A visit and Halloween

a bathtub

a shark costume

pumpkin bars

carved pumpkins

a ceiling fan

another bathtub

homemade caramel

electrical outlets

more pumpkin bars

14 family boards

and homemade truffles

What do all of these things have in common? All of the above were either fixed or made when my parents came for a visit! I am convinced that if we lived closer to them I would no longer live in a fixer-upper and my life would be roses all the time - I have lived across the country from them for 8 years now - so I am allowed to believe what I want.

And life really is great when they are around. My kids were so excited for Halloween because it meant Grandma and Papa would be here - seriously, they were more excited for their grandparents to get here than for the festivities of our Halloween week. But, of course, most or our pictures were taken because of Halloween so here are some of our favorites from the week even if Grandma and Papa are missing from some of the shots

A Sprinkle

A few years ago 6 of my friends moved away in a six month time period. The last one that left made things especially lonely for me (hi Nicole:)) I began to pray for friendships - I believe in the power of girlfriends. About a month later my friend Kathleen introduced me to a girl named Cindy and thus my prayers were answered. Seriously.

So when her third baby boy came into the world we celebrated with a "sprinkle" to show our love and excitement for her family.
Cindy and her mom.

I believe in two things at a shower: good friends and good food - I think we accomplished that!

Drinks (lemonade bar) were served on the screened in porch and the weather was perfect for it.
Thanks ladies for helping throw a great shower/'sprinkle' for such a lucky baby and his awesome mommy!

For Julia

A few weeks ago my mom called to remind me that Julia's birthday was coming up. She wanted to know what we would be doing this year to honor her. We decided to participate in a walk and it happened that on the same day as Julia's birthday there was a walk for breast cancer - so we signed up. We didn't run, we just walked as a family. Before we left our house for the walk that day, the kids layed in bed with us and we told stories about their "munner". Mostly we told them about how much she loved them, what a great woman she was and that we should never forget her or the things she felt strongly for while she was living.

The next day, our cousins came for a short trip and together we had a dinner celebrating all things Munner. Each grandchild shared memories of her and Lars and Kim told stories about their mother. It was a wonderful weekend and although the loss of Julia is always painful, I love this new tradition of celebrating her each year on her birthday.

This tradition has sparked in me, probably for the very first time, (- gasp how am I a good mormon girl? -) the interest in teaching my children about geneology and their ancestors. As hard as it is, Lars has suggested a family night where we talk about my own dad - the life he lived and even the hardships that he faced before dying almost 7 years ago. I want my children to know and feel connected to those who have come before them. Family really is everything - and I hope I can teach my kids this.

What we are up to...

Lots and lots of this.
Trey's coach is especially good lookin if I do say so myself - and I can since I'm married to him.

And most of my time is spent chasing this little thing off of the field.

What's for dinner?

The other night at soccer practice another mom and I were talking about cooking dinner for our families. I shared with her my thoughts on cooking (a philosophy I learned from a great friend and cook in Chicago) 'I like to cook, just don't make me do it every night - it takes the fun out of it'.

But dang it - my family feels the need to eat dinner every night.

Part of the problem we decided is coming up with what to make - I am hoping this get's easier as my kids learn to appreciate more foods (I appreciate their velveeta shells, can't they pretend to appreciate my lemon asparagus without plugging their noses and making gagging sounds?)

Well, last night I found a new family favorite. So here it is - and it is SO GOOD!

Oh - if you don't have white wine - apple juice works great too, I even used a juice box - that's how we roll around here.

Ingredients

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 6 slices Swiss cheese
• 6 slices ham
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Pound chicken breasts if they are too thick. Place a cheese and ham slice on each breast within 1/2 inch of the edges. Fold the edges of the chicken over the filling, and secure with toothpicks. Mix the flour and paprika in a small bowl, and coat the chicken pieces.
2. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the chicken until browned on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
3. Remove the toothpicks, and transfer the breasts to a warm platter. Blend the cornstarch with the cream in a small bowl, and whisk slowly into the skillet. Cook, stirring until thickened, and pour over the chicken. Serve warm.

Yay for Yars

Today Lars went in to talk to Trey's class about his job. They are doing a social studies unit about communities. Parents were asked to come in and talk about how their jobs help the community. I guess Trey was beaming with pride as he introduced his dad. He said:

"This is my dad. His name is Yars and he is a Yawyer."

Oh, how I love this kid and his speech impediment. Recently he told me he wished that our alphabet was the same as the Spanish alphabet because their L's say ya.

In case you are wondering how "Yars the Yawyer" did with explaining to the class the importance of Judges and particularly the Judges on the State Supreme Court.... well, as Lars said, when you follow the lady who trains seeing eye dogs - there's really no competing with that.

Toby is 5

Toby is five years old. We celebrated at school and then at home with some close family friends. He was so happy all day and so grateful for all of those who celebrated with him! We love our Toby!

SUPER!

Our church always has one Saturday a year that is called Super Saturday -it's a day to actually make things and learn how to create even more things. I love this day, although I have had a few bad memories - like the time I taught people how to make these:

After everyone was done and proud of their finished product, I took all the boards out to spray a sealant on them and RUINED them all! Ahh, what can you do....

Anyways, here are a few of my favorites for this years Super Saturday ideas:
I made a sample of the above but changed it to a chore chart that has magnets on the back to put on my fridge - a tutorial is at inspiremecrafts.com. It's a magnet board and a chalk board and you can make it for under 5 bucks.

And how darling is this:
The tutorial is at lilluna.blogspot.com - but when I made it I had some trouble with the paper and ink and so my friend said it may work better to have it sent and printed as a picture.

I love these on a wreath stand with a hip wreath behind it. You can do the above saying or "please remove your shoes" My mom has hers outside next to her front door and I think she gets compliments all the time on it.

And now for a bit of a pricier, but still great one:I love these watches and I believe you can order the faces for pretty cheap making it a fairly affordable project.

And then, I always think these countdowns are fun - a 'Birthday Countdown' is also a fun one to make with cute birthday scrap book paper mod podged to the frame.

A while ago I taught a glass etching class and a girl had a fantastic idea to do a bunch of plates for your neighbors with their last name initial etched on the bottom of the plate. The idea being that when you took them their plate of goodies for the holidays you would be giving them a gift as well - notsoidlehands.blogspot.com has a great tutorial for this.



And although not on my list of super saturday favorites, I do have full hopes (dreams?) of making these two projects for my house before October 1st (if I set a deadline for myself will it happen?) I have been wanting to make this tree for the past few years
And how about this....
Will somebody please teach me how to sew? Please?

Happy crafting!

Back to school

School has started and the boys are loving every minute of it.

Trey is in the 1st grade and doing well. I am constantly amazed at his little mind. He is a math wiz - he loves multiplication and division questions and can answer anything you throw at him. He is a fast little reader as well - this summer as we drove, he would finish a Junie B Jones book in an hour and start a new one. We love our Trey and can't wait to see him at the end of each school day!

And now for a funny story:

Trey's school provides a bag for each child. Each day a folder is sent home with homework and important papers to be returned the next day. Well 8 days in and surprise surprise, I forgot the folder. So that day when Trey got into the car I grabbed his bag to make sure the papers got sent home even w/o the folder - they did and low and behold there was a coke zero in there as well. Hmmm, then it dawned on me that JK (who is obsessed with Trey's bag and carries it around each day after school) must have put it in there the day before while she was in the kitchen - with the bag on her shoulder - "helping me cook dinner". I remembered that just a few days before I had found a pacifier in his bag as well. Then the dread set in and I had to ask:

"Trey, did your teacher see this?" Sodas are BIG NO NO's. Drinks have to be 100% juice, milk or water.

He replied, "Yes, but I don't want to talk abut it. It's too embarrassing."

Embarrassing for you or for me I asked him. To which he replied:

"For you - she said I need to teach you not to bring sodas for me!"

JULIA KAREN!!!!

So to review what this teacher knows about me.... I missed the open house when we were in Boise (and no one does that at this particular school), I forgot the folder within the first 8 days of school, and now I send my child to school with a DIET CAFFEINATED soda. I'd say we are off to an impressive start!


And now for my Toby! He has Mrs. Elizabeth this year and we are so happy for that. I believe she is THE BEST preschool teacher ever. It helps that she is one of my closest friends - but because of that, I know how much she loves her students. She has a masters in special education and we get to have her each day as our preschool teacher! We completely give her all the credit for teaching Trey to read. Already Toby is learning to spell words out loud and he loves going to school each day.

On the 2nd day of school Mrs Elizabeth told the students that the next day they would start using the green light/red light system (to help with behavior) to which Toby sang out in a dooms day kind of way for his whole class to hear: Duun, dun, Duuuun.

We love our funny Toby!

If you read this - you must like us, cause it's LONG!

We spent a good portion of our summer in Boise again, and as always it was glorious! Someone recently told me to enjoy doing this while my kids are young because they will get older and it will become hard to keep up our summers in Boise. I sure hope not, because I will really miss them while I am there each summer!

We started out with a BANG - firework style to celebrate the 4th.

Can I just talk about the weather there - oh it is AWESOME! Perhaps you can only fully appreciate it when you come from the heat and humidity, but either way it makes for the PERFECT place to be in the summer. The weather AND the fact that it doesn't get dark until close to 10 each night. (To be fair I should include that while we love summers out there, we sure love our cozy winters here in the south:)
These guys were thrilled to be together, and together they stayed for 5 weeks - inseperable!

We tried to plan "adventures" for each day. Trips to the fountain downtown, picnics at the park, a day at the zoo, days at the pool, trips to McDonalds, bumper cars on ice were just a few of our weekly activities.



We were able to celebrate my cousin Kinzie's wedding in Eastern Idaho - it was beautiful. Being with cousins was a blast!

On our way home we stopped at Shoshone falls - who knew how awesome it was? I didn't, but it was!
This summer, us girls decided to take some time during the week to be together and have adventures of our own. Getting pedicures, going to lunch, and shopping were just some of our fun.

Celebrating Natalie and her baby bump made for one of those perfect days! We went to Cheesecake, then on to Motherhood where we made her put on one of their bigger bellies and try on clothes. She always looks great, but some things she put on made us laugh and laugh - she was a great sport though.Oh and another thing I can add to the long list of great things Tammy has taught me to make is this diaper cake - so fun to make, and cute right?

We also took family photos - if you want to see more check out Tammy's blog at tammyhawkinsphotography.blogspot.com. And if you live in Boise - she is by far the best! I didn't even know when she took some of my favorite photos - she just get's awesome shots and makes it seem easy (is that even possible when it comes to family photos?)

And then just because we always like to spice things up - our little girl fell down the stairs and broke her arm. She was a total trooper though. It was just a buckle fracture, but she was very proud of her wrapped arm. She even started using it as a little billyclub to hit her cousins with - aawww, that's our little sassypants.
(after noticing my double chin in this picture, I went to edit/crop it, but then I thought, "no that is just all the more proof of the fun I have in Boise" - 10 lbs in a month baby!)

Because of her arm, Lars and I decided to take her with us to Palo Alto to enjoy our friend Marisa's wedding! It was a wonderful weekend! Friends, travel, food, late nights - ahhh, it was great!She was beautiful and I don't know that I have ever seen a tinier bride - everything was magical.
This is how we all look when asked to say cheese, but really this is how we all are:
obnoxious and loving every minute of it!

While we were in SF, my parents had the kids - adventures continued and I think the boys loved every minute of having alone time with their grandparents. Trey recently told me (through tears) that he thinks he didn't spend enough time with grandma and wants her to come as quick as possible for a visit!

The below picture is of Toby and pretty much sums up how he handled the love/tease relationship that only our cousin little T can display so perfectly. Hug and then tackle was his way and JK learned it well - oh we miss you little T man!

Last but not least we celebrated D's bday at PoJo's - a fun place if you ask me, especially on a week night when you get double tickets and dollar rides - to bad this was the same night the kids had to say goodbye. A bittersweet night.All in all it was another successful trip! Did I mention we drove? I think I will try to do a post of the great things we saw as we came across the country. It's hard to believe our summer is over, but I hope and believe that we are making important memories for our kids (and us). We love our family - we love being so close to the the Longneckers and looking forward to our summers with all of these guys:

And these guys always make it hardest for me to leave:

(This pic was taken at 2am at a dive called Merots that Kelsey and Tammy woke my mom and I up to go to)

Thanks everyone for a great summer! It always goes by way to fast.