fun projects!

so, I have decided that I love to sew! We'll see how long it lasts! lol! I saw a tutorial for making a puff quilt at honeybearlane.blogspot.com and I had to try it! One of my kids drew out Colton's name (my brand new nephew) for Christmas, so this is what I made for him!

A cute little puff quilt! (here's hoping Amy doesn't read this post)  I have also been working on aprons for little girls to sell on Etsy, I will post a link as soon as those are up!  Brandi and I also made bead spiders that we copied from Keri who copied from her sister who copied from someone else... (see how this craft thing works?)  I am going to attach them to hair clips! I can't wait for October to put a bunch of these is Lyv's hair for school! So Cute!!!

Love the shadow!!

Kendra's Birthday was last weekend, but she's in Hawaii for the week, so here is her birthday present!

It's a pin cushion bracelet! the inside fabric is minky, so it's nice and soft for her wrist!  I saw this on someones blog and decided to make one for myself, but it's not as pretty as this one. There is cardboard inside so the pins can't go through! She sews a lot, so I hope this helps her!

 I also want to try my hand at a tutorial, so I am getting one together for a clip quilt using old denim jeans! I have enjoyed sewing so much! my goal is for Olyvia and Carly to WANT me to sew their prom dresses, I want to be that good! good thing I have 10 years to practice! LOL!

Summer's end

Here are some fun things that we have done the last few weeks! After Lyv's birthday party she had TONS of tissue paper from the gifts, so she got creative and went through an entire roll of tape! Look how cute! She did this entirely by herself!

two weeks ago I got a call from Kendra saying that they needed more leaders for their Youth Conference, and was wondering if I could go, well miracles do happen! I got to do with my old ward to their Youth Conference, I basically got a 3 day vacation with my friends!  We left on a Thursday, drove to Castledale and went to their pageant, amazing! Friday we went to the Jordan River temple and did baptisms, then on to Lagoon for hours of FUN!! I had a blast! Kendra and I were with a group of 7 girls and we went on tons of rides! Saturday we went to Temple Square for some great tours then on to Ochre (?) Mountain temple for more baptisms, then dinner at Golden Corral, then home! THANK YOU BISHOP, DANIELA AND KENDRA!! I love you guys for thinking of me!!

We found Spongebob dying on the side of the road... Say cheese!!

This is our entire group, awesome kids!

This is a gecko

Olyvia started school Wednesday! She loves it!

After lyv's first day of school we ditched the back to school night (thanks Echo!) and went to the County Fair!  The kids got their faces painted and got to hold bunnies!! Lyv is SUCH an animal lover!

Uhhh... That's a.... peacock, yeah a peacock!!!

Kai would NOT get off this 4-wheeler, we had to drag him away from it, later we were looking at a booth and totally lost Kai! I took off one direction, my mom in the other... guess where he was?  YUP! on the 4-wheelers! clear at the other end of the barn (big barn).

Aren't they cute?

 this pic is out of order for some reason, it is Lyv in front of her classroom!

It's finally coming together!!

I am finally feeling like Lyv's room will actually some day be finished! yay!!  here are some of the things I have done for it.  I found this lamp (sans shade) at DI for $1, and the shade at Tai Pan for (i think) $3.

I painted the base white, used the left-over zebra fabric from Lyv's chair, and got 1 yard of the beaded ribbon from walmart for a few dollars.  here's how it turned out!

One of the first things we found for Lyv's new room was the bench that goes to this set at DI, it had a dirty white cloth top, so I reupholstered it and covered it in vinyl, 2 weeks later at DI my mom found the rest of the vanity! SO LUCKY!! I don't know how that worked out, but it did!  so this is pretty close to how the vanity looked when we first got it, the bench was $10 and the Vanity was $15 at DI.

This took me a long time, but so worth it!! I love how this turned out! the wall behind the vanity will eventually be a light pink, NOT BLUE!! (so just imagine it for now, K?) There's a hint of the bedspread in the mirror, but that will come later, like, when the bed is actually put together ;) notice the big jewel pull? One of my favorite parts of the whole room!

When I was cruising the web for ideas for furniture for said room, i came across this! I LOVE this!! i love the hidden pink in the drawers! It is also what made me decide that every surface in the room had to be "high gloss" my poor mom is probably sick of hearing me say "but it has to be high gloss!!"

So... we found this night stand at DI for $10, sanded it, painted it, sanded it, painted it (yep, again), and then put a couple coats of polyurethane on it, this piece took the longest, but I am so happy with the results!!

Closed!

 that's all for now!  I will keep posting the projects until I have them all, and then I will do the entire room! we revealed all that we have to lyv on Saturday, she LOVES it!! when we first started talking to her about doing her room for her birthday she wanted me to do it in "ladybugs"...... um.... NO!!! so i coaxed her into this... so glad I did!

What Colony Wants!!

First a little background... I am doing a total makeover in Lyv's room for her birthday. (after all, she is now a mature 6!)  It has been a lot more work that I thought it would be, but I am having a blast and learning a lot! I vowed in the beginning to only use furniture from thrift stores/ yard sales. I must say, we have done really well!  I will post more about it soon. After all, a girl can only do so much! :) Now back to the show.

What Colony Wants! (a lot!)

anyone have $300 hanging around?  yeah... Me either. 

I have been coveting this for months! So today I went to DI to get some sheets to make pioneer dresses out of for the girls for Pioneer day and Lo and Behold I find........

THIS!!!!!!!

do you see the potential?!?!?!  I mean, do you really SEE it!?!?!  I see beauty beyond measure!! I see the crowning jewel of the room I have been  Lyv has been dreaming of for months! And it only cost $10!! The best $10 dollars I have ever spent!!  SQUEAL!!!!!  *pant, pant*

(composing self)

So... stay tuned and I promise I will post the outcome!

where has the time gone?

Ok, so this is going to be a really long post! so sorry in advance! I just picked a few of the major things!
First, Carly cut her hair AGAIN! her bangs now go from ear to ear! lovely!

 
My parents came over for dinner one night and my poor dad is a bishop, he fell asleep pretty quickly on the couch, but that didn't stop the kids from playing with him!

We found a snake in our back yard, (ewwwww.....) so Joey cut it's head off! little did he know it was just practice for later!

This is a cake I did for a friend of mine who has a little boy turning 6, he wanted a "Monster Jam cake" so here 'tis! he loved it, and it was a lot of fun to do! the light dirt is crushed graham crackers, and the dark dirt is crushed oreo cookies!

In May, Lyv graduated from Kindergarten! she is such a big girl and LOVES school! I am so proud of her and how hard she works to get it right! that girl is Driven!!

here we are after the little ceremony they had, Lyv we basking in the spotlight for sure!!

In June we went to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents, it is a two day drive, the kids were so well behaved, i was so impressed! as expected though there are moments where boredom starts creeping up on you. Carly is asleep, Kai is going through Carly's bag while she sleeps and Lyv is being her silly little self!

Carly is so good to fall asleep whenever she gets tired!

This is my grandma's backyard, and the view from her deck over the lake! So Beautiful! The humidity and heat there is almost unbearable, so the kids just played in the pool nearly the entire time we were there!

We drove up to Tulsa to visit my other grandparents after we went to the Oklahoma State Aquarium.  The kids had a great time and it was all indoors (yay!).

Lyv, Kai and I got into the shark cage they had there, Carly wouldn't go anywhere near it!

This is at the entrance to the the aquarium... again... HOT!!

What I have learned about Kai this summer: Kai LOVES to be outside!!  He will suffer through any type of weather, wind, heat, rain, you name it!  We had to bribe him to come into the house to get a drink of water and to come in for naps or at the end of the day! This is what he did every day! Find dirt, play in dirt, eat, play in dirt, sleep.

My Grandpa passed away in March this year, so my grandma had a lot of unfinished projects she needed help on, Joey stepped up on his vacation to do what he could for her! he organized the garage, installed some drainage and lots of other honey-dos!

There are SO many birds around the lake, all the kids had a blast trying to see them with the binoculars!

we ran into a water moccasin (crazy deadly snake) while we were there, thankfully, no one was injured, (well except for the snake... he didn't make it)  Joey cut it's head off and brought it home in a jar... don't ask. Lyv was brave enough to hold the head with some tongs long enough to pose for a picture!

After 5 days at the lake, we headed back to Oklahoma City to go to the zoo before we headed home, the kids had so much fun! I LOVE the Oklahoma City Zoo! we have gone every year for the last 3 years, ALWAYS worth it! Gotta go on the carousel!

My favorite animals at the Zoo are the Galapagos (hope I spelled that right... probably not) Tortoises, they just amaze me, I remember them from when I was small and we would go visit my grandparents and they would take us to the zoo, the same ones are still there and they are in their 70s and 80s, amazing creatures!!

this is kind of a crappy pic, but she's looking right at me!

There are also tons of native animals that call the zoo home, there was a mother Canadian goose with her 8 goslings, they came up to the kids and they got to feed them! Lyv has her mothers love for animals!

here we are at the end of hot sweaty FUN day!

Finally we headed home, we stopped as much as we could at any place worth stopping! Texas has the best rest stops I have EVER seen! play ground, visitor center, CLEAN bathrooms! A/C! yay Texas!

Carly in her Diva-Awesome glasses!

Eclipse came out in June, so I HAD to have a New Moon party! we all got together the night before Eclipse came out and watched New Moon! So fun! I have the funnest (probably not a word) friends ever! I love you guys! you make anything fun!!

Summer, I love you!

Carly and Kai after a long day at the river!

(almost done folks!) for the 4th of July we always go to Fillmore and enjoy the festivities! (ya, it was in the 80s that day... Niiiiiice!)

Is be beautiful? YES HE IS!!!

Proud papa!

Carly went down the slide... she DIDN'T love it.

the kids got their faces painted. I have to say, that this girl is the BEST face painter I have ever seen!!

Kai worships Spider Man. He we SOOOOO happy!

We found a baby bird in our back yard, the kids had to hold it! so cute!!

Kai Loves daddy's "mazagine"!

Poor baby! Lyv + kitty =

Allergies!!

I finally had Carly's birthday party! (her birthday was June 3)

well worth the wait! look how cute!  she wanted a candy land birthday party, so i made all the girls their own tutus, flowers for their hair and bracelets in coordinating colors. Kendra, Brandi, and Summer (bless them!) came and helped me make a life size gameboard with chalk on the concrete for the girls to play, I make a box into a dice with the 6 colors on it for them to roll, they had a blast!!

I let lyv take over the game and help all 6 little girls, she did amazing! That girl has some natural organizational skillz!! I wish I did!

Addy won!

I think she feels pretty...

I had the girls decorate their own cupcakes! they each probably used a cup of sprinkles! oh, well! happy girls!! I WANT SPRINKLES!! (he he)

Kai just.... Ate frosting...

Carly told Brandi she wanted "tinkerbell and chocolate" for her birthday, so Brandi Kalynn got her a tinkerbell bag full of chocolate! SCORE!!

I have a garden this year for the first time ever in my life! I love it! some of my rewards!

for mothers day I picked flowers from my yard and my neighbors yard to make this bouquet! so it cost me exactly.... NOTHING! (yay me!)  I am amazed at the beauty of our yard! I also made her these blocks of my family! I love you MOM!

Lyv's school had a fundraiser and I made these cupcakes for them to sell!

The End! I promise I will be better at keeping this up... maybe