Craft Fun

One of the perks to moving and not really knowing anyone close is that I have a lot of time on my hands. For the fourth of July I decided I wanted my girls to have matching patriotic outfits, so I went to the fabric store the night before and found this cute fabric to make these skirts. DeNae had given me the idea so I decided, why not?!Then she showed me a pillow case dress. I had never really seen or heard of one before until she showed me the super cute ones she had made Leah. Again I decided to try. Gabby LOVES this dress, which I was grateful for seeing as it doesn't "spin and wiggle" like most that she has. So of course then I had to make her one that did wiggle and spin. I had seen a dress like this at JC Pennies and it was outrageously priced. I figured I could probably figure out how to make one like it so this was my first attempt. I made a few mistakes, but she loves it and I am not too ashamed of it either. I do have to fix the sleeves next time around...I think my favorite craft that she showed me was these "themed" bows! I LOVE THEM!! She showed me the dragonfly, flower, and butterfly and I was hooked! So when our husbands decided to go for a all day friday-saturday biking/camping trip last weekend we decided to get together and craft! It was so much fun and I even made up some themes of my own :)!This one looks amazing in the girls hair! I will have to post some pictures of these in use, but for now I wanted to let you see what they looked like so you could make them yourself, if you want ;)!I love, love, love this one! I can't believe she figured out how to make this all on her own, she is amazing!!Her tree is different, but I was in a hurry at this point so I will have to post the revised one after I get around to making it.

And then there is the diaper wipe case cover. Sorry Ang that I never understood when you were trying to explain your to me! But this is how DeNae showed me and I really like it.
So those are the crafts that I have been up to the last two months and I am excited to do more!!

Kids will be kids

As our summer comes to an end we have been trying to get as much outside time as we can, even if it is just out in front of our place. There isn't a lot of room to play, but the kids

really love to ride their bike down the dead end road we live on. Lily is determined to be just like her big brother and sister and tries to "ride her bike" too. She saw me get the camera out and turned so she could say "eeeze!!!" She is pretty cute on her little bike, she tries to scoot just as fast as the others peddle, I wish I had a video of it! Luke has been a little scared to ride his bike, even though he has training wheels, because the road is inclined. But his little friend, who has hemophilia and is almost 2 years younger, showed him how fun it was and how easy it was for him, so Luke decided to try it himself. We still haven't been able to get him to ride without the training wheels, but I am sure he will learn... eventually:). (He has a little more caution in him then his dad... I wonder where he gets that from!!)This is just a super cute picture of Luke that I had to share.So Gabby is DETERMINED to get any boy she knows to dance with her. This is our little friend Matthew Isrealsen, Matty. Gabby is older and much bigger, but that didn't stop her from insisting that he dance with her. Then she says, "Matty it is time for you to dip me!" And she tried to make him do it. He dropped her the first time, which gave me time to get my camera, but as you can tell she made him try and try until they got it right! Poor kid!! (You can tell in the first picture he is trying to get his hand away from her, but by the end I think he like it..:)) Aw I love that little Gabs!!

1st Grade

This past wednesday Luke started 1st grade! I can hardly believe he is getting so big! He is such a good boy and was soooooo excited to start school again, I hope that attitude lasts several more years!! He had a count down til school started and anytime we would pass his school he would tell me how many more days until he got to go there. We went to meet his teacher at the open house the monday before and found out he would have Mrs. Lilly! (Not a hard name for us to remember ;)!) His school is only 2 years old so we were really excited to get to look around, it is a vast improvement from his last school that was built in the early 1900's. On the saturday before school started DeNae and I took our boys out for a mother/son date where we got our school shopping done and took them to dinner, we had a great time! Luke was very excited to wear his new clothes, too bad he'll have to wait for winter to wear most of them! Anyways it is nice to have school back in session even if it does start at a terribly early hour of the morning!! (He goes to school at 7:15 AM!!! Can you tell how tired he is in that picture?)

Fun with the Israelsens

I have been a slacker at posting so these pictures are a few weeks old, but oh well. Two weekends ago we went up to a little park in Charleston near the airport. Stan's brothers and mom had been here visiting so we all decided to go to the park and play before they had to fly out. The kids had so much fun playing in the water, but the moss on all the rocks made everything VERY slippery. All of us, except Nate, fell in; and I still have the bruise to prove it!! But no matter how many times the kids slipped on their bums or elbows or knees, they never wanted to get out!!

This is after she fell on her bum and she was still all smiles!This is my awesome friend DeNae with our girls, Leah and Lily. We have another friend, Jamie, who has a girl around the same age and her name is Lucy, we wish she could have been here! (We all liked the 4 letter L names this go around! :).)

Mud anyone?!Gabby and Matty are good little pals, a few times they fell down together because they were holding onto each other!Can you see all the slimy moss Ethan is playing in?! It was really hard to walk on.

Eight is Great!!

On Tuesday August 11th Nate and I celebrated our 8th anniversary here:

In the entire eight years that we have been married we have only left our children over night twice, not because we are afraid to leave them, but because we either haven't had the time or means to get away. This year I was sure would be like all the rest and was completely surprised when Nate informed me that we would be going to a bed and breakfast for the night. He had arranged for our good friends, DeNae and Stan Isrealsen, to watch the kids and had made reservations at this little place an hour and a half away. Not only is it a bed and breakfast, but it is also home to the best Italian chef in all of West Virginia. (So we were told.)It was so much fun to get away and to spoil ourselves. I have to admit that I was unsure that we could do it on our very limited budget, but I was advised to just let it go. Nate has been working with a family practice doctor for the last 5 weeks and she was the one who had suggested this little place. As we were sitting at dinner the waitress came and informed us that Nate's doctor had called and was picking up our dinner bill for the night! I was shocked, it was such a kind thing to do and completely unexpected!! (And it cut our overall cost in half!!!) I am so thankful that my husband is such an amazing man that he impressed this doctor enough that she would be willing to do that for us! And I have to tell you that the food was unbelievable!!! I had never really had true Italian food, just American imitation, and it was amazing! I would love to go back someday and I recommend it to anyone in the area!This is the building we stayed in, there are three. There is the main house, and it has the nicest rooms, and then the other house that is behind the main house and then there was our place which is off to the side. We took a walk up the road a ways to the Elk River Dam. There wasn't really anyone out so I did my best to get some shots of the two of us.It was so wonderful to be able to spend quality time together and remember why it is that we feel in love with each other in the first place. I am such a lucky woman to be able to be married to my best friend and to the man of my dreams as well. My life would be empty without you Nate, thank you for eight wonderful years and to all the years to come!

Long lost friends, Part 2!

Almost a year ago I was able to reconnect with one of my favorite people, and her family :), Kirsten Phillips Rasmussen. She was a roommate at BYU and we went through so much together. We got married a week apart and were at each others wedding, even though she got married in California and me in Utah! It has been fun keeping tabs of each other over the years and even funner as we've been able to get together and have fun with our spouses and kids! Last September we went up to Columbus to visit them and then this last weekend Kirsten and Ammon drove the 3 hours down to Teays Valley to spend some time with us! (Which was super nice since Ammon was post call and running on very little sleep and Kirsten was post call and running on very little Ammon time!!) We spent the first evening eating and playing games til the wee hours of the morning! The kids were having a party of their own, all 7 of them sharing a room and trying to get some sleep!! They did eventually all fall asleep and surprisingly stayed asleep all night! The next day we went to a lake about 40 minutes from our house and stayed ALL day!!! It was so fun and made us both wonder why we didn't get together more ofter. (At least it made me wonder ;)!!) Here is Kirsten taking pictures of the kids, she is an amazing photographer!! She is the one who introduced me to scrapbooking and all things crafty, she is amazing!

Gabby was pretending she was a mermaid, as usual.

These are two of Kirsten and Ammon's girls, Hailey and Karli, they are too cute!!

I think this is my favorite pose of Lily ever! And she doesn't even know she is posing!!!

Here is the whole crew, Lily, Hailey, Karli, Gabby, Ethan, Luke and Brynlee! These kids LOVED each other and my kids can't wait til the next time!!! Here are all the boys, Luke, Ethan, Nate and Ammon, building New Orleans so they can reenact Hurricane Katrina. They thought they were hilarious. The girls (Gabby, Hailey, and Karli) were having fun trying to bury their legs while Brynlee was trying to wash them off because the moms had said it was time to go.
It was nice having Kirsten there to help take pictures because I otherwise never get photos of myself! So thanks again picameter!! ;)

All I want for Christmas is...

My TWO FRONT TEETH!!! SO this is soooooooooo past due, but better late then never...!!! Luke lost his other front tooth about 3 weeks ago and has been sporting this awesome smile ever since!! He is super proud of it and I think he looks pretty cool too!!! Yeah for Luke! Poor kids had to

wait almost a whole week for the darn tooth fairy to get her act together and bring him his quarters!!