Snowmen

Spent the weekend crafting, and of course the kids wanted to paint too!
Here Zach is painting his little snowman.



Here is the snowmen that I was making. I got this great idea from another blog called So You Think Your Crafty.
I decided that I want to make one for myself, my mom, and my mother in-law.
I think they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.



Here is a closeup of one of them.



Kylie painting an apple that goes with her teacher's gift for Christmas this year. I will have to post on that one when we get it finished.

Visiting Santa 2011

For some reason Zach decided that he needed to be afraid of Santa this year!



Kylie forgot what she was going to ask for as we were walking out the door. I told her that she must not have wanted what ever it was too badly if she couldn't remember it.



Here we are with the little stinker who was so not afraid last year, but this year he wanted nothing to do with the big guy.



When we walked out and he realized that he hadn't told Santa what he wanted for Christmas, we had to go back in so he could try it again. He sure doesn't look too happy though!

Craftaholics Gift Exchange 2011

I once again participated in the Craftaholics Gift Exchange.
My partner Kimberly was from South Carolina.
Here is the gift that I made for her!
Hope you like it Kimberly!

Halloween Swap with the Mommy Files

I participated in the Mommy Files Halloween Swap again this year.
And of course I forgot to take a pictures of all the fun things that I sent, but here is a picture of the items that I received. My partner just happened to be Shannon from the Mommy Files.
I hope that she likes her package just as much as we liked ours.
My kids were drooling at the yummy cholcolates and my 3 year old was excited about the pumpkin shaped Macaroni and Cheese. This just happens to be his staple food and this point and time. It's what he always asks for.

Kids New Pictures

Here is the updated pics for the kids in 2011.

Creature Day at the Library

The kids wanted to go to story time today because they were having an activity called Kim's Cold Blooded creatures. At first I was wondering why, as both of my kiddo's don't like those kinds of things.

Here Zach is sitting with his friends waiting for the show to begin. He actually only sat like this for about 5 minutes and then he was everywhere else.



Kylie holding her little cousin Brooklyn, and you can see cousin Trista off to the side.



When it came time to holding the creatures the kids lined up like crazy!



Kylie headed in the direction of the turtles.



And Zach didn't have a care in the world. He was just running around having a great time. When it was time to go, the lady with the very large snake did not have anyone in her line, so I asked Zach if he wanted to hold the "big snake". I thought for sure that he would say no, but to my surprise he said yes. And walked over to the lady and let her put this gigantic thing on him.
Zach weighs 36 pounds and the snake weighs 45 lbs. He was never scared, but he sure has the look that it is pretty heavy!

4th of July

This year we celebrated the 4th of July in Henefer again.
Here the kids are watching the parade. (Which just happened to be the shortest parade that I have ever seen.)
And also doing fireworks at Grandma and Grandpa Ovard's in Henefer.

Swimming Lessons 2011

This year for swimming lessons both of the kids were really excited to go. Kylie has become quite the little swimmer over the last couple of years and Zach was just as afraid to get wet as he was last year, but he was always excited to go and get in the water.



Here are a few pics from their days at the pool.








By the end of the two weeks Kylie was diving pretty good. This was one of her first ones.
A little knee bending going on there!

Craftaholics Gift Exchange

This is my 3rd time participating in the Handmade Gift Exchange organized by Craftaholics Anonymous . It has always been a lot of fun to try to come up with just the right thing to make for someone that you have never met before. My partner this time was Anne from Washington. She told me that she loved Summer time and being able to spend time with her family. Her favorites were the color purple and anything with Dragon flies. So here is what I made for Anne.

A summer block with Dragon Flies!



Anne sent me this crocheted blanket that I can cuddle up with when it gets colder. (Which I hope is not for awhile, as it seems like the warmth just got here!)



Thanks Anne! It looks great on my couch and matched the family room really well.

Kitchen Cabinet Fix

We have been saying for a little while that we just needed a few more cupboards in our kitchen. So we decided that when we went to Salt Lake the next time we were going to see what we could find.
As you can see from this picture we have a rolling (white) cart that holds a lot of things like towels, tape, pens, bills, ect.


The two drawers right next to it were always filled with junk.



When we were in Salt Lake with our cousins for the Parsons outing we went to IKEA and found a cabinet that we thought would work just great. The only problem was going to be getting it in to the car.
Trunk view after all purchases were inside from all the stops.


Here is Zach's little spot that was left for him.



And Kylie directly behind him in part of the backseat.
She looks really tired, because not only had we spent the day swimming and shopping, but she also fell asleep on the way home.



Here is the cabinet in it's beginning stages.
The color is not exact to our cupboards, but close enough.



Here it is all filled up, with room to spare.
We were able to empty the white cart, 3 drawers, and a couple of shelves in the cabinets so that we can reorganize some other stuff to make it more easily accessed.
Now all we have to do is go back to IKEA and get the door that goes on the front of it!


Stay tuned to another day, when I show you what I did with the white rolling cart that we were using before. Lets just say that it is now organizing all of my AVON stuff.

Flower Bed Make Over

The flower bed in the front of my house, has needed some major help for a couple of years now. But this year, I had finally had enough.
This picture that you see here is actually what the whole flower bed looked like before I started, totally filled with weeds and grass. (I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing before I started.)



Here you can see besides the small patch of weeds that are left we (Kylie and Me) had started taking the bricks out too that were lining the sides of it. (Easy way of saying that we had extra bricks left over from building the house and this was a cheap way to border the flower beds.) The grass was over taking the whole flower bed, as it decided to grow through the holes that are in the bricks.



Here is the finished look after all the bricks are gone, and no more weeds in sight!



Now this is what it looks like with the new landscaping bricks that we bought. It looks so much better and hopefully will be mostly weed free. I lined most of the bed with the black weed blocking stuff.



Now all I have to do to complete the look is add a few more flowers in between the three that come back every year. We just have to wait for no more freezing at night.
I must say that I did a pretty darn good job!

Potty Training

Zach turned 3 in April, and I decided that no matter what he wanted, we were going to get the potty training done this summer. He was very attached to his diapers and he wanted nothing to do with wearing underpants.
So the Saturday after school started, we woke up in the morning, put all of the diapers where they could not be found and put big boy underpants on.
He was not too impresses, but went with it. (after all there were no diapers to be found anywhere in the house.



Here are two pictures of our first go at it. The first two days were not so great. We had accidents more than we made it to the potty. After he had the first #2 accident, he said, "well mom, I guess I will have to wear diapers again."



When the 3rd day arrived, I tried to put a pull up on him because we were headed to Park City to get some things from Home Depot. He was having none of the pull up. So we went with out little potty seat in tow and he made it to the potty everytime. He has even made it five days in a row with waking up dry (even though the diaper fairy comes in the middle of the night and puts a diaper on him.) Thursday we even made it with Zach asking to go potty, and he ended up with a #2. He is getting to be such a big boy and we are so proud of him.
He even tells me now, "mom, I'm going to try to potty so I can have a treat!" What a big guy!

Zachary's 3rd Birthday

This year Zach's birthday just happened to be on Easter Sunday. So we kind of celebrated all weekend long so that on Sunday we weren't hurrying to try to get a party in before we had to leave Green River and head back home.

So Friday night we let him open up a present from us so that he would have a chance to play with it during the weekend.

He was so excited when he saw that he got a Lightening McQueen Remote Control Car.

A big coloring book from Grandma and Grandpa Brian

Kylie even picked out a few special things on her own for Zach this year.

A big dump truck from grandma and grandpa parsons + some clothes and pajama's for the summer. Now if it will just warm up I can actually let him wear them.

When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday he always said that he wanted a green ball. So this is the green one that we found.

Blowing out the candles!