Black Friday

There's a few things I'm wanting to buy but have been hesitant since Black Friday is a week away and I don't want to overpay. How awesome is it that you can check out the ads a little early? Enjoy!

http://theblackfriday.blogspot.com/2009_11_11_archive.html

I got to visit Chelsea!

My sister Chelsea moved to Lawrence, KS a little over a year ago so her husband Ryan could get his Ph.D. and I finally got to go visit! It's the farthest east I've ever been so I was excited to check out something new! Bonus - I only had Ellie with me (she was free to fly)! Callie & Jack were SO SAD! The day I got everything all worked out so I could go I said, "Guess what guys? I'm going to go visit Aunt Chelsea in Kansas!" They both cried right then & said "No mom! We don't want you to go!" LOL Fortunately I have the BEST friends/family who took care of Callie & Jack while I was gone and they had lots of fun too!

So I had a really great time with Chelsea & Ryan! We ate some delicious food, did some outlet shopping, went to the BEST fabric store I've been in (that might not say too much - I haven't been in tons - oh, & JoAnns doesn't count), shopped for vintage items, made cupcake pincushions! (I was so excited to do that!), visited Jeremiah's uncle & aunt who lived about 1/2 hour away, played lots of Mario Kart (lol), and drove around Lawrence so I could see FALL! I took my camera but it's too big/delicate to toss into my purse so unfortunately I took almost no pictures!

Chels/Ryan have a dog, Thunder, and Ellie mostly really loved playing with him. She fed him lots of Skittles & Nerds; she'd hold one out & Thunder would come eat it from her fingers & she'd giggle or squeal & tell us about it & then feed him another one. If he ran upstairs she'd go to the foot of the stairs & call out, "Oh doggy! Oh doggy!" Super cute!

Chels & I stayed up late so one morning Ellie was playing in our room & I had fallen back asleep & I woke up to this: (she'd found my emergency stash [for her, not me] in my purse & she kept going back & forth between the suckers & her binky)

Thanks Chelsea & Ryan for the really great visit!

On an unrelated note, the kids & I made these Acorn Doughnuts

for our family night treat last week and I just wanted to share. The idea was from Family Fun. They were simple & the kids had a great time making (and eating) them!

i {heart} hallmark

Isn't this awesome?! I can't decide if I should get one of the grandmas to give this to my children or if I should do it myself! You know in case I die & it's the only way my children can hear my voice! LOL Morbid I know but it was seriously the first thing I thought of!

Halloween 2009

By the time Halloween rolled around I was burned out. Total bummer since Halloween is my favorite holiday! Besides Christmas of course. But it's right up there. No festive meals this year, no candy countdown chain, nothing extra. Next year I'll have to either buy costumes or start making them sooner because I don't want to have another bummer Halloween. Even though I started making the mermaid costume at the beginning of the month, I worked on it off & on until the week before Halloween. And then I still had to add a couple things. And I still had to make Jack's costume. Fortunately I had the sense to scrap the angel costume for Ellie before I even bought the fabric (only money on the on-sale pattern was wasted)! Instead she wore the Little Bo-Peep costume that Callie wore 4 years ago.

I love Jack's costume. To me it is just the epitome of a homemade Halloween costume. Simple & classic! Oh, & Jack insisted on being a "debil" after seeing a "pinchfork" at a store & deciding he wanted to be whatever got to carry that around!

SO MUCH WORK! Not impressive enough results for the amount of work this dang costume was! The important thing is that she LOVED IT! She put it on all week before Halloween & walked around the house.

This costume is semi-homemade. I made the pantaloons & I dyed the dress blue & put blue ribbon in the bonnet & smock, & I spray painted a junky lawn candy cane for the staff. The adorable lamb purse (not that you can tell from the pics) is one that Chelsea sent for Callie 4 1/2 years ago!

a {bug}day party!

This was Jack's 1st friends party & he LOVED it! I came across the bug party plan a few months ago & knew I had to convince Jack that he wanted the same party! LOL (Not difficult since he is a BIG lover of bugs! He spent a lot of time over the summer finding crickets in the backyard - every one of them I think was named Jack or Jackson or Jack-in-the-box btw). Anyway, I totally copied practically the entire party plan from Heather and I think it turned out pretty cute. And thanks Summer & Kate for taking pictures during the party!

Shall we?

Painting bug rocks.

Squash that bug!

All the party kids after the {plastic} bug hunt in the living room.

October in Pictures

I just can't keep up anymore! Maybe I need to drink a Monster every morning so I can be pumped up & productive all day! LOL Until next month... (I wish I knew that was a joke.)

And not pictured, I was called (at church) to be the Activity Day leader & was SOOO excited to do that (1 hour activities twice a month with 8-11 year old girls)! I was able to do 2 activities before they called me to be the 2nd counselor in the primary presidency. Thus, no slowing down in the calling area.

The end.

Shopping

Too bad she didn't do this at the beginning of our shopping adventure! Some old man actually swore when she did the Divis Shriek! And a few other oldies gave me some pretty dirty looks. Gotta love shopping with children.

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Woohoo!

I woke up in the middle of the night to a sick, crying 18 month old and when I got back in bed I noticed on my phone (I was turning off my alarm for 6:20am!) an e-mail letting me know that today Callie's Fancy Nancy party was being featured over at Creative Parties & Showers! If you've never been to this awesome website, you must check it out! It's a really great resource for all things party!



Thanks for the feature!

If you're new to my life (via Creative Parties & Showers), please stop & stay awhile. I love visitors!

Labor Day Camping

For Labor Day we went camping with our good friends Brit & Summer & most of Brit's family. We had a great time & Brit's family was awesome, making us feel totally welcome & like we were one of them. My parents were gracious enough to let us take their home on wheels, and can I just say how awesome it was to not have to sleep in a tent for 4 nights! Not that I wouldn't have, just saying!

Despite the overall wonderful weekend, the trip got off to a rough start. We left a couple hours later than planned, I got a flat tire & we had to wait almost half an hour for the boys to catch up to us & fix it, and then the dually that Jeremiah was pulling the travel trailer with overheated on the dirt road on about the 2nd of 10 miles to the campsite! Brit drove Summer, me, the kids & the trailer w/the 4-wheelers & dirt bikes to the campsite, which we rolled into a little after 12:30am! Around 1:00am he took off on one of the quads down the mountain to get Jeremiah, and Summer & I finished getting the kids into temporary beds. Around 2:30 Brit got back into camp, and about 40 minutes later the trailer was in camp & parked. We had to move a few things around to get the slide-out out & get the beds made, so we finally got into bed around 4am!

The rest of the weekend was much more fun than the first night! Here are some highlights:

camping cuties.

relaxing.

beautiful area.

time together.

power-wheels.

new friends.

swing naps.

beauty shop.

horseshoe tournament.

campfires.

quading.

crafts.

(and not pictured) card games & good eats!

Thanks Brit & Summer and all of the Haws family for such a fun weekend! Let's do it again!