Vampires....

Wierd title...I know.

My sister Katie has been reading the Twilight book series by Stephanie Meyers. I was not interested when she said it involved a vampire. That's not usually my cup of tea! But I have noticed so many of my friends are fans of the books, so there must be something to it...so I borrowed Katie's book...and now I'm hooked. I've read books 1 and 2 and soon #3 and woo hooo, book 4 comes out this week! Yeah!

The movie comes out in December! Diana and I have a date for the midnight showing....any one else want to join in?!

9 Years...and counting!

If you don't like pictures of married people kissing...consider yourself warned!

Sean and I have been married for a total of 9 short years as of today! If I could have imagined how wonderful married life was going to be...I wouldn't have waited two years to marry him! I am truely thankful for such a loving and kind husband. I won't gush but I will say that I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have dibbs on this guy!

Happy Anniversary Sean. I love you.

Just engaged.















Wedding Day.

Playing in the park!

My best friend!

I love you.

My kids have a great Daddy!

I love Sean. I love my dad and I have to confess that I didn't think anyone could ever be such a great daddy. But I was wrong. Sean is so awesome. He is the "calm one" in the family. He comes home happy -no matter how long, hot and messy his day has been. The kids usually get excited and run and hide when they hear the keys in the door. (I love this tradition, even though they usually hide in the same places!) Ty can't keep his excitement in and runs up to give his daddy a good punch in the mid-section. (Luckily, Sean has learned to expect this and will dodge the well placed punches!) The boys, of course, have had enough of us girls and immedietly demand some wrestling time. Sean makes some mean pancakes (which Ridge requests for 3 meals a day lately). He plays with the kids, watches Star Wars and Indiana Jones with them. He plays in the water, takes them camping, and has even painted Carly's fingernails. He has also been helping to coach Ridge's t-ball team. I haven't mentioned that he does all this and still manages to work with the boy scouts and fit in a few other projects of his own.
We are so thankful for a daddy that is so unselfish, kind and loving.
We love you Sean!

Carefree days of summer...

I love summer. I remember loving it as a kid. I could play with my sisters all day long and most of those days were spent outside. We grew up with a trampoline in our back yard and we spent countless hours jumping and living in our own little world. When we were very young, our trampoline had an imaginary dome on it and we lived inside. In our world, we were always under the attack of the mischevious "beastie boys" and luckily the brave and cute "beach boys" always came to our rescue! We jumped with the sprinkler spraying us from underneath and slept out under the stars.

We were amazed at the tricks our dad and uncles could perform on it and as we got stronger and braver, attempted our own amazing stunts. We played hours of "add-on" and "seat-send" and spent many more on a blanket in the sun with our homework or a good book.

We had our own little "secret signal" that we would flash in the house to call each other out to the trampoline. Sometimes we used it so that we wouldn't be followed by the younger ones, and occasionally, we used it to "quietly" sneak out and get out of doing our chores! I'm sure my mom never guessed! We grew up outside with plenty of room and encouragement to grow strong and free and confident.

Naturally, I have wished for the same experiences for my kidos, so I was so pleased to look outside today and see them enjoying the carefree days of summer!

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