Halloween 2013

This year, the kids decided we were going to be characters from Peter Pan.  Jake for sure wanted to be Peter Pan.  Hannah for sure wanted to be Wendy.  I thought Ella would have picked Tinker Bell, but she really wanted to be Tiger Lily, so that left me with Tinker Bell.  I would have never guessed that is how it would have turned out :-)

Overall, it was a pretty easy year from costumes.  I have to admit I am starting to love this family costume thing!  And how cute is that crocodile?  :-)

Tiger Lily

The Crocodile

Wendy

And our little Peter Pan.  

We had another great year this Halloween.  The kids love everything about it and after several years of thinking the holiday is so-so,  I am starting to really have fun with it all :-)

Halloween Countdown

One week until Halloween, and believe me we know.  I saw this adorable Halloween Countdown on Pinterest and decided it would be the perfect outdoor decoration.  My kids keep begging me to decorate the outside of our house for Halloween.  I decorate the inside (which is big for me), but the outside is asking a bit too much from me.  But this.. I can get behind.

My kids love to change the numbers and see how many days left we have until Halloween. It has been such a fun thing to have especially with my kids and their excitement for it all.  I love it so much I am going to be making one for Christmas too!

Here is the link to the instructions on how to make this bad boy.   It really was very simple and worth the big statement it makes at our front door!

PS - I decided to add a paper pennant flag banner to mine instead of paint it on.  I liked being able to use glitter and polkadots and have it not be permanent  (same with the spider :-)

Silhouette America "Super" Bundle Deals

I have to say as far as crafting goes, the best investment I ever made was in my Silhouette Machine.  I upgraded from the Cricut to the Silhouette and I am so glad I did :-)

In the past year or so, Silhouette America has been coming out with the greatest products.  Tons of creative things that make crafting so much fun and so much easier.

Here are just some of the fun products I have been using and why they are so great.

The first fun product is their Printable Magnet Paper.  I use this to make reminder of things that I need to remember on a daily or weekly basis.  I just stick them on my fridge where I can refer to them whenever I need to.

Simple things like what I am going to pack the kids for lunch each week and our carpool schedule.  I print a schedule out at the beginning of each school year and give them to everyone in the carpool.  The moms (and dads) appreciate it so much!  At least until it is memorized and becomes second nature :-)

Another fun project was using their Printable Foil Paper.  This might be one of my favorites!   Even though you can print on this cool paper, I decided to use it like I would vinyl.  I made these teacher gifts  for Halloween.  I decided to cut out their names using the foil paper and adhered them to the glass containers.  I loved the silver look, because it coordinated with the silver kisses.  Perfect!

I thought this paper would be super thin, but it is actually thicker than vinyl.  It is a sturdy and very nice paper.  Also, notice the cute rhinestone spiders inside the jars.  I got them at Target and LOVE them.  So, girly and cute :-)

My next project uses Silhouette's Printable Clear Sticker Paper.  I have started to try to remember to collect sand from different places we have visited.  (I wish I had done this decades ago, I would have a huge collection by now.)  So to label my sand containers, I used their clear sticker paper.  I just printed the name of our vacation spot and date and then cut them out in circles that fit the top of the jars.  And wa-laa!

Have you noticed that my projects are fairly simple, yet practical and add a little fun to everything :-)  That is the way I roll :-)

My last project uses their Double-sided Adhesive Paper.  I made this wall canvas for a craft night I am participating in.  I used a 16X20 canvas board.  I modge podged pages from a  Dr. Suess book that I had.  And then I cut out the letter "A" using their double-sided adhesive paper and sprinkled black glitter onto the paper.    I used to paint glue onto cardstock using a paintbrush and then sprinkle the glitter, but now all I have to do is cut, peel and glitter.  So much easier!

You may or may not know this about me by now, but i love glitter and add it anything whenever I can :-)

So, there you have it.  A lot of little crafts I have had so much fun making and working on.   All the products I used can be found here if you want to learn more about them.  

Okay, so here is the great thing:  Silhouette America is offering my readers bundles of these products (and more) at great prices.    In fact, there are three bundles to choose from!  Take a look at them.  They are available from now until October 24th!

Here are the details of each bundle, so you can see what is all included.  Really so many great things to play with!  And here is where you can go to take advantage of all these goodies!  CLICK HERE!  Be sure to enter promo code ANGELA to get the special pricing.

(1)  The following speciality media plus a Silhouette CAMEO® for $269.99 (savings over $120 from retail cost $383.90)

·         1 cardstock essentials pack (new product)

·         1 pack printable adhesive kraft paper (new product)

·         1 pack printable clear sticker paper

·         1 pack temporary tattoo paper

·         1 pack printable cotton canvas (new product)

·         1 pack chipboard

·         1 pack printable silver foil

·         1 pack printable magnet paper

·         1 pack double-sided adhesive

(2)  The following specialty media plus a Silhouette Portrait™ for $129.99 (savings over $110 from retail cost $263.90)

·         1 cardstock essentials pack (new product)

·         1 pack printable adhesive kraft paper (new product)

·         1 pack printable clear sticker paper

·         1 pack temporary tattoo paper

·         1 pack printable cotton canvas (new product)

·         1 pack chipboard

·         1 pack printable silver foil

·         1 pack printable magnet paper

·         1 pack double-sided adhesive

(3)  Or 30% off on all specialty media

There you have it... to be honest with you, i have never seen these much stuff being offered all at once.  So, if you don't have a Silhouette Machine by now... now is the time to get it with all these additional super products to really have some fun.  Enjoy!!!!

Kings Canyon National Park Day Trip

Chris has been wanting to go to the mountains for quite some time, so the weekend before soccer season started, we headed to King Canyon National Park.  It was such a fun day.  The ranger station gave the kids a Ranger for a Day booklet, that they were all about finishing.  He went on several different little hikes, but the best one was by for the hike around the stream.  We could have stayed there all day.  It was so nice and pleasant and just plain beautiful!  

I had to take a picture of each kid.  But look at that water.. so crystal clear and refreshing to play in.  The kids LOVED it!

One of the hikes took us to this nice waterfall.  

And look at this meadow.  So, so, so pretty.  I love God's beautiful creations!

And I love taking little day trips with our kids.  Family fun time is always good and even better in places like this.

P.S.  The kids had worked so hard to get their booklets done so they could get a ranger pin and by the time we got to the ranger station to turn it in... they had closed.  The kids were so sad and I felt so bad for them... they worked at it soo hard.  I told them their reward was learning all about their environment... not the same things as a pin :-)

First Day of School

Well, we have been in school for over a month now, but I had to get their first day of school pictures up.  I can't believe how old my kids are getting.  Hannah is in the upper grades and Ella is full time in 1st grade.  Seriously... Well, here they all are ready to start the school year.  The first day of school always brings so much excitement and renewal.  I wish it wasn't always 100 degrees, but nevertheless it is always a fun and exciting day!

This is the best I could do with this guy.  His smile is either this or a pirate smile.  

I love these kids.  They are so adorable to me!

Last Days of Summer

The last few weeks of summer where lots of fun and lots going on.  here are just a few of the things we did.

Ella's best friend moved away in them middle of august.  We were so sad to say good-bye.  These two girls spent a lot of time together and were the best of friends.  Ella always tells me "mom, i am going to Elle's birthday party!"  It isn't a question it is a proclamation!  No doubt about it in her mind.  Too bad Elle now lives 2 states away.

To say good bye to her best friend, we did a craft where the girls put there fingerprints on clay and we baked them and made them into these cute necklaces.  So, each girl got to keep the fingerprint necklace of each other, so they could remember each other.

I got the instructions for the necklaces here.

Then to get ready for school, I made these cute pencil packs for the preschool teachers.  I bought my usual Rocky Mountain Caramel Apples for the elementary kids. But thought these goodies would be fun for Jake's teachers.

I got the idea for the pencil packs here (with their cute tag freebie) and here is what I do every year for the elementary teachers.

This is just a fraction of the beautiful creations my girls made this summer.  Every day they would spend an hour or two making Perler Bead creations.  I loved it!  It kept them busy, creative and look at the fun designs we have.  They would give a lot of them away as gifts to loved ones and friends.  The perfect summer project for my girls!

Then we had to get school supplies.  Hannah needed a binder, so I thought it would be fun to dress it up a bit and make it uniquely hers.  

We had a couple of outdoor neighborhood movie nights this summer.  And we had our last one, the weekend before school started.  I love doing this, because it reminds me of what neighborhoods are supposed to be.  All hanging out together, enjoying the outdoors and each other.  The kids love it and it is so easy and so much fun!

We have started a new tradition, the weekend before school starts, the girls and I go and get our nails done.  The girls love picking out sparkly purple and teals colors for their toes and traditional red and pink for their hands.  They love it and so do I!  Such a fun mommy and daughter tradition! 

Then to help get life organized, I spent three days and 4 containers getting all our Lego Friends organized and categorized.  It was quite the project, but now the girls can find everything, so they will play with them more.  And I feel like I accomplished something great :-)

There you have it, the end of our summer.  Now on to schedules, being in the car all the time, practices and lunches and homework and running around like crazy!  Gotta love school.  Not only if it would stop being 100 degrees!  I am ready for fall!

New Favorite clothes site

So, I accidently came across this clothes site  LIKE TWICE and I am so glad I did!  It is the greatest thing for two reasons.

FIRST - you can buys cute, stylish, brand name clothes for a fraction of the price.  I got the cutest J Crew pencil skirt for $18 instead of $70!  It is one of my favorite skirts.

SECOND - you can give them your old brand name clothes and they will sell them for you and you'll get money in return.  

It works like this:

It is so easy, you just go to the site and click on the sell button.  you request a "bag".  They will send you a bag that is all ready pre-paid to be shipped back to them.  No cost to you.  

Follow their directions as far as what they accept in clothes and brand, etc.  Just mail the clothes back.  They will sort through them and give you a quote on how much you get for your clothes and an itemized list for what they accepted and what they didn't.  You can either take cash back for the clothes or if you decide you can use it as store credit on their site (and get %10 more in credit).

it is so easy and no risk.  you don't pay for anything to get rid of your clothes and you can some money in return.    And the clothes they don't end up using.. either goes to Goodwill or they will send them back to you for a fee of $5.

It is nice, because i just give my clothes to goodwill, because it is so much easier.  But this is just as easy and I get a little clothes money in return.

I just sent them my clothes and I got $55 in store credit in return.  This is what I just bought today!

So cute for the fall and riding boots, right?

So dang adorable.. I can't wait to wear it this fall and winter.

Who can't use some nice name brand jeans.  I love J.Crew.

I have the cutest cardigan to go with this shirt.  Purple/Plum is my new favorite color for my closet!

With my store credit and a $10 voucher they gave me, I ended up paying only $18 for all these cute clothes.   I saved 70% of what I would have spent in the stores (and believe me I would have bought them in the store!)

This company isn't asking me to write them up on my blog.  I just had to share this site with you because i think it is so great and really quite the deal.  So, if you are so inclined and end up using them.... if you want to you can use my link and I will get some extra store credit.

liketwice.com/IBVoy 

You don't have to, but if you remember and you don't mind!  

enjoy and happy shopping!  

Now if they would only add jewelry and shoes and purses to this site!

Family Reunion - Home Base Day again

On Friday, we were supposed to go to the reservoir for a day on the lake.  But there was some infestation on the shoreline (some kind of itch epidemic), so we decided to stay around the houses again.  We took it easy in the morning with a big breakfast and the kids got to play.  Then after lunch, we went swimming (which is always a favorite for the kids).

Later that afternoon we had a fashion show with the t-shirts we all designed for each other.  A person would get up and show their shirt and then the person that made it was announced as the designer and then they would be the next person up to show their shirt.

Our last night there, the kids finally got to have a movie night (which we had been promising them all night).  While the kids watched a movie, the adults got to talk and catch up on life together as a big group.

And then the next day it was farewell.  It was a great reunion and full of bonding, catching up, memories and BIG FUN!

Family Reunion - Zion Day

On Thursday, we went to Zion's National Park.  We did the Weeping Rock Hike and the Riverside Walk hike. A bunch of the crew went hiking up the Narrows for a bit.  The kids loved it.   I would say it was the highlight of the day.

We spent a lot of the time at the river playing on the shore and in the water.  

It was a hot day, but so much fun to be in one of the most beautiful national parks in our nation.  it is a favorite for sure.  Then a crowd went home and a crowd drove through the tunnel and explored some more. 

Family Reunion - HomeBase Day

On Wednesday, we had a nice, fun day at the houses.  In the morning, we played The Amazing Race.

Everyone was separated into teams and we had a race full of challenges like:

• pouring water into cups behind each teammates head and the first one to fill up the pitcher to the line could move on.
• find the green candle hidden in a balloon.  There was a garbage bag full of blown-up balloons and you had to pop them to find the green candle.  (the other balloons had white candles).
• find the colored lollipops.  Lollipops were stuck into the grass and each team had to find all five colors (red, orange, blue, green and brown) that were colored on the bottom of the lollipop stick (before they could move on).
• each team had to build a human pyramid and get their picture and then make a human structure where three teammates were not touching the ground.
• move on oreo from your forehead to your mouth without touching it
• tie strips of fabric together to have a string long enough from one point to another.  It could not touch the ground.  It was out on the street, so the distance was about 25-40 feet.
• using straws, paper cups and popsicle sticks you had to get a mento from the top of the table to a 2 liter bottle of soda.    (Be careful... as you know it will explode and someone (maybe me) was looking over the bottle when it exploded :-(

After lunch, we headed to the pool to swim.  The kids had a blast of course and it felt so nice to cool off.

Then it was back to get ready for family photos.  We had a photographer come and take a picture of all of us together.  This picture is of course a low-res image. but it gives you an idea of the family looks like altogether.

Then later that afternoon, everyone decorated t-shirts!  Each person choose a name and they had to decorate a t-shirt for that person.  We had all sorts of things to decorate the tshirts (fabric paint, pens, gemstones, ribbon, etc).

Mine was cute.  It had an Apple/Mac logo on the front and on the back at the bottom it said "I miss Steve :-(

You can see Hannah's t-shirt in the picture.  It is the first one and it was designed by her sister Ella.

Family Reunion - St. George Day

This summer for our family reunion, we headed to Hurricane, Utah.  It was the first time we had the family reunion outside of Salt Lake City and it was a blast.  Although it was hot, it was so much fun and we had a great time of site-seeing and relaxing and spending time as a family.  It was so great!

We arrived on Monday and settled into our houses.  We rented two houses (right next to each other).  It was great.  All the cousins each got rooms.  The boys got a room and the girls got a room with a climbing wall, a slide and castle fort.  It was awesome and the kids LOVED it!

My sister-in-law made t-shirts for everyone.  Seriously, how much time she put into this is incredible.  I helped her with the design (which I copied from someone on a blog).  The front said "BIG FUN" and the back said

"any time  * any place"

williams

 Each family got their own color too!  The t-shirts were so great.  We got stopped everywhere we went with people asking about what we were.... a family reunion!  We made an impression wherever we went, I mean how could we not.... 34 of us with these great t-shirts!

On Tuesday, we headed to St. George.  We started to day visiting the St. George Temple Visitor Center.  We were taught by the missionaries and then we watched a movie about a pioneer girl how didn't obey her parents and the consequences of her choices.  Hannah still tells to story of this movie to people that will listen :-)

Then we went Iceburg for lunch and of course great milkshakes!

Next was Brigham Young's house.  We took a tour of his house and learned about the early days of the  church. 

We kept going and hit the water feature in the middle of town.  The kids had a blast running through the fountains and playing in the lazy river.  It was a hot day, so it was nice to cool off.

Lastly, we hit the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum.  It was a great little museum.  So, well done.  So many animal, more than you could imagine.  They gave the kids binoculars and a listening wand to learn about all the animals and their environments.  And each hour the storm would come... the lights would flicker and the thunder would crash... the kids went nuts!  Definitely worth a visit if your kids like animals.