Family Visit

We spent the Turkey weekend with John's family.  His sister came from Montana too!  We got to see Sawyer and celebrate his 2nd birthday.  We had lots of fun.  After turkey dinner we went sledding at the Hooper school.

Here is me and Sawyer about to mow Mia right over!  Thank goodness she moved in time!

"P" took this cute photo!  Sawyer calls John "P".  Short for JP!  Hee Hee. {my other pix of this fun event won't load for some reason....I'll keep trying and show them if they post}

A hit!

Ladies Night was a hit for Krista and I this year!  Finally, a good turn out!  I'm pretty sure the girls loved the project.  It's something anyone can do {if they can tie their own shoes that is} and it is cheap {I love frugal crafts!} AND we didn't have to go out of town for any supplies!  I finished my wreath but decided it needed something more.  I just put a few more sparkly Christmas "berries" on it and I love it!

Total cost: $2.50ish.  I used 4 kitchen sized garbage bags, 1 hanger, 9 ornaments and about 2 yards of ribbon!  Woo Hoo!

Ladies Night

Krista and I are hosting ladies night this month.  A few of us get together one night a month and craft and eat or play games.  Really it's just a night to have fun with the girls.  We are doing plastic bag wreaths for our craft. I made a Halloween one.  I plan on doing a white one with candy canes for ladies night.  They are super easy and oh so cute! This one is made out of garbage bags.  Spooky!

Don't you love the little witch boots?  And the girly ghosts?  I thought it turned out dang cute. I'm excited to see everyones' creations.

Remember how I wanted this?

Remember how I wanted that organized closet?  Well, I got my own!  Yay!  I love being organized.  I hope I can stick with it.  It's amazingly easy to find what I'm looking for too!  Thanks to Grandpa Ron for letting me use his scrap pile and for cutting my shelves for me!

Who's the (Wo) MAN?!

I saw the cutest purse on one of my favorite craft blogs.  She was giving some things away, but I didn't enter cuz I never win those blasted things!  Anywho, I went to this girls etsy store to see what kind of price she had on this purse I was just dying to have.  Well, I fell off my chair when I saw $48!  Holy Moly!  Are you kidding?  For a purse?  What, does it come loaded with money or something!?  Well, since I am a copy cat was inspired by her creation, I thought I'd make my own!  Yep, another one of those moments.  Well, I needed some burlap.  Had none.  Went to work the next day and VIOLA, a tater sack just sitting by it's lonely self on a shelf, all forgotten and stuff.  So I snatched it up and got myself some black Rit dye.  Dyed it up and went to town.  It turned out so good!  Now... I cannot remember the last time that I have had a craft turn out THIS GOOD! I am super excited! I will now share my awesome creation with you.  {Sorry for the lack of good photos.}

(ok, so the outside of the back door could use a washin'....whatever, I'm busy crafting!)

Here you can see the cute ruffles.  Don't they just make you feel all girly and stuff!?

The flower and inside lining are paisley!  I LOVE paisley!  I even crafted some pockets inside for my phone and stuff.  Yeah, that is totally above my throw-together method!  So, now I will show you hers:

What do ya think?  Is mine a close second?  I like mine better I think.  Plus, mine was a little cheaper. Like free.  

Halloween

I made the kiddos some fun Halloween jars.  They originally were supposed to have battery operated tea lights in them so that they resembled a real lantern, but since I waited till Monday to make them, all those little tea lights had sold out.  So they got gumballs and candy instead.

Lexi, the candy-corn-witch! :)

Kali and Alexa, the Punk Rock Chicks!

I don't have any pictures of Kaleb because he went trick-or-treating with Ivor in Grace.  I need to get him in his costume so I can have one picture at least.

Pumpkin Carving

We finally got to carving pumpkins at about 8:00 on Friday night.  We have been so busy this week, we just couldn't fit it in.  The kids decided that they wanted to go to the haunted house first, so that's what they did.  They had fun but said that the haunted house was SOOOO SCARY!  Kali cried. You pay your $3 and get 2 trips through the haunted house.  Kaleb still has his ticket for trip #2, he said he just couldn't do it again!  Anyway, pumpkins got carved!

(he got his warts burned off, hence the rubber glove and the bandage mess, there was not a tragedy!)

L to R: Mom, Kali, Kaleb, John

Happy Halloween!

He's 10???

Seriously? Ten? Hmmmph.  I told him NO MORE birthdays! What's up with that?  I am sad that my baby is ten, but I guess it's something that I have no control over.  He had a good birthday.

This is him leading us all in the birthday song. :)

Opening presents at 8 a.m. (ugh)

He got a 20 gauge shotgun.  He can't wait to go bird hunting.

Grandma Pete made him a Boise State suit. It's sorta like a snuggie, but it has a zipper.  He was wearing mine for the longest time so I suggested she make him his own for his birthday!  He loves it.  It has matching mittens.

Shooting some skeet.  This kid is an amazing shot!  It only took him about 15 minutes to blow through an entire box of shells!

Almost too dark to shoot. Bummer.

Love this silhouette shot of my family!  What a gorgeous sunset.  We had a lot of fun!  Happy Birthday Kaleb.



Happy Birthday!

Kaleb turns 10 in six days!  EEK!  Since this is such a busy time of the year, we had to have his party a week early.  He got to choose either a birthday party or a fun day with one friend doing his activity of choice.  He chose to go to Deleta skating and take his best buddy Ivor.  I tried to get pix of the 2 of them skating, but they didn't turn out.  They also got to play on a big jungle gym type thing that is at Deleta.

We played laser tag too.  I originally only went up to watch but the guy giving the instructions told me and another mom that we were indeed playing!  Her and I teamed up with the boys and there were 5 girls on the other team.  The girls annihilated us!  {they totally played dirty, blocking Kaleb's laser and shooting him} I don't remember the last time that I had that much fun, but I will definitely be doing it next time we go!

We ate some pizza and went to Fanzz, and Dick's Sporting Goods, and all that boy stuff.  I truly had a blast with these 2 boys!  They are good kids. :)

{Happy Birthday, Biggie!}

A huntin' we will go, A huntin' we will go......

Kali is old enough to hunt this year so she passed hunter's ed and is determined to kill herself a deer.  So far they seem to be eluding us.  Can you say UNHAPPY?

Cutest hunter I ever seen!

Love this picture of her and daddy.

Lookin' for deer with Grandpa Pete.

The boys brushed for Kali.  This is a good job for Kaleb since he's well, not the quietest kid ever!

We never even saw a single critter.  Not until we approached private property that is. Oh well, maybe next time.

Lap Dog?

Mia still thinks she's a little puppy and can sit in the chair with John.  She is much bigger now, but you see, she still likes to sit with John in the recliner!

Goofy.....

We have a lot of goofiness around our house.  Kaleb has a bean bag that Mia just loves to lay in and jump in and play in.  Whenever she goes into his room she pounces in it with sheer glee!  He brought it upstairs to watch TV and they have been fighting over it all day.  Every time Kaleb gets out of it, Mia races to get into it!  And vice-versa.  Finally, they decided that they could share it. :)

Notice the goof-ball in the back ground!  She's a photogenic little thing, eh?



Soccer 2011

 Kaleb started his soccer season.  It was cold for the first few games, but hasn't been as bad as I expected.

He's an awesome little player.  He loves all sports.

First Snow

The first snow depressed me so bad that I only got dressed long enough to take Kaleb some dry clothes at school.  He however was so thrilled with it!  He made us a snowman!  How weird is this photo with him in shorts?!

XC

Here's a little bit of a wrap-up of Kali's XC season.  This is the American Falls invite.  It was sooooo cold on this day!  It was raining and windy and miserable!

Kali is in the striped leg warmers.

Hey Kali, I'm pretty sure you can see best if you OPEN your eyes! Keep up the pace!

Kali and Mary Anne after a good race! I'm pretty sure they are thankful that this one is over! :)

Kali's race time: 12:02

6th place overall

The next race was in Star Valley, WY.  It had snowed a ton the 2 days before (the day after the AF meet) and the weather was supposed to be getting a little nicer.  Well, it was 34 degrees, butt-loads of that wet, slushy snow but no wind.  We managed, even though our toes froze!  The kids had a good race, even if they were getting slush kicked in their faces and falling down at random!

Kali and Alexa pose for a quick cell phone picture by Grandpa Pete!  It was all we had, we both forgot our cameras. 

Kali's race time: 10:51

4th place overall, and a nice picture of cows for placing 4th!

On to her final race.....PRESTON!

This race starts out at the bottom of a hill! 

Here's Kali fighting for 2nd place!  Too bad the girl in front of her kicked it into gear when she heard us cheering Kali on. John told Kali that he didn't want her to have ANYTHING left after this race, to give it her all.....

This is all she had left....a few tears.  She came in 3rd, but 2nd for Soda!  An amazing, awesome, super race!  She only placed 3rd by ONE SECOND!  She really had a good season.  She's determined to have that number one spot one day.  Her coaches said she had an "outstanding race".  She was so proud of the CC Sun write up, she said it made her feel so good!

You can read about it here:

(click the photo for a closer look)

Oh, and in case you missed the headline, TMS went UNDEFEATED this season! Woot! Woot!

oops, I meant to crop that scan, but needless to say, I FORGOT!

Here she is with her medals!  A bit cheerier here!

Homecoming 2011

We went to the Homecoming game last night to watch the Cardinals vs. Ririe somebody-or-others!  It was a lot of fun.  The Utah helicopter of Idaho (dumb name I think!) was there to fly the game ball in! I'm thinking that it was an SSHS alumni (or alum???) that was the pilot. It was really neat!  Kaleb and Ivor made new channel 6 but we forgot to watch when we got home. Thank goodness Grandpa Pete recorded it. It was a pretty fun game, but we beat the snot out of them.  I'm thinking Ririe did make a touch-down just as we were leaving a little early.  Since there is only one entrance/exit at the high school, we cut out early to avoid the rush! I didn't even freeze to death. Bonus. :) Here's a cute picture of the kids and their friends with SSHS spirit!

Back to School 2011!

So, the kids went back to school finally.  Not starting until after Labor Day is new for us, but it really seemed like it took forever for school to start.  Kali goes to 7th grade and Kaleb goes to Ms. Davis' 4th grade class.  They both seemed excited-ish to go to school.  I know I was lovin' it! In order to get them jazzed up for the first day I made them these:

There's Necco's inside that little pencil.  I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I saw it online and re-vamped it to fit my own needs.  In the original they used Rolo's and a Hershey's Kiss as the point, but since I only needed 2 kisses, i made my own pencil point. I am too cheap to buy a whole bag for 2!  I also didn't use Rolo's because Kali said that with her palate spreader eating Rolo's is like a dog trying to eat peanut butter off the roof of its' mouth! I didn't really think this through however, since Necco's come in a waxed package there was no way any tape was sticking to it.  Naturally, I have to do things the hard way. Oh well, they turned out cute I guess.

Here's the kiddos all spiffed up for school. Kaleb insists on a mo-hawk all the time, but I guess it's better than that shaggy 'do he was sporting last week! Besides, this time it's a "faux hawk".

Contrary to popular belief, you can still go to heaven if you wear a mo-hawk....well, I'm pretty sure anyway. :)



Couponing is cool

I finally got around to making myself a coupon binder. So you've probably heard that couponing is all the rage these days, all the cool people are doing it. {just joking on that last statement!} So I guess I've been cool just over 25 years or so! I remember cutting coupons for my mom as a little girl and saving 25 cents was so exciting back then, but it's even more exciting when it's my own money I'm saving! :)

Here is the finished product, the lighting in this room sucks, so just imagine the colors a bit more cheery and bright.

When you open it up, it's got a couple pockets in the front and page protectors to put all my coupons in! Isn't this fun!? Up until now I have been using a little wire bound coupon organizer that Darlene gave me for my birthday the first year John and I were married. I might just have to hang on to that little booklet, I don't think I can bare to chuck it....it's a tiny bit nostalgic! And it's help me save some dough.