Pumpkin Shirts

I had a lot of people ask me about how to make the pumpkin shirts. Well I would love to take credit for the idea, but I got it from Family Fun magazine (love that magazine). Go to http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12054 to get the instructions for making the shirts. We used one package of rit dye for each shirt because the darkest orange I could find was called sunshine orange and it was more orange/yellow than orange. Also the thicker the rubber bands the better circles you will get. I just used Fruit of the Loom undershirts for my shirts, but I noticed that Wal-mart has nicer white T-shirts for $3.50. I think I spent $4.77 for a package of 3 undershirts. We used black permanent marker for our shirts because I thought the fabric paint would be too hard for the kids to use! I may go over it with the fabric paint because I think it will last longer and look nicer. It was not a hard project to do at all. The kids had a blast stirring the shirts in the dye. I would highly reccomend doing this outside. We did it in my sister-in-laws garage. She had a utility sink that made it very easy to add hot water and to rinse. The kids were able to do the rubberbands, get their shirts wet before placing them in the dye, place them in the dye, stir them in the dye and make the pumpkin faces. The adults prepared the dye bath and rinsed the shirts before washing and drying them.

Update on Kate's collarbone.

I took Katelynn back to the Dr. last week to have her collarbone rechecked and believe it or not she actually had broken it worse. The first x-rays looked mild compared to the second. I think she must have broken it again when she fell off one of the bar stools!! She is so accident prone. The good news is that the break was beginning to calcify which means that it is growing new bone around the break, but she has a nasty bump on her collarbone that she didn't have originally. Kids they amaze me!

Family Halloween Party

On Friday night we had a Halloween Party over at Jake and Lea's house (my brother and his wife). We were going to go to Black Island Farms but due to tough economic times we thought we could save money by doing some fun activities with the kids at home. We made cute pumpkin T-shirts, played Bingo, roasted marshmellows, watched the Adams Family and ate pizza. We had a blast and the kids had way more fun doing this then I think they would have had going to the corn maze.

Alyssa and Ashleigh stirring their pumpkin shirts in dye. Ashleigh won the vampire teeth during Bingo.

Parker taking his turn stirring the shirts all up!

Carson had way more fun than this picture shows, but it was the only one I had of him stirring the whole night. Ooops. It looks like we are forcing him to do some horrible child labor.

Carly had a great time stirring her shirt with a shovel.


Max didn't really get into the whole T-shirt making process, but he had fun eating marshmellows and playing Bingo

Ashleigh and Katelynn checking on their shirts.

And here is the finished products. I think they turned out really cute and we have great memories. Thanks Lea for letting us invade your house we had a blast.

Carson was tagged too!

Here are 5 things that you might not know about Carson.
1. Carson is a great artist. He loves to draw and has quite a bit of natural ability. He loves to make books and draws a lot of things from Harry Potter or Star Wars.
2. Carson loves to read. He is currently reading the 5th book in the Harry Potter series. Carson will disappear and we will find him in some quiet spot in the house (this can be difficult to find) with his nose in a book. I love that he loves to read. There is nothing quite like escaping into a good book.
3. Carson is a great helper and often sees what I need help with and jumps in to do it before I even have to ask him. He is a hard worker and is great at accomplishing household and yard work tasks. I appreciate what a hard worker he is and also the ability he has to recognize when I am at my wits end!! He knows just what to do when I am ready to pull my hair out.
4. Carson is the quietest member of our family and the most reserved, but don't be suprised if you see him acting a complete fool. He has a super silly side to him. He usually only shows this side of himself when he is really comfortable with the people around him or if he is at cub scouts or with friends.
5. Carson enjoys playing sports. He enjoys golf and basketball at the moment. He is playing on a 5th grade comp team which means that he is playing with kids a year older than him. He took 2nd place in a golf tournament this past summer. He has also decided that he wants to join the city's swim team. He is finishing up the required swim lessons right now and really seems to be enjoying learning this new sport. He also plays the piano and amazes me with how great he is doing. He is at a point now where I can't really help him because he understands it better than I do.

Carson tags Jameson, Sydney, Austin, and Tyler

Max was tagged!!!

Here are five things about Max that maybe you don't already know.

1. Max has to eat the minute he wakes up in the morning. Most mornings he comes stubbling out of his room rubbing his eyes and telling me he wants to eat "breakfrist." If I don't get him his bowl of cereal quickly he follows me around whining for "breakfrist" until I do fix it. He is very head strong and is not easily diverted from getting his bowl of cereal.
2. Max has a secret crush on a number of girls including Alyssa and Carly (cousins) Lillian and Ava (friends). He is way girl crazy. He likes to play with all of Ashleigh's friends and often they come running to me because he is trying to kiss them or throw something at them. I guess if they aren't excited about kissing Max he tries to beat them up. Go figure. I really hope his strategy improves when he starts dating.
3. Max is very jealous of his little sister. When Katelynn was a baby he would walk slyly past her and kick her and then run. Now he likes to play with her, but there is daily battles over who gets to sit on mom's lap. On those days when Katelynn commands a lot of my attention he is more prone to push everyone's buttons including mine. He is a cuddle bug and enjoys sitting on my lap and sucking his thumb.

4. Max loves anything Star Wars and he is going to growup to be either Jengo Fett or a Stormtropper. I know I didn't know who Jengo Fett was either. Max knows a alot about Star Wars. He is a walking Star Wars encyclopedia. He knows who all of the characters are and what their relationship is to the other characters. He loves to play Star Wars it doesn't matter if it is pretending to be in Star Wars or playing a video game.

5. Max has a pretty funny sense of humor for a four year old and has already mastered the art of being a tease. He definately takes after his dad and uncles. He enjoys hip hop music and loves to dance to it when it is on the radio. I feel a little guilty about this because I am the one that introduced him to this genre.

Max tags Lillian, Brinley, Stockton, Kade, and James

General Conference

I have been thinking a lot about some of the talks that were given at General Conference this week. I am so grateful for Conference and for the opportunity that the Lord gives us to sit down and listen to prophets and apostles share testimony, counsel, and their infinite wisdom. I enjoyed the spirit of conference so much. In today's world it is hard to find the peace that we so desperately need and I am so grateful that I was able to feel of the peace and hope of our wonderful church leaders. President Monson's talk that he gave in the Sunday morning session really struck a chord with me. I loved how he talked about the people in our lives (friends, families) being more important than problems to be solved. I am really good at making myself a "to do" list and plowing through it so that I can be satisfied at the end of the day that I accomplished many things. It always suprises me when at the end of the day instead of feeling satisfied I feel frustrated usually because I was pushing aside the needs of my family to accomplish all the "wonderful" things on my list. I let the problems to be solved become more important than the people to be loved. I loved his comments about enjoying the journey and the moments that we are in. I think gratitude plays a huge part in this. I am easily frustrated by all the things that I want to do or have to do and the lack of time I have in a day to actually accomplish all those things, but when I slow down and really appreciate all the wonderful people around me I realize how beautiful and special life really is and I can really appreciate where I am at in my life. I know that the time I am in now is going to be some of the most cherished times in my life and I am going to miss them and wish that I had taken more time to be engaged in this time than merely gettting through this time. I know that I will miss Parker's impish smile when he finds out that I found his secret hiding spot for the homework he doesn't want to do (see post below). I will miss the silliness (ie. bathroom jokes) at the dinner table. I will miss having to tell Carson for the millioneth time to put his book down at the dinner table. I will miss Carson asking me where his clean bball shorts, cubscout shirt, or swimming suit is. (in the laundry room not cleaned yet) I will miss Ashleigh's long winded stories and never ending giggling. I will miss her adventures that she is always wanting to go on with Max and Katelynn. I will miss Max asking me to wipe his bum and button his pants for the 6th time that day and always at times when I have my hands wet or dirty from preparing something in the kitchen. I will miss him telling me he got his "sponsibilities" done. (responsibilities) I need to record him saying it because when he says it it sounds hilarious. I will miss Katelynn's sweet little voice telling me she wants a roll at 1045 at night and her running to my legs and wrapping her arms around them everytime she gets her feelings hurt which is often. I will miss her hugs and she squeezes me with her tiny arms and pats my back. I pray for more wisdom daily to know how to make the best use of the time I have and to enjoy the journey. I love Conference it is always so uplifting and inspiring.

PARKER AND HOMEWORK

My sweet, adorable, fun loving, kind, funny Parker
and how he tries to get out of doing homework!!! (he stuffed this under the kids bathroom cabinet) I was brushing Kate's teeth this morning and opened the cabinet under the sink to get a towel and this is what I found. I love Parker, but homework and school mixed with Parker is a whole different experience!!!