Toy Review: MixPups

As a part of MomSelect I was asked to review a new toy~ MixPups (here's their website). I was given MixPups for a group of 10 children to try and see how they liked them. Here's what I got in the mail. My kids were super excited!!

We had a group of 10 girls ranging in age from 9 down to 5 1/2 try the MixPups out.

The first comment by many of the girls (and the moms) was that the Pups looks "funny" without their hair. "They don't even have ears!" was a comment I heard a few times.

Another comments was "their legs pop off!" Now I realize that this was an intended selling feature, but for many of the younger girls, as well as the moms helping out, it was a hindrance. In fact one of the MixPups came out of the box with a leg off and we couldn't ever get the leg to stay on.

The girls did enjoy mixing up and trying out all of the accessories and seeing what look they liked best for their MixPup.

All in all I think that the older girls, 7-9 year olds, likes them the best and they held their attention the most.

Weekend with Grandpa & Grandma

This weekend N8's dad and step-mom, Dan & Karen came for a visit. They were dropping N8's youngest brother off at BYU for his first semester and drove down from Utah to see us. We had a great time and the kids loved having Grandpa & Grandma here to entertain them! They played A LOT of games. The kids were constantly asking to play Stratego, Uno, Sorry, Cootie, puzzles and other games. I think Grandpa & Grandma will be gamed out for quite some time:


We also took them to feed the wild burros. N8 & I have lived here for over 8 years and have never done this before:



On Sunday we got some family pictures:


They brought some fun presents for the kids too!
Grandma Karen made this beautiful blanket for Henry:

Mo got this cool mug. We'll never wonder which cup is his!

Emma got a cute little purse

And Bud some fun puzzle books:

We're glad they were able to come and look forward to their next visit!

School!!!

The first day of school was Tuesday and boy were we ready!!
Bud is starting 3rd grade. Here he is at his desk.

This year he doesn't have one of his best buds in class. Hopefully he branches out and makes some new friends. We are super happy with the teacher he got. Here he is with Mrs Switzer:

Emma started Kindergarten and we are both super excited!! She also got the teacher we really wanted for here. Here she is in the classroom on the first day:

Mo needed to get in on the action. He's having the hardest time with all of this. He misses his big brother and sister. There were even tears when we dropped Emma off today, but is always up for smiling for the camera!

I'm hoping for a successful school year filled with friends, laughing, learning & growing!

Daddy & Henry's photo shoot

N8 was in need of a new facebook profile picture. The one he had was taken with Emma when she was probably 3 1/2! This was my best shot at getting a good picture of N8 with Henry. We're still working on keeping eyes open!

At least I was able to get a solo shot of his with his eyes!

and a silly grin

Craft: Homemade Storage Cubbies

I ventured out to a few garage sales on Friday and picked up a few tray jigsaw puzzles. Our kids love to do puzzles, but storing them is kind of a pain! I recently came upon a simple no/low cost solution to our problem~Homemade storage cubbies!!

I first came upon the the idea at Smart Bottom Enterprises and then it took me to Family Fun. I had all of the supplies, the kids were watching African Screams and Henry was snoozing in his swing.

I started with:
~3 medium size priority shipping boxes
~12x12 coordinating scrapbook paper
~black duct tape

First I cut the flaps off one end of the boxes. Then cut the paper down so it would slide into the box. The paper isn't quite long enough, but unless you're peering with a flashlight down inside the cubby, you can't see the back.

Next stack the boxes on top of each other and carefully duct tape the front edge of two boxes, plus the paper, together. It might be easier to tape the boxes together first and then tape the paper in, but I was pretty low on duct tape and was trying to conserve!

Next cut paper to fit down the insides (I had 3 boxes, so 6 sides) and carefully duct tape.

Then I cut paper to fit the 2 outsides and the top and tapes again.

That was it!

It literally took me about 15 minutes. These would be great for school papers, mail slots or with slightly bigger boxes- scrapbook paper.

I'm blue....

Well actually Henry was yellow and they made him stay under some blue lights! On Friday my sister Karen took off in the morning and that afternoon I was called and told to go in at 4pm for another bilirubin check. We decided to give Henry his first sponge bath before I had to go. His hair makes a fun little mow-hawk!

It turns out that Henry was pretty jaundice which meant he was admitted to the hospital and put under these:

He had to stay under the lights with only a diaper and those cool little foam shades to cover his eyes. I could pick him up every two hours when I could feed him. He really tolerated it well and only had to be under for a little over 24 hours. We came home on Saturday night totally exhausted, but happy to be home. We still have had to do blood checks for Sunday and today. Hopefully his numbers are where they need to be and we can be done taking him in. They poke his little heal each time and it's to the point that they don't really have anywhere else to poke!

But he's been a real trooper through it all. Emma was able to get his picture of him earlier today!!

Henry is here!!

Our new little man, Henry Fielding Kimbler made it here at 3:47pm on 8-9-10. He was 8 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long and absolutely perfect!

I went into the hospital at 7am to be induced and was started on pitocen at about 9:45am. Six hours later we became a family of 6!

We had an awesome friend as our labor and delivery nurse, Paula:

and my sister Karen was able to be there for the delivery as well:

Here we are ready to head home from the hospital:

and a few more shots, just because he's cute!