What are your favorite sites and blogs to check out?