Mish Mash in a Flash

Ok, that title just means I'm going to cover a lot of territory in a short time.

Halloween dinner is starting to become a tradition, it happens sometime just before Halloween and it's something "gross".  This year we has Sheep eyes (turkey meatballs with olives) and worms (spaghetti that I used black dye on that turned the noodles purple) and we had blood (fruit punch)to drink, naturally.

 Jacob gets a spotlight in this post, just because he made me laugh.  If you want to see the rest of the kids costumes go to my facebook page.  Jacob and Ben got to dress up for Halloween at school for the first time EVER.  Jacob couldn't wear his Gorilla costume to school because it has a mask so he found a witch costume in our costume bin.  His friends at school didn't even know it was him.  Jacob is a pretty confident kid to wear a girl costume to school!

 I got all the stuff for this craft and cut and sanded the wood and invited my mom over for a craft day.  I love that my mom is retired now and that she's getting into crafting.  We plan on doing craft projects together regularly now.

 Micah's birthday has come on gone and now I have a deacon (church thing if you're wondering)!  I cannot get over the fact that I have a 12 year old 7th grade child, am I really old enough???  This year he requested cake balls, or cake pops.  I had made some with my friend Yolawnda a few weeks before his birthday and he loved them.  I also made a carrot cake in case the cake balls went to fast, we had lots of leftover cake balls and Micah was happy about that.

 I could not get him to just look at me and smile, but that's ok, I got about a dozen pictures similar to the one below, he just kept making all these different faces at me and moving his head.

 My sweet mom came over to babysit so we didn't have to worry at all about the kids.  Micah (Jacob) usually watches his siblings and everything goes well, but we wanted to be able to have a night to just focus on each other and not have to check in on kiddos.  My amazing and wonderful husband took me to dinner at PF Changs, we had gone there for our anniversary a few years back and I loved it but it was too pricey for regular dates, so we saved it for a more special occasion.  Then we rushed over to the William Saroyan theater to see Kristen Chinoweth!  We were in the VERY back row and could hardly see her but we could HEAR her and that was the important thing!  She was amazing and I like her even more now.  She has a great personality and is a Christian woman.  Great night with my best friend.

 Lastly, this has been the big thing in our lives lately.  Our little girl got her ears pierced!  She was so brave and didn't cry or hesitate at all.  Daddy had previously said that 12 would be the age she would be able to get her ears pierced and I thought that was RIDICULOUS, so we compromised and said she could get them pierced when she asked (but I couldn't prod her).  She has been asking for earrings since she was 2.  I would tell her that she couldn't wear them though because her ears weren't pierced and she would just say that when she was older she wanted to get them pierced.  Tyler somehow finally decided that he liked the idea and HE was the one to ask her if she wanted to get them pierced.  We were at Fashion Fair Mall and she wanted to go into Clair's and Daddy asked...she was ready and she picked out these cute little Rainbow Daisy earrings.  She even lets me do her hair now without a fuss so you can see her ears.  Just in time for Santa to bring her some earrings in her stocking!!!

A few things that made me Happy!

I just have too many interests, plain and simple and blogging fell to the bottom of my list. I do still want to blog, but I will just have to get to it when I can! Here are a few things that have made me happy recently.

I love conference weekend, not just because of the great words we hear, but because my family is all together in one room for longer than we ever get to be any other time of the year. Saturday sessions are my personal favorite and this year the kids all chose to sit and really listen, they were angels. My sister Morgan and her son were with us for the am session and Hannah and Tanner Dockstader even joined us for a while too. I got to work on my digital scrapbooking and enjoy just sitting there with everyone, relaxing and listening to conference! And yes, those are jelly beans, in the morning.

For Valentine's Day I made a Love word art with my mother in law that I loved so much I decided to make a similar one for St. Patrick's Day. Tyler hates the word luck, but I persisted and this is what we ended up with. The wood is not what I really wanted but we had it, and after 3 or 4 broken scroll saw blades it finally got cut out. A little sanding and Martha Stewart glitter paint and I was happy. I know the picture stinks, sorry, I am just not a photog and I can't add anything more to my list of interests.
My Grandma, a very interesting lady in many, many ways is somehow still with us and says now that she finally feels back to her old self after her time spend on life support a few years ago. I love this woman. I wanted to spend some time visiting her during Spring Break and it just wasn't working out, so I just went and grabbed her from her house and made her join us in our regularly scheduled activities. It turned out perfect, I think she liked it much better than just us going over for a visit anyway.


Our final creations.
I saw these on pinterest and loved them. Why did I never think of dying the egg whites?
We get to have cousin Essien over a lot and the boys were all enjoying my one and only wii game, the best game ever, Just Dance 3. It makes me so happy to see them all dancing together, they are just too cute, I'm happy to share my game with them any time!

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! #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.

Ooops...I'm a little embarrassed.

Becca, of course you would like how it turned out, it was yours! I was looking at my post a few minutes ago and noticed the tile behind "my" Easter sign, it was THE original project, not my copycat version. I hadn't even taken a picture of mine, so I did. Here is mine below.

Hope you like it still!

This Summer...

I crafted! This was a copy craft from my sister in law Becca. She made one similar to this and gave me her leftover paper and I made my own. Thanks Becca.

Love these flowers. I also got to use my yard sale Cricut!
Peyton found the chapstick Daddy got in his stocking that he gave to me, you can see why he didn't like it below. Peyton was very proud of herself. (side note, love that girls bedhead!)
I was introduced to Pinterest and carried out a few ideas, here is one below.
Peyton got a few hand me downs from cousin Sophie and this skirt was my favorite, goes perfect with her handed down boots and shirt too. Many people at church said she looked like Hermione Granger. Love it. Thanks again Becca.
So, now that the kids are back in school and I only have 2 home during the day I am finding some computer time and I am going to get caught up on our summer happenings. So, look for my This Summer... posts.

Our Utah trip in the smallest nutshell I could fit it in!

This was our best trip yet to Utah. We love LeGrand and Becca and Bryan and Helga. They are our family, yes, but they are also some of the best and most fun people too. We also got to spend some time with their extended family, LeGrand and Bryan's in-laws, and they're awesome too! It was relaxing and fun.

We had our traditional waxing, somehow Tyler got away without participating this time. My nose is already hairy again so I think I'll need to invest in some hard wax!

They always have at least one fun new thing to try, this time it was catching whipped cream in your mouth. You squirt some on your hand, toss it into the air and then catch it in your mouth, or somewhere else on your face! It's a perfect after baptism activity to do while still in your nice church clothes (my niece Adelyn was baptised).
Sunday my new nephew Taysen was blessed and the next day was the 4th of July! We got to go to a parade in Provo, a LeGrand Laing family tradition. Tyler and LeGrand and a few other went early, really early, to get a spot. Becca and I crammed in with the kids and came along later. Gosh, no, of course we didn't really drive with 10 people in a 7 passenger van! This was a just for fun picture, we really took 2 cars.
This next picture may seem silly, but while walking to the parade we saw this, house? Micah stopped in front and said loudly, "I can't believe someone lives here, it looks like a broken down old shack!" There were windows open and a car in the driveway! I tried to rush him along and tell him we don't say things like that, it was someone's home. There was a couple and their child walking near us, and he said, "I was thinking the same thing." I said, "I think we all were, we just weren't shouting it at the top of our lungs!" I sometimes wonder at what age Micah's brutal honesty will take a backseat.
Becca's Aunt has a red hat tradition at the parade that we got to take part in, everyone wears the hat for a pictures and strikes a pose.
I got to sit by my guy.
After the parade we enjoyed another of Becca's traditions and went to her grandparents old house where her sister and new husband are now living. We had delicious food and a slip n slide competition. I felt like a kid again, a less daring kid, but still a kid. Ben got himself a nice huge slice of watermelon.
We went up to the Mount Timpanogos caves, one of my favorite activities this trip. It was a pretty good little hike up, especially carrying a 30 pound little girl!
I got so many amazing pictures I had to put a few in.
Helga's sister Heidi took a group picture for us, so she wasn't in it, but this was everyone else.
I like hiking.
I don't like carrying little kids that are perfectly capable of walking themselves, but I did anyway. I tried leaving her behind but she didn't care, she just stayed behind, so I carried her. Daddy was behind with the slower people in the group helping watch other kids and I'm not a slow hiker, apparently even when carrying an extra 30 pounds. Daddy did get his turn on the hike back though, don't think he bailed on me.
This rock is near the entrance to the caves, everyone touches it, and this is what happens when your oils get on the rocks, pretty cool, but you can't touch anything in the caves.
This is the heart of Mount Timpanogos, it is estimated to weigh about 2 tons and is 5.5 ft in length! I have dozens of pictures of other amazing formations too, but had to share this one.
Such an amazing view!
This is my nephew Taysen, he was so much easier to carry down than Miss P was to carry up!
Helga's sister Sonja has her own salon and gave Peyton her first haircut while we were there at Natalie's (another of Helga's sisters) house. I woke her up for the haircut and she was spazzing majorly. She later told Tyler that she "fussed a little bit at first" HA! I have video that proves otherwise. Sonja did a great job though and straightened her hair first and then cut off a few inches and layered it. So cute. She eventually calmed down and she liked her new hair.

While Tyler, LeGrand, Becca and I went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple (Provo was closed for cleaning), out to lunch at Zupas (yummy soup salad and sandwich), and to DI (my favorite thrift store ever) Tyler's Aunt Becca ( who has 12 kids herself) and some of her kids watched all of our kids. We also got to visit with Tyler's grandparents who live there now. Peyton even fell asleep on Moroni, and that is not like her at all. The kids LOVE the Burrows family and I'm so glad that got to spend some time there.
Movie time with Junior's Giants.
I ran into an old friend while getting new G's at the Distribution Center, it was Jan Budge! My old Bishop's wife. I am friends with her daughter in law who is in our ward! Small world huh?
On our last night there the boys went to Bryan and Helga's house and the girls and kids hung out at LeGrand and Becca's house. The kids had movie (Little Rascal's) and pizza (Litttle Ceasars) night while the girls (Me, Becca, Helga and Liz, Becca's sister) did crafts and ate Cafe Rio pork salads, I really hope they get one here someday, YUMMY! This is my very adorable and sweet niece Makyla. She is a lot like Peyton and she finally warmed up to me at the end. She even has the same cute little legs and feet that Peyton has, so they must come from the Laing side. I love my family and wish we were all close to each other geographically. Maybe someday we will be, but until then we will do our best to make trips to see them. LeGrand and Becca, thank you so much for housing us and feeding us and being the wonderful people you are, WE LOVE YOU!