Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is teacher appreciation week at Hema's Elementary school. His teacher has been fabulous this year. Hema has loved kindergarten! Since I am the room mom I was in charge of decorating his classroom door and a few other things throughout the week. I went in last week and we did the handprint owls for each of the kids. It didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned it in my mind, but overall I think it was still cute! 

 I LOVE any handprint art that kids make!

I can't get enough of these cute owls. If you have a birthday or other special occasion coming up, you might just be getting a little owl of your own from my kiddos! 

Happy Friday!

Today was a really fun day. Krychele's cute niece Desi was able to come and play with us. Little Hema and Vela were so excited to have her over. They waited looking out the window for her for nearly and hour this morning and screamed with joy when they saw the car pull up! 

These two little helpers and I made cookies.

Then today was Hema's last day of his summer Let's Play Music class. So we went to watch them sing and play for us.

Hema loves to play his bells.

And his rhythm sticks.

This is his favorite part of the puppet show. He is being a mean cloud! I love how intense his face is! 

Vela was dying to be part of the class. 

We came home and did some finger painting which all kids love to do. Let's face it, the messier it is the more fun it is!

Then my parents came over and tended our 3 sweet monkeys while we went on a date. Thanks mom and dad! The kids had so much fun!!

First we went here:

Then ate some of this:

Pretty much the perfect date night!!!

Then we headed home, got the kids to bed and worked on hauling a mountain of playground bark from our driveway back to the play area. It is amazing how much bark we have lost over the past couple of years mostly due to the crazy Lehi wind. There were a few bare patches back there and we figured we better get it filled back in before someone falls and breaks something! We gave up about 1/2 way through the pile. We were hauling it Tongan style - not using the wheelbarrow - but piling in on a tarp and dragging it to the back yard. Hema tells me that is how they moved stuff all the time growing up. It actually works pretty well, especially since the bark is so light. 

Now it's nearly 11:000 and I am off to type up a baptism program and sew a CTR towel for our ward's 9:00 baptism. Oh the joy of being a procrastinator! 

Gingerbread Festival and 4 Extra Kids

We went over to the Gingerbread House Festival at Thanksgiving Point today. There were some incredible houses on display. My favorite was one of the Salt Lake Temple. It was so pretty and had big windows that were light up from the inside. There were lots of different cool ones. Like this island one.

This Japanese house was also incredible.

This Candy Land game one was Little Hema's favorite.

And this one was huge and so cool. Little Hema came home asking if we could make one this year. It is going to be fun to get creative this year and make something besides the kits we've bought in the past. You'll have to wait until December to see what we come up with.

Tonight Jake's four oldest kids are sleeping over. They are such great kids and we are having a great time with them here. Our kids are going to be so sad when they go home tomorrow! I love having a house full of kids. It always makes me stop and think, man it would be great to adopt a sibling group. Imagine four extra kids in our house permanently. That would be awesome!
Abby (my 11 year old niece) and I each made 2 little nativity crafts while the others played. It was fun and they turned out pretty cute. This little advent took forever with all the little pieces, but we had a great time doing them. I can't wait until Vela is old enough to do some projects other than coloring with me!!

Calling All Crafters - Boy Ideas Wanted!!!

I used this super easy video tutorial off a fun blog that I like, and made these cute little crocheted flowers. They seriously take about 3 minutes to make and I did not have any idea how to crochet before watching the video. I can think of a thousand fun things to embellish with them: blankets, sweaters, hats, clips, headbands, leggings, shirts... pretty much anything little girl related! Here are some clips I made for Vela. The whole outfit turned out a bit to matchy, I guess I just got carried away. But all in all, it was fun to make - and she looks sweet in pretty much anything. Here is a picture of the kids before church today.
There are about 10 other things I want to try off that blog too - like the scratch-off tickets. Wouldn't those be fun for something for primary? What about these adorable covered-wood bead bracelets? Man are they cute. And I want to go back and decorate all of my canning to look like this. I can't wait to make some of these adorable wands for Vela. This ruffle skirt is so cute out of tulle! Vela definitely needs one or two. I've always wanted to make some of these binkie clips. Okay I could go on all night.... they just have a lot of great ideas on there.
Speaking of great ideas... I find myself making so many fun things for Vela. There are so many cute craft and sewing projects for girls. What about boys? Other than the flannel PJ's and quilts and such, I really can't think of anything that I could make for him that wouldn't be much better store bought. I guess that is just how boy stuff is. Do you have any sewing ideas or craft ideas for boy stuff? I would love some suggestions! And I'm sure little Hema would too! Thanks!

A Few More Cute Onesies!!

Brandi (one of my very wonderful sister- in-laws) and me have been busy making a few more onesies. We went in a in a Cricket since we had both wanted one and neither really wanted to fork out all the money. I've only used it once and here are a couple more of the cute onsesies I did with it. This is for a neighbors baby.

These aren't for anyone yet, but aren't they adorable. I swear the pink glittery paint is the cutest!

This one I made without the Cricket. I think it is my favorite so far.

I'm $50 invested into the Cricket so stay tuned for at least $50 worth of cute projects coming up!

A Visit With Chelise and Some Craftiness!!

On Wednesday, we got to go to lunch with Vela's birth mother and sister. They were in town for a wedding and it was great to see them! When we pulled into the parking lot, Hema asked if we were going into the building with the fork and sharp knife on it. We couldn't see any such thing. This is what he showed us when he got out - see the shadows! What a smarty pants!

Here is Vela with Chelise. She is such a beautiful person inside and out. Little Hema and Leiana had a blast running around and goofing off together. A sweet kiss goodbye! Today Brandi and I got together and made some cute onesies!
I think I liked this octopus the best. They were so fun and easy to make.