Time to give thanks...

What a week we had!! I don't think I'm ready for a new one to begin. We began our Thanksgiving week at the happiest place on earth-Disneyland!! It had been about 3 years since our last visit and we were excited to be there. We went with my sisters family and her in-laws. It was a blast! Thanksgiving week is a pretty busy time, but with our expert guides and our superb use of fast-passes we got in everything we wanted to go on!!

This time Bud was tall enough to go on pretty much everything. And since he didn't know any better we could get him on everything at least once!! I can't wait until we get to go back.

On Thanksgiving morning our local track club held a turkey trot. N8, 2 of my nephews and my niece all ran. They did awesome!!


On Friday we of course did all of our Black Friday shopping! My sister and I were at Wal-mart at 4:30am to find all of our deals. Later that day she and I did a fun craft (which I will be posting on tomorrow or Tuesday) and the rest of the group went to Fossil Falls:

On Saturday we were ready and set to go sand-boarding at the Olancha sand dunes. But when we awoke to the sound of rain (it hadn't rained here since February!!) we thought the days plans would be thrown out the window. But as we made a birthday breakfast for my brother in law, the clouds began to clear and we packed up to go. As we drove up we encountered more rain, but were optimistic. Our optimism quickly left as we arrived at the dunes only to find extreme wind and cold. It was in the low 40's and there were winds at least a sustained 50mph! It was insane, but an adventure to say the least. This was the best picture of the entire thing:

Doesn't my nephew look "cool" as we all cower in the wind!!!

So we all trekked out the the dunes, then all trekked back to the car and drove onto Lone Pine where we ate our picnic lunch in the car!! Then we drove on up to Manzanar, a former Japanese Internment Camp from WWII. It was really interesting and made the day turn out much much better!

Now begins another week and lots of loads of laundry, putting up Christmas decorations and recouping!!

Christmas Craft: Snowman Candy Bars

While visiting my sister we attended an activity where they were making crafts to be donated and sold. The proceeds are going to a family shelter. It was a lot of fun to see the different crafts being made! One caught our eye though and we had to stop on our way home from the activity to buy supplies to make some ourselves!! They were Snowman Candy Bars! It's a perfect gift for a Visiting teacher, school teacher, friend. My sister was making them for her teenagers to give to friends at school!

So here's what you need: a large candy bar, brown paper to wrap, tape, glue, googly eyes, buttons, orange felt or fun foam, a short piece of ribbon or yarn and fleece.

First we started my measuring the width of the candy bar and doubling it. Then we cut lengths of felt that were 1/3 of a yard wide.

Next sew up the side (luckily fleece is pretty forgiving and you want it to be tight around the candy bar:

Then wrap your candy bar in brown paper (or scrapbook paper or wrapping paper-whatever you have!)

Next you want to fold up one end of your fleece tube about 1 inch and slide it onto one end of the wrapped candy bar:

Then cut thin strips about 1 1/2 inches long and 1/2 wide around the open end of the fleece tube:

Then tie a tight knot around the cut pieces of fleece and fluff:

Now glue on googly eyes and small felt or fun foam nose and 3 buttons:

Then take a thin strip of fleece (about 3/4 inch wide by about 15 inches long) and tie around between the buttons and the nose:

Then cut thin 1 inch strips on each end:


It's done!! We made quite a few of these. I think they would be fun to make using microwave popcorn or the movie theater boxes of candy too! Whatever you find for a good deal! It might even be fun to make different size and have a whole Snowman Candy Bar family!

While visiting my sister I saw her kids chore charts. They're just a simple list for each day of the week and they cross the item off as they complete the tasks. I think this week I might try making a vinyl version of this for myself. I need some chore accountability and doing it in vinyl makes it so much more fun!

F-A-M-I-L-Y!

We spent the last few days with some of our family! My niece was baptized on Saturday and we were so happy that we could be there to be a part of that day! Since we had Wednesday off due to Veteran's day and N8 had Friday of for Flex, we took Bud out of school Thursday and Friday and took off on our trip Wednesday morning. On Thursday morning we got some new family pictures taken!! I love having a current family picture!

On Friday we drove over to San Francisco and went to the zoo. The kids of course loved it and the animals cooperated by being visible in the cages!

After the zoo we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge to take a few pictures. While we were there my brother in law convinced N8 he should run across the bridge and we would drive over and meet him on the other side! N8 was up for the challenge and did a great job!

On Saturday we got to go to my nephews robotics competition. Their team built a lego robot and it completes different tasks by following a computer program the kids write. Bud loved watching it. I hope that he can be involved in something like that when he gets older!

Then we had my nieces baptism. There were 3 children getting baptized. Everything went smoothly and she is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!

We love visiting family and had a great time. We're looking forward to seeing them again this next week at the Happiest Place on Earth (aka: Disneyland!!!)

Christmas Craft: Marble Magnets

The first time I made marble magnets was at least 2 years ago. The entire concept of personalizing magnets with your own pictures and paper was a great idea to me. We even did it at a Super Saturday for HFPE. Over the last 2 years I've randomly made more and then it dwindled away. Then last week I decided to make them again after reading in a few different places that you can use diamond glaze to adhere the paper to the marble! Yet another use for a great product. Now this doesn't diminish my love for modge podge it still can't be beat for many, many applications!

So, go out to your Dollartree and buy yourself some glass marble accents. The dollartree is seriously the best place to find them. They might to be perfectly clear or round, but a $1 for about 25-you can't beat a price like that!

Print some pictures or grab your favorite scrapbook paper and cut out to the size you need (they're ususally 1 1/8 inches or so)

Put a small amount (smaller than a dime) of diamond glaze on the back of the marble.

Place your picture on and press evenly until the diamond glaze has evenly coated the picture and marble.

Let it dry and glue on a magnet. I prefer usuing E6000 to glue my magnets on and I buy my rare earth magnets here: (http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.1105) they have free shipping, but it does take a couple of weeks to get to you.

I think they are much clearer and easier to make than with the Modge Podge. It's a fun way to have seasonal magnets or family pictures that have a purpose. It's also an easy homemade gift!

I also wanted to add a picture of the finish Baby's ABC book we made at the baby shower a couple of weeks ago. After all of the letters were finished, I laminated the pages and had it bound at Staples:

I also finished up our family birthday calendar. Now I need to get them all mailed out!


I hope everyone has a great Veteran's Day and weekend! We're headed on a little family trip for a baptism-Go Bridget!! I'm super excited to see family, get family pictures taken, go the temple, go to the zoo, do some shopping and play some games!!

Electroencephalogram...

or in other words and EEG. Bud got the interesting experience of having an EEG this past week. For those not familiar with an EEG here's some info for you:

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a test that measures and records the electrical activity of your brain. Special sensors (electrodes) are attached to your head and hooked by wires to a computer. The computer records your brain's electrical activity on the screen or on paper as wavy lines. Certain conditions, such as seizures, can be seen by the changes in the normal pattern of the brain's electrical activity.

Since Bud was about 3 he has had a "nervous tick" of sorts where he shakes his arms. Our pediatrician wanted to rule out seizures. The prep for an EEG includes being sleep deprived! What this meant was N8 had to get Bud up at 3am and keep his awake until the test which was at 8:30am. N8 put on a couple of movies and Bud stayed wide awake! Here's what he looked like right before they started the test with the cap on:


After they got the cap on they took a blunt needle filled with goo and poked through each of the holes. Then he had to lay down. When the test began he had to blink his eyes for 2 minutes, then breath quickly through his mouth only for 3 minutes. Then he just had to lay there with his eyes closed for 20 minutes. He did great! Here's the nurse that administered the EEG:


Here's his head after taking the cap off. It's hard to tell, but he has spots of goo all over his head!


The test had to be sent on to a neurologist in Texas to be read and then we got a call letting us know everything was a-ok! Everything looked normal. We were happy to do the test to possibly get answers, but we more happy to find out that everything was fine.

Let the Christmas crafts begin...

Ok, I know it's just beginning of November, but if you want to have your decorations up the entire Christmas season you have to have them done early! I saw the idea for making an ornament wreath on Nannygoat and knew I wanted to make one. I hadn't read the tutorial, but saw the picture and figured I could figure it out. It turns out I did it differently then the tutorial she posted (they used a wire hanger). So today I headed over to my local Dollartree and purchased one foam wreath and $7 in plastic Christmas ornaments. I already had glue sticks and some Christmas ribbon.

First I removed the little plastic tops from the ornaments.

Then I started gluing ornaments around the center and then around the outside. Then fill in the spaces.

In all it took me about 30 minutes, 4 mini glue sticks and $8 ($7 in ornaments and $1 for the wreath!).

They have some pretty silver, blue and purple ornaments there, I might have to make another one! I got a mix of 3 small (5 to a package) and 4 large (12 to a pack with 5 left over) ornaments. I also got a foam cone to see If I could make an ornament tree!!

So break out your Christmas crafts and get cracking so you can enjoy them the entire month of December!!

Give Away Today and some Crafty Moms Bows

A few weeks ago I sat down to eat my breakfast and followed my normal routine. I first checked my email, facebook, the weather, mormonchic and Giveawaytoday! That day on Give Away Today they were giving away $15 to a craft blog called The Crafty Moms. At The Crafty Moms you'll find adorable bows, flowers, headbands, hats, binkie clips, tutus and totes! I haven't ever perfected the art of bow making and was excited about the thought of winning some cute bows for Emma!

And guess what? I did!! At Give Away Today you enter each day and check back the following day to see if you've won. I just about did a jig when I saw n8'swife there on the page! The this week I got a package in the mail from The Crafty Moms! I ordered flower bows for Emma to match her Christmas dress that we just got at Costco!

They are so cute and I can't wait to have her wear them!