Butcher Paper Stencils

I saw this technique out in blogland. I can't remember who's blog...but it is so much fun. They did this project on onesies and t-shirts. We used it on our reusable grocery bags we made from some scrap fabric. I think this would be a great way to personalize a backpack to get ready for school...oohh, or on the pockets of a pair of old jeans!

This is a really fun activity to do with your kids. It's a little time consuming cutting out the design, but it is so much fun to lift the stencil and see the final product! Very gratifying.

Instructions:

Trace a pattern onto butcher paper (glossy side down) and then cut it out with an exacto knife. (The samples from the site where we got the idea included elves and simple silhouettes found on the computer. A lot simpler than what we did. I think we went a little overboard!)

Iron the paper (again, glossy side down) onto your project (fabric).

Now paint the design with fabric paints. (We only had white paint, so we added some glitter to the butterfly's for some fun color!)

Peel the stencil off and let it dry and you're done!

(Follow the paint instructions for painting on fabric. You may need to set it by ironing when it's dry).

It really is that easy and it's so much fun!

Hope you're enjoying your summer, Lisa

Feeling Crafty

Right around the holidays, we start feeling a little crafty. I recently borrowed my mom's sewing machine and Carly and I have been sewing like crazy! (The kids help me run the presser foot and Carly loves ironing!) Carly helped design her own apron last week and it turned out so cute. Yesterday, we dug out the fabric scraps and made some reusable grocery bags. We want to add a few things to those, so we'll post pictures of them later if they turn out cute. Today, we dug out some red, white and blue fabric and set to work making a little patriotic flag banner to put on the mirror in the entry. The kids gave it a thumbs up, so we made a few more to give away on our family night. While we had the red, white and blue out, I got an idea for an apron for Carly. It's reversable to red and white. I liked it and thought it turned out sweet, so I had to try to make an apron out of a vintage pillowcase I picked up at Savers. I think it turned out cute!
Not too bad for a bunch of scraps!

Summer Traveling

If any of you are planning a fun road trip this summer, I just wanted to tip you off to a fun site. http://www.momsminivan.com/ Mom's Minivan has great ideas for traveling with kids. Fun games etc. (I liked the pirate idea and the recycled cloth game bag.)
If you're traveling, have fun and be safe!

Life is good, Lisa

Just pretending...and living in the moment.

Today I called Malia into the kitchen...(Carly's southern character for the summer.) I asked her how she was and she said, "Oh, I'm fine. I haven't been using my stagecoach much. I went to California to see my parents and some men took my stagecoach and burned it. They really like stagecoaches and playing tricks!" I stood there in shock, not sure what to say. A smile crept onto my face involuntarily."Oh, they sound like some mean men!"
"No... they're not mean. Don't worry, Lisa. I'll get a new one soon!"

Whew! I'm glad I'm raising a daughter with such resilience and a positive outlook on life!

Monster Cookies...!

This is such a fun cookie recipe that we tried out today. If you make these, grab a bag of mini M&M's from the baking section in your grocery store. They look so bright and festive and you feel like you get more of that yummy treat on top with the mini's!

Monster Cookies

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soft margarine
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. light corn syrup (we skipped this ingredient and they turned out fine)
1 1/2 cup peanut butter (we used crunchy)
3 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
2/3 cup chocolate chips
(optional- we also added butterscotch chips- you know, just to live on the wild side!)

Mix ingredients thoroughly. Dip with icecream scoop onto cookie sheet. Place M&M's on top. (We were pretty generous with this step and they looked so pretty!)
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake! These are flat moist cookies. For slightly thicker cookie, include 1 or 2 cups flour. (We added 1/2 cup flour.)

Have a great day,
Lisa

Emergency Brakes...

I have been watching my kids growing up right before my very eyes lately and it makes me want to stop time for a minute. I just want to enjoy them in this stage of life and drink in their cuteness and their quirks and their sillyness...everything about them.



I think this is all coming from a little bit of panick to be honest. Ridge is starting kindergarten this year and Carly is going into 2nd grade and I don't want this summer to end. I am so enjoying having Carly home. We have (accidentally) started this ongoing pretend world in which she is the delightful, hardworking, polite and lovable Malia. A southern girl who works as the town's stagecoach driver. She is quite the driver, let me tell you! She made it to California and back and then to Hawaii and back...all before dinner when we were to have a barn dance! She helped me move the table and chairs and mop the floor (in which she commented, "wow mom, this is hard work!") She then helped me wash the chairs (to prepare for the barn dance of course... they had to be presentable!) She has helped me deliver packages (put things away for me.) And is ever so polite to my two young boys! We have been pretending this for two days now (much to Ridge's angst! He keeps letting me know that he doesn't like it when I talk in a southern accent!) Carly is loving it, and we are getting so much done and getting along so well. It's funny, but she has started into a little selfish phase, but Malia is such a polite and hard working girl...and her character is carrying over into the real world! Carly was so cute today, helping Ty and being very responsible and trying to remember her manners. She asked me if we could keep pretending last night and we could make up the story all summer. If it brings peace and harmony to our home all summer long and gives me a connection to this fast growing child like it has so far...you bet!!



Another spark to this panick happened when we were going through some of the kids toys this weekend. Carly chose to get rid of some of her little dolls and some dress up costumes she has spent so much of her little lifetime with. My heart screeched to a halt and then started pounding in my chest. I couldn't believe it! I wanted her to keep them just for me. I didn't want her to be growing out of them already. How did this happen?



So this brings me to the title of this post. I had a little car that had an emergency brake in the middle console. I had to use it once or twice, and I noticed that (surprisingly) it didn't stop the car completely, but instead slowed the car down. I've needed that little emergency brake for my life lately. I need life to slow down so I can get to really know my kids and drink them in. I feel like I always have something important to do, I am always telling the kids to wait a minute so I can finish something.



Well I've figured out what my emergency brake is. It's living in the moment. It's telling myself, "wait a minute, I have to do something important", and I need to attend to the little requests of my kids. ("Mom, tie my shoe. Mom, open this. Mom, come and look at this. Mom, watch this!) I want my kids to know they are important to me and I want a good relationship with them. I'm so glad they want to show me something they think is cool. I don't want to wake up in three years and wonder where the time went and how my kids grew up right before my very eyes. I don't want to miss the important things because I am doing the everyday things. So I'm pulling my emergency brake and making a goal to live a little more in the moment because after all...



Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.



Life is good, Lisa

Party Time!

Life's been a party lately! My sister Keri and her family were here for a week while her hubby, Justin went to Alaska for work. (Poor guy!) While he was off in the wilderness, we were having one party after another! Happy Birthday to our soon to be sister in law, Robin! Spencer baked a cake for the kids to decorate and they used just about every sprinkle Grandma had in the house...all on one cake! Yum!

We played at the park, in the dirt, on the trampoline and ended the week at Grandma and Grandpa's for a bbq, swim and an impromptu birthday party for Ridge! Spencer and Robin bought some fun pool toys and the kids had a blast...and by kids, I'm including Spencer, Robin and Hayden! They had the little ones all riled up!

If you look closely at Ridge's cake, you'll see it's not really a cake at all. The kids had eaten so much sweets, and I was a little too inpatient to wait for a cake to bake, so we iced a box and covered it with Reeces Pieces and let the kids lick the icing off! I think it turned out pretty fun...and amazingly, it wasn't that messy! (Chelsea, I've got a long way to go to catch up with your fab. cake skills!)

Fun Souvenir Project

While we were camping, the kids and I scoured the shore line for some pretty driftwood. We knew we wanted to do something cool with it to remember our trip. This is what we came up with. It was really simple and we just used what we had on hand!

Items needed:

2 pieces of pretty drift wood

2 scrap pieces of 2x4

2 chop-sticks (fresh and new, though you could recycle used ones I guess!)

(We only used chop-sticks because we didn't have dowels...we improvised, but you can use a dowel if you want to!)

2 label plates

black paint

We drilled holes in the 2x4's and the drift wood to fit the chop-sticks. (We drilled the hole in the drift wood a little bigger than the chop-sticks so we didn't damage the wood trying to get the chop-stick to fit.) Cut chop-sticks to desired height and hammer into 2x4's. The boys painted the 2x4's and the posts. (Not a very smooth paint job and they missed spots, but I think it adds character!) Print desired description for souvenir and fit to label plates. (We put the date on one label and some of the highlights of the trip on the other.) Attach label plates to (dry) 2x4. Finally, slide the pretty drift wood onto the posts. Wallah...your very own beautiful souvenirs!

Counting Blessings...

We had such a fun family weekend. We gathered up the gang and headed north to Lower Lake Mary, Az (just outside of Flagstaff) to go camping. After a few HOT days, we were expecting some cooler weather and possibly some snow...Yippee! We got both!
We arrived at our destination late Friday afternoon and set up camp. It was COLD so we bundled up in all of our layers. Our neighbors said they woke up to 5 inches of snow that morning and to expect some more that night. We didn't have to wait very long before it started falling down. It was so pretty. I know some of you may be sick of snow, but when you don't live in it, it's such a treat, and especially at the end of May!
What isn't such a treat is a leaky tent! We snuggled really close to stay warm and about 1am, I felt a splash on my cheek...uh oh! I felt around and I didn't feel anything wet around me, so I laid back down and waited for another drip. Well I found it, right in the middle of Carly and Ridge. It splashed on me because it had soaked right through their blankets and sleeping bags! Freezing cold water and neither of them woke up! Yikes! So we adjusted and I attempted to "tap" the snow off the top of the tent and ended up uprooting a couple of the poles, so I had to venture outside to fix the tent so it didn't all come crashing down (have I mentioned I'm a wee bit clostrophobic? A tent falling on me, covered in heavy snow while I am trapped on the far side in a sleeping bag doesn't sound like too much fun!) Well, it was breathtaking when I walked outside the tent! Little pops of snow everywhere. It was dark but I could still see. BEE- UTIFUL!
There was enough snow when we woke up for Carly to make a snowman head and for the boys to throw some at me! But not enough to go sledding, much to the dismay of the kiddo's. But we weren't short on things to do:
Sean took us fishing and Ridge caught a fish! His first one...a pike! We went on nature hikes and picked wildflowers (I know we're not supposed to, but it's so sweet when your little ones bring you flowers with that precious little smile and sweet little excited eyes!) The kids turned tree stumps into horses, fought the bad guys with the endless amounts of swords in the woods, climbed on rocks, watched for animal tracks...and poo, which, I should add, there was a lot of both! Grandpa and Grandma came up and brought their 4 wheeler and took the kids for rides. They loved it! (No pictures with them, darn, the batteries died! -Next time though!) We cooked hotdogs, cowboy stew, pancakes, eggs and ham, and of course hot chocolate and smores over the fire! We had rain, snow, and sunshine! We couldn't have asked for a better camping trip!
Thanks for coming up Mom and Dad. We'll have to do this again with everyone! We're going to try to make this a tradition. We were so thankful for the fun time we shared together.
I titled this blog "Counting Blessings" for a reason. I have 3 little blessings in my life. Our little ones are so precious. I know we all pray that we get to keep them for a good long time. But sometimes our long time isn't what we think it will and should be. Life is so beautiful and we need to remember to fill it with beautiful things with the ones we love. My heart and thoughts go out to all of my family and friends who have lost someone they love, and especially those most recently. I am thankful to have all of my kids and husband with me. I am thankful for our Heavenly Father who knows each of us individually. I know He can comfort our hearts if we will let Him. Give your kids a little squeeze and love!
Count your blessings and know that when I count mine, I include you!
Have a great week.
Life is good. Lisa