Legos

So, my kids have decided to ask for Legos for Christmas. At first I wasn't sure what I thought about it, but then I did some research and there are a lot of fun things out there this year. We have looked at the options and I was impressed by some and just thought I'd share in case anyone out there with little ones need some fun ideas for Christmas. I like that they all come with their own storage bin. It will be great for keeping them seperate, clean up, and storage. Below I've listed what they are, a picture, and then a link to where I found them on Amazon. There are different choices these are just the ones we were interested in. I may be crazy for allowing all of these building blocks into my house, but I'm hoping they will come with hours of entertainment.

Plain Lego

http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Ultimate-Building-Set-Pieces/dp/B000NO9GT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258742987&sr=8-1

Trio Building Set

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-TRIO-Building-Storage/dp/B001W0D00O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258781130&sr=1-1

Little People Build N Fun Farm

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Little-People-Build-Farm/dp/B000UOGCY4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258784031&sr=1-1

Happy Birthday to Tandy!

My awesomest sister in the world had a birthday the first part of November. We ended up moving my brother and sister-in-law that weekend, but while we were altogether we figured we might as well do cake and ice cream. I nominated myself to make the cake. I decided I would make a suitcase cake, due to the fact she likes to travel. She travels for work and for fun. She's been on the whole Route 66 trip, to Europe, to several states, and Mexico just to name a few. So, after a rough go of trying something new that totally bombed and I had to scrape the whole cake down and refrost it again we finally got it figured out. I also tried Marshmallow Fondant, which I rolled out in cornstarch so it looks like it snowed on my cake. Next time I know to just roll it out on Crisco. It wasn't so bad, but I like working with buttercream better. So, this cake was a first on a lot of things. Some we may try again and others that we know we won't try again. Anyway, the end result:

Since then, we really haven't been up to much. My dad and brother came and worked on our lot so it's covered in dirt now instead of rocks (for the most part), all three of the kids have had a bacterial infection in their lungs, J.R. has had bronchitis, and I have lost my voice. I haven't had it for 2.5 days and I can't wait for it to come back. I can't even talk on the phone 'cause the person on the other end can't hear me (that's why J.R. rsvp'd to you Tiff). I'm hoping it will be back in the next few days or I'm going to go crazy. We are all coming up on the holidays and are looking forward to them. We also have Max's fifteen month check up on Friday, so we'll post that later this week.

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

Every year my dad buys the kids pumpkins and carves them with them. He is so much fun for the kids. This year Wyatt designed his own face and grandpa just carved it. Martin kind of helped and dad just did Max's. They sure love grandpa.

Max and grandpa with Max's pumpkin.

Grandpa and Martin with Martin's pumpkin.

Wyatt with his scary pumpkin.

Aunt Tandy with her cute pumpkin.

Wyatt, Martin, Brandon, Tandra, and Max all with their pumpkins.

Wyatt, Brandon, Martin, Max, and Tandy. Don't you see the resemblance? LOL!

On Friday, we took the kids to the Community Trunk or Treat, which was kind of cool. It is held at the high school and the high school kids are the ones that hand out the candy. After that we took the kids and went to Boo at the Zoo. We had never been to either one before and they were both enjoyable for the kids. For Halloween, we hit our ward Trunk or Treat and then went down to Blackfoot to my moms for a Halloween party. It was lots of fun. She made chili, cornbread, and spider cupcakes. Tandra made a caterpillar out of cookies and pretzels. It was super cute, but I d

didn't take any pictures.

Boo at the Zoo

Martin, Max, Wyatt, and Halle

Uncle Fester (Addams Family) I made this without a pattern or anything, just bought the fabric and improvised.

Friday night, Max was a bee and I wore the jailbird costume and decided I didn't like it.

Soooo, I got up Saturday morning and made this from supplies I had at home. Cost for this costume $0. We had to dress up at the party at mom's so I went as a box of Junior Mints!

Commander Cody (Star Wars The Clone Wars)

The Black Spider-Man, not to be confused with Venom.

Friday night, if they look a little thicker then normal it's because I made them wear coats under their costumes to go to boo at the zoo.

A family Halloween picture, Junior Mints, Bee, Black Spider-Man, Uncle Fester, and Commander Cody.

Happy Birthday

Saturday was J.R.'s birthday. It was a busy day with lots of go, go, go. First thing that morning, we got up and J.R. got to open his present from his mom which was a total suprise 'cause she mailed it and I hid it when it came so he had no idea. Then we ran the kids to the babysitter and went to the temple where we got to be with Trevor, Wendy, and Halle as they were sealed. Way to go guys! So exciting. After that we ran home and made lunch 'cause we were in charge of family dinner for October. It didn't all turn out like we had planned and I messed up some of the things I was trying, so no pictures this time, other then my homemade oreos. We served mummy pizza, homemade oreos, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, brownie pops that were supposed to be the brides of Frakenstein, but they ended up looking like Slimer from Ghostbusters. We also had a juice with ice cubes that we froze with gummi worms in them. After family dinner, presents, and cake we went to Blackfoot to hang out with some friends. J.R.'s birthday is on the 24th and Mat's birthday is on the 25th, so we went and took Mat his present and watched Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. It was a rough kind of moment 'cause Mat's dad passed away and his viewing was on Mat's birthday. I hope J.R. had a great birthday. I love you honey, sorry it was so busy, but it seemed enjoyable for you! WE love you!

Part of the homemade oreos.

Opening presents. The boys had to help of course.

New pants!

J.R. with his cake.

J.R.'s cake. I didn't make his 'cause he wanted ice cream cake and I don't know how to do those.

Fire Station

Martin had the oppourtunity to go to the Rigby Fire Station with his preschool class. It fell on daddy's day off and so he took him while I stayed home with Max. They had lots of fun, brought home lots of little prizes, and got to try on the fire fighters gear. J.R. said Martin started swaying back and forth with all of the gear on.

Martin with the fire truck.

Martin inside the fire truck.

Martin all dressed up.

Experiment

Ok, so I found this pattern for a rag blanket and I really wanted to try it. I've been putting it off for a while and then my sister came to watch conference and I showed her the pattern and that I had tried to start it and she decided we could do it. We just used scraps for this one to see how it worked out and it's been fun. We did however get a few comments on it from family members.


Trevor- "Well, it's really bright, people will definitely see you coming." (Not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Wyatt- "Mom that blanket is so crazy, no one's ever going to want it." I said, " I was going to try and sell it." He says, "That's silly no one will pay money for THAT!"


So, it didn't get the best reviews at home.


The front ragged.

The Back

Up close of the back.

Up close of the front.

Super up close of the front.

More dresses

I made a little holiday dress for my niece Halle and then for Tree's daughters Teya and Rowan. I also made a little tie for Tree's son Gaven. It was kind of fun, but kind of frustrating. I like to sew, but don't like to do something called Shurring. It's not that it's really that hard my machine just doesn't seem to like it. Teya's dress had a hard time with the shurring and I think I need to redo it, but for now here are some pictures of them.

Halle's dress

Teya's, Gaven's, Rowan's