Gingerbread House!

We had Family Home Evening on Tuesday night because Monday night was chaos for our little household.
I bought a gingerbread house kit and decided that we would incorporate that into our night. The girls had a Buhlast doing the house. I, however, had a couple of mini breakdowns. Yeah, I know it's all about the kids and I need to give up control and all that jazz. However, I want to help them make it look absolutely beautiful! Our definitions of beautiful are not the same, at all.
Cary read the instructions for the house and directed me on how to do it. I was in charge of piping the icing! Mmmmmm. I told the girls it tasted really horribly and they would NOT want it in their mouths. They looked at me with that face that knows mommy is telling a fib!! Rude! :) So, the instructions didn't tell us to pipe the icing on the windows and doors BEFORE we assembled the house, and we did not! HA! I tried to do it after we put the pieces together but it became a gooey white mess and wouldnt stay where I put it. (kind of like my girls!)
I piped and piped and did not do such a great job. The people who did the house on the box definitely cheated and used different icing tips! They did not include these in our kit and I think it is because they knew our house would look far better than their house! Jerks! We poured out the candy into bowls and let the girls go to town decorating it however they saw fit. We should have divided the candy and gave each their own bowl because we had a couple of meltdowns. Someone got all the round ones! Oh no! Well! Someone else got all the flat ones! Gasp! Horror! Ooooooh the tragedy!
And, don't you worry we did not waste even one piece of candy. No Sir! We put every last bit of candy on that house! What a sight!

In the end, I think it is truly a lovely little house and we had such fun building the thing! This will definitely become one of our family traditions.






As a side note....I purchased our kit at Walgreens this year for $9.99! It has been the best kit that I have bought. It included all the candies, and there were 3 of 4 bags of them! In the past it's been like one small bag and I have had to go buy more things. so frustrating. So, if you're looking to score a sweet g'bread house kit, go to Walgreens! :)

Some more PIX!

Last weekend we were able to have a wondeful visit from some of our favorite friends. They stayed with us for 6 months and were able to go home in August. We are fortunate enough to stay in touch and still visit them.
This is my little Yoalli. She is one of my little love bugs.


This is a photo of me and my buddy Cuauhtli. They have Aztec names and are almost impossible for me to say properly. I love their names and can't imagine them being any one else. This little guy cracks me up!!


And this little peach is Tonathiu. He is my tough guy. I can't remember how I got this smile, but I did and it was a doozey! I love it!


And, just as a side note.... The girls G & B were in the bathtub yesterday and I hear G say...."DOMINOES! HOP IN AND LET'S GO!!"
So, they had been watching Dora's Santa show the night before and Dora said "Vamanos,hop in and let's go!" It cracks me up! I love Dora!

OH Christmas TREE!

I was starting to feel a little bad for leaving the craptacular weekend post up for so long. We've been so blessed since then and I should have changed it long before now. Our three girls are making this Christmas quite magical for us. Their spirit is very infectious. We put our Christmas tree up the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I have always had to have my tree "JUST SO" and I was determined that this year would be no exception! What do I know? Not much. I was very maticulous in decorating the tree and allowed the girls to help place ornaments exactly at the proper designated location! It turned out beautifully! AH! My tree! Then, I started feeling a wee bit on the guilty side because I knew that even though they thought the tree was lovely, they would have liked to been more a part of the process. I probably should have got a swift kick in the pants. So, I decided to put a tree up downstairs just for them. We decorated our music/toy room with a bunch of old goodies that I've been saving for ages. I put up the old charlie brown tree and realized that I didn't have enough ornaments for their tree.
I decided that we (me and the girls) would make paper chains for the tree and they could decorate the individual chain pieces however they like. We used stamps, markers, glitter, stickers, you name it! We made a chain over 6 feet long and it was lovely! We each made a link with our name on it as well. I think it's going to be one of those things that I am going to have to keep, but I think we will make a new one each year. We spent all afternoon on Sunday making it after church. We were probably down there for a good 4 hours. I thought for sure my three year old would get bored and wander off, but she was probably the most excited about it! They loved it and it turned out great.
Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed that "MY" tree has undergone a couple of transformations. The ornaments are mysteriously being moved from one place to another and we now have candy canes all over it. I have decided that it makes it even more beautiful and I will let them "fix" "my" tree as much as they like. Even as an old bat, I am still learning. Thank goodness for that!
We put their stockings up as well, which is a completely new thing for them. They check them every day in hopes that Santa has snuck in our house and left a goodie for them even though it is not Christmas. Maybe he will start sneaking in on the twelve days of Christmas and start leaving them a treat! I'll have to ask Daddy about that one. :)
Speaking of Daddy...one of his mates from work has a Santa suit that he is loaning us. Cary wants to dress up for the girls and I think that is wonderful! I can't wait to get some photos of that!!
In the meantime, here are some photos of our beautifully decorated trees. :)
Merry Christmas!

Craptacular Weekend!

Okay, so I've been a little lax in writing on this blog. Who has the time?! Let me tell you, a three year old keeps you quite busy! The afternoon seems to fly by faster than the speed of light once we take our kindy girlie to school at 12.30pm. And, sleeping in? Fuhgettaboutit! How I miss the days of sleeping in until 9 or 10! Saturday mornings are dance classes bright and early and Sundays are early church! Wow! Talk about complaining! I'm the Queen!
So, Friday we woke up to a yard full of lake. City offices are closed on Fridays, did everyone know that? Great Plan Gov'nuh! I heard the neighbor kids yell at Cary, "What happened to your sprinklers Brother Nicholas!?!" I flew to the window and saw the lake o' water. nice! Cary was late for work and so he left it to me to figure out how to fix the problem! After some calling of after hours numbers, I finally got in touch with a fella who seemed a bit miffed that I was calling him at 8 am on his day off with a problem of massive proportions! Suck it bro! He did come a little after 9:30ish and low and behold the lake was still there and spewing forth more water. I heard him call his co-worker, "yeah it looks like we have to fix this thing today!?" What made him think that he wouldn't? I was quite accurate in my description, yet he doubted me. Bah! They did fix it and here's the photos to prove it. They weren't the friendliest blokes I've ever met, but I probably wouldnt be too friendly either if I had to work on my day off....you still get paid though, yeah?!
Anyway, we are still waiting for them to pave over their hole...and they dang well better!
Saturday came and what would you guess might happen?! Well, our HOUSE sprung a leak this time. NICE! A pipe in the wall, hot water pipe even, sprang a leak and we had to call a plumber ASAP to come and fix it. My basement was soaked and is still a bit stinky. He had to cut into my dining room wall to get to the pipe that was located in the bathroom. We still have the hole. Yes, It's loveLy! the upshot is that I get to paint that wall now. I'm thinking a nice red, Cary however is thinking red does not equal nice. :) So, if your house ever wants to spring a leak, try to talk it into sprining it during the week. Paying for after hours service kinda hurts the pocket book. I should have had a better relationship with our house, and then maybe it would have waited a couple of days. Schoonover Plumbing in Lehi is the absolute best though. Great and Patient guys who are really quite reasonable in their prices. Thanks for fixing it fellas! :)
All of this on top of two sick little girls and one sick big boy that acts like a little girl when he's sick. And, guess what!? Mom got sick too! I stayed in bed most of the day yesterday and so did everyone else. I wish I could stay in bed today too. However, a mummy's life is not one of beds and bon bons is it?
I really thought that I read that in one of the manuals!! Anyway....we're on the mend and Thanksgiving is in a couple of days. I'm really excited to have Thanksgiving with the girls this year. I think it will be lots of fun. I am also going to venture out into the wilds of Black Friday land! When you have to buy 3 baby alives, you have to find the best deals possible! Thanks WalFart! At least you have some good deals! :)

A Great Little Spot...

and a great little giveaway!
Okay, so I dont have a whole lot of time to myself these days and finding time to blog is quite the challenge. I still try to keep up on everyone's blog and today I found a really cute blog today that is giving away a tutu that this gal makes. How cool is that?! I hadn't even thought of that before! If you go to her blog http://thenaulutribe.blogspot.com/ you can enter for a chance to win. Go and have a looksee...they are really too cute. And, her hubby is a poly! :) She's gotta be great! :)

Punkin' Carvin' Extravaganza!

So, I decided this year that we would let the kids paint their pumpkins while Cary and I carved our pumpkins. They all have little pumpkins and I think by the time we carved them, only a stem would be left! :) Our friends came over with their two girls and had a fun time with us. There was so much goo and so many seeds....ew! Cary is crazy insane about keeping his hands clean, so this activity was a little bit of a stress for him. His pumpkin is a little bit different, but I like it. I decided to use a sticker/carve kit for mine and it did not turn out as well as I had hoped. He's kind of a droopy ghost these days. Ah well, it was fun! :)

The girls have their costumes and we are almost ready to go for Halloween. This will be our first year taking kids 'round the neighborhood. Well, Cary's first year! ;)

I kid! I kid!

Enjoy the pix. :)

An Amazing Vanilla Joy Give Away

I could hardly believe my eyes this evening when I was reading Kelsey's Vanilla Joy Website! This week she is giving away a massive prize. It's called The MiniBox by the Original Scrapbox. Talk abour getting organized! Holy Cow!! You can go to her website http://www.vanillajoy.com/ and you can make a comment on the post and have a chance to win. If you blog about it, you will be able to earn extra entries. Thus, the reason for this post today. :) It's an amazing prize and I wish everyone luck!
Fingers crossed!!

More Uglies

Well, imagine our surprise when we received an email from Cary's mum regarding her latest arrival! This little fellow is...something else! Dad had said that a pig would go with their solar light frog wonderfully, so I guess the ugly pig fairy granted him this treasure.

Tammy has two more pink flamingos in her yard with green polka dots and google-y eyes! I guess the flamingo fairy visited her last night.

I mean, I *think* Tammy has two more....I can't be sure because we were not in Orem last night. No, we weren't.

Here is a picture of the flamingos! Purdy, ain't they?!

:) heh

Vanilla Joy Giveaways- Fabulous!!

Okay everyone, I am excited to share this little tidbit with you. http://www.vanillajoy.com is one of my favorite blog sites. She is an amazing gal who puts freebies up on her blog and allows EVERYONe a chance to win. It's incredible and I dont know how she finds the time or sanity. This week it is a chance to win some of the most incredible announcements I've ever seen. http://jerilynphoto.com/ is the photographer and creator of the announcements and I love them. I watched her "Family" slideshow and it made me cry. I love that song that plays! I need to find out who does it! If anyone knows after listening, please let me know! If you go to the vanillajoy.com 's website you can enter for your chance to win by leaving a comment. She is also doing a Yoplait yogurt giveaway that you can enter as well. Go check it out! :)

A Saturday Afternoon in American Fork Canyon

So, this afternoon my friend Shanna, her four loverlies, me, and my niece Hannah decided that we should go up in the canyon. We thought it would be a fun (and cheap) way to spend the day with the kids. We didn't anticipate the excitement!! We all rode in Shanna's Expedition so that we could ride together and not take two vehicles. We couldn't find a spot along the way, so we decided to follow the signs to Silver Lake! What an adventure! It's a good thing we had her big honking SUV because there were so many boulders, dips, valleys, turns, lions, and tigers, and bears OH MY! It was only three miles on the dirt road, but it certainly felt like 30! My advice, go to the bathroom a couple times before embarking on this journey. We finally made it up there and it was BEAUTIFUL!!


We thought we were so prepared for this trip and we were patting ourselves on the back for getting it together so quickly....however we got up there and realized we forgot our cooking sticks! We built a big fire and when it was time to roast the hot dogs, UGH! We had to find real sticks to cook them on and they were all way too big. We would shove the hot dog on and if it didn't break in that process, then it would explode as we cooked it and fall into the fire! It's a good thing I had a massive pack of dogs! We sat around the fire and laughed and talked and the kids would get in trouble for scaring Shanna or some such nonsense, but it was a whole lot of fun! We roasted marshmallows and made smores with chocolate covered shortbread cookies (the best smores I've had by the way!) and the kids played for ages.


I'm grateful for such good friends, times, and wonderful memories!

The top photo is the view as we were coming down. The little blip of a lake is Tibble Fork Res. The other photo is looking up at the mountain from Silver Lake. We were SOO SUPER close to the top! yoinkS! :)

Happy Birthday Hunny!

Today is Cary's birthday! He turned...well, he turned really old today! :) He still acts like he's 12, so I realize that age really is just a number. We've had a lovely day of being slugs and eating! :) We went to Tucanos today and it was so Yumalicious! We had the FREE birthday meal and that made it even yummier!! :)

Here is a picture of my darling love bug with his birthday pie. He *loves* pecan pie a la mode, so that's what he gets. The candles are sparkler candles, even though you can't really tell it. They were really cool!

Gnomes and other Hideous Lawn Ornaments

Okay! I'm adding more to this post. We woke up a week ago and found this Beautimous creature in our yard. We woke up THIS Friday morning and his Big Pink Brother was right beside him! ooooh we have plans....don't you worry!! >:} (that's an evil grin btw)

So, we have a bit of an odd practice in our little family. We like to sneak around in the dark at each other's homes and place beautiful surprises for that family. It all started about two years ago when Cary and I purchased a rather large gnome for Mum for Christmas. A friend from her work had given her a small gnome as a gift, but it was tragically and mysteriously broken one day. In order to lift her spirits, we thought it best to give her another gnome. She was absolutely shocked and probably a little horrified. :) That started the game. He would show up on doorsteps during the holidays and special occasions! He has since been misplaced and so we have had to resort to other equally lovely lawn ornaments. In Mum's garden she has 3 miniature gnomes, 2 miniature mushrooms, a solar light frog, and a medium sized garden working gnome. Tammy's yard currently only has two large pink flamingos, and we have one medium sized fluorescent yellow peacock head thing. I will post photos tomorrow.

For now, this is the gnome that Mum received while she was sick, right before Christmas. He certainly cheered her right up

Monday Night Fun

Last night Cary and I spent our Family Home Evening apart! It doesn't happen very often and I missed him! Cary was able to go have a family dinner with just his siblings and his parents. They had a lot of fun and it was long overdue! I'm going to attempt to post some photos from their fun filled evening.
I went to a Sheryl Crowe concert with my friend Shanna at USANA. It was a great show and for a people watcher like me it was almost too much to handle! My amazingly thoughtful father-in-law gave me two tickets and I am so glad that I went. Cary had my camera so I wasn't able to take any photos! What a bummer!! There were certainly some doozies that I could have taken!
James Blunt (sp?) was one of the openers for her and he was GREAT! I never thought he was much to listen to before, but now after seeing him live I have changed my tune!
Plus, he's British! How can you go wrong with a Brit? :)
We didnt get home until about 1am and for an old gal, that's way late! Sorry Shanna! :)

Okay, so I had to post some You Tube vidoes of our new favorite addiction. They are Flight of the Conchords and they are from New Zealand. They are flipping hilarious and I have a little crush! woot woot :)

First Timers

So, this is completely new to us but we wanted to start! Hopefully very soon we will have photos of the family and all sorts of wacky stuff. If you have ideas for us, let us know! I have a couple of favorite bloggers already and will provide links to them soon. The first one is http://vanillajoy.com/

This lady is amazing and I dont know how she does it. Have a look at her website!! It is incredible. She is having awesome give aways this week, so go there and have a look and get signed up!! It is really quite simple to do and if you include a link to her page on your site, you maybe eligible for extra entries!!