Fall Hodge Podge

Crafty me….

I’ve been ready to “make” something for awhile now and the girls were insistent about getting Halloween decorations out of the boxes and up before Halloween came and went this year (go figure) - so this idea popped into my head…

 

I love the way paper crafts look but I don’t have a lot of time and money to spend picking out separate papers and piecing my project all together which is why I LOVE the new Cricut Imagine - it prints paper and cuts it. So all I had to do was pick the color of background for the banners, pick my letter font and color, hit print and there all my pretty papers were! To assemble it I glued my letters to the banners punched holes in the corners for the brass paper fasteners (I wanted it to have a careless hanging look), then I taped wired ribbons to the end and covered that with a Cricut cut pumpkin and – Voila! I thought it looked pretty cute… here are some close ups of the background printing options – love ‘em!

So that’s crafty me…now for the - 

hardworking three…

With the help of a rented lift, Poppa Olsen, and two little girls, Don got all the dead limbs from our backyard trees down before they became lethal with winter snow. I wish I had taken a picture of his arms afterward – between the ga-zillion scratches on his arms and legs, pulled shoulder muscles, two detached nails (one on his hand from a boulder and one on his toe from the doghouse) Don is creating a new meaning to “sacrifice” as he gives up precious time to create a safe and beautiful backyard for his family (it’s more appropriate to say “human” sacrifice at this point don’t you think?!) The girls made us proud with their hard working ethics and made us laugh when the girly-ness in them came out with the occasional squeal when they discovered spiders nest on the limbs they were carrying!

South View   (With extensive help from Kip & Blair bulldozing dirt, tearing up old cement pads, and cutting the trees back.)

Before:                                       After:

 

Center View

Before:                                       After:

North View

Before:                                       After:

We predict will be done with the backyard in…10 years-ish…

And finally…

Bizzie Girl turns 6!!!

Bizzie really wanted an Animal Friend Birthday Party – so we got together friends, masks, games (pin the trunk on the elephant, ring on a string), and cupcakes, turned the music way up, busted out our moves, and par-tayed!

The next day the Olsen’s threw a Pumpkin Party Bonfire and had another cake for her there! Thank you Aunt Heidi!!!

(I’ll take a moment to sneak in a non-birthday picture to commemorate Eli’s first bonfire. He seemed content being snuggled close by numerous of willing admirers…)

And to top off all the birthday mania – the Raymers took us up Hobble Creek Canyon and we celebrated her birthday once more with hotdogs, cupcakes, princess dresses (thank you Grandma Raymer!) and volleyball! Pictures coming soon… Man – turning 6 has never been celebrated more! Happy Birthday Bizzie Girl!!!!

And that’s it for this Hodge Podge Post!

Oh, fruit loved of “girlhood”! The old days recalling…

(This post is slightly embarrassing following the treadmill post…but – it is what it is…)

I love fall, love the smells, the holidays, the colors, the crispness – and with it comes pumpkins! I love the smell of baking pumpkins – like the smell of brand new pencils near the beginning of a school year, childhood memories come wafting  in with that delicious smell. So when I found this recipe in Better Homes and Gardens I HAD to try it right?! The scale wasn’t too pleased with the discovery but man, I was in heaven!!!

One of my favorite things about cooking is the little helpers that come clamoring around my legs to “help.” My girls and I are dough lovers – we love the taste of batters and have a hard time getting things into the oven before it all disappears so I have longed had to have the rule that if you want to taste the batter you have to help make it. I now look forward to all three girls  trying to find ways to help. Autumn usually comes in sheepishly too late with a “So, mom…need help tasting that to see if it’s turned out alright?” Bizzie loves to crack the eggs – batter tends to come out a bit crunchier with her at the helm. And Liberty usually comes up with her big deer eyes and frank request “help you?” Here is her favorite version of “help you?”

Love my girls… Love fall… love pumpkin flavors…

Treadmill Motivation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I feel like slowing down the pace on my treadmill I picture this guy behind me which works for a few more minutes then I have to visualize one of the girls on my shoulders to make it a few more:) What gets you moving?

Food For Thoughts…

Do you remember life before cell phones, texting and emailing? My life has actually expanded and improved because of the way it is utilized by my best friend.  Don is constantly looking for things to send me to brighten my day or to help me stay sane by giving me thoughts to ponder other than how to get industrial strength infant poo out of clothing and the fact that I’m insanely tired and just want to sleep and eat donuts…

Anyway… I just wanted to share my favorites with you:

• “What if you woke up tomorrow with only those things for which you expressed gratitude today?”

•  "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life," Jobs said during a Stanford commencement ceremony in 2005.
  "Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."
  "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
  -Steve Jobs

If you watch this video know that the baby buffalo will amazingly be just fine, BUT you have to watch it all the way to the end!

His greatest strength in our relationship is knowing how to make me laugh – like “bust a gut” make me laugh. And I get it’s his timing and the mood I’m in so if the following doesn’t do the same for you it’s ok. Sometimes I’ll be having a hard day and he seems to know so he’ll send me nonsense to take my mind off of me…

Or it is something completely out of the blue. I’ll text him the question “how are you?” and I get this picture in response …

It still makes me laugh –

My dear friend Crystal has that similar impeccable timing as Don and sent this series of pictures at a much needed time…

Anyway, thought these images and thoughts might shake up your day and add a little “umph” to it – Do you have anymore to add to my growing stash?

Summer is over…Flu season is here

And all I can say is…

Every now and then my snarky side comes out REALLY strong, as I was cleaning up my very sad Liberty who had thrown up in her sleep Rhino kept going off in my head, complete with psycho laugh. So farewell summer…hello flu.

On a more serious note, how cool is it that I can be at home (thanks to my awesome husband) and snuggle up with this precious, sad child?!

And watch how simple things can bring so much joy when you are sick, here she is when I asked if she wanted to watch her FAVORITE movie, The Last Unicorn, and have an Otter Pop…

My children are so gifted at getting me to slow down and helping me forget my schedule to enjoy “the moments” even the gross, throw-up ones, so I can snuggle with them, love them, and really be with them…

General Conference is on my mind right now and my mind goes back to one of my favorite talks given by Elder Ballard in the Spring of 2008 called “Daughters of God.” He quoted a woman I didn’t recognize but who I could completely relate with…

Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less” (Loud and Clear‍ [2004], 10–11).

Ain’t it the truth?! So bring it on flu season, let it begin!

Big Changes…Bigger Blessings

Wow. To say a lot has happened this summer would be the biggest understatement I have ever made! In the course of two weeks we welcomed Baby Eli, packed up our sweet little home of 6 years and moved around the block to our new home! It has taken until now for me to think beyond eating, sleeping, and unpacking – I’m now ready to branch out from the essentials!

Don has reserved the right to tell Elias’s story which is coming soon, but know our little Eli has nudged his way right into our hearts. He’s absolutely adored by all of us girls winning the nickname of “our little man” – and if you were to contest his cuteness you may find yourself in a scuff with his 3 protective, adoring sisters. “Is he a good sleeper” is the most common question I get and for all his sweetness, smiles (yep, he’s smiling already!), and engaging looks – the bags under my eyes, and few extra pounds I’ve gained (I tend to eat more when I’m super tired) since losing the baby weight should answer that sufficiently…

Coming home from the hospital is a mix of emotions for me: 1) I’m excited to be with ALL my children again and begin normal life 2) I’m terrified of trying to manage ALL my children and find normal life! The joy always wins out over the smatterings of baby blues and tiredness… Here is Eli home for the first time:

Here he is a few weeks later in his new home showing amazing head control: please ignore the slight chaos in the background and feel free to play “Finding Waldo” with the ever present, now “Caffeine-Free,” Diet Coke in the background:)

And finally, here is my baby boy today…I just want to eat him up!!! Oh, the sweetness.

Our sweet little house is empty and up for sale. It housed and sheltered us until we were busting at the seams, so awhile back Don and I began the process of praying for some direction on where to move our growing family, we considered all sorts of places throughout Utah County and seriously considered a few homes… but, as is the case when you let the Lord be apart of your decisions, He knew where we needed to be and we weren’t looking in the right place so we kept getting the red light on “our" choices. When a house became available in our ward we “knew” this is where we were suppose to be, but knowing and getting don’t always go easily hand in hand – perseverance, faith and many prayers later we closed on the house! I will always remember when Don told us it was ours…we had gotten into the habit of going for evening walks pass the house with the girls to look and dream. On one particular evening we went by the house, and Don looked at me and said, “It’s ours.” I looked at him hard and realized he meant it was actually ours, and I,being pregnant, cried. Packing up our house pregnant, then moving our belongings with a brand new baby would have been absolutely impossible, but with the help of our dear friend, Clint, and many numerous members of our ward it was done blessedly quick! I now enjoy a dishwasher and the knowledge that our children have the freedom to spread out and have privacy to ponder and play (we actually lost Liberty the first day in the house, we could hear her responding to our calls but couldn't locate her – she finally emerged from her hiding place in her sister’s closet where she colored herself like a tiger and christened the closet walls with similar markings….).

Here is our new home:

Landscaping is one of Don and my favorite hobbies, and this house came with a lot of landscaping potential! So weeds quickly gave way to bulldozing, leveling and with that came lots and lots of … dirt. The carefree days of my youth of not caring how high things were, how steep they were and how dirty they are allude me now – my kids? Not so much…   These next few pictures are the common results of shooing my kids out the door and telling them to go play, especially if Don gives them permission to include a hose…

Yep… life is back to normal.