Jaycob’s Birthday Bash

This past week, BOTH of my boys had their birthdays.  Jakey invited a couple of friends over to play on Saturday and had blast with Legos and Star Wars and Lego Star Wars. 

 I gave each of the kids a mini Lego kit to build airplanes.  They loved it!

 I gave Jordan a girly toy so she could be included.

Instead of a giant, expensive birthday party, I decided to keep it simple this year.  Just a couple of great friends and a lot of Legos and cake and ice cream.

A day later, it was Josh’s turn.

 All my babies get an alarm clock when they turn 5.  He was excited to have finally earned his!

Doobie will be having some friends over tomorrow for a little play date party during the school day.

Crap That Is Awesome

“Dream Girl"

I have no words.  Just really big grins.

All About Josh at 5 Years Old

Loves to wear his “Don’t Bug Me Shirt” and actually gets angry when you bug him while the shirt is on.

Calls Jake his “best buddy”

Puzzle phenom.  No seriously, it’s creepy.

Can do the “big fat belly” trick where he can extend his gut out to look pregnant.

Finally stopped panicking while getting haircuts with the clippers.

Loves Cabbage Salad

A pretty decent liar.

Adopted Jake’s obsession with Star Wars.  Yay.  Another one.

Cries a lot but tries really hard not to.

Still wets the bed but only when he’s really exhausted or if he drinks juice for dinner.

Not in kindergarten yet but can already read pretty well.

LOVES to play video games on the Wii or the Nintendo DS.  Yup, he’s one of THOSE kids.

Still loves to eat Frosted “Milliweeds” for breakfast.  Or else he wants whatever Jake had for breakfast and wants to sit in Jake’s seat.

He’s turning five years old!  My baby is FIVE!

Happy birthday Doobie Loobie!

Who Pooped on the Floor!?

This past week I had the privilege of running daycare for 60 kids as a basketball fundraiser for Hubby’s team.  On the second day I was forced to add to my list of rules during the morning sit-down.

“....no fighting, and please don’t poop on the floor.  Any questions?"

All About Jake at 8 Years Old

Happy 8th birthday to my sweet Bubbadoo!

So what is this dude up to these days?

He is now in 2nd grade.  WHAT!?

Still loves Star Wars.  Will it ever end?  *looks over at Hubby,* I’m thinking no.

Starting to show a keen interest in sports.  Particularly football but I think Hubby is willing to take what he can get at this point.

Makes amazing technical creations out of Legos.

Makes up songs on the piano that are, actually, quite awesome.

Plays video games better than you.

His favorite band is Lincoln Brewster

He rubs his thumb and forefinger together when he’s worked up about something.  Just like his mommy.

Likes to read in bed at night before falling asleep.

Really, really, really wants to shoot a moose.  Even if it’s just in our front yard.

While always a decent eater, he is now really into eating whatever the grown ups are eating and is willing to try just about anything once.

Recently decided he’s a big fan of roller coasters and other carnival rides that involve speed and height. That’s great because we are headed to Disney World pretty soon.

Still gets in trouble for talking at school EVERY DAY.  But can’t seem to remember exactly what he was talking about.  Ever.

Love you Sweetie Bubba!

Crap That Is Awesome

Winter is coming people!  You can never be too prepared.

FROM: fffound.com

New Sofa Project Fail

Once upon a time, Hubby and I found a screaming deal on a new couch at Fred Meyer.  In spite of the fact that I promised myself I would stop buying cheap fake furniture, the one day only half off sale on the pretty brown leather sofa was a temptation.

I don’t have much will power to begin with and when Hubby is on board, well, anyway, we bought the couch.

It was really difficult to get into our split level house with all the stairs but we managed to squeeze it through our back door.  Two days later I noticed as I walked past the couch that there was something bulging out of the back of it.  I poked and prodded and realized that one of the interior support pieces was splintered and poking out the back.  It was only a matter of time and hyper children before it poked right through the leather.  Stupid cheap fake furniture.

Well, I decided there was no way I was keeping this couch.  Hubby was not on board with returning it because of the hassle.  I didn’t care about the hassle.  I wanted a not-broken sofa.  So I borrowed a truck, Hubby helped me load the couch, I returned it, picked up a new one and Hubby helped me move it into the house.

Remember the part where I said that Hubby was not on board with replacing the couch?  Well, it turns out he could see into the future and he just KNEW all this was about to happen.

First of all, the new couch, though it was the EXACT SAME COUCH, did not fit through the door.  In our confused frustration and general fed-up-ness, we tore the molding off the doorframe and ruined some the sheetrock around the door FORCING that freaking couch through the opening.

Oh and you know what else happened?

We ripped a three inch hole into the top of the couch cushion.

So, you know, Hubby wasn’t vindicated AT ALL about this stupid couch swap idea.

I laughed.  Then I cried a little because, well....it just goes like this sometimes.

Source: None via Amy on Pinterest

Crap That Is Awesome

This, my friends, is a fish apartment.  Are you kidding me?  I kind of want one really bad.  You want one?  Buy it here at this non-English speaking website.

Artsy Fartsy

My Bugaroo and me, working in our “office.”  Love spending time with best girl.

Crap That is Awesome

I’m adding a new feature to my blog.  I shall call it, “Crap That is Awesome.”  It shall consist of things I find that are awesome.

And it is only fitting that I start us off by featuring this pillow.  Courtesy of Mandi at Vintage Revivals.

I need this pillow so hard.

My Amia Model

A few weeks ago I posted a little sneak peek of my daughter modeling for My Amia’s new fall collection.   See the rest of the designs and more pics of my sweet little nugget here!

Young Gospel Singer from Brazil

This 11 year old boy, Jotta, from Brazil will knock your ever loving socks off in this clip.  It was passed around Facebook a couple of weeks ago and I watched only the first few seconds and was impressed.

This past week my kids came home from school RAVING about watching a video during chapel where a young boy sang our favorite song.  I realized what video they were talking about and found it on YouTube.  Then we watched it all together.  HOLY.  MOLY.  I was in tears.  Blubbering like a fool in front of my babies.

Why didn’t I finish watching it last time?  HE IS AMAZING.  Hang in there until the end.  He will blow your hair back.

Today at church, Jordan told me that she sang my favorite song, “Worthy is the Lamp.”

Josh learned all about Noah’s Art.

Cork Pin Board

Have you ever heard of Pinterest? Pinterest is the biggest housewife time-suck (next to Facebook) on the planet. It is a place for aspiring decorators, chefs, gardeners, crafters, etc...to go and pin up all the things on the internet that inspire them.  The joke is, that we are spending so much time pinning that we aren’t actually accomplishing any of these fabulous aspirations. Guilty!

Well, I’m stopping the cycle.

 I, my friends, am actually going to DO one of the organizational DIY projects that I found online and pinned to one of my Pinterest Pinboards. I am actually going to make a real life Pin Board inside one of my kitchen cabinets to house all my (six) loose recipes. I’m no cook by the way, so there really are only six that I actually ever make and need recipes for. Perhaps another person would pin grocery lists or magazine clippings. Whatever, do you what you want. I care not.

First, allow me to give you a gander and my Pinterest board collection, to give you an idea of all the things I am not accomplishing on any given day.

Pretty isn’t it? And that’s not even all of my boards. Couldn’t fit them all in one screenshot. If you want to see the rest, click on the red banner on the right that says, “follow me on Pinterest.” I am awesome by the way.

 So, on to the project. I can think of many ways to accomplish this project, but this is how I did it. I started by creating cute little recipe cards on my computer from all the piles of paper I had stuffed into my upper cabinet. I printed them on card stock, and cut them apart with my handy dandy paper trimmer.

I purchased a sheet of cork from Joann’s Craft Store for $3.59. It was more than I needed so I cut it down to 10x12 to fit my little cabinet door. I scored it first with my paper trimmer so the line would be straight, then used my craft knife to finish the job.

It is my understanding that you can purchase a package of cork squares from Target for about $5 and they are self-adhesive. My Target didn’t have any. That’s because I live in Alaska and you can never find anything you need here. Unless it’s fishing equipment. I had to figure out a way to adhere the cork to the door all by myself.

 So I went to Walmart and bought double sided tape. And cute push pins. Actually, I went to Walmart to buy these things and made it out with push pins and a whole lot of other crap, but forgot the double sided tape. Quick stop at Fred Meyer and I’m rolling once again.

I applied the double sided tape to the back of my cork piece. Or maybe it was the front. I really couldn’t tell. Then I pressed it firmly onto the cabinet door. I even used a level because I’m that awesome.

Push pins - @ The Office - $1.68 at Walmart
Double Sided Tape - Scotch - $3.99 at Fred Meyer

Then I arranged my very important recipe cards with my very cute push pins.

Then I stared at it and decided it needed something else. Like a dumb scrap paper flower.

Ah yes. SO DUMB! But hurray for cleaning out loads of nasty scrap paper from my upper cabinet.

Another Installment of...

...I can’t believe I just said that. This is actually something that Hubby had to shout at our daughter while she was fighting with her brothers. “JORDAN! Stop screaming! Where are your pants!?"