Happy Halloween

Nya's New Do

Trying to take a picture of this little one lately has been almost impossible. She frowns, or turns her head, or runs away, or sticks her fingers in her ears, or any other thing she can think of to sabotage the picture - Turkey!

This is the best shot I could get of her new do. It looks so cute but almost all her curls are gone. I am not sure how I feel about that. 

I will try and get a better picture of her soon.

"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

8 & 1/2 weeks!

That is all!
 I LOVE this holiday - cozy fires, warm drinks, blankets, white lights, green trees, and everything else that goes along with this celebration. I cannot help myself! I am one of those annoying  excited people that starts playing Christmas music in November and has the tree up on December 1st. So for those of you who can relate, here a are a few pictures for inspiration.
Sources - I don't have them. But if they are your pictures, I thank you for sharing. The credit goes to you!

A girl and her doll

Emma and her baby doll. 

I bought this doll for Emma when she was 2 years old. She has loved it from the beginning. At Christmas that year, I bought her a Cabbage Patch doll (mostly because of how much I remember loving mine when I was little). She opened the package and would have nothing to do with the doll. I was so sad. 

A couple of days later I saw her playing with the new doll, so I watched her unnoticed for a minute. She was undressing the Cabbage Patch doll, and I was so excited....until I realized that she was undressing the new doll and putting the clothes on Her baby. When the clothes had been removed, over the shoulder went the Cabbage Patch! She still has both dolls, and I am sure you can tell which one she prefers! 

(Truth be told, this too, is my most favorite baby doll I have ever seen in my many mom years of searching for baby dolls. I am glad she loves her so much)

(And I have a confession: I can still enjoy holding baby dolls!)

Goldstream

Darren came home early last Thursday and took us all to Goldstream to see the salmon run. We didn't see any fish - not 1 - but we did have a fantastic time together. 

We will go again in a couple of weeks and hopefully see some fish then!

Do you see what I see? That little/big girl holding my hand in the picture below is MY BABY! When I look at her I still see a baby....... until........ I saw this picture. I am beginning to wonder if I will always see her as a baby! I hope so, and if anyone feels the need to tell me that she is not a baby, don't bother because I simply won't listen! 

Emma - To know her is to LOVE her!

Medieval Math

We love these books! They make math so much fun, for everyone. They help children (and adults) understand different math concepts and terminology in a fun kid friendly way. Today we read some of these books, and then I got out our wooden geometric shapes - I sent the kids on a quest throughout the house, each with a different solid shape. They were to find a certain number of household items that matched the shape they had. It was amazing what they came back with! For the rest of the afternoon they pointed out cylinders, spheres, cones and all the other shapes we learned about today.

We don't have this one - and I am very excited to find it and read it!

Stuffed Animals & Martha Stewart

We have a lot of stuffed animals. I am forever trying to get the kids to part with a few. Every one is special in some way, or is their very favorite (along with the other 15 they own and rarely ever play with). I remember when I was a kid how special mine were to me. They weren't just toys, but friends. And so we keep them all. As the collection grows we need a place to store them and when I saw this hamper on the Martha website I thought it would be perfectly cute for toys instead of laundry. 

So we made one out of a sheet someone gave us and a 14 inch quilting hoop I bought from Michael's. You must use a quilting hoop, not an embroidery hoop. The embroidery hoop is too thin and will break. The quilting hoop is much thicker. It is 10 times the price unfortunately, but if you use a 50% off coupon it's not that bad. It turned out pretty cute. It looks great on the back of the door, and the stuffies are all neatly put away, with easy access when they are wanted!

Just for Laughs

Flippers & undies - what else does a 4 year old boy need?!

Besides the fact that this makes me smile, 

I also love this picture because of the 4 generations of men in it.

(Thank goodness the rest of them have more clothing on!)

Pumpkins at Michael's

I went to Michael's to get supplies for a project Emma and I are going to sew for her bedroom, and I found these fantastic fake white pumpkins - for something like 75% off. I got 1 and only 1, why? Why, now that I have it home, did I not get a couple more? 

I wonder if there is a sister-in-law out there somewhere, that would mind picking me up a couple more, if  she just so happens to be in town sometime?!

Extreme Home Make-Over: Doll House Edition

This is the doll house I wanted to give to Nya for her 2nd birthday. This is the doll house that could not be found for sale ANYWHERE in store or on the WWW. So I had to go with the next best available option.

This is the doll house I found. Since I was desperate, I thought maybe I could make it work. The one I found though had a tan roof and a red chimney though. My plan was to cover up the pink shutters, paint the door, the furniture and the chimney. Darren cut me some little wooden rectangles and I glued them over the shutters. Then I painted the door white, which I didn't end up liking at all, so I decoupaged it with some cute scrap booking paper. Then I sprayed all the furniture - some pink, some white, and some green. After I was done all of that I didn't mind the red chimney anymore and decided to leave it. Oh, and the dolls - the original set came with 2 dolls. I thought that I could sew them some new clothes (they are seriously even uglier in real life) and try and find a baby somewhere to add to the set. What good is playing house without a baby! I didn't have much luck finding one, but along the hunt I found these animal families called Calico Critters of Cloverleaf Corners, and I fell in love. They are the cutest things. My kids love animals, so I though I would forget about the people all together for now and go with a family of animals. I was in the Red Ballon for AN HOUR! I could not decide which family to get. They have every different kind of animal family you could think of. In the end I choose the hedgehog family, because they were SO cute and because we have a real hedgehog and Nya loves him. So although it isn't the house I wanted, I think it turned out pretty cute, and Nya loves it! (although I do realize that she would've still loved it ugly!)