We're still here, Merry Christmas!

Even though it's been awhile since anyone has heard from us electronically, we are still here. I broke our computer. Long story, short--I was working on the laptop one day, jumped up to get Seth off the school bus, and my foot caught on the power cord. The laptop went flying, hit the fireplace, and the screen shattered. So....we have been without a computer or internet for awhile. I'll tell the whole story once our computer is restored. Right now, we are borrowing computer time at the library and family's house. Just wanted to quickly let everyone know and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

‘Tis the Season!

Just wanted to share this video with everyone. I’ll probably also add it to the bottom of the page on the blog. It is so sweet. It made me smile and get teary-eyed, to hear what Christmas means to children. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM8XoT7qnxY&feature=player_embedded

Halloween

(Okay, so I know I’m a little behind. So, I’m trying to get caught up before Thanksgiving gets added to the mix. Sorry in advance for the long posts.)

The first thing we did this Halloween “season” was go to a pumpkin patch. I (that’s right, me by myself) took my kids and the Brown’s kids (which I was babysitting at the time) to a nearby pumpkin patch. As you can see, they don’t actually grow their own pumpkins, but it was still cool. It was a local place called TGR Exotics and they’re kind of  like a mini zoo.

They had a couple of great photo ops all set-up, (If you can’t tell, that pumpkin is huge!) Bouncing balls to bounce and race on, Troughs full of dried corn to dig, pour, and rake, (It was hard to pull them away from this.)And they even had a kangaroo roaming freely around the pumpkin patch! It actually held still long enough for Josh to pet it.( Normally, I wouldn’t advocate petting a kangaroo because they are pretty fierce, but since this one was roaming freely, not caged, content, and was wearing a diaper-- I figured it was probably okay.)  The kids had so much fun and all went really well. In fact, my kids were probably better behaved with their friends there, than if they had been on their own. (Or maybe they just took pity on me knowing I was outnumbered 5 to 1.)

For Family Home Evening, the week before Halloween, we carved the pumpkins. ( I should say, Aaron and I carved the pumpkins.)

 

Isn’t that face just too cute!!!

The boys cleaned out their pumpkins and then drew what they wanted me to carve. Then,  I carved their pumpkins while Aaron worked on his.

Joshua’s pumpkin with “angry eyes.”A

Seth’s pumpkin. At the pumpkin patch, he told me he wanted an “ugly pumpkin” because they make good jack-o-lanterns. So, yes, he meant for all those brown spots to be on the face. That’s his creative mind for ya…

Lit with battery-0perated tea lights

And in the dark. Sadly, these guys didn’t make it to the big night. They were moldy and toothless by Halloween. We kept them out because they were a little creepy. Next year, we’ll carve only a day or two in advance. Oh, and of course, I can’t forget Aaron’s creation (with my help of course)…

The famous hamburger and fries! He cut a wedge out of the side of the pumpkin, used the pumpkin seeds for sesame seeds, painted Styrofoam for the hamburger and fries, and colored foam sheets for the toppings. He took this one to show off at work (they had a carving contest) and entered it in the contest at the Trunk-or Treat. And now….

Presenting the Palmer family costumes of 2010…

Nintendo!

Josh was Mario. He loved the costume but hated the mustache. I think I.. possibly… might have…had to threaten to take his candy if he didn’t wear the mustache at least for pictures.  I mean what’s Mario without his mustache?

Seth was Luigi. If I remember right, the whole idea of dressing as the Mario brothers was his idea. He really wanted to be Mario, but was sweet enough to volunteer to be Luigi. The boys had white gloves as part of their costumes but we forgot to put them on.

Aubrey was Princess Peach. I LOVED how her costume turned out. She was so stinking cute, even if most of the time she wouldn’t leave her crown in her hair.

Aaron was Bowser. We didn’t really get a good picture of his costume. He had a dinosaur hat that I decked out to look like Bowser, complete with spiked dog collar and wristbands, and a turtle shell. That night, I realized that he needed a tail and something better to wear under his costume to get the full effect (yeah, jeans aren’t working here). Oh well…C’est la vie!

I was a Nintendo NES controller. If you haven’t seen or heard about it, this is what we are rocking at our house. We have the same Nintendo system Aaron got when he was a kid. I mean THE same set.  It was really funny how many kids came up to me and were clueless as to what kind of controller I was.  I’d get comments like, “Um, what are you?” or “You’re missing some buttons.” The parents got it and would make funny comments like, “Mom is the controller. Isn’t that the truth?” to which Aaron would reply, “Yeah, but we like to push her buttons!”

So I made all of our costumes which is one of my favorite parts of Halloween, but the thought of making overalls for the boys seemed kind of daunting. One day, I was talking to my good friend Elizabeth about Halloween costumes and she was saying how much she was NOT looking forward to painting on the details of her son’s Buzz Lightyear costume.  Half-jokingly and half-serious, I offered to paint her costume if she would make my two pairs of overalls. She agreed!

We both agreed that it would be easier for me to paint the Buzz Lightyear costume and  her to sew the overalls, than the other way around. So we did just that. (So, technically I guess I didn’t entirely make our costumes.)

Pretty good, right?! She just made a white jumper/coverall and I painted it with acrylic paints and fabric paint markers. It took a few hours to do but was so much fun. If you ever try to do this yourself, only use the markers for details. It took nearly an entire marker (and a lot of time)  just to fill in green on the chest area.

Since Halloween was on a Sunday, our ward did a Trunk-or-Treat the Saturday before. It was a lot of fun. We were kind of bummed we didn’t win the costume contest, but there were some fun costumes. Then, on Sunday, we had the missionaries over for dinner. I love making fun treats for the kids on holidays, so I continued that over to our Halloween meals.

For breakfast, we had troll boogers and mummy dogs (green scrambled eggs and mini sausages wrapped in crescent rolls with mustard eyes).  For dinner, we had spider nachos, slime, and bloody applesauce. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.) The nachos had a spider web drawn on them with sour cream and then topped with a plastic spider. The slime was lemonade mixed with green food coloring and the bloody applesauce was just strawberry applesauce cups.

 

Then for dessert, we had Ghosts in the Graveyard. This was a cup of chocolate pudding topped with Oreo crumbs. Then, I made an oval shaped sugar cookie and frosted the “RIP” for the tombstone. The ghost is a blob of Cool Whip with chocolate chip eyes. Everyone loved it all. It was fun and yummy!

Halloween is always lots of fun. Now, hopefully, I can get my Thanksgiving decorations up before it’s actually Thanksgiving…

(Like I said, sorry for the long post.)

Bubbles and Colored Milk

Almost 2 years ago, I was complaining to Aaron about how hard my day was at home with the kids. All about how so and so did this and it took me FOREVER to do that because so and so was whining and so on. (In my defense, I was transitioning back from being a working mom to a stay-at-home mom.) Very seriously, he looked at me and said, "All you do is complain. Do you even LIKE being at home with our kids?" My snap reaction was "Of course! I love our kids." But it got me thinking. 

I do love my children and love being at home with them.  I also know that it is best for them that I am at home, but somewhere along the way all thar joy and love was missing and I felt negative by the end of everyday. Among many realizations I had that day, one of them was that I was being negative. All day long, I would say no. "No you can't do that. Stop that right now. Leave him alone. Not right now, maybe later." Plus, I was looking at my day from the view of all the things I wasn't doing or couldn't get done because of caring for my children. So, I first made myself look at all of the positives of my day, including but most especially all of the moments I was spending with my kids. I also promised myself that I would say "yes" at least once a day. "Yes, you can eat that with your fingers. Sure, I'll read you that book right now (instead of wash dishes).  Let's have a picnic in the front yard." Gradually, the days got better, and while we still have tough days and tantrums, everyone seems to be more positive. (Well, minus the brotherly "love" fights. I don't think those will go away anytime soon.) If I feel like I'm having a bad day, I try to think of something the kids might enjoy, like a story and cuddle session, a picnic at the park, or a dance party, and it usually makes our day better. So today's "yes" was colored milk and bubbles...

One day, I thought it would be fun to add food coloring to our plain milk. Now, whenever the neighbor kids come over to play I hear, "Can we have colored milk?" (Yeah, I'm the cool mom.) :) So day it was turquoise colored milk with straws. They started to blow bubbles in their milk and my gut reaction was to stop them But instead, I set the ground rules of "no spilling or overflowing," and then let them have fun. They loved it and I feel so much better...

(Plus, won't this be fun for them to remember when they are older?)

Cheese Puffs

(photo found here)

Today was one of those days where I just really didn't want to get out of bed. It didn't help that my eye is hurting again, so the shades were closed to dim the light, which in turn made the day even more dreary. It seemed that everyone was feeling it. Everyone was irritable and whiny. So when we ran out of diapers at  five o'clock in the afternoon, I put on my sunglasses and loaded everyone into the car. We first stopped at Hobby Lobby (my happy place) and then went over to the grocery store. Knowing how everyone felt, I promised that if they were good and all went well they could each pick a small bag of chips. I know. I'm a bad mom, bribing my children with junk food, but like I said it was one of those days. All went well and we even got to sample some pork tamales (which I gave in and bought a package). I kept good on my promise and allowed each kid to pick a small 3 for $1.00 bag of chips. Funny enough, all three children picked Cheetos, the puffy kind. Aubrey of course wanted me to open hers immediately and the boys never before moved so quickly through the check out line and into the car. Funny how bribes work like that. I myself prefer the crunchy version, but no matter which you eat you always, ALWAYS end up with orange fingertips. Half way home, I look behind me to three children blissfully happy and cheesy-faced. Oh, I wish I could have captured that picture for you. Nothing like Cheetos to make your day better. I had Seth pass me a few and joined in the bliss. I chuckled. The taste made me think of my grandmother. Why you ask? Let me share a little story...

Growing up nearly every (or maybe every other) summer, our family of 7 would load up in our minivan and drive cross country to visit our paternal grandparents in Utah. I have many fond memories of those road trips and visits but let me share one particular memory...cheese balls. My grandparents loved their puffy cheese balls. They always had a large canister of them in their pantry. However, we weren't allowed to eat them unless Grandma or Grandpa shared. We would smell them and come running, ready to beg and plead for them to share. I have memories of Grandma or Grandpa falling asleep while eating the cheese balls and trying to sneak one without them waking. One of our last visits before Grandma died (and after Grandpa had passed away), Grandma had fallen asleep eating cheese balls while we were packing up to go home. She woke up to hug us and wish us well. Then, like always, she stood on the porch and waved as we drove away. You could just barely see her cheesy fingers and as we all waved in return, she smiled. My dad (the funny man) commented, "Oh, Grandma's been eating cheese balls!" We turned once more to see Grandma smiling with cheese puffs stuck to her teeth. We busted up laughing and my parents tried to keep a straight face until we turned the corner. That is one of the last memories I have of my grandma before she died. It has been a sweet recollection and inside joke in our family for some time now.

I smiled the rest of the way home from the store as I thought of those memories and cheese puffs. Someday, I'll share this story with my kids and how their cheesy faces reminded me of a grandmother they never met. It was a day made better, all because of cheese puffs.

My New Life video

Have you heard of Stephanie Nielsen (or Nie Nie)? She is an amazing women who survived a near-fatal plane crash. I occasionally read her blog and always feel inspired. I came across this video, cried, and knew I needed to share. What she said about motherhood really struck a chord with me. Please check it out and be inspired. (and if you love the music, go here for a free download.)

A Girl with Glasses Update

Some of you may remember the glasses post that I did to support a little girl unsure of getting her first pair of glasses and starting kindergarten at the same time. For anyone interested, her mom posted an update of Pumpkin rocking her TWO new pairs of glasses. (Check it out here at This Mama Makes Stuff.) Now, I totally want both pairs of those glasses!

Don't you just love Sesame Street?

I just wanted to share this cute clip. If you've seen the Old Spice commerical "The Man You could Smell Like", you may have seen some of the spoofs. If you haven't seen it yet, click here. This one by Grover, "How to Smell Like a Monster" is so funny. I love the last line..."on a cow."

Would You Wear This (or Even Buy It)?

So floating around blog land are posts and link parties called “What I Wore Wednesday”, where bloggers share what they wore during the week. These are usually meant to be fun and usually not necessarily high style fashion. I occasionally like to do these (on my craft blog) because it gets me motivated in the morning to actually dress nice (instead of t-shirt and sweats) which in turn motivates me to get things done during the day. I also like to think that it is a way to record for my children what Mom looked like on a regular day and not just special occasions (which seems to be the only time I am able to step out from behind the camera). Well, I won’t bore you with the whole post,(you can check it out here). This is just the shortened version that I wanted to share with you.

Basically, this week I wanted to play with some of my accessories, most of which I made myself. I have contemplated making and selling these on Etsy. (I have a shop but nothing in it.) So let me know would YOU wear this? Or would you want to buy it if I were to sell them? Thanks!

Close-up of the my favorite necklace. I recycled plastic into “shrinky dinks” put writing on them, shrinking them, and then sealing it with Mod Podge. It’s hard to tell here but there is a cluster of charms-each one a family member’s name, then a black silhouette of a temple with Together Forever written underneath, and a little purple heart. I love this necklace and wear it quite often.

  
On Saturday, we had to go to the wedding of a friend.  So, I had these great plans of making a sash to wear over my old standby of a black dress. After lots of hours and way too much fabric. I ended up with this 80’s prom looking thing. (Horrible, I know…) On the way to the wedding, I took the toll way. The toll booth attendant asked me if I was going to a wedding or something. I said I was. She said, “Your dress looks nice. She actually picked out a pretty good dress.”  I guess she thought I was a bridesmaid or something, totally not the response I intended. So future bride’s, consider having your bridesmaids wear matching sashes instead of matching dresses. Just a thought. (I will totally rework this one before considering selling some, something less 80’s and more modern.) I’m also wearing the removable ruffle on my shoes. Didn’t think to get a picture of those, so if you see me wearing them, feel free to ask me how they work. :)

Sunday’s outfit. Thought I would try the tucked-in shirt/high-waisted pencil skirt combo, I’ve seen a lot of lately.  It’s kind of growing on me. I added  a ruffled denim sash/belt (that I made), a simple denim knot necklace, and some denim flower shoe clips (again that I made) for added color. The sash needs to be tweaked,  but I love these flower clips.  Love them! After Aaron saw my outfit, he was like “You should invent a clip or something that you can put on you shoe and change out with different flowers and stuff.” I reached done, unclipped the flower, and said, “You mean like these?” Yeah, that was pretty funny. Later in the week, I decided to play with these in different ways.

For Wednesday’s outfit, I clipped the flower to my wire necklace.  Then, I also wrapped an old bangle in a spare piece of denim(which I’m totally loving).  Close up.

Then I changed it up and clipped the flower to my shirt.

Then my hair. I eventually clipped it to the elastic band on my ponytail. Perfect for a playdate-and-clean-up kind of day.  (Sorry, no pic of that one. Hard to take a picture of the back of your head…)
 
But here is a close-up of my favorite button earrings, vintage Osh-Kosh-B-Gosh denim colored buttons. I made more and will definitely post these in my Etsy shop (eventually).
And just for fun, my favorite accessory, a perfectly polished polka-dotted pedicure. Try saying that 5 times fast! :)
So what do you think? Would you buy or even wear any of these accessories? (Sorry, my toes are not for sale.) If you’re interested in buying once I get my Etsy shop going, leave me a comment and I’ll let you know when I finally have items posted. Thanks everyone!

A Girl with Glasses

So after reading this blog post about a little girl named Pumpkin needing glasses, I decided to join in the effort because …well, I’m a girl with glasses!

(Back to the rally call…) Pumpkin is a confident stylish little girl (to see her awesome style go here) that is afraid of being the only girl with glasses in her kindergarten class. So her awesome blogger mom, Carrie, decided to put out a rally call for all glasses-wearing girls to join in the support.

So this is me in my glasses-wearing beauty (…i guess).

I have worn glasses since I was in first grade (or maybe it was second grade). So, it’s been a long time and my prescription is pretty bad. At first I was a cute little girl with glasses. Then an awkward teen (we won’t share those pictures). After I got over my fear of touching my eyeballs, I finished out high school in hard contacts. They were not the greatest. If I blinked the wrong way,  my contact would pop out of my eye and I’d do the whole stereotypical “Nobody move! I lost a contact!” scene. Sometime in college, I was able to switch to soft contact lenses and they have been my friends ever since. All the while though, I wear my thick glasses in my off hours. 

Most people never see me in them but the last two weeks I have been banned from contacts as I get over this eye/sinus infection thing. So I’ve been sporting them daily and trying to rock them. What do you think? Maybe next time I’ll actually be brave enough to get that funky pair that I really loved…

Do you wear glasses? Do you want to help Pumpkin and all future girls with glasses? Go to the “Girl with Glasses” post at This Mama Makes Stuff and link your picture or blog post of you wearing glasses. Girls with glasses rock!!!

Sorry, If It Bothered You...

So, I was just reading another blog and she invited her readers to comment with their blogging tips or suggestions. As I read through the comments, MANY of the readers complained about music that auto starts when you open the page. We are so guilty of that! I'm so sorry, if it bothered you. I love listening to the music other people have selected while reading their blog. I feel like it gives you a better sense of their personality. However, I myself often read blogs at night or during nap time, so I am a little startled when the music comes blaring on in a quiet house and I often have to turn it down or turn it off to keep from waking my little ones.  I love music, love listening to it, and love sharing it, but in an effort to be more considerate to others, I turned off the auto start on our player. If you still want to listen, just scroll down to the player and turn it on. Now, I'm thinking that I should move the player to the sidebar, so you don't have to scroll all the way down. What are your thoughts? Auto start, yes or no? Player at the bottom or the side? Comment and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Healthy School Lunches

I have always tried to feed my kids healthy foods and for the most part they are healthy eaters. Don’t get me wrong, we are in no way perfect. Often the temptation of convenience foods (i.e. chicken nuggets and frozen pizza) and sweet treats are hard to resist, but we do try. So I am always on the look out for healthy meals and snacks that even my kids love. I am lucky that my kids LOVE fruit and that they DO eat vegetables (most of the time). 

Last year our family watched “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.” For anyone who doesn’t know, the show followed  famous British chef Jamie Oliver as he attempted to change school lunches in one U.S. town, while trying to teach the community how to cook and eat better. It was really interesting to see how entrenched processed foods and sugar are in the American culture. One particular episode hit home for our family. (Sorry, I’ve probably shared this story before with most of you.) We learned that chocolate milk has as much sugar as many sodas. I took the opportunity to talk about it with Seth who was eating school lunches and breakfast at the time. We talked about the amount of sugar in chocolate milk and  how he doesn’t have very much energy by the end of school. (He was eating lunch at 10:45 am and getting home from school at 4pm!) Aaron and I were shocked to learn that he was eating chocolate milk on his Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal! Talk about a sugar-filled breakfast! He took my challenge to only drink white milk for one week and see if he felt a difference in energy. Sure enough after just a couple of days, HE noticed the difference and commented on how he felt better.

So this year we are going to build on that and see if we can start packing healthier lunches. I came across a couple of links that you might want to check out (for anyone who packs a lunch):

Kitchen Stewardship –This blog’s post has a lot of great, healthy and packable lunch ideas. I love her lunch rule, “Whatever goes to school, comes back home, unless you’ve eaten it.” I never know how much or what Seth ate from his lunch and then he wants to eat like 5 apples when he gets home from school. Also one of the comments posted a recipe for mini quiches. Great idea and my kids love “egg pies!”

Jennifer@Orangepolkadot.com – check out her blog post about the difference between the lunches of American kids and the lunches at a school in Barcelona, Spain. Very eye-opening as to “what kids will eat” when it’s offered regularly.

Laptop Lunchboxes at Reuseit.com – This online store sells bento boxes (among other reusables), which are basically lunchboxes with containers inside.  A great solution for the pre-packaged and plastic baggy problem. I love how each section is designated for a particular food group. If I can convince Aaron, we’ll get this kid-friendly one or always these.

and of course…

Jamie Oliver and the Food Revolution – Sign the petition and help make the future better for our kids.

Need a Smile

So things aren’t going quite the way I had planned today. The biggest bump in the road being that our water was shut off today, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was in the middle of scrubbing the shower clean, washing laundry, and our sink is full of dirty dishes. Not to mention, I hear “Mom, Aubrey stuck her hands in the toilet!” I rushed to grab her out of the bathroom to find that not only had she stuck her hands in the toilet but that the toilet was being used at the same time! (We’ll just leave it at that…) So I rush her to the sink to thoroughly wash her hands and there is no water, not even a drop. I blame Josh (of course) because moments earlier he told me he had turned off the toilet water because it was making “rushing sounds”, so possibly he turned off the sink as well. I rush to the other bathroom. No water. The kitchen. No water. The faucet outside. No water. That’s when it dawns on me that all of our water is shut off. AHH! I NEED WATER!!! So, I wipe Aubrey’s hands with a wet wipe, sanitize with hand sanitizer, and wash with drinking water from our food storage. Then, I apologize to Josh for blaming him, explain why I thought he did it, and again apologize for yelling at him about something he didn’t do.

Great day, right?! So, I guess I’ll work on something else while Aaron tries to find out why we have no water (and yes, we’ve paid our bill). Meanwhile, I needed to take a break to share with you some of the things that have made me smile over the last couple of days.

Aubrey’s curly hair and innocent look as she empties the bowl cupboard for the umpteenth time

Marshmallow People that we made (inspired by Color Me Katie, her colorful photos alone make me smile)My favorite three

Polka dot swimsuits…

and polka dot toes on the beach   And last but not least, a story in pictures by Seth…

The Lego Man Chase

“I’m gonna get you alien!”

“Roaarrr!”

“Aahhh!”

“Run away!”

“Keep running…”

“Oops! I slipped.”

“Elevator going up.”

“Top floor…”

“Ahh!”  

“Here, let me help you down.”

“Hug?” “Hug.”

“Friends!”

Cute, huh? Doesn’t that just make you smile? Well, I think I hear the water back on now in the bathroom. So, I’ll get back to work. Have a great day!

P.S. I went to turn off the sink in the bathroom and found that the toilet tank was over flowing and the bathroom floor was flooded. Yeah, I now know what Josh meant by “rushing sounds” coming from the toilet. What a great day, huh?