SANTA Visit

We found out that Santa would be in Downtown Springville yesterday, so we went over and visited with the guy! Kaylin was sooo excited to see him, and told him what everyone wanted. Evan and Ashlyn well as you can see, that is a totally different story!

Our new Table

This past week, thanks to my WONDERFUL Grandma, we got a NEW TO US Table! I'm so excited to be able to seat the whole family around the table. Evan was pretty excited to join the family at the table since his highchair can be lowered enough to be like a booster seat at the table like his sisters have!

The Christmas Dresses/ Outfit!

My FAVORITE store to shop at for outfits for my kids is CRAZY 8! And that is exactly where I got their Christmas Outfit/Dresses at. I like my kids to wear them more than just the week before Christmas or on Christmas so they have been wearing them The whole Month of December! I LOVE that Kaylin still likes to match her Sister and until she doesn't like it any more we'll probably keep doing it, because I think it's super CUTE!

Christmas Shirts

I wanted a CUTE shirt for my girls to wear this Christmas... so when I saw this one on Pinterest, I just had to try one of my own...

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First I went into the craft room and found that I had LOTS of ribbon so that wasn't an issue with making them, I went to walmart and got a couple of cheap white long sleeve t-shirts then came home and cut the ribbon strips and rik-rak to size, tied a bow for the top then used Washable Fabric glue (it's permanent so I can wash it when the shirts get dirty).

And this is what the FINAL result was...

2 perfectly cute Shirts for my girls; costing LESS than $10 total!!! NO SEWING involved (that was the BEST part)!

I LOVE this time of year

If you know me at all you know that I absolutely LOVE to make Crafts... and when they turn out this BEAUTIFUL... who couldn't LOVE it!

This year I wanted a new Christmas Wreath for my front door! I saw some on Pinterest that I really liked, but when I went to the store to look for the PERFECT Ornaments... these were it!

WALMART had just the Ornaments that I was looking for. I LOVE the traditional colors of Christmas (with the exception of Silver instead of Gold)! So when these were there with a cheaper than I thought they would be price tag I just couldn't pass them up. Then I had to make a trip to JoAnn's and the Dollar store for the Wreath form and smaller ornaments to fill in all the gaps that the big ornaments left!

When all was said and done I spent $30 for this Beautiful Wreath that I am in ABSOLUTE love with!

Disney on Ice

I have always wanted to go see Disney on Ice, and now that I have a little girl who LOVES the Princesses I figured why not take her! When I found tickets for a pretty good deal, I called Grammy and Jennie to see if Madelyn and Grammy could come, and we are so glad that they could! We were one of the FIRST ones to get there so we went and found our seats, took pics then walked around for a little bit...

Grammy and the girls... wishing it could START RIGHT NOW!!!

This is the way Madelyn looked through the entire show... she loved it... when Rapunzel and Flynn came out she squealed with delight!

Kaylin was super excited too! Those girls LOVED every minute of the nearly 2 hour show!

At the VERY end of the show... ALL of the princesses and their princes came out... it was sooooo fun....

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Afterward, we promised the girls a trip to the Disney Store for a new cup, because we just couldn't justify paying $15 for a cup when we knew we could get a good one for $5 there! Instead of just getting cups, somehow the girls talked Grammy into buying them THESE:

Yep that's right... Kaylin got a Tiana dress, crown and wand, and Madelyn got a Cinderella dress, crown and wand!

This day was such a fun day.... I'm thinking that next year we might just have to go again!

Family Pictures

I think they all turned out GREAT... these are just a few of the best ones! Thanks to Photoshop we can get a pretty good picture of all of us! We really thank Val for taking the pics for us... she always does such a good job!

Boomer Sooner!!!

I LOVE this time of year... Every Saturday (when there is a game) you will find all of us sporting our OU shirts. This year the kids got homemade ones because I just couldn't find the right ones that were affordable for all 3 of the kids!

Grocery sack problem

Any one else have a problem with too many grocery sacks?

Here are 50 grocery sacks... look at the nice pile... how do you organize them so that they aren't floating around the pantry floor, or under the kitchen sink?

My first solution was to use one of the bags to contain all of the other bags, but it still took up a LOT of space and really wasn't the best at getting them out...

Then I was on pinterest.com (a new LOVE website) and found this:

Take an empty baby wipes container and tie one bag to another and so forth as you cram in as many sacks as possible into the wipes container. When you pull out one handle set, another one will "pop" out because you tied the bottom of the bag to the next set of handles...

This wipes box now contains those 50 grocery sacks! Now I have a use for those wipes containers that I keep getting... Now for those extra sacks I don't need (who needs almost 200 sacks?)... those are going to the recycling center instead of the pantry! 50 is plenty for our needs!

OU shirts for 2011 football season!

This year I looked and looked for the perfect OU shirts/outfits for my kids. Any of them that I liked didn't have their sizes or if they did have their sizes it would cost me nearly $100 to buy them all. So my crafty little self started thinking, what can I do to get cheaper shirts for my kids?

I decided that I would just buy red material and make an OU on the shirt... then I looked in my fabric scraps (thinking there might be some red in there) and found a nice little ziploc bag of the left over material from making the twins bumper pads. Imagine my excitement when all I needed to do was cut out a square that had the LOGO on it and all I would need to do was to sew the square on a white t-shirt for the kids! Of course I had NO t-shirts in their sizes that I could sew on so off I went to K-Mart (it's the closest store to me) and found a package of 5 onesies and a package of white undershirts. I brought them home, attached with some Heat & Bond, Iron on adhesive, then sewed around the edges. I really wanted it to be a zig-zag stitch, but my machine was acting up and I had NO idea how to fix it (guess it needs to make a trip to Oak City to have my mom play around with it)!

I am pretty impressed with the way they turned out and now ALL OF my children will be wearing an outfit that fits them for this season and the BEST news of all is that I paid around $10 for all 3 of them!!!

My CUTE kids!

I can NOT believe that my babies are this big!

Kaylin LOVED wearing her new skirt that I bought at Oak City Days this past year... Ashlyn was sporting a hand me down dress from Kaylin, and Evan's was a hand me down shirt and sweater from Jennie's boys.

It's crazy for me to think that Kaylin is only about 4 months away from being 4 year old and that Evan and Ashlyn will be 15 months tomorrow!

Kinder Garden Preschool...

Last Thursday, September 1st, Kaylin started her Preschool. There are 5 girls in the group and each of the Mom's takes a week to teach the girls.

The Mom's decided that we needed a name for our "school" so we named it Kinder Garden Preschool. The girls have so much fun learning about a letter, they each have their own backpacks and supplies inside their bags.

Kaylin on the first day of School.

Daddy had the day off so he was able to walk her to school on that first day too!

And even more fun for Kaylin was that her Nana and Papa (Ryan's parents) were here visiting so they got to walk her there too!

When I asked her about her time at school, her favorite part was Snack time and play time!

September Goals...

It's been a crazy week of fun with family (and those posts will come soon) but first I need to get my goals posted. I've found that if they are written down for others to see I at least try a little harder to accomplish them.

For September my goals are:

• Continue losing the weight... it is coming off, but not as quickly as Ryan's weight has come off!!
• Finish reading Jane Eyre (it's taking a LOT longer than I thought it would.
• Continue going through things and organizing everything so I can have a CLEAN house!
• Laundry put away ON laundry day (this is a HUGE thing for me... I procrastinate this every time and the piles are getting bigger and bigger in my bedroom)!

I know these are small things for some, but for me... it's tough for me to accomplish! Now that Kaylin has "School" on Thursday's from 9:30-11:15 and the twins usually nap during that time I have NO excuse to get things finished!

Look at these 2 cute kiddo's

YAY they are finally big enough to ride in their car seats that they got for their Birthday!

Evan in his nice new seat...

Ashlyn in her new seat!

The day finally came that Evan and Ashlyn are big enough to ride in their new forward facing seats, YAY! We have to have the 3rd seat up in the Durango now though since all 3 car seats will NOT fit on the first back seat! Kaylin asked to have Ashlyn sit in the far back with her, so we now have the 2 girls in the very back, and Evan gets to sit on a row all by himself, but he didn't mind! On our first trip out, Evan and Ashlyn were soooo happy and good in the car. Not one little form of crying from them. When I would look back at them, they just smiled! Evan really enjoyed looking out the window at the things we were passing!

I can't believe that my babies are big enough to do this, but... it makes riding in the car sooo nice!

July Goals Re-cap... August Goals

I am not so good at completeing my goals...

For July My Goals were:

1. Keep working on the last 10 pounds to lose!

2. Clean out craft room and get it ready for me to work in!

3. Read 1 book

4. Pull the weeds in my flower beds in the front yard (my neighbors will be happy for this one)!

5. Clean all of the bedrooms really good (I didn't spring clean this year, guess it will be summer clean at this house)

I did lose a little weight, but no where near 10 pounds! But hey, at least I lost something... that's something to celebrate! I did get the craft room cleaned out, but not everything moved in... I still need to move a few things but that should happen within the next few days! I didn't get a book finished... I'm reading Jane Eyre and it's taking me a really long time to get through! I was able to pull weeds from one section of my flower beds, but the corner lot still needs a LOT of work; I'm hoping to get that section done this week! And the bedrooms, well, I cleaned them but... you can't tell again! For some reason, we can't seem to keep that area of our house clean!

For August, My goals are:

1. Continue on the weight loss journey!

2. Finish Jane Eyre

3. Go to bed EARLIER every night!

4. Organize one section of my house EVERY day! That's 31 days of little jobs.

I'm pretty sure these can be completed... I'm so excited to have a more organized and clean house! First up is to finish my craft room!

Mommy & Kaylin Time

Kaylin LOVES to have "Tea Parties" and wants to have one as often as she can. Last week, she wanted to have one almost every night, but it just didn't happen. She talked Auntie Sarah into coming over one afternoon after her nap, but that didn't happen because she napped until 5pm that day and it was time for dinner. I felt really bad for Kaylin, so the next afternoon instead of making lunch like I usually do, we had a "Tea Party" for lunch!!!

Kaylin put on her "princess" dress, and gathered up the dishes we would need for the party, I got the food ready (that's the mom's job)!

Kaylin set out all of her dishes, and I joined her in our lunch of Chicken (deli meat), Carrot sticks w/ Ranch, Strawberries, and slices of cheese! It was so fun to see my little girl enjoying her time with mom. Evan and Ashlyn were sleeping so we didn't have to worry about them getting into our food!

After we ate, I took the opportunity to teach her how to clean the dishes. I didn't want to have to clean up from the tea party and clean the other dishes in the house, so I got 2 big bowls out. Filled one with warm soapy water and the other with warm water. I gave her a rag to wash the dishes and a towel to put the clean dishes on to dry! She really enjoyed washing her dishes and I enjoyed the part that I didn't have to clean up from the party... she took care of that on her own!

I'm pretty sure we'll be having more of these little parties, and that's okay... I really enjoy spending time with just Kaylin!

Gardening Fun...

Last night, Kaylin and I went out and worked in the flower beds! They were FULL of weeds that needed to be emptied, for the sake of my neighbors! I feel bad that my house is the WORST one on the block, so I've really got to get out there and make it a little better!

Kaylin had so much fun "helping!" She wore gloves so that she didn't get dirty while she picked up my piles of weeds to put into the trash! It was such a fun mommy daughter time, even though we were working!

Mommy's Birthday Cake

Was just as good as our Birthday cake!

Evan with his chocolaty face! He figured out how to lick his fingers to get more chocolate!

Ashlyn was happy for the cake, just not the picture!

Birthday Cake

As an adult, I really don't like to have the whole Birthday thing, but because I have a 3 1/2 year old Birthday's are EVERYTHING to her, and you MUST have a cake to blow out candles and cupcakes. I found on my new love site (pintrest) these cute cupcakes in an ice cream cone, Kaylin saw them and said that I needed to make those cupcakes for my birthday so that's what I did! They really were yummy, next time though I will not fill them as full since they run out all over the place, and will use better frosting that I can really pile on and make them look better!

Ashlyn's first...

...little pig tails!

Now that I can pull her hair up in piggies, I'm sure she'll have it done like this (or at least one pony) until she gets more hair. She will NOT leave a headband on any more so for the sake of looking cute and girly she will have these in her hair!

Summer Banner

My good friend, Amy, found this super cute banner! We decided to make one for each of us on one of our "craft days," and I think it turned out SUPER cute!

To make you need:

Brown Lunch sacks

Coordinating fabric scraps

Paper for the letters (I used the cricut to cut them)

Ribbon

Any other embellishments you want

(I used tickets, flowers, brads & buttons)

Double fold Bias Tape

Sewing Machine (to sew on the fabric and Bias Tape)

The Rest of our Trip...

It's pretty crazy getting our family to Oklahoma, but the kids are getting to be pretty good little travelers! Kaylin knows exactly what to do at Airport security and is sooooo excited to be leaving on the airplane to go visit her Nana and Papa.

The twins still fly free on our laps, so we usually have our arms full the entire flight!

Ryan was lucky enough to have no one sitting in his row so he could sit Ashlyn down on the seat... she enjoyed playing there for a little bit, but really she just wanted to get up and explore that airplane!

As soon as the pilot tells us that we can use our electronic devices, Kaylin pulls out her headphones and watches a movie on her dvd player. This trip she watched "Tangled!" Usually the movie is over right in time for us to put the dvd player away so that we can land! It makes for a much faster flight for Kaylin (and to be honest, I'm glad I can sit with her, because it makes it faster if I can watch the movie with her too)!!!

Evan sat on my lap most of the way (until we switched so I could deal with a busy Ashlyn)!!!

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Once in Oklahoma, we have LOTS of fun with our family and friends and this trip was no exception to that! We stayed busy every day and had LOTS and LOTS of fun!

No trip is complete without a bubble bath in Nana and Papa's tub

Here's Kaylin in the tub enjoying the massive bubbles that the jets make!

And Evan really enjoyed the bubble too!

Ashlyn did take a bath, but she didn't really enjoy it that much so she quickly got out before I could get a picture of her in there!

July 4th in Oklahoma!

We spent the day with most of Ryan's Family!

For Lunch Ryan and I made, BBQ Chicken Quesadillas on the grill (sooo yummy)

Then after Lunch, we enjoyed playing and visiting!

Ashlyn loved playing on the floor with Aunt Laura!

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After our naps, we went up to Kelly's parents house for more 4th of July fun! We swam in their pool and had BBQ Hamburgers & Hot dogs!

I LOVE this picture of Evan... this was after a good hour in the pool and he was dressed and ready for food!

Papa and Ashlyn after swimming

Kaylin enjoying a snack after swimming!

Nana and Evan looking at the beautiful view from the pool deck. You can see downtown Bartlesville from there!

All of us just hanging out on the pool deck after a good hour of swimming!

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We were planning on staying for the fireworks, because you can see them from the deck and you don't have to deal with lots of traffic or people! But since we had little babies, who were sooo tired we decided to take them home and put them to bed...

Here's tired Ashlyn, waiting patiently to get into the van!

Evan already loaded and was ready to get going home, but...

we had to wait for Kaylin to have a ride in the pink car with Addison!

Ryan and I did go back up after the kids were in bed and enjoyed the fireworks from the pool deck! It was really cool to see all of the fireworks going off in different areas of the town!