We Believe

Merry Christmas!
No Christmas card this year. Things have been busy, like they always are I guess, so I'm going to make this my Christmas greeting.

Tyler is still with CalTrans, serving on the Greater Valley Credit Union Board of Directors, was released as 2nd counselor in the bishopric and then called as 1st counselor. He is no longer the one to issue a plea to those asked to give talks, so life is much more enjoyable for him now.
Micah is still taking piano (almost 4 years now) and just started violin lessons with my mom as his teacher, he was Student Body VP and was in his school's production of Cinderella as the Prime Minister. He still loves to draw and I find artwork all over the house. He also was asked to join the GATE program at school and enjoys that, chess club and trail partners.
Jacob is also still taking piano (about 2 years I think!). He saved up for many months and bought himself an ipod touch and has been loving that. Jacob is also in GATE this year with Micah. You can often find him with a thick book in his hand, just like his mom!
Ben, what can I say about Ben? He is a funny, cute, little boy. He still loves games of all sorts and loves to read, especially his scriptures, just like his dad! He is fearless and daring and often getting hurt (latest injury is a rope burn on his neck, look closely and you'll see it), so it's a good thing he's our toughest kid!
Peyton is my best buddy. She is a tom boy and a princess. She likes to play Barbies and Ninja Turtles a lot. She is always chattering and singing and enjoys private time in her room making messes that she always apologizes for. She is very grateful when I clean her room as she likes it to be clean but does not like to clean it! Her favorite thing to wear is a sleeper and I often let her wear one as her day outfit, I'm such a nice mom.
As for me? Not sure what to say about myself. I am happy, I still enjoy crafting and reading and have been working on keeping a schedule since I am horrible at balancing my life! I have washed my Van more in the last 6 months than I have the last 6 years! It's true. Every Friday you may find me in the driveway cleaning the Van inside and out. As for eating right and exercising, that took place for a year ending this past June, sorry if you missed it. You may catch it again starting this January, that's when I'll stop cleaning my van and probably my house too. I have been having fun with my activity day girls (ages 8-12) they are a rather large and very talkative group of girls and I love them!
I hope your year has been a good one! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Violin Lessons

Micah has been asking for violin lessons for a while now but with him already in piano we didn't want to spend the additional money and we didn't want to take him out of piano. My mom pulled through for us and for Micah's birthday gift she got him a violin book, lent him one of her violins AND is giving him lessons! She used to teach violin years ago and has been wanting to start playing again, so it works out for everyone!!! They had their first lesson together today and it was fun to see my mom in action, Micah has a great teacher.

Here Micah is playing pizzicato (finger picking). This is one of the first skills before he goes on to bowing.

My mom tuning her violin, next week we'll move them to the music room (aka sewing room) with chairs and music stands.
Micah and Nana Paula after his first lesson.
Thank you mom!!!

Accomplishments

Micah turned 11 on Friday! I cannot believe I have an 11 year old. He's in sixth grade this year, student body VP and he's going to be in the school's play, Cinderella as the Prime Minister this Thursday night! For those of you that know Micah, this is incredible. He has really come out of his shell this year and is realizing his talents and interests. He just crossed over from cub scouts and is now in boy scouts. Life is incredibly busy but good. We have 2 boys in soccer, 2 in piano, 1 in cub scouts, 1 in boy scouts, 2 in the play (Jacob is stage crew) and I'm sure there's something I've left out. Tyler is always busy with Bishopric duties and I am in activity days now (8-12 year old girls week night activities).

Micah got a rip stick (like a skate board but only has 2 wheels) for his birthday. He was the only one that could do it, now Jacob can do it too. When no one was around last night I tried it...I definitely can't do it. I'm so glad I tried it in secret!

Tyler and I were the proudest parents last month, we had all 3 boys get Sparthenian of the quarter! It is like student of the month, they used to award it monthly, this year they only do it quarterly, and this was the first time it was given this year. We are trying our best to make a big deal out of any of their accomplishments so as to encourage them to continue accomplishing things, so we rewarded them with dinner out at Red Robin. It is times like these that I feel like I'm not completely screwing up as a parent!
I am so excited that it is now November, and cold! My favorite time of the year. Time for soup and hot cider, jeans and sweaters, warm pajamas and blankets, cuddling up to my husband at night instead of pushing him away! Thanksgiving and our Anniversary, and of course...Christmas! My sewing bug should be kicking in anytime now, I can't wait!

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #4

I'm getting a bit burnt out on blogging pinterest stuff. I'd rather be pinning or making my pins I guess! That being said, this may be my last pinterest pin, maybe not, we'll see.

This was the water marbling technique, I loved it, it also actually lasted longer than when I polish my nails the usual way! I watched a how to video which helped a ton. It is a pretty easy way to get a very cool look. Below was my first attempt, I learned a lot. The more polish you drop in, the closer your lines are and the darker they are. Notice my middle finger that looks a bit like candy corn? That one didn't have as much polish dropped in.

This is after I removed the tape and most of the polish from my skin.
My right hand, the ring finger was less polish and I swirled it around a bit more than the others.

Deep fried battered chicken, I think it was called sesame ginger chicken. I had to change the sauce recipe quite a bit to make use of what I actually had. It turned into a grapefruit ginger chicken. It was actually really good. It was hard to keep my oil at the right temp. I got it way to hot at one point and smoked up the whole house. Next time I may borrow a deep fryer, that would make things much easier.
Loved this one, we have very few Halloween decorations so this was great. We ran out of trash bags so I sent Micah to a neighbor where he got 2 black trash bags. We cut them into strips all the way to within 1 inch from the bottom of the bag, then cut the side open and along the bottom of the bag. Then we stretched each strip, if it tore, we tied the back on. I taped the bottom of the bag behind the front overhang on our porch. Viola! Witch curtains. They look so cool when they sway in the breeze.

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #3

Black Licorice Caramels for Tyler's birthday. Even if you don't like Black Licorice you might like these, they were SO good.

I changed up the same recipe and made Coconut Caramels. Again, yummy.
I'll be making these again.
I found a recipe for sugar cookies that are as good, if not better than Lofthouse cookies, you know, the kind you find in the plastic containers that are frosted based on whatever holiday is closest. Anyway, really, really good. We made them for Activity Days too. I made them for Tyler's birthday as well, initially. I didn't have any powdered sugar to make the frosting and it was Sunday, so the store wasn't an option and I found out by googling that you can make your own powdered sugar! It's much cheaper, I will be doing this from now on.

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #2

I'm trying to get these posts done kind of quickly but also be organized a bit. This post is all wall or hanging stuff, mostly wreaths which I'm obsessed with right now.

This is my twig wreath. Tyler didn't like it on the front door, well, he really didn't like it at all, but I moved it off the door. It was getting bumped a lot and I had to keep gluing twigs back on. Now it is tucked back away where it won't bug Ty or get bumped.

These fabric flowers or rosettes are my favorite. I just found a tutorial on making a stretch ring with them and am going to do that soon. I made these to adorn my burlap wreath.
This is the wreath I did a class on for Super Saturday.
I did not see this on Pinterest but I bet it's on there somewhere. When I went to Utah my sisters in law taught me how to make it, it's just Lima Beans glued on a foam wreath form then spray painted. Easy.
These flowers I made with an old sweater of mine that I accidentally shrunk, a lot. You cut a circle, spiral cut the circle and roll from the inside out.
These are canvases my friend Kendra gave me that I stapled fabric onto, that is all over Pinterest.
Here is the back of my paper rosette wreath, the 97 cent pipe insulation that you can get 2 wreath forms out of. My friend Christie just bought some for my class though and it's gone up to a dollar something, still cheaper than the foam forms at the craft store.
I made this wreath for my mom for Christmas and I added some scrapbook paper to match her colors.
This is the first one I made, just book pages. I made it on a wicker form from dollar tree.

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #1

I am in LOVE with Pinterest! I am now never without ideas, ever. I am going to do another blog series, this time featuring the stuff I have done from Pinterest. I'm not sure I finished my "This summer..." series, so I might throw in a few of those here and there!

So, I'm starting with my least fun projects. I tried the glass cutting and wasn't very successful with it. I had my parents save some wine and liquor bottles for me. In this first pic is a whiskey bottle, I tried to cut it in several different places and it just wouldn't. Too thick? I have no idea.

This wine bottle was the first one I was able to cut. It would have been an awesome shape too...but it cracked, sniff, sniff. If I could do it successfully it would be fun to make a bunch of drinking glasses from wine bottles.
This Maker's Mark bottle cut, surprisingly. It chipped on one side but I sanded it and got it smooth, painted it orange and turned the chip to the back and it's ok.
This Bogle Vinyards bottle would absolutely not cut at all.
Close up of the one I kept.
Another bottle project, painting them white, easy peasy, worked perfectly.

So, the cutting method. Wrap string (I used yarn) around the area you want to cut, tie it off, slide it off the bottle, soak it with polish remover, slide it back on, light it on fire and turn bottle while string is on fire, submerge in cold water and snap it. There are videos and picture tutorials available online if you google it. If anyone has some beer or soda bottles or other cool bottles they want to donate to me I'd like to try this again.

Printable Quote (Thomas S. Monson)

This was said in a talk given during the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference by Elder Cook from the 70 (one of the quorums and I forget his first name, it might have been Brad). I liked it. Just click on it and save, if you want to.

Oh yes, credit to "A Little Boy's Pocket Collection" a collab by Pamela Donnis Designs and Chere Kaye for the arrow brushes.

This Summer...(4)

we went camping! It was so much fun. We found a new spot. Granite Creek. It is right by the creek and there isn't drinking water, you have to bring your own, but the campsite is free! It was beautiful. The water was freezing but we went in anyway and had the best time. There was an area that was almost like a waterslide too. We rested in the hammock...

we acted silly...
we sat by the fire and visited (Aunt Morgan (my sister) and Nana Paula and Papa Larry (my parents)) were there. We roasted marshmallows.

Tyler and all my kids caught their first fish!
I cleaned my first fish, my little sister taught me. The grimace on my face is because I was cleaning a live fish with a dull pocket knife and feeling very sad.

One morning, before any of the kids had caught a fish, Jacob asked if he could take the pole and go fishing. He soon came back with this fish, caught all by himself! So, of course, everyone else had to have a go at it.
This is Jake's fish close up, there were only a few Brookies caught (they are fish that are not planted but natural to the creek)and his was a good size, the Brookies tend to be smaller than the Rainbow.
Micah caught a big one too, and I'm so glad, who knows what would have happened if he didn't catch one!
Peyton caught one with Aunt Mo's help.
Benny caught one as well.
Tyler thought that since everyone else caught one that I needed to catch one too, so I did. Right as my bait went it I caught one. Sadly it was a tiny little thing that I would have let go had he not swallowed the whole hook and had blood gushing from his gills. I had to work to smile in this picture and turn him so his bloody side was to me.
Ben and Roxie had a good nap together. Do you like those dirty feet?
Ahhh, we love to camp! Oh yeah, and did I mention that we ate, and ate, and ate? Well, we did, a lot!