Picture of the Day

This is Walker a little pine beetle that we found on the Jensen's front porch. Sarah quickly crawled into my lap after discovering him, but Cat followed him around and named him and got very upset when Sarah wanted me to squish him. We have a rule that if bugs are living outside where they are supposed to be, we don't squish them, but Sarah is all in favor of breaking this rule. So here is to Walker, who hopefully will never find himself inside the house and under Sarah's shoe.

Trip to Washington

Well, I made it up to Spokane again. We took it a bit slower this time and did two 11 hour days instead of one 14 hour day and and 8 hour day. The girls have wisened up to the drive and were very aware of how long it was taking to drive up from AZ. I have decided that while we are here, I am going to try to do a picture a day. Here is yesterdays. Sarah was playing dress up with her Jensen cousins and turned into this ferocious leopard.

Here it is....finally!

This cabinet was my Grandparents circa 1960? They actually had two, but when they passed away, the oldest granddaughters each got one. My sister decided that she didn't need it anymore when I got married and asked if we wanted it, which I did. It has housed both of my girls' baby items and clothes and more recently was my linen closet. It was time for a change though; when I got asked nicely to vamoose from the theater/craft room, by nice, I mean that he stole the couch from the loft and inserted into the craft room leaving very little room for crafts, I repurposed it to house said craft items. Here are the pics:

Swagger Wagon!

It's Coming, I Promise!

I know that I promised you a reveal soon, but I have been trying to finish. I am doing the final touches tomorrow and will post it in the evening. Thanks for being excited!

Upcoming Project...shhhhh! It's a secret!

There is a project coming, that is a good one! I will post pictures as soon as I am done. Stay tuned.

Cloche

Okay, so all over blogland are people are creating cloches. I really liked the look of them and just hadn't seen one that I liked to buy or found any suitable materials to make one. Today, that all changed. I was headed up to the Ranch Market to get produce and decided to randomly stop at the St. Vincent in AJ. Totally scetch, but well worth it. I then finished out my project with items from my favorite store...Hobby Lobby. Here is a step by step of my cloche project.

This is the before candle holder, which was 1/2 off.


This is the paper mache egg and the mini wreathes 1/2 off too, so whatever 1/6 of $1.77 is and then 1/2 of that. Roughly $.15. Big Smile!


This is the $4 cheese plate and lid I scored from St. V's.


This is the other candle holder from Hobb's that I got for $1 because it was...1/2 off , that's right! With the fabulous moss stuff that I love.


This is what the candle holder looked like after I spray painted it. Love spray paint!


I adore this Krylon Gloss spray paint in Ivory! It sprays on just about anything and has a glossy finish, so it looks like poly without having to poly anything. Plus, it dries in under 10 minutes.


Ta-da! Here is the finished product and I have to say, that I don't like the color the egg turned out and will fix it later, but overall a success!

Twister...the death of Catherine

I am on the phone....again, or still; the girls were playing Candyland, but have moved on to Twister. They are waiting for me to get off of the phone so that I can explain how to play. This is what I hear, "Don't Sarah, I can't breathe!" My natural reaction is to look down on them and see what the good golly is going on. Sarah has the Twister mat wrapped around Catherine like a tarp and Cat is struggling to escape. Catherine then stands up with her hair in her face and her bow all askew and says, "You could have killed me!" She kills me!

No Words

There are no words to describe how I am feeling right now. My tiny baby girl just hauled off and hit me for the first and last time. I can't begin to describe how tired this makes me. As a mother you do everything in your power to provide not only for your child's well-being, but for their spiritual and emotional needs as well. Everything that I do, is to further them in some way. I am astounded that she would think it was ever acceptable to hit me. I had felt so good this last two weeks about our communication and how things were progressing with discipline for Sarah. She is so full of spirit and agency that it is really difficult to get through to her, but we had started to change for the positive. Mostly, reading my scriptures continuously had helped me to be more patient and better able to do the right thing, but all good things must come to an end and end they did today. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring back the better days that we have been having.

Catherine Grace; Full of Grace

Catherine turned 6 in March. Can you believe that my sweet, baby girl is 6? I can't tell you the anguish I feel at having her be so big! Don't get me wrong; she is exeptional in every way, but I remember the first time I looked into her eyes and held her close and almost every second of that first year! It doesn't feel like 6 years to me! Cat has the personality that every mother dreams for in her children. She is anxious to please and has beautiful manners, loves her sister and looks out for her always, is thoughtful and kind in all that she does, the list goes on and on. The thing is, that for all of her perfection, she is still a little girl with little girl woes and concerns, like sister hitting her with an Easter bunny decoration that just happened to still be lying around (don't judge). Catherine is a delicate balance between a 13 year old girl and a very old spirit. She is a lady to the core, while still being a typical child. It borders on bizarre some days. For example: I was sleeping in on Friday and forgot about a make-up piano lesson, when Charai called, Brady answered and rushed to get the kids in the car. Catherine was quite disconcerted and asked, "Do you know how to get there?", Brady told her that he had been planning on asking her. As only Cat could, she looked at him for a moment, then responded, "Okay, I'll drive, you push the pedals!" She is so grown up for such a little body. I love her so much and hope that as she continues to grow, I can learn from her as well as teach her the things she will need to combat her way through life. Good luck little Catballoo!