The Aquarium

Fair Park has recently updated their aquarium so the plan was to check it out this summer. Well that almost did not happen because we were so busy and I was busy trying to "fly." But we finally made it and the kids had a blast. Each kid even had the chance to touch a ray. Bear made the commet that he got the chance to touch the tail, but I'm pretty sure they take out the barbs anyway so no one gets hurt.

It was a fun day and we even saw Aunt Jodi while we were there, after lunch. It really is a smaller world.

One Year already

I can hardly believe that a full year has gone by with Decllan. He is getting big so fast. Just this last week he started walking on his own. He steps off of whatever he had been walking around and just starts to go. Where did the time go?

We celebrated his birthday with a little family time going with a Peter Rabbit theme. No I did not go all out, because he really would not remember it all but I did at least make a super cute cake. I made him a carrot shaped carrot cake. And let me tell you it was yummy.

Then I had Isabelle read to the group the Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrice Potter. She did such a great job reading and I know the adults enjoyed the story. The kids, aka the boys, were just being silly and wanted to play.

I find out on Monday what his curent stats are, I'm sure they are pretty good since he does nothing but eat these days. I do hope he keeps up that good habbit. Either way, it was a great day, and I can hardly wait to see what the next year has to hold.

Tooth Fairy Pillow Tutorial

So I found a really cute tooth fairy pillow on Pinterest, but there were no directions on how to make it. So I took it upon myself to make up a tutorial for those who would be so inclined to make one themselves. Needless to say my kids can hardly wait to use them even the three (3) year old.

Step One: Choose your fabric and start cutting.

Step Two: Body of pillow. Measure out a 6 1/2" in height and 5 1/2" in width piece of fabric doubled if you want or you can use two different types of fabric for the front and back. Cut them out to the correct size.

Step Three: The Horns. Measure out 3 1/2" in height horns by about 1 1/2" in width or there about. I kind of curved mine to make them appear to look more horn like.

Step Four: The pocket. In a contrasting piece or same type of fabric measure out a piece on the fold of 2 1/2" in height by 5 1/2" in width fabric.

Step Six: Monster Teeth. Measure out 4" in width piece of white felt for the "teeth." Then cut the Monster "teeth" from the top part. I really just eye balled the height and did what I thought looked good. I also used felt since it is a little bit thicker than cotton.

Step Seven: White of the Eye. Again I just made a circle in white felt the was not perfect but in keeping with the shape of an eye for this part.

Step Eight: Black of the Eye. Using black felt or you could use the eye color of your child, cut out a small circle. Same thing just smaller for the pupil of the eye.

Step Nine: You are ready to begin sewing. I started with my horns. Turn the fabric right sides together and sew up three sides. I left the bottom open so I could stuff it. Once done turn the horn, use a pin to pull out the top if need be. Stuff your horn once completed. Do this twice if you have two horns. These are now done, set to the side.

Step Ten: I top stitched the teeth. So this is when I would do this.

Step Eleven: Then stich the teeth to one side of the folded pocket. With the fold on the top closest to the teeth. This helps to give it a nice finish and leaves you with one less piece to sew.

Step Twelve: Stich the black or pupil to the white of the eyes. I made sure my color stood out a little that way it would give it more definition but you can do it however you want. Do this twice.

Step Thirteen: Stick the eye to the front of the monster. Again I used a color that would stand out and be easy to see. You can match your fabric or the child's eye color.

Step Fourteen: Place the pocket on the front below the eye and then place right sides together of the back of the monster. Begin to pin pocket and back into place. Once you get to the top add in your stuffed horns. Make sure to secure with a pin well as there are stuffed and can be a little fat up against your sewing machine. Now you are ready to sew. Remember to leave yourself enough space to turn your monster and stuff your monster. Stich it all the way around except for the opening.

Step Fifteen: Turn your monster inside out. Use a pin to pull out the corners. It helped if you had trimmed the corners before turning but whatever works for you. Afterwards you can top stich if you want. I had to do this on one of mine because I did not catch the entire pocket. Go figure. Don't forget to leave the opening open, otherwise you will not be able to stuff.

Step Sixteen: Stuff your monster. This is fun, make sure you get those corners well.

Step Seventeen: Now you are ready to finish off the stitching. You can either complete your top stitching here over the opening or you can slip stich the opening closed. I'm not good at slip stitching so I worked really hard to use my machine to finish it off.

Now you have a fun creative little pocket for holding teeth and money. No more trying to find the tooth in the middle of the night. You will know right where it is.

The Incident

So the kids, all 14 of them, were quietly sitting on the driveway after helping to cleanup. And I thought I would take advantage of the lull to take a quick ride down the zip line. I had tried the day we arrived but only sat on the "bench" to ride down. My niece, Morgan, suggested holding onto the handles to go faster because then the weight is even on the wheels. So I climbed up the ladder to the grab on to the handles and took off.

Well this was not a well thought out plan. About have way down I realized I was going really fast. Faster than I anticipated. So I released my feet from the bench just incase I hit the tree which really would not have happened but hey. Then I hit the stopper really hard and lost my grip.

I flew off and now the rest is history. I was out for about a minute and when I finally came too I could not breathe, I finally caught my breathe rolled over and was helped to be made comfortable. The ambulance came pretty quick and off I went to the emergency room.

X-rays reveled that I broke my collar bone in three places. I need to wear a sling until I see the doctor and can have surgery. That's right surgery. On of my bones is poking up in the wrong direction.

I go to the doctor today, Tuesday, to see what they say. Should be fun. Hopefully they will do surgery before we leave because a 16 hour car ride with broken bones does not sound like fun.

Peaches everywhere

This is our first year to really get a lot of harvestable peaches off of our tree. The kids have been so excited about the possibility of picking peaches they sometimes would pick them too early. Even with that we still ended up with a lot of peaches. So when we harvested them we also set to work on processing them right away.

We made the following items:


Peach Cobbler


Peach Chutney



Jared Peaches


Peaches and Pineapple


Peach Salsa

Peach Jam

Everything was so yummy or smelled so good while we were making it; I can hardly wait to try a couple of our items later on. The cobbler and salsa were great, and tasted wonderful. I hope that the rest of our peach harvest is just as delectable.

We even left a few of the smaller peaches on the tree and there were about thirty (30) new growth peaches starting, strange right. So we might have more peaches to come.

Girl Scout camp

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This is Isabelle's first year to go to Girl Scout camp. I was so excited for her, I really wished I was able to be a fly on the wall to see how much fun she was having, and really be able to hear all about her experience. Resident camp was always so much fun for me as a girl and I was happy that Isabelle got a chance to go as well.



The day we dropped her off, it was raining and so she actually had to use her poncho, how exciting. Otherwise I'm sure it would have had to stay in her bag until the end. She took lots of pictures that I am waiting to have printed, and she said she had so much fun.



They got to go swimming, eat with all the campers, and make some crafts. When I arrived to pick her up, she asked if she could stay another day or come back for the next session. She had so much fun. I was so happy that her first sleep away camp was successful.

Catching Up

I had the recent chance to take a trip to Las Vegas for the baby shower of my of high school friends. It was so great to get a chance to catch up with her and my other girl friends with whom I was able to visit with.



I was really please to get a chance to visit with Amy before the birth of her first baby. Which in a strange was seems wild since I already have four. Good grief! I guess it's just the way the world works, because I have a couple of friends and family having their firsts sometime this year. This was the first chance that I had to see her house and get to know her in-laws a little better.



Plus I had the added benefit of visiting with friends from Utah. One of my girlfriends, Nicole, actually lives in Vegas now, so I had a great chance to visit with her and see how things are going in her life now.



Then Missy and Holly came down from Utah for a short visit which was great. It was so wonderful to visit with both of them. I only wish that our time was more, but life must go on.

Plus everyone had a chance to meet Decllan, who of course was the life of the party and always brought tons of smiles out from everyone he meets. He did a great job on the air plane and even started to sign while we were there. I can hardly believe this kid. He keeps getting bigger, and learning new things. Next thing I know he will be going to school with the big kids. Yikes!

Until then at least I have this trip with him to remember. Thanks girls for meeting me in Vegas. Next time I will have to make my way to Utah for a visit.

The New Patio

I am so excited! We have finally made an adult change to back yard. Yes the kids will enjoy it too, but really it's for Ben and I. I can hardly wait to finish it out but that will most likely be next year. For now, I have a brand new patio to put chairs on that won't fall off because of the slope, and I won't have any grass growing out from in between the bricks.

Here is what our "patio" use to look like:




The bricks all gone, yeah, that was the best part. It looked so much better without them there. The forms are going in along with the plastic and sand.




Now we have the wire mesh down and then it will be time to pour.



They had to mix it the color in so that it would be uniform. And then the pouring can begin.



I am so excited, now it's time to pour.


They can stamp out the pattern then wait for it to harden, and seal the patio.



All done, doesn't it look just great. The kids are already loving it and having a great time.



Now I just need to come back with some fill dirt and bring the grass back up to the edge of the patio.

I can hardly wait to have our first dinner outside later on this summer. It will be great.

Awards Ceremony

The end of the school year is upon us and so are the awards from the year. Isabelle almost got perfect attendance, but she missed one day in the fall because she had a fever. I felt so bad for her, because she was so close. Only one kid in her class made that as an accomplishment.
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Isabelle did pretty good herself otherwise for her school awards. Here is her list:


* Exemplary Honor Roll

* Commitment, dedication and performance in Spanish

* American Citizenship

* Outstanding Girl in Technology

* Artist of the Month Facts

* Composer of the Month Facts
(she worked really hard each month to research and write down facts about different artists and composers for the school year. She even turned in all of her work on time and each month.)

* Six Flags Reading Award - (she earned a free ticket for pleasure reading)

* Dove Award - a special award her teacher created because she was always helping to resolve conflict before it reached the teachers desk. Each kid received a special "candy" award and this was Isabelle's.




I am so proud of Isabelle and all of her accomplishments this year. I can hardly believe that next year she will be in Second (2nd) grade. Where does the time go. I'm sure that next year will bring more achievements and more greatness from this wonderful kid. But for now I am going to enjoy her this summer and see how much she grows over the summer. We have some fun things in store that I think she will enjoy a lot

I do actually have other children, I know it’s hard to believe but I do. Who would have thought right? Just kidding, Isabelle has just been busy with lots of end of the year stuff, and the boys are just hanging out. But one exciting thing this month, Decllan turned 9 months old. How cool right? We keep getting close to a year and then he will just keep on getting bigger, and more active. Right now this kid is all over the place, crawling, climbing the stairs and trying to keep up with those big kids. Some days it seems hard to believe that so much time has already come and gone from his little life, but then I think there is so much more fun stuff to come.



Of course this kid would not hold still for pictures, and kept putting things in his mouth but hey, he is still super cute acting like himself. Who would want it any other way? I’m not sure what I would do with a kid that did not move around as much as mine do. I can hardly wait every day to see what new things he will discover. He still wins over groups of people with his ready smile, and always is ready to give you a hug.